Is Jesus the Only Way? John 14:6 (Part III)

Is Jesus the Only Way? Part I and Part II

I believe that the teaching of Jesus as the only way to heaven is and will be the most divisive and offensive spiritual issue in the twenty-first century.

People all over the world like and admire Jesus. The Muslims call Him a prophet and say that He will return someday to help establish Islam as the world religion. Many Jews reject Him as the Messiah but see Him as a great teacher. A lot of people of faith today would even grant you that Jesus is a way to heaven and/or God. Many would not have a problem with calling Him "God", after all, they say "we're all gods!" But when someone says Jesus is the only way to heaven, that's when a lot of people take serious offense. This teaching is considered to be the height of spiritual bigotry and the most arrogant of all spiritual claims. It is the one spiritual issue that offends almost everybody, except the minority of evangelical Christians who still hold it to be absolutely true. I say "minority" of evangelical Christians because according to recent surveys and studies, including one by George Barna, less than half of all evangelicals still hold strongly to the belief that Christ is the only way to heaven. Most Christians today in America are like our current president who claims that Christ is his Savior, but that there are many paths to heaven. Our president dismisses John 14:6 as just one "particular verse" which is open to various interpretations. But as I have already demonstrated in Part I, if words and context mean anything, there can only be one interpretation of John 14:6, and there are other verses like Acts 4:12 and I John 5:12 that show clearly that Jesus is the only way.

The bottom line is that John 14:6 is the issue that divides people of faith and it is also beginning to divide evangelical Christians, and the future is even more a concern.

I believe that when the Antichrist is revealed, at a certain point he will create a "super church" of religious and spiritual people from all over the earth. This "super church" will include "Christians", but these "Christians" will be the ones who deny that Christ is the only way of salvation. This will be the key issue. Just about every other belief concerning Christ is acceptable to a greater or lesser extent, but this teaching cannot be tolerated at all and will determine who can be a part of the "super church" and who will be persecuted as an intolerant fanatic.

Every one needs to carefully examine this issue and come to a firm conviction about it because the stakes are incredibly high. The implications connected with John 14:6 are enormous. The teaching of Christ being the only way of salvation is the most important spiritual issue today, and I would say, of all time.

Is Jesus the Only Way? John 14:6 (Part II)

For Part I of "Is Jesus the Only Way?" click here.

Some people today believe that when Jesus said, "I am the Way", He is not saying "Me personally" or "Me alone", but rather He is speaking about His "inner Christ". He's talking about that aspect of divinity that was in Him and that is in every human being. In other words, He is speaking of his "Christ consciousness" and we all just need to come to that higher consciousness of realizing that God is in all of us and we are all gods.
The problem with this interpretation is that if this is indeed what Christ was saying, why didn't He just tell Thomas to "look inside" for the answer to his question. When Thomas said, "How do we know the way?", Jesus should have said, "Look to your inner self. The Way is in you". But that is not what Jesus says. Rather, He points to Himself most emphatically. More importantly, He went to the cross willingly to die for all mankind, which was totally unnecessary if all we have to do is "look inside".

When you look at this passage, look at the context, look at the question being asked, and then look at Christ's response. There is no way to explain this as anything other than Jesus Christ saying, "I am the only way to God and to heaven". You may not like it. You may struggle to accept it. But that is what Jesus is saying and you and I am forced to come to one of three conclusions (with apologies to C.S. Lewis because I'm altering his formula a bit here). Either Jesus is deliberately lying; that is, He knows He's not the only way to God and He's lying by saying He is. Or Jesus was delusional and He thought He was the only way to heaven, but in fact He was a lunatic, and He was totally deluded about Himself. Or He really is the only way to God and heaven. You have to make a choice between those three options. There are no others. You can not say that Jesus is a really good man if He is a liar. You cannot say that He is a great teacher if He is delusional. You cannot say He is a prophet of God if He says, "I am the only Way", and He is mistaken. So what do you believe about Jesus? All the fuzzy thinking about Jesus has to be set aside when you come to passages like this. You've got to make a decision. Who is He? Liar? Lunatic? Or the only Savior of all mankind?

Look for Part III of this series on Sunday, August 29.

Is Jesus the Only Way? John 14:6 (Part I)

Those of you who are CNN fans and like to watch Larry King may have seen the panel discussion some time ago that had a number of ministers and holy men talking about theological and spiritual issues. There was a Muslim cleric, a New Age Leader, a Catholic Priest, a Rabbi on a television hookup, and John MacArthur from Grace Community Church in California. At one point in the discussion, John MacArthur pointed out that Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by me." The New Age minister who was sitting next to him said, "There is another way to understand that passage." He didn't explain any further and John MacArthur didn't get a chance to respond. But what was left was a seed of doubt in the minds of a lot of people that what MacArthur shared wasn't really true or wasn't the only way to understand that verse of Scripture. Okay, let's look at the possibilities about what Jesus said in John 14:6.

Jesus is about to go to the cross. He is speaking to his disciples, and He says, "Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me" (John 4:1). Jesus is clearly saying that it is not enough to simply believe in God the Father. That is important, but that is not enough. Many people today say, "I believe in God", and that's good. That is super important. But it is not enough. As James points out, demons also believe that God exists (James 2:19). But that will not get them into heaven. And that is what Jesus is ultimately talking about. He says, "...in my Father's house there are many dwelling places, if it were not so I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you". What is "My Father's house:...Herod's Temple?

In John 14:2 it's clear that the place that He is talking about is a place He personally is going to prepare. Men are not going to build it. He is going to build it, and if you look down at verse five, Thomas says to Him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, how do we know the way?" Now if Jesus was talking about the way to the Temple in Jerusalem, all he had to say way, "Thomas, you need to look down the road. It is right there. You've been there many times." But He didn't, because Jesus was talking about heaven, which is also His Father's house. And this is a very important point because when people talk about many roads leading to heaven, they speak as if heaven is public domain. Heaven is not a universal public place that just anyone can enter. It is God's private residence. It is His home. And since it is His private residence, He gets to decide who comes in and on what terms. Each of us has a house or place of residence, and when people come to visit, they only come in if we want them to, and they stay there only as long as we want them to stay. That is only fair and that is only right. The same thing is true for God. So, one should not say it is unfair or unjust if God decides that people can only get into heaven through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is totally fair and just, as long as everyone has a chance, and the requirements are the same for everyone. But before we discuss that further, we need to explore the possibility that Jesus didn't really mean that He alone is the only way to heaven. This will be discussed in Part II tomorrow. Stay tuned!