Bible Study Seattle

“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”  Romans 10:9

But what about people who never really heard the gospel of Jesus?  Are they burning in hell?

This is a legit question.  Imagine all the kids who have died in infancy or early childhood.  Are they condemned?

Herein lies the extreme weakness of the belief that eternal JUDGMENT comes at the end of this life.  No, God is not that cruel.  Satan is, and he is the originator of this belief.  There is an interesting thought Solomon brings out: “Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not enjoy good things—do not all go to one place?”  Ecclesiastes 6:6

Lives a thousand years?  Remember Adam: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  Genesis 2:17  Adam lived 930 years (Genesis 5:5).  “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.”  Psalm 90:4  Moses knew that men cannot live longer than 1,000 years due to the curse.  Methuselah lived the longest: “And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.”  Genesis 5:27

Is it possible that there are two parts to our first Adamic [sinful] life?  No one will be condemned without getting a full understanding and chance at salvation.  “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.”  Isaiah 66:20  This is during the second chapter of our first life during the millennial reign of Christ.  Notice it says the child shall die a hundred years old?!?  A child of 100 years?!  But time is relative.  “For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people,”  Isaiah 65:22  Trees live for centuries.

Could a two part first life be symbolized in Jesus’ first and second coming?  Only after the second part is true salvation in play.  How else can we understand the Sodomites’ second chance: “Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state, and you with your daughters will also return to your former state.”  Ezekiel 16:55  The state of life.