What Is Soteriology?
The Definition
As we begin the month of April, what better way is there to begin than to discuss the overall idea of salvation? We’ve just come off our celebration of the resurrection of Christ and what that means for us as believers, so why not dive even deeper into the soteriological pool? Throughout the month of April, we will dissect soteriology and break down multiple biblical and unbiblical views that we have of salvation. To answer these questions, however, we must first have a view of what soteriology is. As you may have guessed by our points made thus far, soteriology is the overall study of salvation. As the Britannica puts it, “The term soteriology denotes beliefs and doctrines concerning salvation in any specific religion, as well as the study of the subject.” As you can see, this is not a topic to be taken lightly and we must be able to know as much as we can about this particular topic. This is why Peter tells us in Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.” With this in mind let’s look deeper into what soteriology is and why it is so crucial that we understand it.
False Views
To start, the study of salvation is vital because, with multiple religions in the world, there are multiple claims of how to achieve salvation. This is what is so dangerous about the ‘coexist’ movement or universalism. This movement and belief claims that all roads in the end lead to salvation as long as you believe in some type of god. No matter what the prerequisites are for your specific religion, anyone can get into heaven. Those standards only apply to you because that’s the religion of choice that you have submitted yourself to, but it doesn’t apply to all people. Sounds faulty doesn’t it? Essentially, what universalism believes is that truth isn’t relative and can basically mean something for one person and then the exact opposite for another. Everyone’s path is completely different according to the universalist mind, and there’s nothing wrong with that. All paths lead to the same god anyway. I hope I don’t have to stay on this topic too long for you to understand what is absolutely wrong with this way of thinking. But just in case I do, I think John MacArthur sums up the overall idea of universalism beautifully when he says, “The heart of universalism is unbelief regarding the gospel. It’s a rejection of Christ as the only way of salvation, and a deadly downplaying of the severity of sin. A universalist sees no need to plead with others over the gospel, since his view negates the sinfulness of sin, the exclusivity of Christ, and the finality of the grave. Universalism is a repudiation of the gospel and salvation that makes God a weak-willed liar.” This may seem harsh, but so is hell. If we want to truly spend eternity with Christ, we must know how to get there. And universalism is certainly not it. Jesus Himself warned us about these many different views of salvation, so we can’t act surprised when we hear multiple people claiming this view as true. In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus tells us, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Salvation is a serious matter, and it’s time we treat it as such.
False Christians
Furthermore, another reason we must know what we believe when it comes to salvation is because of how many principles and doctrines that so-called ‘believers’ have changed in the church today. That’s right, not only must we be aware of what other religions are teaching the world about salvation, but we must also be aware of those who claim to be Christians when in reality they are wolves in sheep’s clothing who are just leading Christians away. This is the more touchy subject and yet a very popular subject amongst Christians today. It's easy to say that other religions have it wrong when it comes to salvation, but telling someone that a particular teacher or preacher is incorrect could cause a stir. However, as much of a debate and conflict that calling out false teaching and teachers may have with other believers, it’s still important that we do this to know what is true about salvation and what isn’t. This is why Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:11-13 “Do not participate in the useless deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.” And in case that isn’t enough, Paul warns Timothy about this in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” As painful and uncomfortable as it may be, we must be willing to call out those who claim to be Christians, even though the Bible would say differently. As you can probably tell, there is a lot more this month that we will be diving into regarding soteriology, but for now, I hope and pray that you understand not just what soteriology is, but why it is so vital for us to understand it. I encourage and humbly ask you to pray with me this month as we tackle some heavy and even uncomfortable topics that we will be discussing so that all who read may understand salvation, and help guide those who don’t.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] Soteriology. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/soteriology
[3] Grace to you. (n.d.). https://www.gty.org/library/Print/Blog/B160321
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