RSB2Christian Beliefs: Salvation, Life After Death and the Problem of Evil

• Salvation means being saved, or rescued, from sin and its consequences, so that a person is restored to a right relationship with God and can have eternal life.
• Sin is any thought, word or action that goes against God’s will and separates people from God.
• Original sin: Christians believe that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God (Genesis 3, ‘the Fall’), sin entered the world. Paul writes that “sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12, World English Bible, British Edition). Many Christians believe every human is born with a tendency to do wrong.
• Paul says “all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, World English Bible, British Edition), so no one can save themselves.
• “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, World English Bible, British Edition).
• Christians believe God loves humans too much to leave them separated from him, so he made salvation possible through Jesus.

Salvation

Being saved from sin and its consequences; restored to a right relationship with God; eternal life.

Sin

Thoughts, words or actions that go against God’s will and separate people from God.

Original sin

The tendency to do wrong that Christians believe all humans inherit from the Fall of Adam and Eve.

• Law: God gave moral laws, such as the Ten Commandments, and Jesus taught people to love God and their neighbour. Keeping God’s law shows faith and love. Paul taught that the law also shows people their sin, because no one keeps it perfectly.
• Grace: God’s free, undeserved love. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works” (Ephesians 2:8–9, World English Bible, British Edition). Salvation is a gift, not a reward to be earned.
• The Spirit: Christians believe the Holy Spirit lives in believers, helping them turn from sin and grow in holiness. Paul lists the “fruit of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23).
• Different emphases:
• Many Protestants stress that people are saved by grace through faith alone; the 39 Articles (Article XI) say people are justified (made right with God) by faith only. Good works follow as a result.
• Catholics believe salvation is God’s gift received through faith and the sacraments (beginning with baptism), and shown in good works: “faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself” (James 2:17, World English Bible, British Edition).

Law, grace and the Spirit in Christian beliefs about salvation

Grace

God’s free and undeserved love and help.

Law

God’s commands, such as the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ teaching.

Faith

Trust in God and in Jesus.

• John 3:10–21: Jesus talks with Nicodemus, a religious leader, about being “born anew” (John 3:3). He says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16, World English Bible, British Edition).
• The passage teaches that salvation comes from God’s love, is received by believing in Jesus, and that God sent his Son “that the world should be saved through him” (John 3:17), not to condemn it.
• Acts 4:8–12: Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, tells the Jewish leaders that a disabled man was healed in Jesus’ name, and says: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given amongst men, by which we must be saved!” (Acts 4:12, World English Bible, British Edition).
• So most Christians believe Jesus is the only way to salvation. Some Christians (inclusivists) believe God may also save people of other faiths or none through Christ, even if they don’t know him.
• Christians believe Jesus saves through his death (which deals with sin), his resurrection (which defeats death) and his ascension (he now speaks for believers with the Father).

Eternal life

Life with God that never ends, which Christians believe begins now and continues after death.

• Atonement means repairing the relationship between God and humans that sin broke: making them ‘at one’ again. Christians believe this happened through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross.
• “Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18, World English Bible, British Edition).
• John calls Jesus “the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 2:2, World English Bible, British Edition).
• Ways Christians explain it:
• Substitution: Jesus took the punishment for sin in humanity’s place.
• Sacrifice: like the lamb sacrificed in the Old Testament, Jesus’ death takes sin away (John the Baptist called him “the Lamb of God”).
• Ransom: Jesus came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), setting people free from sin and death.
• Example of love: the cross shows how much God loves humanity and inspires people to turn back to him.
• Link to salvation: atonement is how Christians believe salvation is made possible. Article XXXI of the 39 Articles says Christ’s one offering on the cross was enough for all sins. Christians remember it in the Eucharist and on Good Friday.

Atonement

The restoring of the relationship between God and humans through Jesus’ sacrificial death.

Sacrifice

Giving something up, here Jesus giving his life, to deal with sin.

• Eschatology is the study of the ‘last things’: death, judgement and the end of the world. Christians hold different beliefs about the details.
• Resurrection: Christians believe that, because Jesus rose from the dead, the dead will also be raised. Paul calls Christ “the first fruit of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20) and says the body is “raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44, World English Bible, British Edition): a transformed body, not a ghost.
• Some Christians believe in a physical resurrection at the end of time; others believe the soul goes to God at death and receives its resurrection body later; some think of resurrection mainly in spiritual terms.
• Judgement: “we must all be revealed before the judgement seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10, World English Bible, British Edition).
• Catholics believe in a particular judgement straight after death and a final (general) judgement when Christ returns. The creeds and Article IV of the 39 Articles say Christ will return to judge the living and the dead.
• In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31–46), people are judged on how they treated the hungry, strangers, the sick and prisoners: “you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40).
• Christians differ on what people are judged on: faith in Jesus (John 3:16), actions (Matthew 25), or both, with God’s mercy and grace.

Eschatology

Beliefs about the ‘last things’: death, judgement, heaven, hell and the end of the world.

Resurrection

Being raised from death to new life with a transformed body.

Judgement

God, through Christ, deciding each person’s eternal destiny.

