MINISTERING IN A
PLURALISTIC SOCIETY
An Educational
Partnership between
Assemblies of God
Theological Seminary
and Assemblies of
God World Missions
July 4, 2006
Terms to Define
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diversity
pluralism (hard and soft)
globalization
multiculturalism
multiethnic
universalism
Postmodernism
A Clip from Speaking of Faith—
“The Spirituality of Parenting”
My Visit to Flagstaff
The Lowell Observatory,
Flagstaff, AZ
A little help from Disney
What does
Pocahontas’
song complain
about?
Is the song Anti-Christian?
Or is it really anti-modern?
Aspects of the Modern Worldview
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•
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Individualism
Rationalism/reductionism
Materialism
Scientism/Technologism
Economism
Colonialism=eurocentrism=
racism=white supremacy
Posmodernism
And its significance for the
Church today
Modern Globalization
In the 1500s Portuguese and Spanish Explorers establish vast
colonial realms in the Americas, Africa, and the Far East. What
drove this exploration and conquest?
Portuguese: Trade routes from the east and slave trade
Spanish: the search for GOLD and silver. What good was it? It
would pay for the very expensive European wars of the Holy
Roman Empire. Also agricultural products such as coffee,
chocolate, [tomato], potatoes, corn, indigo dye, cotton, etc.
New Technologies:
fast sailing ships,
navigational
equipment,
superior
weaponry.)
The British and French established vast
domains in 1600s and 1700s. SUGAR
was the world’s greatest cash crop. (The
North American colonies were not seen as
particularly important vis-à-vis the
Caribbean.) Coffee, tea, spices, tobacco,
etc. Beginning of the Industrial
Revolution. Massive white Immigration to
America, Canada, Australia, Southern
Africa toward the end, setting up . . .
Rule Brittania in the 1800’s.
Raw materials for the
Industrial Revolution
and trade. Invention of
Railroads, the
telegraph, and the
telephone make the
world smaller. Massive
Missionary ramp-up
creates The Great
Century. SLAVE
TRADE ENDS.
The 20th Century
Telephones, automobiles, international air travel,
THE END OF OLD-FASHIONED COLONIALISM
after World War II. The computer is born,
Space-age technologies and new
communications. Huge up-tick in health,
education, democracy, and with it, ecological
threats. Massive immigration (for all the reasons
above) from the colonized nations (periphery) to
the former colonial powers (center). Global
trade, ideologies, sports, etc. The Cold War.
Globalization and Development.
•
The “moral” justification for Colonialism in the last two centuries was that the Christian
West was bringing religious truth, technological enlightenment, education, and
political “parentage” to the benighted savages of the non-Western world. World War
II sped up the end of colonization due to the reconstruction of the colonizing countries
and wars of independence.
•
The Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 (WB, IMF, WTO, and Regional Development
Banks) and the plan to “develop” the world. (Truman invents development. Before
that, the world didn’t see itself as developed and undeveloped.)
•
1945-65 Incredible Optimism for 20 years. United Nations founded (WHO, ILO,
UNESCO, etc.). The end of OLD FASHIONED COLONIZATION due to:
1. American/Soviet competition
2. Exhaustion of European powers in WWII
3. Wars of Independence. India, 1947, especially Algeria vs. France (1954-62).
Marxism ascendant
• 1945-1989. Marxist critiques of Western
Development were very powerful,
including in American universities. The
UN Development Programme begins in
1970, seeking to refocus development
efforts.
• The Global Village
Postmodernity
• 1980-2000 in France. Camus, Memmi,
Derrida were all Algerian and Tunisian.
Deconstructionist celebration of diversity,
Foucauldian critiques of power and
discourse. At the same time, the success
of the Asian Tigers suggests that
Development can work and reinvigorates
the hopes of Western economists and the
Bretton Woods institutions and their fans.
Just as it was looking like everything was going to
come up rosy . . .
•
•
The end of history (Francis Fukuyama)
The rise of Neo-Imperialism (Empire: The Rise
and Demise of the British World Order and the
Lessons for Global Power
by Niall Ferguson)
. . . September 11 brought it all back to earth.
