This idea
ponders in the mind of Christians who consider or have experienced personally the
death of some child due to abortion, miscarriage or early after birth, before
being baptized or having accepted the Christian faith.
In
traditional western Christianity, especially since St Augustin’s times, the
idea that children cannot be saved without Baptism, gave way to the hypothesis that
prematurely dead children would be eternally condemned in Hell, or that they
would end up in a solitary place between Hell and Heaven, away from God’s
Kingdom but in an eternal state of peace, called Limbus Infantium (1).
The theory
was put forward by St Augustin as a quick response to the heresies of Pelagius,
who denied Original Sin and due to his great influence in the theological world
of western Europe, it gained influence and finally it was assumed as true
doctrine by the Middle Ages (2), and was taught as such. However, it was never officially
part of the doctrine of the western Church and was condemned as “Extreme
Augustinianism”, as was Augustinian Predestination, by Catholic theologians
like Francisco Suarez (1550), Giovanni Antonio Bianchi (1768), Jakob Herman
Schell (1893) and Ludwig Ott (1952) (3).
WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT IT
Truly the
Bible teaches that all humans are conceived and born separated from God’s grace
and affected by the consequences of Adam’s sin (Ps 51:5; Ro 5:12-14; Eph 2:3);
and that this breach cannot be solved except through the atonement of Jesus
Christ (Acts 4:12; Ro 3:22-25; 5:18-19; Ph 3:8-9; Heb 7:25).
But wanting
God to save all humanity, and not desiring anyone’s damnation, He sent his only
Son, Jesus Christ to rescue us from condemnation through the atonement on the
Cross. Jesus paid for the sins of all humans, past, present and future,
Original Sin as well as personal sins and their consequences, for the born and
the unborn, for the intelligent and the mentally disabled, for the believer and
the unbeliever, for ALL HUMANITY IN FULL. (2Cor 5:21; Col 2:13-14; 1Pe 2:24;
1Jn 2:2).
GOD’S WILL, PAID DEBT AND EXAMPLES IN
THE BIBLE
If we
consider that God does not want the condemnation of anyone (1Tim 2:4; 2Pe 3:9);
and that Jesus has already paid for the sins of all humanity in total (Jn 1:29;
1Jn 2:2), it is implied that those who cannot come to Christ due to an
invincible impossibility, like lack of reason, information or lifespan, are free
beneficiaries of their Lord’s merits at the Atonement, especially if we
consider that all those impediments were beyond their control and could have
been removed had God wanted it.
If we
consider that the Will of God, in his desire to save all humans, cannot be
defeated by fate, as if circumstances like mental disability, geographical
isolation or being a victim of an abortion or miscarriage were events that God
could not stop had He wanted it, and that therefore God became frustrated by
circumstances beyond his control, as if they were caused by a bigger power than
God’s; it becomes absolutely conclusive to think that God allowed those
circumstances to happen knowing that they would not affect the fair opportunity
of those people to come to Salvation; especially, since the Omniscience of God
knew about this, and that it was impossible that the Father would let Jesus
suffer on the Cross for creatures that will not have the chance to accept Him
due to God’s own impassibility, since this would be an ignominious offence to
the Sacredness of Lord Jesus’s Holy Blood spilled in vain.
AS a
consequence, becomes necessary to profess that God applies freely the merits of
Christ’s atonement to all those who due to an invincible impossibility, are
deprived from coming to Jesus for salvation. That is the case where mentally
ill have no idea of who Jesus is, or righteous people who by geographical or
cultural isolation never heard of Jesus (Ro 2:14-16), and also those children
that have been victims of abortion, miscarriage or premature death. Some
examples of this we have in Jeremiah, John the Baptist and St Paul, who were
cleaned from Original Sin and sanctified with the Holy Spirit even before being
born (Jr 1:5; Lk 1:15; Gal 1:15).
Only
through the freely application of Jesus’s atonement to all these class of
humans, all aspects of God’s Plan are covered for those cases. God’s will to
save all humans is accomplished, only through Jesus’s atonement these are
saved, those innocent people are dealt justly, Satan is defeated, and God’s
Perfect Justice is fully satisfied.
"Let
the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of
heaven belongs to such as these."
Matthew
19:14
Omar Flores
(1) Augustin of Hippo, On Merit and the Forgiveness of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants, Book
1, Chapter 21(16)
(2) Thomas
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Supplementum
Tertiae Partis, Question 71, Article 7, Reply 1.
(3) The
Hope Of Salvation For Infants Who Die
Without Being Baptised, Catholic
International Theological Commission, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html
Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Book 2, Section 2: 25, edit.1963
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