Are all the people that lived and died before Jesus came on the scene doomed?

Question

Is it just bad luck?

Answer 1

The answer is in Acts 17:30.

Answer 2

Nope, Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end.

While Jesus was in the tomb for three days. He went to hell and preached to set the captives free. That means that everyone that came before him, had a chance to accept salvation.

The saints were already in Abrahams bosum. Which is paradise.
There is a scripture that talks of the rich man in hell begging to let Lazurus come put water on his tongue. So there was already a place of torment and a place of rest. And both men knew what was going on there.

Answer 3

if you'll notice, people in the Old Testament like Abraham believed in God with all their heart, and even spoke to God. The Scripture about these people said " it was counted unto him for righteousness". I think that means that those people were doing everything possible to have a relationship with God, even tho Jesus had not yet been born. They knew of the prophecy of Jesus , that he would come as the Messiah one day. God accepts them into heaven. The man Enoc lived such a close walk with God that he did not even die. God took him straight up to heaven.

Answer 4

No they are not. From Adam and Eve to the last person born on this planet, all are saved by grace. All need to be born again. All need to trust in the work Jesus did on the cross as barbaric and horrific as that kind of death seems. And don't forget the resurrection after that. We can be assured by this because of all the witnesses to that resurrection who wrote down what they saw (I am not referring only to the Bible either, secular historians also wrote about it). Jesus is God and God came to earth to do what no person could do for themselves whether born before the actual event or after.

Answer 5

Here is a very interesting line of thought for this topic. First, according to the Bible, all people will have the chance to hear the gospel, whether it be in this life or the next. That is found in 1 Peter 4: 6:

6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

Okay, so if we have someone who is dead who then gets preached to and now desires to believe in Christ and wants to follow him, then the following verse may make things sticky:

John 3: 4, 5
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

So now we have a repentant spirit, who wants to be born of God via water and of the Spirit, but is currently dead. What now? Sounds like there should be a special way to baptize people who are dead if we would wish to be fair. What's interesting is that it is actually mentioned within the Bible:

1 Corinthians 15: 29
29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?

So do we know of any Christian churches or organizations that have this as one of their common practices? The only christians who do this are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In their holy temples, they perform these and many other ordinances for not only themselves, but for those who have passed away, specifically their own ancestors.

So, if a dead person, who wants to be baptised into a christian church, their only hope is to have some decendant become a faithful Latter Day Saint and hope that they will do the genealogical research that will link that faithful Latter Day Saint to their dead soul. That will start the process of getting them approved to be baptised "for and in behalf of", or in other words be baptised by proxy representation.

From that, we can see that the Latter Day Saints have a huge job on their hands, which is to literally provide baptisms and other holy ordinances to all who have passed away. And since they are doing all these ordinances to all, they automatically avoid judging anyone, because they are giving everyone in contact with the same opportunity for salvation via proxy representation within the temple.

So there is more hope for dead people than what many people realize. Those dead people know that if they do want this gospel, then they must pray for those living decendants to become faithful Latter Day Saints. As far as I know, no other christian sect would want these dead souls nor have the capacity to do these ordinances because they do not have the means.

If you ponder this doctrine of providing baptismal rites to one's forefathers, it sounds like an extension of the commandment of honoring father and mother, by providing saving ordinances to deceased ancestors.

So dead people are not doomed, but have hope via the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and by their decendants who become members of the Church.

Thank you for letting me share.

Sincerely,
Alvin R.

Answer 6

... and prolly ~98% of those before 900 AD, ~85% before 1200, ~70% before 1500, ~66% before now. ... But, truth be told:

Good thing there's no Hell, 'cept in Norway and Michigan, huh?

“No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism” – Unkn.

Answer 7

before christianaty there were so many other religions, so i suppose it would have been whatever those religions had in store for them. alot of religions faded over the centuries that christians took it upon themselves to dominate the world with there beliefs

Answer 8

Before he came they were. The righteous among them were raised with him and went with him when he left.

Answer 9

Jesus came to save us ALL. that includes predecesors and descendants.

God Bless†

Answer 10

No we are doomed, they are dead. Will they rise again, that's God's choice and God's will...just like for you.