OK can someone answer this religion question?

Question

Ok so im not very knowledgeble on the bible because i never actually sat down and read it and im not even sure I believe in God, but im only 18 so I have some soul searching to do and i probably will read it in the long run but anyways my question is:

Before Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins (i think thats right) and his blood washed away our sins (again ithink thats right) and before God impregnated Mary with baby Jesus, how were our sins being repented or washed away....before then were we all doomed to go to hell because our sins werent being "washed" away?

Answer 1

The first dealing with Sin by God was in the garden of Eden where God provided a Lamb to " cover" the sin of adam and eve. This was a picture of what the Lord would be to us. In the New Testament we see that John the Baptist said, when referring to Jesus was " Behold the Lamb of God Who " takes away" the sins of the World.

All throughout the old testament we see many blood sacrifices that were a ' type" of Who the Lord Jesus will be. In the fullness of time Amanda.. the Lord became this Sacrifice for my sins and for yours.

This blood of the Lamb is for our redemption and it answers to God on our behalf. Today the Lord has made His blood available to us everyday every moment to be washed and cleansed.
The Main function of the Lord's blood for us Amanda is to keep us pure in our conscience before God. ITs not easy to carry on with our relationship with God if there is Sin in our hearts and lives. But the Blood is available to us for our cleansing. God does not cleanse us based on how He feels.. He does so according to His Righteous ways. He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So sister.. may we both learn that its so important to be washed before the Lord.. to have sin dealt with and settled so that we can get on with what is important.. and that is OUR FELLOWSHIP" with God..

Get this verse in 1 John 1:7
If we walk in the Light as He is in the Light we have fellowship with one anther and the BLood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin"
Precious eh...
The Blood removes all the sin and all that will frustrate our fellowship with God and the brothers and sisters from being continued. We know what it is to be washed right? To feel free in the Lord's presence:)

The Lord fulfilled all that was to be fulfilled in due time. We can just be so thankful sister that we are living in these times where the word is out in the open and we are not being told all sorts of lies .. things like you have to work for your forgiveness.. and that you have to go through a priest in order to have your sins forgiven..

Keep sweet hun.. and I really hope that you can cover the word bit by bit:)
I can tell that the desire is there in you to start feeding and reading the word of God..

Take good care sister
ur sister
sandy

Answer 2

Those people were saved by the blood of Christ just as they are now. God is omnipotent, so His son needed to be crucified at some point, but He knew it was going to happen, so judgment on those people was based the same way it is now, on repentance and acceptance of Christ (or of the old law, as the case applies). Plus, the old testament is full of prophesies of Jesus (if you ever read Isaiah just remember that the whole thing is pointing towards Jesus and you'll get through it). They had plenty of information, enough to follow someone who hadn't been born yet.
[Edit] If you take a look at the sacrifice of animals by the old law, it is a type of Christ, a representation of Him. No bones can be broken, and most of the animal is eaten. The animal must suffer, bleed, and die so that you can live (not die from starvation).

Answer 3

"Repentance" means turning away from sin, and it's something you do yourself. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," said both Yeshua of Natzareth and Yochanan the Baptist.

To repent means to turn away from sin. And according to I John chapter 3, "sin is the transgression of the Torah" (i.e. God's Law, in English).

So repentance is something you do yourself. You decide to turn away from sin and live correctly from now on.

Atonement is another matter, and that's what you mean when you say "washed away sins." A sacrifice is like paying a fine - you pay it to make your account "even," but it doesn't "wash away" your sins. It says in the Bible that the wages of sin is death - that is, the only thing you have that is really yours is your life, and that's all you can give to God for your sins. There's only one penalty, death, because there's only one sin - disobedience. No sin is greater or lesser than any other sin - they're all equal, they all have the same penalty.

The idea of the atonement of Yeshua of Natzareth is that he died in your place so you wouldn't have to pay the penalty for your disobedience. Once you accept this, we must "go and sin no more." The atonement of Yeshua gives us a clean slate as far as our past sins. But, according to Hebrews 10:27, if we keep on sinning, there is no more sacrifice for us, just fiery judgment.

So the payment becomes null and void if you don't repent. You can't just say, ok, I'm a believer now, and keep on sinning. Grace is not license for sin, says Paul (Romans 6). That means you have to stop transgressing the Torah - that's what real repentance means.

So, atonement is the process by which you get a clean slate. As someone already mentioned, in the past people paid with animal sacrifices. Currently, we accept Yeshua's sacrifice on the cross as the payment and have faith that his resurrection proves that we, too, will be forgiven and have eternal life. Repentance is what we do to not screw up our second chance.

The two go together. Yeshua said he came to give us the "new covenant" in his blood. According to Jeremiah and Isaiah, the new covenant is the Torah written on our hearts and minds so that we can do it. (Jeremiah 31, etc.) If you have a covenant relationship with Yeshua as your savior, the result should be repentance of your sins - that is, turning away from them and adopting an obedient life.

And by the way, God did not "impregnate" Miryam. God manifested a form of himself in her womb to live a life as a human being would. There was no sex involved.

Answer 4

Hi Amanda.. Ok, here goes: Before the birth of Jesus( the start of the new testament). As most of the others said, animals were sacrificed for the sins of the Hebrew people. But you have to go a little farther back to understand why.

