Is God's way to salvation bound by time as we see it?

Question

Was it different before Abraham (who you will remeber met a monotheistic priest and tithed to him from his wealth).

Was it different after Jesus?

Do we just understand God better?

Answer 1

No, it's not. Salvation is through Jesus Christ, and always has been and always will be. The Lord said to the Pharisees: Before Abraham was, I AM. His incarnation for our salvation is the mystery hidden before all ages (according to St. Paul) and is an ontological fact that is the cause of all creation. Hence He can say, I am the Alpha and the Omega.

If you read your Bible, you will see a passage in St. Paul's letters in which he talks about all the righteous of the Old Testament - they were stoned, they were sawn in two, etc. - and yet all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive their reward that apart from us they might not be made perfect. In other words, these righteous had to wait for the coming of the Righteous One to receive their full reward. This is the work that Christ accomplished when he descended into Hades after His Crucifixion and before His Resurrection from the dead.

As He says, he is the door...the way...the light...the life. No one can come to the Father except through Him.

So, no, salvation is not time bounded, because the Saviour is not time bounded!

Answer 2

I'm not sure, realistically, we understand God better but it is different.

In the early days we were children. God threw us out of Eden the moment we began to think for ourselves and make judgements.

In those Early days God had to be like a parent to a child, with spankings and time outs and chores.

By the time Jesus came along we were maybe more like teenagers and didn't need all the disipline, but did need direction.

Jesus was about changing from the old ways. No more animal scarfices, no more stoning of sinners at the city gates, no more eye for an eye.

These we radical changes and many people (possibly rightfully) rejected them initially. They stayed conservative and avoided going liberal. Jesus was a liberal.

Now we are in early adult hood and if you will notice without the direct help of the teaching of Jesus most Jews have liberaized and no longer take the Laws of Moses to heart.

This is what the Christians started to embrace after Jesus.

NOw we have to figure out, based upon Jesus, what God is all about.

The old way is Like should be with Like. This can mean sex, color, language.

Do you think Jesus is a segretationist?

The old way was women to be silent in church.

Do you think Jesus expects women's voices not to be heard?

The old way was to stone fornicators. Jesus said he among you without sin cast the first stone.

Today we have issues like homosexuality. Would Jesus say stones the ***** or would he be as he was with Mary Magdeline?

Today, by and large like is no longer with like. Everyone sits together.

Women are becoming minsters.

Some say this liberalization is wrong.

It's hard to say what Jesus or God thinks or wants in these areas.

Now that we're adults, however, God expects us to be a lot wiser.

Maybe by the time the end of the world comes, when we are probably in old age, which could be many centuries away still, God will see just exactly what we have learned from our childhood and teenage years and how we behaved on our own in the absence of a direct God or Jesus to commmand us and set examples.

Answer 3

There was no salvation before Jesus. He was sent by God to walk the earth and perform miracles and then die for our sins. When Jesus was crucified he took on all of worlds sins as his own and when asked you will be forgiven just as if you were there at the time he was crucified.

Answer 4

Only if you believe in God. If there is no beliefs, then there are no limits to what you can think.