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Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World (12)
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Paul Jang
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2008-12-03 14:47:36, hit : 3,161 |
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(4) Christian Particularism and Natural Theology:
1) It naturally turn to the Bible as the chief source of evidence in support of their view (Particularism).
2) Natural theology excludes the power and interruption (providence) of God. It is said that God exists but has little or no concern for human affairs. (Natural theology).
3) If as religious pluralists have maintained, the universe is "religiously ambiguous," so that we must remain finally agnostic about the existence and nature of God, then again the Bible will not function ad a source of knowledge in our area of concern.
4) General revelation supports the expectation of special revelation, and also it teaches us where and how to look for a revelation from God that addresses concrete human spiritual needs, so that the divine remedy can recognized and appropriated by human persons.
5) Thus an instinct but real form of particulariam is supported by extrbiblical evidence. Particularism is a mark of religious truth.
(a) The Religious Impulse
① The religious impulse is characterized by a singular desire to make sense of human existence within the larger framework of reality.
② We seem to ourselves to be great specimens of design in both body and soul. But we recognize also a dark side to ourselves--an aspect we should like to eradicate if we could. Such is human condition. And it is humanity's awareness of its own condition that prompts religious inquiry on the Ultimate Reality (God) in the first place.
(b) A Personal Creator of the Universe
① It will be argued that the first event in a causal sequence needs no cause because it can have no cause, since the only thing that could be the cause is some prior event, and there can be no event prior the first event, but this argument is not convincing.
② We know our selves to be agents with free will directly and introspectively, and together with the knowledge of our freedom comes the knowledge of the reality of first-cause causation, or "agent-causation."
③ The fact that we owe our existence to a personal Creator of great power can be cause either for great concern or for great expectation. As the apostle Paul remarked to the Athenians gathered on Mars Hill, "'For in him we live and move and have our being' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring'" (Acts 17:28).
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Introduction
Theology 