Tag: Deuteronomy 29

Do Babies Go To Hell?

A number of years ago I was recruited by an outgoing youth pastor to join the transition team. My role was to mentor/advise the younger people on the team who were actually running the Jr/Sr High Youth Groups as well as to run the grade 6-12 Sunday School. It was one single class and so required some experience to wrangle.

Anyhow, on my first day I did a get-to-know-you exercise with the 80+ students where they had to tell me their first name, favourite movie, and give me one question they have always had about God, church, or faith. The questions were mostly outstanding. But one in particular has been asked many, many times before.

“Do aborted babies go to hell?”

As soon as the question was asked, the whole assembly demanded I answer it. I initially said that the Bible does not address this topic directly, so we can’t say definitively how God judges this group. You could almost FEEL the tension in the room! But I went on to say that what we know of God’s character as revealed in the Bible leads me to say that there is an ‘age of accountability’ (which is likely different for different people). And before that God will extend grace. I think that those babies will be in heaven with God.

The reason I share this story is because of what we read today. There are two applicable passages:

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those that are revealed belong to us and our descendants forever, so that we might obey all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 29:29 (NET)

Gather the people—men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners in your villages—so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law. Then their children, who have not known this law, will also hear about and learn to fear the Lord your God for as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Deuteronomy 31:12-13 (NET)

We can see that there are things that God has not revealed to us, the implication is that we are not accountable for those things because we are ignorant of them. Moreover, God asks that the law be read every seven years “so [the people] may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God”. God wants people to choose to give their lives to Him. So, while He extends grace to those who are unable to understand, He also holds accountable those who have seen/heard/had-access-to the truth. Whether that is the General Revelation of His creation or the Special Revelation of His Word.

In summary: No, I do not believe babies will go to hell. That said, I think we underestimate BOTH God’s Grace as well as God’s Justice.

Deuteronomy 29:2-31:29 | 079/365

Does God Delight in Destruction?

Today’s devotional is a brief apologetic note.

It comes from the blessings and cursing section. The the blessing that is pronounced features some pretty noteworthy warnings, and the curse the is pronounced is… long. Very long. And quite descriptive. And both the blessing and the cursing are conditional on the actions of the people. And before I get to the apologetic note, I want to point out that God is not a blustery wind-bag. He means what He says. So we should expect that if Israel is disobedient in the ways described, the consequences described should come to pass. Moses himself said that this is how you will know a true prophet, right? So let’s keep our eyes on Deuteronomy 28 as we continue to read through the Old Testament together.

It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. 

Deuteronomy 28:63(NASB)

Does the Lord really DELIGHT in the destruction of the disobedient? Most people will cite Ezekiel and say that this cannot be true:

Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord GOD, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?

Ezekiel 18:23 (NASB)

It’s worth noting that these are two different words in Hebrew, even though they are the same English word. The word in Deuteronomy means “to be glad or rejoice“. The one in Ezekiel means “to be pleased in or inclined toward“. The latter is indicative of God’s will, desire, or preference. The former shows that God is pleased when justice is done. A worker earns his wages (1 Timothy 5:18), so the question is this: what are you earning? What wage will be paid to you?

It is God’s desire that all should be saved, but He will still rejoice when justice is done. We were told earlier in Deuteronomy to “have no pity for the guilty”. God won’t.

Deuteronomy 26:1-29:1 | 078/365