Dr Paul Allen

The Temptation of Christ, 1854 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell.” So wrote the agnostic British philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1967. The idea of eternal punishment for sin, he further notes, is “a doctrine that put cruelty in the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture.” His views are at least more consistent than religious philosopher John Hick , who refers to hell as a “grim fantasy” that is not only “morally revolting” but also “a serious perversion of the Christian Gospel .” Worse yet was theologian Clark Pinnock who, despite having regarded himself as an evangelical, dismissed hell with a rhetorical question: “How can one imagine for a moment that the God who gave His Son to die for sinners because of His great love for them would install a torture chamber somewhere in the new creation in order to subject those who reject Him to everlasting pain?” So, wh...

The historic claims of Christianity have grown increasingly unpopular up to the 20th Century . From Nietzsche and the “ death of God ” at the end of the 19th Century to the radical and revisionist theology of mainline Protestantism in the 20th Century, theologians are poised to practice theology without God in the 21st Century.  Evangelicals fared better at the beginning of the 20th Century, fighting for biblical historic Christianity, but the last 50 years of the 20th Century found evangelicals debating essential issues of Classical Theism . Nearing the turn of the 21st Century, the biblical theological core of evangelicalism is being threatened by the various new “theisms” of evangelical revisionists. Today, the Doctrine of God is in crisis. In a postmodern culture, some see knowing God as oppressive, while others see knowing God as mere emotive sentiment. There is no “objective view of God,” only the creation of the image of God that works for each generation....

Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia What is inclusivism, how is it different than pluralism and exclusivism, and why is it important for  Christians to think biblically about this issue? Like exclusivism, inclusivism rejects pluralism, the view that all religions lead to God. Also like exclusivism, inclusivism holds that Jesus is the only Savior of humankind. But unlike exclusivism, inclusivism does not hold that one must trust Jesus as Lord and Savior in this life to be saved.  Inclusivists have a variety of reasons for this position, although not all inclusivists hold to all of the reasons. It is important for Christians to think biblically about this issue because the necessity of unsaved persons hearing the gospel in this life is at stake. Who are the major players in each camp? There are three major inclusivists: (1)  Cla...

Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia What is inclusivism ? While inclusivists believe Jesus is the only Savior and that no person can be saved by anyone but Jesus, what sets the inclusivist apart is his belief concerning the necessity (or lack thereof) of sinners to trust in Christ for their salvation . For the exclusivist, it is necessary that a sinner have faith in Christ to be saved. However, for the inlusivist, while faith in Christ is best, it is not the only way to be saved. In other words, those who have never heard of Christ may very well be in heaven one day since they responded genuinely to the general revelation that was available to them. As you might have guessed, the debate over inclusivisim has caused quite a stir in evangelicalism. The theological contours of the debate cannot be quarantined either. Everything is impacted by an inclusivist view, including general revelation, divine justice, one's view towards world religions , one's...