Is Christianity the Only True Faith and Way to God's Heaven?

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6).

The debate has raged on century after century wherever there has been religious activity of some kind and Christianity has been manifested in the midst of that activity.

The question comes down to this one basic issue – is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the exclusive way to salvation from human sin? Is Jesus the ONLY way to reconciliation with God and the ultimate privilege of living in His Kingdom forever?

Or do other religious expressions also have a legitimate claim to speak with authority when it comes to addressing the issues of human sin, redemption from such, life’s purpose on earth, and eternal destiny?

A tragic development has been taking place in recent decades. Within the ranks of professing Christians is the growing tendency to accept other religious expressions (Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Shinto, Taoism, etc.) as being on an equal level with Christianity – no one “faith” is superior to any other! Each has something to contribute to the “pool” of religiosity when it comes to matters of faith and expression of faith. Christians, of course, are expected to desist from insisting that Jesus Christ is unique. Rather, He is to be regarded as being on a par with other great religious personalities that have walked across the stage of human history as it plays out.

Without further comment consider a few of the claims Jesus Christ made for Himself in addition to the one mentioned at the very beginning:

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst……I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." (John 6:35, 51).

"I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. ….As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (John 8:12; 9:5).

"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9).

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep…. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep….. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father." (John 10:11, 14, 15, 18).

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25, 26).

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit…… I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:1, 2, 5).

Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." (John 18:37).

Also note the exclusive demands which Jesus made upon us, the members of the human race, such as the absolute need to be born again as mentioned in John 3. The other three demands are found in Matthew 18:3, Luke 13:3 and John 6:53-56. These have to do with being converted, repenting, and having a faith relationship with Him which draws upon Him for sustenance in living day by day.

OK, now it’s decision time – are these claims made by Jesus true? Or was He misquoted, or are the Scriptures in error on these statements? Or did He not realize what He was saying when making such outlandish statements?

If He is right regarding the claims He made and the demands He placed on each human being, then all other religious expressions have struck out in the ball game of life! You only hit the home run when you make a positive response to His claims and demands. There are in the world today former Hindus, former Muslims and those of other world religions who have come to Jesus Christ, receiving Him as Savior and Lord of their lives, but at a very high price.

In the Muslim view, a Muslim who has converted to Christianity is now an infidel and execution in a Muslim controlled culture is the means by which such infidelity is dealt with if the “convert” does not repent and return to the way of Islam! It does not go well for the Hindu who converts and becomes a Christian either!

Someone, it may have been the late C. S. Lewis, observed that if such claims as made by Jesus are not true then He is to be regarded as a lunatic on the same level as a man in an asylum who claims he is a poached egg!

But if His claims and demands are true, then we have to settle the issue as to what place this Jesus is going to have in our own lives and live each day with the reality that the time will come when He will judge us and declare where we will spend our eternity – in a glorious Heaven with Him, or in a Devil’s Hell which the human mind cannot begin to fathom when it comes to anguish and regret! (Check one man’s experience on this in Luke 16 – you don’t want to join him!).

Is Christianity the only true faith on the face of planet Earth? How do you answer?

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. --- Philippians 2:9-11

A Tightrope Christmas!

Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. --- 2 John 1:9-11

Here we go again – do we dare mention the word, Christmas, or back off and simply refer to the days of December as a holiday season and wish people a cheery “Happy Holidays?” It seems to be an adventure similar to walking a tightrope!

Reaction to the Christmas controversy is varied again this year – from allowing atheists to post a sign near a nativity display in one part of the country to the aggressive distribution of badges and bumper stickers boldly stating “Merry Christmas.”

Mike Huckabee on his Fox News program perhaps best expressed thoughts about Christmas to which those professing to be “evangelical” would say a hearty “Amen!” I just happened to accidentally catch those remarks while surfing a bit during the ad blitz on a channel showing a Christmas movie which I was attempting to watch. I very rarely view Fox News – you know, the channel that highly qualifies as a competitive beauty pageant for females, jam packed with oodles of ads, has flashy and splashy graphics and throws in a few tidbits of news with a ticker tape moving across the bottom when the ads aren’t running!

Anyway, Mike got into explaining about Christmas and the Biblical account behind it. He mentioned that God came and took on human form. He then became almost apologetic and stated that he did not want to offend those of other faiths such as Muslims, Hindus etc. but that his intent was to explain what Christmas means to those who follow the Christian faith. His explanation will probably be accepted by many with no offense.

However, the real hostility against Christmas lies not so much in a few people believing that God became human at some point in the flow of human history – it is due to a fewer number who believe and proclaim without apology that Jesus Christ is absolutely the only way of forgiveness, experiencing peace with Almighty God, and eventual entrance into God’s eternal Kingdom after death ends our existence on earth! You see, by doing this, one is stating that all other religious expressions outside of Christianity are false and without a reliable foundation! This does not sit well with most who are devotees of something other than genuine Christianity. The consequence is resentment, hostile responses and in some places, violent acts of persecution. Unfortunately there are within the ranks of professing Christianity those, including church leaders, who have backed off from being in agreement with Jesus on this issue, and have indicated one way or another that other religions in the world have legitimate claims to speak on issues related to deity, life's purpose and eternal destiny. In taking such a compromising position it has also been necessary to shift in one's view of the Scriptures with the conclusion that they are simply human produced writings with errors here and there! You can go for many miles once you start down that trail, but it will cause the vehement objections from religionists outside of Christianity to settle down a bit!

