Narrow minded

People today often accuse Christians of being narrow-minded because they do not like it when we take such strong stands on moral issues. The world loves to be given leeway – they want the “freedom” to do whatever they want and have it be ok. So when a Christian holds to his convictions that there is such a thing as absolute truth, and absolute standards of right and wrong, the world is forced to either admit we are right, which usually means admitting that something they are doing is wrong, or simply accusing us of being narrow-minded. Its easy to see why they choose the latter of these two choices!

But its not only our stand on moral issues that has earned us the reputation for being narrow minded; our belief regarding salvation has done so as well. The world likes to believe that everyone who is a “good person” will go to heaven when they die, regardless what their religious beliefs are, or if they even have any. Our culture strongly reflects this belief through movies, books, etc. Naturally then, when a Christian who is willing to stand by his convictions says that Jesus is the only way for man to approach God, he is quickly written off as one of those “narrow minded Christians.”

But the fact is, Jesus made it quite clear that the path to salvation is in fact narrow. In John 14:6 he declared quite plainly, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” And, if that wasn’t enough to make him sound narrow-minded, in Matthew 7:13 told the crowds, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

There is really no way to read these passages and not be narrow minded when it comes to salvation! In John 10:9 Jesus declared, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” Notice that Jesus did not say that he was a door, but the door. The simple fact is that Jesus Christ is the only door leading to eternal life and it is only through knowing him personally that we can partake of that life (See John 17:3). Notice Jesus made this clear in Matthew 7:22-23 where it did not matter to him that certain people had done mighty things in his name, because he said “I never knew you.”

Jesus made it clear that not only is the gate small and the way narrow that leads to eternal life, but that “the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.” The unfortunate fact is there are still many people today who are putting their faith something other than Jesus and expecting to get into heaven. Many people are trusting their own “goodness,” to get them into heaven, others are trusting the fact that they have gone to church all their life, and still others have put their faith in a belief system or religion other than Christianity, and are expecting to obtain salvation through adherence to its principles.

But the bottom line is, the narrow gate is still as narrow today as it was when Jesus spoke these words in Matthew 7. He is still the door and the way and it is still only through a personal relationship with him that men come to know God and experience eternal life. If you know someone today who is still trying to enter life through some way other than a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I hope you will have the courage to stand by your convictions and be narrow minded!