panta dokimazete
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Our recent discussion of Al Mohler's position on infants dying in infancy brought to mind this passage of Scripture:
Deuteronomy 1:39
39'Moreover, your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it.
Which led me to this:
from here
Then, in Vol 3 of his Harmony of the Gospels on Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17:
Taken with:
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 8:1
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Us and those being the elect.
If Christ's substitutionary death covers original sin as well as willful sin, it seems as if his disposition toward infants would lead one to conclude that infants, dying in infancy, are in Christ Jesus, not under condemnation for original sin and therefore elect.
To differentiate this thread from the previous one, I have added a public poll.
Deuteronomy 1:39
39'Moreover, your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it.
Which led me to this:
John Calvin said:39. Moreover, your little ones. I have already shown that God so tempered His judgment that, whilst none of the guilty should escape with impunity, still His faithfulness should remain sure and inviolable, and that the wickedness of men should not make void the covenant which He had made with Abraham. He, therefore, pronounces sentence upon them, that they should never enjoy the inheritance which they had despised: yet declares that He will nevertheless be true in the fulfillment of what He had promised, and will display His mercy towards their children, whom in their despair they had condemned to be a prey to their enemies.
When He limits this grace to their little ones, whose age did not yet allow them to discern between good and evil, He signifies that all who had already arrived at the years of reason, were, from the least to the greatest, accomplices in the crime, since the contagion had spread through the whole body. Surely it was an incredible prodigy, that so great a multitude should be so carried away by diabolical fury, as that nothing should remain unaffected by it, unless perhaps a timely death removed some of the old men rather on account of the vice of others than their own. But, if even a hundredth part of them had been guiltless of the crime, God would have left some survivors.
"To have no knowledge of good and evil," is equivalent to being unable "to discern between their right hand and their left hand;" by which expression in Jonah, (Jonah 4:11,) God exempts from condemnation those little ones, who have as yet no power of forming a judgment. From hence, however, some have foolishly attempted to prove that infant-children are not defiled by original sin; and that men are involved in no guilt, except such as they have severally contracted by their own voluntary act (arbitrio.) For the question here is not as to the nature of the human race; a distinction is simply made between children and those who have consciously and willfully provoked God's wrath; whereas the corruption, which is the root (of all evils) although it may not immediately produce its fruit in actual sins, is not therefore non-existent.
from here
Then, in Vol 3 of his Harmony of the Gospels on Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17:
John Calvin said:This narrative is highly useful; for it shows that Christ receives not only those who, moved by holy desire and faith, freely approach to him, but those who are not yet of age to know how much they need his grace.
Taken with:
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 8:1
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Us and those being the elect.
If Christ's substitutionary death covers original sin as well as willful sin, it seems as if his disposition toward infants would lead one to conclude that infants, dying in infancy, are in Christ Jesus, not under condemnation for original sin and therefore elect.
To differentiate this thread from the previous one, I have added a public poll.