Exclusivism Is Troubling

The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
—Matthew 7:14

The core reason that people reject the exclusive truth claims of Christianity is the disturbing reality that most people have embraced the wrong religion. If Christianity is true, then the majority of people in the world today—along with the majority of people who have ever lived—are destined to an eternity in hell. How can so many sincere people be so wrong?

One of the residual effects of the sin virus we have all inherited as a result of the Fall is the inborn propensity to reject the knowledge of the true God, along with His commands, and replace it with a god more of our own liking. In Romans 1 the apostle Paul explains the threefold process by which the majority of humans have received knowledge of the true God through creation, have rejected that revelation, and have replaced that knowledge of the true God with a god of their own making: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20)

Why don’t the majority of people in the world ever find the true God? The same reason a bank robber never seems to be able to find a policeman! The vast majority of people are attempting to hide from the true God and His demands, just as Adam and Eve hid from their Creator in the garden.
Yet people have an ever-present desire—admittedly stronger in some than in others—to worship that which is greater than themselves. The rejection and replacement of the knowledge of the true God with another god (whether it be an imaginary deity, a self-serving philosophy, or an all-consuming pursuit) is man’s way to satisfy his religious drive that has been corrupted by sin.

However, if Christianity is the only path to eternal life, then the implication for the majority of people, who have rejected Jesus, is troubling.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “How Can I Know Christianity Is the Right Religion?” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2012.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.