ABSTRACT
Salvation, as understood in the Hebrew Bible (OT), the New Testament, as well within ancient Jewish and early Christian tradition, involves several related concepts. It can refer to a blessed state of an individual after death, usually involving eternal life in a spiritual realm beyond this physical world. Or, it can describe a transformed world at the end of history in which dead are resurrected, and along with those living in that time, enjoy a perfected existence forever. To be saved is to be liberated or rescued from death, injustice, tragedy, evil, and suffering. Whether such salvation comes immediately at the death of an individual, or at the end of history in a millennial transformation, or in a combination of both ideas, the essential hope remains the same.
