Do babies go to hell if they die?

[Guest]

In any case no answer is provided in scripture about the destination of the stillborn or of dead infants. We only know they are chosen for one fate or another as all of us are before the foundations of the world.

How do we "know", Hugh?

It seems clear that over 99% of adults never repent and submit to the Lordship of Christ before death.

If this is the same proportion of infants "chosen" for the "fate" of eternal hell, what does this tell us about God's character? Is He the God of love that is not willing that any should perish? How can that be if He consigns over 99% of people to useless, eternal suffering that serves no purpose except to satisfy His vengeance?

Would you or I do the same? God has to be at least more merciful that we are!

[Guest]

Hugh, Consider that although God's attributes are love,mercy,justice and holiness the only thing he is , is love. God is LOVE. Love is patient and kind and long suffering and wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth. Babies going to hell is so contrary to who God is and his character that it's irreconcilable and it's unscriptural.

[Guest]

Hey, I know this is an old thread, but after reading through it I had to add to it.

It seems that the nature of the heavenly body was a topic amongst the Corinthians. Paul settles it in 1 Cor 15:35-49 by stating that the resurrected body is as different from our body as the difference is between our bodies and that of birds. I think it is a logical extrapolation from this point to the idea of there being no age distinction. We will not resemble fetuses or zygotes or old men because we will be completely different.

Glenn

[Guest]

We are told that we will be as the angels who did appear to be men.

Hugh McBryde

[Guest]

We are told that we will be as the angels who did appear to be men.

I think that was when Jesus answered the scribes questions about the widow with 7 husbands and he meant we will be like angels in the sense that we won't be married and procreate but not that we will have spirit bodies.

[Guest]

It seems that the nature of the heavenly body was a topic amongst the Corinthians. Paul settles it in 1 Cor 15:35-49 by stating that the resurrected body is as different from our body as the difference is between our bodies and that of birds. I think it is a logical extrapolation from this point to the idea of there being no age distinction. We will not resemble fetuses or zygotes or old men because we will be completely different.

Did Jesus' resurrected body resemble ours? Or did it differ from ours as much as do those of birds? The resurrected Jesus was mistaken for the gardener. The apostles also took Him to be an ordinary man until "their eyes were opened.

Yet Jesus was able to pass through a closed door. That is something He could not do before His resurrection.

True, Paul described the resurrection body as different from the mortal body as a wheat plant is different from a grain of wheat. But I don't think Paul was talking about the difference in appearance. Rather he was talking about the difference in quality.
I Corinthians 15
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.
43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
44 It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.
...
48 As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.
49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Jesus is the man from heaven. When He was resurrected, He had the same body (though changed in nature) that He had on earth. He showed His disciples His wounds, and said, "A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." It was an immortal body, and a spiritual body, but yet a human body. Our resurrected bodies will be similar.

[Guest]

I seem to remember that their will be no male nor female when we are ressurrected we shall be like Jesus in ournew bodys . So 30's is a good view I would think.

A side question about age of accountability. What if a person is mentally damaged or retarded? If they don't have a grasp of right and wrong and die at an old age will they go to heaven or hell?

[Guest]

Greetings,
It seems to me that evidence from the Tanakh (O.T.) and Brith Chadashah (N.T.) sources is that until the time of personal accountability (Age 12 -13) no Hebrew Child was "under the Mosaic Covenant Torah). Now if we extrapolate this principle into the New Covenant, all children who die prior to the self awareness of personal accountability and moral right & wrong..it seems according to my Church's ancient position that all such infants and children are welcomed into the Kingdom of God, for of such is the Kingdom made up of....innocent ones.
Although I am not a Calvinist, nor a Protestant...I do accept that Baptism is the New Covenant's Rite of Initiation i.e. Born of Water...and it is according to Paul our Spiritual Circumcision performed not be human hands. Thus in My Faith we Baptize (i.e. born of Water/Spiritual Circumcision) infants on the 8th Day, and Charismate (i.e. born of Spirit/Fill with the Spirit) such infant members of the New Covenant immediately after their baptism...as Jean Calvin & Martin Luther continued also in their Reformed Catholic Faiths.
I am admittedly an Oriental Orthodox Christian (i.e. Nazaraean Orthodox Church) from the Mar Thoma Tradition of the Far East, but we hold the same faith that all Eastern Orthodox Christians have always held on this Topic. We do not accept Purgatory for "carnal christians" or Limbo for unbaptized infants. These are Medieval Myths of the Latin West, not Apostolic Doctrine received from the beginning from Messiah and His Apostles by Spoken Word or by Written Documentation.
Thus until the time of personal accountability, as described by Paul in his Letter to the Romans Christians (i.e. his Bar Mitzpah at 13) all infants are accounted as innocent by God and welcomed into His Kingdom to await their glorification and immortal perfection in Messiah at His Advent and everlasting Kingdom. This is why in both God's Mosaic and Messianic Covenants innocent children are welcomed into the Covenant relationship on the 8th Day. It has only been since the departure of some Protestant Sects from this ancient belief and practice in the late 16th and early 17th century that doubts about where such infants go if unbaptized or non confessing................but this is a theological difficulty for "anabaptists" and not we who continue in the ancient Way.

God Bless you all and I hope you all had a Happy Independence Day!

In Messiah,
Rt. Rev. +Kenneth W. Huffman
St. Timothy's Mission of Oregon: Nazaraean Orthodox Church
(Mar Timotheos Mission of Oregon: Mikra d'Natzari Shamrani)
Diocese of the Pacific Northwest

[Guest]

My personal opinion is that children going all the way back to a zygot are innocent (spiritually) even if thier physical body is corrupted by sin. Even now, accepting Christ, appears to me to only mean a cleansing and rebirth of our spirit and not the body. It would also appear to me that God has appointed a time we are born and a time to die. Maybe God, already knowing all our future choices, chooses to take some children before they can be corrupted by this world. This could lead to much speculation for example, did God take them early to protect them from themselves? Did God take them to bring others to repentance? etc.

This is a topic that hits close to home for me since I found out a year after the fact that I lost a child to abortion. That was 19 years ago. The struggles in my life that caused eventually brought me to my knees seeking God.

Jim

[Guest]

"My personal opinion is that children going all the way back to a zygot are innocent (spiritually) even if thier physical body is corrupted by sin."

Then abortion becomes the greatest form of evangelism possible, as all aborted children have no need of Christ and thus are instantly ushered into paradise and eternal life.

I would ask, what is more horrible to imagine? That "innocents" go straight to hell or that the neighborhood abortionist offering our children to a modern day "Chemosh" saves more souls than Billy Graham?