D-fendr wrote:
“Is it your point that Timothy was saved by OT scripture? Is this what the point of the post in discussion.”
A little crudely phrased. Let me put it a little better. Timothy was saved by faith in the Christ of God, the knowledge of whom he gained from the OT Scriptures. Yes, that is the point.
And that's all, his sole source? Sola OT?
There are certain persons who have been posting recently on this thread who expressed horror and surprise that I would say that a person could come to faith in the Christ through the OT Scriptures, and that, in fact, this was regularly the case in the era before the incarnation and earthly ministry of our Lord. There is, of course, nothing new in this. And there should be no surprise on the part of anyone. Salvation has always been by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who atoned for the sins of all mankind once and forever by His innocent suffering and death in our place for our sins. The people of the Old Testament were saved in anticipation of this, since it was a certainty, God having promised it. The people of the New Testament were saved in consequence of it. In either case, it was God reconciling the world to Himself in Jesus Christ.
What, to me, is passingly strange, is that various Roman Catholic apologists could get so exercised about this that they would have to resort to, well ... we will leave it to any parties interested to read back through the thread’s more recent posts.
One last thing. How about salvation without faith, with works alone?
Here it is:
“Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Imprimi Potest Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, page 224, paragraph 847) The quotation is actually taken from the document Lumen Gentium, the official doctrinal position approved by the second Vatican Council on a vote of 2151 to 5 of the bishops present, and made public on November 21, 1964 by Pope Paul VI.