(OPINION) Charisma – Not long ago, it was reported that prominent Protestant pastor Michael A. Walrond Jr. of Harlem’s 10,000-member First Corinthian Baptist Church now advocates a pluralist belief that there are many roads to God and salvation Among other things, “‘People take many paths to God,’ he argued, noting that he personally celebrates the paths others take in finding Him—even if that path does not involve faith in Jesus,” The Christian Post reports.
The same article says: “In 2008, a Pew Research Center Study found that more than half of all American Christians believe that at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to salvation. Nearly a decade later, a new study has shown that even among the most traditional Christian groups, significant minorities are also rejecting God as described in the Bible.”
Of course, this downward trend away from biblical Christianity should alarm every true Christ-follower! The fact that many so-called Christian seminaries eventually digressed away from their original fidelity to Scripture and evolved into propagating a form of universalism (the belief that Jesus saved every human on the cross, irrespective of whether they believe in Him or not) and pluralism (that there are many roads to God not just through Jesus) beginning since the early days of Harvard and Yale divinity schools (to appease and accommodate the prevailing intellectual climate and culture) is one of the root causes of this growing rot in mainline churches.
The good news—according to this same Pew Research reported above—is that more than 90 percent of historically black and evangelical churches still believe in the God of the Bible. However, there are troubling signs that many young evangelical pastors are trending towards pluralism, as more and more theological institutions they learn from capitulate to a form of universalism.
Whether a pastor or church actually makes a strong statement or not (I’m sure Michael Walrond has been hinting at his pluralistic tendencies for years before his recent public overture toward it) is not the point of this article as much as it is to help a believer discern if their pastor and or church is sliding down this heretical slippery slope. (Since Jesus said He is the only way to the Father, as cited in John 14:6, the stakes are high, and the importance of this subject cannot be overstated.) The following are seven signs your pastor advocates a form of pluralism or universalism, which is heretical: READ MORE
