Theological Term of the Week

inclusivism
The view that while Jesus Christ is the only Saviour and everyone who is saved is saved by the work of Christ, explicit knowledge of Christ and faith in him is not necessary to be saved, because it is possible for someone to be saved by responding rightly to the light of general revelation or by sincerely believing and practicing in accordance with the bits of truth found in a non-Christian religion.

• Scripture used by some to defend inclusivism:

  … to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life…. (Romans 2:7 ESV)

• Scripture that shows inclusivism to be in error:

  That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:9-14 ESV)

• From the Westminster Larger Catechism:

  Question 60: Can they who have never heard the gospel, and so know not Jesus Christ, nor believe in him, be saved by their living according to the light of nature?

  Answer: They who, having never heard the gospel, know not Jesus Christ, and believe not in him, cannot be saved, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, or the laws of that religion which they profess; neither is there salvation in any other, but in Christ alone, who is the Savior only of his body the church.

• From The Gospel, Missions, and Inclusivism by Andreas Kostenberger:

  Scripture makes clear that humanity is universally sinful, and that God’s wrath remains on every individual who has not placed his or her trust in Jesus Christ on the basis of his substitutionary death on the cross and his subsequent resurrection. While there may be philosophical or larger theological objections to such a notion (such as the difficulty experienced by some of reconciling this notion with the love of God), while there may be commonsense concerns on the basis of human conceptions or “fairness” or other similar considerations, there can be little doubt that Scripture nowhere teaches, or easily allows the implication, that there is a way to salvation other than through explicit faith in Jesus Christ during a person’s lifetime (e.g., Heb 9:27-28). In fact, this is not an obscure topic; it is the central contention of the biblical message concerning the gospel, that “[s]alvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: Inclusivism vs. exclusivism - what does the Bible say?
2. Dan Musick: Inclusivism
3. Robert Reymond: The “Very Pernicious and Detestable” Doctrine of Inclusivism
4. A. B Caneday: Evangelical Inclusivism and the Exclusivity of the Gospel: A Review of John Sanders’s No Other Name (pdf) and Faith Comes By Hearing: Inclusivists’ Abuse of Romans 10:9-17
5. John K. Barrett: Does Inclusivist Theology Undermine Evangelism (pdf)
   
6. Michael Reeves: The Cruelty of Inclusivism
7. Timothy Beougher: Does Belief in Inclusivism Weaken Motivation for Missions and Evangelism
8. Todd Borger: Can Inclusivism Be Supported by the OT?
9. Dr. Tim Beougher: Understanding the Isms: Universalism, Inclusivism, Pluralism and Exclusivism (mp3)
   
10. Greg Koukl: Revisiting Inclusivism, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (YouTube videos)

Related terms:

• general revelation
• exclusivism
• pluralism
• universalism
  

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

This Week in Housekeeping

Two recently updated Theological Term of the Week posts:

aseity

• Added a link to a YouTube video of D. A. Carson on the aseity of God.
• Added a link to Self-Existence at Blue Letter Bible.
• Added a few other of God’s attributes as related terms: eternality, holiness, immutability, infinity, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience.

election

• Added a link to Kevin DeYoung’s What Is the Difference Between Election and Predestination?

Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy 25

What do Christians mean when they say the Bible is inerrant? The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy tells us what leading inerrantist mean by inerrancy. I’ll be posting a section of this statement each week until I’ve posted the whole thing.

After a preface and a short statement, the Chicago Statement contains the Articles of Affirmation and Denial. (You can read previously posted sections of this statement in by clicking here.) The last section is the Exposition, which “gives an account of the outline of doctrine from which our summary statement and articles are drawn.” I think the expostion section, which continues here, is the most interesting—and maybe the best—section of this historic church document.

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Skepticism and Criticism

Since the Renaissance, and more particularly since the Enlightenment, world-views have been developed which involve skepticism about basic Christian tenets. Such are the agnosticism which denies that God is knowable, the rationalism which denies that He is incomprehensible, the idealism which denies that He is transcendent, and the existentialism which denies rationality in His relationships with us. When these un- and anti-biblical principles seep into men’s theologies at [a] presuppositional level, as today they frequently do, faithful interpretation of Holy Scripture becomes impossible.