Salvation for the Earthly Kingdom, A critical Reflection

Pastor Alcenir Oliveira

May 11th, 2010

Salvation: deliverance and transformation

Understanding of salvation has always been critical to me. Critical in terms of what
others think of and feel what salvation means for them, as well as what salvation is and
salvation of what. The issue has two perspectives: salvation of the evil things of this world
that brings physical consequences and salvation as a transformation, as being born again,
as being redeemed, as becoming members of the Kingdom of Christ. In other words, the
latter is a spiritual salvation.
When I first came to realization of being born again, salvation became very intense
for me within the frames of spiritual understanding.
Teaching basics of faith recently, I came across two issues: most of the Christians
know too little of the Bible, on one hand; on the other hand, their understanding of
salvation is much more of being blessed than being transformed. The reason to follow
Jesus is much more based on his signs and miracles than on what he is and on his
provision of the means for being born again, being redeemed to the Kingdom of God,
developing the character of a new being in this world, and of a citizen of the Kingdom of
Christ in an eschatological sense.
This is a critical issue that has been catching my attention: Salvation to the world
or to the Eternal Kingdom. It could be also shortened as Worldly salvation and
spiritual salvation, with the care not to let the focus drop and other significance of the two
words (worldly and spiritual) surface.

The Old Testament View of Salvation

Through the whole OT the word salvation carries the meaning of being delivered,
redeemed or rescued from some bad situation, curse, captivity or war. Starting with
Moses, even though we see God working the “Missio Dei” since Adam and Eve up to this
moment, his own name carries this meaning. The root word.( ) masha, that gave his
name means to be saved from the water, or drawn out from water, and it appears twice in
the Old Testament, in 2 Sam 22:17 “He drew me out of many waters” and in Ex 2:10, here
in the words of Moses` mother “because I drew him from the water”.
Deliverance and redemption are the two greater meanings of salvation in the minds
and hearts of the chosen nation. Moses not only has a name that means it, but also did
rescue the people from captivity, and its affectivity was achieved only after drawing the
people through the water. This great salvation became the instance that built the
remembrance of God’s favor and relationship with the house of Israel as the greatest
initiative to build up his own nation, a chosen people, a people of God.
It is beautiful to see how God works if the life of the people when we follow the
frequent process of deliverance in the history of house of Israel. God reach down and build
a very lawful community, and makes a covenant. However, the life of the nation is full of
highs and downs. Reading through the books of Judge and Kings we see a weak people,
unable to avoid the worse sin against God by walking away from his presence through
means of idolatry.
Then, this people begin to be in trouble and suffering. When they have no other to
turn to, they fall down on their knees and cry out to God in repentance. God in his mercy
can’t hold off hearing their prayer of repentance and forgiving them. The Lord then sends
deliverance; he prepares a leader to guide them, to fight for them, to intermediate. Then
salvation is achieved.

Salvation as the forgiveness of sin

The punishment for sin is death. In the very concept of the relation between sin and
condemnation, the penalty in most of the cases is removed through a sacrifice. In
principle, the penalty for sin is death, regardless of its nature and intensity. However, there
are cases that find no forgiveness in the Levitical rituals. It simply says that the criminal
has to be put to death. Lev 5:5-6
The most feared sin of the Jewish was to pronounce the name of the Lord and
blaspheme for there was no forgiveness, no sacrifice for those sins and the sinner should
be stoned to death. Lev 24:15-16. in the same way, proved adultery also was punished
with death. Lev 22:20.
Sin causes men and women to be away from the presence of God. God is creator
and provider for survival, for everything of which we depend to survive was miraculously
made by Him. Walking out from his presence means human being is not recognizing God
in these two means of grace, creation and providence. Either death or curse can be a
forced synonymous of living away from the presence of God.
In this sense, salvation carries the meaning of coming back to living in the presence
of God. By doing this, salvation happens in this material world and God operates
deliverance and victory as means of salvation to his people. Ex 14:30. Coogan says that
“when God is the source of salvation in the Hebrew Bible the meaning is overwhelmingly
physical rather than spiritual, and in this life rather that in some afterlife 1”. He also says
that most of the time, after doing a miracle, Jesus used to say their faith “saved” them,
though salvation carrying a physical and worldly meaning.
Coogan yet comments that in the Golspel of John “… the object of salvation is
frequently identified as “the world”(Grk. Kosmos), the created order now at enmity with
God and therefore in need of salvation through Jesus – John 3:16-172”.

