Lordship salvation

The "lordship salvation" controversy (also "Lordship Controversy") is a theological dispute regarding key soteriological questions within Evangelical Christianity, involving some non-denominational and Evangelical churches in North America at least since the 1980s. The dispute spawned several books, pamphlets, and conferences.

"By grace alone" and "by faith alone" are two of the so-called "Five Solas" of the Protestant Reformation (see five solae). Many Protestants affirm these phrases as distinctively Protestant, whereas the Lordship Salvation controversy concerns what grace and faith must include, and what they must exclude, for a person to "have salvation" in the evangelical Protestant sense. The language of what must be included permeates the whole debate and is often transferred from the meaning of the concepts to the status of someone's experience; thus, "As a part of his saving work, God will produce repentance, faith, sanctification, yieldedness, obedience, and ultimately glorification. Since he is not dependent on human effort in producing these elements, an experience that lacks any of them cannot be the saving work of God."

Related to the issue of what must be included or not, the debate also looks at conversion using language which refers to concepts on "accepting Christ as ...." This is how the term Lordship became associated with the debate, by discussions of various ways to accept Christ; sometimes "accepting Christ as Savior" or "accepting Christ as Lord" were distinguished, and a debate ensued. This is reflected in various modern translations, taking a cue from Colossians 2:6 in the Good News Bible, which has "accept" for what is to be done about Christ. In the New International Version of the same verse, the word "receive" is used. Thus, a common question was "do (or did) you accept (or receive) Christ as Lord?" The controversy became defined by the question of whether or not this part is included.

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