CR News

Are All Infants Dying in Infancy Saved? (3)

The reader will recall that we are considering a number of texts that a correspondent sent in to defend the proposition that absolutely all infants who die in infancy are saved. In the two preceding issues of the News, I examined Ezekiel 18:1-4, 20, Jeremiah 32:18-19 and Deuteronomy 1:19. In every case there was no evidence whatsoever that could serve as proof that all infants who die in infancy are saved.

In this issue of the News, I continue a discussion of the texts that were cited. Next in line is Isaiah 7:16: “For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.”

I really do not see the need of spending any time explaining this verse. It seems sometimes that the defender of the proposition that all infants dying in infancy are saved chooses rather randomly any text that speaks of children. One ought to give some thought to a verse, it seems to me, before quoting it in proof of what is, after all, a very serious doctrinal matter.

The child referred to in the text is the child spoken of in Isaiah 7:14-15. That child is to be born of a virgin, and is, as all admit, a reference to the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:23). It has, therefore, nothing to do with the question we face.

The next text summoned in defence of the correspondent’s position is Jonah 4:10-11: “Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”

While it is true that the text refers to the fact that Nineveh was a huge city in which were more than sixty thousand children, those children did not die in infancy, for they were spared because the city repented at the preaching of Jonah. It is, therefore, impossible to conclude from this passage that all infants dying in infancy are saved, because all these infants did not die.

It is possible that the questioner argues somewhat along these lines: God spared Nineveh, that is, God saved Nineveh. In that city were sixty thousand children. God saved sixty thousand children. Perhaps some of those children died in infancy. They were therefore saved.

I doubt whether that is the line of argument the questioner follows, but, if it is, the reasoning is false. The text does not speak of any infants that died in infancy, but only of children that were spared destruction. Even if we assume that infants did die, the text simply does not say that they went to heaven. We do great wrong to Scripture if we try to read all these things into the text.

It is well to emphasize a couple of truths from this important passage. Jonah (and Israel) had to be taught that the day was coming when the church of Christ would be saved from all the nations of the earth—even Nineveh, Israel’s arch-enemy (Matt. 12:41). Further, contrary to Baptist doctrine, the text teaches that when God does gather His church from the Gentiles, the same principle will hold true that was true in the old dispensation: God saves His people in the line of generations, believers and their seed. But of infants dying in infancy the text says nothing.

Matthew 25:45-46 is also mentioned. Of this text it is said: “At the final judgment Christ will reject those on His left hand on the basis of what they had not done. Since infants dying in infancy cannot do those things, how can they be rejected?”

The text reads, “Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

The argument, I think, runs along these lines. A person is given heaven on the basis of his good works and the wicked go to hell because they have not done good works. This is a position that is contrary to Scripture. It is basically an Arminian position that teaches that every man is punished or rewarded on the basis of what he has chosen to do or not to do by his own free will.

Let it be emphasized, first of all, that a man is not given heaven because he, by his own power or with his own spiritual resources, has made himself worthy. Salvation is by grace alone. It is by grace for adults, as well as children (Eph. 2:8-10). Matthew 25 itself emphasizes this when Christ says to His sheep, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (34). It is also evident that this is true from the fact that these saved are “the righteous,” not because of their works, but because of the righteousness of Christ freely imputed to them by grace. Finally, it is evident from the fact that these righteous are not aware themselves that they have done anything good (37-39). They are unaware of this because they know that God works in them to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13)

It is also true that the wicked go to hell because of the just judgment of God who punishes the wicked for their sin. But the Scriptures also teach that behind man’s disobedience and punishment for sin stands the sovereign decree of reprobation. God saves His people according to the decree of election in the line of generations, but God also reprobates in the line of generations.

God punishes those who worship graven images unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him (Ex. 20:5). That includes children. Romans 9 is so clear one has to be willingly obtuse not to see that sovereign reprobation is taught in this passage. There is no evidence that sovereign reprobation excludes the children of reprobates who die in infancy.

I am fully aware of the fact that few believe the truth of double predestination in our day. But let us not forget that Augustine taught it in the fifth century; all the Reformers preached it, including Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and Knox; and the doctrine is clearly incorporated in the Reformation confessions, including the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dordt and the Westminster Confession.

Nevertheless, regardless of all these things, Matthew 25:44-45 does not teach the salvation of all who die in infancy. Such an error is an illegitimate deduction that the text does not support.

Rate this item
(0 votes)

Additional Info

  • Volume: 13
  • Issue: 20
Hanko, Herman

Prof. Herman Hanko (Wife: Wilma)

Ordained: October 1955

Pastorates: Hope, Walker, MI - 1955; Doon, IA - 1963; Professor to the Protestant Reformed Seminary - 1965

Emeritus: 2001

Website: www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakeronly=true&currsection=sermonsspeaker&keyword=Prof._Herman_Hanko

Contact Details

  • Address
    725 Baldwin Dr. B-25
  • City
    Jenison
  • State or Province
    MI
  • Zip Code
    49428
  • Country
    United States
  • Telephone
    616-667-6033
back to top

Contact Details

Denomination

  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Reading Sermon Library
  • Taped Sermon Library

Synodical Officers

  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Synodical Committees

  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Emeritus Committee
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Contact/Missions

  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Classical Officers

Classis East
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Classis West
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.