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TechnoratiJust before the end of 2008, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released a report indicating that a significant percentage of American evangelicals are rejecting the biblical claim that Jesus is the only way of salvation. According to the report, 52% of American Christians believe that "at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life."
Surprisingly, 37% of those identified as evangelical Christians agreed, rejecting the claim that Jesus is the only Savior and identifying at least some non-Christian religion or religions as leading to eternal life.
The report was an important follow-up to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, released in 2007, and it basically affirmed one of the most controversial findings of that survey - the claim that evangelical Christians are increasingly rejecting the exclusivity of Christ. A potential lack of precision in the way the question was first asked led the Pew Forum to take another look at the issue. This new report, based in solid research, corroborates the earlier study. Many evangelicals are redefining the Gospel and rejecting the claim that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life.
A most interesting response to this report now comes from Charles M. Blow, the "visual Op-Ed columnist" for The New York Times. In "Heaven for the Godless?," published in the December 27, 2008 edition of the paper, Blow celebrates the report and expresses his pleasure in the fact that Americans were abandoning their belief that, in his words, "heaven is a velvet-roped V.I.P. area reserved for Christians."
Mr. Blow affirms that the Bible teaches the exclusivity of Christ and that the Christian church has defined the Gospel in these terms. Nevertheless, he celebrates the fact that the doctrine is being abandoned by so many - as many as 70% of all Americans.
He then asked why this change is happening. He offered more than one suggested factor. First, he offered this:
One very plausible explanation is that Americans just want good things to come to good people, regardless of their faith. As Alan Segal, a professor of religion at Barnard College told me: “We are a multicultural society, and people expect this American life to continue the same way in heaven.” He explained that in our society, we meet so many good people of different faiths that it’s hard for us to imagine God letting them go to hell.
As a possible and plausible causal factor, this makes sense. As a matter of fact, Blow appears to have expressed what millions of Americans (including many, no doubt, who consider themselves evangelicals) believe - that the American way is the way to heaven. But, people who "expect this American life to continue the same way in heaven" will find no biblical support for this expectation.
Second, Blow offers that "many Christians apparently view their didactic text as flexible." In other words, they do not believe that the Bible is eternal truth. As he explains, "According to Pew’s August survey, only 39 percent of Christians believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, and 18 percent think that it’s just a book written by men and not the word of God at all."
Well, once again he points to a crucial factor. Those who believe that the Bible is "just a book written by men and not the word of God at all" will see no reason to believe what the Bible teaches. Those who believe that the Bible is in some sense God's revelation but deny the inspiration of the actual text will feel quite free to revise (or reject) biblical teachings at will.
Here is Blow's third proposal, and the most significant paragraph in his column: Continue >>
mtgburrell »
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