Question on Eternal Destiny of Children

by Rev. Jack Barr

Subject: Re: question on eternal destiny of children.
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 20:48:51 -0500
From: Jack Barr
To: XXXXXX@xxxxxxxx

Hi XXXXXX, You ask some good questions,

Question
Hello again I have a question on children. I have a very special friend who lost his children through a divorce and the ex doesn't teach them how to live a Christian life. My question is if something should happen to the children like death even though they know what's right and wrong would they go to hell for not living right with God? Or would God understand they are not being taught they way as parents should teach their children about God and have mercy on them?

Answer
There are so very many who would like to believe that you only have to be a good person in order to go to heaven after death. This is a lie perpetuated by Satan because it is directly opposed to what the Bible teaches. That lie would allow you to believe in anything and to worship any god you chose, or no god at all. That lie will lead straight into the Fires of Hell.

The Bible which IS the Word of God, Tells us different.

The Key to your answer lies in your statement, within your question, that these children know what is right and wrong. This places them at or above the age of accountability. Below that age, the children would go to heaven. (See my article this site, "Do Babies and Children go to Heaven or Hell when they die?)

The answer to your question then, is that these children, unless they are led to Jesus, and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord God and Savior, will be lost to the fires of hell forever.

Now the Scriptures which tell us this:

Isaiah 45:23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

Romans 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God

Phillippians 2:10-11 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

It is obvious, that unless someone teaches them to bow their knee to God, they will not do it. And not just any god, it must be to THE TRUE GOD. For we see in the above verses that God has commanded all men to bow down to Him and to Swear Obedience to Him, and Him only.

God's word tells us that no-one, on, in, or under this earth can have salvation except they accept Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Acts 4:10-12 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

There are no other conditions placed on you to receive salvation. This is Faith.

Now there is no place in God's Word where you will find that God is tolerant!! God will not accept any way other than His way. Cain's offerings were rejected by God because Cain tried to come to God his own way instead of God's Way. It is not enough for them to live a good life, it is not enough for good intentions. Please do not confuse God's mercy as God being tolerant. God's Word if full of God's commands to do it His way, Or Else!!

For God says:

Romans 1:18-22 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

From this we can know and understand that these children, and everyone else in the world MUST Accept Jesus Christ for salvation. If they do not, they will go to hell. God says that they have No Excuse.

And how can they hear unless someone tells them. If the mother of these children will not lead them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, then we can only pray that they will hear about Jesus Christ and God's plan of salvation before they face death. The father must do all he can to see that his children are brought to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. After that, it is up to each child to accept or to reject Jesus as their savior. We can only pray for them.

This is the end of my answer of your question, I will now give you some additional verses that has to do with salvation and eternal life. These are just for your information and not a part of the answer to you.

As Always, Go to God to ask if what I say here is the Truth, for only God will give you absolute truth. And all spirits must be tested before God. Start with mine.

Rev. Jack Barr

On Eternal Life:
Without quoting each verse, here is what each verse says about the condition for salvation. Each verse below has the term "Eternal; Life" or "Life Eternal" within it.

1. Jn. 3:15 Must believe on Jesus.
2. 1 Jn. 5:13 Must believe on the name of Jesus (son of God).
3. Jn. 17:3 Must believe Jesus is true God.
4. 1 Jn. 5:20 Must believe Jesus is true God and eternal life.
5. Jn 5:39 Must accept that the scriptures testify of Jesus
6-7. Titus 1:2 and 3:7 Must Hope for eternal life
8. Ro. 2:7 Must continue patiently doing well while looking for eternal life.
9. Mt. 25:46 Must be righteous
10. 1 Tim. 6:12 Must use continuing faith to profess Jesus Before witnesses.
11. Jn. 4:36 Must gather fruit (souls)
12. Jn. 6:54 Must continue to have communion.
13. Jn 12:25 Must hate his life (the world)
14. 1 Tim. 6:19 Must build up a foundation in heaven.
15. Jude 1:21 Must remain in the love of God.
16. Ro. 5:21 Must continue in the grace of Jesus.

