by Nathan Jones
We live in an era of mass spiritual confusion. A perfect example is how blindly mainstream Christianity has accepted and even endorsed Paul Young’s book The Shack. Eric Barger, an expert in Christian apologetics and discernment, commented on this mystifying response. He challenged:
How is it that frightening numbers of Christians have lost their ability to discern truth from error? Though many try to justify The Shack by the claim that it’s only a novel or fantasy, I’d like to know where that allowance is made in Scripture? It simply does not exist.
The widespread acceptance of a book written by a self-proclaimed Universal Reconciliationist author, one who openly teaches that a free-will response to the Gospel is an unneeded act because all men will eventually be saved, is just the tip of the iceberg. Christians have been steadily jettisoning the biblical teaching that Jesus is the only way to Heaven and have been replacing it with Young’s unbiblical view of salvation. This compromise stands as a crisis of epic proportions, for the rejection of Jesus Christ as our one and only Savior is the rejection of the need for forgiveness of our sins. Without reconciliation with our Heavenly Father, we remain under God’s wrath and just judgment in Hell (John 3:36).
We certainly don’t have to remain mired in confusion by following a flawed man’s misleading teachings, though, for the truth of salvation rests clearly in the Bible. Let’s discover what the Bible reveals concerning Jesus being our only way to Heaven.
After all, you’re probably thinking that just me claiming that Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven is rather intolerant, right? Isn’t universally everybody going to make it to Heaven, or at least all the “good” people? God is all love, right? If it was just me making that claim, then you’d be right. I’m just a man. What do I know? But, I didn’t originate this claim. Jesus did.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it… [And] not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:13-14,21).
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
The Bible teaches that God sent His very own Son to come to earth as a man to die in our place, which He did on the cross. Jesus then beat death by resurrecting Himself from the dead. That God provides just one and only one way to get to Heaven shouldn’t leave us upset, for He didn’t have to provide any way at all. No one drowning in the ocean complains about which life preserver is thrown to rescue them. Rather, we should be praising God that He loves us that much!
So what about Jesus being the only way to Heaven? When it came to Jesus’ claim that He was both God and Savior, author C.S. Lewis wrote: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.”
You, too, must make your choice, and it is an eternal one. If Jesus is indeed the world’s only hope to be reconciled with God, have you grabbed hold of that lifeline? It’s a free gift, but you have to accept it. To grab hold of God’s promise, from your heart in faith and repentance pray: “Dear, Jesus, please forgive me of my sins, and be my Lord and Savior.” The relationship with God is then restored. You are a new creation, a child of God. And when you die, He promises you will live forever with Him (John 1:12; 10:28-29).
Heaven awaits you!