Do Children Go to Heaven?

[kbean]

God bless your beautiful baby. It wouldn't hurt to get your babe baptized. But I really feel in my HEART that children are saved until cognitive maturity allows them to understand and then choose Jesus or reject Him. And remember, if he chooses rejectiont, God gives him the rest of His life to change his mind and heart. Prayer prayer prayer!!! What a great GOD. And bless your baby, teach him/her well.

 

[Grace_of_God]

I believe all children are automatically in God's good grace. I mean, people are saved through faith in Jesus. If a child cannot understand, how can they reject or accept Jesus? I don't think you should worry about your baby. He is a beloved child of God. I for one, worship an all-loving God. Not one who damns a poor baby to Hell just because he is too young to know the name Jesus. God is very just remember and like a Heavenly Father--He loves all of His children and knows how to judge us justly. God bless! In Christ,
~Grace~

 

[Pote]

Is Jesus a piece of information, or a person to be trusted?

What's all this talk about someone not being able to trust Jesus until they've reached an age when they can understand sin, the cross, and so on?

One might as well say that a child can't love and trust his own mother until he's reached the age of accountability and understand the concept of motherhood.

Does a child have faith in his own mother? Of course. How much more then can a child have faith in his own creator. Our view of Jesus needs to be MUCH bigger.

Pete.

 

[Grace_of_God]

Is Jesus a piece of information, or a person to be trusted?

What's all this talk about someone not being able to trust Jesus until they've reached an age when they can understand sin, the cross, and so on?

One might as well say that a child can't love and trust his own mother until he's reached the age of accountability and understand the concept of motherhood.

Does a child have faith in his own mother? Of course. How much more then can a child have faith in his own creator. Our view of Jesus needs to be MUCH bigger.

Pete.

Pete, you make a good point, however you need to realize that children do not understand everything. And I am not talking about children of 10, 11, 12 and so on. I am talking about babies and toddlers. A baby may know that there is always someone there that takes care of him, but if you took that child away and gave it to someone entirely new, they would *easily* come to see this person as their "mother". Change this scenario now to a 13 yr old who was raised by their mother and then given to someone else. That "someone else" will NEVER be the mother that they know. Now if you apply this to Jesus, yes a 3 and 4 yr old can be taught about Jesus, yes they can love Him and yes than can even have some understanding of Him. But there minds are very limited at that age. If you took these children and taught them something entirely different, they would come to believe in that. They know what they are taught. HOWEVER, if you have, say, a 13 yr old and you raised them in a strong Christian home, and they had faith in Jesus; it would be difficult if not impossible to shake that faith no matter how hard you try! This is because they are more able to understand who Jesus is.

As for a one year old, a one year old will not understand Jesus at all. Of course, you pray with them at night or at meals, you raise them biblically and teach them about Him everyday and eventually that child will turn out to be the little 3 or 4 yr old who believes because that is what they are taught and then eventually the 13, 14, or 15 yr old who has grasped Jesus faithfully through entirely their OWN will. But a one year old cannot grasp in their mind "I have a Creator" and "I know exactly who Jesus is." And I don't believe for a second that if a child, who has such a young, limited mind, happens to die, He will ban this child to Hell. I do not worship that sort of God!

Remember, God is just, loving and merciful, not cruel and vengeful.

God bless! In Christ,
~Grace~

 

[Wilfred of Ivanhoe]

I'm sorry, but I see nowhere in Scripture where one is saved by ignorance. Children are conceived in sin and are guilty, fallen human beings. Sin is sin. We are not sinners because we sin...we sin because we are sinners.

I have three children under the age of six. Anyone who has children this age who doesn't believe they are sinners in need of a Savior is either blind or biased.

ALL human beings are guilty before God and condemnable.

That being said, I personally believe children go to heaven, NOT because they are in any way 'innocent,' but because God's just as capable of effectually saving infants as He is adults. Regardless of what I believe, it is a safe assumption that whatever does happen to children is ultimately just.

The Westminister Confession of Faith deals with this issue in Chapter XX, part III

III. Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ, through the Spirit,[12] who works when, and where, and how He pleases:[13] so also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.[14]

 

[Wilfred of Ivanhoe]

That is a true statement because God is righteous and fair.

Praise God that He is not always fair, that He often shows mercy and compassion rather than justice! For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.

 

[Canucker]

Mark 10:13-16

"Then they brought young children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it." And he took them up in His arms, put His hands on them, and blessed them."

They do go to heaven God cares for them and wouldn't let them go to Hell.

 

[JVAC]

The age of understanding comes when a person hears the gospel and can decide whether or not he/she wants to accept the free gist of salvation. The Bible does not say that John had been saved before he was born. you he was not presented with the opprotunity beofre his birth to accept or deny the cross. Scripture does not say that baptism awakens faith:
17So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Rom 10:17

Sorry I didn't get to this, I kinda forgot about this thread

So what I understand you saying is, you must not have faith in Jesus, the Son of God, but in his cross? This is not true. When John said later in his blessed life, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" he mentioned nothing of the cross, but only of Jesus. Even Blessed Simeon, in St. Luke's Gospel, says: "For my eyes have seen your salvation". He has seen Jesus who is the only way to the Father. Blessed Simeon and even Anna never saw the cross or heard it, and yet they believed Jesus and that he was the Salvation. All three people mentioned did not make it to see Jesus on the Cross nor even hear about it, yet they believed in Jesus, Immanuel.

Now when we get into the age of accountability, it doesn't hold ground. You say the Bible doesn't say he was saved, your right, but it also doesn't say that a lot of other saintly people were saved. In fact, 'saved', as you understand it, didn't exist at that time. There were no sinners prayers and no altar calls. Scripture never supports an age of accountability, and neither do the holy traditions given to us by the Holy Fathers. In fact, all that we can find in Scripture is that everyone is equally damned because we are rotten sinners (Gen. 8:21, Psalm 51, Psalm 53, Gal. 3:22).

So if everyone is damned, then they are damned indeed unless Christ's atoning sacrifice is offered for them. We indeed know that Christ wished the children to come unto him. Christ Jesus, told us that if we are Baptized and believe we will recieve eternal life (Mk 16:16), the holy tradition of the apostolic church confirms this teaching. We must above all be faithful and trust in God's righteous plan, and hope and pray that our children and the children of the ungodly come to be found in Christ and not some 'loophole'.

-James