INFANT SALVATION
Elder Jim Turner, Jr.
When I was just a small boy growing up around some of the old servants of God, I would hear them discuss in conversation about some of the enemies of the truth accusing them of preaching infants in hell “not a span long” because of their preaching the doctrines of election and predestination. They emphatically denied such charges. I have even been accused in recent years of advocating the doctrine of infantile purity. This is an Arminian phrase and is not found in the Bible. I vigorously deny preaching any such heresy. I believe we are all born with the sinful nature inherited from our federal head, Adam. The Bible plainly states that when sin is finished, it brings forth death. Many babies die, some are stillborn, and many are murdered while yet in their mothers’ wombs. They have not lived long enough to practice sin, but they have the inherent sinful nature, and it brings forth death. If they were pure, as some say, then they would never die in infancy. . . .
One of the most vivid descriptions of the eternally wicked that we have in the Bible is found in the 21st chapter of Job. Beginning with verse seven, Job asks the question, “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?” If we had no other Scripture on the subject, this one, in my opinion, would be enough to prove that the eternally wicked do not die in infancy. The wicked live, they become old, they are mighty in power. Can you fit an infant, or even a young child, into this description? But there is more. Verse eight: “Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.” I believe Job is telling us that they do not have the worries in this life that God’s people many times endure. I was asked the question a number of years ago: “How do you know that Job was talking about the eternally wicked? Could not this be referring to God’s people who have not yet been born again?” Look carefully at verse nine: “Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.” In Hebrews 12:6 we find, “For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” The class that Job is describing are free from the chastening rod of God. This class of people is described as bastards, and not sons, meaning without a Heavenly Father. . . .
Now we turn to another Scripture in the Old Testament which we believe will prove the doctrine of infant salvation. In Chapter 12 of Second Samuel, we find the account of the birth of David’s son as a result of his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. In verse 15, we find that God struck the child and it was very sick. No doubt, some of the enemies of the truth would ask, “What kind of God would do such a thing?” In the first place, God was about to take this child home to Heaven to be with Him forever. Secondly, few people recognize that we are all His creation, and if He smote us all with death this very moment, He would still be a just, merciful and sovereign God.
After David had fasted and prayed for his child for seven days, the child died and the servants feared to tell David. However, when he perceived that the child was dead, he washed and anointed himself, changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord and worshipped. He then required that food be set before him. His servants did not understand this, but David explains it in verses 22 and 23: “And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” David did not have a special insight into the Lamb’s book of life, yet he comforted himself with the thought that he would someday go to join his little son. Only the Triune God has access to the Lamb’s book of life. It would have been no comfort to David to think that he would follow his little one only to the grave; therefore he must have been looking forward to the time when he would rejoin his little one in the very presence of God. Another thought comes to mind at this point. No name is given in the Scriptures to this little baby who lived only seven days. I believe that is an indication that every little one that dies is embraced in that same hope that David had for his little one. From The Christian Pathway, submitted by Elder Mark Green.