What Does Salvation Mean?

Perhaps the most popular Christian verse is John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:17 continues with the same theme (I am putting “saved” in italics to emphacize its usage.):

For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.

There is that word “saved”. Or look this verse:

And he said unto all, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. (Luke 9:23-24)

There is “saved” again. What does saved mean? What is salvation?

The word translated save is sozo in the Greek which means to make whole, to restore, to protect. In John 3:16 we have the comparison, perishing versus eternal life. In those two end results we have what we are saved from and what we are saved to. We are saved from perishing; we are saved unto eternal life. That’s what we read in John 3:16-17.

When Peter began to sink while walking on the water he cried out “save me” in Matt 14:30. When Jesus grabbed his hand, restoring him to the point where he could again walk on water until he got into the boat he was saved. This illustrates the resuing, restoring, making whole meaning of “saved”.

Without Jesus we are in darkness, we are lost. This is not my message, these are Jesus’ words;

He that believeth on him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved.
But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God. (John 3:19-21)

Some people are upset at all the talk about perishing, about God judging, about sin, about talk of “evil works”. In John 3, Luke 9 the teaching about salvation versus judgment, sin and evil works are Jesus’ words. If you think that you are already righteous, then Jesus himself said;

But when he heard it, he said, They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.
But go ye and learn what this meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. (Matt 9:12-13) (Whole italicized by author.)

There is that concept again of wholeness. Jesus came to restore those that call on him to wholeness. If you think that you are whole already, that the things Jesus called evil aren’t evil, if you think that it isn’t fair that God would judge sinners, if you think Jesus isn’t real, then he didn’t come for you. Jesus came for those that recognize a need for him so that they can be restored to wholeness.

The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.(John 10:10)

Jesus came to restore us to an abundant life now (John 10:10), and eternally (John 3:16). Life in Jesus makes us whole. With Jesus we can have a life that is abundant whereas without Jesus we live a life that is full of the darkness that abounds in the world. An abundant life now and eternal life with him is what Jesus came to make available. That is what salvation is about.

Original Christianity

This web is a look at primitive, original Christianity, how it developed over time into innumerable denominations and divisions and how original Christianity compares to current practices. It is a resource for looking systematically at the beliefs and practices in the original Christian church, numerous movements and churches since, the modern Christian church, with discussion about how all these changes happened and especially focusing on how well each of these compares to scripture.

Why?

"Jesus Christ is Lord" is the common belief of billions of Christians. But there are tens of thousands of denominations. While ancient denominations like the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox claim to be the original and consequently "true" church, innumerable churches and denominations have started citing error in these ancient bastions and/or the leading of the spirit to reform the church and restore the church.

There are numerous disputed issues. Cessation doctrine (prophecy and the gifts of the spirit ended with the apostles), infant baptism, the inerrancy of Scripture, the form of Church government, the role of women in the church, and currently, the acceptance of homosexuality are just some of the many disputed doctrines that cause the Christian body to be so divided.

The Reformation movement performed an invaluable service. But instead of simply reforming the church or simply working to create one more correct alternative church the Reformation movement worked to increase the number of disputes over scripture and consequently the number of splits has increased exponentially.

The problem with looking at all the denominations is that it can become confusing to just compare this church or denomination to that one. The complexity of looking at all the theological implications can become overwhelming. For many busy people that means just making the best, less than fully educated decision they can, and staying with the church of their heritage or finding a church where they feel they can grow. Just finding the information can be an overwhelming task. Putting it into some understandable framework is an even more complicated task.

This web site, rather than trying to just compare all the current positions on the differences goes back to the beginning (primitive, original Christianity) and evaluates Christianity starting at that point. This includes looking at the gospel accounts, but also includes looking at early church documents as well as other ancient documents, both secular and religious. (There is also a section on Philosophy because its profound impact on Christian theological development.) The articles have numerous references to works both in print and online.

Next the web site looks at the developments in Christianity from original Christianity forward to see how the church developed over time comparing each development with what we know about original Christianity. The goals are:

To trace the development of the church from start to now to see how the church at large wound up with all these competing churches/denominations today, and

To equip people with the knowledge of original Christianity to enable people to make an informed decision on what is the true faith and practice of the church Jesus Christ started.

For an overview of the articles by category, go to the Table of Contents Page.

This is a work in progress. My prayer is that sharing my journey is helpful to you and that together we can grow in the faith that Jesus Christ made available some two thousand years ago.

Also Please Pardon our Dust. There are hundreds of posts and some of them still have typos. If you find typos You can contact Mark at [email protected]. Please be so kind as to mention the name of the post as well as to copy and paste the section with errors. Thank you and God Bless You.

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