Do miscarried babies go to heaven?
Questions Listed Under Salvation
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You are asking a question that is often asked and that fills us all with strong emotions. And perhaps the reason why it is so often asked is that the Bible does not explicitly give us an answer, and we then end up emotionally dissatisfied. We rejoice at every mention of people being baptized and receiving the promises of faith and forgiveness and hearing the gospel and being brought to trust Jesus and becoming citizens of heaven. We also grieve because so many in this world do not enjoy these blessings and feel particularly bad when we could not apply the gospel to some people like miscarried or stillborn children.
Regarding miscarried children we must affirm that they, like everyone else, were conceived in an inherited sinful condition and need forgiveness to be saved. We also affirm that Christ is the only revealed Savior for all mankind, regardless of the specific circumstances that prevail from person to person. On the basis of clear Scripture, then, we understand that they need faith in Christ and that faith in Christ is given by God through the Gospel. In saying this we do not wish to be understood as saying God could not create faith in people's hearts aside from the gospel (recall the amazing work of the Holy Spirit with John the Baptist when he was still a fetus, Luke 1:41-44), or could not have devised other ways and means for doing it if he had seen fit to do so. We merely report that God throughout Scripture reveals that he works through the gospel to create faith and that this faith is necessary for personal salvation.
It would be presumptuous for us to assume that miscarried children are nevertheless headed for heaven. This idea is not based on Scripture. It is quite popular and emotionally pleasing, of course, and we fully understand the motives in adopting such a position. However, we bind ourselves to Scripture alone for doctrine and simply say that there are things we do not fully understand and cannot fully explain -- and this subject is one of those. To say it bluntly, here we are in the realm of the unsearchable judgments of God. That is where we should leave this kind of speculation.
We are given the assurance that God is a compassionate God, whose judgments are fair. "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. . . . He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him" (Psalm 103:8-11). We make this the basis of our convictions about what is fair or not fair; whatever God does is fair and right, and good. What "seems fair" to our limited minds and emotions is not to be made the standard of truth.
The way a person seeks to respond to a question like yours tells us a lot about how that person does theology. If we limit ourselves to Scripture alone, we do not have a lot to say. We will stress what God has graciously revealed to us and admit our limitations. And we will recommit ourselves to witnessing and the support of mission work. But if we are willing to manufacture other answers that strike us as reasonable or emotionally satisfying, lots of ideas are possible. I sincerely pray that we never take that route, but commend these issues to the gracious Lord who will answer our questions when we get to glory. "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:9-12).
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I know that there are scriptures that reference predestination, but how should one address a fellow believer who states that predestination negates the free will that we have been given?
We should be very glad that election by grace overcomes the "free will" that we have as fallen sinners. After the fall into sin we were free to choose from a salad bar of sins as we made our way to hell. We could choose a very sinful lifestyle or an outwardly moral one. The one thing we were not free to choose was Christ as our Savior. But through the power of the Holy Spirit working through the gospel, God overcame the resistance of our will that was hostile to him. Faith is a creation not of our free will but of God's grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). But that does not mean we are unwilling children of God. God's grace made the unwilling willing, and we gladly serve him (Ephesians 2:10).
Since there is no predestination to hell, God's overcoming our sinful "free will" (better called "unfree will") was a wonderful gift. What could be better than having our unfree will made truly free! Why would anyone want to be "free" to go to hell? What a joy to be made truly free from sin and free to love and serve God (Titus 3:3-8).
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I realize as Confessional Lutherans we uphold the ancient explanation of beliefs called the Athanasian Creed. But its statement, "Those who have done good will enter eternal life, but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire," seems to contradict that we're saved by God's grace, not our works.
Thank you for your question. This statement in the Athanasian Creed often raises questions for Christians who know that we are not saved by our works. The Bible clearly says, "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law" (Romans 3:28). Good works do not save us.
The Bible also clearly teaches that believers will do good works. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10). "Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17). Faith must and will bring forth good works.
