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Title of my sermon tonight is where do babies go when they die? Where do babies go when they die? This is a question that people have often asked throughout history and there are some people who have some pretty strange beliefs about this and so that's why this needs to be covered. I mentioned to one of my children that this is what I was going to be preaching on tonight and she said, well dad, everybody knows the answer to that question. You know what, I wish that were the case but everybody does not know the answer to this question and in fact there's a religion with a billion people in it that's got a very wrong answer to this question and then there are some other false religions that have many hundreds of millions of people in them that claim the name of Christ that also have the wrong answer to this question. We're going to get into that later in the sermon but let's see, first of all, what does the Bible teach about where babies go when they die? And I'm talking about babies that would die in their mother's womb, for example, because we believe that life begins at conception and we have a definition of conception that matches the Bible's teaching which is when the seed from the man comes together with the egg of the woman. That's where life begins, okay? That's where that egg and that seed come together and form a new life, it begins to grow and multiply and be alive. So don't let anybody ever give you a different definition of what conception means or try to tell you, well, it's a couple weeks later when it implants, nope, wrong. It's when that seed and egg come together, you say, prove it from the Bible, through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, to conceive seed and you'll notice that throughout the Bible those terms are used together, conceive seed. Well guess what, the seed is only there at that time, when the seed and the egg come together, okay? A few weeks later when that, you know, 7 to 14 days later when that developing blastocyst implants in the wall of the uterus, there's no seed there. Seed's been gone for a week, okay? So we know biblically and scientifically that conception takes place when that egg and that seed join together and it's fertilized so we would say conception is fertilization of that egg and it begins right away to multiply and to grow and you got the DNA from dad and the DNA from mom and that is a living creature right there created by God, it is alive and of course the left wing liberals of our day, the Democratic Party or whoever else, they want to define life beginning as when a baby's born, when it breathes its first breath outside the womb, that's when it's wrong because think about how the Bible teaches that even John the Baptist leaped in his mother's womb when Jesus Christ was near. Are you telling me that he uses a blob of tissue hopping around in there? No, he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb, he's a human being. God knew us when we were in our mother's womb, the Bible tells us and of course any scientific definition would say that it's alive, no matter what scientific definition you put on life, a baby in its mother's womb fits all those things, okay? And so therefore when we say where do babies go when they die, we're including babies in the womb or we're including babies that die outside the womb. Maybe they die the day that they're born or maybe they die when they're six months old or nine months old or even where does a little toddler go when it dies and it's not old enough to even understand these things and the answer is that when babies die they go to heaven and that is the unequivocal answer, it doesn't matter who their parents are, it doesn't matter if their parents are Christian or Buddhist or Muslim or Hindu, babies when they die go straight to heaven. Now I'm going to give you some biblical evidence for that, then I'm going to show you the New Testament's doctrine of why babies go to heaven, okay? But let's start out here in Job, I think this is a pretty good passage to start in. Job chapter 3 verse 11 says, why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? Now let me tell you something, in order to give up the ghost, you got to have the ghost. This shows that this baby in its mother's womb and its mother's belly has a ghost or spirit, spirit and ghost are the exact same word in the Bible, it had a spirit, it was alive and he's saying, you know what, I just wish I would have died when I was in my mother's womb. Job is so miserable right now, he wishes that he would have died in the womb. He said, why did the knees prevent me or why the breasts that I should suck? For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept then had I been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth which built desolate places for themselves or with princes that had gold who filled their houses with silver or as in hidden untimely birth I had not been as infants which never saw light there, now hold on, notice that word there, where? Where babies go when they die is the answer to that, there the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary be at rest, there the prisoners rest together, they hear not the voice of the oppressor, the small and great are there and the servant is free from his master. You know what it's talking about? It's talking about going to heaven when you die and being in a place, there is a place. He's saying, look, if I would have died in my mother's womb, if I would have died the day I was born, if I would have been a miscarriage or an untimely birth, I would have gone there to that place where the wicked cease from troubling, where the weary be at rest, where the prisoners rest together, where the servant is free from his master. That's a good place. That's not hell. That's all a good place. Those are all good things. Those are all blessed things. So he's saying, look, I'd rather have just died in the womb because then I would have just gone straight to heaven. I would have been at rest. I would have been in a good place. Now what is an untimely birth? Well, if you think about it, there's a certain due date because untimely has to do with something not