Salvation

[4] Depending on the religion or even denomination, salvation is considered to be caused either only by the grace of God (i.e. unmerited and unearned), or by faith, good deeds (works), or a combination thereof.

In contemporary Judaism, redemption (Hebrew: גְּאוּלָּה‎ ge'ulah), refers to God redeeming the people of Israel from their various exiles.

In Judaism, salvation is closely related to the idea of redemption, a saving from the states or circumstances that destroy the value of human existence.

[8] The Jewish concept of Messiah visualises the return of the prophet Elijah as the harbinger of one who will redeem the world from war and suffering, leading mankind to universal brotherhood under the fatherhood of one God.

Possibly an over-simplification, one source says salvation can be achieved in the following manner: Live a holy and righteous life dedicated to Yahweh, the God of Creation.

[6] In the biblical text of Psalms, there is a description of death, when people go into the earth or the "realm of the dead" and cannot praise God.

[10] It was not until the 2nd century BCE that there arose a belief in an afterlife, in which the dead would be resurrected and undergo divine judgment.

[11] During the Second Temple Period, the Sadducees, High Priests, denied any particular existence of individuals after death because it wasn't written in the Torah, while the Pharisees, ancestors of the rabbis, affirmed both bodily resurrection and immortality of the soul, most likely based on the influence of Hellenistic ideas about body and soul and the Pharisaic belief in the Oral Torah.

The Pharisees maintained that after death, the soul is connected to God until the messianic era when it is rejoined with the body in the land of Israel at the time of resurrection.

[10]Christianity's primary premise is that the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ formed the climax of a divine plan for humanity's salvation.

It assumes an important position, however, only when the ills in question form part of a great system against which human power is helpless.

While some of the differences are as widespread as Christianity itself, the overwhelming majority agree that salvation is made possible by the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, dying on the cross.

The Christian tradition has always equated this salvation with the transcendent, eschatological fulfillment of human existence in a life freed from sin, finitude, and mortality and united with the triune God.

The story is set against the background of the history of God's people and reaches its climax in the person and work of Christ.

His plan includes the promise of blessing for all nations through Abraham and the redemption of Israel from every form of bondage.

This role was fulfilled by Jesus, who will ultimately destroy all the devil's work, including suffering, pain, and death.Variant views on salvation are among the main fault lines dividing the various Christian denominations: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism.

The fault lines can include conflicting definitions of depravity, predestination, atonement, but most pointedly justification.

While some of the differences are as widespread as Christianity itself, the overwhelming majority agrees that salvation is made possible by the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, dying on the cross.

Each individual's plight as a sinner is the result of a fatal choice involving the whole person in bondage, guilt, estrangement, and death.

"It must offer redemption from bondage, forgiveness for guilt, reconciliation for estrangement, renewal for the marred image of God.

"[23] According to doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the plan of salvation is God's plan to save, redeem, and exalt all humankind who chose, either in this life, or in the world of spirits of the dead, to accept the grace of Jesus Christ by exercising faith in Him, repenting of their sins, and by making and keeping sacred covenants (including baptism).

For this reason, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do vicarious work for the dead in sacred temples.

[33] In these religions one is not liberated from sin and its consequences, but from the saṃsāra (cycle of rebirth) perpetuated by passions and delusions and its resulting karma.

The word literally means 'blown out' (as in a candle) and refers, in the Buddhist context, to the blowing out of the fires of desire, aversion, and delusion,[37][38] and the imperturbable stillness of mind acquired thereafter.

[42] Things one could do to be saved was to pray, offer sacrifices, and/or become a xian (Chinese: 仙; pinyin: Xiān) immortal.