What about Oprah's question?

Hi friends,

I will be sharing more on Colossians later in the week, but I wanted to address the question that we saw on Youtube yesterday. Pastor Gary got us thinking a little bit about the very big question, "Can people who have never heard about Jesus be saved?" Like most big questions, Christians have thought about this one for a long time--almost since the very beginning of the faith!

Traditionally there have been three responses that help us to form an answer. Of course, these responses are oversimplified, but that helps people like me keep them straight!

1. Pluralism. This is the view that it seemed Oprah wanted to take. It takes seriously that there are millions, perhaps billions of people, who will never hear the name of Jesus even though they are religious and engage in worship. The basic idea is that all religions are equal and can lead to God, or whatever one calls the Supreme Being of the universe. A classic image is that of four blind people feeling a large elephant, each describing something different: One feels the legs, one feels the trunk, one feels the tail, one feels the body and so give a different description, even though they are all feeling the same animal. The idea is that people have different experiences of God, but are all feeling God.

This view has not been held by traditional Christians.

2. Exclusivism. This view says that conscious knowledge of Jesus Christ is the only route to being saved. Exclusivists point to passages like Acts 4:12. This view takes seriously the person of Jesus of Nazareth and traditional beliefs of orthodox Christianity, for example that Jesus is God incarnate.

This view has been held by many Christians.

3. Inclusivism. This view says that anyone who is saved is saved by Jesus and his work on the cross, even though a person may never have heard of Jesus. This view takes seriously that the Christian faith makes true claims and that other religions are in error, but that the God and Father of Jesus may still reach other people in spite of their wrong beliefs. Often inclusivists will point to Acts 2 and Pentecost as evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in many cultures.

This view has been held by many Christians, as well, including C.S. Lewis. Lewis' final book of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, pictures a soldier who does not worship Aslan (Jesus figure), but has worshiped a false god named Tash. When the soldier asks Aslan how he can be in Aslan's kingdom since he worshiped Tash, Aslan says, "All the service thou hast done to Tash, I accept as service done to me," and goes on to say, "No service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him."

Keep reading Colossians!

Gearing up for Colossians

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