Jesus Made Me Kosher, He Is The Rock Of Israel
As far as the metric by which individuals prior to the coming Messiah were saved. Well, it was and always will be by faith. However - what was the content of that faith? That is the key. It has changed over time.... they obviously did not have the Messiah's life and death and resurrection to put their faith in since it had not occurred yet.
So the answer seems to be - people were 'saved' (and I use that word in quotes) in trusting in whatever God had revealed to them up to that point in time. If you think of it as a number line with 10 being the full realization of Messiah. If God only revealed up to 7 (for instance) then people were saved by trusting in 7. (7 being Temple sacrifices)....
For instance - before the Temple (and sacrifices) were even built, the patriarchs knew of sacrifices. Each one of them sacrificed in the book of Genesis. So we can assume that somehow - there was knowledge that a sacrifice was required to atone for sin, for fellowship, etc.... So they had 'faith' in that system. And that system was a placeholder for the coming of the Messiah - the ultimate sacrifice.
You can do a word search for Sheol and you will see many times the people there knew they were going to Sheol. (Gen 44:29, Psalm 6.5, Psalm 88.3, etc...)
Anonymous
Judaism does not believe in the Christian concept of damnation for everyone who is not "saved" by Jesus.
Judaism has the opposite idea -- that God may make agreements with different people and nations for different jobs and goals,
but overall -- God just wants everyone to be good people -- to practice kindness, charity, hospitality, justice.
Unlike Christianity and Islam -- Judaism actually makes it harder to Jews to be "righteous" than for non-Jews.
That's why Judaism discourages people from converting.
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So -- from a Jewish point of view --
all the non-Jews (whether living before Abraham or after) are just fine.
Atarah Derek
Not necessarily. Don Richardson gives an excellent perspective of pre-Christian cultures, such as the Karen nation of Burma or Pachacuti of the Incas (the king credited with building Machu Picchu), in his book, "Eternity in Their Hearts." His argument is that "the God who prepared the gospel for all people has prepared all people for the gospel." Check it out!
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Of course not. God has given humans what is called a conscience. Those who are without the law, are a law unto themselves, they will be judged by their own conscience with their own thoughts accusing or excusing them. At the end of the day, each one of us will recognize, without exception, that God's judgment is just.
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I suppose if you believe in those religions properly then you believe the Earth is only thousands of years old. So really that doesn't matter.
And as for the unbelievers. Yes, they think they are in hell.