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Lector: In the last post here, it was pointed out that if there is anything at all we have to do to “get right with God,” even if it’s simply “choosing to trust Jesus,” then salvation would be by works and not grace since it would be a transaction between us and God. So how does one get saved apart from some sort of transaction?

Auctor: The only way for that to work would be if faith came after salvation. The faith one has would be faith that Christ has already saved them, in other words.

Lector: So then what does faith do for us if we’re already saved?

Auctor: Why it saves us, of course.

Lector: Ah, of course, it… wait, it does what? If we’re already saved, how do we get saved again?

Auctor: Because “salvation” isn’t always the same thing as salvation.

Lector: What do you mean?

Auctor: Well, if I pointed out that, among a group of four people, they each had a quarter, but that at the same time only one of them had a quarter, and that both statements were equally true, how could this be the case?

Lector: I’m not sure. How?

Auctor: It’s actually quite simple: All four people had a piece of a pie, each an equal-sized slice of the pie that made up the whole pie when put together — they each had a quarter of the pie, in other words — but only one of these people had a 25-cent coin, also known as a quarter, in their pocket. Simply put, the same word can refer to different things, and this applies to the word “quarter” as well as to the word “saved,” not to mention “salvation.”

Lector: So “salvation” means two different things then?

Auctor: Actually it can mean many more than just two different things. Peter was saved from drowning in water by Jesus more than once, for example, and the Israelites were saved from slavery in Egypt by God, so we can see that there are various different types of salvation referred to in Scripture, although neither of those salvations were the same type of salvation that most Christians think of when they use the word in a theological sense, of course, and as far as what we’re discussing here goes, it actually refers to three different things.

Lector: Do tell.

Auctor: Well, to begin with, there is ontological salvation. This is the salvation I already referred to, the salvation that God gives us even before we begin to have any faith. This salvation happened to all of us in Christ apart from anything we have done or will do, and is salvation from the absolute perspective. When Christ died for our sins, the penalty for everyone’s sins, which is permanent death, was dealt with once and for all, and so we have all been saved — ontologically and proleptically speaking — by Him, because He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day.

Lector: That’s a pretty bold statement.

Auctor: It is.

Lector: How do you justify such a claim?

Auctor: It’s not my intention to even try to do so right now, that would too big a tangent at this point. For now it’s enough to remember that if God doesn’t save us apart from anything we do then salvation is a transaction rather than a gift, and would mean our salvation is at least in part based on something we have to do, meaning by works, in other words.

Lector: Okay. You mentioned that we’ve been saved “proleptically speaking” as well. What does that mean?

Auctor: Prolepsis is a common figure of speech used throughout the Bible which simply means “the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished.” Calling what is not yet as though it already were, in other words, as God Himself often does. This just means that we can say we’ve all been saved already, even if it hasn’t happened literally yet, because if God says we’re going to be saved, it’s as good as done even if it doesn’t seem that way at this point in time. “Proleptic salvation” is referring specifically to the third sort of salvation we’re discussing, though, I should say, and refers to the promise of immortality, and hence sinlessness, at some point in the future.

Lector: I see. So what about faith?

Auctor: That applies to the second sort, or stage in some cases, of salvation, what I refer to as noological salvation, which is freedom from the power of sin by being given knowledge of the Good News of our ontological and proleptic salvation and truly believing it. Faith, in other words. When someone comes to realize that God is at peace with them because of what Christ did, and that there is nothing they have to do to please God or earn His forgiveness, they are freed from the power of sin, which is the law or religion, and one can say that they have been saved “noologically,” or saved from a relative perspective, and have been brought into membership in the body of Christ, although I should also quickly mention that one has to understand that Christ Himself actually died, and that He Himself was actually buried rather than just His body being buried while He Himself went somewhere else for three days, meaning He ceased to exist as a conscious being for three days, as well, although that’s a whole other topic we can discuss at another time.

Lector: Ah, I see. But you mentioned three different types of salvation. Is the proleptic salvation you mentioned already the third type?

Auctor: Yes, and when it finally happens, meaning when it’s no longer proleptic, it can also be referred to as eschatological salvation, and this will be the physical experience of salvation that will occur at our resurrection and/or quickening, when the mortal puts on immortality and we can finally enjoy the full salvation that we had ontologically all along in Christ.

Lector: Interesting. So we’ve been saved, we’re being saved, and we will be saved, all at the same time.

Auctor: That’s one way to put it. As long as we remember that there is nothing that we ourselves do to gain any of these salvations.

Lector: But what about faith? If we have to have faith to have what you called noological salvation then isn’t that still a transaction?

