Amy Jill Levine:

Amy’s article on Jesus’ role in Judaism is interesting. Jesus was born a Jew and followed

the Jewish laws with all of his followers also following the Jewish law. He did not intend on

making a new religion as Christianity only came about several hundred years after Jesus. Many

jews have trouble seeing Jesus as their Messianic king or that he was equal to God because to

them no one could compete with God’s oneness. Along with this, some jews feel as though

Jesus was going against some of the Jewish beliefs and traditions. One example of where this

idea came began is from Mark when he said that Jesus had “declared forbidden foods

“clean”” which the Jewish people took as a rejection of their kosher dietary laws. However, as

Amy points out, this could just be Mark’s point of view and not actually Jesus’s intention. On

the other hand, not every Jew had this same idea. Some Jews had started a movement called

‘Messianic Jews.’ The Jews that participated in this movement were not accepted by traditional

Jews as they were seen as theologically incompatible.

Kaltner and Mirza:

Kaltner and Mirza explain Jesus’s role in the Qur’an simply. To begin, the Qur’an is all

about explaining who Jesus is compared to the four gospels that explain what he did. To the

Qur’an, Jesus was “one of God’s messengers.” Also in the Qur’an, it says that Jesus as God’s

word refers to the divine message that Jesus brought to his people as a prophet. The last way that

Jesus is spoken of in the Qur’an is as God’s spirit which makes the connection to Jesus’s

conception by the Virgin Mary. Throughout the Qur’an, Jesus makes reference to his work as

being through God and only with God’s permission can he heal and perform the miracles that he
does. Near the end of the Qur’an, Jesus predicts the coming of Muhammad. This shows Jesus

telling the future of more than five centuries. Overall, Jesus’s acts of healing pay a large role in

the Qur’an even though it tries to tell of who is really is.

Kale:

According to article from Kale, Hindus can and tend to believe in Jesus. To the Hindu

religion, there is not one set God or deity that is held above all else. Hindus believe in multiples

gods, even the gods that are not traditionally in the Hindu pantheon, and therefore, they view

Jesus as one of their gods. For some Hindus, Jesus can be seen as an incarnation of the god

Vishnu. Vishnu, according to the Hindu mythology, is sporadically reincarnated, but can take

any form. Vishnu is reincarnated to restore, preserve, and sustain life on earth. For Hindus, this

incarnation of Vishnu could be Jesus. This goes against the Christian view that the only

incarnation of God is Jesus. However, this does not matter for Hindus, they are able to

understand and follow many gods. For those in the Hindu religion that believe and follow Jesus

view him as another one of their gods that in the continual intervention of the divine world.

Gary Habermas:

1. The first several pages of Habermas’s article indicate that other teachers that held similar

political and social high value to other religions never considered themselves to be divine

deity. These teachers consist of Buddha, Confucius, and Lao Tzu. These three could be

considered as naturalist which is greatly different to Jesus. Many of the leading thinkers

including prophets, like Zoroaster, never considered themselves to be anything more than
 special teachers even if they were “noble, honorable, and illustrious ones.” Once again,

not a rival to Jesus’s divine deity. “Muhammad does not make claims such as those

made by Jesus in the Gospels” because Allah does not have any partners and although

Muhammad is the chief prophet and messenger there was never any attempt to make him

deity. In contrast to these other leaders, Jesus makes claim, himself, to be deity many

times. First Jesus says that he is “Son of God” and then “Son of Man.” After his

crucifixion, Jesus becomes widely worshipped by “monotheistic, Lawabiding Jews.”

After this, Jesus is believed to be placed on God’s throne, creating him as God’s equal.

Last, Jesus can be seen as calling himself divine in the early creedal texts. In conclusion,

Jesus seems to be the only known teacher to call himself deity.

