Do Babies Go To Heaven When They Die?
Introduction
Do babies go to Heaven when they die?
Ever wonder what happens to those who die as babies? Do they go to Heaven? What about unborn babies? What about the intellectually disabled? Does God send them to Hell because they didn’t accept Jesus Christ as their Lord? What do you think? Unfortunately, there is a lot of doubt and discussion out there about it and a lot of people express their own opinions, but why don’t we just let God tell us.
The following article supports the video: Do Babies Go To Heaven When They Die?
Watch that video if you want a more dynamic presentation of this material.
Here you can find the presentation used in the video.
If you are in a time crunch and just want to get to the answer, then here it is. God sends babies and intellectually disabled to Heaven when they die. Read on to see the proof so that you can settle the matter in your heart.
I will break this down to several groupings of arguments. Let’s start with the obvious.
#1 – The Nature of God
Granted, this is more of an emotive argument, so I will keep it brief, but I do believe it needs to be made. Ask yourself a question: Do you really, really believe in your heart that God is going to condemn babies to Hell? Is that the God that you know? With all that you have learned about Him, do you believe that is consistent with his character and nature?
Here are a couple of verses that God shares with us about himself:
God is full of compassion
The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. - Psalms 116:5
God is love
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. - 1 John 4:7
So ask yourself, seriously … Would a God who is gracious, full of compassion and whose very nature is love, would he cast an unborn baby into the lake of fire along with the Devil and his followers? That is not the God that I know.
Now, let’s go to the firm arguments.
#2 – The Capability Argument
God explains to us in the book of truth that he draws a critical distinction between people, separating them into two groups – those who can distinguish between good and evil and those who can’t. The ones who can are like you and me. The ones who can’t are like babies and intellectually disabled. He treats each group very differently. The almost entirety of the Bible is for the first group, us, but there are a few comments regarding the others.
I will show a few here and provide comments below each one.
The knowledge of good and evil leads to death
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” - Genesis 2:17
Comments:
This is a base verse used to explain the following verses
To die is to be separated from God, commonly referred to in the bible as going into the Abyss or in modern language, going to Hell
To die, you have to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
That tree is Satan
To eat of him, is to submit to him and be one with him or follow him
The counter is to eat of the tree of life which is Jesus and if you do this, you are one with Him and the Father and will have eternal life
Pay close attention to the usage of the phrase “knowledge of good and evil” as you will see it frequently
Some children have no knowledge of good and evil
34 “And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, 35 ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, 36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ 37 Even with me the Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. 38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39 And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. 40 But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’ - Deuteronomy 1:34-40
Comments:
The word used for children (taph) here is usually translated as “little ones”, but also little children or infants
Little ones have no knowledge of good or evil
This goes back to the genesis garden and the tree
In other words, they do not eat of that tree
To eat of the tree, you must have knowledge of it
To eat of the tree, you must use that knowledge and choose to do it
In this passage, the children are allowed to go into the promised land because they did not know of good vs. evil
The same can be said of today’s little ones, but instead of the physical promised land, they go to the spiritual promised land – Heaven
There is a time when we do not know how to choose between good and evil and then a time we do
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your[f] God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he[g] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.[h] 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17 The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!” - Isaiah 7:10-17
Comments:
First, this is a cool prophecy about Jesus, and I just love it every time I read one
Regarding the text, do you notice that the key phrase is repeated twice, which means He really wants you to pay attention to it
Isaiah says that there is a point in which a boy doesn’t know how to refuse evil and choose good
Correspondingly, there must be point in which he does know
This lines up with the other scriptures about the knowledge of good vs. evil
Evil in your heart starts in your youth
And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. - Genesis 8:21
Comments:
Note that He does not say it starts since birth or conception, but since youth
Another thing we can do is look at David, a man after God’s own heart, saw the relationship of infants and God.
His deceased infant son was waiting for him in Heaven
He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” - 2 Samuel 12:22-23
Comments:
David had no doubts the baby was in Heaven
He likewise believed he was going to Heaven and therefore explicitly states the baby will be waiting for him there
We belong to God when we are born
9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts. 10 On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God. - Psalm 22:9-10
Comments:
David states that he belonged to God even from the womb
Obviously, he was too young to make that choice
Note that he attributes his relationship to God to his mother
This verse also establishes that what applies to born children applies to unborn as well
From these verses, we can summarize as follows:
When we are conceived, we belong to God
When we are born, we do not have knowledge of good and evil and are unable to choose between them
At some point in our youth, we are able to distinguish between good and evil and chose which we do
So, what do we do with this information? See the next section.
#3 – The Accountability Argument
Sin is choosing to do evil
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. - James 4:17
Comments:
See that this applies to anyone who knows the right thing to do?
In other biblical language, it is stated as anyone who has knowledge of good and evil and can choose. It is the same thing.
