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Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World (08)
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Paul Jang
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2008-12-03 14:45:04, hit : 3,112 |
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4) False Beliefs
① While it is true that incorrect beliefs do not lead people to faith, that is not the whole story about religion. There are other levels to faith than the intellectual. The act of faith is more than cognitive.
② Authentic faith and holy action of faith may flow from persons inhabiting an unpromising religious and doctrinal culture.
③ Someone might be an atheist because he or she does not understand who God is, and still have faith. For example, they called Socrates an atheist because he did not believe in the unworthy gods of Athens, but he had more faith than the general populace (people) of that city.
④ Everyone must eventually pass through Jesus to reach the Father, but there is more than one path for arriving at this place.
⑤ All the paths that lead to God end up at Jesus Christ, but they do not all start with him.
5) Pagan Saints
① All inclusivists recognize that there are pagan saints in other religions, but not all would call them "anonymous Christians".
② Pinnock thinks that it would be better and more biblical to speak of them as believers awaiting messianic salvation (e.g. Job).
6) Motivation for Missions
① Inclusivism does not reduce the motivation for missions but understand it in a large framework and in terms of more factors.
② Inclusivism can improve our motivation and enhance our hope as we go forth to testify to Christ, since we are entitled to believe that God has gone before us, preparing the way for the gospel.
7) Chauvinism
① Superiority and chauvinism are not tolerated to the other kind of groups of which their doctrine are not different.
② Inclusivists claim that in order to be truly egalitarian (impartialism) we should stop insisting on the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world because it inevitably foster superiority.
(1) They would not normally consider someone acting "superior" if somebody reported on a wonderful discovery they had made. They should not call such a discovery "superior". On the contrary, they would listen with interest and share on this faith. They think that all religions testify to crucial insights as the Christianity.
(2) They insist that one gets the impression from critics that one can freely adapt the faith and drop out central elements in it, such as belief in the Incarnation, in order to achieve the desirable social goal of peace and harmony. This minimizes the element in religious experience of not being able not to speak of one's central convictions (Acts 4:20).
(3) Holding beliefs not universally shared is unavoidable, and pluralists are not immune from it. Therefore they run the risk of sounding and acting superior, since they herald a unique insight. In order to solve this problem, they say that we should not speak too loudly about superiority because another believers face the temptation confronting us all.
③ Inclusivism is a timely and appealing model, and Pinnock offer it for consideration. He think that if we were to reform theology in the direction of inclusivism we might enhance the credibility of our faith and render more radical options unnecessary.
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Introduction
Theology 