I'm not targeting Christans to answer this, but people who study the Christian stories. No offence, but those "Christians" that call themselves such because they listen to a preacher lecture them once, maybe twice, a week don't really know much about the religion's hows - simply the whats.
Here's one story I've heard -
Adam and Eve created original sin. They, and all their offspring, went to Christian hell upon death (except for a few men that were taken directly to heaven). It didn't matter how well they lived, they went to hell due to the original sin. Jesus, being a man, went to hell as well - he was ment to suffer as a man after all. But, becuase he was "God", he was able to open the gates of hell to release all the souls there to be able to go to heaven. This is, supposeily, what Jesus did durning those three days.
What is your opinion of this?
2007-10-22 05:12:13 · 16 answers · asked by Heathen Mage 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Personally, I like the stories behind the meanings, that's why I asked about this certain Christian story. Most people seem to believe just the act of Jesus;' death is what saved the world from sin - how simplistic!!
I also see lots of answers about blood sacrific - and you condem old pagan religions for the same thing?! What, really, is the difference?
2007-10-22 09:28:55 · update #1
"plague that is death"?? Wow, is death feared so much to be considered a "plague"?
Don't you people realize that there are other Christian holy books BESIDES the bible? Haha, news flash!
2007-10-22 09:33:06 · update #2
similar story I was told. Supposedly "sin" is in the blood because all people come from "Adam/Eve" who became corruptible supposedly by eating a piece of fruit, well eating the piece of fruit "led" to their being made corruptible since they directly rebelled against "They=Lord." So all the people are sinners by blood/nature and can't help it. Even if they did good their whole life they are still sinners, guilty of it by blood. So in order to free the people from this "God" had to incarnate as a man and die for their sins, since Jesus blood would be "pure" and not defiled by "Adam."
Guess it goes to show you that God is pleased by sacrifices in the Christian mind. None of this I believe of course, nor do I believe Jesus was his own Father. His sacrifice, pagan blood sacrifice somehow cleanses everyone if they would accept him, it really doesn't make any real sense. his blood paid the debt for Adam or something, all the ills of man come from an individual eating a piece of magical fruit in a magical garden off of a magical Tree that provides knowledge of Good and evil, that "They" (Lord) placed him in front of and said don't eat this, ok, which was of course going to result in him eating it.
The Adam/Eve story is purely an esoteric allegory, one of immense spiritual significance as it applies to your own mind. All of scripture is an immensely important esoteric allegory. The manner to approach scriptures is by using the Key Of Knowledge which is to apply them within yourself, as it relates to operations and realities of mind and being, not history.
2007-10-22 05:59:19 · answer #1 · answered by Automaton 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You're right. There are varying stories. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that yes Adam & Eve cost us the gift God had originally bestowed on them and their offspring... everlasting life. It's the reason Romans 5:12 says "just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned." Now death is simply non-existence (Ecclesiastes 9:5,6). We simply wait for the time promised by Jesus who said that "the hour is coming when all those in the memorial tombs would hear his voice and come out." Jesus "saves" us in that his sacrifice will ultimately free us from the plague that is death.
2007-10-22 05:20:53 · answer #2 · answered by Q&A Queen 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first part of the story is not exactly correct. Not everyone who was born before Jesus went to hell. In fact those who lived according to the law of the First covenant with Moses did not go to hell.
Jesus did not go to hell! He was fully man but also fully God. There are different teachings about the three days in the tomb. However all the Bible actually tells us is that Jesus rose on the third day.
The goal of all of Jesus's suffering was to save us from our sins. This was the new covenant, all we have to do is believe that Christ died for us and trust in him and we are saved.
We don't have to go to confession every week, that is one denomination. In reality we can talk directly to God anytime we want. Christ died for sin once and for all, we don't have to confess every time we mess up, talking to God is for our benefit.
Anyway I hope this helps you.
2007-10-22 05:23:38 · answer #3 · answered by dancer_khs 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that story is a bunch of baloney. I believe that Adam and Eve were the first humans to sin, but they were not the creators of sin. Sin is anything that is contrary to God's will, and Lucifer was the first to commit sin.
There were many before Christ who were saved, because they were saved by faith. Not everyone who lived before Christ went to hell, only those who rejected God.
Many people teach that Jesus went to hell between His death and resurrection, but it doesn't say that in the Bible. Jesus went to heaven when He died on the cross, as it says in the Bible ("This day you will be with Me in paradise," is what He told the thief who believed.)
