the reason i think you hear the 'what about the brazilian rainforest tribe' comments often, is that its a really important and valid point.
It is important to the one who has Gospel to spread to all the world as Jesus commanded His disciples.
It is made important by the procrastinator who is often enumerating reasons that the message should not be believed.
The atheist is interested in reasons why Jesus as the saving Lord should not be believed.
if god exists, then only appearing and speaking to the hearts and minds of a small minority of the planet seems strange and somewhat cruel.
The matter of "Will God be Just?" appears very early in the bible in Genesis. When God informs His friend Abraham that he is going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah Abraham has an back and forth with God trying to assure himself (and God) that judgment must be just -
(Genesis 18:23-33).
I like the confession of Abraham in that exchange
"Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justly?" (v.25)
Though I do not know all details as the Almighty would know, I have the same kind of sentiment as Abraham there.
Of course the book of
Jonah is dedicated to the subject of God's reluctance to have to judge a people. One whole book as a window into God's heart. And the last sentence of it reads:
"And I [God], should I not have pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, ..?" (Jonah 4:11)
Notice, God knew the exact
COUNT of people who He should exclude from punishment.
Our knowledge is incomplete. God's is total.
you often talk of the joy jesus fills you with, what about all the poor sods following the wrong religion just because of the luck of birth.
Well, I think
"No one comes to the Father except through Me" means something perhaps different from what we might assume.
We may consider that "No one comes to the Father except through Christianity". But
"Me" is a living Person. It is the
"Me" of Jesus Himself.
There may be a difference between - no one comes to the Father except through Christianity and "no one comes to the Father except through Me."
It could mean that if ANYONE comes to the Father, it will only have been because of Jesus.
Look, I think there are some unknowns. While there may be some unknowns we still should receive the Lord Jesus, live the Lord Jesus, and preach the Lord Jesus to the world.