CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Religious pluralism has been a big problem to the Christian faith, this stands to be

the reason for the need for dialogue and mutual understanding of the numerous religions

in the world but the fact still remains that not every religion is the valid way to salvation.

Zachariah says “the pluralists that face the contemporary believer is most dramatically

evident in the existence of competing religions, even if we leave out varieties of circular

humanism we still have Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism as active

faiths with millions of adherents (26).”

The pluralists’ view of salvation holds that not only Jesus is the way to salvation that

is other religions can lead someone to salvation. Thus this argument has existed for long

time and other religions are against the Christian faith because of the claim of being the

only true way to be saved and so this has been the sharp contrast between Christianity and

adherents of other world religions and has been an overwhelming challenge to the

Christian faith as questions are raised about salvation, truth, the Bible and Jesus Christ and

whether the Christian mission is to be embarked on or not. And by this while the Christians

are giving out proofs to their position, so also other religions are as well bringing their own

proofs to their stand from their religious books. For example, Harold quoted from the

Hindu scripture saying “whatever path men travel is my path, no matter where they walk it
leads to me (10).” The above verse from the Hindu scripture means that all of the world

religions worship the same God. And so this is a very clear example to show that Religious

Pluralism has a rooted foot in the society because if other religions have this view in their

own religious books then it means that it is a credit on the side of the Religious Pluralists.

But the problem is what is the Christian faith and mission doing to overcome this

problem even as the Evangelical Bulleting of theology volume says “religious pluralism is

among the two or three sharpest challenges faced by contemporary Christianity.”

Religious Pluralism in Nigeria is also taking place despite the fact that in Nigeria,

there are just three Religions Islam, ATR and Christianity religious pluralism has come and

it has been a very big challenge to the Christian missionaries in the African countries, this is

because of the philosophy of religious pluralism that has captured the minds of non

Christian religions in Africa (Islam, African Traditional religion and some Christians

respectively, according to (Grogen. 261) “A pluralist may at least in theory be himself a

Buddhist, a Muslim or a Christian and there are plenty of other possibilities his chief

concern, if he has any standing as a theologian in his community, will be to convince its

members that pluralism is the best.” This is a very clear fact that while the Christian

missionaries are preaching the Gospel, the pluralist are also proclaiming pluralism to be

the best way to follow and that is why people of other religions, when the gospel of Christ is

preached to them in the field they ask the question “who told you that your religion is

better than our own If we accept your religion then who will be the followers of our own

religion?’’
 More so pluralism has not only crept into Africa but has cunningly crept into Nigeria

and it has been a very big challenge to the Christian mission in Nigeria and this challenges

have come in different and in direct forms.

One of the greatest challenges of religious pluralism to the Christian mission is the

invention of what is known today in Nigeria as “Chrislam” which is a combination of certain

features of Christianity and Islam. The second challenge is a view that is known as

“Godianism” and it is a view which holds that God is the common factor of all religions in

Africa[ Samuel. 31] Finally, one of the great problems of pluralism in Nigeria which has

been the number one factor that moved the researcher to write on this topic is the situation

in Yoruba land and the places in Nigeria like Mangu Local Government of Plateau State

where a family may have Christian, Muslim and Pagan members sharing the same

compound and in this case, preaching the gospel of Christ to the non Christian family

members is strictly not welcomed because this pluralistic nature in the family has given

birth to notion that all faiths are valid and our God is one and so everyone should be

allowed to be part of the religion he wishes to be part, since the Islam God is the same as

that of Christianity and ATR and they are all valid.

Thus the above three factors have been the challenges that moved the researcher to

go on this research. Therefore, the Christian mission is a mandate for saving of souls of men

and so need to be taken with all seriousness in the Christian faith as long as we are still

living as Christians. The challenge missionaries are facing with religious pluralism in

Nigeria, Africa and the world at large is over whelming and so this is a very big problem

that needs an Evangelical approach, for this problem that has been eating up the fabric and
the growth of the Christian mission This calls for Christians to stand on their feet to prove

evangelically the validity of the Christian faith and the need for the Christian mission in

order to convince and convict the contemporary pluralists’ society with the message of

salvation.

Thus this has been a major problem to the growth of Christianity and the Christian

mission around the world. Therefore, it is on this note that the researcher sees the need for

discussing the challenges of religious pluralism to the Christian mission and to also proffer

a lasting solution to the problem.

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Religious pluralism has been a thorn in the flesh of the Christian mission by holding

back the spread of the Christian faith which is a mandate to embark on by the Christians.

This therefore has make the Christian mission very complex and thus it becomes a

necessity for Christians to find a way of solving this problem.

1.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This project aims at:

 Enumerating the challenges of religious pluralism to the Christian mission.

 It aims at looking at possible ways of defending and validating the Christian faith in

the pluralists society.

 This study is also aimed at reminding the Christian communities and missionaries of

the task of reaching out the gospel of Christ in every circumstance.

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

  This research will help the church to know the nature of the problems that are faced

by the Christian missionaries in the field with issues to religious pluralism.

 It will help the Christian missionaries to understand how to approach the religious

pluralists Evangelically in the mission field.

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research intends to specifically look at challenges or elements of religious

pluralism within Mangu local government of Nigeria and particularly how it has affected

the Christian mission within that area.

1.5 METHODOLOGY

In this research, the comparative method will be used because the validity of the

Christian faith and other religions will be compared.

DEFINITION OF TERM

1.5.1 Religious Pluralism: Is the view that there are many religions in the world, but each

of the major religions should be understood as acceptable and sufficient system of

worship (Cooper 158). The Baker encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics defines

religious pluralism as the belief that every religion is true. Each provides a genuine

encounter with the ultimate. One may be better than others but all are adequate

[598]. The Dictionary of religion defines religious pluralism as the problem and

opportunity of simultaneous presence of different religious traditions within a

single society[396]
1.6.2 Challenge; According to the advance learners dictionary challenge means to a new

or difficult task that tests somebody’s ability and skill. Challenge can also be seen as

a statement or an action that shows that somebody refuses to accept something and

questions whether it is right or wrong.

1.6.3 Christian Mission: The world of truth magazine page 30 defines the Christian

Mission as the people of God intentionally crossing barriers from church to non

church, faith to non faith, to proclaim by word and deed the coming of the kingdom

of God in Jesus Christ. Mission can further be defined as a comprehensive term

including the upward, inward and outward ministries of the Church (Scott p

636).The Christian mission is as well defined as an organized effort to spread the

Gospel message of the Christian faith to new converts which involves sending

individuals and groups called missionaries, across boundaries most commonly

geographical boundaries to carry on evangelism or other activities such as

educational or hospital work.[https www dictionary.com].Mission is also defined as

the divine activity of sending intermediaries, weather super natural or human to

speak or do God’s will so that his purposes for judgment are furthered[Baker’s

dictionary of Biblical theology 903].

CONCLUSION

This chapter has provided the general introduction to the topic the challenge of

religious pluralism to the Christian mission, the statement of the problem, purpose of the

study, the significant of the study, scope of the study, methodology and the definition of key

terms
 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURES

2.0 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher intends to undertake a review of some related

literatures that are relevant in this study. The research will be considering what others

have said about the Christian claim of Truth, the Christian claim of salvation, the Divinity of

Christ and the pluralists-Christian position on mission, exclusivism, inclusivism and

pluralism.

2.1 THE CHRISTIAN CLAIM OF TRUTH

(Herold 182) gives his position on truth and said,

The Christian faith is based upon the conviction that God has revealed the truth about
Himself and humankind. A truth centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ that
needs to be both believed and acted upon if sinful human beings are to be restored to a
proper relationship with their creators.

Harold’s position on the Christian claim of truth is acceptable by the scriptural

teachings because it is very clear that Jesus Christ is the only way in which God has been

able to reveal himself vividly and more clearly to man and so if we are talking about truth

then we cannot do so without talking about Jesus Christ if we do then we are talking about

something different but not the truth, one can agree so fully with Harold that the truth

which centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ is that which is to be believed and

so for that any other claim of truth apart from the one centered on Jesus is not a valid claim

of truth because God has only revealed his truth to the whole world by sending Jesus Christ
his son to come and bear the sins and shame of the sinners so that the truth will be

revealed and for the people to follow the truth and be saved, no religious leader no priest,

no political ruler, no great man, no prophet has given life for the whole world as Jesus did,

the relationship between God and man was not cordial and no religious leader or prophet

could sacrifice himself to make a good relationship between God and man but Jesus did and

remain the only true way to the father.

Fernando page [176] gives out the following as the religious pluralists’ view of truth

which says “there is no such thing as absolute truth, truth is personal or subjective. You

have your truth and I have my truth and my truth is as valid as your truth.

The scriptural teachings do not subscribe or agree with the pluralist view of truth

because for instance if a question is being ask and this question has two options true or

false; then the truth remains the truth and the false remains the false about that question,

no one can change it because truth is the actual fact of something and if so then for religion

the fact is there and it is the truth one cannot compromise no matter what and so for this

reason truth is not relative or base on any experience but the truth remains the truth.

Furthermore, (Pittman 54) quoted Augustine’s response on the view of the Christian

pluralists which holds that the truth is unknown,

If the truth is ultimately unknowable, we are left only with the power and so instead of
speaking about “truth” and “false” we talk about “values” and “values” as well we
understand they are not “facts” they are a matter of personal choice. They are
expression of what we want of the will, the pluralist thus becomes a battle ground for
conflicting wills: we seek to convince one another of the truth of what we believe,
 because truth is absolute. We can only fight for space to practice our chosen values if
we accept to values.

