To go to heaven you have to accept christ, right? So what about the poeple before Christ was born?

Question

did they automatically go to hell, or what about jesus' own grandparents or tribes across the world?

Answer 1

Better yet, what about People who live on the remote pacific islands and have never heard of Christ? Do they go to hell?

Answer 2

Before Christ’s birth, the covenant people looked towards the day when the son of God would be born into mortality to save man from their sins. They still looked towards the messiah for salvation, and they had to have faith that he would come. Which is more difficult…our faith in the past, or their faith in the future?

It seems that is was no easier for those who had Christ in their present…so faith was never easy.

Answer 3

WRONG. Plenty of people go to heaven without "accepting Christ", Are you saying you think Christians are the only ones in Heaven?

Answer 4

People before Christ (in particular Israelites) placed faith in Him as the Coming Messiah. Anybody then or now, who does not hear of Him will be judged by the natural law (Romans 2, whole chapter, and verse 14 in particular).

Answer 5

Since God exists outside of time he is not constrained by time - hence he can give his grace before we ask for it, pre or post event (from our perspective). So those who believed in Revelation, incomplete as it was before Christ (and were not Baptized Sacramentally, since then the Sacraments did not exist) could benefited from the fullness of Revelation and grace as it became after Christ. In other words pre-Christian Faithful desired to follow the Messiah, but through no fault of their own (because of the nature of time) they couldn't physically participate in the Christian era, still God gave them the grace necessary for salvation which wasn't (in their view) to come for some time, via Christ's Passion and Resurrection. This is called Baptism of Desire in Catholicism. Those people who died before the Resurrection deserving Heaven went to Limbo - there they 'slept' until Christ took them to Heaven. Those who deserved damnation did not go to Limbo, they went to Hell at that time. Those who did not deserve Hell, nor Heaven, went to Purgatory at that time. If they completed their suffering before the Resurrection, they would go to Limbo until Christ opened the gates of Heaven.

Answer 6

Christ has always been, so those people could choose to listen to their hearts or go their own way just as people do today. There is no difference.

Answer 7

You didn't ask the big one. What about Jesus?

God loves us all. It is to our benefit to do good works and help others because you get further in life if you do and you have more friends, but God will love you the same if you are the bad child. Of course, he might be awfully disappointed and send you back to learn your lessons properly.....

Answer 8

Are you responsible for getting car insurance for a car that you ordered but wont be here for months? Similiar concept, well OK maybe not but I kinda see it this way....

I believe that Jesus was God's ultimate lamb sacrifice. Before that it was the custom to make lamb sacrifices to atone for their sins.

Answer 9

No, You have unity with God in unconditional love within your own heart, NOW. To awake to this reality it is best to have the blessings of a "realized" Saint who has the power to give shaktipat initiation (Baptize with spirit).There are many such Saints on earth Now. Jesus is not the only one that knows the kingdom of God is within you. "God dwells within you as you".

Answer 10

In the OT, this question was addressed:

"Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

Those who believed and served God before Christ came on the scene can look forward to heaven as their destiny as well. Remember, "believing and serving God" meant to follow the Law and Commandments given to Moses in the Pentateuch.