Board index ‹ Heaven and Hell

[Japan Man]

Before Christ, did everyone go to hell? The millions that died before Christ, including those killed in battle before Christ "died" on the cross...What happened to their souls? Was there a grandfathering clause? If they were in heaven, or sent to heaven and they broke the rules, then what?

[jimwalton]

Godly people still went to heaven, and ungodly people still went to "hell", so to speak.

In Gen. 5.24, Enoch doesn't experience death. "God took him away." See also Heb. 11.5. He had walked with God. While the expression has a little uncertainty to it, it is generally believed that what is meant is that he was ushered into the presence of God.

In 2 Kings 2.11, Elijah is taken up to heaven.

These are both indicators that people who died before Christ's resurrection were still taken to one of two eternal destinies. Daniel 12.2 confirms those indicators.

In the New Testament, Moses and Elijah join Jesus at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17.3 and parallels), showing that they had been "in heaven". In addition, Jesus' story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk. 16.19-31) puts Abraham in "heaven". So I think there are enough texts to show us that the godly people who died before Christ's resurrection were with God.

If you're interested in a little more, I would refer you to Romans 5.12-17, where Paul informs us that even though sin was in the world before the Law, people are not held accountable for what is impossible for them to know. They are accountable in reasonable ways (Rom. 1.20; 2.14-16; 2 Cor. 5.10). There is a principal of reasonable accountability. In Deuteronomy 1.39, the children who were too young to make a realistic decision are not judged, but are shown mercy; their level of accountability was directly related to their moral awareness. Isa. 7.15-16 teaches the same thing: God deals differently with people based on their knowledge. The Bible teaches that there's definitely a sense of the fairness of God, and that he takes many things into consideration as he makes his perfect decisions.

But what about people from other religions, maybe people who have never heard? As far as worshipers of other religions that have not heard of Christianity, that's a different matter. We should establish that justice requires that people be treated fairly, taking into account all the surrounding circumstances of their situation (motives, resources, decisions, etc.) We're back to Romans 5.13. Although God sees that it's sin, and it is sin, there is no moral or spiritual accountability where there was no spiritual input. They will be judged according to the information they had, what they did with it, and their motives behind it. Every judgment will be fair based on what information people had, what they knew, what their motives were, and how they behaved given what they had access to. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair. So if someone hasn't heard of Christianity, they can't be held accountable for Christianity. But they will be held accountable for what they do know.

We also know that in Jn. 14.6 Jesus says, "No one comes to the Father except through me." I don't downplay that at all. C.S. Lewis wisely said: "We do know that no person can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved by Him."

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask more if I have not been clear.