- RSS FeedSubscribe
- « Previous PostJaci Velasquez & Repentance
- Next Post »One In A Sea of Faces
Book Review: Safe In The Arms of God
- 09/20/04
- 3
Safe in the Arms of God is described on the cover as "truth from heaven about the death of a child." In this short, but intense book, John MacArthur answers the question of what happens to children - those unborn, stillborn, or youngsters - when they die. This is a question that has perplexed Christians since the days of the early church. While most Christians have held the view that their children are in heaven, the majority have believed that without being able to adequately defend their position. In this book MacArthur provides a Biblical examination of the issues and ultimately provides a satisfying answer.
In this short review I will not examine the issue itself, but MacArthur's handling of the issue.
MacArthur's position is that all children who die, regardless of the era they were born in, their nationality or the religion of their parents, are immediately ushered into heaven. When Larry King interviewed him in the aftermath of September 11, he asked MacArthur what happened to any children who lost their lives in the tragedies. His answer was (and remains) "instant heaven." While that answer was all King wanted, inquiring minds are intrigued by the Biblical grounds for such a view. The author spends several chapters carefully crafting his argument. He gives examples from the Bible which show that there is some assurance that children can be taken to heaven (David's son is the common example) and provides a mountain of other important evidence. Most of this, while it helps build the case, does not prove anything on its own.
Essentially, though, the argument comes down to this: salvation is by grace, damnation by works - most notably the action of rejecting God. Infants are incapable of rejecting or accepting God, and thus God chooses to extend His mercy to them. It is important to note that God saves them not on the basis of justice but on the basis of His grace.
After making the argument, MacArthur spends several chapters speaking about whether parents will see and know their children in heaven, why the child had to die and what others can do to help grieving parents. The book is interspersed with the stories and testimonies of parents who have suffered a loss and have taken comfort in God's promises.
MacArthur makes a compelling, Biblical argument to support the idea that all children who die in infancy are saved by the great mercy of God and are safe for eternity in the arms of a loving God. I give it my recommendation.
Published in 2008, this book
This is a guide that calls men,
This review of the bestselling
New to the site? You can get
Comments (3)
Hey Tim,
I haven't read the book, but the explanation sounds like similar teaching that I've heard from John Piper/Sam Storms on the subject. The arguments are well taken, but I continue to wonder at what point it would be that children are old enough to be considered capable of damnation? I'm not arguing with MacArthur's conclusions; I just think it's a valid question and maybe you would be able to answer since you've read the book.
Best,
David Pell
Hi Tim,
It would appear that using John's arguements, that all the children sacrificed to Molloch and other cursed idols in the Old Testament times were taken into heaven. If what he says is correct, then what the adults did was a gracious thing to their children for if their children had grown up in a heathen culture and not heard the gospel, they would have been damned. God would have turned their evil acts into grace for the children.
It also appears that there is another way to salvation, the first is to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the second is to be incapable of doing so because one is too young to understand.
In more modern times, according to John's arguments, all aborted children receive 'instant heaven'. However, if pro-life people would somehow prevent the abortion, the child would likely grow up to be un unbeliever and be eternally damned. It would appear then that the aborted babies are in a better position because they all obtain eternal felicity. Using John's arguments then, one should encourage abortion because the outcome is 100% saved.
Something is severly wrong with John's position. The fact that God saves anyone at all is pure grace but Christ does say "Many are called and few are chosen." What John is saying is contrary to this statement of Christ because John states that over the history of mankind, countless many children died. They certainly were not called because they could not hear.
Christ says that "being ever seeing, they could not see, and being ever hearing, they could not hear, lest they turn to me and be saved." What does this mean in light of these arguements?
I have to say that I want to see how John forms his positions before commenting. Many godly men who have read the scriptures and come up with bunkum on this topic. John is well respected.
Jack Van H your comments are really inappropriate. If as the Bible teaches we are born in sin (with a sin nature) how can someone be sent to hell as an aborted child despite not sinning?
That's crazy.
The parent's of the children sacrificed to Molech will be found guilty of their own sin, not the children of their parent's sin. Abortion is murder, regardless of the nett result for the child. God is angered it removes the responsibility of that child to make their own choices. It also takes the life that God has entrusted to the mother.
Oh, and I'm a pro-lifer