So what we say about being saved is...."We don't know".
I already know all the Scripture you use to back up faith by justification, so save yourself the trouble of posting it here.
Likewise we don't say that any other Christians are saved or not saved. We hope for the best outcome for all. There are some Orthodox who believe that all can be saved and might be, because God has the perfect love and mercy for us, so much beyond what we have and so much more than what we can imagine when we use the words "love" and "mercy" that it seems credible to think He would save every one of His children.
We reject legalism and rationalism in application to spiritual matters. Our human minds are too limited to fully understand the nature of God.
Therefore trying to predict God is impossible and also could be a tad arrogant. Likewise, we see the possibility that there are things outside of Holy Scripture which could be important, that not everything was written down, though our church does say it is the word of God and nothing else.
I am not trying to prove anything here or disprove anything but simply to ask your opinion. Perhaps you can see that in my church there is mostly only myself to prove and only to God that I am worthy. So I am just asking What if?
Dear Editor,
While we Orthodox keep fighting among ourselves and with other Christians, Islam, the heretical Arian offshoot of Christianity and our ancient enemy, is presently at war with the Jews in Palestine, the Orthodox in Chechnya, the Buddhists in China, the Hindus in Kashmir, and the Protestants and Catholics in Africa and Philippines. They have also been at war in the past with Orthodox in Kosovo, Bosnia and Ethiopia; always willing to sacrifice their own people in order to arouse the sympathies of world opinion for territorial and religious gains.
They are gradually infiltrating Greece (1,000,000), Spain, France, England, Germany, etc., through immigration, hoping to eventually have a majority which they definitely will, simply because the Europeans are not having children; that is with the exception of Albania, a Moslem nation. Because of the bloodshed and chaos that they have caused, and will continue to cause throughout the world, I have started to wonder if our Lord, in His Wisdom, has given the Orthodox a special purpose.
We know that every nation and culture considers their own religion and worship an extension of what they are. The Greeks say that Orthodoxy is Greece as much as the Russians do, and the Hindu's say that Hinduism is India, etc. etc...but it is only us, as Orthodox Christians, that can witness to a 'pagan' Far East and a 'heretical' Middle East, and show that Christianity can encompass all cultures, Western and Eastern. Only we, simply because we are not Western, can be the example to the world.
We Orthodox are in a position to show, that everyone can worship Our Lord in a way suitable and unique only to themselves and within their own specific cultural boundaries. That way, no one will consider themselves a 'traitor' to either their heritage or themselves when they follow Jesus...for His Truths are universal. Each person throughout the world, can grow spiritually in Christ, in accordance to their own desires, while different cultures can attain His Grace in a way that each one of them will be able to relate to; providing of course, that they maintain certain basic truths.
If these cultural differences within Christianity were not acceptable to Our Lord, He wouldn't have miracles performed through icons and relics in the Orthodox and Catholic world, (which are so alien to so many Protestants that they are considered 'cults'), and through the laying on of hands and Words of Knowledge in the Evengelical...And if Grace could only be attained through a knowledge of certain theological concepts, then the uneducated and ignorant would not be able to become Saints...and yet they have. Also, that would deny children, who are limited mentally, entrance into 'heaven' or to be more exact 'theosis'. That the Orthodox word 'theosis' is more defined, is simply because the Greek language is more flexible.
It is only our beautiful Orthodoxy, with its distinct Eastern flavor, that can be the bridge and the example in Christianizing the world...but we can only show the universality of Christian truth when we are in full communion with the Catholics and Evangelicals. It shouldn't matter if these truths are defined within the limits of each persons cultural context and ability, after all we are all created to be limited in some way; such as being too dogmatic and structural in the Catholic church, or if the fullness of the faith is missing; such as not having the Eucharist in the Protestant...For it should be obvious to everyone, that the sincere faith that many Evangelicals have, can only mean that Our Lord has made up for the lack of the Eucharist, by giving them special Graces.
It is only when Christianity unites that the threat from the Moslem world will end, because it is only then that we will be able to show that Christianity is a 'state of the heart' and an 'inner peace', and not simply the pride and dominance of an 'arrogant' Western culture and religion over their own.
In Christ,
John Kotsonis