Why is it so rare for people to be saved without anyone telling them about Jesus?
Scripture teaches that salvation without a human messenger is rare because God has chosen to use human instruments to proclaim His Word. Romans asks how anyone can believe unless someone proclaims, and the Ethiopian eunuch confessed he could not understand unless another man explained. God opens hearts, yet He ordinarily saves people through teachers who show them the Word.
Les teaches that the young man in the Canadian wilderness who read only a Bible all winter and came to salvation by spring is rare. The reason is Romans: how can they believe unless someone proclaims? God has seen fit to use human instruments, so He calls people to teach Sunday school and home Bible classes because people need a human instrument to show them what the Word says. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 asked Philip, "How can I understand unless some other man tell me?" Les also notes the Lord must open hearts, and it is the Lord who commends, not the one who commends himself.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?