[Remedy]

Articles: Christian Particularism

"No Other Name"
A Middle Knowledge Perspective on the Exclusivity of Salvation Through Christ

The conviction of the New Testament writers was that there is no salvation apart from Jesus. This orthodox doctrine is widely rejected today because God's condemnation of persons in other world religions seems incompatible with various attributes of God. Analysis reveals the real problem to involve certain counterfactuals of freedom, e.g., why did not God create a world in which all people would freely believe in Christ and be saved? Such questions presuppose that God possesses middle knowledge. But it can be shown that no inconsistency exists between God's having middle knowledge and certain persons' being damned; on the contrary, it can be positively shown that these two notions are compatible.

Should Peter Go to the Mission Field?

In an article in Faith and Philosophy 8 (1991), pp. 380-89, William Hasker related the cases of a veteran missionary, Paul, and a prospective missionary, Peter, who were each reflecting upon the implications of a middle knowledge perspective on the exclusivity of salvation through Christ for their missionary tasks. Peter, in some confusion, wrote to Paul for advice concerning whether he should leave his successful pastorate for the foreign field. Paul's response to Peter's letter has been obtained and is here published.

Middle Knowledge and Christian Exclusivism

David Hunt has criticized a middle knowledge perspective on Christian exclusivism on evangelistic and metaphysical grounds. He argues that from a middle knowledge perspective attempts to evangelize another person are either futile or superfluous and that an omnibenevolent God would have created a post-mortem state of the blessed without ever creating any of the damned. Hunt?s evangelistic objection is unfounded because by our evangelistic efforts we may bring it about that people are saved who otherwise would not have been saved. Hunt?s metaphysical objection errs in thinking that God judges people on the basis of what they would do rather than what they in fact do.

Politically Incorrect Salvation

Contemporary religious pluralism regards the traditional Christian doctrine of salvation through Christ alone as unconscionable. The problem seems to be that the existence of an all-loving and all-powerful God seems incompatible with the claim that persons who do not hear and embrace the gospel of salvation through Christ will be damned. Closer analysis reveals the problem to be counterfactual in nature: God could not condemn persons who, though freely rejecting God's sufficient grace for salvation revealed through nature and conscience, would have received His salvific grace mediated through the gospel. In response, it may be pointed out that God's being all-powerful does not guarantee that He can create a world in which all persons freely embrace His salvation and that His being all-loving does not entail that, even if such a world were feasible for Him, God would prefer such a world over a world in which some persons freely reject His salvation. Furthermore, it is possible that God has created a world having an optimal balance between saved and lost and that God has so providentially ordered the world that those who fail to hear the gospel and be saved would not have freely responded affirmatively to it even if they had heard it.

Talbott's Universalism

Thomas Talbott rejects the Free Will Defense against the soteriological problem of evil because (i) it is incoherent to claim that someone could freely and irrevocably reject God, and (ii) in any case, God would not permit such a choice to be made because it would pain the saved. I argue that a Molinist account escapes Talbott's objections. It is possible both that in no world realizable by God do all persons freely accept salvation and that God alone will endure the pain of knowledge of the lost.

Talbott's Universalism Once More

In the debate between universalism and particularism, three questions need to be addressed: (I) Has it been shown that it is inconsistent to affirm both that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent and that some persons do not receive Christ and are damned? (II) Can these two affirmations be shown to be consistent? (III) Is it plausible that both affirmations are true? In this on-going debate with Thomas Talbott, I argue that Talbott has failed to show the above affirmations to be inconsistent, that while one cannot prove them to be consistent, it is plausible that they are, and that it is also plausible that both affirmations are in fact true.

