Where Do
Babies Go When They Die?
By Dr. Ken
Matto
For if a man
think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
(Galatians 6:3)
One of the
harshest tragedies in life that anyone can face is the loss of a child and that
grief is compounded when that child is a baby.
We live in a fallen world because of sin and death is part of the
environment in which we live.
Unless the Lord returns first, every human being reading this article will go by
way of death and it does not matter the age.
People die from the womb to old age.
It is what happens after that is what this study is about.
Many have claimed that every baby that
is aborted or dies in infancy is under the blood of Christ and therefore upon
their last breath they go directly into the presence of the Lord.
This belief is
based on the belief in a man-made doctrine called “The Age of Accountability”
which is nowhere taught in the Scriptures.
It is an emotionally based belief and is taught by 99% of all local
church pastors, media celebrity pastors, and theologians.
(See my study on the Age of Accountability)
When a doctrine is taught that is sourced in emotion but not supported in
Scripture then it is false doctrine and the person teaching it is a liar.
I have not written unto you
because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the
truth. (1 John 2:21)
1 John 2:21 teaches us that no lie is of the truth and that applies
equally to doctrine. If someone
teaches a false doctrine and attempts to apply some Scripture to it which is not
relevant, then they are guilty of being a false teacher no matter how sorrowful
the teaching makes us feel.
Feelings are never a standard for measuring Biblical truth.
The Bible alone is the standard of truth.
What I am going
to share is not easy but it is from the Scriptures and if you reject it, then
you are making yourself the standard of truth.
When it comes to little babies it is a sore subject because when we look
at a baby we see a helpless, cute little person.
But the LORD said unto Samuel,
Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have
refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
(1 Samuel 16:7) The LORD
himself is saying that we must not look on the outward appearance of a person
and that includes a baby. The LORD
himself has the true knowledge of the person because he sees the person’s heart.
The heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
(Jeremiah 17:9) The
heart is deceitfully wicked and that is what the LORD sees before he redeems a
person. We look at the outside and
stop there but the LORD goes much deeper.
Then armed with
the knowledge that the LORD sees into the heart of man, then how does he
describe a baby?
{3} The wicked
are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking
lies. {4} Their poison is like the
poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
(Psalm 58:3-4)
Psalm 58:3-4
teaches us that the wicked are estranged from the womb.
The word “estranged” in the Hebrew carries with it the meaning of “turn
aside, profane, commit adultery.”
Then he likens them to the poison of snakes which when a poisonous snake bites a
person and they don’t get help right away, they die.
Right out of the womb the LORD has given a scathing indictment of the
nature of the new born baby. Why
does the baby have a sin nature when they are born because at the moment of
conception, the sin nature is transferred from the father to the child.
This means the sin nature has already been infecting the child while they
were still in the womb. When the
child is finally born, they have had the sin nature in them for nine months
already and because of the sin nature, they have been at odds with God from
conception. If they didn’t have the
sin nature in the womb, then they would not have gone astray from the womb but
the sin nature in conception makes us an enemy of God from the time we are
conceived.
What I am
saying is that all babies are born sinners and if they live 70, 80, 90 years and
are not saved, then they will die sinners.
Now go and smite Amalek, and
utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and
woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
(1 Samuel 15:3) 1
Samuel 15:3 tells us that God commanded King Saul to destroy the Amalekites and
he was not to spare the infants and sucklings.
The infants were the very young children and the sucklings were nursing
babies. Why did God command to kill
them? Because he knew they would
grow up in a false religion and eventually they would make war against Israel.
Here is a good case of God looking upon the heart and not the outward
appearance. You don’t read here
that God wanted to wait for some mythical age of accountability.
The age of accountability stems from another mythical belief movement and
that is the free will movement where people believe they have a choice to accept
or reject Christ. That is also
nowhere taught in Scripture. As we
have seen that people are born sinners right from the womb, so from conception
the will of man is permeated with sin and not free.
{16} Know ye
not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to
whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
{17} But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye
have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
{18} Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of
righteousness. (Romans 6:16-18)
Romans 6:16-18
teaches us plainly that an unbeliever is a servant of sin and a believer is a
servant of righteousness. There is
no in between or zone of neutrality whereby a person is given the ability to
choose. You are either in Satan’s
kingdom or God’s Kingdom and that is the reality.
If they sin
against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry
with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives
unto the land of the enemy, far or near;
(1 Kings 8:46)
For there is
not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
(Ecclesiastes 7:20)
God forbid:
yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou
mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art
judged. (Romans 3:4)
{10} As it is
written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
{11} There is none that understandeth, there is none that
seeketh after God. {12} They are
all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none
that doeth good, no, not one.
{13} Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used
deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
(Romans 3:10-13)
For all have
sinned, and come short of
the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)
Let us look at
a capsulized understanding of the underlined portions of the verses:
1 Kings 8:46 –
Declares that there is no one on earth that does not sin.
