The Ancient Philosophy of Pluralism – Daniel 3:28-30

 Probably, none of us are as committed to evangelism as much as we ought to be. We should be far more interested – and involved – in the salvation of the lost. The support of missionaries doesn’t relieve us of our personal responsibility to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ to the people around us. It’s not just the Indians of Peru or the Aborigines of Australia who need the Saviour. So do our neighbors, relatives and those with whom we do business. Among the lost and the unbelievers, there is a special group of people that we might call “intellectuals.” It’s not that they are any smarter or better than the rest of us, but many of them might think so. I’m talking about some of the people on college and university campuses and in scientific complexes. We could also include some pseudo-intellectuals among other academics, the politicians and the media. The common people among our neighbors and co-workers are more apt to shoot from the hip spiritually. They don’t think in the terms of philosophies and mind-sets. They believe what they believe, and they reject what they think is unreasonable. They may not directly give any substantial thought to what exactly they believe or they do not believe. And that includes the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They may accept their own definition of the gospel, but they reject the truth and the true gospel.

One of the primary arguments against the gospel among the pseudo-intellectuals is “Pluralism.” I will define “Pluralism” in a moment, but I want you to know that we can use this ancient scripture to deal with this modern problem. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of a vast domain stretching from Egypt to the Black Sea and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus River. All those people may have worshiped a thousand different kinds of idols and false gods. And Nebuchadnezzar may have wanted to bring them all together to bow before his colossal image, but he was well aware that the Egyptians were still going to worship Isis and Osiris, and the people of India were still going to bow before Vishnu and Shiva. He also knew that those arrogant Jews were undoubtedly going to continue to reverence Jehovah alone. But it was his desire to bring them all together, in a spirit of peace, to periodically bow before his sixty-cubit high image. Daniel 3 begins with a spirit of “Pluralism,” and unfortunately it ends that way as well. But in the midst of this chapter we have an irrefutable argument against it. And that applies as much today, as it did in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel.

Pluralism – DEFINITION and EXPLANATION.The word “plural,” of course, refers to “many” – and may be considered as the opposite of “single.” “Single” speaks of one; “dual” speaks of two; and “plural” speaks of three or more – many. “Plural-ism” takes the fact that the world is filled with multitudes of people, cultures, and religions, and makes an “ism” out of that fact – makes it a doctrine or philosophy. Pluralists say, “Since god made all these different peoples and religions, they must all be of god and godly.” And thus, attempting to convert someone from one religion or philosophy to Christ or Christianity is considered to be intolerant and arrogant. It implies that the evangelist is judging and condemning that person whom he’s trying to convert. There is still the old, old rejection of Christ which has been around since the days of Paul, but today the arguments against that gospel are different – at least in the minds of some of these “intellectuals.” It is not that the Bible has been disproved or that the doctrines of Christ are riddled with error. The problem is that the Christian declares that Christ is the only Saviour, the Gospel is the only message of salvation and the Bible is the only scripture.

Christians are considered as elitist snobs and arrogant exclusivists by these modern, open-minded thinkers. That Bible Christianity is the final word on matters of ultimate truth, and thus on faith, is not “politically correct” in the age in which we live. In some circles professing faith in Christ is tantamount to admitting that you’re a racist or sexist. Christians, who try to share their faith with others often hear something like, “I’m glad that you’ve found something that works for you, but don’t impose your beliefs on me.” In other words, “Your faith is no more true or important than my faith.” “The fact that you Baptists are just one denomination among thousands, proves that you don’t have a corner on the truth.”

Pluralists usually go on to say that “truth is defined by society, not by any one person’s scriptures.” Truth is created by the consensus and agreement of the majority within any society. So when some fool who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. and that He is the only mediator between God and men…. When some regenerated Christian comes along and tries to convert the Muslim, the atheist, the Roman Catholic or the Mormon to his narrow-minded belief system, he is considered to be a rebel and social traitor. “Pluralism” is the name of the game today.

