A Defense of Christian Theology Against John Hick

"The fact is that religion-the bond which exists between God and mankind-has always had three essential aspects. The first aspect is that God has acted to establish a covenant or legal agreement to govern the relationship between Himself and us. The second aspect is that this covenant necessarily includes information about God, which we call revelation. The third aspect is that God enforces the terms of the covenant in a series of redemptive acts, acts which Christianity says include incarnation and satisfaction. Thus Hick's pluralism fundamentally fails to account for religion, since an ineffable deity cannot be involved in any of the essential aspects of a religion.... The only relevant question regarding the status of any religion is whether that religion is true. If a religion is true, everything which it teaches and implies is thereby established; if a religion is false, there can be no grounds upon which its practice is valid. This question, when applied to Christianity, reduces to the question of whether Jesus is Lord. Once this is believed, the dignity of His work, the truth of His teachings, the authority of His apostles, and the importance of His church are all established. Without Christ, Christianity is deism, and not worth practicing. With Christ, Christianity is the divinely authorized religion which demands the belief of the entire world. For these reasons, Christianity simply cannot be combined with pluralism, since its exclusivism is inherent in the belief that Jesus is Lord." - from the text