The End of the Cold War has
ushered in a New World Order
Samuel Huntington
and Bernard Lewis
predicted that this
new order would
be “The Clash of
Civilizations”
The threat of civilization-wide
conflict no longer hangs over
Western Globalization; it is
raining down on us.
September 11 was the revenge of a rival form
of globalism—Fundamentalist Islam.
The events of September 11, 2001 in
which the World Trade Center in New
York was destroyed have awakened us to
the New World Order.
Along with the vision of the world as a global village,
comes a revolution in face-to-face contact among the
world’s peoples.
The global communications
revolution and the
globalization of the world’s
financial system.
The result of all this communication and
global presence is a world in which national
borders mean less and less.
The result has been worldwide
immigration “from all nations, to
all nations.”
Until very
recently, the
term diaspora
referred to the
Jewish people,
spread out over
the face of the
world.
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The roots of today’s diaspora can be found in
the Colonialist system of the past four
centuries.
As colonialism became the most important
focus of international studies in the 1960’s,
guilty Westerners tended to focus on the
predatory cultural imperialism of the West.
In contrast, Indian post-colonialist scholar
Homi Bhabha has recently argued that
colonized people were never mere victims,
but rather agents who chose how they would
be affected by the cultural influence of the
colonizers.
Many colonized people eventually gave up on
their homelands and followed the colonizers
back to the West.
Only time will tell whether the partial melting pot can
continue to function in America and begin to function
in the rest of the world.
From this week
Yesterday's Washington Post profiles a
handful of Hispanic immigrant women who
converted from Catholicism to Islam.
"Across the nation, thousands of Latino
immigrants are redefining themselves
through Islam. … Precise numbers are not
available, but estimates range from 40,000
to 70,000."
In summary, the postmodern world is one of
global cultural mixing, the creation of new
cultures and people groups due to
hybridization among the worlds dispersed
peoples, civilizational conflict at the fault
lines of what Thomas Friedman called “the
globalization system,” and in general, a more
dangerous world in which to preach the
Gospel.
What is Globalization?
In popular discourse, globalization often functions as little more than a
synonym for one or more of the following phenomena:
(1) the pursuit of classical liberal (or “free market”) policies in the world
economy (“economic liberalization”),
(2) the growing dominance of western (or even American) forms of political,
economic, and cultural life (“westernization” or “Americanization”),
(3) the proliferation of new information technologies (the “Internet
Revolution”),
(4) as well as the notion that humanity stands at the threshold of realizing
one single unified community in which major sources of social conflict have
vanished (“global integration”).
Most contemporary social theorists endorse
the view that globalization refers to
fundamental changes in the spatial and
temporal contours of social existence,
according to which the significance of space
or territory undergoes shifts in the face of a
no less dramatic acceleration in the
temporal structure of crucial forms of
human activity.
• Geographical distance is typically measured
in time. As the time necessary to connect
distinct geographical locations is reduced,
distance or space undergoes compression or
“annihilation.”
Alterations in humanity's experiences of
space and time are working to undermine
the importance of local and even national
boundaries in many arenas of human
endeavor. Since globalization contains farreaching implications for virtually every
facet of human life, it necessarily suggests
the need to rethink key questions of
normative political theory.”
What are the salient features of Globalization?
•
(Gordon Marshall, (1998) Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, 2nd Edition.
•
1. The emergence of a global cultural system
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2. Global satellite information system
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3. Global patterns of consumption and consumerism
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4. The cultivation of cosmopolitan lifestyles
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5. The emergence of global sport (Olympics, soccer, tennis)
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6. The spread of World tourism
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7. The decline of the sovereignty of the nation-state
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8. The growth of a global military system
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9. The recognition of a global ecological crisis
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10. The development of world-wide health problems (AIDS, etc.)
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11. The emergence of a world political system (the UN)
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12. The creation of global political movements (Marxism, Green parties, neoliberalism)
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13. Extension of the concept of human rights
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14. Complex interchange among world religions
Marshall does not mention
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1. Pan-ethnic diaspora, with the resulting integration and mixing of people groups, resulting in
multicultural cities and nations
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2. Increased Terrorism
What motives drive the process of globalization?
