1Cr 15:22 For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

The New Testament  word "Saved" ( translated from the Greek verb "sozo" ) can have the meaning "to be whole-physically, mentally and spiritually." It also conveys the meaning of healing. Sozo is: to save, i.e. deliver or protect (lit. or fig.):--heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be/make whole. ( see Strong's concordance )

In the New Christianity that is emerging, gone is the notion that Jesus saves people from Hell or from God's wrath. Instead, Jesus is seen as saving people from all those negative things that stand in the way of them experiencing the blessed life of God. It is therefore proper to consider "Salvation" as a metaphor for Healing, Wholeness, Liberation/Freedom, Reconciliation, Peace, Enlightenment, Wisdom, Resurrection, Immortality,  Deification and Transfiguration.
see: What is a Free Christian?  

Lutheran Professor S. Schmidt explains: "Christians often misunderstand the nature of salvation. The word conjures up the idea that we are saved from our bodily being. Perhaps most troubling is the idea that salvation has nothing to do with here and now. In its root meaning, salvation is about human wholeness. Theologian Paul Tillich clarifies this in The Meaning of Health: "Salvation is basically and essentially healing. The re-establishment of a whole that was broken, disrupted, disintegrated."... Salvation is the promise of wholeness for human bodies and ultimately for the whole cosmos because God is working a new creation beginning here and now. Jesus' story has that kind of plot line. Bodies are healed, spirits are comforted, the weak are made strong and barriers are broken... The gospel promises healing that begins here on earth. We become part of the promise. When two or three gather in God's name, wholeness can happen. God's presence is announced, God's being is celebrated, and we are made whole" (The Lutheran | March 1998 | Where I find healing, by Stephen Schmidt, 

Western Christianity generally failed to appropriate this meaning of "salvation" because it was obsessed with the legal/penal interpretation of "salvation". On the other hand, the church fathers in the East understood salvation as healing. They even found support for this in the Christian Scriptures.

As Jonathan Gallagher writes, "Current concepts of salvation are very dependent upon legal images, primarily those of western justice. The courtroom scene is invoked to represent the way in which God "saves" us, primarily from the verdict and sentence of "Guilty". Consequently the mechanics of the saving process centre on the payment of penalties, substitutionary punishment, and the adjustment of the accused's legal standing (the blotting out of the Guilty verdict, satisfaction for sin, writing the person's name in the "right" book etc.).. While the New Testament does indeed make use of legal and judicial concepts in describing God's salvation of mankind, the stress on (and development of) such concepts and terminology obscures some other very significant understandings... In both Catholic and Protestant thought theology has tended to concentrate on the question of legal forgiveness. How is it obtained? What is the process God uses to effect forgiveness? What happens if forgiveness is not achieved?"

"Why the stress on the need for legal forgiveness? Because mankind is conceived of as being criminally guilty, and thus under executive sentence of doom from God. If a person is not legally forgiven, then that person will suffer the penalty--usually expressed as enduring the torments of Hell inflicted by a vindictive God for all eternity... Such a stress on the penalty of Hell explains the great need (especially in the popular mind) to ensure that this penalty is not applied, and that the individual receives legal forgiveness from God (or his representatives)... Man's main objective is therefore to be forgiven, to know that legally you are not debarred from salvation. Hence the procedure of granting Absolution, the Last Rites and so on, which attempt to guarantee that the person is rendered legally "Not Guilty" in the eyes of God... Jesus Christ is therefore viewed as the legal payment for sin, as the substitute in the dock, and only through his blood is the penalty God will impose averted... Once again the emphasis is on the individual's legal standing before God. The need is for legal absolution from the paying of the penalty. The appalling alternative is that one ends up in the eternal flames of never-ending torment--evidently a major incentive to ensuring a "Not Guilty" verdict is obtained from God"

He then adds: "Such a view of God and his salvation does not find expression in the gospel Christ brought. It was not a question of ensuring you were legally "without fault" before God, like a "no-fault" insurance claim!"

"Forgiveness is surely important, but not as a guarantee to avoid punishment. Salvation is not a question of making sure you have paid your premium for fire insurance! God is not to be viewed as a hostile Judge determined to sentence all the Guilty, and only allowing those who hold "Get out of Hell" cards ("the forgiven") to profit from his salvation. This highly-objectivized view of salvation ignores the personality of God and of us, and reduces God's salvation to a mechanistic kind of contractual process whereby when all the right actions are performed then salvation is automatic"

"Jesus came to be God's salvation: primarily as he revealed what this salvation is. Not a mechanical process or some objective legal transaction, but the relationship of persons. Salvation is subjective in the sense that it applies to and inside of us, rather than somewhere "out there"... Above all, God's revelation of salvation through Jesus is expressed in terms of divine healing of the sin-damaged individual. It surely is no coincidence that having been announced as the one who makes God known (John 1:18), Jesus spent the vast majority of his ministry in acts of physical healing... Christ's main method of demonstrating God to the world was through acts of healing. "Wherever he went--into villages, towns or countryside--they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed." (Mk. 6:56 NIV). All perfectly clear. A wonderful description of the healing emphasis in the life of Christ... But that word "healed" in this text hides a greater truth. The verb is the Greek word sozo. Which is the exact same word as used to describe salvation!"

