Why Christians must believe that babies should be killed
by Emery

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

-Matt. 16:26


In this passage, Jesus makes it clear that the destination of your eternal soul is more important than your life on earth. Certainly this makes sense, if you consider the Christian belief that the soul lives eternally, and spends only a very short part of that eternity in this world. Since losing your soul means not getting saved, whereby you and your soul end up in eternal torment in hell, getting saved becomes the most important thing to do in this life. If it comes to a choice of whether to give up your soul or your life, you should give up your life.

So important is the salvation of your soul, that anything else you do on earth is trivial in comparison. Since the most important thing to the Christian God is what you believe rather than what you've done, whatever life you might lead on this earth means little. It is better to be a thief on a cross with a "deathbed" conversion, than to be an honest citizen and die without a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The only thing that matters to God is whether or not you're saved, and that depends entirely on what you believe.

Yet the fact remains, that most people do not believe, and will therefore lose their souls in hell. The World Christian Encyclopedia estimates that in the year 2000, Christians made up 33% of the world's population, or approximately 2 billion people. Samuel Huntington, in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, believes that the percentage of Christians in the world peaked at 30% in the 1980s, and is declining, with a projected percentage of only 25% in 2025. If he is correct, that puts between 2/3 to 3/4 of the world's population facing the loss of their souls, despite the best efforts of the Christian God, and the evangelistic efforts of all his churches. For Christians, this should be a disaster. How can they stop this human holocaust? How do they salvage the destinies of these souls, which are worth far more than life itself? I once read that some Christian monks had an answer: baptize infants, and kill them immediately afterwards. Whether or not this really took place, it seems that these guys (or anyone who ever thought of doing this) were onto something. Fundamentalist Christian doctrine should require this, since it leaves no other way to ensure a person does not "gain the whole world, and lose his own soul."

Most Christians believe babies that die go to heaven. When Christian parents lose an infant, they usually console themselves with the thought that their child is now with the angels in heaven, and they will be united with them one day. Few lament that their baby is roasting with the devil in hell. Even though the sin nature argument might support the notion that all who have not accepted Jesus must lose their souls, and there are some Christians that believe this, most cannot justify the idea that God would let an infant burn in hell just because it died before having an opportunity to be saved.

So that raises a question: should babies be killed to ensure the salvation of their souls? Remember, almost 3 out of 4 babies that are born will likely lose their souls. Yet we can ensure this does not happen by ending their lives before they reach the age of accountability. It is a choice between preserving a life and probably losing a soul, or sacrificing a life and saving the soul. According to Jesus, saving the soul would be the priority.

What about the commandment "Thou shalt not kill?" Aside from the fact that this commandment was routinely disregarded by God's chosen people in the Bible, and in fact justified so long as the killer believed God commanded the killing, the logical conclusion of Christian doctrine lands heavily on the side of killing these infants, despite the 6th commandment. Remember, what matters most to God, is what we believe, not what we do. In fact, we can violate all 10 of the commandments as often as we want, and so long as we ask for forgiveness at the end of the day, we're home free.

The issue then, becomes this: even though Christians believe they shouldn't kill babies, as long as they believe in Jesus, they will remain saved if they do. If they confess their sin, God will forgive this transgression. But even if killing babies is somehow not forgivable and will cause us to lose our salvation, didn't Jesus say that "greater love has no man than this, that he lay his life down for a friend"? How much more would that act of love be, if a man lay down not his life, but his eternal soul, for the soul of a baby?

But what about the 1 in 4 babies that would have gotten saved anyway? Weren't they cheated out of life? Yes, but they still have an eternity of bliss awaiting them in heaven. And since Jesus said that gaining heaven is worth losing your life, it seems to follow that a 3 in 4 chance of getting to heaven would also be worth the sacrifice.