Is Salvation about Hell-avoidance? A Response to Gregory A. Boyd

J. D. Gallé | Thursday, 16 June 2016

        In an endnote from The Myth of a Christian Religion (2009), Gregory Boyd writes:

Many today embrace the erroneous view that getting “saved” is about avoiding hell.[1] The biblical concept of salvation is not about avoiding the consequences of sin (hell) but about being freed from the sin that leads to those consequences. It’s about being empowered to walk in a Kingdom way that leads to eternal life, not death.[2] This is why the New Testament speaks of salvation as something that has happened, is happening, and will happen.[3, 4]

        What is presented here is a rather obvious case of a false dichotomy. Human salvation consists of both the deliverance from the power and consequence(s) of sin. In other words, it is a case of both-and, not either-or. As Boyd and I are in basic agreement on salvation entailing deliverance from sin’s power, it is upon the latter point that I will dwell: salvation is from the penalty of sin.

Jesus on salvation from Gehenna

        Jesus solemnly warns of the adverse eschatological fate awaiting those who fail to take even extreme measures to overcome the stumbling block of indulging in illicit lust (i.e. covetousness): they will be cast into Gehenna (Matt. 5.29–30). (Elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus defines Gehenna as a place where soul/life and body are destroyed [10.28].) Jesus tells his hearers that it is better for an individual to have a single member of his or her body perish (an eye, a hand) than to lose his or her entire person in Gehenna (the ‘whole body’, 5.29–30). This is one instance where Jesus attempts to motivate those who would be his disciples to obedience by taking the necessary precautions to avoid the negative outcome (i.e. consequence[s]) of sin.[5] Persevering disciples of Jesus will be saved from Gehenna; the unrighteous will not (see 18.8–9; 25.41).

Paul on salvation from the wrath of God

        Other NT evidence corroborates the truth that an integral aspect of salvation is deliverance from sin’s penalty. For example, Paul states that God’s wrath is already present in some way against those who persist in unrighteousness, ungodliness, idolatry, and suppression of the truth of God as sovereign Creator (Rom. 1.18–32). For those who abuse the kindness of God and fail to respond in repentance in the present age, the day of judgement will be a day of wrath (2.4–5). ‘There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek’ (v. 9).[6] For those who ‘do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury’ (v. 8). Conversely, having been declared righteous by the blood of Christ, believers will be saved from the future wrath (5.9). An integral aspect of salvation, then, is the avoidance of the negative divine judgement against sin.[7]

Notes

        1. With regard to the nature of future punishment (i.e. ‘hell’), since 2008 or earlier Boyd has apparently adopted the position of annihilationism. See Gregory A. Boyd, ‘The Case for Annihilationism’ (19 Jan. 2008): <https://reknew.org/2008/01/the-case-for-annihilationism>.

        In an earlier publication, Boyd attempted to advance a kind of hybrid between endless, conscious punishment and final annihilation. See idem, ‘A Clash of Doctrines: Eternal Suffering and Annihilationism’ and ‘A Separate Reality: Hell, das Nichtige and the Victory of God’, in Satan and the Problem of Evil: Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2001), pp. 319–37 and 338–57. In the end, Boyd’s former attempt at amalgamating endless torture and final annihilation resulted in a variation of the conventional view.
        2. It is not entirely clear whether Boyd intends ‘death’ to be taken in a literal or metaphorical sense. If the former, this would comport well with the doctrine of final annihilation.
        3. I believe Boyd is essentially correct that human salvation may be properly distinguished in three tenses: past (initial), present, and future (final, eschatological).
        4. Gregory A. Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Religion: Losing Your Religion for the Beauty of a Revolution (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), p. 218 n. 1 (par. 1), emphases in original. To visit Boyd’s website, see <https://www.reknew.org>.
        5. In another place, Jesus stresses both positive and negative sides of eschatological judgement in terms of (positively) entering life/the kingdom of God or (negatively) being cast into the Gehenna of fire (Mk 9.43, 45, 47; cf. Matt. 18.8–9).
        6. All scriptural quotations are taken from the English Standard Version.
        7. That negative outcome culminating in death (see Rom. 6.23a).

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022. All rights reserved.

Latest revisions: 19 June 2016 (one sentence slightly emended); 16 September 2016 (minor emendations made to par. 5; one note added); 18 September 2016 (n. 7 revised); 2 October 2016 (minor emendations); 6 October 2016 (minor revision made to reference in n. 5); 15 January 2017 (omitted a term in par. 3; added ‘in Matthew’s Gospel’ to brackets in par. 4; added capitalisation to one term in par. 5 [i.e. ‘Creator’]; 3 April 2017 (minor emendations made to some references); 21 April 2017 (added ‘s’ to the URL code in n. 4); 26 February 2018 (minor editorial revisions); 26 May 2019 (inserted comma in n. 1); added italics for emphasis in par. 1 (18 Oct. 2021); made assorted, minor modifications to n. 1 (19 Nov. 2021); modified one word in n. 6 (21 Feb. 2022).