Lordship salvation

Okay, imagine you’re part of a group of friends who love to play pretend. Sometimes, you pretend you’re a princess or a knight or something else completely made up. Now, imagine one of those friends says that the only way you can keep being part of the group is if you pretend to be a princess or a knight all the time, even when you’re not playing pretend together. You can’t be both a regular kid and part of the group anymore – it’s got to be all or nothing. That’s kind of like what “lordship salvation” means.

In Christianity, there are some people who believe that the only way to really believe in Jesus and get to Heaven is if you totally give your whole life to him and follow all his rules perfectly. This means you can’t just believe in Jesus and go on living your life however you want. You have to pretend you’re always playing on his team, even when you’re not in church or reading the Bible. Some people think this is a really good idea because it shows that you’re really committed to Jesus, and it makes you a better person. But other people don’t like it because they think it’s too hard or unrealistic. They think that nobody can follow all of Jesus’ rules perfectly all the time, and that it’s okay to mess up sometimes.

So it’s sort of like that pretend game with your friends – some people think you’ve gotta be all in or all out when it comes to being a Christian, and others think it’s okay to be just a little bit of both, like pretending to be a princess or knight when you’re with your friends but being a regular kid when you’re not. Does that make sense?