Each of the above conditions Must be met for salvation. When you first accept Jesus Christ as your Lord, Master, and God, you will start out with each of the above items satisfied. After that you must continue in them. Now this is not hard when you have the Holy Spirit helping You.

Ro 6:23 It is a gift of God, but only through Jesus.
Jn. 10:28 Jesus gives eternal life.
1 Jn Jesus is eternal life.
Jn. 17:2 Jesus gives.
Act 13:48 Ordained to
1 Jn. 1:2 Was manifested to us.
1 Jn. 2:25 It is promised to us.
1 Jn. 3:15 If you hate, you don't have it.
Mt. 10:16; Mk 10:17; Mk 10:30; Lk. 10:25, Lk. 18:18 How can I get it?
Jn. 6:68 Jesus has the words
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And "Endure to the End"

Matthew 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Mark. 13:13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

If you will not endure to the end then you will lose your salvation. This is shown in the example parable of the "sowing of the seeds. " Mt. 13:3-9, 18-23; Mk. 4: 3-20; Lk. 8:4- 15, where Jesus tells us that there will be many who will accept Jesus, (obtaining Salvation for a short time) but then falling away for several reasons. I know, there are many who will tell you that those never did have salvation, however, a search of scripture shows us that you have salvation as soon as you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus is the Christ.

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

There are no other conditions placed on you to receive salvation. However, as shown above that there are many conditions to keep salvation. There are many who will not accept this because they choose to believe that once they went to an altar to declare for Christ, or once they said the sinners prayer, that they could never lose their salvation for any reason, no matter what they do in life.

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And Now Some Additional Scripture:

Revelation 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of Life.

Now it seems reasonable to me, that in order to have your name in the book of life, you must have salvation, since only those who's name is in the book of life has salvation, and if your name is not it the book of life, you go to hell..

Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

So, in Revelation 3:5, Jesus, who is speaking to the Christians only, is telling them that if they do not overcome the sins that many of them are committing, that He, Jesus, will Blot out, or erase their names from the Book of Life, therefore consigning them to hell. This is showing that although they have their names in the book of Life, showing they have salvation, some of them will have their names taken out of the book of Life, losing their salvation. It isn't enough to be a Christian, you must overcome the world.

See Also Ezekiel 3:20-21; 18:20,24,26; 33:12-13,18; on losing salvation and compare these with the verses that are next to these verses about a sinner gaining salvation. Now answer the question, why do they all accept the verses on the sinner gaining salvation but reject the accompanying verses on losing salvation???
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The Parables:

The Parable of the seeds: Matthew 13:3-9; 13:18-23 Shows us that there will be many who will accept Jesus Christ, (the ones in stony places, and the ones among the thorns,) with Great joy thereby gaining salvation. But later they will fall away, that is, stop serving God by either walking away from Him, (the stony ground,) or becomes so caught up with their own problems that they only sit in the pew at church, never obeying God by going out and saving souls, (among the thorns) and so produce no fruit. Both of these, although once saved, will loose their salvation.

The parable of the unmerciful servant: Matthew 18: 23-35 Shows us that a King (Jesus) looked over His servants, (Christians) and found one that owed Him a great debt, (had sinned against the King) and ordered that servant to pay the price or else! The servant could not pay and was then ordered to debtors prison (Hell) (name taken out of the book of servants which is the book of Life.) until he paid. The servant begged for the King (Jesus) to have mercy on him. The King (Jesus) gave him mercy, forgave His servant, and restored the servant to his former position, (gave him back his salvation, put his name back into the book of Life) because the servant asked for mercy. (forgiveness) This servant later had his salvation/forgiveness taken away from him, again, because this servant would not forgive another servant. The servant (Christian) had his name taken out of the book of Life and was sent into Hell because he would not forgive his fellow servant. The Lord says that you must forgive or else you cannot be forgiven.

Matthew 6:14-15 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

Note that several of these parables speaks of the "servant". This is speaking only of those who serve the master (Jesus), It does not speak of the ones who will not serve (the unbelievers).

