Saving Souls

When folk generally hear the phrase “saving souls” I think they probably think of those evangelists who want to save souls for God’s kingdom. This used to happen in revival meetings when a man, apparently more religious than local clergy would come to town and put up a big tent, holler about fire and brimstone and the perils of going to hell and then ask people to come forward to be “saved” by pledging the belief in our savior Jesus Christ.

Many evangelical churches today included this coming forward as part of their service. In both cases getting saved was a matter of confessing belief in Jesus as Savior, and that act would guarantee you eternal life.

I have a couple of problems with this concept of saving souls. First, no human being, whether they call themselves an evangelist or a prune Danish ever saved anyone else. One person, Jesus Christ, saved everybody at Golgotha when he died on the cross for human sins, or those things, which separate us from God, accomplished that. Folk who claim they save others are egotistical ill informed theologians. A side part of this is the mistaken belief that we cause our salvation by choosing to belief in Jesus. I am an old Calvinist who believes the actor here is God who calls us to belief to which we are irresistibly drawn.

The second problem I have with this is that it limits the saving of souls to just belief. At root here is how we regard soul. A common definition is that soul refers to our spiritual aspect, or the essence of who we are in contrast to just being physical beings. It is also equated with our moral aspects.

A friend of mine once opined why was it that nobody ever asked him “How does it go with your soul?” A common greeting we use is “how are you?” referring to our physical health; he was getting to why is we don’t ask about each other about our spiritual health.

As I said before, I don’t think we can do a thing about saving anyone’s soul, that’s is God’s prevue, but there is a great deal we can do about helping others with the condition of their soul, their essence the moral well being.

Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, believed that by following certain scientific principles a person could become a “clear” or their soul could be perfected. Or, more crassly put, it is found in the phrase, “I’ve got my shit totally together.” In my opinion nobody ever gets there but are always in the process of getting it together.

I think the condition of people’s and even national soul’s are in deep trouble today. Consider the souls of crass materialists who will do anything for the almighty dollar, the bottom line. How is it with the souls of those bankers who took advantage of their customers to gamble and lose in the market and kept money for themselves? How goes it with the souls of CEO and the like who feel justified in earning 400 times of those who work in their companies? How goes it with the souls of politicians who emphasis re-election and power and jobs with businesses who give them money for their campaigns and promise to give them great jobs after their political careers? How goes it with the soul of the nation and allow a small percentage of people to have most of the wealth of the country and turn a deaf ear to those in need? How goes it with souls of employers who do not pay their workers a living wage?

I would also ask how goes it with the souls of veterans who fight for our country, who experience the hells of combat and coming home with post traumatic syndromes, and other traumas and find a country not willing to give them adequate help in helping their souls? How about the souls of those born into poverty, who though they work hard, cannot get a living wage to provide for their families? How goes it with the souls of those who are discriminated because of race, religious belief, ethnicity, sexual preference, or the sex period? Of course this list could go on and on, but you get the idea; we don’t not appear to care that much about the condition of each other’s souls.

A fella once told me that the only thing a pastor should do is save souls, be an evangelists. Realizing that anything I would say to him would fall on deaf ears, I just smiled and changed the subject, but I could not disagree with him more. As a pastor, I felt no responsibility to save souls in terms of saving them in the old fashioned sense of eternal life; that was God’s job. But I did believe I had great responsibility in helping folks with their souls. To teach them over and over again the stories of scripture that were soul building, to give the exposure to morals and values that would make for a more soul fulfilled life. As for evangelical work, meaning in this case getting more folk in the church, that was primarily the role of the members of the church.

So, I ask you my dear readers, how goes it with your soul? What are you doing to enhance your spiritual well being? What are you doing to help others in their spiritual needs? This is the giving the returns gifts manifold, and comforts our own souls.

I worry about the soul of friends and family and of our nation. I believe we live in a primarily secular materialistic society that promotes values that are bad for our souls. But I also don’t believe that God will ever give up on us, we will equip us to help us in soul mending of ourselves and others if we are just open to such a calling.

How goes it with your soul?