Baker Encyclopedia Summary
<h4>Conclusion</h4>
<p>All the views have difficulties. The foreknowledge, salvation for all, and evangelization after death views seem to be the best options, having the most merit and indirect biblical and theological support.</p>
<p>
<b>If</b> faith is not absolutely essential, then a distinction must be drawn between personal innocence and conscious rejection by adults. If so it makes more sense to speak of all infants being saved. </p>
<p>
<b>If</b> faith is an absolute essential for salvation—and numerous Bible passages seem to affirm that it is—there is no heaven for those who cannot believe. All must believe to enter. In this case, belief that infants will mature in heaven and be given a chance to believe makes more sense.</p>
<p>
<b>If</b> God does not offer a real opportunity to believe, then the views that affirm only baptized or elect infants go to heaven makes sense. But the Bible seems to say that God genuinely offers salvation to all. If so, then it would follow logically that those who would believe, if they die before they can, will be given a chance after they die. God's love and/or justice would seem to demand that this be so.</p>
<p>
<i>Inherited Depravity and Condemnation.</i>
<b>If</b> innate, radical depravity is inherited from the womb, then it would seem that only baptized infants or elect infants might go to be with God. </p>
<p>
<b>If</b>, however, one's own personal decision in rejecting God's message is needed before one goes to hell, then they lose plausibility. The salvation-for-all view depends on the fact that children have not had the opportunity to reject Christ, and that makes the difference.</p>
<p>
It is worth noting that the views that allow for the possible salvation of all infants are not only compatible with God's justice and love, but they also help solve the problem of *heathen salvation". Since God is just and since one cannot be saved without the Gospel (<i>see</i> <a href="http://www.crossbooks.com/book.asp?pub=0&book=2697&sec=00002063#ChristUniquenessof">Christ, Uniqueness of</a>; <a href="http://www.crossbooks.com/book.asp?pub=0&book=2697&sec=00009412#PluralismReligious">Pluralism, Religious</a>; <a href="http://www.crossbooks.com/book.asp?pub=0&book=2697&sec=00012200#WorldReligionsandChristianity">World Religions and Christianity</a>) and since many heathen lands have not had the Gospel, it is reasonable to infer that God's elect will be taken from every tribe, kindred, and tongue could have been taken from the infants who die. Since it is estimated that in heathen countries one-half of the babies born die before the age of accountability, then it follows that there will be innumerable heathen in heaven who never heard the Gospel—possibly all the infants who died before they could even understand the Gospel.
Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics.</p>