Wow! That is an awesome question and one that has caused a lot of people to think, discuss and argue for an answer. And to be perfectly honest, the Bible does not tell us directly. I cannot find any Biblical scripture, either in the Old Testament or the New Testament, which addresses this issue directly.
So, we should probably start with a look at the character of God. What do we know about God? Well, the Bible teaches us that God is loving. The Bible teaches us that God is just. The Bible teaches us that God cannot sin or do evil. So what happens to a baby in the hands of our God when that baby never even has a chance to know God?
Part of the good news is that it’s not just about us knowing God but also God knowing us. And He knows us better than we know ourselves! In fact, we were known even before we were born!
Look what Psalm 139:13-16 says:
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
See how the psalmist says we are fearfully and wonderfully made! He emphasizes that God’s works are “wonderful.” God knew us while we were still being formed!
That’s not to say that once we are old enough to know Christ ourselves that we aren’t accountable to Him to make our own decision to accept Him as Lord and Savior, but if we are not yet old enough to know Him – and no baby is – then He covers us by His intimate knowledge of us. Amazing, isn’t it? Our God is great! Based on this scripture of God’s intimate involvement with your creation (and there are certainly other scripture passages as well) and knowing God’s loving and just character, we can say with some assurance that babies that die will go to Heaven and will know Christ.
Showing posts with label baby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Monday, 18 January 2010
Why did God come to earth in the form of a baby?
This great question has been asked by many people, who put it this way, “Hey, if God can do anything, why didn’t he just appear as Jesus, the adult, instead of being born?”
Part of the answer to this question is Biblical. Jesus’ birth and the way He was conceived had to fulfill the Old Testament prophesies. The biggest part of those prophesies was the Virgin Birth, which clearly shows His divinity. He comes to the earth from outside, pure and clean, and He is in no way a product of this world.
More important though is that by coming as a baby, we can see the sign of his humanity. He is one of us in every way. He arrives from heaven with perfection and godliness of which no man or woman is capable - yet he takes the full human journey, which even God in heaven had not taken. How could we follow his footsteps as a man if we hadn't seen him crawl as a baby? How could we believe he had undergone all the temptation we have faced if he had bypassed the most difficult years in which we struggle to earn our adulthood?
It’s tough being a kid, right? But, Jesus experienced it. To make the full sacrifice on our behalf, Jesus had to make the full commitment of being born and growing up, facing all of the struggles and temptations that you and I struggle with. It wouldn’t have meant very much to us if he had sprung from heaven fully formed, bathed in heavenly glory, but never lived through the things we have to.
Thankfully, we see him first as a child in a manger. Then, we see him at the Temple as a boy on the verge of maturity, already about his Father's business. We see Mary and Joseph wondering at him, trying to understand, as he grew "in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people" (Luke 2:52). Finally, we see Him as a young man, quietly beginning a ministry that will change all of human history. We see him in the desert, wrestling with temptation and the matter of his destiny, and we know he is fully human. We see his love for children, and we can believe it because he, too, has been a child. And then, when He is crucified, we know He feels the pain that any man would feel. We are bought with a price that could never have been paid without the full burden of humanity having been accepted.
If He had been God only, His sacrifice would have been cheap and unconvincing. If He had been man only, His sacrifice would have had no power; He would have been a martyr like ten thousand others. But He was man and He was God, and therefore He was all in all. He came as a child to confront and conquer every challenge and every temptation common to humanity. We trust Him with our lives because He was God. We love Him with our hearts because we know that once He was a tiny baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
Part of the answer to this question is Biblical. Jesus’ birth and the way He was conceived had to fulfill the Old Testament prophesies. The biggest part of those prophesies was the Virgin Birth, which clearly shows His divinity. He comes to the earth from outside, pure and clean, and He is in no way a product of this world.
More important though is that by coming as a baby, we can see the sign of his humanity. He is one of us in every way. He arrives from heaven with perfection and godliness of which no man or woman is capable - yet he takes the full human journey, which even God in heaven had not taken. How could we follow his footsteps as a man if we hadn't seen him crawl as a baby? How could we believe he had undergone all the temptation we have faced if he had bypassed the most difficult years in which we struggle to earn our adulthood?
