they were never saved is the point.
Yes, they WERE saved. Paul said so.
1 Cor 10-
1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.
2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
3 They all ate the same spiritual food
4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for
they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
v.3 and 4 make clear that they were saved.
Further proof is found here:
6 Now these things occurred
as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
11 These things happened to them
as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.
How can unbelievers be any kind of example for believers? That wouldn't make any sense.
They followed God out but continually complained day after day after day.
As if believers aren't complainers?? The point is that they DID follow God. Moses, actually. But they knew Moses was following God's orders and they complied.
If they truly trusted God they would have showed faith in Gods salvation at the red sea. at the rock. at the mountain when moses went up to meet God..
The fact that they DID go through the Red Sea proved their faith in God's salvation. Would someone who didn't trust God actually walk through a trough of water on both sides??
They did not. because they never trusted God
I've just shown that they DID trust God. The point is that they were never happy with God. They were whiners. Don't you know any Christians who are whiners?
We are not saved because we merely believe and we will go and try this stuff out and see what God will do in our lives. We do not put God on probation like they did..
There is no evidence that they put God on probation. And your comment about not being saved because we "merely belive" is unbiblical.
That is exactly Paul's answer to the jailer who asked him what he MUST DO to be saved. Pauls' answer was to believe. Nothing else.
You are forcing works or whatever into what you think is required to be saved. But verse after verse says plainly that we are saved and have eternal life on the basis of believing, without any other thing.