Do Babies Go to Heaven If They Die?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Titus 2:11, Romans 1, Romans 2, Romans 5, Romans 5:13, 2 Samuel 12:22-23, Isaiah 7:16, 1 Corinthians 7

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--do-babies-go-to-heaven-if-they-die
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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let me say that i'm not basing this on a definite clear unambiguous teaching of a specific verse but on the principles of god's word not understanding of god's justice and mercy now as sinful human beings our sense of justice is flawed we can't always trust it but i do believe our sense of justice came from god because we're creating the image of god so to some extent we can rely on that sense of what is right fair and just and regardless of what we think i will simply say this god is both just and merciful so i absolutely trust that whatever god does is right that he will be just and whenever it's appropriate to provide mercy god will provide mercy so i have confidence in that and of course the bible doesn't give us everything we want to know it tells us what we need to know and we might ask well why does it tell us so clearly about babies or children well maybe if the bible gave any specific thing we would feel like we didn't have much of responsibility so if the bible said well until age 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 then we might not feel compelled to teach young children or we might not be so concerned about abortion or death of small children but because the bible doesn't say it puts the responsibility on us to care for every human being before during after birth and childhood that we're not to neglect anyone but from the time we first are able to an infant teach them about god even before they can comprehend or even before they can speak start talking about god start praying with them so that from the earliest times they will have some recognition of god but i do believe based on principles of god's word that god would not hold someone accountable for sin if they're not aware of sin if they're not able to consciously understand right and wrong repentance and faith then god would not hold them accountable you might say well how can if they're born in sin but i also will say jesus christ died for the whole world so titus 2 11 the grace of god that brings salvation has appeared to all men to everyone so in some way grace goes to every human being and for those of us who are aware romans 1 says everybody has a witness of god in creation so they're without excuse romans 2 says everyone has a witness of god in conscience so when they think of their own conscience their own thoughts will either excuse them or condemn them well think about this both of those passages that talk about god speaking to every human through creation and conscience talk about people not having excuse being accountable well if a person is not old enough or doesn't have the mental capability of understanding the witness of god in creation or the witness of god unconscious then the implication would be well they wouldn't be accountable and in fact romans 5 13 so romans 5 says everyone is born in sin and that we have redemption through jesus christ but romans 5 13 makes an interesting statement that says sin is not imputed when there is no law now it's speaking in the context every human is sin so even if they don't have the law say the law of moses or any other law their own conscience will condemn them but there's an implication god will not hold you guilty of breaking the law of moses if he didn't give you the law of moses so god will hold you accountable for what you did know and what you did or didn't do god will hold you accountable for what your conscience told you even if your conscience is flawed you have some basic knowledge you know every human society has always known it's wrong to kill other human beings without cause without just cause every human society has known that it's right to take care of children every every and every child knows it's right to play fair so there's some basics that we all have and we can be held accountable for that but romans 5 indicates god will not hold you accountable for something he didn't give you so he has given us enough inconscience to hold us as adults accountable but he's not going to re require everything in the bible of someone who didn't know now that doesn't mean people have a way of getting saved without the gospel it's just saying god is going to be fair when he shows that you're a sinner it will be on the basis of what you knew and what you did or didn't do and that will be a just base basis for condemning everyone except what about those that that we've already mentioned so there's an implication if they didn't have a law given to them they would not be accountable for that law well how could they be saved without the gospel what i would argue we don't know how god's going to deal with it but whoever is saved is going to be saved by the gospel in the sense that jesus christ died for them so no they won't be saved without christ but the bible does say jesus christ died for the whole world now how will that apply will will say an infant who dies will uh you know will they be allowed to grow up in the millennium and make a choice then will they be brought into heaven as children uh perpetually or will they be allowed you know we don't know but i do believe god has a plan based on what i just said now some people say well what about uh you know people the children who died in the flood well yes you know children do suffer for their parents sin in this life but just because they drown in the flood does that mean they go to the lake of fire as well that that's not what the scripture says so now a little more specificity there's an interesting story in second samuel chapter 12 verse 22-23 and it's david and his infant baby died and it was it seemed to be a judgment of god because of his sin with bathsheba because this was their first child and so while the child was still living he fasted and prayed and was hoping that god would reverse the judgment and heal the child so when the child died the the servants were expecting the horses oh no david is already in mourning and grieving won't eat and looking horrible now when he finds out the child is dead he's going to go crazy but when they told him the child died he got up he washed dressed and went about his normal life they said how come he said well as long as the child was alive i could pray and hope that he would be restored but you know god has made a decision the child has died he will not come to us but i will go to him so it seems that david had some hope that he would meet his child in the afterlife now that is not a clear statement of salvation but it is an indication of what godly people thought about a child who died also isaiah 7 16 talks about children who before the age of knowing good and evil right and wrong now i'd and for for this reason the jewish people over their years have developed this tradition of the bar mitzvah and the bat mitzvah so that after the child turns age 12 then now they're accountable they're bar mitzvah son of the law literally so now you're accountable to obey the law now the bible doesn't give any specificity of course at jesus at age 12 there's a story where he clearly knew his mission and so forth but i don't think the bible gives us a definite age for a good reason because a child that is raised in the godly home may be capable of understanding repentance and even receiving the holy spirit at a very early age whereas a child not raised in that environment wouldn't be now i don't necessarily mean that i think that the age at which a child raised in a pentecostal home receives the holy ghost that would automatically be an age of accountability so the age of receiving the holy ghost may be earlier than what god would say is the absolute mark of where you're accountable for fully understanding your sinful condition so all those questions i'm going to have to leave in the hands of god i don't think we can establish an age our job is from the earliest ages to teach the truth but if a small child dies we have hope that god has a plan for them and i think that's sufficient now first corinthians 7 talks about if you're married to an unbeliever then the believer can sanctify the unbeliever and the children will be holy some have created doctrine that if the parents are lost the children will be lost or the parents are saved the children will be saved i don't think that follows from that passage what that passage was then it would be indicating that an unsaved uh spouse would somehow get saved by their parent by their spouse so i don't think one person's holiness can save another person we can't even save ourselves we're saved by the grace of god anyway but i don't think um that is what follows i think first corinthians 7 is simply saying the obvious thing that if there's a believer a believing parent they sanctify that home they have an influence of holiness in that home even one parent can help lead children into a relationship with god but i do believe that that babies children who die they are covered by the grace of god and i just base that on my trust in the justice and mercy of god as revealed in scripture