A bias against salvation through Jesus Christ alone
The Layman October 2005 Volume 38, Number 4, October 26, 2005
Jesus said to him [Thomas], “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” John 14:6
Isn’t that clear enough? Or was John 14:6, as retired Presbyterian seminary professor W. Eugene March suggested at a meeting of the General Assembly Council, merely John’s bias intended to make the early Christians feel good about their relationship with Jesus in a time of great persecution? See story on page 20.
In a book titled The Wide, Wide Circle of God’s Love, March contends that John 14:6 is “one of the scandals of Biblical religion.” He arrives at that conclusion tying together a number of irrelevant strings: John – if it was John, the professor believes – wrote his Gospel late (about 90 A.D., although March uses the pluralist’s BCE); the temple had been destroyed, and the Christians were being attacked by the Romans and the Jews; the Christians needed some reassurance. Ergo, John attributed “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life” to Jesus to comfort them.
But when taken literally, he argued, John 14:6 has become “one of the scandals of Biblical religion” because it is dogmatic and exclusive.
March champions a belief in pluralism. The popular Presbyterian idiom for that ideology – not really a theology for Christians who believe Scripture – is “unity in diversity.” It is a destructive ideology that restrains Christians from believing that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, truly man and truly God, that there is “no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,” as Peter proclaimed in Acts 5.” It reduces the Great Commission to “go and make interfaith dialogue.”
You don’t have to take our word for these conclusions. Listen to the voices of our heritage as Presbyterians:
In his commentary on John 14:6, John Calvin said, “Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments.”
The Scots Confession, 3.16: “[W]e utterly abhor the blasphemy of those who hold that men who live according to equity and justice shall be saved, no matter what religion they profess. For since there is neither life nor salvation without Christ Jesus; so shall none have part therein but those whom the Father has given unto his Son Christ Jesus, and those who in time come to him, avow his doctrine, and believe in him.”
Westminster Larger Catechism, 7.10: “They who having never heard the gospel, know not Jesus Christ, and believe not in him, cannot be saved, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, or the laws of that religion which they profess; neither is there salvation in any other, but in Christ alone, who is the Saviour only of his body the church.”
Heidelberg Catechism, 4.029: (Question 29) “Why is the Son of God called Jesus, which means Savior? A. Because he saves us from our sins, and because salvation is to be sought or found in no other.”
Second Helvetic, 5.077: “For we teach and believe that this Jesus Christ our Lord is the unique and eternal Savior of the human race, and thus of the whole world, in whom by faith are saved all who before the law, under the law, and under the Gospel were saved, and however many will be saved at the end of the world.”
“Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ,” approved by the 214th General Assembly in 2002: “Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord, and all people everywhere are called to place their faith, hope and love in him … No one is saved apart from God’s gracious redemption in Jesus Christ.”
Anyone who cannot say amen to that cannot say amen to the fullness of Jesus, Son of Man and Son of God.