l
John MacArthur, Jr.*
And the sixth precious thought is in verse 16: “You determined my destiny”--you planned my life--“thine eyes have seen my unformed substance”--you saw me in your sovereign view before I was ever formed. And in your book, everything about me was written down, the days that were ordained for me when as yet there wasn’t one of them.
Now, these are precious thoughts. God knows everything about me even before I can talk. God is in complete control of my life. God will never lose sight of me no matter what goes on; I can never be lost to God. There is no circumstance that can in any way limit his knowledge. The reason He knows me so well is He is my personal Creator who has planned carefully my destiny. Those are precious thoughts. It’s not as if lives are being conceived willy-nilly and God is not involved. This is not just true of David; David is speaking for every man. He is speaking of intimate association between God and each human creation. God is intimately involved in every little life, every life. It’s not just a chain of procreative acts that He inaugurated; He is there in every single conception. These are precious thoughts because this indicates to us how precious every life is. Every life is so precious that God knows it all, plans it all, guards and protects it all, never loses sight of anything…and they must matter to him. They must matter to him.
We could conclude from that alone that since God is by nature a Savior and since God is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance and since God would have all men to be saved, there’s every reason to believe, just from that alone, that a caring God who created that life to begin with, who superintends and guards that life, who knows intimately everything about that life--should that life perish physically in its infancy, there would be every reason from that Psalm alone to trust the grace of God, who is by nature a Savior, in behalf of that life.
Let me show you a couple of other passages--and we’re just starting to build the foundation here. In Job, chapter 3, verse 16 and 17, again, I don’t like the NAS translation of this as well as I like the New King James so those of you who have the New King James version have a leg up on the translation. I’m going to read the New King James; it’s a better representation I think here. Job is in some serious despair. How do we know that? Verse 1, Job 3: “Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth”--Pretty serious despair. Job said, “Let the day perish on which I was to be born and the night which said ‘a boy is conceived!’ May that day be darkness.”
“I wish I’d never been born” this suffering is so profound. Never been born. In verses 16 and 17, this is what he says: “Why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? Why didn’t I die in my mother’s womb? “There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.” What’s he saying? He’s saying, “I’d be better off if I miscarried. I would be better off if I were stillborn, so I wouldn’t have to face a troubling life--that I would enter immediately into, what? “Rest.” “Rest.” Job understood that dying as an infant would bring one to rest and one would escape the pain of suffering. He certainly didn’t believe that infants that die go to hell and some eternal torment, but rather had the confidence that they enter into rest.
In Ecclesiastes also, in chapter 6--you don’t have to turn to it; you can just jot it down--in Ecclesiastes 6:3-5, Solomon laments. He laments that a stillborn child is better off than a person who lives a thousand years twice and doesn’t enjoy the right things. He says, “What’s the point of living two thousand years if you don’t ever enjoy true goodness? You’d be better off a stillborn child.”
In both of these cases, you have by implication the idea that being stillborn takes you to a place of rest, that being stillborn is preferable to a life of wickedness, a life of unfulfillment. Now, those are some implicit references. Next week we’re going to look at some explicit references that I think support the fact, not just implicitly but explicitly, that children who die go to heaven.
---
*[All rights reserved - John MacArthur Jr.]
l
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
The salvation of babies who die (Part 3)
l
John MacArthur, Jr.*
Now, that’s prose, I know, but it’s true, isn’t it? It’s right, isn’t it? To tell parents when children die, they do live happily ever after? I think the Word of God will affirm the salvation of little ones who die.
A place to begin: Psalm 139. What I’m going to do tonight is just give you a little bit of a look at Psalm 139 and then I’m going to talk a little theology with you and I’m going to be as precise as I can because this demands precision. Then, next Sunday night, I’m going to support the theology with the text of various Scriptures. So, this will be a two-part look at this issue.
Psalm 139 does provide for us a good starting place. I want you to look at verse 17. This is a place to launch our look and then we’re going to go backwards in this first part of Psalm 139. “How precious also are thy thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them.” The Psalmist David has captured some precious thoughts here, precious divine truths that mean so much to him and that’s why he calls them precious. They are treasured truths. They are gems to hold onto. And what are they? Let’s go back and find out.
The first precious truth that the Psalmist grips is that God knows everything about him, even before he could talk! Look at verse 1: “Oh Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me; Thou dost know when I sit down, when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar; Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down; and art acquainted intimately with all my ways.” You know everything about me, everything about me! You know me. You know when I sit down, when I rise up. In other words, you know every detail of every moment of every day. You know what I think, you know my path, you know my sleeping--you know everything intimately about all my ways and you have known it even before there is a word in my tongue! Before I could ever speak, you knew everything about me! I was known to you in every element of my life. “Behold, O Lord, you know it all.” God knows everything about me, even before I can talk.