The parable of the 10 Talents: This parable speaks of the unprofitable servant, the one who produces no fruit, like the seeds which fell among the thorns in the parable of the seeds. They are indeed servants of the master (Jesus).

We are each given a certain amount of "faith" and "gifts of the Spirit" from God when we first come to Him. With the use of these, we will increase in faith when we use it, to save souls, to lay hands on for healing, to pray for others. This will produce not only fruit, but will produce much fruit.

John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing

John 15:8 Herein is my father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

For the one who will only sit in a pew and call themselves Christian, but do nothing else, will find themselves to be the servant who will loose his salvation (name blotted out of the book of Life) and be thrown into outer darkness (a part of Hell) because they produce no fruit, they are unprofitable servants.

John 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

These can be likened to an employee who was hired to sell something. But every day they come in, expecting to be paid, and drink coffee, read the paper all day and go home without ever talking to a customer, much less selling the item. They were hired (given salvation), but how long would you keep them before you fired them. (took away their salvation)?

The parable of the 10 virgins: Matthew 25:1-13 This one is extremely important. Think on what it is saying!

All ten Virgins (Christians) are actively expecting, and looking for, the Bridegroom (Jesus) to come. (time of the rapture). Those Christians who are not looking for His return at this time, are not there, and so can never enter into the banquet hall with the Bridegroom, because they missed him.

Next, all ten Virgins are called Virgins because they are all pure, undefiled with sin. Those Christians who have outstanding unforgiven sin in their lives will not be there, and so cannot enter into the banquet hall with the Bridegroom.

Note that it says that it is these ten who are told that the Bridegroom is coming now! The Christians who are not there, because they do not expect the return of the Bridegroom yet, or those with outstanding sin, will not hear the cry and so will not be there. They miss the wedding. Because they refuse to believe or hear that the Bridegroom is about to appear.

And Finally, of even those few Virgins, (Christians) only half are actually ready to go with the Bridegroom to the wedding. The rest have something in this world that is holding them back, something on or in this world that they do not want to give up.

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This tells us that even though you are a Christian, you still might not make it. There are those who will say that it only proves that those were not Christians and didn't have salvation to start with. But a Christian is one who professes to be a servant of Jesus Christ. And to become a servant of Jesus Christ you have only to believe in your heart that Jesus is God and that He died on the cross for us, for the remission of our sins, asking forgiveness.

Yes, there will be Christians, real Christians, who will find out too late that they did not obey God. Oh, they believed in Jesus all right, and they did live very good lives, and they might have had no sin in their lives for many many years, and then sinned, and refused or neglected to ask for forgiveness. They might be the ones who has sat in that same church pew for the last 50 years, but has produced no fruit, no profit, for the Master, Jesus Christ.

Can you loose your salvation by accident?

I believe that you cannot lose your salvation by accident. God is not sitting there just waiting for one of His Children to make a mistake so that He can swat him. God is long- suffering, patient, loving. He will give you every chance to repent of anything that you do, and will give you forgiveness each and every time that you ask from the heart, just as He has promised in the Bible. You can lose your salvation though, through disobedience, neglect of your spiritual life, pride - being too proud to ask forgiveness, putting off asking forgiveness until you forget you sinned, of just plain turning your back on God and walking away from Him. He will let you go.

In each of the example scriptures above, there are choices. If you do this, you will have salvation! If you do that, or if you stop doing this, then I will send you to Hell. Every one of us has a free will to follow and obey God, (salvation), to follow God for a while then stop following/obeying, (salvation - loss of salvation), to never follow God. (only damnation).

The Bible tells us that it is better for us to never have followed God, than it is to have followed God and then turn away. For the one who never knew God will be punished less than the one who knew God, knowing what is right, and then turning away to do the same as the one who did not know God.

Are these all the scriptures on this subject that is in the Bible? No, Even the Old Testament is full of examples. If you look for them, you will find them.

I know that this is long, but then, short answers are usually no answers at all.

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