"The insight that salvation means healing is essential to a proper understanding of the life and ministry of Jesus. When blind Bartimaeus shouts out to Jesus, asking to receive his sight, Jesus replies: "Go, your faith has healed you." (Mark 10:52). "Healed"? Well, it could as well be "saved"--for the word is sozo again. For through his healing he was saved; receiving God's salvation he was healed. As Jesus walks towards Jairus' house, messengers come to inform him not to bother continuing his mission. The girl has died. But Jesus turns to Jairus and tells him: "Don't be afraid; just believe and she will be healed." (Luke 8:50 NIV). The girl was dead, and Jesus speaks of healing? Yes, says Jesus, she can be rescued from death by Jesus the Life-giver, she can be saved from death. And in order to be saved, she would have to be re-made, made well again, totally healed. Healing is salvation again, as demonstrated by the word sozo being used once more"

"Perhaps the point is best made by the woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. In Luke's account it is noted that "No one could heal her." (Luke 8:43). Here the word therapeuo is used--from which we get "therapeutic". She'd been to the doctors, but without getting any therapeutic benefit. The idea here is more the idea of being medically treated... Then after the miracle she is discovered and so "In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed." (Luke 8:47). Now the word for healing becomes iaomai. Meaning: to be cured of an illness, to be delivered from ills. So she is specifically referred to as having received a cure for her particular health problem... But then Jesus says to her: "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace." (Luke 8:48 NIV). Here at the climax of the story the word for healing is sozo. Not merely medically treated. Not just healed from a particular illness. No: this woman experiences the transforming power of God that brings salvation-healing... This essential meaning of salvation as healing is further demonstrated by those words of Jesus to the healed woman: "Your faith has healed you. Go in peace." Just one chapter previously Jesus is recorded as saying to the woman who anointed his feet: "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace." (Luke 7:50 NIV). In the Greek, Jesus' announcement to the two women is identical, since it uses the word sozo which is translated as "saved" or "healed" as the context dictates... Consequently, that famous verse in Ephesians 2:8 which describes God's salvation could have the word "saved" replaced by "healed": "For it is by grace you have been healed, through faith..." Or in other words, "by the graciousness of God you have been healed by trusting God.".. As God said to his people of old, "I am the Lord who heals you." (Exodus 15:26). This is his salvation--healing all the wounds of sin, curing the sickness of evil, and restoring us once more into full spiritual health: remade into his glorious image. This is his salvation, so fully and freely demonstrated in Jesus and made available to all who will. This is his salvation: brought to us by God himself, as he hung there on the cross... Salvation is healing" ( SALVATION AS HEALING by Jonathan Gallagher )

Salvation as Liberation

Salvation as Liberation is a profound insight and a gift to the world. Authentic Christianity, just like any other authentic spiritual tradition, advocates freedom as an essential ingredient for every human being. A Christianity that does not promote freedom is no Christianity at all. It is for freedom that Jesus sets us free! For more on freedom and liberty see my article: What Is A Free Christian?

Salvation as liberation is the essence of Christianity and the hallmark of all pure religion that serves humanity: "Salvation as liberation goes back to the foundational narrative of the Bible, the exodus story of Israel’s liberation from bondage in Egypt.  Bondage as an image of the human predicament in this story includes economic and political oppression: the Hebrews were literally slaves under the lordship of Pharaoh. The image of our condition as bondage also has psychological and spiritual meanings in the Bible. For Paul, our bondage includes bondage to “the law,” not as a nuisance or inconve­nience and not to Jewish laws in particular but to “the law” as a way of defining our relationship to God. More comprehensively in Paul and the New Testament, we are in bondage to “the powers.” “The powers” are cultural, spiritual, and psychological powers operating both within us and outside us. The powers include the domination system and the spirit of the age, and they produce in us not only bondage but a sense of powerlessness. Life under the powers is dominated existence" ( Epiphany 2003 - Home Study Series, session 7 - week of February 17 )

So evident is the dimension of freedom in the heart of the Christian gospel that inevitably arose what is called "liberation theology", not surprisingly, among the impoverished lands of Latin America. Robert T. Osborn ( professor of religion at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina ) writes "God offers to the oppressed and needy everywhere God’s particular freedom. God offers this particular freedom to all who are in need, without regard to their particularity -- their race, sex, ethnic origin. This means that liberation and liberation theology are possibilities for all -- blacks and whites, females and males" ( see Jesus and Liberation Theology by Robert T. Osborn )

In his "must read" book Faith and Freedom, Toward a Theology of Liberation, professor of theology Dr. Schubert M. Ogden outlines the place of liberation theology in a world of oppression and injustice.  In the preface of his book he writes: "Just before the climax of the Bicentennial Celebration on July 4, 1976, the editors of The United Methodist Reporter asked several United Methodist theologians to respond briefly to this question: "In your opinion, what two major theological issues will The United Methodist Church struggle with across the next fifty years?" My response to this question was as follows: First, there is the issue of God, which I formulated in these terms: "Can Christian faith in God be so understood that it positively includes the concern for human liberation in this world?" Then, second, there is the issue of the Christian mission, which I formulated as the question: "Can we understand our special calling as Christians as a new responsibility that we bear for the sake of the world, instead of as a new privilege that only Christians can enjoy?" I recall this here because the origin of this book was in the reflections to which I was led in responding to this question, especially in identifying the first of the two issues with which, in my opinion, the church and theology over the. next fifty years will have to struggle". The full text of the book is available on-line at Faith and Freedom, Toward a Theology of Liberation by Schubert M. Ogden . I highly recommend it as it puts the Christian faith in its right perspective, that is, as a liberation faith.

