Where Do Babies Go When They Die?

Where do children go when they die? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Oh, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

We'd love to hear from you. Our phone lines will be open for the next 25 minutes or so. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Now, you can also post your question on one of our social media sites. In fact, you can watch Adriel right now live on YouTube and send him your question that way. Of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, let's go to Don calling in from Kansas. Don, what's your question for Adriel? I am questioning when in Genesis, where Eve is presented, or the woman is presented to Adam, and he said, this is bone in my bone, flesh in my flesh. But then after the sin, it seems like Adam basically calls her Eve, the mother of the living. Is there a little bit of disconnect there, or I'm maybe just reading this? I thought that that used to be a compliment, the second one. But I am wondering if there's a little bit of disconnect there because of the sin.

Hey, Don, great question. I actually think it's not a disconnect, but that it is more than a compliment even, but this is a picture of restoration. This is a picture of the grace of God at work in them as a couple and moving forward with hope for humanity. Of course, you have the promise of the gospel in Genesis 3, verse 15. Things start off, Adam is overjoyed. He just bursts out in song when he sees Eve. He says in chapter 2, verse 23, this at last is bone in my bones and flesh in my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. And then in chapter 3, after the fall, the text that you're referring to, verse 20 says, the man called his wife Eve because she was the mother of all living. And this is where you do see a real clear picture of the grace of God at work in their lives. The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Now, a lot of people miss this.

They don't take note of this. I mean, what are the implications here? An animal has been killed, an animal has died, and now they are clothed in the skins of this animal to cover their nakedness and their shame. And Eve is given this glorious title, the mother of all living. And we're looking forward to the fulfillment of the promise where God said the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent. In other words, that serpent that deceived you, that serpent that has led to this death and destruction, he is going to be crushed by who?

By the offspring of Eve. And so it's a beautiful picture of the fall of man, which is terrible, but then a beautiful picture of that restoration, that promise that God brings about. The word of God is so amazing, friends. I mean, here at the very beginning, we're seeing death and new life and a promise that is traced throughout the pages of the entire Bible, culminating, finding its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is one coherent story, one coherent plan of redemption from beginning to end. And we're getting glimpses of that.

We're getting it in seed form here already in Genesis chapter three. Don, thank you for that question. Great explanation. And Don, thank you so much for listening to CORE Christianity. By the way, if you are a regular listener to the CORE, just want to let you know that we are a listener supported ministry. We count on people just like you to keep us on the air. We don't get money from a church or denomination.

We don't play commercials on this show. We really do depend on you. And if you'd like to get involved with supporting CORE Christianity, you can find out more at our website, corechristianity.com. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the CORE. You can call us 24 hours a day and leave us your voicemail at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners named John. Dear Pastor Adrian, recently I have heard from several sources that one of the worst sins of omission that a believer can commit is to neglect being active in church.

The passage most often referred to is Hebrews 10, 24 through 30. I have not been active in church for some time. I have several health problems that set my strength and make socializing difficult.

I work full time and am a caregiver for my mother who has dementia. I am lucky if I have 20 minutes each day to relax. I read my Bible and pray every day. I read theology. I listen to Christian podcasts and I live stream the Sunday morning worship service. Based on what I've been hearing about church involvement, I feel that God is displeased with me. But I don't see how I can be active in church.

I'm already exhausted. What do you think, Pastor Adrian? John, my heart goes out to you and my heart goes out to all of those who are weighed down, burdened, tired. I mean, you have a lot on your plate, and may the Lord grant you grace in the filling of His Spirit as you care for your mother. May the Lord be with her as well. And the text of scripture that you referred to was Hebrews 10, verse 24.

Let me just read it. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. First, first we have to say, and this is just, again, on the basis of God's Word, right? God calls us to worship.

He invites us into His presence. You think of the Sabbath command. You think about the fact that the early disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ gathered together on the first day of the week, every week, to break bread, to hear the preaching and teaching of the apostles, to fellowship. And this is a part of the rhythms of the Christian life, a necessary part of the rhythms of the Christian life.

