Salvation is a complex notion

According to Alister E.McGrath, salvation is really a complex notion, because it does not necessarily have any specifically Christian reference. The term can be used in a thoroughly secular manner. For example, it was common for Soviet writers, especially during the late 1920s, to speak of Lenis as the savior of the Soviet peoples.

Salvation can be a purely secular notion, concerned with political emancipation or the general human quest for liberation. Even at the religious level, salvation is not a specifically Christian idea.

Many – but not all – of the world’s religions have concepts of salvation. They differ enormously, in relation to both their understanding of how that salvation is achieved, and the shape or form which it is understood to take. One of the most difficult tasks facing those in the past who, in the tradition of the Enlightenment, wished to argue that “all religions were basically the same” has been to show that there is an underlying unity amongst the religions, despite all their obvious differences in relation to these two questions. It is generally thought that this quest has failed, on account of the astonishing variety of the phenomena in question.

If the term salvation is understood to mean some benefit conferred upon of achieved by members of a community, whether individually or corporately,” all religions offer “salvation.” However, this is such a general statement that it is devoid of significant theological value: All religions – along with political theories such as Marxism and psychotherapeutic schools such as Rogerian therapy – may legitimately be styled “salvific,” in that they offer something to those who accept them. Yet it does not follow that all religions can be said to offer the same salvation. Respect for the integrity of the world’s religions demands that the distinctive shape of a religion’s understanding of salvation (including its basis, its mode of conveyance and appropriation, and its inherent nature) must be respected. It is therefore important to note the distinctive character of each religion in relation to the salvation which is offered.

Buddhism offers one style of salvation, just as Christianity offers another. These differences reflect the simple fact that Christianity is not Buddhism. It is essential to respect and honor differences here, and resist the ever-present temptation to force them all into the same mold.

Christianity is, therefore, not in any sense distinctive or unique in attaching importance to the idea of salvation. The distinctiveness of the Christian approach to salvation lies in two distinct area; In the first place, salvation is understood to be grounded in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; in the second, the specific shape of salvation, within the Christian tradition, is itself formed by Christ. These ideas are complex, and require further exploration before we can proceed.

The hunger of God

One day a man was a little boy drawing a picture on a sheet of paper.

“What are you drawing?” the man asked curiously

“I’m drawing a picture of God,” Replied the little boy

“Nobody knows what God looks like, how could you draw a picture of Him?” demand the man.

“You will know when I’m finished,” in confident the boy answered him.

This little conversation is picturing the hunger of us all about getting to know God. What does He look like? Can we really draw our own portrait of Him?

Throughout the ages, some of the greatest minds have believed that humankind could experience something more only by finding God.

Blaise Pascal for example, he is a philosopher who added his voice to those who knew that only God can satisfy the human heart. He said that man tries ineffectually to fill the empty void of his soul by his surroundings. Man vainly searches, but finds nothing to help him, other than to see an infinite abyss that can only be filled by One who is Infinite and immutable. Man, in other words, can only be billed by God himself.

Centuries earlier, Augustine had said to God, “The though of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you. Obviously, Augustine wrote that from his experience. As a result of the prayers of his mother and the reading of Scripture, Augustine, an immoral hardened sinner, was soundly converted. And he discovered in God the answer for the restlessness within.

The Psalms give us the most eloquent description of this thirst of human soul. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” (Ps 42:1).

Mankind through the centuries has always sought God. However, in this pluralistic age, we must also ask, which God shall we seek? Where shall we find Him? And how shall we know that we have found Him?

Six important theologians

There are six important theologians who helped us understand Jesus’ teaching. They are:

Justin Martyr (100 – 165 AD)

He is the greatest Christian writers of the second century who were concerned to defend Christianity in the face of intense criticism from pagan sources. In his “First Apology” Justin argued that traces of Christian truth were to be found in the great pagan writers. His doctrine of the logos spermatikos (seed-bearing word) allowed him to affirm that God had prepared the way for his final revelation in Christ through hints of its truth in classical philosophy. Justin provides us with an important early example of a theologian who attempts to relate the gospel to the outlook of Greek philosophy, a trend especially associated with the Eastern Church.

Iranaeus of Lyons (130-200 AD)

This man is believed to have been born in Smyrna, modern-day Turkey, although he subsequently settled in Rome. He became Bishop of Lyons around 178, a position which he held until his death two decades later. Iranaeus is noted especially for his vigorous defense of Christian orthodoxy in the face of a challenge from Gnosticism. Iranaeus’ most significant work, “Against the Heresies” represents a major defense of the Christian understanding of salvation, and especially of the role of tradition in remaining faithful to the apostolic witness in the face of non Christian interpretations.

