Jason,<br><br>The people of the OT were not saved by trusting in the Atoning Christ but by trusting in God through what He revealed by the Word of God, which is Christ. Their knowledge that their faith was based on was limited to how much of the Word they had recieved. Abraham trusted in God and the promises made by God to him. We are told his hope was in that city of God and in him being the father of many nations and people.<br><br>Likewise, to be obedient to God one had to continue in the Law and of course the sacrifices since no one kept the law 100%. Year after year, and even daily, sacrifices were made for sin. Now we have one sacrifice made once for all sin and do not need to resacrifice.<br><br>Because those who had faith in God both then and now walk in the ways of God [although imperfectly], they walked by faith knowing they were sinners and undeserving. They realized it was not their works that saved them, but God who blessed them by not imputing their sin to them. But true faith results in works foreordained. So even as we believe and therefore obey, so they believed and obeyed.<br><br>If people want to redefine terms and obscure the teachings of the Word, I have no use for that either. Not only do I find it not useful but divisive and disruptive of unity. If A means one thing and B means another by the same word, how can unsaved or newly saved C get a grasp on what the Word teaches? If the trumpet blast is confusing, is it dinnertime or war?<br><br>I agree that it is not heretical to call those who are ONLY in the outward administration in a covenant, and I do say it is wrong. But it certianly causes confusion and misunderstandings of who is in the New C and what it is. Auburnites seem to have progressed from the one to the other and now distort what these and probally other words mean: saved, elect, Christian.<br><br>Those only on the Outward are not sanctified by His blood. They be sanctified [set apart] in some way since they associate with the body but it is only in an external way. The blood of the Lord sets us apart from who we once were by washing and cleansing us from our sins.
