Dear Aebi: "Are aborted babies safe? Will they be in heaven? Would high infant mortality rates (including abortions) mean that the majority of all humans will be in heaven?"

Yes, aborted babies are safe and will be in heaven, for two reasons: (1) Unborn babies are people, as several passages make clear. David was known in the womb (Psalm 139:13). John the Baptist in Luke 2:44 is said to have leaped for joy in Elizabeth's womb. Several passages make the Biblical position clear, and observation also makes it clear. We now have electronic methods of observation of the behavior of babies still in the womb, so we know they respond to external stimuli, suck their thumbs, and do other things that a tumor or cell mass does not do. Babies are people before and after birth. (2) Babies, born or unborn, do not need saved, for they have no sin. Sin is transgression (1 John 3:4), and infants are incapable of transgression of God's law. Jesus said people need to be like little children to be in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3; 19:14).

The idea that any little child would be lost is traceable to the doctrine of original sin (called "total hereditary depravity" by John Calvin). Original sin is a "cop_out," blaming someone else for one's problems, as is evident from Ezekiel 18, a chapter that insists on individual responsibility. If "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge" isn't descriptive of original sin, then I am incapable of understanding language. But Ezekiel says of this doctrine, Not so! The son shall not bear the sin of the father, nor vice versa!

Original sin is a figment of the Calvinist imagination. Calvin borrowed it from Augustine, as did the Catholic Church in the 5th century, and Augustine got it from the heathen philosophy that he dabbled in before he was converted to the brand of "Christianity" common in the late 4th century, early Catholicism. It is nowhere taught in Scripture. Some have mistaken the hyperbole of Psalm 51:5 as the doctrine of original sin, but it is not. Sin is what a person does, or fails to do, not something he is born with or inherits from others.

As to whether infant mortality rates, including abortions, would mean that the majority of all humans will be in heaven, that is an interesting question, and one that I cannot answer, because I don't know what the mortality rates have always been in all countries at all times. The high infant mortality rates of medieval times, and later times prior to the second half of the 20th century, may not have existed in much earlier times. There is little mention of it in the Old Testament, for example. The Book of Job does refer to it (Job 3:11), but that doesn't tell anything about its frequency.

Surely those who argue for abortion would not use the argument that abortion is good because it increases the population of heaven! There is reason to doubt whether abortionists really believe in heaven at all. For example, one Jewish rabbi said he would be glad to participate in a resurrection if one should occur but that he did not expect there ever to be one. Presumably, he felt the same way about heaven. It is impossible to reconcile abortion with belief in the existence of the soul or spirit of man, or with belief in the Bible as inspired of God. -2660 Layman Rd., Vincent OH 45784 cjandi@juno.com

Return to West Virginia Christian