Origen (185-254 AD)

One of the most important defenders of Christianity in the third century, Origen provided an important foundation for the development of eastern Christian thought. His major contributions to development of Christian theology can be seen in tow general areas. In the field of Christology, Origen established a tradition of distinguishing between the full divinity of the Father, and a lesser divinity of the Son. Some scholars see Arianism as a natural consequence of this approach. Origen also adopted with some enthusiasm the idea of apocatastasis, according to which every creature including both humanity and Satan will be saved.

Tertullian (160 – 225 AD)

Tertullian was originally a pagan from the North African city of Carthage, who converted to Christianity in his thirties. He is often regarded as a father of Latin theology, on account of the major impact which he had upon the western church. He defended the unity of the Old and New Testaments against Marcion, who had argued that they related to different gods. In doing so, he laid the foundations for a doctrine of the Trinity. Tertullian was strongly opposed to making Christian theology or apologetics dependent upon extra scriptural sources. He is amongst the most forceful early exponents of the principle of the sufficiency of Scripture, denouncing those who appeal to secular philosophies for a true knowledge of God.

Athanasius (296 - 373 AD)

Athanasius’ significance relates primarily to Christological issues, which became of major importance during the fourth century. Possible while still in his twenties, Athanasius wrote the treatise “On the incarnation,” a powerful defense of the idea that God assumed human nature in the person of Jesus Christ. Athanasius pointed out that if Christ was not fully God, a series of devastating implication followed. First, it was impossible for God to redeem humanity, as no creature could redeem another creature. And second, it followed that the Christian church was guilty of idolatry, as Christians regularly worshipped and prayed to Christ.

Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430 AD)

Augustine is probably the greatest and most influential mind of the Christian church throughout its long history. Attracted to the Christian faith by the preaching of Bishop Ambrose of Milan, Augustine underwent a dramatic conversion experience. Having reached the age of 32 without satisfying his burning wish to know the truth, Augustine was agonizing over the great questions of human nature and destiny in a garden in Milan. He heard some children singing “take up and read” nearby. Feeling that this was divine guidance, he found the New Testament document nearest to hand Paul’s letter to the Romans, as it happened. This was the final straw for Augustine, whose paganism ha become increasingly difficult to maintain. As he later recalled, “a light of certainty entered my heart, and every shadow of doubt vanished.” From that moment onward, Augustine dedicated his enormous intellectual abilities to the defense and consolidation of the Christian faith, writing in a style which was both passionate and intelligent, appealing to both heart and mind.

Source: Alister E.McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, p 10-13.

God and Natural Disaster

Earthquake in California, tidal wave in Aceh, cyclone in Myanmar and many more of natural disaster happened in our planet and in our time. “Where is God when all this is happening?” we cry. Sometimes we are tempted to know about what God would have in mind about all of this suffering. We even want to know about His involvement in our natural world. “Did He have anything to do with natural disaster?”

The Scripture has told us about this fallen world we are living in. In Genesis 3:17-18, God told Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field.” God would not allow sinful man to continue to live in a sinless paradise.

It is obvious, when God cursed man for his sin, He also cursed nature. Therefore the nature has its good side as well as its dark side, just like we are. Tidal waves, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods are just the result of that curse. And just like we are, the nature too awaits our redemption so that it can be redeemed along with us.

With the inspiration from the Holy Spirit, Apostle Paul has stated: “The creation waits in eager expectation for the son of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Rom 8:19-21)

God has not removed Himself from the nature. We must distinguish between the immediate cause of these events and their ultimate cause. The immediate cause of a tornado is the huge different of temperature patterns but the ultimate cause of it is God.

God rules nature directly or through secondary causes, but either way, He is in charge of everything in our nature. He is the Creator, the sustainer of all things. There are three things we must bear in mind about the relation between God and nature.

First, God who permits natural disasters to happen could choose not to permit them to happen. In the very act of allowing them, He demonstrates that they fall within the boundaries of His providence and will. In the story of Job, Satan brought about the natural calamities of lightning and wind. But he could do this only when God signed off on it; he did it because God permitted it.

Second, the Scripture sometimes picture God as being in control of nature, even without secondary causes. Scripture has clearly described us about Jesus’ power to calm down the wind with only His words. The same Christ could have spoken similar words and the tidal wave would have obeyed Him.

Third, the nature declares the glory of God, His intelligence, His beauties as well as His anger toward sins and His judgment.

So what does natural disaster tell us about God? We cannot pretend to understand all that God has in mind when tragedies come to a country, to a single family or person. But natural disasters are God’s megaphone, shouting to us messages that we should be quick to learn. Learning on what lesson?

First, death is inevitable. When you read obituaries of those who have died you should visualize your own name in it. We know someone has been died, unexpectedly, unwarned sometimes. At such moments death is so real to us that we remember that we, too, could die without warning. Natural disasters are a reminder of our mortality.

