What Does Salvation Mean To You?

[JosephM]

What does the word 'salvation' mean to you if anything?

[PaulS]

It doesn't mean much to me because I don't think we need saving from anything. I know some people use it in the context of 'saving' them from a life of hardship by offering them the tools to live an abundant and fulfilling life - In that sense I could accept certain mind processes/beliefs as being a type of salvation for some.

[JosephM]

Paul,

 

I would agree that we don't need saving from anything ...... except perhaps our self . True salvation, i think is a state of freedom from a perceived state of lack and insufficiency to use the words of another writer. A freedom from all wanting, needing , grasping, and clinging. Freedom from compulsive thinking and negativity and most important from past and future as a psychological need.

 

Being saved "from a life of hardship" to some may be their definition but to me doesn't offer salvation in the context of my definition above. Many who seem to have it made the most with the least hardship are in no way guaranteed the freedoms i have mentioned. On the contrary, in my experience when i had everything going for me, i was the least satisfied with life. Of course that is just me but i think there are numerous examples of such that we find among the very rich and famous to support my own experience.

 

Joseph

[soma]

I agree with the post above. Salvation for me means to listen to the universe and the experiences that have passed through me so I don't have to go through them again.

[PaulS]

I didn't mean hardship in a material sense but rather in the sense that one finds life 'hard'. So in that sense, salvation for them is understanding how to be at ease with life. I think that's what you were alluding to as well, Joseph.

[Rayosun]

I guess "salvation" had a lot of appeal in an age when people had a lot of serious threats to fear all day every day of their lives. But "thank god" I've never lived in such a world.

The only way I can see to make what the scriptures have to say about "salvation" relevant to our lives in these times is to redirect today's believer to the intent of that teaching.

IMHO the whole purpose of threatening people with damnation and telling them how they could be "saved" was behavior modificiation. It's amaazing how much churchmen

were able to use their supposed connection with the deity to persuade people to behave as they wanted them to. One dramatic example that comes to mind is Pope Gregory VII

forcing the Emperor Henry IV to wait in the snow in his bare feet for three days outside of the pope's castle.

 

For those of you may be interested in the classical debate in the Christian world between those who believe that salvation is achieved through faith, versus those who believe that salvation is achieved through works, I use their own words at http://LiberalslikeChrist.Org/salvation.html to argue that those who wish to follow Jesus of Nazareth should believe in salvation through works, while those who wish to follow Paul of Tarsus should believe in salvation through faith.

 

 

 

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[romansh]

"Salvation"?

Personally not a lot.

 

I hear it used in, for what is to me, a really sad way ... primarily by Christians of various orthodoxies.

[AnnieG]

I like the way you describe salvation, Joseph. The song 'Amazing Grace' still appeals to me because I am comfortable with interpreting its language in psychological terms. I feel I have been 'saved' from overwhelming identification with negative emotions and thoughts, through a combination of empathetic guides and time /growth itself. The process has included moving from the idea of being 'fallen' to simply being human, with frailites but also potential for love, caring and enjoyment of life.

[fatherman]

A fundamentalist Lutheran friend simplified something I'd been chewing on for years. It pertains first to grace. Paraphrased, there is Justice, which is that everybody should get what they deserve. And there is Grace. God gives this to us rather then what we deserve. This is one element of my salvation belief.

 

Another element is that Salvation requires a posture that brings our lives into balance. Yes, we need to be saved from our baser tendencies, not to secure our eternity, but to live life more abundantly. But just as important, we need to open ourselves up to something greater than ourselves and learn to trust it and lean on it.

[fatherman]

In thinking about Salvation in terms of eternal life, I think about Jesus' definition of the Kingdom of God. First off, it is "at hand". It's not strictly an afterlife thing. It's a here and now thing. Entering the Kingdom of God is about being in a state of mind. It's a way of seeing the world and living in it. It's when we help order the world according to God's Grace and Love and Kindness. So if Salvation is what you need to get into the Kingdom of God, then it means that we allow grace to release us from our emotional attachment to our sin. We turn away (repent) from our hurtful behavior. And when we do this, we enter the Kingdom...we are saved. The Christian rhythm of Salvation is Sin --> Confess -- > Repent --> Accept Grace then repeat until we die. And perhaps along the way, we slow down the cycle and live in the Kingdom state of mind more and more often. Or, another way that Jesus put it is that he came in order that we may have life and have it abundantly.