Will babies and young children be taken in the Rapture?

We believe that Matthew 18:10-14 furnishes the foundation of the precious truth of the salvation of infants. Do you not believe this? Are you not fully persuaded that all who die in infancy are saved? That inasmuch as their little bodies undergo the penalty of Adam's sin, their precious souls partake of the benefit of Christ's atonement! Well, if you believe this, why should your heart be troubled as to the destiny of your infant child in the event of the Lord's coming? Can you not fully trust that blessed One who, in the days of His flesh, said with such touching tenderness, “Suffer the little children to come to Me and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God?” Can your heart entertain for a moment the unworthy thought that your gracious Lord, when He comes for His people, could take the mother to be with Himself and leave her babe behind to perish?

You ask if we “can tell you of any Scripture which shows what becomes of the infant children of believers when the Lord takes His Church to Himself.” We reply, Matthew 18:10-14. “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say to you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains and seeks that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say to you, he rejoices more of that, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”

Now, dear friend, is not this a precious answer to your question? Is it not divinely calculated to hush all your anxiety in reference to your precious babe in the event of the Lord's coming? Do you think the loving Savior who uttered these words, will ignore them when He comes for His Church? The very thought is blasphemy. Ah! no; our loving Lord will be fully glorified in receiving to His bosom and taking to His home the infant children of His people, as well as the parents. It is not His will now, and it cannot be His will then, that one of these little ones should perish. May your heart find settled rest as to this question in the eternal truth of God and in the rich and precious grace which shines so brightly and blessedly in Matthew 18:10-14. Back

As to children of irresponsible years, how could they be excluded of whom it is expressly said (Matt. 18) "The Son of man is come to save that which was lost," and that they have their representatives before His Father's face in heaven? Not a hoof was to be left behind when redemption from Egyptian bondage was in view. Would it be like God's ways to leave the little ones, for whom Christ died, when He comes for redemption in power?

"Observe," I added, "that in Luke 19:10, where the Lord is dealing with and addressing Himself to 'a man' who was old enough to have become a 'chief' and 'rich,' He says, 'The Son of Man is come to SEEK and to SAVE that which is lost.' He has to seek us big grown-up folk, for 'like silly foolish sheep, we have all run away from Him when we had strength and age to do so. Not so the 'little ones,' yet nevertheless are they 'lost,' too. Them He saves outright. Us He has first to seek. The 'little ones' — your dear babe, for instance — never ran away from Him, so He had not to seek it, but being the child of a sinful parent, it was 'lost,' and He died to save it, and I believe He has it safely now in His blessed arms. Don't you believe it too, now?"

I own if God deals with it according to what it is (or the first man), there is no hope. I own that the death of Christ has ended the first man, that in that death this child, as part of the first man, was judged. I own that all hope is in the second man. I submit it to Christ's death, which shall be of necessity either its salvation or its judgment. But, blessed be God, He encourages me to believe it shall not be judgment but salvation. He is not willing that any should perish. He has given me Christ for myself, and presents Christ for the acceptance of my children not to be their condemnation. He tells me to bring them up for Him "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." He tells me to "train up a child," etc. (Prov. 22:6). The little ones belong to Christ. He has redeemed them. He said, "Suffer little children," etc.

In baptism I acknowledge the right of Christ, which He has attained over it by death. "That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Heb. 2:9). That it is not to be brought up in the world and as of it, trusting that God may at some future time claim it for Himself, but trained for Him. Faith for it does renounce the world, the flesh, and the Devil, owns that all its education and training is to be as of one who belongs to Christ by virtue of His death. Faith reckons it to be dead to the world: therefore I cannot allow for my children in the world anything that I myself as a Christian may not have. Who are sufficient for these things? All their training should be for this end, that Christ has acquired a right over them when they are responsible. I, as responsible for them, acknowledge that right. This done in faith, will not God give them to know for themselves, not only the need of a Saviour, but will He not assuredly delight to give them Christ for their hearts. He who accepts Christ's death as the shelter from judgment, whether for himself or those God has given him, and then allows his children to grow up in the ways and the pleasures of the world because they are not converted, or is himself engrossed with them, is like what an Israelite would have been had he gone out of the door of his house before the morning. (Ed.: A reference to the night of the Passover.) "The life which I now live in the flesh," etc. We cannot afford to forget that the blood is on the lintel. The world is under judgment, everything is a question of faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6).

208 I do not think children enter into the question here — no more than when the apostle says, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." They really begin to sin as soon as they begin to live: though it be undeveloped, their will works. I do not doubt they go to heaven: Matthew 18, I think, shews it, and the ground; but the apostle is looking at man manifested as man, that is, what he is and does. Children are saved, not by innocence, though practically an expression of it, but because Christ came to save what was lost. This question then I dismiss; I refer to it merely as an objection which might be made.

208 I do not think children enter into the question here — no more than when the apostle says, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." They really begin to sin as soon as they begin to live: though it be undeveloped, their will works. I do not doubt they go to heaven: Matthew 18, I think, shews it, and the ground; but the apostle is looking at man manifested as man, that is, what he is and does. Children are saved, not by innocence, though practically an expression of it, but because Christ came to save what was lost. This question then I dismiss; I refer to it merely as an objection which might be made.

There is comfort in what follows, if not professed doctrine, as to infants, and their salvation if going out of the world as such. The Lord's disciples were not to despise them: they were always present before Jesus' Father in heaven. I take "angel" in the common use of it in scripture, of one who represented another without his being personally there. Thus we have the Angel of the Lord; the Malak-Jehovah. They said of Peter, It is his angel. It may be an angel who does the service; but the object of the passage is not to shew who does it but what is done, and for this purpose popular language is used. But this blessing is not founded on sentimentality, or vague notions. It is founded on the parable used for sinners in general of the lost sheep, and that the Son of man was come to save what was lost; only here, with infants, it is not said to seek. But it is not the will of our Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish: of such is the kingdom of heaven. It is not, I judge, to be thought that the Lord speaks of the poor and humble in spirit; they are the greatest in the kingdom: it would be a small and insignificant thing to say of them that it was not the Father's will that they should perish.

Here it is the Father's will which He has come to carry out, and it is not the Father's will that one of these little ones should perish. How sweet and perfect an assurance! It is only the contrary will of man that hinders his salvation: on God's part there can be no contrary one: "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth." Thus the little ones removed from us by death we may trust confidently to the divine love which waits on them. Our assurance as to them is rooted in the unchangeableness of the divine nature.

This is a most clear and blessed witness that all infants are saved through Christ.