“When I posted the first part of this series on Twitter, a fellow replied to the effect that the doctrine that we need salvation is arrogant and bigoted. It only seems so, if we assume the Modernist stance that there is no God who is, who has revealed himself, who has become incarnate in Jesus the Messiah, and who, in Christ is returning to judge the living and the dead.”

In part 1 we looked at the problem created by Jesus’ declaration and the Apostolic teaching that the is the only way to the Father. In this part we need to consider another problem: salvation itself. In the Modern(ist) world it is unthinkable that humans need to be saved from divine wrath. The god(s) of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment movements that swept across Europe, Britain, and eventually North America in the 18th and 19th centuries were benevolent, distant deities. Modernity did away with judgment and with it the necessity of salvation. Salvation became a metaphor for cultural, economic, and civic improvement. Gradually, in the 20th century particularly government became the Savior from earthly evils. In the Late modern period (in the USA, post-1968), salvation was transformed into therapeutic goals and chief among those: self-esteem. This is the tyranny of the late-modern period: the unyielding god of affirmation. Now, since we are all above average, what sense is it to talk of salvation, from what? To what?

Holy Scripture, however, begs to differ. John the Baptizer, the last of the Old Covenant prophets, summarized the message of all the prophets on this score:

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt 3:7–10; ESV).

The Apostle Paul taught the same doctrine. There is a coming judgment and for those who are not utterly righteous (no fair cheating via purgatory) there is “wrath to come.”

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thess 1:9–10; ESV).

and again to the Thessalonian congregation:

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— 6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed (2 Thess 2:5–10; ESV).

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