So what might we say of revelation in other religions? In an era past, the Scottish missionary to India John Nicol Farquhar famously championed the idea that Christ fulfills the best in Hinduism,[46] an idea that could be applied to other religions and their sacred texts. At the other end of the spectrum there is the view that there is no relationship between the Bible and any other sacred text. A characteristic of biblicism is that we must never expect to find a spiritual truth anywhere outside the covers of the Bible. This position would undermine the possibility of general revelation (Ps 8; Rom 1:18–20). Craig Blomberg rightly prefers a third option: “If it is wrong to expect to find salvific truth in other world religions . . . it is equally wrong to expect to be able to learn nothing, even just about the human condition, from other religions.”[47] Copeland captures this sentiment in the image of dim flickering lamps with blackened globes.[48] What light they are capable of serves a purpose similar to that of the Bible, that is, of pointing to the Light of the World (John 8:12).
“On the Doctrine of Scripture: An Asian Conversation” by Havilah Dharamraj. in Asian Christian Theology: Evangelical Perspectives, edited by G Gener, Timoteo D.; Pardue, Stephen T. (p. 50). Langham Creative Projects. Kindle Edition.
From an Evangelical Christian perspective, only the Holy Bible is from God and therefore fully reliable. The contrast to this is “Not fully reliable” as opposed to “fully unreliable.” This goes along with Blomberg’s and Compeland’s opinion.
Norman Anderson suggests four views that Christian’s can have regarding other faiths.
- Other religions come from God— as valid and valuable divine revelation.
- Other religions come from Satan— as lies, distractions, and traps.
- Other religions come from human aspirations— as tentative answers to the unknowable.
- Other religions are a mixture of the previous three.
Blomberg and Copeland would seem to embrace the fourth option. And that seems to be the best one.
To say that a person of a different faith is completely and totally wrong about everything is not only insulting, but almost impossible to be true. Everyone must a correct about a lot of stuff— even spiritual stuff.
A somewhat related thought— Satan is not Satan because everything he believes is false. In fact, his theology is almost certainly better than any of us. The problem is that he aligned himself against God. We live in a battle for truth… but truth is NOT the primary battle. The Bible may be fully true, but so is a multiplication table. The Bible is valuable because it points us to God.