being on time. There's a due date when a woman's pregnant and she's supposed to give birth on a certain date. Well, let's say she's only three months along and she gives birth. You know what that means? Death. What if she's four months along, five months along, six months along? You know, a lot of times that's meaning it's a miscarriage. That's a fatality right there. So therefore, when he says an untimely birth, he's referring to a miscarriage. He's referring to a woman giving birth months early because something went wrong and the baby dies. Okay. Flip over to Ecclesiastes. There's a similar scripture in Ecclesiastes if you flip over there to Chapter 6. But we have the first piece of evidence, Job Chapter 3, where the Bible is saying, look, Job feels that he would have been better off if he would have just been a miscarriage or died as a baby. Why? Because he's going to a good place if he would have died as a baby. Well, look at Ecclesiastes Chapter 6, Verse 3, if a man beget a hundred children and live many years so that the days of his years be many and his soul be not filled with good and also that he have no burial, I say that an untimely birth, what's an untimely birth? Miscarriage is what we would call it, right? Is better than he. Why? For he cometh in with vanity and departeth in darkness and his name shall be covered with darkness. Moreover, he hath not seen the sun nor known anything. This hath more rest than the other. Okay. So, again, if we tie that in and compare scripture with scripture to Job Chapter 3, this is not talking about a baby just ceasing to exist. Rest does not mean you stop existing. It means you're taking it easy. It means there's no stress. It means that you're not under pressure or having to work hard or anything like that. You know, rest is to relax, okay? And the Bible explained it a little more thoroughly in Job that that place of rest is a good place, is a wonderful place, a place that people go after they die. And of course, we know that place to be, heaven. Go to 2 Samuel Chapter 12. This is the most famous example that people would typically point to. If they have the right belief, if they have the correct belief that babies go to heaven when they die, they would often point to King David. And this particular child in this story is the product of adultery, right? This baby is the product of David's adultery with Bathsheba. But like I said earlier in the sermon, it doesn't matter who your parents are, it doesn't matter the circumstances of conception, all babies go to heaven when they die. All of them, without exception, even if they're conceived in adultery in this case. Because look what the Bible says in 2 Samuel Chapter 12, Verse 21. Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive, but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. Now this is King David, he's being confronted by his servants. They don't understand why he grieved and cried and fasted and begged God while the baby was alive. When the baby died, they thought he was really going to get depressed. But when the baby died, he basically stopped mourning. He washed up, ate food, worshiped the Lord, praised God, and went on with his life. And they said, well, this doesn't even make sense. While the baby's alive, you're weeping and crying, and then when it dies, you're fine? And he explains why. Look at Verse 22 there. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live? Because he'd already been told that the child was going to die as a punishment for his sin. But now he's dead. Wherefore should I fast? Why should I fast? He's saying, Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. So he's saying, look, I am going to go to him. Well, is King David going to heaven or hell? King David's going to heaven. And he's saying, look, I'm not sad because I'm going to go to the child. Now look, if that child went to hell, you think David's just going to be like, no problem. What's for dinner? That'd be even more depressing. But he's not depressed. Why? Because when we lose a loved one, we do not mourn as those who have no hope. That's what the Bible says. Because even so, we believe that even as Jesus died and was buried and rose again, and we believe that those that are asleep in Jesus will be resurrected and Christ will bring with him at the second coming. And that's all laid out in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And so here he says, I will go to the child. Go to Matthew chapter 2. So those are three pretty strong pieces of evidence that I would point to that explain this from an Old Testament perspective, from Job and Ecclesiastes and 2 Samuel, just showing that babies go to heaven when they die. They don't go to hell or limbo or anywhere else, right? So let's look at Matthew. This is a scripture about when Jesus was born and Herod really wanted baby Jesus to be murdered. So he doesn't know where baby Jesus is, but he had his Bible scholars tell him where Jesus was supposed to be born. And he knew that Jesus had been born because there was a star in the east and the wise men came and they said that the King of the Jews is born. And so he diligently inquired of them, what time did the star appear? Because he figured when the star appeared, that's probably around the time that Jesus was born. So he inquires diligently to these astronomers what time the star appeared, because astronomy has always been a big thing in our world. In fact, in the past, it was bigger than it is now. The ancient world loved astronomy. It doesn't matter what culture you're looking up and you're looking at artifacts and archeology. I mean, it's all about astronomy. Why? Because back in those days, they didn't have GPS. They didn't have a lot of good maps and things. So they used astronomy to tell them everything about the world that we live in. I mean, as far as just navigating a ship in the sea. In the daytime, they could use the sun, but at night they would navigate by the stars. It's like a map in heaven if you were an expert at reading it. And they were, because that's what they did. So they charted the stars, they charted the planets, and they would also use astronomy to measure the size of the earth and to measure the