QUESTIONS - What Do Reformed Baptists Believe About Children Who Die In Infancy？
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the concept of moral innocence in infants and toddlers. Is it possible God regenerates some infants? Is it even possible for kids to go to heaven before they reach the age of accountability? And if so, what role does innocence play in God's plan for our lives?
Transcript
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Tor Coffee from Tor Coffee. Is it possible God regenerates some infants? Great question.
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I'm Baptist, but don't totally buy Age of Accountability. Good. You shouldn't buy it.
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But also trust God's mercy for kids. What do you think? Absolutely. I believe John the Baptist was
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regenerate in the womb. He leapt in his mother's womb at the coming of Mary and Jesus in Mary's
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womb. So that, I believe, would be an example. But more importantly than that, if you are
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confessionally Baptist or confessionally Presbyterian on either side of the aisle,
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meaning you're 1689 or Westminster, then by virtue of being confessional, you must believe
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that there are occasions of regenerate infants. Because that's the position, the reformed position
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when it comes to those children who tragically die in infancy. What happens to children who die
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infancy. There's some theology that gets into the age of accountability. Again, there are multiple
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wide spectrum. And so people have different sub points and nuances and things like that. So some
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people feel misrepresented by this, but I'm just giving a generalization. There are some who hold
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to an age of accountability and they believe that before a child gets to that age of accountability,
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if they die in their youth as an infant or a toddler, a young child before reaching the age
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accountability, they go to heaven. But if you press them on why, they say they go to heaven
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because they're innocent, but not because they have a presence of the imputed righteousness of
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Christ. As far as I can tell biblically, nobody gets into heaven from innocence. You need the
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presence of righteousness and not just any righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ,
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which comes through faith. And faith, as Bible-believing Christians, we believe that faith
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follows regeneration. So God gives you, first, he causes you to become a new creature in Christ
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Jesus and gives you a new heart. And then with that new heart, he gives you the gift of faith,
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to trust in Jesus. And through faith in Jesus, you have union with him by the Holy Spirit,
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and his righteousness is imputed to your account, which is why you can enjoy eternal covenant and
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relationship and community with the triune God because you are righteous. You can stand before
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a thrice holy God and not be consumed by our God who is a consuming fire because you are clothed
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in the spotless righteous garments of Jesus Christ. Apart from that, innocence doesn't get you
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to heaven. And furthermore, the Bible clearly teaches that people are not born innocent.
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This idea that you're born innocent until you hit an age of accountability. And then once
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that's that's really basic i mean if you really get to under the surface of that what you're
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saying is that people are born morally guiltless before god but eventually at a certain point in
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their life at a certain age whether it's two years old or three years old or four years old
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or five years old at a certain age they then become guilty and once they become guilty the
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only hope from for them at that point from that point on is they then must in order to to deal
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with that guilt, they must receive through faith, the righteousness of Christ. But up until they
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become guilty, they don't need the righteousness of Christ because they're innocent. Okay. What
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do you do with the, the doctrine of total depravity? David said, in sin, did my mother
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conceive me from conception, right? We, we believe that because of the curse of sin,
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that Adam and all his posterity were born under sin, born with sinful natures, sinful hearts,
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born in enmity toward God. So in order to embrace the age of accountability idea,
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one, you would have to say that God will lower his standard from righteousness to mere innocence.
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And then the heart, that's already impossible to biblically argue, but even more impossible,
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you would have to argue that there is such a thing as moral innocence in young children or
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infants or toddlers. Which to argue that, you would have to say that people are not actually
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born into sin. People are not born totally depraved with the sin nature. You'd have to say
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that that toddler who's throwing a fit is doing so innocently. And the only people who can hold
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this position, I guess, are guys who never had a toddler. But that's a ridiculous position.
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The alternative is people are born with a sin nature, that all people, all have fallen
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short of the glory of God, and they don't fall once they reach a certain age at four
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or five, but all from birth have fallen in Adam and have a sin nature, are not innocent.
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They bear moral guilt before God, and therefore the only way to enter the kingdom of God,
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John chapter 3, you must be born again. And God sovereignly causes people to be born again by
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grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and gives to them the gifts of faith and repentance. So the
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reformed position, whether you're 1689 Baptist or Westminster Presbyterian, is that regenerate
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infants who die in infancy go to heaven. Regenerate infants who die in infancy go to heaven. And not
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all infants who die in infancy are regenerate. Some have held that position that any child who
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dies in infancy is regenerate, that we can count on God that he caused them to be born again,
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to be regenerate. So some would say all children who die young were regenerate. And then some would
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say for those who die in infancy, just like those who die in adulthood, God sovereignly saves some
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and not others. And so, yeah, that would be my answer to that question. Big news. Really big
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news. Our next Right Response Conference is in the works. We've got a number of things already
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lined up and organized. This is what we've got so far. The whole conference, three days long
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on post-millennialism and theonomy. And the speakers, Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot,
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Gary DeMar, and of course, yours truly, Pastor Joel Webben.
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If you want to find out dates and location and registration and anything else, go and
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visit our website, rightresponseconference.com, rightresponseconference.com.
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Our next Right Response Conference is in the works.
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We've got a number of things already lined up and organized.
00:07:21.240
The whole conference, three days long on post-millennialism and theonomy.
00:07:26.840
And the speakers, Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot, Gary DeMar, and of course, yours truly,
00:07:38.840
If you want to find out dates and location and registration and anything else, go and
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right response conference.com right response conference.com