- 1. Worship Only Ha-Shem (God)
- 2. Honor and Praise Ha-Shem
- 3. Respect and Protect Human Life
- 4. Respect the Family
- 5. Respect the Rights and Properties of Others
- 6. Respect the Sanctity of all Life
- 7. Pursue [courts of] Justice
All and all, God is merciful. This is what all salvation ultimately depends on.
Write back if you have more questions,
Maranatha,
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~John of AllFaith
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Questioner: Lenin
Subject: Before Christ!Question:
- On what basis did God provide salvation for people before Christ?
John of AllFaith's reply
Hi Lenin.I assume you are referring here to this verse:
Act 17:30: "...And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent..."
I would say this scripture covers it:
Micah 6:6: Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Are we speaking here of Jews or Gentiles? It would be a different answer.
Jews are "saved" by observing the Torah requirements in faith.
Many Christians, including many Baptists, teach that Jews were saved by looking forward to Jesus' death and resurrection while Christians are saved by looking back to his death and resurrection. Among the problems with this view is that no Jews, as far as we know, ever thought the Messiah would be killed nor resurrected, so they were not "looking forward" that. I'd say that ultimately Jews were "saved" through obedience to the Torah by the will and mercy of God.
And for Gentiles, Micah 6 still applies here:
Those who lived just and merciful lives and who were, according to their knowledge, devoted to God as they were able, were shown grace accordingly. The basis of this grace is/was the mercy of God.
As you asked this question in the Baptist section, I wont go into the notion of the Seven Noahide Laws too deeply here because historically Baptists have not included this understanding. I will list these seven Gentile laws in brief however, because they would be the conditions I believe God would consider. By the observance of these, Gentiles were regarded as righteous:
The Noahide Laws
