Here is another
issue many Gospel ministries do their best to stay completely away from,
despite the fact that we all should be willing to address (if never wholly
resolved) the challenging issues of life.
This chapter is
worth the book’s price for no other reason than to clarify matters that may be
faced by precious Church members and other believers who have lost a child in
infancy.
The chapter is
divided into twelve parts.
“Lewis Sperry Chafer
once wrote, “No theology is established or complete which does not account for
the salvation of those who died in infancy.” Reformed theology addresses the
issue, but there is not a unanimous consensus, only a general tendency and
majority report. This is the second of three hard cases relating to election.
If all dying infants are saved, they are all elect. If none are saved, they are
all reprobate. If some are saved and not others, some are elect, and others are
not. I hasten to add at the outset that the discussion is over infants who died
in infancy, not those who reached childhood or adolescence.”
The Options: Seven options are presented, followed by
three discussion paragraphs.
Original Sin: Two paragraphs of discussion.
The Question of
Baptism: Two parapgraph,
with this issue a settled issue for Baptists.
The Roman Catholic
View: Three paragraphs.
Non-Reformed Views: Three paragraphs, including comments about
Anabaptists.
The Question of
Infant Faith: Four paragraphs,
including discussions of John the Baptist and the prophet Jeremiah.
The Age of Reason: This is the portion of the chapter dealing
with what some refer to as the age of accountability.
Eight paragraphs of discussion.
Are Dying Infants
Saved? Five paragraphs.
A good introduction to this topic, including a comment by C. H. Spurgeon.
Other Texts and Arguments: Five paragraphs, with a recommendation of
Robert Alexander Webb’s work, The Theology of Infant Salvation.
Problems: Four paragraphs. Heaven For Those Who Can’t Believe, by Robert Lightner is mentioned as often helpful,
mentioning the fate of unborn babies and their unsaved mothers at the time of
the Rapture.
How Are Dying
Infants Saved? Eight paragraphs.
This is a provocative and insightful portion of the chapter.
Conclusions: Comfort and assurance of God’s character are
found in two paragraphs.
