DO ALL INFANTS ENTER HEAVEN?
A question has arisen: Do all infants dying in infancy go to heaven?
The Reformed or covenantal view on infants who die in infancy is generally rooted in God’s sovereign grace and covenantal promises. The Westminster Confession of Faith 10.3 states: “Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who works when, where, and how he pleases. So also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.” This reflects the belief that elect infants (those chosen by God) are saved. However, it does not explicitly state that all infants dying in infancy are elect, leaving room for mystery and humility before God’s sovereign will.
In Reformed theology, salvation is ultimately a matter of God’s sovereign election (Rom 9:11-16; Eph 1:4-5). This means that God’s choice to save individuals is based on His will and not on any foreseen merit or actions of the individual. Can God therefore save the infants whom He had elected to be saved even before they can confess Him as Lord and Saviour? Of course He can and He does! Romans 9:10-12 says, “And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.”
Covenant Theology teaches that God is a God of the family. The children of believing parents hold a special place in His plan, being regarded as part of the covenant community under the covenant of grace. This principle is reflected in passages such as Acts 2:39, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children,” and Genesis 17:7, “I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations.” Thus, believing parents have a genuine hope that if their children were to die in infancy, they are saved by God’s gracious covenantal promises. This does not imply that the children are saved by default due to their parents’ faith but rather by God’s grace, in keeping with His covenant dealings with His people.
We look to examples like David’s confidence in 2 Samuel 12:23, where, after the death of his infant son, David says, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” This expresses confidence that the child is in God’s presence. How did David know for sure that his child was in heaven? The Scriptures do not specify. It may be that God revealed this to him in a special way due to his fervent fasting and prayer.
Nonetheless, we also have the example of Jesus showing His love for children and His statement that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these (Matt 19:13-15; Mark 10:13-16). This surely provides a basis for the blessed hope that children born into covenant homes, if they die in infancy, are found in heaven.
Some believe that all infants who die before reaching the “age of accountability” are automatically in heaven. This belief often stems from the mistaken notion that infants are born without sin and thus qualify for heaven. However, this view conflicts with biblical passages like Psalm 51:5 and Romans 5:12–21. According to this belief, children only become sinful after reaching the age of accountability, when they can discern right from wrong. During this time before reaching accountability, they are thought to be sinlessly perfect and innocent. If they die in this state, they are believed to go directly to heaven. However, once they reach the age of accountability, their moral choices render them accountable; choosing wrongly and sinning against God makes them sinful and subject to judgement unless they repent and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.
Now, the Scriptures clearly teach that all humans, including infants, are born with original sin and therefore need salvation. If they die in infancy, they die in their sin, and die condemned, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God … [and] the wages of sin is death” (Rom 3:23, 6:23). Does that mean that all who die in infancy die unsaved and end up in hell? No, not at all. Elect infants are saved as stated in the Westminster Confession and as seen in the example of David’s baby boy.
The Scriptures say that no salvation is possible apart from Christ and faith in Him, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36). “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:12).
So, the next question is: How can an infant have such faith in Christ and be saved? The answer is: Why not? Since salvation is of the Lord (Jon 2:9), the Lord Himself can do it, to grant to the infant the necessary understanding of the gospel and the ability to confess faith in Christ, even before the moment of death. Did not the Psalmist say, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” (Ps 8:2)?
John Calvin provides valuable insight into this psalm: “The meaning, therefore, is, that God, in order to commend his providence, has no need of the powerful eloquence of rhetoricians, nor even of distinct and formed language, because the tongues of infants, although they do not as yet speak, are ready and eloquent enough to celebrate it. … What need, then, is there to wrest the words of David, when their true meaning is so clear and suitable? He says that babes and sucklings are advocates sufficiently powerful to vindicate the providence of God. Why does he not entrust this business to men, but to show that the tongues of infants, even before they are able to pronounce a single word, speak loudly and distinctly in commendation of God’s liberality towards the human race? Whence is it that nourishment is ready for them as soon as they are born, but because God wonderfully changes blood into milk? Whence, also, have they the skill to suck, but because the same God has, by a mysterious instinct, fitted their tongues for doing this? David, therefore, has the best reason for declaring, that although the tongues of all, who have arrived at the age of manhood, should become silent, the speechless mouth of infants is sufficiently able to celebrate the praise of God. And when he not only introduces babes as witnesses and preachers of God’s glory, but also attributes mature strength to their mouth, the expression is very emphatic. It means the same thing as if he had said, These are invincible champions of God who, when it comes to the conflict, can easily scatter and discomfit the whole host of the wicked despisers of God, and those who have abandoned themselves to impiety.”
In other words, if God can wonderfully change blood into milk and grant babies the ability to suck, can He not also enable them to confess with their mouths the Lord Jesus and believe in their hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, and thus be saved (Rom 10:9)? “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26).
This brings great comfort to believing parents, for the covenant of grace is a covenant of hope for the family, and believers can be truly hopeful that infants born to them who die in infancy can be saved by the grace of God through faith in Him (Rom 10:9, Eph 2:8-9). God is able to save our babies in a mysterious and miraculous way according to His sovereign election and power. For example, the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, by divine election, were regenerated while still in their mothers’ wombs: “The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.” (Isa 49:1), and “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jer 1:5). John the Baptist likewise experienced this, for the angel said, “and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.” (Luke 1:15). It is significant to note that when John was only six months in his mother’s womb, he leaped as Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visited and greeted his mother (Luke 1:41). This spiritual awareness in John, even as a foetus, must be due to the invisible and supernatural work of the Holy Spirit (cf John 3:8).
Are all infants saved, then? This is the same as asking: Are all human beings saved? Unless one believes in the heresy of universalism, the answer is clearly no. Universalism, as taught by liberals and modernists, posits the idea that all are saved. They argue that an all-loving God could not possibly send anyone to hell—much less infants—so all must be saved regardless of their beliefs and actions; all must go to heaven. To them, a God who sends people to hell is cruel and no God at all. What blasphemy!
But what did Jesus say, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matt 7:13-14). This clearly tells us that not all are saved, including infants. For instance, God showed mercy to Noah and his family, and they were saved from the Flood, while all others (including infants) perished. Another instance was God’s judgement upon the Amalekites when He commanded, “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” (1 Sam 15:3). Salvation is entirely by God’s sovereign will, choice, and justice. “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” (Rom 9:15-16).
Thus, to answer the opening question—do all infants dying in infancy go to heaven?—we can state with assurance that the destiny of such infants is ultimately in the sovereign hands of God. Reformed and covenant theology affirm that God is faithful to His promises, offering a blessed hope that infants born to believing parents are among the elect and in heaven. They are there not because they are sinless or innocent, but because the atonement of Jesus Christ has been applied to them by the Holy Spirit, according to the sovereign will of God the Father. As for infants born to unbelievers, they are saved according to God’s sovereign election, and only God knows who they are (cf Deut 29:29). JK
TLBPC/FEBC Choirs and Musicians at True Life BPC’s 21st Anniversary
Thanksgiving Service, 6 October 2024