Another excellent read, for those interested on the topic of liberation theology, is Birth Pangs: Liberation Theology in North America by Frederick Herzog . The editors of religion-online.org  introduce it with these words: "There can be no systematic theology in North America today without analysis of Marx. Theology that doesn’t take the poor into account from the outset isn’t Christian theology. Once considered exotic and fanciful, liberation theologies now have a good chance of becoming the way ahead for theology in the next century"...

Salvation as Reconciliation

“For Christ’s sake be conciliated to God!”

"reconciliation: to be brought back into good relations after an estrangement. Estrangement is thus the corresponding image of the human condition, and it points to both relationship and separation: to be estranged is to be separated from that to which we belong" ( Epiphany 2003 - Home Study Series, session 7 - week of February 17 )

“From him, and through him, and into him are ALL THINGS: to whom be glory for ever.” Romans 11:36

“That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one ALL THINGS in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” Ephesians 1:10

“And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile ALL THINGS to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in heaven, or things in earth.” Colossians 1:20

It pays to examine the concept of reconciliation from a Biblical perspective, and when I say Biblical, I mean Pauline, since Paul the Apostle was the one who came up with the idea. As it turns out, this particular idea of St. Paul, was quite enlightened. Reconciliation, as Paul perceived it, may well serve as a basis for understanding the concept of Salvation in a way that dignifies humanity and honours God. It also helps us remove from our subconscious any lingering traces of the cruel concept of an angry God that needs to be appeased. As the meaning of the word "reconciliation" becomes clearer, it emerges that the party that needs to be appeased is not God, but man!  

Biblical commentator J. Preston Eby writes: "The dictionary defines the English word "reconcile" to mean: to unite; to bring back into harmony; to settle; to make consistent or compatible. The basic Greek word dealing with reconciliation in the New Testament is ALLASSO. This simple verb means "to change" or "to exchange" . From this verb comes the compound KATALLASSO which is translated "reconciled" in Paul's epistles. Then there is an intensified compound, APOKATALLASSEIN, which is used in two places and rendered "reconciled" and "reconcile"... KATALASSO is a word which had an interesting history of usage in secular Greek before it was taken up by the Holy Spirit for use in the New Testament writings. It early acquired the technical sense of money exchange or of changing precious metals into money. Later it expanded to include the idea of giving one's life as a mercenary soldier in exchange for a small salary and adventure. Finally, in the Hellenistic writers, the term is found in constant use to describe the bringing together of individuals and nations who have been estranged. How meaningful, then, these words of Ray Prinzing: "In the New Testament Greek we really find the depth of meaning for this word (reconcile), which is TO CHANGE THOROUGHLY. There can be no true unification without first a thorough change. Thus we are not seeking for just a present-time harmony, covering over the past, and hoping for the best in the future, but we desire that the Spirit of God, working within, shall bring a thorough change in us, and then we shall be united with our Lord..."

He then explains that "MAN - NOT GOD - IS RECONCILED!". Basing his interpretation on the language of Scripture he says: "We often hear it said that "the death of Christ was necessary in order to reconcile God to man." This is a pious stupidity, arising from inattention to the language of the Holy Spirit, and indeed to the plain meaning of the word "reconcile." God never changed - never stepped out of His normal and true position. He abides faithful. There was, and could be, no derangement, no confusion, no alienation, so far as He was concerned; and hence there could be no need of reconciling Him to us. In fact, it was exactly the contrary. Man had gone astray; he was the enemy, and needed to be reconciled. Wherefore, then, as might be expected, the Scriptures never speak of reconciling God to man. There is no such expression to be found within the covers of the New Testament! "God was in Christ RECONCILING  T-H-E  W-O-R-L-D unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." And again, "All things are of God, who has reconciled US to Himself by Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 5:18-19). In a word, it is God, in His infinite mercy and grace, through the cross of Christ, bringing us back unto Himself... We have seen that the ideas in the simple and compound verbs translated "reconcile" that "change" and "exchange" form the keynote. However it is not God who must undergo a change, nor is it His account which is in need of alteration even one single iota! There is no need for a change in the attitude of God toward man, for it has been Love from eternity. There is no equality of footing in this truth for it is the story of the Absolute One who is Infinite in Power condescending to act towards rebel man in perfect grace in the latter's desperate need for reconciliation. It is the Lord Himself changing the accounts from "Sin's Wages" to "God's Gift," from "Legal Righteousness which condemns" to "Divine Righteousness which exalts." It is the Mediator exchanging the "Hostility of Man" for the "Peace of God." It is that which GOD DOES and which GOD GIVES which is at the heart of the cross whereby man is reconciled. Only God Omnipotent COULD ACCOMPLISH RECONCILIATION! The books are cleared. And God did it!"

"Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ; whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of Him which believes in Jesus" (Rom. 3:24-26). The following words penned by George Hawtin are true and graphic on this point: "The word propitiate means to appease, to soothe, to cause to he favorably disposed, and to conciliate. When Paul says, therefore, that God has set forth Christ to be a propitiation, the great question that must be answered is this: Whom is Christ propitiating? Whom is He appeasing? Whom is He soothing? Whom is He causing to be favorably disposed? Whom is He conciliating? Is this propitiation for His benefit? Or is it for the sinner's benefit? Is God trying to conciliate Himself or is He conciliating the sinner? You know as well as I do that the Church system has always erroneously taught that it is God who must be propitiated, conciliated and soothed, but I want you to know that such teaching is utter rubbish and the brashest sort of nonsense. It springs from that Romish tradition that likens God the Father to a fearful and offended despot, spoiling for the blood of the offenders, and it makes Christ to be the one who pleads with God on behalf of the victim until the Father is consoled and conciliated"

"The Church all down through the ages, including all evangelicals of the past and present, have taught that Jesus came to propitiate God and to endeavor to dispose Him to be kind toward His fallen race. If you search in a thousand places, I doubt that you will find one man who does not make this incorrect assertion. How often I have listened to preachers describe Jesus Christ as a lawyer who stands up before God to plead our cause and beg for our lives on the grounds that He, being innocent, died for us and God is propitiated by Him and we are forgiven. This gross misunderstanding of the truth of propitiation is everywhere evident in sermons, in writing and in hymns... This is Church tradition, but it is not the truth. Nowhere in all Scripture are we ever taught that God has to be reconciled to the world or to man. God never ever became an enemy of man nor does He need to be reconciled to man. The opposite is the truth and always the teaching of Scripture. Man is an enemy of God and man must be reconciled to God. Oh that sinners would be told that it was God the Father who gave His Son, not to appease or reconcile Himself, but to appease and reconcile man! Therefore the Scripture loudly proclaims, 'We beseech you in Christ's stead, be   reconciled to God' (II Cor. 5:20)."

"Oh, the wonder of it all just to know that God the Father has sent Christ to be His propitiation toward us and that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them (II Cor. 5:19), and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation! So then, when the great apostle says that God has sent Christ as a propitiation, he means that He sent Christ to propitiate US and dispose US to kindness and repentance before God and to reconcile US to Himself. The Father did not send Christ to appease Himself, though that is the way the Church has always erroneously taught propitiation. The idea that God would send forth His Son to propitiate and appease Himself is exceedingly absurd. The truth is that Christ came to propitiate you and me that we might repent of our rebellion and iniquity against Him, believe and be reconciled to God, who has always loved us and been our friend and not our enemy. "For if, WHEN WE WERE ENEMIES, we WERE RECONCILED to God BY THE DEATH OF HIS SON, much more, being reconciled, we SHALL BE SAVED by His life" (Rom. 5:10). We might also take notice that in referring to the Scripture, 'There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,' the preachers have also turned this backwards and made Christ to be our mediator with the Father, but that is not what Paul said. He said that the mediator was between God and man, not between man and God. So Christ was sent as a propitiation, a propitiator, or one sent by God the Father to dispose man to repentance and kindness, love and faith toward God"

"If we only grasp this one truth: "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself not imputing their trespasses against them" it will revolutionize our understanding of the love God has for all men. For many, the concept of who God is, and what He is like, is presented as unapproachable. He is a God untouched, and uncaring about the troubles of men. He is the God Moses met on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. A God full of anger and wrath, and judgment. He is seen to be Holy, but unmerciful, unloving, and ready to condemn for eternal punishment and torture any who cross Him. For these ones God is to be placated and pacified with fearful reverence... Oh, how they need to hear, that GOD WAS IN CHRIST RECONCILING THE WORLD! They who teach God abandoned Jesus on the cross because He could not look at the sin Jesus bore on our behalf, need to hear it; GOD WAS IN CHRIST! They who teach an exclusive gospel, (us four and no more) need to hear; God was NOT IMPUTING THE WORLD’S TRESPASSES AGAINST THEM. In other words God was not laying to the world’s charge, their own wrong doings. Even when we were all deep in the pit of our trespasses and sins, and at enmity with God, and enemies of the cross; God so loved the world that He sent His Son to destroy the works of the Devil, and to set the world free, for all to be reconciled back to Himself"
see Just What Do You Mean...Reconciliation by J. PRESTON EBY

Salvation as Enlightenment 

"We commonly associate “enlightenment” with Asian religions, but images of blindness and seeing, darkness and light, abound in the biblical and Christian tradition. Though we have eyes, we often do not see. We typically are blind to the glory of God all around us; we do not see each other as God sees us, and we do not see ourselves as God sees us. We are “in the dark,” liv­ing in the night even when it is daytime. In the night, we cannot easily see, and we stumble or get lost. Night and darkness connect to fear and loneliness: we are often afraid in the dark and feel alone in the night. The night can be cold. It is also associated with death: things die with­out light. And it is a place of yearning: we yearn for the coming of the light like those watching for the morning" ( Epiphany 2003 - Home Study Series, session 7 - week of February 17 )

Dr. Andrew Wilson ( International Religious Foundation ) writes: "Enlightenment means dispelling the darkness of ignorance. Enlightenment is the primary term used to describe the experience of salvation in Hinduism and Buddhism, yet the experience of enlightenment is common to most religions. According to the manner in which Reality is perceived in the different traditions, enlightenment may be either the intuitive grasping of inner wisdom, illumination by the truth of the Word, or direct apprehension of transcendent Reality. The true self, formerly obscured by false habits of thinking and vain desires, is suddenly revealed. The inner eye, which was blinded by defilements of worldly living, opens to a vision of the true Reality. From that moment life can never be the same, as the enlightened person begins to live by the knowledge he has acquired" ( WORLD SCRIPTURE: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts on ENLIGHTENMENT  )

Dr. Andrew Wilson gives a lot of examples about salvation as enlightenment from the Sacred Scriptures of the world. A classic Christian Scripture is: "Jesus spoke to them, saying "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." ( John 8.12 ). A common metaphor for Christian salvation is "to see the light". The enlightened ones are also said to "walk in the light". 

