Emailed Question:

I believe that children who die before the age of accountability will go straight to heaven and spend eternity with God. There can be no greater happiness and no greater ‘good’ than spending eternity in heaven. After the age of accountability, I believe one must ask forgiveness of sins and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in order to spend eternity in heaven with God. It follows that every single baby that is aborted goes straight to heaven and into the comforting arms of Jesus Himself. However, if that baby is born, and lives past the age of accountability, then according to Matthew 7:13 and of course known statistics, there is a low probability of them becoming a Christian (certainly much less than 50% chance statistically), and thereby most likely spend eternity in hell. In other words, considering abortion numbers worldwide, if all abortion was banned, it would technically be true that less people will go to heaven and spend eternity with Christ than if abortion was allowed to continue. If spending eternity in heaven is the ultimate ‘good,’ shouldn’t our ultimate goal be to have as many people as possible living in pure bliss in heaven for eternity as possible? Since abortion seems to inevitably serve this purpose, should we really fight so hard against it?

My response:

That might be a great argument for universal abortion if it wasn’t immoral illogical nonsense.

  1. First and foremost, I believe it was John Piper who once said, the devil would be perfectly happy sending a million babies to heaven if it meant creating a million murderers on earth. Who we are matters. Christians are not consequentialists deriving our virtue and moral value system from a heavenly cost benefit analysis. Our lives are not merely heaven filling endeavors. We are to reflect the moral character of God in a fallen world, not devise murderous plans to fill heaven. God cares about who his children are as people.
  2. “I believe that children who die…”
    Oh, you believe that? And based on that belief, not theological certainty, you will empower the intentional destruction of human lives on an incomprehensible scale? My Lord!
    Not all faith traditions agree with this belief but go ahead and begin your Jihad versus the unborn I suppose.
  3. Finally, how far are we going to take this reasoning? Is abortion justified because it sends babies to heaven before they can sin? Should we send everyone on the express lane to heaven if we feel with some degree of certainty they are saved? Baptism services are about to get scary.

As a postscript, if we apply this logic universally, abort all human beings before they are born to make sure they go to heaven, we assure the end of the human race. No more human beings to have babies means no more babies to send to heaven. This type of thinking may ultimately decrease the number of people in heaven and can’t possibly assure what it claims to seek, more saved souls. It is madness disguised as a clever argument to undermine Christians. It demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about the sanctification of the saints and God’s desire that we are perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.

Murder is a lousy evangelism tool.