Second, natural disasters remind us that judgment is coming. Whether we like it or not, Jesus predicted that end time calamities were a sign of the end of the age. “There will be famines and earthquakes in various palaces. All these are the beginning of birth pains” (Mat 24:7-8).

Many people will not like to believe in God who judges the world. In their imagination, God is the One who only seek happiness of His creation to the best of His ability. God will never send us to hell. Unfortunately, such God that people “has made” is not the real God in the Scripture.

God does not delight in human suffering, but He does delight in the triumph of truth and justice and the completion of His hidden purposes.

Third, we can escape from the coming judgment by repentance from our sin and accept Jesus as our God and personal Savior.

Jesus Christ and His Claim to be God

Jesus Christ is actually not an unfamiliar Person for many people around the world who live today. In fact, Jesus is so popular that we cannot imagine of someone yelling “Clinton!” or “Bush!” whenever he hit his thumb with a hammer mistakenly. Instead, they will shout “Jesus! That’s hurt!!”

But pretty sadly to know that most of people who say His name don’t actually know who He is. Most of people around the world may have heard about His claim as being God the Almighty but only a few parts of people will believe or pay attention on His unique claim.

Martin R De Haan II, a dedicated author from RBC Ministries, once declared: “No one would argue the identity of people like Lincoln, Michelangelo or Aristotle. They wear history-book labels that are indisputable. But the man called Jesus is different. If you were to run a man on the street survey about Him, you would likely get as many different responses as you would get odd looks. Jesus isn’t known for the things that usually make people famous. He wasn’t into politics, business, or publishing. His expertise was in what normally call religion – He knew a lot about God. In fact, He claimed to be God. But who is He?”

Martin has given an accurate observation upon the issue regarding Jesus. Jesus is well known but only a few seem really knows Him. In other words, people like to know Jesus according to what they think about Him, not according to what Jesus has claimed about Himself. They don’t care on what He’s been saying. They only care about what their mind is telling them.

Some people would say that Jesus is a man who achieved great things. With this paradigm they argue that we too may achieve things just like Jesus did. People in this group will focus their life on moral teaching. The hope if they are good enough while living in this world or if they are doing exactly what their religion has told them to do they will in the end achieve an enlightenment.

The others would say “Jesus is god, but not the Almighty God. Jesus is only a created individual” People from this group acknowledge God as a Person but they refuse Jesus as God who has become Man.

The other groups of people believe that Jesus is a man no better than we are. Sun Myung Moon from Unification Church once stated: “It is plain that Jesus is not God Himself.” The followers of Moon’s teaching say that Jesus’ work was a failure.

Those who believe in atheism have a very low point of view of Jesus. Bertrand Russell, a famous apologist of the atheistic viewpoint, said, “I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stand quite as high as some other people known to history.”

Some other groups of people will agree that Jesus is a great moral teacher. Moslem people recognize Jesus as a messenger of Allah. Even though they believe that Jesus was sinless prophet, they also declared that Jesus never achieved the greatness of the prophet Muhammad.

Among these many different argumentations about who Jesus is, we can sure of one thing: they cannot be right all together. Someone must be wrong with their point of view.

The one who say Jesus is God is substantially different with those who say Jesus is not God. Those who believe that Jesus is just an ordinary human just like we are; is substantially different with those who think that Jesus is a sinless messenger from Allah.

The temptations of Jesus Christ

According to the Bible, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

The devil, which is also called Satan, was described in the Bible as the one who likes to test human. The devil’s objection is to get human to live in their way rather than God’s way.

Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden in the beginning of history and he was succeeding there. Human race fell into sin since then. Unlike most people think about Satan as being only a symbol of evil, the Bible clearly teaches that Satan is a real spiritual being. And as the opponent of Heaven Satan constantly fights against those who follow and obey God.

Jesus will one day reign over all creation, but Satan tried to force His hand and get Him to declare His kingship prematurely. If Jesus had given in, his mission on earth – to die for our sins and give us the opportunity to have eternal life – would have been lost.

This temptation by the devil shows us that Jesus was human, and it gave Jesus the opportunity to reaffirm God’s plan for his ministry.

One important thing that differentiates us and Jesus is that even though Jesus was tempted by the devil, He never sinned.

The devil’s temptations upon Jesus focused on three crucial areas, they are:

Physical needs and desires

Possessions and power

Pride

Jesus did not give in to these temptations. Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus “has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.”

Jesus was able to resist all of the devil’s temptations because He not only knew Scripture, but He also obeyed it.

Temptation is often the combination of a real need and a possible doubt that create an inappropriate desire. Jesus demonstrates both the importance and effectiveness of knowing and applying Scripture to combat temptation.

This temptation has shown us that Jesus really was the Son of God. He is able to overcome the devil and his temptations. We too must learn from Him about that. We too must learn to know more about Scripture’s teachings and give a lot of efforts to apply those teachings in our daily life. In this way, we have learnt to live as Jesus has lived.