Barneyisfat

I'm struggling with the concept of salvation. I'm just not sure why. Here's an inside look into my thought process. You're welcome.

I realize more and more that I need a definition of salvation that goes beyond an emotional experience at summer camp. Not that my understanding of salvation is wrong, just that it is insufficient. I have a definition that works for me. I'm continually wrestling with the fact that my concept of God is always just big enough for me at this moment.

A friend confesses that he and his girlfriend are having sex and I give him directions to the health clinic. A friend loses her son to drugs and we take her out to make her feel better. I want to do more to serve the kids on campus so I serve coffee at the coffee shop … and I think that all of these things are good … but they fall far short of the good news I believe in my heart. They do little to bring salvation to the people. Perhaps they pay homage to my insufficient concept of salvation.

As a Christian I want to bring salvation to the people. I want to see people saved. But, I don’t … understand … what that … means? Or, I do, for me – but not for others. I’ll know it when I see it? Maybe. Or maybe I'm just tired of the old paradigm and the social stigma surrounding the phrase "get saved." At a funeral I attended recently the pastors prayed the sinners’ prayer four times. Just to make sure that everyone in attendance was saved for sure. "In case there's one person here who has never prayed the sinner's prayer, I'm going to pray it one more time. Just pray with me ..."

I think there’s more to salvation. Or at least at some level I think there's more to salvation. I don’t want to make it more complicated or add extra steps because I don’t believe that is biblical in any way. I believe that to become a Christian you must believe in your heart and confess with your lips that Christ is Lord. I believe that is what scripture teaches. So yes, praying to ask Christ into our hearts is the only step to salvation. I'm unwilling to negotiate any further steps.

My doubt stairs me in the face when I witness. I know all of the "right" answers to all of the questions sinners have. But the pat answers fail to calm my troubled heart - and how can I in good conscience give them to others. I'm okay with my doubt. I believe it's part of my faith and a darn good part. I think I'm less concerned with my doubt and more concerned with the paradigm that salvation is a process of one person who knows all the answers telling an uninformed idiot all the right answers.

Why are most of our salvations among children and most of the salvations in the Bible among adults and families? Could it be that our current paradigm only fits telling the right answers to those who haven't found any answers for themselves?


So maybe I’m glad that the funeral attendees had four opportunities to confess with their lips … perhaps I just wish they had more incentive to believe in their hearts. I feel that heart service should happen before lip service.

I wish people wouldn't choose salvation like they were choosing a new sweater. I wish there was some level other than intellectual and emotional on which we could meet people to offer them salvation.

So ultimately I guess I wrestle with the questions, "How do I bring salvation to the people?" How do I offer peace and hope to a dying world without sounding insensitive and intolerant? How do we present the message in new ways to new hearers? How do we present the good news while allowing room for our own doubt? How do we offer salvation without starting at the conclusion that we have all the right answers?

Why do I always end up with more questions than answers?