What about the people who were here before God's plan for salvation?

Imscared34 said:

The earth has been here millions and millions of years and we've only had the bible for a couple of thousand.
What happens to the people who lived before religion?
Is there no afterlife for them? or do they go to hell?

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Christians believe that God is gracious and merciful. We also believe that God transcends time. While we believe that creation is redeemed through the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ, which was a particular moment in time, we also believe that because of the timeless character of God that this event transcends time and applies to all of creation in all time.

However God chooses apply Christ's redemptive work is up to God, and so I cannot say how God will work it all out in the end.

I hope that sheds some light on your question.

RevCowboy.

This is a good question.

Since the beginning salvation was based on 'grace.' We find in the NT that Abraham and King David were acknowledged by grace and not works, despite the fact that many felt the 'law' itself saved them versus God's gracious gift of salvation.

In this God is a righteous judge and scriptures tell us He will judge the inner motives and hearts of men. Doctrine and knowledge is not what saves...Scriptures state that salvation is a 'gift.'

The answer to your question is more direct in scriptures though if we consider Enoch.

We see Enoch in Genesis (=the beginning) being taken by God versus dying...the Bible had not been created yet, but Enoch was taken by God.

(good question ).

Every tear, past and present, will be wiped away.

The answer to this is easy, God's plan of salvation was before God created people. I personally don't accept the millions of years, but God was before people, and God had the plan in place before people.

I Chronicles 28:9 shows how God judges every person:

for the LORD searchest ALL hearts, and understandeth ALL imaginations of the thoughts, if thou seek HIM he will be found of thee, if thou forsake HIM, he will cast thee off forever.

1 Peter 3:18-22 outlines this, mentions that Christ "preached to the spirits in prison" (v19). This is part of the fulfillment prophesied in Isaiah 42:7 & Isaiah 61:1 (Is 61:1-2 as preached by our Saviour in Luke 4:18) and this is undrstood along the lines of the ancient apostles creed which states "he (Christ) descended into hell" (see traditional English version at http://www.creeds.net/ancient/apostles.htm )this creed has been recognized for centuries by Protestant, Roman Catholic, & Orthodox churches.

Imscared34 said:

The earth has been here millions and millions of years and we've only had the bible for a couple of thousand.
What happens to the people who lived before religion?
Is there no afterlife for them? or do they go to hell?

Click to expand...

consider the idea that God is trancedent. in other words he exists outside the boundries of time and space. so "the past" and "the future" don't exist for God because he's above them all. If this is true than christ's work on the cross has to be trancedent as well and it has to reach backwards in time and save those who seeked God before Christ came.

Many christians and jews believe that the earth has actually only been around for about 6000-7000 years, and that God created people, initially people walked and talked with God openly, until the first man and women, Adam and Eve were deceived by Satan and became sinful. Even though this sin separated people from God, God had a plan to bring people back into this relationship.

He chose a righteous man, Abraham and told him that his children would be as many as the stars he could count in the sky. And thus you have the children of Israel. They are Gods chosen people and have been a witness to this by being circumcised.

They would sacrifice offerings to God to take away their sin as instructed in the books christians call the old testament. It was in these books which the Jews call the Torah or "The Law" that God showed then what sin was and what sacrifices were needed in order to atone for the sin.

Then Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, a person who had no sin and died in Jerusalem as Gods perfect sacrifice (and as the Jewish Messiah) so that all people not just Jews could have the relationship with God that we lost in the Garden of Eden at the beginning. You can read about him in the first four books of the new testament Matthew, Mark Luke and John.

As to the question of what happened to the people before, well I believe that only God can know the answer to that question, but when the apostle Paul went on a journey into Thesolonicca (you can read it in Acts 19) the people there had an alter to "the unknown god", which to me shows that God reveals himself to people even if they dont actually know who he is necessarily.

Hope that helps a bit

Catrin xx

In this God is a righteous judge and scriptures tell us He will judge the inner motives and hearts of men. Doctrine and knowledge is not what saves...Scriptures state that salvation is a 'gift.'

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Does this still apply according to you? Is it possible to go to Heaven without having accepted Jesus as your Saviour?

I believe that once you know that salvation is possible through Jesus, that is the only way to God. After all Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father except through me"


People who have never heard of Jesus, as I said above, I believe that God still reveals himself to them.

I've heard accounts of missionaries going to remote villages and finding people there who believe in the Creator God and worship him, when they have been told about how God created the earth etc they accept him in Jesus as the next step in their existing faith.

EgbertTheFourth said:

Does this still apply according to you? Is it possible to go to Heaven without having accepted Jesus as your Saviour?

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the command is to repent of our evil doings and turn to God. So yes.... there's no salvation outside of Christ. HOWEVER the ideas of becoming a Christain have been distorted greatly in todays world. Becoming a Christain has become fairly easy but understanding the offer has become very hard... why? because we usaully only care about numbers.

Here's the scope. God is just... now this isn't to say that God is evil or unfair, infact the word "just" means "fair". Scripture teaches that he will judge the motives and hearts of men [and so far, i have yet to see a passage that says we will be judged by our relegeins]. I've noticed that people who become Christains have a complete tranformation happen to them. So god really does take care of a person's sin.

Now you might ask "why does God need to take care of sin?" But you mide as well ask "why is there evil in the world". Evil is the result of sin, and God promises a day where he will make things right and fair. so twisted and preverse souls will be judged on that day and punished [much like we may secretly long for them to be punished for what they do.]. This is why salvation is so important. it's much more than accepting a relegein.... it's a tranformation. Because guess what? Scripture says that we are ALL guilty of evil! You know all the evil we see in the world? we are all somewhat responsable for it and until we get under the cross of Christ we will be judged on that day for the part of an evil world thats our fault.

