Is Jesus the Only Savior

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Is Jesus the Only Savior?

• Ray Bohlin, Ph.D.
• rbohlin_at_probe.org

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Christian Voices from Africa

• Is Christ the only way? Our traditional faith,
  after all, also knew a Creator God. Does Islam
  not also contain moments of truth? My lecturer
  says that these three religions are only
  different paths up the same mountain at the top
  of the mountain (eternal life) they all converge.
  What do you say? Is the Christian faith unique?
  How could I be sure about this?
• A student in Religious Studies, Ghana

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Is Jesus the only Savior?

• Arent all religions basically the same?

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Is Jesus the Only Savior?

• Arent there many ways to God?

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Is Jesus the Only Savior?

• If Jesus is the only way to God, what about
  those who have never heard?

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Religious Pluralism

• Religious Pluralism is the view that all
  religions are equally valid as ways to God.
  Pluralists often refer to the fact that just as
  there are many paths up Mt. Fuji, so there are
  many paths to God. Differences among the
  religions are superficial.

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Six Blind Hindus
FAN
WALL
ROPE
SPEAR
TREE
SNAKE
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RELIGIONS
JUDAISM
HINDUISM
ISLAM
TAOISM
CHRISTIANITY
BUDDHISM
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The pluralist believes everyone is blind but him!
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Weaknesses of Religious Pluralism

• The differences in teaching among the religions
  are fundamental in nature and mutually
  contradictory.
• The teachings of the major religions about God or
  Ultimate Reality are contradictory. Hindus are
  pantheists or polytheists. Buddhists are atheists
  or pantheists. Muslims are theists and unitarian.
  Christians are theists but trinitarian. These
  views cannot all be true.

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Weaknesses of Religious Pluralism

• The teachings of the major religions about man
  and salvation are contradictory.
• Hindus see man as fundamentally divine, but
  trapped in this world due to ignorance and bad
  karma. Deliverance comes from changing our
  beliefs about reality and our true identity.
• Buddhists see man as trapped in this world of
  suffering due to selfish desire. Deliverance from
  this world comes from extinguishing desire, or
  seeking the aid of supernatural beings in doing
  so.

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Weaknesses of Religious Pluralism

• Muslims believe man is weak but not sinful in
  nature, and under Gods judgment for his
  disobedience to His laws. Salvation comes through
  submitting to the laws of God.
• Christians believe that man is alienated from God
  and under His judgment due to his sinful
  rebellion against Him. But salvation can only
  come as a result of trusting in what He has
  graciously done by providing His Son Jesus as an
  atoning sacrifice for our sin, and by His Spirit
  changing us from within.

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Weaknesses of Religious Pluralism

• The contention that what matters is not objective
  teaching but moral and spiritual transformation,
  is untenable.
• Again, how do we really know this is the case?
  On what authority do we believe this is so?

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Weakness of Religious Pluralism

• It is impossible to believe that all religions
  are true without radically altering our defintion
  of truth.

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Weaknesses of Religious Pluralism

• The fact that there may appear to be
  similarities in some of the effects in the lives
  of followers of various religions is no proof
  that they are identical. Jesus drew a strong
  distinction between external morality and piety,
  and true internal spirituality (Matt. 57).
• The belief that all religions are true in the
  sense that they all bring us to God requires that
  we believe they are all false in what they
  objectively teach!

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Weaknesses of Religious Pluralism

• It seems improbable that that which is false
  could be the means of helping us experience that
  which is true!

• False
• But
• True?

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Weaknesses of Religious Pluralism

• Religious Pluralism is untenable for the orthodox
  Christian, because it demands that he deny the
  most important teachings of Scripture. 
• Religious Pluralism requires that we abandon
  belief in the uniqueness of Christ. His claims to
  deity, and the biblical teaching about His
  atoning death and resurrection cannot be true, if
  Religious Pluralism is true.

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Weaknesses of Religious Pluralism

• But if these teachings of Scripture are false,
  then Religious Pluralism must provide a better
  explanation for the wealth of evidence, which has
  led so many to conclude that they are true. The
  evidence cannot be simply swept away!
• However, if the evidence is convincing that these
  teachings are true, then Religious Pluralism must
  be false!

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Buddhists in Heaven?

• Christian Inclusivism is the view that though
  Jesus is the exclusive Savior, nonetheless many
  are included in His salvation who have never
  explicitly trusted in Him, nor perhaps even heard
  of Him.

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Buddhists in Heaven?

