January 22, 2020
How Can Jesus Be the Only Way?

In A.D. 203, the Roman government arrested
a 22 year old woman, a Christian, named Perpetua. The problem wasn’t so much that she worshipped
Jesus. Her crime was that she worshipped only Jesus. She refused to worship any other gods. As a result, she was found guilty of treason
and sentenced to death. This dangerous idea, that Christ alone provides
the way to God, is called Christian particularism, and it is as scandalous today as it was 2,000
years ago. Religious pluralism, on the other hand, is
the view that all the world’s religions are equally valid, and Christ is just one of many
ways. Some religious pluralists say all the world’s
religions teach basically the same thing, so they’re all true. But this is clearly mistaken. The major religions often contradict each
other. For example, compare Islam and Buddhism. Muslims believe there is a personal God who
created the world; man is sinful and will spend eternity in heaven or hell, and salvation
is attained by faith and performing good works. But Buddhists deny all of this. They believe that ultimate reality is not
a person; the world was not created; man is not sinful; man is not an enduring self. And the goal of life is not salvation; it’s
annihilation. Because the two worldviews contradict each
other, they can’t both be true. In fact, every major world religion contradicts
every other one, so they can’t possibly all be true. So other religious pluralists will say all
the world’s religions are false. They are equally valid, but equally false
cultural expressions of mankind’s search for truth. But why think that this is true? Why couldn’t one particular religion be true? When you examine the arguments for religious
pluralism, you find that some of them are textbook examples of logical fallacies. For example, “Anyone who believes that Christianity
is true and every other view is wrong is arrogant. Therefore, Christianity is false.” This is a logical fallacy called argument
ad hominem, trying to show someone’s view is false by attacking his personal character. This is a logical fallacy because the truth
of a view is independent of the character of the person who holds it. For example, if an arrogant person discovered
the cure for cancer, the fact that he’s egotistical would not mean his claim was false. You wouldn’t refuse treatment just because
he was conceited. Moreover, this objection is a double-edged
sword. For the pluralist also believes that his view
is true and that everyone else is wrong. Therefore, if you’re arrogant for holding
to a view which many others disagree with, then the pluralist himself would be guilty
of arrogance. Here is another pluralist argument: “Religions
are culturally relative. If you had been born in Pakistan, you’d likely
be a Muslim. But if you’d been born in Ireland, you’d probably
be a Catholic. Because religious beliefs are culturally relative,
they are not objectively true.” This is an example of the genetic fallacy,
trying to invalidate a view by showing how a person came to hold the view. This is a fallacy because the truth of a view
is independent of how a person came to believe it. For example, If you had been born in ancient
Greece, you would have believed that the sun goes around the earth. Does that make your current belief that the
earth goes around the sun false or unjustified? No. Furthermore, this objection is also a double-edged
sword, for if the religious pluralist had been born in Pakistan or Ireland, he’d likely
have been a religious particularist, so his belief in religious pluralism is just the
result of his being born in contemporary Western society, and therefore, is not objectively
true. Getting these fallacious objections out of
the way helps to reveal a more serious objection to Christian particularism: the problem of
those who have never heard of Christ. If Jesus is the only way to God, then what
is the fate of those who never hear of Jesus? Is there no hope for them? The answer is, there is hope for those who’ve
never heard. The Bible says that God loves all people,
and wants everyone to come to him and find eternal life. God desires all people to be saved and to
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Our next video explains how God has provided
a way for everyone.

Otis Rodgers