In 1999 my brother Jeff, who was profoundly mentally retarded, passed away at the age of 45. He had the mentality of an infant. He could dress and feed himself but had a very limited vocabulary. If one would have tried to teach him about Jesus, he would have had no clue as to what you were talking about. I was not a Christian myself at the time of his death; I became a Christian in 2003. I've asked my Pastor and he believes that babies and mentally disabled people do go to heaven. Some people that I attend church have been honest and have said they really don't know where he went when he passed away. Your thoughts?
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I sometimes wonder about this issue as well, and also regarding devoted Christians who lose their ability to reflect on their faith due to Alzheimer's in old age. I think a verse I keep coming back to is Gen 18:25: "Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
I think this verse is especially helpful because Abraham is talking to God from his human perspective on what is right, and God endorses his making the comment from its place and context in the Bible. So this indicates that if the Bible is silent on an issue, and something really is right from a human perspective, in a genuine sense that doesn't have some problem that we didn't realise, then we can guess it is right from God's perspective as well. So it is clearly right from our perspective that children, mentally disabled, and Christians who lose their faith due to Alzheimer's go to heaven, and so it would be for God as well.
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In 1999 my brother Jeff, who was profoundly mentally retarded, passed away at the age of 45. He had the mentality of an infant. He could dress and feed himself but had a very limited vocabulary. If one would have tried to teach him about Jesus, he would have had no clue as to what you were talking about. I was not a Christian myself at the time of his death; I became a Christian in 2003. I've asked my Pastor and he believes that babies and mentally disabled people do go to heaven. Some people that I attend church have been honest and have said they really don't know where he went when he passed away. Your thoughts?
Let us see... God is love... so... yes. Obviously.
Let us see... God is love... so... yes. Obviously.
my AMEN to that!
Trust in That LOVE! Your brother is in good hands!
ephraim
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Lo, i have gathered up all of my thoughts and cannot recall anything good before Thee . . .
except the fact that i know no other God than Thee. --Saint Ephraim the Syrian LORD JESUS CHRIST, HUMBLE LAMB OF GOD, have mercy on me, an arrogant sinner!
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By default, your brother is at the right hand of God. Your brother never had the chance to be aware of anything known as WRONG or SIN, let alone responsible for any intentional misdeeds. Your brother is as PURE as the most righteous person on earth.
Besides, just as our love will cover a multitude of sins of someone who has wronged us, God's love also covers sins...
1 Peter 4:8
"since love covers a multitude of sins".
If you understood the "depths of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10) and that we are not Jews/Israelites/Hebrews, you would understand that "sin" has no more spiritual meaning to the modern worshipper (True worshipper, John 4:23). The word "sin" is now used only as a FIGURE OF SPEECH...("fashion sin", etc.). WE should...
Hebrews 10:2
"no longer have any consciousness of sin".
David chose to be spiritually INside the body of the promissed Messiah (Jesus). David did not ascend into heaven, but was carried inside Jesus's body...
Acts 4:23
"For David did not ascend into the heavens; but he himself says, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand".....The heavenly Father said to David's "lord" (JESUS), "Sit at my right hand". Your brother is also at The Father's right hand.
By default, your brother is inside the body of Jesus because Jesus did the "works of God" (John 6:28 and 9:3) and those works were finished since the beginning of existence...
Hebrews 4:3
" although his works were finished from the foundation of the world".
We who can read and think intelligently have the extra responsibility of doing all that is right,....your brother didn't have this responsibility. Jesus's work is DONE/FINISHED, your brother has been redeemed.
Verses are from the RSV.
Last edited by more excellent way; 5th November 2009 at 11:47 PM.
Romans 10:6-7: The righteousness of faith speaks as such: do not say in your heart 'who will ascend into heaven?' (that is to bring Christ down from above), or 'who shall descend into the deep?' (that is to bring Christ up from the dead)
It is better to question one's own salvation before questioning the salvation of another.
In 1999 my brother Jeff, who was profoundly mentally retarded, passed away at the age of 45. He had the mentality of an infant. He could dress and feed himself but had a very limited vocabulary. If one would have tried to teach him about Jesus, he would have had no clue as to what you were talking about. I was not a Christian myself at the time of his death; I became a Christian in 2003. I've asked my Pastor and he believes that babies and mentally disabled people do go to heaven. Some people that I attend church have been honest and have said they really don't know where he went when he passed away. Your thoughts?
Your Pastor is spot on. The Holy Spirit told me, moments ago, about your brother, and I quote "He is with God."
yes, your brother did not willfully and deliberately reject Jesus. And like babies and other who cannot make that decision due to age or mental disability I believe God has a special place for them up in Heaven. You should look forward to seeing your brother, freed from the chains of this disorder, perfect as a glorified man can be up there in Heaven waiting for you.
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“Saving Faith lives in a broken heart. Always grows in a heart humbled for sin, in a weeping eye and a tearful conscience"
Satan can only deceive those with perfect minds even if people are amputees or wheel-chair disabled so that means those with diseased minds from birth get their first-class ticket to heaven. We have decision-making minds to accept Christ or atheism. God cannot reverse the decision if people decide to choose atheism and then accept Christ once they reach the kingdom of God. Evidence of God comes later in heaven or when Jesus returns. We just have to be patient faithful believers.
__________________ I learn to accept Jesus Christ and our God the Father by default.
We do not know (the Bible does not address this specifically so people advising that he is in heaven have nothing to substantiate this) but we can hope he is with God.
__________________ I know I am blunt. I apologize.
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1 Peter 5:8-9
Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.
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