distances between different places on the earth, because they could triangulate using trigonometry. Trigonometry goes back thousands of years, and they were able to triangulate different locations with the locations of different stars and sightings. And that got more and more advanced as time went on. So these guys are into astronomy, and this star appears. And it's a star that is a sign of the fact that Jesus has been born. They follow the star. The star rests over Bethlehem. They find the baby Jesus. But they know from a dream that God reveals to them that Herod wants to kill the child. So they don't tell Herod. They just leave the country. They don't show him where Jesus is. And Joseph is warned to take the baby and flee down into Egypt. But Herod, he wants to see baby Jesus wiped out so bad that he's willing to just kill every child in that area from two years old and under. So look what the Bible says in Matthew, chapter 2, verse 16. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wrath and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rhema was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted, because they are not. Now why Rachel? Because of the fact that if you remember Rachel is one of Israel's wives, and she was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. And Bethlehem is right there near the land of Benjamin. It's kind of on a border or close to being between Judah and Benjamin. Jerusalem is also kind of right there, the border between Judah and Benjamin. So basically there are Benjamite children that are getting wiped out. So Rachel weeping for her children. Now here's a great tip on studying the Bible. When you're reading the Bible in the New Testament and it tells you it's written in Jeremiah the prophet, you can often learn a lot if you actually go back and look up that quote and then compare scripture with scripture and you can learn something new. So let's keep our finger in Matthew 2. Let's look up the quote in Jeremiah chapter 31. So remember the Bible tells us that this event where Herod massacres a bunch of children from two years old and under is a fulfillment of what? Jeremiah the prophet. Rachel weeping for her children. Okay. Let's look up that scripture. Verse 15 of Jeremiah 31, thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Rhema, lamentation and bitter weeping. Sound familiar? Rachel, which is obviously the same as Rachel, it's just being spelled differently in a different language, different time. Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children because they were not. Now they were not means they're dead. Any time the Bible says he is not, it means he's dead. Okay. That's what the Bible often uses. But let's keep reading because if we keep reading, we get a little more insight. It says in verse 16, thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy, and there is hope in thine hands, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. Now, what does that say about the children? Because we know what it's about, don't we? Now in Jeremiah 31, they might not have known what it was about back then. They probably didn't. But do we know what it's about? Well, the Bible tells us that this was a prophecy of the children that were massacred at the time of Christ's birth, and those babies were how old? Two years and under. And what does the Bible say? Hey, don't weep. Weep not. Be comforted. Why? Because they're coming back. They're coming back. They're not just gone. They're not just dead. They're not just forgotten forever. They're certainly not in hell or limbo or purgatory or somewhere like that. They are going to come again from the land of the enemy. They will come again to their own border. Now when's that going to happen? Well, of course there's going to be the great resurrection of the dead. You see, when a person dies and they are saved, they go straight to heaven. If a person dies and they're not saved, they go straight to hell. But the body doesn't go anywhere. Otherwise they would just sort of like disappear and we'd be left with a pile of clothes when someone died. No, the body stays here, right? And we bury the body. Well, someday there's going to be a bodily resurrection of the dead. And when that bodily resurrection of the dead takes place for the saved, thereafter, a few years later, there's going to be the millennial reign of Christ on this earth where those who were saved, those who were in Christ, will live and reign with Christ for a thousand years. And the Bible calls this the resurrection. It also calls it the regeneration. And Jesus told his disciples, he said, in the regeneration, you 12 disciples are going to sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So all of the Old Testament saints from the 12 tribes of Israel, everybody who was saved when they died is going to be resurrected, right? All the dead in Christ will be resurrected and they're going to live on this earth. And so these babies that died, they went to heaven because all babies go to heaven as we're seeing in the, in the scripture. And so are they going to come again? Yeah, because in the millennium, these babies will be all grown up by then. Of course, they're already all grown up 2000 years later and they are going to be on this earth and this scripture will literally be fulfilled when the dead saints of the Old Testament are living in Israel in the millennium and the 12 apostles of the lamb are ruling over the 12 tribes of Israel. Amen. Here you go. They're coming back. So is this true? Jeremiah 31, 15 through 17, that these babies two years old and under, they're going to come back into the land. They're going to come back into the land of Israel. They're going to be back and there's no need to mourn for them like those who have no hope because you will see them again. I mean, can you imagine having your two year old ripped away from you and murdered by some king? I mean, that's horrible, isn't it? Your one year old baby ripped from your house by some soldier and murdered by Herod's men. You're going to be weeping, but he says, you know what, there's hope. You're going to see them again. And you know, every mother who's, who's had a miscarriage, every mother who's had