By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
I discuss the significance of motherhood within a Christian context, emphasizing its value as a career choice and a blessing. I mention influential mothers in history who impacted their children spiritually. The message underscores the responsibility of parents to teach their children about faith and virtue in today’s world. I promote and encourage Biblical parenting.
Continue reading “The Value of Staying Home: Embracing Motherhood”By Elizabeth Prata
I have been blessed to have been an educator for many decades. Not continually the whole time, but I’ve spent years teaching children how to read better and to love reading. I am currently a Literacy Interventionist in a public elementary school. I am blessed to teach in this school system, which is well-run, reasonable, and has excellent leaders and teachers.
Since my beginning years in teaching, which was in 1982, the secular culture in America has changed staggeringly. I lived through the cultural revolutions of the 1960s- Second Wave Feminism, Civil Rights, Homosexual Rights, and Politics/War. Phew. It was a lot.
Eventually, the public education spheres begin to absorb these countercultural philosophies and attitudes of the secular world, and generations entering school who were raised after the 1960s increasingly adopted these new norms as normal.
The cultural revolution of the 1960s was sin, of course. Sin entering and rising in a massive wave that leveled up the sin already present in the world.
The 1960s’ cultural revolution was visible. Hippies emerged. Music changed. Clothing was different. Protests took place. You could see it and hear it all over the country.
It feels to me like another revolution is taking place, one that is as massive as the 1960s’, but invisible. I can’t see it visibly happening but I see the results of it.
It’s the War on Children.
As an educator I see children coming to us as young as age 5 and 6 with serious sin issues. It used to be in the old days, one or two 5th or 6th graders might pull some attitude, once in a while. Very few stood firm, not quaking at authority and seemingly unaffected by consequences. They’d crumble and cry pretty quickly. A call to parent(s) yielded response or support.
I’m shocked that nowadays we have so many kindergarteners who merely glance disdainfully at authority, lie, cheat, steal, talk back, and seem not to care about punishment. Parents are absent in fact or in spirit. These youngsters watch horror movies rated R and laugh when someone is killed. They think it’s funny. They have no work ethic. Physical violence is the answer to any issue they have, and increasingly, they have issues with even the most minor of bumps in the road.
Not ALL students of course, but a demoralizing number of children come to us already ruined. Conscience-less. I know, I know, children are sinners. Sinners gonna sin. But what I’m talking about is a shocking absence of any care at all for rules, adults, or authority. And a shocking lack of concern for their own lack of conscience.
The war on children is not a new phenomenon, but it has lately escalated to catastrophic levels.” John MacArthur, The War on Children
I’ve had some struggles adjusting to this new reality. The leveling up of sin and its effect on children has caught me in a gap. My mind totally knows that this will happen. The Bible tells us that in the last days sin will rise, children will be disobedient, times will be brutal, and so on. (2 Timothy 3:1-3). I believe it because God said it.
Today we are not merely contending with the normal, accumulated evil of past generations. We’re also living in a culture that has specifically targeted children for destruction. MacArthur, The War on Children
But when you SEE it played out before your eyes, it takes a while for the heart to catch up to the brain. Knowing is one thing, grieving over it is another. My heart is sad and hasn’t calibrated yet to this new, awful reality.
That’s the gap; the head knows, but the heart can’t take it. It will take a little while for the Word of God to console me and fill that gap.
So, seeking a theological framework to help me process this new reality of ruined children, I got the new book by John MacArthur called The War on Children. I read it over Spring Break.
It was good but heavily aimed at parents. I had a hard time adapting it to my childless/single status. It was also heavy on culture’s wrongs and only a half page epilogue at the end for the hope, which was really what I was looking for. MacArthur gave good and current information on what the media, entertainment, schools etc are doing to children, but strangely absent was discussing video games’ part in the war on children.
