This paper offers a structural reading of the biblical account of salvation using Scripture as its sole authoritative source. Rather than relying on later theological, philosophical, or psychological categories, it reconstructs the biblical narrative in its own relational and directional grammar. The human condition is presented not as a legal deficit but as a state of disorientation—a curvature of perception, desire, and agency away from the Triune source of life. Within this framework, heaven and hell function as trajectories rather than locations, and darkness names the opposing pattern that bends human orientation away from coherence.The paper argues that salvation is best understood as re‑alignment through union with Christ: the restoration of perception, desire, agency, and identity as human beings are drawn into the kingdom’s relational order. Judgment is framed not as an arbitrary sorting but as the eschatological stabilization of the trajectory a person has embraced. By allowing Scripture’s own categories to guide the analysis, the paper presents salvation as a coherent, integrated reality grounded in the biblical narrative rather than in external disciplinary frameworks.
Denis Bailey (Mon,) studied this question.