No One Else

Good morning! Today is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it! Amen?!?!

I’m going to tell you on the front end. Today, you’re going to feel like you in class because of the approach I will be taking with this message. So, please get some paper and a pen and we will begin. It’s time for class!

The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan group, released results from a November 2021 survey about what Republicans and Democrats, who identify as Christians, believe about who can and who cannot go to heaven. Roughly 66% of Democrats said people who do not believe in God can still go to heaven; 34% said they cannot. About 55% of Republicans said people who do not believe in God cannot go to heaven; 45% said they can.

These results are disappointing for me to say the least and they should be for you as well. But here’s where the survey results are not only disappointing, but heart breaking and shocking – for me. Survey participants were also asked to respond to the following question: “Is Jesus the only way to heaven?”

About 40% of those who identify as Republicans and 21% of those who identify Democrats said their religion is “the one true faith leading to eternal life in heaven.” Let me read that again, ladies and gentlemen. About 40% of those who identify as Republicans and 21% of those who identify Democrats said their religion is “the one true faith leading to eternal life in heaven.”

Sixty-five percent of those who identify as Democrats and 53% of those who identify as Republicans said many religions can lead to eternal life in heaven. Fifty-three percent of Democrats said some non-Christian faiths can lead to heaven; 35% of Republicans agreed.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about people who were washed in the blood of Jesus! The survey sounds like it could have included some of our families and friends doesn’t it?

All of us have family, relatives and friends who profess to be Christians, but believe that it could be possible for a person who is not a Christian to go to heaven. And some are also willing to consider the possibility that people who practice other faiths or religions can also go to heaven.

Let’s think about this for a moment. Well, let me share with you some of the things I thought about.

How can we, as Christians, help the ones close to us understand that the person who wants to go to heaven must believe that Jesus is the Christ, that He is the only way and that only He can give a person eternal life? Ladies and gentlemen, we must first believe this ourselves because that will be the only way we’ll be able to stand up to the naysayers, to those who want to argue and disagree with us.

Now let’s return our focus to helping those close to us understand that there is only one way to heaven. First, we must lay a foundation for them must that establishes the divine origin of the Bible and its place of authority in the lives of Christians. And second, we have to remind them of who Christ Jesus really is!

This message today is simply a way to look at these issues. I encourage you to be sensitive to the leading of the Lord and have pen and paper ready because He may show you how you can take what you are hearing and adapt it so that you can share it with the people in your life. Remember, you are in class today.

Let’s begin with answering two questions: “What is the purpose of the Bible and what is its origin

We see the purpose of the Bible in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

(16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God (theopneustos, God-breathed), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

(17) That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

The word “All” in verse 16 is significant. In the Greek, it’s the word pas and, depending on the context in which it is found, the word will mean –

? All “without exception” (nothing is excluded) or,

? All “with distinction” (something defined or specific)

We find an example of both “all without exception” and “all with distinction” in Matthew 4:23.

And Jesus went about all (all with distinction) Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all (all without exception) manner of sickness and all (all without exception) manner of disease among the people.

Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. No other city is mentioned. So, this is “all with distinction.” While in Galilee, Jesus healed all types of sicknesses and diseases. This would be “all without exception.”