Secure Who Can Be Saved?: Reassessing Salvation In Christ And World Religions Articulated By Terrance L. Tiessen Displayed In Mobi

his introduction, Tiessen outlines some of the central and difficulty questions that will motivate his exploration of the larger one, "who can be saved".
It is as the title suggtets, a reassessing of salvation in Christ in the light of these questions and the implications that the answers have on our approach to world religions.
Further though, the questions address a wider circle than that of world religions, and apply directly to how we deal with the tricky ground of infants, mentally disabled and the unevangelized.


Tiessen frames his central list of thesis to which he devotes a chapter to each by rejecting the three central tendencies of the argument exclusive, inclusive and pluralist, and instead sets his language within the paramaters of ecclesiocentricism salvation is in Jesus and only for those who hear the Gospel and respond, agnosticism that salvation is only in Jesus, but that we do not have clear indication of those who do not hear the Gospel, accessibilism salvation only in Jesus, but that we have hope in scripture for those who do not hear the Gospel, religious instrumentalism Jesus is the only way, but God works through other religions as well through Jesus, and relativism that salvation is universally available in other religions.


Tiessen's own view is that of accesibilism, and it is the intent of the book to argue towards this end.
What is clear from the first few chapters though is that he is also a Calvinist, There are obvious reasons as to why his inclination towards Calvinist thought might surface so early in the exploration of his thought, namely that it might appear that as a Calvinist his line of reasoning seems a bit unnecessary.
The theology of the elect does not require further arguments to address the moral and ethical questions of the unevangelized, and it would seem that the simple answer remains that God has simply chosen to set those people outside of His elect.
Interestingly though, Tiessen goes on to suggest that synergists his term for those who tend towards the more Arminian notion have both a greater tendency towards his adapted position accessibilism and a greater difficultly in answering it.
In one way, a synergists rests their hope on God's saving will for "all people", But on the other hand, they are explicitly bound by the human action of a clear belief and response.
There is a sense in which Tiessen is looking specifically to broaden the paramaters of Calvinist thought so as to reconsider the nature of the elect.
That is, his argument towards accessibalism is one in which he hopes to show that God's election is perhaps not so appropriated to the paramaters that Calvinists tend to place regarding similar notions of public profession, clear fruits, and outward evidence.
And he makes an interesting argument,

I am not so convinced, after having read the book, that Tiessen's argument can fully be had from within a Calvinist perspective, even if he has pushed me to consider his view from that position a bit differently.
That said, he hits on all of the most difficult and relevant questions, Tending towards a synergist perspective

myself, I walked away with a greater realization of why these questions matter in a discussion of salvation.
It is a difficult to speak to the reality that none of us can truly say that all people in the world have been equally presented with the Gospel and given an equal opportunity to respond to it.
And there are also challenges, lest we simply make revisions in our theological constructs where we feel necessary, in approaching infants and the mentally disabled.
If we are to make room for God's saving purpose to those who have not hear the Gospel, what follows is that we are forced to let go of our grasp on what it precisely means to believe, to publiclly profess, and to have evidence of a relationship with God.
He reminds us all that a discussion of salvation is not so simple, and this is something that should lead us back to God's sovereingty in all things.


It is humbling to let go of some presuppositions and assumptions to make room for some challenging thought.
Tiessen, I believe, effectively guides us to do this, even if his own scope of argument is somewhat narrowed by his personal position.
I imagine that this book might be of greatest value to a Calvinist who is looking through some of these questions themselves.
However, from a synergists point of view, one can easily form his argument in to our own positions of thoughts and struggles.
And I believe he brings it back to God's heart, which as a synergists fits well to say that an accessible approach provides a greater means for seeing God's heart that all would be saved, while also protecting against pluralist tendencies.


