Q. There are many different religions and faiths claiming that they are the only way to heaven. Obviously that means one is right and the rest are wrong. I’m not a very learned guy when it comes to worldviews other than Christianity, but if people believe in something then I would think there would be some concrete evidence for the foundation to their faith. Back to my question, If one is right and the rest wrong, wouldn’t there be some serious loopholes in the “wrong” ones?
Only One Religion Corresponds With Reality
All world-views have to answer the questions that all humans intrinsically ask, Where do we come from? What is our purpose? What is Morality? Why is there evil and suffering in the world? and What will happen when we die? Only the Christian worldview answers all of these questions to the clearest extent. It is the only religion which clearly corresponds to reality and whose text is so instructional and clear in explanation. Other world-views try but they all lack depth and correspondence with reality.

Buddhism doesn’t explain where evil and suffering come from it just explains what one must do to try to get away from it, and that which teaches us how to get away were taught by Buddha, who ultimately died and no one really knows if he ever overcame it. Hinduism adapts relativism, which breaks the very structure of thought to know Truth. Islam and many cults claim the Bible as their foundation of legitimacy (since many come hundreds and others thousands of years after the new testament), then they go and deny their foundation and posit contradictory information which still roots itself in the denied foundation. Once one denies their foundation for legitimacy all of their claims built on a broken foundation, lack foundation. Culture is also against many, for culture perpetuates thinking which is devoid of truth.

“He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!” They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” Isaiah 44:15-19
People Ultimately Want To Deny Jesus As God
This is an example in the Bible how man will follow foolishness to all extents. Romans 1:18-32 describes how and why people follow other religions. in 2 Corinthians 3:13-18 Paul describes that peoples’ hearts are hardened and there is a veil over their eyes and that only through Christ can one come and have their veil lifted to truth and salvation. This is why you can prove to someone God is real logically, historically, rationally but they will never accept the Lordship of Christ, because their hearts still have a veil over it. People do not accept Jesus by facts alone but through the heart and the Spirit.

So why do people not see the true God of reality? because of the darkness of the human heart to not look and accept the fallacy of an idea for personal comfort;

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”  John 3:19-20

Q. The Bible teaches that you have to believe in Jesus Christ to go to Heaven, but what about people in third world countries? What happens to them?
The premise of “The bible teaches that you have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven” is completely accurate.

Acts 4:12 states: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men which we must be saved” That’s very clear.  The context for “in any other” includes Verse 10 which references “Jesus of Nazareth”.  Verse 11 references Psalms 118:22 which scholarship views as a prophecy about Messiah.  So the verse and context are clear.  Deliverance spiritually comes through “Jesus of Nazareth”.  The “no other” part is ‘oute’ in the Greek, which means neither, not.

Romans 10:4 states: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes”.  The search for personal qualification, righteousness, and acceptance by God is through Messiah.  Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ (Romans 1:1-6). So the message is clear, John 14:6:  “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me“.

“But what about the people in third world countries? What happens to them?”
We Must Understand Our History
To understand mankind’s condition spiritually,  we must understand our history.  We generally view mankind in the past as basically primitive, and that they are ascending in spiritual awareness.  But that is not what God’s message to us teaches.

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are with out excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.  Therefore God also gave them up…”  Romans 1:20-24

So we can see, that mankind had a great start, a sufficient awareness of who God is.  According to scripture there is no excuse to not understand that God exists. Mankind is not primitive in this respect, but degenerative.  Mankind in general has lost the spiritual understanding and awareness that was once possessed.
Why Christians Are On Mission
But not everyone has heard the name of Jesus, and that is why the church has been given the mandate of the ‘Great Commission” (Acts 1:8).  We have been given the responsibility to retrieve global humanity, and bring them back into an accurate awareness of the true God and His design of salvation which is through “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” Acts 20:21.

Verse 20 communicates that if we are willing to do this, we will be able to say as the Apostle Paul did, “how I kept back nothing that was helpful”.  Nothing that is helpful in assisting people to connect with God!

Q. Should hell as described in the Bible be taken literally? How about children and hell?

Hell as described in the Bible should definitely be taken literally. Why? Because of the literal, and not symbolic nature of the terms that are used in the Bible.
Jesus Took It Literally
When Jesus talked about “hell” he used the expression translated in Greek as geenna (or gehenna).  It is a contraction of “ge” valley and “Hinnom” (which means sorrow in Hebrew).

The Old Testament refers to this same place that Jesus mentions as Tophet (Heb. the place of burning bodies, the place of fire) in Is 30:33 and Jer 7:31.  It was a literal place where people burned their children as sacrifices to Molech, the hideous god of the Ammonites. (2 Chron 28:3).

This was all done in the Valley of Hinnom, out side of the dung gate of Jerusalem.  So Jesus would look at this place on the southeast end of the city of Jerusalem as he would talk about future judgment, where the smoke continually rose from burning trash and dead animals full of maggots…and he would say: “cast into geenna fire that never shall be quenched, where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched” Mark 9:43, 44, 46, and 48 (he just kept repeating this for emphasis).

Matt 10:28 “destroy both soul and body in geenna” – Jesus speaks to His disciples about the extent of the punishment (soul and body). Rev 19:20 tells us that the beast and false prophet “both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone (flashing sulfur).” Rev 20:10 tells us that “tormented day and night for ever and ever” is the descriptive result.
Q. How about children and hell?
If one understands the Bible, then regarding this issue, one must think that there is some sort of theology of accountability. Romans 10:9 says that in order to be saved, one must “confess with (their) mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in (their) heart that God has raised Him from the dead.”

As we know, this is not possible for children under a certain age as well as those who suffer from certain mental disabilities. We see evidence of this in 2 Samuel 12:23 where David says after losing his infant son whom Bathsheba birthed: “I shall go to him.”