Salvation
Salvation
By Rev. William E. Wilson
"And he said, Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Mark 4:9 ASV
Salvation is a topic that is at the base of Christian belief. In systematic theology salvation and revelation are intertwined with Yeshua
of Nazareth being the final revelation of God.
"The history of revelation and the history of salvation are the same history. Revelation can be received only in the presence of salvation, and salvation can only occur within a correlation of revelation. These assertions can be contradicted on the basis of an intellectual, non existential concept of revelation or on the basis of an individualistic, nondynamic concept of salvation; but such concepts must be radically rejected by systematic theology, and with them any attempt to separate revelation and salvation also must be rejected."
But is this the case? Is revelation required with salvation or will God simply save? This is an important question as it cuts to the core of Christianity and Christian sects.
The Gospel should be the solution to life and ultimately should provide salvation. It should help to resolve the problems humanity faces. If Yeshua is the ultimate revelation and through him comes salvation what are the requisites of believers and non-believers to gain that salvation?
12 Therefore, all things, whatever you desire that men should do to you, so also you should do to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13 Go in through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are the ones entering in through it. 14 For narrow is the gate, and constricted is the way that leads away into life, and few are the ones finding it.
Matthew 7 12:14 GLT
Yeshua taught a way to live. Christians consider him the messianic king and co-equal or the equivalent of God. This being the case, did he himself teach what salvation is and if so, should Christians follow his words or the words of later followers?
"If revelation is understood to mean information about "divine matters," which is supposed to be accepted partly through intellectual operations, partly through a subjection of the will to authorities, there can be revelation without salvation. Information is given which can be received without a transformation of the existence of the receiver. Neither ecstasy nor miracle belongs to this notion of a revelatory situation. The divine Spirit either is unnecessary or becomes a supra natural informer and teacher of objective, non existential truths. The biblical reports concerning revelatory situations directly contradict this notion; they give unambiguous support to the assertion that revelation and salvation cannot be separated."
The purpose of the remainder of this paper is to show what Yeshua and later followers stated about salvation.
Thinking about this I went and did a web search to see if I could find a concise answer to what the Gospel of Christ or salvation is or was. On bibleplus.org it stated:
Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old Testament of the coming Redeemer.
Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
Jesus Christ lived a perfect sinless life for us. He conquered sin for us.
Jesus Christ died for my sins, once and for all.
Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He conquered death that I might have eternal life.
Jesus Christ ascended to heaven where He is interceding for me. He tells me to stop sinning, yet if I do sin and repent, He is interceding his blood before the Father and will forgive me.
Jesus Christ is coming back to take His people home to heaven.
Yet, is this all there is to it?
The Teachings of Yeshua
And, behold, coming near, one said to Him, Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? 17 And He said to him, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except One, God! But if you desire to enter into life, keep the commandments. 18 He said to Him, Which? And Jesus said, "You shall not commit murder, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor bear false witness, 19 honor your father and your mother," and, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Ex. 20:12-16; Lev. 19:18; Deut. 5:16-20 20 The young man said to Him, All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack? 21 Jesus said to him, If you desire to be perfect, go sell your property and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me. 22 But having heard the Word, being grieved, the young man went away, for he had many possessions. 23 And Jesus said to His disciples, Truly I say to you that a rich man will with great difficulty enter into the kingdom of Heaven. 24 And again I say to you, It is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. 25 And His disciples were exceedingly astonished when they heard this, saying, Who then can be saved? Matthew 19:16-25
The question posed in Matthew is one of the most important we may ask in regards to salvation. Who is it that can be saved and did Yeshua give some clue to this?
Before moving on I will share one more scripture passage that I think is crucial to the understanding of salvation.
34 I give a new commandment to you, that you should love one another; according as I loved you, you should also love one another. 35 By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love among one another.
John 13 34-35 GLT
Here Yeshua was laying out his commandment as the messianic king. Taken with the other scriptures we may easily see that the ethical treatment of others, known in Hebrew belief as Leviticus 19:18 is equated with loving God. The teachings of Paul and James especially bear this out.
A Question of Greek
Today people in English speaking countries rely upon translations of the New Testament. Time and again inconsistencies have been pointed out with translation errors and the Bible. Whether Hebrew or Greek. One of those inconsistencies is how the word dikaiomata was and is translated. This word and also the word akatharsis are very important in gaining a true understanding of what Yeshua and Paul taught.
In 1 John 5:17 we read “All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin which doesn’t lead to death.” How could sin (i.e. unrighteousness) not lead to spiritual death? Does this verse really mean what we think it means?
If we go to the Greek the verse reads as follows:
πᾶς ἀδικία ἁμαρτία εἰμί καί εἰμί ἁμαρτία οὐ πρός θάνατος
The second word adikia is the crucial word for the quote. This word comes from the root word dikia which is translated as righteousness today. However, this word had other meanings which include justice or the treatment of others equitably. So a better translation which would help us reconcile it with statements of Yeshua could be “all inequitable treatment of others is [such] sin and there is sin which does not lead to death.” Before bringing the verse into alignment with the meaning of the Koine Greek
, the verses here were confusing. It basically was saying that all sin was sin and that there is sin that does not lead to death. What does this mean? With the new translation it is clear. All inequitable treatment of others is worthy of spiritual death while some sins that we may think would be, are not.
Moving to the words of Yeshua we may see in the Book of Matthew the story of the lawyer who tested Yeshua. He asked what is the greatest commandment:
“37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”
The crucial word in this statement is the word like. The Greek word in questions is homoios. Greek-Dictionary.net gives the meaning as like, similar, of a same or similar nature or quality. Another way of interpreting this word is that it intones the meaning of being equivalent in rank or nature, or total equivalence
. So, a better translation of this set of verses would be the second commandment of loving one’s neighbour as oneself is equivalent to loving God. If we look at this in conjunction with Yeshua’s instruction on judgement, we will see that those who treat their their fellow men equitably, are doing this also to God, and so are rewarded with eternal life.
