WHAT ABOUT CHILDREN?

Those who have died as infants and had no opportunity to trust in Christ? We have only two verse that sheds light on this issue. And most evangelicals hold to what I am about to write now.    King David had a child with Bathsheba but the infant died before he was eight days old. David in prophecy stated: "While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live.' But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me" (2 Sam. 12:22-23).    This indicates that the child went home to be with the Lord, and when David dies, he will go to him. The infant passed on to the Lord. God covered his sin before the age of accountability. Now what is that age? No one knows. But the assumption, based on pretty good evidence, is that before a child reaches a period of consciousness or ability to think with rational thought, God would apply the blood of Christ to that child and cover his sins, taking him home to heaven.    All men are born with the sin of Adam to their account. No one is born innocent. Paul writes "by the transgression of the one [Adam], death reigned through the one, ..." (Rom. 5:17a). "Through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners" (v. 19). "Just as through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death [came] through sin, and so death spread to all men, ..." (v. 12).    Circumcision nor baptism has anything to do with salvation. Only faith can save. But the issue of the infant, or the child who has not reached the realm of reasoning, brings about an exception. God can apply the death of His Son to such. Thus, the Lord is not unfair. He applies the death of Christ to that child in order to spare him. These two verses in 2 Samuel 12 are few but they have great implications to this issue.    Unger writes on 2 Samuel 12:22-23: "'I shall go to him,' scarcely can be interpreted any other way than that [David] was conscious of a life beyond the grave and that he, justified by faith, would go where the innocent child went, who had not yet reached the age of accountability." --Dr. Mal Couch (10/10)