re: #734 Steve

What happened to righteous people before the gospels?
Righteousness came by faith, as in Abraham.

(and we both know what I am referring to there)
Um, no I do not.

I have however always been confused by this doctrine as it contradicts other doctrines and I don’t see how it gets resolved.
Nothing to resolve. God never changes and he always keeps his promises/covenants.

OK, so, Avraham came to his faith through reason. He reasoned that idols fashioned by man could not be divine. He reasoned that those who prayed to the Earth surely were beneath the sun and the sky. He asked what is above that.

This led him to God and Monotheism.

I bring this part as a side note about science. God gave us reason for a reason.

The deeper point is that God told the generations after Noah that they had Seven things they had to do to be righteous and made an eternal covenant with them. If god does not change, and people do those things they should be covered.

The other eternal covenant is the one with the Jewish people. We get 613 laws to do not 7. Many of those 613 have to do with the Temple, not all apply today, but there is still the covenant, and God does not change.

So presumably The Jews who follow the Law are covered too. If that is the case, who is left out?