Latter-day Saints often use “salvation” in many senses, including being saved from physical death and being promised physical resurrection (a “salvation” everyone, bar none, will receive) as well as in reference to one’s justification and exaltation. Jeff Lindsay hosts a good article on his Website, written by an anonymous Latter-day Saint, on the semantics of “salvation”:
In vol. 3 of their Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert Millett, commenting on Alma 11:40, wrote:
40. And he shall come into the world to redeem his people; and he shall take upon him the transgressions of those who believe on his name; and these are they that shall have eternal life, and salvation cometh to none else.
40. "Salvation is eternal life. It is life in the highest heaven, life among the Gods and the angels. The word salvation means exactly the same thing as eternal life, but simply lays stress upon one's saved condition, his state being one of deliverance from death and sin through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Exaltation is another word with which we have come to identify the glories of the celestial kingdom; exaltation has the same meaning as eternal life; it has the same meaning as salvation. To be saved is to be exalted, the latter term simply laying stress upon the elevated and ennobled status of one who so qualifies to dwell with and be part of the Church of the Firstborn, the Church of the Exalted." (Robert L. Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie, The Life Beyond, p. 134)
Elder Bruce R. McConkie has written: "We are ofttimes prone to create artificial distinctions, to say that salvation means one thing and exaltation another, to suppose that salvation means to be resurrected, but that exaltation or eternal life is something in addition thereto. It is true that there are some passages of scripture that use salvation in a special and limited sense in order to give an overall perspective of the plan of salvation that we would not otherwise have. (2 Nephi 9:1-27; D&C 76:40-49; D&C 132:15-17.)
These passages show the difference between general or universal salvation that consists of coming forth from the grave in immortality, and specific or individual salvation that consists of an inheritance in the celestial kingdom....
"Since it is the prophetic purpose to lead men to full salvation in the highest heaven of the celestial world, when they speak and write about salvation, almost without exception, they mean eternal life or exaltation. They use the terms salvation, exaltation, and eternal life as synonyms, as words that mean exactly the same thing without any difference, distinction, or variance whatever." (Promised Messiah, p. 129.)
What is interesting is that Evangelical critics often claim that LDS theology is opposed to “biblical Christianity” for LDS using “salvation” in multiple senses. Notwithstanding, these very same Evangelical Protestants use “salvation” in plural senses, too! One such (Reformed) critic wrote the following about the three tenses of salvation, showing that, for him and others, “salvation” can be used to denote different things, depending upon the context it is used (similar to how LDS use the term in different ways, depending upon the context):
The three tenses of salvation
Salvation is a very broad term of which redemption/justification are the first of three grades or tenses, the other two being sanctification and glorification. Do not confuse this passage with the “three heavens” of Joseph Smith; there is absolutely no affinity between them. Justification and sanctification occur in our present life, while glorification occurs in our future life, in heaven in the presence of God. Such is the full sweep of the Bible doctrine of salvation.
Salvation can be spoken of in three tenses, all illustrated in 2 Corinthians 1:10 (KJV):
Who delivered us [past tense] from so great a death, and doth deliver us [present tense]; in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us [future tense].
The three tenses, or stages or salvation are
Past tense. We have been saved from the penalty of sin. You are saved in the sense that the penalty of your past sins has been removed. This is called redemption/justification.
Present tense. We are being saved from the power of sin. This is an action that has already occurred and is continuing. It is called sanctification.
Future tense. We shall be saved from the presence of sin. This will take place in the resurrection of those who sleep in Christ and in the rapture of those who are alive at Christ’s coming in the air. This is called glorification. (D.J. Gonzales, The Wide divide: Early Mormon History and an Investigation of the Wide Divide Between LDS and Christian Doctrine [Meadville, Pa.: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc., 2018], 444)
There are many problems with the soteriology Gonzales and others hold to. See, for e.g.:
