Which Church Denominations Show the Way?

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).^*

Q: I was raised Baptist but currently attend a non-denominational church. I’m puzzled with the question: Which denominations are right? What is the truth? There’s so many different ones out there? Over the past two-thousand years, things got twisted a bit, and I’m just not exactly clear on what is the truth?

Hank Hanegraaff: First, you have to have to understand essential Christian doctrine. All genuine Christians—whether Episcopalian, Lutheran, Presbyterian, or Baptist—all genuine Christians believe in the essentials of the Christian faith.

Essential Christian doctrine starts with the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and ends with salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. It’s not what we do but what Jesus Christ has done for us. Jesus paid it all through his passion on the cross. Essential Christian doctrine becomes the core of what it means to become a Christian.

Now as a Christian there are various ways in which we see church government, that’s called ecclesiology, and you can differ over that without dividing over that.

Q: How does one respond to somebody who professes to be Roman Catholic but insists that Jesus is not the only way to heaven, there are other ways to get to heaven, there’s other religions out there, they are just different versions to the same thing?

If Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6) and someone says, “You know there are many roads that lead to God,” well, it doesn’t matter what brand they call themselves—Catholic, Presbyterian, etc.—they are not a believer in the essentials of the Christian faith that codify what it means to be a Christian.

“There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end,” the Bible says, “it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12). We can’t say, “This seems right to me.” What we have to do is take our opinions and test them in light of the final court of arbitration, which again in a biblical worldview is the Word of God. The essentials that I’ve talked about are so plain in the Bible that a child can understand them.

For further related study, please see the following equip.org resources:

The Essentials of Christianity (Hank Hanegraaff)

What is a Cult? (Hank Hanegraaff)

The Perspicuity of Scripture (Hank Hanegraaff)

Heresy and Aberration — What’s the Difference? (Hank Hanegraaff)

Is Jesus the Only Way? (Hank Hanegraaff)

What Denomination Should I Join? (John M. Frame)

Is Jesus the Only Savior? The Answer to Religious Pluralism (Ronald H. Nash)

Is Belief in Jesus Necessary? The Answer to Religious Inclusivism (Ronald H. Nash)

Is There Salvation After Death? The Answer to Postmortem Evangelism (Ronald H. Nash)

Are All Religions the Same at Their Core? (Winfried Corduan)

* All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984).