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Consider, for example, the Biblical claim about Jesus from Acts 4.12: "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” That is an exclusive claim about Jesus. Salvation can be found nowhere else. Consider also Jesus' self-statement: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." Again, a very exclusive claim.
It is generally assumed that such exclusive claims rule out inclusive soteriologies and eschatologies. And it is true that some inclusive soteriologies and eschatologies explicitly reject exclusive claims about Jesus. For example, there is the pluralistic view that world religions and faith traditions are each different paths going up the same mountain. In such a conception, Jesus is just one among many paths
All that to say, there are particular visions of exclusivity and inclusivity that do contradict each other. But exclusivity and inclusivity don't have to be contradictions. You can make an exclusive claim about Jesus while still espousing an inclusive vision. Consider Philippians 2:9-11:
For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Notice how the vision is both exclusive and inclusive. Every tongue will confess Jesus. Jesus is the door and everyone moves through that door.
Consider also the Christ-Hymn of Colossians 1:
For everything was created by him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and by him all things hold together.
He is also the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have
first place in everything.
For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.
Again, an exclusive claim is being made about Christ, but that exclusive claim is made inclusive and universal. By him all things hold together, and through him everything is reconciled to God.
My point here isn't to tell you what to think about soteriology or eschatology. My goal is simply to clear up a very common misconception. Inclusive and hopeful visions of soteriology or eschatology are not necessarily opposed to making exclusive claims about Jesus. You can have exclusivity and inclusivity at the same time.