It’s tough being a kid, right? But, Jesus experienced it. To make the full sacrifice on our behalf, Jesus had to make the full commitment of being born and growing up, facing all of the struggles and temptations that you and I struggle with. It wouldn’t have meant very much to us if he had sprung from heaven fully formed, bathed in heavenly glory, but never lived through the things we have to.
Thankfully, we see him first as a child in a manger. Then, we see him at the Temple as a boy on the verge of maturity, already about his Father's business. We see Mary and Joseph wondering at him, trying to understand, as he grew "in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people" (Luke 2:52). Finally, we see Him as a young man, quietly beginning a ministry that will change all of human history. We see him in the desert, wrestling with temptation and the matter of his destiny, and we know he is fully human. We see his love for children, and we can believe it because he, too, has been a child. And then, when He is crucified, we know He feels the pain that any man would feel. We are bought with a price that could never have been paid without the full burden of humanity having been accepted.
If He had been God only, His sacrifice would have been cheap and unconvincing. If He had been man only, His sacrifice would have had no power; He would have been a martyr like ten thousand others. But He was man and He was God, and therefore He was all in all. He came as a child to confront and conquer every challenge and every temptation common to humanity. We trust Him with our lives because He was God. We love Him with our hearts because we know that once He was a tiny baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
What happens to a baby that dies at birth? Do they go to Heaven or Hell, because they never sinned?
Babies that die at birth go to Heaven. Babies that die before they are born go to Heaven too. Even small children who cannot understand the concept of sin and salvation go to Heaven if they die unexpectedly.
There is a point, though, where we do hold individuals accountable for their sins, but that is usually later as they grow older. Hebrew Tradition usually celebrated this age of accountability with a Bar Mitzvah.
There is a point, though, where we do hold individuals accountable for their sins, but that is usually later as they grow older. Hebrew Tradition usually celebrated this age of accountability with a Bar Mitzvah.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
If a baby dies at birth, how old will it be in heaven? Will it stay a baby and not know anything in heaven?
This is a set of big questions, and the answers are also big, so follow along with me.
First – how old will the baby be?
God is the Creator of everything – including time (and also matter, energy, space, relationships, intelligence, emotions, etc etc … really … everything.) And time helps us understand where we are in this physical world. Typically, we say we are in a place at a time. We have a place and a time where we are.
But that changes! God is outside of time, and eternity is outside of time. By “outside” of time I mean that you cannot measure it. Remember the beautiful song, “Amazing Grace”? Remember the words, "When we've been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we'd first begun"?
Read on to understand a bit better what we will BE like in heaven…
Second – will it stay a baby?
The answer lies in understanding Jesus after his resurrection. Here we go …
Read Philippians 3:20-21 starting with “And we eagerly await….” What will Jesus transform? [to transform is to change the form of something]
Put you answer here: __________________________
What will Jesus transform the “our lowly bodies” into? To be like his what?
Put your answer here: __________________________
Our lowly bodies, that is, our earthly bodies, whether baby or adult, will be transformed to be like his heavenly body! Wow, huh?
Now go to 1 Corinthians and read chapter 15, verse 35 through the end of the chapter.
Pretty cool, huh?
Did you notice the key 44th verse? There is a natural body, the one we live in now, and there is a spiritual body, the one we will after our earthly death!
Right now you know by experience that life is much more than just our physical body, right? We have an intellect, we have emotions, we have relationships, and we have a spiritual part of our being. Sooooo … wanna know what a baby’s new spiritual body looks like?
Go back to 1 Corinthians 15:49. “And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man [Paul is talking about the first created man, Adam], so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven [that is Jesus].
So the baby, and you, and me will all bear the likeness of Jesus after our earthly death.
So wanna know what Jesus looks like in his spiritual body? [If you don’t, just stop reading here, but if you do, keep reading …]
Go to the account of Jesus’ transfiguration. Read Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:3, and Luke 9:29. [The word “transfiguration” refers to Jesus’ appearance when the disciples saw him changed.]