The scriptural teaching accepts the view of Augustine, because the truth cannot be

exchanged with values, what the Christian pluralist were doing was that they were

exchanging the truth for values but values are relative depending on the society and culture

of a particular people, more so values are not facts at all they are personal choices as

Augustine will say but the truth is a fact and so if the Christians will accept the pluralist

view that truth is unknowable then the Christian mission will be nowhere to be found, we

already know the truth and that is why we are proclaiming it; Augustine is doing good by

encouraging the Christians to stand on the truth. The pluralist view that the truth is

unknowable implies that every religion is a possible way of being saved or getting to the

truth and so we Christians cannot be molested with values which will end up not being

acceptable to the non Christian because they also have their own sets of values.

The New Dictionary of Christian apologetics (Mcgrath 607) gives out the following

about religious pluralism

However, pluralism has considerably greater problems. It founders on the content of

the different religions themselves, The philosophies that come under the heading
“religion” are remarkably diverse. There are on a view vast range of conceptions of
God, his nature and what God wants of us. There are mutually exclusive teachings on
how to live such a way that heaven or niravana or enlightenment are to be achieved
indeed these states that are final goal can be completely different from each other. To
top it off on some points it is logically impossible for all religions to be true, for they
make specifically contradictory truth statements.
 The above point goes in line with the biblical teaching in the sense that man in his

feeble effort has tried to reach God and God as well has come down to man and because of

the many ways man has invented as his effort to reach God and the only one way God has

made for man to be saved we now have different religions in the world with different

understanding of God. And these religions all claim to be the best way to be saved but there

is only one way for man to be saved which is Jesus Christ, any other way apart from that of

Christ Jesus is not the right way. So Jesus Christ is not one of the ways, he is not the best

way but he is the only way to salvation because it is God himself who prepare this way

through his son Jesus Christ by dying for the sin of man on the cross.

Don Copitt in the Dictionary of mission theology [. 402] argues that “post modernity

is a flux of images and fictions, in which truth is a humanly manufactured concept socially

produced and historically changing”.

If the truth is something manufactured by human, then it is no longer the truth the

Copitt’s idea of truth is not in line with the biblical teaching, one because, the truth existed

even before the creation of man and so if there is any human attempt of coining the truth

then it is a worthless attempt. Humans can only create values for their living in the society

but cannot manufacture truth. More so the truth is absolute and is unchangeable, values

can be changed because they are not facts but the truth is one and cannot be changed for

anything at all because it is a fact.

Geisler in the Baker Encyclopedia of the Christian Apologetics page 598 gives out

the following as the Christian pluralist view of truth.Whatever is sincerely believed is true.
It matters not whether one is a passionate Nazi, Satanist, or member of the flat Earth

Society, any view is true.

The scriptural teaching do not concur with this Christian Pluralists’ view of the truth

because sincerity is not and cannot in any way be the canon for measuring the truth,

someone can be doing something sincerely but that thing will end up not being the truth

the truth is the truth and can only be one, it remains the truth whether or not it is accepted

by the people

The Evangelical Dictionary of world missions gives clearly what God’s servants and
representatives are to be people of truth. They are to reflect and point to the truth which is
Jesus Christ. They are to report to bear testimony to the truth. The facts and implications they
might be threatening or irritating or bring hostility. In their own truth and be characterized
by faithfulness in this contemporary pluralistic world

the researcher therefore accept this view because no religion can bear testimony to

the truth except Christianity, reason is because one cannot give what he/she do not have

and so even if there are things other religions call truth, it is not an absolute truth because

the absolute true is found only in Christ Jesus and so for that it is only true followers of

Christ who have experience the absolute truth in Jesus Christ, even Christians who are not

in Christ are not able to know of the truth of Jesus and that is why we have doubting

Christians.

According to Scott [36], he says “to whoever you speak Christ is Lord there, and he is

Lord over that person. Since he is Lord his truth is truth in every place and for every

person.
 This implies that Christ is Lord over all except if other people have refused his

Lordship upon their lives; he is the incarnate of God fully human and fully God. And so if

Christ is God and if God is the creator of the truth as (Cunningham 131) will say “the most

basic truth shown in the very first verse. In the beginning God, Every other absolute truth

comes from that one God is and in the beginning God created. He created not only things

but the truth as well. God created it.” Then Christ himself the author and source of truth

and so any other source of truth apart from Christ is not a valid source for truth.

Grogan (80) says Christ himself was the incarnation of both truth and love

and a major expression of his love was to show people the truth about God, truth

about himself and truth about themselves.

(McCallum 4). Gives out the following as a challenge of post modernism to

Christianity on issues of the truth claim,

“Even Christian leaders and the likes become confused as they are assaulted by
the strange or even seemingly nonsensical language of post modern analysis.
But post modernists are far from insane. They present a dangerously
convincing case for their view that ultimately directly undermines all possibility
of knowing objective truth”

McCallum’s point is acceptable to the scriptural teachings. Indeed post modernism

has caused so much harm to the church and the Christian mission although religious

pluralism has existed for centuries but it was not as much problem as to the present day

contemporary society. Religious pluralists view and belief was boosted by post modernism

so also post modernism has caused many other problems that has being a problem to the

Christian mission and the Christian faith as a whole, as McCallum mentioned about the post
modern mind present a dangerously and convincingly case for their view. This is to

captivate the hearts of the non Christian religions to stick and continue with their lost ways

and this is a challenge that even Christians who are not really strong Christians are falling

captives to the post modern so called view they accepts the postmodern philosophy or

world view of truth which is not in any way a valid position on what is known as the truth

no wander we have Christian pluralists.

(McCallum 31) quoted further respondents answer in an interview about the truth

in a university,

Truth, declares a growing collective consciousness, is relative: what is true, right or

beautiful for one person isn’t fixed by outside reality, but is decided by a group or
individual for themselves. Truth is ever-changing not only in insignificant matters of
taste or fashion but in crucial matters of spirituality, morality and reality itself.

The above view on truth is not an acceptable one to the scriptural teachings and the

reason is that truth is not measured on the basis of people’s idea or what people think

should be true as we have discussed earlier God is the origin of the truth and the truth is

one and there is nothing on earth that can be equated with the truth. The truth is not made

to please someone but is a standard of God and so because people in post modern world

today are not pleased with the truth they go on doing whatever they want to do and that’s

truth to them, there are accepted norms and values that are made by men in the society

these norms and values are just basis on which people have chosen to live on in the society

and it does not mean that those norms and values are truth and so the truth is not in any

relative but it is absolute and the absolute truth is from God and can only be found through

believing and accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

2.2 THE CHRISTIAN CLAIM OF SALVATION

According to[ Grogan ] “the New Testament teaches that salvation from sin cannot

be secured by human effort but only by the grace of God. Not only so but it must come

through the channel of Jesus Christ and by faith.”[6]

The above view of salvation is the Christian view of salvation and the scriptural

teaching agrees with this view of salvation. But in order to proof this view as a valid view of

salvation, it would be very important to know the reason why Christianity will make such a

claim that salvation is obtained only by grace through Jesus Christ, when there are so many

other religions in the world. In fact to make the situation worse, the Nelson’s Illustrated

Bible Dictionary 1010 says,

The doctrine of salvation reached its fulfillment in the death of Christ on our behalf.
Jesus mission was to save the world from sin and the wrath of God. During his earthly
ministry, salvation was brought to us by his presence and the power of faith. Now our
salvation is based on his death and resurrection.

This is very debating that Christianity will claim to have Jesus as the only source of

salvation to the whole mankind. But the reasons why Christianity will make such claims is

this; For instance as we have discussed earlier about truth and have proof to the fact that

truth is not relative, it is absolute and that the Christian claim of being the true religion is

valid because Jesus is the way the truth and the life no one gets to the father except through

him, so also is the same thing with salvation, since we have one creator (God). If we are

talking about salvation then God should be the only one to be able to save us and since

Jesus is God incarnate that came to the world in human flesh then he is the savior and no

one is to be saved without him because He is God and he alone is capable of saving men.
And so for that no human attempt or gravity of work can save or no religion or god is able

to save only Jesus Christ who is God and has decided to make a way for mankind to be

saved that is why the Nelson’s Dictionary will say “the doctrine of salvation reached its

fulfillment in the death and resurrection of Christ.

Other world religions also gave their own views of salvation which is completely

opposite to the Christian view for example (Alabi. 63) give the following as the Islamic view

of salvation.

According to Islam, Jesus is not a savior of the world, since salvation is something
one attains through his good works weighing more than the bad on the Day of
Judgment.

Looking at the Islamic view of salvation critically, the scriptural teachings

therefore do not agree with it, it is an unreliable view of salvation. The researcher’s

reason for not accepting this view is, first of all, the Islamic religion knows and

believes the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden and it is also clear that Islam knows

this fact that only God has the power to forgive sin. Then if so, it shows clearly that

the Islamic religion is contradicting the issues of salvation because when Adam and

Eve sined and fell since from then their relationship with God was cutoff and also for

any other man on earth.

But when God started his work of salvation to man through Abraham, Adam

and Eve did not work to earned It so also Abraham and any other person on earth,

the thief on the cross who asked Jesus for forgiveness did not work for the salvation

given to him by Christ. In fact he lived his life committing the sin of stealing but he
was forgiven because he asked Jesus for it , so also the woman that was caught in

idolatry did not work for her sins to be forgiven. In fact the centrality of salvation is

not by works but by grace and the grace has been provided by Jesus, man is

emancipated because of his sinful nature that is why God will have to come in

human form to save the whole world.

Palmer [88] also pointed out the liberal view of salvation which says “we

should not be talking of the quantity or number of those saved but rather of the

quality of our salvation. Salvation is something which embraces all human reality.”

