I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. No one comes to the Father except through me. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.
They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,.
They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. Skip to main content. This service is more advanced with JavaScript available. Advertisement Hide. Hell Is For Children? Or The Violence of Inculcating Hell. Authors Authors and affiliations Jeffrey E. Stephenson Jerry S. Assuming they were not old enough to understand the gospel and trust Christ as Lord and Savior, what is their eternal state now?
One day Jesus' disciples asked him, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? They assumed that Jesus would pick one of them—perhaps Peter, his lead apostle, or John. His answer must have shocked them:. He called a little child and had him stand among them.
And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. A little later, "little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them" Matt.
This was a typical practice of the day, something like baby dedication days in Baptist churches. When the disciples rebuked the parents who brought children, Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" Matt. He placed his hands on them—hands that healed lepers and raised the dead, hands that formed each of us Col.
The most normative picture of our relationship with God is that of children with their father. Jesus taught us to pray to "our Father in heaven" Matt. He told us that we have "one Father, and he is in heaven" Matt. As a result, Christians are his children: "To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" John What does God think of children? Jesus called them "greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Could our Lord pay any higher compliments to children?
What, then, happens to them when they die? We'll consider three common answers, then conclude with my approach to this difficult issue. If children are part of the "kingdom of heaven," why does the Bible teach that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Rom.
David confessed, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" Ps. How can children be "sinful"? And how does the question impact their eternal state? Prior to St. Augustine , Christian theologians apparently gave little attention to this question. For Augustine, Romans is definitive. In City of God , he states that "even the infants, not personally in their own life, but according to the common origin of the human race, have all broken God's covenant in that one in whom all have sinned.
Psalm warns, "all the wicked of the earth you discard like dross. As a result, according to Augustine, "even the infants are, according to the true belief, born in sin, not actual but original, so that we confess they have need of grace for the remission of sins.
Theologian Stanley Grenz summarizes Augustine's very influential position in his book Theology for the Community of God :.
Original sin is the punishment we all bear for Adam's sin. This punishment is ours in that we participated in that first sin, for we were all potentially present in Adam when he transgressed the divine prohibition. This blight is perpetuated through procreation and results in condemnation. Simply stated, all were potentially in Adam, all sinned in Adam, all inherit the punishment for Adam's sin, and thereby all are condemned.
According to Augustine, the "carnal excitement" that accompanies procreation causes the child to be tainted with the sin of its parents, who were tainted by the sin of their parents, and so on back to Adam.
He viewed infant baptism as essential for washing away this inherited sin. Later Catholic theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas believed that an unbaptized child, if it died, would spend eternity in limbo.
This is an "eternal state of natural joy," but not the greater joy of Heaven. By contrast, followers of the theologian Pelagius believed that humans are not tainted by the sin of Adam and are free to fulfill God's word and will. Pelagius was declared a heretic by the Council of Carthage in The "semi-Pelagian" position teaches that humans inherit a propensity to sin from Adam, but are nonetheless able to choose against sin.
If Augustine's position is correct, unbaptized children who died in the tornado went to hell as condemned sinners. Why, then, does the Bible nowhere command us to baptize children? While circumcision was required for infant boys in the Old Testament Gen.
In a day when infant mortality rates were high, we would expect Scripture to mandate this act if it is essential to a child's salvation. To the contrary, there is not a single clear example of a child being baptized in the New Testament Lydia's "members of her household" and the Philippian jailer's "family" come closest, though their ages are not specified; Acts , Nor do we find a single biblical command that we baptize infants. And that is properly what Paul often calls sin.
Calvin argued strongly for Augustine's position. The final viewpoint holds to the idea that God has His elect amongst all infants. The Lord has a group chosen by sovereign grace; but these chosen ones do not necessarily have to belong to believing parents. This means that the Lord will take His elect babes with Him to heaven and punish the reprobate for being children of Adam.
So, like the third school, this fourth perspective believes that some kids will go to heaven whilst others will go to hell. The question regarding the eternal condition of newly born babes is difficult because it is so emotionally charged. As good Protestants, we must always adhere to Sola Scriptura in our theology; and not to our personal whims or fancies. The Bible nowhere speaks dogmatically about the eternal state of little ones.
Therefore, in this spiny issue, we must respect those who do not think like us.
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