• Heaven: eternal life in God’s presence, with no more death or pain (Revelation 21:4). Jesus said: “In my Father’s house are many homes” (John 14:2, World English Bible, British Edition). Many Christians see heaven as a state of being with God, not a physical place.
• Hell: eternal separation from God. Traditionally a place of punishment; Jesus spoke of “eternal fire” (Matthew 25:41). Many Christians today see it as a state that people choose by rejecting God. Some believe a loving God will in the end save everyone (universalism).
• Purgatory (Catholic teaching, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church): a state of cleansing after death for people who die in God’s friendship but are not yet completely pure. They will reach heaven. Catholics pray for the dead and have Masses said for them.
• The 39 Articles (Church of England, 1571): Article XXII rejects the Catholic teaching on purgatory as having no basis in Scripture. Most Protestants agree: Christ’s death is enough, so no further cleansing is needed.
• 2 Corinthians 5:1–10: Paul compares the body to a tent that will be taken down, and says believers have “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens” (5:1). He would rather be “absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord” (5:8, both World English Bible, British Edition), but all will face Christ’s judgement (5:10).
• Why these beliefs matter to Christians today (they differ): hope and comfort when someone dies, shown at funerals; a reason to live a moral life and help others (Matthew 25); accountability for choices; a reason to share their faith; for Catholics, praying for the dead. Some Christians say love for God, not hope of reward or fear of hell, should be the reason to do good.

Heaven

Eternal life in God’s presence.

Hell

Eternal separation from God.

Purgatory

Catholic teaching: a state of cleansing after death before heaven.

39 Articles of Religion

The Church of England’s statement of beliefs (1571); Article XXII rejects purgatory.

Spec point 1.6 has an asterisk, so Pearson can ask you to describe differences between Christian beliefs and another religion’s. Genious uses Islam, the religion of Paper 2. (Muslim beliefs are taught in full in the Akhirah topic.)

• Similarities: both believe in one God who judges, a bodily resurrection, a final Day of Judgement, and heaven and hell. Both believe actions in this life matter.
• How to answer ‘Describe two differences’: give a Christian belief (1 mark) and the contrasting Muslim belief (1 mark), twice. Use linking words such as ‘whereas’ or ‘but in Islam’.

Christian and Muslim beliefs about life after death side by side

Akhirah

The Muslim belief in life after death.

Barzakh

In Islam, the waiting state between death and the Day of Judgement.

• Christians believe God is omnipotent (all-powerful) and benevolent (all-loving), and also righteous (just). Yet evil and suffering exist.
• The problem: if God is all-powerful, he could stop suffering; if he is all-loving, he would want to. So why does suffering happen? Philosophers such as Epicurus and David Hume set out this problem; it is sometimes called the ‘inconsistent triad’.
• Psalm 103 describes God as compassionate and forgiving: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness” (Psalm 103:8, World English Bible, British Edition), caring for people as a father cares for his children (103:13). The psalm also says God forgives sins and heals diseases (103:3) and removes people’s wrongdoing “as far as the east is from the west” (103:12). This makes the problem sharper: why would such a God allow suffering?
• Natural suffering: caused by nature, not by people: earthquakes, floods, droughts, disease.
• Moral suffering: caused by human choices: war, murder, abuse, theft, terrorism.
• Questioning faith: suffering can lead believers to doubt or lose faith, to feel abandoned by God or angry with him, or to conclude that God does not exist or is not all-loving. Even Jesus cried on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). Others find their faith grows stronger.

The problem of evil: three beliefs that seem not to fit together

Natural suffering

Suffering caused by natural events, such as earthquakes or disease.

Moral suffering

Suffering caused by human actions, such as war or murder.

Inconsistent triad

God is omnipotent; God is benevolent; evil exists. It seems all three can’t be true.

• Biblical: Job. Job loses his wealth, children and health but says, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the LORD’s name” (Job 1:21, World English Bible, British Edition). God later tells Job humans can’t understand God’s ways. Lesson: trust God even when suffering makes no sense.
• Biblical: Psalm 119. “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71, World English Bible, British Edition): suffering can teach and bring people closer to God.
• Biblical: Jesus suffered on the cross, so Christians believe God shares in human suffering and can bring good from it (Romans 8:28).
• Theoretical: free will. God gave humans free will so they could truly love him. Free will means people can choose evil, which causes moral suffering. Augustine linked suffering to the misuse of free will at the Fall.
• Theoretical: the vale of soul-making. Irenaeus (2nd century), developed by John Hick (20th century), argued the world is a place where people grow: courage, compassion and patience can only develop where there is real difficulty.
• Practical: prayer. Christians pray for those who suffer and for strength for themselves; prayer can bring comfort and a sense of God’s presence.
• Practical: charity. Christians follow Jesus, who healed the sick, by helping those who suffer: giving money, volunteering, or supporting charities such as Christian Aid. This doesn’t explain suffering but responds to it.

Free will

The ability to make real choices, including the choice to do evil.

Vale of soul-making

Irenaeus’s and Hick’s idea that the world is a place where people grow in goodness through facing difficulty.

• Many Christians say no single solution answers the problem completely, but together they show it is reasonable to believe in a loving God.
• Some Christians say the problem is a mystery: the cross shows God suffers alongside people, and they trust that heaven will end suffering (Revelation 21:4).
• Atheists argue the solutions fail and that suffering is evidence that an all-powerful, all-loving God doesn’t exist. (Non-religious views only earn marks when a question asks for them.)