Pluralism – the Babylonian MANIFESTATION.Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonians were open-minded, free-thinking polytheists. They may not actually have been open-minded, but for the sake of this lesson let’s say that it was the case. They did bow their knees before a great many gods, just as do many Eastern religions do today. They may have said that Bel was the primary god, just as the Romans may have said that Jupiter was the supreme deity, the Greeks talked about Zeus, and the Vikings spoke of Thor, or someone else. Then under each of these gods there was a pyramid of lesser deities. And as one culture looked at another, they often saw a duplication of their gods with different names. This is the kind of talk that we hear today – “Allah and Jehovah are just different names for the same God.”

Since I am not an expert in the culture of the Babylonians, I cannot testify to the degree of toleration that they had towards the gods of the Persians or the gods of the Egyptians. But as I read the Book of Daniel and other related scriptures, I detect some degree of religious patience. For example, when Nebuchadnezzar ordered that all the foreign dignitaries bow before his new idol, he knew that it was pointless to ask them to reject their old idols and gods. Besides, since they were all polytheists with a whole army of gods already, adding one more shouldn’t have been much of a problem. All that he wanted to do was to bring them together in this one tiny aspect of religion – a universal, cultural-crossing, empire-uniting new god. Of course the Jews were about the only monotheists in the world – they worshiped only one God. They were the only fly in Nebuchadnezzar’s new ointment. Essentially everyone in Babylon were “Pluralists” – except those wicked Israelites.

Jumping ahead to the end of this chapter, after Jehovah proved himself to the king, Nebuchadnezzar only added the Lord to the panoply of his gods. “Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.” Again, the king didn’t order that everyone throw down their idols and worship Jehovah. He only demanded tolerance, giving everyone the opportunity to consider the Lord as another of the many gods in his Empire – a very powerful God to be sure – but just one of the divine crowd. Whether or not Nebuchadnezzar was an actual “Pluralist,” his polytheism can be used to illustrate it

But that brings us to the CONFRONTATION between God and the Pluralist.When all the kings men and all the king’s hornsmen blew on their trumpets and strummed on their banjo’s, that throng of people at the dedication of the image fell to their knees as ordered. All except Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, those monotheistic Jews – those intolerant Hebrews – those narrow-minded bigots – those Christians. They believed that the scriptures which they had been taught was the revelation of God, and that the scriptures of all the other religions were fiction. They believed that their allegiance belonged only to their “Elohim,” not everyone else’s “elaaw” or “allah.” They believed that their God gave them permission to disobey the direct command of the mighty king. They believed that theirs was an elect nation, chosen from among the thousands, to be Jehovah’s special people. How intolerant, narrow-minded, small-minded, and arrogant can any group of human beings be?

The cry went up, “Off with their heads;, these bigots are not fit to live. Crucify them, crucify them!” Under the pretext of disobedience towards the king’s commandment, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were ordered into the burning, fiery furnace. They were graciously – graciously – given a second chance to show a little open-mindedness, but they stubbornly rejected it. The “Pluralists” think of themselves as the most tolerant of peoples – look at how patient Nebuchadnezzar was toward these ignorant rebels. But actually, he wasn’t patient or tolerant when he commanded their executions. The Babylonians might have thought that Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah couldn’t help what they were doing. They had been mistaught by their parents who foolishly shared with their children what they had been mistaught about Jehovah – the one and only God. The open-minded, and demon-controlled idolaters were more than patient with these unintelligent fools. But with their patience exhausted the trio was thrown into the incinerator.

And this was when things got really, really interesting. There is not a single aspect of Bible Christianity which has ever been factually disproved. Admittedly some of the things that we believe cannot exactly be proven, but since they can’t be disproved, then we are at a stand-off with those who hate us. Prove to me that God exists or that this God created the universe out of nothing. Evidence, yes, proof, no. Do Heaven and Hell exist? Is the soul eternal? Did Jesus Christ actually raise the dead or rise Himself? I know and believe each of these things, because the Lord has given me faith to believe. How can Christ die as a sacrifice for the sins of others, and that sacrifice be made an atonement before God? There is much that we believe by faith, taking the testimony of the Word of God to be true.

