“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” – Acts 4:12
THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Heed well these words, dear reader. We inhabit an age where many paths to paradise are preached and promulgated, where the exclusivity of Immanuel is dismissed in favor of an array of contradictory redemptions and synthetic salvations and counterfeit gospels which point men in all directions but Christ crucified, buried, risen. Be not deceived – eternal life comes only through the name of Jesus Christ – not Yeshua, or Hare Krishna, or any other false way – but through Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone. To insist otherwise is to call God a liar, since his Son proclaimed to be the only door by which men may enter in and be saved (John 10:9), and to call God a liar is to prove yourself a fool, for he can do nothing of the kind (Romans 3:4). Please consider what follows in this article, for your eternal destiny depends not only on trusting a name for salvation, but also in which name you trust.
Howbeit, I struggle to relate how great a stumblingblock this truth of Christ being the only way to heaven is to mankind. “Surely,” they say, “there must be other ways to heaven than through Jesus Christ. God cannot be so close-minded and restrictive to confine salvation only to those who believe on Christ.” Rather than being grateful such vile sinners as we have an opportunity to have eternal life – an opportunity we do not deserve, and could never deserve – they scorn there only being one way to heaven, and that way coming through the blood of Christ’s cross. As if it made a difference. Unbelievers reject Christ, not because he is the only way to heaven, but because they love iniquity and hate righteousness. If there were one hundred variations of the true Christ to choose from, they would resist them all, because their issue is not with the number of ways to heaven so much as what those ways are. They have already made up their minds to disbelieve Christ; that he is the only way to heaven is merely one of many excuses they provide in a futile attempt to justify their unbelief.
Many professing “Christians” suppose emphasizing this Christ-or-hell doctrine – a soundly biblical doctrine, I should add – risks offending unbelievers. They suggest that by obeying the word of God by warning every man of the wrath which awaits his soul should he perish in his sins, there is a chance that the unsaved balk at the lucid terrors of the lake of fire, and resist the gospel because it is presented with “fear tactics” (so they disgustingly brand preaching the gospel to every living creature). If Christ was taught them in a more genial and benign manner, then they would be more receptive to his precepts, and more accepting of his free gift. To those whose gospel is hid (2 Corinthians 3:4), it is better to let a man suffer the vengeance of eternal fire than be momentarily offended in this ephemeral world.
Yet what saith the Scripture? Does the holy writ make mention of refraining from preaching the prince of peace as the only way to heaven, because such blunt reference may alienate the unsaved? Contrariwise, the exclusivity of Christ, and the damnation reserved for unbelieving souls, are the sacred scriptures’ most sober motif. “If ye believe not that I am he,” Christ told the Pharisees, “ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). I have limned in these pages the apostle Paul’s mention in Colossians 1:28 of “warning every man” of hell and judgement as but one of many examples commanding Christians to warn the unsaved of the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. And, far from rejecting Christ because hell is mentioned, John 3:19 tells us that unbelievers do not believe the gospel because they “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
But there is more to “Neither is there salvation in any other” beyond pointing to the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Do you assert that the false name of “Yeshua” is the “real” name through which salvation comes, and not Jesus Christ? I should inform you, then, that “Yeshua”, being a modern Hebrew name, did not even exist until the 19th century (to wit, nearly two millennia after the New Testament was written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost). JESUS is the name which is above every name, the name at which every knee shall bow, the name which every tongue shall confess (Philippians 2:9-11). The New Testament was not written in Hebrew, as such accursed cults as the Hebrew Roots Movement falsely assert, it was written in Greek. The precious name of JESUS is the name of the Savior, not “Yeshua”, and if Jesus is the wrong name, it can only be concluded that the entire Bible is unreliable, for only an imbecile would hearken unto a book that cannot even get the name of its main character correct.
