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Saved by accepting Jesus (moved from Philosophy

juvenissun

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I understand that I must accept Jesus in order to be saved. What happened to all the people that were born before Jesus? Or the pagans, Asians before arrival of the missionary, that never heard of Jesus? Do they get a free pass or are they destined for hell?

Good question. They did not know Jesus Christ. But God knows them. They will be evaluated by their individual special situation when they were alive. If they were "bad" people, then they will regret.

Yeah, a long long line would be there. But, who cares, there is also eternally long time.
 
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FreeinChrist

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Lukaris

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I understand that I must accept Jesus in order to be saved. What happened to all the people that were born before Jesus? Or the pagans, Asians before arrival of the missionary, that never heard of Jesus? Do they get a free pass or are they destined for hell?

In the Old Testament (OT) Book of Daniel (12: 1-4) it says that in the resurrection that some will awake to salvation & others to damnation. In the New Testament (NT) Gospel of John (5:28-29) the Lord Jesus Christ says the same with the added clarification of one having been good (saved) or evil (damned). Christians have salvation by grace authenticated by virtue ( or good works) (Ephesians 2:8-10). Non Christians will be judged by their virtues or lack of according to their conscience (Romans 2: 6-16). Truly many do not honestly understand what God revealed in Jesus Christ is all about but all are accountable to judgement by virtues or willful lack of virtues (rebellion) (Romans 1:18-25).
 
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faroukfarouk

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I understand that I must accept Jesus in order to be saved. What happened to all the people that were born before Jesus? Or the pagans, Asians before arrival of the missionary, that never heard of Jesus? Do they get a free pass or are they destined for hell?

Hebrews 11 provides an answer.
 
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South Bound

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I understand that I must accept Jesus in order to be saved.

Nope. "Accepting Jesus" won't save you. To the contrary, the Bible tells us that it's Jesus' prerogative to call and accept those whom He will save, not the other way around.
 
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orangeness365

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I think it is answered in Acts. It says that the people that lived before Jesus' time were ignorant, and God overlooks it.

Acts 17:26-31
26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28for“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;d
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’e
29Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
 
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