Are infants who die before reaching an “age of accountability” essentially innocent of sin and therefore guiltless?
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Infant Salvation
Posted by Keith Cawthern at Thursday, April 6, 2017 3:48:29 PM
This is a difficult topic to discuss mainly because the Bible is clear on what it
takes for Salvation. In Matthew 7, it is evident when Jesus says, “On that day many
will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons
in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to
them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew
7:22-23 ESV). This is clear for those who are old enough to believe but is unclear
for infants.
Are infants who die before reaching an “age of accountability” essentially innocent
of sin and therefore guiltless? The Roman Catholics believe that infants are
guiltless if they have been baptized. Catholics believe that “baptism became
associated with regeneration and the washing away of original sin, so this naturally
led to the conclusion that one should be baptized as soon as possible—hence the rise
of the practice of infant baptism.”[1] The Bible is not clear about infants.
Is the atoning work of Christ somehow applied to infants without their making a
volitional decision to trust in Christ for salvation? Boyd and Eddy mentioned that
“evangelicals who are convinced that love must be freely chosen suggest that perhaps
babies who dies are somehow allowed to mature in the afterlife, at which point they,
like the rest of us, decide for themselves whether they want to submit to Christ”[2]
Deuteronomy says that, “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” (Deuteronomy 1:39
ESV). Jeremiah 1:5 leads me to believe that infants that die before the “age of
accountability” will go to Heaven. Mostly because it says, “Before I formed you in
the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a
prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5 ESV). Because God knew the infant in the womb
and made that declaration by consecration, it is clear that the infant would not
have committed any actual sins and will go to Heaven.
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