San Francisco is one of those places I have a love hate relationship with. Before it became so bad, visiting places like the wharf, or China Town, or Alcatraz, or Candlestick Park when it was there, was great. We took a group of teens there several years back and they had a great time overall.
But I also loathe going there. Mostly for the traffic. Before I came to Quartzsite my sister asked me to officiate her wedding. They wanted it to be held in October with the Gold Gate Bridge in the background. The night before the wedding, my parents arranged to have hotel rooms for us in San Francisco proper. The trip to there was a story of its own, but when we got to the city we had to navigate to our destination with a regular map, since cell phones didn’t have GPS at the time. We finally got to the street the hotel was on, it was a one way, going to our left, which is where we needed to be. We were also on a one way and the cars in front of us turned left on the green light. So we proceeded to turn as well.
Apparently, unbeknownst to us, there was a sign saying, no left turns; we were told this by the police officer who, as we turned onto the street told us after he pulled us over. Of course we got a ticket, and ever since then San Francisco has become one of my least liked cities. And one of the reasons why I very much dislike city downtowns for all the one way streets, and why I love having modern GPS.
But it’s this idea of going down a one way street that brings us back into our Fall Apologetics series.
Three weeks ago we started this series by looking at the result of a study by Ligionier Ministries, which was presented in an article by Christianity Today. In that article, Stefani McDade wrote, “Overall, adults in the US are moving away from orthodox understandings of God and his Word year after year (Stefani McDade, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/september-web-only/state-of-theology-evangelical-heresy-report-ligonier-survey.html).”
In the article, they present five heresies that are in the American Church. In our series we are looking at these heresies and showing how we as Christians need to reject them and embrace God’s teaching on these subjects.
The first of these heresies that we tackled dealt with the trustworthiness of the Bible. In the first week we saw that 26% of Evangelical Christians agreed that the Bible was helpful but not true. So we proceeded to show how the Bible was both internal and external consistent. That what’s contained in the Bible isn’t contradictory or logically wrong on the subjects it presents, and that the Bible is proven to be historically unaltered and credible through archeology. And we walked away with the understanding that the issue really isn’t, is the Bible true, but rather am I willing or not to submit to it.
In the second week, we combined two of the heresies because they both dealt with the person of Jesus. By combining these two we saw that there was an average of 58% of Evangelical Christians who agreed that Jesus wasn’t God, but rather some sort of lesser created being. Here we walked through some mystery passages in the Old Testament that spoke of a tri-personal God, yet were not clear on what that meant. Then we went to the New Testament and saw how Jesus’ teaching brings clarity to those passages. In the end we saw that the biblical teaching is that God is a one in three persons, and as Christians we must worship Jesus and the Holy Spirit just as much as we are to worship the Father.
This week we turn our attention to a more controversial subject of Jesus being the only way to God. The survey made the statement, “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam.” The response of Evangelicals was that 56% agreed with the statement.
That means over half of those surveyed believe that there are multiple ways to God, and that Jesus, or Christianity is only one way. In my experience I can attest to people believing this to be true, and if you’re in this room and you agree with this, don’t tune out here. I want to give you three different approaches to answer this question, does God accept all religions. This would translate to, is there only one path to salvation, or does God accept any path?
First, is the biblical reasoning. There are dozens of passages throughout Scripture that point to the God of the Bible being the only way, I want to give you three. The first is from the Old Testament from the book of Isaiah.In the last two weeks of our series we have referenced Isaiah 43:10, “‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.” This alone should begin to point us to an understanding that there is only one God in the universe, and so every other belief in a god or gods, would be inherently false. But for salvation purposes, we need to continue reading the very next verse. Verse 11 reads, “I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.” God is stating unequivocally that he is both the only God there is and that he is the only Savior. In other words, he is the only path for salvation. This is done in a context of both polytheistic worship of many gods in the land where the Israelites were, and with the future Babylonia exile in mind. If the God of the Bible was accepting of any religious worship, why make such an exclusive statement?
Fast forward to Jesus’ teaching and the most poignant verse on this subject is John 14:6, “6 Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” This is really important because Jesus, like the Isaiah passage we just read, is stating that he is unequivocally the only way of salvation. And if you were here last week, we explored how Jesus claimed to be the same deity that spoke in the Old Testament. So Jesus’ statement here would be a continuation and a more exclusive view of what was spoke in Isaiah 43. Meaning it isn’t just a belief in the God of the Bible, but more specifically in the life and death of Jesus.
It’s because of verses like these that Peter, speaking to the Jewish high religious council in Acts 4:12 states this, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Another unequivocal statement given by Scripture that points to the God of the Scriptures and Jesus Christ being the only way of salvation.
These are just three verse from the Bible that point to there being only one way of salvation for the world, but that’s not all we have. The next approach would be a philosophical one.
