Featured Old Testament men were not saved by "looking forward to the cross"

That was covered in the OP. That same Peter also said:

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

The prophets did not understand what the Spirit was saying through them concerning the sufferings of Christ.
The OP must still be dealt with.

 

And that's how the Calvinistic gnostic philosophical paradigm reduces all things to conform to its system and seals off any dissonant scriptural revelation.

 

It's amazing how sure of themselves a bunch of church-age Gentiles can be that men were saved by looking forward to the cross in the O.T., when the Hebrew scriptures themselves state otherwise, and when the apostles themselves couldn't see it, nay opposed it [see O.P., which has yet to be addressed], even when the Lord spoon-fed them the coming cross, and when the masses themselves declared that Messiah must live forever and cannot die (Jn.12:34).

But who cares about the testimony of actual Old Testament Jews when discussing what Old Testament Jews believed, right?!

 

Keeping in mind that, by definition, there was no cross in the Old Testament, and that the scriptures never says that men were saved by "looking forward to the cross" [and no verse has yet been supplied to the contrary and the OP has still not been dealt with], consider:

People quote Galatians 3:11 and ignore Galatians 3:12:

Gal 3:12 And the law is NOT of faith: BUT, The man that DOETH them shall live in them.

Note the contradistinction Paul is pointing out. And again:

Rom 10:5 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
Rom 10:6 BUT the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above

Again, the contradistinction Paul is pointing out.

Joh_1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

And what about?

Deu 6:24 And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. Deu 6:25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.

Psa 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

Psa 24:4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

Psa 24:5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

THEN

Psa 106:30 Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed.

Psa 106:31 And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.

THEN

Eze 18:1 The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,
Eze 18:2 What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
Eze 18:3 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.
Eze 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Eze 18:5 But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,
Eze 18:6 And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman,
Eze 18:7 And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment;
Eze 18:8 He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man,
Eze 18:9 Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord GOD.

The word soul or souls shows up 6 times in this chapter:

Eze 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Eze 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

Eze 18:27 Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.

It is the soul that lives or die. God did not say “the flesh”, or “the man”, or “the body”.

To be just, we must point-out that in the O.T., the soul and the body were fused, so that the death of a soul of a living man was also the death of his body. But it was nevertheless a death of the soul as well. This is not the threat of bodily death only, it is the threat of soulish death as well. This is confirmed by the fact that Ezekiel said that that soul would die in his sin (3:20, 24; 18:24) and in his iniquity (3:18, 19; 18:18, 26) and in his trespass (18:24), and Paul described lost souls as dead in trespasses and sins (Eph.2:1).

If God had been addressing the Jews concerning physical death and life exclusively, why did he conclude the chapter with make you a new heart and a new spirit (v.31)?! Those are expressions of salvation of one’s soul, not body, as he had been saying all along. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of dying in one’s sins as a damnation of the soul (John 8:21, 24). There it is a result of unbelief, but here it is a result of works. A total of 17 works [including hath taken off his hand from the poor (v.17)] are listed in the passage and they are called duties in v.11.

No one can argue that in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live (v.22) is exclusively a reference to a long and good physical life on earth and not a reference to salvation: Luk 10:25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Luk 10:26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? Luk 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. Luk 10:28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

Christ’s words thou shalt live (v.28) is a direct answer concerning obtaining eternal life (v.25); and that’s the salvation of one’s soul! Christ himself told the lawyer that his obtaining eternal life was dependent on what the lawyer would do (v.28)!

Eze 18:22 All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.

Lev 18:5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 18:22 and is a quasi-replica of Leviticus 18:5 and Paul takes Leviticus 18:5 – and therefore Ezekiel 18:22 – as a doctrine to be set in opposition to New Testament salvation by faith! You’ve seen how Ezekiel 18 opposes Pauline doctrine, but note how it matches Jacobine doctrine in James 2:
Jas 2:12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. […]

Jas 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

Jas 2:15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, [NOW LOOK AT EZEKIEL 18:7 ABOVE FOR THE CROSS-REFERENCE.]

Jas 2:16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? […]

Jas 2:21 Was not Abraham our father JUSTIFIED by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

Jas 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

Jas 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Jas 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is JUSTIFIED, and not by faith only.

Jas 2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot JUSTIFIED by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

And yes, I know all the "tricks" to make James 2 fit Romans like the back of my hand.
But they're not an honest dealing with the text. The text says that works are part of our justification and the context is before God unto salvation, not men unto honour [no one saw Abraham offer up Isaac!]. But of course, the doctrinal context of James is tribulational, not church-age doctrine.

The problem is that you have a bunch of Gentiles who learned the church age truth that salvation is NOW (Rom.3:21!) become by grace through faith, and have applied that doctrine all over the book, despite the words of the book. And they refuse dispensational divisions of the book, in disobedience to the commandment to divide the book.
So when they hit dissonant passages which don't fit our present-truth, and we refuse to let the book speak for itself, we find creative ways to get around the uncomfortable truth that under the law, men were saved by works, like MOSES, AND EZEKIEL, AND CHRIST, AND PAUL, AND JAMES TOLD YOU.
Only they did not go to heaven because the blood of beasts cannot justify.
So they were imprisoned underground and awaited the shed blood of the Christ to get them out of the heart of the earth and into heaven.
I'm a Baptist, and I don't care if that's not Baptist doctrine, it's Bible.

I know it's hard to swallow, it was hard for me. But the verses cannot otherwise honestly be dealt with. Don't try to wrest the scriptures to fit what you know, like I was doing, just let them speak as they fall.

 

Of course, but Paul placed qualifiers on that:

He said that that was NOW the case, AFTER the cross, NOT before. He repeatedly clarifies that. See previous post. That was now the case because before, men did not go to heaven, only to Abraham's bosom, while they waited for the blood of the Lamb to be shed. However, after the cross, to enter heaven (as opposed to the underground prison that is Abraham's bosom) the standard required became absolute sinlessness, a standard which is higher than the Old Testament law, and one which can never be attained by works - hence the fact that now justification, with a view of going to heaven, was only based on faith and NO MORE of works, whereas it was of works under the law of Moses, which was not a law that required absolute perfection, as God now requires, since the righteous dead did not go to heaven anyway but would remain captives in the heart of the earth.
i.e.
Old Testament = lesser destination (Abraham's bosom) = lesser standard required
New Testament = greater destination (heaven) = greater standard required