The liberal theologians’ view of salvation is not acceptable to the scriptural

teachings because they view salvation only on the human and physical perspective,

that is not bad but salvation cannot be viewed on the physical or human perspective,

in fact the liberals in the understanding of salvation has neglected the most

important aspect of salvation which is the eternal or the spiritual part and that is

what Christians are more concern about and that is why the Christians focus on the

issues of salvation is in Christ Jesus because the salvation from Christ is the best and

so is the Christians priority to have it and if you are saved in Christ you are saved in

the world for if Christ is for you then who can be against you? And even if a Christian

is not saved in the world he knows he is saved eternally because he has Christ in

him.

(David et al 11) also gives the following contrast between Christianity and

Buddhism’s belief of salvation, he says,

 In Buddhism human beings are capable of attaining nibbana by their own efforts, but
Christianity sees all people as sinners who cannot do anything for their salvation,
apart from the gracious atonement of Jesus Christ.

The Buddhist like the Muslims believe that salvation can be attained by human

effort but on the contrast, Christianity is standing strongly on her view and understanding

of salvation. The researcher is still on the Christian view that salvation is found not by

human effort but by the atonement of Jesus Christ as David has mentioned above and the

fact that many other world religions believe that salvation is attained by human effort is

not a reason for Christianity to compromise the truth she knows about salvation.

(Cooper 158) gives out the religious pluralist view of salvation, he says,

The pluralists agree with both exclusivist and enclusivist that Jesus provides salvation.
However, the pluralist differs decidedly from the other two positions in their conviction
on that Jesus is only one savior among many. In this regard, Krishna and Allah for
instance are also saviors.

The scriptural teachings do not subscribe to the religious pluralist view of salvation

with the reason that, first of all issues of salvation in other world religions cannot be

explicitly or clearly defended but in the Christian faith, Jesus is the way, the truth and the

life no one gets to the father (God) except through Him and Jesus really proved to be the

way by giving himself to be crucified on the cross not only for Christians but for the whole

world, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life, this implies

that believing in Jesus Christ is equally accepting him as your personal Lord and savior and

accepting him as Lord and savior means you are saved. In Islam Muhammad came as a
prophet while in Budhhism Gautama came as the path founder but in Christianity Jesus

came as a savior and he is the savior and there is none like him.

(William 15) explains vividly what salvation means in the Christian perspective

Salvation is the complex act of the triune God whereby the benefits of Christ’s work are
applied and now in anticipation of an ever greater fulfillment. The words
“regeneration”, salvation and “New creation” denote a transformation of the
individual on the basis of which God looks on the person as imperishable eternal, holy
and glorified in Christ.

What Williams is saying about salvation is that no man, no god that is created by human

hands can fathom God’s mystery behind the salvation of man, even as he decided to come

in the flesh people did not understand him and his purpose of coming but he has come to

save and because people did not accept him even as he revealed himself as the savior, they

are lost and are roaming about looking for salvation where there is no salvation, but the

benefit of his is salvation are applied and now in anticipation of even greater fulfillment .

2.3 THE CLAIM OF THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST.

(Fleming 10) gives the following which is the Christian claim of the deity of Christ,

Though the man, Jesus was also God. In him the human and divine natures existed
together, without either one lessening the other. They were complete, united and
inseparable. He still had divine power and knowledge, and he exercised those rights of
forgiveness and judgment that belong to God alone. At the same time he was fully
human, he experienced tiredness, hunger and thirst, it showed normal human
emotions and reactions such as astonishment, joy, disappointment, pity and anger.
 The above claim on the deity of Jesus Christ is an acceptable one to the scriptural

teachings with the following reasons first of all Cis Lewis says “Jesus was God becoming

local” this is very true because Jesus as God came humbly into the world taking the form of

man to come and save the whole world, he is hundred percent God and hundred percent

man that is why if one look into the life of Jesus he will discover Jesus displaying fully his

human attributes and also displaying fully his divine attribute. And the reason why God will

have to reveal himself in that way is first to show his attribute of humility and second for

him to have a more cordial and closer relationship with man, so also for man to be able to

know more of Him, God would have used a different way of saving mankind but he chose to

come as both God and man.

(Alabi 50) gives out the Islamic view on the deity of Jesus he says,

In Islam, God is more transcendent than He is near, he is the creator, most merciful, the
beneficent, high and exalted one who is far above all his creation including man,
therefore, the incarnation of God is utterly and tied to idolatry in the sense that God
cannot take the form or image of man.

The Islamic view is not acceptable in the sense that, Islam has forgotten the fact that

despite the fact that God is the creator, high and exalted one e.t.c, He is also humble and

loving, the Islamic view only give one aspects of God that he is great, they have neglected

the attribute of humility in God. it is because God is humble and loving that he will have to

come down in human form for people of the world to be saved. Therefore God is closer to

man than he is transcendent because Christ who came into this world is God’s incarnate. It

is very clear that the Islamic religion do not know the true identity of Jesus Christ, no

wander they address Him as just a prophet but Jesus is not only a prophet he is God
himself who have decided to express his love for man by coming down in the human form

for man to be saved.

(Noll 155) gives the following view of Christians, he said,

Although the lordship of Christ undoubtedly creates a problem for us in the area of
religious pluralism, this conviction about Jesus’ lordship is not negotiable for
Christians and has to be seen as a basic rule of Christian speech. It belongs to the
essential symbolism of the gospel and cannot be given away however great the
pleasure to do so. Because when we confess Christ as Lord we intend to make first-
order claim about reality as it is ultimately.

The scriptural teaching agrees and is in full support of Noll’s idea or view. He is

simply encouraging the Christians to stand on their feet despite the challenges of religious

pluralism and hold on to the truth they already know. And so it is true that Christianity

cannot compromise her standard and give way to religious pluralism because of the other

world religions that are surrounding her, no matter what Christians still remain on their

own view that he is the Lord and so whatever debate that will be done I think Christianity

will only involve herself into that to be able to defend the Christian faith but no matter

what other world religions will say we already know the truth and cannot in any way

compromise the fact of the lordship of Christ for anything at all because if Christianity will

accept that Christ is not God then it means that the Christians have completely betray the

Christian faith and for that whatever position or name that will be given to Christ apart

from the God who came in the human form to save man then it is no longer Jesus Christ we

are talking about.

(Milne. 182) here gives the Gnostic view of the deity of Christ.
 Christ is seen by Gnostic writers as descended from the heavenly stratosphere or
Fullness and he united himself for a time with a historic person, Jesus, whose body was
formed of a psychic substance, the two elements being loosely linked in him.

The Gnostics view of the deity of Christ is an unattainable view on the deity of Christ and it

is not acceptable to the researcher reason is because Christ cannot be different and Jesus

different, Jesus is the Christ he is the savior, God incarnate and was born with the two

forms the human form and the Godly form if this view of the Gnostics will be accepted then

it shows that the virgin birth of Jesus is completely denied and the person of Christ as God

will be disbelieved so also the Christian mission will be of no relevant if the Gnostics view

of Jesus will be acceptable by the Church because Christ will be seen as any other man and

so this becomes a hindrance to the Christian mission and the Christian faith as a whole.

The Gnostics view is therefore a false view on the deity of Christ.

According to (Raymond 7) gives out the following view of a Roman scholar Gerald o
Collins, who says,

The figure in the manger may cry like any baby. He may grow up seemingly just as another
boy playing on the streets of Nazareth. He may preach in the style of a wandering Rabbi. The
Roman forces of occupation can put him to death by the hideous combisnation of impalement
and display which they call crucifixion. But all the same we know he is really God and this
injects an element of believe into whole life-story from Bethlehem on. he works like a man,
speaks like a man suffers and dies like a man. But underneath he is divine and this makes his
genuine humanity suspect.

The scriptural teachings accepts the sayings of the Roman scholar, Gerald O. Collins,

he was explaining the full person of Jesus Christ (man and God) which has been a very big

problem and those who opposed that Christ is fully human and fully God do so because

they only saw or know of someone called Jesus Christ but they have not come in contact
with him to know of his person as God and as human and so they always walk in confusion

because they themselves do not know Jesus Christ and so I am backing this point because

of what I know about Jesus Christ, he has posed both the qualities of being a man and that

of being a God to the fullness. He walked up on the waters, he stopped the storm e.t.c these

are his qualities of being hundred percent God on the other hand he wept, he was raised

like any other child in the community was raised he played he worked he is compassionate

etc. this shows Jesus attribute of being hundred percent human.

2.4 THE CHRISTIAN AND PLURALIST DEBATE ON MISSION

(Pittman np) gives the pluralist argument on the Christian mission which says

The Christian mission should lay more emphasis on influencing those in other
traditions to incorporate something of Christ into their own practice than in leading
them explicitly to renounce their faith in order to become Christians.

The Scriptural teachings do not accept this Christian pluralists view of mission

because it has completely forgotten about the purpose of the Christian faith and if

Christians are to adopt and go by this view, then there is a problem because it implies that

Christianity has no reason for her to exist any longer and the Christian mission is a God

given mandate which involves making of Disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name

of the father, son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them (New converts) to obey everything

the Lord has commanded (Matthew 28:19-20). In fact mission is not only a mandate but it

is also the heart beat of God because God has started his plan for saving man since after the

fall of man and so for that Christianity cannot exchange this task with any fellowship or

accept to lead the non Christians to a partial or half way acceptance of the Gospel of Christ,
if the above motioned view or position on the Christian mission would be accepted then

that will only be syncretism and the practice of religious pluralism and God is not happy

with that.

(William D 192) says in his book on mission that

When we think of God the father and mission, the theme that emerges is that he is the
source, the originator, and the end of all things, including mission. His will determines
the creation of the world the revelation of truth to humanity, the nature of the gospel,
the course of history, and the election of individuals to salvation he prescribes the way
in which saved individuals are to live.

