How were people saved in the Old Testament? More specifically, how were people saved from say Adam to the giving of the Law?
We know that before the Law, God used men to speak his word, such as Enoch:
Jude 14-15
14. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15. To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.Now that must have been some smoking hot sermon, but it doesn't really say how people were supposed to get saved.
How were people saved from the giving of the Law until Christ's death, burial, and resurrection? How were people saved during Christ's ministry, since technically the Law of Moses was still in force, but Christ also seemed to have had the authority to forgive sins at his discretion?
How will people be saved during the tribulation period? How will people be saved during the millennial reign of Christ?
Thank you for having this question and answer section.
Old Testament saints were saved on credit. Their sins were covered by animal blood but not removed (Hebrews 10:4). When O.T. saints died they did not go to heaven. They went into the bottomless pit in a special reserved place called “paradise” or “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 23:43; Ephesians 4:8-10 with Psalm 63:9). It was on the opposite side of the pit from, and within sight of, the suffering damned (Luke 16:22-26). When Jesus was resurrected, atonement was complete and now applicable to those whose sin had been covered but not removed (Romans 3:25). So he was then justified in saving them (Romans 3:26), and so raised the O.T. saints (Matthew 27:52), and moved paradise to a heavenly place (2 Corinthians 12:4).
Jesus’ descent into hell (Acts 2:27), the heart of the earth (Psalms 55:15; Amos 9:2), was not to complete suffering but to complete the human experience, just as his entire life was part of the human experience (Hebrews 2:17). Again, the participation in the human experience has nothing to do with redemption, but everything to do with his qualifying to be a faithful and merciful high priest and the first born among many brethren (Colossians 1:18). Jesus became the overcoming man and as such had to experience the full grip of death (Hebrews 2:9) to make his resurrection an experience that had implications for us.
Jews are not saved by works during the tribulation, but works are required by those who believe. They, like all Old Testament persons, are not regenerated, born again, as is a New Testament saint. The tribulation saints will believe the everlasting gospel and obey God by repenting from sins and being faithful to him in rejecting the mark of the beast until death, and thus will be saved after they “endure unto the end.” All salvation in any dispensation is by the grace of God, but tribulation salvation requires continual faithfulness until death. It is not a certain level of goodness that God requires but rather complete faithfulness to God in regard to the mark of the beast.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 3 John 4
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Hebrew children in the Old Testament were born into God's covenant, both male and female. Circumcision was the sign of this covenant for boys, but the sign was not what saved them. Faith saved them. Rejecting the sign, circumcision, for boys, either by the parents or later as an adult himself, was a sign of a lack of true faith, and therefore the child was "cut off" from God's promises as clearly stated in Genesis chapter 17:
"Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
What was the purpose of this covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? God tells us in the beginning of this chapter of Genesis:
"And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you."
This covenant wasn't just to establish a Jewish national identity or a promise of the inheritance of the land of Caanan, as some evangelicals want you to believe. In this covenant, God promises to be their God. Does God say here that he will be their God only if they make a "decision for God" when they are old enough to have the intelligence and maturity to decide for themselves? No! They are born into the covenant!
If Jewish children grew up trusting in God and lived by faith, they then received eternal life when they died. If when they grew up, they rejected God, turned their back on God, and lived a life of willful sin, when they died, they suffered eternal damnation. Salvation was theirs to LOSE. There is no record anywhere in the Bible that Jewish children were required to make a one time "decision for God" upon reaching an "Age of Accountability" in order to be saved.
Therefore Jewish infants who died, even before circumcision, were saved.
The same is true today. Christian children are born into the covenant. They are saved by faith. It is not the act of baptism that saves, it is faith. The refusal to be baptized is a sign of a lack of true faith and may result in the child being "cut off" from God's promise of eternal life, to suffer eternal damnation, as happened with the unfaithful Hebrew in the OT.
Christ said, "He that believes and is baptized will be saved, but he that does not believe will be damned."
It is not the lack of baptism that damns, it is the lack of faith that damns.
Gary
Luther, Baptists, and Evangelicals
An orthodox Lutheran blog
Hey, there is a typo in this article. The verse Luke 23:34 is used as a reference to paradise, but it's actually Luke 23:43.
God bless everyone!
Crystalline
Thanks for pointing that out, Crystalline! I've corrected the typo.
I'm curious what Bible verses support the last paragraph in this article re: salvation during the tribulation. Michael said this same thing during his Revelation commentary but did not mention any particular verses to support it. If anyone can point me to relevant Biblical passages, I would very much appreciate it!