Did pre-Bible humans go to heaven/hell/purgatory?

Mister Frankenstein, of course He did. Why people continue compare God with humans as if he is bound by their morality mystifies me, that is, until I think that religions have been doing it for 4000 years.

 

Considering that the theme and context of the bible is to 'save' your soul then it is quite reasonable that Christians must consider all man before it or against it are doomed to hell. Also considering the common position that God has a master plan then God must have intended or needed all persons in the first ~2000~ years before the bible to go to hell. Only after Moses did God give people an option for salvation.

To consider any other possibility would be to go against fundamental Christian values.

 

Yeah, I long ago came to the conclusion that if we are made in God's image... well, just looking around the world, the only logical conclusion was that He must be one hell of a nasty, violent, abusing, greedy bastard of a god.

Just as well that I dont believe in him, all things considered...

 

But surely only the New Testament could really be called Christian, couldn't it ?

The rest is Judaic, and - lest we forget - the biblical Jesus was also Jewish.

I dont think this particular god has a master plan - frankly I think he's insane.

 

That's my problem too. The Old Testament is very different from the New. Despite that being Jewish, it's always included in the bible and it's taken as the truth. Now, God is eternal so his rule must be based on eternal principles. Why, in 2000 B.C. should a different ruleset apply a new ruleset in 1 A.D? It's kind of like he's up there playing the old edition of Scrabble and suddenly decides to update it to the new version because he's losing.

 

And despite centuries of vilification and persecution of Jews as "Christ-killers" by Christians.

Kind of: "We dont like you or your culture but, uh, we'll borrow huge chunks of your mythology if you dont mind. Or even if you do mind..."

 

Christians have never vilified and persecuted Jews as "Christ-killers".

Seeing as both Jesus and the apostles were Jews, to do so would be reviling the Christ and the founders of Christianity.

 

You are totally right about that OWB! When I have met Jewish people along the way, I find myself subconsciously (or not) really going out of my way to be nice and helpful. I can't help it.
Jews are God's "chosen people", as I was taught, and in my own interpretation/understanding of the bible. Therefore, this is something that has always Stuck with me...know what I mean?
To my knowledge Christians aren't supposed to "revile" anybody except for evil (and we can't help that), and most certainly not Jews. God forbid. Seriously.

 

There are also Messanic Jews; which totally accept the New Testament.

 

Perhaps Jews as a religion instead of a race?

 

Never ?

Never, ever ?

Try looking at Medieval European history.

So is Christianity a sub-sect of Judaism, then ?

 

Dachau... Belsen... Auchswitz... that's how God treats his chosen people ?

No hope for the rest of us, then...




.

 

I guess your only definition of christian is someone who calls himself "Christian" and not an actual follower of Christ.

No, Christianity is the continuation true worship, which Judaism once was but is no longer.

 

Beliefs do not contend with the truth, only with other beliefs.

 

Being chosen doesn't mean life is always peachy. It is written the Hebrews have been enslaved, exiled, massacred, etc within the Bible.


Re: the Shoah
Yes, 6 million Jews were murdered. So were 5 million various Slavs and 1 million Roma, homosexuals, handicapped, and other "undesireable" groups.

This is how people treat people.

 

This is how people use ORGANIZED IGNORANCE to murder.

 

Which brings us back to the point that if we're created in God's image... what kind of a cruel, insane bastard of a deity must he be ?

 

Oh, wonderful ! One of the best get-out clauses ever !

How do you make the distinction ?

 

Here is my take on the allegory of being created in god's image.

To be created in the image of the creator is to inherit the qualities of the creator, and for the purposes of this story, that quality above all other things is the ability to speak things into existence.

In other words, we name the animals that populate the ecosystems of our world, or, we give the world all the value it has for us based on our descriptions of it.

We make it all up.

So, why is the world the way it is, because we insist that it is so. We are mesmerized by our own descriptions.

 

It could be argued, though, that many many people throughout history have tried to insist that the world should not be the way it is. Myself included.

Somehow it doesn't seem to have changed things.