I just started reading the old testament of the bible. I got to the section about Cain & Abel. In that section, Cain kills his brother, Abel, and God goes to Cain and says, "Where is your brother Abel?" I also realized that after Cain said he doesn't know... God said, "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground..." I read a few paragraphs after that, but I couldn't seem to find anything that would answer my question. I understand that God knew what had happened when he went to Cain asking what had happened to his brother, and was just testing Cain to see if he would admit to what he had done. However, why didn't God say anything about heaven in that part? Did Abel go to heaven? Was heaven not created at that point? How come God didn't speak to / see Abel after his passing?
Mr. Smartypants2020-04-13T23:48:07Z
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Sometimes Christians need to be reminded that the Old Testament was not written by Christians. Ancient Jews didn't believe in Heaven and Hell. They believed in a place called Sheol, which was a sort of 'shadowlands' where everyone went when the died. They didn't believe in an afterlife, as such, a judgement day, rewards for believers and punishment for others. Abel was GONE. God couldn't bring him back or talk to him after he was dead.
To this day, the Jewish religion doesn't even have the concept of 'salvation', the idea that some of us are saved, guaranteed a spot in Heaven. As I'm always saying, the difference between Christians and Jews is not so much in -what- they believe but -how- they believe.
The New Testament, the Christian part of the Bible, suggests that the dead will sleep in their graves until the Judgement Day, when they will all be raised from the grave to face judgement. If that's true, then nobody is in Heaven now but God and his angels. But during the crucifixion, Jesus tells the Good Thief that they will be in Heaven today, as soon as this is over. So I'm a little confused about that myself.
The point missed is what happened earlier when the two were sacrificing. Abel's sacrifice was accepted by God. Cain's was rejected. An animal blood sacrifice was established by God in Genesis 3:21. That sacrifice was to cover the knowledge that sin brought with it. Sacrifices were made to atone for sin. Abel's sacrifice was accepted, leading us to acknowledge that God's prescribed sacrifice was sufficient. His sacrifice was a lamb: a blood sacrifice. Abel's sacrifice was rejected because it was produce, and not a lamb. You might have noticed in the passage that Cain went to Abel, and could not apparently strike a deal for one of his brother's lambs. Cain's anger was the result, and he killed Abel. We can rightfully assume that Abel died when his sins were already atoned for (forgiven.), thereby gaining entrance into God's Kingdom. A key verse for all this conjecture is Genesis 4:3, "And in the process of time..." This would include the period of raising of the two boys, and teaching them about appropriate sacrifices.
Abel is mentioned in Heb. 11:4 "He was righteous". Abel is included with the other OT "worthies" in Heb. 11 Verse 40 may answer your question indirectly, "God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." This is significant to the utmost.