a baby or a small child die, Hey, you can take comfort in the fact that that baby is in heaven right now. And if you are saved today, you will see that child again someday. And so there's no need to mourn like those who have no hope. Now that being said, of course it's normal for mothers who lose a child to mourn. Don't ever tell them stop mourning, you know, wait, you got to mourn a reasonable amount of time. That's normal. That's natural. But you don't mourn like those who have no hope. It doesn't say we don't mourn. Of course we mourn, but we don't mourn like those who have no hope. We mourn like those who do have hope. Okay. And so it's not as devastating or destructive to us as believers to lose a loved one, especially when we know that loved one is saved. And when it's a baby or a toddler, we know they're saved. Okay. Now, how do we know they're saved? We'll go to Romans chapter seven. First of all, we've seen some scripture that just kind of flat out told us, hey, untimely birds, children to and under, babies who die, even a product of adultery. We see some evidence pointing to the fact that they're going to heaven. But then the question is, why do they go to heaven, though, right? So we understand what happens to a baby when it dies. We understand where the baby goes when it dies or the toddler. But now the question is why. Why does a baby go to heaven when it dies? Why does a toddler go to heaven when it dies? Well, to me, the answer is obvious. Okay. Because the reason that people go to hell is to be punished for their sins. Okay. Now, a lot of people will say, well, the reason you go to hell is because you didn't believe in Jesus. Obviously that's true if you're looking at it that way. But that's not just the only reason people go to hell is because they didn't believe in Jesus. No, no. They were punished for their sins. Because the Bible says the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and burneth stone, which is the second death. Why are people actually going to hell? They're going to hell because they lied, they stole, they murdered, they committed adultery, they blasphemed God, whatever. All of our sins are what condemn us to hell. Now Jesus Christ is the Savior. Jesus Christ is the solution. Jesus Christ is the Redeemer. So you could say, well, they went to hell because they didn't take the salvation. They didn't take the redemption. But what are they actually going to hell for? They're actually going to hell for their sins. And you could also turn that around and say, well, they didn't take the escape. They didn't take the salvation that was offered. But at the end of the day, they're going to hell for their sins. Now, can somebody explain to me how a baby in its mother's womb could even sin? How could it sin? Look through all the commandments in the Bible, and I want you to show me which commandment a baby in its mother's womb could possibly commit. Can a baby in its mother's womb commit adultery? Can it look on a woman to lust after her? No. Can it steal? Can it commit murder? Can it get angry at its brother without a cause, in the case of twins? Can it get angry with its brother without a cause? Can it take the name of the Lord its God in vain? Can it make a graven image? Can it have other gods before the Lord? I mean, stop and think about it. What in the world sin could a baby in its mother's womb possibly commit? Go through the Ten Commandments. Go through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Go through the whole Bible and show me what in the world sin a baby in its mother's womb could possibly commit. Okay. Now I don't believe for one second that a baby that's one day old is capable of sin. Because what does a baby that's one day old do? Eat, sleep, cry, go to the bathroom. What else does it do? I mean, it might coo happily at times, cry. Is crying a sin? Is eating a sin? Is going to the bathroom a sin? I mean, what in the world is this baby doing? This baby is totally innocent. Now I'm going to give you both sides and play the devil's advocate here and say, well, people will point to the scripture, I believe it's Psalm 58, the wicked go astray as soon as they're born speaking lies. This is what the Bible calls, or not this is what the Bible calls, this is what I would call or people would call hyperbole or exaggeration, okay? And a lot of people freak out when you say, oh, you're saying the Bible is exaggerating? The Bible frequently exaggerates. The Bible uses hyperbole. If you actually study the Bible and if you've read the whole Bible many times, you know there are times when the Bible will use poetry, right? And it will use really exaggerated language about, you know, oh, these people are so scared they're shaking that the whole earth is quaking, okay? Or we're as grasshoppers in their sight. These are what? Exaggerations, okay? So the Bible is basically poetically describing how just these wicked people are so rotten that just it's like their whole life they're just a bad seed from the beginning. It's not literally saying that the day they're born they tell a lie because how in the world could a baby tell a lie the day it's born? And you know what? Usually the Bible is literal, but you have to use some common sense when you're reading the Bible. Like when the Bible says there's a woman standing on the sun and she has the moon on her head and a crown of 12 stars, hint, that's not literal. There's not literally a woman standing on the sun. So you have to use a little common sense that sometimes the Bible is speaking in poetic language, figurative language, allegorical language, or even hyperbole or what we would commonly call exaggeration of just being dramatic, okay? This is what the Bible often does. You have to use a little common sense that a baby doesn't come out of its womb and literally just be like, no, mom, I didn't take that cookie out of the cookie jar. It's a newborn baby. Anybody who has a baby would know that that's ridiculous, okay? You say, oh, well, that's what it says, but you know what? People who take the Bible overly literally get all kinds of dumb doctrine. This is where the Catholics get their transubstantiation. This is my body which is broken for you. Wow, that's