#personal salvation

2015: weighed around 300+lbs and didn’t realize how much I was hurting my body

2016: dropped 10lbs early that year but gained 5+lbs, started working out at the YMCA and began a diet involving cutting out snacks & fast food

2017: lost 15lbs with slim fast and continued workout at the YMCA

2018: infrequent trips to the YMCA and neglect to my diet shortly after the death of my grandmother ended in gaining over 12+lbs (this is when I weighed the most overweight according to my mom)

2019: started the apple cider vinegar diet and lost around 28lbs, took diet and exercise seriously up to the start of the CV19 pandemic 😷

As the Day Ends As we settle into the quiet of this Advent evening, our hearts return to the wonder of Christ’s birth and to the deeper truth behind the season: the Child who came into the world must also come into your life. Charles Spurgeon’s words reach across time with striking clarity: “It avails you little that Christ is born, or that Christ died, unless unto you a Child is born, and for…

I mean why would He if he plans on everyone moving to heaven one day?

This line of thought is rampant among evangelicals, and while it hints at a truth, it doesn’t give us a complete truth. 

Each day I see more and more people seemingly, confounded by their evangelical friends lack of care for the planet they inhabit. To an outsider looking in it doesn’t make sense. But I promise that they have their reasons. Albeit, I believe very misguided reasons. 

My wife and I were talking about this very particular subject and it got me thinking as to why this denial of mainstream science runs so deep. I had to ask myself some very personal questions regarding my faith and the faith of a lot of those around me in order to confront this head on. 

But before we talk about climate, let’s talk about souls.

Growing up as a Southern Baptist we are taught the value of a soul. For us, Souls face an eternal stake. Our souls will either spend an eternity in Heaven, or our soul will spend eternity in Hell. In order for a person to spend eternity in Heaven, we must accept that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord. Not doing so will result in eternal separation from God. To the person that believes this wholeheartedly it should come as no surprise, then, those other issues don’t matter as much. 

As Penn Jillette once said, “It would be immoral of someone to not try and convert me if that's what they truly believed.”

We call this conversion of a soul to Jesus, our personal salvation. We are saved by no merit of our own and only by accepting God’s grace can this be possible. The highest aim, it seems then, is to save as many people from Hell as possible before you die.

So to care for the climate. To be good stewards of the earth isn’t really important if it’s eventually going to Hell in a hand basket.

While this may seem to be a watered down version of evangelical thought this is generally what we believe.

While caring for the poor and the orphan and the widow and the planet are important (Jesus’s words) we must save them from eternal damnation because that is what’s most important. Personal salvation doesn’t include saving the planet. 

Heaven is our future home, not earth, remember?

To my evangelical friends.

Personal salvation, while important, isn’t the entire gospel. The good news isn’t just about going to heaven when you die, it’s also about living well while we’re here. It’s about our vocation to “make it on earth as it is in heaven” (again Jesus’s words). Our hope isn’t in leaving this world when we die, but leaving it in a better place when we do.

Personal salvation theology, if that is the entire gospel, exempts and justifies all of us who believe in it from actually following a lot of what Jesus said. That, in my opinion, is the greatest heresy we could ever commit. We cannot separate the soul from the Human. They are of equally eternal importance. 

The personal salvation gospel has allowed us to remain on the sidelines for too long when it comes to issues, not just like climate change, but to systemic racism, poverty and bigotry. Our future children will face the consequences of our actions, or inaction to be most concise. But be not mistaken, we will all be judged by our deeds. Maybe not in this life, but in the life to come.

Jesus came to save everything, so if it’s important to Him it should very well be important to us.

Books you can read that challenge this notion of only personal salvation as being the Gospel.

N.T. Wright’s Suprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, The Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship

Jefferson Bethke’s It’s Not What You Think