If you must now believe in Jesus and be saved to go to heaven, does that mean everyone in the Old Testament went to Hell?
2007-02-16 15:53:13 · 7 answers · asked by Sluggo 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The Old Testament teaches life after death, and that all people went to a place of conscious existence called Sheol. The wicked were there (Psalm 9:17; 31:17; 49:14; Isaiah 5:14), and so were the righteous (Genesis 37:35; Job 14:13; Psalm 6:5; 16:10; 88:3; Isaiah 38:10).
The New Testament equivalent of Sheol is Hades. Prior to Christ’s resurrection, Luke 16:19-31 shows Hades to be divided into two realms: a place of comfort where Lazarus was, and a place of torment where the rich man was. The word hell in verse 23 is not “Gehenna” (place of eternal torment) but “Hades” (place of the dead). Lazarus’s place of comfort is elsewhere called Paradise (Luke 23:43). Between these two districts of Hades is “a great gulf fixed” (Luke 16:26).
Jesus is described as having descended into Hades after His death (Acts 2:27, 31; cf. Ephesians 4:9). At the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it seems that the believers in Hades (i.e., the occupants of Paradise) were moved to another location. Now, Paradise is above rather than below (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
Today, when a believer dies, he is “present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-9). When an unbeliever dies, he follows the Old Testament unbelievers to Hades. At the final judgment, Hades will be emptied before the Great White Throne, where its occupants will be judged prior to entering the lake of fire (Revelation 20:13-15).
Since the fall of man, the basis of salvation has always been the death of Christ. No one, either prior to the cross or since the cross, would ever be saved without that one pivotal event in the history of the world. Christ's death paid the penalty for past sins of Old Testament saints and future sins of New Testament saints.
The requirement for salvation has always been faith. The object of one's faith for salvation has always been God. The psalmist wrote, "Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him" (Psalm 2:12). Genesis 15:6 tells us that Abraham believed God and that was enough for God to account it to him for righteousness (see also Romans 4:3-8). The Old Testament sacrificial system did not take away sin, as Hebrews 9:1-10:4 clearly teaches. It did, however, point to the day when the Son of God would shed His blood for the sinful human race.
What has changed through the ages is the content of a believer's faith. God's requirement of what must be believed is based on the amount of revelation He has given mankind up to that time. This is called progressive revelation. Adam believed the promise God gave in Genesis 3:15 that the Seed of the woman would conquer Satan. Adam believed Him, demonstrated by the name he gave Eve (v.20) and the Lord indicated His acceptance immediately by covering them with coats of skin (v.21). At that point that is all Adam knew, but he believed it.
Abraham believed God according to the promises and new revelation God gave him in Genesis 12 and 15. Prior to Moses, no Scripture was written, but mankind was responsible for what God had revealed. Throughout the Old Testament, believers came to salvation because they believed that God would someday take care of their sin problem. Today, we look back, believing that He has already taken care of our sins on Calvary (John 3:16; Hebrews 9:28).
What about believers in Christ's day, prior to the cross and resurrection, what did they believe? Did they understand the full picture of Christ dying on a cross for their sins? Late in his ministry, "Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day" (Matthew 16:21). What was the reaction of His disciples to this message? "Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, '‘Far be it from you, Lord; this shall not happen to you!'" (16:22). Peter, and the other disciples, did not know the full truth, yet they were saved because they believed that God would take care of their sin problem. They didn't exactly know how He would accomplish that, any more than Adam, Abraham, Moses, or David knew how, but they believed God.
Today, we have more revelation than did people living before the resurrection of Christ, we know the full picture. "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2). Our salvation is still based on the death of Christ, our faith is still the requirement for salvation, and the object of our faith is still God. Today for us the content of our faith is that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He rose the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
2007-02-16 15:58:01 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Christians are not Christians until they are saved!! We need to change for God because God doesn't change. There were several people in the old testament who believed in the messiah and the coming of the son of man. Prophets predicted it for ages.Jesus died for the sins of mankind and scripture tells of a rapture of the dead at the time of Jesus death on the cross and of dead saints and prophets walking the streets.I'm shure this won't happen when I die so this makes Jesus a little more convincing to me.Anyway in answering your Question people in the old testament will go to heaven to.
2007-02-17 00:07:59 · answer #2 · answered by checkerboardblue 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No! Jesus had not been on earth during the times that the Old Testament covers. There was no religion called Christianity.
2007-02-17 00:14:05 · answer #3 · answered by just the facts 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We have all sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God, and we need a savior. Jesus took our place in death that we might live.
Old Testament believers looked forward to Jesus. We look back. We are under two different covenants, both of which are the purchase of blood.
2007-02-17 00:02:31 · answer #4 · answered by Caveman 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. The coming of the Messiah was foretold in the Old Testament. As the bible tells us about Abraham "it was accounted to him as righteousness" that he believed in the one true God. Those old testament faithful who died before Jesus came, were saved by their faith in the one true God.
2007-02-17 00:03:22 · answer #5 · answered by Esther 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You just found another flaw with Arminianism. Slight misunderstanding about a belief in a coming Savior, but you're right, what difference should the dividing line of death make?
2007-02-17 00:08:31 · answer #6 · answered by ccrider 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They were saved by faith just as we are today.They looked ahead to the fulfilled promises of God,while we look back to them.Have you ever heard of the scarlet thread that runs through the whole of scripture?It is Jesus.
2007-02-17 00:00:11 · answer #7 · answered by W J 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