Auctor: Not if the faith is given to us by God. Remember, we’re saved by grace through faith, and that is not of ourselves, but is a gift from God. The only way that it can be a gift is if God gives us the faith. If we have to build that salvific faith up, it would be a work.

Lector: Even if it’s just the amount of a mustard seed?

Auctor: Even that would still be a work. Only God can give us the faith that is necessary for the freedom that is noological salvation, though; we couldn’t possibly muster it up on our own anyway, since the god of this world has already blinded the minds of every single person who currently doesn’t believe, so unless God gifts them with the faith to believe the Good News, they simply can’t believe it.

Lector: That makes sense. But I’m still a little confused about something. What you’re saying makes it sound like everyone will be saved in the end, and, in fact, already has been saved, at least as far as ontological and proleptic salvation go. What about all the passages in the Bible that seem to tell us not everyone will get saved? Jesus even said that those who don’t believe are condemned already.

Auctor: As I mentioned, there are many types of salvation; the three we’ve just discussed aren’t the only salvations taught about in Scripture, as we’ve already learned, and Jesus was actually referring to a fourth sort of salvation during His earthly ministry, one which I call circumcision salvation. To understand this, it’s extremely important to know that only the apostle Paul taught the three types of salvation we just discussed, and that Jesus and His disciples were talking about something quite different from the salvations we were just talking about during His earthly ministry, although there is some overlap between the way this one ultimately plays out and what I referred to as eschatological salvation, since those saved in this manner will also eventually experience immortality, although not right away and not at the same time as those in the body of Christ. His death for our sins, burial, and resurrection aside, when Jesus walked the earth, He came only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Gospel He was proclaiming was the Good News of the Kingdom, which was the Good News that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, meaning it was ready to begin on earth — specifically in Israel — and that it was indeed already in their midst, or “within them,” in the person of its Messiah and future king, meaning Himself. This is what Jesus meant when He said “the kingdom of God is within you,” because it was within the midst of them for as long as He remained among them in Israel. This also means that the kingdom of heaven is no longer “at hand,” or “within them,” even though it will be again in the future. Remember, the salvation His Jewish audience was looking forward to was to get to live in that kingdom when it begins in Israel, but the only Israelites who will get to live in Israel when the kingdom finally fully begins there are those who believe that He is their Messiah, as well as the Son of God, and follow this belief up with water baptism and other good works, which are required under this type of salvation since, unlike our salvations, this particular salvation actually is somewhat transactional. The people who get this sort of salvation are brought into membership in what Paul referred to as the Israel of God, rather than the body of Christ.

Lector: But if those Israelites who don’t believe the Good News that Jesus was teaching, and don’t follow this belief up with good works, won’t get saved, what happens to them?

Auctor: While it’s true that many people won’t get to live in the kingdom in Israel at that time, because they haven’t been saved under this form of salvation, even those who miss out on what is figuratively referred to as “eternal life” on earth — which primarily just refers to enjoying life within the Kingdom of God during the remaining future ages — were still saved ontologically through what Christ did on the cross, so they’ll all still experience eschatological salvation at the end of the ages, when Christ destroys the final enemy: death.

Lector: But what about the passages that tell us some people will end up in hell for eternity?

Auctor: The “hell” passages are very misunderstood by most people. It would be too large of a tangent to get into all the details on the topic here, but suffice it to say, people are reading modern, and entirely unscriptural, definitions into the word “hell” when they see it in the Bible. The word isn’t referring to the inescapable torture chamber most people think of when they read or hear it, and most of the references apply only to Israelites. That said, there are actually multiple different “hells” referred to in the King James Bible, and no humans are conscious when they’re in any of the “hells” that apply to them. And likewise, the words “everlasting,” “eternal,” and “for ever” are very figurative translations in the Bible, and anyone who looks at every instance of these words in the Bible will quickly realize that they actually refer figuratively to periods of time that have both a definitely beginning and a conclusion. At the end of the day, though, for death to be abolished, as Paul promised it would be, nobody can remain dead any longer, so everyone who died, even a second time in the lake of fire, will have to be made alive. Which is exactly what Paul told us would happen when he explained that, just as because of what Adam did, all are mortal and dying, even so, because of what Christ did, all will be made immortal, although each will experience this immortality in their own order: first the body of Christ, then those members of the Israel of God who died prior to Christ’s return, and finally all the rest, when death is finally 100% abolished. Which brings us to another categorization of salvation, because the eschatological salvation that all humanity will experience —immortality, and hence sinlessness — is also known as general salvation, but the salvation that only a relative few will get to enjoy — which includes an early experience of that general salvation, as well as membership in the body of Christ and all that this entails — is referred to as the special salvation, because God truly is the Saviour of all mankind, specially of those that believe, and not only exclusively of those that believe.

