They are Led Zeppelin – the British heavy metal rockers known for their powerful vocals and unmatched instrumental prowess. The band formed in 1968 and has sold over 300 million albums worldwide. Obviously the group has enjoyed staggering success but the song that is most associated with them is “Stairway To Heaven”. The first stanza of the rather lengthy tune reads:
There's a lady who's sure
All that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
As far as the song’s meaning, its writer and band lead singer Robert Plant said, "It was some cynical aside about a woman getting everything she wanted all the time without giving back any thought or consideration.”
The super song was released back in 1971 through Atlantic records and is arguably the single most famous rock tune of all time. It has been played on the radio nearly 3 million times - equal to more than 45 years of uninterrupted airtime! But even today“Stairway” has not yet achieved its full money making potential, since Zeppelin has typically shunned many of the usual financial opportunities. Recently, executives in the music advertising and entertainment industries came up with some numbers of the real and potential value of “Stairway." Should the group decide to go totally commercial, the total estimated value of the 37-year old legendary hit, in all of its various forms, could exceed a staggering $572 million dollars.
Meanwhile, a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has revealed some interesting, if not very disturbing, beliefs about Americans’ views about the other road to heaven. The survey of 35,000 adults found that a shocking 57%, who attend ‘evangelical’ churches feel that their religion is not the only stairway to a heavenly home – despite what their own church may teach. The report also sites that only 14 percent see their religious beliefs as the main influence on their political thinking. This led D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist of religion to state, "The survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only three inches deep."
It is fully understandable why those of other faiths would feel heaven is attainable apart from what the Bible teaches. The reason is simple. They do not believe in what the Scriptures teach despite the overwhelming evidence of its divine authorship. But any who do claim to be evangelical Christians would be well advised to rethink their alignment with those who reject an exclusive nature of a Bible-based salvation. To not do so is to absolutely reject and willingly ignore the many clear and powerful passages that speak directly to the issue.
There are others, but the following three passages are classic examples of what God has revealed concerning His exclusive redemptive plan and the forgiveness of human sin.
First, the Apostle John writes, “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Later in 1 John he relates, “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5: 11-13)
Then Peter makes the same distinction abundantly clear stating, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) The one and only “Stairway To Heaven” must be climbed exclusively and literally on the back of Jesus Christ. Few things are made any clearer in God’s Word because few things even approach its importance. But unlike the misguided woman in Zeppelin’s song, a happy earthly life and a future heavenly home can never be bought through material means. (Isaiah 55:1-3)
Along with Christ being the one way to heaven, His path is also the free way there. In his greatest doctrinal thesis, the Apostle Paul spoke about the price of salvation in Romans 5:8. “Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”
God’s only ‘Stairway To Heaven’ is a pathway free from any human efforts or moral requirements. Its steps are accessible to all willing to climb it God’s way and who agree to hold fast to the railing of the faith as designed and required by its Savior.
But the forgiveness of sin should always be accompanied by a deep awareness that salvation was anything but free. It was infinitely costly to the One whose mighty sacrifice made the priceless gift of redemption and heaven a glorious reality!
Bill Breckenridge
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