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I think the Lord talks about innate knowledge that He gives men which covered them before the written word.

Not all have to believe in Jesus as savior to be saved. If you are enlightened to the Good News it seems you must acknowledge Christ as Savior and ask forgiveness of your sins. That is scripture.

Scripture does not say all who get to heaven have to be believers in Christ. Thats a modern and incorrect assumption.

He said all who get to the Father do so through Christ. He didnt say all have to accept Christ as Saviour.

Babies and kids who die before the age of accountability go to Heaven.They get there through Jesus Christ. He can do the same for those who died before the Good News.

He says all who do believe and call on His name and ask forgiveness and repent are saved. That doesnt mean it's the only way but it is a certain guranteed way. He can still send souls to God from thousands of years ago.

Matthew 18 provides a lot of enlightenment. First off, it clarifies what the "unforgivable sin" is -
The sin against the Holy Spirit is the rejection of The Spirit. This is in spite of being baptized or Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Second, it sheds light on the Church being an institution, not an individual thing.

Also notice that this is in spite of any baptism of the offender or Christ's passion.

Then, along with 15-17, 18 illuminates some of the authority that not only goes along with the keys given to Peter in Matthew 16, but the priesthood in the order of Melchezidek. Taken with 15-17, you see this is the authority to mediate sins.

That might be your gospel, small case "g", but I doubt many others would claim it. This is just confusing to many, I would believe, and primarily incorrect.

Of course, prior to the Lord's birth, people were saved by their faith. Just as they were after Jesus walked the earth: saved by Faith. Faith in the God of the Bible and Torah.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are One. Behold O'Israel the Lord thy God is One.

You think God cant still create or do things? Isnt He building us a place in Heaven? He didnt stop on the 7th day, He rested.

Darn, i guess He gave us the written word after people learned to make the written word.

I myownself was around for a while and did a lot of stuff before i started killing big bucks.

Actually, the men that wrote the bible said that.

Actually, you only have the authors word for that.

Yeah, and HE doesnt lie.

When was this herasey rewritten into the catechism telling us moslems can go to heaven without believing in Christ?

Oh yes, pope John Paul in the 1992.
841.
The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."

Just more of Satan leading Gods children astray.

I was just musing on the logic of the proposition, a philosophical car crash. Like the paradox: I always lie. And that's the truth.

As a child I was given this question: If you have to accept Jesus to be saved, what about the native in deepest, darkest Africa who is barely aware that there's an outside world much less Jesus. An otherwise good guy, does he go to hell? Is that the act of a mercirciful, loving and just god?

Yeah I wondered which is why I put “if”.

Ultimately anyone so bold as to assert any really conclusions on the ultimate questions will fall back on a circular argument of one sort or another. They’re all “philosophical car crashes” so-to-speak, accept the ones that are easy & safe.

But what fun is that??

Do you have a fairy godmother?

No, but I'm keeping a close eye on Father Francis.

And there we find the necessity of faith.

This sidesteps the most important question tho; why does God save ANYONE if He is just? We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Man is by his nature fallen and sinful.

The fact that God would come in human form and sacrifice Himself for ANYONE is amazing.

As He said to Moses, He will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy.

Oh I dunno, suppose it's that love and mercy thing. He made us in His image and likeness, we are his children. I don't find us as despicable as that, more that we come into being knowing nothing and with much to learn. He made us knowing our nature, He does only good stuff, so we can't be all that bad.

If I brought you to a pool and dropped one eye dropper of the most poisonous chemical we’ve come up with in and told you to drink a cup would you do it? God is absolutely perfectly righteous & holy; not so much as a drop of unrighteousness is in Him.

You’re using yourself and your judgment as the measure but that isn’t what Scripture (or the Church for that matter) uses. Here is what He says about us:

Gen 6:5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (ESV)

and that sin came through Adam, our first father:

Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men[e] because all sinned (ESV)

Paul makes this point as it relates to the Mosaic law as well:

Gal 3:10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (ESV)

And here is an implied question from Paul that I genuinely ask you:

Gal 2:21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

If, as you suggest, “we can’t be all that bad,” why did Christ have to die?

Just to be clear; I assume you're not a Universalist so you draw the line somewhere. When you talk of us being not so bad or (as in the case of some) damnable you’re talking about law; that is, performance to a standard. You may be talking God’s Law or man’s, but in either instance Paul’s implied question applies; if salvific righteousness were available through (some) Law, why did Christ have to die?

But does that mean people are born evil? I think not, we choose evil, perhaps in ignorance. It gets into the dual nature of man which Aquinas talks about. We can revel in our animal nature with it's animal instincts or forego that in developing our transcendent self which I think is the "in His image and likeness" part.

Either way matters not; if we aren’t that bad why did Christ have to die?

Jesus has always been the Agent of salvation, before and after His incarnation. Nowhere does scripture claim that the recipient of salvation must be aware that Jesus of Nazareth is that Agent.

Simple logic demands that if there truly is only One God, any prayer made to any Deity will be heard by the Only Deity, regardless of the name applied by the one praying. That Deity, Jesus, will judge the sincerity of the request.

It’s only the Power Hungry Priests and some Elitist Protestants who insist on adding sacraments such as baptism or being in Communion with a church to the simple Gospel message. The very idea that Jesus would place the fate of His movement to a fallible human, St Peter, and establish an unbroken line of subsequent Peters is the greatest farce in Christendom.

It’s only the modern egoist who uses the Bible to support whatever his latest intellectual masturbation produces.

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Pretty close to Catholic doctrine actually, stated differently,