Jesus' Resurrection: Fact or Figment?: A Debate Between William ... is a lively and provocative debate between Christian philosopher and apologist William Lane Craig and New Testament scholar and atheist Gerd Ludemann. This published version of a debate originally set at Boston College invites the responses of two additional scholars on either side of the debate. Robert Gundry, a New Testament scholar, and Stephen Davis, a philosopher, argue in support of a historical and actual resurrection, while Michael Goulder and Roy Hoover, both New Testament scholars, offer their support for Luedemann's view that the "resurrection" was based on the guilt-induced visionary experience of the disciples.

• Contemporary Scholarship and the Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

• Phil Donahue Ridicules Christian Salvation Doctrine

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[onedoug]

Ethical Monotheism

[RnMomof7]

Good article and it reflects much of what passes for Christian thought today..one god is as good as another..one savor is as good as another..it is the mystical say the right words or do the right things..

This is the way it is

[Remedy]

Û she could not reach out to other people in other cultures and other ways."Û

42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."

43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.

44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

[editor-surveyor]

"Middle Knowledge?" - Another philosophical squirm term? Why can't these psuedo-intellectual, psycho-masturbational boobs just read God's word and obey?

[docrhl]

Thanks for an informative commentary. Many in our world today want to make the exclusive claims of Christ a point of division. Jesus clearly stated anyone who believed would not be excluded, and it is His desire that everyone would accept the offer of grace which has been given.

[Texas Eagle]

"The finished work of Christ redeemed all of humanity, not just Christians back to God ....The whole world is already saved -- they just don't know it."

So a guy can go on raping and murdering and pillaging and still wind up with a great big mansion in Heaven?!!! Such a deal!!!

I never was a big fan of all that repenting and loving thy neighbor stuff anyways.

Please excuse me while I fall off the wagon. Bartender! Beer me!

[azhenfud]

Well, I'll have to be classed among those bigots, because there were only two covenants ever established BY GOD FOR MAN and mankind miserably fails the first. Some don't like the second Covenant because it requires confessing the ability to be wrong, so they make up one to fit their own lusts and establish self-righteousness.

Because of the grace and mercy of the Redeemer, "Know therefore that God exacteth less of thee than thine iniquities deserveth."

[Uri’el-2012]

A Pentecostal bishop in Tulsa, Carlton Pearson, author of a variety of books and even a Dove award nominee, continues to stir tremendous controversy among Pentecostals by saying, "The finished work of Christ redeemed all of humanity, not just Christians back to God ....The whole world is already saved -- they just don't know it."

Carlton Pearson's website quotes from Kenneth Hagin.

*Here's a quote from the book entitled, "The Authority of The Believer", by Kenneth E. Hagin, Sr. I think it encapsulates my theology to some degree.

http://www.higherd.org/

Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the
Thessalonians, for they received the message with great
eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if
what Paul said was true.

chuck <truth@YeshuaHaMashiach>

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

A Pentecostal bishop in Tulsa, Carlton Pearson, author of a variety of books and even a Dove
award nominee, continues to stir tremendous controversy among Pentecostals by saying, "The
finished work of Christ redeemed all of humanity, not just Christians back to God ....The whole
world is already saved -- they just don't know it."

(The inevitable result of anything but particluar redemption. If you believe in universal redemption,
then universal salvation is the only logical choice.)


1. About 130 years ago the state of New Mexico was having a major crime wave. A new governor named Lew Wallace was brought in to take the place of the corrupt Axtell.
One of Wallace's first acts was to issue an AMNESTY for crimes commited by ALL persons in the state. The criminal only had to accept the amnesty. If they did not they were hunted down and killed. Billy the Kid rejected the amnesty and was killed as a result.
Christ paid the price and gained us amnesty for sins. Men continue to REJECT that offer of amnesty claiming they can find their own way. As the Apostle Paul said to those who rejected his preaching about Jesus, "Seeing you consider YOURSELVES unworthy of everlasting life, we turn to the Gentiles".
2. All paths DO lead to God. As the scripture says they all shall stand before God in JUDGEMENT at the lake of fire. The penalty for the Christian's sins has already been paid so we will only have a judgement of rewardings(Bema). The others will be without hope.