What happens to babies that die? Do they go to heaven or hell?

What happens to babies that die prematurely? Do they go to heaven or hell?

This is a tough question and I don’t think the Bible gives a clear answer. There are a lot of verses that seem to indicate that we are born into sin and that we have a sin nature, which separates us from God. Ephesians 2:3 says we are naturally children of wrath and David wrote in Psalm 51:5 when he was repenting of his sin that he was “born into sin.” The first thing I must say is that the Bible does not outright state what happens to babies when they die. But, I think it would be Biblical to say that God does not condemn babies when they die, even if they were “born into sin.” In John 9, Jesus offends the Pharisees by hinting that they are spiritually blind. They react strongly to this, and Jesus responds in verse 41: “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”

It seems like Jesus is saying that if a person is incapable of understanding the truth of the Gospel, their sin does not remain on them. God won’t eternally judge a person for not believing what he had no ability to even see. Infants do not yet have the capacity to see the truth of the Gospel, so it seems likely that God would not judge them for it. In researching this, I found a helpful article that discusses this in more detail. You can read it by clicking here.