And in just the same way Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah believed that their God could bring them safely through that over-heated furnace. After they were unnecessarily bound, they would have walked into the furnace of their own free will, but no one would believe that, so they were carried to the mouth of the fire. And in the process their guards were killed by the extreme heat – proving the ferocity of the flames. Immediately the ropes binding their hands and feet, caught fire and burned way, freeing their captives, but their wrists and ankles were not even singed. They walked about in the midst of the flames for a few minutes until they were ordered to come out. Then as verse 27 says, the king’s counselors made a thorough examination of the fire’s escapees. There wasn’t the slightest proof that they had even been near a fire. Their faces weren’t warm or even red. Their clothes were as fresh as if they came out of a laundry. Their necks weren’t sweaty, and their hair didn’t even smell like the campfire.

In Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah’s visit to the burning fiery furnace, there was a confrontation between the one true and living God and the gods of the “Pluralists.” And the winner is…………………. Jehovah – by a knockout within the first minute of the first round.

And here is the point, Christian – There is no reason to be ashamed of your faith or of your testimony for the Lord. The events described in this chapter may be laughed at by the intellectuals and academics. Just let them laugh. We have no doubt that they are true, and that our Lord Jesus could duplicate them today. Our reply is exactly the same as Hananiah’s – “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” When it comes to the need of our eternal souls, and that salvation is in Jesus Christ and Him alone, again we don’t need to make apologies.

We are not being unkind when we tell our neighbor or the university professor that he is an hell-bound sinner. The newspaper is filled with evidence that we live in a sinful society. When a man snaps and flies his airplane into the side of an office building in order to kill some IRS agents, it just reminds us that there is evil in the human heart – any and every human heart. All the education and culture in the world has not made this world a better place than it was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. And you Mr. Roman Catholic, you Mr. Mormon, you Mr. Osama bin Laden, and you Mr. Barak Obama need to repent before Jehovah God and put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not unkindness or arrogance to make that statement – those are the facts. There is only one God, and He cannot be found in the “Koran,” the “Book of Mormon,” the “Watchtower” or in the ex-cathedra decrees of the Pope. And you Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Academic, and Mr. Atheist need to wake up before it is eternally too late. Not only does the Bible contain testimonies of burning, fiery furnaces, but there have been thousands of similar things throughout the years, proving that Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were right. If that makes me a closed-minded bigot, then so be it. But the extended lives of these young Hebrew men cannot be disproved. Jehovah proved Himself that day, and He has proven Himself ten thousand times since that day.

And with that we come to this morning’s CONCLUSION.Despite the undeniable evidence and the irrefutable testimony of God’s saints, Nebuchadnezzar’s heart was not essentially changed. “Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.”

All that Nebuchadnezzar did – at this point – was to open the door to his multi-god religion just a little wider. He had been listening to Daniel, and he saw how Daniel’s God solved the riddle of his dream. And now he had seen this same God miraculously deliver Daniel’s friends from certain death. But he was still unwilling to throw away his pluralistic polytheism, to worship Jehovah in spirit and in truth.

Once again, we are reminded that salvation – deliverance from unbelief and the rest of our sins – is miraculous. In Nebuchadnezzar we see a man with a change of mind about God, but not genuine repentance. As yet he has not had a change of heart – he has not been regenerated. He needs to be born again – born from above. The gospel preacher may exhort his hearers, and he may declare their need – “Ye must be born again.” But this is actually something that only the Lord can do. No child has yet to cause his own conception and birth, and no sinner has created his own salvation.

Pray, therefore, Christian, for the Lord to work – to save souls – to create spiritual life where spiritual death now resides. Don’t be surprised when despite your miraculous deliverance from the flames, the unbelieving world still does not believe. That is the nature of the human heart. But stick with it; maintain your testimony. Because your suffering may be one of the necessary parts in the eventual salvation an eternal human soul.

Nebuchadnezzar, repent before Jehovah – the one true and living God. “Turn to God from your idols to serve the living and true God; And wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”