The second precious truth is that God is actively involved in my life. Verse 5, “You have enclosed me behind and before; you have laid your hand on me.” In other words, you’ve got me backed up on both sides and covered on top. You’re active in my life. I’m in the middle and you’ve got me surrounded. Verse 6, he says, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it’s too high; I can’t attain it.” You know everything about me before I can speak. You have my life completely in your hands. You’ve pressured me from both sides. You’ve kept me contained. I can’t get out the top because you’re there. It’s a precious truth, isn’t it? From the very start, you’re actively involved in controlling my life.
The third precious thought is that God will never lose sight of, or knowledge, of me. There’s no way I can ever be lost to you. “Where can I go from your Spirit?” verse 7, “Where can I flee from your presence? If I go ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there thy hand will lead me, thy right hand will lay hold of me.” I can’t go anywhere outside of your knowledge! I can’t go anywhere outside of your vision! I will never be lost to you.
The fourth precious truth is that God will never be limited in that knowledge, no matter how dark it gets. This is sort of metaphoric language in a sense. It’s never going to be so dark--you say, well, I can see you in the light, but things might get so dark that God loses his view--no, he says in verse 11 and 12, “‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,’ I might say, ‘and the light around me will be night.’” In other words, I’m going to fall into some circumstance--I’m going to fall into some problem, some dilemma, some condition, and it’s going to be so dark, the Lord isn’t going to be able to find me. And then, verse 12, he says, “Even the darkness is not dark to Thee; the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to Thee.”
Now, the point of this is these are incredibly precious thoughts of the Psalmist and what they tell us is that God knows every single detail about his life from beginning to end, starting before he could ever say a word. How is it that God has this personal, intimate knowledge? Answer: because God is--and here’s the fifth precious thought--God is his personal Creator, verse 13: “For Thou didst form my inward parts…Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb.” You put together the male chromosomes and the female chromosomes; you wove my DNA! You made me, personally.
---
*[All rights reserved - John MacArthur Jr.]
l
John MacArthur, Jr.*
Now, that’s prose, I know, but it’s true, isn’t it? It’s right, isn’t it? To tell parents when children die, they do live happily ever after? I think the Word of God will affirm the salvation of little ones who die.
A place to begin: Psalm 139. What I’m going to do tonight is just give you a little bit of a look at Psalm 139 and then I’m going to talk a little theology with you and I’m going to be as precise as I can because this demands precision. Then, next Sunday night, I’m going to support the theology with the text of various Scriptures. So, this will be a two-part look at this issue.
Psalm 139 does provide for us a good starting place. I want you to look at verse 17. This is a place to launch our look and then we’re going to go backwards in this first part of Psalm 139. “How precious also are thy thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them.” The Psalmist David has captured some precious thoughts here, precious divine truths that mean so much to him and that’s why he calls them precious. They are treasured truths. They are gems to hold onto. And what are they? Let’s go back and find out.
The first precious truth that the Psalmist grips is that God knows everything about him, even before he could talk! Look at verse 1: “Oh Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me; Thou dost know when I sit down, when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar; Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down; and art acquainted intimately with all my ways.” You know everything about me, everything about me! You know me. You know when I sit down, when I rise up. In other words, you know every detail of every moment of every day. You know what I think, you know my path, you know my sleeping--you know everything intimately about all my ways and you have known it even before there is a word in my tongue! Before I could ever speak, you knew everything about me! I was known to you in every element of my life. “Behold, O Lord, you know it all.” God knows everything about me, even before I can talk.
The second precious truth is that God is actively involved in my life. Verse 5, “You have enclosed me behind and before; you have laid your hand on me.” In other words, you’ve got me backed up on both sides and covered on top. You’re active in my life. I’m in the middle and you’ve got me surrounded. Verse 6, he says, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it’s too high; I can’t attain it.” You know everything about me before I can speak. You have my life completely in your hands. You’ve pressured me from both sides. You’ve kept me contained. I can’t get out the top because you’re there. It’s a precious truth, isn’t it? From the very start, you’re actively involved in controlling my life.
The third precious thought is that God will never lose sight of, or knowledge, of me. There’s no way I can ever be lost to you. “Where can I go from your Spirit?” verse 7, “Where can I flee from your presence? If I go ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there thy hand will lead me, thy right hand will lay hold of me.” I can’t go anywhere outside of your knowledge! I can’t go anywhere outside of your vision! I will never be lost to you.
