Here is a very insightful talk by Dr. Frank Turek, concerning questions about whether those who have never heard about Jesus or the Gospel are able to be saved to Heaven and a blissful eternity with God.
And don’t miss Turek’s brilliant question that reveals precisely why most people haven’t yet come to faith in Christ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc7nec1JOkE
I would add to Dr. Turek's contentions that our all-powerful God is NOT limited by ANY time, location or circumstance, as to His ability to communicate to people living in whatever remote place – whether it be through visions, dreams, or sending them knowledge of Jesus and the Gospel, in whatever unlikely manner. But neither is ANYONE in such s remote place without the ABILITY to seek God by talking or praying to him. And as Frank notes, Scripture tells us that it is GOD who planned and set the locations and historic times that people would be born and live (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?s ... ersion=ESV) – and that He did so STRATEGICALLY to save them. And God WILL honor anyone who desires to know more about Himself – however He might accomplish that. Missionaries often provide many amazing stories as to how people in remote places first encountered God and eventually came to knowledge and salvation in Christ! In fact, God perfectly knew how He would reach such people before He put them in remote places the Gospel had not yet reached. (See the astonishing story of how God reached the Roman Centurian in Acts 10, who WAS diligently searching to know more about the God he already believed in. Cornelius and his household were the first non-Jews to come to faith in Jesus! https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?s ... ersion=ESV – note also about Cornelius, it was only AFTER he and his household heard about Jesus and the Gospel and EMBRACED it, that he was saved (as only believing in God is insufficient for salvation (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?s ... ersion=ESV).
AND, as Turek notes, God had PERFECT foreknowledge of ALL things, hearts and minds, BEFORE ANY HUMAN WAS EVER BORN, meaning that, He clearly foreknew the identities of ALL of the people across time who would ONLY forever reject him, NO MATTER HOW MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT HIMSELF OR JESUS HE WOULD PROVIDE THEM. And so, knowledge of Jesus and the Gospel is worthless to those only forever determined to resist and reject God! Which, as Turek expresses, may well be why God put them in places and time that the Gospel would not touch them – because IT WOULD DO THEM NO GOOD.
If you think about it, as God foreknows a person's heart and life-long spiritual mindset before they were even born, and of their unchanging determination (even to death) to only ever deny and reject Him, even if they are put into the middle of a country and place where Christian beliefs, teachings and churches are widespread, what good would that do him per his eternal fate? Where God placed such a permanently rejecting person, in time and place, would make no difference - as they would still inherit only an eternity of punishment and separation from God. And as God is also in perfect control of all things, if He decided to place a person, in time and place, in a remote jungle, yet while fully knowing that person, provided the right understandings, WOULD, at some point, desire to know MORE about God and would thus eventually have an OPEN heart and mind towards Him - well, this is a person whose salvation would be CERTAIN! AND, that person God decided to put in a remote jungle would be saved because God ALSO has ALWAYS foreknown PRECISELY how He would, at some point in time, connect that person to the hearing the Gospel and His salvation through Christ.
Again, in both circumstances above, of persons God places in remote places that the Gospel has not yet reached, God allows the person to make their own decisions about how they will respond to Him, AND He is UNLIMITED in His ability and desire to save one with an open heart and mind towards Him, no matter WHERE he places them - especially, as His wooing and drawing are effective upon those whose hearts and minds are open to Him. God tells us that, at least initially (and before they decide to deny Him), people at least know of His existence - even though they don't yet know about Jesus (which they must for salvation to be possible). So, the point is, the idea that God has spiritually handicapped and doomed people to Hell because He has placed them in places of spiritual darkness where knowledge of Jesus is non-existent - well, that is absolutely false, as God is both ALL-knowing and ALL-powerful!
Are you surprised that Turek asserts that, no one EVER, at some point, didn’t at least believe in God’s existence? He references Romans 1 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?s ... ersion=ESV), that tells us that ALL persons, "since the beginning of the world," have known, at the very minimum, that God exists. But when they decided to reject the TRUE God / Jesus (so as to remain their OWN little god), deciding to live however they so desire – this is when they become blind to ALL truths about God and even His very EXISTENCE. In other words, if one buys into to lies asserting God’s non-existence long enough, and begins to believe such lies to be the truth, then there will be a time when many of them no longer believe in God’s existence – or even realize they once DID believe in it.
Philip