Does Inclusivist Theology Undermine Evangelism?

Abstract

In recent years certain evangelical scholars have questioned the belief that those who die not having heard of Jesus Christ are excluded from the blessings of eternity. Clark Pinnock and John Sanders especially have shown a dissatisfaction with the traditional rationale. They argue that there is a greater salvific wideness in God’s mercy and generosity with respect to the unevangelized. This wideness, it is claimed, has been largely ignored in the past due to many evangelicals being influenced by an Augustinian pessimism or ‘restrictivism’ concerning the numbers of those saved. In order to support their thesis, Pinnock and Sanders posit that salvation is universally accessible by way of the ‘faith principle’, whereby people might respond to the light they have received from God through the way of general revelation. A primary conviction in the universal accessibility of salvation is that while Christ’s death is ontologically necessary for all who are saved, it is not epistemologically necessary that all hear of the Saviour. In other words, an explicit hearing of the gospel, through the agency of a human messenger, is not necessary in order that a person might be saved. If the inclusivistic understanding of salvation is accepted, the crucial missiological question is, ‘will the Church’s commitment to evangelism be lessened as a consequence’? This paper concludes that an unqualified inclusivism as advocated by Pinnock and Sanders would find it very difficult to maintain the same traditional urgency in sending messengers of the gospel to the unevangelized.