Answering Our Culture
#5 – “Jesus is Not the Only Path to God.”
(Sincerity is All That Matters)
John 14:6; 3:35-36; Acts 4:12
August 25, 2002
NOTE: SOME OF THE MATERIAL FOR THIS MESSAGE WAS FOUND IN PAUL COPAN’S BOOK "TRUE FOR YOU, BUT NOT FOR ME." (1998; BETHANY HOUSE PUBLISHERS)
Introduction
One only has to look around our country and in the media to see that it’s not very popular to be a Bible-believing Christian nowadays.
There are a few reasons for this:
First, it’s not politically correct to put more value on your religious beliefs than on others and to claim that yours is true and others false.
Second, there are people of faith that have committed crimes against those who trusted them.
Then we have the obnoxious Christians who only know how to yell and be rude to people they disagree with, because they think they louder they yell, the more truth they communicate.
And lastly we have the hypocrites, who claim to love God, yet treat people who are made in the image of God as though they did not matter.
No, it’s not really popular to be a Christian right now. So why be one? Why be part of a religious system that invites ridicule and scorn from a pluralistic society?
The reason is because the Bible is true, and Jesus is the Savior of the world, and without Jesus there is no hope for heaven. And no amount of political and social correctness can change that.
And even with the presence of people like those I just described, there are many more who truly love the Lord Jesus Christ and seek to live for Him, benefiting the kingdom of God and the society in which they live.
But most of the world today would not consider themselves to be Bible-believing Christians, either because they do not know the name of Jesus, or believe He is not the Son of God who came to save the world.
We are told that Jesus is not the only way to God as we Christians would claim.
Today I want to address that topic, and my earnest prayer is that I will communicate to you in a way that will not just challenge your thinking on this vitally important subject, but also gently encourage you to consider what the Bible has to say about Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior of the world.
I. The Debate
A. The Bible claims that Jesus is the only path to God.
There are those who would say that Jesus would never make a claim to be the only way to God, because He was more loving than that.
The man who taught the Golden Rule was incredibly tolerant, and would never force Himself on people that way.
And in a sense, they’re right. Jesus doesn’t force Himself on anybody. He laid out the truth, and waits for you to act on it.
Let me read just three passages from the Bible.
Acts 4:12 – (Peter and John getting told to knock off this teaching about Jesus, and they’re like, “Dude! We have to tell people about Jesus,” because:
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
John 3:35-36
35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him."
John 14:6 –
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
You see, Jesus did make the claim that He and only He was the way to God.
And we Christians stake our eternal destiny on it.
You know what I find interesting? People are all the time quoting Jesus when they mistakenly say that Jesus told us to not judge, or when quoting the Golden Rule, but they choose to ignore other sayings of Christ, like when He says that unless you are born again you cannot enter heaven.
You cannot have one and not the other. You need to have both. And by the way, some Christians can learn that, too, when dealing with people who disagree, or when talking about the love of God and being mean and spiteful in their actions.
B. Pluralism denies that any religion can
make such a claim to exclusive truth.
The pluralist says that no truth is any more valid than another, and that all religions are of equal value, or at least contain elements of truth that are equally as valid as another.
Pluralists feel that claiming that Jesus is the only path to God is arrogant and imperialistic, and leads to religious intolerance and ultimately to hatred toward other religions and viewpoints.
II. The Problems of Pluralism.
Before I go on to why I think pluralism is not a valid option regarding religious belief, let me discuss a valid criticism of many Christians on this issue.
It is one thing to cling to the exclusive truth claim that Jesus is the only way to God.
But as true as this is, it does not give anyone the right to be mean and hateful toward anyone who does not agree.
Being mean and spiteful does not prove the validity of your point. It only proves that you are ignorant of some of the most important teachings of Jesus regarding loving those who disagree, and of Paul who says that the Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but to gently instruct those who disagree in the hope that God would grant them repentance.
In this section I will be using a term that I need to define very quickly. That term is “exclusivistic”, which basically means believing that one viewpoint is correct and others are not.
And by the way, if I could find a simpler way to say that, I would. This word has way too many syllables for me, and you can just count on the fact that my tongue will be tripping all over itself just trying to say it. This might be a good word for those spelling bees, and it would probably have won the International Scrabble Tournament this last week in San Diego.
Exclusivistic viewpoints such as Biblical Christianity are frowned upon in a pluralistic society such as ours.
To claim a particular religion or viewpoint is the only valid one is to spit in the face of countless others who would disagree, and is wrong.
After all, can 4 billion people who disagree with you be all wrong? The answer is yes, because truth is not determined by opinion polls or majority rule.
Other religions make exclusive claims. Muslims claim exclusivity (Koran is only word of God, and only in Arabic); Hinduism is exclusive in that it refuses to compromise regarding the law of karma, the authority of the Hindu scriptures called the Vedas, and reincarnation. And we could go on.
The bottom line here is that every other major religion claims to be the exclusive truth.
