More thoughts on The Infant Hermeneutic

Some time ago I wrote an article entitled The Infant Hermeneutic.  It was a look at the error involved in those who rely too heavily on how little ones might be saved in order to build their soteriological system.   Just yesterday I received a phone call from my aunt who experienced first-hand how much reliance extremists place upon infant salvation to promote their unbiblical heresy.  She has been blessed in the past couple of years to come to see the error of time salvation and the empty Christian experience it entails.   At a funeral she confronted a well-known and what I would consider a learned elder in much of the Bible.  In her conversation she asked him some of the most fundamental questions concerning the relationship that exists between the children of God and Jesus Christ their Savior.  I have been blessed to teach her in the past that conditional time salvation attacks the very heart of religion, challenging the certainty of God's people knowing God and believing in His Son in both mind and heart.

The response to her elementary question “Will one go to heaven who does not know God?” was…

“If they are an elect child of God then they will.”

As justification for his fatalistic application of election, he offered the case of infants as his “proof” that such must be the case.  His reasoning is that since dying elect infants can’t know God, then the same must be allowed as possible for the rest of God’s family.  If one is honest with the scriptures, however, he knows that this is an unwarranted deduction.  There are very explicit texts in the Bible which teach that God’s elect will know the one true God and His Son, and that those who do not are damned.

“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” (John 10:14)

“As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3)

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6)

“And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” (Col. 3:10)

"In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thes. 1:8)

“And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20)

It is ironic as well that the same ones who do this often rely upon the New Covenant as stated in Heb. 8 to make the point that all of the elect will know God, having been taught directly by Him!

“And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.” (v. 11)

Let me borrow fellow contributor Stephen’s thought here.

“Consistency thou art a jewel!”

If pressed, however, on making such a terrible conclusion that the elect will not necessarily know God, extremists will resort to the usual way of escape by asserting that there are “two kinds” of knowing God.  God’s elect will have a subconscious knowledge of God, but not a conscious one.  They will know Him but not know that they do!

What a load of nonsense!

Why is it that the majority of the Christian community who correctly assert that the sheep will KNOW their Shepherd have explicit texts in the Bible stating that they shall do so, when those who oppose are reduced to rationalizing about what is more or less a mystery?  The Bible says very little about the salvation of infants.  To walk through a door which God has only cracked open and proceed to build one’s doctrine thereupon is a dangerous way to interpret the scriptures.  We agree with the words of Dr. Sam Waldron on this point:

“…to draw from speculation about the regeneration of infants a deduction which flies in the face of Scripture is thoroughly unjustifiable procedure” (A MODERN EXPOSITION OF THE 1689 BAPTIST CONFESSION OF FAITH)

Furthermore, we disagree with the very premise itself which says that infants shall not know the Lord, believing that God is able in His Sovereignty to reveal himself in the manner which is pleasing to Him.

For those who adhere to the London Confession, they know as well that this “hermeneutic” turns chapter 10 on its head!  The Old Baptists of the past did not employ such a rule in bible interpretation.  They allowed the plain statements of scripture to determine their beliefs and regulate their Christian conduct.  We should do the same in our day.  As both individual Christians and a church body, we should adhere to and follow what the Bible explicitly teaches in regards to cognitive agents.