I want to think, ponder, question and all that too but I do NOT want to come up with "my own ideas". No thanks. We'd all have different ideas (as seen here) and how would that be fair and just? I want to know what God expects and I think He is pretty clear about it all. I am thankful for that because guessing and always wondering if I'm on the right path would be terrible in my mind. Jesus stated "It is finished". I believe that. He did what He came to do for each one of us. We can be reconciled to God through His actions and love for us.
As for the man in the jungle. We talked in my SS class about him for several weeks actually. There were differing views on it. I spent quite a sleepless week worried about that man in the jungle and trying to find answers.
This is what I believe (which means nothing to most).
I believe that God has put into each life a desire to know Him in some way. There is something in us that makes us wonder if there is something or someone greater than ourselves out there. I belive we each have a void that can only be truly filled with God's love. Anything else will not do.
I think it is true that there are people who have never been told about what Jesus did for them. But I do believe that God shows Himself through nature, His creation, and through different individual things in our lives. So, I believe that even if someone has never heard specifically about Jesus, that if they recognize to the best of their capability that there is something greater than themselves and they are not (for example) worshiping the tree that bears them good fruit to eat and shade from the sun etc. but believes that something, someone made the tree and placed it there, and that is all they may know as God, then God would judge their heart accordingly.
I think if they worshiped a false god, (say the tree itself) that would be unacceptable to God. I think god knows our hearts and will be fair. If we have heard about Jesus and reject His actions and love for us on the cross then, yes, I think you will be judged according to that and held accountable for it.
I think if you are not mentally capable, too young, etc. to understand the concept of salvation through Christ then God will judge you fairly also because He knows that person's heart.
I have thought about this long and hard and read and studied until I could not see straight just a few weeks ago. I will say my class had different thoughts and opinions and some people held everyone equally accountable whether they were living in the USA or that deep, dark jungle. It was a subject that we just agree to disagree on.
As a Christian, if I believed that Jesus Christ was the only way for that man in the deepest darkest jungle to have salvation and it was going to be partly my fault that he would not know and would be eternally separated from God because of it, I would sell everything I own and I'd head to the jungle. I could not lay head on a pillow at night and have any type of peace knowing that that person's salvation was up to Christians and me specifically.
These are just my own thoughts. Something I have thought long and hard about this year.
