"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." Isa 1:18-20. God wants to reason with us so we will not be "devoured with the sword". He wants us to "eat the good of the land".
    Is there one way or many ways to go to heaven?

Sincerely
    A commonly held belief is stated like this: "Well, I believe that if a person is sincere in what they believe, regardless of their religion, God is not going to send them to hell." First, God doesn't "send people to hell". He gave His own Son to save people from hell. It is religion that is hellish, and sends people to hell.
    In Africa, at midnight a death wail pierces the darkness; a little baby had died. The witch doctor points out a woman that he accuses to be guilty of causing the death. She protested, insisting on her innocence. She must be tried. She is told to climb a tree and hurl herself from the topmost bough. She climbs. She reaches the top. Again, she protests, insisting on her innocence. She is one of the finest women in the village, highly respected by all, but the witch doctor chose her as the guilty one, so she had to prove her innocence. She sat in the top, maintaining her innocence, then, before the horrified gaze of the missionary, she threw herself down to the hard ground and was instantly killed. She was judged guilty. It was sincerely believed that had she been innocent, she would have been unharmed. She was sincerely dead.
    In Australia, a mother gives birth to a baby. Someone in the village dies. A victim must be found. The witch doctor goes and tears the baby from the arms of the frantic mother, and amid her shrieks and cries, he takes handfuls of sand and forces it down it's little throat and fills it's mouth until it strangles to death. WHY? Because their religion sincerely demands it.
    In the South Sea Islands, a man died. A woman is standing under a tree, unresisting, as a group of natives approached her. They placed a cord around her neck, then commenced to strangle her to death. The beautiful young woman was slowly strangled to death and placed beside the body of her husband. WHY? Because their religion demands that when a husband dies, his widow must be strangled to death to accompany him on his journey, and if the eldest son is old enough, he must be the one to do it. Moreover, all the children, if they are too young to support themselves, must likewise be put to death. A family wiped out by their sincere religion.
    In India, the woman is placed beside her dead husband on a pile of wood, then the whole thing set on fire. There, amid the shrieks and screams of the dying widow as she is slowly burned to death, the natives gather around, believing that the evil spirits are now pacified, and that the husband will now have his wife in the other life.
    In South-East Asia, a helpless little girl has her head locked between the knees in the grip of an inhuman monster, who with a coarse saw is deliberately sawing her beautiful front teeth off at the gums. Perspiration, incredible pain, blood pouring forth from her mouth, as her near naked body writhes in pain. WHY? Their religion sincerely demands it.
    Let's bring it a little closer to home.
    "Well, some people just call God's name Allah, but he's the same God."
    The Mohammedan stood before the people in the center of town and hacked his skull with a great, long knife until the blood flowed freely, and then took newspapers and stuck them into those open gashes, set it all on fire, and stood there, the fire sizzling the blood, burning paper and hair, the man enduring the most excruciating agony. WHY? Because his religion says he must endure torture in order to gain a place in Heaven. (The above accounts are taken from the book "The Challenge of Missions" by Oswald J. Smith.)
    Now, the towers in New York City: The same religion says they go to heaven by giving their lives in bringing destruction to "the devil", the United States of America.
    More religion--conflicts and killing between Protestants and Catholics: Here, we could draw distinctions between the Christian religion, which consists of many groups and denominations, and the Christian way, which is having a personal relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ and following Him, His Word, His love, His power, and His ministry.
    All these religions and people are very sincere, but, is sincerity the standard?
    Do all these religions provide a way to heaven?
    Many sincerely believe homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle. People have sincerely believed that blood-letting was the thing you were to do to help sick people. People have sincerely believed that Communism or Marxism or Fascism is the best political system in the world, so much so, that they will kill millions who disagree with them.
    Jesus set Himself apart from and above all religions and ways and said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me." Jn.14.6. He set Himself as the standard. Either Jesus is the Lord who He says He is, or He is a self-inflated lunatic who did not know there were other ways.
    The truth is that Jesus is who He said He was, even in the face of all the religions in the world. So, how did we get so many different ways?

