On Pluralism

I had a friend tell me recently that her logic had concluded she was a Pluralist, i.e. believing that there are multiple roads to salvation/eternal live/nirvana/whatever you call it, or that all faiths are equal. What had gotten her thinking about this was the fact that the Big Three monotheistic religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--all ultimately stemmed from the same source. Christianity was originally a sect of Judaism and Islam was more or less a sect of Christianity. Even reading their respective scriptures will reveal significant overlap between the three. What my friend asked, then, was how can we say that the Jews and Muslims are wrong if they are worshiping the same God we are? After all, Yahweh, God, and Allah are not different gods, but merely the same word in different languages. The argument then is that although they may have started out from the same place, their beliefs have so diverged that they are no longer worshipping the same God. Of course, you could even say the same thing about Christian sects and denominations. Are Catholics and Protestants worshipping the same God? Are Calvinists and Armenians worshipping the same God? Are Methodists and Mennonites worshipping the same God? Where does the division stop?

Ultimately, my response to my friend came from John 14: 6, which says, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” These words by Jesus are pretty conclusive, and they form one of the strongest bedrocks of the Christian faith: believing in Jesus is the only way to salvation. This verse, more than any other has provided Christians with a means of confidently declaring that other religions and belief systems are ultimately futile. The tricky part becomes when you start to speculate on how exactly Jesus is the way to salvation.

Christians have never really been able to agree among themselves on what exactly salvation requires: a prayer? circumcision? a lifestyle? faith? deeds? A pretty strong candidate is what Paul says in Romans 10:8-10, “the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” It is safe to say that most Christians accept some application of this verse as the way to salvation.

Of course, the question always remains: What about those who have never heard of Jesus. Paul himself also writes in Romans 1:19-20, “what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Later, in Romans 2:14-15, he goes on to say, “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.”

It would seem, then, that even those who have not been introduced to God’s Word, can be held accountable to some degree. And if they can be held accountable, can they not also be redeemed? Wouldn’t it be possible for someone who had never heard the gospel message to look up at the night sky and realize their own weakness and their need for love and for something or someone greater than themselves to rescue them? Is that not what believing in God consists of?

Jesus says something interesting in John 10:16: “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” Some have used this verse to argue that there must be life on other planets. C. S. Lewis, in The Chronicles of Narnia, played around with the idea of Christ visiting another world. More likely, it refers to the Holy Spirit being given to Gentiles and not just to Jews, but one has to wonder if God might not be working in those places far removed from Christianity to bring people to him.

There are some interesting words written in Jeremiah 29:12-13. “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” These words were written to the Jews, but they hold a promise that was repeated by Jesus in Matthew 7:7-8 when he says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

I still believe that Jesus is the path to salvation and eternal life. But for those who have never heard of him, I also believe that there are truths that can be learned about him. The spirit of renunciation in Buddhism, the value of creation of most American Indian religions, the devotion to purity of Islam are all traits of God. I don’t think they are the whole picture (mostly because they leave out Jesus), but there is truth there. And if all truth is God’s truth, then maybe God can use that truth bring people to him.

Though it may sound otherwise, there is no conclusion here. This post is as much a working out of some ideas and questions I have as any conclusive statement about anything. I think the answer lies in the Atonement, but I still have a lot to figure out about that too, and I don’t know that I will ever fully understand it.