Transcript

Jarhead767 writes, Truly enjoy your videos!

I watch as much as I can and look forward to the email alerts when you have posted a new video.

:) Thanks, Jarhead!

I read in Scripture that belief or faith precedes salvation.

In your understanding, how do infants believe?

I understand and agree that it's God who is the giver of salvation; we cannot earn it or warrant it.

If it's all His doing and we have no accountability at all, then what about the folks who fall away or reject Him later in life?

I've witnessed this firsthand: a baby being baptized in the Church by water and the word, only to reject Christ as a young adult.

Thanks for your reply!

Sure wish we could discuss this outside the forum.

I desire to understand the truth of all this.

Well, Jarhead, thank you for the question.

Let's talk about infant faith.

There's a lot to cover.

First, let's go to the Old Testament and look at, I think, the clearest Scripture.

We're just going to run through the Scriptures that talk about infant faith.

Now, you asked about how infants believe and what happens to infants that fall away, and so forth.

Maybe we can dig into that further, but we want to establish from the Scripture the fact—the biblical fact—that babies can believe and do believe.

So we start with Psalm 71:5-6. Look, I wrote the verse on the back; I have it written.

So, advanced YouTube!

Psalm 71:5-6 says, This is from the very beginning, from the moment of our birth, that we belong to the Lord.

That's the Old Testament.

Now, there's a similar, very similar verse in Psalm 22, but I think because that's a direct prophecy of Jesus, we don't want to apply that dogmatically.

Now, when we go to the New Testament, we find this is the teaching of Jesus over and over again.

But there are a lot of vocabulary words.

Now, I'm going to put a link below to an article that has all these verses and all these words there as well, so you can go and check it out.

Piterion is the basic word for child in the New Testament.

Micron means little one or sometimes just little guy, like Zacchaeus was a micron man.

Technon is the word for child, the basic word there.

This is going to be important because when we read the verses where Jesus is talking about the faith of babies, we want to be able to know what words are underneath them.

Thalazo means to know.

Come on, come on, focus!

Delazon means to nurse.

Delazaton is one who is nursing, so that's a nursing infant.

Napion can be used of an infant, often nursing, or in the legal sense of a minor.

Then brephos means a nursing infant and an unborn baby in the womb.

Those are the Greek vocabulary words.

Now, when we look at these verses here, we're going to be able to see which words are going to be used.

So, let's see which one we should pick first: Luke 17:15-17. Now, it's amazing to me how many of these verses are from Jesus.

They're not from Paul; it's not the prophets; it's Jesus Himself who really wants to emphasize this fact that babies can believe.

So, Jesus says, They brought Him infants (brephos) to Him that He might touch them.

But when the disciples saw it, they rebuked Him.

But Jesus called them to Him and said, 'Let the little children (pideon) come to Me and do not forbid them, for of such is the Kingdom of God.

Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.'

That's what Jesus says in the text.

Now, so they were bringing nursing babies to Jesus, and that's the reference when Jesus says, Of such is the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God belongs to nursing infants.

Now, one of the arguments that we're going to see is that Jesus is going to say that the Kingdom of God, salvation, belongs to the children, and we're going to be in a weird spot if we're going to say that it belongs to them apart from faith.

Here's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 18. Here's the text: At that time, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, 'Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?'

Jesus called a little child (pideon) to them and set him in the midst and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as a little child, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Therefore, whoever humbles himself as a little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me.' Then Jesus goes on to say in the next verse—I don't know why I have two cards for the two different verses—but whoever causes one of these little ones, these little ones (micron) who believe in Me, to sin...

That's the micron.

Where's the micron?

One of these micron, one of these little ones.

Now, if we start to define the Kingdom of Heaven or entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven in such a way that we start to forbid the children to be in it, then we're going to be really in trouble.

Here's another verse: Jesus again, Matthew 21:15-16. When the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did and the children crying out in the temple, saying, 'Hosanna to the Son of David,' these priests were indignant and said to Jesus, 'Do You hear what these are saying?'

And Jesus said to them, 'Yes, have you never read?

Out of the mouth of babes (napion)—that's the nursing infants—out of the mouths of the napion, the napios, out of babies and nursing infants (delazaton), You have perfected praise.'

So, Jesus quotes Psalm 8 and He says, Do you not know that out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies, You have perfected praise?

How are we going to get a definition of faith from the Scriptures in such a way that the babies and the nursing infants are going to be excluded from that?

Here's another one: Matthew chapter 11. This is maybe, I don't know if this is the clincher—I mean, these are all piling up.

Matthew chapter 11 and also in Luke 10: At that time, Jesus answered and said, and this is His prayer, I thank You, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to the babes (napion). Can you guys hear the bells?

We'll keep going.

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.

All things have been delivered to You by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and to him whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

So, the Father has hidden these things from the prudent and the wise and revealed them to the babies, to the napion, to the nursing infants.

If God wants to reveal the truth of the faith to the nursing infants, He's going to do it.

Now, where was the verse that says...

I forgot to emphasize this.

Ah yes, this one: Jesus says, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck.

Jesus says it explicitly: the little ones that they were bringing to Him are believing in Him.

Okay, two more verses: 2 Timothy 3:14-15. Paul writes to Timothy, But as for you, continue in the things that you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood—that is, brephos—since infancy.

Remember brephos?

Unborn babies in the womb and nursing infants.

Since brephos, you have learned the Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ.

So, I mean, Paul says explicitly, You have learned the Scriptures and been made wise unto salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.

Now we have one to all of these declarative statements of the Scriptures: we have one description, and that is John the Baptist, who is in the womb of his mother in Luke chapter 1. He will be filled with the Spirit even from his mother's womb.

Filled with the Spirit from the womb, and then verse 41 says, It happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary that the babe leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then Elizabeth even went on to say to Mary, When the child heard the greeting, it leapt in the womb.

So the child, John the Baptist—now granted, John the Baptist is an exceptional fellow—he hears the greeting of Mary and he leaps for joy because of it.

So we know that babies can hear in the womb; they can leap for joy in the womb.

What is saying that they cannot hear?

Have faith even from the very beginning?

This is the testimony of Scripture.

Now, here's the trouble: if we have a definition of faith that wants to exclude babies from it, we do not have a biblical definition of faith.

I will grant you that it's difficult to understand how the babies believe.

How is it that infants, who can't express themselves and so forth, who can't talk, who as far as we can tell can't have a full understanding—how can they have faith?

Well, I don't know.

But how can you have faith when you're asleep?

Or how can you have faith when you get hit on the head and knocked out by a softball?

Or even if, God forbid, a disease takes away your own memory and capacity to speak, can you still have faith?

Even though you have diminished mental capacity?

In fact, yes, the Lord can give us this gift of faith apart from these things.

The old theologians talk about fides acceptiva and fides receptiva—the faith that accepts and the faith that is aware that it believes.

It might not be that babies have reflective faith, that they understand that they have faith, but can they accept the promises and believe the promises of God?

Well, Jesus says that's what the Kingdom of Heaven consists of.

That's why we ourselves have to become like little children, because the children, in fact, don't have all these built-up defenses from a life of sin that want to resist the Lord's word, but they're glad to receive it and rejoice in it.

So it's a great question.

This is just a start to the answer, but there are the Scriptures that teach us that babies, infants, even nursing babies, and children in the womb can believe and do believe by hearing the word of God.

That's how faith comes: faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.

Thank you for that question.