This is a work in progress if you happen upon it check back in a few days it will make more sense..
Things You Never Think about
Hello Beloved..I am It's late on a Sunday night (too late really) but I feel I must at least begin to try to gather up the scattered thoughts that have been dancing in my head for days. My mind in not a comfortable place, I am forever reaching, forever seeking for answers to the ever increasing jumble of questions that dog my footsteps on my journey home.
Do you ever get the feeling that we don't really have a good grasp of what's really going on? We are like children making do with just the essentials, playing our solitary toy flute while a symphony of music breaks forth above us.
God is doing something. The question is what? Of course we understand his cosmic plan about Christ and the cross and redemption from sin. We have to understand that..it is essential. We also understand that we must confess our sins and accept Christ or face the consequences for our unpaid debt, a debt we cannot pay ourselves but that He paid for us. Romans 10:9,10 We got that. But there are other things I wonder about. Like what is God doing with the angels? They are created beings, and they have free choice just as we do though they are many times wiser and more powerful than we. (at least that is the way I understand it). They have different stations and different tasks. They weren't redeemed like we were but those who stayed with God after Satan's fall play an important role in the grand plan of things. Who are they? Soldiers? Messengers? Baby sitters? All of these things I think at different times. Will they be rewarded for a job well done? I certainly hope so. I wonder what sort of arrangement they have with God.
I think a lot about the children, I have spent my whole life working with children. I suppose in some ways I am still a child myself but I consider that a gift. It was a necessary part of my ministry. I believe in a loving God who would never condemn the innocent. Yet there are still questions.
People spout pat answers but things are not always so simple...small children of believers are covered but what of the millions of children of the heathen who have died since the beginning of time? What of the millions of aborted babies from around the world? Ezekiel 18:20 tells us "The soul who sins is the one who will die". But then He says.. "The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous Man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him". So no one has to answer for his parents sins..that's good to know. As King David when his baby died, "they cannot come to me but I shall go to them" (2 Samuel 12:23).
So it would seem that innocent children, from any culture of mindset are included in the Kingdom of God. Card Blanch makes sense to me, "The kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these (Mark 10:14).I have always been taught that God is loving and fair this bears that out. It doesn't seem like a little thing like infant Baptism would keep a child out of Heaven when he had no say in the matter whatsoever. Or even the fact he was sacrificed to a Crocodile god or for the convenience of his parents. Children are innocent, trusting and loving, they are to be our examples. In Matthew 18:3 Jesus said, "Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." And in Matthew 21:16 Jesus said "Did you never read,"Out of the mouth of babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise" How could such be condemned ?They serve as examples ."In malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature" 1 Corinthians 14:20.
There will be several categories of folk in heaven. The Trinity of course, the source the power behind it all. Then there are the angels, a designation that takes in all sorts of creatures from those who look much like us to creatures with multiple faces and many eyes that stay continually before the throne of God. Old Testament saints will be in heaven too even though many of them could only dream of the plan God had for Mankind. The Bible tells us Abraham longed to see the day but he didn't live to see it. (Luke 13:28, Hebrews 11:5). Christ sacrifice was enough, he paid for us all his sacrifice on the cross extends through time to pay humanities debt past and future. (Hebrews 9:25-27) Revelation 13:8).
Then of course comes the Church the long band of believers who begin at the cross and continue until today. Things changed at the cross, the rules changed Acts 17:30 tells us "The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now He commands that all people everywhere should repent". The innocent babies and children who die whose parents are part of the Church will be in heaven, they are covered by their parents faith and are part of the Church, and are classed under the heading of the Church,the bride of Christ. Psalm 22:10 . . . from my mother’s womb you have been my God. But there are others, what of them? I believe the innocent dead from all generations will be in Heaven, as their own group, loved and cared for by God.
Dr.Luis Palau in "Where is God when Bad things happen?" addresses this "since the loving Lord of the impossible knows precisely how each person will live, every life is a complete life" This thought brings order to the chaos and grief of our lives today. Just is the U.S. as many as twenty percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage each year. Another nineteen percent in 2014 ended in medical abortion. So you see nearly 40 percent of pregnancies just in the U.S. are never carried to full term. Add to that infant deaths due to SIDS, abuse, neglect, drug use and disease and the rate surely soars toward 50 percent.
In his book "Destined for the Throne" Paul Billheimer writes that "the redeemed are innumerable (Rev. 7:9) The terms "small group" and "tiny minority" are uses comparatively of those who exercised, or will exercise, freedom of choice during the day of salvation. If the untold millions who died or will die in infancy and prenatally are included in the redeemed, as we believe, it is true as has been said, "that ultimately the lost shall bear to the saved no greater proportion than the inmates of a prison do to the mass of the community."
Luke 18:15 also calls them babies.15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Mark 10:16 also shows how small they were by saying “he took the children in his arms.”
In his commentary, John Calvin said "when infants who were too young to desire Jesus’ blessing were presented to Jesus, he tenderly received them and dedicated them to the Father “by a solemn act of blessing”. “It would be too cruel to exclude that age from the grace of redemption. It is an irreligious audacity to drive from Christ’s fold those whom He held in His bosom and to shut the door on them as strangers when He did not wish to forbid them” (Source).
Angus H. Strong wrote in this Systematic Theology, "since Christ “died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:14,15 – see also Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 2:2), no one is exempt, no matter how young. And since salvation is appropriated by faith in those old enough to do so, there must be some other way in which the saving power of Christ’s death is transferred to those too young to have personal faith." There seems to be plenty of Scripture to back this up. Psalm 22:10 . . . from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Psalms 71:6 From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. . . .
Isaiah 46:3 Listen to me, O house of Jacob, . . you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth.
Psalms 71:6 From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. . . .
Isaiah 46:3 Listen to me, O house of Jacob, . . you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth.
1 Corinthians 7:14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy
Psalms 106:38 They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan . .
Divine Purpose Psalm 139:13-16 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. . . . My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalms 106:38 They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan . .
Divine Purpose Psalm 139:13-16 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. . . . My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.