The following "Question" was asked by an attendee at the 2005 Shepherds' Conference (a ministry of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California), and was "Answered" by John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from "General Session #10 John MacArthur - Q&A." A copy of the CD, cassette tape, or MP3 can be obtained by going to: www.shepherdsconference.org ©2005. All Rights Reserved. Grace Community Church.
Questioner
Dr. MacArthur, I was wondering if you could tell us why you believe that babies go to heaven when they die?
John MacArthur's Answer
You know, I wrote a book called
Safe in the Arms of God. Have you seen that book?
Questioner
I bought it yesterday; I just haven’t read it. I thought you could give me a short version.
John MacArthur's Answer
I don’t know that there is a short version. How’s this: Spurgeon believed it and so did John Calvin. Does that help?
Questioner
John MacArthur's Answer
Oh, okay. You guys are getting the message.
I’ll give you one illustration. David has a son by the name of Absalom, a son
who was sinful, wicked and rebellious and hateful towards his father and tried
to dethrone his father—the worst-case scenario of a grown son. As you remember,
he was killed in a rather horrible death, and do you remember David’s response?
“Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son, my son…” and he goes on and it goes on and it
goes on and it goes on and there never is any relief and they can’t get him to
stop moaning and groaning, and he can’t overcome the emotion and the horror of
it all. It’s relentless. And there’s no way to comfort him, the Scripture
says. You compare that with the son that was born of Bathsheba. When that
little baby became ill, David prayed and he prayed to God to save the life of
that baby. He prayed seriously, and then he was told that the baby died, and he
got up and he washed, wiped his tears away, and said, “He cannot come to me;
I’ll go to him.” Big difference. Huge difference.
He wasn’t saying, “I’m going to be buried in the plot next to him.” That would have been true of Absalom. That’s just one indicator of the confidence of David in the goodness and grace of God upon the innocent and the hopelessness of David, knowing the judgment and the justice of God upon the guilty. There’s a lot other things in that book. You might want to read that book.
Look, I’ll give you one other, and that’s because the babies that were offered to Molech, the pagan [god]—babies that were offered to Molech are referred to in the prophets as “the slaughter of the innocents.” If God calls somebody innocent, that’s pretty significant.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
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