Do All Babies Go to Heaven?

“Now that [my child] is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” – 2 Samuel 12:23

A few years ago I served as a volunteer chaplain at Victor Valley Community Hospital. One of my main duties was to officiate at the hospital’s quarterly Fetal Memorial Service at Victor Valley Memorial Park. When a pre-born baby is miscarried prior to twenty weeks gestation, most hospitals discard the fetus as “biological waste.” But in recent years, Victor Valley Hospital and St. Mary’s have partnered with Victor Valley Mortuary and Sunset Hills to cremate the babies’ remains and offer a free Fetal Memorial Service for the grieving families.

Each time that I speak at one of these special services, I do my best to offer words of comfort and hope. I want to be able to give the moms and dads some level of assurance that their little ones are safe and sound in the arms of our loving God. This was also the case last year when I presided over a funeral for a ten-day-old baby boy who died of SIDS. As the boy’s mom stood in stunned silence in front of her son’s tiny casket, I wanted to assure her, “Your son is in a much better place, and you will see him again.” But does God’s Word support such a bold statement?

I believe it does. In Romans 1:18-20, we are told that God has revealed His power and character to men and women everywhere. Throughout nature and even within our own consciences God has left His unmistakable fingerprint—clear evidence that He is a powerful, intelligent and just Creator. That being the case, God’s word reveals in Romans 1:20 that those who reject God and His laws “are without excuse.” God’s eternal judgment is based on two things: 1) a conscious rejection of God’s revelation regarding the way to salvation, and 2) a conscious disobedience to God’s commands.

The fact is: The majority of human beings have no excuse for rejecting God’s grace through Jesus Christ and disobeying His laws. But could it be that there are some human beings who do have a valid excuse? If so, babies and young children would seem to fall into this category, especially in the light of the following verses.

After King David’s baby boy died in 2 Samuel 12, the king told his servants, “Now that [my son] is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” You may remember that David concludes his most famous psalm (the 23^rd Psalm) with these words: “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” It’s clear from David’s writings that he believed he would live eternally in the presence of the Lord. That being the case, when David said, “I will go to him” in 2 Samuel 12:23, it seems clear that David believed his young son would be with him in heaven.

This conclusion is reinforced by Matthew 19:13-15 and Mark 10:13-16 where Jesus tells his disciples, “‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.” Note that Jesus doesn’t say, “If these little kids died today, they’d go straight to heaven.” But he sure seems to indicate that babies and young children are innocent of sin before God.

Although the Bible doesn’t come right out and say that babies and young children are exempt from God’s requirement of personal faith in Christ and repentance in order to be saved, it seems to imply it. After all, if God’s eternal judgment is based on a conscious rejection of God’s revelation regarding salvation and a conscious disobedience to His commands, how could God condemn to Hell those who are incapable of understanding and responding to the gospel? And since the New Testament is clear that there are only two possible eternal destinations (heaven or hell), all babies and young children must live eternally in heaven. And the same could be said of individuals suffering from mental handicaps. It seems clear to me that teens and adults who don’t have the intellectual capacity to understand and/or embrace the message of salvation through Christ will similarly receive God’s eternal grace in lieu of His eternal judgment.

Where does that leave you and me? Well, you and I have heard the Gospel message loud and clear. We have heard and understood the truth that Jesus lived, died, was buried and rose again on the third day. We have heard and understood that it is only by accepting His grace that we can be saved. You and I have consciously turned our backs on our Creator and consciously disobeyed His commands. You and I know this. We understand this. Therefore, we are without excuse.

If you continue to reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and continue living in disobedience to His commands, God’s just wrath will fall on you. So, God calls out from the pages of Scripture: Turn to Christ! Place your trust in Him as Lord and Savior and walk in obedience to His commands! Babies and the mentally handicapped have an excuse for not submitting their lives to Christ. But you don’t. You are without excuse.         

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information,

visit www.fccvv.com  and join us for worship Sundays at 10 am.

Does Hell Really Exist?

