Children Dying in Infancy: Young People Ask…(9)

If a baby dies either before being born or shortly after birth (up to two years), where will he/she spend eternity, since this child cannot talk, read or write about God — and cannot even pray to God?

Scripture says little on this subject. Consequently, it ought not be surprising that the convictions of our forefathers have varied to some degree on this subject. Different emphases include the following:

(1) Some were persuaded that all such children would go to heaven.

(2) Others felt that only the children of believers would go to heaven.

(3) Still others emphasized that the Lord freely elected some (but not all) infants to heaven from both believing and non-believing parents. Within this view, there have also been two emphases: (a) One group has stressed that the parental background had no bearing at all on God’s selection of infants for glory. (b) The other group has stressed that although God would elect to heaven infants of both believing and non-believing parents, it would naturally be more common for him to elect infants of believers since the Lord normally works along covenantal lines.

This latter view (3b) has been the most traditionally Reformed, and best represents my personal conviction as well. This view has the great advantage of treating children very much along the lines of how we view the doctrine of the covenant of grace in general. Allow me to illustrate this view as follows:

The top two “x’s” represent a set of believing parents. These parents bear children (represented by the x’s within the lines) within the sphere or lines of the covenant. Each of these children, however, needs to be born again. That is, each child needs to be transferred by the Holy Spirit from the benefits of the covenant’s external manifestation to its internal essence through which the Spirit makes individual children partakers of Christ and all His saving benefits via regeneration. Reformed theology has always underscored that it is God’s normal way to work along covenantal lines from generation to generation,

saving some (represented by circled “x’s” within the covenantal lines) but not all (represented by non-circled “x’s” within the covenantal lines) of these children. For those born outside of the external covenant (represented by “x’s” outside the covenantal lines), God may be pleased to pluck a child here or there as a brand from the burning (hence the fewer number of circled “x’s.”)

This illustrative perspective maintains several Scriptural emphases simultaneously:

First and most importantly, it retains high respect for the sovereignty of God, recognizing that God is free to justly condemn children of both believing and non-believing parents as well as to graciously save children of both believing and non-believing parents.

Secondly, it maintains high respect for God as the faithful, covenant-keeping Jehovah who delights to work along covenantal lines. Without adhering to any presumption, it nevertheless maintains the emphasis of our precious Psalter 425, stanza 5:

Jehovah’s truth will stand forever,

His covenant-bonds He will not sever;

The word of grace which he commands

To thousand generations stands;

The covenant made in days of old

With Abraham he doth uphold.

Thirdly, it emphasizes that the Lord deals sovereignly with children and infants to salvation and/or condemnation in very much the same way as He does with adults. Though it may be beyond our rational comprehension and against our self-justifying natures, let us ever remember that Scripture affirms that original sin is imputed to each of us as our guilt from our very infancy. Hence infants which are stained with original sin from conception (i.e., from the moment their soul is breathed into them) must also be washed with the blood of Christ. That is to say, as in the case of adults, God saves infants by planting the seed of regeneration in their hearts. Without this new birth wrought by the Holy Spirit, God could not receive an infant stained with original sin into glory. Every infant is conceived as an “unclean thing” (Job 14:4), and nothing that is impure shall enter heaven (Rev. 21:27). Infants, too, need the Spirit’s saving work.

Moreover, the saving work of the Spirit surely reveals itself at a very early age in fruits of hope, faith, love, etc. I personally believe that infants are not only able to display their sinful natures and commit actual sin long before they are two years old, but also are enabled to display the fear of God at a remarkably early age when so wrought upon by the Spirit. “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right” (Prov. 20:11). Did you know that the Hebrew word for child utilized here (nahar), signifies “from the age of infancy to adolescence”? Often, I fear, we underestimate the importance of the early years of an infant’s life. As P.E. Adolph has noted:

The Lord deals sovereignly with children and infants to salvation and/or condemnation in very much the same way as He does with adults.

It cannot be urged too strongly that parents face their responsibility for teaching the child during his first three years, which constitute the more plastic stages of the child’s mental life. This should be in the form of daily urging by parents and setting of ideals, aims and worshipful attitudes before the child, based upon biblical teaching at the family altar and at other appropriate times. There is much rationale to the assertion of the Roman Catholic Church that, if they are entrusted with the training of the child until seven years of age, there will be little tendency to stray from their teachings after that. This is in accordance with the scriptural injunction, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). This is not only applicable to trends in behavior but also to intellectual pursuits and the motivation for them. Much potential effect is missed in modern educational trends where the parent is encouraged to keep hands off of situations that arise at the age of two and three years (Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia o( the Bible, vol. 1, p. 794).

