Infants dying in infancy

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Spoken like true Pastor, Rich.

OK....So what if you run outa room? Adapt & Improvise and you Carpe Diem!

---------- Post added at 11:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 AM ----------

Meant that for the Derek Thomas comment......gotta learn to use this Forum properly.

---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:36 AM ----------

Rich .... My condolences. Was her Minister counseling her?
 
Rich.....I heard this little word of advise from a pretty smart Baptist Pastor years ago & I try to use it with my family & on myself to keep from fateigue.

Called "HALT"
Don't get too Hungry
Don't get too Angry
Don't get too Lonely
Don't get too Tired

By monitoring those 4 directives, your can assure a goodly amount of Balance in life.
 
There are two great ‘unfortunates’ under-girding what we know of universal salvation for infants.

It is philosophically and pragmatically difficult to support the notion that ‘all infants will be saved’. What is an infant? Under 2yo? 5yo? 10yo? A human being who has yet to achieve intellectual majority? Draw Venn diagrams and each subset that is used to describe a group has overlaps with all other proposed sets and subsets [except those defined by an arbitrary progressive boundary such as age].

There is very little visible evidence to use age or another arbitrary measure as the discriminant. What seems to be the best place from which to draw distinctions is either a) a secret decree, or b) areas loosely falling under the category of ‘intellect’ and ‘volition’.

The clear facts of the Bible include
1: all are born in sin;
2: none are righteous, no, not one;
3: the wages of sin is death;
4: all who fail to respond to an effectual call with faith and repentance suffer that death.

Here is the first unfortunate … those statements condemn infants.

But there is another biblical truth: 5: salvation comes secretly to all.

This latter leads into the terrible confusion in respect of intellect and volition. Should God choose to effectually call a 2yo, but that infant has not the capacity to respond in faith and repentance [let alone undergo believer’s baptism or develop a meaty understanding of doctrine], does that infant stand as a saint with Christ in the heavenlies? Of course! Even though this 2yo [and all others] is selfish, sinful, plays parents off against each other, is almost wholly self-serving, has no concept of God, yet if God chooses to call them then they will be seated at the throne of grace with Christ.

However, all based on ‘if’, this does little to extend the case for universal infant salvation. And the Bible is rightly silent [well, almost] on this matter. Why?

Unfortunately [there is the second] if there was a clear statement to the desired effect then both believing and unbelieving parents would be grossly tempted to end their infant’s life prior to intellectual/volitional majority. Abortion clinics would be Fortune 500s and paediatrics units would fade into obscurity. We could even neglect the training up of infants in the ways of the Lord with impunity.

As it is believers are left to rely on nothing but faith in God. That faith must exercise in the belief that since God is loving, just, and merciful, then God will act according to His own perfect and righteous character, and this holds out the greatest of hope for those with losses. The imperative to bring God and Christ and the gospel to our infants is restored.

I believe that God has left us dependent on His good will, and that we may hold out great hope for those infants we and others have lost, but there is insufficient evidence in scriptures to support the claim that all will be saved.

Whatever the case we are compelled to believe that God in Christ will get it right, and that everything will be perfect.

To those with losses … “I will restore the years of the locust” and “There will be neither weeping or gnashing of teeth”
 
Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I believe that our Lord graciously & freely received all who die in infancy -- not on the basis of their innocence or worthiness -- but by His grace, made through the atonement He purchased on the cross. I will say no more on this subject.
 
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