In A.D. 203, the Roman government arrested a 22 year old woman, a Christian, named Perpetua.
The problem wasn't so much that she worshipped Jesus.
Her crime was that she worshipped only Jesus.
She refused to worship any other gods.
As a result, she was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.
This dangerous idea, that Christ alone provides the way to God, is called Christian particularism,
and it is as scandalous today as it was 2,000 years ago.
Religious pluralism, on the other hand, is the view that all the world's religions are
equally valid, and Christ is just one of many ways.
Some religious pluralists say all the world's religions teach basically the same thing,
so they're all true.
But this is clearly mistaken.
The major religions often contradict each other.
For example, compare Islam and Buddhism.
Muslims believe there is a personal God who created the world; man is sinful and will
spend eternity in heaven or hell, and salvation is attained by faith and performing good works.
But Buddhists deny all of this.
They believe that ultimate reality is not a person; the world was not created; man is
not sinful; man is not an enduring self.
And the goal of life is not salvation; it's annihilation.
Because the two worldviews contradict each other, they can't both be true.
In fact, every major world religion contradicts every other one, so they can't possibly all
be true.
So other religious pluralists will say all the world's religions are false.
They are equally valid, but equally false cultural expressions of mankind's search for
truth.
But why think that this is true?
Why couldn't one particular religion be true?
When you examine the arguments for religious pluralism, you find that some of them are
textbook examples of logical fallacies.
For example, "Anyone who believes that Christianity is true and every other view is wrong is arrogant.
Therefore, Christianity is false."
This is a logical fallacy called argument ad hominem, trying to show someone's view
is false by attacking his personal character.
This is a logical fallacy because the truth of a view is independent of the character
of the person who holds it.
For example, if an arrogant person discovered the cure for cancer, the fact that he's egotistical
would not mean his claim was false.
You wouldn't refuse treatment just because he was conceited.
Moreover, this objection is a double-edged sword.
For the pluralist also believes that his view is true and that everyone else is wrong.
Therefore, if you're arrogant for holding to a view which many others disagree with,
then the pluralist himself would be guilty of arrogance.
Here is another pluralist argument: "Religions are culturally relative.
If you had been born in Pakistan, you'd likely be a Muslim.
But if you'd been born in Ireland, you'd probably be a Catholic.
Because religious beliefs are culturally relative, they are not objectively true."
This is an example of the genetic fallacy, trying to invalidate a view by showing how
a person came to hold the view.
This is a fallacy because the truth of a view is independent of how a person came to believe
it.
For example, If you had been born in ancient Greece, you would have believed that the sun
goes around the earth.
Does that make your current belief that the earth goes around the sun false or unjustified?
No.
Furthermore, this objection is also a double-edged sword, for if the religious pluralist had
been born in Pakistan or Ireland, he'd likely have been a religious particularist, so his
belief in religious pluralism is just the result of his being born in contemporary Western
society, and therefore, is not objectively true.
Getting these fallacious objections out of the way helps to reveal a more serious objection
to Christian particularism: the problem of those who have never heard of Christ.
If Jesus is the only way to God, then what is the fate of those who never hear of Jesus?
Is there no hope for them?
The answer is, there is hope for those who've never heard.
The Bible says that God loves all people, and wants everyone to come to him and find
eternal life.
God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Our next video explains how God has provided a way for everyone.