We've been discussing the idea of a "wider hope" over at the BHT, and this is an extended answer on what I believe the Bible says about the possibility of salvation for those who have, through no accident of their own, been unable to hear the Gospel. It's not complete or polished, but you will get the idea. (It would be clearer with all the previous posts, but this one mostly stands alone.)
FREE EASY CAFELet's be clear what I am defending, because you may have defined it more narrowly than I would: I believe that God may sovereignly give the gift of salvation by grace through faith, based on the merits of Christ alone to persons who, through no fault of their own, cannot hear or comprehend the historical proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus. Please read this carefully, because this is all that I believe. To be shorter, I believe some people who cannot hear the whole Gospel of Jesus may still have saving faith.
This would include for me:
1) Persons like Cornelius, who I believe was saved- and not lost- before he heard the proclamation of the Gospel, and who embrace the Gospel when they hear it as an evidence of that faith. And if he fell down the steps would have gone to heaven.
2) Persons who respond in faith to whatever limited "light" they have about God, because through historical circumstance, they could not hear the entire Gospel. In this category, I might place, for instance, Gen 14:18 And Mel-chiz'edek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Or the centurian, who appears to have faith before meeting Jesus: Matthew 8:10 When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, "Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
3) Patriarchs who were saved by faith, yet did not know even the name of the God they trusted: Enoch, Noah, Abraham. Abraham in particular, is a person who is in EXACTLY the position I am describing. His family and culture worshiped the moon, he knew nothing of God except general revelation (as Denise pointed out). Yet, read Romans 4:3 For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Why can this not happen today? Why did it not happen before missionaries brought the Gospel to the Americas? Isn't scripture clear that Abraham is a type of others who will be saved by hearing as well as those who may be saved exactly as he was saved?
Romans 4:9 Is this blessing pronounced only upon the circumcised, or also upon the uncircumcised? We say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, 12 and likewise the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but also follow the example of the faith which our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
4) In this I would also include infants and the mentally handicapped.
5) If this is not true, every single person who lived in North and South America before Europeans arrived went to hell. By the logic of the other position, all mentally handicapped are in hell.