Another point: “Religious pluralism doesn’t really exist at all. It’s a myth. (It is)…just as exclusivistic as a religion like Christianity. How so?
Exclusivists like the Christians claim that our way is true, and that a religion that rejects that is in error. But the pluralist believes that his claim is true and that the exclusivistic Christian is wrong.
The pluralist is just another person with an exclusive viewpoint. (Paul Copan, True for You, But Not for Me)
Let me just boil that down. I say I’m right and you’re wrong. This makes me exclusivistic, or narrow-minded. But you say you are right and that I’m wrong. That makes you exclusivistic and narrow minded.
In fact, this is an example of the very intolerance you say you despise about Christians.
I heard a comedian say once that he could afford to be narrow-minded, because he was right.
Let me give you something else to think of in this light:
Christianity is an Eastern religion – it began in the Middle East, just like Islam and Judaism.
Pluralism is a product of Western philosophy. So the question can be asked of you, what right do you have to impose your western views of my religious thoughts on my eastern religion?
Are you not saying that your western philosophy is more valid than my eastern religion?
So at the very least the person who claims to be a pluralist must admit that he or she cannot unilaterally condemn exclusive claims of truth, since they make the same claims to truth.
Back to the main issue. Jesus claimed to be the only way to God. This must be dealt with. You must accept or reject the claims of Jesus Christ.
But understand that to reject Jesus is to call Him a liar or insane. To claim to be the only way to God and not to truly be that is to lie, or to be delusional, which is hardly a sane condition, is it?
Let’s move on to another question that is closely linked to the main question of whether or not you must be a follower of Christ in order to go to heaven, and that is…
III. Sincerity is all that matters, right?
The issue is usually stated this way: “I think God will let anyone into heaven if he is sincere.”
On the surface, that sounds real good. But think of where that thinking could lead and does lead.
We already see it in the terrorist attacks both in our country and in Israel. A sincere belief in the Koran is driving some people to murder innocent civilians. Do we applaud that type of sincerity? I don’t think so.
A sincere belief in the Great Pumpkin didn’t do Linus any good, did it?
A sincere belief that God is calling someone to murder his family doesn’t justify what they do. A sincere belief in the evil abortion does not justify violence against abortion doctors.
A sincere belief that the world is flat does not make it true.
I remember a number of years back I was traveling late at night and was looking for something to listen to on the radio.
I came across a talk show that featured the president of a group that believed that the world was flat. The man boasted that the society included a good number of scientists in its membership.
He was on the talk show because he had been quoted as saying that O.J. Simpson was not really on trial for murder, but because he knew the truth about the flat earth, and the government was trying to put him away for it so he couldn’t let the cat out of the bag.
You see, O.J. was in a movie called Capricorn One. In this movie, O.J. played an astronaut who, along with two others was about to blast off on a trip to Mars.
But before the actual liftoff, the astronauts were taken out the rocket and off to a movie ranch where they simulated the Mars landing, because it turns out that the real rocket would have never made it.
Well, the astronauts try to escape after the world is told that they were killed during the return flight.
Only one survives to tell the truth, and the bad guys get put away.
The point of the man on the radio is that there never was a moon landing – it was a Hollywood-type production to keep alive the myth that the earth is round.
And O.J. knew the truth. This guy was convinced that O.J. would be convicted because the government would fix the trial to guarantee his silence.
Crazy, huh?
A sincere belief that the holocaust did not happen does not make it go away.
I personally know a guy who swears up and down that the holocaust never happened, no matter that there is tons of evidence and eyewitness testimony of survivors.
Well, the facts surrounding the reliability of the Bible show that what Jesus said is true, and it needs to be responded to.
My point here is that sincerity is not a good enough standard for determining the truthfulness of the claims of anything, and especially about something that will determine your eternal destiny.
Is sincerity something to be avoided, then? No. God wants a sincere faith, empty of hypocrisy. But that sincerity is based on a love of God and His Word, rather than on putting on a spiritual show, hoping that others will think you have it all together spiritually.
Allow me to make a distinction that might be helpful. Sincerity is necessary for salvation, but it’s not sufficient for salvation. Remember that Jesus was put to death by sincere religious people.
If you rely on sincerity for acceptance before God, you set aside God’s saving grace – that undeserved favor. Sincerity as a basis for acceptance by God is a form of trying to earn your salvation, which the Bible says is impossible to do.
Let me close this section by saying that I sincerely and truly hope you will take into account what Jesus said, and decide to take Him at His word.
Next, I want to address a question that many have when making the claim that Jesus is the only way to God, and that is…
IV. What about those who don’t hear about Jesus?
This is a fair question, and one that deserves a good answer.
Too often Christians have the attitude that says, “Too bad, so sad. They’re just condemned to hell, so there!” May I never be accused of having that attitude.
My heart breaks at the thought of anyone going to hell, including those who might never have had the chance to hear about how to avoid that fate.
Before I get to the answer, let me set a little background. The Bible says that no matter who we are, and no matter where we live, no matter what we know, who our parents are or our station in life, we are sinners.