These works do not save us but show the invisible faith that is in our hearts: "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do" (James 2:18). Indeed, only believers can do good works in God's eyes. For the Bible teaches "everything that does not come from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23), and "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6). Without faith everything a person does is evil in God's eyes.
On judgment day Jesus will point to the good works of believers as evidence that they are believers when he invites them, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat" (Matthew 25:34-35a; see also Matthew 25:35b-40). In the same way, he will send to eternal punishment those whose lives have showed that they lack faith in him (see Matthew 25:41-46).
The Athanasian Creed is speaking in the same way. Only Christians can do good works. Those works show that they are Christians. No matter how good unbelievers seem, they cannot do good works in God's eyes. They can only do evil. Their lack of God-pleasing good works indicates that they are not believers and so they will go into eternal fire.
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I know that since the time of Christ all persons need saving faith in him in order to go to heaven. How were people in the Old Testament saved?
You correctly say that we are graciously saved through faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. The same was true of the Old Testament believers. Essentially, then, there is no difference between the way Old Testament believers and New Testament believers enjoy the gift of forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God.
An obvious, external difference between the two, however, is that of our respective relationship to Christ's saving work chronologically. Old Testament believers, Abraham included, were focusing on God's promise of a Savior who would be coming in the future to redeem them. New Testament believers, ourselves included, focus on God's promise of a Savior who came and redeemed us as promised. They looked ahead to the Christ's (the Messiah's) saving work on their behalf; we look back to Christ's saving work on behalf of us and all mankind.
Bible references to this great truth may be found here: Romans 3:21-26, Romans 4:1-8, and Hebrews 11:1-40.
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Can you help me understand if we (as Gentiles) are able to consider the New Covenant (given to Israel and Judah) in Jeremiah 31:31-34 as being given to us. If we can, how is that link made? What are the Scriptures that tell us this?
The "new covenant" of Jeremiah 31 is explained in the New Testament as the one that is based on the atoning work of Jesus, as opposed to the "first covenant" based on the Law of Moses and its sacrificial code (Hebrews 8:8-12, Hebrews 9:1, Hebrews 10:15-18). In essence the "new covenant" is the forgiveness of sins (Jeremiah 31:34)—the gospel, in other words. While the apostles recognized that the Jews had a special claim on the gospel (Acts 13:46, Romans 1:16-17), Scripture makes it very clear that the gospel is not for Israel alone, but for everyone (Isaiah 49:6, Isaiah 56:6-8, Mark 16:15-16, etc.).
Romans 9, 10, and 11 present a thorough discussion of the role of Israel in God's plan. Old Testament Israel was chosen by God to bring the Savior of all people into the world (Romans 9:3-5). In the absence of saving faith, physical descent from Israel doesn't count for anything before God (Romans 9:6-8, Romans 10:16-17, Galatians 3:6-9). In fact, it never did (Matthew 3:9, John 8:33-41).
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Why was the resurrection of Jesus Christ so important?
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is of utmost importance, and we thank you for asking the question. This is a message we love to share with the world. I'll limit myself to the three main truths that are usually mentioned when the Bible speaks of the importance and significance of Christ's resurrection:
- Christ's resurrection affirms or establishes beyond the shadow of a doubt that we sinners are forgiven. Christ's self-sacrifice on the cross as payment for our sins successfully and fully removed the guilt of our sin and therefore defeated death, a fruit of sin. "Christ was delivered over to death for (because of) our sins and he was raised to life for (because of) our justification" (Romans 4:25). We are really justified (declared not guilty) by God (Romans 3:23-24).
- Christ's resurrection demonstrates that Jesus is precisely who he claimed to be—the unique Son of God and Savior of mankind. He "was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4). Jesus had previously said that his deity and authority to do much of what he did would be shown by his resurrection on the third day after his death. His resurrection confirms his identity.
- Christ's resurrection assures us that we also will rise bodily from death. Because he lives, we also shall live (John 14:19). The so-called "resurrection chapter" of the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 15:1-58, expounds on the significance of this truth.
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If a person deliberately goes on sinning, is that person still saved? How long can a person continue in the sin before salvation is lost?