The fourth precious truth is that God will never be limited in that knowledge, no matter how dark it gets. This is sort of metaphoric language in a sense. It’s never going to be so dark--you say, well, I can see you in the light, but things might get so dark that God loses his view--no, he says in verse 11 and 12, “‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,’ I might say, ‘and the light around me will be night.’” In other words, I’m going to fall into some circumstance--I’m going to fall into some problem, some dilemma, some condition, and it’s going to be so dark, the Lord isn’t going to be able to find me. And then, verse 12, he says, “Even the darkness is not dark to Thee; the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to Thee.”
Now, the point of this is these are incredibly precious thoughts of the Psalmist and what they tell us is that God knows every single detail about his life from beginning to end, starting before he could ever say a word. How is it that God has this personal, intimate knowledge? Answer: because God is--and here’s the fifth precious thought--God is his personal Creator, verse 13: “For Thou didst form my inward parts…Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb.” You put together the male chromosomes and the female chromosomes; you wove my DNA! You made me, personally.
---
*[All rights reserved - John MacArthur Jr.]
l
Sunday, March 08, 2009
The salvation of babies who die (Part 2)
l
John MacArthur, Jr.*
There was a study some years ago that I read called “Mental Reactions to Paranatal Death” and it chronicled the parental reaction to the loss of a baby around the time of birth. 60 percent of the parents surveyed were angry. 50 percent of the men felt guilt--90 percent of the women felt guilt about the death of that child. 75 percent were irritable. 65 to 75 percent of the parents lost their appetite, 80 to 90 percent lost their sleep, and 95 to 100 percent of them felt a profound and deep sadness. It’s important to understand that there are some amazing impacts of this on the life of parents. So, when you look at it in the broad scale, millions upon millions of these little ones dying, or you look at the individual level and you see the sorrow and sadness that it brings into the life of a family, either perspective cries out for an answer!
[Think of] the agonizing mother in Afghanistan where 150 babies out of a thousand die, or at least that’s the figures that are reported and it’s likely double that, or the poor hungry mother in Angola where it is reported that 200 out of a thousand die and it’s likely double that, to you here in our congregation who lost a little one along the way. There needs to be an answer. There needs to be an answer from God--there needs to be an answer from God’s Word to this troubling reality of infant death. If you start adding up the years, you start adding up the millions, you start adding up the billions, the question “Where are they?” becomes a very compelling question.
And you can add to that the very, I suppose, somewhat strange biblical indication that God himself acknowledges, even authorizes the death of some infants. For example, in Isaiah 13:16, when God called for judgment on Babylon, He said, “Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes.” When God called for Assyria to make a war of judgment on Israel, He said in Hosea 13:16, “Their little ones will be dashed to pieces”--the same statement. The same was said of Assyria’s war on Egypt in Nahum chapter 3, and verse 10. Amazingly, Psalm 137:8 and 9 says, “Oh daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, how blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense with which you have repaid us! How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rocks!” Blessed will be a nation who punishes Babylon, even including the death of little ones. What happens to these little ones, the death of which God authorizes in a sense, in fulfilling his judgment purposes.
I suppose it would also be fair to say that when a birth is successful, this is because God has allowed that to happen. We can say what David said in Psalm 22, verse 9, “Yet thou art he who didst bring me forth from the womb: thou didst make me trust when upon my mother’s breast; upon thee I was cast from birth. Thou hast been my God from my mother’s womb!” David acknowledged that life came from God and when that life survived the womb and the birth and actually began to live, it was a life that God had allowed to live. No death occurs apart from the purpose of God. No life occurs apart from the purpose of God.
Now remember, in the original creation, there was no death, and man, according to Genesis 1:26 to 28, was given the power to procreate; that is, to produce life in a deathless world. That was God’s original intent, that Adam and Eve would be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and they would literally produce life in a deathless world so that no life conceived would ever die.
However, when Adam and Eve sinned, death came on all, and death comes to all, and it comes to many in infancy and childhood. I suppose it would be an educated guess to say that perhaps half of the people ever conceived die before they reach any level of maturity. And again I ask the question, “How does God deal with them?” Is the answer comforting? Is the answer encouraging? Is the answer hopeful? Or is it discouraging? Do they go instantly to heaven? Why did I say that? I’m not the first one to try to deal with this, but there are a lot of people who aren’t dealing with it today.
I was on a panel at a conference, a large conference, with three other pastors and it was a question and answer panel and I was sitting up there with these other very fine pastors whom I love and respect. And one of the questions came from the audience was, “What happens to babies that die?” They went down the first three and the answer in each case was “I don’t know,” which isn’t very comforting. It puts me in a terrible spot because when they came to me, I said, “They go to heaven. They go to heaven.” And I tried to give a brief explanation of why I believe that’s true.
