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[Backward American]

Were the distant hominin ancestors of humans allowed into Heaven?

Were our hominin ancestors such as Homo habilis and Homo ergaster allowed into Heaven? Were they human enough?

Current scientific consensus tells us that biological evolution is a fact, and there are multiple, independent and corroborating lines of evidence to support it ranging from the fossil record and comparative morphology to developmental biology and molecular genetics. My question is essentially, at what point during human evolution from the first bipedal, or upright, hominin to the emergence of anatomically modern Homo sapiens some 200,000 years ago on the equatorial plains of Africa did God decide to start allowing members of our genus into Heaven?

[jimwalton]

Current scientific consensus is that the distant hominin ancestors of humans were not human, so you may have jeopardized your question by science. It would be my assessment that since they weren't human, scientifically speaking, they would probably be considered more in common with animals, and therefore not part of the salvation scenario.

But, to continue the conversation, Romans 5.13 tells us that God does not hold people accountable for obeying the law where there is no law, and so they will not be held accountable for what they possibly could not have known.

Acts 17. 30 lets us know that God overlooked the ignorance of people in the past, indicating the same thing: God will not hold people accountable for what they possibly could not have known.

In answer to your question, it seems apparent in the Bible to me that it was at the point of Adam and Eve (Gn. 2), possibly around 6000 BC or so, that God first revealed himself to bipedal, upright hominin after a 200K+ evolutionary chain, and they were ensouled. At that point they were deemed to be morally culpable and spiritually capable. So it would have been at about that point in human evolutionary history that God decided to start allowing members of our genus into Heaven. We can talk more if you like.