Salvation
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In religion, salvation is the concept that God "saves" humanity from death, as part of His plan to provide for them an eternal life (cf. afterlife). As commonly conceived, God has both the will and the means to realize human salvation, albeit through means regarded as mysterious and transcendent of current human understanding. According to most religious beliefs, salvation is prescribed only for those judged worthy of everlasting life—a conditional concept with general variants ranging from universal salvation (i.e., near-absolute salvation) to quite narrow and particular concepts that tend to assert a "one true path [to salvation]."
The purpose of salvation is debated (compare purpose of life), but in general most theologians agree that God devised and implemented His plan of salvation because He loves them regards human beings as His children. And because human existence on Earth is said to be "[given] to sin" (John 8:34), salvation also has connotations that deal with the liberation of human beings from sin, and therefore also the inevitable suffering associated with the punishment of sin (i.e., "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
The theological study of salvation is called soteriology: it covers the means by which salvation is effected or achieved, and its results. Salvation may also be called "deliverance", as in "being delivered" or saved, or "redemption," as in being redeemed or healed [of sin].