William’s view is an acceptable one to the scriptural teachings. In the sense that this

view present s what the Christians believe about mission. The Christian faith believes that

mission was initiated by God and He is the core of the mission enterprise the Christian faith

exist to glorify God by fulfilling this task he has given to the Christian and so it becomes

necessary for the proclamation of the gospel to be embark upon so that the will of God will

be done and so William’s view that God is the originator and source of everything and

mission is undoubtedly acceptable.

In the challenge Christianity or Christian mission is facing with religious pluralism

(Stott 18) says

If it is true that God often works through the insignificant and the small to bring about
his purpose, then there is no excuse for Christians to feel alienated. Quite the contrary
we should delight that nobody is too insignificant to be used by God to change the
world. Christians can influence the society even when it strongly rejects the Christian
faith.
 Stott was simply encouraging the Christians to be strong and face the challenges of

religious pluralism to the Christian mission and the researcher accepts this because that is

what Christianity need the most in this post modern and pluralists’ world where the

Christian fiath is no longer a valid religion to the pluralists mind. But since the Christians

know that they have the truth there is no need forming the truth (mission) they already

know also that there is no need for compromise in the truth we hold no matter what and

the situation of the persecution and humiliation the Christians are expected to know that

the one who has called them to this task (God) is on their side and know best the way to

use them to achieve his purpose and so Christians are to know that even if the world do not

accept the gospel they can still influence the world by their life style.

Wilfred Cantwell Smith a pluralist quoted by Harold says

It is morally not possible actually to go out into the world and say to devout, intelligent
fellow human beings “we are saved and you are damped or ‘we believed that we know
God and we are right, you believe that you know God and you are totally wrong.

Wilfred’s view is not acceptable to the scriptural teachings in the sense that, the

Christian mission is not an insult to anyone but it is the truth about God’s revelation of

himself to man in order for him to be saved it is the will of God not the will of Christians

and the Christian mission is not mainly to look down on other person and his faith but to

help him understand the right path to follow and so that is why Christians are proclaiming

the gospel to set the captives free with the help and intervention of God.

Furthermore, another Christian pluralist quoted by Harold says,

 I am not a believer in missionaries. If we want to go to Africa and provide medical help
and teach people how to farm, great but if we go to Japan and try to convert Shintoist
no way. If they come here and tried that on me I would get mad on them. Christianity is
great I’m anything I’m a Christian. But I think that others have a right to believe for
themselves, and if they go to hell they just took the wrong turn.

The above Christian pluralists view is unacceptable, the above pluralists view which

is holding that the Christian mission should not be embarked upon is against the teachings

of the Bible it means that we in the Christian faith will be following Jesus without the cross

as Rev. Dr. Benjamin Pokol will always say. The Christian mission is a cross which

Christians are expected to carry and so if someone will call himself a Christian and will at

the same time stand against the Christian mission, then it means that he is not in any way

capable to be a Christian.

Furthermore, the Christian mission is God’s demonstration of love to man and so the

view that people are to be allowed to believe what they want to believe is questionable

although the non Christian religions will not be forced to accept the gospel but the truth of

the gospel must be communicated to them by the Christians and then it is left for them to

make the choice whether to accept God’s invitation of salvation or not.

2.5 Exclusivism

The exclusivists’ theology holds that God revealed himself in the Bible, and that

Jesus is God incarnate. No salvation is possible without Christ and therefore no religion can

bring about salvation (Netland .9)

Indeed the exclusivist view is a view that is in accordance to the Biblical injunction

and for that the researcher stand for it with the reason that John 14:6 says “I am the way,
the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me” and the book Act4:12

also points out that there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under

heaven that has been given amongst men, by which we must be saved, thus according to

this texts Jesus is the only Savior of the world, the first text talks about Jesus being the only

way, the truth and the life that is gotten from God and in the same vain the second text is

talking about Jesus being the only one whom God has send from heaven to come and save

mankind from sin not mere humans like Muhammad, Sadaurter, Cautemer and many more

prominent founders of world religious.

(Knitter 36) has this to say as his stand on exclusivism

The New Testament states nowhere that someone can be saved through the
general revelation of God. Salvation is brought by Jesus alone. God’s action of
reaching out to humans became reality in and through Jesus. Therefore anyone to
be saved they have to come in contact with Christ, which they do when Christ is
preached to them. When Christ is preached, revelation would follow.
The above view by Knitter is in accordance with Biblical injunction it is very true

that one cannot be in any way be saved just by the general revelation salvations comes

through the special revelation which is Jesus Christ, he is the only way God has set for man

to gain salvation. Therefore all other way or attempt made by human in order to gain

salvation and the human effort is incapacitated in working out the salvation of mankind.

Thus the facts still stands that for one to gain salvation; he must fully accept Jesus Christ as

his personal Savior.

Furthermore, Newbigin p.169 says

To affirm the unique decisiveness of God’s action in Jesus Christ is not arrogance; it is
the enduring bulwark against the arrogance of every culture to be itself the criterion
by which others are judged.
 The above exclusivist view given by Newbigin is acceptable and in line with the

Biblical teaching that is why Jesus himself mention it and said “as Moses lifted the serpent

in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up” this implies that when the

Israelites where faced with the calamity of snake bite in the wilderness, none of them was

able to save himself or provide a medication that could save him from the snake bite only

God provided for them a way to be saved through his servant Moses and all who looked at

the bronze snake were saved but those who refused to look at the bronze snake died. Thus

it is the same thing applicable to the fall and salvation of mankind. Sin has brought us the

calamity of death and here God sent his son to the world and lift him up to the cross for

every man to look on him and be saved, he is the only way God has made for man to be

saved, not even Christians are able to create such a way nor any other person here on

earth is capable of creating such a way but it is God himself that has made this way which

is Jesus Christ that everyone may look at him, believe him and then be saved. Therefore,

any other effort of man to be saved other than the one God has set is arrogance for one

cannot save himself when he is weak and helpless. Begers has this to say as his view on

Christian exclusivism.

Christianity is the only true religion, that salvation and revelation are found and that only in
Jesus are we able to interpret the total religious history of the humanity. Christianity contain
all answers to salvation and therefore salvation is only available within the Christian religion
(95)
Bergers view on exlusivism is in accordance with the biblical injunction and so the

researchers stand for it first of all this view still bounce back at what Acts 4:12 says about

Jesus that is salvation is found in nobody but only Jesus Christ and that is why Beger is

holding that salvation is only available within the Christian religion. This statement
implies that since Jesus is the key to salvation and Christians are believe in Christ than for

one to be saved he must believe Jesus and accept him as his personal an savior and must

as well do away with any other form of worship that is against the ethics and principles of

the Christian faith for Christianity is basically on the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Bible.

D’Costa has this to say as his own stand or position on exclusivism.

The question that arises when God is presented as being exclusively at work in
Christianity is whether this does not reduce the universality of God to such an extent
God is made to appear as the tribal deity of rather imperialistic form of western
Christianity (31).
The view of D’Costa on the Christian exclusivism is unattainable or not in line with

the teaching of the scripture therefore the researcher stands against this view, I term this

view as a lack of understanding of what the Christian faith is trying to communicate to the

world. The Christian faith is not in any way denying the fact that God loves people other

religion and he is acting and providing their need in fact that is why we have the general

revelation which help every religion and every man to know that God is at work in this life

and religion and he controls everything in deed Christianity admit to this fact that God is

universal.

Secondly, Christianity is not personalizing and reducing God to be as a tribal deity

but Christianity is only presenting the only way which God himself provided for salvation

and the Christian faith has the task to do so because it is not by her power (Christianity) or

any ability that she is able to be part of this special revelation which is Jesus Christ but it is

just a privilege that is by the grace of God and Christians are to be the light to the world by

living as children of light and leading the world to the saving knowledge of God.
 Nottland gives the following as one of the reasons why Christian exclusivism is

rejected.

The fact that people are exposed to other religions leads them to tolerate the
followers of other religions in big cities. It is not uncommon to have neighbours who
are Hindus or Budhist. It is very easy for people to condemn or classify them as
heathens, but when you get to know them and they become your friends, it is no
longer that easy. The same is true when people are exposed to great religions of
other religious traditions with even higher moral values than Christianity is uniquely
true, when you find just as many respectable people in other religious (28).
The above reason for rejecting exclusivism given by Nettland is acceptable by the

researcher for it is a fact because people of other non Christian religions have good moral

values and are keeping to those values to the Extend even more than those in the Christian

faith and other religions also have highly respected followers and religious leaders who

make great impact and promote peace in the society. Thus some Christians use these

qualities as reasons for those religions to be capable of saving it followers. This shows that

if Christianity will go that way we are simply denying the work of God through Jesus on

the cross to save the whole world that is why John 3:16 says “for God so love the world,

that he gave His only son that whosoever believe in him should not parish but have ever

lasting life” in the above verse it says that “whosoever believe in him would have life” this

implies that for one to have life no matter good he is or morally right he must believe Jesus

before salvation is granted unto him, that is the reason why Jesus Christ after finishing the

work of salvation gave his followers the mandate to go into the world and to make

disciples of all nations.

 Thus I want to say that salvation is irrespective of human effort or just morality and

good values without Jesus Christ, Jesus is the key to salvation so he who wants to be saved

must combined his good morals values with Jesus Christ. Nettlands (35) further say that:

Christian exclusivism dose not say that all statement made

by other religions are false instead it acknowledges that
there might be some truth in what they express, he further
said Christian’s exclusivism acknowledges that other
religions also have values and that Christianity can indeed
learn something from them.
The above assertion by Nettland is in line with the Biblical teachings and is

acceptable by the researcher because indeed in the Christian faith there is tolerance, there

is humility to be able to learn from others for the fact that the Christians faith is the only

way to salvation doesn’t mean that the Christians are hundred percent in their dealings

infact there are a lot of things. That Christianity can learn from other religions for example

the unity in the Islamic religion is stronger than the one in the Christian faith today and in

this case, Christianity will have to learn from Islam so Christianity is not condemning other

religions of their good morals and values. Therefore what the Christian faith is doing is

that she is only presenting Jesus the only way to salvation to the world.

