The Bible’s Viewpoint
“Why Did God Take My Child?”
THE death of a child is devastating for any parent. It is an overwhelming ordeal that mere words cannot erase. But if you have suffered such a loss and are wondering why God took your child, then you are laboring under a misconception that may only add to your anguish. You need to know the truth: God did not take your child.
Yet, many believe just the opposite. One woman, for instance, stared inconsolably down into an open casket; within it lay her 17-year-old son, his hair thinned by the treatments that failed to cure his cancer. She turned to a visitor and said tremulously: “God wanted Tommy in heaven with Him.” A Roman Catholic, this was what years of churchgoing had taught her. Protestants too have long blamed God for the deaths of children. The renowned Protestant reformer John Calvin lamented after his own two-week-old son died: “The Lord has certainly inflicted a bitter wound in the death of our infant son.”
According to an ancient Jewish fable, the twin sons of a rabbi died while he was away. When he returned and asked for his sons, his wife said: “If you were lent two precious jewels and told you could enjoy them as long as they were in your keeping, would you be able to argue when the lender asked for their return?” He answered: “Certainly not!” Then she showed him his two dead sons and simply said: “God wanted his jewels back.”
Neither Comforting nor Biblical
Is the Creator really so cruel that he would capriciously inflict death on children, knowing that this breaks the hearts of their parents? No, not the God of the Bible; according to 1 John 4:8, “God is love.” Note that it says not that God has love or that God is loving but that God is love. So intense, so pure, so perfect is God’s love, so thoroughly does it permeate his personality and actions, that he may rightly be spoken of as the very personification of love. This is not a God who kills children ‘because he wants his jewels back.’
On the contrary, God loves children intensely and unselfishly. Jesus Christ, whose every word and deed reflected his heavenly Father’s personality, took a warm personal interest in children. He once put his arms around a little child and taught his disciples that they must have similar childlike innocence and humility. (Matthew 18:1-4; Mark 9:36) Centuries earlier, Jehovah had taught his people to view their children as precious and to train, teach, and care for them accordingly. (Deuteronomy 6:6, 7; Psalm 127:3-5) He wants families to be united in life, not divided in death.
“Then Why Did My Child Die?”
Many feel that since God is all-powerful, he must be behind the scenes controlling everything that happens in this world, including the deaths of children. But that does not necessarily follow. When Job lost all ten of his children in a single disaster, he thought that Jehovah had brought this terrible calamity upon him. He did not know what the Bible reveals to us, namely, that a superhuman adversary of God named Satan was actually behind the scenes in that case, trying to torture Job into abandoning his faith in his Creator.—Job 1:6-12.
Similarly, most people today have no idea of the extent of Satan’s influence in the world. The Bible reveals that Satan, and not Jehovah, is the ruler of this corrupt system of things. As 1 John 5:19 says: “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” Jehovah is not to blame for all the tragic events of this world. He did not take your child.
Does that mean, then, that Satan took your child? Not directly, no. Back in Eden, man placed himself under Satan’s rule when he rebelled against God. He thus lost the gift of eternal, healthy life for himself and all his children. (Romans 5:12) As a result, we live in a world system that is alienated from God, a world in which we must cope with what the Bible calls “time and unforeseen occurrence,” life’s unexpected and often tragic turns. (Ecclesiastes 9:11) Satan is “misleading the entire inhabited earth.” (Revelation 12:9) His main interest is to turn people from God. Thus he spreads ugly lies about God. One such lie is that God uses death to wrench children from their parents.
“What Hope for My Child?”
Rather than blame God, bereaved parents need to look to the comfort God offers in the Bible. False religion has left many confused as to the whereabouts and condition of their dead children. Heaven, hell, purgatory, Limbo—these various other destinations range from the incomprehensible to the downright terrifying. The Bible, on the other hand, tells us that the dead are unconscious, in a condition best compared to sleep. (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; John 11:11-14) Thus, parents need not worry about what their children may go through after death, any more than they worry when they see their children sleeping soundly. Jesus spoke of a time when “all those in the memorial tombs” would “come out” to renewed life in a paradise earth.—John 5:28, 29; Luke 23:43
True, that glowing hope does not take all the tragedy out of death. Jesus himself broke down and cried over the death of his friend Lazarus—and that was just minutes before he resurrected him! At least, then, death is not always final. Jesus and his Father, Jehovah, both hate death. The Bible calls death “the last enemy” and says that it will “be brought to nothing.” (1 Corinthians 15:26) In the coming Paradise, when Satan’s rule is a thing of the past, death will be gone forever. Its innocent victims will be reclaimed by resurrection. Then, when parents are reunited with the children they lost to death, we will at last be able to say, ‘Death, where is your sting?’—Hosea 13:14.