Question 17: Were children damned in the Old Covenant who died without having received circumcisi...

Question 17: Were children damned in the Old Covenant who died without having received circumcision? If so, how are the comforting words of David (2 Samuel 12:23) to be understood which he spoke about his child conceived with Bathsheba that died on the seventh day?

Answer: The children who died before the eighth day had violated the commandment of circumcision as little as the female infants who were not circumcised at all, which did not hinder their salvation in any way. Enoch led a godly life, attained many hundred years, and was not circumcised; yet he was obedient to God, for that was not demanded of him. This is the way of God’s commandments: where there is no law, there is no violation; where there is no violation, there is no punishment.