Is Jesus the Only Way to God?

Christians believe that Jesus is the only way to God. For many, this doctrine is offensive - indeed arrogant, intolerant and hateful. But as Christian philosopher William Lane Craig notes, "the logic of the New Testament is clear: The universality of sin and the uniqueness of Christ's atoning death entail that there is no salvation apart from Christ."

You may believe that all the major religions teach the same thing. If you do, however, you are seriously misinformed. Pastor Timothy Keller tells the story of being a participant at a panel discussion with a Muslim imam and a Jewish rabbi. Regarding the person of Jesus, all three clergyman agreed with the following statement: "If Christians are right about Jesus being God, then Muslims and Jews fail in a serious way to love God as God really is, but if Muslims and Jews are right that Jesus is not God but rather a teacher or prophet, then Christians fail in a serious way to love God as God really is." Keller correctly notes that they cannot all be right about the nature of God.

You might argue that every religion sees a part of spiritual truth, but none see the whole truth. But how can you possibly know this unless you have a comprehensive knowledge of ultimate reality? How can you claim to know what you insist no religion has?

Perhaps you believe that it is impossible to determine which beliefs are right or wrong; you may believe that religion is culturally relative (for instance, someone born in Saudi Arabia would more than likely be a Muslim) or that we are socially conditioned to believe what we believe. But it is profoundly inconsistent to assume this. If you believe that no one can know what is right or wrong then why should I believe you?

I fervently believe that William Lane Craig has pinpointed the real problem. He notes that "the real problem concerns the fate of unbelievers outside of one's own particular religious tradition. Christian particularism consigns such persons to hell, which pluralists take to be unconscionable."

What about people who never hear the gospel or who are uninformed or misinformed about Jesus Christ? What about the fate of people who lived before Jesus walked the earth? How could a loving God send such people to hell?

Ah, but Craig makes a brilliant point: "But how do we know there are such persons? It's reasonable to assume that many people who never hear the gospel wouldn't have believed the gospel even if they had heard it. Suppose, then, that God in his mercy has so providentially ordered the world that all persons who never hear the gospel are precisely such people. God is too good to allow someone to be lost due to historical or geographical accident."

"There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

Would you like to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? If the answer is yes (and I pray that it is), read this.