We have this three letter word, God. And we all think we know what we mean by it. Jonah described him best to the sailors who were trying to figure out what sort of God would send such a storm upon them: “I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” So if we take that definition then Muslims, Native Americans, etc. do indeed seek the true God. Of course they have some wrong ideas about him but if we were to analyze our understanding of God then likely we would find anomalies or errors; this does not mean we don’t know God. So what’s the difference?

To know God in the general sense is to be condemned by him. Any sinner who knows a stitch about the true God knows that they are not good enough for him. That is why every human religion is a set of rules on how be good enough for God, how to serve him, how to please him, how to atone for sin. These are the concerns of humans before a righteous God