Christianity is too Exclusive

A complaint that many people have against Christianity is its claim that the one and only path to heaven is through the Lord Jesus Christ. If you do not believe Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose from the dead to pay a ransom for our sins, and if you do not call Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Today many people believe that truth is subjective and this claim of exclusivity is often a sticking point. Because subjective truth means there is no objective truth they believe there can be many paths to heaven, with Jesus being one of the paths. Who do Christians think they are to tell others their truth is the only truth?

Many people believe that as long as a person has honest faith in any religion or any type of god, and they live a good, honest life, do good to others, and love one another they can also manage to find their way into heaven. Some people go so far as to say you don’t even have to have faith in a god to make it to heaven if you live a good life. But Christianity says just the opposite.

The statement that all religions lead to heaven is false because if Christianity is true and Jesus is the only path to heaven then all other religions are false. On the other hand, if any other religion is true then Christianity, by its own tenets, is false. It really is as simple as that.

In a world where subjective truth is becoming more the norm, people find it offensive that any person can claim their truth is the one truth. (Although more accurately we would say God’s truth is the one truth.) Those who believe in subjective truth find Christianity to be offensive because it is too exclusive.

Is it true that Christianity is exclusive? Yes…and no.

The Exclusivity of Christianity

So why do Christians believe they are right when they say the only path to heaven is through Jesus Christ? This is a simple question to answer, because Jesus said so. As Christians we understand that Jesus is God. God cannot lie, so we believe everything Jesus taught is the truth.

This is what Jesus taught about getting into heaven:

⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.¹

Jesus is the only way into heaven. You must believe in the basic tenets of Christianity: Jesus is God who came down to earth in the flesh, he lived a perfect sinless life for us, he was crucified, died, buried, and he rose from the dead. Jesus took the punishment we deserve, and he was the final sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world for all who believe.

If you do not believe these things then you cannot get into heaven. So yes, Christianity is exclusive in that respect.

The Inclusivity of Christianity

However, Christianity is also inclusive. How can something so exclusive also be inclusive? It is inclusive in the fact that this salvation is available to all. All you have to do is repent and accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior and you will be saved.

You are not condemned based on your standing or position in life. You are not condemned based on what you did or what you believed in the past. You do not have to be born into salvation and you cannot buy salvation. You cannot earn your salvation.

Jesus gave us a free gift that we do not deserve, it is through God’s grace alone that we can be saved. None of us deserve it, not even those of us who are Christians, but it is available to all of us who accept Jesus.

⁹ because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.²

As Christians we want you to be saved. We want you to be included with us in the presence of Jesus Christ and the glory of heaven for all eternity, but there is still only one way to get there. We are not saying this to push you away or to exclude you. We are trying to draw you into Christ so you too can be included.

But it’s not just us who want you to be saved:

³ This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.³

God desires all people to be saved by the knowledge of the truth and this means that everybody can accept the free gift of God’s grace. That sounds pretty inclusive to me.

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1. John 14:6 ESV ↩︎
2. Romans 10:9-10 ESV ↩︎
3. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 ESV ↩︎