Questions and Answers

Do Little Children And Babies Automatically Go To Heaven When They Die?
By Adam Bartlett

Salvation is a process of believing in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross and resurrection. It is a matter of understanding these things and accepting them by faith and applying them to your life. It is obvious that babies cannot do that. It is also unlikely a child, depending on the age could grasp this either. In the Jewish community a boy is considered a man at the age of 13 at which time they have a Bar mitzvah to celebrate this achievement. At this time the boy reads the Law publicly for the first time followed by a big celebration. From that point on he is considered to be able to make all decisions as a man would.

It is obvious that we cannot put a magical date on any person and confidently say that they understand the spiritual necessities to make it to heaven. Every child is different and learns at different levels and some may obtain that knowledge much earlier while some may take much longer. There are many arguments surrounding this issue and these are my views on it. One argument is that even if it is a baby that they are born into sin so therefore they cannot go to heaven because they did not have a chance to have that sin atoned for. Jesus made some interesting statements regarding children.

Matthew 18
1: At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
2: And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
3: And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
4: Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5: And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
10: Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 19
13: Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.
14: But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Mark 9
6: And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them,
37: Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.

Summary

Issues like this are difficult because there are no direct scriptures that give specific details about the matter. In these cases you have to look at what the situation involves and then find corroborating scriptures to support that finding. As I mentioned at the beginning this is a matter of salvation as related to babies and little children. With babies they have never reached an age to where they could intelligibly understand the difference between good and evil, right or wrong. They could not make those decisions based on knowledge of what is expected of them. Knowing that God is a Just God it would be impossible to believe that these babies would be cast into a hell reserved for sinners that rejected Him.

As for the children that is a little more complex because it would depend on that child's understanding at the time they died. Only God can answer that and therefore it is senseless to try to assume whether or not that child was saved. I have to believe that all babies therefore would go to heaven and children that have not reached an age of understanding would also.

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