Salvation, or the perfection of humanity, is accomplished on an individual basis, through a community, and for the entire species.
Enough has been written about personal salvation. Suffice it to say that personal salvation occurs whenever an individual opens her or himself up to The Godhead, and that this most often occurs with a realization of the meaning of the Cross of Christ...in our culture.
The Faith Community is also responsible for and receives salvation or perfection. As the Faith Community receives revelation, it grows in salvation, as do all of its members. Then, as the Faith Community acts upon that revelation, it administers salvation, or the process of perfection. This administration is not just to its members, but to those people, communities and institutions outside of its membership that it touches, as well. Through this process, the Faith Community has been responsible for many of the ethical and social improvements. These improvements occurred because the Faith Community was willing to act on the revelation it received.
The Godhead is invisibly and persistently at work in us to complete our perfection or evolution. It uses individual humans as well as the Faith Community as Its agents in this process. While it may appear that a particular change or improvement was the result of a persistent person or group of people, we must understand that The Godhead was the original agent of this change or improvement. Quite often, The Godhead accomplished that change by creating an awareness of the nature of a particular sin, of the consequences of that sin in the heart of one human or group of human beings. If we recognize this involvement, we can honestly declare that Christ stands at the pinnacle of eternity, drawing us to Himself, through evolution, in order to accomplish this perfection.
The Godhead invaded our history in the person of Jesus, the Christ, in order to complete our species. This demonstrated to us that we can have intimate communion with The Godhead. It also demonstrated the completeness of The Godhead's love for us in that, on the Cross, this very same Godhead met us where we hurt, instead of demanding that we come to where we should be. In other words, through the Cross of Christ, The Godhead overcomes our greatest sin, our belief that we are unacceptable to The Godhead.
Through the Cross of Christ, The Godhead also changes the doctrine of "original sin" into an understanding of "origional blessing." The Godhead does this by teaching us that our ability to choose sin is a necessary step in the process of our evolution. Our ability to choose sin does not make us unacceptable to god. Instead, it makes us more capable of real communion with The Godhead, since being able to choose means that we have an awareness that we can choose, which implies an awareness of ourselves as unique individuals. This awareness is a necessary ingredient of true fellowship. Also, through the Cross of Christ, The Godhead teaches us that we can overcome sin, both in our lives and in the world, by merely responding to Its overture of love.
