Unborn Babies and Free Will

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adrian1

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If unborn babies go to heaven, because they don’t use wrong their free will, and other little baptised childs go to heaven, because they don’t have sins or mortal sins, why God allow other people to use wrong their free will and chose hell?
 
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God is infinitely just, which means that He’ll judge us based on what we did with what we were given, with more demanded from those who’ve been given more-Luke 12:48.
 
adrian1 said:
If unborn babies go to heaven, because they don’t use wrong their free will, and other little baptised childs go to heaven, because they don’t have sins or mortal sins, why God allow other people to use wrong their free will and chose hell?
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There is hope not certainty.

Catechism
1261 As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus’ tenderness toward children which caused him to say: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,"63 allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church’s call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism.
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adrian1 said:
Yes. But i add “, and other little baptised”.
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All infants should be baptized because of original sin, but if a person has the use of reason (age 8 is normal) then it would be an adult baptism – with the use of reason mortal sin can occur.
 
We aren’t sure on where unborn children go. We hope they are in heaven through God’s Mercy.
But, you do not have sufficient reason until you are older than the age of a child. You want to grow as a person, trust me.
 
adrian1 said:
In agree. But this isn’t the answer to the question
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So there are these cases:
  1. infants that died without baptism - unknown, only hope for them. Born with original sin and unable to commit actual sin until the use of reason is developed.
  2. baptized infants that died in a state of sanctifying grace - to heaven. Born with original sin but removed by baptism, and unable to commit actual sin until the use of reason is developed.
  3. baptized adults that died in a state of sanctifying grace - to heaven.
  4. baptized adults that died without a state of sanctifying grace - to hell.
  5. “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.” Catechism 847
 
Some people might theorize that they [babies] still get a choice somehow. It would seem that we just don’t know. So, yes, it is a mystery.

God gave the angels a choice. So we might think he would give them [babies] a choice somehow also. But we just don’t know the details like that.

It was once proposed that unbaptized babies went to a place called the limbo of the children which was a natural paradise, but not heaven, because they did not possess supernatural grace which is needed to get to heaven.

In order for unbaptized babies to enter heaven they would need the offer of grace. Could they be offered a choice to accept or reject? Only God knows. Or perhaps the choice is so clear for them being so close to God such that there is no temptation to choose against God. Yet, they still exhert their will by grace to choose God. Since they would still have a will and an intellect like all human souls do.

One thing to also consider is that we do not all have the same rewards in heaven. So the rewards for one person may be more or less than another depending on their deeds. Ultimately, God is just and gives to each as they deserve based on their deeds done in the body. Someone who suffers greatly for their faith all their life may have a greater reward then someone who did not. And have different occupations in heaven.

Ultimately, God is the one who is writing the story. So we should leave the details to him.
 
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adrian1 said:
If unborn babies go to heaven, because they don’t use wrong their free will,
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If the unborn (or all unbaptized) infants go to heaven, it’s not because “they didn’t use their free will wrongly” (i.e., “they didn’t have personal sin”) – rather, it’s because God, in His mercy, gave them sanctifying grace and thus, they were saved.
and other little baptised childs go to heaven, because they don’t have sins or mortal sins,
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Everyone who dies without being in a state of mortal sin, goes to heaven. Not just “little children”, but everyone, young, old, and in-between!
why God allow other people to use wrong their free will and chose hell?
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So, I’m not really getting the distinction you’re attempting to draw. In a way, it comes down to “if people who don’t sin go to heave, why do people who do sin go to hell?”

Perhaps you’re simply asking about the justice of eternal punishment?
 
“Everyone who dies without being in a state of mortal sin, goes to heaven. Not just “little children”, but everyone, young, old, and in-between!”

Yes, but this children can’t use wrong their free will, they can’t choose hell. Why God don’t take to him a man as child, If he know that this man will die in a mortal sin state.
 
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In think is rational to think that ALL babies and ALL child born or unborn, will go to heaven, that means that even they have become mature, they have chose to be with God.
 
adrian1 said:
Yes, but this children can’t use wrong their free will, they can’t choose hell. Why God don’t take to him a man as child, If he know that this man will die in a mortal sin state.
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You ask two quite distinct questions here: whether children have free will, and why God doesn’t kill people rather than allow them to fall into unrepentant mortal sin. Both are good questions, but they have very different answers.

First, with respect to babies, I would assert that they do have free will. However, the Church would assert that, given their age and the fact that they haven’t yet reached the “age of reason”, it’s difficult to see how they might perform a free act of choosing grace (in much the same way that an adult who chooses baptism does). (For more discussion on this point, see The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized, by the International Theological Commission.)

So, I would say that, although infants are incapable of a free act, they nevertheless (as fully human persons) have free will, with which we would presume that, since they aren’t wounded with personal sin, they would make the free act of reaching out for God’s grace, if they were able.

Your second question goes down a much different path: why doesn’t God just kill as infants those whom He knows would otherwise choose to reject Him? This question is one of God’s justice: it would be wholly reprehensible for God to kill a person to whom He’s given life, simply so that they would be incapable of making a moral choice. In that scenario, there really isn’t anything that’s discernible as ‘free will’ anymore – there are lots of dead babies, and some living saints. That would completely run counter to God’s plan in salvation history – namely, that humans are given the choice to decide whether to love God or not, and then reap the consequences of that decision.
 
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