really your body, Jesus? No, actually it's a piece of bread that represents my body. My body's right here talking to you. I mean, think about when he says, this is my body, well, what's holding the bread? His body, okay? So you got to use some common sense, friends, or you're going to end up a Roman Catholic. You're going to think that that juice is really blood and that the bread is a literal body that you're actually chewing and swallowing the body of Christ. That's what the Roman Catholic Church believes because of an overly literal stupid interpretation of the Bible. Or you'll end up a flat earther. Oh, the pillars of the earth. That means, it's talking about a literal pillar. Yeah, the earth is his footstool. That means God literally uses the earth as an ottoman and he's in a giant armchair and he puts his feet on the literal earth as his footstool. You know, you just can't be dumb about the way you read the Bible. You got to use a little common sense, right, and understand that some things in the Bible are literal and some are figurative. Now look, we should assume things are literal, but often they're obviously figurative, okay? So the short answer to why babies and toddlers go to heaven is because they're innocent. Because you say, well, how can they go to heaven without believing in Jesus? The reason that we have to believe in Jesus is so he can save us from our sins. But if God views us as innocent, then we can just waltz right into heaven because we're innocent, right? So a little baby, a toddler is innocent in God's eyes, so they don't need salvation because they're innocent. How could you go to hell to be punished for what? They're innocent, okay? So the question then becomes how long does this innocence last, right? People are always looking for what's that age, you know, that age of accountability when they're no longer innocent. Now look what the Bible says in Romans chapter 7. What shall we say then, verse 7 of chapter 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Now here's the key that I want you to see. For without the law, sin was dead, for I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Now we know that before we were saved, we were dead in trespasses and sins. All of us, all of us before we were saved were spiritually dead but we were not born spiritually dead. Paul said I was alive once without the law but then the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Okay, now Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and if you would, flip back to Genesis chapter 2. What did Paul say in Romans 7? I want you to really get this part. This is one of the most important parts of the sermon. I was alive without the law once but the commandment came, sin revived and I died. That's an important verse in this discussion, okay? What does it mean? It means that there was a time when we were alive and then we died and then when we got saved we were resurrected, okay, spiritually speaking. Now in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were alive. Spiritually they were alive but they were in a state of innocence. Now what characterized their state of innocence? Look at Genesis chapter number 2 verse 25. The Bible says they were both naked, the man and his wife and were not ashamed. So here they are, they're in the Garden of Eden, they're totally innocent. Do they need salvation yet? They don't need salvation, they're innocent, they're fine, everything's great, they're in paradise. They are not ashamed of being naked. They don't even know that they're naked, they don't even care that they're naked. They don't even have a concept of what it even means to be naked, right? They're just happily la-da-da-da-da, stark naked, don't care. Look at Genesis, not even a fig leaf in sight. Genesis chapter 3 talks about how the serpent comes and, you know, I was going to read all this but I'm low on time for where I wanted to be in the sermon. So hopefully you know the story pretty well, go home and read it. But in Genesis chapter 3 the serpent comes and beguiles them and tricks them and says, look, if you eat of this forbidden fruit you'll be as gods, you'll know the difference between good and evil. That was the temptation, right? So they're not supposed to eat of the one tree, they can eat whatever tree they want but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the fruit that they're not supposed to eat. And so the serpent tricks them and they eat the forbidden fruit, they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and what happens as a result? The Bible says as soon as they ate, because at the end of verse 6 he did eat, what's the next breath? Verse 7, the eyes of them both were open and what's the first thing? They knew that they were naked. You see that? What's the immediate result of eating that forbidden fruit? They realize that they're naked. What do they do? They sow fig leaves together, they make an apron, they hide themselves. God confronts him and he says, hey, I heard thy voice in the garden, I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree? How did he know that they ate the tree? Obviously God knows everything but he says, look, how do you know that you're naked? You must have eaten of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Think about this. When you have a baby, do they know that they're naked? Do they care that they're naked? Okay, how about a toddler? They don't care that they're naked either and you know what, you can even get up sometimes into three, four, five or beyond. They still don't know they're naked, okay? Now I have 10 children so I have a lot of personal experience with kids running around the house and you have to tell them, put some clothes on, right? They'll run out the front door stark naked at a certain age. But then they get to a certain age where they start to cover themselves and they don't want to be naked, right? And they actually want to get dressed with the door shut. But a toddler, a baby, that changed my diaper, you know? Hey, I want to go swimming. Where are my trunks, you know? Right? Isn't that what they do? They don't care. It doesn't even matter if they mind, public. But just today, one of my toddlers, you know, the diaper needed to be changed on and, well, you know, the only toddler that's in a diaper, okay, the youngest, she just took off her diaper and said, Dad, this needs to be changed. And just, you know, she's just in the front yard and just, she just pulls up her skirt and it's like, whoa, you know? Don't do that in the front yard to the neighborhood, you know? And they'll just rip their clothes off and they don't even care, right? Why? Because they don't know that there's anything wrong with being naked. They're innocent, okay? So a lot of people want to know where's the cutoff, where's the line, where's the age of accountability. Well, it's different with everybody. I mean, different people develop at different rates. Some children develop more quickly than others. And think about it, especially someone with Down syndrome or something where they're going to develop really slowly. Obviously, that age of accountability is getting pushed way back, okay? Children that are really precocious, they're probably going to hit that age sooner, okay? So I think that the best litmus test for whether the child is at that age of accountability is if they're still running around naked, they're not to the age of accountability yet, okay? And in fact, I always say this because it's always my first thought. Whenever I see one of my kids run out naked or something, I always just say, well, there's one that's not at the age of accountability yet. That's always my first thought in my mind. And I kind of just think to myself, well, that one's not accountable yet. Doesn't even care or know that they're naked. So that's a good rule of thumb. That's biblically the sign of being an innocence, okay? So go to Romans Chapter 5. We'll finish there, Romans Chapter 5. So babies and even toddlers and even young children are in a state of innocence. Now it's pretty easy to understand how it's impossible for the baby in the womb to sin, right? I mean, I would find it hard to believe anybody would argue with that one. It's pretty easy to understand a newborn not being capable of sin. But if you look at, say, a one-year-old or a two-year-old, it's like, okay, come on. They can actually start disobeying their parents now, right? Because a child can disobey its parents when it's one and a half. I mean, you ever heard of the terrible twos? I mean, at two years old, they can say, no, please, throw a fit and everything else, right? So then it's like, okay, well, Pastor Anderson, is that going to damn them right there? Is that enough to send them to hell? But here's the thing about that, though. They're still in a state of innocence because they don't have the concept to know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, okay? So even though they get to a point where they can start doing bad things, even when they're only one or two or three, they can actually start doing bad things, and you're actually going to be disciplining them or making rules for them and telling them no, guess what? They're still not accountable because of the fact that they have no concept or understanding of that. Just as, you know, it wouldn't be right for an adult to go out naked because, you know, that would be a shameful, sinful thing to do, it's not a sin for a toddler to run out the door naked. Why? Because they don't even know any better. It's not like they're doing something. So basically, in order to sin, in order to be held accountable for your sin, in order for God to actually take you to task for your sin or punish you for your sin, you have to actually be old enough to know the difference between right and wrong, to be able to actually understand good and evil in a deep sense, and that is when they know that they're naked. So if the kid's running around naked at age three, doesn't care, and you have to tell it, shut the door, get dressed, okay, then I don't care even if that child steals something, I don't think they're held accountable for that because they don't have a concept of that. They're still developing that part of their brain or soul or whatever you want to look at it as. So look at Romans chapter five, and let's get the biblical evidence again here. Romans chapter five, verse 12, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. This is a key verse, and I want to now explain to you why there are literally a billion Roman Catholics and hundreds of millions of Orthodox and Protestants who do not believe what I'm preaching tonight. They don't believe that a baby automatically goes to heaven. Many of them or most of them believe that a baby who dies could often go to hell or a place called Limbo, which is not a place in the Bible, it's not made up, it's not from scripture, it's just made up from traditional Catholic folklore, okay. Why is it that I've had Protestants tell me to my face many times that they believe that babies are going to go to hell if they're not born to Christian parents? I've had an independent fundamental Baptist pastor tell me that he didn't believe that babies go to heaven. He thought they went to hell. Now, it's super weird, right? Well, it all goes back to a false doctrine called original sin. Now listen to me, and I want you to pay close attention here. Original sin is a false doctrine. You put that in your stupid traditional Protestant pipe and smoke it, original sin is a lie out of the pit of hell. Now, the reason why people don't understand this is because when we as Baptists hear original sin, we think, oh, that's just talking about how Adam sinned. Oh, that just means we all are born with a sin nature. That just means Adam sinned and death passed upon all men. That's not what original sin teaches. Let me tell you what the doctrine of original sin teaches. The doctrine of original sin teaches that we are personally guilty for what Adam did, that Stephen Anderson is guilty of Adam's crime in the Garden of Eden, and that God has the right to punish me for what Adam did. That is a lie. That is a false doctrine. Okay. Now, the reason that they invented this false doctrine is to justify baptizing a baby because why in the world would you baptize a baby if the baby hasn't sinned? Now, even the Catholics and the Protestants who were coming up with these