I first want to thank those of you that read the post about Macy and then prayed for her and her family. Last night, her mother decided to donate Macy's organs and remove the life support system. The staff at my school now face the incredibly difficult task of explaining Macy's death in simple and understandable terms. Pray for strength as we all try to deal with and then help the children deal with the death of this little girl.
Macy's death has me thinking about some very intense and difficult theological issues. Where is the place, if you will, of accountability and responsibilty for sins? Did Macy's limited cognitive abilities guarantee her a position as a child of our Father? Or was she cognitively able to understand and place saving faith in Him? Where do my students stand? What is "too cognitively impaired" to be responsible? How do I as a special educator ensure that I am doing all I can to see my children again once I reach glory?
Any thoughts of your own on this issue? Any Bibilical references?
3 comments:
The amazing thing about the Gospel is that it brings aout faith in people for whom faith would normally be impossible. The fact that you and I understand and have accepted Christ as our Savior is a miracle in itself.
God is a God of miracles. When He says that He draws all men to Himself, there were no exceptions. Therefore, there must be a way in God's divine and perfect plan to include those who do not have the cognitive ability or communication to voice or understand the Gospel in the ways that we do. God has chosen to use man's mind and heart as one way to reveal Himself to us...but God is not limited to our human mind. There are probably ways that He revealed Himself to Macy that we will never know about until we are in Heaven. I will be praying for you. Let me know if you need anything!
love ya!
Kristin said that very well. "With the heart man believes"--not just the mind. The heart includes, but is not limited to, the mind. Just as God helps the genius mind to come to faith not solely based on things making sense (because the gospel does not "make sense" to the human intellect when you really think about it), I believe He grants understanding of heart to people with severely limited cognition. I don't know how, nor do I know how He penetrates the genius or average ( or obstinate)
mind. Good questions you're pondering here. I am so, so sorry about Macy. What a tragedy, what a heartache for so many. I will pray for you and your colleagues as you need wisdom for how to explain Macy's death.
I have found the following comments by Wayne Grudem helpful:
Some maintain that Scripture teaches an "age of accountability" before which young children are not held responsible for sin and are not counted guilty before God. (below, [24:18]) However, the passages noted above in Section C about "inherited sin" indicate that even before birth children have a guilty standing before God and a sinful nature that not only gives them a tendency to sin but also causes God to view them as "sinners." "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5). The passages that speak of final judgment in terms of actual sinful deeds that have been done (e.g., Rom. 2:6-11) do not say anything about the basis of judgment when there have been no individual actions of right or wrong, as with children dying in early infancy. In such cases we must accept the Scriptures that talk about ourselves as having a sinful nature from before the time of birth. Furthermore, we must realize that a child's sinful nature manifests itself very early, certainly within the first two years of a child's life, as anyone who has raised children can affirm. (David says, in another place, "The wicked go astray from the womb they err from their birth," Ps. 58:3.)
But then what do we say about infants who die before they are old enough to understand and believe the gospel? Can they be saved?
Here we must say that if such infants are saved, it cannot be on their own merits, or on the basis of their own righteousness or innocence, but it must be entirely on the basis of Christ's redemptive work and regeneration by the work of the Holy Spirit within them. "There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). "Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
Yet it certainly is possible for God to bring regeneration (that is, new spiritual life) to an infant even before he or she is born. This was true of John the Baptist, for the angel Gabriel, before John was born, said, "He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15). We might say that John the Baptist was "born again" before he was born! There is a similar example in Psalm 22:10: David says, "Since my mother bore me you have been my God." It is clear, therefore, that God is able to save infants in an unusual way, apart from their hearing and understanding the gospel, by bringing regeneration to them very early, sometimes even before birth. This regeneration is probably also followed at once by a nascent, intuitive awareness of God and trust in him at an extremely early age, but this is something we simply cannot understand. (below, [24:19])
We must, however, affirm very clearly that this is not the usual way for God to save people. Salvation usually occurs when someone hears and understands the gospel and then places trust in Christ. But in unusual cases like John the Baptist, God brought salvation before this understanding. And this leads us to conclude that it certainly is possible that God would also do this where he knows the infant will die before hearing the gospel.
How many infants does God save in this way? Scripture does not tell us, so we simply cannot know. Where Scripture is silent, it is unwise for us to make definitive pronouncements. However, we should recognize that it is God's frequent pattern throughout Scripture to save the children of those who believe in him (see Gen. 7:1; cf. Heb. 11:7; Josh. 2:18; Ps. 103:17; John 4:53; Acts 2:39; 11:14(?); 16:31; 18:8; 1 Cor. 1:16; 7:14; Titus 1:6). These passages do not show that God automatically saves the children of all believers (for we all know of children of godly parents who have grown up and rejected the Lord, and Scripture also gives such examples as Esau and Absalom), but they do indicate that God's ordinary pattern, the "normal" or expected way in which he acts, is to bring the children of believers to himself. With regard to believers' children who die very young, we have no reason to think that it would be otherwise.
Particularly relevant here is the case of the first child Bathsheba bore to King David. When the infant child had died, David said, "I shall go to him but he will not return to me" (2 Sam. 12:23). David, who through his life had such great confidence that he would live forever in the Lord's presence (see Ps. 23:6, and many of David's psalms), also had confidence that he would see his infant son again when he died. This can only imply that he would be with his son in the presence of the Lord forever. (below, [24:20]) This passage, together with the others mentioned above, should be of similar assurance to all believers who have lost children in their infancy, that they will one day see them again in the glory of the heavenly kingdom.
Regarding the children of unbelievers who die at a very early age Scripture is silent. We simply must leave that matter in the hands of God and trust him to be both just and merciful. If they are saved, it will not be on the basis of any merit of their own or any innocence that we might presume that they have. If they are saved, it will be on the basis of Christ's redeeming work; and their regeneration, like that of John the Baptist before he was born, will be by God's mercy and grace. Salvation is always because of his mercy, not because of our merits (see Rom. 9:14-18). Scripture does not allow us to say more than that.
(The above is an excerpt from Chapter 24 of Systematic Theology.)
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