But I thought as I’ve looked back on that so many times, how can you be a pastor and not get an answer to that question? Because you’re dealing with people constantly who go through this! Even C. S. Lewis agreed with me. Now, he didn’t know it. C.S. Lewis, in his wonderful book The Last Battle, wrote about a terrible train accident: one of those terrible disasters that killed all the children in a family. That surfaced the question, “What about those children?” as any disaster does. This is what he wrote: “And as God spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion”--remember, he pictures God as a lion, Aslan. He said, “As God spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion. But the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them, and for us this is the end of all stories and we can say most truly that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world had only been the cover of the title page. Now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before!” That’s the inimitable C. S. Lewis saying that they were ushered into the real story.
---
*[All rights reserved - John MacArthur Jr.]
l
John MacArthur, Jr.*
There was a study some years ago that I read called “Mental Reactions to Paranatal Death” and it chronicled the parental reaction to the loss of a baby around the time of birth. 60 percent of the parents surveyed were angry. 50 percent of the men felt guilt--90 percent of the women felt guilt about the death of that child. 75 percent were irritable. 65 to 75 percent of the parents lost their appetite, 80 to 90 percent lost their sleep, and 95 to 100 percent of them felt a profound and deep sadness. It’s important to understand that there are some amazing impacts of this on the life of parents. So, when you look at it in the broad scale, millions upon millions of these little ones dying, or you look at the individual level and you see the sorrow and sadness that it brings into the life of a family, either perspective cries out for an answer!
[Think of] the agonizing mother in Afghanistan where 150 babies out of a thousand die, or at least that’s the figures that are reported and it’s likely double that, or the poor hungry mother in Angola where it is reported that 200 out of a thousand die and it’s likely double that, to you here in our congregation who lost a little one along the way. There needs to be an answer. There needs to be an answer from God--there needs to be an answer from God’s Word to this troubling reality of infant death. If you start adding up the years, you start adding up the millions, you start adding up the billions, the question “Where are they?” becomes a very compelling question.
And you can add to that the very, I suppose, somewhat strange biblical indication that God himself acknowledges, even authorizes the death of some infants. For example, in Isaiah 13:16, when God called for judgment on Babylon, He said, “Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes.” When God called for Assyria to make a war of judgment on Israel, He said in Hosea 13:16, “Their little ones will be dashed to pieces”--the same statement. The same was said of Assyria’s war on Egypt in Nahum chapter 3, and verse 10. Amazingly, Psalm 137:8 and 9 says, “Oh daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, how blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense with which you have repaid us! How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rocks!” Blessed will be a nation who punishes Babylon, even including the death of little ones. What happens to these little ones, the death of which God authorizes in a sense, in fulfilling his judgment purposes.
I suppose it would also be fair to say that when a birth is successful, this is because God has allowed that to happen. We can say what David said in Psalm 22, verse 9, “Yet thou art he who didst bring me forth from the womb: thou didst make me trust when upon my mother’s breast; upon thee I was cast from birth. Thou hast been my God from my mother’s womb!” David acknowledged that life came from God and when that life survived the womb and the birth and actually began to live, it was a life that God had allowed to live. No death occurs apart from the purpose of God. No life occurs apart from the purpose of God.
Now remember, in the original creation, there was no death, and man, according to Genesis 1:26 to 28, was given the power to procreate; that is, to produce life in a deathless world. That was God’s original intent, that Adam and Eve would be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and they would literally produce life in a deathless world so that no life conceived would ever die.
However, when Adam and Eve sinned, death came on all, and death comes to all, and it comes to many in infancy and childhood. I suppose it would be an educated guess to say that perhaps half of the people ever conceived die before they reach any level of maturity. And again I ask the question, “How does God deal with them?” Is the answer comforting? Is the answer encouraging? Is the answer hopeful? Or is it discouraging? Do they go instantly to heaven? Why did I say that? I’m not the first one to try to deal with this, but there are a lot of people who aren’t dealing with it today.
I was on a panel at a conference, a large conference, with three other pastors and it was a question and answer panel and I was sitting up there with these other very fine pastors whom I love and respect. And one of the questions came from the audience was, “What happens to babies that die?” They went down the first three and the answer in each case was “I don’t know,” which isn’t very comforting. It puts me in a terrible spot because when they came to me, I said, “They go to heaven. They go to heaven.” And I tried to give a brief explanation of why I believe that’s true.
But I thought as I’ve looked back on that so many times, how can you be a pastor and not get an answer to that question? Because you’re dealing with people constantly who go through this! Even C. S. Lewis agreed with me. Now, he didn’t know it. C.S. Lewis, in his wonderful book The Last Battle, wrote about a terrible train accident: one of those terrible disasters that killed all the children in a family. That surfaced the question, “What about those children?” as any disaster does. This is what he wrote: “And as God spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion”--remember, he pictures God as a lion, Aslan. He said, “As God spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion. But the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them, and for us this is the end of all stories and we can say most truly that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world had only been the cover of the title page. Now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before!” That’s the inimitable C. S. Lewis saying that they were ushered into the real story.
