What does it mean to be saved? Jesus expresses it clearly “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Lk 19:9-10). Saint Paul will later add: “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4). It is reaching someone, having their company, their total friendship, reaching eternal life which consists of knowing God and his messenger, Jesus Christ (John 17:3).
But what does it mean to know God? Think, feel and act according to the mind, will and intention of God. The human being was created by God to be happy, a situation that only happens if it includes eternity. Being saved will then be: achieving the fullness of life in eternal intimacy with God. God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. But the one who defines salvation is not God, but man. God makes the proposal, man must give the answer, choose, accept, comply.
God offers his grace to all; It does not discriminate, predestine or condemn anyone, it respects the personal will to choose and opt. Salvation is within everyone's reach; only by express rejection it can be lost.
There are people who claim that reading the Bible, interpreting its content, is the only necessary and exclusive means or element to be saved. But this statement is incomplete, since it does not cover all people, all times or all situations. Also, where does the Bible say that it must be read to be saved? Who has defined it as the sole and exclusive means to achieve salvation?
If it were, strictly speaking, mandatory for everyone, how many people would be excluded? How could the salvation be foreseen for all those who lived and died before the Bible was written, the unevangelized of all times, the illiterate, the blind, etc.?
Would God be just, merciful, if he had dictated such unequal demands?
This condition, even if it were valid from the Bible, would not fit into the concept of universality of salvation and would be equally unfair, because the number of people who do not know the Bible far exceeds those who have knowledge of it.
But what does it mean to know God? Think, feel and act according to the mind, will and intention of God. The human being was created by God to be happy, a situation that only happens if it includes eternity. Being saved will then be: achieving the fullness of life in eternal intimacy with God. God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. But the one who defines salvation is not God, but man. God makes the proposal, man must give the answer, choose, accept, comply.
God offers his grace to all; It does not discriminate, predestine or condemn anyone, it respects the personal will to choose and opt. Salvation is within everyone's reach; only by express rejection it can be lost.
There are people who claim that reading the Bible, interpreting its content, is the only necessary and exclusive means or element to be saved. But this statement is incomplete, since it does not cover all people, all times or all situations. Also, where does the Bible say that it must be read to be saved? Who has defined it as the sole and exclusive means to achieve salvation?
If it were, strictly speaking, mandatory for everyone, how many people would be excluded? How could the salvation be foreseen for all those who lived and died before the Bible was written, the unevangelized of all times, the illiterate, the blind, etc.?
Would God be just, merciful, if he had dictated such unequal demands?
This condition, even if it were valid from the Bible, would not fit into the concept of universality of salvation and would be equally unfair, because the number of people who do not know the Bible far exceeds those who have knowledge of it.
