Two thousand plus years ago the apostles Peter and John were preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. Peter made this statement, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), and it has resonated throughout history to this very day.
A great many people today find themselves believing that “everyone gets to go to heaven. If God is truly a loving God, He’d never allow anyone to go to hell. I’ll admit, I want so very badly to believe that people who choose not to believe in Jesus Christ will still find a pathway to heaven. However, scripture repeats over and over again, that is just not so. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. John 3:36
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:17,18
I was ask this week by someone if I thought they were going to spend eternity in torment because they don’t believe in God as I do? My answer was simply, “the only way to the Father is through the Son, so yes. I believe as scripture teaches, no one is “good enough” to get to heaven on their own merits. If you do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He died on the cross bearing the sins of the world and was raised to life 3 days later, your eternity will be spent in eternal torment.” This broke my heart. I want to tell them what they want to hear, but I cannot. It is never, ever my intention to present myself as “superior” to another because of my beliefs. Quite the contrary. I share this out of the sincerest of love for them, because it matters, they matter, to me and to God. That is why God gave us this pathway to redemption.
The question I ask myself and I pose to you, is it more loving to take the safe path and avoid offending someone when asked a question such as this? If a person didn’t believe in gravity and said they were going to jump off a 10 story building to prove it, would you keep your mouth shut, or would you try to persuade them otherwise?
Have a blessed weekend.
In full pursuit of the greatest Trophy,
Scott Pace
