Children's Place in God's Kingdom
- Michael E.B. Maher
- Jul 21
- 5 min read
Romans 6:3-4 “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? (4) Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Although all children that die go to heaven to be with the Lord, they are not part of the body of Christ. Only those that have been baptised into Christ are part of the body of Christ. And it is only those who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour that have been baptized into His death and been raised together with Him in new life. This truth is revealed to us in the passage of scripture quoted above. In other words only those who have been born-again qualify to be part of the body of Christ.
Colossians 1:18 “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above we see that Jesus was the first one to be born-again, for He is the firstborn from the dead. And the church, which is His body, is made up of all who have been born-again through faith in Him. Children who die do not meet these requirements, for they have never died spiritually and thus can never be born-again. And so we see that children who die and go to heaven are not included in the church of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. (10) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
There are two eternal judgements that will take place at the end of the age. The first, as revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture is the judgement of the Lord’s church. We will give an account to Him of our lives as born-again believers, and we will receive from Him eternal rewards, or incur loss, as a result of that judgement. All unbelievers will be judged by the church at the end of the age (1 Corinthians 6:2). It is at that judgement, when all unbelievers will be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity. Children who die and go to heaven however, will not be judged, either by the Lord or by the church, for as we have already seen, God does not hold them accountable for the brief lives that they lived on the earth.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”
At the coming of the Lord Jesus the first resurrection will take place. It is only the church that will be raised from the dead in that resurrection, for the first scripture quoted above plainly tells us that it is the “dead in Christ” that will rise first. Children that have died are not in Christ, and so they will not partake of the first resurrection. So what will happen to children that are on the earth when the first resurrection takes place, i.e. children of Christian parents as well as children of unbelievers? Although they will not at that time, receive their resurrected bodies as the church does, each one of them will die and go to heaven. For when the church is taken out of the earth, the wrath of God will be poured out on the earth. And just as the church has not been appointed to wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9), neither have any of God’s children been appointed to wrath.
Revelation 20:4-6 “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (5) But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (6) Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
The second resurrection will take place at the end of the age, when God creates the new heaven and the new earth. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit tells us that the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand-year reign of Christ had ended. The rest of the dead that He refers to in this passage of scripture, are all those who have died as children and gone to heaven.
Revelation 21:9-10 “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven-bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." (10) And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.”
The church will reign with Christ for a thousand years. And it is the church that is destined to dwell in the New Jerusalem in God’s new heaven and earth. For the church is the bride of Christ. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit plainly shows us that the church is destined to dwell in the New Jerusalem, for she is the Lamb’s wife.
Revelation 21:24-27 “And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. (25) Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). (26) And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. (27) But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.”
So, if all children that die go to be with the Lord in heaven because they are His children, what status do they enjoy in heaven? Children that die do not remain children, for they continue to grow and develop in heaven as they would have on the earth. The scripture quoted above reveals to us that there will be nations that will be saved, that will be dwelling in God’s new earth. Those nations will be allowed access to the New Jerusalem, but they will not dwell there. Those nations will be made up of all the children who have died since the time of Adam, for their names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. The population of mankind that has been born into the earth since the time of Adam is well over one hundred billion people. Of that number, roughly twenty billion have been children who have died and have since gone to be in heaven. It is that population of twenty billion that will make up the nations of those who are saved in God’s new earth.
Michael E.B. Maher
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