Ecclesiastes
7:20 - Declares that there is no one on earth that does not sin.
Romans 3:4 –
Every man is a liar. Remember Psalm
58:3 states that man is a liar right from the womb.
Romans 3:10 –
There is not even one righteous.
The words “not one” are in the cardinal form meaning a specific number.
There is not even one righteous person on earth.
Romans 3:11 –
No one in this world understands anything concerning spiritual matters and not
one seeks after God, he seeks after us.
Romans 3:12 –
Not even one person on this earth does any good.
“Not one” in cardinal form.
Romans 3:13 -
“The Poison of Asps” which is a snake.
The “Deaf Adder” in Psalm 58:4 is actually the “Asp” which is identified
with the Cobra.
Romans 3:23 –
All have sinned which means every single person on earth.
As we have
plainly seen in these verses 1) that there is no one on earth that does not sin
and we saw in Psalm 58:3-4 that babies sin by reason of having the sin nature
and when they come out of the womb they begin to manifest the characteristics of
the sin nature; 2) Every man is a liar and we saw in Psalm 58:3 that as soon as
a person comes out of the womb, they start telling lies; 3) Then we learned that
there is not one person on earth that is righteous, that understands spiritual
matters, and seeks after God; 4) Then the poison of Asps which is the same snake
found in Psalm 58:4 concerning their poisonous nature; 5) Every person on earth
has sinned. It must be noted that
after a person becomes saved, their standing becomes different before God.
Noah was called a righteous man because he was saved.
And the LORD said unto Noah, Come
thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in
this generation. (Genesis 7:1)
All true believers are called righteous.
For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
(Romans 5:19)
Babies are part
of the “no one” on earth. They are
part of the “not righteous, not understanding, and not seeking after God, and
not doing any good.” They are
likened to Asps in both Psalm 58:4 and Romans 3:13.
They are part of the “All have sinned” since they are part of the human
race like adults. So now, then what
is the fate of a baby who dies in the womb by either natural causes or abortion
or an infant out of the womb that dies?
To get the answer to that, we must turn to the Scriptures and not our
emotions.
When a baby is
murdered in the womb by an abortionist, that does not mean they automatically go
to Heaven. One gets to Heaven by
becoming born again in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Being murdered is not part of the plan of salvation.
If every aborted baby went to Heaven, then why would any Christian oppose
abortion since it has the best salvation percentage, 100%, it would be a
guarantee of salvation. The fact is
that this is taught nowhere in the Bible but is an emotional doctrine.
And all that
dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the
book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
(Revelation 13:8)
The beast that
thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go
into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names
were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when
they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
(Revelation 17:8)
According as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love:
(Ephesians 1:4)
Before the
foundation of the world, God the Father had chosen millions of people throughout
the ages to become saved. Then
during the course of the lives of those named people they would become saved.
Now what happens when a baby dies.
If a baby dies and their name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, then
they instantly go into the presence of the Lord for eternity. If a baby dies and
their name is not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, then they shall stand for
judgment on the last day. Now what
that particular judgment is, I have no idea but we have a little insight into
that type of situation.
But he that knew not, and did commit
things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever
much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed
much, of him they will ask the more.
(Luke 12:48) So
according to this verse it looks like there is going to be different levels of
punishment in hell. We must
understand that babies possess the sin nature when they come out of the womb and
they are treated like adult sinners in the area that they will be judged for
their sins.
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of
a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
(Acts 10:34) Acts 10:34
tells us that God is no respecter of persons, all will be treated equally and
age is not a factor.
If a baby was
named by the Father before the foundation of the world unto salvation then they
will be given to the Lord Jesus Christ.
All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
(John 6:37) John 6:37
states that “all” that the Father gives him.
This time “all” is a good all because it speaks about salvation.
Here is a very interesting verse which speaks about equality of the
believer, that even if one goes out to battle, that is, faces the world for 90
years and then is taken home and an Elect baby who goes to be with the Lord upon
its death, will share in all the glories of Heaven equally.
For who will hearken unto you in
this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part
be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike.
(1 Samuel 30:24) David
and his men just came back from the battle with the Amalekites and had retrieved
his two wives and the treasures they stole.
The men who went out to battle complained that they should get more of
the spoils than those who stayed behind to guard the encampment.
David said no, all will share equally and that great principle gives us
insight to the fact that Heaven will be shared equally by those who lived and
witnessed longer as well as those who did not.
Summary
So the bottom line is this. If a baby is the Elect of God, that is, named in the Lamb’s Book of Life, then they go right to glory. If they are not the Elect, that is, named in the Lamb’s Book of Life then they will stand for judgment on the last day. This is a harsh reality but we cannot reject what the Bible teaches in lieu of what we want the Bible to teach. When Christians realize that we are heinous sinners in God’s sight before salvation, then they will get a proper view of things but as long as they continue to adopt man-centered doctrines, they will never arrive at truth.