In The Beginning
    Genesis tells us how God created a perfect creation. God created man in His own image, with the power of choice. Then, typical of religion, "the serpent" comes along and twists truth into a lie and presents a false security and a false hope that trips mankind into "the fall." Gen.3.1-6. The very next chapter records this same twist of deception manifesting itself between Cain and Abel. Cain, trusting in himself, brought the unacceptable works of his own hands as an offering to God. Abel brought the acceptable offering of the firstling of his flock along with the fat, which prophetically pointed to Jesus. Cain was angry because his works were not acceptable, so he murdered his brother. From Genesis on, we see a clear distinction down through the ages of satanically inspired fleshly religion, versus a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, either prophetically or actually.
    The Apostle Paul in Colossians 1.23 says the gospel "was preached to every creature which is under heaven." In Romans 1.16--2.16, He goes into detail how that man took the truth that God revealed through the creation, and perverted it and turned it into idols, and such spirit of perversion led mankind into all kinds of perverse evil acts. All of this was in the realm of religion.
    The Apostle, in the first part of the letter to the Romans, is laying the foundation to establish the fact that the one way to God is by faith in Jesus Christ, and when people deny that way and go about seeking another way, they end up in all kinds of religious and fleshly, demonically inspired perversion.
    This is how so many different ways came about. Mankind, choosing to follow his own lusts, in the light of the truth that God speaks to his heart, ends up in all kinds of perverse ways that leads to destruction. As our very first scripture said, if we refuse and rebel, we are devoured by the sword.
    Romans 2.14 says, "the Gentiles...have...the law written in their hearts." Psalms 19.1-4 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." God reveals Himself to all, to bring all in step-by-step to the full revelation of Jesus Christ. When man perverts that revelation, and teaches that perversion to others, on and on in time you have generations of people believing a lie, being led astray from the truth, with multitudes led into deception.
    Did God do it? No. God gave mankind the right to choose. God gave mankind dominion in the earth. If man chooses to believe and teach a lie, he has that God-given right to do so. God will give light, love, and mercy to influence man to turn from his perverse ways, but if man persists, he will send himself right on into hell and take innocent generations of people with him. God didn't do it, nor did he allow it. Man allowed it, and man did it.

It Is Personal and In The Present
    Here is why we say it is a personal relationship with God: Because right now, you, my reader, can make a choice. You can choose to embrace the truth of God in Jesus Christ, the one way to God, and set yourself in agreement that He is the only way to God, and share the responsibility to let all mankind know this truth, or, you can set yourself in disagreement with the way of truth in Jesus Christ, and you can choose to put your own life above the life that God would have for you. As long as we say there are other ways, we relieve ourselves of the responsibility of bearing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. We have our own personal religion: doing our own thing, and that is exactly how the world got so full of so many different religious ways--everybody doing their own thing above God's thing. We are all guilty of doing this.
    It is when we realize the error of our way, that again, we must choose. "Will I continue in this way that I'm in, or will I turn from my way and turn to Jesus Christ, and accept Him as my way and the only way, and give my life to fulfill His will in my life?" It is our personal choice. It is not a religion. It is either accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, or rejecting Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
    "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." Isa 1:18-20.
    We can eat the good of the land if we will. If we rebel and refuse to accept God's gift of pardon and righteousness, then God will honor our choice, although He lovingly warns us of the consequences, except today we understand that we are devoured by more than just the physical death of the sword. We understand today that the devouring is eternal separation from God in a place that was not even made for man. Hell was made for the devil and his angels, but if we choose to line ourselves us with his perverse religious ways, then we line ourselves up with his eternal destiny. God never designed nor intended that we go to hell. He designed the way out.

Conclusion
    We can see how man has perverted the truth, and from that there has grown a world of religions. This just accentuates the truth that Jesus Christ is the one way to God. Religion changes and takes on a new face every day. Jesus came and accomplished an eternal work for all mankind, and He never changes. His work for you is offered at all times. Now, you can make a personal choice to accept Him as God's way and accept His loving Lordship in your life for your own good, with no fear whatsoever. It is a personal confrontation with the truth, and it is a personal decision that you can make. It is not a religion. It is a choice to have a personal, eternal, relationship with a loving heavenly Father through faith in Jesus Christ.
    God's way in Jesus Christ, or, many ways--you can choose. God loves you enough to give you the Truth.
    "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." Isa 1:18-20. God wants you to "eat the good of the land".