Are Children Assumed to be Saved? « Green Baggins
The TR answer to this question appears to be “No.”
I believe The Canons of Dordt answer this question in the affirmative, only it does not use the word “assume”, but rather it says that parents “ought not doubt.”
Article 17: The Salvation of the Infants of Believers
Since we must make judgments about God’s will from his Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature but by virtue of the gracious covenant in which they together with their parents are included, godly parents ought not to doubt the election and salvation of their children whom God calls out of this life in infancy.
Now, taking into account the “P” in TULIP (I argue as a TR), if we can have faith that had our infants died in their infancy, their election would be sure, why then can Christian parents not hold that same faith in regard to their children who live past infancy?
See Also On Faith and Presumption for an explanation of the difference between faith in God’s promises and “assumption”.
March 31, 2008 at 2:58 pm
This is a good question.
There is a difference between not doubting our children’s election, and being sure of it.
In the case of infants that die, we have no evidence that the child is not elect. Rather, we have evidence that the child belongs to the Lord, for the children of believers are holy, says Paul (1Cor7). However, that’s not the same as affirming that yes, the child is elect. The fact is, only God knows who is elect and who isn’t.
When children grow up, they begin to manifest evidence one way or the other, right? If they prove themselves to be apostates throughout the course of their lives, then we now have reason to doubt. But even then, you cannot say for sure that someone is not elect. There’s always reason to hope for a member of the visible church. Perhaps they’ll repent. Perhaps they secretly repent every night when they are alone, crying out to God. Who knows?
The church can only judge what is outward, and parents can only judge what is outward in regard to their children. But what is outward isn’t the whole story. Only God looks on the heart. Only God has all the evidence (1John3:19-20).
We shouldn’t even be asking the question, “Am I elect” or “is my son/daughter elect”. This is the wrong question. Only God can answer it. For us to try to answer it is to try to look into the eternal, secret councils of God, and that’s not our place.
All we can do is ask, “is this person appearing to bear the fruit of faith and repentance or not?” That’s all the church can do, that’s all parents can do, and that’s all we can do. That’s all we have access to, outward evidence.
In the case of our own heart, yes, we can see it better than we can someone else’s, but we must also remember that we still don’t know our own heart as well as the Lord does.
So we should base our assurance of salvation not on the condition of our heart. We should not despair in the face of our sin. Turn from it, yes, but not despair in hopelessness at it. Rather, we should seek our assurance in what Christ accomplished.
So we shouldn’t even ask of ourselves, do I really, really, really believe, or do I just think I believe, but I’m actually not elect, I’m just fooling myself?
You can drive yourself crazy asking these kinds of questions of yourself. There is no benefit to such a thing. Such questions are trying to probe the depths that only God himself can probe. Rather, we can just look to CHRIST, and NOT ourselves. That’s all we can do.
And if we are trusting him, not our works, not the greatness of our faith, not our own piety, not our own understanding, but if we are trusting in Christ alone, then that’s the very definition of what it means to look to Christ in faith, and that is our salvation.
We should not ask if we have ENOUGH faith or ENOUGH evidence of our faith. We should ask if Christ rose from the dead or not. We shouldn’t ask ourselves if our heart is pure, but if Christ’s heart is pure. We shouldn’t ask if our faith is greater than a mustard seed, we should ask if Christ’s blood means something. We should not ask ourselves if we’ve spent enough time kneeling in prayer, we should rather ask ourselves if God became a man and was hung on a tree. Because if he did, then we are saved.
E
April 1, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Praise God.
kazoo