Okay, so call me a naive, but people still surprise me with things that they say and do. For example, a family at the Christian school where I taught exploding at me because I said that regular church attendance was an essential part of growth in Christian maturity (and their Southern Baptist pastor supported them! Yikes!). Or, when first getting involved in the pro-life movement and only one or two protestant pastors in my area being willing to support it (what’s with that?). But probably the time when I was surprised the most (and when I simultaneously angered the most area pastors) was when I was publicly asked, “Is it possible that someone could go to heaven apart from faith in Jesus?” And my answer (that apparently made heads spin) was: “No. Scripture says that Jesus is the only way to the Father and to suggest any other way means that our Bibles are lying to us.” Silly me…no, not really. What a sad state our churches are in if pastors (of all people) will not take a firm stance on that truth).

Nevertheless, there are some professing Christians and some who labor in our communities as Christian pastors who have embraced such a pluralistic view of faith and religion that they are articulating a gospel that is not the Gospel of the Apostle Paul and of the Bible — they are (in Paul’s words) an anathema — accursed. In the words of the Apostle John, they are antichrists. And still, to be politically correct, we accept them into ministerial groups, Christian fellowships, and other associations that are labeled as Christians. Sometimes I wonder with whom do I share more in common, mainline and liberal Christianity or Mormonism? That’s scary. It’s not that I am advocating that Mormons share the Biblical faith, but instead that liberal churches are just as great a cult and a threat as are the other cults of our land. It’s a brave new world in which we live — one where anything and everything can be labeled as “Christian” regardless of whether what they believe lines up with the Bible. 

And so, the logical question to ask is, if everyone is lost in Adam (due to Adam’s Original Sin), then is everyone saved in Christ? And the answer is no. One is saved by Grace through Faith (Ephesians 2:8) and only those so ingrafted into Christ by faith are saved (John 3:16-18, 36; 6:44,65; 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 3:21-26…and the references go on and on and on). The notion that there is salvation in no other name but in the name of Christ is not only one of the most Biblically defensible positions in the Christian faith, it is also fundamental to the Gospel. If it were possible that people could be saved in any other way than by faith in Jesus Christ, there would be no point to evangelism or missions work…why bother. But, it we take our Bibles seriously, we have a divine mandate to let the world know the good news of Jesus Christ, for how can they know unless one has taken the Word to them and preached it (Romans 10:14-17)?

So, no folks. There are lots of roads that one may take in this world, but only one (not all) lead to heaven. All others doom those upon them to a fiery and dismal death — horror of horrors. If we would be Biblical and faithful to the Word our God has laid down before us, we must hold to this truth and proclaim it regardless of whose feathers might be ruffled in the doing.