A couple of weeks ago I read with great interest an article about a Pew Forum survey on America and religion. In this survey of 35,000 people, “57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.” Additionally, “in all, 70 percent of Americans with religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.”
Wow.
Well, I can get that. For a while, I struggled with what I perceived as a gap between God being merciful, loving and full of grace and the words written in John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (The bold’s mine.) I struggled, thinking that it was a bit cruel and harsh that even if someone who believed in God, whether it was in the form of Allah or a similar deity, and tried to live a virtuous life, but didn’t know the Lord Jesus Christ, that someone would be thrown into eternal hell.
Despite my struggles to reconcile this “gap,” I believe in the Bible and its infallibility as God’s Word. And if it is recorded in there, it is Truth. Period, exclamation point, and any other punctuation mark you want. Any way you punctuate it, it is the end of the sentence. So, then, why is Jesus the ONLY way (and He is, because the Bible as Truth says so) and is it really fair and just that He is?
Yes.
Here’s why: If there are many ways to eternal life that include other religions outside of Christianity, then Jesus’ death on the cross was a waste and completely unnecessary. The Messiah, the Son of God, did not need to descend from Heaven to suffer the tremendous burden that was/is the sins of Man (past, present and future – centuries worth of heavy and ugly sin from billions of people) on the cross. It is for precisely this reason, this blood payment that Jesus made, that we must all pass through the blood of the cross in order to be cleansed of our sin because those who do will be considered COMPLETELY sinless and will enter the kingdom of Heaven and commune with God eternally. Only those who are without sin will be allowed to live eternally in Heaven. Those who aren’t absolved of sin will also get the chance to live eternally, but in Hell.
We all can get to know God while we’re on here on this current earth, regardless of our beliefs. This is the common grace that He has given us. But, make no mistake: unless we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior (in every sense of the way) we will NEVER get to know God as richly and as fully as we can, and more soberly, we will never experience Heaven.
This, my friends, is why all of this is literally life-and-death stuff and why it is SO important to cling on God’s infallible and never-changing Truth in the Bible, and why it’s SO important to share this Truth with everyone everywhere as we possibly can.
From the article: “Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent).”
This isn’t tolerance. It’s an outright lie, one that unfortunately many people have bought into. We all need to change this immediately, otherwise many upon many lives will be lost forever.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
-Matt
Christcommon gracecrosseternal lifefairGodJesusjustlifetolerancetruthway
My Faith, Your Faith, Whatever, It’s All Good?
July 10, 2008
Calvary
Comments Off on My Faith, Your Faith, Whatever, It’s All Good?
Matt
A couple of weeks ago I read with great interest an article about a Pew Forum survey on America and religion. In this survey of 35,000 people, “57 percent of evangelical church attenders said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional evangelical teaching.” Additionally, “in all, 70 percent of Americans with religious affiliation shared that view, and 68 percent said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion.”
Wow.
Well, I can get that. For a while, I struggled with what I perceived as a gap between God being merciful, loving and full of grace and the words written in John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (The bold’s mine.) I struggled, thinking that it was a bit cruel and harsh that even if someone who believed in God, whether it was in the form of Allah or a similar deity, and tried to live a virtuous life, but didn’t know the Lord Jesus Christ, that someone would be thrown into eternal hell.
Despite my struggles to reconcile this “gap,” I believe in the Bible and its infallibility as God’s Word. And if it is recorded in there, it is Truth. Period, exclamation point, and any other punctuation mark you want. Any way you punctuate it, it is the end of the sentence. So, then, why is Jesus the ONLY way (and He is, because the Bible as Truth says so) and is it really fair and just that He is?
Yes.
Here’s why: If there are many ways to eternal life that include other religions outside of Christianity, then Jesus’ death on the cross was a waste and completely unnecessary. The Messiah, the Son of God, did not need to descend from Heaven to suffer the tremendous burden that was/is the sins of Man (past, present and future – centuries worth of heavy and ugly sin from billions of people) on the cross. It is for precisely this reason, this blood payment that Jesus made, that we must all pass through the blood of the cross in order to be cleansed of our sin because those who do will be considered COMPLETELY sinless and will enter the kingdom of Heaven and commune with God eternally. Only those who are without sin will be allowed to live eternally in Heaven. Those who aren’t absolved of sin will also get the chance to live eternally, but in Hell.
We all can get to know God while we’re on here on this current earth, regardless of our beliefs. This is the common grace that He has given us. But, make no mistake: unless we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior (in every sense of the way) we will NEVER get to know God as richly and as fully as we can, and more soberly, we will never experience Heaven.
This, my friends, is why all of this is literally life-and-death stuff and why it is SO important to cling on God’s infallible and never-changing Truth in the Bible, and why it’s SO important to share this Truth with everyone everywhere as we possibly can.
From the article: “Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent).”
This isn’t tolerance. It’s an outright lie, one that unfortunately many people have bought into. We all need to change this immediately, otherwise many upon many lives will be lost forever.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
-Matt
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Christcommon gracecrosseternal lifefairGodJesusjustlifetolerancetruthway