Thank you, Charles Churchill, for your response. It is much appreciated.
Regarding this (which made sense):
Also, if an action was committed before the law was given, and the law then labels that action as sinful, was that action sinful before the law was given, or did it not become sinful until after the law was given?
When I, as an individual am planning to take some action, I know, that to please God, it must be of faith. Or to say it another way, I must know based on my study of Scripture, that the action I am about to take is in accordance with everything that God has revealed to me about him. As such, over my life, there are actions that I could take at the age of 20, that I cannot take at the age of 30. Also, I cannot fake faith. I cannot by the simple act of my will, choose to have faith in something that I do not believe. When I stand before God, there will be no debate as to what I knew of God. There will be no confusion over what God had made clear to me, and my lame attempts at justification will appear as just that, lame and worthless before an Almighty God.
But when we look at Old Testament characters, we have to be careful that we do not improperly judge them, based on what God has revealed to us. Let's look at it another way. Let's say you met a person who told you that they had believed on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ bazed on very limited information. Let's say a tract, or a fragment of Scripture. As you talked to them, you began to realize that they were engaging in certain practices that you believe the Bible forbids. Let's say drunkenness. Would you tell this person that it is clear that they are not saved and that they had deceived themselves in their own unrighteousness, or would you show them the relevant Scripture and say to them, go and sin no more? I would almost certainly do the latter. With Old Testament characters, we do not have the option of showing them Scripture they did not have, and so we must be careful to not demand they "repent" of things that we could not do by faith.
Since more has been revealed to us, is more required of us? To use the new believer/drunkenness example, we can't look to the new believer drunkenness' as an example of how to live our lives. We don't necessarily condemn the new believer for drinking, but at the same time, we don't condone or approve of his behavior either, right? Can the same logic be applied to OT saints?
