All Roads Lead to Rome

The road system in the Roman empire was quite remarkable. Roads ran from throughout Britain in the west, to the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers (today Iraq) in the east, and from the Danube River in central Europe to as far south as North Africa. The total length of hard-surfaced highways constructed by the Romans has been estimated to be well over 50,000 miles / 80,000 kilometers, much of which is still visible today after so many centuries. All these roads are said to have radiated out from the capital – Rome and so no matter which road you took, it would ultimately end in Rome. Today this proverb takes on a wider meaning: no matter which road you take, it will accomplish the same result in the end.

This idea has increasingly been used to suggest that all religions will ultimately lead to God and Heaven. The theological term for this is “inclusivism” meaning that all are included. A slightly different form of the same thing is called “universalism”. There are different versions of this heresy, some more extreme than others. The idea of all being saved is, of course very popular amongst those outside of the church who refuse to submit to the claims of Christ in their lives. The typical response is: “Why should we turn to Jesus when God is merciful and will not allow anyone to go to hell? He will save everyone, irrespective of how or what they believe”.

The fact that the world believes this pernicious error is to be expected but the fact that this teaching is becoming increasingly popular amongst Christian leaders is downright scary. Billy Graham says: “And that’s what God is doing today, He’s calling people out of the world for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they’ve been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts that they need something that they don't have, and they turn to the only light that they have, and I think that they are saved, and that they’re going to be with us in heaven.”^[i] In the same interview Robert Schuller agreed with him. On at least three occasions Joel Osteen, on national television, said that he could not say that those who have not accepted Christ will be damned.^[ii] John Hagee says that evangelizing Jews is unnecessary as they are saved by the old covenant and not by Christ.^[iii] It is the official position of the Episcopalian (Anglican) church in America that Jesus is not the only name by which we are to be saved.^[iv] And so we can go on and on, quoting almost every big name in Christendom today.

At the same time we are being bombarded with feelings of guilt because we dare be so intolerant and bigoted to suggest that only those who accept the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ can be saved. We are told to be tolerant of others and that it is “unchristian” and unloving to believe, let alone say, that Jesus is the only way to God.

For the truth we cannot rely on the opinions of men but have to trust the Word of God alone. It was Jesus Himself who said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6). Now which part of that verse is hard to understand or is open to interpretation? The words “no one” and “except” are as narrow and exclusive as you can get. Peter said: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Paul said: “There is… one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1Tim 2:5). Hebrews asks how we will escape (since there is no escape), if we neglect the salvation that came through Jesus Christ. (Heb 2:4). Over and over the Bible clearly teaches that there is no other way to be saved except through faith in the finished work of the Cross. Jesus said that those who try to enter by some other way are thieves and robbers. (John 10:8).

To say that there are other ways of salvation is basically saying that Jesus wasted His time to come in the flesh and to suffer and die! If God can save others through some other means then there was no need for Christ to die. Don’t you think if there was some other way, God would have used it? Did Jesus not ask this very question at the eleventh hour? But there was no other way. Jesus Had to die in our place and take our sin so that His righteousness can be reckoned to us. To say that people can be saved apart from the work of the Cross, is surely the greatest blasphemy against the precious Blood of Jesus Christ!

Lest we become the conceited “chosen frozen”, we need to remember that it is simply Gods grace that saved us. We did not deserve to be saved any more than any of the millions who are condemned because they did not believe. To even think that we deserved to be saved suggests that we do not understand anything about our terribly sinful state and Gods immense grace. Thus we have no reason to look down on others. If the love of God really touched us, we will have compassion on all others who are not saved and will do all we can to love them and to save them.

Don’t let the world deceive you into believing that it is unloving to tell people that Jesus is the only way. It is not loving to tell someone that they are just fine and that they will be saved even though they are on their way to eternal damnation. If we really love people, we will speak the truth to them. But, we have to do that in a loving and compassionate way. Unfortunately many of us adopt the attitude of “I’m right and you’re wrong – so there”. No, by God’s grace we have been saved and we need to show the same love, compassion and mercy on those who do not know the Way as the Lord showed us. But we cannot be so afraid of offending people that we never tell them the truth.

There is only one way to God and we must preach that message with all our might. Let’s love those of other religions enough to tell them that Jesus and Jesus alone saves.

 

 

Anton Bosch

anton@ifcb.net

3310 W Magnolia Blvd

Burbank, CA, 91505

Tel 818 846 5520

www.burbankchurch.org