The doctrine of the limbus patrum is the doctrine in which the saints of the Old Covenant are said to remain, after death, outside of heaven, until Christ’s coming.¹ In Latin limbus is a borderland. The limbus of the fathers is a borderland outside of heaven. This doctrine developed in the medieval church and the doctrine of the limbus generally is characterized by Denzinger a theory.² The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd edition) affirms that children who die without baptism are entrusted to the mercy of God.² It does mention a limbus of the fathers.³ The Reformed churches confess neither the limbus of children nor the limbus of the fathers and is, as documented below, widely condemned by the Reformed. Nevertheless, this doctrine has gained renewed traction in recent years among some Baptist writers as a way of even further segregating the types and shadows (broadly, the Old Testament) from the covenant of grace and the New Testament.

1. Calvin Contra The Limbus Patrum
2. The Irish Articles Condemn The Limbus Patrum
3. Benedict Pictet Contra The Limbus Patrum
4. Bavinck On The Limbus Patrum
5. Berkhof On The Limbus Patrum
6. Turretin Contra The Limbus Patrum
7. Turretin Contra The Limbus Patrum (2)
8. Turretin Contra The Limbus Patrum (3)
9. Turretin Contra The Limbus Patrum (4)
10. Muller On Beza’s Translation And The Limbus Patrum
11. Harrison Perkins, The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 10)—He Descended into Hell
12. R. Scott Clark, Strangers And Aliens (17a): As It Was In The Days Of Noah (1 Peter 3:18–22)
13. R. Scott Clark, Strangers And Aliens (17b): As It Was In The Days Of Noah (1 Peter 3:18–22)
14. R. Scott Clark, Strangers And Aliens (17c): The Ascended Lord (1 Peter 3:18–22)
15. Heidelcast: Superfriends Saturday: Did Christ Die for All the Children of Believers? | Limbus Patrum

notes

1. F. L. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 987.
2. H. Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarationem de rebus fidei et morum, 43rd ed. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012), M3d.
3. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), §1261.

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