In the movie Saving Private Ryan, there is a scene where Tom Hanks and his men take on a German machine gun post. One of Hank’s men is shot in the stomach and dies in the encounter before they take the post and capture a German soldier. In the face off emotions run high – soldiers are facing each other and there is an obvious communication problem because of the language barrier. But here was a situation where circumstances have made men mortal enemies, but not by their own choosing. They happen to be born at the same time but in different places, and roped into defending differing ideologies. There’s a sense of helplessness – people trapped by roles they have been asked to play and ideologies invented by others. There was a sense of each man being a pawn in a bigger picture which they can’t do anything about.
I though it illustrates the way many see the larger picture of religion: they see themselves born into a particular religious ideology and forced to defend the side of the fence on which they see themselves as being cast. Arguments develop, usually of the ad hominum type, people get offended and fall into the trap of having to defend a family religious heritage and the argument digresses to nothing more substantial than “You say you’re right and I’m wrong”: “You think you are right and others are wrong”; “You think you’re the only ones going to Heaven” and so on. So the argument is reduced to defending positions and defending past generations and instead of enquiring to find what is right it ends up in arguments over who is right. Wrong pursuit. We need to find what is right and then who is right takes care of itself. The Bible is the answer, not tradition. One may be born an American or a German, but one is not born anything religiously. Christianity is not an inherited religion – being a Christian is something one has to choose to become.
Pluralism is an approach to the problem that is as fashionable today as ever. The way to dissolve any religious conflict and stand-offs is to cease arguing about questions of right or wrong, truth or error, and simply accept every doctrine and philosophy as of equal weight and assume any and every path will lead to heaven or Nirvana or wherever it is you want to go. So Buddha is on the same level as Christ who is on the same level as Mohammed who is on the same level as Krishna who is on the same level as Shirley Maclaine as infinitum.
Naturally many, including myself, find it impossible to reduce Christ to the level of the pretenders and for good reason. His virgin birth and resurrection from the dead put Him in a class of His own, and such declarations as John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 which point to Him as the only Saviour make pluralism a hodge-podge of contradiction. Yet there are many who are opposed to pluralism who yet practice it.
Many believe Christ has many churches despite Matt.16:18. Many believe Christ has many different doctrines and saves in different ways despite Eph. 4:4,5. This is as pluralistic as believing in salvation by Buddha except the lines are drawn somewhere else. Do you believe people in all churches will be saved? If so, you believe it doesn’t matter what one preaches, what one believes, nor what one practices because all church preach, believe and practice differing things. Let’s look at those three areas:
- Does it matter what is preached? Spokesmen in different churches claim God has called them to preach. Does God call men to declare different doctrines? We must question this supposed “calling”. 1 Cor. 14:33 declares God is not the author of confusion. Does God call one to say baptism is immersion and another to say it is sprinkling? Both can’t be true in lieu of Eph. 4:5 which declares there is but one baptism. Did God tell one man to insist on immersion and another on sprinkling if indeed God cannot lie (Heb. 6:18)? The gospel is to be preached everywhere and men are commanded to observe all the things Christ commanded (Matt.28:19,20). Does it matter if we don’t? If what is preached does not matter why did Paul warn dire consequences for perverting the gospel (Gal. 1:6-9)? Why did Paul tell Timothy to preach the Word, not his own ideas? Why did Peter in 1 Pet. 4:11 instruct those who preach to speak as the oracles of God? Why did Paul say that we are not to go beyond that which is written (1 Cor. 4:6)? If a preacher says to you you do not have to believe what he preaches to be saved then “look out” – He is not preaching the unchangeable gospel. Can you imagine Jesus saying that (cf. John 14:6 Matt.7:29; John 12:48)?
- Does what is believed matter? Just because a preacher quotes the Bible doesn’t mean he is a faithful preacher. The Devil does it (Matt.4:6). We can twist it (2 Pet. 3:16). Some teach for doctrine the commandments of men (Matt.15:9). Paul warned in 1 Tim . 4:1,2 that some would depart from the faith. John declared in 1 John 4:1 that even in his time there were many false preachers. Peter also chimed in in 2 Pet. 2:1,2 with the warning that false teachers would exist in the New Testament era as they did in the Old. It does matter what we believe? False doctrine cannot save. Lies cannot save – only the truth can do that (John 8:32). Put all preaching to the Bible test (Acts 17:11). Eve believed Satan’s lie and look at the consequences. Eve died spiritually, being separated from God by her transgression. For Eve, and all sinners, to be reconciled to God, the death of Christ was necessary. It did not matter whether Eve was honest and sincere, or that she was the victim of deceit. Eve heard, believed, and obeyed a lie and she died spiritually. God’s perfect creation was ruined. What Eve believed made a difference! A good person may honestly follow a way that leads to the destruction of the soul: Prov.14:12 – there is a way that seems right but its end is death. Prov. 28:26 – he that trusts in his heart is a fool. Jer. 10:23 – the way of man is not in himself…. Paul spoke of honest, devout, sincere religious people who ignorantly thought they were serving God but weren’t (Rom. 10:1-3). What was true then is true now. To be saved, one must believe the truth and obey it.
- Does what is practiced matter? Religious practice matters. It always has. It mattered to God what and how Cain and Abel sacrificed to Him (Heb.11:4). It mattered to God that Nadab and Abihu offered “strange fire” which He didn’t command (Lev. 10:1,2). It mattered to God that Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it (Num. 20:7-13). Col. 3:17 declares we must have authority from the Lord for everything we preach and practice – not presume it. 2 John 1:9