As I said earlier, David was speaking only about his son, not children in general. Also, there is every reason to believe that David had been praying over his ailing child, that he had been speaking the word of God in the presence of the child.
In David's time, even as now, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. The Holy Spirit works through the word to create faith when and where he pleases. There are good reasons for David's to be confident in the salvation of his son.
Perhaps this would be a good time to go over what may be a new concept for you. A difference in general evangelical theology and Lutheran Reformation theology is that we hold fast to God's promise to work through his external word. Evangelicals typically internalize the work of the Holy Spirit, looking to feelings and emotions for evidence of the Holy Spirit's presence and working. Lutherans are a little more skeptical than that.
We know that feelings and emotions are not dependable guides when it comes to spiritual truths because they are very easily influenced by our sinful nature that persists even after we have been redeemed and justified by God. While we do not discount the possibility that the Holy Spirit may affect us directly in an unmediated way, we also know that practically speaking there is no way to be certain that a feeling, an internal voice or a persistent thought is actually from God.
These could just as easily be our own fallen will producing fallen emotions and desires, we could be mistaking our own inner inner monologue for the voice of God, or we could actually be experiencing a surreptitious attack from the voice of the Enemy who would seek to turn our focus back into ourselves rather than Christ and what he has objectively accomplished for us. Using the standard of whether or not an idea or a voice agrees with scripture can fail us as well because we are certainly capable of misunderstanding what the scriptures have to say or unintentionally skewing our interpretation to favor what our fallen hearts desire. The Enemy also knows the scriptures very well and we know that he can use them in an attempt to mislead us.
Whew! Still with me?
All that to say ... We only trust the external word of God absolutely.
So, we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. That's sure. That's certain. That's a promise. We can take that to our death bed and hold on to it with all our might. Faith may possibly come to us some other way, but we don't have such a clear word in scripture describing any way that faith comes to us other than through the external word.
That's why I've been going on and on about how baptism isn't just water, but water included in God's command (make disciples by baptizing and teaching, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, etc) and combined with God's word (washing of water with the word, etc.) and therefore capable of accomplishing God's will to save sinners.
That's also how I can say that we can totally rely on God's promise to save our little ones through the word with the water in Holy Baptism, and also that we can have great hope that our little ones who have been in the presence of God's word and then sadly pass from this life are saved through the same working of the Holy Spirit through the external word.
Lutherans are all about certainty. We want concrete promises from God on which we can hang all our trust, hopes and cares. That's why we baptize our babies, even though we may know that they have been within hearing of the word. As much as we can trust that God saves through faith in Christ, and that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, we see Holy Baptism as even more certain, since God has made many wonderful, gracious and salvific promises in Holy Scripture specifically to those whom he has baptized.
Sorry to write so much, but I want to be sure you are understanding what I say, because I know it's coming from a different direction that what you have been taught.
You know all those passages that say that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, etc., and all the ones that say how in Adam all died but in Christ all may have eternal life, etc., and all the ones that talk about how nothing good dwells within our flesh and that sinfulness is bound up in and originates from our natural fleshly bodies? Well none of those say anything like "except for infants and mentally deficient individuals." It doesn't say that because it doesn't mean that. These verses are speaking absolutely, they are laying out dictums that apply to each and every individual human being ever conceived. No specific group is specifically included or excluded because humanity as a whole is who they are talking about.
I could give you all the scripture references if you like, but I think you know which ones I am talking about.
See above.
Which is no different than what I am saying about baptism, because scripture clearly states that God justifies sinners in baptism, and we know from other places that God justifies sinners by granting them faith in Jesus Christ.
OK, this is new, you haven't said this before. I said something similar, but let's go with this.
All babies certainly can have faith. They can have trust in their parents to care for them and provide for their needs. But is this the kind of faith that saves? All people naturally trust, they believe, they have faith. But what is the object of their faith?
We like to run around saying that we are saved by faith alone. But it is a specific kind of faith that saves. Faith that your mailman will deliver the mail on time will not save you. Faith that your mother will feed you and change your diaper will not save you. Faith must have an object, and it is the object of our faith that determines whether it is saving faith or not.
So we find that in reality it is NOT our faith that saves us.
What saves us is the works and merits won by Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry -- his perfect obedience to God's perfect Law, his taking all our sins upon himself, his passion and crucifixion, his death and burial, his resurrection and ascension. This is what saves us. And faith that has these works and merits of Christ alone as its object is saving faith.
So we are on the same page.
I submit that the faith given to anyone through his word in the waters of Baptism, or through the proclamation of his word otherwise, is exactly this saving faith, this trust and reliance upon the works and merits of Christ for their salvation.
Little ones may not know that they have this faith. They may not be able to confess it yet. They may not be able to formulate a coherent thought about anything except their perceived needs to eat and sleep and poop. But that doesn't mean that God has not given it to them. They possess it in the same way as the child and heir of a king possesses the whole kingdom, its lands and properties, its wealth and economy, its culture and people, its status and reputation. All these things belong to the infant prince not because of what he can do, but because of whose son he is. He is the son of the king.
In time, when understanding and ability have increased, a child whom God has brought into his family through baptism will eventually learn to confess the faith God has given him, to choose to believe in Jesus Christ and to be thankful to him for their salvation, at first simply, then later by joining in the full confessional life of the Church of Jesus Christ. The seed of faith in Christ sown in them through the word in their baptism must be nourished by continuing to teach them from the word in appropriate ways as their minds develop. It is by both baptizing and teaching that the Church has been commanded by Our Lord to make disciples.
Well, that's not really my purpose in this discussion. There are many passages in scripture that clearly indicate that some will be saved and some will be lost. Scripture speaks in absolutes without distinguishing certain age groups from one another or specifying certain people who have certain abilities and those who don't.
That's one of the most glaring problems with Decisionist theology. It exceeds scripture by making distinctions and separations that scripture just doesn't make.
It seems pretty clear from scripture that all who die without faith in Jesus Christ will perish eternally and those who die in Christ will enter eternal life in the presence of God.
It also seems pretty clear from scripture that the natural state of mankind, apart from the saving action of God, is to be hostile to God, unable to even comprehend spiritual truths, separated from God, self-justifying, self-focused, self-absorbed. Natural man looks to justify himself through good works, however he may seek to define them. One person's virtue is another man's vice. Some seek to save themselves through power and glory, others through ascetic self-sacrifice and self-denial. Some seek to save themselves through knowledge and wisdom, others through mysticism and by seeking an unmediated experience of the divine.
Outside of Christ there is no salvation. By grace we have been saved through faith, and this not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, and not by works so that no one may boast.
