What Happens To The Souls Of Infants Who Die?

           There have been a number of different positions taken amongst Christians as to what happens to the souls of children who pass away. Augustine postulated that unbaptized infants were punished eternally in hell, but to a lesser degree. His views hardened over time due to engagement in the Pelagian controversy. For centuries, many Roman Catholic theologians believed that the souls of deceased children go to Limbo. Early Greek fathers like Gregory of Nazianzus held that unbaptized infants would neither be glorified in heaven nor punished in hell, as they had committed no personal sins but lacked the grace of water baptism.

          If Christ is the only way to heaven as He claims to be, faith is required in order to follow Him, yet infants are not able to place their trust in anyone, then it might seem to that those who die are excluded from heaven. However, we would be hard-pressed to find Christians who actually hold to that belief today. While not explicitly answered by the biblical text, it does contain a number of ideas which seem to indicate that babies are recipients of God's grace and excluded from eternal punishment. 

           The Hebrew Bible implicitly recognizes the concept that we would term the age of accountability (Deuteronomy 1:39; Isaiah 7:15-16). This is relative due to the fact that everybody develops differently. Thus, there exists a period of time during childhood in which God in His mercy does not count sins against a person due to lacking reason and understanding. While babies are born with a sin nature, they still cannot actually commit acts of evil on their own.

          Jesus Christ stated that the kingdom of God is not only for little ones, but also for those who become like children in their faith (Mark 10:13-15; Luke 18:15-17). The gospels record Christ as having compassion on children. He called them to His side and sat them at His feet (Matthew 18:3; 19:14-15). If they were to be sentenced to hell by God for original sin, then why did Jesus commend their simplicity? Furthermore, John the Baptist is said to have been indwelt with the Spirit of God since conception (Luke 1:15), and receiving Him is always viewed as evidence of regeneration in the New Testament (Luke 1:41, 67; Acts 9:17).

          Consider the mourning of King David when God took away his newborn child as discipline for the acts of adultery and murder (2 Samuel 12:22-23). Even in the midst of David's selfish and brutish behavior, we see the Lord exercising mercy as his own life was spared. The text of 2 Samuel says that both would go to the same place at the moment of physical death. Further, Hebrews 11:32-33 says that David entered into the presence of God with the rest of the saints. Why believe that the souls of deceased children go to some place other than heaven? 

          The idea of God condemning somebody to hell who never even had a chance to live violates our sense of justice. There is also the issue of those who have cognitive impairments of various kinds. Though it is a teaching of Scripture that God has inscribed a moral law into the hearts of men, they need to have the mental capacity to understand it and act. Each man will be judged according to his own conduct (2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Peter 1:17). Infants cannot do anything on their own. What could God judge them for? Ultimately, our hope lies in the goodness and graciousness of God. That is our one and only hope, from here to eternity. Children are by no means an exception to this principle.