Brian D. McLaren (MA, University of Maryland) is an author, speaker, activist and public theologian. After teaching college English, Brian pastored Cedar Ridge Community Church in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area. Brain has been active in networking and mentoring church planters and pastors for over 20 years. He is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings in the US and internationally.
Tony Campolo (Ph.D., Temple University) is professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University in suburban Philadelphia, a media commentator on religious, social, and political matters, and the author of a dozen books, including Revolution and Renewal, Let me Tell You a Story, and 20 Hot Potatoes Christians Are Afraid to touch.
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Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the GospelMISSING THE POINT:SalvationBrian D. McLarenAre you saved?For people who come from evangelical and fundamentalistbackgrounds (as I do), life is about being (or getting) saved,and knowing it. I was taught that the ideal Christian could tellyou the exact date---and maybe even the hour and minute---when he was saved, when he experienced salvation. Are yousaved? was a question that everyone understood meant one orall of the following:* You had accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.* You believed that Jesus died on the cross for your sins,and you believed his death, not your good deeds, madeit possible for your sins to be forgiven.* At the end of a church service, during the 'invitation,'you had said 'the sinner's prayer,' then during the'invitation' walked to the front of the church---this wasthe 'altar call'---or perhaps only raised your hand toacknowledge your conversion.* You gained an assurance that you were going to heavenafter you died.I assure you, I think it's good to be saved in this way. Yet I alsothink that the Bible has less to say about these four things thanmany Christians may think. Consider:* The phrase accept Christ as your personal Savior is not in theBible. Even personal Savior is absent from the pages ofthe Bible. In fact, the Bible seems to make the focus ofsalvation on us as a people, not on me as an individual.* Having your sins forgiven is no doubt a part of (or aprelude to) salvation. But in the Bible salvation meansmuch more than that: if anything, being forgiven is thestarting line, not the finish line, of salvation.* Nowhere in the Bible is the term sinner's prayermentioned, and no one in the Bible ever says it---atleast not in the form that prospective converts aretaught to say it today. And it wasn't until the last 150years or so that Christian services included'invitations' or 'altar calls.' Furthermore, no one hasever or will ever walk down an aisle or raise a hand to'get saved.' Invitations, altar calls, and sinner's prayersare wonderful and often useful traditions or rituals---Ijust don't think that salvation lies in them.* If you had asked the apostle Paul, 'If you were to dietonight, do you know for certain that you would be withGod in heaven?' I'm certain Paul would have said yes.But he probably would have given you a funny look andwondered why you were asking this question, because tohim it missed the point. To Paul the point of beingChrist's follower was not just to help people beabsolutely certain they were going to heaven after theydied. Paul's goal was to help them become fully formed,mature in Christ, here and now---to experience theglorious realities of being in Christ and experiencingChrist in themselves.So if we are missing the point about salvation, what is thepoint?For starters, in the Old Testament the Hebrew word that istranslated salvation means rescue---especially rescue from sickness,trouble, distress, fear, or (this especially) from enemies andtheir violence. You see this meaning clearly in passages like thisone, in which the people rejoice that God has saved them fromthe Egyptians who had violently oppressed them as slaves forgenerations:The Lord is my strength and my song;he has become my salvation.He is my God, and I will praise him,my father's God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2)Or take David, who expresses the same joy over being rescuedfrom violent people---in this case, King Saul:My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,my shield and the horn of my salvation.He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior---from violent men you save me. (2 Samuel 22:3)A Jewish priest named Zacharias understood salvation in thissame sense. At the birth of his long-awaited son (who would beknown as John the Baptizer), Zacharias sang a song about salvation---but the enemies he sang about were certainly theRomans, who oppressed the Jewish people and denied themtheir full freedom:He has raised up a horn of salvation for usin the house of his servant David(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),salvation from our enemiesand from the hand of all who hate us---to show mercy to our fathersand to remember his holy covenant,the oath he swore to our father Abraham:to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,and to enable us to serve him without fearin holiness and righteousness before him all our days. (Luke 1:69-75)It's clear that in these passages the speakers aren't talking aboutbeing saved from hell. They're talking about being saved fromthe Egyptians, King Saul, the Romans---about being liberatedfrom violence and oppression and the distressing fear theyengender.Not that being saved from hell is unimportant orunbiblical. It is only that I think we sometimes jump to thatinterpretation of salvation too quickly---and in so doing, we missthe full point of salvation.For just a minute or two, box up your understanding ofsalvation and saved long enough to listen to a story, as if it werethe first time you ever heard it.Back in about 1400 B.C., the Bible tells us, the Jewishpeople were slaves in Egypt. They prayed for relief, and Godsent them Moses, who led them to freedom. Moses didn't takethe credit, though---he knew it was God who saved the peoplefrom slavery. After the people escaped Egypt and settled inPalestine, many of their neighbors would brutally attack them---the Philistines, the Amalekites, and others. Again and again,they would pray---and sure enough, God would send them adeliverer (or savior) to save them (or bring them salvation).They eventually faced their most dangerous enemies of all.To their north and east, the powerful and brutal Assyrianempire attacked and destroyed Israel's northern tribes. Someyears later the Assyrians were replaced by a Babylonian regime,and they attacked Israel's southern tribes. They prayed forsalvation, but they were not spared. They weren't destroyed,either: many were carried away as exiles, or prisoners of war, tobe used as servants in the Babylonian empire. When theyarrived in Babylon, the Jews kept on praying for salvation---thistime, salvation from their exile.Later, yet another regime---the Medo-Persians---replaced theBabylonians, and the Hebrew exiles were allowed to return totheir promised land of Israel. The Greeks soon ruled overJudea, and after the Greeks, the Romans. It seemed the Jewswere destined to remain under the control of larger, morepowerful empires.When would their salvation come? When would theirliberation come?After many centuries, the question When? gave way to themore vexing question Why?
