Inclusiveness, Pluralism & Syncretism

Basically the meaning of these three terms involve the belief that members of the church of Christ should include members of all denominations in our fellowship; that different doctrines propagated by various religious organizations is healthy and even acceptable to God; and, the blending of all religious groups together even with their conflicting doctrines. A very influential brother in Christ recently inserted into his blog an article as to what he believed in 2004 and stated that is where he stands today. This brother has preached for the 5th & Highland church in Abilene, Texas for 18 years; he teaches at Abilene Christian University and is active in the affairs of the Zoe Group and the New Wineskins Publications. One of the most effective ways in which he influences people is through his blog on the Internet. It has not been long ago that he announced that his blog had received two million hits. Whenever this brother writes negative articles about the church of our Lord he will receive scores of comments and most of them will be in favor of what he has written. No doubt he has influenced thousands of young people with his beliefs. It is with sadness in my heart and without any animosity that I now examine this brother’s teachings as per his article presented on April 11, 2009.

“Most of us don’t like paradox and tension. We like our theology nice and clean. We like to know who’s in and who’s out. Growing up, it was easy. You had to have the RIGHT position on baptism: the right amount of water, the right age (accountability), the right reason (“for remission of sins” – usually nothing mentioned about “to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”), and the right prerequisites (hear, believe, repent, and confess). You also had to have the right understanding of the church (date of origin, organization, etc.), the right kind of worship (five “acts” involving weekly communion, and acappella singing), and so on. The borders were clear. We were right; others were wrong. Now, I don’t believe that. I don’t believe people are lost just because they don’t share my understanding of various passages. We are saved by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – not by our ability to exegete texts. Thank God for that! No wonder so many people went to their deathbeds worried about going to hell.”

All the gospel preachers of my acquaintance have taught and now teach that we are saved by the death of Jesus Christ and justified by His resurrection (Ephesians 1:7; Romans 4:25). This is made possible by the infinite grace and love of our Heavenly Father (Ephesians 2:5, 8, 9; John 3:16). It is understood that we cannot merit our salvation simply by our works even after we have done what the Lord requires of us (Luke 17:10). However there is the need to respond by faith to the requirements of our Lord in order to be pleasing in His sight. This brother, due to his knowledge of the scriptures, understands that Jesus said it was necessary to believe in Him and be baptized in order to be saved (Mark 16:16); that the word baptize means to dip, plunge and to immerse. John the Baptist was baptizing near Aenon because there was MUCH water there (John 3:23). The apostle Paul in Romans 6:1-4 and Colossians 2:12 referred to baptism as being a burial and a resurrection. The age of young people when they are immersed depends on the individual, that is, when one understands the need of being a child of God, the awareness of sin in one’s life and an awareness that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for his sins. This brother also knows that the only candidate for scriptural baptism is the person who upon hearing of the good news of Christ comes to believe in Jesus as being the Son of God and turns his life over to God and away from sin, and confessing with his mouth what he believes in his heart (Romans 10:17, John 8:24; Acts 17:30; Romans 10:9, 10). The apostle Peter, speaking by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, made it clear that the hearers who had come to believe in Jesus needed to repent and be baptized “for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:36-38). How much a new convert to Christ understands about the nature and organization of the church depends on the amount of studying he has done prior to and immediately following his conversion. He certainly would know that the Lord has added him to His church (Acts 2:47). In the home Bible studies that I have conducted over the years I have instructed a seeker of truth what the New Testament teaches regarding the beginning of the church that occurred on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ and the character of the body (church) of Jesus Christ including its organization. I have done this because of the denominational division that exists in the world today. I have not claimed that we are right because of who we are but that we endeavor to follow the teachings that are found in the New Testament of Jesus Christ regarding how to be saved and the identity of the church which Jesus established (Matthew 16:18). Of course how to worship and who to worship would be included in the teaching of babes in Christ (John 4:22-24; I Peter 2:2) as they mature in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). His statement “Now, I don’t believe that. I don’t believe people are lost just because they don’t share my understanding of various passages. We are saved by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – not by our ability to exegete texts”. Such statements infer that he has had a change of heart on these matters. This brother, like so many teachers in the church today, no longer believes that it is possible or necessary for mankind to arrive at the same understanding of passages that pertain to God’s plan of salvation and the identity of the Lord’s church. According to this brother a person has the right to exegete a passage of scripture to reach a different conclusion from another and both are right. Jesus taught that a disciple of His could study His word and come to know the truth, not ‘truths’ (John 8:31, 32). His is the old “Unity in Diversity of Doctrine” theory that has been propagated over the years by our liberal brethren.

Because of his previous remarks our brother writes, “So some have assumed I don’t believe in baptism any longer. Far from it. I love the things written in a recent booklet from ACU Press by Jeff Childers and in a recent book by John Mark Hicks and Greg Taylor.” I have not read these publications so I can’t really say what the writers have written on the subject of baptism. However, I have read the words of Jesus (Mark l6:l6), Peter (Acts 2:38; I Peter 3:21), Ananias (Acts 22:16) and Paul (Romans 6:1-4; Galatians 3:26, 27). What this brother is saying that while he stills believes in immersion he will also accept another person’s interpretation to mean that pouring and sprinkling would be acceptable to God also. Yet, Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:5 that there is “one baptism”. He expresses his opinion that if a person simply believes in Christ and/or prays the ‘sinner’s prayer’ that such would be acceptable to God likewise. I know this because he explains in this article concerning members of the various denominations, “These are my brothers and sisters in Jesus. People in whom the fruit of the Holy Spirit is clearly being produced. We have some differences of opinion – even on things that are very important to me—but we are part of the one body of Christ.” Our brother had previously made light of the fact that while we taught Acts 2:38 regarding baptism being “for the remission of sins” we failed to say anything about the “gift of the Holy Spirit.” Now he is saying that since the fruit of the Holy Spirit is evident in the lives of religious people they are his brothers and sisters in Jesus. In other words he is saying that these individuals received the gift of the Holy Spirit but he failed to mention whether or not they had complied with the commands of the apostle Peter to “repent and be baptized for the remission of sins”. It appears to this writer that our brother is leaving off the first part of Acts 2:38 and inferring that regardless ‘how people were saved’ they are producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit and such proves that they are acceptable to God. To differ over opinions is our liberty but we must not confuse opinions with clearly stated doctrines taught in the Word of God. This brother brings all religious groups together in “the one body of Christ”. He believes that the church of Christ is simply a denomination (“tribe”) among the thousands of others. In this one article our brother has taught the doctrines of Inclusiveness, Pluralism and Syncretism.

His last statement is very disturbing. He writes, “It is the height of arrogance (often fueled by fear) to believe that WE got it right and in order to follow him you must follow US.” Is this brother saying that when we read a simple and clear passage regarding how to be saved to another person as found in the New Testament that such is done with arrogance? Was the apostle Paul arrogant when he wrote in I Corinthians 11:1, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ”? His statement is a general indictment against all Christians who teach that we can know when we are saved from past sins and that we can just be Christians, members of the body (church) of Jesus Christ by following the teachings of the New Testament. He is wrong when he says that we teach people to follow us. We encourage people to study what the Lord and the writers of the Word of God who were guided by the Holy Spirit teach on how to be saved, the church of our Lord and how to worship and live acceptably to God. Our desire is the same as expressed in I Timothy 2:3, 4, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”