He is saying that the subsequent text applies to those who in their youth gained the ability to choose between good and evil
He is saying sin is anything that you choose to do that is not good
So to commit a sin, you must first have the knowledge of what is right (good vs. evil) and then be able to make a choice and ultimately choose against doing what is right
If you can’t fulfill these requirements, then it is not sin
We are punished for our own sin, not the sin of others
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. - Ezekiel 18:20
Comments:
He is literally saying you are punished / judged for your own sins, not those of your ancestors or others
Die refers to separation from God or not receiving everlasting life in Heaven
Therefore using logic, if I am an infant and unable to do wickedness because I do not have knowledge of good vs. evil, then how can I choose to sin and be punished and sent to hell?
Answer: I can’t
The apostle Paul makes the same argument, that we are judged by our own deeds
5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on[a] we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. - 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
And once more, just to hammer home the point that we are condemned by our own actions
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. - 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Comments:
Another argument that those who go to hell are the evil / wicked
Notice it doesn’t say anything about children
Infants cannot choose to do these things
Again, one last proof that the dead are judged by what they had done
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. - Revelation 20:11-15
Summarizing, we can observe the following:
You are judged based upon what you do
Condemnation is based on the sins you commit
To commit a sin:
You must have the knowledge of good vs. evil
You are able to choose between the two
You choose evil
Therefore, if you don’t have the knowledge, then you can’t commit sin and so you can’t be condemned
I personally feel at this point that the issue is settled by the above verses. I don’t think it is necessary to make any further observations, so if you are satisfied and it is settled for you, then you can stop here. If you are still not convinced, the following might further help seal it for you.
#5 – Jesus’ comments about children and Heaven
It would be wonderful if we had direct comments from Jesus something like “all children go to Heaven”. We don’t have it and if we did, we wouldn’t need this article. But we do have the next best thing. Jesus did give us insight into the relationship between Heaven and children. Read a few of his comments.
The Kingdom of God belongs to children
And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. - Mark 10:13-14 (see also Matthew 19:13-14, Luke 18:15-16)
Comments:
The kingdom belongs to little children (also translated infants)
Obviously, they don’t have knowledge of good vs. evil, yet they are in
Therefore, by God’s grace, they are in (probably because he considers them innocents (see above))
Being childlike, you enter the Kingdom
And said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. - Matthew 18:3
Comments:
We are to become like children to get into Heaven
This implies that those who are children enter Heaven, else why would we want to be like them
God’s will is that little children go to Heaven
10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. - Matthew 18:10-14
Comments:
Their angels in Heaven implies that children belong to the Kingdom of Heaven already
It is not God’s will that little children die
Keep in mind that spiritual death is going to hell
In other words, it is God’s will that little children go to Heaven
Summarizing Jesus’ words, he teaches us that:
It is God’s will that little children go to Heaven
They have their own angels in front of God
The Kingdom of God belongs to little children
We are to become like them in order to get in
I don’t know about you, but it sounds a lot to me like Jesus believes little children go to Heaven when they die.
I could make more arguments and could quote more scripture, but I truly believe we have definitively made the point and will stop here.
Counter Arguments
I think it only fair to acknowledge that there are those who do not agree with me.
There are two basic contrarian arguments:
The agnostic
The antagonistic
The agnostic view is basically that we don’t really know and it is a mystery. Antagonists argue that children don’t go to Heaven unless they fulfill certain ritualist requirements. Both come to their views either since the bible doesn’t actually say the words “little children go to Heaven when they die” or because they have locked themselves into a doctrinal position using men’s logic that blocks acceptance of biblical teaching.
The two most common doctrinal positions that cause them to shut their mind are the teachings 1) that you must “choose” to follow Christ and 2) that you must be baptized. They say something like “how can a baby go to Heaven if they haven’t chosen Christ first” or “How can they go if they haven’t fulfilled the law of baptism”. If you are familiar with your bible, both of these teachings are Christian fundamentals. However, they do not apply to little children but to those who can make a choice.
There is a basic teaching, one I strongly believe in that God will not require anything of you if you are not able to do it. For example, if He said you must be able to fly like a bird in order to go to Heaven, then He would give you that ability. It is not in God’s nature to require something of infants that they cannot comply with, and thus condemn them to Hell.
In any event, I believe we have proven that there are 2 distinct groups of people – those that have knowledge and good and evil and can choose between them and those that don’t. All the arguments about believing in Jesus, baptisms, etc. apply to the first group. It is self-evident that God has a special plan for the second group as he considers them “innocents” and he only punishes the guilty.
Closing
If you have been paying attention, I started out talking about the intellectually disabled along with infants, but then stopped. It is my opinion that the law of knowing the difference between good and evil and choosing between them applies equally to the intellectually disabled, not based upon age but upon the same lack of mental faculties. Though not explicitly mentioned in the bible, I feel comfortable including them for the same reasons as for infants. But you can make up your own mind about the matter.
In closing, I would like to leave you with this word from the apostle:
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. - 1 John 4:16
Amen!