What I am going to share with you is one philosophical argument, that by itself doesn’t prove either God or that he is the only way of salvation. To do such a thing, we would need more time for the explanation of several philosophical arguments that compound on one another. Understanding this, let’s look at this one philosophical argument called the Contingency Argument. This argument has four premises.
First Premise: Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence (either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause). In other words, everything exists with there being a reason why it exists. If we found a watch in the desert, we wouldn’t say it just appeared there. We would understand that it came there by falling of a person. And we would understand that the watch had been made by a human. And that human was made by two other humans. If we saw a tree, we would understand that the tree comes from the seed, the rain that grows the seed comes from the clouds, which in turn comes from evaporation, and we enter into the circle of life. Everything has an explanation as to why it exists, therefore premise one is true.
The Second premise is: The universe exists. Can we all agree with that? We are interacting right here and now, we can say we exist. Now there’s those that might say it’s a matrix, or it’s a personal reality, but that doesn’t negate the reality that at some level the universe does exist. Therefore premise two is true.
The Third premise is: If the universe exists, then it has an explanation of its existence, that explanation needs to be beyond the universe itself. We know that everything has an explanation as to why it is here, premise one; the universe exists, premise two, so it must have an explanation as well. But here’s the thing, whatever is the explanation for the universe must be distinct from it. The watch is not the human who made it. The seed is not the water that grew it. So there must be something beyond the universe that created it. This is what we would call God. But that God would then need to be defined in light of what the universe is. So let’s take the universe and define what this God must be. The universe is spatial, meaning it has space, then God must be spaceless. The universe is material, therefore God must be immaterial. The universe is natural, therefore God must be beyond natural as in supernatural. The universe is guided by natural law, therefore God must be all-powerful to be able to make the law. The universe is caused, big bang or whatever you like, therefore God must be uncaused. And finally, in order that the universe to even exists with ways in which objects, such as humans, can comprehend it, means that this God must be personal, because impersonal things, such as numbers, cannot produce anything without being understood first.
The Final premise is: The universe exists because God created it. If premise three is true, then the final premise is also true. That the universe exists because God made it to exist.
There’s more that could be said, but with time constraints will leave it there. If all four premises are true, the question then is, who is this God and has it revealed itself to us.
Right from the get go we can already rule out religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism or other pantheistic or polytheistic religions. The reason for this this because each of these creation stories put forth that the universe is eternal, and the gods used it to create what we now see. Scientifically we know the universe isn’t eternal, so these types of religions cannot be true. So even if they have good information on a moral level, they fail at eternal manners.
In fact there are only three major religions that logically follow the Contingency Argument, and those are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All accept the Genesis account of creation that the universe was created separate from God out of nothing.
But out of the three, only Jesus states that he is the only way. In Deuteronomy 8:15, Moses of Judaism spoke of a prophet to come, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.” In other words, he didn’t claim his way was the way, but rather to look for another prophet to which the Jewish people were to listen to. Muhammad of Islam, though supposed to be the last prophet of God, agreed that the Jews and Christians should follow their holy books In the Quaranic chapter 29, verse 46 it reads, “Do not argue with the People of the Book unless gracefully, except with those of them who act wrongfully. And say, ‘We believe in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to you. Our God and your God is ˹only˺ One. And to Him we ˹fully˺ submit.” (https://quran.com/29?startingVerse=46). What this is saying is that Muhammed believes that the People of the Book, i.e. Jews and Christians, serve the same God. So he is claiming that exclusivity spoken about in the Old and New Testaments is true. Yet a study between Jesus’ words and the words of the Quran reveals that Jesus would reject the teachings of Muhammed.
Jesus is the only figure in the three religions who logically follows the Contingency Argument, and who claims the only way of salvation. Therefore, as C.S. Lewis puts it, he’s either lying and can’t be trusted, he’s a lunatic and shouldn’t be believed, or he is Lord and we must follow him for salvation.
The final approach we can take when addressing if Jesus is the only way to salvation is to look at the tenants of several religions. First, remember Christianity teaches Jesus’ words from John 14:6 that he is the only way. Therefore Jesus rejects any other way of salvation but that which is through him. So what do the other religions believe?
Let’s start with religions that are outside of those that claim agreement with the Bible.
Dr. David Frawley comments on the idea of salvation in Hinduism, “Hindu Dharma respects freedom of belief for all people, holding that there is ultimately One Truth and a unity of consciousness behind all existence. Hindu Dharma states that each individual should be free to follow whatever spiritual path he or she feels most drawn to, or even no path at all (https://hindupost.in/society-culture/hindu-view-of-christian-salvation/)." In other words, salvation, though the understanding would be different, is a matter of personal choice, not one of divine requirement.
Of Buddhism, Alfred Bloom writes, “With respect to the afterlife, all beings have been embraced within the compassion of Amida’s fulfilled Vows. Though they are saved, they do not know it and, therefore, see themselves subject to karmic destiny. But even with such a destiny, the retribution is not eternal and the person eventually is born into the Pure Land (https://bschawaii.org/shindharmanet/salvation2/)." In other words, all people are saved, even if their beliefs contradict each other.
