What happened to the "afterlife" [sic] of all those trillions of people born before the time of Christ?

Question

Were they just not "lucky" enough to be born at the right time and as a result were robbed of the eternal bliss of heaven through no fault of their own? WHAT IS UP THIS THAT? Enquiring minds want to know, so all of you that claim to know the workings of the mind of the Creator, I would really like an answer that makes sense. Thank you.

Answer 1

I believe such people are known in theology as 'virtuous pagans'. Opinion is divided about what happens to them: Dante couldn't work out whether they'd be 'saved' or not. Thomas Aquinas reckoned that God would somehow fix it for the good ones to received some sort of divine hint about how they should behave, and if they did right they'd get to heaven.

In other words: er, ummm, uh... er... go ask yer mum.

CD

Answer 2

(Revelation 20:12-13) And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life. And the dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Ha′des gave up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds.

Not everyone goes to heaven.

(Revelation 20:6) Happy and holy is anyone having part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.

Thje ones who are chosen to do so have a specific job.

All the rest, the trillions, AFTER THEY HAVE ACCEPTED GOD'S NEW SYSTEM, have an earthly future.
(Psalm 37:9) For evildoers themselves will be cut off, But those hoping in Jehovah are the ones that will possess the earth.



(Psalm 37:11) But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, And they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.

All those destroyed in the flood will not get a resurrection. They are gone for good. Why?

(Matthew 24:37-39) For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. 38 For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; 39 and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.

They took no note...

Answer 3

This question has been answered many times on Y!-A. And it is answered in the pages of the Bible.

This is the purpose of the resurrection. Jesus scolded the Jewish religious leaders for not understanding this, and he said, "The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here" (Matthew 12:41-42).

Those who have died in the past, before Jesus, have not yet had their opportunity for salvation, as the Apostle Paul said, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all [the same "all"] shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming." (1 Corinthians 15:22-23)

Answer 4

Away back in Genesis, God had promised a Redeemer.
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Job knew that his Redeemer lived, and that, even though his body would rot in the grave, yet he would stand in his flesh and see God.
Those are just two examples off the top of my head.
The point is that, before Jesus came, there were folks who believed God's promise and died trusting in it.
Did you know that, when Jesus was crucified, at the point when He "gave up the ghost", the rocks split, and graves opened, and the dead saints rose and walked among men?
It seems to me that God made provisions for those who died before Jesus came. Those that trust Him have always been "saved". God did not hide His doings in a dark corner, He made His plan of salvation known from the beginning. Then, as now, it was a matter of whether or not you trusted Him to be able to keep His promise.
I have chosen to trust Him.
I have prayed that you might also come to a time when you, too, find your peace in Christ.
God bless you, Eagle, and happy flying!!

Answer 5

The Bible makes it clear that after Christ was crucified, HE went to the place where those who had died were being held. This place is sometimes called Purgatory. Christ went there and preached to those people. Those who accepted HIS words ,HE took to Heaven then and emptied out that side of Purgatory. ( You will remember the story of the rich man who died and went to this place. He looked across the great divide and saw Lazarus laying his head on Abraham's chest. When the tormented rich man asked for Lazarus to dip his finger in water and to touch his tongue, he was told that it was not possible since there was a great gulf fixed between them and Lazarus and that Lazarus could not see nor hear his pleas. )
You need to remember that included in those people who died before Christ ,was Moses , Abraham and Isaac, etc...many of the great patriarchs. They were NOT left without hope.

Answer 6

way back when, soon after i had been baptised in the christian church, i asked the pastor's mother a couple of questions:

1. what about the people in the remotest parts of the world that are not given a choice of which god to believe in, and only know what they are raised to know? 2. what about children that are not raised in a christian family and die before they have a chance to convert?

The answer i got was that its up to each individual to find the "right" path or they would go to hell. but if they are never given the chance to make a choice, that would be very unfair.

i stopped going to church shortly after that.

Answer 7

Jesus Christ spoke about the condition of the dead. He did so with regard to Lazarus, a man whom he knew well and who had died. Jesus told his disciples: “Lazarus our friend has gone to rest.” The disciples thought that Jesus meant that Lazarus was resting in sleep, recovering from an illness. They were wrong. Jesus explained: “Lazarus has died.” (John 11:11-14) Notice that Jesus compared death to rest and sleep. Lazarus was neither in heaven nor in a burning hell. He was not meeting angels or ancestors. Lazarus was not being reborn as another human. He was at rest in death, as though in a deep sleep without dreams. Other scriptures also compare death to sleep. For example, when the disciple Stephen was stoned to death, the Bible says that he “fell asleep.” (Acts 7:60) Similarly, the apostle Paul wrote about some in his day who had “fallen asleep” in death.


The Bible teaches that the dead “are conscious of nothing at all.” They are not alive and have no conscious existence anywhere. The account of Lazarus confirms this. Upon returning to life, did Lazarus thrill people with descriptions of heaven? Or did he terrify them with horrible tales about a burning hell? No. The Bible contains no such words from Lazarus. During the four days that he was dead, he had been “conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) Lazarus had simply been sleeping in death. John 11:11.
The account of Lazarus also teaches us that the resurrection is a reality, not a mere myth. Jesus raised Lazarus in front of a crowd of eyewitnesses. Even the religious leaders, who hated Jesus, did not deny this miracle.

Think about this too: If Lazarus had been in heaven for those four days, would he not have said something about it? And if he had been in heaven, would Jesus have made him come back to earth from that wonderful place? Of course not!

Yet, many people say that we have a soul, and they say that the soul lives on after the body dies. They say that Lazarus’ soul was alive somewhere. But the Bible does not say that. It says that God made the first man Adam “a living soul.” Gen. 2:7, Adam was a soul. The Bible also says that when Adam sinned, he died. He became a “dead soul,” and he returned to the dust from which he had been made. The Bible also says that all Adam’s offspring inherited sin and death too.

The Scriptural teaching of the resurrection, however, is not compatible with the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. If an immortal soul survived death, no one would need to be resurrected, or brought back to life. Indeed, Martha expressed no thought about an immortal soul that was living on elsewhere after death. She did not believe that Lazarus had already gone to some spirit realm to continue his existence. On the contrary, she showed her faith in God’s purpose to reverse the effects of death. She said: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” (John 11:23, 24) Likewise, Lazarus himself related no experiences of some afterlife. There was nothing to report.

Clearly, according to the Bible, the soul dies and the remedy for death is the resurrection. You enjoy the best sleep ever, until Jesus resurrects you, sometime in the future.

Most of the people that passed away in death before Jesus, are as Jesus said "sleeping" they will be resurrected sometime in the future after Jesus does away with this evil system.

Answer 8

In order to gain access to heaven before Jesus died, people needed to follow the 10 Commandments and other commandments. When Jesus died, he went to hell and got the people who should be in heaven. At least, that is how I read it.

Answer 9

Anyone who has not had a chance to hear the word of Christ will be brought back to life during the 1,000 year reign of Christ after his return.

Answer 10

they all went to hell.
They weren't allowed into heaven before jesus offered himself to cleanse sin.
Other wise I would say limbo, but since I was nearly killed for asking about it twice I'll say they weren't allowed to wait un judgement untill their savior could sacrifice himself and allow them in. So They went to hell, streight to hell, didn't pass limbo, didn't collect 2 gold coins for the charon.