Is Jesus the Only Way?

While my son, Daniel, was at the farm last night to pick up a van for a Royal Ranger trip this morning. I met him at the warehouse. Then I received a call from a man in North Carolina that had found my phone number through some reasearch he was doing about holiness in the pentecostal church. He found it curious, as I do, that Christian Fellowship was listed on the Holiness Messenger website. It was good converstaion, and edifying, but wow, did we ever talk for a long time, and I still had one more project to complete before bed.

A young man who has been on a spiritual journey has some questions about faith, and I had a goal to put together some study questions, and hopefully some answers, to help him find the truth. One vital question whether or not Jesus is the only way to heaven? Popular answers to this question include the following:

"I'm basically a good person, so I'll go to heaven." "OK, so I do some bad things, but I do more good things, so I'll go to heaven." Surely God wouldn't send me to hell just because I don't live by the Bible." "Only really bad people like child molesters, rapists, and murderers should go to hell."

These are all common rationales among most people, but what is the truth? We live in a culture where the popular belief is that all truth is relative. Many believe that what is true for you is cool if you believe it, but that doesn't make it true for them. The idea is that rather than one truth, there are many truths, and all are equally valid if you just believe, no matter how contradictory.

Now, that may be the popular take on things, but this is really an extremely serious question. If the popular view is correct, then of course it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe it. Here's the problem. What if the "all-truth-is-relative" philosophy is wrong and Jesus Christ's claims are true? Then Jesus was not a lunatic, and to quote an overused expression, "there will be hell to pay."

Listen to what Jesus said in John 14:6.
I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.

Now, tell me. Does that sound exclusive to you or what?If we want to make room for some other belief systems here, we need to have this verse rewritten. It would need to read, "No one comes to the Father except through me or (insert whatever you want to believe in here.).

I just wanted to share with you today that WHAT you believe in really matters. In Acts 16:29 Paul and Silas were in jail, and the jailer asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" To this they replied in verse 31, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."

After the crippled man was healed in Acts chapter three, Peter and John stood trial before and were called to give an answer. This is how they answered that day in Acts 4:9-12.

If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness
shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then
know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom
God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you
healed. He is " 'the stone you builders rejected, which has
become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven given to men
by which we must be saved."

There remains therefore no other way and no other name. There is no other provision for salvation but Jesus. Put your trust in Him today. Blessings.