by Bob Trowbridge

Created on: February 15, 2007   Last Updated: April 13, 2009

There is no single Christian understanding of salvation. There is no single homogeneous Christian church. There are hundreds of denominations, each with its own version of what salvation means. There is no one agreed upon Christian theology.

Some churches might require a ritual of confession to be saved. Another might require baptism. To be saved in one church you will have to take classes and learn the dogmas of that denomination. In another you might have to speak in tongues as an indication that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You might need to have a "born again" experience or even demonstrate your faith by handling poisonous serpents and drinking poisons like strychnine.

And all of these different churches will claim that they understand what salvation means. And all of these churches are presumably reading the same New Testament. Clearly there is no single version or vision of what salvation means.

What is clear is that most Christian churches believe that some kind of salvation is necessary. This belief is based on the assumption that we have all sinned. It is of some interest that the idea of sin has taken on a lot more baggage since the time of Jesus.

In Jesus' time, the word for sin was an archery term and it simply meant "Missing the mark." The concept has gotten a lot more dark and sinister in the intervening 2,000 plus years.

As for the understanding of the disciples regarding salvation, they didn't agree with one another. James, the brother of Jesus, insisted that for a gentile to become a Christian, he must first become a Jew and follow the laws of Judaism. Paul disagreed with that position and Paul eventually won out. Peter waffled between the two positions and finally sided with Paul.

If the disciples, shortly after the death of Jesus, could not decide on the meaning of salvation, it's a bit presumptuous for preachers and theologians today to think they have it figured out. One of the issues I have with the Christian idea of salvation is that it paints a picture of a very small and narrow God. The idea that the Almighty is willing to give salvation only to those who are Christians suggests a God who is not as loving as the Bible would like to portray him.

Any God who would send all of the Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, etc. to hell just because they don't belong to the right religion is a pretty third-rate God. So the idea that salvation belongs only to certain Christians (those who belong to my church), or Christians alone, is absurd in the

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