Will
All Children Be Raptured?
Most
always the confutation over the issue of children and the rapture of the church
is wrapped around the scripture: “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified
by
the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your
children unclean; but now are they holy” (1 Cor. 7:14).
The
very character of God, himself, is at the heart of the issues involved in the
question that is raised quite often. “What about children and the rapture?
Will
they stay on earth, or go to be with Christ?” And, there is nothing of more
profound eternal significance than the individual human being’s consideration
of
God’s character. The all-importance of that consideration is cocooned within the
words of Jesus Christ, himself, at the center of whom God’s great character
is
made manifest for fallen mankind.
“When
Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say
that
thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the
prophets” (Matt. 16:13-14).
Jesus’
question was straight from the heart of God. Jesus was God come to the earth in
the flesh. Therefore, He, of course, knew what the people were saying
about
Him. He wanted His disciples to consider the question through spiritual eyes
and ears, regarding themselves, individually. His follow-up question
asked
plainly: “He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?” (Matt. 16:15).
The
totality of scripture which went before Jesus asked the question, and all
scripture that came after He asked the question, encapsulates –attests to—the
holy,
loving, merciful character of mankind’s Creator. His question is directed not
to corporate mankind, however, but to each and every individual who
has
lived upon earth since He asked it. How each one of us answers that specific
question Jesus asked will determine each and every individual’s position
in
Jesus Christ. The individual answer you and I and every other person give to
that specific question Jesus asked will determine where you, I, or any
other
individual spends eternity. And, make no mistake, each and every person who has
or ever will live –and that means from conception onward—will spend
eternity
in one of two places: either in hell, or in heaven.
The
coming into existence of the creature called man, and the fall from walking
perfectly with the Creator is a matter for another study. Suffice it to
say
that a quick perusal of any newspaper or a quick listen to any news story will
attest to man’s fallen state. We human beings do not walk a perfect
walk.
We sin, and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). The fact is that we
need redemption –we must have reconciliation with God, our Creator, or
we
remain lost forever. And, keep in mind, the matter is based not upon a
corporate or collective relationship, but upon an individual relationship with
God.
And, this is where the awesome, loving grace – the very character of the Lord
God-- comes into view. God’s Word says,” The Lord is not slack concerning
his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”
(2
Pet. 3:9).
We
are each fallen. We need God’s grace gift of salvation. It is an individual
need. Each of us must come to repentance for the sin into which we were born
because
of the fall of our father, Adam. God’s holiness requires blood sacrifice for
remission of sin (Heb. 9: 22; 10:18). And, this is why God, himself,
in
the form of His Son Jesus Christ –the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world-- came to die on the cross at Calvary. “For God so loved the world,
that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16).
About
each of us –you, me, and every other person—God’s Word says further: “He that
believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned
already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (Jn.
3:18). Remember this verse; it is profoundly important to looking
at
the matter of children and the rapture of the Church.
Man
is born into sin because the first man (Adam) disobeyed or rebelled against his
Creator. The human blood line has been, since that time, polluted, contaminated
by
the horrible thing called sin. Because of Adam’s fall, disease, deterioration,
decay, and death entered the world, God’s Word says. God has provided
reconciliation
with himself for human beings –redemption, through the blood sacrifice of His
holy, perfect sacrificial lamb, His Son, Jesus Christ. Now,
all
can be saved through belief in Jesus as the only way back to God the Creator.
Jesus is the way –the only way, truth and life. No one comes to God the
Father
(the Creator) except through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He did
on the cross at Calvary (read John 14:6). Belief is absolutely essential.
This
is the sort of faith Jesus spoke to Thomas about, when Thomas doubted that
Jesus had resurrected after the crucifixion. When Thomas saw Jesus stand
among
the disciples, the Lord, having passed through solid matter to be with them,
and Jesus bid Thomas to touch His wounds, Thomas believed, and could
but
mutter, “My Lord, and My God!"