Strictly speaking, what causes a person to lose his or her salvation isn't the sin, per se, but the loss of the Holy Spirit with his gift of faith in Jesus as Savior (Romans 8:9-14). In Scripture God doesn't set a time limit for how long a person can continue in deliberate sin before faith and salvation are lost. Scripture simply urges us to turn away from our sin, trust God's forgiveness, and take up the battle against sin every day so that this won't happen to us.
Salvation can be lost; but lost salvation can also be restored. (The case of King David is instructive here—see 2 Samuel 11 and 12.) A person who trusts that God forgives sin because of the atoning work of Jesus has God's gift of salvation—no matter what he or she did beforehand or how long the sin continued.
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I am struggling with a question about salvation. There is no personal decision to come to Christ, but the following minute one can make the personal decision to reject Christ and "fall"? Please answer including the additional context of the strength of God's hand, as is written in John 10:28-29: once we are in God’s hand, no man can pluck us out.
Scripture doesn't put these things in chronological order—as if salvation came first and the possibility of rejecting God's gift came in only later. It teaches two truths that we allow to stand side by side. Salvation is 100 percent God's gift from beginning to end (Ephesians 2:8-9); this gift includes the faith God provides me that takes hold of the redeeming work of Christ and makes it my own. On the other hand, human beings have the ability to resist the Holy Spirit's work and reject God's gift (John 1:11-12, Acts 7:51).
Human reason finds this contradictory, but the teaching of Scripture is that if someone is saved, this is entirely the work of God. If someone is lost, this is entirely the fault of the individual.
Jesus' words in John 10:28-29 are intended as a comfort for believers. They certainly do not exclude the possibility that a person can lose his or her salvation through neglect, or through persistence in godless living (Luke 8:13, Romans 8:13, 1 Corinthians 10:12, etc.).
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Can sexually active teens go to heaven?
Your question, while clear enough in its wording, is so broad that it is challenging to offer a meaningful answer. It is the kind of question that really deserves to be asked of a pastor or spiritually trustworthy friend, in person and with the ability to clarify what or who is being spoken about. I urge you to do this, the sooner the better.
I will assume that your phrase "sexually active teens" refers to (1) unmarried people, (2) who are habitually sexually active as a matter of lifestyle rather than people who have fallen prey to temptation against their own conscience. These distinctions are of great importance since there is a great difference between
- those who persistently and impenitently sin against God's will because they are horribly ignorant of or confused about right or wrong (since their natural knowledge of God's will has been blurred by ceaseless wrong information through godless culture and media) or have knowingly and willfully despised God's will for themselves; and
- those who have a real reliance on Jesus Christ as their Savior but who are tragically so weak and psychologically or emotionally wounded that they fall prey to temptations almost to the point that they appear to be unbelievers, but are really weak believers who need firm help and guidance.
Diagnosis needs to precede applications of law and gospel, but our task in dealing with "sexually active teens" is to apply law and gospel clearly, lovingly, repeatedly, and in a way that is measured to correspond to their spiritual condition (as broadly described above). We are not here to speculate about such teens and salvation because we cannot read hearts, and that really does no one any good. We are here to serve people, not to categorize them.
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Someone told me that you need to do good works to be a Christian. I said a person can be a Christian even if his "works" are not that visible, and that belief in Christ is the only way to heaven. Was I right in telling him that?
Good works are not what makes a person a Christian, but a Christian will do good works. Just as it is the nature of an orange tree to produce oranges and an apple tree to produce apples, it is the new nature of a Christian to produce good works (2 Corinthians 5:17). They are a fruit of faith in Jesus Christ, our only Savior.
We need to beware of judging these good works by false standards. They are not necessarily flashy works that attract a lot of attention, but can be ordinary things like carrying out our responsibilities in our families, in our jobs, and in our community. Works do not contribute to our forgiveness or win salvation, but they will appear in the life of a Christian. As faith grows and matures, so will works (Colossians 3:12-17).
We can't really envision a Christian life which is all wickedness with no evidence of faith. It is not clear what standard of recognizing works you are using.
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