If a Child Dies… Where Do They Go? Biblical Answer Explained

There's another observation we can make based on the story of a 12-year-old child mentioned in the Gospels. She's known as the daughter of Gyrus. This little girl had died and her family and friends were inconsolable. So Jesus visited the home and heard mourers wailing loudly and he told them, "Do not weep.

She is not dead, but she is sleeping." They jered him. But he took the parents to the room where the girl's body was residing. He took her hand and he said, "Little girl, arise." Her spirit returned. She rose at once. And Jesus told them to give her something to eat.

Those words of Jesus, "She is not dead. She is sleeping." They weren't just spoken to Gyrus. They are for every mom and dad or grandparent who has ever lost a little one. >> Thank you ((music playing)) for watching Turning Point. Here is Dr. Jeremiah with his message. What about the children? >> On the morning of November 10th, 2013, a youth pastor named Cameron Cole stumbled into what he later called the most magical conversation of my life.

A lost Lego propelled Cameron and his three-year-old son, Cam, into a discussion that changed both of their lives forever. During that conversation, little Cam, a brighteyed, curly-haired boy, told his father to get in the car so they could go see Jesus. His father explained that he wouldn't see Jesus till they were in heaven.

And naturally, the little guy started asking questions about heaven. And the conversation ended with Cam professing his faith in Christ with childlike simplicity. That night, Cam mysteriously died. No medical reason was apparent for his death. The doctors listed it as sudden unexplained death in childhood. For Cam's parents, Cameron and Lauren, this was the start of a journey into their worst nightmare.

Their descent into a dark, sad [snorts] valley. Cameron later wrote in the book that he wrote called Heavenward. He said, 'Amidst the sorrow and grief of my child's death, something radically new happened in my daily mindset. Heaven became an almost present part of my perspective. This transformation made sense.

This is where my firstborn child now lived. As the sorrow of grief subsided, he continued, "Heavenwardness provided richer fellowship with Jesus." I had more perspective and hope. I had more comfort and more patience. Though I was suffering deeply from the loss of my son, God was blessing my inner life in a unique way.

One of the most frequent asked questions that I get about heaven is also one of the hardest. What happens to children who pass away? It's not a new issue. both the nation of Israel in the Old Testament and the gospel story in the New Testament open on that particular note.

The story of the Exodus begins when Pharaoh orders the deaths of all baby boys among Hebrew slaves in Egypt. And the Gospel of Matthew begins with King Herod sending his soldiers to kill the baby boys in Bethlehem in an attempt to destroy the little one whom the Magi called the King of the Jews.

The death of children has been one of the world's greatest sorrows throughout history, both biblical and secular, and in the personal histories of millions, including probably some of you here today. Others have grieved miscarriages or still births. Untold millions of pre-born children have been lost through abortion. Some children have been slain in wars or horrendous acts of violence.

As a lifelong pastor, I've stood beside small caskets trying to comfort others when my own heart was broken over the scene before me. But I praise the Lord because through the tears, there's a sunbeam of hope. Scripture gives us reasons to trust that infants and young children are not lost forever. >> Amen. >> Instead, they are given the gift of bypassing the sorrows of this world and are instantly transported to heaven where we'll meet them. and enjoy their fellowship throughout eternity.

So, what exactly does the Bible say about this incredible hope? I want to give you several truths that I think will help. First of all, let's talk for a moment about the compassion of Jesus. When you read the stories of Jesus in the Gospels, we discovered that our Lord had an incredible love for children and he demonstrated that love on many occasions.

One example is so important that it is recorded by three of the gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Here's Matthew's account. Then little children were brought to him that he might put his hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

We also have a wonderful passage in Matthew's gospel that is as definitive as any verse in the Bible on the eternal love that Jesus has for children. Here it is. Matthew 18:14. Even so, it is not the will of your father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Have you ever read that verse? There you have the strong unambiguous statement of the Savior. He's not willing that one of these little ones should perish. If that's all I had, if I didn't have anything else to tell you today, that would be enough. And I could build my hope on all of this just on that one verse.

The Lord Jesus has compassion for little children and infants, and he is not willing that even one of them should perish. What about babies that are never born because of miscarriages or abortions? Here we must be very clear. I believe, as do all who accept the authority of God's word, that a child is a person from the moment of conception.

Since that is true, all pre-born babies who perish, whether through miscarriage, abortion, or tragic accidents, go straight to heaven. >> If you had an abortion, I want to tell you that God knows how to pour his forgiveness and healing into your life through the merits of Christ. Abortion is not the unpardonable sin.

God not only forgives you, he goes far beyond that. Because of his mercy, that little one now lost will be waiting for you in heaven. And you will enjoy an eternity of loving fellowship with that precious child. Jesus loves you and he loves every child from conception. In fact, he loves us, the Bible says, from before time ever began.

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So that's the compassion of Jesus. Let me talk to you for a moment about the character of the father. The Bible is full of information about the nature of God, his personality, and his attributes. Scripture calls him father. And that ought to tell you something. I always love to remind people of that on Father's Day.

