Who Gets to Go to Heaven?

Why Progressive and Conservative Christians Can’t Talk with Each Other, Part 4

Do innocent, unbaptized babies burn in hell? 

This is one of the questions that came up during the theological fight between St Augustine and Pelagius. 

For Augustine, there was no such thing as an “innocent baby”. Original Sin was so thorough and permeating that babies who were not baptized in the church would be doomed eternally to hell because of it. 

Today, many would find this whole idea theologically reprehensible. After all, how could a God who is Love condemn a baby to eternal hellfire and damnation for something they didn't even do? Most people would say babies are innocent. Full stop. Yet, there are those (presumably few) fundamentalists who still uphold that it happens.

In the basic Christian narrative, sin is the problem. Hell is the result of the problem. Salvation is the solution that gets us past the problem and into the idealized religious end, which is heaven.

While most Christians may reject the idea that God consigns innocent babies to hell because of sin, the question about innocent babies doesn’t address those presumably innocent adults. You know the ones, those people who are really good people at heart. Sure, they’ve made mistakes here and there, but for the most part, they are wonderful and loving people, who just so happen to be non-Christian. What happens to them?