Okay, well tell it to some Indians who lived in what is now called the America’s four thousand years ago. I’m sure they’d be real happy to know that they’re doomed.
I stand on the Word of God, whether or not its message seems fair to pagans. God spoke plainly on this, so I believe it. His ways are not our ways.
If we can’t trust the Bible, then we have nothing upon which to base our faith. If we can’t stand firmly on His Word, we have our feet planted firmly in midair and our faith is but a figment of the imaginations of men. But here is the truth: we can trust the Scriptures. We also know that He is just.
I don't mean to butt into the conversation, but here I am...
It reminds me of a story I read in a biography of Hudson Taylor. He was a missionary from England who went to China in the mid 1800s. He told about a young scholar who was converted under his preaching, and his plaintive cry was 'why did it take you so long to get here? My father was a good man. He searched high and low for the Truth -- and he never found it before he died. What took you so long to get here?'.
That man got it. Salvation is only through Christ (John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me).
But that said, who really knows what the people of old knew, or did not know? Job, who lived around, or before, the time of Abraham was able to see through the mist of time and say, "Job 19:25-27 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me".
Job knew that he needed a Redeemer, and that through his Redeemer he'd see God. And our first parents, Adam and Eve, heard the proto-evangelium message of Genesis 3:15 ('the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent'). Also, we see a picture of the Gospel in the stars. Not Astrology, but a record that our forefathers (back to Adam?) defined for their children until the entrance of the promised Messiah. From Virgo the Virgin, to Leo - the Lion of Judah pouncing on the serpent, we see in the 12 Zodiac constellations, and their associated decan constellations, the Gospel message. Strong men conquering serpents and dragons, ram sacrifices, etc...
But to make a long story less long ... we don't know what people knew in the past. They had oral traditions, they had the messages passed down from our first parents: Adam and Eve, and Noah and his clan. We, on the other hand, have no excuse - we have the Bible - God's Word given to us by the Holy Spirit.
And finally, it made sound harsh, but it really is not any of our business to dictate how God should have saved others. He tells us that salvation is only through the Lord Jesus. We should leave it at that. Whatever God does is Good. HE is the Creator. We potsherds have nothing to dictate to the potter.
God Bless.