In Hinduism we read the following about God: "Him the sun does not illumine, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor the lightning--nor, verily, fires kindled upon the earth. He is the one light that gives light to all. He shines; everything shines" ( Katha Upanishad 5.15; Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.10; Svetavatara Upanishad 6.14 ) Again we read: "Brahman ( God ) is all in all. He is action, knowledge, goodness supreme. To know him, hidden in the lotus of the heart, is to untie the knot of ignorance" ( Mundaka Upanishad 2.1.10 )

A Native American Scripture declares: "I am blind and do not see the things of this world; but when the light comes from above, it enlightens my heart and I can see, for the Eye of my heart sees everything; and through this vision I can help my people. The heart is a sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the Eye. This is the Eye of the Great Spirit by which He sees all things, and through which we see Him. If the heart is not pure, the Great Spirit cannot be seen" ( Native American Religions. Black Elk, Sioux Tradition )

With enlightenment comes knowledge and wisdom resulting in liberation from ignorance, superstition and moral blindness. To be enlightened means to be liberated from false notions and ideas about God and reality:

"Enlightenment is Salvation from illusions or, in other words, a recognition of Reality. Acceptance of the Correction (Holy Spirit's Perspective/Vision of Christ) ...opens the way. Forgiveness, seeing the false as false, is the door to Enlightenment. The eternal/changeless is true. The ephemeral/ transitory is false. Who you are, as God created you, is eternal/changeless. What was made to substitute for Reality, is false. Enlightenment is awakening from the dream of fear. It requires laying aside all concepts of what you are and what God is. It requires emptying the mind of the temporal, and thus remembering the eternal nature of Self and God. Reality is Oneness. Duality is illusion. You are blessed as a Child of God. Love is what you are. Love is all there is! Enlightenment is a State of Being. There is a state of non-judgment or forgiveness which opens the way to the acceptance of Truth or Reality. You are not at the mercy of the world of concepts and images. Before you awaken from the dream of the world, you will have a happy dream. You will see that you are the dreamer of the dream. You are vast and have dominion over images. Awakening to your True Identity is the only purpose this world has. The Light is within You and is You. Follow the Guide within and return Home to the Heaven You could never leave or forget. We are all blessed as Children of God. Thank You God for creating All as One in Spirit!"

"This false, fear-based thought system is the ego, or Satan, in Biblical terms. The mind seems split or ununified in the "condition" of separation. Yet though it believes in falsity, the split mind also contains the Correction to error, which is always available. This spark of Light can never go out, it can only grow vast and bright as the flame of Remembrance. This Correction, or true thought system, is one's Intuition, or the Holy Spirit, in Biblical terms. This Guide, when followed, leads to a unified Mind, a forgiven world, and is the gateway to remembrance of God, Truth, and one's True Identity as the Eternal Child of an infinitely loving God... Everyone in the world experiences the emotional roller coaster ride of unstable thoughts and perceptions. Again, this should not be surprising, considering the attempt to hold in mind two completely contradictory thought systems. What is love cannot also be fear. Fearful concepts are not true, but you can seem to believe in them. And when you do you seem to vacillate between the thoughts of love and the thoughts of fear and thus experience confusion and conflict. But fear and love can never co-exist, and the presence of one in awareness means the other is absent. So what is the way out of this seeming conflict? What is the escape from the "human condition?" Give up what you do not want and what does not serve you (fear), and what you are (love) will return to your awareness. This is inevitable, for what you are has never changed and exists forever in the Mind of God. Allow your false beliefs and concepts and thoughts to be raised to awareness and release them. Since false beliefs limit your awareness, it must be clear that you must change your mind about your Mind (accept It as Changeless and Eternal) to recognize Your True Self as Spirit and remember God. Just remember, Help is given you from God and you are not alone in the task of learning to accept the Correction of error made for you. God is the Source and Power by which all healing is already accomplished. Healing requires only acceptance, for in truth Love is all there is and ever will be. Joyful is the adventure of accepting God's Correction to the erroneous belief in separation. Perfect love casts out fear!"   ( Enlightenment/Salvation )

Salvation as Resurrection

"God will swallow up death in victory" (Isa. 25:8)

Now that is salvation! Salvation from death. This is where Christianity shines as a light in the world. It carries the gospel of the resurrection as it declares: "death where is thy sting?"

R. Brinsmead writes: "The thing which made Easter so electrifyingly liberating was the perception that the resurrection of Joshua was of monumental significance for the entire human situation. Joshua's exultation to the right hand of God was the revelation of God's final solution to the human condition. For the God who has called the human race from the evolutionary mud of creation into consciousness and the awareness of himself has a destiny for this creature which will not be abandoned: Thou hast made him a little less than God, And dost crown him with glory and majesty! Thou has made him to rule over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet. (Psalm 8: 5,6) Like The Hound of Heaven - "with majestic haste and unperturbed pace"-- the Creator has pursued that goal through the long course of history, sometimes losing the battles but never losing the war "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. (Isaiah 49: 15)", The good news of Easter is that death is not the final word. Life was not intended to end in the tragedy of the grave. The justice of God turned what was a paradigm of all human tragedies into the celebration of the triumph of life over death, of love over hate" ( The Scandal of Joshua Ben Adam, Part 9, VERDICT
April 1999, The Resurrection, )