And I like to repeat what Jesus heard from his father when the father said, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." We should repeat that as often as we can to our children any way we know how. He isn't simply a distant force in the universe.

He is, as Jesus put it, our father in heaven. There's a passage describing God's fathering love in the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 1:29-31. Do not be terrified or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you, he will fight for you according to all he did for you in Egypt before your eyes and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son in all the way that you went until you came to this place.

Isn't that a great picture? The Lord God carries us like a father carries his son because God is full of compassion. He's full of tenderness and mercy. And he he just carries us through the tough patches like a father carrying his son. This is a consistent theme especially in the Psalms.

Psalm 86:15, for instance, says, "But you, oh Lord, are a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in mercy and truth." Psalm 145:9 says, "The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works." So, let me say this out loud today in front of all of you and all who are watching and listening.

God is a good God. ((applause)) He is good to all and he certainly is good to children. He knows that little children cannot comprehend the truth of the gospel. Yet, God loves them deeply. He loves the pre-born and the newborn. He loves the infant and the toddler. The word children appears nearly 100 times just in the gospels alone.

The Bible teaches that God knows children. He loves children with special tender care. Our heavenly father in his justice provides for children who are not old enough to comprehend the gospel. In fact, Ezekiel tells us that Almighty God considers all children his children. Moreover, you took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured.

No, my friends, the character of God provides a special grace for those who cannot believe. On a number of occasions, God refers to these little ones as innocence. I N O C N Ts, innocence. Jeremiah 2:34, "Also on your skirts is found the blood of the lives of the poor innocents."

Jeremiah 19:4, "And have filled this place with the blood of the innocents." Although they are sinful creatures just like all of us, they are not responsible in the same way as those sins which are committed in a willful and premeditated way [snorts] because God understands the difference. The character of God lays the foundation for the realization that children who cannot understand the gospel are enveloped within the grace and mercy of the Lord and on them God has a tender heart.

On them his compassion reigns. So reason number one is the compassion of Jesus and reason number two is the character of the father and reason number three is the condition of death. There's another observation we can make based on the story of a 12-year-old child mentioned in the Gospels.

She's known as the daughter of Gyrus. This little girl had died and her family and friends were inconsolable. So Jesus visited the home and heard mourers wailing loudly and he told them, "Do not weep. She is not dead, but she is sleeping." They jered him. But he took the parents to the room where the girl's body was residing.

He took her hand and he said, "Little girl, arise." Her spirit returned. She rose at once and Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Those words of Jesus, "She is not dead. She is sleeping." They weren't just spoken to Gyrus. They are for every mom and dad or grandparent who has ever lost a little one. the miscarried child, the stillborn baby, the aborted infant, the child who dies of SIDS or perished in a car accident or in a natural disaster.

They're not dead. They're just sleeping. This is biblical terminology. When we die in Christ, our spirits go at once to be with the Lord and our bodies go to sleep until awakened and glorified at the rapture. The daughter of Gyrus is a prototype of every child who dies, who falls asleep in Jesus, and whom the Lord will raise up with resurrection glory.

So you have the compassion of Jesus, the character of the father, the condition of death. But my favorite reason because I think it's the most powerful is what I've called the confidence of David. There is a story in the life of King David that is fundamental to the question we're answering today.

If you had your Bibles, I'd have you turn to 2 Samuel 12. This section of scripture records the events that happened in the life of David immediately after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan. As you will remember, Nathan was appointed by God to go and confront David because of his adultery with Ba Sheeba and the murder of her husband Uriah the Hitittite.

Among other things, Nathan told David that the child that he and Ba Sheeba had brought into the world would be taken away in death. So, we pick up this story from 2 Samuel 12:14. And I'm going to read it right from the Bible. Here we go. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you will surely die."

And Nathan departed to his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became ill. And David therefore pleaded with God for the child. And he fasted, and he went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.

And on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, "While the child was alive, we spoke to him. He wouldn't even heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead?

He may do some harm." When David saw that his servants were whispering, he perceived that the child was dead. Therefore, he said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" And they said, "He is dead." So David rose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes, and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped.

Then he went to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate. And I want to put in here my own translation, and it freaked his servants out. I mean then his servant said to him, "What is this that you have done?

You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive. And when the child died, you arose and he ate food." And he said, "While the child was alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live?

But now he is dead. Why should I fast?" Here's the key phrase. Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. That last sentence in that passage in 2 Samuel 12:23 is arguably the greatest sentence in the Bible on the subject of what happens to a child when they die or when the rapture happens.

It was this thought of a reunion with his dead child which cheered David. But where did he think the reunion would be? In the grave, in hell, in heaven. He believed that he himself would go to heaven after death. And consequently meant to express the belief that his child had but gone on before him to that blessed place.

The idea of meeting his child in the unconscious grave could not have rationally comforted him at all. Nor could the thought of meeting him in hell have cheered his spirit. But the thought of meeting his child in heaven had in itself the power of turning his weeping into joy.

David knew what I've been trying to tell you throughout this message. When little ones die or the rapture happens before they understand the gospel, they go straight to heaven. >> Now, I know I haven't answered all the questions. In fact, I am pretty sure I've created some new ones you never had before you came to this session.

