Chapter 10 Children

Infancy and childhood are crucial times in our development as humans. In Hope for Everyone children are raised into bodies at a similar stage of development as those they had when they died. To us it seems inconsistent with God being a good father that a child would be raised and ‘fast forwarded’ straight into an adult body without first being given the chance to develop naturally. If not on this Earth, then certainly on the new earth, each person needs to learn how to walk, to run, to talk, to read, to relate to others and so much more (but without the problems inherent in puberty and the desire to procreate), in order to function as an adult,

Just as Jesus grew in wisdom and stature as a child (Luke 2:52), we believe that anyone who dies in childhood will grow into their adult body on the new earth. All adults in Hope for Everyone, regardless of their age when they died, have a body that corresponds to that of a healthy thirty-three-year old. Jesus was crucified at the age of thirty-three and, according to the gospel accounts, his resurrected body looked very similar to his previous physical body.

In our story, Jesus places Johan in a community with his younger sister, Gerty, after they have both been raised from death. Johan lives with his sister as she grows up in a community alongside other families and their children during his first jubilee period. In this community, some children grow up with their parents and some are with other family members. Regardless of their situation, we believe that all children on the new earth will grow up in safe, secure communities surrounded by people who have progressed some way along the path to maturity. We believe that each child is a unique individual who needs to determine their own particular character before learning how to live by agape love. Richard Rohr’s book ‘Falling Upward’ provides an excellent description of the stages of a person’s development.

Within this logic, we take seriously Jesus’ words, ‘Allow the children to come to me… Don’t forbid them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like these children’ (Matthew 19:14 CEB). Jesus showed love for children in the gospels and included them in his miracles (John 6:9). We believe we can trust our loving Father God with all the children who die young in this age. He knows them by name and cares for each one of them.

What about aborted babies? And at what point does an embryo or a foetus become a person? These are difficult questions to which we don’t have a clear ‘answer’, but if we apply the logic of love, we can trust that not one human soul will slip through God’s fingers. Once a person exists, they are a child of God and are unfailingly loved by him. It is that simple. God knows exactly how to restore and renew all of creation, so maybe he will create a young child’s body for every human soul that has ever died before being born? We cannot predict the precise mechanics, but we know that God will act in accordance with his goodness and faithfulness towards all of his children. There are other considerations that we haven’t explored here, but, in summary, we believe that children will be present on the new earth, and each and every one will grow into adulthood.