Jesus
then said: “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are
they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (Jn 20:29). Jesus,
with
that statement, was, I’m convinced, looking not only at the disciples who were
in that room, but down through time to all who would believe in His
death,
burial, and resurrection for salvation.
So,
“belief” is absolutely essential--the kind of belief that saves, in order to be
“born again” (John 3: 3) into God’s eternal family.
The
Apostle Paul gave the precise formula required by God for the salvation of the
individual soul: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;
and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9-10).
This
is what is required to assure salvation for the individual soul. This places
the person in God’s family through Christ Jesus--i.e, when the individual
believes
in the way Paul, through divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, plainly tells
us, that person is saved. That is, God no longer looks at the person
as
fallen, as rebellious, as a sinner, but now looks at the individual through His
Son Jesus. God now sees the “believer” through the prism of the shed
blood
of His precious Son. About that, God’s Word says: “There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh,
but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1).
It
is obvious beyond any rationale to the contrary that this sort of belief
–belief that brings one into the very family of God for all of eternity-- must
be
a belief that requires understanding that Jesus is the way –the ONLY way to
such a position in God’s family. And, it is clear, according to God’s Word,
that
that position is gained through belief in Christ, totally, with no other
prescription as antidote to the soul-destroying venom called sin. In other
words,
each individual’s soul owes his place in God’s family for eternity to what
Jesus –alone—has done for that individual.
So,
it is the person’s position in Christ –through his or her belief—that God looks
at in the matter of whether the individual is “saved.” To come to this
“salvation”
position, the individual must “believe." There must be a cognitive
decision to achieve the position in Christ that saves the individual’s soul.
Remember
the Scripture: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the
name
of the only begotten Son of God” (Jn. 3:18).
The
soul of the individual comes into existence at the moment of conception –the
moment the Lord gives that life within the womb. I won’t argue the point.
God’s
Word says without reservation that life begins at conception. We could go into
a study of that truth, but that’s for another time and space. Suffice
it
to say that God gives the soul at conception, and it becomes more than obvious
when studying records of children in the womb. Two examples are Jacob
and
his twin brother, Esau, struggling within the womb of their mother. Another is
the account of John, who would become the baptizer, who recognized the
Messiah,
Jesus, who was in His mother’s womb when the two women were in the same
proximity. Children in the womb are living beings –with God-given souls.
These
babies have certain abilities to think, and, in John’s case, certainly, a
supernatural understanding about the fact he and his mother were in the
presence
of God, himself, come to earth in the flesh. However, it is a fact understood
by anyone, with any common sense whatever, that a child in the womb,
or
for the first, formative years of life, are incapable of coming to
comprehension of anything like making a decision about where his or her soul
will
spend
eternity. These little ones are sinners every bit as much as any adult human
being. The difference is the adult –presuming he or she hasn’t a severe
mental
incapacitation-- can understand, and make decisions about things like whether
to accept Christ for salvation. These are therefore “accountable”
for
their belief or lack thereof. The child, whose reasoning powers haven’t reached
that conceptual level of functioning, are not yet “accountable” for
whether
they believe to the point of salvation.
The
adult whom the Holy Spirit has called to salvation through Jesus Christ is
“accountable” for his or her own soul at the point he or she then accepts
or
rejects. The child is not called to salvation because he or she hasn’t, at that
point in his or her young life, achieved through growth the cognitive
ability
to make such decisions. These are not “accountable.” The child who hasn’t
reached the “age of accountability” has a position in Jesus Christ, the
same
as the adult who has “believed” unto salvation. If the child were to die before
becoming responsible for his or her own decision to accept or reject
Christ,
that child would go directly into the presence of God, for all eternity.
Remember
King David. He put off his robes of mourning for his baby when the son died,
because David said that the baby couldn’t come to him, but that he,
David,
would go to the child. The baby was in heaven with God, for all of eternity,
where King David would surely go upon his death. We know this is where
David
would go, because God called him “a man after my own heart.”
So,
the position we, as individuals (not collectively) have in Jesus Christ, is the
determining factor –the all-important matter—in considering where you
or
I –or any person will spend eternity. All children before they reach the age of
accountability are positioned securely in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose
shed
blood is the only remission for the soul-destroying thing called sin.
