My Opinion Only - - - I Could Be Wrong!
Being raised in a church which claimed that there is only one way to heaven and that this way was the one and only way, and that the name Jesus played a paramount part in getting there always seemed a little confusing to me. In later years, when I started to think for myself; I thought that if it was true that the only way to heaven had something to do with the knowing the name Jesus, and that there was no other way seemed a bit unfair. Although, I know that my salvation is indelibly connected to Jesus and what He has done for me on the Cross, I doubted the validity of that channel of thought where knowing His name was the only way to eternal life in Heaven. What about all those tribes in the darkest jungles of Africa and South America who had lived their whole life without knowing the name Jesus. Then years ago when reading Saint Paul's letter to the Romans it was made clear to me that all of those people who live deep in the Amazon basin who had never travel any farther than a few miles from where they were born and had never laid eyes on an educated person, who couldn't read and had never heard of the bible, still had the chance for eternal life.
I am no theologian and I'm not even an educated man but what I read in the Bible makes a lot of since to me. I have transcribed some of it below. Read it and form your own opinion. Then let me know what you think.
Romans 1: 18-32 2: 12-16 ESV
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighte-ousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them."
It would appear that some in the Amazon may have surrendered their desire, and refused to follow the dark desires of the tribe, and chose to seek Truth. Surrendering their self for Truth. Are we not all gifted with a desire to know Truth? And, isn't this a significant part of our design? Everyone has within themselves a compass, a conscience that is calling and beckoning us to truth.
There is another deep burning desire within us to please 'self' which all mankind has had within us since the fall of man and this 'pleasing of self' over good things always ends in failure. Then, most often, any hope for finding Truth is lost.
What difference is there between the tribes who live in the jungles of Brazil and those who live in the concrete jungles of North America? One difference is that those in America must have at one time or another heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But, both tribes had the choice to seek self or to seek Truth. And, according to Saint Paul in the very next chapter he says:
"For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus."
The Holy Bible is full to the brim with Truth and is the best reading that I have ever found. I read many things and the Bible is by far the most reliable truth I have ever read or will ever read.
Although, the ones who we meet in Heaven that haven't heard the name Jesus Christ, I believe that it was still the shed Blood of Jesus that saved them, and somehow they received the faith to believe.
~Adverse Yaw