Is Jesus the only way to get to heaven?

Many people would object and say that Jesus is not the only way to get to heaven. They would argue that being a good person or other religions could be correct as well. There are specific answer in the previous section about some of these thoughts and I would encourage you to read them as well.

To even argue whether or not Jesus is the only way to heaven, we must have some general agreement in some areas. 1) There is a God. 2) Man is sinful. 3) Because of man's sin, we cannot enter into the presence of God, i.e. heaven. 4) Man needs something to cover over his/her sin in order to go to heaven. 5) Jesus is A way to heaven, not necessarily the only. (just an assumption for now)

Now that we have some common ground, let's begin. Jesus claims in John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." No one can make it to God in heaven except through Jesus. Jesus also makes the claim in John 15:5-6 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone DOES NOT abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned." Jesus is claiming that anyone who does not abide in Him (this should be understood as believing in Him as savior) will be thrown into the fire, a metaphor for Hell. This puts Jesus in a clear position. Either He is the only way to heaven or He is a liar. These are the only options we have. You simply can't believe that Jesus is A way to heaven, because if Jesus is right and He is A way to heaven, He claims He is the ONLY way to heaven.

But does this mean that we have to believe that Jesus died for our sins? Couldn't we just try our best to live like Him? Again, following this advice makes Jesus a liar. Jesus says in John 3:16,18 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever BELIEVES in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 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." Again, Jesus is saying that belief in Him is necessary for Him to be a way to Heaven. Another other line of argument must claim that Jesus is lying and therefore not a savior.

So it basically boils down to either Jesus is THE way to heaven, and the only way, or Jesus is not the way to heaven at all. If our first assumption was that Jesus was A way, it logically follows that He is the only way.