Gills 168 has this to say about Christian exclusivism

If, as in Christian doctrine God is the creator of all that exist, why would he allow the
majority of people to be lost or separated from their creator? The Christian religion
is foreign to the biggest part of the world if God want humanity to reach perfect
fullness he must also allow opportunity for human to reach that fullness.
The above view point about Christian’s exclusivism given by Gills is unattainable

and is against the ethics and principles of the Bible. Therefore, the researcher stands

against it because first of all it is true that God is the creator of all that exist. But God has
not in any way separated the people of the world from himself what happened was that

man from the inception, had a good relationship with God but man failed by disobeying

God then it was sin that separated man from God but even to that God himself did not

allowed man to parish that is why he decided to provide the means of saving man and this

was started through Abraham down to the Israelites and from the Israelites this salvation

was extended to the whole world. Setting Jesus as the key figure of saving man and that is

why God sent him to the world to die for our sins and reconcile us with God.

Therefore, Christianity or Christians have being termed by Jesus Christ himself as

the salt and light of the world though Christianity is foreign to the biggest part of the world

but only small quantity of salt is needed for cooking a very large portion of food or even to

preserve it so also just one lamb is needed to shine and give the light to a very large house.

Thus the Christians have been given the mandate to reach out to the whole world the only

way God has provided for man to reach perfect fullness so any other effort by humans is

unattainable for it is only by grace not by work that man can be saved.

2.6 INCLUSIVISM

D’Costa 80 says that Christian inclusivism affirm the salvific presence of God in non-

Christian religious and at the same time maintains that Christ is the definitive and

authoritative revelation of God.[ John Saudors 215] says that Christian inclusivism is the

doctrine that salvation is appropriated only on the basis of Christ work, but not

necessarily through explicit faith in him.

William Lane Craig [ 1] in his paper “Middle knowledge and stereological problem of

evil, says Christian inclusivism believe that, while Christ is the only way to salvation,

people of other faith may be saved without becoming Christians. God has made salvation
 obtainable to everyone who sincerely respond to the truth they have weather it is through

creation, conscience, another religion or some other means. Such individuals are

sometimes termed” annoying Christian Johnson I says that inclusivism has also been

called a blankets term to characterize a sort of middle way between exlusivism and

pluralism.

Thus indeed many scholars have said a lot of things concerning inclusivism and we

shall analyze them in the cause of this studies.

Storms have this to say as his stand on inclusivism.

Whereas Jesus is ontologically for salutation, he is not epistemologically

necessary. In other words, salvation is only a possibility because of what Jesus has
done in his life, death and resurrection. Apart from what he did, all would be
consigned to eternal death. However, one need not consciously confess faith in the
name of Jesus to be saved. Salvation is to those who have never heard the name of
“Jesus “if they respond positively in faith to the revelation of him in nature and
conscience.
The above view on Christian lncuvisism is against the teachings of the Bible reason

Because of the revelation (General) is not capable of saving man that is why for inclusivists to

be accepting the fact that salvation is only possible because of what Jesus has done in life,

death and resurrection. They should also know that Christ alone has the key to salvation and

this has been granted by God. God made the only way. Thus if God had only wanted Christ to

work out the salvation of man and not being the only way he would have made salvation

automatic and universal through all religions but salvation is made universal to world only

through Jesus Christ.

Pinnock[ 49] argues and declared that one can only reach the father by passing
through Jesus Christ. This does not mean there is only one route to the father. All
 route lead to God ends up at Christ. However, this does not mean that these entire
routes have their origin from Christ.
Pinnock”s view is not in line with the Biblical injunction or teaching and the researcher

therefore, disagree with that because from the initial stage since from the fall of man, man is

helpless and in unable to reach God and that is why God in his love for man provided a way

(Jesus)as the only way to the father and to be saved as well that is why Jesus mentioned in

John 3: 16 and said “I am the way the truth and the light no one come to the father accept

through me” now in the above verse the word “except” there shows that all routes to the

father are futile and cannot reach the father except Jesus the route that God himself has set for

the salvation of man.

More so Jesus made mention that he is the life and the life there is salvation we are talking

so there is no way one can be saved without having Jesus even if the person claims to be a

Christian but is not living in a accordance to the Christian life.

Storms[ 5 ]further said the following his view as a Christian inclusivists.

In their opinion, though another religious conviction may be ignorant of Christ or

possibly even have rejected him yet because of their positive response to what

they know about God or even due to their effort to follow the dictates of their

conscience, they are unknowingly included in the number of those who are

recipient of Christ salvation. They analogy is sometimes used of a person who

receive a gift, but is giver of the gift may be.

The above view giving by storm on Christian inclusivism is untenable and is against the

teaching of the bible, therefore the researcher dispute that fact because Christ himself is

God he is the beginning and the end Christ and the father are one.
 Even if they know God without knowing Christ it means that is not a real

understanding of God for anyone who knows God will also accept and know of the trinity

that is God the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. the conscience and the general revelation

and as well as good morals and values which a lot of non Christian are all incapacitated in

granting man salvation that is why the last part of John 3:16 says” for who so ever believe

in him should not perish but have everlasting life” this means that he who felt the general

revelation, good morals and values and his conscience can grant him forgiveness of sin and

as well salvation without the special revelation (Jesus Christ) is not yet save unless he who

believe and accept Jesus Christ as his own personal lord and savior will be saved.

Sanders [217] hold that.

Inclusivism believe God is love desire to share his love not only with an exclusive
group, but with the whole human race they say that God desires to bring all
people to himself, whether they are considered as our costs, publicans or sinners,
in the Jewish society.

The above inclusivists believe in religious pluralism given by sanders is not in line with the

biblical teaching and that is why the researcher stand against it with the reason that first of

all it is true that God is love. God intend to save man really but God allowed man to make

the choice whether to accept this salvation presented to him or not that is why John 3:16

says” for God so love the world” meaning that the love of God is not to a particular or the

religion but to the whole world. And 16 further say” he gave his only son” meaning that

Jesus is the only way God has send to the whole human race for their salvation, and the

issue of the choice it comes at the last part of the verse which says” for whoever believe in

him should not perish but have life” meaning that though God present to man salvation, the
salvation is not imperative but it is willing so he who is willing to be save must follow the

way for salvation which is Jesus Christ.

Dupuis has this to say concerning the inclusivists believe.

God is not only lord of the church or the special salvation history of the church,
but also through the universal history of humanity which is bound up by the
special salvation history of having common origin meaning and goal and being
subjected to the same grace of God. mans religion being the religion of a social
being is never merely an individualist, subjectivist activity in a purely private
zone, but always active in particular embodiment
The above inclusivist view is not in line with the biblical teaching and so the researcher

stand against it because it is true that God is the lord of all and he his gracious and loving to

all human race and God has work for the salvation of not only Christian but for the

salvation of all that God gives is with the condition and the condition is found in John

chapter three verse sixteen which says” who so ever believe in him should not perish but

have everlasting life this implies that for man to be saved he must accept Christ as his

personal lord and savior and must live in obedience to the teaching of Jesus Christ

Christians are not in any way blocking anyone from being saved and don’t have the right to

do so even if they want to because even does who have accepted him Christ (Christian) are

striving to live as excepted before the will finally get the crown of life. Christianity is only

pointing the world religion to the way of salvation which is Christ Kavunkal 295 agues on

the view of the inclusivism and says that.

It does not make sense to claim that the value in others religions are to be
fulfilled in Christ. They are the result of the present of mystery of Christ and it
would evenly be presumptuous to say that it can only be satisfied by Jesus Christ”
or to make this yerning as the justification to proclaim with vigor in word and
 deed that Jesus Christ is the savior or else we should also be prepared to accept
that the yearning for God in Christianity has to be fulfilled in other religion.
The above view giving by Kavunkal is accepted by the bible because, values though they are

good but some values are bad and is against the teaching of Jesus Christ and those values

are made by mere men for the betterment of the community. Therefore it is impossible to

say that the values in other religion are to fulfilled in Christ for if it will be accepted that

way then, we are reducing Jesus Christ to a mere human and we are as well negating his

position as hundred percent God. Christ can only be relevant in a religion only if he is

known as God.

D’costa 324 about the inclusivism view the state that,

The salvific function of this religion, namely, whether they are or not path of
salvation, there is no doubt that grace and truth are giving through Jesus Christ
and by his spirit.
D’costa’s view is not in line with the teaching of the scripture for grace is extended to all but

for one to obtain the grace of God he must agree to come to the umbrella of God’s grace

which is the cross. I mean the cross were Christ died and on it he took our burden and pain

as well forgive our sins and at last he said it is finish so for any religion to find grace, it must

come to Christ and acknowledge his death and resurrection and as ell accept him as the

savior.

Accordin to Gustua 131,

The salvation of men in spite of their religion is an through their religion

activities in as much as much as the embody God’s universal saving design and
correspond to the universal revelation, religion have a true salvific efficiency.
They have in the image of God legitimacy and they may be called ways of
salvation” so far as they express and embody a providential of God to their
members.
The above inclusivism view is not acceptable to the scripture because religion can only be

to express and embody a providential order of God but without the grace it is nothing

because that is just human efforts and human are feeble and incapacitated they can’t reach

to God’s expectation without the grace which is found an granted only by Jesus Christ this

also include Christian that if Christian refuse to work under the grace of thinking that their

human strength and ability and wisdom can give them salvation they are only wasting their

time and that is the same thing applicable to all the people and religion of the world for

instance Islam believe that salvation is obtained by human effort alone they believe it so

because they have refused to acknowledge the grace of God which is Jesus Christ and so

they feel they are perfect.

