Today while in Sunday School, we were discussing the Old Testament and its relationship to the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Gospel (more generally). At one point, the teacher said that there was no salvation during the Old Testament period, none whatsoever. This, she stated, was the miracle of the Atonement: there was absolutely no salvation prior to Christ's advent.
This really puzzled me. No salvation in the Old Testament? Why do we even hold onto it then? Just to show ourselves how far we have come from that lifeless period?
I tried to understand just what she meant. I knew she was trying to say that Christ had not come yet, and thus the Atonement was not yet complete (still not the right expression, in my opinion). I understood the sentiment, but the wording was terrible.
First of all, what is salvation? If salvation means repenting from sins and changing to become more like God, then salvation is all throughout the OT. If it we were not, why would we ever see words like repentance or forgiveness? Obviously, there is repentance and forgiveness going on. Are we trying to say that all of this is an outright error or lie? Unlikely. So, salvation in this sense is occurring.
Maybe salvation means God intervenes in the world to help his children. Well, that happens all the time in the OT! Indeed, you could make the case that God's interventions are far more explicit in the OT than in the New (I understand the nuances here). So if salvation means God's intervention on behalf of his children, then salvation is in the OT.
If we understand salvation very generally, it means to come closer to God (in any way imaginable). If this is the meaning of the Atonement, then Christ didn't just perform the Atonement, he is performing the Atonement, he has been for ages, and he will be for ages to come. Christ's Atonement is whatever he does that helps us become like him, to become like God, to grow and progress in righteousness, to repent, to love others, and so forth. If this is the case, then all of Christ's teachings, actions, words, all the assistance he gives us, our ability to repent, our ability to love, our ability to grow and progress, all of this is the Atonement of Christ, and he has been doing all of that for a long, long time. In other words, Christ's mortal ministry was the epoch of his Atonement, not the Atonement in its entirety.
The most unique thing about Christ's mortal ministry was that he suffered for our sins. This is an extremely significant part of the Atonement. In this sense, prior to his mortal advent (i.e., OT times), this had not been performed, it still needed to be performed. But obviously the Lord allowed the people of the OT to repent and even to be forgiven. So how do we work this? As far as the specifics, I'm not totally sure. Here is the important point, though: OT peoples could be and were forgiven because of the future Atonement.
One more point: there was no resurrection prior to Christ's resurrection, so if salvation is linked to resurrection, there was no salvation prior to Christ. Here I think we need to be more specific. Salvation is a very general term that gets used in a number of different ways depending on the context. If we held that salvation only comes after resurrection, then we could never have salvation in this life, ever. In that sense, no one before the time of Christ, in the time of Christ, or after the time of Christ received any salvation whatsoever. That is too limited of a usage. Instead, we should view salvation as a broad scheme that we receive in parts. When we are forgiven of our sins and we successfully repent, we have received a portion of salvation. When Christ intervenes in our life to help us, we have received a portion of salvation. When we are resurrected, we will have received a portion of salvation.
Salvation is an inclusive term, referring to all of God's designs and plans to change his children into saints. It happens in this life, after this life, and even before this life. As such, salvation has taken place and is taking place throughout the entire world. The Old Testament is no exception.
This really puzzled me. No salvation in the Old Testament? Why do we even hold onto it then? Just to show ourselves how far we have come from that lifeless period?
I tried to understand just what she meant. I knew she was trying to say that Christ had not come yet, and thus the Atonement was not yet complete (still not the right expression, in my opinion). I understood the sentiment, but the wording was terrible.
First of all, what is salvation? If salvation means repenting from sins and changing to become more like God, then salvation is all throughout the OT. If it we were not, why would we ever see words like repentance or forgiveness? Obviously, there is repentance and forgiveness going on. Are we trying to say that all of this is an outright error or lie? Unlikely. So, salvation in this sense is occurring.
Maybe salvation means God intervenes in the world to help his children. Well, that happens all the time in the OT! Indeed, you could make the case that God's interventions are far more explicit in the OT than in the New (I understand the nuances here). So if salvation means God's intervention on behalf of his children, then salvation is in the OT.
If we understand salvation very generally, it means to come closer to God (in any way imaginable). If this is the meaning of the Atonement, then Christ didn't just perform the Atonement, he is performing the Atonement, he has been for ages, and he will be for ages to come. Christ's Atonement is whatever he does that helps us become like him, to become like God, to grow and progress in righteousness, to repent, to love others, and so forth. If this is the case, then all of Christ's teachings, actions, words, all the assistance he gives us, our ability to repent, our ability to love, our ability to grow and progress, all of this is the Atonement of Christ, and he has been doing all of that for a long, long time. In other words, Christ's mortal ministry was the epoch of his Atonement, not the Atonement in its entirety.
The most unique thing about Christ's mortal ministry was that he suffered for our sins. This is an extremely significant part of the Atonement. In this sense, prior to his mortal advent (i.e., OT times), this had not been performed, it still needed to be performed. But obviously the Lord allowed the people of the OT to repent and even to be forgiven. So how do we work this? As far as the specifics, I'm not totally sure. Here is the important point, though: OT peoples could be and were forgiven because of the future Atonement.
One more point: there was no resurrection prior to Christ's resurrection, so if salvation is linked to resurrection, there was no salvation prior to Christ. Here I think we need to be more specific. Salvation is a very general term that gets used in a number of different ways depending on the context. If we held that salvation only comes after resurrection, then we could never have salvation in this life, ever. In that sense, no one before the time of Christ, in the time of Christ, or after the time of Christ received any salvation whatsoever. That is too limited of a usage. Instead, we should view salvation as a broad scheme that we receive in parts. When we are forgiven of our sins and we successfully repent, we have received a portion of salvation. When Christ intervenes in our life to help us, we have received a portion of salvation. When we are resurrected, we will have received a portion of salvation.
Salvation is an inclusive term, referring to all of God's designs and plans to change his children into saints. It happens in this life, after this life, and even before this life. As such, salvation has taken place and is taking place throughout the entire world. The Old Testament is no exception.
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