{"id":1913,"date":"2006-11-13T02:30:40","date_gmt":"2006-11-13T07:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2006\/11\/13\/the-emerging-question-1\/"},"modified":"2006-11-13T02:30:40","modified_gmt":"2006-11-13T07:30:40","slug":"the-emerging-question-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/11\/13\/the-emerging-question-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The<\/em> Emerging Question 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The generation that grew up with Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street, was also thoroughly indoctrinated in public education and through the media to think all religions are the same. Tolerance, the deistic doctrine of our day, is not only a strategy for getting along but also a moral commitment. The implication for the emerging generation is enormous: it means that evangelism and evaluation of those from other faiths are strained if not impossible. Hence, what I think is the <\/em>emerging question of our day:
\nTerrance Tiessen, who frequently joins the conversation on this blog, addresses this very issue \u2014 the universal truth of Christianity for every single person alive \u2014 in his book, Who Can Be Saved?<\/a> Reassessing Salvation in Christ and World Religions<\/em>. His two questions are How does God save people? and How do the religions fit into God\u2019s purposes in the world?
\nWhat is your basic view? (Options listed below; and go ahead, say what you think and think along with us.) Which of the views do you think permissible or consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ, or what is taught in the Bible? Do you see this question to be a raging, burning question? How serious of an issue is this today?
\nBecause this issue is so fundamental to my students, and because I think it needs to be addressed with care and compassion and critical thinking, I will be devoting a post a week to this book until I finish or the conversation folds up. I\u2019m persuaded that readers of this blog have proven that they can converse with civility, and so I want to dive in with the request once again that we treat one another the way we treat one another over coffee.
\nTiessen begins like a philosopher, putting on the table all of the important terms. These are important because they will appear throughout our series \u2014 and I\u2019ll add them to our new Bloglossary<\/a>. He is a compatibilist and monergist: that is, he believes God is in control and always achieves his own intent. He is also a \u201ccritical realist\u201d: he thinks we can know the truth, but we grasp truth with humility. He then sets out his 30 theses.
\nWhat are the options? Are they the classical three: inclusivism (all can find salvation in Christ, even those who have not heard), exclusivism (only those in Christ find salvation), and pluralism (all can find salvation, regardless of one\u2019s faith)?
\nVery helpfully, Tiessen contends that these three are under attack as a paradigm, so he proposes his own \u2014 and we will list them with a brief decription:
\n1. Ecclesiocentrism<\/em>: only those who hear the gospel through the church\u2019s witness can be saved.
\n2. Agnosticism<\/em>: we don\u2019t know whether the unevangelized can be saved or not.
\n3. Accessibilism<\/em>: God does save some of the unevangelized, but he has not raised up the world\u2019s religions as instruments for achieving this.
\n4. Religious instrumentalism<\/em>: the various religions of the world are instruments of God\u2019s saving work through Christ among the various peoples of the world.
\n5. Relativism<\/em>: any of the religions have saving power in and of themselves, apart from Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The generation that grew up with Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street, was also thoroughly indoctrinated in public education and through the media to think all religions are the same. Tolerance, the deistic doctrine of our day, is not only a strategy for getting along but also a moral commitment. The implication for the emerging generation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476,1736,425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-emerging-movement","category-missional"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Emerging Question 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The generation that grew up with Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street, was also thoroughly indoctrinated in public education and through the media to think all\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/11\/13\/the-emerging-question-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Emerging Question 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The generation that grew up with Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street, was also thoroughly indoctrinated in public education and through the media to think all\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/11\/13\/the-emerging-question-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-11-13T07:30:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/11\/13\/the-emerging-question-1\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/11\/13\/the-emerging-question-1\/\",\"name\":\"The Emerging Question 1\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-11-13T07:30:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2006-11-13T07:30:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"The generation that grew up with Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street, was also thoroughly indoctrinated in public education and through the media to think all\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/11\/13\/the-emerging-question-1\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/11\/13\/the-emerging-question-1\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/11\/13\/the-emerging-question-1\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Emerging Question 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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