Seacrest wrote:
You aren't the first person to interpret the bible to suit your personal view.
You might want to be careful in the future before you condemn others that do the same thing.
My point here is that if you believe Jesus is the way to heaven you cannot believe there are other ways or roads to heaven because that contradicts Jesus' own teaching. The fact that God requires the death of his Son to accept anyone should suggest to us that if there was another way Jesus wouldn't have to die. People don't think they need to be saved because many people don't believe hell exists. But Jesus died for the sin of all humanity and is the only way to the Father for Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Mormons, Atheists, Agnostics, New Agers and everyone else. I'm not the judge of who gets in to heaven and who doesn't, but we do a disservice to the gospel if we start trying to make another way when there is only one way.
Jesus says in Mathew 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
Jesus and the salvation that comes from his death is most definitely a gift, but faith is our response to that gift. Faith is not a gift that some people have and some people don't have. Faith is a choice. Jesus says over and over that he is the only way to the Father.
Here is a section about the Deity of Christ and John the Baptist. It specifically references the Jews rejection of Christ and the fact that he gave the right to be called the children of God to everyone who believes in him.
John 1:1-13: "1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God."