“Historically there were four main motives that drove people to leave
the sanctuary of their family and village:
(1) conquest (the desire to ensure security and extend political power),
(2) prosperity (the search for a better life),
(3) proselytizing (spreading the word of their God and converting others
to their faith), and
(4) a more mundane but still powerful force--curiosity and wanderlust that
seem basic to human nature.”
Nayan Chanda YaleGlobal, 19 November 2002
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/about/essay.jsp
Elements of the Modern Worldview
1. Rational Certainty. I
doubt therefore I am.
(Descartes, 1637)
2. Radical Individualism
radical. (Cogito ergo
sum.)
Rene Descartes
3. The scientific
method and
technology were
seen as the solution
to all human
problems. (Bacon,
1600)
Sr. Francisco Bacon
4. Compulsory
education was the
key to human
advancement.
(Comenius, 1624)
Johann Amos
Comenius
5. Bureaucracy was
the best form of
administration.
(Weber, 1900)
Max Weber
6. Democratic
capitalism/communism was seen as
the only valid form of government.
Adam Smith contra Carlos Marx
7. Colonialism was the
formula for foreign
relations for modernist
Europe (Colón, 1492).
Cristobal Colón
From its
technological
superiority, Europe
illegitimately
assumed a posture
of racial superiority
over peoples of color
around the world.
World War II strongly challenged the
concept of Western moral superiority.
Hitler was not an aberration, but
rather the logical result of the
Modern Worldview.
The atomic bombs
that the USA
dropped on Japan
also contradicted
the pretense of
moral superority.
The weakness of the European
powers after WWII resulted in
successful independence
movements a in their colonies
around the world, and a new
form of colonialism based on
economic control.
In France,
posmodernism was
born as a reaction
against the
destruction which
modernism had
brought to the
Jacque Derridá, 1997
country.
Derrida and deconstruction
Why is “difference” so
important in
Postmodernity?
As an Algerian Jew living in a Muslim
country under the domination of the
French, Derrida suffered greatly for
being different.
Jacque Derrida on “Differance”
“Differance is what makes everything what it
is and not something else.”
“Differance is older than God and prior to
God.”
Absence is better than presence. We are
better off without God because the
perfection of God (logocentrism) sets up an
absolute standard for judging everything
else.
What is deconstruction
► Logocentrism
► Binary
oppositions
► Deferred meanings
► What is the point of deconstruction?
Liberation
Deconstructed Television
The Postmodern Face
Postmodern Architecture
MODERN ►
◄ POSTMODERN
Another important postmodern thinker was
Michel Foucault.
Foucault argues that knowledge
is illegitimate because those
who have the power decide
whose knowledge counts as
knowledge. The knowledge of
the weak is denied by
modernism.
Inasmuch as Postmodernity frees us
from modern views that are ungodly, it
is helpful. At the same time, we must
seek out a Biblical view of diversity
rather than uncritically following either
diversity-phobic modernity or diversitycrazed postmodernism.
Aspects of Postmodernism
It worships diversity instead of God.
► It abhors the use of power to flatten human
freedom to explore diversity.
► It is skeptical about certainty and rejects the
concept of absolute knowledge of truth.
► It is sensitive to contexst, from which
everything takes its meaning. There are no
absolute meanings.
► It prizes the comical more than the serious,
but with serious aims.
► It distrusts reasons. It prefers art and image
over science and words.
►
►
►
►
►
►
It values personal experience over
impersonal reason.
It values the community and seeks
experiences of solidarity with others,
especially the oppressed.
It embraces technology, shorn of its salvific
pretenses.
It values the practical over the theoretical.
It sees reality as something that exists
beyond our hability to know and experience.
In as much as
postmodernism makes us
conscious of modern ideas
that are against the Gospel
but have become part of our
“Christian” thinking, it is
helpful. At the same time,
we have to maintain a critical
perspective.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6
4 The weapons we fight with are
not the weapons of the world. On
the contrary, they have divine
power to demolish strongholds. 5
We demolish arguments and
every pretension that sets itself
up against the knowledge of God,
and we take captive every
thought to make it obedient to
Christ.
These strongholds are not just demons, but
ideas that rise up against the knowledge of
God.
Our warfare is not just in prayer and
deliverance, but also in the anointed
use of our intellect.
