If following the bible gets you to heaven, did all of the people before the bible go to hell?

The only people I can speak for are myself and my loved ones.

It is written that, to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, one must only accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

All else is just doing a better job as a human being.

As with many, many others, one of the greatest American Icons, John Wayne, 'The Duke', wasn't truly saved until he was on his death bed, as he was dying of lung cancer. He was blessed that, even as painful as that was, he had the opportunity to be saved.

As to ancient people from before Christ's time, I don't know, and don't bother. I would suppose they had heavens and hells of their own.

No, they just lived simpler and more natural lives which were more in touch with Nature.

As a child, I was raised a Christian with the thought that God created the Universe in 6 days and sits on a throne somewhere in the clouds and Hell was governed by a red man that lived deep inside the Earth where there was constant fire. Unfortunately, some people never grow out of that. The Bible is the only book they read.

The same thing would happen if a person only read one book called Alice in Wonderland. They would grow up firmly believing in a talking rabbit.

Is there a heaven and hell? There is no proof. The concept is used to guide a person's morality. Break the moral code and you get seperated from the rest of society by going to jail or prison.

Is there a soul? There is no proof. Some believe that something inside of us continues past death. Some believe that we turn into the dirt of the Earth.

My personal beliefs are unimportant. As you know, I study astronomy. Although the fanatical fundamentalists would have me imprisoned and tortured for my beliefs like they did in the middle ages. Evidence proves that the Universe is 15 billion years old. Our Sun is only 5 billion years old. What we call man is perhaps 6 million years old. Why the long wait? Now, do only homo sapiens get a shot at heaven or do Cro Magnons or Neanderthals or Australopithicus?

You mention four cultures but almost every culture that has lived had it's gods. Do I go to heaven if I believe in Jupiter (Roman) or Isis (Egyptian) or Uranus (Greek) or Shang Ti (Chinese) or Izanagi (Japanese) or the Sumerian gods or the Norse gods or the Native American gods or the Indian or Australian of European or Polynesian or African or Mesoamerican or South American gods?

OR do I only go to heaven if I believe in Yhwh. Or so I don't insult any Jehovah Witnesses Yahweh. Or Allah ?

It was in 312AD when the Roman emperor Constantine had a dream about the Christian god and won a great battle the next day that Romans were converted to Christianity. Then we witness the forcefull and bloody 'conversion' which spread over the rest of the world by mass murder and the burning of any books which did not support Christian ideas. All in the name of God of course.

You infer that God created the Bible. Why is it that we often ignore the Apocrypha. It we are truly seeking the wisdom of the foundation of our beliefs, wouldn't we want ALL information that is available from the past?

http://www.goodnewsinc.net/othbooks/othbks.html

It was not until 1546 that the Catholic Church decided which books could and could not be included in the Bible canon. So we are left with what the Catholic Church has APPROVED and we do not read the equally valid books that the Catholic Church does not want us to read or even think about.

We must realize that Jesus was not popular until after his death. Jesus did not have a scribe following him around writing down his every word. We must also realize that the stories about Jesus were written hundreds of years after his death. In fact, just to remain open-minded about the subject without being sentenced to death as a heretic, there is now question whether a man named Jesus even existed. This stems from the fact that the stories about Jesus were already used by other cultures hundreds and thousands of years before Jesus. There is justified suspicion that the Christian movement made up Jesus so that we could have our own seperate God and savior.

Whatever you want to believe, the undeniable fact is that the Roman Catholic Church has USED Christianity as a power weapon to control and persecute those who they deemed 'undesireable'. This power control still exists today. Strange how the Vatican is considered it's own seperate nation ruled by the Pope. When a Pope is deemed an undesireable ruler, he dies a sudden mysterious death.

Heaven, hell, the Bible, soul...I have no problem with people believing what they want unless it leads to the Crusades or the Inquisition or the senseless destruction of a culture and their books like the Mayan. One thing that I was taught when I was in religion class was that God was in ALL of us. God is not some man in the clouds waiting to judge us. God IS us.

As there is evidence that the Big Bang was spontaneous and matter CAN be created ex nihilo, we no longer have a NEED for any gods. No god of thunder no god of war no god of the sea no god of the underworld. Gods filled the gap for the things that man did not understand. What is the wind? Umm it is a god. Gods die off as man's understanding of Nature grows. The only thing god is left for is the soul and afterlife.

For me, God everything in the Universe. One and the same. People, plants, rocks, and everything else that we can and cannot see. When I pray to God (and I do), I pray to the force of the entire Universe. My God includes the stars in space and it includes everyone reading this.

