Easter Homily - Jesus created the afterlife

Well, that's too simplistic, but couldnt fit it in the subject line.

Basicly, yesterday's homily was hammering home that before Jesus, no afterlife. After Jesus, afterlife for the faithful. What then, about all the people before Jesus? Were they all damned?

That's been one of the more troubling positions of the catholic church (and other denominations) to me. Moses = screwed?

 

not following...why was there no afterlife before jesus?

 

I'm paraphrasing here, but it was said 10 times like a sales pitch bullet point:

Through his sacrifice, Jesus defeated death, and by his act, opened the door to eternal life for all of us sinners.

It wasn't our normal priest delvering the homily. Some higher ranking visiting guy. I'm not Catholic so I don't pay attention to their hierarchy. Big ole pointy hat though. He was as black and white as TheIt would be. He actually said, "before Jesus, no afterlife, after Jesus, afterlife".

Still bothers me. I've said before that the whole holy trinity thing never made much sense to me, and seemed to be more politically based dogma than other parts of scripture.

 

Bump.

Any replies to my serious question?

Hasbeen?

 

You're looking for a logical explanation of a religious belief? Get used to waiting.

 

I understand it like this. The afterlife was there but no one was capable of achieving it without Jesus's sacrifice. If people were capable of living sinless lives and getting into heaven there would have been no need for Jesus. It says in the Bible that during the 3 days he was dead, Jesus preached to the people who did not have a chance to know him so that they could have the opportunity to get into Heaven.

 

It is my understanding that this is why they had to make sacrifices in the Old Testament. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice.

 

According to the Bible, heaven has existed at least since the creation of the earth. And the gates were open to at least one (Elijah) centuries before Jesus ever set foot in Bethlehem.

1 Peter 3 also states that during the three days between Jesus' death and His resurrection, He spoke with the souls of people from Noah's day, before the flood. Therefore there was a conscious afterlife long before the resurrection of Christ.

Again, that's just according to the Bible.

 

Science, this is a request -- please be respectful in here. I've already had to delete one of your posts.