I had a step-grandfather that was a Baptist, and he was one of the most Christian people I've ever known. He would attend his Baptist services every Saturday nite, and then go to the Divine Liturgy every Sunday with my grandmother. He was so taken with the depth of the Orthodox faith he asked to be, and was burried by the Orthodox Church. I would never want to condemn all Protestants.
I suppose it's the deniers of free will that happen to be the nastiest and most un-Christian of the Prots. They seem to think that because they have no control over who they are because they're the way God made them and always wanted them to be - they can be really horrible people full of false accusations, and they have nothing to worry about - God is giving them a free ride to heaven. That may be why they respond so violently to the idea of "works" based salvation. They're so rotten to the core they need a faith that will accept them the way they are. It's too difficult for them to work on making themselves better Christians. It's much easier to just keep on attacking others until God's limo gives them that final ride to heaven.
lol. Hey, Cool Breeze, that's pretty hilarious. Once again, not one Scriptural argument against the Protestant faith, just ad hominems.
The Bible is very clear - good works save no one. Good works are the fruit of the Holy Spirit within us. They belong to Christ. They come from Christ. They are Christ.
For RCs to take credit for God's work is the height of hubris.
As far as Calvinists go, they believe the word of God. You may not think you "are the way God made you," but Scripture says otherwise...
" For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" -- 1 Corinthians 4:7
The only explanation for such ignorance is that RCs are still lost in the darkness of error and false worship. Christ tells us that if we are His, we are not chained to the obligation of works, but made free by His work on the cross.
" If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." -- John 8:36
They're so rotten to the core they need a faith that will accept them the way they are.
Close. Yes, we and all men are "rotten to the core," and thus our own good works are incapable of saving us. Thank God for His mercy and for the fact that He "loved us before we loved Him." Thank God he takes fallen sinners and turns their eyes from death to Christ's promise of eternal salvation by His good work on the cross. Thank God for grabbing hold of us "the way we are" (blind, deaf, self-serving and God-denying) and freely giving us new eyes and new ears and a heart of flesh and a renewed mind, all which equips us to understand the Scriptures to learn of our salvation by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
God is giving them a free ride to heaven.
Astounding, isn't it? God takes a foolish, fallen bunch of sinners, and instead of condemning them for their errors, He acquits them of their sins by judging them according to the righteousness of Christ for no other reason than it pleases Him to reveal to the universe His miraculous, glorious, unearned mercy.
Therefore, Christians are able to agree with Paul and declare with as much certainty as this life provides that we are indeed "as God made us," by His grace, for His glory.
"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." -- 1 Corinthians 15:10
So, he became Orthodox before he died?