I said that I will not be responding to those who had responses to the article by Tony Warren about the "Age of Accountability" that I encouraged everyone to read.  You letter of May 17th was not in response to this article, so I will gladly answer it, and I apologize for forgetting to do so until you reminded me.   By the way, did you read his article?  He explains it very well, and I strongly urge you to read it (if you haven't yet.  See Ted Porter's post on May 19th.)

 

Your question was:

 

Can you tell me what you think happens to very young children who die at birth or at a very young age?  At the sound of the trumpet, the dead in Christ will rise first.  Do these children count?  There are two types of people………..those in Christ, and those that are not.  I assume that this counts everyone, to include babies and small children.  So, this means that these children either go to heaven or hell, right?  Hmmmmmmm…..that kind of puts things in perspective.  I can’t even fathom babies in hell, can you?  If children in the grave will be part of the bride, there is no reason to believe that children on the earth won’t have this same honor.  If children in the grave are not part of the bride, what happens to them?

 

I will briefly summarize the answer to this question, but again, please read Mr. Warren's article because he goes into much more detail and includes Scripture references.

 

Babies are born with a sinful nature, compliments of Adam and Eve.  It is therefore in a babies nature to sin, and they will do so.  They are born as an unsaved person who will need to become saved.  They are not innocent at birth because anyone born from Adam's lineage (all of us) are born as sinners.  The sinful nature of man is part of the babies essence.  No one but Jesus was born with the ability to not sin.  When does a baby commit its first sin?  No one knows, and its irrelevant because we are considered sinners NOT from the moment we commit our first sin, but we are sinners the moment we are concieved. 

 

God, in His infallible foreknowledge, knows before each of us is even conceived who is going to become saved and who is not.  If a particular baby dies, that baby, who is the same person as their full grown adult self, would have either chosen or rejected salvation had they become fully grown.  If they would have chosen salvation, then when they die as a baby they will go to Heaven.  If they would have rejected salvation, then they will end up in Hell. 

 

Just because they are babies doesn't mean that they are somehow not part of or immune to the curse God put on mankind due to sin.  The only way to Heaven is through Salvation. Innocence doesn't get you to Heaven because there is no such thing.  Not since before Adam and Eve disobeyed.  Babies are not innocent just because they don't know what sin is.  Even adults can commit sins without knowing they are doing so.  But they will still be held accountable for these sins too.  And no one can possibly know what goes on inside a baby's mind and heart.  Their nature is to sin and they just might be doing so anytime after conception.  We just assume that babies are innocent and cannot sin.  But God sees much deeper into things than we do, and we are simply without excuse, no matter what age we are. 

 

True, a baby cannot understand what the need for Salvation is all about.  But that doesn't make him/her uncursed.  Following this line of reasoning, it would then seem that all babies go to Hell because they are born cursed and unsaved.  But this can't be so because a particular baby may have become saved when they were able to understand the issue of salvation.  God only knows.  And just as our Salvation covers our future, it also covers our past.  As mentioned earlier, if a baby dies, but would have become saved had it lived and became old enough to understand and decide, then that baby (person) will go to Heaven. 

 

As for the Rapture, and following this line of reasoning, any baby who died between Pentecost and the Rapture, who God knows would have become saved had they lived long enough, these will be resurrected and taken to Heaven as members of the Bridehood.  But they will not be babies.  They will be resurrected as the fully grown person they would have become.  On the other hand, living babies and children would not be Raptured because they are still in the physical world and subject to it.  True, God also knows if they will eventually accept His salvation.  But they haven't died, and therefore must grow into a fully grown person who will or will not eventually become saved.  And since they are as of yet unsaved, they can't be part of the Bride.  The Bride is made up of living and resurrected people who have been saved.  Some dead babies have been saved as explained, and are resurrected as their fully developed self, and are therefore part of the Bride.

 

Yes, there are Scriptures that say that we are born with the guilt of sin.  Please refer to Tony Warren's article for these Scriptures.  Also, much of this is arrived at through reasoning.  Everything that is truthful isn't mentioned in the Bible.  And just because its not mentioned in the Bible doesn't make it untrue.