So let me grab hold of a couple of them that have come to me as I have preached this message. One of them is what about the age of accountability? Are little children innocent until they reach a certain age? In our attempt to bring comfort to those who mourn, we must not deny the truth of God's word.

No one is truly innocent. Jesus statements about children being innocent does not mean they are without sin. It means that they were not responsible for their sin. The Bible teaches that all of us are sinners and from the very beginning. Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me."

Or Psalm 58:3, "The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies." No, innocence doesn't mean sinless. There are no sinless people. All of us are born with a sin nature. Even though we have not yet done anything wrong, our nature is sinful.

Every baby needs a savior just like every adult does. But at what age does a child become responsible for his relationship with God? Is there an age of accountability? Isaiah refers to such a time in the life of a child. He says, "For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good."

The important thing to remember here is that the Bible does not make any reference to a particular age of accountability. But there is a time in the life of every child when they are able to understand God's love and when they comprehend what it means to be a sinner.

For some children, that knowledge comes at a very early age. For others, it may take more time because the age of accountability is not a chronological measurement. It's a reckoning of spiritual understanding. How old is this child when he comprehends the gospel? And that would be different perhaps for every child.

So somewhat answer that question and then somebody says, "Okay, Jeremiah, how old are children going to be in heaven?" Well, there are differing views about that question. And there's no absolute answer in scripture. Some people believe that when we are in heaven, we will all be mature in body, mind, and spirit.

The thought is this. If babies cannot fully enjoy this life, how could we expect them to fully enjoy eternal life with God? One proponent of this view argues that the book of Revelation describes worship in heaven as involving every single person. Therefore, whoever is in heaven will have to be of such an age as to be able to participate in the eternal worship of Almighty God.

Alistister McGrath supports this view. He says, "As each person reaches their peak of perfection around the age of 30, they will be resurrected as they would have appeared at that time, even if they had never lived to reach that age. The new Jerusalem will thus be populated by men and women as they would appear at the age of 30, but with every blemish removed."

Now, that's one idea. Some have increased the age to 33 because that's how little Christ was when he was crucified. Others hold that children will be allowed to grow up in heaven. In support of this view is the reference to the condition in the millennium. If the millennium is the prelude to heaven, then there must be children in heaven.

For Isaiah describes this period of the millennium like this, and a little child shall lead them, and the nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. You know, if I have to put my emphasis on one or another, I believe there'll be children in heaven.

I don't know all the answers to how that works out. There will not be any procreation in heaven. Children won't be born in heaven, but children in heaven will mature. Jay Vernon McGee who's one of my old friends who's in heaven now he said I believe with all my heart that God will raise the little ones such that the mother's arms who have achd for them will have the opportunity of holding them the father's hand which never held the little hand will be given the privilege I believe that little ones will grow up in heaven in the care of their earthly parents if they are saved >> on the basis of the compassion of Jesus the character of God, the condition of death, and the confidence of David, I can say with authority that the unborn and little children when they die go straight into the arms of Jesus in heaven.

Remember Cameron Cole, who I told you about at the beginning of the message. He said this in regard to his son's passing. I have often thought that Cam and I are both hugging the same massive oak tree. He stands on one side and I stand on the other.

The girth of the tree is so big that we cannot see each other. Nevertheless, we grip the oak tree with the same joy, affection, and pleasure. In reality, he said, the oak tree is Jesus. ((applause)) Cameron went on to say, "I miss him and I yearn to be with him.

My heart and mind naturally turn upward. My son's life and glory has put my heart and mind on a heavenly swivel." So, if you've lost a little one, let your heart and mind turn upward. Put your head on a heavenly swivel. Let the soon approaching joys of your coming reunion lift your mind to Jesus who never saw a child he didn't love enough to die for.

They are all safe and happy in his heavenly home. And to that we can all say hallelujah. ((applause)) ((music playing)) >> And now here is Dr. David Jeremiah. The promise of heaven is a great comfort to us as we go through this life. But the fact is there is only one way to gain entrance.

We can't get to heaven by being ((music playing)) nice people. We can't get there by doing more good than bad. We can't get there by rights or ((music playing)) rituals. You see, the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ and accepting ((music playing)) him as Lord and Savior of your life. If you have made the decision to follow Jesus Christ today or you would like to know how to take your first steps of faith, please allow me to send you two free ((music playing)) resources.

One is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will help you begin your faith journey with Christ. And the second is our monthly devotional magazine, Turning ((music playing)) Points, to encourage you with daily devotions and encouraging readings. We will gladly send these ((music playing)) resources to you completely free if you'll just contact us here at Turning Point today. >> Next time on Turning Point. >> When it comes to your walk with the Lord, be diligent.

Don't be halfhazard. Don't be lazy. Don't be passive. Go after it with all you have. Find out the things that you know that make you grow in Christ and help you to be a better Christian. and concentrate on them. >> Thank you for being with us today. Join Dr.

Jeremiah next ((music playing)) time for his message, Tough Minded About Heaven, here on Turning Point. ((music playing))