The
rapture of the Church is a salvation issue. These realities –rapture and
salvation--are inexorably linked in God’s great economy. This truth is based
upon
a vast body of scriptural proof text, but is wrapped up by the Apostle Paul in
one particular scripture, I think: “For God hath not appointed us to
wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ…”(1 Thes. 5:9).
Paul,
again through divine inspiration, had just gone through the facts surrounding
the rapture of believers ( the Church). He used the personal pronouns
"we,"
"us," "your," etc., as opposed to "they,"
"them," etc., to separate believers from unbelievers. Believers
(Christians of the Church Age) were not,
Paul
said, appointed to wrath, because they were children of the day (the light
found in Christ). The unbelievers were children of the night –the sin-blackened
darkness
of the fallen realm. Paul prophesied that the day of the Lord will begin like a
thief-in-the-night experience. The children of the night would
be
taken by surprise, but the children of the day (believers) would escape the
coming wrath of God, which the day of the Lord will bring upon a rebellious
world
of earth-dwellers.
This
escape from God’s wrath will come, Paul said, through salvation, which is in
Christ Jesus. The individual’s position in Christ will provide the escape.
This
is the same escape foretold by Jesus –through John—in Revelation 3: 10:
“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from
the
hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell
upon the earth” (Rev. 3:10).
Children
below the age of accountability are individual souls within Christ’s salvation
–the salvation that keeps the individual believer out of hell, eternally
apart
from the Creator –out of the time of God’s wrath, which will come upon the
whole world of rebellious earth-dwellers –unbelievers. Again, God does
not
deal with human beings collectively, or corporately, when it comes to salvation
of the soul. He, mercifully, deals with us one on one. Jesus asks each
of
us: “Who do you say that I am?” Unbelievers are those who, individually, have
rejected the Holy Spirit’s call to salvation. Each will be left behind
at
the time of the rapture. Children, like all of lost mankind, are sinners, but
those who haven’t reached the age of being able to understand God’s grace
gift
are not unbelievers. They are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. They are,
individually, in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Let
us look for a moment at this all-important volume God calls “The Lamb’s Book of
Life.” This book is crucial to your and my souls, and to the soul of
each
and every individual human being who has ever been born –or who has died in the
womb, before having a chance to draw a first breath. Here are two
relevant
scripture passages on that Book.
“He
that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not
blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before
my
Father, and before his angels” (Rev. 3:5).
“And
there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither
[whatsoever] worketh abomination, or [maketh] a lie: but they which are written
in
the Lamb's book of life” (Rev. 21:27).
God’s
Word is telling us here that there is a volume in which every human being’s
name is written at some point. None whose name isn’t written in this book
can
enter into God’s holy presence for eternity. The word “Life” in the title of
this book is "eternal" life. Every human being who has been conceived
in
the procreation process has his or her name written in the “Lamb’s Book of
Life.” But, there is obviously the chance that one’s name can be blotted out
of
that book, according to Revelation 3:5. Since it is not possible for one to
lose his or her salvation once the person has “believed” in the only begotten
Son
of God, the term “blot out” in Revelation 3:5 needs to be explained. The
meaning becomes clear, when thinking on the fact that each and every
individual’s
name
is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. The name remains there until the person
is shown that he or she is a sinner, and is convicted or called by
the
Holy Spirit to repent of sin –to “believe” in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the
person fully realizes that call, and that Jesus is the ONLY way to
reconciliation
with
God the Father, but refuses or rejects God’s grace gift offer, that name is
“blotted out” of the Lamb’s Book of Life. The individual who rejects that
grace
gift offer of salvation until his or her death will die in sin and spend
eternity apart from his or her Creator. That person who has reached the
age
of accountability for his or her soul will also be left behind, when the
Rapture occurs.
The
name will be written back in that book when the individual subsequently accepts
the Lord Jesus as the Savior of his or her soul. Jesus Christ’s shed
blood
is the only payment God the Father accepts. But, once a person accepts that
free gift from the Lord Jesus, the individual is a member of God’s family
–forever.
