329. Children in Heaven

Some people believe that only children born in the church get into heaven, not children born outside the church. They say this is because children born in the church are baptized and are introduced into the faith of the church by this baptism. They do not realize that no one gets either heaven or faith by baptism. Baptism serves only as a sign and reminder that we need to be reborn, and that people born in the church can be reborn because the Word is there, the Word that contains the divine truths that make regeneration possible. The church is where the Lord, who is the source of rebirth, is known. ¹

May it be known, therefore, that every child who dies, no matter where he or she was born, within the church or outside it, of devout or irreverent parents, is accepted by the Lord after death, brought up in heaven, taught according to the divine design and filled with affections for what is good and through them with direct knowledge of the truth; and then, being continually perfected in intelligence and wisdom, all such individuals are led into heaven and become angels.

Anyone who thinks rationally can realize that no one is born for hell - everyone is born for heaven. We ourselves are to blame if we arrive in hell, but children are not yet liable for any blame.

Footnotes:

9089. 'And the dead [animal] shall be his' means that the evil or falsity will remain with him. This is clear from the meaning of 'the dead' - when the words refer to good or truth in the natural, which is meant by 'an ox or an ass' - as evil or falsity, for when good dies evil replaces it, and when truth dies falsity replaces it (since 'the dead' means evil and falsity, those who will what is evil and believe what is false are called 'the dead', 7494); and from the meaning of 'being his' as remaining with him. The situation in all this is that if anyone uses falsity to destroy good or truth present with himself or with others he does so from evil, thus from the will by means of the understanding, for all evil belongs to the will and all falsity to the understanding. What is done through both parts of the mind remains, since it permeates the whole of the person's life. It is different if the evil comes from the will and not at the same time from the understanding, 9009. All this shows why it was stipulated that 'the dead [animal] shall be his'.