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more….
Fear Him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell.
Yes, I tell you, fear Him.”

– Luke 12:4-5

A 2014 Pew Research Poll revealed that 72% of Americans believe in Heaven, but only 58% believe in Hell. Surprisingly, the survey indicated that—even among those who claim to be “Christian”—there is much doubt about Hell. Thirty-seven percent of Catholics don’t believe in Hell. Neither do 40% of those who associate with a traditional denomination (e.g., Lutheran, Methodist or Episcopal). Even among self-proclaimed “evangelicals,” there is much reluctance to believe in Hell.

Suffice it to say: It’s much easier for us to wrap our minds around the idea of an eternity of bliss in Heaven than it is to embrace the notion of an eternity of torture in Hell. Even for those of us who believe in Hell, most of us aren’t comfortable with it. How can we be? If Hell is half as bad as we’ve been told, we wouldn’t wish it on our worst enemy. Even the respected author and theologian C.S. Lewis said of Hell, “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of our Lord’s own words.”

Let’s do our best to push aside our preconceived ideas about Hell and examine the New Testament’s answers to three questions. Question #1: Is Hell a real place? In a word, yes. There are several dozen references to Hell in the New Testament, and most of these are made by Jesus himself. The most common Greek word used by Christ for Hell is “gehenna.” Gehenna was the name of a valley located south of Jerusalem where Molech worshipers had once practiced infant sacrifice. In the days of King Josiah, the pagan altars were demolished and desecrated. And by the time Jesus came onto the scene, gehenna was used as the town dump, where the smell of burning refuse constantly rose from the valley. Since this was common knowledge to the people of Israel, Jesus adopted this word “gehenna” as the name for the place of eternal punishment.

Question #2: What is Hell like? Although Jesus doesn’t give an exhaustive description of Hell, he tells us enough to make the hair on the back of our necks stand up. In Matthew 13:40-42, he describes Hell as a “fiery furnace” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In Matthew 25:41, he adds that it is a place of complete separation from God, a place of “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” And according to Christ’s words in Mark 9:47-49, in Hell the fire is never quenched and “their worm does not die.” I don’t know what an eternal worm looks like or does, but its purpose in Hell doesn’t sound pleasant. And just like everything else in Hell (the punishment, the flames, the hopelessness and the misery), it is eternal.

Question #3: Who will go to Hell? Throughout the New Testament we are reminded that Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven. Therefore, he is the only one who can offer us a “Get out of Hell Free” card. So, ultimately, whether or not we end up in Hell depends on what we choose to do with Jesus. The one who chooses to reject God’s laws—including the law to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ—will be condemned by God’s laws. The one who rejects God’s offer of eternal grace through Christ will have only one alternative: eternal condemnation for his/her sins in Hell.

Most of us don’t put up a fuss about mass murderers like Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer being condemned to Hell. But when we read passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Galatians 5:19-21, we quickly come to realize that there is a laundry list of sins that condemn us to the eternal flames: premarital sex, adultery, homosexuality, drunkenness, greed, hatred, witchcraft, jealousy and fits of rage—just to name a few. Sadly, all of us have fallen short of God’s standards. Each of us has broken God’s commands. We’ve all turned our backs on God and gone our own way. Therefore, according to Scripture, the just punishment for each of us is eternal separation from God in Hell.

But thankfully, there is good news! Jesus Christ offers us the marvelous gift of grace instead of justice. We learn in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” We discover in Ephesians 2:8-9 that “it is by grace we have been saved, through faith. And this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one can boast.”

So, according to the Bible, is Hell a real place? Yes, it is. It is an actual place of eternal punishment that is unimaginably horrible. It will be the eternal home of Satan, the demons and every person who has sinned against God and refused to humbly accept the free gift of grace and forgiveness offered by Jesus Christ. It boils down to this: In eternity you will receive either justice or grace. So, for Christ’s sake, choose grace.

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information,

visit www.fccvv.com  and join us for worship Sunday at 10 am.