For example, Kindergarteners were discussing this game, Five Nights at Freddy’s–
The Five Nights at Freddy’s series consists of horror-themed video games in which the player is usually a night-time employee at a location connected with Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a fictional children’s restaurant…the homicidal evil animatronics wander the restaurant at night, and the guard (who is the player) is instructed to watch over them. The homicidal animatronics mistake humans for animatronic endoskeletons, whom they will force inside character suits, killing them in the process. In the later game editions it is retroactively established that the animatronics are actually possessed by spirits of children murdered by restaurant cofounder…where a hidden news article explains that the restaurant’s reputation was damaged when blood, mucus, and foul odors began to leak from the animatronics’ eyes and mouths. With help from Michael, Henry sets fire to the restaurant, destroying every animatronic inside and freeing all the children’s souls. Inventor and founder William, meanwhile, is trapped and repeatedly tormented in eternal damnation by the spirit of Cassidy, one of the children he murdered. Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Explicit murders, trapped souls of children, torment and eternal damnation… this game is rated for ages 12+ which is still too young, but 6 years olds know all about it and even “play” it.
Of course any MacArthur book is worthwhile, ultimately. It did teach me of how important children are in God’s economy and how they are one of the foundations to the building blocks of this world. Children are KEY!
This culture is weaponized to destroy children. J. MacArthur
My Takeaways from the Book:
-Just HOW MUCH children are at risk.
-Children are extremely important to God. Of course we know this, but reading the book the way MacArthur lays it out, drove the point home in a new way.
-Prompted me to be ever more patient, kind, and loving with the children in my care at school.
The War on Children is available on Amazon and also Grace Books, among other book sale outlets.
By Elizabeth Prata
I have sympathy for all those daughters and wives and women and sons who did not have a father. Either because their dad died early, or abandoned them, or divorce, or abuse. In a One Minute Apologist session, the impact of an absent father is discussed.
In addition to earthly issues, fatherlessness has serious spiritual implications for the child and adult. I distinctly remember the transition from the acceptance-as-normal of a two-parent home these days you have to further define, as women and man, married, mom and dad of opposite genders, to a home that ‘didn’t need’ a father. Where divorce was accepted as a something as simple as checking off items in a grocery list, and how women can ‘do anything’ including work AND raise the kids by herself. Fathers became bumbling fools on television and unnecessary in the public domain.
All this of course is untrue. As Perry L. Glanzer has stated in his essay , Fatherlessness, Whether Chosen or Not, Is Still a Tragedy:
Throughout the ages, it was always understood that fatherlessness is a tragedy and deprivation, even when others needed to step in to take these roles through tragedy or the sinful choices of parents. Indeed, it is a tragedy that needs special attention. Orphans (James 1:27) and the fatherless (Ex. 20:22; Dt. 24:17, 19-21; Dt. 26:12-13; Job 31 17, 21) receive special notice and protection throughout Scripture. One characteristic of God is that God, as the Psalmist declares, “is a Father to the fatherless” (Ps. 68:5; see also Ps. 10:14, 18; 146:9; Hosea 14:3). Churches, as God’s representative on earth, should be a strong support to fatherless children and single parents.
It is a praise to the Holy Spirit when He saves a daughter or a son out of unbelief even though the earthly model for the Father was absent in their lives!
If you are in Christ, rest in the eternal fact that a loving Father has always loved you, even before you knew Him, and who will never abandon you again. Ever.
Further Resources
Essay- What does it mean that God is father to the fatherless?
By Elizabeth Prata
This weekend has been a sober one, not sad exactly, but I’ve had a troubled spirit and been in deep ponderings about children.
Sometimes I get that way, maybe it’s the gift of discernment and the Spirit stirring my heart, or maybe it’s just normal observation of the things happening in the world, or maybe both. But it has been a furrowed brow weekend.
As you may know, I work with children. I teach children reading in small groups in levels from kindergarten to third grade, or age 5 to about 9. Because of my job, I’m aware and observant of anything that relates to children in the wider world.
On Friday, I wrote on Twitter,
“IMO you can detect how stable or unstable a society is by how they treat their children. In the US, our society is collapsing.“
My feeling of spiritual concern, my propelling drive to protect and love these children has increased of late. But I feel like the man on the starfish beach, seeing all the thousands of starfish washed up with no way to get to their safe haven of the ocean. The man came across a boy putting the starfish back into the water, one by one. The man scoffed, saying, “What are you doing? You can’t save them all! What you’re doing can’t possibly make a difference!” The boy looked at the starfish in his hand and calmly replied, “Yes, but I can make a difference to this one.”
