The Bible does not explicitly address whether children who die before being reborn go to heaven. However, enough indirect information can be gleaned from Scripture to provide a satisfactory answer that applies to infants, people with mental disabilities, and others.
The Bible states that all of us born of human parents are born with an inherited corruption from Adam that guarantees we will sin. This is commonly known as original sin. While God created Adam and Eve in His own image (Genesis 5:1), the Bible says that after Adam and Eve sinned, Adam fathered children "in his own image" (Genesis 5:3, emphasis added; cf. Romans 5:12). Through Adam's original act of disobedience, all human beings inherited a sinful nature; Adam became sinful, and he passed that sinfulness down to all his descendants.
The Bible speaks plainly of children who lack the ability to "reject the wrong and choose the right" (Isaiah 7:16). According to Romans 1, one of the reasons people are guilty before God is that they refuse to acknowledge what is "clearly seen" and "understood" about God (verse 20). People who reject God after seeing and weighing the evidence of nature are "without excuse." This begs the following questions: Is a child exempt from judgement if he or she is too young to know right from wrong and lacks the capacity to reason about God? Will God hold babies accountable for failing to respond to the gospel when they are unable to comprehend the message? We believe that granting saving grace to infants and young children on the basis of Christ's atonement is consistent with God's love and mercy.
In John 9, Jesus heals a blind man. Following physical healing, the man goes through the process of gaining spiritual sight. At first, the man is clueless; he knows Jesus' name but has no idea where to look for Him (John 9:11-12). Later, he realises that Jesus is a prophet (verse 17) and that He comes from God (verse 33). The man then confesses to Jesus his ignorance and need for the Savior. "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" Jesus inquires. "Who is he, sir?" says the man. Tell me so I can believe in him" (verses 35-36). Finally, having spiritually seen the light, he says, "Lord, I believe," and worships Jesus (verse 38).
Following the man born blind's expression of faith, Jesus encounters some spiritually blind Pharisees: "Jesus said, 'For judgement I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.'" Some Pharisees present heard him say this and asked, 'What? 'Are we also deaf?' 'If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim to be able to see, your guilt remains,' Jesus said." (John 9:39-41). In other words, if you were truly ignorant [blind], you would not be guilty. You are guilty before God because you are not ignorant—you are willfully unbelieving."
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