IS JESUS THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN?

 

Many religious scholars avoid answering this question. They believe the answer is divisive. Some scholars will contend that Jesus is one of the ways to heaven. The question portrays Jesus as a religious leader making a claim. In light of this we should view the claim through the lenses of other religious leaders.

Interestingly, other than Jesus, no founder of any major religion, claims to be a way to heaven. Furthermore, some of the major religions of the world do not believe in heaven. One major religion is considered to be non-theistic. In other words, this religion does not believe in the concept of a god, much more to believe in heaven, as the place where God dwells.

Other than Christianity, no other religion includes its founder in its understanding of ultimate reality. Said differently, the founder is not a part of the ultimate goal of the religion. The nature of, and path to ultimate reality, is determined by followers of the religion.

A reasonable approach to responding to the topic under review, would require us to answer a few critical questions. For instance, did the religious founder ever make the claim to be the way to heaven? Is the religious founder sufficiently credible to make such a claim? Do other claims of the religious founder provide sustainable support of the founder’s claim to be the way to heaven? Do followers of the religious founder consider the claim to be credible?

There is no doubt that Jesus Christ is the founder of Christianity. His followers were first referred to as people of the Way. That was consistent with Jesus’ claim that He was “the way…”. His followers were later referred to as Christians by the people of Antioch. The people had obviously seen behaviours similar to Jesus’. In His closing messages, Jesus instructed His disciples to “make disciples.” Furthermore, it was Jesus who said to Peter, “… I will build my church”. Because of this understanding, Paul referred to the church as the movement which Jesus “purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).

It was this leader who said to his disciples that He was leaving them and going to heaven to prepare a place for them. Jesus continued to inform them about the way one could enter heaven. Hear His words: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). The use of the definite article is clear in the original language, Jesus knew He was “the way…”.

Jesus used the definite article to distinguish Himself as “the only way.” A way is a path or route, and the disciples had expressed their confusion about where He was going and how they could follow. As He had told them from the beginning, Jesus was again telling them (and us) “follow me.” There is no other path to heaven, no other way to the Father. The exclusive nature of the only path to salvation is expressed in the words “I am the way.”

The statement “I am the way” is not merely declaring that Jesus is a path to heaven, the statement is also introducing Jesus as the only path to heaven. In the Greek language, “I am” is a very intense way of referring to oneself. It would be comparable to saying, “I myself, and only I, am.” Several other times in the Gospels we find Jesus using these words. In Matthew 22:32, Jesus quotes Exodus 3:6, where God uses the same intensive form to say, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” These words reflect the very name of God in Hebrew, Yahweh, which means “to be” or “the self-existing one.” It is the name of power and authority, and Jesus claimed it as His own.

The Jews clearly understood Jesus to be calling Himself God. On one occasion they took up stones to stone Him for committing blasphemy in equating Himself with God. The disciples of Jesus also understood the uniqueness of His claim to be the way. Following His death, both Peter and John said to the Sanhedrin (the Jewish Council), “… salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Even Paul, who was known for his persecution of Jesus’ followers, wrote “… for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:5).

These are some of the reasons Christians stress that Jesus is the only way to heaven. Jesus himself said it. Only Jesus was qualified to say it. His early followers believed it and taught it. Hence today, at the risk of being politically incorrect, Christians believe and declare that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.