Do you believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation?
Do you believe it is necessary to profess faith in Christ to be saved?
Based on your answer to those questions, you can decide if you are a pluralist, inclusivist, or exclusivist.
|
|
Jesus Christ is the Only Savior |
Believes “no one can be saved unless he or she knows the information about Jesus’ person and work contained in the Gospel and unless he or she exercises explicit faith in Jesus Christ (25).”* | |
| Pluralism |
No |
No |
|
| Inclusivism |
Yes |
No |
|
| Exclusivism |
Yes |
Yes |
“A pluralist is a person who thinks humans may be saved through a number of different religious traditions and saviors (p. 23).”
“Inclusivists agree with exclusivists and differ from pluralists in affirming that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. No man or woman can possibly be saved apart from the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, inclusivists say, and this is so whether the person is raised under a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, or Hindu System.
But inclusivists also part company with exclusivists, a point that at first may seem confusing. How can a position that insists on the deity of Jesus Christ and the indispensability of his redemptive work for salvation be a source of concern to theologically conservative Christians . . .
So inclusivists believe that salvation is impossible apart from Jesus and that he is the only Savior. But this does not mean that people have to know about Jesus or actually believe in him to receive that salvation . . . Inclusivists dismiss exclusivists as cold, uncaring people who are unwilling to explore other ways to expand the scope of God’s love (p. 23).”
“Christian exclusivism can be defined as the belief that (1) Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and (2) explicit faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation (p. 11).”
* Nash, Ronald H. Is Jesus the Only Savior? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.
It seems to me that OT believers were saved by believing that God would provide a Redeemer. Prior the OT prophecy of a Messiah, it would have been that belief that saved them. After the Messiah prophecies, OT believers would have been saved by believing that the Messiah would come. We are now saved by believing that the Messiah has come, died on the Cross and rose again, bodily, on the first Easter morn.
I believe in only one Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But for Job He would have been his Redeemer (that liveth). For Isaiah, He would have been the suffering Messiah of Isa 53. For Adam and Eve, He would have been the Seed of a woman that crushes the serpent’s head.
For the pagan that has never heard of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who responds to the light of creation recognizing the Creator-Godhead (Romans 1:20) I know not would God will do. When we respond to His light, He gives more light.
IOW, to those who have heard of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior, He is the only Savior. Others have known Him as Seed of a woman, Redeemer, Messiah, and maybe Creator. If it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move a mountain, I would guess it takes even less faith to be saved.
God will save all those He calls. I am not willing to limit how He does that.
Vern
Good thoughts and observations. Still, I think we need to go a level deeper to see what it is that God actually promised to provide for salvation. God promises all through the OT to provide the righteousness we need.
Salvation in the OT and the NT is the same, that is, faith in the promise of God to provide an atonement for sin and the righteousness required for abiding in God’s fellowship. Our hope is that God will always hold to His promise, just like the OT patriarchs. Faith in God’s promise is faith in Him.
Yes, we understand better this side of the cross how God fulfills His covenant promise, and who specifically through (His Son, Jesus), but just as David had to rely on God’s covenant keeping love to keep him safe from God’s righteous wrath against his sin, so we too must do the same. David manifested his faith in God’s promise by observing the sacrifices and keeping the law, knowing that it was WHO his faith was in, not what he was doing that mattered. We manifest our faith in God’s promise to keep us safe from His wrath for our sin by receiving the One whom He sent to propitiate that wrath and secure the righteousness we need. That One is none other than God Himself in the second person of the Trinity, Jesus.
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s covenant keeping love, that’s why there is no salvation apart from Him. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to save.