Since Adam’s fall, many children have never reached adulthood. Historically, infant mortality has been as high as 50%. Even today, 25% of all conceptions end in miscarriage. Many families are also given mentally handicapped children who will never reach an understanding of the gospel.
Abortion has taken countless young lives. Since Roe v. Wade, just shy of 60 million babies have been aborted in the United States. Worldwide, abortions have totaled over 1.5 billion since 1980. To put these numbers in perspective, consider that all the American fatalities in war from the Revolutionary War until today total 1.1 million.
What happens to all these precious souls?
God’s Word gives us the answer!
Adults Are Morally Accountable to God.
The Bible teaches the accountability of all mankind because God put the witness of Himself in them and in creation. God also revealed Himself through His Holy Word. Therefore, humanity is “without excuse” as they consciously reject God, His Son, and the plan of salvation.
Romans 1:19-20, Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Romans 2:14-15, For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
Revelation 20:13, And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
There Is a Time Before Moral Accountability.
The Apostle Paul was raised very Jewish, under the law, a Hebrew of Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, and circumcised the eighth day according to the law (Ph. 3:5); yet He said, “I was alive without the law once,” and where “there is no law there is no transgression.” WhenPaul speaks of his time “without the law,” he refers to his time as an innocent child.
Romans 4:15, Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
When Israel disobeyed God and refused to possess the land of Canaan, they perished in the wilderness as punishment for their unbelief. However, the nation’s children, who “had no knowledge between good and evil,” were not punished, and they were led by Joshua into the promised land.
Deuteronomy 1:39-40, Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.
The prophet Isaiah proclaimed that the judgment on the kings of Israel would occur before the coming Christ child, “shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.” Demonstrating that God regards children as innocent. Young children cannot consciously choose between good and evil.
Isaiah 7:14-16, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
The people of Nineveh were “wicked” (Jonah 1:2). However, God asks Jonah, “Shouldn’t I have mercy on 120,000 innocent children?” (who can’t discern between their right hand and their left?) and also innocent cattle?” God held neither the children nor the animals morally accountable.
Jonah 4:11, And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
A Child That Dies Goes to Heaven, the Place of God’s Rest.
Solomon and Job consider an “untimely birth” (not non-existence) preferable to a life of suffering.
Ecclesiastes 6:3, If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
Job 3:11, Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
Job 3:13, For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
Job 3:16, Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
John Newton (1725-1807), the slave trader who became a gospel minister and wrote perhaps the most famous hymn of all time, “Amazing Grace,” was certain of this truth. He wrote the following to close friends of his whose young child had died:
“I hope you are both well reconciled to the death of your child. I cannot be sorry for the death of infants. How many storms do they escape! Nor can I doubt, in my private judgment, that they are included in the election of grace.”
Remember, God looks at death differently than we do: He looks at it from an eternal perspective.
Psalms 116:15, Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
Ecclesiastes 7:1, A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
Jeroboam was one of the all-time wicked men in the Bible and was referred to repeatedly as “Jeroboam – who made Israel to sin.” However, God saw something good in Jeroboam’s child and took him home to heaven. God also ensured the child was given a proper burial, whereas the rest of the family was reserved for the dogs and birds to eat. It is essential to remember a child is affected by the actions of their parents but never judged for the sins of their parents (Ezekiel 18:20).
1Kings 14:11-13, Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the LORD hath spoken it. Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.
Parents Can Go to a Child That Is in Heaven.
David fasted and wept for his infant son, but he ceased mourning after the child’s death. “I shall go to him!” David comforted himself in the fact that there was going to be a reunion in Heaven. David said in Psalms 23, “And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever!”
2 Samuel 12:22-23, And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
David was comforted after the death of his infant son but devastated when rebellious Absalom was killed. The difference was the destination of Absalom versus the infant. The innocent son went to heaven, but the rebellious son went to hell.
2 Samuel 18:33, And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!
God Always considers Your Children to Be Your Children.
In Job chapter forty-two, God gave Job double all he had previously lost in chapter one except for the children he lost. He was given the same number of children, seven boys, and three girls, not double as God promised. However, children are far different from livestock. The ten children Job lost in death were still Job’s children. Job did have twice the children he had before! Someone could ask Job, “How many children do you have?” He could say, “I have twenty, but ten of them are in heaven.”
Job 1:1-2, There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
Job 42:10, And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job 42:13, He had also seven sons and three daughters.
Speaking of heaven, our Lord said:
Matthew 22:32, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
Thousands of families have suffered the heart break of losing a young child. In this heartache through Christ, we have the hope of heaven. Some day you will see your child again!