In brief, hopefully, I neglected to mention this in my post, there are times, maybe more often than we think, where a genuine worshipper of God and seeker or unbeliever does righteousness from his own will efforts not for self-worth etc, and really works to please God and then becomes credited with the righteousness of/from God. And Yes, God would accept this individual at that time, with one big caveat. That God would send the message of the Gospel and his Son to him to become reborn, justified and be permanently accepted by the Spirit under and for righteous works. The timing would be of course in God's time, and no other way. Now in that section of Acts, " But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. "(Acts 10:35) mentioned previously in my post, it is usually described for a genuine believer. With Peter, Cornelius' righteousness was accepted by God and Cornelius was still an unbeliever, and became reborn later. Hindsight is 20/20 of course.I’m not completely certain what you mean here.
God accepts men who care for their neighbor at least as much as they care about and for themselves. To do that is to do what is right in Gods eyes. It is to DO righteousness. And if You do what is right, won’t God accept you?
God does not like when the righteous are made sad when He didn’t want them to be sad.
We have some things Very, very wrong concerning Gods judgements.
The first judgement is to honor or shame. It isn’t to life or death because those who have received the down payment of His Spirit will already live forever. The second death has no power over them.
It is the second judgement and the second resurrection that is a judgement to life or death, and some who gave a cup of water to one of His will be welcomed in. If you carefully examine the parable, they had no idea they gave a cup/some kindness to one of His own. They didn’t even know who He was.
Examine the two groups.
The first say, when did I ever see one of yours and give?
The second say, when did I ever see one of yours and NOT give?
The first are those who gave, not because they knew who it was they gave to but because they simply treated others as they would want to be treated. And they are welcomed in.
The second think they know Him but failed to treat others as they would want to be treated.
We have been led astray by our teachers in this matter of judging unbelievers. We are told not to do it but our leaders and some of their systematic junk makes us do the very thing we were warned not to do. So we annul the word of God for the traditions and leaven of those men we call our fathers.
Now it does not always work out that way and if Cornelius' adoration and reverence was not really genuine and he eventually never accepted the gospel and faith in Christ, his righteousness would be viewed as filthy rags indeed. He would be fooling himself as many religionists who profess being a genuine believer are really fakers. This process of God and his interaction with a seeker or not for genuine righteous works of the Spirit is a mystery to us.
Example: I have a neighbor who is a very liberal Jew (reformist) and his life style seem to not exhibit adoration for the God of Abraham, in specific ways, and I cannot really truly judge him of course. Although he does show/exhibit love, kindness, sharing etc., although my Spirit and spirit tells me it is for self-promotion, gain, pride and vanity. If I'm right, do you think that God will accept his own righteous deeds from his own will and pride, of caring, giving etc. I think not! God already knows the heart and then his deeds are worthless to him.