Lesslie Newbigin was a Scottish missionary and theologian who served in India. In his book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society he writes this and I think it is worth reflecting on:
It has become customary to classify views on the relation of Christianity to the world religions as either pluralist, exclusivist, or inclusivist … [My] position is exclusivist in the sense that it affirms the unique truth of the revelation in Jesus Christ, but it is not exclusivist in the sense of denying the possibility of the salvation of the non-Christian. It is inclusivist in the sense that it refuses to limit the saving grace of God to the members of the Christian church, but it rejects the inclusivism which regards the non-Christian religions as vehicles of salvation. It is pluralist in the sense of acknowledging the gracious work of God in the lives of all human beings, but it rejects a pluralism which denies the uniqueness and decisiveness of what God has done in Jesus Christ.
What are your thoughts on the quote- this is all up on my blog and you can make comments there, and you can subscribe to the blog and my sermons with a feed reader or with iTunes by using this feed.
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