When we ask whether Christianity is a religiously exclusivist faith; that is, claims to be the one true religion, that answer has to be yes. But there is a sense in which Christians have become too exclusive. There is some exclusivity that popular Christianity has adopted that I don’t think is historic.
The sense in which Christianity is not exclusivist is that God is generally revealed in creation. Paul wrote to the Romans,
for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world, by the things made being understood, are plainly seen, both His eternal power and Godhead - to their being inexcusable
When Paul visited Athens he made one of the unknown Athenian Gods into his known God in order to persuade them – saying that we know him because in him we live, move and have our being. This is recorded in Acts.
For Paul, God is not an exclusivist God. Religions that claim an infinite, powerful, just, and good creator have discovered the one true God. Popular Christianity undermines this by claiming that one must know the God of a particular name and deeds. According to them, if you don’t know Jehovah, the God that delivered the Israelites, then you don’t know God. Moreover, they will say that the only way we know God is through Jesus or scripture, rather than being generally revealed in creation – to their being inexcusable for not knowing him.
So is Christianity truly inclusivist because anyone of any religion can know him without knowing scripture? Not quite. Though it is inclusivist where the knowledge of God is concerned, where salvation is concerned it is exclusivist. The gospels make it quite clear that only through Jesus are Christians saved. Man was dead in his sin, but Jesus is the redemptive revelation that brings them back to life. Eternal life will be had only by those who claim Jesus.
So if a Muslim sitting with a Christian says, “I believe in the one infinite, powerful, holy, good, just, creator God” – the Christian should say, “me too! But have you heard about the means through which he has given us eternal life?”
