Corporate Salvation by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 7, 1907

Corporate Salvation

By C. M. S.

The spirit of the present day is the spirit of unionism, combination, consolidation, trusts; and we find that it is a spirit that is not content to dominate worldly affairs alone. It has crept into the pulpit of the church, till the theme of corporate salvation—the salvation of society en masse—has taken the place formerly occupied by the theme of individual salvation and individual accountability to God—as if society were an entity; as if society had a soul to be saved or lost.

Society is defined as a community of individuals; it is defined as companionship; or as a class of individuals who hold themselves above the ordinary work-a-day people; and it is also in a vague sense, the influence emanating from a community; but it is not in itself a reasoning, thinking, responsible being, a being that can keep or break laws of

its own power or volition. We can not hang, electrocute, or imprison society for the sins of society about which we hear so much. The individual members of the race are held individually responsible for the sins which they commit. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” This is not spoken of society; for it has no soul. We can not in any way make it read: “The society that sinneth, it shall die.” Whatever sins God holds responsible for the sin; whatever is held responsible for the sins is the thing that dies; and the thing that is to die for its sin is the thing that needs salvation, and must have it or be lost.

The Lord himself declares (Deut. 24:16), “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.” This teaches the individual accountability of man to God. If God would not hold a man's family responsible for his sins, he certainly will not hold the community at large responsible. Man can not put upon society the blame for his own wickedness, nor look to the salvation of society for his own individual salvation from the results of his own individual sins.

Salvation is a personal work, the result of a personal reconciliation between man and his Maker. There is no such thing as corporate godliness or corporate salvation. Christ, through the things which he suffered, became a perfect Saviour, that he might “succor them that are tempted.” We are tempted as individuals, not as society. He nowhere tells us that he came into this world to succor and save society. The blessedness of the real facts of the gospel are lost sight of in the idea of society salvation. It is true that Christ died for the world; but that can only be said because he died for every individual in the world. He died for you; he died for me. He will save you; he will save me; he will save every individual that will surrender to him, and accept of his salvation. Christ loves us personally; he died for us personally; he will save us personally, and in no other way. There was no sacrifice made for society; there are no mansions in heaven prepared for society; the names of the redeemed recorded in heaven are not the names of societies; and the saints who “possess the kingdom” possess it as saints, not as societies.

Let us take the teachings of Christ for what they mean, and realize in our individual hearts the blessedness of his individual salvation. Then will our testimonies have power, and our lives will be living witnesses of a true, living Christian experience; and while multitudes are following after the deceptive teachings of these days, such lives and such testimonies will stand out as guideposts for the benighted wayfarer, and as lights shining in a dark place “until the day dawn.”

C. M. S.