Jesus, God-Man, aka a Sacrificial Lamb for us all! Before the Death, Assumption, and Resurrection of Jesus, Yes! People did go to Hell? God though, in Gods wisdom did have Jesus, The Son of God, be a lamb for all of us and cleaning us all of original sin. Jesus did die, went to Hell to bring back Adam and Eve, the descendants too. Then again, the Apostles did see Moses and Isac, two deceased souls. So were the deceased in Heaven or Hell? The Bible is only what words we translated for us to know. Luckily one is allowed to be a Free-Thinking Catholic to have a relationship with God!

The rules outlined in the Bible are rules any decent person would follow no matter whether God told them to or not. We didn't need God to tell us that stealing and murdering were wrong, but with God telling us, we can verify that what we naturally know is right. Yes, some Romans, Greeks, Chinese, and others have made it to heaven because they did what they naturally knew is right, and didn't need God to remind them. Now that God has reminded us, we don't have the excuse they had, so we had better do right or go to hell...

Let's clear a few things up first.

The Bible is an object. That's it. We don't even know for sure if it really contains the 'Words of God'. It was written by humans, edited by humans, transcripted by humans, and translated by humans.

It's not like some kind of holy sacred tome that earns you a ticket to heaven, that is not how God would have intended it to be.

I believe that anyone that has a good soul and is pure of heart would have a place in heaven, regardless of your religion or ethnicity. If Christians would be the only ones to go to heaven, woudln't that leave out the remainder 3.5 billion of the world's population who are good and not Christian?

No they didn't. The Bible describes many men who went to heaven some before Israel was even formed, some after God gave the law, and many later on. One of my favorite verses is Acts 17:26-27 "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." Another is Jer. 29:13 "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

God chose where everyone would live and when so they would have the best chance of finding him if they wanted. God promises anyone who chooses to seek him with all their heart will find him -- no matter where they live, no matter their background, education, etc. Acts 17 also shows an Ethiopian who was seeking God wholeheartedly. God sent someone to him because God promised he would be found by those who sought him wholeheartedly. God leaves a lot of room for other people to have made it to heaven. If an Aborigine decides to seek God with all his heart, no man or doctrine will be able to prevent him from finding God.

First of all know this.. you are not kinder than God.

Jesus, after his resurrection went and preached to those souls that were in prison from the days of the flood.

Every soul is precious to God and I am sure he knows exactly what he is doing. Obviously.

Can you make a universe? No.

Well, he did and runs it quite well, so just trust him, that not one sparrow falls that he is not aware of and cares about.

If you don't see God doing all you think he should, bear in mind he is able to do it, and will do it, IF it will glorify him and bless you.

God doesn't think like us. He thinks big and he thinks in love, wisdom and grace.

Someone said that Jesus is the King who stumbled bleeding to his throne.

That should tell you much about him.

(1 )They are judged by how they lived their lives

(2) Following the Bible will not automatically secure a place in Heaven.

(3 )You will be judged by how you live your life.

Conclusion : The Bible is not necessary for salvation.God is all that is needed,and you don't need a book to tell you that.If you pray the Rosary and recite the Chaplet of Mercy you will be helping thousands of people to convert. That's if you can be bothered.This is what God wants us to do. Isn't it time you stopped reading and started praying, fasting and doing penance ?

This will stir up the anti-Catholic brigade condemning what i have just said.They are not "Christians"

EDIT....God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created us to make us share in his own blessed life in heaven. Bible or no Bible. No exceptions. This is the only reason why we are created.

Romans 10:17 " So then faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God ". The apostles started churches, disciples,and prophets , spread the gospel to the ends of the earth back then .Missions and churches are doing the same.

The OT saints were saved the same way the New Testament saints were/are saved, by faith.

For what does the Scripture say? "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." 4Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. 5But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, 6just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: 7"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. 8"Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account" (Rom. 4:3-8).

As you can see, the Bible tells us that Abraham was justified by faith (see Rom. 5:1 and Eph. 2:8-9). That is, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, v. 4 above. They were saved by faith in the Messiah in whom they were trusting. Only, for them it was a trust in the future Messiah. They knew He was coming as had been prophesied .

Also, the Holy Spirit was there in the OT times the same as the NT times. Consider Psalm 51:11, "Do not cast me away from Thy presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me."

God did not change how He saved people in the New Testament. It has always been by faith. In the case of the OT people, they looked ahead in time to the Messiah. We look back to Him and see the cross.