That was certainly the prooftext I heard growing up in a fundamentalist church. The popular claim was that it meant that “all children under the age of accountability go to heaven.” But in all fairness to the Biblical text, is that what it actually states? Here is the passage:
But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.” (NLT)
This passage makes no mention of heaven nor does it even state that the dead remain conscious due to an eternal soul which survives the deceased body. It simply states that death is a one-way trip and that the only way David will ever join the child is by eventually going to him: by dying. Indeed, the only destination implied by this passage is the grave, not heaven.
I’ve always been frustrated that so many Bible commentators (including some of my favorite former colleagues and friends) don’t even consider that 2 Samuel 12:23 is simply recording what David said after the death of his child. Just because someone’s words are documented in the Bible doesn’t necessarily make them a prophetic utterance meant to convey a doctrinal truth. Indeed, David and various other kings of Israel said all sorts of things which were neither wise nor righteous. So how do we know that David was not simply expressing his grief by articulating what his contemporaries in that culture tended to say after the death of a loved one?
Furthermore, the ancient Hebrews had an idiom which we see translated in a variety of ways in various English Bible translations. Literally, the idiom often appeared in the form “and X slept with his fathers.” It was a euphemism for “and X died.” The idiom reminds us that David would have believed what everybody else in that era believed: eventually everyone sleeps in the grave.
That said, I’m neither denying or affirming any particular spiritual fate for children after their death. I’m simply stating that I don’t see how 2 Samuel 12:23 can be used as a prooftext for the automatic eternal salvation of young children. If such a doctrine is to be found in scripture, it is surely not in this popular verse.
POSTSCRIPT: I will leave to other moderators the decision as to whether this analysis of 2 Samuel 12:23 should be moved to its own thread.