---
*[All rights reserved - John MacArthur Jr.]
l
Saturday, March 07, 2009
The salvation of babies who die (Part 1)
l
John MacArthur, Jr.*
Some of you who tuned into the Larry King Show will remember that Larry fired a question to me on the air--it came out of nowhere--a question that reveals a nagging, troubling issue in the human heart. He asked me, “What about a two-year-old baby crushed at the bottom of the World Trade Center?” I answered, “Instant heaven.” He replied with another question: “Wasn’t a sinner?” I again answered, “Instant heaven.”
That’s a compelling question: what about a baby crushed at the bottom of the Trade Center? What about any baby that dies? It’s an agonizing question. It’s a question that plagues Christians and non-Christians alike: “What happens to babies that die?” All kinds of strange answers have been offered in the past. We don’t need to deal with those; we need to know the right answer.
I said, “Instant heaven,” and what was my authority for saying that? In a sound-byte environment like that, I didn’t have time for an explanation and he didn’t ask for one. But, you deserve one so I’m going to tell you why I said what I said.
We are often hearing these days from those who are against war of any kind. The statement “many innocent children will die,” and what about them? This matter of death that exists in the world is obviously a massive force that operates in the realm of the little ones. We need to understand what it indicates, what it means. Life begins at conception--that is clear in Scripture. This is what the Bible teaches without question. So any death from the point of conception on is the death of a person and persons have eternal souls.
Millions, perhaps billions, of such souls have died throughout history. Millions continue to die today. In fact, cumulatively it will be in the modern era, billions. One report I read in a book called Empty Arms says that up to 25 percent of all human conceptions do not complete the twentieth week of pregnancy. One out of four conceived die. 75 percent of fatal deaths occur in the first twelve weeks. Neonatal death (that is, death in the womb), Paranatal death (that is, death at the time of birth) occurred in massive numbers. Even today, with medical advancement, we have a larger population in the world than we’ve ever had and we have a lower mortality rate than we’ve ever had because of medical advancement…we still have a massive amount of deaths!
The latest statistics from the year 1999 indicate 4,350,000 babies died--in that year--infant mortality. A study that concludes 4,350,000 babies died is based upon statistical information and estimates are that the figures are so low that the actuality may be more than that figure--by double! Since most losses during pregnancy may not even be reported. The highest rates of infant mortality are found in the poorest and most primitive nations, and at the same time, the most pagan nations: mostly in Africa and Asia. Take 4,350,000 in the year 1999 and just keep adding the years and you can see the numbers of deaths are massive, staggering.
And these are, as I said, eternal souls! The question about “Where are they?” then is of monumental significance: they’re either populating hell at an incredible rate or they’re populating heaven at an equally incredible rate or getting divided into heaven and hell. This is a question that needs to be answered. It needs to be answered on the large scale and it needs to be answered on the individual scale. A parent has the right to know! “Where is my baby? Where is my child? Where is that adult child of mine whose mind never developed and who for all intents and purposes mentally is still an infant?” The death of one single baby in a family--the loss of one in the womb, the loss of a child at birth--is significant.
---
*[All rights reserved - John MacArthur Jr.]
John MacArthur, Jr.*
Some of you who tuned into the Larry King Show will remember that Larry fired a question to me on the air--it came out of nowhere--a question that reveals a nagging, troubling issue in the human heart. He asked me, “What about a two-year-old baby crushed at the bottom of the World Trade Center?” I answered, “Instant heaven.” He replied with another question: “Wasn’t a sinner?” I again answered, “Instant heaven.”
That’s a compelling question: what about a baby crushed at the bottom of the Trade Center? What about any baby that dies? It’s an agonizing question. It’s a question that plagues Christians and non-Christians alike: “What happens to babies that die?” All kinds of strange answers have been offered in the past. We don’t need to deal with those; we need to know the right answer.
I said, “Instant heaven,” and what was my authority for saying that? In a sound-byte environment like that, I didn’t have time for an explanation and he didn’t ask for one. But, you deserve one so I’m going to tell you why I said what I said.
We are often hearing these days from those who are against war of any kind. The statement “many innocent children will die,” and what about them? This matter of death that exists in the world is obviously a massive force that operates in the realm of the little ones. We need to understand what it indicates, what it means. Life begins at conception--that is clear in Scripture. This is what the Bible teaches without question. So any death from the point of conception on is the death of a person and persons have eternal souls.
