Why do you feel that you made the right decision to follow Christ and Joe Reprobate did not? Was it because you are smart, more noble, or just a much better person? Was it because you're more pious or try more harder?
And what happens if Joe Reprobate is a famous surgeon who helps heal sick children in low cost clinics, spends his time with the Boy Scouts, gives generously and is an all around good guy in his community? But yet he's not a believer. Joe Reprobate by our standards isn't "evil" as we would classify "evil" with say, Osama bin Laden. Is Joe still bound for hell?
What is it that separates you from Joe or Osama for that matter?
Christianity is the only faith that brings us close to God, through the Humanity of His Son. All other faiths have some ineffable, distant deity. How do you "love" the rising Sun? Or a burning bush? You can fear it, revere it, but not love it. I chose Orthodox Christianity because it is pure love, HD. I hope it is the right decision, as I would rather be surrounded by love than by hate.
Was it because you are smart, more noble, or just a much better person? Was it because you're more pious or try more harder?
I am none of that. I am sinner. I sin daily through ingratitude to God. God gave me in abundance and I give Him crumbs from my table. There is nothing noble or better about me.
And what happens if Joe Reprobate is a famous surgeon who helps heal sick children in low cost clinics, spends his time with the Boy Scouts, gives generously and is an all around good guy in his community?
Then he is a much better person than I am. For he has made more people happy with his blessings than I.
But yet he's not a believer. Joe Reprobate by our standards isn't "evil" as we would classify "evil" with say, Osama bin Laden. Is Joe still bound for hell?
It is not mine to decide who goes to hell. I will leave that one to God. If I believed I am saved because I am a believer and he is damned because he is not, then I would be guilty of religious pride and arrogance.
What is it that separates you from Joe or Osama for that matter?
Not much. We are all sinners, aren't we? In the end, it will be repentance that will separate the sheep from the goats. How can we judge one another? Look at King David. He broke two of the Ten Commandments—covetting and murder. Yet, he is one of the saints, so noble and acceptable to God that even our Lord takes lineage from him in His human nature. We must never be the judges of others.
I try to keep my motives pure and if I do something good, do it in His name and for His glory, always give thanks to God, and never take credit myself. I am in His hands, and I give my whole life to Him.