Is Jesus the only way to Heaven?

In John (3:16-18), Jesus made a bold claim “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” This claim has left many people outraged and upset that God would have a provision for Salvation instead of just allowing anyone to come, no matter what, as long as they are “good.”

First, lets us break this down as far as we can go and logically look at the argument. In order for people to be outraged at this claim, they must believe and know Heaven to be a true place. Otherwise they would consider it akin to Never Never Land and it wouldn’t matter if people are going there or not. It would be considered a totally fictitious place to them therefore unworthy of outrage and more likely laughable. So if they believe in Heaven, they must have a belief in God as well, since the only way we learn about the existence of Heaven is from God through scripture. The problem arises when you ask them to use the same scripture that introduced them to God and Heaven, to find evidence to back their argument that “good” people who don't accept Christ get into Heaven. They simply can not do this and in many cases leads them away from God and religion altogether.

Second, let us ask the question, "what is the measure of goodness and how do we define what is good?" Surely, man can not decide his own measure of goodness because it may be different from his neighbor and would, therefore, be inconsistent rather than absolute. Imagine all 5 billion people on Earth with their own definition of what is good. Therefore, we look to the Bible and the Ten Commandments for answers to questions of morality and ethics because they have been used for thousands of years and give testimony to what is truly good. The only problem with that is every living and dead person on Earth falls short of living a "good" life according to biblical standards. So if we all fall short of the Ten Commandments, then none of us deserve the gift of Heaven. It is for this very reason that almost every book of the Old Testament predicts a Messiah; a Savior to live a perfect and sinless life to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Heaven is impossible for us to earn. But God is merciful and only requires that we believe and have Faith in his Son Jesus in order to obtain everlasting life in Heaven.

The Bible does not allow Christians to pick and choose pieces of the Bible to believe and others to discard because we “deem” them to be wrong. The very source that introduced us to God and Heaven gave us a map to Heaven through his Son; there is nothing saying “good” non-believers go too. It is for this reason that Christians are responsible for the Great Commission; bringing people to Christ to save them, just as you would try to save a dying person who stands before you! I encourage you to come to terms with this and focus on friends and family who do not believe and encourage them to find Jesus. The best way to do this is through love and compassion and living the Word of God!