The Rise of Neo-Paganism:
A Case Study
► Radio
program from Speaking of Faith
A Biblical View of
Diversity
Rev. 7:9-10
After this I looked, and behold, a great
multitude which no man could number,
from every nation, from all tribes and
peoples and tongues, standing before
the throne and before the lamb,
clothed in white robes with palm
branches in their hands, and crying
with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs
to our God who sits upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb.”
It is the manifest will of God that
human diversity should persist
forever.
The role of human diversity in God’s
plan is first established in Genesis 11:19, the story of the Builders of Babel.
Their plan of
salvation was a
magnet city and
a high tower that
would stop the
scattering by
drawing the
whole world into
their hegemony.
“In New York I have always felt I was at the
center of the world, in a modern Babylon, a
sort of Borgesian aleph with representation of
all the languages, religions and cultures of
the planet, and from which, as from a giant
heart to the extremities, there circulate to the
globe all fashions and vices, values and
nonvalues, usages, customs, music, images
and prototypes resulting from the incredible
mixtures in this city.” --Peruvian novelist and
Nobel Prize winner for literature Mario Vargas
Llosa
God resists the proud, but gives
grace to the humble.
The arrogance of
the magnet city was
struck down, not to
condemn the people,
but rather to humble
them and make them
eligible for grace.
Human diversity is a means of
grace, and is therefore
sacramental (unlike some things
that are called sacraments and
convey no grace).
As Pentecostals, we are reminded of
God’s love for diversity every time we
speak in tongues
Humanity didn’t get it. Since Babylon,
Empire has followed empire.
What is the theological problem involved with
empire?
Rev. 13:1-7-9 (Contrast Rev. 11)
The
Triumphal
Arch of Titus
Theology
of Religions
The rise of a globalized, post-modern climate of
religious pluralism raises HUGE theological
questions for Christian missionaries, pastors, and
theologians. These questions fit into the category
of “theology of religions.” How are we, as
Christian believers and hence theologians, to
account for, understand, and engage with other
religions?
One thing is for certain: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MINISTER
REFLECTIVELY IN A PLURALISTIC ENVIRONMENT
WITHOUT A DEFINITE THEOLOGY OF RELIGIONS.
John Stackhouse has outlined the issues as follows:
Revelation
General Revelation
Psalm 19:1-4
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
NIV
Psalm 8
O LORD, our Lord,how majestic is your
name in all the earth! You have set your
glory above the heavens. 2 From the
lips of children and infants you have
ordained praise because of your
enemies, to silence the foe and the
avenger. 3 When I consider your
heavens, the work of your fingers, the
moon and the stars, which you have set
in place, 4 what is man that you are
mindful of him, the son of man that you
care for him? 5 You made him a little
lower than the heavenly beings and
crowned him with glory and honor. 6
You made him ruler over the works of
your hands; you put everything under
his feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the
beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea, all that swim the
paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the
earth!
Romans 1:18-22
18 The wrath of God is being revealed
from heaven against all the
godlessness and wickedness of men
who suppress the truth by their
wickedness, 19 since what may be
known about God is plain to them,
because God has made it plain to them.
20 For since the creation of the world
God's invisible qualities-his eternal
power and divine nature-have been
clearly seen, being understood from
what has been made, so that men are
without excuse.
Most, if not all truth that is
contained in other religions
may be attributed to Common
Grace and General
Revelation.
.
Special
Revelation
Specific, personal revelation of God through words.
• Judaism is based partly on special revelation, partly on
human reasoning.
• When Paul talks about “the Law” he mixes these two
categories because he includes the oral tradition of
Mosaic Law.
• Eternity in their Hearts (Don Richardson) tells the story
of religions and religious leaders who had dreams that
prepared their people for the history of the Gospel.
The crucial distinction would seem to be not whether
there is NO special revelation, but rather, whether the
fullness of Special Revelation, Jesus Christ in person,
has been revealed.
The “Ingredients” of Religion
In as much as there is truth, beauty, or goodness in a religion, it
comes from GOD.
There is merely HUMAN input, sometimes under common grace,
sometimes under power struggle influence.
There is also SATANIC influence in religions
The Origin stories. Joseph Smith or Muhammad in their caves,
Buddha under the bo tree, etc. Are they credible? Does it matter?
