What happens to Infants?
What happens to Infants?
Children who die before their moment of accountability will go to Heaven, since they do not have their sins imputed to them. Every single person is born with not only a physical inability to grasp the glory of God but also a moral inability to turn from sin to God. However, as a person develops physically, their physical inability is removed and only their moral inability remains. This removal is nothing more than coming to a person’s moment of accountability.
Question: If God can just graciously forgive babies, without the imputation of sin, which sins are clearly evident from a very young age, then why doesn’t God just as graciously forgive everyone else?
Answer: Adults have moral understanding, which infants otherwise do not possess. While infants are fully capable of acts of sin, the critical question is whether God imputes sin to infants, and based upon Jesus’ words to the Pharisees at John 9:41, I’d say not: “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” If you follow the logic there, I think that you’d have to conclude that there is a reasonable basis on which to presume that God does not impute sin to infants, who are otherwise blind to the morality of their choices. Moreover, Luke 12:47-48 indicates that the imputation of sin and judgment is measured by the amount of light received. More light equals more accountability. Matthew 11:20-24 indicates that the unbelieving Israelite cities would have greater condemnation than the unbelieving foreign cities, also based upon the light received. So when you factor the light principle into the equation of babies, it follows that there is no imputation of sin to their account. As for adults, God has placed a conscience within them, and hence, they are without excuse.
Although a baby may have a sin nature, the question is whether or not God imputes sin to them. For example, compare with 1st Kings 14:12-13. The baby was a child of a wicked king, rather than a righteous king, and yet even still, God says through a prophet, “All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam’s family will come to the grave, because in him something good was found toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.” So if deceased babies go to Hell, then this verse makes no sense to me.
Question: What happens to dead babies?
