I will not pretend to know all of the answers. However, in reading chapter one of Paul's letter to the Romans, I picked something up I have missed in all the other times of reading it (goes to prove we should continue to stay students of our Bibles).
In verse seventeen of chapter one, the ESV translation reads,
For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith" (italics mine).Thus, the righteousness of God indeed cannot be understood without faith, for it is revealed from faith. In honesty, we cannot imagine a perfect being. A being who is unable to sin, who does everything exactly perfect at any given moment, who loves perfectly despite not being compensated by anyone else's love (save the love of the Trinity, which is irrelevant for this argument). So how can a human comprehend the righteousness of God? the perfectness of God? the holiness of God? Answer: "The righteous will live by faith." One is surely on his way toward righteousness once he understands needing faith to understand God.
The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. So after having established we need faith to comprehend God, we then come to realize this builds our faith, no matter how small (or nonexistent) it was. Once we begin to confess a little faith, we may obtain the knowledge of God's righteousness, which will then lead to more faith. You will never be able to do one hundred push-ups if you cannot first do fifty!
Now, about that man on the island. Picking up in Romans 1:18...
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.Paul argues, and I believe rightly so, that creation plainly begs a creator, or at least a deity(ies). By faith, he believes God has made sure that what we can know about Him is plain, especially God's eternal power and divinity in the things that have been made! Who can be without excuse then? Even an atheist must have faith in something because he knows (so long as he uses his brain) that the way things are have not simply always been this way. We as humans demand a beginning and an end. That is perhaps something we all have in common. Faith in something, be it God or Muhammad or Jesus or Artemis or the Unmoved Mover or Demiurge or Ourself.
The man on the island (based solely off Romans 1) seems to condemn himself. Paul claims that all humans have some understanding of a big Something Else out there who is higher than we are, but we must honor Him as God and give thanks to Him. I suppose that doing this, though one may not have any idea of Christ, will put the man on the island on his way toward salvation. It is important to note that Jesus Christ is the only way for salvation, because Scripture is clear on this. However, it takes faith to realize God is the one out there, and this brings about more faith! And I am not so ignorant as to suppose God will not meet this man on the island with the appropriate means to be saved, because after all, salvation is something we do to ourselves. It is God who saves, and I, being once lost, cannot superimpose the Savior in a box. He will save as He will save, according to the Scriptures He has given us. And He will not go against His Scripture, because He is good.
There is hope for the man on the island, for you, and for me. It just takes a little faith to build faith. Thanks be to God you are not on this island with this man. We have Bibles.
