[aruanan]

Think about it: if people were saved before Christ's sacrifice, what does that make of His cross but a mockery. Then He is not the Savior of the world because some were "privileged" not to need Him.

They are saved because he was the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. His death was at one point in time (how could it be otherwise) but it justified all those whose faith was counted as righteousness, even if they happened to be born millennia before Jesus; besides, until the Law was given, God wasn't counting people's sin against them. His death at one point in time is the ground of salvation to people throughout all time, from even before the original sin to the Day of the Lord.

[kosta50]

They are saved because he was the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world

That would presume that God specifically created the world so He could sacrifice His Son in order to save the world. There is no indication of that anywhere in the OT.

The Passover Lamb is killed, its blood is used as a marker, and its flesh is eaten as a meal. The blood of the lamb is instrumental in the deliverance of the Hebrew from their captivity, not for atoning of their sins (they were not enslaved because of their sins). The Passover Lamb is never offered for atonement of the sins. A goat is used for that at Yom Kippur, and he is neither killed nor eaten, but allowed to run away (presumably with out sins which are transferred by placing our hands on the goats head!)

Christian theology combined the Passover Lamb and the Yom Kippur Goat into one and the same (of course this was possible because the Greeks and Romans who accepted the new faith had no clue what the difference was). In addition to that, instead of sprinkling the blood, the Blood is consumed (something strictly forbidden by the Law which Jesus did not come to abolish!).

Any wonder why the Jews rejected this new sect?