Every Christian woman who has suffered a miscarriage wonders if the embryo or fetus was
a human soul and is the object of Christ’s saving work on the cross for eternal life.
Is this child never to be remembered or, worse yet, lost in hell without baptism?
Almost everyone of us, when asked if we think that the unborn baby of a Christian is
now in heaven with God the Father, will reply, "I hope so. If only I could know for
sure." Your heart can fill with confident assurance, because the Bible states that
the unborn infant at any stage of development has a human soul and is the object of
Christ’s salvation. We read:
The Lord called me before my birth; from within the womb He called me by name."
Isaiah 49:1 (Living Bible)
Jer 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out
of the womb I sanctified thee, [and] I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (KJV)
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (KJV)
You were there when I was being formed in utter seclusion. You saw me before I was
born, before I began to breathe! Psalm 139:15 (Living Bible)
Oh that I had been an untimely birth, as an infant which never saw the light. Then had
I been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth, with princes that had gold. The
small and the great are there. Job 3:16 (KJV)
If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years so that the days of his life be
many, and his soul be not filled with good...I say that an untimely birth is better than
he. He (the untimely or miscarried child) hath not seen the sun, nor known anything; yet
this one hath more rest than the other. Ecc. 6:3-5 (KJV)
A child is human from the moment of conception. The Scriptures above describe the
unborn as a complete individual with the pronouns "I," "my," or
"me." It would not be possible for us to have identity or be human without body
and soul.
To ask "at what point does a human fetus receive a spirit?" is to ask the
wrong question. The Bible tells us that human beings are two elements: body and soul woven
into one, Is. 10:18 , 51:23, Micah 6:7, Matt. 10:28, 1 Th. 5:23, Dan. 7:15, 1 Cor. 6:20, 1
Cor. 7:34, and James 2:26. Therefore we are body and soul at conception.
Only in recent years have scientists identified the DNA fibers woven into every human
cell. We know now that from the moment of conception each embryo has DNA
"blueprint" which records exactly what that fetus is to become. There are also
more than 100,000 identifiable genes on 23 sets of chromosomes in every human cell. The
gene structure from one human being to the next is so consistent scientists have recently
been able to construct a "gene map" to help in their research. Some lotteries in
the United States promise the winner millions of dollars if people can pick just 6 correct
numbers, in no particular order, out of about 48 possibilities. In order to be human there
must be 100,000 genes arranged in exact order.
The discovery of DNA has once again shown us the Bible’s flawless accuracy in
matters of science. "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in
thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet
there was none of them." Psalm 139:16 (KJV)
In view of the above passages we believe that when an embryo, of even a few days, is
miscarried and lost to earthly existence, God completes the "substance" of the
life He began into a heavenly, glorified body. Christ’s victory means that sin and
death cannot interfere with His plan of salvation, let alone what He plans in every human
fetus through DNA. In Christ we gain more than Adam lost.
King David lost an infant shortly after birth. In 2 Sam. 12:18, this man of faith said,
"He cannot come again to me, but I will go to him." In the midst
of grief we, too, can respond with this same faith. "We sorrow not, even as others
do which have no hope. Which hope ye have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and
steadfast." I Thess. 4:13, Heb. 6:19
The Bible speaks about the faith of John the Baptist in the womb. In Luke 1:44,
Elizabeth told Mary, "For behold, when the words of your greeting reached my ears,
the baby leaped in my womb for joy." This was a miraculous event limited to the
prophet John the Baptist but it demonstrates that the unborn child has a soul and that God
plans our salvation before we are born. At the occasion of this verse Christ is little
more than an embryo and Elizabeth is in her sixth month. John recognizes his Savior before
circumcision in the womb. John is the object of Christ’s salvation. Christ came to
save everything He became.
In Mark 10:14-16, Christ tells the parents to bring their children to Him, regardless
of the child’s age and ability to reason. In Matt. 18:6, He says it would be better
if a person were drowned with a millstone around his neck rather than interfere with the
faith "of these little ones who believe in Me." The Greek word for
"little ones" can mean as young as a fetus.
Babies do not need the ability to reason in order to have faith in Christ. The power of
salvation is in the Gospel. If the ability to reason was necessary for faith, then there
would be a question about the salvation of the severely retarded, those who die in their
sleep, or those who die while unconscious. We learn that human reason as a requirement for
faith is rejected by Christ in Matt. 18:3 "Truly I say to you, unless you are
converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven."
Contrary to popular opinion human reason is a hindrance to faith. Luther comments on
page 51, Volume I, of "What Luther Says," "Is it not a fact that reason
most violently resists faith and the Word of God so that because of it, not one can come
to faith or put up with God’s Word unless reason is blinded and put to shame? A man
must die to reason and become a fool, so to speak, yes, and must become more unreasoning
and irrational than any young child if he is to come to faith and accept God’s
grace."
Paul clearly speaks of Timothy’s faith before reason in 2 Tim. 3:15 when he says, "and
from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom that
leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." The word
"childhood" refers to children as young as eight days old and younger.
