Myth 3: God Takes Little Children To Become Angels

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, who studied terminally ill individuals, referred to another common perception among religious people. Describing a real incident, she stated that it is "unwise to tell a little child who lost her brother that God loved little boys so much that he took little Johnny to heaven." Such a statement cast God in a bad light and does not reflect his personality and behavior. Dr. Kubler-Ross continued: " When this little girl grew up to be a woman she never solved her anger at God, which resulted ina psychotic depression when she lost her own little son three decades later."

Why would God snatch a child to get another angel - as if God needed a child more than the child's parents did? If it were true that God takes children, would that not make him an unloving, selfish Creator? Contrary to such a perception, the Bible says: " Love is from God." (1John 4:7) Would a God of love cause a loss that even humans with any measure of decency would not tolerate?

So why do children die? Part of the Bible's answer is recorded at Eclesiastes 9:11: "Time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all." And Psalm 51:5 tells us that all of us are imperfect, sinful, from the time of our conception, and the eventuality for all men now is death from any number of causes. Sometimes death strikes before birth, resulting in a stillbirth. In other cases, children succumb to their dire circumstance's or have accidents and die. God is not responsible for such eventualities.


Continued -Next time: Myth 4: Some People Are Tormented After Death