While the notion of salvation is articulated differently among the major religions, the main underlying theme is the belief that salvation is an act of God to save humanity from eternal suffering. In Christianity, salvation is defined as the act of God's grace in delivering His people from sin and condemnation, and transferring them to a kingdom of abundance and eternal life. However, conflicting views arise in the discussion of how to achieve salvation, and thus, who can achieve salvation. There are three schools of thought in regards to those topics: exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. What differentiates each approach to the others is 1. The degree to which people of other religions and faiths can have significant knowledge of God and God's will, and 2. Whether the path to salvation is only achievable through Jesus Christ. Each of the schools of thought have supporting biblical text and logical reasoning behind them, but they also all have their own pitfalls and criticisms. .
In early Christianity, exclusivism, the belief that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and explicit faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation, was the reigning school of thought. Exclusivists regard all other religious claims as false and invalid since only the Christian revelation is accepted as true. Thus, they believe that salvation is only reached through a personal experience of commitment to Christ and Christ alone. People of other religions cannot receive such assurance of salvation since they can't have complete knowledge of Jesus and He is the only path to salvation. In short, this approach proclaims that there is no knowledge of God to be found outside of Christ, that Christianity is in a category of its own, and that other religions are founded on inauthentic revelations that are human inventions and not based on Godly truth. .
Exclusivist views are grounded in scripture and can be explicitly supported by numerous biblical passages.
