Questions on the Afterlife: "Will a baby age or stay a baby in heaven?"

On September 17th, we will spend some time looking at the question of whether those who die in infancy go to heaven or not. For right now, we want to look at a question that assumes that at least some do indeed go to heaven upon their death.

But what then? What happens after these little ones end up in God’s presence in the intermediate heaven? Do they age in the same way they would have in this creation? Do they remain in infancy for all eternity? Or do they end up “immediately” becoming an adult in God’s presence? The Bible is not at all clear on this topic, so whatever conclusion we reach should be done with great humility and charity toward other positions.

On the one hand, Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven belongs to little children (Matthew 19:14), though in the context he seems to be referring to a child-like faith, not solely to age. There are passages from the Old Testament that refer to children being present in at least some part of God’s future plans to usher in the New Creation (Isaiah 11:8–9), though again—these possibly refer to the millennium and not the New Creation, and certainly not to the intermediate heaven.

On the other hand, the book of Revelation describes the types of activities in which the saints participate in the New Creation and in the intermediate heaven (Revelation 7:9–17; 22:3–5). For all eternity, the saints will worship God and will reign with him, both which imply at least some sort of mental development not found in infancy.

So the Bible seems to imply that the saints will appear before God at a greater age than infancy, but to say anymore would be speculation. We know from Paul’s teaching on the resurrection body (1 Corinthians 15) that our bodies will not decay, but he says nothing concerning the “age” we will “appear” in the New Creation or before God’s throne.