The gospel is good news because it offers us a Savior who isn’t just a god among gods or a spirit among spirits but a God who is above and victorious over the spiritual realm and, therefore, the earthly realm.

On a Wednesday night on Howard University’s campus, I stood in front of 20 to 30 college students, going through a series on the basics of Christian ethics. We were looking at the first commandment and using the story of the sons of Sceva in Acts 19 as a case study.

With tongue-in-cheek humor, I said to the group, “Ephesus was something like out of a Harry Potter book. Because our culture is still pretty influenced by Christianity, our culture isn’t like this yet, but we’re headed there.” I paused and second-guessed what I’d said. “Actually, let me ask you all. Do y’all see these things on campus?”

“Yes!” The room quickly replied. A few students began to detail the experiences they’d had with New Age spirituality, witchcraft, and more.

This room full of college students surprised me: I’ve always known the post-Christian drift of Gen Z is real, but it hit me that night. Their post-Christian landscape was similar to Ephesus’s pre-Christian landscape. Perhaps the sons of Sceva have a lesson to teach us about how to engage our increasingly religiously pluralistic friends and families.

When considering how this story in Acts 19 relates to the first commandment to worship Yahweh exclusively, the narrative doesn’t appeal to Yahweh’s judgment, jealousy, or law per se; it appeals to his all-sufficient, all-satisfying power. He’s the one-stop shop and all you need. In light of this truth, subscribing to multiple religious systems is not only forbidden but also unnecessary.

Christianity will only become compelling to a post-Christian culture when people realize that Jesus’s demand for exclusive worship comes coupled with Jesus’s demand to trust him for security amid life’s threats. This powerful Jesus melts away the spiritual anxiety that animates our religious pluralism.

Religious Pluralism as an Antidote to Anxiety

What defined Ephesus’s landscape––and increasingly defines the urban American college campus––is religious pluralism. I’m not speaking of the attitude of civility that allows people with religious differences to coexist in the same society but of a worldview that allows a person to subscribe to multiple spiritual systems simultaneously, even if they conflict. Such a worldview often requires someone to remix spiritual systems to fit them together.

Allow me to paint a picture of Ephesian spirituality. As a large, prestigious city in the Roman Empire, Ephesus was religiously pluralistic. Worshiping and devoting yourself to many different gods and religions at the same time was normal, and many did so without cognitive dissonance. Magical practice and devotion to the imperial cult were also widespread.

This is the kind of place where Paul went to preach the gospel. This is increasingly the kind of culture to which we preach the gospel. Jesus still dominates the religious landscape of the United States, but for many, he’s one among many.

Religious Pluralism Today

I haven’t often encountered a thoroughgoing religious pluralism like that in Ephesus, but the instinct of many belonging to the generation I serve is to embrace multiple spiritual systems as different ways of tapping into a common spiritual reality in which all people, knowingly or unknowingly, participate. This reality is explained by forces, energies, universal principles, spiritual realms, and a spiritual being or beings.

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