The issue of change: to which religion are we referring? Theravada
Buddhism is different from theistic Buddhism; Sunni Islam is different
from Shiites, and the Sufis throw in more complication still.
Questions for Discussion:
How does Christianity, as religion, come out on these points?
Does Christianity save?
The Purpose of Religion
1. Counterfeit to true religion?
2. Restraint of evil and offering
some good? Has God allowed
them for such reasons?
3. Propaedeutic of the Gospel.
pro·pae·deu·tic n. Preparatory
instruction
4. C.S. Lewis’ idea of “good
dreams.”
•
A Blog note from Rod Bennett
•
In his autobiography Surprised by Joy Lewis relates a fascinating story out of his
boyhood—the moment that launched his lifelong love of pagan myth and legend:
"Like a voice from distant regions, there came a moment when I idly turned the pages
of a book and found the line in [Longfellow's poem] Tegner's Drapa which read, ‘I
heard a voice that cried, 'Balder the beautiful Is dead, is dead.’ I knew nothing about
Balder; but instantly I was uplifted into huge regions of northern sky, I desired with
almost sickening intensity something never to be described (except that it is cold,
spacious, severe, pale, and remote) and then suddenly, I found myself at the very
same moment already falling out of that desire and wishing I were back in it..." Who
was Balder? Lewis quickly sought him out – and let me take a moment to introduce
you as well...
In Norse Mythology, Balder was the god of Light, beauty, and wisdom. He was the
son of Odin, chief of the Norse gods (whose name means "the All-Father"), and was
the most beloved of all the AEsir—the gods of Asgard. But, paradoxically, he is also
known as "the god of tears." In the Icelandic Edda, we're told that "Balder the Good
dreamed great dreams, boding peril to his life." Through the treachery of Loki, the evil
giant, Balder is betrayed and murdered by one of his own friends using a spear made
of mistletoe, the only thing in the world that could harm him (this is the scene
depicted in the graphic above). A translation of one of the ancient poems reads, "I
saw Balder, the Bleeding God, the son of Odin's of destiny hidden. High above the
fields the mistletoe grows, thin and very beautiful. From that mistletoe, which seemed
so weak, a deadly arrow has been made ...” The AEsir held a great funeral for Balder,
and there in his grief Odin, king of the gods, laid his golden ring Draupnir on the pyre
beside his son.
•
•
Following Balder's death, the world fell into darkness and the Last
Battle commenced. And so Frigg, Odin's wife, cried out in Asgard
and asked who there was among the Aesir who wished to earn her
love and favor. Who was willing to ride the road to Hel and try to find
Balder there and bring him home? Hermod the Bold, one of Odin's
servants, volunteered for the journey. He rode nine nights through
valleys dark and deep until he came to the terrible gates of the
underworld. The goddess Hel was the keeper of the underworld, and
Hermod told her of the great weeping among the gods over Odin's
son and begged from her that Balder might be released to ride home
with him. But Hel said that the world's love for Balder must be
tested. "Go back," she said, "and tell the gods that if all the world,
alive and dead, shall weep for Balder, then he shall go back to the
AEsir. If not-if anyone refuses to weep—then Balder shall remain
with Hel."
• Hermod rode back to Asgard and told all the tidings he had seen
and heard. When they heard Hermod's report, the gods immediately
sent messengers all over the world to request that Balder be wept
out of Hel. When this happens, say the ancient myths, Balder will
return to Asgard-the home of the gods—and the end of the world will
have come ... called in the Norse tongue, Ragnarok.
Does this tale have a familiar ring? And yet the Norse myth were
composed 500 years before the coming of the historic Christ. Here
is St. Justin’s proof: a mythmaker who “was able to see realities
darkly through the sowing of the implanted word that was in him...”