And I would never ever want to minimize the importance there. I mean, it's a matter of being obedient to God. I recognize that there are some people who are bedridden, who are unable to be there. There are Christians who live in places where the persecution is heavy and they're not able to gather together on the Lord's day, on Sunday, to worship. But I think for the rest of us, doing everything that we can to be there, to worship together with God's people, it's so important. And there, I mean, you think of the text that you just brought up in Hebrews chapter 10, right? So that we can encourage each other to love and good works, especially as we see the day drawing near. In other words, in light of the difficulties that we face in the world, the author of the Hebrews is saying, in light of the coming of our Lord, we need to be together, encouraging each other. He goes and he says earlier in chapter 3, exhorting one another day by day, lest we're hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And so we need that mutual encouragement and accountability.

We need to be under the ministry of the Word. But one of the things you said that I just want to touch on briefly is you said, I'm just so exhausted. I don't see how I can really contribute, you know, socializing all of that stuff. That's hard for me.

I can't sign up to serve in the nursery or to sign up for the greeter team or whatever it is. I just feel like I can't do anything. And I understand that, and here's what I want to say to you. As one who is tired and exhausted, the church ought to be a place, the Sunday gathering ought to be a place where we go tired and exhausted, but ready to receive the grace, the goodness, the rest that Jesus offers to us. You remember when Jesus, you know, when he was talking to the sisters, Mary and Martha, and Martha is busying herself in the kitchen. She's doing all these things. She's beginning to get upset with her sister, Mary, because Mary is doing what she's sitting at the feet of Jesus, hearing his word. And as she grows bitter, the Lord, what does he say to her? He says, Martha, Martha, you're just overwhelmed. You're burdened by so many things. Your sister has done the right thing.

She's chosen the right thing. What you ought to do is come and sit at my feet. Or you think about Jesus to Peter and the disciples in the upper room. What does Jesus do?

He washes their feet. I like to think of Christian worship when we gather together on the Lord's day as sitting at the feet of Jesus to be washed by him, hearing the words that he gave at the end of Matthew 11. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. And so going to church, I'm saying you should go. You need to go.

We need to go. We need to be in solid churches where the word of God is being proclaimed. And we go not first and foremost to do.

This is where a lot of people get confused. You know, sometimes you hear that saying, don't ask what your church can do for you, but what you can do for your church or whatever, right? The main thing is what ministry are you signed up for and what are you doing?

And sure, it's great to serve and we ought to encourage each other. But first and foremost, friends, when you think about going to church, you should see it as I'm going not first and foremost to serve, but to sit at the feet of Jesus, to be washed by him, to hear the word of God, to receive it into my heart, to be encouraged, nourished, strengthened. And so my hope would be, one, that you're in a church that's preaching that, that's proclaiming the gospel of the forgiveness of sins, that's nourishing the body with the word of God so that when you go, you can sit at the feet of Jesus instead of hearing just a bunch of, you know, here's how you need to do better and try harder and sign up for this or that ministry.

Again, there's nothing wrong with those things, with signing up for things to serve. But that's not the main reason we go to church. We go to church to receive the grace of the Lord and to worship together with the people of God. And so I, you know, recognizing the situation that you're in and the uniqueness of your particular situation, my encouragement would be, brother, do everything you can to go and gather with the saints and sit at the feet of Jesus because God calls you to worship. He calls us to worship. And there are times we're not able to, due to sickness, due to any number of things.

Right now you're caring for your mother, and I imagine that that's got to be so difficult. May the Lord give you grace and strength, and may he help you to find, with diseases, what he gives you, that that rest, that soul rest that Jesus offers to all those who come to him and are heavy laden. God bless you, John. That's so well said.

Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, maybe something going on in your own Christian life, and you really are struggling in some way, hey, we'd love to hear from you and even pray for you here at the Core. Or maybe you have some doubts about the Christian faith.

Maybe you consider yourself to be an agnostic or an atheist. We are always open to your questions as well. Here's the number. It's 833-THECORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Our phone lines will be open for the next 12 minutes or so, so now is the time to call us.

You know, there's been a lot of discussion about abortion recently in our culture, mainly with the anniversary of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision. And we've actually designed a devotional that will help you understand God's view for life. We'd like to make that available to you today.

