Beware the Myth of Collective Salvation

From a recent article I wrote:

Beware the Myth of Collective Salvation: The subject of Collective Salvation probably had its last great stand in the 1970's thru early 1990's under the guise of Liberation Theology, which primarily came out of the horror and suffering of South American civil wars. But here in the United States, we are now hearing it more and more and more. And unlike South America, where it sprang up from a synthesis between the communists and the Roman Catholic clergy, we are seeing it coming straight at us from our own Federal Government. That, in and of itself, should be very troubling to all faithful Christians.

First let me be very very clear. In Christianity and Christian Theology, salavation is an individual issue. Our salvation depends on Jesus Christ and our faith in Him as our Lord and Savior. Period, end of story, no ifs, no buts, and no add-ons, period!

Collective Salvation posits that there can be no wealth, unless all have wealth. There can be no successful people, unless all are successful. There can be no salvation until all achieve equality in all dimensions of humanity. The most sneaky formulation is that the grace of Jesus Christ has to be the same grace for everyone (more on that later).

Where wealth is mal-distributed (in someone's opinion), where some achieve worldly success but others don't (in somone's opinion), and where we all don't have all the same things (in someone's opinion), the priesthood of Collective Salvation demands that there must be sacrifices. In the theology of Collective Salvation, the poor and oppressed have a special duty to bring the wealthy oppressors to salvation by taking their wealth from them. The poor and oppressed cannot achieve salvation until they bring the wealthy to redemption by redistributing their wealth; hence the term "collective" salvation.

Please notice that in the previous paragraph there is no mention of Jesus! The arbitrars of equality are self-appointed judges who not only decide how wealth and success are to be portioned out, but also decide who will make sacrifices for the "Collective Salvation" of the whole.

Jesus told us a much different story of salvation. He told us (see the Gospel of John), "I am the truth, the way, and the life.........the path to the Father is through me". We each are personally responsible for our salvation through our devotion, worship, and faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. As we recently heard in the Gospel of Luke, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, but that brotherly, Christian love is not to be confused with the Christian Theology of our own personal salvation. Everyone can partake of the grace of Jesus Christ through faith. But that in no way shape or form suggests that all will achieve equal outcomes in their earthly existance. You might say, that is what heaven is for!

Does this seem confusing? There are those who try to make it that way. Please talk to your clergy if this confusion troubles you.