I just have to keep remembering to be the boy, and make a difference to the ones in my sphere. Who I am able to help, I need to help.
Then in God’s providence, I came across John MacArthur’s latest sermon on Youtube. It was from October 29, 2023 and titled “Grace for the Children.“
MacArthur began the sermon by telling his congregation that the little booklet they received had a note in it about his new upcoming book, which is at the printer’s now and will be available in January: “The War on Children.” It is an apt title and crystallized things for me. Yes, it IS a war on children. I need to be a good soldier and remember that children are both targets in this war and collateral damage. They are helpless, vulnerable, and at-risk every moment. Most children.
“Just Say No” isn’t a motto for being against drugs anymore, it’s a motto for children against their parents’ authority. EPrata
Not like the old days when children were protected and cherished. Even in today’s good families, there is high risk. Just last week Robert Card of Lewiston Maine entered a bowling alley on a Family League night and shot people, one of whom was a 14 year old. The younger children who were present and survived still must deal with the trauma of being involved in such a horrific event.
Next, MacArthur said that he wants the church to renew their commitment to children.
“It was the process of going through that book and taking stock of what is happening to the children of our culture that I felt that we as a church needed to affirm our commitment to children. That is a stewardship, obviously, that God has given to us and we need to take it seriously. … What is happening to the children is horrific and it is disastrous temporally and eternally.” ~John MacArthur
This was good for me to hear. I need to re-affirm my commitment to children.
Then MacArthur launched into the main body of the sermon. He doesn’t whitewash the truth. It is the truth and it needs to be said, whether it’s “good” or “bad”. There are no primrose paths for us to tread in this day and age. Evidenced by how this society is treating its children, it is obvious God has moved in judgment of us. What is the next generation going to be like, we wonder? MacArthur answered,
“Biblically? It’s going to be worse. Because the Bible says evil men grow worse and worse. It doesn’t get better, it gets worse. And that means the people who will make this culture worse are the children of this generation.”
Not the news I wanted to hear, but it’s news that is true and informs my conscience and my behavior. I had also earlier noted on Twitter that it has been getting harder and harder to impress upon children to be responsible for their behavioral choices, to own up to them.
I see a lot of bucking authority and ignoring authority in society today. As I’m out and about I see children ignore or refuse their parents’ directions. “Just Say No” isn’t a motto for being against drugs anymore, it’s a motto for children against their parents’ authority.
I watch Youtube videos of people getting arrested for drunk driving or shoplifting. The younger ones, in their late teens or early 20s who are caught, absolutely refuse the Law Enforcement Officer’s orders. They completely ignore or reject his authority. It’s startling to see this, having grown up in the 1960s where the cultural revolution was happening but people still by and large protested peacefully, or law and order was maintained because of a more widespread acceptance of parental and law enforcement authority.
Then MacArthur spent time in Matthew 11 and exposited the meaning of several verses and parables involving children. He spent about half an hour in different verses. I couldn’t wrap my head around his point. I began wondering, since he is 84 1/2 years old after all, is he losing it? The sermon isn’t coalescing. Is there a point?
And YES of course, toward the end, there was a point that wraps the sermon up into a bow. He isn’t losing it. He came to a crescendo that pierced me. I have exactly seen what he started to talk about as he came to a close.
He said that when children are in their tender years, 5,6,7 they are very receptive to the things of God. They are eager and take them as normal and true. But after a certain point, which some call the Age of Accountability, they close down. They become hostile to the things of God. He said you will know when the child reaches that age,
“because accepting the Gospel is difficult. Submitting to the Law of God, a struggle to confront their sin, turn from their sin and submit their lives to Christ.”
I have seen kids age 5 or 6 burble about Jesus. The excitedly relate what they know and have interpreted. They speak of heaven and the cross. They say things like, “Jesus died on the cross for our sins and then came alive again and then he killed all the dinosaurs.” LOL. But they speak admiringly or positively about Jesus, especially during Thanksgiving time in November when you ask them what they are grateful for.
