Salvation:
Salvation is a way of getting people to do what you want in times of extreme temptation. To better explain, let me give an example.
In Africa, sickle cell anemia is very common. It helps protect people against malaria in that area, increasing their survival rate, and therefore causing it to spread. However, there are also a lot of harmful side effects to being afflicted with sickle cell anemia (blood has trouble transporting oxygen and so on).
Enter the yam. Yams contain a chemical called theiocyanate. This chemical alters the hemoglobin in the red blood cells causing them to return to normal, round shape for a while (not permanent, only temporary). Now, in order to survive, it's important that people only eat the yams when it isn't malaria season, so that they avoid the harmful effects of sickle cell, but don't catch malaria at the same time.
It's not quite that simple however. Malaria season occurs at the same time that there is the smallest amount offood available. How do the people discipline themselves so that they don't eat the yams at a time when it is so tempting? Salvation. It is part of their culture to not eat yams during malaria season, because you will be cursed in the eyes of the gods, and not have a happy afterlife.
See, the people can't point to evidence and say, "Well my uncle didn't die so I won't either!", because they're not worried about death, they're worried about the heaven or hell they face afterwards. Whether or not they have received salvation.
Luckily, in this example, salvation is put to good use. It reduces death. However, it is more often used to make people do things they don't want to do, but someone else wants them to do. They are blinded by the idea of salvation, tricked by it.
Not to discredit any religion, this node simply wishes to show that salvation is often abused, whether or not salvation is used solely for that purpose is a different issue entirely.
Node inspired by The Story of B