Here is a thought that I am exploring, or rather toying with. According to traditional Christianity and a traditional interpretation of Scripture, a person must explicitly believe in Jesus Christ in some way in order to benefit from His atonement and work on the cross. Doesn't this make ignorance of Christ then as unforgivable as explicit rejection of Christ?
Thing is, in every incident in Scripture where someone did something out of ignorance rather than knowledge, God is far more lenient towards the ignorant. Abimelech is one example in Genesis 20, where he had taken Sarah not knowing she was Abraham's wife. Paul is a great example of this. He actively rejected Jesus as Messiah and hunted Christians with the intention of killing them, and yet, by his own writing, he was shown mercy because he did it in ignorance. He didn't actually know or recognize Him the way the other Pharisees had done (causing their guilt). If God would show Paul this kind of mercy because he acted in ignorance, why wouldn't He give everyone else that kind of chance? Even Jesus mentions that if the Pharisees had actually been blind to what what happening, they wouldn't have been liable, but because they could see it they were guilty of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
The older I get and the more I study the Scriptures, the more I'm coming to believe that ignorance of Christ or an imperfect but positive understanding of Him is forgivable as Jesus Himself said that every error and blasphemy will be forgiven to human beings except one, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit which is speaking evil of the testimony the Holy Spirit gives about Jesus Christ (He also says those who don't forgive won't be forgiven and the parables He tells on the subject throw the unforgiving person into the outer darkness; thus there are only two conditions for damnation). This is something the Pharisees and High Priests did knowingly, by their own admission (John 3, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, says flat out that they knew He had been sent by God; they chose to work against Him anyway).
So then, why should we preach the Gospel at all?
First, because Jesus told us to, "Going into all the world, preach the Gospel to every created thing." Second, because in order to make disciples of Jesus, which He also told us to do, "Going into all the world, disciple the nations of people...," you have to explain the Gospel and what He taught. Third, because regardless of what happens in the afterlife, the only way to be delivered in the here and now from your own malfunctioning nature is through clinging to Jesus Christ, remaining in Him, and imitating Him. In other words, you have to become His disciple and practice what He preached.
Everything a human being does, says, and thinks apart from Christ doing it through you is influenced by that malfunctioning nature because it is ingrained into our neurology. The only way to be delivered from it here and now is either to physically die, or to render it inert by having Christ bypass it entirely. Jesus Christ, in His total submission to the Father in what He said and did, demonstrated that we don't have to be subject to our own neuro-psychology and its inherent malfunctions in this life if we imitate and follow Him in this by submitting to Him within us. In my reading, this is what I've come to understand is the majority of what Jesus and especially Paul are talking about. Not necessarily what happens in the afterlife, but what happens in the here and now in this life and being delivered from one's own "sin" (the aforementioned human neurological malfunction) in this life.
That there are more than two modes or functions of our salvation through Christ, the afterlife and the here and now, is pretty clear in Scripture. That God is not willing that any should be destroyed but that all should come to salvation is stated directly. That Christ died not only for our sins but also for those of the whole world is also stated directly. That His command was not to make believers but disciples was also stated directly. That every sin would be forgiven save one is stated directly. Every statement Scripture makes on the subject of salvation either describes a free and universal atonement for everyone, or it describes a total and unqualified surrender and submission to Jesus Christ within us as He totally submitted and surrendered to the Father within Him. And Jesus also made clear that while there are only a very few conditions that will land someone in the outer darkness, those conditions do exist and ignorance of Him is not one of them.
Jesus Christ already secured the afterlife for everyone regardless of if they're aware of it, but won't force those who explicitly reject Him into union with Him. If they want the outer darkness, they will get the outer darkness. This is His Good News. His further Good News is that we don't have to be subject to our own "sin" in this life, and He is the way to do it. This is why we practice what He preached as His disciples, and preach His Gospel to the rest of the world.
The idea that those who are ignorant of Christ, or have not explicitly followed Christian theology, would be justified by Him will run counter to what is normally taught in churches, and will likely be seen by many as heretical. I can't help that. Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. That much is certain. Whether or not a person has to be aware of this to end up in His presence and benefit from His atonement after physical death is one thing; that a person must be aware of the Gospel and follow Christ to be delivered from his or her own malfunctioning behavior in this life is quite another.
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