After about age 10, 11, 12…they don’t.
The point of his sermon is to be aware of this and during the years they are compliant and accepting, “Teach, teach, teach.”
“Because all that you teach them, all that input into their little minds will be available to them when they come to the point when the struggle begins. You want them filled up with the knowledge of scripture. You want them singing songs you heard today…because that truth in their heart is what mitigates against their fallen nature.”
In Literacy Education, we do something called “frontloading.”
Frontloading means punctuating the key learning points before an activity or experience takes place, rather than or in combination with, debriefing it afterwards.” (Source)
Frontload your children with hymns, scripture, God’s holy love, and be persistent in it. For me, working in a secular school, I can’t pointedly teach them about Jesus, but I can behave that way. I can live it. I can love, love, love in His name, and remember they are not the enemy. They are the enemy’s targets. I can counter the devil’s push with patience, love, and kindness acted out and expressed.
“God is watching how we care for children.”
John MacArthur
Here is the sermon. Please consider listening. My discernment radar is telling me things are getting very, very serious out there. I was not off track when I pondered these things on Friday and by Saturday night the Lord graciously led me to this sermon, where it is also obvious that JMac’s discernment radar is also going off.
When JMac’s book “The War on Children” is published in January, I want to buy it immediately.
Sermon audio, no transcript yet, at Grace Church: https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/81-161
Sermon on Youtube, with closed captions.
By Elizabeth Prata
I was thinking of how wonderful God is. The Trinity, Three-In-One, Father, Son, Spirit are intimately involved in our lives. The Father’s Providence, bringing all things to pass at the good will and pleasure of Himself. The Spirit, dwelling inside us as a deposit of the guarantee to come. The Son, Priest, interceding for us on our behalf in heaven. Each Person of the Godhead intimately knowledgeable of each one of us and loving us and leading us and providing for us. It is amazing.
The Bible’s treasures are limitless. Each time we open it to read more of what God will reveal to us about Himself is a journey into love, wonder, and awe.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18).
The word orphan here means fatherless, bereft, desolate. In the context of the entire passage, Jesus is comforting the disciples, because He is going to leave them. They are lost, confused, heartbroken. They don’t quite understand but they sense something bad is about to happen and they are upset. Jesus is reassuring them. He is explaining that He is going to prepare a place for them and will return. He says He will not leave them as orphans, He will come to them.
Alexander McLaren’s commentary is excellent in explaining this beautiful moment. Imagine, the God of the Universe, softly and reassuringly comforting His little children. That was how Jesus began the conversation in chapter 13:33- “Little children.” He IS our Father, and He will not leave us Fatherless as orphans. See McLaren on the unification of the Christ and the Spirit. One says He is leaving, but One is actually present.
Then, note, further, that this coming of our Lord is identified with that of His divine Spirit. He has been speaking of sending that ‘other Comforter,’ but though He be Another, He is yet so indissolubly united with Him who sends as that the coming of the Spirit is the coming of Jesus. He is no gift wafted to us as from the other side of a gulf, but by reason of the unity of the Godhead and the divinity of the sent Spirit, Jesus Christ and the Spirit whom He sends are inseparable though separate, and so indissolubly united that where the Spirit is, there is Christ, and where Christ is, there is the Spirit. These are amongst the deep things which the disciples were ‘not able to carry’ at that stage of their development, and which waited for a further explanation. Enough for them and enough for us, to know that we have Christ in the Spirit and the Spirit in Christ; and to remember ‘that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.’
“Christ is the only Remedy for the orphanhood of the world” ~McLaren
What a mystery the Trinity is! How tremendous His care of us in sending the Spirit! I can hardly contain myself. McLaren again-
Then, note, further, that this present Christ is the only Remedy for the orphanhood of the world. The words had a tender and pathetic reference to that little, bewildered group of followers, deprived of their Guide, their Teacher, and their Companion. He who had been as eyes to their weak vision, and Counsellor and Inspirer and everything for three blessed years, was going away to leave them unsheltered to the storm, and we can understand how forlorn and terrified they were, when they looked forward to fronting the things that must come to them, without His presence. Therefore He cheers them with the assurance that they will not be left without Him, but that, present still, just because He is absent, He will be all that He ever had been to them.
