What Then is Salvation?

I started my last post (Who was Adam? Who are We?) by saying that I once learned that “salvation is not a rescue solely of the spirit”, and I’d like to expand more on what I mean. I believe salvation begins with the spirit, a setting free, but it carries on to bring salvation to the mind, and then to the body as well.

Romans 8:23-24 says: We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.

Within our faith there lingers an assumption that body, soul, and spirit are easily separable. I have yet to find its source, but I think it’s based on our beliefs about what salvation is, and what we think it produces. Most people say that because they are a Christian they’ll go to heaven when they die, and that this is the whole point. Wrong! The whole point is a complete and full regeneration to our original form, to become the Adam that God created before things went south, and to live on earth where He placed us. His original plan for man was perfect, and it will continue when all is said and done.

As it stands, the glorious salvation we boast of is simply a decree that angels will come get our spirits when our eyes close in death. And in the meantime, behave and try to love one another. Is there no actual action now? Is nothing actually done when we ‘first believe’? Does nothing happen, even in the unseen world?

Adam was created to live forever. He was created immortal, indestructible, and death was not a twinkle in his eye (when this was lost, salvation then became a restoration to 'everlasting life'). For Adam, death wasn’t even a possibility; it didn’t exist anywhere in creation. Since God created Adam to live, He did not design Adam to accommodate for death. This is where our assumption that our ‘parts’ are separable comes in – are they? Is it just as simple as leaving your body when you die, or being pulled from it by angels? Or does it make more sense that we are created whole beings, unable to be torn into different parts? I would think the more logical assumption would be that our spirits, minds, and bodies are fused together into one being, or ‘knitted’ together as the Psalmist says (Psalm 139:13).

My view of hell is a little different than the mainstream view. Instead of God creating a place that is bent on tormenting its inhabitants eternally, I think that hell is simply death. If God created Adam to live eternally, He did not create him to accommodate for death. So the body dies, but the Bible strongly teaches that the spirit does not ever die, whether it is 'saved' or not. With the fusion of all your parts into one inseparable being, imagine your conscious spirit alive in a dead body, buried in the ground… for hundreds and thousands of years. Can I get a witness that this would indeed be ‘hell’?? Does it not make the most sense? Is it any creation of God, this 'hell'? No, it was a choice of ours!

In the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament) the word ‘hell’ doesn’t really ever come up (search ‘hell’ at BibleGateway.com, your hits will start with Matthew – the word is not mentioned in the OT). The prophets and kings spoke only of "the grave" (Sheol), like Jacob, who said "in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son." (Gen. 37:35).

Hell is actually brought to life by the vivid descriptions of a lake of fire in Revelation. Has anybody read about the Lake of Fire? The antichrist and the false prophet, at the end of days, are the first to be thrown in. So where are all the dead now, if not there? The idea of a tormenting hell has been widely used by the church and disgruntled parents alike, trying to get behavior in check. But the lake of fire is almost certainly born of Love; those who have, in life, chosen death, will be kept eternally away from those who have chosen life by a great barrier of fire, which just happens to be the ultimate symbol of life itself. Is that in any way cruel? No, it’s life, it’s good, but those who hate its virtues will be held captive by it (this may be figurative).

I speculate that the first thing to happen when someone gets ‘saved’ is that their spirit is set free from their body, that we are given the ability to avoid the grave should we die before our salvation is complete. This would help make sense of Paul’s assertions that we are currently seated in heavenly places, and would also validate the experiences of some in the Bible who visited the third heaven.

The next ‘part’ of us to face the salvation process (regeneration) would be the mind (see Romans 12:2). There’s much to be said about the salvation of the mind, which could take pages. But briefly, the biggest problem, the biggest cause of sin and wandering and distraction is an ignorance of truth. Whether we call it lies or distraction or laziness, our biggest adversary is un-truth or falsities, and the facilitator of un-truth is the mind. Un-truth was the cause of the first fall, and every fall after that. What we believe will either lead us to life or death, and funny enough, those who ‘believe in Him will have everlasting life’, and those who believe in lies will not see that light at the end of their tunnel. A title for our biggest adversary, not only as Christians but as humans, is the ‘Father of Lies’. His tool is always deceit.

Salvation of the mind is a learning of truth, which is the longest process. I suppose it ends with some monumental ‘ah ha!’ moment, just like for the earth, when Christ is revealed in the sky, and ‘every eye shall see’ (The earth is saved; take a look here). It is at that point that the physical element of salvation takes place; immortality is restored to the earth and all the curses and pains-in-the-ass brought about by sin are removed. The earth is restored to its original glory and the ‘New Jerusalem’ comes and is joined with the earth. No longer does the earth require the light of the sun (no external needs, see Revelation 21:23), because Emmanuel is on the earth. His presence, Christ the Morning Star, provides the sustenance for all life now (Rev. 22:5).

Would there not be a moment like this for us as individuals seeking the fullness of salvation? If a person were to attain this level of perfection, according to Romans, it would be culminated and completed in the salvation of their body. Peter alludes to some climax or great goal in our salvation process here: ‘until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts’ (2 Peter 1:19). Would the arrival of the morning star in our hearts bring about the immortality and regeneration of our bodies? Is it the sustenance we need to go back to solely living on the Love of God and nothing else? Will it dispose of our need for external sustenance, and cease our existence as animals? Would it bring us back to perfect Adam, the image and likeness of God?

John says: ‘we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is’ (1 John 3:2). When Christ appears in our hearts after the salvation of the spirit and mind, we will become like Christ in every way. This is the big reveal, the salvation of our body, the completion of salvation. At that point, we’d be Adam again, we’d be the Original Form.

No golden harp and fluffy cloud for me! Salvation is exciting!


Other points to be made:
Jesus talks a lot about the subjects and sons of the kingdom being ‘outside, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (Matt 8:12). Would this be those who only attained the salvation of the spirit, died, and were escorted to heaven’s gate? The ones who are still imperfect in the ‘spirit of the mind’ and cannot be let in to the untainted home of God?

If God did not specifically create a ‘hell’ as we know it, what about demons? We know a third of the angels fell with Satan, but those are the only rebels we know of. Well, if hell is inhabiting your dead body eternally, what happens to the spirits of bodies that are destroyed (maybe by fire). With no body to be attached to, they are free to roam. They wander through ‘arid places’, and their only desire is to inhabit a body, to live again. Is this demon possession?

The human body is largely composed of water, and prophetically speaking, water can symbolize body or bodies (think of a 'sea of people). Jesus was compassionate to the ‘legion’ of demons in Matthew 8:30-32, by sending them into the sea; it seems a demon in a body or in water is at rest. The lake of fire can, with this, be seen as compassion. Spirits held in water (body), by fire, the origin of life. The lake of fire is not cruel, it is love!