Somebody was born into a culture that has no knowledge of the Christ - could he still "find him"?
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The Bible seems to suggest that anyone who sincerely seeks God will find Him.
You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 NASB
Even though this particular verse was written to a particular people, the principle could, perhaps, apply.
A very real way that God has and continues to respond to people in remote tribes who are seeking Him is the sending of missionaries. In his book, Eternity in Their Hearts, Don Richardson records actual occurrences where this has happened.
So, if this response from God is not excluded, then the answer is a definite "Yes, a person who has no access to the Bible or other Christians can still find Christ if he seeks God, because God can answer his seeking by sending him what he did not originally have."
If, however, this means of finding Christ is excluded, then the answer is definitely, "Maybe".
In the past decades, Jesus has been revealing Himself to Muslims at an alarming rate through dreams and visions, even the heart of Islam where Christianity does not even exist and no Bible is available. (See Which None Can Shut, Miracles Among Muslims, Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World, and I Dared to Call Him Father, to name a few). When these people experienced these dreams and visions, some of whom completely hated Christianity, they went in search of Jesus and found Him.
So, in these cases, people were not living in a remote tribe, but were, in fact, living in places where there were no Christians and no Bibles, yet they still found Christ.
For those people living in remote tribes, it is, perhaps, possible that Jesus could appear to them in similar fashion. We just can't know for sure.
Upvote:0
In reality it is very hard to imagine circumstances in which someone would have no chance of hearing about Jesus. Living in a non-Christian culture certainly makes it harder, but it would have to be a very strange and isolated culture where there was no chance at all.
There are Christians in virtually every country in the world - and its only a lack of definite information that stops me from saying "every country". Even countries where Christianity is forbidden or persecuted have Christian communities in secret or semi-secret. There are people who carry out evangelism in places where evangelism is forbidden. In addition there are Christian radio stations that broadcast into places where literature and missionary work are forbidden. The only case where this might be true is a remote tribe entirely isolated from the developed world. There are very few of them - and by definition we don't know about them
So in short, the situation your propose is entirely theoretical.
If you are asking if someone who has never heard of Jesus can be saved, that's an entirely different question (the short answer is 'yes', but I'll let you ask it elsewhere for a more detailed answer)
Upvote:0
Molinism
One view not mentioned here is molinism.
Under this theory of divine providence, God, through his middle knowledge (God's knowledge of the results of everyone's free choices, in all possible worlds), knows everyone who would free choose Christ given the choice. God, knowing what people would freely choose, arranged creation such that those who would choose Christ were placed in a circumstances that they would hear.
Not my personal view, but an interesting one none the less.
Upvote:0
The answer: yes and I'm proof of it. I had no interest in Christianity, but a group on the west coast took me on as a prayer project. I didn't care. But "coincidences" arranged for me to read an apologetics book on the Bible. Since I was out of thick books to read, I bought a Bible and started reading it. When I reached the New Testament, I was amazed at this fellow, Jesus. I became a Christian out of the Bible.
In Acts 9, Pharisee Saul set out to arrest the Christians in Damascus. The Christians there were fervently praying for Him. God came through and saved him on the road.
In Muslim countries, Muslims are becoming Christians because of Christians praying for God to visit them in visions and dreams. Many converted Muslims are reporting that's how they became Christians.
Upvote:4
Mormons would be one to say yes. According to LDS belief, any who die without a complete or necessary knowledge of Jesus will be taught about Him in the Spirit World after this life, where they may choose to accept or reject the gospel. (This is why they build temples: to redeem the living and the dead.)
On a related note, they also believe that Christ came to more than just the Jews as in the Biblical record, citing John 10:16 and the Book of Mormon, indicating that there may be more people who know of Christ than we think.
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