Wonder of wonders! He is good. He is so good!
And the promise was fulfilled. How did that dis-spirited group of cowardly men ever pluck up courage to hold together at all after the Crucifixion? Why was it that they did not follow the example of John’s disciples, and dissolve and disappear; and say, ‘The game is up. It is no use holding together any longer’? The process of separation began on the very day of the Crucifixion. Only one thing could have stopped it, and that is the Resurrection and the presence with His Church of the risen Christ in His power and in all the fullness of His gifts. If it had not been that He came to them, they would have disappeared, and Christianity would have been one more of the abortive sects forgotten in Judaism. But, as it is, the whole of the New Testament after Pentecost is aflame with the consciousness of a present Christ, working amongst His people. And although it be true that, in one aspect, we are absent from the Lord when we are present with the body, in another aspect, and an infinitely higher one, it is true that the strength of the Christian life of Apostles and martyrs was this, the assurance that Christ Himself-no mere rhetorical metaphor for His influence or His example, or His memory lingering in their imaginations, but the veritable Christ Himself-was present with them, to strengthen and to bless.
Please know, no matter what you are going through, no matter how trying the hardship, no matter how difficult the circumstances, your Comforter is here. He has not left us as orphans.
By Elizabeth Prata
I work as a teacher aide. Some of the children I work with are in kindergarten. I was working in my small group, and they noticed that some new decorations had gone up. There was a large chick coming out of an egg hanging on the door, and around the school were other eggs, in pastel colors and with some rabbits too. One girl asked about it and I said it’s Easter decorations.
That got them talking about Easter and of course Easter egg hunts. Easter egg hunts are huge for kids. They burbled and chatted.
When’s Easter anyway? asked a girl.
April! answered a boy.
Another child asked “What is Easter about?”
They all explained; “It’s when you hide eggs with candy in them and hunt for them all around”.
I followed up. But what else is Easter for?
Again they explained that the “Easter Bunny comes and you find candy and eggs in a basket”.
Anything else?
One girl explained, “When you go to church…”
Yes, yes? I eagerly leaned forward.
“…and you hunt for eggs and find candy.”
But isn’t it about Jesus?
The girl said, “Of course. He lays out the eggs.”
It’s charming and sad all at once. Seeing the world through a child’s eyes is always funny and they say unexpected things but they also have more truth in them than we like to think. Kid life is all about getting to the next candy bonanza. To them, Easter is just another fairy tale that has fantastical, magical creatures like a rabbit that delivers candy and eggs in a basket filled with fake grass.
It’s one reason not to depend on a child’s assertion that he or she has ‘accepted Jesus into their heart’ because to become a true believer one must understand sin, our position before Christ, His anger over it, and repentance. This isn’t possible with kids who still believe the tooth fairy flies in to your bedroom and takes the tooth from under your pillow. They still believe in Santa.
I never liked Easter Egg hunts. This was because I never found any eggs. Even as a kid I didn’t enjoy competitions, I was slow and ungainly, I didn’t quite understand the point, and there were always lots of bullies intent in shoving you down to get that egg first. I left a grass-stained mess with bruises, hurt feelings and an empty basket.
I did enjoy the wonderful Easter baskets my parents left by the fireplace. They always held crinkly grass, chocolate, and pretty little jelly beans and more. They were always both artful and bountiful.
I enjoyed dyeing the eggs too, a lot. There was always a new dress to wear, with hat and gloves, for Easter. It was one time per year (of the two) we attended a church. The point of the day was the dinner afterwards.
 |
| Me, all dolled up for Easter |
Yes, it’s all about Jesus. The crinkly grass, baskets, egg hunts, dyed eggs, ham dinners, and Easter outfits aside, the power of the resurrection is a wondrous event to contemplate. We take a special day to praise our Father for His power and His love in resurrecting His son.
I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. (Revelation 1:17b-18)
So…hunt for eggs if you must. But look for Christ.
