The Only Way to Heaven

Dear Jim Wilson, in order to live in peace and harmony, it
is essential for all religions to respect one another and seek common ground
while reserving differences. Unfortunately, some religions claim that only
their beliefs are true and others are false. As a result, there are endless and
unnecessary disputes and wars. As I have been taught, there is only one God in
this world, who has representatives in the diverse religions: Jesus in
Christianity, Muhammad in Islam, Buddha in Buddhism… Their mission is the same:
to help people improve themselves. If everyone accepted this point of view,
these diverse religions would be tolerant towards one another, and the whole
world would be really blessed. 

I always enjoy your preaching, and I often find surprising
similarities between Christianity and Buddhism in it. For example, similar to
what the Bible says (everyone is a sinner), Buddhism teaches that everyone was
born selfish and nobody is perfect. Therefore, everyone must look after his own
conduct by self-examination, behave properly and improve his character, find
pleasure in helping others, and so on. Both Buddha and Jesus teach their
followers to forgive others for wrong-doing, to be kind and passionate, and to
get rid of all bitterness. I believe in what you have been preaching. However,
no way can I accept Jesus as the only God and believe that only Christians can
go to the heaven. As you know, Chinese people are great people, and China has a
population of 1.4 billion, including at least 50 million Christians. If your
preaching were true, more than one billion Chinese, no matter good or bad, would
go to hell. Do you think this is fair? If it were fair, I would be happy to go
to the hell with the one billion non-Christian Chinese. Let’s keep our different
beliefs since we are happy with our own choices. The world is wonderful because
of its diversity.

Dear Friend,

Thank you for your gracious letter. You asked, “Do you think
this is fair?” Perhaps your question was a rhetorical one. However, I will
answer it this way. The question assumes that “fairness” is the ideal of
goodness. If you asked the question this way, “Do you think this is just?” I
would answer “Yes!” God is just! God is not “fair.” Fairness is where everyone
is treated the same. Justice is where everyone is treated by the same
standard, God’s holiness and His absolute standard of right and wrong.

There is another difficulty which I may have caused in my
preaching by not making the teaching of the Bible clear.

The primary reason people go to Hell is not that they
do not believe in Jesus.

The Bible says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory
of God” (Romans 3:23).

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one
who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:10-11).

We are both in agreement on this truth. The Bible also says,
“The wages of sin is death.” This is the reason that people go to hell—sin.
Jesus is the solution, not the cause.

Your solution is, “Therefore, everyone must look after his
own conduct by self-examination, behave properly and improve his character,
find pleasure in helping others, and so on.” If this is the solution, how many
people in this world are practicing your solution? Certainly, I tried for the
first 20 years of my life, but I failed badly.

Here are a series of questions I have asked many individual
people over my years in ministry.

“By your own standard of right and wrong, wherever you got
your standard, were you more ‘right’ at the age of four or the age of eight?”

“Were you more ‘right’ at the age of eight or twelve? Were
you more ‘right’ at the age of twelve or sixteen? Were you more ‘right’ at the
age of sixteen or twenty?”

With very few exceptions, the answer to each question was
the younger age. Each person was decaying in his moral actions the older he
got.

Then I would say something like this: “You have been going
downhill since you were four. What makes you think you will be more righteous
at the age of twenty-four? You may not be going downhill as fast, but you are
still going downhill.”

When I would get a positive answer for the older age, I
would ask for an explanation why he was more moral at twenty than at sixteen.
He would tell me that he had received forgiveness and a new life through Christ
at the age of eighteen.

The difference in the basic moral standards in the different
religions and societies in the world is not great. The same God made everyone,
and He created in everyone the knowledge of good and evil.

However, there is a difference in the way peoples see the
purpose of the moral law. Most religions say that obeying the moral law is part
of the means of going to Heaven.

The other part of salvation is by obeying the distinctives
of their particular religion—a pilgrimage to Mecca, a bath in the Ganges at
Benares, etc. If salvation depended only on obeying the moral law, no one would
go to Heaven.

In the New Testament, obedience to the moral law is not the
means to salvation. It is the result of already being saved by
forgiveness, because Jesus died on the cross to the take the punishment for my
sins.

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been
made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from
God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no
difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He
did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the
sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at
the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have
faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-26).

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

“Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was
condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was
justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the
disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the
obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was added so
that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all
the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through
righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans
5:18-21).

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have
become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is
eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:22-23).

Salvation is a free gift for 100% of the world’s population.
It is not earned, because it cannot be earned. Even if I never sinned again,
that would not take care of all my previous sins.

Forgiveness is the only way. 

“He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will
suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness
of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem’” (Luke
24:46-47).

“I will rescue you from your own people and from the
Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive
forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts
26:17-18).

Respectfully,

Jim Wilson