bushbred,

The tale you tell could be true or it might not be. The true story is however that God sent His Son to hang on a tree in order for the drunkard, the blasphemer, the god hater, the liar, the homosexual, the immoral, the scoffer, etc etc to be saved from eternal damnation. I would say that pretty well covers all of us. The stupidity of this post is that it has the audacity to claim that we did not need this event to happen. All we needed was a few little rules to try and live by! What a joke! There is only One hero around here and while I would be eternally grateful for the drunken heathen to save my son from drowning it would not compare to the One who dies for all mankind to be saved from eternal fire.

Runner,

regards your post, what happened to all the people who died before Jesus?

bennie,

Good question. Small aside: There really was no "before Jesus" (Jesus, a member of the Godhead) was there at Genesis .

Jesus was not God's "get out of jail free card" or Plan B.

"God's plan" is always in the singular.

If you are raising the question about salvation before Jesus (in person) came and preached salvation through his death and resurrection, and then laid himself down as a human sacrifice to atone for the sins of all mankind, the bible gives us confidence in "natural" revelation (a response to the miracle of his creation) and the role of the law (and the spirit in which the law is kept).

This accounts for the years before God's revelation to Moses...

And any non-Jew who could bow down before the God of Moses as the one true God (who didn't have access to the prophets).

And during the 500 or so years of prophetic silence (in the period between the OT and the NT), for those without access to the Torah...

And for those, since Jesus' death on the Cross, in deepest, darkest Africa ("the unreached") ....

And for the majority of the human race, who died while in the womb (only about 30% of all pregnancies reach full term), in childbirth or before the age of 12...

So, it doesn't account for those of us living on this side of the cross.

Think of it as a great privilege, modern conveniences aside, not to be in the "bc" era of history, and to have access to the printed word of God in so many languages.

Your question then, amounts to this: Would God hand over His precious creation, each one created in his own image, knowing the number of the very hairs on their head, the object of his divine love, to death so easily?

The answer to your question IS Jesus.

He sent his one and only Son to die for us. It is not God's will that we turn away..
We have our own free choice.

bushbred,

"The true story is however that God sent His Son to hang on a tree in order for the drunkard, the blasphemer, the god hater, the liar, the homosexual, the immoral, the scoffer, etc etc to be saved from eternal damnation."

Not according to the Gospels. Jesus was killed by the priests of his day for the sin of opposing their dogmatism and cruel treatment of ordinary people. Jesus exposed how they set man against man, instead of bringing them together in love and peace.

"Beware the teachings 0of the Pharisees!"

And so we come to the question of salvation, the 'great reward'.
Reward for what? Leading a virtuous, caring sharing, 'Godly' life? Or just "accepting the Lord as our Saviour" and leaving it at that?
Apparently Mel Gibson is deeply concerned about his wife.
Despite being one of, if not the, richest actors in California, Gibson has absolutely no doubt he will go to Heaven, and his wife will not, -despite being as he describes her, a 'saint'.
Why? Because he is a Catholic, and she is a Protestant.
I seem to recall Gibson bought an island some time back, complete with villages full of people. He had to decide whether to let these people stay in their homes, or evict them.
He just wanted somewhere to relax, and entertain his friends.
I didn't hear the end of that story, so I don't know the result.
I'm not sure I want to.
The great John Wayne is another. After leading his life his way, he converted to Catholicism just a couple of days before he died.
God welcomes the stray lamb back to the fold.

Talking about a ratbag being the first to jump in to save a life, with possibly true believers thinking more about themselves -

Maybe the sacred tale of the Good Samaritan is similar.

Must say many of us are still not sure about faith, neither, sort of just hoping that one might act like the Good Samaritan when needed.

Thus one does wonder whether those who do join the Church to be saved, the very fact they are thinking so much about themselves, may in the long run prevent them from being saved.