I guess the point is that a pleading response out of terror alone isn't salvific in this life or the next. Plenty of people respond out of fear for hell today. They may not be any more saved now than someone responding similarly after. The key is whether it's repentance only based on fear of consequences or a bending of the knee in trust and surrender to Jesus as Lord. That's true now, no reason to think anything less would be required then, and as the Calvinists say, someone unwilling to do it now even with knowledge of hell would no doubt be equally unwilling to do so then in the face of it. If only to seek rescue, that's not true repentance and turning toward Jesus. A hardened heart could well stay hardened.Homer wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:39 pmSo Hitler, when confronted by Christ on Judgement day, falls to his knees in terror, repents, and winds up immediately in the same condition as Polycarp! Nowhere do we read in scripture that this isn't so - saved not by faith but by sight, and a horrible, fearful sight at that.
But, if someone truly is ignorant, then faced with a knowledge for the first time of who Jesus is and the consequences of not following him, it seems like God's grace would be just as effective for such a moment - even if they're Hitler. God may well not extend that grace to someone who was informed but rejected him in this life, but he may well in the afterlife. We don't know much about how he would treat the truly ignorant or incapable other than what we know about his character.