Thank you, Jeremy, for your sensitive question, which I'm sure has occurred to many.

As Paul reviews the issue of human response to God in Romans 1-3, he comes to the conclusion, especially in 3:10ff "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God" (quoting from Ps 14).

In absolute terms, we would agree with this statement. As Paul has stated, the Law given by God only demonstrates that one is sinful. For those who don't have the Law (the Gentiles), their own conscience shows they don't do what they know is morally correct, "so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God" (3:19).

However, we need to balance this declaration with Peter's words to Cornelius in Acts 10. In a message that was as much a revelation to Peter as it was to the Roman centurion, the Apostle declares "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right" (vv. 34, 35).

When one reviews Cornelius' life, "devout and God-fearing" (10:2), generous to the poor and faithful in his prayers, one would think that here is a non-Christian whose life would match or even out-shine the patterns of most Christians in North America today. Was he saved?

It is an interesting detail, that the angel who tells Cornelius to send for Peter specifically announces that he would "bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved" (11:14), which implies that this upright and religious man needed a message and experience of salvation.

As I consider Paul's statement in Romans 3:10 and then review the experience of Cornelius, I come to three conclusions:

1) Quite frankly, the majority of people do not seek for God. All of us have sinned and have fallen short of God's glory (Rom 3:23).

2) When there are those who do seek Him - either through faithfulness to their own religion or apart from it, God in His mercy and grace appears to go to extraordinary lengths to bring them within the sound of the Gospel. For example, we learn of the number of Muslims who have seen visions or dreams of Jesus, to encourage their seeking.

It took a personal "conversion" on the part of Peter to be able to fulfill this new response to God's mercy!

3) Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Jesus. This was Paul's message both to Jews (who had the Old Covenant) and Gentiles. He puts it firmly: "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved...Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord [in this case, Jesus] will be saved" (Rom 10:9ff).

This is a "hard saying." Soren Kierkegaard, the 19th Century Danish philosopher and theologian (and father of existentialism) struggled with this issue as he saw the nominal Lutherans of his culture going to church as a routine. Better, he said, was the pagan who fell before his idol with heartfelt enthusiasm than this travesty of Christianity, by which I think he meant to say that Christianity without passion is no Christianity at all.

As In Kierkegaard's day, there is much "easy believism" among those who call themselves Christians. Jesus was quite blunt in saying, "Not all who say, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of heaven." In John 15, he noted that the branches that don't bear fruit (thus giving evidence of true spiritual life) will be cast aside. Serious words from the Master.

Jeremy, I would like to see insights from your own paper on this issue. This is the best I can do in answering your question at this time.