heresies were smart enough to realize, okay, a newborn baby hasn't sinned yet. They were even smart enough to realize, okay, a newborn baby or a baby in its mother's womb can't sin. So here's what they said. Well, it doesn't have any actual sin, but it has original sin. And they believe that baptism washes away your sins, which baptism does not wash away your sins. And Jesus washed away your sins. But they said, well, we have to baptize this baby because we're washing away the original sin. So even though the baby doesn't have any sins of his own, he's guilty of Adam's sin, so we've got to baptize it to wash away original sin. Okay. And then if an adult convert were to get baptized, they'd say he's washing away his original sin and his actual sin that he committed. This is stupid, folks. It's a lie. It's not biblical. These bunch of pagans baptized babies because they got that from the Tower of Babel and wicked pagan religions that predated Christ, and they just wanted to mix in Christianity with their idolatry and goddess, mother goddess worship of Mary. And that's where baptizing babies came from. It's pagan. It's not biblical. That's why they don't even dunk them like the Bible says anyway unless they're orthodox, they sprinkle them. It just goes back to some other pagan ritual that has nothing to do with Christ. So they had to come up with a theological justification for baptizing a baby, so they invented this doctrine of original sin to justify it. Now, what does the Bible say in Romans 5, 12? Wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. Period. That's original sin doctrine. Nope. You know why death passed upon all men? Because all have sinned. That's why death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Okay. So what we inherited from Adam is a sinful nature. We have the tendency to sin. We have a nature that will lead us into sin so that when we get to the age where we're old enough to sin and be accountable, we're going to do it. Why? Because we're just like Dad. We're just like Adam. We have a tendency to sin. And so we will die for our own sins. And if we have Christ, we'll be saved and we will never die. But anybody who dies in their sins and goes to hell, they're not being punished for what Adam did wrong. They're being punished for what they did wrong. Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Let's keep reading. And this is a very difficult passage of scripture, so try to pay close attention. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. This is one where people twist it and say, see, nobody sinned from Adam to Moses. There was no sin. No such thing as sin because they didn't have the law yet. No. It doesn't say even over those that had not sinned. It says even over those that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgressions. They had other kinds of sins, but not a sin like Adam's sin, a different style of sin. Obviously they committed all kinds of sin. It's not like there was no sense of right and wrong before Moses came along. Good night. I mean, there's obviously the law of God written in our heart and in our conscience. Even unsaved people, even people who have never read the Bible, they know that killing is wrong. They know stealing is wrong. They know adultery is wrong. He says, but not as the offense, so also as the free gift. Verse 15, for if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. So this is the scripture that they're twisting to get their original sin doctrine. But as we read here, we see it doesn't teach original sin. Look at verse 18, therefore as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience, and this is the key, for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. So it's not that people are being punished for what Adam did thousands of years ago, it's the fact that Adam's sin caused us to be born as sinners. Because we were born with a sin nature. Death passed upon all men because all people have sinned. And we have been made sinners, and what do sinners do? Sinners gonna sin, right? That's what's gonna happen. Sinners sin. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, okay? So that's where the Bible is teaching us here that, yeah, Adam is responsible for plunging the whole human race into damnation because he made us sinners, that's why. And so we're sinners, and we go out and we sin, and then we come short of the glory of God, and then we deserve hell. But to sit there and say, oh, well, these babies have to go to hell because of what Adam did, that's stupid, and that goes against what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that the sons are not punished for the sins of the fathers, fathers are not punished for the children's sins, every man dies in his own sin, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That's what the Bible teaches. So you gotta be careful with these theological terms, you gotta know what they mean. And I mentioned this recently, but I'm gonna mention it again because some things that I say, sometimes they sound so crazy that people, they don't think I'm telling the truth or maybe it just kind of goes over their head like, oh, I don't, that can't be. So I'm gonna repeat what I said recently. The Immaculate Conception, I'm telling you, people think, and I even had people approach me like, come on, is that, are you sure? I pulled up Wikipedia and I showed people, I said, look, Wikipedia, Immaculate Conception, and they were blown away. The Immaculate Conception is not the conception of Jesus. When a Roman Catholic says they believe in the Immaculate Conception, and listen, the Immaculate Conception is a doctrine that is required to believe as a Catholic. It's not an optional belief. It's required. Okay? Does everybody understand that? It's considered a dogma and it's a required belief of all the faithful. The Immaculate Conception doctrine, it's not about Jesus being born a virgin. That's what I thought. Whenever I heard people talk about the Immaculate Conception, I just thought it's about Jesus being born of a virgin. So you're like, oh, well, yeah, we believe the same thing, or the Immaculate Reception was some Super Bowl thing that everybody brings out. Who knows what I'm