Neither Acts 10 or Acts 11 says that Cornelius was not saved until Peter came to his house.
Well, you need to go back and read again, the text certainly does show Cornelius was not saved when the angel spoke to him.
Acts 11:13 And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
14 Who shall tell thee words,
whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
Note that the angel told Cornelius to send for Peter where he and all his house would hear words whereby they shall be
SAVED.
So, the word of God itself tells us Cornelius was not saved, neither did he have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and yet he was called a "devout man"
Nor does the Bible say that no Jews were saved before they heard about Christ as the Messiah.
They had to believe what revelation was given them. To Adam and Eve it was simply that person that would come of her seed that would bruise the head of the serpent. To Job it was his "redeemer" he would see with his eyes. They had to believe that degree of revelation given them.
That does not negate that the scripture says Cornelius was not saved yet in Acts 11:14.
It is true that the 3000 go on to accept Christ as the Messiah - but as the Apostles point out this is true Judaism to accept the true Messiah that the Old Testament is preaching about. It is not a claim that nobody in the OT could be saved with "just the Bible" to inform them.
These men were not saved, Peter told them they were guilty of crucifying the Lord with wicked hands.
Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,
ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Reading without comprehension is no different than being illiterate.
In Hebrews 11 points out OT saved saints some of whom were in heaven at the time that Christ was on earth (Moses, Enoch, Elijah etc).
There are three heavens shown in scripture. We do not know which heaven they were in, but in John 3:13 Jesus said that he was the only man that had ascended to the highest heaven;
Jhn 3:13 And
no man hath ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
And 2Tim 3 we find that Timothy is affirmed as someone who grew up with "Scripture" which was 'sufficient' to lead him to salvation.
OK, not sure what your point is here. The scriptures made him wise unto salvation through faith in "Christ Jesus".
2 Tim 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
By the way, this shows that it is knowledge that enables a person to have faith in Jesus. Timothy "knew" the scriptures which made him "wise" unto salvation. This is what Jesus meant when he said that every man that has been "taught" by the Father, that hath "heard" and "learned" from him comes to Jesus in John 6:45.
1 Cor 10 "they all drank from the same spiritual Rock and that Rock was Christ"
Agreed. They had to believe what revelation of Christ they knew at the time. But again, that does not negate that Cornelius needed to hear the gospel and be saved in Acts 11:14. You can't simply ignore scripture that is inconvenient for your view.
While you and I may differ on this point - I bring it up to show that the Arminian position does not rest in any way on the idea that no Jews were born again or saved via the method of the "one Gospel" - prior to Christ. For "The Gospel was preached to US just as it was to them also" Heb 4:2
in Christ,
Bob
I am no Arminian. I do not believe a person can lose salvation. I do not believe in Perseverance of the Saints, rather I believe in Preservation of the Saints which is very different. I also do not believe in Original Sin, so I am in no way an Arminian or Calvinist. I believe what I believe the Bible teaches, I have no name for myself except non-Calvinist.