2. Habermas goes on to show how Jesus thought of himself as being the path to salvation.

However, Jesus was the only leader to call himself the actual path to God. The other

leaders, thinkers, and teachers taught their followers and those committed to them the

ways in which they can achieve the path to salvation through prayer, meditation, and

faith. On the other hand, Jesus proclaims that what his followers did “specifically with

him and his message determined their entrance into the Kingdom of God and the eternal

age to come.” Habermas goes on to give the example of Luke 14:25-35 where Jesus

demands put him above his follower’s own family, their own possessions, and even

above their own lives. Other religious founders knew the way to the path of salvation

and helped to guide their followers, whereas Jesus believed himself to be the path itself to

salvation.

3. Habermas goes on to show evidence that Jesus performed miracles which seemed to be

unique to him. The other religious founders did not perform miracles as they were “not
 even part of their ethical and/or social message, particularly if they did not share a

supernatural view of reality in the first place.” Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism did

not have supernatural beliefs and therefore there were not practicing miracles. On the

other hand, it can be seen in the Qur’an that it “does state that Jesus performed miracles.”

Other miracles of Jesus can be seen in all of the gospels which also show a lot of the

healings that Jesus performed as well. Also, throughout the gospels, “Jesus taught that

his miracles indicated the truth of message” and that his resurrection from the dead

provides the most evidence to his truth of claims.

4. Jesus claims that his death with lead to the salvation of the world which Habermas

provides evidence towards. Jesus is the only teachers or religious founder to make such a

claim about world salvation. Jesus’s blood and body indicate to his sacrifice. The

message here is that Jesus died for a reason which was to avenge our human sins and was

a leading central idea in the gospel teachings. It can not be seen in any other religion that

a teacher died for forgiveness of human sin, this is unique to Jesus. For Muslims,

sacrifices do not hold any central ideas in Islam. For the Jewish religion, the only

sacrifices that can be seen there are animal sacrifices and the importance of animals.

Thus, Habermas shows that the death, resurrection, and sacrifice of Jesus’s body and

blood are importantly unique to the Christianity religion.

5. Something interesting that Habermas brings up is that Christians understand pain and

suffering differently than any other religion. This can be seen in the gospels where their

messages “not only includes, but absolutely requires the existence of real evil, pain, and

suffering,” This cannot be seen in any other religion. A reason for this could be centered

around Jesus’s death. “Affirming evil and suffering is a literal fact” when at the very
 center of the gospels is Jesus’s crucifixion. This is showing that pain and suffering are

both physical and existential to our world. The way that we can see the existential

element is when Jesus is on the cross and is calling out to his father. When Jesus was

alive as a human, his pain and suffering during this time is a way to show us how these

two things can help transform us into a more perfect human like him.

6. The last unique claim from Habermas is the bodily resurrection of Jesus. This really is

unique as no other religion that we know of has had a lead, thinker, or teacher to die a

painful, horrible death to repent for human sin and then come back to life through the

power of God. “The resurrection could potentially validate the truth of the entire

Christian Gospel message” when Jesus’s tomb is found empty. After Jesus’s death, he

could later be seen, alive, by both his followers and also those who were nonbelievers.

Habermas goes on to say that if Jesus were a mere man, he would not be able to resurrect

himself. Also, said by Habermas, it makes the most sense that God raised Jesus from the

dead in order to verify, or solidify, Jesus’s unique teachings and also confirm Jesus’s

chief gospel message.

Pluralism:

According to John Hicks point of view, pluralism has many advantages that he has

discovered and that he believes would greatly help those in religion. For example, Hick says that

more focus needs to be put into God, we do not really know if one religion is better than another

so we should spend less time focusing on the different religions and more on God himself. Then

he goes on to say that Jesus isn’t really God that they are separate or that Jesus is the

metaphorical reincarnate of God but not really God himself. This then leads to the disadvantages
that Hicks does not seem to understand. The first comes from the Christian perspective of Jesus

which is that Jesus is God and to be a Christian one must believe that Jesus is God and not

metaphorically God but really God. This is to be believed because of scripture. Christians

believe that scripture is a gift from God and therefore what is says must be their truth and their

truth would then go against Hicks’ idea. Along with that, the New Testament says that there can

only be one savior for the whole world. Another disadvantage comes from Hicks when he

claims to know something such as there is only one God but contradicts himself by saying that

no one can possibly know that. Therefore, pluralism is not a good perspective for the Christian

faith.

