John F. MacArthur - Safe in the Arms of God: Truth from Heaven About the Death of a Child

Safe in the Arms of God

Other Books by John MacArthur

The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series

Successful Christian Parenting
Freedom and Power of Forgiveness

The MacArthur Study Bible

Strength for Today
The Glory of Heaven
The Vanishing Conscience

Reckless Faith
The Miracle of Christmas

Anxiety Attacked
The Gospel According to the Apostles

Drawing Near
Ashamed of the Gospel
Rediscovering Expository Preaching

Charismatic Chaos
Our Sufficiency in Christ
The Gospel According to Jesus

Safe in the Arms of God

Truth from Heaven About the Death of a Child

John MacArthur

Copyright 2003 by John MacArthur

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, TN, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business,fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates, Inc.

Scripture quotations are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

MacArthur, John, 1939
Safe in the arms of God : truth from heaven about the death of a child / John
MacArthur.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 10: 0-7852-6343-8
ISBN 13: 978-0-7852-6343-2
1. Consolation. 2. Infants (Newborn)DeathReligious aspectsChristianity.
3. Fetal deathReligious aspectsChristianity. 4. ChildrenDeathReligious aspectsChristianity. 5. BereavementReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.
BV4907.M23 2003
248.8'66dc21 2003006567

Printed in the United States of America
07 08 09 10 11 QW 11 10 9 8 7 6

Dedicated to the sweet memories of little ones gone
to heaven from the families of my flock, some of whose
parents share their triumphant testimonies in this book.

Contents

2. What Can We Say with Certainty to
Those with Empty Arms?

8. How Shall We Minister to
Those Who Are Grieving?

Safe in the Arms of God

ONE
Where Is My Child?

WHAT ABOUT A TWO-YEAR-OLD BABY CRUSHED AT the bottom of the World Trade Center?

The question was fired at me by Larry King. I had been invited to participate as a panel member on the Larry King Live television program one Saturday evening. The program was taped in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Even though we had been discussing issues of life and death, grief and hope, as part of this program, Larrys question seemed to come out of nowhere.

Instant heaven, I immediately replied.

Larry fired back a second question: He wasnt a sinner?

I again answered, Instant heaven.

Larrys compelling questions revealed a nagging, troubling issue in the human heart.

What is the future of a baby crushed by the rubble of the collapsing World Trade Center? What about any baby that dies? What happens to an unborn child, an infant, a child, or even a physically mature but mentally handicapped adult with the mental capacity of a child after he dies? What is the fate of that little one as he or she enters eternity? The questions are agonizing ones for many parents, Christians and non-Christians alike.

A number of rather strange and ill-founded answers have been given to these questions in the past. The correct answer, however, begins very simply: Instant heaven.

In the sound-bite environment of a program such as Larry King Live, I had no opportunity to follow up with an explanation for my statement and, frankly, Larry didnt ask for one. He seemed satisfied with my quick and decisive response and went on to other questions related to the ways in which our nation was grieving and recovering from the aftermath of that terrible day of tragedy.

But I believe you deserve an expanded answer because in all likelihood, you are reading this book after having experienced the loss of a childor perhaps because you are a person in a position, as I have been too many times as pastor, to counsel or encourage someone who has lost a child. My heart grieves with any parent who loses a child, and that is what motivated me to search Scriptures on this subject so I could reach out and offer biblically founded words of comfort and encouragement.

I also suspect that our need for answers to questions about the death of children will continue to grow. As our nation contemplates the role we need to take in confronting natural disasters, hunger, and situations of suffering in faraway places, the question always arises, What about the children who have died or are facing near-certain death?

When our nation considers war, the question arises, What about the innocent children who will die?

As we contemplate the death of childrenmany of whom are members of families in cultures that practice false religions or participate in no religionthe question arises in the hearts of many Christians, What happens to those little ones?

Our concerns related to death always seem more profound and heartrending when we are dealing with the death of a child. An accident or illness seems especially tragic and poignant when the life of a little one is lost.

Millions Are Dying... or Are They Living?

The great and sad reality is, throughout history, hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of unborn babies, newborns, and young children have died. Millions are dying in our era.

In the original creation, Adam and Eve lived without the reality of death. According to Genesis 1:26-28, mankind was given the power to produce life in a deathless world. Adam and Eve were expected to be fruitful and multiplyto procreate and fill the earth with children who would never know death. Gods original plan was that all lives ever conceived would live for all eternity.

When Adam and Eve sinned, death became a reality. The curse of death on the lives of the original parents became the curse of death on the life of every individual ever conceived. Death became a reality not only for the mature, but for the immature as well. From the first days of history to the present, it is not at all an exaggeration to speculate that half of all persons ever conceived died prior to reaching maturity.

I recently read some fairly startling statistics:

About 25 percent of all conceptions do not complete the twentieth week of pregnancy. In other words, at least one out of four persons conceived die in the womb. Seventy-five percent of these deaths occur in the first twelve weeks.

Perinatal deathdeath at the time of birthcontinues to occur in massive numbers around the world, even with the advances of modern medical science. One world health organization reported that 4,350,000 babies died at birth in the year 1999, but many experts believe the actual figure is much higher. They estimate that closer to ten million babies die at birth around the world every year, since most losses arent reported.