job at the Pomona Progress-Bulletin where I was hired to develop and print the film of the dozen Yashicamat-outfitted reporters.

I was too embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t remember if the developer was in the top left or the bottom left tank in the square arrangement. With the film already on the reels I would have had to yell through the door. Fifteen minutes later I flicked on the lights, held a dripping reel up to the bare light bulb and stared through the completely clear film.

How could this have happened? I loved photography. I was so sincere in my desire to do a good job…

believe that whether you’re a good Hindu or a good Jew or a good Christian, you will go to heaven, as long as you’re sincere in your beliefs.

I don’t question these people’s sincerity; it’s just that they’re sincerely wrong. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The apostle Paul affirms this in Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

“No other name;” neither Mohammed nor Buddha, neither the Pope nor Elvis, neither Moses nor Krishna. None of them died on the cross to bear our sins; none was raised on the third day to confirm that they were indeed the “Savior of the world,” a title that the apostle John attributes to Jesus. If we could attain eternal life by any other avenue, then Jesus wouldn’t have had to go to the cross.

In 1 Timothy 2:5 we read that “there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Jesus is the only access to the Father because He is the only one from the Father. “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:13, 16).

The name Jesus means “He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus not only saves us from the physical effects of sin, but he actually removes the sin itself, so we can stand before the judgment seat of God as if we’d never sinned at all. Jesus makes us spiritually whole and restores us to a right relationship with God. Only Jesus can do that, because there is no one else who can provide forgiveness for our sins.

There’s nothing wrong with goodness or sincerity. I commend these virtues to all of us. But let’s not stop there; let’s be right, too. It’s not really that hard, considering we have an instruction sheet. When our goal is proper film development, we have to follow the instruction sheet (developer first!!). When our goal is a right relationship with God, the Bible is our instruction sheet, telling us that there is only One Way to God — through Jesus. I say amen to sincerity and goodness, but let’s not forget to follow the instructions, OK?