How to get to heaven

Romans 1.18-23
 
         God holds everyone – the aboriginal as well as the scientist in his lab – responsible for recognizing his existence. The informed know there is a god whether or not they accept it; the uninformed in the jungle know it because they see his “eternal power and divine nature” in creation. However, neither goes to heaven because they know about god. It is by accepting what God has revealed of himself that secures eternal life. The patriarch Abraham “believed God and it was counted as righteousness” (Rom 4:3). What specifically did he believe? Genesis 15 says it was the Lord’s promise that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky (v. 6). He wasn’t declared righteous (saved) because he “accepted Christ” but because he believed what God had said – “You’re going to have a whole lot of descendants!” While it is faith that saves, what that is specifically is determined by historical context.
         How does this relate to the uninformed native? Very simple; if he looks at God’s created universe and says to himself, “There must be a powerful being who made all this,” he is agreeing that a powerful being (a god?) truly exists. But does that meet the requirement for salvation? Is it parallel to Abraham believing he was going to have many offspring? I’d like to give you a crisp clear answer, but the truth is that I – and for that matter, the vast majority of scholars who have studied this) – don’t know. We do know from scripture inspired by God that Jesus said there was no other way to the Father except through him (John 14:6). Absolutely true; it is through the redemptive death of Christ that the way was opened. But what about Abraham believing he would have multiple descendants? It looks like a parallel: Abraham and descendants on    one hand, the native and someone-is-behind-creation on the other.  If Abraham is on good ground then isn’t the native as well? Scripture affirms Abraham’s faith, but not the native’s, so we simply do not know what would happen to the native who believed all God expected of him at that time.
         A somewhat parallel is childbirth. I think that all evangelicals would say that children below the age of accountability (usually put at 12) will go to heaven.
         But they haven’t accepted Christ!
         Right, but you can’t hold them accountable for what lies outside their experience.
         Okay, so they go to heaven. And is that not parallel to the uninformed native?
 
         My conclusion: whoever ends up in heaven is there because Christ died for the sins of the world and they accepted it as true. I repeat: What do they do to get there? Believing in what God has revealed: for Abraham, numerous descendants; for the child under 12, God’s gracious acceptance of those not as yet sufficiently mature to accept or reject; for the native, . . . . Not sure, will you help me?