There's no possible way that the jungle folk of borneo would have heard of Jesus a week after pentecost. The Jews didn't even know there was such thing as Borneo!!! So were the people of Borneo hellbound then?
Assuming the answer is "no", why, then, do we assume that a person in Borneo today who has never even seen an offlander would be hellbound in the eyes of God?
Again, the classic plea which aligns with Mormonism.
Remember the Flood of Noah's time. All peoples subsequently came from who? Shem, Japheth, and Ham. These ancestors most certainly knew of the everlasting covenant given from the true and living God; they certainly knew of the deliverance of God by Grace bestowed upon themselves; view the tower of Babel; confusion of tongues, culminating in ultimately our present world ethnicities; look forward to Romans 1.18-32 and perhaps 2 & 3 also.
The point is; no tribe, nation, man, or woman is without excuse before God; Noah and his sons knew the promise of God in Gen. 3.15; they knew the meaning of the coats of skin God made for Adam and Eve; Noah built an altar and sacrificed when leaving the ark; Almost all ancient cultures have a story similar to the Biblical account of the flood; all peoples knew these things from the first; but as Romans 1.28 tells us: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient."
For example, the Montilone Indian tribe of Colombia and Venezuala were isolated from civilization (killing or attempting to kill any who wandered into their territories, even other Montilone). In the 1960's an eighteen year old was burdened for this people. Established missionary agencies would not receive him; he stepped out in faith and made contact with the a portion of the tribe; who nearly killed him and would have if he had not initially escaped. The burden still present however, he returned. This action surprised them and they grew "curious" of him.
As he stayed with the people he began to learn their customs language etc. and learned they had a belief that God once walked the world among men; in doing this he showed to man the "trail of life," they had fallen off this trail of life and could not find it. They knew it was there, but could not see it. But they believed God would someday send someone to show them the way back to that trail. Isolated as they were, they still knew the ancient promise of God to redeem man through the seed.
I do not think God is going to let people perish just because they do not know civilization as we do; I think rather in the appointed time he has set to take his elect from among these isolated tribes, he will send one of His servants to them.
God Bless.
Bro. Dallas
[ October 30, 2002, 12:23 AM: Message edited by: Frogman ]