St. Paul spoke of the power of the resurrection which he sought to embrace as the ultimate experience. The "power of the resurrection" is closely linked to the "power of the Cross". The power of the resurrection and the power of the cross are like two sides to the one coin. Both sides were manifested in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. By wasting his life away, Jesus broke all barriers and abolished death. Early Christianity sung about Christ: "Death could not keep Him down". By giving away His life Jesus conquered death and paved the way for all humanity to enter into the same experience of infinite, immortal love: "Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" ( 2 TIMOTHY 1: 10 ). The key here is not some legal transaction, as Western Christianity would have us believe, but a love transaction. To die is to live and to live is to die. As retired Bishop Spong explains:

"This human Jesus seems to possess his life so totally that he can give it away without fear. The freedom that marks this man becomes so frightening to those who are not free - that they rise up in anger to destroy the life-giver. The cross, to me, stands for this destruction, which still goes on in religious disputes. The cross does not represent a sacrifice required by a blood-seeking deity; it rather reveals the ultimate portrait of the threatening power of love that is present in the life of this victim. Even when Jesus walked what later came to be called "the way of the cross," and even when the threat of death became the reality of death, still the bearer of the gift of life discovered that nothing could finally destroy the life he possessed. As this Jesus succumbed to the power of those who could not abide his call to enter "the new being," to grasp a new and radical sense of freedom, he still was able to give his life away. The gospel picture drawn of Jesus portrays him as giving life to others even as he died... Life cannot be given away until life has been possessed. Yet when life is given away freely and totally, the one who does the giving is not diminished. Indeed, the giving, as depicted in the portrait of Jesus, actually resulted in the explosion of a new and radically different humanity in a world that was still tied to the survival mentality of our evolutionary past. We perceive something new in this Jesus-story, something profoundly moving. As this power touches us, creating new life in us, we are driven to say, "God was in that life," and we stare at this source, this revelation, this God-presence, this Jesus, with a kind of joy and wonder. Jesus thus first reveals the source of life, and then he empowers us to enter it" ( Who is Christ for Us? )

Salvation as Resurrection therefore is the transformation of every one of us into a life-giving spiritual person. It is the liberation from the animalistic fear of death: "Death is swallowed up in victory".  By His eternal example Jesus saves us from the very fear of death. The unknown author of "Hebrews" put it this way: "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" ( HEBREWS 2: 14-15 ). The fear of death, a trait we all inherited from our animal evolutionary past, is a good servant but a bad master. When our lives are characterized by the fear of death, we are unable to "love wastefully", that is, we are unable to live as humans made in the image of God. On the other hand, when we are liberated from the fear of death, we are enabled to fully love and to fully live. Again the paradigm is Jesus:

" there is something expansive and creative about the presence of the boundary-breaking love that we meet in the life of Jesus. When we human beings know love, we seem to grow... Love is manifested in the human willingness to venture beyond the boundaries of safety, to risk losing ourselves, and even in the desire to explore the crevices of the unknown....  Love calls us into being; it expands our lives as it flows through us. If love is ever blocked, it dies. Love has to be shared, or it ceases to be love. Love binds us into larger and larger communities. Love frees us from the pejorative definitions that result in exclusion. Love transcends barriers, unites, and calls. Love enhances life. So when a human being appears in history with a greater ability to love than we have ever knowingly witnessed before, when this life calls us into a new human unity and refused to be bound by the rules that rise out of our incompleteness and our fear, then we inevitable look at that life with awe, perhaps even with worship. Love is a presence and power that calls us out tribal fears for it embraces Jew and Gentile, and out of prejudice spawning fears for it embraces whoever is our Samaritan. Love has no chosen people, for that implies that some are unchosen. Love bears no malice, weeks no revenge, guards no doorway"

"A life defined by love will not seek to protect itself or to justify itself. It will be content simply to be itself and to give itself away with abandon. If denied, love embraces the denier. If betrayed, love embraces the betrayer. If forsaken, love embraces the forsaker. If tortured, love embraces the torturer. If crucified, love embraces the killers. Love never judges. Love simply announces that neither the person you are nor the deeds you have done have erected a barrier which the power of this invincible presence cannot overcome... If life is holy and if love creates and enhances life, then love is also holy. So I am led to suggest that love and God cannot be separated and that to share love is nothing less than sharing God. For one to abide in love is to abide in God, for one to give love away is to give God away. That is why when one sees a life that loves wastefully, it is said of that person, "God was in that life."...  Love touches something external. When we enter love, we find ourselves caught up in its power. Love lifts us beyond our quests for survival. Love enables us to transcend out limits. Love frees us to give ourselves away"( see Who is Christ for Us? )

Spong concludes that salvation is none other than the liberation from the fear of death and the empowerment to live and love "without limits". He says: "What human life needs is not a divine rescue. What we need is rather a life so open, so free,  so whole, and so loving that when we experience that life, we are called into the reality of love. We are opened to the source of love and enter the empowering presence of love. Such a life then becomes our doorway into the infinite and inexhaustible power of love. I call that love God. I see it in Jesus of Nazareth, and I find myself called into a new being, a boundary free humanity,  and made whole in its presence. So God was in Christ. I way, Jesus thus reveals the source of love, and then he calls us to enter it. When people are unfairly treated, when their lives are being taken away form them brutally and unjustly, the need to survive almost always overwhelms everything else. The typical human response in those circumstances is to pleaded, to beg, to fight, to weep, to whine, or to curse - whichever response seems to offer some chance of survival. But look once again as the picture of Jesus that greets us in the gospel narratives. There is no clinging to life in that portrait. Instead, we are presented with one whose being is so deeply affirmed that he can give it away freely. He can submit to his outrageous fortune. He can expend his energy in the act of affirming the being of others" ( ibid )

The resurrection of Jesus is the realization that love never fails. The moment life is wasted away in love, it springs back in life "a hundred times fold". This is how the universe works, this is how God is. Though the flesh may perish, the spirit of man "lives forever" because it comes from God. Though Jesus gave His life away in love, He did not lose His life, instead He found it! Not only He found it, but He was now free from the constraints of "flesh and blood", as He "was made alive in the spirit" and as He "became a life-giving spirit".  

