Hey Egan,
I hear what you're saying about what is done in the name of Christianity, and I agree for the most part, except that I don't think that it has any reflection on Christianity itself—that is, when people use it as an excuse to do things. I would guess that you agree with this because I would (also) guess that you agree that there are people that do evil things for any reason they can use as an excuse.
There are also people who do evil because they misunderstand the intention of good. They take information out of context. This does make the original information bad, however. It just demonstrates that some people are hasty, or deluded, or any number of other things.
Of course, Biblical laws are meant to protect us, and they do when they are rightly applied. One of the most relevant modern examples of this is the practice of pharmacology, which is one of the leading causes of death today:
http://herballure.com/drugsIf more people knew about the real causes of disease and the real cures, disease would be all but 95% gone today. It's the deliberate misinformation and lies that these pharmaceutical companies promote that is at the root of much human suffering.
http://herballure.com/bibledeceivedAbout my view about infants who die just after childbirth...There is no crystal-clear explanation about this in the Bible, only information that can be derived through symbolic prophecies that need to be studied to be understood (the Bible is self-interpreting), and I haven't put study time in on this particular subject yet.
The Bible also says that some "end-time" prophecies won't understood until just before these things occur, and indeed this makes sense as
some of them can now be understood in the light of technology and other modern things that could not have been comprehended by the people of that time.
When you put the pieces together hastily, the best interpretation that I can find so far is that these souls will live during the thousand-year reign of Christ on Earth. This will be their opportunity to make their decision for or against God. Also, those who did not have the opportunity to learn about Christ during this life will also have an opportunity during this time. This is why Satan is again released for 7 years at the end of this thousand-year period. This is the final time of testing for these people.
Again, I have no hard opinion about this because I haven't done enough study yet.
I certainly don't believe that these people who die just after birth are less important or anything like that, nor do I believe that they have any less opportunity for eternal life than I do, and I don't buy into the catholic ideas because they are just ideas of men, not scriptural, and therefore not having the extra-natural evidence of their accuracy, namely, prophecy and gematria.
We live in a world where horrible things happen at times and we all suffer for it at one time or another. And because it is clear that God's knows how everything ends (time is a created thing), this time of testing is not for His benefit, it is the mirror that allows us to realize that He is just and reasonable and that some men and women are the cause of this evil that we endure.
It is for us to know ourselves.
Those who do this willfully and humble themselves and accept Christ for who He said He was—i.e., recognize and accept truth—will be saved. Those who refuse to know themselves never get to see the selfishness that resides in us all and are very unlikely to ever accept Christ. This is a shallow explanation about why I always tell people who are wanting to know more about Christ to make sure they get to know themselves—because Christ came to save us from ourselves.
Amazingly (but not really), the prophecy says that a majority of those souls that live during the thousand-year reign of Christ will still refuse to accept Him for who He is.
[color:"brown"]
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God".[/color]
—Romans 8:16-19
