An Analysis of the Perception of Exclusivism in Post-Modern Protestant Congregations in Indonesia

Abstract

As human life progresses with the development of advanced civilisation, people's perceptions of various things tend to often change. One of them is the notion of exclusivism. Postmodernists say that truth is subjective, that is, it is based on oneself. Truth is determined by the individual, which is one's personal human right. Similarly, relativists say that truth, including Christian faith, is also relative. If it is relative, it means that the word of God is no longer the absolute truth, that Jesus is not the only Saviour because there are other ways to be saved. This thinking is contrary to the Holy Bible, which declares that God is the absolute truth. One of the negative effects of the many changes that are taking place is, for example, the attack or rejection of the truth of God's Word. Even the servants of God today are less selective in accepting changes. Based on this, the purpose of this research is to see how the perception of churches in the postmodern era is changing towards exclusivism the understanding of religious pluralism. The religious pluralism model promotes the belief that there is indeed virtue in all religions, just as all religions are good and are of relatively equal value. The research approach adopted a descriptive quantitative methodology. The scale used for measurement a Likert scale. The questionnaire was distributed through a link on google forms to communities in some areas around Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, and Tangerang. The amount of data obtained was from 187 respondents of Protestant churches comprising 51% males and 49% females. The results of the research demonstrate that the general understanding of religious pluralism in Protestant Christianity is still at a very low level. The reasons are 1) Church sermons that do not mention ideas such as pluralism, 2) The church is more focused on soul winning, 3) The church is complacent in the routine of its worship, 4) The church lacks information about religious pluralism, 5) The church lacks servants of God who are knowledgeable about emerging theology, 6) Churches are competing for the souls of other churches.