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Using the parameters of your story, the Protestant would not say "We are saved!", he would say "Hey, that ship sure looks a lot better than what I've got now, let's move toward it and make sure it's not full of terrorists."

FK, I was using the ship as the "mark" Koloktoronis uses in his posts: our Lord Jesus Christ. The Protestants say "I accept Jesus as my Savior" and you consider yourselves "saved." The Orthodox/Catholic accept Christ and only begin the process that may lead to their salvation. We have to actively follow Christ and hope that our hearts will be changed so that we may conform to the likeness of God, so that we may be saved.

Thus, in my analogy here, the Orthodox/Catholic would actively work in the direction of their salvation. Your account of the Protestants is incompatible with the Protestant notion that salvation is "an instant" (when you accept Jesus as your Christ).

FK, I was using the ship as the "mark" Koloktoronis uses in his posts: our Lord Jesus Christ. The Protestants say "I accept Jesus as my Savior" and you consider yourselves "saved." The Orthodox/Catholic accept Christ and only begin the process that may lead to their salvation. We have to actively follow Christ and hope that our hearts will be changed so that we may conform to the likeness of God, so that we may be saved.

I would agree that after what I call salvation, I need to actively follow Christ. I believe that the heart IS changed at the point of salvation, and so it is a lock that following Christ will happen in a general sense. (Of course, there will be times of "slippage" :) Because of this guarantee we characterize salvation as occurring at one moment in time (with future included events). Do you see this as incompatible with the Protestant view?