The
Incarnate Christ is the only way to have a true relationship with God. Religions of the world offer inauthentic,
untrue and false ways to God. Christ is
the true Savior that is based on Scripture alone[i] to reveal the only true way to God. God
Himself has approved and ordained Christ as the only Savior. Animism does not lead a person to “…a kind of
preparation…” to believe Christ. The
natural man cannot cooperate with God. God’s
people are made partakers of redemption.
This is only by the effectual application to His people (John 1:12) by His Spirit (Titus 3:5-6). The Spirit works faith in His people (Eph.
2:8). He unites His sheep to Christ in
the effectual calling of His people (Eph. 3:17). This is the work of the Holy Ghost (2 Tim.
1:9). The Spirit convinces God’s people
of their sin and misery (Acts 2:37). He enlightens the minds of His people in the
knowledge of Christ Jesus (Acts 26:18), and renews the will of His people (Ezek. 36:26). The Holy Ghost persuades and enables His
elect only to accept Christ Jesus. This
is freely offered in the gospel (John 6:44-45).[ii] The natural man is
spiritually dead. He cannot accept what
is spiritually good (the gospel). As we have
seen, monergism is what scripture teaches.
Indeed, animism is devoid of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God approved the religion of
Jesus. Therefore, the religion of
animism is a false religion, and its source is of the evil one.
The
issue emerges about the spiritual source of animism. Is the source of animism a similar source
related to biblical Christianity? Pope John
Paul II wrote there is “…a kind of common
soteriological root present in all religions.”[iii] As a modified universalist, Pope John Paul II
states,
…Is there, perhaps,
in this veneration of ancestors a kind of preparation for the Christian faith
in the Communion of Saints, in which all believers—whether living or dead—form
a single community, a single body? And
faith in the Communion of Saints is, ultimately, faith in Christ, who alone is
the source of life and of holiness for all.
There is nothing strange, then, that the African and Asian animists
would become believers in Christ more easily than followers of the great religions of the Far East.”[iv]
Biblical
Christianity offers the matchless message of the gospel. The natural man cannot prepare to accept
Christ. There is nothing in and of
himself that will lead the natural man to accept Christ. Man is totally depraved, and he does not have
an island of righteousness in himself. Salvation
is found in no one else except Christ alone (Acts 4:12). Therefore, animism has the absence of the
saving message of the soul, and the presence of the bondage of the soul. Thus, the Christian Bible[v] does not teach modified
universalism. Rather, the Christian
Bible teaches the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the sole Incarnate Redeemer (1
Tim. 2:5; John 1:14). Therefore salvation is solely found in Jesus
Christ. That is, the Christian Bible denies
salvation in anyone or anything else.
True explicit faith from a true regenerated heart is essential for true soteriology
(that is, salvation).
[i] Holy Scripture is properly understood as the sole
infallible authority for Christians.
[ii] These scriptural answers were used
from A Puritan Catechism by C.H.
Spurgeon. The questions range from
question 28 to question 30. The
questions are: 28. Q. How
are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? 29. Q. How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
and 30. Q. What is effectual calling? which were presented
with answers in his Catechism.
[iii] Pope John Paul II. Crossing The Threshold Of Hope (New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1994), 81.
[iv] Pope John Paul II, 82. Exclusivists rightly understand his book as a
“universalist manifesto.”
[v] The Christian Bible do not teach Communion of
Saints in the Roman Catholic sense.
Communion of Saints in the biblical sense does not include but entirely
excludes the concept of praying to saints (Ps. 62:2, 5; 1 Tim. 2:5) or praying
for the dead (2 Sam. 12:21-23). The
Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly asks Q. 179. Are we to pray unto
God only?
The answer is, “God only
being able to search the hearts (1 Kings 8:39; Acts 1:24; Rom. 8:27), hear the
requests (Ps. 65:2), pardon the sins (Micah 7:18), and fulfill the desires of
all (Ps. 145:18, 19); and only to be believed in (Rom. 10:14), and worshipped
with religious worship (Matt. 4:10); prayer, which is a special part thereof (1
Cor. 1:2), is to be made by all to him alone (Ps. 50:15), and to none other
(Rom. 10:14).” (The Larger Catechism
of the Westminster Assembly With Scripture References, (Glasgow: Free
Presbyterian Publications, 1998), 41).