Lector: I see. I recognized that some of the things you said were references to specific passages of Scripture, but I’m assuming there were scriptural references I missed in there as well. Do you have any resources available I can refer to in order to confirm that what you just said actually is taught in the Bible?

Auctor: Of course. I wrote a series of articles on the topic, and they’re available for free on my website for anyone who wants to learn the scriptural basis for everything I just told you. You can find them at: https://www.kjvgospel.com/goodnews

Lector: Thanks. I’ll be sure to check it out.

Auctor: No problem at all.

Many of the evangelicals I grew up with were horrified at the idea of magic and witchcraft, all the while promoting the biggest magic spell ever, known to many simply as “The Sinner’s Prayer.”

This magical incantation, when spoken out loud (and truly believed), is supposed to somehow change the location that we end up in after we die from hell to heaven. Not only that, but speaking (and believing) this spell aloud is supposed to also spiritually transform the speaker into a better person, or a “new creation.”

Of course there are some Christians who have realized that “The Sinner’s Prayer” is not actually spelled out anywhere in the Bible and they will tell you that it’s not the prayer that transforms your spirit and alters your afterlife itinerary, but rather it’s the accepting of Jesus to save you that does the trick. The problem is that this still makes salvation into a transaction between you and God. Even if it’s just a small transaction, a transaction it remains if there is something — anything — that you have to do to “get right with God.” Unfortunately a transactional salvation is not salvation by grace, it’s salvation by work, even if that work is simply choosing to trust Jesus.

So with all that in mind, how exactly is one saved apart from some sort of transaction? Well, I’ll get to that in an upcoming post.

One thing that can frustrate a Universalist to no end is the fact that Universal Reconciliation seems to be one of the clearest doctrines in Scripture, yet most Christians just can’t seem to see it at all. Most Christians interpret certain parables, metaphors, and other biblical figures of speech as teaching never-ending torment in hell for all non-Christians, even though these passages are clearly teaching something completely different (what they’re actually teaching is not what I’m getting at right now so I’ll save that discussion for another time).

The thing we have to keep in mind (and this is something I have to continuously remind myself of) is that it’s not their fault that they are interpreting Scripture this way. The fact that we have had centuries of indoctrination in the concept of never-ending torment in hell aside, I believe that God has predestined most Christians to believe in never-ending torment in order to fulfill His ultimate purposes for creation. I’ll get more into the idea of God’s sovereignty when it comes not only to our salvation but also to our theology at a later point, I just wanted to get that out there for now.

A lot of people have asked me over the years, “What if you’re wrong about Universal Reconciliation?” I could go (and have gone) into all sorts of reasons as to why I believe I’m right, but truth be told I could be wrong. I mean, I believed in never-ending torment in hell for about 20 years and then decided I was wrong about that, so I could someday decide that I’m wrong about this as well. All of the philosophical, theological, and Scriptural reasons why I believe in Universal Reconciliation aside, though (and there are a lot of reasons), if I am wrong I’d rather err on the side of mercy than on the side of wrath. I would rather make the mistake of believing that God is more loving than He really is than the mistake of believing that He’s more wrathful than He really is. I would also rather make the mistake of believing that God had a properly thought out plan which ends well for everybody before He even started creation than make the mistake of believing that He was willing to leave the eternal destinies of humanity up to chance and our flawed abilities to make good choices.

I know some people (some are friends, so if any of them are reading this post, please keep in mind that this is not a criticism) who, while believing that Universal Reconciliation is the most scriptural soteriological model, don’t actually like to be refered to as “Universalists.” This is mostly because “Universalism” is sometimes also used to refer to the concept that all religions are the same and all paths lead to God (also, many don’t want to be confused with those in the unscriptural Unitarian Universalist “denomination”). While this is a valid meaning for the label “Universalism,” I believe that the teaching that Christ saves everyone is a perfectly valid meaning for the label as well. By the definition I personally use for the word, if you believe that everybody ends up in the same place when all is said and done, you are a Universalist, whether you believe that everybody gets there through Christ (as I believe) or you believe it’s through whichever religion they happen to follow.

That said, for those believers in UR (Universal Reconciliation) who prefer not to be labelled Universalists, everyone has the right to call themselves whatever they want. It is only a word, after all, and as Humpty Dumpty put it in Through the Looking Glass, “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”