Finally, in the case of infants who die unredeemed (whether of believing or non-believeing parents), we ought to remind ourselves that their punishment in condemnation will not be as severe as those who have sinned for a lifetime, and particularly not as severe as those who have consciously heard but rejected the gospel. On the one hand, of course, hell will always remain hell. It is always tragic to be without God (which is the essence of what hell is), both in this life and in eternity, but we do well to remind ourselves that just as there are degrees in glory, so there are degrees in condemnation. What Thomas Brooks has said of the heathen applies equally to lost infants: The heathen who have never heard the gospel, shall be cast onto the surface of hell; but we who have heard and rejected it, shall be thrust into the center of hell.

Beyond these thoughts we dare not tread. Rather, we must bow before the sovereign God of grace. We certainly know that God is able to save infants. David’s abundant wrestlings for a dying infant and his subsequent comfort, confirm this irrevocably for us. But we dare not affirm that all infants will be saved.

Most importantly, dear friend, may God graciously confirm for you and me: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Lk. 13:24).

In Romans 9:11, 13 we read that God loved jacob and hated Esau. We also believe that children of believing parents who die in infancy will go to heaven. Hoe can this be when, if Esau had died as a child he would have gone to hell as he was not one of the elect even if his parents were converted?

I wish to respond more to your second-sentence statement than your third-sentence question, for your second sentence is stated too strongly and consequently binds you to a question which is unanswerable. (Please consult the question answered on page 22.)

No doubt you have received the impression that all children of believing parents who die in infancy will go to heaven from our Canons of Dort, Head I, Article 17, which states:

Since we are to judge of the will of Cod from His Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature, but in virtue of the children of grace, in which they, together with the parents, are comprehended, godly parents have no reason to doubt of the election and salvation of their children, whom it pleaseth Cod to call out of this life in their infancy.

At first glance, your statement appears to be upheld by our Dortian fathers. Historically, however, we know from their notes that they did not believe that each particular child dying in infancy of believing parents would enter into glory. Rather, they were rebuffing the Remonstrants who accused them of teaching that none of these children would enter heaven. On the contrary, the Reformers stated, it is God’s normal way to work along covenantal lines; hence, those parents who lose children in infancy ought not worry endlessly, but may have a good hope that the Lord had also planted the seed of regeneration in their flesh-and-blood torn so early from them by death.

Our Dortian fathers are speaking in Canons 1,17 in the ideal sense, just as our forebears have written all our liturgical forms. (See further, for example, the prayer after baptism in our “Baptismal Form.” This prayer does not mean to convey the idea that our forefathers believed that every child baptized of believing parents has had all their sins forgiven. Rather, they speak of the church as it is in Christ in its ideal, optimistic, victorious sense.)

Hence, there are still many (would to God there were fewer!) “Esaus” today, born to believing parents, who abandon their parents’s Biblical belief system all their lives and never share in being made partakers of Christ by saving faith. No matter what age (from childhood to old age) these contemporary “Esaus” are when they die, their selling of the “dish” of truth for the “husks” of the world shall earn them just and eternal condemnation if they have never been brought to true repentance.

May you and I be spared from the “Esau” mentality. Our hearts by nature, dear friends, are no better. We are prodigals in heart, but it is still a blessing when God restrains us from breaking radically from Him and indulging ourselves in flagrant, worldly prodigality. Let us pray for true and repeated repentance for ourselves, but also let us intercede for the “Esaus” of our day who have turned their backs and hearts openly away from the Lord and His means of grace. May the Lord also strengthen the hurting parents, husbands, wives, and children among us who must bear the seemingly unbearable pain of seeing loved ones choose the “paths of Esau,” and feel their helplessness in turning them from evil. Dear sorrowing friends, sometimes the only weapon left is that of prayer. Oh, may God make and keep us interceders for the souls of the perishing and may we ourselves not be found as castaways! (1 Cor. 9:27)

Forward questions intended for this department to: Rev. I.R. Beeke, 2115 Romence St. N.E., Grand Rapids, Ml 49503.

Questions will be published anonymously.

