Is It Intolerant To Claim Christianity Alone Is True?

Today, more and more Christians do not only feel hemmed in, but also are afraid to make truth claims based on their faith because of fear of being perceived as bigots or out of step in political correctness.

Noted scholar and theologian Kenneth R. Samples, in an article on reasons.org titled, Is It Intolerant to Claim Christianity Alone Is True cited a case in point and show how the issue may be tackled.

He writes thus:

A couple of years ago I visited Canada to record television interviews about my book Christian Endgame. Prior to the recording, some of the Christians in the green room told me to be cautious about saying that Christianity is the exclusively true religion. When I inquired why, I was told that it is considered intolerant in Canadian society to claim Christianity is the only way to God. The Christian program executives were concerned about receiving legal reprisals from the Canadian government for broadcasting “intolerant” religious statements.

I don’t know exactly what Canada’s laws are concerning alleged statements of religious intolerance, but it appears the Western world (including America) has allowed political correctness to run amuck.

So, how should Christians respond to the challenge that their belief of exclusivity reflects intolerance? Here are five ways to handle this increasingly tricky topic.

We can point out that truth exists and that it really matters. Respect and tolerance should never be divorced from truth, especially the concept of ultimate truth. All denials of objective truth are ultimately self-defeating.¹ For example, to claim there is no objective truth would itself constitute an objective truth.
We can point out that cold, hard logic requires that contradictory religious truth-claims cannot be simultaneously true. For example, Christianity afﬁrms that Jesus Christ is God incarnate (God in human ﬂesh); but traditional Judaism and Islam both assert that Jesus was not God incarnate. The law of noncontradiction states: A cannot equal A and equal non-A at the same time and in the same way.² Based on this law, Jesus Christ cannot be both God incarnate (Christianity) and not God incarnate (Judaism, Islam) at the same time and in the same respect. Affirming the dictates of reason does not violate any acceptable standard of tolerance.
We can make an apologetic case for the truthfulness of Christianity. Believers can present persuasive arguments for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:15; Jude 3) and point out difficulties in alternative, non-Christian belief systems (2 Corinthians 10:5). For example, the Apostle Paul made an affirmative case for Jesus’ resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3–8) and the Apostle John criticized the Docetist heresy that claimed Jesus hadn’t come in the flesh (1 John 4:1–3).