It is not a theory or some far fetched idea that bring these few to such a conclusion of what some describe as being very intolerant and narrow minded. It is based on the personal and very radical exclusive statements made by Jesus Himself – each of those statements begins with “I am…”

Further, these statements rest on the solid facts of His sacrificial death on behalf of every human being, His subsequent resurrection from the dead 3 days after crucifixion and His ascension back to Heaven after a 40 day period spent with a number of His followers. He has also specifically promised to return to this planet again and we are informed that He will rule it with a "rod of iron!"

He gave a parting command to go into all the world, issue a call to repent from sin, accept Him as Savior and Lord, and exhort all to obey His teachings – there were to be no exceptions to this – never once did He say, “Do this except for those who are of the ________ faith.” (insert any one of the vast number of religious expressions of your preference in today’s world in the blank space.).

But He also stressed one other thing which we often overlook. And that was in regard to Christians who are faithful to carry out that parting command to confront the world about His call and claims upon all members of the human race – the radical nature of that message and witness will cause them to be hated among all nations! The reason? Simple – Jesus’ followers represent light and truth which is often rejected as stated by Jesus in John 3:19-21:

"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

In my years of hunting there were times as I walked through the woods that I would come across a piece of a dead log – I would kick the log over to see what would happen. Underneath were all kinds of creepy crawly things – as soon as they were exposed to the light they scurried quickly to find a hole into which they might crawl – they didn’t want to remain where there was light -- it made them too uncomfortable! A majority of human beings are much the same – the light and truth that comes through Jesus Christ Whose birth we celebrate at this time of year is more than they can stand – the reaction is hatred and hostility as they scramble to get back into the darkness and away from the light which exposes them for what they really are!

Actually, it ought not to be considered walking a tightrope at Christmas or at any other time in regard to our faith in Jesus Christ – just continue to bear witness to the fact that He is still the only way of salvation and hope in spite of the majority responding in a negative fashion – always bear in mind the inspired words of the apostle Paul – they give a powerful encouragement and challenge to keep on going because somewhere in the future when that statement is totally fulfilled we will wholeheartedly agree that it has been worth it all to have fulfilled the calling of Jesus Christ upon our lives each day of our journey on earth!

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. --- Philippians 2:9-10

The Most Vicious Battleground Ever!

Volumes have been written about wars taking place down through the centuries of human history. Battles have been singled out time after time with graphic details given and with the invention of photography, the descriptive articles contained pictures which underscored the horror of war all the more. An infamous example of this would be the U. S. Civil War with an almost endless parade of photos revealing huge numbers of bodies of Confederate and Union soldiers killed in combat.

The battleground which receives the least attention and certainly never makes the news on major TV networks or cable news channels such as CNN or Fox News is the human mind! You think not? Maybe you have already become a casualty without even realizing it!

Here is what is going on ----

With the vast majority of this world’s 6 billion inhabitants in an unregenerate state of mind, God is seeking to reach each one with His eternal truth and the message of salvation offered through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Standing in opposition are the deceptive and misleading “teachings” of humans which reject God’s special revelation to us through the holy Scriptures (Bible).

"And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me," says the LORD. --- Jeremiah 9:3

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. --- 2 Thess 2:9-12

This rejection takes place in many settings:

• The secular education system starting at the kindergarten level and continuing through graduate school at the university level. The great damnable “doctrine” which is repeatedly planted in learning minds is that we have evolved from a lower life form – you know, some stuff that started to wriggle in a mud puddle millions and millions of years ago! There is a strong anti-God sentiment mixed in this and the absolute forbidding of any suggestion that we are a special creation of God – created by Him and He has a special plan for each conceived human life!
  
  
• There are numerous religious groups ranging in size from a few score to millions of devotees. Among the larger groups are Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism, etc. The common agreement all have is this – they reject the truth that God took on human form in the Person of Jesus Christ, sacrificed His life for the sins of every human being, rose from the dead three days after crucifixion, ascended back to Heaven, and will one day in the future return to this chaotic world and rule it from Jerusalem! This very clearly indicates that all human governments presently existing will be dismantled – a great change for the better which we cannot begin to comprehend.
  
  
• Within the ranks of professing Christianity has been the importation of deadly heresies denying the basic tenets of Biblical Christian faith. These include denials of the divine inspiration and authority of the holy Scriptures, the Person and works of Jesus Christ, that He is exclusively the way of salvation from sin, and that He will personally return to this world, take full control, and rule it!
  

The human mind is bombarded daily with information from many sources. Decisions have to be made as to whether to accept or reject those many items of information. Most critical are decisions that are made regarding one’s eternal destiny and standing relationship with God. Upon what information will such decisions be made – what one personally thinks by way of opinion or what others think – what some Ph.D. in a classroom says about something – or some high profile entertainment figure or talk show personality – or some politician or some person of great wealth and influence?

Or will it be based on what God says through His holy Word? The battle continues to rage on and on – your mind and mine are the areas where the battle is most vicious – the victory is assured IF our confidence is centered in the right Person – that Person is none other than Jesus Christ, the Savior and only hope we have in this world and the one yet to be!

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. --- 1 Corinthians 15:51-58