• Inclusivists believe that God accepts an
  implicit faith in lieu of explicit faith in
  Christ. This may be in the form of a response to
  Gods general revelation through creation or
  conscience, or through truth in other religions .
  . . or through some other means. Most
  inclusivists believe that Scripture supports
  their view.

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Biblical Inclusivism?

• Melchizedek (Gen. 1418ff) and Jethro (Exod.
  23) are referred to as priests of the true God,
  outside of Israel.
• But it must be pointed out that these men lived
  and served as priests before the founding of the
  nation Israel, and that they are described as
  believing in the same God as Abraham and Moses
  (cf. Gen. 1419,22).

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Biblical Inclusivism?

• Naaman the Syrian is cited as an example of an
  implicit believer outside of Israel (2 Kings
  5). But it is clear that he came to an explicit
  faith in the God of Israel (cf. 2 Kings 515,17).
  
• The repentant Ninevites are often cited as
  believers outside Israel (the book of Jonah). But
  it is clear that they came to an explicit faith
  in the God whom Jonah preached (Jonah 35), just
  as Naaman had.

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Biblical Inclusivism?

• The Magi who came to worship the newborn Jesus
  are sometimes referred to as implicit
  believers. But it is clear that though their
  prior beliefs were no doubt pagan in nature, they
  were seeking the true God, and were directed by
  Him to His Messiah, Jesus.

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Biblical Inclusivism?

• Cornelius the Centurion is perhaps cited more
  than any biblical figure as an example of one who
  had come to faith before hearing of Christ. It
  is true that he is referred to as a pious man
  before hearing the gospel (Acts 102).

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Biblical Inclusivism?

• But though he was in touch with the true God, he
  did not receive salvation until he heard the
  message about Christ through Peter. The angel who
  prepared Cornelius for Peters visit told him
  that he would bring him the message through which
  he would be saved (Acts 111314). This is
  exactly what occurred (Acts 104344).

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Biblical Inclusivism?

• Malachi 111
• Acts 1034-35
• Acts 1416-17
• Acts 1723
• Romans 118-23
• Romans 214-16
• Acts 2024-26

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Exclusive Statements of the Bible

• Everyone who believes in Him Jesus receives
  forgiveness of sins (Acts 1043).
• God is now declaring to men that all everywhere
  should repent (Acts 1730).
• For there is one God, and one mediator also
  between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who
  gave Himself as a ransom for all (1 Tim. 256).

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Exclusive Statements of the Bible

• He who has the son has the life he who does not
  have the son of God does not have the life (1
  John 512).
• So faith comes from hearing, and hearing
  by the word of or about Christ (Rom. 1017).
• We must conclude, then, that the voice of
  Scripture affirms that for one to come to
  salvation, he must hear and place his faith in
  the message about that salvation which God
  reveals to him.

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Some Remaining Questions

• If Christianity is exclusively true, are other
  religions totally false?
• What about parallels to Christianity in other
  religions, like incarnations of God, and
  sacrifices to God?
• What, then, is the source of other religions?

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Some Remaining Questions

• If salvation comes only through hearing and
  believing the gospel, what about those who have
  never heard of Christ? Is there no hope for them?
• A text that gives us some guidance in this area
  is Luke 818
• Cornelius, Acts 102.

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Those who havent heard

• We sin with or without the Law, Rom. 212-15
• None are innocent, Rom. 310-12, 23
• Are those who live well saved by works?
• Seek and you will find, He will send a
  missionary, Acts 826-40, Acts 10 a Bible, Ps.
  119130 a vision, Dan 27 an angel, Rev. 14

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Some Remaining Questions

• No one will be in heaven apart from the fact that
  the person and work of Christ made it possible.
  Acts 410-12
• Jesus is within reach of all of us.
• From one man he made every nation of men, that
  they should inhabit the whole earth and he
  determined the times set for them and the exact
  places where they should live. God did this so
  that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for
  him and find him, though he is not far from each
  one of us. (Acts 1726-27)

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Some Remaining Questions

• Sincerity is not salvation
• All other faiths operate by works
• I have never had a problem knowing what is right
  and wrong in most situations what I have lacked
  is the will to do what is right.

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Conclusion

• I have traveled the world. I have searched high
  and low. I have found nothing that satisfies my
  mind, my heart, and the deepest longing of my
  soul like Jesus does. He is not only the way, the
  truth and the life he is personal to me. He is
  my way, and my truth, and my life just as he
  can be for anyone who reaches out to him. (Ravi
  Zacharias, The Case for Faith, p. 166)