Literally, Paul is saying, "from a fetus you have known the Holy Scriptures."
All those who are saved, including infants, are saved by faith alone.
We would be judging God if we assumed that the untimely death of an infant meant God
did not plan to save the unborn child. Christ came to save what He became. He first became
a fetus in Mary’s womb. Therefore, He came to save the product of every conception in
the womb. It says in the Bible, "He died for all." This means God also
desires to save those who die in the womb.
Death of even the unborn is a tragic reality of this fallen world. Infants, including a
fetus in the womb as well as adults, are by nature sinful and under the wrath of God or
else they would not die. All people are in sin since the fall of Adam. "Dust you
are to dust you shall return." Gen. 3:19 and "Therefore, just as through
one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men,
because all sinned." Romans 5:12. God counts all people as sinners doomed to hell
because of Adam’s sin. However, Christ, who paid for the sins of every person born on
earth, has also paid for the original sin of the unborn.
The question is, do the unborn children of Christians have Christ’s invitation to
heaven? John the Baptist, the same person who leaped in the womb said as man "Behold
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." John 1:29. The unborn are
in the world and Christ paid for their sins.
Every mother who carries, gives birth, and holds an infant in her arms has the comfort
of knowing that Mary experienced all these things with the Savior of all children. Because
Mary’s Child, the new Adam (Rom. 5:14-15), gives life to the children of all other
mothers, we can and should expect to see the children of Christians who died before birth
in heaven.
God’s grace is not hindered by the lack of a developed intellect. Baptism is
commanded for infants in Matt. 28:20 when Christ says "baptize all nations."
Infant Baptism is clearly implied in Acts 11:16, 16:15, and 16:33 where entire households
are baptized. Peter tells us in Acts 2:;38-39 that the promise of Baptism is "to
you and your children." 1 Peter 3:21 states "...Baptism doth now save
us."
In the Old Testament (Genesis 17:11) every Israelite boy was to be circumcised on the
eighth day; if not, he was under damnation as stated in Gen. 17:14. However, if an
Israelite baby died before the eighth day without circumcision then he was counted as a
recipient of God’s eternal covenant. Also, all female infants were covered by
God’s covenant because their fathers were circumcised. The unborn infant of believing
parents who could not be baptized must surely have the same if a greater opportunity for
eternal life than the Israelite babies in Genesis 17.
First Cor. 7:14 also assures a special relationship between the Christian parent and
the infant, "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the
unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children
are unclean, but now they are holy." Notice, if the child has just one Christian
parent the child is counted as "holy," while the children of
non-Christian parents are never referred to as holy in the Bible. One cannot have faith
for another, however, as in the Old Testament God counts the children of just one
believing parent as holy. The believing parent has faith, and surely intends to baptize
their child when they are able.
More than 400 years ago Martin Chemnitz, author of the Formula of Concord and editor of
the Book of Concord, raised and answered the following question: "Are the children
of believers who died before birth or in birth damned? By no means, but since our
children, brought to the light by divine blessing, are, as it were, given into our hands
and at the same time means are offered, or it is made possible for the seal of the
covenant of grace to be applied to them, there, indeed, that very solemn divine statement
applies: The man-child, the flesh of whose foreskin is not circumcised on the eighth day,
his soul shall be blotted out from [his] people (Gen. 17:14). Hence the Lord met Moses on
the way and wanted to kill him because he had neglected to circumcise [his] son (Ex.
4:24-26). But when those means are not given us--as when in the Old Testament a male died
before the eighth day of circumcision--likewise when they, who, born in the desert in the
interval of 40 years, could not be circumcised because of daily harassment by enemies and
constant wanderings, died uncircumcised, (Jos. 5:5-6) and when today infants die before
they are born--in such cases the grace of God is not bound to Baptism, but those infants
are to be brought and commended to Christ in prayers. And one should not doubt that those
prayers are heard, for they are made in the name of Christ. (John 16:23; Gen. 17:7, Matt.
19:14) Since then, we cannot bring infants as yet unborn to Christ through Baptism,
therefore we should do it through pious prayers. Parents are to be put in mind of this,
and if perhaps such a case occur, they are to be encouraged with this comfort." (An
Enchiridion, by Martin Chemnitz, Page 119, CPH St. Louis 1981)
Centuries ago, the learned Augustine summed up the problem of those who die without
Baptism when he taught that it is not the absence of Baptism that damns but the rejection
of Baptism.
Regarding the salvation of children who died in the womb Luther states, "Who
would doubt that the children of Israel who died before having been circumcised on the
eighth day were saved through the prayer of their parents based on the promise that God
wanted to be their God? Therefore, we ought to speak differently and more comforting with
Christian people from the way we speak with the heathen or, what is the same thing, with
reprobates. This we should do also in those cases in which we do not know God’s
secret judgment." (What Luther Says, Vol.1, Page 49 CPH, St. Louis, 1949)