While Tiessen appears to lay out an argument for what he calls a "greater hope," he actually presents a worldview that is inconsistent and unsustainable under critical analysis.
Also, despite strong statements to the contrary, his conclusions greatly undermine the evangelistic mandate of Christianity,
This book is based more on his personal feelings and is a result of him being "uncomfortable" with certain aspects of orthodox Christian doctrine.
His arguments are neither biblically nor historically defensible, One of the most common questions I am asked by Christian students on campus is, "what about those who never heard about Jesus" Along with that are questions about those who lived prior to the birth of Jesus.
Though this question is often asked by Christians, it is one that those outside the faith also ask.
Taken on a wider view, it leads into discussions about how Christ relates to world religions, where religions came from and so forth.


Terrance Tiessen's book is a helpful contribution, He rejects the "threefold typology" usually referred to in discussions of salvation: exclusivism which says only those who confess Christ, inclusivism which says others may be saved by Christ even if they do not confess Christ, and pluralism which says there are many ways to get to God.
Instead he puts forth five options:

, Ecclesiocentrism Salvation is accomplished only in Jesus and the only ones who experience this salvation are those who hear the gospel and respond positively.


. Agnosticism Salvation comes only in Jesus the first four options affirm this, but scripture does not clearly indicate the destination of those who do not hear the gospel in this life.


. Accessibilism Again, salvation is only in Jesus, yet there is Biblical reason to be hopeful about the possibility of salvation for those who do not hear the gospel.


. Religious Instrumentalism Jesus is still the only way, but God is also working through the other religions, bringing salvations through them.
Accessibilists say God may save people of other religions, religious instrumentalists say God raised up those religions specifically as instruments of salvation.


. Relativism Salvation is universally available through various religions,

Tiessen sets out to defend Accessibilism in this book and he does so in a thorough way.
He does not just speak of adults of other religions, but he also brings in infants and the disabled.
This is important because many arguments that reject possible salvation for those who never hear the gospel also end up, unintentionally, rejecting infants and the disabled.
In other words, the same criteria used to say one group unevangelized adults is not saved, if applied to another group infants, disabled leaves them out in the cold.


What I found most interesting about this book is that Tiessen writes from a Calvinist, Monergist perspective.
In this view there is one actor in salvation: God, Tiessen affirms that TULIP: all are totally depraved, God unconditionally elects some to salvation and these will be saved.
This contrasts with an Arminian/Wesleyan perspective that speaks of Synergism: God's election works along with human freedom.
In this view humans have the power to choose or reject God,

He admits that Accessibilism seems more to fit with Synergism then with his own Monergism, I found myself thinking of this throughout, If I were a Calvinist and the question, "what about those who never heard" was asked of me I would just say, "well, they must not have been elect.
" It seems quite simple. Tiessen's defense makes sense, but through it all I am not sure why people never hearing would be a problem for Calvinists.
He tries to say that every person is given the ability to choose Jesus but they aren't if they are not given the "efficacious" grace, as Tiessen calls it.
Somehow people are condemned for failing to believe, . . even though they are unable to believe unless God enables them since God is the only actor which is what monergism believes.


All that to say, Tiessen's book often shows problems and challenges with the view he opposes Arminianism but seems to gloss over the problems with his own position.
Along with that, as I mentioned in the last paragraph, the whole thing seems kind of unnecessary if those who are not saved are just not among the elect.


If you are a Calvinist who has asked the questions Tiessen is asking, this book is for you, and you'll probably give itstars.
If you are not a Calvinist, there is still a lot of good in this book, I found myself agreeing with tons of it,

I do think there is room for debate on what "salvation" even means, For much of the book the working definition is along the lines of those who have been cleansed of sin and thus they can go to heaven when they die.
But at a few points in the book he does talk as if the point of salvation is not just the afterlife, but this life.
Those few points help, but the book does come close to being able to be retitled, "who can go to heaven when they die", which, as important as that might be, does not seem to be the primary message that Jesus was concerned with.


Overall, a helpful book that would probably be most welcome by those on the conservative end of the spectrum.
. . who are Calvinists. .