2.7 PLURALISM

Mc Grath has this to say about his view on pluralism

Each religion is understood to represent a distinctive yet equally valid grapes of

some ultimate spiritual reality which some religion term “God” and other define
in rather theistic terms. For this reason, pluralistic writer tend to refer to
spiritual reality or the real thus avoiding the explicit use of term “God” 549.
Mc Grath view seems to be true and acceptable by the teaching of the scripture because of

the general revelation of God which every religion and human have the glimps of God but

the fact that the general revelation is there to give every religion the idea of God does not

mean that all world religions are valid ways of salvation for salvation to found no where

except in Jesus Christ alone so for the world religion to have a complete sense and be saved

I am of the view that they must accept Jesus Christ in their religion as their personal lord

and savior accepting him as hundred percent God and hundred percent human.

Sacks 20 says that

 Religious value remain a potent enough force in our cultures that need to be
renewed, in the end it is and as well be the absolute truths of God’s word that
brings true libration. This transformation process has impacted the world in
many healthy and positive ways. It embraced ethnic racial, cultural and religion
diversity and has allowed every citizen of the world to practice his or her
religion openly and freely without being discriminated.
The above view on pluralism is not in line with the biblical teaching and so the researcher

stand against it, because, religious values though they are good but cannot be the absolute

truth of God’s word that brings true libration in fact values are made up by more men and it

is feeble . Therefore religious values are not to be equated with the word of God. More so, it

is true that religious values have impacted the world in meaningful healthy and positive

ways “as mentioned by sack, it should also be noted that it has also impacted the world

negatively as well.

Berger 2 has the following to say about pluralism.

Pluralism has always meant that different groups have interacted with each
other, be it willingly or not this interaction has been facilitated under condition
of legally religious diversity.
Berger’s view on pluralism seems to be accepted that is if he is talking not on critically

means that the interaction between world religions under condition of legally religious

diversity is on salvation. his position is not line with the teaching of the scripture for no

legality on matters of salvation is found in any other religion than Christianity.

The only two ways in which world religions do interact under condition of legally religious

diversity” as mentioned by Berger above are dialogue and values for in dialogues every

religion is seen as legal and in values every religion is responsible for bringing up her own

religion values.
Hick 56 has this to say as his own view on pluralism.

Jesus exemplication might also be found and verified by observation and

judgment in other religion tradition. Jesus exemplication of divine inspiration is
a prior claim to the superiority of Christianity in relation to the other world
religion. It allowed for historical observation and evaluation to decide if this
highest degree of inspired life represented in Jesus is also discovered and
exemplified in other religion savior on traditions.
The above pluralist view given by hick is unacceptable to the teachings of the scripture and

this is because. Jesus himself is the son of God who was sent from heaven to the earth by

God to come and save humans from their sins. Therefore Christianity is not in any way

computing with any of the world religions knowing full well that Jesus is hundred percent

man and hundred percent human. Therefore the fact remains that Jesus is the only one who

is capable of granting unto man salvation and what Christian believe about Jesus is that he

is final authority and the truth about him so weather other world religion will go into

historical observation and evaluation to decide if the highest degree of inspired life

represented in Jesus is also discovered and exemplified in other religious savior or not, it

cannot change the fact about Jesus Christ and they will only end up in confusion because

they are following the wrong way of gaining salvation.

The only thing Christianity aims at teaching this message of salvation that they have to

those who don’t know about it but not that Christianity aims at competing or corralling

with any of the world religion on which religion is better.

CONCLUSION

Finally this second chapter has reviewed literatures on various themes that are

related and are very expedient to this study. It has gone a long way to unveil what other

religions, philosophers and pluralist are saying about the Christian claim of truth, the
Christian claim of salvation, the Christian claim of the deity of Christ and finally the

Christian, the pluralist’s debate on the Christian mission and three views of religions which

are exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism.

 CHAPTER THREE

BACKGROUND TO THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

3.0 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the background to mission of the church, missions in the Old

Testament and mission in the New Testament as well will be discussed for a better

understanding of the topic, the challenge of religious pluralism to the Christian mission.

3.1 BACKGROUND TO THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

The bible contains God’s plan for mankind his plan is to save mankind from sin and

that is why God started his mission work (Missio-dei) and letter handed it over to man to

continue with the work of reaching out to the world the message of salvation using the

whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation it comprises of the effort of God himself to reach

man with salvation and to set him free from the bondage of sin, no wander (Martin. 230 )

says that the Bible is a missionary book not because it contains isolated texts with a

missionary flavor but because the mainline of the argument that binds together all its

volumes is the exposition, the unfolding and the gradual execution of a missionary

purpose.” Thus this implies that mission started with God first and God used his word

(logos) to create and to make himself known to man and as well save man from sin.

Therefore without the Bible the church has virtually nothing to present as basis for

its mission and without the Bible even the church will not be there to go For mission

because the Bible is the background of the church and as well as mission.
3.2 MISSIONS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the background and the basis for mission it

cannot be an overstatement to say that it is very difficult for one to seek to understand the

term mission From the Old Testament perspective because, the Old Testament book itself

does not in a lay man’s understanding work like a missiological book (Bosch 17) said

“Particularly, if we adhere to the traditional understanding of mission as the sending of

preachers to distant places, then there is in the Old Testament no indication of the believers

of the Old Covenants being sent by God to cross geographical, religious and social frontiers

in order to win other to faith in Yahweh.” And this verse post a very big question to

Christianity and missiologist as to why mission will be viewed from the Old Testament

perspective but not withstanding it should be understood or noted that the New Testament

is the fulfillment of the Old Testament and that should be one of the reasons why the Old

Testament is seen as a missiological book because the New Testament frequent quotation

of the Old Testament scripture is seen as a book full of missionary activities is by viewing

its sequential nature looking generally at God’s orderliness in creation God called His

people into existence he gives them a mission. Therefore there were no Old Testament

people of God without a mission there is no election without a commission. God’s call to his

people presupposes a call for action because biblical theology is a mission oriented

theology.

Generally in considering mission in the Old Testament, it started properly with the

call of Abraham. In the book of Genesis chapter 12:1-12 from Ur of the Chaldeans to a land
which is unknown, but the land was a land full of milk and honey which is a clear indication

of God’s special plan of redemption to man, mission has been the heart beat of God and so

the call of Abraham is God’s movement toward saving mankind from destruction. So , the

call of Abraham reveals God’s election of one man and one nation to salvation and that is

the way the mission in the Old Testament is set to be centripetal in nature because it

centers on a particular nation which came to be through Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3) but this

election does not mean that God is selfish but it is with the purpose that through this one

nation Israel other nations will be reached with the gospel of salvation and it went on and

on as Abraham gave birth to his son Isaac at old age showing the greatness of God in his

plan for man to be saved then from Isaac to Jacob from Jacob Joseph who became a great

missionary in Egypt and so because of him the Egyptians have a glimpse of the power and

ability of the almighty God.

Furthermore the deliverance of the Israelite from the hands of the Egyptians is a

very important thing in the life of the Israelite as (Hedlund 43) will say “the deliverance of

Israel from Egypt is the central redemptive act in the Old Testament and the heart of the

Old Testament Kerygma. The event became central in Israel’s worship and was celebrated

in song and sacrament and sermon.” And the trend move further as God called even

prophets to carry out his mission work even to the extent of using prophets like Jonah and

Amos to help his people understand that his mission is centrifugal in nature reaching out to

other nations.

More so, the consistent message throughout the Old Testament was that God is concern

about all the people of the world. This is the beginning of all the old testament perspective
of mission of God if truly God is one and the reconciliation message is one, then it must be

for all mankind. Thus, the lack of understanding darkens the people’s eyes on Gods purpose

for choosing Israel to be a light to the world.

The argument of Paul in Romans 9 was that on the “children of the promise (that God will

grant his righteousness to anyone who trust or believe in his (promise) for the children

“those who only, “children of flesh” without a personal faith are not children of God.

Though they are part of the elects Israel (Romans 9:8)

Because we have failed to come out and accept the salvation by Faith of Abraham as

a universal offspring that will bless and save all the nations of the world the purpose for

Israel was lost. No wonder (Kaiser says “some may still doubt that the Old Testament

explicitly enjoined believers and messengers in the old testament to go to the gentiles. Did

God ever send, and Israelite or the whole nation with the great commission? (11).

The old testament Jews did not understand the importance of Abraham Jews faith

(before he was circumcised as a Jew) which still granted him righteousness (Genesis 15:6)

therefore this verse old testament verse clarifies the facts that believing in God’s promise is

responded by the granting of perfect righteousness. This should have been the most

wonderful Old Testament verse. If the message is not clear then the mandate to share it

with others is less imperative. While Kaiser maintained that missionary mandate is

consistent in the Old Testament, he himself admits that it is “a time complex” (Kaiser 82)

In spite of the lack of any intentional missionary activity in the Old Testament there

was a striking number of people who left their home origins by words and deeds witness

were won over to trust and serve believing God who had shown them mercy. “the story of
Melchizedek, Ruth, Job, the people of Nineveh as seen in the book of Jonah, and many

others in the old testament are the vast expense of people outside the nation of Israel who

hear the faint strains of the missionary called to all people already sounding fourth

“(Verkuy 129). that is why (Stott 9) says “the nations are not gathered in automatically. If

God has promise to bless all families of the earth, he has promise to do so through

Abraham’s seed (Gen. 12:3, 22:18) Now we are Abraham seed by faith, and the earth

families will be bless only if we go to them with the gospel that is God’s plain purpose.

