No Stupid Questions

I grew up a fundamentalist Southern Baptist. In my late teens I started to question. One of the things that helped me drop Christianity was the thought process trying to answer: Who was the first Jew who died and went to hell because they didn't accept Jesus as their saviour?

Because biblically, the Jews were the Chosen People, right? So if you were Jewish, you went to heaven. But according to Christians, you have to accept Jesus now.

So when did that happen, exactly? When was it that the last Jew died and went to heaven, and the next Jew died and went to hell?

Unless he became one long after he died, never.

When he read a self help book that said you have to believe in yourself. Guess he took it too far. :)

He wasn't, there was no such thing at the time and he refers to himself as a Jew in the bible. Christianity wasn't named until after.

he's not a christian yet, but i'm pretty sure i'll be able to convince him before the end of this year

He didn't. Up until the time of Paul (decades after the Jdog's death), Christianity was a Jewish sect seeking to become mainstream Judaism. It was only then that early Christians shed their Jewish identity.

That's in the story, but in the History, Christianity arose from Greece and Rome, not Judea. It was never a Semitic religion. Instead borrowing elements of that combined with Paganism.

Either way, a Historic Jesus would have died a Jew. The mythological Jesus may do whatever and I'm aware of Christians who'll deny he was ever a Jew.

The same time God became Jewish

Posthumously.

Never - he was a Jewish prophet. Christianity was invented by Paulus.

When did Metallica become Metallica fans?

Depends on how you define "Christian". If you mean called himself Christian and recognized it as a distinct, and separate religion from Judaism, then never.

If you define it simply as "someone who believes Jesus was the Messiah and died for our sins" well then he was always Christian.

He didn't.

I don't know but you could probably figure it out by looking at the paintings and other artwork to see when he started wearing a cross.

Like with all religions in general, his parents decided.

It depends on how you define "Christian". Theologically speaking, under Christian Covenant Theology, Old Testament Judaism and Christianity are the same religion. So Abraham was a Christian, so was Moses, Elijah, etc. So Jesus would have always been a Christian - which is my answer as a Christian.

Academically - Considering the term Christian wasn't used until St Barnabas and St Paul were in Antioch, after Jesus ascended (as documented in the 11th Chapter of Acts) Jesus was never a Christian.

The term "Christian" itself is also debated - academically, people would attach it to groups that claim it. So they'd give it to the likes of Mormons despite Mormonism being as different to Nicene Christianity as Islam is.

Even in Christianity - generally under tradition, someone isn't a Christian until they are Baptised. But if an unbaptised person who believes in and follows Christianity (A Catechumen) was filling out a census, they would be a Christian in that regard. You could argue that Jesus wasn't a Christian until Baptism using this logic, but that can stray into the heresy of adoptionism.