Do many faiths lead to eternal life? It may surprise you to know that 52% of professing Christians believe that at least one other non-Christian faith can lead to eternal life. Is this true?
It is often argued that God is love, so how could He condemn anyone to eternal punishment? Isn’t it better to believe that, in the end, God will forgive everyone and grant us all with eternal life?
It is true that God is love, but this understanding fails to remember that part of love is allowing the one loved to choose. God loves us so much that He will let us walk away from Him if that is what we desire. He has provided a way to be united to Him, but we must accept the offer. God is also holy and just. This means that sin cannot enter His presence without payment being made. If the only payment that is worthy (Christ’s death) is refused, it leaves the sinful person to pay for his/her own sin for eternity. This view also ignores that God is truth and that He would never lie to us. God’s word contains many statements that warn of eternal punishment for the lost. We would be well-served to believe them.
What about those who are seeking God in other religions? What about Jews and Muslims? Don’t they follow the same God as Christians? After all, they follow the God of the Old Testament, right?
Well, John 14:6-7 reads, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.'” Also, 1 John 2:23 states, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”
The Bible tells us that as time moved on, God revealed more of Himself to humanity. As God revealed more and more, people were responsible to accept God’s revelation and live according to God’s revealed will. In the New Testament, God reveals Himself in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, many did not accept Jesus as the Son of God. They refused to accept this new revelation. Instead they denied that Jesus was God and continued to worship a god of their own making. Muslims and Jews fit into this category. By denying Christ, they deny the Father.
The Bible and Christianity teach that there is only one way to God. It is through the Son, Jesus Christ. Those who are on any other path are lost.
Theologically Speaking 
I’m sure you know the Problem of Pain argument: Why is there suffering in the world? Either God is not good, or God is not all-powerful, or both…
I don’t understand why you take the Bible as such an absolute when it was written and re-written so many times by so many different people. Surely you are aware that Christianity was the invention of Emperor Constantine.
Heck, no one knows if Jesus ever really existed at all.
Kip:
Yeah. I have heard the “Problem of Pain” argument. It’s really not much of an argument at all. It all goes back to our own sin, which is the cause of our own pain. God’s love allows us to choose (or not choose) Him. This has been the cause of our pain and suffering. We are to blame, not God.
As for the Constantine argument and the statement that Jesus never lived, no serious scholar, Christian or other would agree with you. Many do not believe the Christian faith, but they do not think it was an invention of Constantine. There are very few people who deny that Jesus, the man, existed. They only deny his divinity.
Sorry, I don’t mean to come off as being belligerent or anything. I used to be a Christian, even went to a Bible College. But I’ve learned so much in the real world that they never taught. So, I came to accept the truth, that Jesus cannot possibly be God.
Saying Christianity is an invention of Constantine dosen’t explain the impact and growth of the church in the years before Constantine was born… The only account that gives an adequate explanation of what sustained the church in its first few centuries is that account of Jesus Christ found in the New Testament. All other theories of a “historical Jesus” or “no Jesus at all” are unable to adequatly explain that historical phenomena of the growth and expansion of the early Christian church in the face of very severe and on-going persecution. Unlike Islam, early Christianity did not expand by the sword…
Hi Kip. I did not think you were belligerent. I just think you are wrong and that the answers to your questions have been addressed over and over by Christian scholars. Anyone who is seriously seeking answers to these questions can find them rather easily.
I am sorry to hear about your Christian experience. What caused you to decide Christ could not possibly be God? Was there a specific piece (or more) of evidence that made it impossible for you to believe any longer?
Bill N.
Good point. Thanks for your input.
Tim,
Good article, and some really good points; Christianity is set apart from all other faiths in that is allows for this freedom to disbelieve.
Our only source of authority is the Bible and it makes claims found in no other holy book. In the Bible we discover that…
*God spoke the Universe into existence.
*This is His Universe .
*God is alone God. In three persons. There is no other God.
*God transcends those things that comprise our universe of matter, space, and time. He exists outside our time domain. Logic and Physics demand this.
*God; because of His love for us provided a way where there was no other way possible for us to gain Eternal Life and access His presence. (false religions all agree with all other false religions to the contrary)
*God’s truth states this provision He made for us is a gift He bought and paid for and needs NO HELP from us to pay for it.(false religions all require some merit on the adherent’s part to gain paradise and then it is not assured)
* God is glorified by our believing that He IS and that He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.
*God chose to write His instruction manual; The Holy Bible; by using 40 different authors writing 66 books over some 1500 years on 3 different continents from all walks of life from slaves, Prisoners, Shepherds, Prophets to Kings and Priests in a perfect thread with His glorious Gospel intertwined throughout.
*God showed us there is life after death by the resurrection of Christ.
*God allowed us to confirm the life of Christ EACH TIME we write the date. All around the world in every book the date ANNO DOMINI is found and testifies by pointing back to the life of Christ!
Over 500 witnesses were alive at its writing and most all of Jesus’ disciples were martyred for their faith.
Today the influence of the life of Christ has provided us with every blessing imaginable.
Everywhere our Missionaries go they provide food, shelter, education, written languages, technology and the life transforming Glorious Gospel of Christ transforming souls from liabilities into assets to society. And giving hope for life and all eternity.
http://www.abwe.org/