People existing before Christ's birth automatically consigned to hell?

Question

I don't recall the churches of my youth addressing this question; however, I was contemplating this question the other day.

If WE whom are 'saved' believe that Christ is the son of God and only by believing in him as the son of god will we be guaranteed a place in heaven after the second coming. Right?

My question is; those hundreds of millions whom lived prior to the birth of Christ, are they automatically rejected from god's embrace and will therefore be consigned to an eternity in hell?

Those millions of people whom lived nowhere near the middle east whom would never have heard of the 10 commandants or Christ; are they consigned to hell ? For example; Native Americans prior to 1492, ancient Chinese prior to the birth of Christ

Plese respond in the context of peoples whom had no knowledge of Jewish history prior to the birth of Christ - ie, Native Americans, ancient Chinese, native peoples of Scandinavia, peoples in Southern Africa whom existed prior to the birth of Christ

Answer 1

Actually, in one of the Epistles of the Apostle Peter, there is mention that after Christ's death, and before his Resurrection, Jesus descended to the Dead and there preached to the souls that had died before His coming.

Answer 2

No, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments prior to that, and that was to be the code. But many different things began to cloud what the people were hearing about what God wanted, and some people (I don't know which people off hand) made a bunch of "extra" rules that were tacked on to God's commandments - something like 1,000 little "rules" that they said were necessary to go to your eternal reward. So, God sent Jesus down to clarify things and show false priests out for what they were.

Answer 3

Prior to Christ, the Jews lived under "the Law", referring to God's many commandments given in the Old Testament (including, but not limited to, the "10 commandments"). Under the Law, a Jew would go to Heaven if they were obedient to the Law (a difficult and convoluted set of actions throughout your life). It is possible that many Jews could have gone to Heaven before Christ's coming. As you know, God sent Christ so that we (Jews and non-Jews) now can be assured eternal life simply by admitting that we're a sinner and accepting Christ as our savior. As such, salvation through the Law was replaced by salvation simply through God's Grace, and we therefore now can be assured a place in Heaven despite our sins.

Answer 4

People born before Jesus time who had no way of knowing the truth about God - ( that is billions of people) will be resurrected given a chance to learn then judged according to their deeds. Acts 24:15. Many had no way of knowing even the 10 commandments, so how could they be judged by what they could not have possibly known? Revelation 20:12 talks about 2 scrolls being opened. It would appear the first set are to educate the resurrected ones the second for judging them according to theirs deeds after that.

Answer 5

I wondered the same, however last night I was reading the book of revelations, and it says in end times all those in the ground-(this is after all the plagues etc..)will be raised and brought to the Lord for judgement on their works. The laws of moses were laws for the people to follow until the Messiah came. So provided they followed these laws, God will judge them on their lives. That is what I got. After Christ Jesus came His blood saves us provised we have Faith in Him, all the 'works' will come naturally through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.P.S. Nobody and nothing existed before God, they would of had knowledge of God, and I believe that knowledge was altered due to worshipping false idols etc...

Answer 6

They waited for CHRIST to release them when HE ascended to hell, before the Resurrection. Those that followed the ten commandments entered heaven those that didn't stayed there.

Answer 7

Christ died for all sin, for all time (past, His present, and future), for all people (jew and gentile, btw. heathen, pagan etc are all gentiles. gentile simply means not a jew)

Those who died before Chrsit, recieve the same Grace as the rest of us. When they Got to heaven and Jesus was standing at the gate they either embraced Him or spat at Him. (btw. Jesus in heavenly form was around since the beginning of time. John 1:1-2)

Answer 8

No the two existed previously Christ. Heaven is even stated interior the Jewish Torah. See the link under. the thought of Hell is a sprint different. you hit upon the devil/devil interior the previous testomony, the recent testomony and the Torah, regardless of the undeniable fact that, Hell looks in scripture in basic terms interior the recent testomony. learn on Hell and the Jewish faith led me to Kabballah and Jewish Mysticism. i desire this helps. God Bless

Answer 9

Yeah, sure makes you wonder how you can believable in the concept of Christian salvation. Or to be more direct, just how 'loving' a god could be that would automatically leave out both 1) people born before Jesus & 2) people who never even heard of Jesus.

Oh that's right...god is imaginary.

Answer 10

People who had already died before Jesus were the people he went to Hell to get right after he died. Those that were maintaining the laws as best as they could he saved. Those who had a good heart.