Really Confused

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brierpatch1974

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Did Christ exist before he was born to Marry? Was he with God when the world was being created?

Genesis 1:26" Let us make man in our image."

Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Hath in these last days spoken unto us by HIS SON, WHOM HE hath appointed HEIR of all things, BY WHOM also HE made the worlds;

I heard this the other day and just had to ask. I have never heard anyone say whether Christ existed before his birth to Marry. So was he in Heaven before he walked among men?

Another thing I have to ask is this.

Acts 26:23= "That Christ should suffer, and that he should be THE FIRST that should rise from the dead.

After the Crucifiction, Jesus went to hell and basically cleaned it out…"If no one went to heaven or hell before, why was there anyone in Hell to begin with. Other than the devil and the other fallen angels.

Please don’t think I am trying to be rude or anything. I simply don’t understand these things and am trying too. It seems the more I listen and read the more I don’t understand so I end up with tons of questions.
 
Yes, the second person of the Trinity, the Son, always existed.

John 1:1, 14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
:o
 
Let us remember that Christ has two natures. He is 100% God, the Second Person of the Trinity who has always existed. He is also 100% man and His human nature, which includes the body, did not exist until He was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This union of the two natures is called the Hypostatic Union. The nature of this union is a mystery of faith.
 
brierpatch1974 said:
Acts 26:23= "That Christ should suffer, and that he should be THE FIRST that should rise from the dead.

After the Crucifiction, Jesus went to hell and basically cleaned it out…"If no one went to heaven or hell before, why was there anyone in Hell to begin with. Other than the devil and the other fallen angels.
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After Christ died he went to sheol or the place of the dead. Since heaven had not been open until the death of Chirst on the cross, all of the dead were in a state of waiting. Obviously those who led virtuous lives were not deserving of hell which is a complete and eternal separation from God. So when Jesus died He went first to those who had died and rendered a particular judgment. Those who may have remained (and know one knows for sure) would be those who never needed God in their lives. They would be left absent of Him for all eternity. That is hell. I hope this helps…teachccd
 
Thank you all for the help it really did clear up some things for me. I still have many questions but I try not to post tomany at a time.
 
brierpatch1974 said:
Thank you all for the help it really did clear up some things for me. I still have many questions but I try not to post tomany at a time.
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Your are quite welcome. And do not be afraid to post your questions. Just post as many as you can digest. 🙂
 
From the Nicene Creed:

“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father”

So yes, Jesus Christ existed (and exists) eternally.
 
teachccd said:
After Christ died he went to sheol or the place of the dead. Since heaven had not been open until the death of Chirst on the cross, all of the dead were in a state of waiting. Obviously those who led virtuous lives were not deserving of hell which is a complete and eternal separation from God. So when Jesus died He went first to those who had died and rendered a particular judgment. Those who may have remained (and know one knows for sure) would be those who never needed God in their lives. They would be left absent of Him for all eternity. That is hell. I hope this helps…teachccd
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I am not so sure that the bolded bit is true. After death there is nothing that can change one’s eternal destiny - it is fixed. All judgment is made at the time of death - the standards did not change. Those deserving of hell were sent to hell immediately after death and judgement - justice does not wait. Those judged at death to be worthy of eternal beatitude had to wait in a temporary paradisaical abode (“Bosom of Abraham”) seperate from beatitude with God for Christ to open heaven to humanity and to expose them to the new teaching. One judged worthy of beatitude could not reject Christ’s teaching - it just needed to be given to them to sanctify them and elevate their nature so they could enter heaven.

James
 
CentralFLJames said:
I am not so sure that the bolded bit is true. After death there is nothing that can change one’s eternal destiny - it is fixed. All judgment is made at the time of death - the standards did not change. Those deserving of hell were sent to hell immediately after death and judgement - justice does not wait. Those judged at death to be worthy of eternal beatitude had to wait in a temporary paradisaical abode (“Bosom of Abraham”) seperate from beatitude with God for Christ to open heaven to humanity and to expose them to the new teaching. One judged worthy of beatitude could not reject Christ’s teaching - it just needed to be given to them to sanctify them and elevate their nature so they could enter heaven.

James
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To clarify-- Those who were dead were not in the beatific vision prior to Christ’s death. You are 100% correct that their eternity was fixed but all were absent from the presence of God prior to Christ’s death. When Christ went to “preach to the souls in prison” He took with Him those who did indeed inherit eternal life. Those He did not take would remain outside of the beatific vision for all eternity. We call this absence of God- hell. That is why in the original versions of the Apostle’s Creed we read “He descended into hell” which has been recently changed to “He descended to the dead”. So, rhetorically, we could call this a paradisaical abode or Abraham’s bosom or sheol or whatever but God was not present there. Since God is not in time ( He is the Eternal Now) even our judgment is really fixed but I’ll leave that for another post… Peace be with you… teachccd 🙂
 
teachccd said:
To clarify-- Those who were dead were not in the beatific vision prior to Christ’s death. You are 100% correct that their eternity was fixed but all were absent from the presence of God prior to Christ’s death. When Christ went to “preach to the souls in prison” He took with Him those who did indeed inherit eternal life. Those He did not take would remain outside of the beatific vision for all eternity. We call this absence of God- hell. That is why in the original versions of the Apostle’s Creed we read “He descended into hell” which has been recently changed to “He descended to the dead”. So, rhetorically, we could call this a paradisaical abode or Abraham’s bosom or sheol or whatever but God was not present there. Since God is not in time ( He is the Eternal Now) even our judgment is really fixed but I’ll leave that for another post… Peace be with you… teachccd 🙂
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Interestingly enough, in the new translation of the Order of the Mass, approved by the USCCB just last week, the Apostles Creed has been changed back to the original, “He descended into Hell”. Lots of other changes too. (Not to derail this thread.)

Here is a link to the new order of Mass. Note, this is a PDF file.
usccb.org/liturgy/missalformation/OrdoMissaeWhiteBook.pdf
The page containing links to other changes:
usccb.org/liturgy/missalformation/index.shtml
 
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