If Jesus is the only way to heaven, all those suckers born before his time or never heard of him are toast.
Or infant children in places where the Word of Christ is simply not part of their frame of reference.
He absolutely is the only way to heaven, and those who never hear the gospel are indeed given a chance to make the right choice.
I truly feel sorry for people who choose to make fun or mock the most serious issue any human being will ever face, that being where to spend eternity.
MM (in TX)
Your dispute is not with those who believe in Jesus or who claim to have the answers. Your dispute is with what is recorded in the New Testament. No historical document has the volume manuscript evidence that verifies it's accuracy and veracity, including Shakespeare. Manuscripts dating to the 2nd century testify to the accuracy of what we hold in our hand today. The earliest Church Fathers all preached to the same Gospel put forth in the NT. Thus, each of us is left with 3 choices:
1. The NT is not true, and Jesus is not the Christ
2. The NT is partially true, and man must determine what is true in it
3. The NT is true in it's entirety, thus written words of Jesus are as he spoke them, and He is the only way.
Have you read the Gospel of John? What is the central message of that book? Who does Jesus claim to be? Forget what we say, what does the NT say? You then must make a decision to believe or not, just as I did.
Obama falls into the 1st or 2nd group above, and his fruit witnesses that he must not be a true believer. We don't know his heart, but we must observe his actions.
Don’t know much about Christianity, eh? :-)
One would think. But God is more wise than we are.
In I Peter 3 the Bible says
(18) For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
(19) in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,
(20) who once were disobedient, ...
Apparently after His death, Jesus went to the dead and presented them with the same Gospel we all must evaluate. Some believed, most didn't. Seems dead people aren't any better at evaluating Truth than the living.
I see that you've already received several responses so I'll be brief. Jesus IS the only way to heaven. Your statement is based upon a faulty assumption. Salvation now is on faith, salvation prior to Jesus' crucifixion was also by faith. The bible does address this point, but as I said, I'll spare you the theology lesson.
The cross goes both ways. His sacrifice saved the ones before him who lived as God wanted them to. The ones after Christ died, must follow the scripture and obey His Word and all that entails in order to be saved.
if they trusted the promises of God, they are saved by Christs atoning sacrifice, same as we who believe are today.
No they’re not, they will get the choice to accept Him or reject Him at the second resurrection.
Actually Peter tells us IPeter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit: (transfigured body)
19 By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison.
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
IPeter 4:6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
Scripturally speaking, this is addressed by Peter:
1 Peter 1
10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.