2007-10-22 05:22:29 · answer #4 · answered by Gal from Yellow Flat 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that this might answer your question:
Hebrews 9:22 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
22In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Ever since the beginning of time, the shedding of blood was required for the forgivness of sins.
Jesus, the Lamb of God was the ultimate SACRIFICE FOR THE SINS OF ALL MANKIND!
It is by confessing our sins, repentance from those sins, & having the blood of Jesus wash over our spiritual selves, that "saves " us!
2007-10-22 05:21:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My opinion:
Where did you hear this?
The descendants of Adam and Eve did not go to hell! Before Christ's death, you were "saved" by penance; offering a burnt offering, doing work etc. etc.
When Christ died, that was considered the "ultimate" sacrifice; the temple curtain was ripped in half, removing the barrier between man and God.
There is absolutely no reference in scriptures for Jesus spending three days "opening the gates of hell". Come on, he's GOD, it wouldn't take three days...
Anyways; Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice, no more burnt offerings, no more getting close to God by kissing up to the priests.
Where did you hear that story??
2007-10-22 05:21:41 · answer #6 · answered by CanadianFundamentalist 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It wasn't his "physical" death that saves us from sin. It is His doctrine. But His doctrine is dead without a body to proclaim the truth. We are, in truth, this body. When we finally realize precisely what we are, then and only then, can we cast out sin from our thought - all of it, and then we are free from the law of sin and death.
During the days where Jesus appeared dead, he was not in hell (what quadrant of God permits hell to have a footing?), but rather He was working out the final demonstration of overcoming the notion of flesh as being a "life" form or having any life apart from God. He moved his flesh after it had been motionless in "death," proving that the body has no life, but that Life is God. One the pieces are put together, it is a no-brainer on what to do on the inside man in order to be saved.
2007-10-22 05:47:44 · answer #7 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, the thing is not that Jesus went to hell, it's that he came back from it. Also, the key is not what happened after the death, but the death itself. if you go back to the old testament, you'll find that God had the jews sacrifice animals to him as atonement to sin, the sacrificial lamb. Jesus acted as the sacrificial lamb for the entire world, and in doing this, death could not hold him. In this wise, he "saves" us from our sins because he has taken the burden of them upon himself already. You'll find the allegory for this in the story of Abraham and Isaac when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son. It's not really all that simple, but faith is the substance of things hoped for.
2007-10-22 05:18:03 · answer #8 · answered by Evadne Soleil 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
That it is ludicrous nonsense.
The Genesis story of Adam and Eve is a briliant psychological metaphor describing how 'conditioning,' that separates us from authentic being/bliss, occurs.
We are convinced by others (before our rational thinking brain - masculine/Adam/reason - is fully functional) to believe in their version of what is good/evil about ourself and the world. Eve is the feminine aspect of mind (vulnerable/creative) that can be tempted in early childhood to believe in 'duality' for the sake of becoming all powerful. Believing in this opens up the child to being shamed - when they get it 'wrong.'
Psychologically getting back to the Garden and the Tree of Eternal Aliveness requires a process of purification of this conditioned/programmed ego identity. Every adept who has ever lived - including Jesus - has understood the nature of being and reality - the causal relationship we each have with reality (the part played by our beliefs/faith) and has attempted to provide a way to explain and achieve the psychological transcendence of the learned identity, required to experience heaven/bliss and fulfilment of one's destiny and purpose.
Reality mirrors the contents of consciousness. We all are in either heaven or hell in each present moment, but only changing our mind - self forgiveness will get us out of hell. The events of Jesus' life provide a step by step process to eventually achieve ego death and resurrection of authentic being (Christ/annointed Self). Our ego traps us in hell because it fears the child's idea of existential death - abandonment, loss, humiliation - whatever it was programmed to fear. Jesus provided an exaggerated example that even physical death can be overcome. It is only our sense of shame - a belief in unfixable sinfulness - that's keeps us in hell. That is how his 'death and resurrection' saves us from hell of our own making. It is metaphor.
2007-10-22 05:38:14 · answer #9 · answered by MysticMaze 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think Jesus was having an idenity crisis. Was he man, was he god, was he man, was he both.....
The Bible even goes back and forth though I THINK there is only TWO references in the gospels that he IS God which could have pretty easily been added in later.
I'm not a Bible scholar though so I don't know.
2007-10-22 05:19:09 · answer #10 · answered by ~Heathen Princess~ 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