The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Are those who die young always part of the elect?

Michele,

This will be my last attempt to ask you to explain this view you have concerning the difference between infants and adults. You say one cannot compare adults and infants who die. So, I ask you again, what is the "difference"? Are not infants born with Original Sin?, i.e., have they not the guilt of Adam's transgression imputed to them and thus they are liable to judgment? And would you deny that at conception, the human soul/spirit is born with the corruption of nature which came from Adam and the punishment promised by God?

The very fact that infants die is testimony to their sinfulness, for the wages of sin is death. (Rom 6:23) Children, infants and even the unborn are sinners by nature and "children of wrath" and are in desperate need of regeneration, reconciliation and redemption in Christ. Or, do you believe that, Job 15:14-16; Psa 58:3; Rom 3:10ff do not apply to infants? And that children/infants are exempt to the truth of Romans 5:12-21?

And God decreed the life and death of every single human being that ever was, is and ever shall be. But God does not unjustly impose death upon people!! Death comes upon all because all are sinners. Death is no respecter of persons. It should serve as a sober reminder that we all are in need of salvation... ALL. Disease, illness, mental retardation, deformities, . . . all of these things are the result of the Fall. And the fact is that we all deserve far worse than any of these things which we find on earth. The doctrine of Total Depravity is not surprisingly the one of the most hated, if not THE most hated doctrine of the Bible.

Before they were born, before they had done either good or evil, God discriminated between Jacob and Esau. One was to be saved and the other not. Not all infants who die are saved... it's the teaching of the Scripture. And neither the sermons of Spurgeon or your wishful thinking nor all the sentimentality of all the earth is going to change this truth nor God's prerogative to save whom He wills. "For, salvation is of the Lord!" (Jonah 2:9)

Romans 9:6-24 (ASV) "But [it is] not as though the word of God hath come to nought. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel: neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. For this is a word of promise, According to this season will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only so; but Rebecca also having conceived by one, [even] by our father Isaac-- for [the children] being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth. So then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will be hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, [even] us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?"

In His Grace,