Is Jesus the only way?

 

One of the most prominent and frequent asked questions of me these days, is all religions are equal? Most of the mission work that I do is in Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County, it is a rescue mission shelter that takes in the unsheltered, assault victims, domestic violence victims, substance abused and addicts, mental illness, among others alike. The question is asked, especially, when I preach on the exclusivism of Jesus Christ as the only way to our salvation: John 14:6, “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This gives me the opportunity to engage them in a deeper conversation about why we need a savior and what we believe. Since this is short essay, I will limit the discussion to two approaches that often surface during these types of discussions. First, the approach that our belief system is specifically personal and culturally relative. This approach is commonly known as pluralism. Second, the exclusivism of Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and onto heaven; hence, is Jesus the only way?  

 

Pluralism, by definition, “Some use it in combination with various spheres: cultural pluralism, ideological pluralism, intellectual pluralism, religious pluralism, and so forth. For our purposes it will be useful to consider not the spheres in which pluralism is found, but three kinds of phenomena to which the word commonly refers: empirical pluralism, cherished pluralism, and philosophical or hermeneutical pluralism.”[1] I want to focus on the third type of pluralism, hermeneutical pluralism. This has sneaked into the church and pastors are preaching different gospels. Here is a sample text from a pastor preaching on Acts 2:1-13, somehow, the theme was experiencing God’s love, but the title of the sermon is, The Faith of Jesus in Pluralistic World.  Paraphrasing a statement from his sermon: he has experienced love that was offered to him by Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and even atheist, it is the very evident that they were responding to God’s love.[2] Paul addressed this in Galatians 1:6-7, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” This is just one example of many that have crept into our churches today. This gives the idea that the other religions’ gods are as equally valid as the Christian God. “Philosophical pluralism has generated many approaches in support of one stance: namely, that any notion that a particular ideological or religious claim is intrinsically superior to another is necessarily wrong. The only absolute creed is the creed of pluralism. No religion has the right to pronounce itself right or true, and the others false, or even (in the majority view) relatively inferior.”[3] The definition given by D.A. Carson is exactly how society views pluralism; it is not so much that every religion is to be considered on an equal level, but it is hinges on preventing a single religion from pronouncing itself as the only true way to salvation. In fact, the character of God from various religion is represented with widely opposing views of one another: “In Islam and Christianity are so radically different that it should be obvious to anyone that each faith is not referring to the same God. He writes: One [the Christian God] is a Father and shepherd and lover calling for a return of love; the other [the Muslim God] is a Lord demanding service from his slaves. One commands love for neighbors and even enemies, while the other does not command neighbor love and frowns on love for enemies. One shows power by force, and the other by weakness. One is numerically one without differentiation, while the other is three in one. In short, those who worship one are not worshipping the other because they are two different gods”[4] How can these opposing view can be considered pluralistically equal? They are not and can’t be considered equally true.

 

The pluralistic view is that there are many ways but all ended up at the peak of the mountain. Essentially, are we worshiping the same God? I will not deny that there are many ways and all will be ended up at God. What happen after we meet God is the imperative question. Hence, the fundamental question: are we all going to meet God judgment? Or is it the hope that He promised us in John 14:2-4, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Pluralism approach regards every religion with equalness; however, the approach is logically defeatist because it views Christianity as not equal to all the other religion. “As such, pluralism asserts that more than one perspective, more than one path, can be true or efficacious. In what follows, we argue for a pluralistic view of the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.”[5] However, the approach is often masked by cultural and ethnics diversity which is defined as empirical pluralism can easily transcend into philosophical pluralism. “Empirical pluralism sums up the growing diversity in our culture. Observable and largely measurable, it is what David Tracy prefers to call “plurality.” “Plurality,” he writes, “is a fact.”[6] The plurality of our culture and ethnicity does not have to dictate our hermeneutic. However, our hermeneutic and our philosophy can influence our culture. Plurality movements that are fundamentally empirical in the first place are now becoming philosophical. “Academic level, ethicists completely committed to pluralism are diligently attempting to create a consensus morality based on certain societal commitments: on the recognition that human beings are persons who demand mutual respect, for instance, or on the assumption that reason is sufficient to evaluate the relative merits of concrete elements of competing moral systems.”[7] When we accepted others’ ethnic diversity, there is a covert assumption that we should also respect and accept their philosophy and not tell them about the truth of Jesus Christ.

 

Exclusivism of the Gospel and Jesus Christ vows that Christ is the only way to salvation and to heaven. “Exclusivism is the view that only those who place their faith in the Christ of the Bible are saved.”[8] The counter argument relies on the pluralism approach as stated, “Dalai Lama makes rigorously exclusivist truth…The Problem of Exclusivism’ (emphasis shamefacedly mine!), he states clearly that ‘. . . for me Buddhism is the best, but this does not mean that Buddhism is the best for all’. He goes on to explain that talk of ‘one truth, one religion’ is to be made only ‘in the context of an individual religious practice.”[9] The argument here is that my religion existed only in the context of my personal micro sphere. Therefore, from the macro sphere, the plurality of all religion is to be regarded. However, if my one truth and one religion existed in my personal sphere, it will, at some point, influence others or be influenced by others. If we are restrained from telling others about the most meaningful innermost value of our lives, should we consider ourselves free? Christ came to set us free, and we are free because we know the truth. In fact, the moral values from our conviction compel us to tell others about the truth. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32.

 

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. No other religion has a pathway to salvation which claims everlasting eternal life. “This thereby counters any form of pluralism de iure (in principle). It also shows why the other religions cannot be understood as a ‘means of salvation’ as this term is uniquely applied to the Church precisely because of its Christological foundations.”[10] In John 1:1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” Pope Benedict XVI put it this way: “The world comes from reason, and this reason is a Person, is Love—this is what our biblical faith tells us about God. Reason can speak about God, it must speak about God, or else it cuts itself short. Included in this is the concept of creation.”[11]

 

We must ask ourselves the obvious, what is wrong with being right? Perhaps since the history of mankind is loaded with oppression and human created suffering, we take it upon ourselves to mitigate how we should live with one another in order to usher in greater peaceful future. But here’s the thing, God offers us a better way to live, John 13:34, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” How do we love one another? We do this by putting our faith in Christ. Christ has modelled the way for us in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Therefore, I will end with this. John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”

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[1] D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/detail.action?docID=5397874

[2] Rev. Dr. Eric Elnes, “The Faith of Jesus in Pluralistic World,” YouTube video, 1:12:34, streamed January 10, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/live/hYJzNm64P2U

[3] D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/detail.action?docID=5397874

[4] R. C. Sproul, John Piper, Al Mohler, and Miroslav Volf, Do Christians, Muslims, and Jews Worship the Same God?: Four Views (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019), ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/detail.action?docID=6121590

[5] Chad V. Meister, ed., Do Christians, Muslims, and Jews Worship the Same God?: Four Views (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019), ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/detail.action?docID=6121590

[6] D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/detail.action?docID=5397874

[7] Ibid

[8] D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/detail.action?docID=5397874

[9] Gavin D’Costa, Only One Way? Three Christian Responses to the Uniqueness of Christ in a Religiously Plural World (London: SCM Press, 2011), ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/detail.action?docID=3306162

[10] Ibid  

[11] Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), “Christianity: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” in Christian Apologetics: An Anthology of Primary Sources, ed. Khaldoun A. Sweis and Chad V. Meister (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 536.