|
Dear Jnes —
From the first moment of the fall, God had a plan. His Word came into the world:
- first as a promise to Adam and Eve
- then as a Covenant with the Nations (Noah)
- then as a covenanted promise with Abraham
- then with a Special Word to His chosen people who would bear that Word and prepare for the Savior.
This Saving Word was always in history preparing, what would have been the state of man, for what was not currently the state of man. All would have been unable to be saved, but because of the Promise, those who cooperated with the Light in them by:
- natural law, as St. Paul attests, or
- with the light of the Word given them, in the Mosaic Law
they were kept in a state of waiting (sometimes in what has been called Limbo, the Bosom of Abraham, or perhaps even Hades, the generic underworld).
Christ went and preached to the souls in the underworld (1 Peter 3:18-19) so that they could have an opportunity to choose Him, and He led those who accepted Him to paradise that day, along with the good thief.
Mary Ann
|
