Salvation in the Old Testament

[mshealy]

How where Abraham, the prohets, and others in the OT, “saved”? How did they achieve salvation before Christ?

 

[NotWorthy]

I believe that the Catholic Church teaches that when Jesus died, he descended into Hades (not what we call “hell” - I think the Jews referred to it as “The bosom of Abraham”) and preached to the poor souls in prison. You can read up on this in Peter’s Epistles.

Those that received the word of Christ and believed have ascended into heaven just as we do when we die (hopefully). Those that rejected His teaching… well, you know.

I hope I’ve explained this adequately, but I’m not quite sure.

 

[Fidelis]

From the Catholic Encyclopedia on the New Advent Catholic Supersite:

LIMBUS PATRUM (Limbo of the Fathers)

In theological usage the name is applied to (a) the temporary place or state of the souls of the just who, although purified from sin, were excluded from the beatific vision until Christ’s triumphant ascension into Heaven (the “limbus patrum”)…

…Though it can hardly be claimed, on the evidence of extant literature, that a definite and consistent belief in the limbus patrum of Christian tradition was universal among the Jews, it cannot on the other hand be denied that, more especially in the extra-canonical writings of the second or first centuries B.C., some such belief finds repeated expression; and New Testament references to the subject remove all doubt as to the current Jewish belief in the time of Christ Whatever name may be used in apocryphal Jewish literature to designate the abode of the departed just, the implication generally is

• that their condition is one of happiness,
• that it is temporary, and
• that it is to be replaced by a condition of final and permanent bliss when the Messianic Kingdom is established.

In the New Testament, Christ refers by various names and figures to the place or state which Catholic tradition has agreed to call the limbus patrum. In Matthew 8:11, it is spoken of under the figure of a banquet “with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven” (cf. Luke 8:29; 14:15), and in Matthew 25:10 under the figure of a marriage feast to which the prudent virgins are admitted, while in the parable of Lazarus and Dives it is called “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22) and in Christ’s words to the penitent thief on Calvary the name paradise is used (Luke 23:43). St. Paul teaches (Ephesians 4:9) that before ascending into Heaven Christ “also descended first into the lower parts of the earth,” and St. Peter still more explicitly teaches that “being put to death indeed, in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit,” Christ went and “preached to those souls that were in prison, which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noah” (1 Peter 3:18-20).

It is principally on the strength of these Scriptural texts, harmonized with the general doctrine of the Fall and Redemption of mankind, that Catholic tradition has defended the existence of the limbus patrum as a temporary state or place of happiness distinct from Purgatory. As a result of the Fall, Heaven was closed against men. Actual possession of the beatific vision was postponed, even for those already purified from sin, until the Redemption should have been historically completed by Christ’s visible ascendancy into Heaven.

Consequently, the just who had lived under the Old Dispensation, and who, either at death or after a course of purgatorial discipline, had attained the perfect holiness required for entrance into glory, were obliged to await the coming of the Incarnate Son of God and the full accomplishment of His visible earthly mission. Meanwhile they were “in prison,” as St. Peter says; but, as Christ’s own words to the penitent thief and in the parable of Lazarus clearly imply, their condition was one of happiness, notwithstanding the postponement of the higher bliss to which they looked forward. And this, substantially, is all that Catholic tradition teaches regarding the limbus patrum.
newadvent.org/cathen/09256a.htm

 

[NotWorthy]

Wow, Fideles, does that mean I was right?

I guess the blind hog does indeed sometimes find the acorn!!!

 

[Zooey]

Christ went and “preached to those souls that were in prison, which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noah” (1 Peter 3:18-20).

That’s the verse that I was just thinking of, when I read this question!!

 

[Fidelis]

Wow, Fideles, does that mean I was right?

I guess the blind hog does indeed sometimes find the acorn!!!

:bowdown2:

 

[Mersenne]

there was always the covenent of faith with Abraham