Although I haven’t heard the song since my college years, I can still “hear” the group enthusiastically singing the chorus: “Which side are you on, boys, which side are you on?  Which side are you on, boys, which side are you on?”  The song was really sung as a challenge: there are some times in life when you can’t “sit on the fence”; you have to choose one side or the other.  We are at such a time now.

The release of Rob Bell’s book Love Wins has brought to the forefront what I believe may be the defining issue of our age: the exclusivity of Jesus Christ.  Is He really the only way to a relationship with God and a home in heaven, or are there other equally valid ways? 

For centuries, Christians have proclaimed with Jesus in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me”, and taught along with the disciples, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)  But such teachings do not “fit” with the spirit of this age: relativism, “what is true for you”, “we all worship the same God in different ways”, etc.  To many today, it does not seem “reasonable” that there is just one exclusive path to heaven.  And so they look for ways to make Christianity more palatable.

Enter Rob Bell.  Bell teaches in his book that the God who allows us choices here on earth continues to allow us choices after we die – in other words, you can reject Jesus in this life and still get another chance.  In this scenario, “good” people like Gandhi, according to Bell, may still end up in heaven, even though they did not receive Christ while they lived on earth.  It is an attempt to “soften” the seemingly “harsh” and exclusive claims of Jesus and scripture.  But it is a failed attempt.

The problem is, this is one of those issues on which you cannot sit on the fence.  Jesus either is or is not what He clearly claimed to be: the only way to God.  This was brought out in an MSNBC interview, in which the host asked Bell in no uncertain terms if it really made any difference how a person responded to Jesus during this life.  Bell was as evasive as he could be, but the problem is that there is no middle ground on this issue.  His interviewer knew that, and showed no mercy in backing him into a corner: “You’re trying to have it both ways, aren’t you?”  The thing is, Jesus either is or is not the only way to heaven.  There is no way to soften that.

Each one of us needs take a careful look at the exclusive claims of Christ, because I believe this is the battleground, the salient issue of our time.  Contemporary culture, the mainstream media, an increasingly diverse society, and humanistic logic are all going to pressure us to back off of the scripture’s teachings about Jesus, and convince us to admit that there surely are other ways to heaven.  “What about a good person like Gandhi?”, Rob Bell asks.   “What about the good 10-year-old Hindu boy in India?”, a Mormon friend of mine asked me a few days ago.  This is not an obscure academic issue.  As I said, I believe it may be the issue of our age.

If it is, then you had better decide where you stand.  The thing is, the choice is VERY clear cut.  There is no hedging on it.  There are no “shades”, no “nuances.”  There are only 2 possible choices, and you have to pick one.  I don’t think that is coincidental; God designed it that way.  You are going to have to either affirm Jesus as the one-and-only Lord & Savior as He claimed – or admit that He is less than what the Bible teaches.  There is no comfortable middle ground.  As C.S. Lewis wrote in only a slightly different context in Mere Christianity, “He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.”

There is no sitting on the fence on this issue. Bell tried – and found out you can’t do it.  Under the worldly pressures of rationalism, relativism, and pluralism, he was uncomfortable with the exclusive claims of Jesus, and came down on the other side. 

You are going to have to choose as well.    You can’t sit on the fence.  You must choose: is Jesus THE way – or are there other ways?  Your life – and your eternity – are going to be defined by it.

“Which side are you on?”