Millions, perhaps billions, of such souls have died throughout history. Millions continue to die today. In fact, cumulatively it will be in the modern era, billions. One report I read in a book called Empty Arms says that up to 25 percent of all human conceptions do not complete the twentieth week of pregnancy. One out of four conceived die. 75 percent of fatal deaths occur in the first twelve weeks. Neonatal death (that is, death in the womb), Paranatal death (that is, death at the time of birth) occurred in massive numbers. Even today, with medical advancement, we have a larger population in the world than we’ve ever had and we have a lower mortality rate than we’ve ever had because of medical advancement…we still have a massive amount of deaths!
The latest statistics from the year 1999 indicate 4,350,000 babies died--in that year--infant mortality. A study that concludes 4,350,000 babies died is based upon statistical information and estimates are that the figures are so low that the actuality may be more than that figure--by double! Since most losses during pregnancy may not even be reported. The highest rates of infant mortality are found in the poorest and most primitive nations, and at the same time, the most pagan nations: mostly in Africa and Asia. Take 4,350,000 in the year 1999 and just keep adding the years and you can see the numbers of deaths are massive, staggering.
And these are, as I said, eternal souls! The question about “Where are they?” then is of monumental significance: they’re either populating hell at an incredible rate or they’re populating heaven at an equally incredible rate or getting divided into heaven and hell. This is a question that needs to be answered. It needs to be answered on the large scale and it needs to be answered on the individual scale. A parent has the right to know! “Where is my baby? Where is my child? Where is that adult child of mine whose mind never developed and who for all intents and purposes mentally is still an infant?” The death of one single baby in a family--the loss of one in the womb, the loss of a child at birth--is significant.
---
*[All rights reserved - John MacArthur Jr.]
Thursday, February 19, 2009
"I will come again" - John 14:3 (Part 3)
R.M. Goatley
‘Hold fast till I come" - Rev.2:25. These words were spoken by the Lord to the church at Thyatira. He is seen here moving among the seven churches, assessing, warning, rebuking and encouraging, out of a full knowledge of all that was going on in each one of them. In the church at Thyatira, teaching was being tolerated that had turned the hearts of His people away from Him, to find satisfaction elsewhere, and He had given them opportunity to repent. The Lord now warned that unless they did so, He would intervene with such stern measures that all the churches would learn that He does indeed search the hearts and reward accordingly. Nevertheless they still possessed things that were precious to Him and He encouraged them to hold these fast till He comes. Likewise He would encourage us, amid the weakness and failure we must so often confess, to treasure the things that honour and please Him, both in doctrine and practice, and hold them fast, by His grace, till He comes.
"Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come" -I Cor.4:5. Some in Corinth had been criticizing Paul as to his motives and movements, but he assured them that he could look up to the Lord with a clear conscience. They were prone to favour the things that earned the praise of men, and therefore their judgment was of little account to Paul. When he said, "Judge nothing", he was not denying that there were things that they ought to be judging. He taught them emphatically that they must judge the shocking immorality that they were condoning among them. He taught them too, that they ought to judge themselves before they ate of the Lord’s Supper if they were to avoid the chastening of the Lord. But this was a different realm, one in which they had no capacity to judge, for they could not know the facts. It is the realm of hidden things, the counsels of the heart, which are only fully known to the Lord. When He comes He will bring these things to light, and the praise that each one will receive then, will be from God and not from man.
"For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come" - I Cor. 11:26. It was on the same night in the upper room that the Lord Jesus instituted His Supper of Remembrance. It is His desire that we remember Him in His absence (Luke 22:19; I Cor.11:24,25). But it is only till He comes, and thus it quickens our anticipation of that glad day when we shall see Him as He is, and our faith shall give place to sight. The earthly symbols will be no longer needed for we shall be forever with the Lord. The full details of what we shall be then are not yet revealed, but we know that when we shall see Him we shall be instantly transformed into His likeness (I John 3:3; Phil.3:20,21).
As the Lord Jesus brings the New Testament Scriptures to a close, His final words to us are, "Surely I come quickly". What joy we can bring to His heart as we truly respond, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus". (Concluded)
‘Hold fast till I come" - Rev.2:25. These words were spoken by the Lord to the church at Thyatira. He is seen here moving among the seven churches, assessing, warning, rebuking and encouraging, out of a full knowledge of all that was going on in each one of them. In the church at Thyatira, teaching was being tolerated that had turned the hearts of His people away from Him, to find satisfaction elsewhere, and He had given them opportunity to repent. The Lord now warned that unless they did so, He would intervene with such stern measures that all the churches would learn that He does indeed search the hearts and reward accordingly. Nevertheless they still possessed things that were precious to Him and He encouraged them to hold these fast till He comes. Likewise He would encourage us, amid the weakness and failure we must so often confess, to treasure the things that honour and please Him, both in doctrine and practice, and hold them fast, by His grace, till He comes.
"Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come" -I Cor.4:5. Some in Corinth had been criticizing Paul as to his motives and movements, but he assured them that he could look up to the Lord with a clear conscience. They were prone to favour the things that earned the praise of men, and therefore their judgment was of little account to Paul. When he said, "Judge nothing", he was not denying that there were things that they ought to be judging. He taught them emphatically that they must judge the shocking immorality that they were condoning among them. He taught them too, that they ought to judge themselves before they ate of the Lord’s Supper if they were to avoid the chastening of the Lord. But this was a different realm, one in which they had no capacity to judge, for they could not know the facts. It is the realm of hidden things, the counsels of the heart, which are only fully known to the Lord. When He comes He will bring these things to light, and the praise that each one will receive then, will be from God and not from man.
"For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come" - I Cor. 11:26. It was on the same night in the upper room that the Lord Jesus instituted His Supper of Remembrance. It is His desire that we remember Him in His absence (Luke 22:19; I Cor.11:24,25). But it is only till He comes, and thus it quickens our anticipation of that glad day when we shall see Him as He is, and our faith shall give place to sight. The earthly symbols will be no longer needed for we shall be forever with the Lord. The full details of what we shall be then are not yet revealed, but we know that when we shall see Him we shall be instantly transformed into His likeness (I John 3:3; Phil.3:20,21).
As the Lord Jesus brings the New Testament Scriptures to a close, His final words to us are, "Surely I come quickly". What joy we can bring to His heart as we truly respond, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus". (Concluded)
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
"I will come again" - John 14:3 (Part 2)
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R.M. Goatley
He gave us no sign by which we could calculate the date of His coming for us, in fact, when He next mentioned it in John 21:21-23, He introduced the possibility of John remaining alive till He returns. This was quickly misconstrued, and the report went abroad among the brethren that John would not die. However Jesus did not say, "He shall not die"; but, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee"?
The apostle Paul received this same promise later by direct revelation from the Lord, so that he could teach it among the Gentile believers, and the same tenor of present expectation is evident as he writes to the Thessalonians. He speaks of "we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord", and he is obviously including himself (I Thess.4:15). In 2 Cor.5:1-4 he expresses his deep desire to be among those who are alive when the Lord returns, so that instead of passing through death, ‘mortality might be swallowed up of life’. See also I Cor.15:51-58 and Phil.3:21,22. The lives of countless saints have been cheered by this glad prospect since then, as H.L. Turner wrote:
"0 joy! 0 delight! should we go without dying;
No sickness, no sadness, no dread, and no crying;
Caught up through the clouds with our Lord into glory
When Jesus receives His own."
However, some years later, as he lay a prisoner in Rome and the day of his execution was near, he realised that ‘the time of his departure was at hand’ and he had ‘finished his course’. It had now become obvious that it was not the Lord’s will that he should "tarry till He come". But he was ready to "depart and be with Christ" (Phil.l:23), confident that for the believer, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor.5:8). The Lord evidently intended the promise of His coming to be a present expectation that would be both an incentive and a comfort to His people. Let us therefore consider the following:
"Occupy till I come" - Luke 19:13. This quote comes from a parable which the Lord used to indicate that He would go away, and return after a period, and that He expected His servants to be active in His affairs during His absence. To ‘occupy’ is simply to ‘trade’. When we apply this to ourselves we learn that as believers, we are all equally responsible to accept what He has given us as a trust - our abilities, our time, our understanding of His will - to be used in His interests. He has left us His own example, for at twelve years of age he said, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business"? When He comes, He will require each one of us to give account of our trading, and reward us accordingly. (To be continued)
R.M. Goatley
He gave us no sign by which we could calculate the date of His coming for us, in fact, when He next mentioned it in John 21:21-23, He introduced the possibility of John remaining alive till He returns. This was quickly misconstrued, and the report went abroad among the brethren that John would not die. However Jesus did not say, "He shall not die"; but, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee"?
The apostle Paul received this same promise later by direct revelation from the Lord, so that he could teach it among the Gentile believers, and the same tenor of present expectation is evident as he writes to the Thessalonians. He speaks of "we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord", and he is obviously including himself (I Thess.4:15). In 2 Cor.5:1-4 he expresses his deep desire to be among those who are alive when the Lord returns, so that instead of passing through death, ‘mortality might be swallowed up of life’. See also I Cor.15:51-58 and Phil.3:21,22. The lives of countless saints have been cheered by this glad prospect since then, as H.L. Turner wrote:
"0 joy! 0 delight! should we go without dying;
No sickness, no sadness, no dread, and no crying;
Caught up through the clouds with our Lord into glory
When Jesus receives His own."
