Why Must There Be Only One Way To Heaven?

I was visiting with my home congregation back in Georgia yesterday where I had the awesome privilege to give the evening sermon. Afterward, I spoke with a man who wanted to study more in depth in the book we studied so I asked him if he was a member of the church there. I asked this so as to see whether he would be present there regularly. He responded, “No I’m not. I accept everything you’re supposed to accept and it doesn’t matter to me what church you join.”

This seems to be a popular way of thinking, perhaps the most popular way of thinking. You know what they say about writing history books: “History belongs to the victor.” Well, the same goes for “truth” it seems. Since most people believe that it doesn’t matter what denomination you’re apart of as long as you believe in Jesus, then anything else must be false, dogmatic, or narrow-minded. However, just because most people believe something doesn’t make it true.

For instance, up until 1987 is was commonly believed that babies didn’t feel pain. Yep! It took until 1987 for the American Academy of Pediatrics to declare surgery without anesthetics on babies unethical. Before then, most people believed a baby’s brain wasn’t developed enough to feel pain and most medical procedures were done without anesthetics.

Salvation has to be different though right? Most people believe as long as you go to church somewhere (with few exceptions) you’re home free. That sounds pretty good. If this isn’t true then most people are going to be lost (strike 1), one church has to be right and the others wrong (strike 2), and it would mean that the bible has one clear message and does not come down to “what it means to me” (strike 3). That sounds terrible… but the bible clearly teaches that this is true.

Here’s why there must be only one way to heaven.

Truth Cannot Be Relative

Like the view of baby pain before 1987, just because the majority believes something doesn’t make something true. In fact, if only two people have differing beliefs, one must be right or neither of them right. Both can’t be absolutely correct if their beliefs differ from one another.

Speaking to God, the psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:160, “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.” We recognize the “sum” of God’s word as the bible. The bible is truth, THE truth. No Christian would disagree. So does the bible teach Salvation Path A, B, or C? Who’s to say, right? God. You can make the bible say a lot of things by pulling out a bunch of scriptures, but until you’ve taken an unbiased look at the scriptures your view will always be governed by your bias (i.e. your denomination). The thing about truth is that, well, it must be true. It can’t be up for interpretation. There must be 1 truth if there is 1 word of truth. How people have said both A and B are true for so long is baffling… until you realize that a lot of people cope with “your truth and my truth.”

Salvation Requires Obedience Which Requires Commands

Now you may already disagree with that statement, but notice what Paul said in Rom 16:25-26 about faith and obedience. “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—“

The obedience of faith is talked about a lot in the bible (Acts 6:7; Rom 6:17; 2 Cor 7:17; 2 Cor 10:5; Gal 5:7; 1 Peter 1:13-15, 22). Reading just a couple of these passages shows that obedience is a necessary part of being a Christian and having salvation, but what are you obedient to? We’ll we’re obedient to God, of course, but how? That’s the tricky part. Obedience requires commands. The command of God brought about obedience of faith (Rom 16:26). Can God command two opposing things? Could God command that salvation is a matter of A, B, and C even though they all contradict? If we are going to be saved, we must seek to be obedient to what God says, not just what we think he says. Yes, everyone fails sometimes, but making a mistake a few times with repentance is much better than forsaking the truth and forsaking God’s commands for a lifetime.

Paul wrote to the Christians of Rome, “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” (Rom 6:17-18).

God Cares Too Much For Faith To Be A Guess

Consider the words of the apostle John. 1 John 1:1-3 - "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ."

God clearly loves the entire world so much (John 3:16) and his love extends to every color, gender, language, age, wealth, and culture. So why would a loving God give us a book that has caused so much confusion and division? What if the confusion didn’t come from God but from man? What if God delivered his word to be understood and obeyed? That sounds right, but that’s not what most people sincerely believe if they’re okay with “You can believe whatever you want as long as you believe in Jesus.”

If there is one truth and we can never know what that one truth is then isn’t denominationalism just a guess? Isn’t aligning yourself with one and saying, “Well I hope we’re right,” kind of dangerous and scary? Doesn’t sound like Jesus does it? Instead, God provided his truth to the apostles and prophets who wrote the scriptures in a way that could be understood. God didn’t leave humanity hanging. 1 Cor 14:33 says, “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.”

Would a righteous God tell us there is truth to be obeyed then confuses us as to what that truth is? Would he break the promises of his salvation, reward those who hear him incorrectly and obey false doctrine, and welcome those who cause division and teach error to others along with those who were truly faithful?

The church of Christ, not identified by name alone, but by the careful obedience to the faith in the scriptures, wants you to study the scriptures fully with them. Have you put the biases behind you and studied the word fully for its truth? Are you content with your spiritual life or are striving to have a better relationship with God every day? These are questions every one of us needs to answer today. What do you say?