First humans

[oldnitro]

Did Neanderthal man possess a soul, if he did what do Christians believe happened to him when he died? This has always puzzled me because I was taught that no one can go to heaven unless they had been baptised,so anyone unlucky enough to be born thousands of years ago had no hope.

[samak]

Only one of the reasons why Christianity (and the others) is Bollux

[oldnitro]

Pixi, I doubt if early man would have known what sin was. He might have lived his life as a devout member of his tribe all the while killing and eating his enemies.

[jno]

you don't go straight to heaven when you die; you go into the grave. God will raise the dead on doomsday. Those who believed in him will then go to heaven. Those who never heard of him (you don't have to go back to Neanderthals, there are plenty of people around today who know nothing of Christianity) will be resurrected to physical life, and will be given 1000 years to repent and qualify for salvation. It's in Revelation 20, should you want to look it up: "the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished."

[woofgang]

How do you know they weren't baptised?

[oldnitro]

Jno,correct me if I`m wrong but I was under the impression that if you were a martyr you were welcomed into heaven immediately.

[samak]

Why do you need faith ?
Because if any if this sh1te made sense you wouldn't need faith...

[jno]

that's still a subject of debate. You might be a martyr and still a sinner, in which case you'd probably have to wait with everyone else. I think different churches have different teachings, depending on whether they believe in purgatory or not (Catholics mostly do, Protestants mostly don't).

[samak]

None of which is based on the bible, only church tradition.

[Zeuhl]

<<It's in Revelation 20>>

i.e. it's in some old writings without proper provenance; written and re written over the years by various old blokes we know nothing about.

Well it must be true then!
.

[jno]

when the bible isn't specific, church tradition takes over. No big surprise there.

[samak]

Where can I buy some of the stuff the bloke who wrote Rev 20 was on ?

[jno]

I made no comment on its truth, Zeuhl; oldnitro asked what Christian doctrine was, and I told him.

[Zeuhl]

no slight intended jno :-)

[keyplus90]

Good question, I will let Christians answer that.

[wildwood]

If we are to believe the ecclesiastical teachings, there were never any real Neanderthals or any of the dinosaurs etc. Those fossils were put there by Earth's Creator less than 10,000 years ago to test our faith so they were never really alive to have a soul.

I think I just saw a pink elephant fly by!

[craft1948]

As he created Earth I assume God was around then..............he just hadn't sent his son yet.

[jomifl]

So muslims don't go to heaven then? I bet they will be even more ruffled around the boa than they usually are when they find out ...too late.

[jomifl]

By the way I think modern humans are descended from Cro magnon man rather than the Neanderthals who were a different species (arguably, but we may never know).