What is wild, is that just as you have a physical body, so did Jesus. But when Jesus was transfigured, his disciples caught a glimpse of his spiritual body. We can’t know exactly what’s up with that body, and the disciples barely had words to describe it. We can’t really wrap our brains around what that new body will be like, but we do know that, “so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.”
Third, will the baby know anything?
Follow me carefully now … while we see a little baby, helpless, limited in knowledge & strength & intelligence, this is not what God sees. God sees a perfectly and completely formed spiritual being! [This may also help you understand how God sees disabled people, poor people, widows, orphans, and – honestly – all the rest of us who just ain’t exactly “perfect!”]
The theologian C.S. Lewis said that you will NEVER look upon an ordinary person. ALL of God’s children (doesn’t matter how old) are EXTRAORDINARY because they all bear the image of our Creator!!
The Bible doesn’t speak specifically to babies in heaven, but the nature and character of God point to that baby as someone who also has a spiritual body and who will share in the blessings of heaven. Cool, huh?
First – how old will the baby be?
God is the Creator of everything – including time (and also matter, energy, space, relationships, intelligence, emotions, etc etc … really … everything.) And time helps us understand where we are in this physical world. Typically, we say we are in a place at a time. We have a place and a time where we are.
But that changes! God is outside of time, and eternity is outside of time. By “outside” of time I mean that you cannot measure it. Remember the beautiful song, “Amazing Grace”? Remember the words, "When we've been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we'd first begun"?
Read on to understand a bit better what we will BE like in heaven…
Second – will it stay a baby?
The answer lies in understanding Jesus after his resurrection. Here we go …
Read Philippians 3:20-21 starting with “And we eagerly await….” What will Jesus transform? [to transform is to change the form of something]
Put you answer here: __________________________
What will Jesus transform the “our lowly bodies” into? To be like his what?
Put your answer here: __________________________
Our lowly bodies, that is, our earthly bodies, whether baby or adult, will be transformed to be like his heavenly body! Wow, huh?
Now go to 1 Corinthians and read chapter 15, verse 35 through the end of the chapter.
Pretty cool, huh?
Did you notice the key 44th verse? There is a natural body, the one we live in now, and there is a spiritual body, the one we will after our earthly death!
Right now you know by experience that life is much more than just our physical body, right? We have an intellect, we have emotions, we have relationships, and we have a spiritual part of our being. Sooooo … wanna know what a baby’s new spiritual body looks like?
Go back to 1 Corinthians 15:49. “And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man [Paul is talking about the first created man, Adam], so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven [that is Jesus].
So the baby, and you, and me will all bear the likeness of Jesus after our earthly death.
So wanna know what Jesus looks like in his spiritual body? [If you don’t, just stop reading here, but if you do, keep reading …]
Go to the account of Jesus’ transfiguration. Read Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:3, and Luke 9:29. [The word “transfiguration” refers to Jesus’ appearance when the disciples saw him changed.]
What is wild, is that just as you have a physical body, so did Jesus. But when Jesus was transfigured, his disciples caught a glimpse of his spiritual body. We can’t know exactly what’s up with that body, and the disciples barely had words to describe it. We can’t really wrap our brains around what that new body will be like, but we do know that, “so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.”
Third, will the baby know anything?
Follow me carefully now … while we see a little baby, helpless, limited in knowledge & strength & intelligence, this is not what God sees. God sees a perfectly and completely formed spiritual being! [This may also help you understand how God sees disabled people, poor people, widows, orphans, and – honestly – all the rest of us who just ain’t exactly “perfect!”]
The theologian C.S. Lewis said that you will NEVER look upon an ordinary person. ALL of God’s children (doesn’t matter how old) are EXTRAORDINARY because they all bear the image of our Creator!!
The Bible doesn’t speak specifically to babies in heaven, but the nature and character of God point to that baby as someone who also has a spiritual body and who will share in the blessings of heaven. Cool, huh?
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