A few blogs back – I stumbled through an exposure to the salvation of infants that was new to me. Basically, I discovered that many highly respected, reformed bible scholars and teachers held to the idea that all infants are among the elect – and therefore saved from damnation. Folks like John Piper, John MacArthur, Al Mohler, and Michael Horton subscribe to the this belief. Piper’s church has a paper published on the web on the subject.
A two part MacArthur sermon can be found here: Part I and Part II
MacArthur, in dividing the topic into three headings, seeks to build his case. His headings are innocence, ownership, and salvation. He builds his belief on essentially two elements: The only time in Scripture that we see the eternal punishment of individuals is for the deeds – and that infants do not have the cognitive capacity to understand convincingly the concepts of sin and salvation. MacArthur, true to the reformed tradition, firmly indicates that all babies conceived are depraved – due to the inheritance of Adam’s sin.
His first bucket is Innocence. One of the passages from the Old Testament that he uses to support his belief are Deuteronomy 1:37-39 –
Even with me the LORD was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.
Here he makes two points. First, it is clear from verse 39 that the little ones (i.e. children) had no knowledge of good or evil. Second, the very punishment that God was laying upon the adults (they would not see the promised land), He did not withhold from the children (i.e. they are not punished).
Another passage from the Old Testament, Jeremiah 19:3-5 -
You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind–
This passage is used to support his belief that even the babies of pagans are innocent. Notice the connection with the blood of innocents with the sons sacrificed to Baal in verse five (thus he concludes the children are the innocents, even the children of pagan idol worshippers).
Later I’ll glean some New Testament references for ya. This is interesting stuff, for sure.