The good news is that eventually all humanity will enter this blessed state of boundless love. Though St. Paul was limited by the mythology he was brought up by, he realized that every single human being will eventually become spiritually alive. In this way, St. Paul turned the myth of Original Sin around and used it to prove the universal victory of life and love: "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order." ( 1 CORINTHIANS 15: 20-23 )

All the early Universalist fathers equated the resurrection of all mankind as the salvation of all mankind. The early church father Diodorus said: "The resurrection, therefore, is regarded as a blessing not only to the good, but also to the evil." Another great father, Theodore of Mopsuestia wrote on Rom. vi, 6: "All have the hope of rising with Christ, so that the body having obtained immortality, thenceforward the proclivity to evil should be removed. God recapitulated all things in Christ * * * as though making a compendious renewal and restoration of the whole creation to him. Now this will take place in a future age, when all mankind, and all powers possessed of reason, look up to him as is right, and obtain mutual concord and firm peace." ( source: Universalism in the First Five Hundred Years of the Christian Church by Dr. John Wesley Hanson  )

Resurrection belongs to all mankind! "This was never meant to be made into an exclusive, much less a triumphalistic cult. The resurrection belongs to people everywhere without distinction of race, religion, gender or anything else. It speaks clearly to every human being that God will execute justice for. all that are oppressed. When God gave us life he did not intend that his boundless generosity should end in the tragedy of death. This is the. meaning of Joshua ben Adam's resurrection and it carries with it the same spirit of generosity and reckless self-giving which marked the life of the man who staked everything on God's justice" ( Brinsmead, The Scandal of Joshua Ben Adam )

Salvation as deification

According to Orthodox Patristic Tradition man's true destiny "is to attain glorification (i.e. deification, theosis) and share full communion with God" ( see: Achieving Your Potential in Christ: Theosis, Plain Talks on a Major Doctrine of Orthodoxy, by Fr. Anthony M. Coniaris, edited by G. A. Henry )

For the Greek fathers the main issue is how man can attain the blessed state of divinity: "God became man so that man may become God". It is for this reason that the Word became flesh, say the fathers of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Salvation for the Orthodox Church is nothing else but deification and transfiguration "in the image of Christ". The greatest Greek Fathers basically ignored ( some of them even rejected ) the Western view of Salvation as a legal transaction between an offended God and sinful mankind. The Greeks felt disgust at the thought that God needed appeasement. This is why some of them suggested that the one that was appeased by the Cross was the devil who was paid the ransom price by Christ.

The great Orthodox scholar and mystic John Scotus Eriugena, wrote that the Incarnation of God is the means of the deification of man:

"He went forth from the Father and came into the world, that is, He took upon Him that human nature in which the whole world subsists; for there is nothing in the world that is not comprehended in human nature; and again, He left the world and went to the Father, that is, He exalted that human nature which He had received above all things visible and invisible, above all heavenly powers, above all that can be said or understood, uniting it to His deity, in which He is equal to the Father" ( Periphyseon, Book V, 25. As cited by Gardner, 109, source: An Orthodox Evaluation of Certain Teachings in the Writings of John Scotus Eriugena in Light of the Theology of St Gregory Palamas by Deacon Geoffrey Ready  )

As Deacon Geoffrey Ready explains, "Neither John Scotus Eriugena nor St Gregory Palamas views salvation simply as the redemption of man from sin and death; like all of the Fathers, they insist that God's work in Christ, carried out through the mission of the Church, will not be complete until the accomplishment of the "restoration of all things" (i apokatastasis panton)"... For men, this restoration (apokatastasis) is nothing other than full participation in the divine life — complete union, as St Gregory Palamas teaches, with the uncreated energies and glory of God... Eriugena, who was surely intimately acquainted with the reality of glorification in the lives of the countless Irish saints, laments the fact that Latin works on theology hardly treat the subject of deification... Eriugena turns, therefore, to the East and finds in the Greek-speaking Fathers the fuller vision of salvation in Christ he needs in order to express his own spiritual experience. Using the vocabulary of Origen, St Gregory of Nyssa and St Maximos the Confessor — terms borrowed largely from Neoplatonic conceptions of restitution — he describes the process of purification, illumination and glorification of man as a return to the wholeness of his true nature..."

