Sue Sponte

A central premise of Christianity is that you are admitted into heaven if you accept Jesus as your savior. Of course, Jesus was not alive (assuming he ever was as described in the Bible) until long after man was on earth, which has always raised a few interesting questions in my mind, which many here are vastly more qualified to address.

1. What is the eternal fate of people who died before Jesus ever lived? By definition, they could not have accepted Jesus as their savior, as he never existed.

2. What about people who existed after Jesus but, for whatever reason, had no knowledge of him or the Bible? For example, Native Americans before the Bible ever reached Northern America. What eternal fate meets this poor souls?

To my knowledge, the Bible contains no exemption based on ignorance of its existence. Your thoughts are appreciated.

Doctor X

Imagine the irony . . . they just discovered fire. . . .

--J.D.

meritocrat

I've been told that they would still enter heaven, but it would be dependent on them living a 'righteous' life.

Doctor X

The must hit things with rocks "righteously?"

--J.D.

sakrilege

So why bother with the crucifixtion of jesus if people could enter heavan without it? god seems a bit confused,

Taffer

It's called "stoning".

I've been told that they get to go to heaven since God is always fair, and it wouldn't be fair if he threw them into hell, would it now.

This begs further questions, of course, but it's amazing what selective logic can accomplish.

Division By Zero

Of course he's confused. If he was thinking straight, would he have sacrificed himself to himself to prevent himself from throwing his own creations into a hell he made himself because of a flaw in his own design?

sophie

Division By Zero : because of a flaw in his own design?

Perhaps the flaw is in your understanding of the effect of the design. You seem to want perfection, but run when it arrives (ha ha ha ha). I laugh at you.

sophie

Sue,

Christianity was taken up by people during and after the life of Jesus Christ. It has been adopted by many and adapted by a few for their own gains. As such Christainity is veiled not by a window of stained glass, but by the iron curtain of human machination.

Christians who follow the current form of Christianity know their religion began with Jesus and lives and breathes through the life and times of Jesus. There are many Christians today who are appaled at the glorification of the murder of Christ.

He was basically murdered by the Romans with the willing help of his fellow Jew. Remember and take not the history out of context, religion 2000 years ago was a money making business, not a soul saving business.

Christianity is an enclosed religion, perhaps if you worry about those before Christ with real concern other than with mocking glee, you could console your heart to think of them as Hindus, or perhaps as the ALL POWERFUL's original peoples.

NOW, don't take me out of context because all powerful also means <cut>

Quantum Ninja

Well what do you expect from a perfect, omnipotent being that can't even follow his own commandments?

Thou shalt not kill... unless you're me.