TH 513 Systematic Theology II

Week 12, Session 2

Be sure to read both the assigned
Geisler reading and the book
chapters posted as articles by
Dr. Hardgrove.

Geisler, Vol. 3, chapter 14

Geisler, Norman Vol. 3
Chapter 14

“The Exclusivity of
Salvation (Pluralism)”
pp. 410-429
Defining our Terms
Pluralism: The belief that every religion is true. Each
provides a genuine encounter with the Ultimate, and while
one may be better than others, all are adequate
Relativism: Claims that every religion is true for the one
adhering to it. If there is no objective religious truth, then
there are no criteria by which we can discern that one
religion is true or better than another.
Inclusivism: Maintains that one religion is explicitly true, and
all others are implicitly true.
Exclusivism: Holds that only one religion is true and that
what is opposed to it in other religions is false.
Christianity is
Exclusivistic
The unparalleled saving work of Christ
is the only means of salvation. This
one of the great principles of
Protestantism. Along with “Scripture
alone” (Lat. sola scriptura) and “faith
alone” (Lat. sola fidei), “salvation by
grace alone” stands at the heart of
evangelistic theology.
Exclusive Soteriological Claims
of Christ
John 3:18—Whoever believes in [me] is not condemned, but whoever
does not believe stands condemned already because he has not
believed in the name of God’s one and only son.
John 3:36—Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever
rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.
John 10:1, 9—I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the
sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief
and a robber. . . . I am the gate; whoever enter through me will be
saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.
John 8:24—If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you
will indeed die in your sins.
John 14:6—I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me.
Exclusive Soteriological Claims
of Scripture
Acts 4:12—Salvation is found in no one else, for
there is no other name under heaven given to
men by which we must be saved.
1 Tim. 2:5—There is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Heb. 10:12, 14—[W]hen [Christ] had offered for
all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at
the right hand of God . . . Because by one
sacrifice he has made perfect forever those
who are being made holy.
The Philosophical Problem with
Pluralism
As someone who has had to deal with the argument from
the pluralists that it is impossible to claim that
Christianity is the only way for salvation, I’ve found that
the quickest way to end the argument is to point out the
logical fallacy of the pluralist argument. If they claim all
religions are right and represent different ways to God,
then Christianity is right in saying that Jesus is the only
way, therefore, according to the pluralists’ own
argument, all others are wrong. Of course the same
argument could be made by any other religion that is
exclusivist.