Now let’s look at those that claim to agree with the biblical worldview.
The Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding & Cooperation, states, “Our partnership in no way minimizes the ongoing differences between the two communities and two religions. We believe that G-d employs many messengers to reveal His truth, while we affirm the fundamental ethical obligations that all people have before G-d that Judaism has always taught through the universal Noahide covenant…In imitating G-d, Jews and Christians must offer models of service, unconditional love and holiness. We are all created in G-d’s Holy Image, and Jews and Christians will remain dedicated to the Covenant by playing an active role together in redeeming the world (https://www.cjcuc.org/2015/12/03/orthodox-rabbinic-statement-on-christianity/)." Again, though Judaism does’t agree with Jesus being God, as we showed last week, the orthodox stance is that Christians still are a part of the redeeming work of God.
In Islam the question on salvation is answered like this from the website, “Why Islam?”, “To achieve salvation, one must accept the tenets of Islam mainly the belief in one God, all Prophets and Messengers, previous scriptures, the hereafter, angels, and God’s decree. These tenants were taught by all previous Prophets and Messengers. Islam did not start with the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, rather it was the religion of all Prophets and Messengers starting with Adam. Therefore, the Quran teaches that previous religions, such as Christianity and Judaism, in their authentic and original forms were based on the Oneness of God. People who accepted the message of previous Prophets and followed them will also achieve salvation (https://www.whyislam.org/salvation/)." In other words, Jews and Christians both have a path to gain salvation if they follow their original teachings.
Finally, let’s look two groups that claim to be Christian themselves, but have theology that doesn’t align with the core of the Christian faith.
The first is the Church of Latter Day Saints, or Mormonism, where the official LDS website states, “Almost every person who has ever lived on the earth is assured salvation from the second death (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/salvation?lang=eng)."
Another group similar to the LDS is the Jehovah’s Witness, which state on their official site, “Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Feel That They Are the Only People Who Will Be Saved? No. Many millions who lived in centuries past and who weren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses will have an opportunity for salvation (https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/who-saved/)."
So looking at these different groups and the words of Jesus in John 14:6 you have two options. Either there is a universal salvation that doesn’t matter what you believe, or that there is only salvation through Jesus alone. Either everyone gets salvation, or only those that trust in Jesus as Savior. For Christians who follow Jesus as the only way of salvation, they have salvation no matter if they are right or wrong. But if Jesus is truly the only way, then only the Christians have salvation.
This is the uniqueness of the Gospel message, that there is only one way to God through Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is the message that Paul told the philosophers at Mars Hill in Acts 17. Paul stated, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead (v. 30-31).” That man is Jesus, and salvation is only through him.
But before we end, I want to address one question that will inevitably be brought up. What about those who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus? To this we must lean on God’s judgment. We are given a hint in Romans 1:19-20 reads, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
What is being said here, is that God has given all people what they need to seek him, i.e. the natural world. So all people have access to at least this information and will therefore be judge on it. But we are also given this hope in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” If God is true, and he is the only way of salvation, then he is also loving and merciful. God will judge humanity in his goodness so that there will be no excuse. Whether you hear the Gospel or not, you will be dealt justly by God.
So, we just walked thorough three approaches to answering the question is Jesus the only way of salvation. Biblically, yes he is; philosophically, yes he is; religiously, yes he is. But like the struggle with, is the Bible true, the core of this comes down to, do you believe Jesus or not? If he says he is the only way, do you believe that? Jesus can’t be a good teacher if he claims things that are not true. Jesus can’t say that he’s God and be a trustworthy if he’s not. Jesus can’t say he’s the only way of salvation, if he isn’t. And if he does claim those things and he’s not who he says he is, then why trust anything he says?
But if he is true, then we must bow before him and give up our lives to follow him. The reward is eternal life, the alternative is hell. But if he isn’t true and we follow him, no matter what, salvation is assured. It’s a win-win situation.
My challenge for you this week, is this, if you don’t believe Jesus is the only way to salvation and I’m misrepresenting what is being said, then read through the book of John and see if Jesus doesn’t claim deity and exclusivity of salvation. Struggle with his words, not Jeremiah’s. It’s not Jeremiah that decides salvation; if Jesus is true then he does, if he isn’t true then no one does.
But if you’re a believer I want to challenge you to look up two other Philosophical arguments. One is the Cosmological Argument and the second is the Kalam Argument. Expand your understanding of the logic of our God. How his creative works point us towards his great salvation.
Let us be a people that trust Jesus and him alone for our salvation, and share that exclusive message with all those who are on a wide path; a path for destruction and not life. Let us be proclaimers of the greatness of our God and his gift of eternal life to all those who accept Jesus as their Savior. Amen.
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