Salvation.

[NedFlanders]

One beautiful aspect of the Gospel of the kingdom of God is that our call is to forsake all, love God and love our neighbours. This takes away the us vs them tribal mindset. It makes it so the right lineage, or denomination is insignificant because it is about direction toward the kingdom of light.

Truth is more important than “us”. Truth is more important than “them.” Truth is what draws together and Truth is what separates those that don’t align with Truth - not I or any other person has that capacity other than being in agreement with Truth.

Salvations root comes from the word salvage. The idea of salvaging something carries the thought of taking time. Therefore in salvation direction or trajectory are of utmost importance. This at times highlights denominational differences if a person is going after a less godly and more selfish lifestyle by changing denominations or churches. But that is only at a moment a reference point, it doesn’t tell us what is actually going on inside that person - but it often confirms.

The gospel of the kingdom of God recognizes a desire to build up and encourage growth closer to God of everyone inside and outside the Kingdom of God. The desire to evangelize (which simply means to share the gospel) is a constant life.

The gospel of salvation gets people on the right side…. This promotes a thought process or view of us vs them and misunderstandings in those that don’t see well.

[Josh]

Everytime i see an "us vs them" focus i feel like the Lord must be grieved to see His Church so sected & critical of each other-

One thing, the Ancient Churches put Anabaptist in the "Protestant" category, they are considered Protestant - anyone that opposed the Catholics during the Reformation era and any new denomination since would be considered Protestant. Certainly Eastern Orthodox consider Anabaptist Protestant- so from the standpoint of the ancient churches were kind of all lumped together

Do you also consider this an “us vs them”?

In a way yes. But, as I read in the Mennonite in Europe book that I bought years ago about the history of the Mennonite and anabaptist, one thing it pointed out is there was no Reformation in the east. You have to consider them by the time of the Reformation the church was 1,500 plus years old. And then from the East watching what happened during the Reformation in the West it would be hard for them not to feel US versus them because the church literally blew into thousands of sects from that point on and they watch as we wrangle all our differences out

Currently, “us vs them” consists of various sects of Eastern Orthodox fighting with each other: accusing each other of being spies, kicking monks out of monasteries, and priests praying blessings over soldiers before they go out to blow up other soldiers who also had a blessing prayed over them.

[Sudsy]

I realize this topic is about salvation, so I don’t intend to derail it. But as soon as “gospel of salvation” is said it brings alarms bells.

Typically the Protestant world(anyone who is not of a Catholic perspective or an historical Anabaptist/Mennonite perspective ) uses the term salvation when speaking of the gospel(or yes, the good news). And well Christ spoke of salvation He only ever called the Gospel - the Gospel of the kingdom of God - at least as is recorded in Scripture. In the Protestant view the shift in focus on salvation easily lends to looking for requirements of salvation and much too often the extreme becomes a self focus. These people will ask what is the minimum to be saved, or if something is a salvation issue.

Not in my experience, however most of my experience is with evangelical types (Pentecostals, Baptists, Mennonite Brethren, Salvation Army) and not other less evangelical Protestant labelled groups. The "gospel of salvation" has a core belief that Jesus saves us from our sins and Paul describes what is of first importance to believe to be saved. 1 Cor 15:1-4

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, -------

Jesus said to Nicodemus that he must be born again and then explained how this occurs from a belief - John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

So there are required beliefs regarding Jesus and when these beliefs are embraced in one's heart, the scripture says we are born again. The jailor asked Paul ans Silas and got this answer on what he must do to be saved and got this answer - Acts 16:30-31

He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

In my experience, salvation in evangelical churches was not about a bare minimum to be saved but rather receiving Jesus as Lord and Saviour which will result in becoming a new creation with new desires to follow Jesus.

I agree that some who evangelize have presented the Gospel as a 'getting a free ticket for heaven' with little to no expectation of this changing one's life. However, in my experience, a saved person was also a born again person who had a whole new desire to serve the Lord as the Holy Spirit had come to live in them.

I believe there are also people who may appear to be following Jesus who have never been born again. Some of these are Anabaptists as this type is found in all Christian faith groups. In the MB church I attended I heard testimonies at water baptism time of those who were raised in a Mennonite church and did what was required of them but were never born again.



On the other hand a person who focuses on Christ will see Christ’ emphasis on the kingdom of God as a common theme above salvation . They will recognize that salvation is all a part of the Gospel but since it is not the focus of the Gospel these people more often tend to look at the Scriptures for what they get to do in following Christ. Salvation and self become less of a concern and move forward in loving obedience to Christs call.

To me, the 'focus of the Gospel' is what Jesus did to save us from our sins. Upon believing this in one's heart we are born again. This begins a new way of life in 'loving obedience to Christs call'. As Jesus said, unless we are born again we cannot see the Kingdom of God. I like how the Amplified puts John 3:3 -

Jesus answered him, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless a person is born again [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified], he cannot [ever] see and experience the kingdom of God.”