Further Resources
Essay: Evangelizing Children
Book: Do Not Hinder Them: A Biblical Examination of Childhood Conversion
By Elizabeth Prata
Children are a heritage from the Lord. (Psalm 127:3).
I don’t have children myself but my primary employment in life has been as an elementary educator, working with kids. I love kids. They are genuine, hilarious, adorable, and challenging. They are also truthful, as anyone knows who has been on the receiving end of their blunt but innocent honesty.
I’m not married anymore, my marriage ended prior to salvation. I don’t have a lot to say about married life and kids and domestic life, unless it’s living on a fixed small income as a single older woman, lol. So I don’t really ever post a lot of “Christian Living” type posts. My writing is usually theological, which suits my autistic mind. But here are a few items I came across close together, so I collected them. They are resources about and for children.
By Elizabeth Prata
Ladies from our church are attending the weekly webinars with Rachel Jankovic called “Motherhood: A Call To Arms”. It’s a weekly webinar series, 4 consecutive weeks, where Jankovic discusses motherhood, motherhood issues, and biblical perspectives about raising children.
I do not have children and I won’t be having them (I’m 58 and single) but I am enjoying the series because I get to be with the younger ladies, learn what they learn, and encourage them in it. (Titus 2:3-5).
One aspect of Jankovic’s points was interesting to me. Jankovic said we see our babies, our tots, our little kids and that’s all well and good but we are actually birthing kingdom people.
“God giving us children is not for an Instagram moment. He is giving us children for kingdom work.”
There are many scriptures that discuss or announce babies, but these two scriptures also apply to motherhood:
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” (Genesis 4:1)
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said:
“Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’ (Job 3:1-3).
When I visited Italy, we toured the Carrara marble quarry where Michelangelo’s marble had been quarried from. We went on to Florence where Michelangelo’s tremendous marble statue of the David stands at the Accademia Gallery. The particular piece of marble had been difficult to work with for other sculptors. The Encyclopedia Britanica explained that Antonio Rossellino, the initial sculptor, cited the poor quality of the marble and rejected it, walking away from the project 1n 1464. Modern scientific analyses of the marble have confirmed that it is indeed of mediocre quality.
The marble block had proven so difficult to work with, that the huge piece lay abandoned in the courtyard for 37 years. Yet Michelangelo took on the project and seemed to carve the David with ease. Asked about it, he said,
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
Isn’t that a great way to view children? Every squalling baby is really an adult. We chip away at the ‘extra’ until the fully grown person is revealed.
We are raising Kingdom people.
I work in an elementary school. This year I’m working in the 2nd grade. I love children, so this suits me. The Lord is gracious to fulfill me spiritually and professionally.
I really like working with the younger kids. I’ve worked in Pre-K to grade 2 in these latest times, and in the past taught 4th and 5th.
There’s something about the randomness of little kids and their thought patterns that amazes and tickles me. You never know what they’re going to say. They way they think is precious and in a lot of cases, logical.
Last week I was assigned a special project apart from my regular duties. I was pulled to do a Reading Assessment on all the kindergarteners. Yay! I’m with the smaller kids again!
The kindergarten kids had seen me around. I am on duty in the morning and afternoon, and I greet them as they come in and I’m with them for half an hour at car riders. They also see me in the hallway. I don’t directly work with them, though. I’m some roving, random adult in their school lives.
What I noticed about these children is that when I came out the door and asked to take a student to my little office I’d set up in the hallway, to do a test, they were all gung ho! Every time I’d come to their door, they say “Are you going to get me?” “Is it my turn?” They were all excited to come with me for a test.
Once settled in our chairs, I explained that they should read a short story book to me and then they would retell it in their own words and answer some questions. Not one of the children balked or asked why or crossed their arms. Not only did they work, but they worked hard.
Occasionally I needed to have them read and retell a second book and if I asked them if they needed a break or wanted to continue, all the ones I asked wanted to go straight through. They were eager.
Most of them even said “thank you” at one point.
I started thinking about the Bible and Jesus. I started thinking about attitude and excitement and submission and effort.
