Question:  Dear Greg,

            What happens to aborted babies?  I heard a preacher on the radio say that they go to heaven and grow to adulthood and become the person they should have been.  If that is so, abortionists apparently have been responsible for the salvation of more people than most evangelists combined.  Though they meant it for harm, it turned out for good. 

            If most people go to hell, how can we complain if aborted babies bypass this life of carnal sinful flesh and go directly to heaven, if this concept is true?

            Stan

Answer:  Dear Stan,

            The quick answer is “we don’t know.”  Not knowing something which the Bible does not reveal doesn’t stop us from speculating, but we have to be careful to avoid spending more effort in trying to determine those things the Bible does not make clear than we do on those essential issues about which it does.

            There is nothing fundamentally wrong with speculation as long as it does not consume all of our focus and energy, and as long as the speculation itself does not become gospel truth.

            You point out an interesting logical fallacy—if all aborted babies go to heaven, then it would follow that those who abort babies are actually doing those whose lives they take a service!  This would not be far from those zealous Christians (at least they were Christians in name) who conducted the Inquisitions—often causing those who were heathens (in their estimation) to accept Christ just before they died from painful torture.

            We don’t know that most people go to hell, or that most go to heaven.  God has not given us any percentages of those who occupy heaven and hell.  There are some people who see heaven as having a small population—just themselves, a few members of their own congregation and maybe a few others in their denomination.  Their idea of hell would be that 99% plus of all who have ever lived are roasting in hell.  On the other hand, there are those who believe almost the opposite—who see hell as having many vacancies, but who see heaven as overflowing.

            The Bible tells us that God does not want to see any perish.  We also know that humans are given choices.  Your question, of course, concerns those who apparently had no choice.

            A biblical view, given the nature and attributes of God, would be that God has something prepared for such individuals that is far more wonderful than we can imagine—for “eye has not seen…” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

            For further background about hell, you may be interested in “The Hotter the Better” in the May-June 2003 issue of “Plain Truth”—available in back issues at www.ptm.org.  Thank you for allowing PTM to be of service.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht