The Mentally retarded and the image of God

by Prof. J. Rendle-Short

Because I am a pediatrician and constantly see mentally retarded children and their parents, I must contribute an addendum. From time to time I visit a home for such children. Indoors I see little motionless bodies lying in cots or on beanbags. Outside, in the garden, those with slightly higher intelligence wander around in the sunshine stirring the earth or flicking leaves. Most cannot talk. They have no creativity or desire for immortality. They lack the very essential: minds.

Do such children possess the image of God? Of course the answer is “Yes.” Christians may not deride any human being by calling him a vegetable (Proverbs 14:31). Such children have been conceived by human parents but are a sad commentary on our fallen world.

I believe these children, along with those who die in infancy, occupy a special place in the economy of God. You remember that because of unbelief, the children of Israel on the brink of entering the promised land were turned back and compelled to wander forty years in the desert. All except Joshua, and “your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, (they) shall enter there, and I will give it (the promised land) to them, and they shall possess it” (Deuteronomy 1:39, Isaiah 7:15).

You will also remember that King Herod, thwarted in his effort to find the Baby Jesus ordered that all male babies under the age of 2 years living in the vicinity of Bethlehem should be killed. But Joseph and Mary, warned by the Holy Spirit, fled with Jesus to Egypt. The ecclesiastical calendar each year commemorates the event as Innocents day. The Scripture passages prescribed to be read on that day are Matthew 2:13–18, which records the story, and Revelation 14:1–5. I suggest you read the latter verses in full. Here are some excerpts:—“And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him an hundred and forty-four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. . . . These are they which are not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God.”

Reformation theology evidently considered that this passage referred to those who had died young. Since then many sects have taken it as referring to their own peculiar group. But none fit the description except those who are mentally or physically infants. All such children are members of the human race, they have human bodies such as Christ honored; true, they may be deformed. Also they are sinners, as are all humans. But they have no knowledge of good or evil and therefore have not committed actual sin, and will not do so (Romans 7:9). They are God’s specials without guile. They follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. He can, and often does, use them to bring others close to himself.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v4/n1/man-image-of-god