Now is this just? i dunno.... are you willing to admit that you might need forgiveness because you are responsable for at least some evil in the world? This is the first step in admitting the need for a savour. It's also the first step twoard humility and brokenness to the point where you CAN approach God with what you feel is your part to make the world an evil place.

I hope this makes sense I have a hard time explaining stuff and I know my spelling sucks. But I have some mental issues that prevent me from thinking and explaing things clearly. so please bear with me

Now you might ask "why does God need to take care of sin?" But you mide as well ask "why is there evil in the world". Evil is the result of sin, and God promises a day where he will make things right and fair. so twisted and preverse souls will be judged on that day and punished [much like we may secretly long for them to be punished for what they do.]. This is why salvation is so important. it's much more than accepting a relegein.... it's a tranformation. Because guess what? Scripture says that we are ALL guilty of evil! You know all the evil we see in the world? we are all somewhat responsable for it and until we get under the cross of Christ we will be judged on that day for the part of an evil world thats our fault.

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I thought sin was the result of evil. Imagine reality before the world existed; only God existed back then, right? We say that God is pure good, all-loving, almighty and all-knowing. Now there seems to be a problem, where did evil come from? Satan? Satan came from God.

Matthew 7
"15 Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."

Now is this just? i dunno.... are you willing to admit that you might need forgiveness because you are responsable for at least some evil in the world? This is the first step in admitting the need for a savour. It's also the first step twoard humility and brokenness to the point where you CAN approach God with what you feel is your part to make the world an evil place.

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I'm probably responsible for some evil in this world.

I hope this makes sense I have a hard time explaining stuff and I know my spelling sucks. But I have some mental issues that prevent me from thinking and explaing things clearly. so please bear with me

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It does make sense, and you did clarify a few things, but there are some other things that require some extra clarification. You do a good job at explaining though, so the few spelling errors don't really matter. It's the context that matters. Thanks.

- EgbertTheFourth

EgbertTheFourth said:

I thought sin was the result of evil. Imagine reality before the world existed; only God existed back then, right? We say that God is pure good, all-loving, almighty and all-knowing. Now there seems to be a problem, where did evil come from? Satan? Satan came from God.

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yeah... that defently is a tough one to answer. Satan isn't really the cause of evil though and I think this is one of the common misconceptions. In the garden... Adam and Eve blamed Satan... but both Satan and Adam and Eve were punished. so it's not all Satan's fault. We are partly responsable for the evil in the world.

Now the idea that God might've [and it seems probably] created evil because of his omnceince and omnipresent state is prolly one of the most troubling and hardest quistions to answer and I gotta be honest.... i'm not sure how to answer it. i almost wanna say that God might've created evil for betterment and improvement on our charecter [much like Job's situation] . however this brings another problem. Everything was at first perfect and pure.... what could evil possably do to better us? It's soooo troubling and is about as confusing as the movie "back to the future". So i'm really not sure how to answer this one.

It does make sense, and you did clarify a few things, but there are some other things that require some extra clarification. You do a good job at explaining though, so the few spelling errors don't really matter. It's the context that matters. Thanks.

- EgbertTheFourth

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your welcome i'm glad I can help

yeah... that defently is a tough one to answer.

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I agree.

Satan isn't really the cause of evil though and I think this is one of the common misconceptions. In the garden... Adam and Eve blamed Satan... but both Satan and Adam and Eve were punished. so it's not all Satan's fault. We are partly responsable for the evil in the world.

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So in the end, God too. He's judging us on something he invented.

i almost wanna say that God might've created evil for betterment and improvement on our charecter [much like Job's situation] .

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That's a neat idea. I like it, but then again, a very dangerous way to improve character.

however this brings another problem. Everything was at first perfect and pure.... what could evil possably do to better us?

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Perhaps it's not the state, but the jump that matters.
10 - -10 = +20
10 - 0 = +10

It's soooo troubling and is about as confusing as the movie "back to the future". So i'm really not sure how to answer this one.

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Haha. Back To The Future is one of the best movies I've ever seen, even though it has got some loopholes. The plot is awesome and it really gives me something to think and fantasize about.

- EgbertTheFourth

Imscared34 said:

The earth has been here millions and millions of years and we've only had the bible for a couple of thousand.
What happens to the people who lived before religion?
Is there no afterlife for them? or do they go to hell?

Click to expand...

Are these ones in "hell"? No. If we truly believe that the whole Bible is from God, not little bits we like, then what happened to people before the Bible began to be written and even before Jesus came to earth will of great interest to you.

What does the Bible teach about death?
Ecc 9:3- dead are conscious of nothing.
Ps 146:4- their thoughts perish.
Jon 11:11-14- Lazarus was "asleep" then "had died."

God told Adam that he was going to go back to the ground when he died "for dust you are and to dust you will return."- Gen 3:19.
A man named Job suffered terribly from various affictions. He prayed to go to "hell"(Job 14:13-KJV) not to continue his suffering but to find peace and rest until God called him back, or literally resurrected him.

The hope for all people ought to be that upon their death God will act justly to them whether they knew he existed or not. It is unthinkable for God to act in any other way.

The problem is that man has interpreted the Bible in a way that people live in fear of death. Dante's inferno comes to mind. It makes God out to be cold, cruel and distant. He isn't, but it may take time for you to come to appreciate it. "Keep asking and you will find, keep knocking and it will be answered you."

EgbertTheFourth said:

Is it possible to go to Heaven without having accepted Jesus as your Saviour?

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That is a mystery but in Gods Mercy we believe that if by no fault of your own you have never come to know Jesus you will.