Name the greatest person in the world you can think of, and that person is a sinner just like everybody else.
The Bible says that the only sinless person in the world was Jesus, the Son of God.
And God would be totally just in letting us sinners all suffer the fate of the devil and his angels in hell.
But His love for His highest and best creation, you and me, made in the image of God, His love drove Him to give us a way out of the penalty we deserve.
His undeserved favor is the reason we have a Savior at all. We don’t deserve salvation, we deserve hell; but God wanted better for us.
Because we’re all sinners, we’re all guilty in His sight, because we have all broken God’s laws.
So in a very clinical sense, everyone who goes to hell is not sent there because they did not believe in Jesus, but because they are guilty of sin. There will be no innocent people in hell.
And let me just note here that Jesus talked more about hell than He did about heaven, so you can be sure it was of vital importance to Him that as many people as possible would seek to avoid it by going through Him.
And I also want to take a second to say that most Bible-believing Christians agree that children who are unable to make distinctions between right and wrong, and a sense of God requiring obedience to His laws are automatically brought to heaven if they die. This would also include the mentally handicapped who cannot make those distinctions.
So back to the question at hand: what about those who have not heard of the salvation available through Jesus?
First, the Bible is clear that unless a person who comes to Christ, he cannot enter heaven.
Second, the Bible is also clear that God does not want anybody to go to hell, and He sent His Son so that all that respond to Him would go to heaven.
This is why Christians go around the world to tell others about the saving love of God. But what about those the missionary never gets to, or what about those even in countries like the US where the good news of Jesus is available everywhere?
Well, here’s what I think. You can feel free to disagree with me, if you want, but I think it fits with what we know of God’s character and the character of men from the Bible.
I think that the gospel will get to everybody who God knows will respond to it. In other words, those who don’t hear about the salvation available through Jesus would have rejected it even if they heard it.
Again, they would not be sent to hell for simply not believing in Christ, but rather on the basis of their personal sinfulness.
And one other thing here: the Bible says that God has revealed Himself in part in nature. But people have chosen to reject even what can be known of God in nature, so having the good news about Jesus would make no difference.
You see, God can’t force people to love and accept Him. If He were to do that, He would not be a loving God. A loving God gave us free choice so that we could choose to love Him; and that means that we must have the freedom to reject Him.
And the people who do not hear would have continued to exercise the option to reject what they heard anyway.
The more I read and study the Bible, and the more I learn about the character of God, who knows all and loves all, and the character of sinful man, the more I like this position. Again, this is not firm doctrine of mine, but it’s something I am exploring as well.
The bottom line here is that God wants as many people as people to find heaven, so He has made Christ available to all who would accept the truth about His Son.
But before
Conclusion
Let me summarize very quickly:
It’s not merely Christian ego that causes us to claim that Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus Himself made that claim, and to reject that claim is to call Him a liar or insane.
And while pluralism is politically correct, it is not philosophically correct, because pluralism is still an exclusive viewpoint, in that it claims that it is right and other viewpoints are wrong.
It is also spiritually wrong, because it goes against the claims of Christ in the Bible.
And while sincerity is important, even necessary for salvation in that we are to call on God in true faith, it is not sufficient for salvation, because it discounts God’s grace and puts us in a position of trying to earn God’s favor by our sincerity, which the Bible says is impossible.
Sincerity does not determine the truthfulness of a belief. Don’t get to the top of your sincerity ladder just to find it leaning against the wrong wall.
Because after all is said and done, you still need to deal with the fact that Jesus said that no one comes to the Father except through Him.
What are you going to do with that? Will you reject it outright because it’s not comfortable, or will you have the courage to wrestle with it, and honestly consider the ramifications of accepting or rejecting it?
Let me encourage you with everything that is in me to honestly and sincerely consider the claims of Christ.
He alone can deliver on the offer of forgiveness of all your sins, no matter what they might be. He alone can deliver on the offer of eternal life in heaven. And He alone can deliver on the offer of a full and abundant life on earth as you grow in your love for Him.
And He alone can deliver when He says to “come to Me, all who are weak and burdened with a load of care, and I will give you rest for your soul.”
If you would like to take Him up on that offer right now, you can do that.
What does it take? An honest admission that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness and a new life as a child of God.
I am going to pray, and if you want to go away from listening to this today, knowing that you are forgiven and have a home in heaven, you can pray along with me in your heart.
(Prayer)
If you prayed that prayer with me just now, I want you to get a hold of me, using the information on the label of this CD, and I will get you some information on how to firmly establish your new relationship with God. I would love to pray with you and answer any other questions you have about being a Christian and loving God.
If you did not pray with me, but would like more information about Jesus Christ and the Bible, please feel free to contact me. I would truly love to sit down with you over a cup of coffee and hear your questions and discuss them.
I promise to listen carefully, and to answer your questions as fully as possible, and to honestly help you find an answer if I cannot help you myself.
God bless you.
