Serious questions for Christians?

Question

What happened to all the peoplle before christianity? Even if they are good ppl did they still go to hell? Surely god wouldnt punish them for not being in a faith that didnt yet exist?

Answer 1

solanumcarolinense,
I'm sure that there wasn't anyone in the tomato family there. lol

In a nutshell;
Jesus died. The dead rose from the grave that had faith in God.
Matthew 27:52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

Please, please get it out of your mind that you have to be good to be saved. God said that there is none that are good. His opinion on what makes a person good, and what makes a person bad, is very different from what we might think about it.

A Christian is not a Christian because of goodness. It's because they are covered by the sacrifice of Jesus. They do that by faith, not just belief. Faith requires action like this:
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

And so the Christian life continues in this way. God says something, we believe it. It's that simple, and not to be confused with being 'good.'

"Surely god wouldnt punish them for not being in a faith that didnt yet exist?"
As I understand it, they were saved by faith unto God's grace, just like we can be. You have to trust in Jesus, who became a man to be the sacrifice for man. Not any other way.

Answer 2

In Dante's works pre-Christians people still go to hell because they haven't didn't personally accept Jesus. However, they don't go into the inner ring of hell where Satan chews on them for eternity. They occupy the 1st level of hell (hell-lite) where the pagans that have lead a good life go. You've got people the likes of Julius Cesar and Socrates hanging out there. Since they're in the beginning ring of hell, they aren't tortured restlessly by demons are not subjected to unending pain. But they are still in hell.

I once asked my priest about this when I was around 14 years old. He told me that when the final judgment comes, God will gave all the people that died before Jesus a chance to accept him.If they do then no problem, if they don't then its to hell then go. The actual logistics and process by which God gives such a opportunity isn't known, for obvious reasons. But it boils down to an act of faith as to whether or not you believe God will give those a chance to accept Jesus.

Answer 3

Accourding to the bible, God established his wrath over the earth many centuries earlier before CHrist. And those who lived on the earth may or may not have been aware of the same god or the god of abraham. Now, we know from the old testament taht god did destroy the earth once before -- during the time of Noah and Noahs arc. when all that havoc finally ended God said that he would never destroy the earth again. When really it is believed if their was a graet flood it was in te mediteranian area only and not the whole planet. So this is correct... so to speak that god would not punish them by sending these ppl to hell when they died. But once christ is born and in crucified god is convinced rthat once agian the earth must be destroyed after all these ppl have killled his gift to them ... his only son. But jesus says to god NO! please father spare them for they know not what they do and I love them. Take me instead send me to hell and spare all thier soals and all the souls tobe. God agrees and thus jesus goes to hell for three days and then by the will of god is released from satan and is resurected back to life and then to heaven. Its a good question, hope its a good answer.

Answer 4

Before Christ, All but about 5 maybe (Moses, Elijah the two I know) went to hell!
The maybe 5 went to heaven on there own accord.

Hell is (was) divided into 2 sections, separated by a gulf, one side was called the Lap of Abraham, the other torment.

When Christ died he went to hell! And there washed many clean.
The Lap of Abraham is now empty!

Answer 5

I think what you're trying to ask is what happened to all of the people before Jesus was born and actually bore himself as a sacrifice for our sins.
If you've ever actually read the Bible from cover to cover, you'll find a fascinating story that starts with the fall of man and ends with the redemption of man. The whole thing details the promise of God to save those who will accept his promise.
So when you read the Old Testament, you'll learn of God's promise to His people that there would one day come a Messiah to save them. They were "saved" by the faith that God would fulfill this promise, and practiced rituals that represented what would happen with the coming of the Messiah.
Unfortunately, interpretations of what these rituals meant, or even the rituals themselves became misconstrued, and many Jews did not accept Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophecies and promises of God.
I believe there is no such thing as a good person. We're all screwed up in one way or another. We can be good relatively to eachother, but in the light of God's perfection, none of us are perfect. It's like if you put just one drop of black paint in a white bucket, the whiteness is gone, it's ruined. Our "screwed-upedness", or sin, is death to us and in God's eyes. Death is sin's punishment (which is a good thing - would you really want to live forever on this earth with things the way they are?). But Jesus, being God incarnate, and without sin, died for us and paid the price. He is the fulfillment of God's promise to redeem us from ourselves.
So we have a choice: we can have faith, ask God to forgive us, and realize our salvation is a result of His grace and of nothing we ever did or can do, or we can reject the cross. All of the sins -past, present and future - were forgiven upon the cross. The only unforgiveable sin is rejecting God's promise. In the book of Revelation (the last book in the Bible), you will find two major judgments: one before the Great White Throne, and one before the throne of grace (greek - bema seat). Those who are judged before the great white throne were not found in the "Lamb's Book of Life", i.e. - they had not accepted the sacrifice of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb for our sins. Everyone is judged by their deeds, and all are cast away from God into hell. Those who are found in the Lamb's Book of Life, are ushered into heaven. The point is, God has given us a choice. We can choose to spend eternity with Him by believing His promises, or we can choose against it.
Some people think this is harsh. What about those who have not heard of Jesus? God knows their hearts and how they have received what He's shown them. He is a just God. For those who have heard, but have rejected, I have only one question - If you didn't want to spend your life here on Earth with Him, why would you be upset if you didn't spend eternity with Him?

Answer 6

Hell is nothing more than a hole in the ground, and in which your body is buried.
Hell is the grave.
When God comes back, and Jesus judges us, if we are not wrote in the book of life, we will just cease to exist.
Death is the wages of sin, and when you die, you will sin no more.
Since we were born man, and because of Adam, we all have sin, and therefore fall short.
Our sins, no matter what, are no more severe, or less, to God.
Only to man, and his laws.
The only unpardonable sin is blasphemy against the holy spirit.

Answer 7

They looked forward to the promises. They were still repentant and living Godly lives by faith. Read Hebrews 11.

Answer 8

God only knows; all we can do is to extend our prayers for them to be saved... There is only one judgement day and we will all be judge in accordance to what we are doing here in this earth considering the time of our existence.

Answer 9

I think all ppl went to heaven because so many believed they had to give sacrifices ,which God said later that this was never his wish or what he wanted.

Answer 10

No, they would go to another world where the souls lived-which accordin to Greek Mythology is below earth. And then Jesus Christ went "down there" and released them.