Mcdermott: Summary

McDermott answers the question posed in the title with a resounding Yes. Evangelicals can learn from world religions, in fact, they can learn some very important lessons about being more sensitive towards the gospel and in witnessing making them more effective and better disciples. He acknowledges some of the reservations that evangelicals have against learning about and from world religions and even credits the hesitant people with having good heads on their shoulders but says that learning about other religions helps evangelicals more than it hurts them.
He shows us examples that he sees in scripture of God working on non-evangelicals Citing examples of such biblical figures as Melchizedek, Balaam, and others who speak the word of the one true God but are not members of the Children of …show more content…
McDermott believes that God may not want to show full grace to some cultures but instead wants them to be in a system of salvation by works so that they can learn human inability. McDermott concludes that God has reasons for giving an incomplete revelation to non-Christian religions.
McDermott says a couple of times that his focus in this book is revelation within world religions, not the question of whether or not non-Christians can be saved within those religions even though he does say that “some of the religions may be providential preparations for future people to receive the full revelation of God in Christ.” McDermott seems to support that God’s incomplete revelation of himself in non-Christian religions may have a salvific purpose of setting the stage for future generations to receive Christ.
On some level, I have heard these arguments before from other people so not much in this book surprised me, I cannot say that McDermott’s book was boring to me, or that I disagreed strongly on any of his