After abortion, one of the most troubling questions is about the eternal state of the children who die.
This question may be especially painful if you have some knowledge of the Christian faith, but you don’t know or haven’t studied the whole of Scripture. And even if you are knowledgeable, and listening to great preaching week in and week out, you still may not sense a solid answer.
After reading many experts, including pastors and Bible scholars, I am fully persuaded that God welcomes these little ones. It takes faith to search out such an answer, but not blind faith by any means. You have to know the heart of God and know that, while we are all born with a sin nature, we are held accountable for willfully sinning against God. Infants, young children and adults who are mentally impaired can willfully sin, but they are not held accountable because they may not fully understand wrongdoing.
Be Not Afraid from Christian artist Greg Olsen brings so much comfort.
This is what I believe the aftermath of abortion looks like in heaven. Jesus holds our child. And he lifts us to safety with them.
In commenting about the image, Olsen has said, “Originally when the idea for this painting came to me I saw it in my mind’s eye as Jesus helping a couple, perhaps a man and wife across this stream which symbolizes the tumultuous and difficult times in our lives. As I began to sketch out my idea it was soon apparent that the man and woman didn’t appear helpless enough in comparison with the figures of Jesus. I then decided to use young children instead of adults to represent our comparative abilities.”
The dependence we all have for the hope of heaven shines through, especially when that hope includes a reconciliation with our lost children.
Two wonderful books helped me go deeper into God’s heart on this issue and they are easy to read and digest even when you may be experiencing active grief in a painfully distracting way. In fact, these two books can help you focus on God’s words of comfort and may ease the grief of loss, even when it is accompanied by the weight of guilt we carry after abortion.
The first is Safe in the Arms of God, Words from Heaven about the Death of a Child, by John MacArthur.
What I like about this book is not just the biblical grounding in every word, but how MacArthur shares the shaping of his own convictions on these questions. He has publicly had to defend his contention that the children are in heaven, at times before a hostile audience. That defense is very precious to parents who also may face a hostile response to their grief, if only due ignorance.
From the synopsis: “No death occurs apart from the purposes of God. MacArthur assures readers, just as no life occurs apart from the purposes of God.”
Even if you haven’t experienced child loss, every Christian should read this book to be better equipped to offer comforting truth to those who have.
And the second volume is I’ll Hold You in Heaven, by Jack Hayford.
You can sense from the introduction that Hayford includes abortion as real reproductive loss and offers ministry just as he does for those who lose a child to miscarriage or stillbirth.
Hayford writes: “Or maybe you are the parent of a child lost to abortion. If so, you may be like so many others I meet who are suffering greatly in the aftermath of the procedure that proponents hail as prompt and painless. Untold numbers of women and men are stumbling through the emotional carnage following an abortion—some believing their decision was wrong; others racked with uncertainty. The pain runs deep.”
What does the Scripture say
God extends special mercy to those who have no knowledge of good and evil.
Deuteronomy 1:39: And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad—they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it.
Jonah 4:11 “And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
And Jesus said in Matthew 19:14 (see also Luke 18:15), “Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for such is the kingdom of heaven.” Heaven is full of babies and children, an idea that carries a tragic tone, thinking of those who lost their children to early death through accidents and illness, and yes, to abortion, yet also hopeful for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Our children are not lost to us forever. And thus, we grieve with hope.
