One of the most tragic things that can happen in a person’s lifetime is when an infant or a baby dies.  It leaves us with so many questions, such as wondering what the baby would have looked like.  Would they have looked like the mother or father, or perhaps one of the grandparents? What would they have accomplished if they had been allowed to grow up?  Maybe they would have become a famous doctor who discovered the cure for cancer, or a missionary who traveled the world telling people about Jesus.  We can also spend a lot of time contemplating how unfair it is for a baby to die so young.   In our opinion, children are supposed to bury their parents, and not the other way around.   

Perhaps one of the most common and difficult questions of all is what happens to babies when they die?  Do all babies automatically go to heaven?  Is there anything that parents need to do after the baby is born to ensure that they go to heaven?  What about babies who die before birth or shortly after birth?  As with most theological questions, we tend to avoid answering (or even asking) these questions until we are directly affected by the circumstances that lead to these questions.  Unfortunately, many parents and loved ones are left with more questions than answers when a baby dies simply because Pastors and church leaders have never thought about these questions, or they avoid these questions because they are difficult to answer.  So in this blog post, I want to answer the very difficult but necessary question, what happens when a baby dies?

There are two things we need to address before we attempt to answer the question, “what happens when a baby dies?”  First, I want to be clear that I am going to answer this question in the simplest terms possible.  I’ve read a lot of books, blog posts, etc. and listened to many different people attempt to answer this question, and most of them tend to leave people more confused than when they started.  My purpose in writing this is to give an answer that is easy to understand, and easy to verify.

Secondly, any time we attempt to answer a theological question, we need to realize that there are almost always several incorrect answers that are being taught.  These incorrect answers usually come from either an incorrect understanding of scripture, or they bypass the Word of God all together.  As you can probably imagine, there are all kinds of different theories and explanations of this issue.  For the sake of time and simplicity I will focus on the three that I believe are the most common in our area.

The first incorrect answer to the question, “what happens when babies die?” is that they automatically go to heaven because EVERYBODY goes to heaven.   This idea is called universalism, and it seems to be getting more and more popular every year.  In my experience, most people I meet would not admit to being a universalist, but they live their lives as though they are.   They never go to church, and they tell people that they either do not believe in God or are indifferent on that issue.  Yet when someone they know dies, they will tell people with supreme confidence that the person who died is now in a better place.  Or they will post something on social media like, “heaven has gained another angel,” or “happy heavenly birthday to ________.”  

Believe it or not, many universalists point to several bible passages that they say support their views.  In fact, one universalist website I visited listed 76 different bible passages that they say prove that everyone goes to heaven.  They point to passages such as John 4:42 which says, “…we know that this (Jesus) is the Savior of the world.”  This is a blatant misunderstanding of scripture.  Almost any time the bible talks about Jesus coming to save the world, it means that Jesus came to save all nations and not just the Jews.  In biblical times, the vast majority of Jews believed that only Jews who kept God’s law were going to heaven.  So passages such as John 4:42, and many more, are in the bible mainly to point out that Jesus came to save EVERY tribe, tongue, and nation…not just the Jews.

Another passage that most universalists will point to is the beginning of 1 Corinthians 13:8 which says, “love never ends.”  The implication here is that God loves everyone, and therefore would not send anyone to hell.  This understanding of this verse ignores almost the entire bible, which teaches that all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and that there will be people who thought they were followers of Jesus, but Jesus will say that he never knew them (Matthew 7:21-23).  

Ultimately, Christians can debunk universalism by asking one simple, yet effect question.  If everyone goes to heaven, then why does the bible teach that God sent his only Son into the world to live a perfect life, and then die on the cross, becoming the perfect sacrifice for our sins?

The second incorrect answer to the question “what happens when a baby dies?” is that they go to heaven if they were baptized, and go to hell if they were not.  This is probably the most popular view in today’s culture.  I wrote a blog post on baptism last month, so I will be purposefully brief on this topic today.  If this post leaves you with questions about infant baptism, I would refer you to the blog post on 1/25/2024 titled “The Sacrament of Baptism.”

The main idea behind infant baptism is that by baptizing a child as an infant, they become a child of God.  Most Pastors who believe in infant baptism teach that infant baptism is and extent of the covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 15.   This covenant began with circumcision, and now is extended to infant baptism.  The main problem with the idea of infant baptism is that it is not mentioned anywhere in scripture.  The best that the proponents of infant baptism can do is point to biblical passages where entire families or entire communities were baptized, saying that surely there were children in those families and communities who were baptized.   However, we cannot escape the fact that baptism is always mentioned in the bible immediately after repentance.  There are too many instances of this to list here, but I encourage you to look for them as you read through the New Testament.

There are two main questions we can ask to disprove that babies who are baptized go to heaven, and babies who are not baptized go to hell.  The first question is this: The bible teaches that we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9).  So if there is nothing that any of us can do on our own to be seen as righteous in the eyes of God, how can we say that sprinkling a little water on a babies head is going to ensure that they go to heaven?  Secondly, if God loves us SO much that he sent his Son to die so that we may live (John 3:16), then how is it possible for that same God to send a baby to hell simply because their parents did not get around to getting them baptized?

The third incorrect answer to the question “what happens when a baby dies?” is commonly referred to as age of accountability.   This idea is closer to the truth than the other two I mentioned, but it still falls short.  The basic idea here is that because all human beings are born with a sinful nature, we are all subject to eternal punishment in heaven.   However, people who subscribe to the age of accountability idea say that God does not hold children accountable for their sins until they reach a certain age.  There are two obvious reasons why this is not true.  First and foremost, nowhere in the bible does it mention a specific age that we become accountable for our sins.  Secondly, it would be impossible to come up with a universal age where all children become old enough to understand the consequences of their actions and are therefore held responsible for their sins.  Anyone who has been around more than one child for more than five minutes (especially parents) knows that no two children develop physically or mentally at the same rate.  Therefore it would be impossible to set one definite age of accountability.

So what is the answer?  What happens to babies when they die?  

I firmly believe that all infants, whether born or unborn, go to heaven.  This would include babies who are aborted or die of other complications during pregnancy.   I would also go so far as to say that anyone with a mental disability that renders them unable to comprehend the basic differences between right and wrong are also going to heaven.

To support this belief, turn with me in your bibles to Romans 1:18-20, which says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.   For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been CLEARLY PERCEIVED, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse.”

What this passage of scripture is saying is that the proof that God exists is all around us in the things that are made!  Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”  In other words, if you need proof that God exists, just look around!   And what Paul is saying in Romans 1 is that because we can know the attributes of God (namely his eternal power and divine nature) simply by looking around, human beings have no excuse for denying God and living as though he does not exist.  

What links this passage to the question “what happens to babies when they die?” is that Paul is saying that because we are able to CLEARLY PERCEIVE (vs. 20) the invisible attributes of God, we have no excuse!  In other words, we are held accountable for our actions because we can KNOW things about God.  While babies and those who are mentally disabled may have the ability to SEE the things around them, they lack the ability to PERCEIVE that these things reveal the attributes of God.  Therefore, babies and the mentally disabled are NOT held accountable for their sin because they are unable to perceive the things of God.  

As I mentioned earlier, this discussion has a tendency to become overly complicated, and because of that I’ve attempted to keep things as simple as possible.  If you have any questions or concerns on this topic, please reach out to me at any time.