That's right. The devotional is called Fearfully Made, and it's yours for free over at corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Corechristianity.com forward slash offers. And as Bill said, this gets at the question of life and life from a biblical perspective, why we as Christians ought to value it, cherish it, and defend it, stand up for it. And so get a hold, again, of this resource called Fearfully Made. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers, and look for this wonderful devotion, Fearfully Made. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the Core, and you can call us with your voicemail and leave us one anytime, 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

Here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Ray in Sacramento, California. I was just wondering, I've heard various preachers give different viewpoints on the saving of children and the accountability of children. And I was wondering if you could possibly speak on your show about is there a certain age of accountability where they are no longer given full free pass to heaven? If there's any scripture that specifically mentions that, because I hear some people say that all children basically get a free pass. I've heard some say that's not true.

I've heard some say that stops at a certain age. I'm just wondering if anybody can possibly explain that. Thank you. Great question.

And of course, we have to confess at the outset that there's some speculating here. But this question strikes right at the heart of the many people who have had miscarriages or who have lost a child early on. What do you say? And my answer is those children are in the hands of a merciful and good and gracious God. One text that people oftentimes go to, 1 and 2 Samuel, you think of the situation with David and Bathsheba and the child that died. And David is mourning, he's devastated, he's praying and fasting, asking God to spare this child's life. And the child dies. And he gets up, he washes his face, he has a meal, and everybody's wondering what's going on.

What do we say to him? And basically he says, look, I know that he's not going to come back. But I'm going to go to the child. And so some people will say, well, he had a hope, a confidence that he was going to see his baby again.

And I think that's a fair way to interpret that text. Now, we recognize that all children are born in sin, like all of us. Adam's sin, the guilt of Adam's sin, is imputed to everyone, every man, woman, child, right, from birth immediately.

There's nothing that mediates that imputation. But we believe that even despite this, right, it's not that children just go to heaven because they're perfect and innocent and don't have original sin. We believe that God in his mercy and in his grace, even despite this, is able to save whoever he wants. And so we entrust our children into the hands of a good and merciful God. Now, you also asked about an age of accountability.

And again, here, there have been a lot of speculations. We do know that there are more severe judgments based on what individuals know, right? Like Jesus oftentimes in the New Testament talks about how the religious leaders, the scribes, and the Pharisees are going to face a greater condemnation.

Why? Because they weren't ignorant. I mean, they had heard the word of God over and over and over again.

They preached it, they taught it, and yet they rejected it. And so God is perfectly just and God is abundantly good. And so when we have these kinds of questions, we're, okay, what's going on?

How do we understand this? I think what we have to do is say, Lord, you haven't spoken to this super clearly and you haven't given us, you know, it's not like you can find a verse in the Bible that says the age of accountability is five years old or seven years old or whatever. But we know that you're good, and we know that you're just, and we know that we can trust you, and we know that you call all of us, together with our children, to turn to you and to receive your grace, and that you've promised that the gospel is even for the little children.

I just was referencing that text at the end of Matthew chapter 11, you know, where Jesus says, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. Leading up to that, he says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things, the mysteries of the kingdom, from the wise and the prudent, you know, from the scribes and the Pharisees, and you've revealed them to the babes. Jesus said, you know, let the little children come to me, for to such as these belongs the kingdom of God. Jesus extends his hands to the little children, and as I said, they are in the hands of a good and gracious God. Thanks for that question.

Great response. Thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, we'd love to hear from you. I also want to remind you about that wonderful resource we have. It's basically on the pro-life issue, on the sanctity of human life and how God views life. It's called Fearfully Made. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

Also, just a programming note for you, when we finish up this live episode of Core Christianity, we're going to be recording a second episode here in just a few minutes, so if you weren't able to call in, you can feel free to still call us with your question about the Bible or the Christian life, doctrine, theology, you name it. Our phone lines will be open for the next 30 minutes or so, so now's the time to give us a call. Especially if you're scared of being on the air live. Maybe this is your perfect chance to call in and ask a question, although it's not that scary. Trust me, it's not that bad, so give us a call.

