ut did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth (Mal. 2:15).
One of the purposes for which God ordained the marriage relationship was the rearing of godly offspring. In this passage in Malachi, God tells husbands to be faithful to their wives, keeping this purpose of God for children in mind.
Christian parents care deeply about their children. There is no way for parents to pour themselves out for their children in the way Scripture instructs without having a deep concern for the child's eternal well-being. No thought terrifies Christian fathers and mothers more than the possibility that their precious children may be eternally lost.
Complicating the situation is the biblical doctrine of election. Christians who accept what the Bible teaches about election have all wondered how the doctrine of election affects evangelism in general. How much more does it affect the evangelism of our children! But as we approach this delicate subject, we must keep certain fundamental truths in mind.
The first is that God's Word is true. We must not weigh the teaching of Scripture in the light of our sentimentalism. Infants who die do not go to heaven because they are cute, or because we insist that they must, or because the alternative is unthinkable to us. Everyone in heaven will be there because of the sheer grace of God.
Second, we must remember that God is true. He is the judge of the whole earth, and He will do right. We must never sit in judgment on what God has revealed about our salvation and our children's. By what possible standard could we judge Him? There is no standard other than His character; how can we hope to convict Him?
Third, we must recognize that all Adam's descendants deserve nothing but condemnation from the hand of God. We are all by nature objects of wrath. And closer to home, the Bible describes our relationship to God's judgment in this way -- children of wrath, sons of disobedience.
Fourth, this means that Christian parents have the responsibility of evangelizing their children, which brings us to the subject at hand. Our children are, by nature, objects of wrath -- just as we were. Parents, therefore, must recognize that their children are by nature hellbound. Unless God is pleased to show mercy, mercy will not be shown. And because it is mercy, we have no right to demand it.
Because this evangelism regards children of believers, Scripture gives us far more assurances of success than it does for evangelism outside the family.
Faithful parents should take on their appointed task with great sobriety. But, at the same time, they should trust God to show
mercy to their children -- God has revealed in His Word that He wants godly offspring, and that He wants faithful fathers as a means to that end.
In conversations with Christians who strongly hold to the doctrine of election, it is apparent that many of them forget their theology when it comes to the subject of children. If they were answering one of the common cavils against election -- that belief in election cuts the nerve of confident evangelism -- they would patiently answer that God has ordained the means as well as the ends, and that He has commanded us to evangelize, and that we should do so with confidence.
But when they are confronted with the truth that parents are required to evangelize their children, and that obedient parents may evangelize their children with a much higher degree of confidence than is appropriate in ordinary evangelism, their theology of foreordained means and ends goes right out the window. They start saying things like, "What if my child is not elect? Who can know?"
It is of course a possibility that such a child is not elect. But if this is true, then it is possible that God's ordained means of that child's reprobation included the misapplication of the doctrine of election on the part of the parents.
Closely related to all this is the question of where infants go if they die. In the history of the debate over election, there have been more than a few who have charged those who hold to election with being "baby-damners."
On this subject, we do not have the express teaching of Scripture about infants and election. We do however have some general principles which may apply to the subject. In what follows, therefore, I want to offer some tentative suggestions with a considerable amount of caution.
Infants are full partakers of the Adamic nature that is under God's wrath. When they are old enough, they all begin sinning because of what they are. We do not become natural objects of wrath as a result of some poor choices we make in junior high school. We are born in this predicament. Paul describes it in his case this way: I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died (Rom. 7:9). Notice how he says that sin revived in him. It had always been there -- latent, but there. It was dehydrated sin -- just add law!
But notice also that he says that he was alive, in some sense, before the coming of the law. But how could he be a sinner, and yet be alive? I think the answer may be seen in the principle stated in Rom. 5:13 -- sin is not imputed where there is no law.
Putting these two ideas together, we may present this as a possibility concerning the salvation of infants who die. Infants are sinful, and receive salvation from God as an act of His sovereign mercy and grace. They do not receive salvation as their due. But for all infants who die before the coming of the law in their hearts and minds, God graciously does not impute sin to them.
For those children who survive infancy, Christian parents may approach the throne of grace to pray confidently for them. And
this they do, beseeching the Lord to save their children, because they know that the prior decision is the Lord's -- not the child's. And for
those believers who have lost a little one, it is good to remember that covenantal blessings include our children.
God is good. When you ask for bread, will He give you a stone?
