Madonna stated in an interview, “I do believe that all paths lead to God. It’s a shame that we end up having religious wars because so many of the messages are the same.”[13] In other words, there are many religious roads up the mountain to God. In Do All Religious Roads Lead to Heaven, Part One, we started discussing different versions of all religious roads lead to heaven: resortationaism, universalism, and annihilationism. In Part Two, we will continue to move to the theological right and the biblical view of salvation: pluralism, inclusivism, and exclusivism.
Pluralism
Whereas universalism contends that all people will be saved, pluralism teaches that all religious people will be saved. Pluralism is the belief that the many religious paths lead to God who may be called Buddha, Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus.
Where did Pluralism come from?
1. Ironically, Pluralism did not come from all the religions of the world, because most of them don’t believe that all religious roads lead to heaven, just their religion.
There is not one mountain with different roads leading to the same God who goes by different names, but rather there is a different mountain for each religion with one exclusive road leading to a very different god or gods. For Islam, there is only one mountain and Allah alone is at the top. Islam accepts Jesus only as a prophet. Islam does not accept Jesus God. For Hinduism there is only one mountain and at the top are thousands of Hindu gods. Jesus is not one of those gods. Most of these religions claim exclusivity. Christianity is accused of being intolerant and exclusive. So is Islam and Hinduism.
2. Pluralism came from liberal theologians.
The Christian Post ran an article entitled TikTok pastor [Brandan Robertson] declares “Jesus isn’t the only way of salvation.” (click to open) Robertson has more than 187,000 accounts that follow him on the TikTok platform. Robertson is repackaging the older liberal theologians like Walter Brueggeman, Marcus Borg, and John Shelby Spong. Robertson's videos total more than 4.4 million likes. Last June he was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine. Robertson, a graduate of Moody Bible Institute is now an agnostic.
3. Pluralism is also coming from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey.
For example, Oprah Winfrey, once asked her televised audience which is all over YouTube: “How can there be only one way to heaven or to God?”(click to open) One woman in the audience asked, “What about Jesus?“ Oprah answered, “What about Jesus? … There couldn’t possibly be one way.” Orpah is the wealthiest Black woman in America and exerts great influence on her millions of followers. In the interchange between Oprah and one of the women in attendance who stated that Jesus is the only way, Oprah responded, “If someone lives in some remote part of the earth and never hears the name of Jesus, you think that person can not go to heaven?” The view that Oprah was advocating is sometimes offered as a form of the belief called Inclusivism.
Inclusivism
In addition to pluralism, there is inclusivism which is not as broad as pluralism. Inclusivism teaches that people are saved because of the death and grace of Christ, but people who have never heard the gospel “through no fault of their own” can be saved after death.
One form of inclusivism (sometimes called accessibility) states that salvation is through nature or general revelation. This is the view of Terrance L. Tiessen:
“All who have ever been saved, who are now being saved, or whoever will be saved, are saved because Jesus Christ died and rose again for them …. Nevertheless, God does not require a faith that would be impossible for anyone by virtue of their ignorance. In the Day of Judgment, God will hold all people accountable for their response to the revelation that was made available to them, and only for that revelation. God may graciously save some who do not believe in Jesus as Savior if they are ignorant of him through no fault of their own.”
Does God save people who have only general revelation from nature and not the special revelation of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Paul answers that question in Romans 1:20: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and deity: so that they are without excuse.” If a person dies without hearing and responding to the special revelation of the gospel that person is without excuse. Instead of general revelation being sufficient to save if someone has never heard of Christ, general revelation is sufficient only to condemn.
Tiessen continues, “All people meet Jesus Christ personally at the moment of death, and they respond to him in a manner consistent with the response they had been giving to God and His revelation during their lifetime. At that moment, those who had received forms of revelation less complete than the gospel but who had responded in faith, by a work of the Holy Spirit, will joyfully find in Christ the fulfillment of all their hopes and longings.”[14]
Can people be saved after death? In Luke 16:26, Jesus told the true story of the rich man in Hell. The rich man in Hell asked Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and just put one drop of water on his tongue. Abraham responded: “Between me and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from here to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from there.” There is no purgatory, postmortem like second chance.
Some are agnostic about the fate of those who die never having heard the special revelation of the gospel. John R. W. Stott, the famous British pastor and widely read author, expressed his agnosticism: “The fact is that God, alongside the most solemn warnings about our responsibility to respond to the gospel, has not revealed how he will deal with those who have never heard it.” [15]
The Scriptures have declared with certainty the eternal future of those who are not reached with the gospel. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned” because they were born sinners (Rom 5:12). The result of those who die in this universal sin condition (including those who never heard) is eternal separation from God (Rom 6:23a); unless the sinner places faith in Christ and receives the gift of eternal salvation (Rom 6:23b). How can sinners be saved by faith in Christ? Not by nature’s outstretched hand pointing to a higher power. Someone has to give them the gospel (Rom 10:13-15). If you have any doubts about this subject take the time to carefully read and study these verses.
Because Paul believed his inspired by God's Words in Romans 10:13-15, he traveled on three missionary journeys in Acts. Paul did not qualify these verses in Romans 10:13-15 saying, “If you missionaries cannot make it to the field, don’t worry about it all religions are equal or at death they can receive Christ.” Pluralism and inclusivism are not the Scriptural views on salvation.
Cornelius is an example of a person who responded to the light he had in general revelation and God in His justice and fairness gave him more light (the special revelation of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ) in Acts 10. There is hope for those who have never heard. God providently leads missionaries or believers here in America to those responding to the insufficient light of general revelation to give them the sufficient light of the special revelation of the gospel.
God is not only just and fair but God is love. God’s concern for the lost has been demonstrated when He gave His Son to die for the sins of all people, including those who have not heard. “It is not His will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The love of God and the death of Christ are inclusive of all sinners. His salvation is exclusive to only those who receive Christ as Savior.
Exclusivism
Exclusivism is the teaching that there is only one way to salvation. This was the teaching of Jesus. Jesus said that there is only one path to heaven in John 14:6 and He is that path: “I am the (not a) way, the (not a) truth, and the (not a) life, no man comes to the Father, but by me.” Changing His example, Jesus in John 10:9 stated, “I am the door: by me, if any man enters in, he shall be saved.” These statements in the Gospel of John are significant since John wrote his Gospel to tell people that Jesus is the Son of God and that by believing in him you can be saved (20:31).
The apostle Peter followed the example of Christ in preaching exclusivity by declaring there is only one name by which any person can be saved: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name [not Buddha, Mohammed, nor Moses] under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). One writer on the internet stated the idea that there is only one God who goes by different names by different religions: “I’m no religious scholar, but Jehovah, Allah, and YHWH just mean God.” There are different names for the same god. Peter is very clear there is only one name by which people can be saved. Paul supported this truth in Philippians 2:9-11: “Wherefore God also has highly exalted him [Jesus], and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Paul also in 1 Timothy 2:3-5 teaches that God our Savior desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth necessary to be saved: “God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” That truth is that there is one God and only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. All of these references declare that salvation is exclusively through Jesus. If you are still struggling with the exclusivity of Jesus as the only way to salvation, I invite you to contact me, and let’s have an honest discussion. I welcome a conversation with you.
[13] Madonna in an interview with Q Magazine, March 1998 issue, http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/underworld/437/qmagaicne.htm.
[14] Terrance L. Tiessen, Who Can Be Saved? Reassessing Salvation in Christ and World Religious, Downers Grove, IVP. 2004, 478).
[15] David Edwards and John Stott, Evangelical Essentials: A Liberal-Evangelical Dialogue, Downers Grove, IVP, 1988, 327).