Scriptures:
Ezekiel 18:20 – But the soul that sins shall die; and the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the iniquity of the transgressor shall be upon him.
Isaiah 7:16 – For before the child shall know good or evil….
Matthew 18:3–5 – Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. . . . And whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.
Matthew 19:14. – But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Church Fathers:
PETER: Thus, although we are born neither good nor bad, we become one or the other; and having formed habits, we are with difficulty drawn from them. – Clementine Homilies, homily 8, chapter 16
HERMAS: Those who believed are such as these: They are like innocent infants, in whose heart no wickedness enters and who do not know what evil is but always remain in innocence. Such as these will undoubtedly live in the kingdom of God, because in no way did they defile the commandments of God but innocently remained in the same frame of mind all the days of their life. As many of you then who will continue and be as infants, with no wickedness, will be more honored than all others, for all infants are honored before God and are in the first rank before him. Blessed are all of you, therefore, who remove evil from yourselves and put on guiltlessness. – (Similitudes 9 chapter 29)
I, the angel of repentance, judge all of you to be blessed who are as innocent as infants, because your part is good and honorable before God. – (Similitudes 9, chapter 31)
Have sincerity and be innocent, and you shall be as children, who do not know the evil which destroys the life of men. (Commandments, commandment 2)
BARNABAS: Since he renewed us in the forgiveness of sins, he made us into another image, so as to have the soul of children, as if he were indeed refashioning us. (Epistle of Barnabas 6.11)
JUSTIN MARTYR: For you let even necromancy, and the divinations, whom you practice on immaculate children, and the invoking of departed human souls. – First Apology XVIII, (155 A.D)
ARISTIDES: And when a child has been born to one of them [Christians], they give thanks to God; and if it should die as an infant, they give thanks the more, because it has departed life sinless. – (Apology 15.11)
ATHENAGORAS: Although all human beings who die are resurrected, not all those resurrected are judged. If justice in the judgment were the only cause of the resurrection, it would follow, of course, that those who have not sinned nor done good, namely quite young children, would not be resurrected. – (On the Resurrection 14)
IRENAEUS: And dipped himself, says [the Scripture], seven times in Jordan. 2 Kings 5:14 It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but [it served] as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: Unless a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. John 3:5 – Irenaeus, Fragment 34
IRENAEUS: Who were those who were saved and received the inheritance? Those, obviously, who believed in God and kept their love for him, such as Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun, and innocent children, who have no sense of evil. Who are those now who are saved and receive eternal life? Is it not those who love God and believe his promises and “in malice have become little children”? (Against Heresies 4.28.3)
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: We have shown that not only are all of us called children by Scripture, but also that we who have followed Christ are figuratively spoken of as babes. – {Instructor 1.7.53.1)
The righteous Job says: Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there;
not naked of possessions, for that were a trivial and common thing; but, as a just man, he departs naked of evil and sin, and of the unsightly shape which follows those who have led bad lives. For this was what was said, Unless you be converted, and become as children,
pure in flesh, holy in soul by abstinence from evil deeds; showing that He would have us to be such as also He generated us from our mother — the water. (Miscellanies 4.25.160.1.2)
TERTULLIAN: Why does the innocent period of life hasten to the remission of sins? Tertullian (c. 198, W), 3.678.
Behold, Christ takes infants and teaches how all should be like them, if they ever wish to be greater. However, [the Gnostics point out that] the Creator, in contrast, let loose bears against children, in order to avenge His prophet Elisha, who had been mocked by them. This antithesis is impudent enough, since it throws together things so different as “infants” and “children.” The first is an age that is still innocent. The other is one already capable of discretion (able to mock, if not to blaspheme). Therefore, God is a just God. Tertullian (c. 207, W), 3.386.
Christ, by accepting praise out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, has declared that neither childhood nor infancy is without sensibility. The first class [children], when meeting Him with approving shouts, proved its ability to offer Him testimony. The other class [infants], by being slaughtered for His sake, of course knew what violence meant. Tertullian (c. 210, W), 3.200.
If you mean the [region in Hades of the] good, why should you judge the souls of infants and of virgins to be unworthy of such a resting place—those who by reason of their condition in life were pure and innocent? Tertullian (c. 210, W), 3.233 (A Treatise on the Soul)
ORIGEN: For such was the charm of Jesus’ words, that not only were men willing to follow him to the wilderness, but . . . children too. Children are [normally] totally unaffected by such emotions, so perhaps they were only following their parents. Or perhaps they were also attracted by His divinity. In order that it might be implanted with them, they became his followers along with their parents. Origen (c. 248, E), 4.468.