Eriugena's words:

"Therefore [created substances] shall be dissolved into those things from which they were taken, in which in truth and eternally they have their being, when every substance shall be purged from all corruptible accidents, and shall be delivered from all that does not belong to the condition of its proper nature; beautiful in its peculiar native excellences, in its entire simplicity, and, in the good man, adorned with the gifts of grace, being glorified through the contemplation of the eternal blessedness, beyond every nature, even its own, and turned into God Himself, being made God, not by nature, but by grace... they areto be deified and brought to perpetual contemplation of the highest theophany, or perhaps, even above it." ( ibid Periphyseon, Book III, 15. As cited by Gardner,105-106, 111 )

Salvation of the world

Deacon Ready adds that according to the great Orthodox scolars like Eriugena, the restoration ( Apokatastasis ) is to be universal: "From the writings of the Orthodox Fathers of the East, Eriugena also explains that this restoration (apokatastasis) encompasses, not only men, but the whole of creation. Indeed, the two are intimately linked, since, for Eriugena, man is "the microcosm," the "epitome of that thought of God which constitutes the whole creation."Ibid., 105 He describes the restoration of the sensible world as "a return into God and into its primordial causes, in which it naturally subsists"Periphyseon, Book II, 2.— the "primordial causes" being, as we remarked above, Eriugena's (somewhat defective) conception of the uncreated divine energies which sustain the whole created world. Echoing the Apostle Paul's expression that "when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all" (panta en pasin — I Cor. 15:28)" ( ibid ) 

Eriugena wrote that "even now, "God is all in all," though only a few recognise this, and that the final restoration will simply consist of the manifestation of this fundamental reality" ( Periphyseon, Book III, 20 ibid )

Any religious teaching about Salvation must include all humanity. Salvation, no matter how each one of us understands it, is all inclusive and universal. Pre-occupation with the afterlife is really preoccupation with the self. It robs us from living truly human lives. Don't listen to all those religious predators and evangelistic rapists. There is no such thing as an angry God waiting for us in the afterlife. In the afterlife, whatever that means, we can expect only Salvation from a God who never stopped loving us: 

"To get to the next reality- to fuller comprehension and experience of God- we must all pass through the experience of death... Death is often viewed as an end, as life ending, a separation from life, loss, burial, suffocation, darkness, closure and finality. Death is seen as a descent into darkness and the grave. Consequently, we terrify ourselves with the thought of death as the final cessation of life... Death has become the greatest fear and terror of humanity and all life. And the fear of death is intensified multiple times over for many people by the thought of meeting an angry God who threatens people with loss of reward, punishment and even hell after death... In Jesus we see a radically new view of death. Instead of a final end, it is a transfiguration or change to something infinitely better. It is the start of real life with a new form- spiritual (And by spiritual we do not mean some ghostly, ethereal, or wispy form of existence). It is the entry to a life where nothing negative from this existence is allowed to continue. There is in that new life no suffering, sickness, pain (either physical or emotional), tears, loneliness, misunderstanding, rejection, abandonment, isolation, or anything that would diminish infinite happiness"

"Death, then, is a liberation from all the misery and suffering- physical, emotional, psychic- of this existence. It is liberation from bondage, domination, cruelty, carelessness, destructive chance, and predation. Death is a gateway to the reality of God. It is a passage from darkness to light. It is liberation into God. It is liberation from our dim perception of God to the full experience of God. We are not really living here in this shadow existence- this is only a very weak taste of life that is still to come... Also, may we say that in death we do not go anywhere for we are already in God, held in existence by him. We are already in the safest place you can be- the presence of a loving God. Much mythology regarding death and the afterlife speaks of a journey at death- crossing rivers, etc.- but the reality is, there is nowhere to go for we are already in the center of God... To him, death is a welcoming back home again of absent friends. God looks forward to welcoming back friends and family. He looks forward to the passage of people into his fully visible presence.

"God's reality will have no heaven or hell. These religious ideas stem from and are related intimately to pagan ideas of angry punishing gods and systems of strict payback justice. In these systems, vengeful, angry gods would reward religious followers with heaven and punish the bad (those refusing to submit to religious ideas and practices) with hell... Jesus parables blow these vengeful ideas away once and forever. In parables like the returning son or the workers in the vineyard, God is presented as scandalously generous and forgiving. There is no anger or payback justice (see Brinsmead essay- No Payback Justice). God welcomes all gladly. These stories shocked, stunned and enraged religious people who held to systems of strict justice. If you worked hard and were faithful to your religious system then you would be rewarded accordingly with heaven. It you were disobedient, a sinner, then you would be punished with hell... Jesus shocked everyone by turning all conventional wisdom regarding justice completely upside down. He turned the whole known social order of things upside down. All common systems of logic and sense of right and wrong as measured by standard systems of human justice (payback) were thrown out for a radically new view of God and love. In Jesus' vision of reality, there was no angry punishing God waiting to damn anyone. God was instead forgiving, tolerant, friendly- a daddy who desired intimacy and closeness and a warm family atmosphere. Better yet, he was a God who wanted to welcome and party with everyone... Also in Jesus new view of God's reality, there is no distant, supreme King or Ruler demanding subservience. Instead, the God of Jesus would rather serve. He is not a dominating Patriarch, but rather a Father who will inspire by example and not by threat, coercion or command. He is an intimately friendly person who is open and accessible to all, and equally so... Jesus also taught that God is deliriously happy to be with people, to welcome and accept them. He can not help but be generous, scandalously generous. That is the nature of his love. There is nothing in this view of God about grovelling, begging for mercy or repenting in sorrow. This God of Jesus is all for celebrating and partying. " ( It Gets Much Better, From the series 'Taking The Vertical Out Of God', by W. Krossa, )

Having settled to the thought that God will eventually save the world, we are now free to stop worrying about the afterlife and to joyfully participate in what St. Paul coined "the ministry of reconciliation". May I suggest that the best way to reconcile ourselves to God is to reconcile ourselves to one another, because "he who lives in love lives in God" and "how can you love God whom you do not see when you cannot love your fellow human?". All of us, regardless of race, sex, culture, or religion, are called as "partners of God" to actualise God's Salvation upon the face of the earth. 

"The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works"
Psalm 145:9