•
Later however, when Lewis had become a teacher at Oxford University, he
met Hugo Dyson and J.R.R. Tolkien (both Christians and both lovers of
myth) who looked at things quite differently. “What Dyson and Tolkien
showed me was this: that if I met the idea of sacrifice in a pagan story I
didn't mind it at all: again, that if I met the idea of a god sacrificing himself to
himself I liked it very much and was mysteriously moved by it: again, that
the idea of the Dying and Reviving god (Balder, Adonis, Bacchus) similarly
moved me provided I met it anywhere except in the Gospels. The reason
was that in the Pagan stories I was prepared to feel the myth as profound
and suggestive of meanings beyond my grasp even though I could not say,
in cold prose, 'what it meant.'” Tolkien, in fact, took St. Justin one step
further: “We have come from God and inevitably the myths woven by us,
though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of true light,
the eternal truth that is with God.' Since we are made in the image of God,
and since God is the Creator, part of the imageness of God in us is the gift
of creativity. The creation—or, more correctly, the sub-creation—of stories or
myths is merely a reflection of the image of the Creator in us.” “We should
therefore, expect to find in the imaginations of the great Pagan teachers &
mythmakers some glimpse of the theme which Christians believe to be the
very plot of the whole cosmic story-the theme of incarnation, death and
rebirth.”
This was an earthquake in Lewis’ mental landscape. The next day he wrote
another letter to his best friend explaining what he had learned: "[On this
theory] the Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of
poets, using such images as He found there...while Christianity is God
expressing Himself through what we call real things...Myth gradually
becomes Fact…Therefore, [according to Tolkien & Dyson] we shouldn't be
shocked to find 'parallels' and 'pagan Christs.' On this theory, they ought to
be there—it would be a stumbling block if they weren't..."
Lewis' summary: "God sent the human race what I call 'good dreams.' I
mean those queer stories scattered all through heathen religions about a
god who dies and comes to life again, and by his death has somehow given
new life to men ... Was there in any age in any land a time when men did
not know that corn and wine were the body and blood of a dying yet living
God? ... The heart of Christianity is that these myths are now also a fact.
The old myth of the dying god, without ceasing to be myth, has come down
from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history..."
Paul’s concept of the Law
4:1 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different
from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 He is subject to
guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we
were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. 4
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born
under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights
of sons. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our
hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." 7 So you are no longer a
slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by
nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God-or rather are known by
God-how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable
principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are
observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for
you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.
Ephesians 4:1-11 NIV
stoikeia tou kosmou
Romans 8:38-39—For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor
demons, neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be
able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Basis of Salvation
God’s work. Some place all the emphasis here.
Human response. Most Evangelicals acknowledge a
role here.
Ephesians 2: 8-9—For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift
of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
KJV
What comprises “saving faith”?
The means of Salvation
Epistemological vs. Ontological Salvation
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
Three Options
1. Exclusivism/Restrictivism. Only by the explicit preaching and
reception of the Gospel can someone come to saving faith.
2. Inclusivism. While Christ is the only way to Salvation, there may be a
variety of paths by which a person comes to salvation, consciously or
unconsciously, in Christ.
Romans 2:6-11
6 God "will give to each person according to what he has done." 7 To those
who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will
give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the
truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble
and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for
the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first
for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism. NIV
3. Pluralism. There are many different ways to God, none of which is
superior to the other.
Results, Destinies, “ends”
Heaven/Hell
Matt 25:46—“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the
righteous to eternal life."
Heb 10:26-28—If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have
received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but
only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will
consume the enemies of God.
John 14:2-3—In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I
would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be
with me that you also may be where I am.
Annihilationism
Matthew 7:13—”Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the
road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Romans 9:22—What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known,
bore with great patience the objects of his wrath-prepared for destruction?
Galatians 6:7-8—The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap
destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal
life.
Philippians 3:19-20—Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their
glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
2 Thessalonians 1:9-10—They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out
from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power
2 Peter 3:7—By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire,
being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Revelation 17:11—The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He
belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.
Universalism: Heaven for All
1 Corinthians 15:22-23—For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be
made alive.
1 Timothy 4:9-10—This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full
acceptance 10(and for this we labor and strive), that we have put
our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and
especially of those who believe.
Romans 5:18—Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was
condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of
righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
Rom 11:32—For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that
he may have mercy on them all.
Multiple Ends
Muslims to Paradise
Hindus dwell in company with Krishna
Buddhists enjoy nirvana
Native Americans to the happy hunting ground
Christians to the New Jerusalem
No Scriptural support for this idea!