CYPRIAN: Nobody is hindered from baptism and from grace— how much rather ought we to shrink from hindering an infant, who, being lately born, has not sinned, except in that, being born after the flesh according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the ancient death at its earliest birth, who approaches the more easily on this very account to the reception of the forgiveness of sins— that to him are remitted, not his own sins, but the sins of another. – Letter 58, chapter 5
Infancy is still yet innocent and unconscious of worldly evil. Cyprian (c. 250, W), 5.434
LACTANTIUS: We should always have our hands over the young. That is, when they err, we should correct them with careful punishments. Otherwise, by useless affection and excessive indulgence, they will be trained to evil and nourished to vices. Lactantius (c. 304–313, W), 7.185.
JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: Blessed be God, who alone does wonderful things! You have seen how numerous are the gifts of baptism. Although many men think that the only gift it confers is the remission of sins, we have counted its honors to the number of ten. It is on this account that we baptize even infants, although they are sinless, that they may be given the further gifts of sanctification, justice, filial adoption, and inheritance, that they may be brothers and members of Christ, and become dwelling places for the Spirit.” – Baptismal Instructions, Third Instruction, chapter 6
3. But what can be the reason that they love also to dwell in the tombs? They would fain suggest to the multitude a pernicious opinion, as though the souls of the dead become demons, which God forbid we should ever admit into our conception…. The possessed themselves, it is replied, cry out, “I am the soul of such a one.” But this too is a kind of stage-play, and devilish deceit. For it is not the spirit of the dead that cries out, but the evil spirit that feigns these things in order to deceive the hearers. For if it were possible for a soul to enter into the substance of an evil spirit, much more into its own body. Nor indeed is it possible for a soul, torn away from the body, to wander here any more. For the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God; Wisdom 3:1 and if of the righteous, then those children’s souls also; for neither are they wicked: and the souls too of sinners are straightway led away hence. And it is evident from Lazarus and the rich man; and elsewhere too Christ says, This day they require your soul of you. Luke 12:20 And it may not be that a soul, when it is gone forth from the body, should wander here; nor is the reason hard to see. For if we, going about on the earth which is familiar and well known to us, being encompassed with a body, when we are journeying in a strange road, know not which way to go unless we have some one to lead us; how should the soul, being rent away from the body, and having gone out from all her accustomed region, know where to walk without one to show her the way? And from many other things too one might perceive, that it is not possible for a disembodied soul to remain here. For both Stephen says, Receive my spirit; Acts 7:59 and Paul, To depart and to be with Christ is far better; Philippians 1:23 and of the patriarch too the Scripture says, that he was gathered unto his fathers, being cherished in a good old age. And as to the proof, that neither can the souls of sinners continue here; hear the rich man making much entreaty for this, and not obtaining it; since had it been at all possible, he would have come, and have told what had come to pass there. Luke 16:27-28 Whence it is evident that after their departure hence our souls are led away into some place, having no more power of themselves to come back again, but awaiting that dreadful day. – John Chrysostom, Homily 28 on Matthew
HILARY OF POITIERS: He calls infants all who believe through the hearing of faith; for such follow their father, love their mother, know not to will that which is evil, do not bear hate, or speak lies, trust what is told them, and believe what they hear to be true.
BASIL OF CAESAREA: Blessed, therefore, is he who “has not stood in the way of sinners.” But what does “has not stood” mean? When we are still in our early years, we are neither wicked nor virtuous—for that age is not capable of either disposition. But after our reason has become mature and fully formed, then what is written is fulfilled: “But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” For evil thoughts arise, which are generated in our minds from the desires of the flesh. – Commentary on Psalm 1, Patrologia Graeca 29:223
EPIPHANIUS: Here the Lord not only repressed the apostles’ thoughts but also checked the ambition of believers throughout the whole world, so that he might be great who wanted to be least. For with this purpose Jesus used the example of the child, that what he had been through his nature, we through our holy living might become—innocent, like children innocent of every sin. For a child does not know how to hold resentment or to grow angry. He does not know how to repay evil for evil. He does not think base thoughts. He does not commit adultery or arson or murder. He is utterly ignorant of theft or brawling or all the things that will draw him to sin. He does not know how to disparage, how to blaspheme, how to hurt, how to lie. He believes what he hears. What he is ordered he does not analyze. He loves his parents with full affection. Therefore what children are in their simplicity, let us become through a holy way of life, as children innocent of sin. And quite rightly, one who has become a child innocent of sin in this way is greater in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives such a person will receive Christ.
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