Purpose Driven Life: Worldly Salvation

The fate of humanity aside of our understanding of the work of Christ is to fight for
living. Fight here carries an intense meaning of opposing vigorously to death. Whenever
the individual feels strong enough to get what he/she needs to survive, becomes self
sufficient, grows high and God becomes of almost no significance for him/her. It seems
that almost nobody may bother to come closer to God, to walk with God, to serve God
when they are successful in life. However, when things become rough, sour, one gets to
rethink the spiritual connections of his/her life with God.
Our lives are short and moments of self pride and power are brief. In this direction,
Leith3 says that when “health breaks down, hopes are unfulfilled, the limits of our willpower
become painfully clear, finally we become aware that the achievements in which we have
invested so much of our lives were possibly not worth the cost, or that our involvement is
not so free of self-interest as once we imagined.” He concludes that “life is an uphill battle,
which in the end every person loses.” He adds that no one should “underestimate the
vicissitudes of life or the precariousness of the human enterprise”.
Even when people are walking through the shadows of death they be challenged to
think of God and salvation, either for the world or for eternity. However, when the Gospel of
Salvation is brought about, it seems too mystic to believe for it doesn’t requires to do
much, but to assume an attitude of faith, to assume the reality of self need for God,
therefore to repent and start walking with God in Christ.
Then, in this conflict of get something for not doing more than believing, a
substitution of the very basics of faith starts replacing the salvation by grace through faith,
offering some works of man as more insignificant than the works of Christ in our lives.
They start offering salvation for this world through wisdom of living, through the works of
our own hands and the smartness of our minds.
This is what was reported by study groups on purpose driven lives, where a book of
1
Michael D. Coogan. The Oxford Companion to the Bible. PP 670.
2
Ib. Id. PP 671.
3
John H. Leith. Basic Christian Doctrine. Westminster/John Knox Press: Louville, KY, 1993. PP 180
Christian self help replaces the Scriptures and the woks of Christ in us from this world to
eternity, by a proposal of walking smartly on our own to live a successful worldly life.
This report comes from a very positive initiative of PDL (Purpose Driven Life) study
groups among the troops in Iraq. However, a faithful witness reports his amazement to see
that in no moment the Word is brought in the debates; that even none used to bring their
bibles to the Bible Study4.

Purpose Driven Life: Growth as Citizen of Christ’s Kingdom

In our human nature, driven by our own way of perspective of the character of
human being, most of us are tempted to make distinction between good and the bad
people, successful and losers, says Leith5. He makes it clear that under human eyes, good
people work hard, have money, obey the laws and go to heaven, are identified with the
right causes and make the right pronouncements about society. On the other hand, those
who are lazy, do not work hard, do not have money, disobey God, do not go to heaven,
have wrong ideas about the issues of the day. This is the position of fundamentalists and
who believe that salvation is an achievement that results from the merits of man. This is
not Gospel; it is hidden from the self-righteous. More tragically, the self-righteous think that
there is one only solution for losers, failure: to be discarded, to be electrocuted or
destroyed. In fact this is their Gospel, the Gospel of Judgment and condemnation.
The Gospel is for those who feel the need, be those good people or bad people.
With the self-classified as good people in mind, Jesus makes it clear that the Gospel is for
the poor, for those who know that they cannot save themselves, as he says that those who
are well have no need of a physician6
Salvation for eternity starts here and continues to eternity. It becomes double
salvation when we live this life to live fully with Christ. Our nurture is not of the miracles
and signs of the supernatural, but of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that rescued us,
and through the Holy Spirit that lives in us we are strengthened to live while yet on earth
the way Paul says he use to live …I am crucified with Christ, and now it is not I who live,
but Christ lives in me.
Jesus didn’t promise that we would live as in heaven on earth. Our neo-Pentecostal
driven believers should understand this truth. Jesus said that we would suffer tribulation in
this world.
4
Bob DeWaay, Means of Grace: God's Provision for Our Salvation and Sanctification.
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue84.htm
5
Ib. Id. PP 181.
6
Ib. Id.
Conclusion
In our weakness, yet carrying our old human nature, even though we feel that we
are genuinely redeemed by the blood of Jesus in the Cross, when we are under the
urgencies of life we may feel that powerful prayers would turn the attention of God to our
suffering. We forget that God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. Jesus said that
before the words come to our mouth, He already knows our needs and our intentions.
Poor discipleship, poor spiritual growth, as well as a poor Christian life may lead
one to feel challenge by the theology of prosperity whenever he/she feels the pressure of
life, when he/she is walking through the valley of shadows. To wrap up, I would like to say
with Bob DeWay that, “It seems rather exciting to go to a Benny Hinn meeting and “get slain under the
power.” It seems invigorating to join a forty days of purpose campaign and find out your purpose with other
seekers. It feels like a powerful experience meeting Christ in your subconscious mind through contemplative
prayer rather than appealing to Him in heaven where He cannot be seen, touched, or heard. It seems
liberating to get rid of emotional pain through Theophostic ministry when ordinary things like Bible study,
prayer and fellowship “failed.” Why come to God by His means and have pain when we can have a mystical
experience and be done with our pain? The array of alternatives to God’s ordained means is many, powerful,
popular, and apparently effective. The means of grace have little place in many churches for one huge
reason: they are deemed irrelevant by modern religious consumers” 7.
It seems hard in the views of some pastors to lead a church based on the genuine
Gospel, through preaching and teaching the way, the truth and the life, when multitudes
are search for means of grace instead.

Bibliography
DeWaay, Bob, Means of Grace: God's Provision for Our Salvation and Sanctification.
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue84.htm
Leith, John H.. Basic Christian Doctrine. Westminster/John Knox Press: Louisville,
KY, 1993.
Coogan, Michael D.. The Oxford Companion to the Bible
Kung, Hans. Justification. Westminster/John Knox Press:
Louisville, KY, 2004.

7
Ib. Id. Bob DeWaay