First of all you really have to stop giving any credence to the God character as some celestial invisible spirit if you want to understand the fairy tale. No such entity exists. No real god exists. All gods are imaginary creations of superstitious con men who use such beings to control their even more ignorant and superstitious buddies.
The God character of the Bible was simply the series of big wigs who ruled the various Middle Eastern empires during ancient times. "God" was simply a title. The Israelites/Hebrews/Jews were their collaborators and henchmen. Sometimes they were in favor and sometimes the new ruler got pissed off at them and slapped them around. The fairy tale is about those times.
The Europeans took the Middle Eastern ethnocentric Jewish religious fairy tale and used it as a means to control their own superstitious twits. An English committee wrote the Bible around the year 700 as an elaborate joke gift to fool the stupid Pope. The Bible didn't exist before they wrote it. It was rewritten countless times in the succeeding centuries until it morphed into its current format, with nice chapters and numbered verses. They also changed the names of the major characters so that the story would be more appealing to the audience. They used it very effectively as an unifying tool to build nations and to counter the Islamic threat.
Now, as for what supposedly happens to people who lived before the Jesus character the story says that if people were "good" then they will be saved because they followed the law even though they didn't have it. The early Christians routinely held proxy baptisms for their dead ancestors so that they would be "saved". The Mormons adopted that practice. Everyone else tossed it into the garbage can.
The basic rule in the Bible and in the Koran is very simple: believe and obey without exception. If you don't then you are sinning and will get tossed into the fire.
The God character of the Bible was simply the series of big wigs who ruled the various Middle Eastern empires during ancient times. "God" was simply a title. The Israelites/Hebrews/Jews were their collaborators and henchmen. Sometimes they were in favor and sometimes the new ruler got pissed off at them and slapped them around. The fairy tale is about those times.
The Europeans took the Middle Eastern ethnocentric Jewish religious fairy tale and used it as a means to control their own superstitious twits. An English committee wrote the Bible around the year 700 as an elaborate joke gift to fool the stupid Pope. The Bible didn't exist before they wrote it. It was rewritten countless times in the succeeding centuries until it morphed into its current format, with nice chapters and numbered verses. They also changed the names of the major characters so that the story would be more appealing to the audience. They used it very effectively as an unifying tool to build nations and to counter the Islamic threat.
Now, as for what supposedly happens to people who lived before the Jesus character the story says that if people were "good" then they will be saved because they followed the law even though they didn't have it. The early Christians routinely held proxy baptisms for their dead ancestors so that they would be "saved". The Mormons adopted that practice. Everyone else tossed it into the garbage can.
The basic rule in the Bible and in the Koran is very simple: believe and obey without exception. If you don't then you are sinning and will get tossed into the fire.