However, some years later, as he lay a prisoner in Rome and the day of his execution was near, he realised that ‘the time of his departure was at hand’ and he had ‘finished his course’. It had now become obvious that it was not the Lord’s will that he should "tarry till He come". But he was ready to "depart and be with Christ" (Phil.l:23), confident that for the believer, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor.5:8). The Lord evidently intended the promise of His coming to be a present expectation that would be both an incentive and a comfort to His people. Let us therefore consider the following:
"Occupy till I come" - Luke 19:13. This quote comes from a parable which the Lord used to indicate that He would go away, and return after a period, and that He expected His servants to be active in His affairs during His absence. To ‘occupy’ is simply to ‘trade’. When we apply this to ourselves we learn that as believers, we are all equally responsible to accept what He has given us as a trust - our abilities, our time, our understanding of His will - to be used in His interests. He has left us His own example, for at twelve years of age he said, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business"? When He comes, He will require each one of us to give account of our trading, and reward us accordingly. (To be continued)
"I will come again" - John 14:3 (Part 1)
l
R.M. Goatley
On the night in which the Lord Jesus was betrayed, the eve of His crucifixion, He gathered His disciples around Himself in the upper room to prepare them for the events of the morrow and the days that would follow. The agony of Gethsemane and the shame and death of the Cross were looming before Him. He knew that Judas Iscariot had already left to complete the treacherous bargain of betrayal. But, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end, and His heart was full of tender sympathy for them as He was about to be taken from them. They would be left to be His witnesses during His absence in the very world that rejected Him and crucified Him.
It was in this atmosphere of privacy and intimacy that the Lord opened His heart to them, and from John 17:20 we know that he had in mind all who would believe on Him through their word, until He comes again. He told them of the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, whom the Father would send to be in them, and with them forever, and we know from the New Testament epistles that this is still true of every believer today. He told them of the Father, of the Father’s love and of the Father’s House, and the place He would go to prepare for them there.
Then He gave them this wonderful promise, "If I go...I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also". Nowhere in Scripture had such a promise been disclosed before. The Old Testament prophets had foretold His coming to subdue His enemies and set up a kingdom that would fill the whole earth and stand forever. The Lord Jesus had expounded this to them only days before. He had spoken of the coming of the Son of Man predicted by the prophet Daniel (Dan.7:13,14; Matt.24:30), and He had given them a sign from Daniel by which those who would be alive at the time of the end would be able to gauge the proximity of that coming. (Dan.12:11,12; Matt.24:15). God had revealed this to His prophets long ago, and the disciples believed what God had said.
But now, as the Lord Jesus gives His new and special promise to His own, in this day of Grace, He says, "Ye believe in God, believe also in Me’. The glad news of the Father’s House above, and a place prepared for us there, and that He Himself will come personally to take us there to be with Him forever, was revealed in the New Testament by the Lord Jesus Himself. (To be continued)
R.M. Goatley
On the night in which the Lord Jesus was betrayed, the eve of His crucifixion, He gathered His disciples around Himself in the upper room to prepare them for the events of the morrow and the days that would follow. The agony of Gethsemane and the shame and death of the Cross were looming before Him. He knew that Judas Iscariot had already left to complete the treacherous bargain of betrayal. But, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end, and His heart was full of tender sympathy for them as He was about to be taken from them. They would be left to be His witnesses during His absence in the very world that rejected Him and crucified Him.
It was in this atmosphere of privacy and intimacy that the Lord opened His heart to them, and from John 17:20 we know that he had in mind all who would believe on Him through their word, until He comes again. He told them of the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, whom the Father would send to be in them, and with them forever, and we know from the New Testament epistles that this is still true of every believer today. He told them of the Father, of the Father’s love and of the Father’s House, and the place He would go to prepare for them there.
Then He gave them this wonderful promise, "If I go...I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also". Nowhere in Scripture had such a promise been disclosed before. The Old Testament prophets had foretold His coming to subdue His enemies and set up a kingdom that would fill the whole earth and stand forever. The Lord Jesus had expounded this to them only days before. He had spoken of the coming of the Son of Man predicted by the prophet Daniel (Dan.7:13,14; Matt.24:30), and He had given them a sign from Daniel by which those who would be alive at the time of the end would be able to gauge the proximity of that coming. (Dan.12:11,12; Matt.24:15). God had revealed this to His prophets long ago, and the disciples believed what God had said.
But now, as the Lord Jesus gives His new and special promise to His own, in this day of Grace, He says, "Ye believe in God, believe also in Me’. The glad news of the Father’s House above, and a place prepared for us there, and that He Himself will come personally to take us there to be with Him forever, was revealed in the New Testament by the Lord Jesus Himself. (To be continued)
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