You know, Adriel is not scary at all. He's actually very gracious, so feel free to call. Even with tough questions from Leviticus, he's more than happy to answer those for you. This is just my favorite, Bill. Thanks for always asking for those questions specifically, the ones from Leviticus.

Thanks. By the way, we have a YouTube channel, too, and you can submit your question through YouTube and watch Adriel live in the studio every day at 1130 a.m. Pacific time. Here's a YouTube question from one of our listeners named Linz. He says, Does the Holy Spirit ever leave us even if we are caught in sin, and does the Holy Spirit come back if we don't do that sin again? Well, in Psalm 51, after David had sinned, there in the situation with Bathsheba, he took her and murdered her husband. He's confronted by Nathan the prophet, and at one point he says to the Lord, Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Now, for believers under the New Covenant, I don't believe that the Spirit of God will ever abandon us, even when we sin. Now, we can grieve the Holy Spirit. Paul talks about this in the book of Ephesians, and that means that we'll have a sense of maybe the Spirit's presence diminishing in our lives as we're continuing in a pattern of sinful behavior. We feel spiritually dry and weak, convicted of our sins, but I think that the Spirit never abandons us. And again, in the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our future inheritance. In other words, that gift of the Holy Spirit that we have right now is God's down payment, the guarantee that ours is the fullness of the new creation. Now, does this mean that we should just, well, great, I'm just going to go on sinning? Well, absolutely not. Paul says in the book of Romans, should we continue in sin that grace may abound?

No way. As we're filled with the Spirit and we live lives in obedience to God and to His word, we're convicted of our sins. We're not enabled to enjoy sin as we once did, apart from God, outside of Christ.

We just can't. If you claim to be a Christian, and you're living completely apart from the truth of God's word, you're not a part of a church, you're living in open sin and disobedience to God, and you're doing so happily, it doesn't bother you at all. You're just like, this is just how I live, and I think God is fine with it. Well, there's a serious problem there, because when the Spirit of God lives in us, we are indeed convicted of our sins, not able to go down that path as we once did, but that doesn't mean we won't struggle. And for those of you who struggle and you're grieved by your sins, I just want to encourage you by saying, God will never leave you or forsake you. This is what the Scriptures say. He will never leave us or forsake us. Hebrews chapter 13, I'll start at verse 5. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we can confidently say, The Lord is my Helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me? If you've been wrestling with sin, and you've been grieving the Holy Spirit, you have that spiritual dryness in your life. You recognize it. You're not doing the things that you should do. Hear my words right now and take this as an opportunity to turn to the Lord and say, God, I know I've not been following you like I should. I know that I've been grieving your Spirit. You've been so good to me. I've had such sweet times of fellowship with you and with your people. But lately, I've been neglecting you and your word and your truth and turning away from you.

Have mercy upon me right now, Lord, and forgive me and let me experience that fresh filling of your Holy Spirit that I might love you and follow you even as you have first loved me, Lord. Thanks for that question. Just going back to something you said there a moment ago. If a person is in sin, doesn't feel any sort of conviction or guilt, basically, as you said, kind of happy about living their sinful life and yet claims to be a Christian, can we assume that they really haven't accepted Christ? They don't actually have the Holy Spirit in their life?

At the end of the day, we just have to say, look, a person can claim all sorts of things, can say all sorts of things. I believe in Jesus. And we have to ask ourselves, what is true faith? James says faith without works is dead. It doesn't mean that your faith plus your works saves you. But it does mean that true faith in Jesus Christ looks like something. Now, in all of our lives, we fall short immensely. But I do believe, Bill, as I said, that when the Spirit of God comes into your life, if you turn to Christ, that one of the things you'll begin to see is the Spirit of God chipping away at the rough edges in your life, a conviction over sin. People who claim to follow Christ but could care less about God's word, about God's law, about their sin, and they're just going on in it.

It's sort of peace, peace where there is no peace. That is a really scary place to be because it could be an indicator of the fact that maybe you are just saying, oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but truly you've not laid hold of him yet by faith. And so turn to him now. God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.