Carla Laureano is a bit of a Renaissance Woman. She has held many jobs—including professional marketer, small-business consultant, and martial arts instructor. Recently, she has added “published author” to her repertoire. Her first novel, Five Days in Skye, was recently chosen as a double-finalist in the RWA’s 2014 RITA Awards. Oath of the Brotherhood marks [...]
I was recently sent this infographic by a friend. It’s a common challenge posed to Inclusivists. If pagans are saved without an explicit knowledge of the Gospel, why evangelize? I wanted to conclude this short series on Inclusivism (for now), by addressing this important question. First, let me say that that question is very fair. [...]
Inclusivism is often confused, sometimes intentionally conflated, with Universalism (or Pluralism). Indeed, in some cases, Inclusivists DO embrace Universalism. However, there are extremes to any theological position. In the same way that an Exclusivist can slide further right into a “hyper” position (babies go to hell or God actively chooses / predestines souls for hell), [...]
Salvation, as laid out in the Bible, has a general and a specific component: GENERAL: God loves you and wants to have a relationship you SPECIFIC: Professing Jesus Christ is the only way to have a relationship with God and be saved This creates a problem for the Exclusivist and the Inclusivist. Both must answer [...]
As I’ve attempted to show in my previous posts, there are different categories of people in different approximation to the knowledge of the Gospel. Those groups are: Infants / the unborn The mentally ill or deranged Unreached people groups / primitives Old Testament Jews There are some Christians, perhaps a minority, who believe that most [...]
Both the Exclusivist and the Inclusivist are forced to grapple with the question: What happens to those who do not hear about Jesus, are unable to comprehend His claims, and have a chance to confess Him as Lord? In my last post, I focused on infants and the unborn and asked why Exclusivists, like John [...]
If salvation is accessible to those without an explicit knowledge of Christ, as Inclusivism posits, what do we make of those many passages of Scripture that seemingly emphasize a clear profession of faith in Christ as necessary for salvation? The apostle Peter preached, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other [...]
Some great questions and comments came in on the last post regarding Inclusivism and my thinking through its tenets and objections. I wanted to take Sally’s comments to address some of the questions raised. Let me begin with the “good pagan.” SALLY: The problem comes for me with the idea of a “good pagan.” The [...]
I mentioned in an online discussion a few weeks back that I am beginning to consider myself an “Inclusivist.” The context of the discussion was Evangelicalism, what are its main tenets, and how do you know when someone’s in or out. (That discussion was mainly in response to Rachel Held Evans’ announcement that she was [...]
You know that Greek guy who famously said, “Know thyself”? I’m guessing he was NOT a writer. At any given time, the writer’s head could be occupied by a plethora of personalities — psychopaths, parasol-twirling mademoiselles, mad scientists, country priests, zombies, or Navy Seals. Which turns “knowing thyself” into an exercise in psychotherapy. I got [...]
