[RnMomof7]

Will you deny His Sovereignty? Will you protest His Right to Save those who die before the age of moral competency, if He sees fit?! These infants are not your Dirt, they are His Dirt, and He may apply Christ's Blood to them, and Save them from Adam's Fall, if He sees fit!! You are not even invited to the Eternal Council between the Father and the Son on the matter of those who die in Infancy; what is that to you, oh Dirt, if He should see fit to Save them according to His pleasure?

It is well with my soul in this regard OP.....I didn't think I would ever say that :>)

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

To: OrthodoxPresbyterian Will you deny His Sovereignty? Will you protest His Right to Save those who die before the age of moral competency, if He sees fit?! These infants are not your Dirt, they are His Dirt, and He may apply Christ's Blood to them, and Save them from Adam's Fall, if He sees fit!! You are not even invited to the Eternal Council between the Father and the Son on the matter of those who die in Infancy; what is that to you, oh Dirt, if He should see fit to Save them according to His pleasure?

It is well with my soul in this regard OP.....I didn't think I would ever say that :>)107 posted on 2/17/02 3:17 PM Pacific by RnMomof7

God bless ya, then, sister, for this is the right place to be. God's creation is His, and He may dispose of it as He sees fit.

Nonetheless, though we, as Calvinists, do affirm that God may dispose of His created Dirt as He sees fit, yet I would affirm to you that I do not misrepresent the Classical Calvinist position in affirming that God has seen fit to apply the Atoning Merit of Christ's Sacrifice to propitiate and expunge the Sin of Adam from all who die in Infancy. I do not tell you this to salve your human conscience (for I beieve that you are content to leave these judgments in the Hands of God, as is right), but only to advise you that the classical Calvinist position is that God has seen fit to propitiate and expunge, by the Merit of Christ, the Sin of Adam from all who die in Infancy.

That is the classical Calvinist position.

That you would leave thse judgments in the Hands of God is the right attitude, but I would tell you nonetheless that many esteemed Calvinists have affirmed that Scripture is not silent on this subject:

As for modern Calvinists, I know of no exception, but we all hope and believe that all persons dying in infancy are elect. Dr. Gill, who has been looked upon in late times as being a very standard of Calvinism, not to say of ultra-Calvinism, himself never hints for a moment the supposition that any infant has perished, but affirms of it that it is a dark and mysterious subject, but that it is his belief, AND HE THINKS HE HAS SCRIPTURE TO WARRANT IT, that they who have fallen asleep in infancy have not perished, but have been numbered with the chosen of God, and so have entered into eternal rest. We have never taught the contrary, and when the charge is brought, I repudiate it and say, "You may have said so, we never did, and you know we never did. If you dare to repeat the slander again, let the lie stand in scarlet on your very cheek if you be capable of a blush." -- Charles Spurgeon

As concerns those who die in Infancy, though a Calvinist may admit that God may dispose of ALL His creation as He sees fit, nonetheless we will uphold that the idea that those who die in Infancy should Perish is a Roman Catholic and Petrobrussian "Baptist" idea, and certainly not a Calvinist Baptist or Calvinist Presbyterian idea.

To admit of God's sovereignty over Men is not to deny His pleasure over Babes.

Dr. Gill, who has been looked upon in late times as being a very standard of Calvinism, not to say of ultra-Calvinism, himself never hints for a moment the supposition that any infant has perished, but affirms of it that it is a dark and mysterious subject, but that it is his belief, AND HE THINKS HE HAS SCRIPTURE TO WARRANT IT, that they who have fallen asleep in infancy have not perished, but have been numbered with the chosen of God, and so have entered into eternal rest.

We would not presume to deny His Sovereignty; but, where Scripture warrants, we may of course freely affirm His Mercies.