| WHEN INFANTS DIE, WHAT NEXT? - Page 1 |
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| Written by Rev. Peter Bloomfield | ||||
Page 1 of 2 A Christian friend of mine asked me this recently. She is a nurse who often faces parents grieving for a lost infant (or foetus). They ask "where has the child gone"? They want to be told "heaven". They probably wish or assume it is so, and the pressure to agree with them (or at least not to disagree) is strong. In fact, the view is deeply entrenched in society that all dead infants are safe in heaven because they are ‘innocent’; too young to have committed deeds worthy of penalty. Babies, it is assumed, stand spotless and holy before Almighty God. As God’s people, what should we say?At the outset we must be very focused on the fact that we cannot love our neighbour by being false. Love does not bear false witness. Love works in the arena of truth, not deceit. So while we genuinely feel their pain with them, giving every legitimate comfort possible, we must rule out false impressions as illegitimate. The Biblical position involves several things being said, though great sensitivity is needed. No two cases are identical. We might be best to promise to answer them fully a little later, when the pain of the moment is not so raw. Just a word of sympathy may be best at the time. But ultimately we must explain two things. First, there is no such thing as a sinless human, infant or adult. Every person born has the same rebel-nature as Adam and Eve. We all had it nine months before we were born. We were in the state and condition called "sin" from the instant we were conceived (Ps 51:5). Sinner-parents cannot produce sinless offspring. "There is none righteous, no not one" (Rom 3:10). The human heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). The greatest adult saint you can think of was born "by nature a child of wrath like all the rest" (Eph 2:3). That’s why the Bible commands parents to train their children in Godly ways from the very earliest days: "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child" (Prov 22:15). The fact that an infant has not yet committed acts of sin is no more significant than the fact that the baby adder has not yet actually bitten. The infant has the seeds of sin deeply entrenched in it. Although it has not yet actually sinned, it most certainly and inevitably and willingly shall sin. If the adder has not yet struck, it most certainly and willingly shall strike. It has the poison to use. It is born an adder, not an angel. And our children are born as sinners not as the "little angels" of popular sentiment. What is true of adults is true of infants: "The poison of asps is under their lips" (Rom 3:13). So we must confront this rampant anti-gospel view of human nature. There is wide spread denial of the Biblical teaching on human depravity. The "innocence of children" error is one of Satan’s major scandals against the gospel. If we want to reach people for Christ we must courageously show people that actual sins are only the ultimate symptoms of the real deadly disease, sin, which has been there since the womb. Every child born (bar Jesus) is by nature biased to rebellion against God. No infant wants to be humble, selfless, neighbour loving or God loving. It is obvious to any parent that they don’t have to teach children to be naughty or self willed. In summary, if any infant goes to heaven, it is by grace alone. They are just as undeserving as adults. What goes for Nicodemus goes for his children too: even if just born, they need to be born again or they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3-5). Babies do not stand spotless before Almighty God. They are miniatures of Adam and Eve, rebels. |
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