"Man may receive a gift, without knowing, who it comes from or how much it has cost. So the heathen, who casts himself as a sinner upon God’s mercy, may receive salvation from the Crucified One, without knowing who is the giver or that the gift was purchased by agony and blood" (A.H. Strong, Systematic Theology, p. 843).
Mr. Strong has the forehead of a brazen whore. In this quote he, in effect, walks right up to Romans 10:1-4 and says, "I do not believe this text."
A few more lines from Strong:
"Dr. Charles Hodge unduly restricts the operations of grace to the preaching of the Incarnate Christ: Systematic Theology, 2:648 -- 'There is no faith where the gospel is not heard and where there is no faith, there is no salvation. This is indeed an awful doctrine.' And yet, in 2:668 he says most inconsistently: 'As God is everywhere present in the material world, guiding its operations according to the laws of nature, so he is everywhere present with the minds of men. As the Spirit of truth and goodness, operating on them according to laws of their free moral agency, inclining them to good and restraining them from evil'" (A.H. Strong, Systematic Theology, p. 844).
"Since, Christ is the Word of God and the Truth of God, he may be
received even by those who have not heard of his manifestation in the flesh. A proud and self-righteous morality is inconsistent with saving faith but a humble and penitent reliance upon God, as a Savior from sin and a guide of conduct, is an implicit faith in Christ. Such reliance casts itself upon God, so far as God has revealed himself and the only Revealer of God is Christ. We have, therefore, the hope that even among the heathen there may be some, like Socrates, who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit working through the truth of nature and conscience, have found the way of life and salvation.The number of such is so small as in no degree to weaken the claims of the missionary enterprise upon us" (A.H. Strong, Systematic Theology, p. 845).
In Strong's antichristian estimate, the number saved in ignorance of the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is "so small" (cf. Romans 1:16-17, 10:1-4).
