Is God Present?

I read this post on Backyard Missionary.  Very thought provoking!

I mentioned previously that I have been reading Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World. It was my holiday reading and I loved it! A very challenging read about how salvation functions, to what extent ‘Jesus is the only way’ and to what extent salvation may be possible outside of ‘Christianity’ or even Jesus.

The 4 authors, John Hick (a normative pluralist), Clark Pinnock (described as an inclusivist), Alistair McGrath (described as ’salvation in Christ’) and R.Douglas Gievett & W Gary Phillips (Jesus alone) all present their perspectives on how people are ’saved’.

The descriptions used above were the ones used by the book, but they don’t really suffice. Essentially, as I read him, Hick falls into a camp outside of classical orthodox Christianity. He insists that God is ‘ultimate reality’ and that he/she can be accessed in any number of ways and through any number of religions. He argues (quite confrontingly) that if Christianity really is all it claims to be then it ought to be doing a much better job of living its own teachings. Fair enough on that point, but I don’t buy Hick’s other arguments and none of the other authors did either.

 

Click here to read it in full.