He who has the Son has life. (1 John 5:12)

I AM HEARING with greater frequency the thought that because God is love, everyone will be going to heaven. The reasoning goes like this: A good God would never relegate a person to an eternal place of punishment.

In a Sunday school class I was visiting, one member shared, “As long as a person believes, he or she will go to heaven!” Another member asked, “What are we supposed to believe?” The first person responded, “Believe there is a god. People may have different names for this god, but as long as one believes that there is a higher being, that person will get to heaven.”

As a visitor in the class, I was too shy to verbalize my thoughts. Inwardly, however, I was praying that someone would voice his or her disagreement with what was just shared. Just when I began thinking that no one was going to refute what was stated, a small, gray-haired “grandmother” stood up and spoke. “That’s not what the Bible says. The Bible is very clear what we are to believe. We are to believe that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. There is no getting around it. If you want to go to heaven you have to believe in Jesus and accept Him as Savior and Lord.”

Don’t be deceived—Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the life.

Jim Lo is the author of Connect with God: The Purpose of Prayer (WPH), coauthor of Unholiness (WPH), and the dean of chapel at Indiana Wesleyan University.