So,
your and my position in Christ is the all-important thing, whether considering
going to heaven when we die, or going to heaven at the rapture, when
Jesus
comes for us to take us to our home, which He, personally, has prepared for
each of us, individually. (Read John 14: 1-4.) This is the only collective
family
gathering that counts in God’s economy, in consideration of the matter of the
rapture and Salvation. We will, collectively at the rapture, go home
to
be in God the Father’s house. Here on earth, our relationship with our earthly
parents is tremendously important, of course. But, it is our place in
our
heavenly family, and in our heavenly home that is absolutely crucial. This is
an eternal matter. And, it all relies upon our position in Jesus Christ,
not
upon our position in our earthly home, or upon the spiritual condition of our
parents.
A
number of questions about the rapture and children crop up consistently. I
thought it good to look at a couple of them.
Q.
Why do you believe children will be taken in the rapture, when God hasn’t
intervened for them in wars, and other horrible things that have happened to
the
children throughout the centuries? Why do you think God will keep them out of
the tribulation, when millions have died, and continue to die?
A.
These are two different matters entirely. This question involves physical death
versus spiritual death (the second death, as the Scripture puts it.)
It
is the death of the flesh versus the death of the soul of an individual. Sin
brought death to the flesh and to the soul (physical and spiritual death),
but
Christ brings eternal life. That is what I’ve spent the bulk of the article
addressing. Wars and other terrible things on earth indeed take physical
life
–especially, it seems, the lives of innocent children. Unrepentant sin takes
the soul in death (eternal separation from the soul-giver –God, the Creator).
It
is comforting to know –according to God’s Word—that all children who have
perished over the millennia have gone directly to be with the Lord. Not one
single
one of them has died in the eternal sense. Again, these are two separate issues
–physical death versus spiritual death. The rapture is in the realm
of
the spiritual or the eternal sphere.
Q.
But, won't there be children in the tribulation? Jesus says so in His Olivet
Discourse.
A.
Yes, the Lord does prophesy there will be children during the time of
tribulation. He foretells the following: “And woe unto them that are with
child,
and
to them that give suck in those days!” (Matt. 24:19). Notice carefully. Jesus
issues a special “woe” for the parents of children in the time of tribulation.
But,
the Lord specifically gives two ages of children, here: 1) children who are
nursing, and 2) children still in the womb. There is absolutely no mention
of
older children. These children will be those born AFTER the Rapture. And, there
will doubtless be millions upon millions born. Sexual debauchery will
explode,
as the Holy Spirit withdraws from governing the consciences of men and women
(read 2 Thess. 2). No doubt, most of these little ones will perish
in
the horrors of that time. As many as two-thirds of all mankind will die during
that period.
Not
fair of God, you say? Consider this: Every single child who is born after the
rapture will spend eternity with God the Father. None will have reached
the
age of accountability by the time Jesus Christ brings this decaying, dying
world to an end as recorded in Revelation 19:11. For those who are thinking
ahead
of me, I realize that children who go into the millennium under the age of
accountability will have to make the decision to accept Christ for salvation
at
some point.
As
stated in the beginning of the article, God’s very character is at stake in the
matter of whether ALL children (below the age of accountability) will
go
to be with Jesus at the electrifying moment of rapture. What, exactly, is
wrapped up in 1 Corinthians 7:14 is a matter for another study. But, this
much
the overall context of God’s Word, when speaking to salvation matters—plainly, and
loudly proclaims. The Bible teaches that the individual’s position
in
Christ, not his or her position in the physical family here on earth,
determines the final disposition of the eternal soul. The rapture is an eternal
matter,
wrapped up in God’s salvation guarantee. And, it is a guarantee to the
individual, not to the corporate –even though the collective will go as
the
Bride of Christ, the Church.
Every
child below the age of accountability –including those in the womb—will go to
be with Jesus when He steps out on the clouds of glory and shouts: “Come
up
here!”