A question I am often asked at my Family Discipleship Seminar is “What about the unborn and children who die young?”. I am using this week’s blog to address this question.
I. Age of Accountability: A. Deuteronomy 1:39 'Moreover, your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. 1. This passage is one of Doctrinal Revelation in which God gives a teaching concerning the nature of small children as well as God’s response to this nature. It should remember that this is a crucial event in the Doctrinal typology of the Old Covenant, that being the transition from slavery in the Egypt to the giving of the land and Kingdom as promised to Israel. 2. In God’s judgment of the entire nation of Israel He differentiates between the adults and the “little ones” who, “have no knowledge of good or evil”. These little ones “shall enter there”. 3. God then makes a differentiation in the consequences of sin between adults and children. This is no small thing given the nature of the decision. It is not an inconsequential action being taken but rather the entering into the promised land from Egypt, a Biblical type of salvation and the kingdom of God. B. Jeremiah 19:4 "Because they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind;” 1. Here God speaks of small children, when killed by their pagan parents, as “the blood of the innocent”. 2. Thus not just the children of the elect, but even the children of rebellious parents, doomed to the judgment of God, are deemed by God as “innocent” because of their age. 3. We know that God did not have to make this aside statement. In the conquering of the Canaan, in the Flood of the world, in the judgments on the land of Israel, in the slaughter of the first born of Egypt, God justly kills the young and the unborn time and time again. God could have judged Israel without reference to the small children being innocent, but He did not. God went out of His way to describe these children as innocent. C. II Samuel 12:21-23 Then his servants said to him, "What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but when the child died, you arose and ate food." And he said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows, the LORD may be gracious to me, that the child may live.' "But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me." 1. If David knew that his son was in Hell because of the sinful manner of his conception, his being born into sin both with the sin of Adam and that of his parents, he would take no comfort in his death, nor would he take comfort in the fact that he too was going to Hell, if that is what this passage means. 2. Rather this passage clearly teaches that David took great comfort in the fact that he would spend eternity with this small newly born child in Heaven. That David would “go to him”, e.g., join him in heaven. This does not refer to death, for if so it would not only be of no comfort to David, but the more commonly used phrase, “return to dust” or “return to the earth” or “sleep with the fathers” would be used. No, this passage refers to an joyful, expectant reunion in heaven which far overshadows the pain of separation through physical death. D. I Kings 14:12 & 13 "Now you arise, go to your house. When your feet enter the city the child will die. And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam's family shall come to the grave, because in him something good was found toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.” 1. In this second Historical Revelation of the application of the “Age of Accountability” as mentioned in the preceding Doctrinal passages we find and interesting situation. The context of this passage is a great judgment which is to come upon Jerusalem and king Jeroboam as revealed by the prophet of God. 2. The death of this child is an act of mercy, that it might not suffer the degradations and terrors of the wars, famines and chaos which God is bringing upon this city. 3. Why shall this child be spared, why shall this child be mourned? “because in him something good was found toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam” This is a statement in which God contrasts His view of the “good” found in the child verses the rest of the kings entire extended lineage. E. Conclusion: In Doctrinal Revelation passages God teaches an “Age of Accountability” in terms of His judgments. He teaches the concepts of innocence and separation of children from the judgments of both families and nations, be they the elect of pagan. In the accompanying Historical Revelations of God we see the comfort which man is to take in the knowledge that the unborn and small children are in Heaven with God. II. God’s Special Ownership of Children In both the Old and New Covenant God expresses His special ownership of children. That children are differentiated from those lost to God is of great doctrinal consequence. Nowhere in my studies have I found passages where God specifically expresses that children are lost to Him nor have I found passages expressing God’s righteous anger towards children, rather just the opposite – that children are His special possession and that He feels compassion and love in His special provision for children. This special ownership and the subsequent provision for these children of God, is revealed in the following Doctrinal Revelation from the Word of God. A. Ezekiel 16:21 "You slaughtered My children, and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire.” 1. The death of these children is deemed especially heinous because of their ownership by God. “Your slaughtered My children…” 2. This goes beyond the generic ownership of all creation or all mankind by God. If this were the case He would be expressing anger at all deaths. Rather than a generic anger, God expresses a specific anger at the abuse and treatment of “My children”. B. Matthew 18:12 – 14 "What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. Thus it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” 1. Not only do the unborn and the small children belong to God but in addition to that He is specifically concerned with their salvation. 2. Notice the statement of Jesus, “it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” Luke 18:16 But Jesus called for them, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 1. True, it may not be the will of God for them to perish, but perish they may due to the imputed sin of Adam. Just as it is the “will” of God that none perish but all come to repentance, yet some indeed do perish. 2. Yet the Word of God takes this ownership one step further, “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Not only is it God’s will but God has made provision for these children to enter the Kingdom of God - Heaven. C. Conclusion: From these Doctrinal Revelations it is clear that… 1. The unborn and small children are viewed by God as His belonging to Him in a specific and personal way. 2. That as such, it is not His will that a single one of these little ones perish. 3. As a result of this God has made special provision, and in doing so includes the unborn and small children as being members of the kingdom of God. 4. Because of this we may take comfort that upon their death, the unborn and small children enter this heavenly kingdom of God as a result of their divine citizenship, which exists not on earth but in Heaven. III. The reoccurring phrase, “better to die young” We now approach this subject a little more indirectly, from the back door, so to speak. The argument being that if the unborn and children who die young enter Hell, then the analogy will never be used, “better to die young”, because this would have meant certain entrance into Hell. Rather those experiencing severe trials would cry out, “at least I did not die young”, in other words, no matter how severe my trial, it is as nothing compared with an eternity in Hell. This however is not the case as revealed in the following Doctrinal Revelations. A. Job 3:11 – 13 & Ecclesiastes 6:3 Job 3:11-13 "Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me, and why the breasts, that I should suck? For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,” Eccl 6:3-4 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things, and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, Better the miscarriage than he, for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity. 1. First: "Why did I not die at birth…” for Job, the death of the unborn or small child is far superior than the suffering he was experiencing. We must realize, that no matter how much we suffer here on earth, it is a drop in the bucket compared to Hell. Job would have never said, “Yet, I may rejoice, that I did not die at birth…” 2. Solomon expressed this as well in Ecclesiastes. If unborn or small children went to Hell then in no stretch of the imagination would Hell be considered better than obscurity. The statement would be, “Although life is futile and obscure at least you are not in Hell with those who are miscarried.” B. Conclusion: If small children and the unborn, upon death enter Hell, their condition would not be viewed as better than any experience here on earth no matter how difficult. The Bible clearly teaches that to die young is better than to suffer, and from this we may confidently infer that to die young is to be in the comfort of the heavenly Father as opposed to the trials being experienced by those who live to adulthood here on earth. IV. Children who die young and the unborn are saved. These children have not reached the age of accountability in the judgment of God. They are not held accountable for knowing good or evil and as such are held as innocent in the eyes of God. God claims special ownership of these children, calling them His own possession without reference to their parent’s spiritual state. He does not wish for any of them to perish and as such enrolls them as citizens in the kingdom of God. The saints of old recognized this truth and often would cry out that it is better to die as a baby and enter the kingdom and care of the heavenly Father than to experience the difficulties of life. No matter our personal feelings concerning the justness of God, in the final analysis, our feelings of His justness are meaningless and have no ramifications on His Eternal, Self-existent, Transcendent Attributes. From these passages it is clear that children who die young and the unborn are God’s special possession and as such are saved.
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