This document discusses religious pluralism and objections to the view of particularism. It defines pluralism as the view that there are multiple ways to God, while particularism asserts that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. It then considers several objections to particularism, such as it being arrogant or unfair that non-Christians would be condemned to hell. In response, it argues that God is just in his judgment and that no one deserves salvation, focusing on the idea that God has created an optimal world where some are saved and some are lost in accordance with their free will.

1. Religious PluralismReligious Pluralism
APOL 6543APOL 6543

2. PluralismPluralism
• Particularism
– Jesus Christ is the only way to God
• Pluralism
– More than one way to God

3. PluralismPluralism
• remember that at that time you were separate
from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel
and foreigners to the covenants of the promise,
without hope and without God in the world.
– Ephesians 2:12.

4. PluralismPluralism
• All men are without excuse because God’s power
and existence are made plain in creation
– Romans 1:20
• God’s moral law is written on men’s hearts, so
that they are morally responsible for their
actions.
– Romans 2:15

5. PluralismPluralism
• People ignore God and float his moral law
– Romans 1:21-32.
• All men are under the power of sin.
– Romans 3:9-12.
• We can’t redeem ourselves through good works.
– Romans 3:19-20.

6. PluralismPluralism
• Jesus’ death offers us reconciliation with God.
– Romans 3:21-26.

7. PluralismPluralism
• But so many people aren’t Christians, how can
they all be wrong/going to hell?

8. Objections to ParticularismObjections to Particularism
• Arrogant and immoral for Christians to think
they are right and everyone else is wrong.
– Ad hominem.

9. Objections to ParticularismObjections to Particularism
• You are just a Christian because you’re born in a
Christian country. If you were born somewhere
else you’d be a Muslim, Hindu, etc.
– Genetic Fallacy

10. Objections to ParticularismObjections to Particularism
• Would a loving God send people to hell?
– God doesn’t want anyone to go to hell
– God wants everyone to be saved
• The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some
understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance. 2 Peter 3:9.
• [God] wants all people to be saved and to come to a
knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:4.

11. Objections to ParticularismObjections to Particularism
• Is the punishment too harsh? How can my sin
in this finite life lead me to deserve infinite
punishment?
– Every sin and all sins we commit
– Sinning in the afterlife
– Rejecting God deserves infinite punishment

12. Objections to ParticularismObjections to Particularism
• What about those who haven’t heard the Gospel.
Is it fair that they go to hell?
– General revelation, creation, moral law
– Job, Melchizedek
• God “will repay each person according to what they have
done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory,
honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
– Romans 2:7

13. Objections to ParticularismObjections to Particularism
• What about someone who rejects general
revelation but who would have accepted Christ if
he or she had heard the Gospel? Why didn’t God
bring the Gospel to them?

14. More Objections to ParticularismMore Objections to Particularism
• Why did God create a world when He knew so
many people would not believe the Gospel and
be lost?
• Why didn’t God create a world where everyone
freely believes in the Gospel and is saved?

15. Getting to the Core of the ProblemGetting to the Core of the Problem
• Pluralist claims that the following claims
are inconsistent
1. God is all-powerful and all-loving
2. Some people never hear the Gospel and are lost.

16. Uncovering Hidden AssumptionsUncovering Hidden Assumptions
1. If God is all-powerful, He can create a world in which
everybody hears the Gospel and is freely saved.
2. If God is all-loving, He prefers a world in which
everybody hears the Gospel and is freely saved.

17. 3. If God is all-powerful, He can create a world in which
everybody hears the Gospel and is freely saved.
• But logically impossible to force someone to freely choose, so
God cannot create this world. So, 3 is not necessarily true.
Uncovering Hidden AssumptionsUncovering Hidden Assumptions

18. 4. If God is all-loving, He prefers a world in which
everybody hears the Gospel and is freely saved.
• But what if such a world would only contain 3 people? Should
God still prefer such a world?
Uncovering Hidden AssumptionsUncovering Hidden Assumptions

19. Initial ResponseInitial Response
• It’s possible that the actual world has the optimal
balance between people freely choosing to be
saved and people being lost.
• Discuss responses and ideas

20. Responding to another key challengeResponding to another key challenge
• Why would God create persons who will be lost,
but would have been saved if they had heard the
Gospel?
– But why think there are any such people? Couldn’t
God order the world so that those who heard the
Gospel were those who would accept it?

21. Consider this proposed responseConsider this proposed response
5. God has created a world that has a optimal
balance between saved and lost, and those who
never hear the Gospel and are lost would not
have believed in it even if they had heard it.
– So long as 5 is possibly true, there’s no inconsistency
with an all-loving, all-powerful God and some people
never hearing the Gospel and being lost.

22. Scriptural ClosingScriptural Closing
• The God who made the world and everything in it is the
Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples
built by human hands. And he is not served by human
hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives
everyone life and breath and everything else. From one
man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the
whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in
history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so
that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him
and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As
some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.
– Act 17: 24-28.