Corporate and Individual Salvation

Could it be that this is a false dichotomy? That neither corporate nor individual salvation is more or less important, fundamental, primary, causal or Biblical than the other? Could it be that both are intertwined in the same disposition and activity of God with respect to his creation and its renewal? Could the very question, "Is salvation corporate or individual" simply be the wrong question? Or, rather, a question to which the answer is both "Yes" and "No"?

A developing thought ... that requires a lot more development ... and probably a good straight-through reading of the whole of the Scriptures ... followed by discussion ...

4 comments:

wcc said...

What do you mean by corporate salvation?

August said...

I think you are headed in the right direction. These are categories that aren't truly meaningful in the context of salvation. We must respond in a personal fashion to salvation, which necessarily comes in the context of pre-existing relationships...

JPB said...

WCC -- I mean something like God's salvation or a people, or God's election of Israel, or God's bringing into existence a people for himself. There has always been some corporate dimension to his work with humanity.

Unknown said...

Hmm...let us think this over for late night/post kid bedtime discussion. I am hoping for discussions such as these. At first thought, I would follow the lines you are drawing; however, my first thoughts are just that: not too thought out.
I think I am coming to a much more corporate view of many things Christian, but yet Christ does work in each of us...individually...yet connected to one another. Okay...enough thinking out loud.