Inclusivism:

The strength or positives for inclusivism would include: this belief acknowledges and

understands the other religions and that they exist. While they do not align with their interests, it

is "possible" that God "may" do work through them and bless them as well. The idea of

inclusivism acknowledges religions even those who worship more than one God, while they do

not say they are correct, they acknowledge their existence. Another strength is the belief that

Jesus died for everyone, not just Christians, so his actions impact those even that do not believe

in Christianity. To me, this seems logical as Jesus could not have chosen who he died for, and

inclusivism acknowledges this fact. On the other hand, weaknesses certainly exist in this theory.

The idea that any theory or thought is superior to someone else's can be dangerous, as this is how

oppression and many circumstances have escalated in the past. Other weaknesses such as not

truly being "inclusive" do exist. Although inclusivism does acknowledge other religions as

existing, it basically only does so due to the possibility that God may act or carry out some form
of actions, at least there is a possibility of this occurring, so it must be acknowledged. To

inclusivism and the followers of it, God only acts through Christianity and Catholicism, so, other

religions are thought to be "wrong" or simply unequal to their own.

Exclusivism:

Exclusivism can see many advantages due to the three different forms it can take. The

first form is a Calvinistic approach which is where one believes that God has chosen who will be

saved and therefore it is not necessary for grace to go out to all people. They believe that God

did not intend for everyone to be saved and that is why sometimes the gospel does not get out to

everyone. Those that hear the gospel are the chosen ones by God. Then there is the biblical

perspective where there has to be explicit faith in Jesus. The last form is postmodern where there

is the belief that Christianity has a particular understanding of salvation through Jesus that is

unique to them and there is no Christian salvation outside of the truth claims of Christianity.

Therefore, all three forms of exclusivism offer many ideas.

On the other hand, by having three different forms can lead to some complications. A

problem that can be seen with a Calvinist point of view questions whether or not it is sufficient

enough to show the character of God that is revealed in the bible, this God is all loving and

desires the salvation of all not just “his chosen ones.” For the biblical perspective we can see the

issue of are the texts really saying what they think its saying. The texts do not flat out say that

those without explicit faith in Jesus are automatically lost. Last, a question that can be raised for

the view of post modernism is “is it okay to not know?” In conclusion, each form comes with its

own difficulties.
Best model:

Based on the videos provided and the article by Elizabeth Johnson, I personally feel that

exclusivism is the best model for the Christianity faith. To me, exclusivism shows Jesus as the

universal savior mostly through the biblical form. The verse that are highlighted in the video

really help to emphasis Jesus as the universal savior by saying that “I am the way, the truth, the

life. No one comes to the father except through me” which truly shows that no one else can lead

to God besides Jesus and therefore he must be the universal savior. Next, the postmodern

perspective shows salvation through Jesus in a truly unique way. It says that there can only be

salvation through the faith in the Christ. Salvation comes by having belief, faith, and trust in

Jesus. However, I struggle with the exclusivism perspective to show that God wants all to be

saved. It is the hardest to see here as the Calvinistic view says that God does not want all to be

saved as they believe he has chosen who hears the gospel. With this in mind, I especially liked

the ending to the video on exclusivism where you talked about what it means to go out of bounds

and when Christians need to stop talking. I felt like these points really connected to how I view

the religion in general. For example, salvation is not about being good or living a good life, it is

about having faith in God and in Jesus. Another point that was made in the video about

exclusivism is that “if they’ve never heard, they’re probably going to be saved” as this does not

make sense and goes against what the religion is all about which is spreading God’s love. If one

does not hear the good news, then Christians are not continuing in Jesus’s mission to spread the

word of the good news. In my opinion, I feel that exclusivism best exemplifies what it means to

have Jesus as the universal savior, God wants to save all, and that salvation is by faith in Christ.