talking about with that? I don't follow football, so I don't have a clue about that. But the Immaculate Reception is more biblical than the Immaculate Conception, okay? Because the Immaculate Conception is a doctrine that says that Mary was conceived without sin. That Mary was conceived in her mother's womb free from sin. That's what the Roman Catholics mean when they say Immaculate Conception. So it's not the conception of Jesus, it's the conception of Mary. Super weird doctrine, isn't it? But I guarantee you that if we asked 99% of Baptists, they'd think, oh, well, it's Jesus. I know that's what I would have thought. It's what any normal person would think, because who would even think of this crazy doctrine? Well, it's the same thing with Original Sin. When you say Original Sin's not biblical, a lot of times Baptists will freak out, like, what are you talking about? You don't believe Adam sinned in the garden? What are you talking about? You know, you don't believe we're born sinners? What are you talking about? You don't believe we have a sin nature inherited from Adam? Of course I believe all those things, but I'll tell you what I don't believe. I don't believe that God's going to damn a baby to hell because of what Adam did. And that's what the Original Sin doctrine is. If you say, I believe in Original Sin, that's what you're saying you believe in. So you've got to be careful not to use that term mistaking it for something that it's not. See, we just thought, oh, it's just the Original Sin, like the first sin. Oh, Immaculate Conception, yeah, I mean, it's just like the virgin birth. I mean, we're using common sense. Stop making so much sense. We're talking about the Catholics here. You know, we're talking about the Lutherans. We're talking about the Methodists and the Presbyterians. You've got to put common sense out the window, because they're not using common sense. They believe that God is going to send their baby to hell if they don't do an emergency baptism. That's what they do. Or they'll say, well, it's not going to go to hell, it's just going to go to limbo. I guess that's where it has to go under a rod without falling over or something, you know, like, something like limbo. Where's that in the Bible? Kind of a stupid doctrine is that. And you know, the Pope, Ratzinger, Benedict, whatever his name was, the last pope, he didn't even believe in limbo. He didn't like the limbo doctrine. So I don't know what stupid belief he had. I don't know what he believed to happen to babies when they die. But you know, we know what's going to happen to him when he dies. He's going to split hell wide open. But Catholics and Protestants alike, they have this original sin doctrine. Why? Because they want to baptize those babies. So they got to get them baptized and make sure that they go to heaven. Well, I got news for you. They're going to heaven without that baptism. And I don't care if it's a Hindu baby, a Muslim baby, a Catholic baby, Protestant baby, Baptist baby. It doesn't matter if it's an atheist baby. It doesn't matter if it's a Satan worshiper's baby. All babies and toddlers go to heaven. And why do babies and toddlers and young children go to heaven? Because God views them as innocent, therefore they are not in need of salvation because they're in innocence. And so they skate right into heaven. And that's a blessing because, you know, those of us that have lost a pregnancy or lost a loved one that was a small child or a baby, it's comforting to know that. And it's the truth. And it's biblical. So don't be fooled by these fables of the Catholics and Protestants. And you know what? This is just another reason why you should realize how bad Protestantism is. You know, if you start to go soft and think like, well, you know, the Protestants are kind of halfway saved, you know. The Lutherans, you know, kind of believe it's by faith a little bit, sort of, kind of, sometimes. You know, the Methodists, I mean, they're kind of half Baptist. They both end in ist, you know. Yeah, but you know what, though? When you start looking at this original sin doctrine and this baby baptism doctrine, it's pretty far from what the Bible teaches. And do you really think these people understand the Bible when they're sprinkling a baby? Anybody who's a baby sprinkler, I'm just going to assume that that person's not saved. Because it's super unbiblical. And so this sermon is to comfort you about where babies go when they die. And it's also just to warn you about the dangers of Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and the Orthodox Church, and some of their unbiblical heresies. And look, there are two ways to get a doctrine. You can go to the Bible, read the Bible, and say, you know what, this is what the Bible says. This is what the Bible says, that's my doctrine. Or you can have a preconceived belief and say, all right, now let's find a way to back this up from the Bible. All right, well, we know we've got to baptize babies. We know the church baptizes babies. How do we justify this? All right, let's figure something out. Enter the doctrine of original sin. Well, we know we worship Mary and pray to Mary and venerate Mary, you know. We know she's the mother of God, so let's figure out a way to justify this. Immaculate conception. See what I'm saying? These doctrines didn't come from the Bible. They were foisted upon the Bible. They're forced into the Bible. So we want to make sure that all of our doctrines are coming out of the Bible, not being put into the Bible. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and for these comforting scriptures and the knowledge that we don't have to mourn like those who have no hope when our saved loved ones die of old age. We know that they're with you, Lord, in paradise. And when the baby dies, when the toddler dies, when the young child dies, we know that that child is with you in paradise, Lord, and we're thankful for that child going to heaven when they die. Please help all of your people to study to show themselves approved and not to be fooled by fables and false teachings of the Catholics and the Catholicism light, also known as Protestantism. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.