The call upon God to bless and make Israel prosper with their families, cattle and

crops in the book of [ps 64, 96, 117] justifies the plea of the psalmist that the nations may

look on Israel and say that what Abraham had prayed for by virtue of God’s blessings had

indeed occurred [Kaiser 31]. As a chosen nation, Israel acted as a center of mission where

other nations come to receive blessings. This way of doing mission is called the centripetal

[Bosch 67]

3.3 THE OLD TESTAMENT AREAS OF STRENTH IN MISSIO

1. In the person of Abraham whose faith led to the covenant between Israel and God

and Israel’s election as a chosen nation.

2. In the story of Naaman’s maidservant who acts of bravery led to the healing of

naaman her master and his subsequent decision to follow the God of Israel./

3. The four Hebrew boys Daniel, shedrack, Meshach and Abednego for holding strictly

adhering to monotheism and refusing to practice the idolatry in Babylon.

 4. The faithfulness of God to the covenant between Him and Abraham; obedient

individuals such as Abraham, Noah and David in psalms where people of other

nations came to worship God for his blessings upon Israel.

3.4 MISSION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Jesus Christ is the core of mission in the New Testament, right from the message of

his birth, ministry, death and resurrection are all clear facts that shows that Jesus has come

to preach the message of his father and bringing souls into the kingdom of God (Newbigin

1) says “there is no participation in Christ without participation in his mission to the

world.” Therefore the above statement show clearly that Jesus Christ came to the world

with a mission which is a mission to the world a mission which is a mission to save the

people of the world from sin and this is very clear from what John 3:16 says “for God so

loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him should not perish

but have everlasting life.” Meaning that the mission in the Old Testament is no different

from the one Jesus brought in the New Testament. But the only slight difference between

the mission in the Old Testament and the New Testament is that the mission in the Old

Testament was centripetal meaning that it centered on a particular people (Israel) but in

the New Testament it is becoming centrifugal which has to do with the whole human race,

that is why John 3:16 is reached “for God so love the world” not just Israel not particular

race, language or tribe but the whole world.

It is indeed the love for the world that made Jesus to come down in human form so

as to be able to penetrate the heart of men with the message of salvation, living the
kingdom life style for the people to see and imitate, he has preached in several occasions.

Telling the people to live a pure life he has also thought several parables in order for the

people to change from their sinful ways of life and to return to the saving grace of God Jesus

also performed miracles, associated with all calibers of people all these were clear evidence

of Christ’s mission which is centrifugal in nature to the whole human race the greatest

proofs is that Jesus Christ being a Jew laid a conversation with the Samaritan woman at the

well in John 4:1-26 and at that time there is nothing in common between the Jews and the

Samaritans but Jesus broke the barriers and the differences for him to extend his message

of salvation to everyone.

Thus even after the ministry of Jesus Christ on earth, there was still need to reach to

the unreached with the message of salvation and that is why Jesus Christ in Matthew 2:18-

20, gave the mandate to his disciples not only his disciples the entire believers who believe

in him and his mission “to go into world and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in

the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit and teaching them to obey everything I

have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” No

wander (Bocksh 11) said ‘If Jesus is indeed Lord of all, this reality just was to be

proclaimed. Nobody who knows this can remain silent about He or she can do only one

thing-help others also to acknowledge Jesus’ lordship.

This virtually means that, every believer has the responsibility of reaching out the

good news he has received to others who have not heard of it. And indeed the mission is a

very big task which is not void of persecution and hardship even Jesus faced it and as the

disciples of Jesus dispersed in to the world to reach out to the unreached they suffered
great persecution troubles and hardship but it should be understood that in the midst of all

this God is there for the person embarking on the mission work. Even Paul who happens to

be one of the great missionaries also faced a severe persecution (Fuller 102). Said “most of

the apostles and their friends went out as missionaries. Thomas went to India, and John

Mark to Egypt. We know that Peter travelled about in Palestine and ended up in Rome. But

the apostle we know the most about is Paul.” So it shows clearly where the Apostles go to

for the purpose of spreading the gospel of salvation to those who have not heard of it, for

Paul he had an encounter with Christ and at the same time a call to serve as a missionary

and for the apostles they were fulfilling God given mandate of preaching the Good news of

salvation which they have received from Christ Jesus.

The Holy Spirit also has been a very good director to the apostles as they embarked

on the missionary work in the New Testament (Rheenen 12). Said “the Spirit of God is the

power (sometimes perceives only by the spiritually discerning) driving forward the

mission of God.” this is very clear when Paul said “my spirit tells me to go to Jerusalem

(Acts 21:10-25) meaning that the Holy spirit has been the driving force and the director in

the mission work in the New Testament as promised by Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, even after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the mission work in the

new testament through his disciples and some key individuals who God has called to do

this work of mission since the mandate to go into the world and preach the gospel has been

given. And for this study we shall discuss one key figure as a great missionary in the new

testament which is apostle Paul.

Paul being an unbeliever in his early life hates anything related to Christianity to the extent

of persecuting Christians turned out to be a master missionary practitioner, a great

missionary who preached the message of salvation even to the gentiles in Athens and in

his missionary work he was so dedicated to the task and used every opportunity he has to

preach the gospel of Christ an example of this is seen when Paul was waiting for timothy

and Silas in Athens he used that opportunity to reach out the Gospel of Christ to the people

of Athens with great wisdom and creativity.

Paul made use of the stoic principle and quoted Greek writers as a point to make the people

give him attention. He addressed the people’s claims by reassuring them that he was not

bringing a new faith, he used familiar terms for his listeners to understand him.

It is clear from the content of Paul’s speech that Paul addresses his audience at the level of

their basic worldview assumptions, creating a necessary context and foundation for

proclaiming the risen Christ. He does not assume familiarity with the Old Testament and

bases his augments on general revelation and extra- scriptural evidence that Paul

proclaims God as creator, sustainer, ruler, father and judge which is holistic perspective.

More so, as a great missionary, we cannot just end up this aspect of the study without

discussing mission in the gospels since the gospels are where the message for the mission

is found.

[Greenway 43] points out that ‘Each of the four Gospels end with a Great Commission after

telling the story of Christ’s death and resurrection Jesus says that his will is that his

disciples take the gospel to all peoples anywhere in the book of Mathew 28;18-20, mark

16;15-18, Luke 24;44-48, John 20;21-23. That this salvation message be preached to
everybody anywhere around the world so that by preaching the message, those who

believe in the son, would be saved and those who refused to believe in the son would be

condemned. This is an act of sending which is the key reason for mission in the New

Testament

CONCLUSION

This chapter has discussed the Background to the mission of the church, the New

and Old Testament concepts of mission.

 CHAP TER FOUR

THE CHALLENGES OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM TO THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

4.0 INTRODUCTION

In chapter three the Old Testament and New Testament concept of the Christian

mission, was discussed this projects work shall in this chapter consider the main

problem of religious pluralism which has to do with pointing out the challenges of

religious pluralism to the Christian mission and as well validating the Christian faith

in the midst of these challenges which is expected to be a tool for the missionary

activities in the Christendom.

4.1 THE CHALLENGE OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

In the global neighborhood today, the Christian mission appears desirable and many

Christian scholars advocate its necessity. The Word of Truth Magazine first edition P

29 pointed out that “the church must be sensitive to preach and evangelize her

neighbors (unbelievers) provide her neighbors spiritual needs (materially and

financially) and preach the gospel from person to person, family to family”. Some

promoters hypothesize the need to deconstruct many biblical truth claims as

foundational to Christian mission. However, these so called theologies and

ideologies of religious pluralism, given their implications for the universal church

raise paramount issues challenging the Christian church in the present day

(Schrotenboer 118) pointed out that “we would observe that if the idea of religious

pluralism takes hold, it will spell the demise of the Christian mission.
1. Religious pluralism has given the non Christians and some Christians the

notion that Christianity is not the only way to salvation; For example in a

country like Nigeria where in communities and families of the southern part

of the country were Christians, Muslims and African traditionalist are found

to be members of the same community and even members of the same family

and all of these three religions are accepted by the people as valid ways to

salvation and by that preaching Christ to the non Christians in the

community or family becomes very difficult since all of the religions are

viewed as valid ways to salvation. Byang Kato said in his book “theological

Pitfalls in Africa” he warned that “Christian – paganism appears to be the

area of attack within the next generation. The relativity philosophy is seeking

to make the scriptures only one of many revelations rather than a special

revelation” (Kato 173). It has effectively received a new boost within the last

decade of the twenty century. The nineties have been marked by a lot of

opinions and writings of supporters of pluralist as well as inclusivity

religious pluralism. advocates of these trends consider Christian traditional

truth-claims as “exclusivism” “a virus” a disease of imagining its religious

truth superior to all others and its path to salvation the only one”

(Madany28).

2. The Christian pluralists are advocating that the Christian mission is to be

partially carried out; it will be an offence not to mention the view of the

Christian pluralists which stand on the way of the Christian mission in

reaching the unreached with the gospel thereby giving more strength to
 religious pluralism. (Pittman 9) here gives the Christian pluralists view on

the Christian mission as mentioned earlier in chapter two of this project it

says “the Christian mission should lay more emphasis on influencing those

people of other religions to incorporate something of Christ into their own

religion than in leading them explicitly to renounce their religion in order to

become Christians”. Therefore, it is a pity that even those who profess

Christianity do not understand the essential task of the church which is

mission and that is why such view will come even from some so called

Christians supporting religious pluralism. Therefore this stands as hindrance

to an effective evangelization of the non Christians with the Christian gospel

salvation Christianity in itself has such internal pluralism instead of being

one as (the word of truth Magazine 29) said “the church is to be one in

carrying the task of reaching Christ to the world.

3. Another challenge which religious pluralism has set for Christianity and as

well the Christian mission specifically in Nigeria is that pluralism is bringing

up a new religion which is known as Christ- slam. This stand to be a very

strong challenge whereby people are found of combining the Christian faith

and the Islamic faith strongly holding to the position that both Christianity

and Islam are true religions that have been corrupted in one way or the other

therefore for them to find a very true religion, they must combine the good

part of Christianity and the good part of Islam to give them combination of a

true religion which is capable of reaching man to salvation since both the two

religions (Christianity and Islam) are in the quest to reach the destination
 and so it becomes very difficult to preach to such people because they reject

pure Islam and pure Christianity.[Benjamin 34].