If someone came to my door and wanted to test me, would I be eager? Excited? Striving to do my best? Would I be happy and polite? Trusting and pliable?
Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. (Mark 10:14-16)
The faith of a child is just that- full of wide-eyed trust, utter submission, striving to please. Barnes’ Notes says of the Mark verses,
As a little child – With the temper and spirit of a child – teachable, mild, humble, and free from prejudice and obstinacy.
I learned a lot being with the 5 and 6 year olds. Where they excel, I sometimes fall short.
When the September 11, 2001 attacks happened, television interviewer Larry King invited pastor-teacher John MacArthur to his program to discuss the event. King asked MacArthur, “What happens to babies who die?”
MacArthur simply replied “instant heaven.” Knowing the vagaries of television, MacArthur explained later that he had purposely given a clear and short answer because he knew about sound bites. However, on the following Sunday he chose to further explain to his own flock the biblical reasoning behind his stance.
The Bible doesn’t definitively declare one way or another where the unborn, stillborn, babies, and children go when they die. However, there is a cumulative body of scriptural evidence that supports the stance that they do go to heaven.
A horrific church massacre that happened in Texas this past Sunday, and several of the killed were children. A one-year-old, 5-year-old, 7-year-old, were among the killed, as well as a woman who was 8-months pregnant, so that unborn child died as well. I believe there were others, though their ages were not listed among the victims’list yet.
I thought it would be a good time to raise the issue again. What happens to children who die?
I can’t begin to imagine the grief that the parents and relatives feel, especially of the youngsters who were killed. If we are believers,
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
We have hope of Jesus, eternal life, reunion with friends and relatives…and our children.
The 2003 book that emerged from MacArthur’s series on the issue is called “Safe in the Arms of God”.
Tim Challies reviewed it here, favorably.
We mourn when there is a tragedy – of any kind – but “our concerns related to death always seem more profound and heartrending when we are dealing with the death of a child. An accident or illness seems especially tragic and poignant when the life of a little one is lost,” wrote John MacArthur.
According to Genesis 1:26-28, mankind was given the power to produce life in a deathless world. Adam and Eve were expected to “be fruitful and multiply” – to procreate and fill the earth with children who would never know death. God’s original plan was that all lives ever conceived would live for all eternity.” MacArthur, Safe in the Arms of God
We know that sin entered the world and death not only came into it but personally touched Adam and Eve, who lost their son.
I wrote about that here, in an essay titled after the painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s rendition of the moment, called “The First Mourning.” Adam and Eve lost their son to violence, and they wept knowing their sin brought its wages: death. No, Abel was not a youngster, but his loss must have been no less agonizing for the parents.
Please take a moment to read it. It’s profound and encouraging.
Yet we are called to love. It is our love that is supposed to make us distinct from all others.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)
Hard, I know. I can’t even tread close to the fire of anger and grief in the loss of a loved one. But knowing the child is safe in the arms of God offers a comfort and a mercy that should dissipate the anger and give room to forgiveness. “Lack of forgiveness destroys relationships” said John MacArthur in a recent sermon “Forgiveness in the Age of Rage“.
This lack of forgiveness that destroys our relationships includes our relationship with God. Forgiving the one who murdered a child is necessary. Forgiving God who allowed the death of a child is necessary. Our relationships should be characterized by love, forgiveness, charity, and Gospel.
The little ones who died in the Sutherland Springs church massacre, and also the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012 where 20 children were gunned down, and all the other little ones who have died throughout the ages due to illness, war, or abortion, are safe in the arms of God.
The book is small and short, but scriptural as to explanations why those who die in the womb, infancy, or young are now safe in the arms of God. You can read it and be comforted or offer it as a comfort to one who is grieving.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18
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Further reading
Forgiveness in the Age of Rage
The First Mourning – painting
These essays show from scripture why their authors believe children who die go to heaven.
Charles Spurgeon: Infant Salvation
R. Albert Mohler, Jr. and Daniel L. Akin: The Salvation of the ‘Little Ones’: Do Infants who Die Go to Heaven?
John Piper: What Happens to Infants Who Die?
the-end-time.org 