The lawyer was attempting to trick Yeshua into either saying his teachings on equity were most important, which result in him being stoned, or to admit that only man to God rules were important which would lessen his "Gospel." Yeshua answered that the two were equivalent, thus foiling the trap.
How much simpler can this be?
When we look at the teachings of Yeshua we see his use of the beatitudes, his parables and then general statements on various topics. A central theme running through his words is the equitable treatment of others. Prime examples of this are the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Sheep and the Goats.
The Testimony of James
8 If you truly fulfill the royal Law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well. Lev. 19:18 9 But if you have partiality you work sin, being reproved by the Law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep all the Law, but stumbles in one, he has become guilty of all. 11 For He who said, "You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Ex. 20:14, 13; Deut. 5:18, 17 But if you do not commit adultery, but commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the Law. 12 So speak and so do as being about to be judged through a Law of freedom. 13 For judgment will be without mercy to the one not doing mercy. And mercy rejoices over judgment. 14 My brothers, what is the gain if anyone says he has faith, but he does not have works? Is the faith able to save him? 15 But if a brother or a sister is naked and may be lacking in daily food, 16 and any one of you say to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, but does not give them the things the body needs, what gain is it?
James 2 8-16 GLT
The royal law is that law given by the messianic king. And what is that law? To love one another. James taught the justices of the Torah. He showed it quite simply in this scripture. Faith without works is dead. Those works being the altruistic treatment of one's neighbour. James as the brother of Yeshua and the leader of the movement after the crucifixion would have known Yeshua's teachings very well. James was later said to be the first bishop of Jerusalem.
And What of Paul?
When we read the letters of Paul carefully and are true to the message and meaning of the Koine Greek we can easily see that Paul follows directly in Yeshua’s footsteps. The hardest part is locating books that are able to help with this. Unfortunately there is not a good translation of the New Testament that exhibits this. From personal conversation with Michael Woods, author of “Paul on Homosexuality” I have found out that hopefully in 2012 a new English translation will come out that is true to the original.
One of the most profound examples of mistranslation in Paul may be found in the following two scripture passages:
“The Doers of the Law will be justified.” Romans 2:13
“By the works of the Law no one will be justified.” Romans 3:20
So which one is it? Is it faith without works or must some form of works be done?
Then, we have the following verse:
“So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?” Romans 2:26 NASB
How does this contradiction work?
If we go back to the Koine Greek and look, we will see the word dikaioi used in Romans 2:13 and ergon used in Romans 3:20. The same terms for the aspect of the Law are not used in the two verses. In the first it is talking about the Justices of the Law and in the second about the Jobs of the Law. But what are the Justices and the Jobs? In Hebrew belief, the Justices were hinged on the Leviticus 19:18 teaching that one had to treat others equitably. The Jobs of the Law were all the aspects of man’s relationship to God such as circumcision, food prohibitions, etc. The Justices were all of the man to man relationships summed up in that one scripture in Leviticus which was not only taught by Yeshua but also by Rabbi Hillel before him. It was quite clear in the original Greek that Paul taught that only the Justices of the Law mattered; that the Jobs of the Law would not vindicate one before God. So in looking at Romans 2:26 we have:
ἐὰν οὖν ἡ ἀκροβυστία τὰ δικαιώματα τοῦ νόμου φυλάσσῃ, [a]οὐχ ἡ ἀκροβυστία αὐτοῦ εἰς περιτομὴν λογισθήσεται;
The important word in this scripture is dikaiomata. This word refers to the equity-based requirements of the Law (Justices of the Law) and not to the Jobs of the Law. So a more appropriate translation of the verse is:
“So if the uncircumcised man keeps the equity-resulting requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?”
With a return to the original meaning of the Koine Greek this scripture (and many others by Paul) now makes sense, is easier to read, and falls directly in line with the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth.
In Conclusion
These a just a few examples of the problems of mistranslation in the New Testament which resulted in a loss of the simple message given by Yeshua. Once we have a good translation and can see the original meaning, we can start to ferret out the core of the Gospel and understand what will truly bring salvation which revolves around the altruistic treatment of others and not in having to obey myriads of rules. Simple yet difficult for humans to comprehend. This message by Yeshua was revolutionary and set him at odds with many religious leaders of his time.
Reading carefully and comparing problematic or contradictory scriptures in the English translation of the Bible to the original Bible allows us to clear up the contradictory parts. We may then work towards looking for the core teaching of Yeshua and his first century followers.
Up until recently I considered Paul a heretic in regards to the teachings of Yeshua. Now I do not. His teachings DO fall in line with those of Rabbi Yeshua. However, I believe that later first century followers like Paul took things further by adding layers on top of the simple teachings at the foundation. These individuals included Jerome and others such as those that took part in the Nicene councils. I believe that Yeshua more than likely did live, although he could have been patterned after a slightly earlier Rabbi by the name of Hillel who taught a similar version of Judaism that appears to have been based on Leviticus 19:18 as well.
Bibliography
Holmes, Michael W. Editor
Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Logos Bible Software and the Society of Biblical Literature. 2010.
Tillich, Paul
Systematic Theology, Volume I. University of Chicago Press. 1951.
Wood, Michael
Paul on Homosexuality. Tubi Publishing, LLC. 2011.
The Jesus Secret. Tubi Publishing, LLC. 2010.
The Jerome Conspiracy. Tubi Publishing, LLC. 2010.
The Hidden Bible. Tubi Publishing, LLC. 2010.