4.3 VALIDATING CHRISTIANITY IN THE MIDST OF PLURALSIM

It is very clear that there are arguments for and against each interpretations of the

case of Religious Pluralism. Thus Christians do have sound wisdom that they can use to

answer such serious challenge or problem which is confronting the Christian mission and

Christianity as a whole, and this source of wisdom is the uniqueness of the Christian faith

form other religions (Gold Smith and Hartley 21) pointed out that “if we are to present the

Christian gospel effectively to followers of other faiths then it is vital that we hold fast to

the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the one true savior and Lord, the revealer of God the

father.” Therefore we cannot compromise our love for the uniqueness of Christ, this is

because we know that it is this uniqueness that gives life and so it is this uniqueness that

Christianity must use to proof that it is the only way to salvation.

In John 14:6 Jesus is recorded saying “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one

comes to the father, but through me”. The context of this passage shows clearly that Jesus

was discussing his own place in God’s plan of salvation, He seems to have viewed himself

not as one among many providers of salvation, but as the one necessary and sufficient

provider of salvation. More so, this prove is seen in 1 Timothy 2:5; where Paul says “for

there is one God and one mediator also between God and man, which is Christ Jesus.” So if

Jesus is necessary to salvation then followers of religions that are without Jesus or do not

understand him as savior do not attain salvation through these religions because Jesus is

key to salvation.
 For this project to be successfully and expediently validate the Christian faith and

the need for the Christian mission, it is important to point out some areas where the

Christian faith is unique from other world religions and as well ways in which the Christian

missionary can use those uniqueness to overcome the challenge of religious pluralism to

the Christian mission

a. The uniqueness of true love and friendship.

b. The uniqueness of divine revelation.

4.4 THE UNIQUENESS OF TRUE LOVE AND FRIENSHIP

Love being one of the strongest Pillars in the Christian faith makes more sense when

this true brotherly love is extended even to the non Christians around the world even as

the book of John 3:16 pointed out “for God so loved the world that he gave his only

begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

1John 4 also says “beloved let us love one another for love is from God and whoever love is

form God.” the above texts show clearly that love started with God, He loved us first even

when we are yet sinners and this love moved him to give his only son Jesus Christ to come

and die for our sins, this is an expression of love to the people, so God expect that we love

one another as he loves us.

The themes of love seems to be general to world religions, it is emphasized in Islam,

ATR, Christianity and many other world religions but it is very unique in the Christian faith

because the true Christian love is not hypocritical and does not keep record of wrong
More so, the Christian love demands love for enemies. The word of truth Magazine (59)

first edition pointed out that “it takes a strong person to control the selfishness and

resentment that comes to the fore when he or she is attacked. Let alone to be capable of

offering love in return. This is the kind of love Jesus gives to those going his way.” Other

world religions like Islam are very hash to Christians but we are expected to show them

true love of Christ even as Stassen is quoted in the (word of truth Magazine 56)”for

Christians, love is the heart of living, of being human. Love is at the heart of the life of

Christ, his teaching and his death on the cross” this is very clear that if we do not show love

to the non Christians then we cannot show them how Christ loves them.

A missionary must have great love for the lost souls first before going to preach the

gospel to them. But the reverse is the case among some missionaries and Christians; a good

example is a missionary in a Muslim country. Said as quoted in Gold Smith and Harley P.

51) “I hate Islam it’s demonic.” Thus making the non Christians your enemies or

condemning everything about them drives them far the more from the faith. (Strauss P.

239) Pointed out that “we are commissioned to simultaneously “speak the truth in love”

(Ephesians 15). We do not compromise the truth of Jesus Christ’s uniqueness to all people

about his salvation with an attitude of sincere Christian love.

4.4 THE UNIQUENESS OF DIVINE REVELATION

Concerning God’s revelation to mankind, it is expedients to clearly point out that

despite the fact that God has revealed himself to man through nature which is the general

revelation, he has as well revealed himself specially by speaking to prophets, became flesh

in Jesus Christ, was witnessed to the apostles, comes to us through the scriptures as the
living word of God, which calls the church into being and to which the church continues to

witness. Thus the above truth about the Christian faith is that which the missionary must

hold fast to be able to prove the uniqueness of divine revelation in Christianity.

The issue of revelation seems to be common in every religion for example Jews,

Christians and Muslims believe that the Torah was given by Yahweh but the difference is

that Christians believe that both the New and Old Testament were inspired by God. While

Muslims believe the Quran was revealed by God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel.

Therefore considering this diverse understanding of revelation, it is the responsibility of

the missionary to point out the uniqueness of revelation in the Christian faith in a pluralist

society which see revelation in every religion as valid and being given by God (Faith 49)

“The miracle of the son is probably the best-known revelation of recent times but while

some still consider it to be a genuine miracle, others regard it as a natural phenomenon

with a natural explanation. So in the midst of this challenge the missionary should make the

non Christians understand that the Christian faith is not the quest to reach the divine (God)

but is the divine (God) in the quest to reach mankind.

4.5 CONCLUSION

Indeed this chapter has been able to point out the challenges of religious pluralism

how to validate the Christian faith in the midst of religious pluralism, the Christian

uniqueness of divine revelation.

 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUTION.

5.0 INTROCUTION

In actual sense it is worthy of note that religious pluralism is challenging to the

Christian faith threat. In this chapter the researcher summarizes and restates briefly some

of the conclusion and recommendations for the benefits of the Christian mission and for

better understanding of reaching out to a pluralist’s society.

5.1 SUMMARY

Religious pluralism has been defined as a position which holds that all religions are

valid way to salvation.

Christians are becoming pre-occupied with worldly needs neglecting the need for

them to reach the unreached with the gospel and so these dalliances gave the way for

pluralism to challenge Christianity which has been given the task of mission many

centuries ago. Therefore due to the consciousness of religious pluralism and the need to

reach the unreached with the message of Christ the researcher considered the views of

Christianity, pluralism and other religious views on the Christian mission, truth, salvation,

and the Bible, the researcher as well was able to give out the challenge of religious

pluralism and possible ways of validating the Christian faith in a pluralists’ society.

Therefore this project work has only include the tip of an ice bank on religious

pluralism but is still calling on the Christians to rise up properly and face this challenge of
religious pluralism before the Christian mission lost its place so we need an urgent

response and as well as urgent evangelization of the world.

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Christianity has engaged into defending itself against religious pluralism. This

project work does not intend to reject or look down on the efforts that has been put

in place both evangelistic, missiological, and apologetical approach has been given

by Christian theologians, missiologists and apologetics. Thus this work intends to

contribute answers to the overwhelming challenge of religious pluralism to the

Christian mission.

2. While others tend to look down on biblical Christians, the Christendom as a whole

not only the Christian mission should develop working models form a biblical

Christian theology of religions that will depend on the New Testament Trinitarian

Christology in order to convince the singularity of Christ and the universality of God.

3. In the present day the challenge of religious pluralism call the Christians to reflect

on the dimensions of the Misio Dei (Bosch 381). The challenge of religious pluralism

is a theological and a missiological challenge. Therefore it calls for Christians to take

notice the vertical and horizontal presence of the transcending and immanent God.”

this means that our Christianity is not well if the message of hope which is the

gospel is not communicated.

5.3 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it is worthy of note that in reaching out to the non Christians around

us, God is the only one who is able to convict every heart to change for the better, we can
only do our part that has been entrusted to us by Jesus Christ in the book of Matthew and

pray as well for him to take the lead as we try to reach the unreached.

Thus the aim of this project work was to contribute a quarter to the many solutions

that has been given out by scholars concerning the problem of religious pluralism to the

Christian mission in our present day society.

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 APPROVAL PAGE

This is to certify that this project has been approved for the ward of Bachelor of Art in

Theological Studies of the Gindiri Theological Seminary.

_________________________ _______________________

Rev Dr Sylvester Dachomo

Supervisor Date

_________________________ ________________________

Rev Dr Benjamin Pokol

Dean of Academic Affairs Date

_________________________ ________________________

External Examiner Date

THE CHALLENGES OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM TO THE CHRISTIAN MISSION

BY

NANBUT AYUBA

THESIS

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for under graduate student studies of

the gindiri theological seminary.

 DEDICATION

I dedicate this work to the almighty God who is the founder of mission and secondly to all

missionaries and pastors across the world.

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project work would not have been possible without the help of many. First of all my

thanks goes to the almighty God who gave me the ability and sound health to make this

work. I also appreciate my supervisor Rev Dr Sylvester Dachomo who read my numerous

revisions and helped make some sense out of this topic. Thanks to the Gindiri Theological

Seminary undergraduate programme for awarding me a project completion. Finally,

thanks to my dear parents Rev and Mrs Nanbut butdang, my siblings and my dear friend

Yohana Ambima who endured the long process with me always offering support and love.

I’m forever grateful to all who prayed with me and for me during this entire process may

our lord be pleased with my work Amen.

 ABSTRACT.

The Christian mission generally, has faced a host to the problem of religious pluralism for

long. The problem in Mangu local government of plateau state in Nigeria is really a thing of

concern even as it is gradually eating up the fabric of the Christianity in that particular area.

The notion of Religious pluralism in Mangu local government is characterized as an ethno-

religious problem whereby Christianity, ATR and Islam are all acceptable religions in that

area and it stand to be a great problem to the Christian mission. Therefore, this study [ the

challenges of religious pluralism to the Christian mission] is an attempt to profer solutions

on how to reach out to the non Christians within Mangu local government of plateau state.