The purpose of this question is SELF-justification: it has nothing to do with babies.
(When you were asked this, you were preaching salvation through Christ.)
[What the man really wants to ask is, "Are you trying to tell me that I’m going to hell without Christ?" but he’s afraid of the answer you might give him, so he asks the question a bit differently:]
(a) "What about the Hindus?"
(b) "What about the Buddhists?"
(c) "Are you saying my grandmother is going to hell?"
(If you let these off the hook, he can always tell himself that he’s at least as good as they are.)
Luke 16:15 "And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God."
1st John 4:5-6 "They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them."
This Question Is Really Asking Two Age-Old Things:
(1) "Is man basically good, or evil?"
(If he can get you to admit that babies are "basically good," then you will have to admit that HE is basically good.)
Psalm 14:1-3 ". . . there is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Repeated exactly in 53:1-3)
Romans 3:9-12 ". . . There is none righteous, no, not one . . . there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
Matthew 19:16-26 "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God. . . ." (Mark 10:18 & Luke 18:19)
(The man didn't think the Lord was God. The Lord pointed out the hypocrisy in calling him "good.")
(2) "Do we really need a savior?"
(If he can get you to admit that babies don’t need a savior, then you will have to admit that HE doesn’t need a savior.)
Romans 3:23 ". . . for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. . . ."
[QUESTION] What is a baby?
[ANSWER] Newly formed flesh?
John 17:1-2 "These words spake Jesus . . . thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him."
1st Peter 1:3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. . . ."
(Who is us?)
1st Corinthians 4:15 "For . . . in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." (That is, born through the word.)
John 5:22-24 "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. . . ."
John 6:26-48 (see vs. 64-65) "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life."
John 16:29-31 "Do ye now believe?"
1st John 5:1-5 "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. . . ."
"Babies have to go to heaven because they haven't done anything bad yet!"
(If he can get you to admit that people can get to heaven because they haven’t "done anything bad" then he can always tell himself that HE hasn’t done anything really bad either.)
Proverbs 29:15 "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."
22:15 "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."
Ezekiel 36:26 "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh."
Psalm 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."
"How could God judge babies?"
[Don't worry, Virginia, the Lord can judge babies just as easily as any adult!]
Romans 14:10 ". . . we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ."
(This word, "we," includes all of us who are saved.)
Jeremiah 1:4-5 "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee. . . ."