@Grailhunter
I'd like to go through the following.
Will take some time...
Belief or faith in Yeshua is more than a person believing a man named Yeshua once lived. Believing that Yeshua was merely an historical figure will not help you. You must accept and believe in Yeshua as your savior, this is the power of Faith. And as your savior He accomplished all of the above items. If you do not believe that Yeshua delivered you from sin, then you’re not saved. If you are a Christian and still think you are capable of sinning against God the Father, you might want to look for some animals to sacrifice because Christ will probably only be crucified once, (once for all sins.) (Rom. 6:10, Hebrews 10:12) If you do not believe that Yeshua established a New Covenant between God and Man then you are not offered the grace of the New Covenant. If you do not recognize Yeshua as the Son of God you are not saved. If you still hold on to the old relationships with God, as the Jews do looking to the Law as a moral guide, you have not accepted the provisions of the New Covenant and you are not saved.
Although I agree with all of the above, I always have in mind persons that I know to be saved that have never read the bible.
They accept Jesus as Savior, even though they may not understand the CONCEPT of this action. They know nothing of the New Covenant and still are offered God's grace to continue in their faith life since God will always give grace to those that need it or want it.
Now,, having said that...all future comments will be based on theological understanding of the N.T.
IOW, they may not know about the N.C. but they are still saved.
Also, whether a Christian truly understands the N.C . or not does not make him saved or unsaved. I just don't believe doctrine saves us...Jesus does.
Many believe that the phrase “New Testament” means New Text or New Book, when in fact the phrase “New Testament” is a misnomer. The Old and New Testaments refer to the Old and New Covenants. Some people understand this but they do not know why the Church labeled them Testaments and I am not going to get into it....
Can we just say that Testament means WILL as in last will and testament,,,and we'll leave it at that.
The N.C. became effective when Jesus died.
There is a reason why the Old Covenant is called the OLD Covenant. Because it is the portion of the Bible that tells of the time when God’s people “ONCE” lived under the Laws of the OLD Covenants….the Old Agreements, with a very wrathful God. Paul made a distinction between those that are under the Law and those who are not under the Law, but rather faith. (Romans 3:19-21 & 4:14 - 16, Galatians 4:21, 1st Cor. 9:20) The Old Covenants and the Old Covenant Laws was a testimony that their was something wrong. They prescribed overtly violent acts, hideous rituals, and the Laws that pertained to women were hateful at best. God promised his people that compliance to the Law would insure many Earthly rewards and His blessings, but some of the things it involved was unthinkable. I have said it before but the reader should read through the 613 Mosaic Laws and determine for yourself. Would you want to read these Law and rituals into Church?
I'd like to make two comments:
1. Not all the 613 laws were God-inspired.
Some were man-made and Jesus attested to this.
"You have heard it said"
Won't go into detail unless you wish to, or I'll never get thru this!
I think you'll understand my statements.
2. I do believe that the persons in the O.T. attributed everything that happened to God even though God did not CAUSE those things to happen. Now, we could say this is still true; however, they attributed even evil to God, and we know this cannot be. He only ALLOWS evil (we don't know why).
Now the Apostle Paul like all of us made his mistakes, but as he made his way through the journey of salvation he learnt as he went. Towards the end of His ministry he learnt the advantages of females and angels. He also realized that salvation had many elements and aspects and he wrote it down,
· Faith
· Love
· Forgiveness
· Grace
· Justification
· Sanctification
· Adoption
· Glorification
· Reconciliation with God the Father
· A dynamic relationship with God’s begotten Son
· Eternal Life
Agreed.
I'm not sure what you mean by his learning the advantages of females.
Highlighted above.
part I