GODS WONDERFUL DIRECTION IN THE CONVERSION OF A SOLDIER

We are led to the great metropolis of Rome, whose proud palaces and temples with their marble pillars glitter like transparent alabaster in the glow of the setting sun. Rome, the worldly metropolis, where in primitive times the heathen emperors had their thrones and manifested their great glory, but also gave their commands to destroy all those who turned away from the service of the gods and bowed before the hated Nazarene, Christ Jesus. Rome, the city built upon the seven hills, whence is the throne of Satan, the seat of the Antichrist, who has let the blood of the martyrs flow as water. Rome, the luxurious city, the pool of wickedness and unrighteousness, where God nevertheless has at times glorified the wonders of His grace in the gathering in of His chosen ones, whom He has loved with an everlasting love. How wonderfully must an enemy of God sometimes be used for the conversion of a sinner! The following short narrative is an evidence of this.

Amongst the military troops at Rome there once labored a plain but yet a faithful evangelist. Although he had to struggle with many difficulties, and in spite of the hatred of the Roman Catholics who tried to prevent his labors, our evangelist did not become fainthearted. His hope was upon God, that He would continually lead him, and that He would bless his weak labors to the shame of his opposers.

On a certain day a corporal was walking on the square by the military hospital, where the sick soldiers were cared for. Being a zealous Roman Catholic, he was entirely ingorant of the truth and did not know about the mission work that was being carried on quietly and carefully among the soldiers. As he walked on, he suddenly felt something hard fall on his shoulder, which then bounced off and fell upon the ground. It was a little book, and the corporal immediately picked it up, not realizing that it was a New Testament. Where did this little book come from? Well, inside the hospital one of the Roman Caholic nurses had quietly taken it away from under the pillow of a sleeping soldier. On several ocasions the nurse had noticed that this soldier who was confined to the hospital for a few days because of illness, was reading in a “forbidden book” whenever he thought he could do so without the danger of being seen. The nurse had spied on him, and now, when she got the chance, she carefully took the little book away from the sleeping soldier and threw it out of the window. She did this without suspecting that, while she had thought to do evil, God had meant it unto good, yes, unto the salvation of a poor, ignorant sinner.

Cod moves in a mysterious way,

His wonders to perform.

O Cod, most holy are Thy ways,

And who like Thee deserves my praise?

The corporal picked up the book, took it along and began to read it diligently. And in reading it, his heart was deeply affected. On the inside of the cover there was a notation stating the place and the time that the evangelist would speak for the soldiers to instruct them how the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross is the only sufficient ground unto salvation. Our corporal was drawn to go there.

In a small room some soldiers were seated who were listening very intently to the instruction that was being given by the evangelist. The corporal was one of those present, and it pleased the Lord to open his blind eyes. He had the same experience as Lydia, so that he attended unto the things which were spoken at that place in the name of the Lord. By the grace of God he learned to know the power of the truth in his heart, so that he said farewell to the Roman Catholic church with all its soul-destroying heresies, and having learned to know the God of all truth, he joined the little group of Christians. He received much liberty to tell what the Lord had done to his soul. He spoke about those things which outweigh all others for eternity; how the blood of Christ Jesus alone cleanses of all sin; that neither pope nor priest could forgive sin, and no letter of indulgence could profit a soul; the Roman Catholic mass was nothing more than deceit.

He also testified of the truth among his companions and succeeded in convincing some of them to go with him to the little gathering of Christians under the leadership of the evangelist. It pleased the Lord to open the eyes of some of them for the false Roman Catholic doctrines. The plain instruction of the evangelist became a great blessing for them.

Our corporal also took his pen in hand, and with great prudence, but yet in faithfulness and in an endearing way, wrote about these things to his father. He sent to his father and some other relatives various parts of the Bible and other trustworthy writings which he could obtain. The Lord blessed these efforts also and used them to bring some of the members of his family to the true knowledge of the only Name given under heaven by which we must be saved.

To all this the Roman Catholic nurse had given occasion. In enmity she had robbed a soldier of his precious jewel and had thrown the forbidden book out of the window. It struck the corporal first upon his shoulder and then in his heart and did bear fruit for many unto life eternal. The Lord has spoken and fulfilled also in this narrative, “My word shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.” No enmity can prevent this. The Lord takes opposers in their own craftiness, so that against their intentions they must yet cooperate in spreading the blessed truth of the Bible. The Lord is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.

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