Will Babies Stay Babies in Heaven?

   I was asked this question by a fine young man who has recently lost his infant baby brother to a horrible, debilitating disease. He wanted to know if his baby brother, who was just shy of one year old, would remain in that state, or would he grow up? Since I am a pastor and amateur theologian, I gave him a short answer. But after I have had time to think on it and knowing many others have asked the same question, I wanted to answer in the best way I know how.

   This is really an area where we have to speculate. We don't have direct biblical teaching on this, but we do have the direct biblical teaching of having real, actual human bodies as created by God, not subject to sin, death, and suffering. 

   Some have guessed that babies are given a resurrection boy (1 Cor. 15:35-49). That is, babies are "fast-forwarded" for lack of a better term, to the "ideal age." Well, what exactly is the "ideal age." For centuries, church fathers like Thomas Aquinas believed it to be 33 years of age, the age of Jesus Christ when He was crucified and resurrected. 

1 John 3:2 declares, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 

   While this may be possible, and certainly a great thought, I am not entirely sold on that idea. There are passages like this from Isaiah chapter 11:

The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together;
    and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

   Check out this passage from Isaiah 65:

“Never again will there be in it
    an infant who lives but a few days,
    or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
    will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred
    will be considered accursed."

   In both of these passages, God is describing what life will be like in the New Earth. And so I believe that a very good possibility is that God would resurrect that child at the age they died. If that is the case, God would not "fast-forward." He would not skip any stage. 

   This would make sense in interpreting the above passages that there would not be skipping of grow stages, but that they as children could literally grow up on the New Earth.

   In coming to this conclusion, it would fit logically into a eschatological interpretation of Luke 6 and other passages where Jesus promises to bring comfort to those who mourn on earth. In essence, God is saying through His Son Jesus: you experienced mourning and loss here on earth. On the New Earth, I will give you the joy and satisfaction of raising your child without the threat of harm, disease, and death. 

   Again, this is speculation on my part. But I believe there is biblical basis for this line of thought. So, for those of you who have lost children this Advent season take heart. Your Suffering Servant Jesus loves you and has great plans for you in heaven. He longs to replace your grief with joy and your loss with laughter. 

Until Jesus Comes,

Bryan