Bible Students

This week’s reading covered the topics of competing religions and the necessity of mission. As the final two chapters of this book, this section placed great emphasis on the going of missions. 

Chapter twelve asks the important question, “how should Christians interact with competing religion in missions?” This has become one of the most pressing and current issues in Christendom today. Christianity has a radical discontinuity with the rest of the world’s religions. Christianity is exclusive, and does not hold that any other religious adherence is acceptable to God. Only the sacrifice of Christ will suffice for salvation. Christians on the field must proclaim that all other religions fall short, because no other religion stresses the necessity of Christ’s saving work. There are many Christians who believe Christ’s sacrifice is ontologically necessary for salvation but not epistemologically. These are known as inclusivists, and universalists fall into this category. This view holds that all religious activity can lead to God (pluralism), or that all people are saved through Christ, even if they don’t know Christ personally (universalism). In a way, I do hold to an inclusivist perspective, though not nearly as radical as that. I do not believe my view is a slippery slope to those radical ideas, though. I believe the Old Testament believers were saved through Christ as a necessary sacrifice, even if they did not know Christ personally. In the same way, I believe it is hypothetically possible that someone could come to know the true and living God based on general revelation (such as a remote tribe), know their need for forgiveness, and appeal to the Most High God for forgiveness and a personal relationship. I believe God can reveal Himself to those people, and I believe He has revealed Himself to all cultures through gospel-parallels, even if many do not acknowledge Him. I do not believe the vast majority of religious tribes, in particular, do know God, though I do believe it is possible for them to know God personally without knowing the name of Jesus, and still have salvation through that relationship. Christians, having the full revelation of Scripture, must shape all theological systems into a trinitarian frame with a Christological focus. 

Chapter 13, the final chapter, builds on the previous idea of universal salvation by giving the audience a pressing quest. The vast majority of people who could know God personally will not. Their rejection of God will lead them to eternal torment. This chapter affirms this by asking three questions. Firstly, is Christ the only way to salvation? Yes. There is no other way to salvation. While I do believe some may implicitly know Christ as the savior without having an advanced Christology (recall the previous tribal example), I believe this is very rare. Most people reject general revelation, as well as special revelation, and in doing so reject the Messiah. Without Christ’s atonement, no one can be saved. 

Second, is hell eternal? Yes. There are some models which aim to avoid the horrible punishment of hell, including universalism and annihilationism. Universalism claims that all people go to heaven, either instantly or after a purgatory-like cleansing. Annihilationism claims that all people who go to hell will only be there for a short time, before being wiped out of existence. Neither of these views are held by the biblical writings. Hell is the eternal separation of the soul from God, just as death is the separation of the soul from the body. 

Lastly, What about those who have never heard about Jesus? As mentioned before, I do believe some have implicit knowledge of Christ through accepting general revelation. I believe there is a strong case to be made about the vast number of attributes of God that can be known simply through general revelation. All people can know God through general revelation, and God can reveal Himself to those who seek Him through special and personal revelation. No one has the excuse that they did not know Christ. 

Overall, this book has presented a well-rounded theoretical and applied theology of mission. I believe the chapters on the Spirit, contextualization, and competing religion have been the most helpful in the study of mission.