Jesus proclaimed that Christianity is indeed a narrow and exclusive belief system when he shared in (John 14:6): “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” We also read in (Matthew 7:13-14): “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Christianity by definition proclaims that only Jesus is worthy of our worship. If we strip away the deity of Jesus and his substitutionary death on the cross we are left with a Christless Christianity. Yes, diversity can be good, but when it comes to the foundational doctrines of Christianity we must remain narrow or else risk presenting to the world a false Christianity. Yes, there is a place for diversity of views in certain areas of doctrine (that’s why we have different Christian denominations) in non-core beliefs, but not when it comes to the essential doctrines of the faith. In these cases, we must remain steadfast in our narrowness.
There are some who view this narrowness of the gospel as a negative. They feel that we need to be more open-minded and tolerant of diverse views of Christianity. These advocates of religious diversity argue not only that contemporary diversity is good and historic Christianity unduly narrow, but that this was the state of affairs among Jesus and the first century Christians. As Christianity moved into the second and third centuries, they contend that Christians became increasingly narrow in their doctrinal views. The question is does the evidence support this view?
Christianity will always present a narrow road to Jesus since Jesus clearly claimed to be God and thus alone is worthy of worship and obedience to His teachings. Their idea that diversity prevailed during the first and second centuries is hard to swallow since clearly many of the original apostles of Christ died a martyr’s death just because they held to this narrow view and would not renounce the claims of Christ. Advocates of diversity of the gospel message claim that diversity was always the original intent of Christianity. But the exclusivity of the gospel clearly precludes diversity since Jesus claimed to be the only way to heaven. Diversity, in actuality, destroys the message of the cross and makes Christianity just another of many ways to God.
Clearly the religious leaders of Jesus’ day knew that Jesus claimed to be God and the only way back to the Father since it was for this belief that they had Christ crucified at Calvary. A simple reading of the New Testament leaves us with only one alternative – that Jesus is God. Jesus believed He was God, His apostles believed He was God, and the early church fathers believed He was God. Diversity in non-essential doctrines, yes, but never in the core doctrines of Christianity. If we take those away we have another gospel and no real Christianity at all. So, right from the very start of Christianity orthodoxy of essential doctrines was what prevailed. Exclusivity, not diversity, has always been and will always be what true Christianity is all about when it comes to the core doctrines of the Bible.