Repentance and Death in the Old Testament

[JoeFreedom]

When some of the Israelites were put to death in the Old Testament and they confessed beforehand, even though they were guilty of serious crimes, do we assume that even though many time we read about the Lord’s wrath that they were saved?

For example, in Joshua 7: 16-26, Achan is stoned to death because he took gold and silver that were under the ban, and because of that, he was put to death. He did confess, but it doesn’t say he was able to perform any of the rituals to offer a sin sacrifice, which the Israelites used as means for forgiveness.

 

[Jesus_123]

**. . . :bible1: . . . **

“But the LORD said unto Samuel,

Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart .”

​

- I Samuel 16:7​

​

+The above wise counsel from Sacred :bible1: Scripture can be very helpful regarding Biblical teaching in regard to the . . . deceptiveness . . . of . . . “outward appearances” . . . as it cautions us not to trust in same . . .

This reality always needs to be applied in regard to a confession . . . for there are both “good” and “bad” confessions . . . as any good priest well knows and teaches. The basis of a “good” confession is a truly . . . repentent heart . . . which good honest fruit is a firm resolution not to sin again . . .

Sacred :bible1: Scripture in this particular instance shows the . . . Hand of God . . . through Joshua’s casting of lots before the LORD . . . bringing out into the open the grave sinful nature of man regarding God’s commandment . . . regarding the selfishly-deliberate, gravely-sinfully greedy . . . disobedience . . . of the man Achan toward God . . . while the whole of the camp before him were carefully walking in complete holy obedience to their Wonderful Saving God’s commandment all 'round about him . . . even as the first man . . . Adam . . . deliberately . . . with full knowledge . . . greedily disobeyed God . . . and for both . . . the just wages of sin was . . . death . . . and the effect of their sin on others was also grave . . .

Whether the man . . . Achan . . . actually repented of his gravely sinful actions . . . before God, Joshua, all the camp and his family . . . *all of whom he had led astray by example and had corrupted the camp in which all were living *. . . simply is not revealed in this individual passage of :bible1: Scripture . . . and because of the silence of Scripture on this matter . . . such judgement quietly and simply needs to be . . . left . . . in the . . . Holy Hands of God . . . and is not revealed to us . . . though the immediate consequence of the sin here on earth is clearly outlined . . .

In this :bible1: Bible passage Joshua appears essentially as God’s . . . law enforcement officer . . . deeply concerned about the welfare of the camp before the LORD . . . because of the effect of the gravely sinful actions of Achan . . . for which the entire camp was suffering . . . and he was committed to the protection and salvation of the camp from the grevious destructive infection of sin which had come into the camp through Achan . . . and the business of forgiveness of Achan’s sin was left between Achan and God alone . . .

. . . :coffeeread: . . .

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH****ARTICLE 1
III. Original Sin

Man’s first sin

397 **
Man, tempted by the devil,​

let his trust in his Creator die in his heart **and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. **This is what man’s first sin consisted of. **278 All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.

**398 **
In that sin man **preferred himself to **God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully “divinized” by God in glory. **Seduced by the devil, he wanted to “be like God,” but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God.”**279​

. . . all for Jesus+
thank You Sweet Spirit of our Holy God+
thank you Holy Mother Mary+
thank you Holy Mother Church+​

​

 

[thistle]

When some of the Israelites were put to death in the Old Testament and they confessed beforehand, even though they were guilty of serious crimes, do we assume that even though many time we read about the Lord’s wrath that they were saved?

For example, in Joshua 7: 16-26, Achan is stoned to death because he took gold and silver that were under the ban, and because of that, he was put to death. He did confess, but it doesn’t say he was able to perform any of the rituals to offer a sin sacrifice, which the Israelites used as means for forgiveness.

Prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus the gates of Heaven were closed to everyone.

CC 631 Jesus “descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens.” The Apostles’ Creed confesses in the same article Christ’s descent into hell and his Resurrection from the dead on the third day, because in his Passover it was precisely out of the depths of death that he made life spring forth:

Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
Paragraph 1. Christ Descended into Hell

CCC 632 The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was “raised from the dead” presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ’s descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.

CCC 633 Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, “hell” - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God. Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into “Abraham’s bosom”: "It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell."Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.

CCC 634 "The gospel was preached even to the dead."The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfilment. This is the last phase of Jesus’ messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ’s redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.

CCC 635 Christ went down into the depths of death so that “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Jesus, “the Author of life”, by dying destroyed “him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.” Henceforth the risen Christ holds “the keys of Death and Hades”, so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve. . . “I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . . I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.”