Ecumenicals, attempting, as they are wont, to distort and destroy sound doctrine through cravenly compromise, will claim that it does not matter whether one uses “Jesus” or “Yeshua” because a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But we are not referring to a rose; we are referring to the Redeemer of mankind, and the two names in question are not the same thing. The former is the name which is above every name, and the latter is a devilish counterfeit. Must I further accentuate that things which are different are not the same? Very well. If it is of little consequence whether one chooses to trust Jesus or “Yeshua”, pray tell me why the false name “Yeshua” never appears in the King James Bible? Jesus is called many things throughout the holy writ; Isaiah 9:6 alone classifies him as Wonderful, Councilor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. But not one verse ever designates him as “Yeshua.” Tell me, you proponents of the “Yeshua” fraud, where exactly do you get this despicable false name by which you odiously attempt to displace the sweet name of Jesus? It certainly does not come from the holy scriptures.
Others, while professing to acknowledge men can be saved through faith in Christ, insist that there are also many other ways to heaven, and that to preach “none other name” but Jesus is to disrespect the sincere convictions of others. Sir, Christ is the way to heaven only if he is received as the only way. No man ever was saved who merely trusted Christ as one Savior among many options, but as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). I would rather be accused of “disrespecting the sincere convictions of others” (and false convictions, I should add), than of not warning them of the everlasting fire reserved for those not washed in Christ’s blood. Christ Jesus is the only one qualified to save, because he alone was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He alone was God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16) and shed his own blood – God’s blood – (Revelation 1:5) and sprinkled his own blood on the heavenly mercy seat to obtain eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12). No other supposed “savior” was sinless. No other supposed “savior” had God’s blood, the only currency in heaven or earth which can pay sin’s debt and ransom its captive souls. No other supposed “savior” bodily resurrected from the dead. It was Jesus Christ only who qualified, and it is Jesus Christ only who “is able also to save them to uttermost that come unto God by him” (Hebrews 7:25).
Yet, it is not enough merely to know that Christ is the only way to heaven. How is man to go through Christ to reach the Father? Is he to surrender his life to God and forthwith resolve to follow his commandments? Is he to follow Jesus as “Lord” and submit himself entirely to his will? Is he to invite Christ into his heart and begin a relationship with Immanuel? Is he to turn over a new leaf by vowing to turn from his sins, amend his ways, live a changed life, and deny himself? Is he to join a religion, be baptized, attend a church, and perform good works? All of these false plans of salvation so popular among the religious world are ineffectual in saving a man, because they have the wrong savior, even if they refer to him with the right name. Men cannot “help” God save their wicked souls from hellfire any more than they by taking thought can add one cubit unto their stature. Those who choose to trust their own righteousness to save them from the wrath to come will be sorely disappointed on the day of judgement, for their righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), and wholly incapable of cleansing themselves of sin’s muck and mire.
Dear reader, salvation comes only through the name, person, and blood of Jesus Christ. Name, in that you must receive Jesus Christ to be saved; person, in that you must believe Christ is the virgin-born, sinless, only begotten Son of God who lived a perfect life and went to Calvary’s cross to pay your sin debt; blood, in that only Christ’s precious blood can wash a man’s sins away, and justify him before God the Father. You may understand that no one can be saved through faith in Buddha, or Allah, or “Yeshua”, or self, but unless you likewise believe the true gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as your ONLY hope for heaven, apart from all of your works and intentions, you cannot be saved. Naming the name of Christ is noble, but it is not sufficient for salvation.
Take heed – faith in the name of Jesus Christ plus a false definition of “repentance” forcing a sinner to turn from his sins in order to be saved is not salvation. Faith in the name of Jesus Christ plus forcing a sinner to surrender his life to him and follow Jesus as his “Lord” is not salvation. Faith in the name of Jesus Christ plus forcing a sinner to commit to faithfully running the race is not salvation. Faith in the name of Jesus Christ plus forcing a sinner to have a “religious experience” and perform many outward acts of piety is not salvation. Salvation is a sinner coming to Christ as guilty and condemned by God’s law and looking to the Savior as his only hope for heaven. And by believing Christ died for his sins, was buried, and was bodily resurrected three days later, the sinner is born again, regenerated by the spirit of God, no longer under the curse of the law of sin and death, but etched into the blissful scrolls of the Lamb’s book of life. Pray trust Christ, lest you spend eternity gnashing your teeth in the vengeful flames of damnation. As the Savior said, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).