In the garden of Eden, sin entered in when Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, this then made themselves and all others to come susceptible to what is known as sin. sin is what draws the line between man and God. In the old testament, God's desire was to be close to His people once again like He was with Adam and Eve in the garden, so he required a sacrifice for comitted sin(usually a lamb, or bull, etc.). Now mind you, people are not perfect, so they would constantly/annually have a high priest make the sacrifice for the people's behalf to let God know they needed forgiveness.

Now, according to Old Testament prophecies, there was gonna come a time when the Messiah would come to save the people from their sins. The Hebrew people were expecting a king to save them from the oppression of the roman empire draped in royal graments witha horse and crown and such, but little did they know hed come in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes through the virgin birth to save them from their sins.. Throughout the Old Testament it was also prophesied that His shed blood would be the ultimate sacrifice for sin, so that no longer would the sacrifice of animals be needed.. Guess who fulfilled that? Jesus Christ..

Now to answer your question. before Jesus came and died. there was what was called "Abrahams bosom". People who died went here. It wasnt hell, but wasnt heaven either. But after He died, Heaven and Hell became open to those who believe and dont believe. When we are born, we are born right into sinn(Romans 3:23), and thus are therefore condenmed to Hell. but in repenting ,being baptized and believing on Jesus christ, and filled with his holy spirit we no longer are condemned but set free and are destined for paradise(see me for more scriptural reference)

Answer 5

Hello Amanda, it is understandable that you are confused on a lot of these issues. I can tell you are really soul searching for answers - that is good. I hope I can help you out with my answer:

On a personal matter I will say this: I do not think Jesus came here to "wash away our sins." A lot of the Christian teachings adopted a lot of pagan ideas, in part thanks to St. Paul because he had to adopt some of the pagan and old Jewish ideals of blood sacrifice to spread Christianity (this was not a bad thing, so much as it was a compromise to help enlighten people to better spiritual ideals). People inevitably associated Jesus's death as a way for a vengeful God of the Old Testament to sacrifice an aspect of God (his son) to cleanse the sins of an entire world. Surely, this does not make much sense to me? I truly believe Jesus came here as a teacher and a friend to help his fellow brothers and sisters in the flesh. I look to Jesus's life as one of setting a positive example. I do not believe in a hell for many reasons, but I think it goes without saying, Jesus taught us to forgive others. Surely, it would seem odd that God the Father could not forgive his children in the flesh? For does not a father, no matter how many bad things his son or daughter may do, still love and forgive them? Once you read the Bible, read the story of the prodigal son, I think this really illustrates that point well. I just find it hard that a loving God would punish those children who were so unfortunate to be put in a circumstance in life where it is hard for his children to know Him? Why would he punish children for an eternity? Would your father or mother punish you for eternity if you did wrong in their eyes? No, they would out of love, try to set you straight (I would hope)! I hope this helps better illustrate your concerns. I do encourage you to read the Bible but do not take it literally. A lot of the Bible has been revised over the centuries and much of it is the work of men. If you read the Bible carefully, you will notice much contradictions between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

I am not going to speak for everyone, but if there is one book I think you might be interested in, I would recommend the Urantia Book. You can read it for free online at urantia.org or download an audio version. I won't speak for the book's authenticity, but as a Christian myself, I will say it speaks a lot of reason and gives a good perspective on the philosophical ideals of religion, God, and spirituality. It really helped me become closer to God and strengthen my faith.

Good luck in your quest to find God. I wish you much success,

Your friend,

Joe.

P.S. If you ever have any additional questions, feel free to email me or shoot me off an IM on my yahoo ID. I'm always happy to help.

Answer 6

Before Jesus, there were Jews. Jesus was a Jew. They sacrificed animals, prayed, fasted, etc...to "wash away" their sins. Jesus, according to the Bible, made of himself the Ultimate sacrifice. Because he died the way he did, and with the intent he did, the Jews (and all others) would no longer have to sacrifice animals if they chose to believe in him.

Answer 7

In the old testament people could only seek justification. the unjust went to hell while the just (Noah, Abraham, etc) went to Limbo to await the coming of the Savior. when Jesus died on the cross, He decended into Limbo to release the justified souls so that they could go with Him into heaven when He ascended there Himself. That is why the coming of Jesus was such a big deal. No one could go to Heaven untill Original sin had been atoned for. Only God could atone for Original sin. We are still responsible for our own actual sins though. The people in the old testament that went to Limbo had atoned for their actual sins and were sorry for them but, they could do nothing to get rid of Original sin, so they needed God to save them from the chains of Original sin.

Answer 8

You really should sit down and read the Bible. All of it, beginning to end. One, it's an interesting read, and two, if you choose to live by that religion, you better know full well what you're getting yourself into.

Look at it this way: you wouldn't sign a contract without reading it first, would you? Why in the world would you sign a contract for your soul without reading the holy book first?

Answer 9

You need to realize that not everyone believes in the "Jesus died for our sins" story. Some of us, due to a lack of evidence, believe the story was made up and that Jesus is just a myth.
That being the case, don't worry about it.

Answer 10

The book of Hebrews in the New Testament implies that the rituals of the Old Testament could temporarily remove the guilt of sin, but that these rituals had to be repeated because they couldn't take away sin once and for all.