RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Pop quiz: If you don't really believe Jesus Christ is the one and only way to salvation, would you ...

-- pray for the lost at home and abroad?

-- give hard-earned money to support missionaries around the world?

-- consider becoming a missionary?

-- participate in mission projects or evangelistic ministries?

-- risk your personal safety to spread the Gospel in hostile places?

-- encourage anyone in your church or family to take such a risk?

-- bother telling your hurting neighbor that Jesus is the answer to his or her desperate questions about life?

No? I didn't think so. I wouldn't, either.

If the Good News (Gospel) of salvation in Christ alone is not true, what's the point of spreading it? That would be hypocrisy, fraud, false advertising, bogus journalism. The Christian mission stands or falls on the exclusive truth of the Gospel -- as does Christianity itself, which has always been a missionary faith.

This basic reality bears repeating -- with increasing urgency -- every time another study of American religious beliefs appears. The latest is the second installment of the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey (released in June), compiled from telephone interviews with 35,000 Americans.

The survey explored many aspects of American faith, but the headline statistic was this: "70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation say that many religions -- not just their own -- can lead to eternal life." Among Protestant evangelicals surveyed, 57 percent agreed with that statement -- including an astonishing 61 percent of Southern Baptists contacted. Solid majorities of several other conservative, evangelical denominations echoed the universalist response.

Some much-needed perspective on the validity of these responses was quickly provided by evangelical commentators (see "Wording of Pew poll question criticized" in Baptist Press June 26). They suspect many evangelical respondents confused the word "religion" with "denomination."

That suspicion is "bolstered by the fact that among nondenominational church members (responding to the Pew survey), the percentage of those claiming many religions can lead to eternal life is much lower," Baptist Press reported. "For example, 34 percent of nondenominational evangelicals ... agreed with the 'many religions' option" -- still a disturbingly large number, but only about half the percentage of denominational church members who picked the same option. Continued...