salvation-how long?

[HowardDean]

I would like to understand the EO position of "being saved."
Myself, one day I was spiritually dead, the next I was alive.
I had whats called being born again. I made a decision to accept Jesus.
Now that was 28 years ago, and I have learned and grown much.
If I understand correctly, this is different from what the Orthodox church has happen.
If you can explain to me the differences between what I went through and what an Orthdox does as far as salvation?
Thank you.:thumbsup:

[kamikat]

Yes, you are now alive in Christ! Noone can deny that. I, too, went through a similar experience. However, we are not saved until our earthly death. We are to persevere until the end. Our lives are a daily choice for Christ. With each action, we are making a choice towards God or away from God. As the saying goes, I am saved, I am being saved and I will be saved.

[Jacob4707]

.

[Philothei]

Salvation is the divine gift through which men and women are delivered from sin and death, united to Christ, and brought into His eternal kingdom. Those who heard St. Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost asked what they must do to be saved. He answered, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). Salvation begins with these three steps: 1) repent, 2) be baptized, and 3) receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. To repent means to change our mind about how we have been, to turn from our sin and to commit ourselves to Christ. To be baptized means to be born again by being joined into union with Christ. And to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit means to receive the Spirit Who empowers us to enter a new life in Christ, to be nurtured in the Church, and to be conformed to God's image.
Salvation demands faith in Jesus Christ. People cannot save themselves by their own good works. Salvation is "faith working through love." It is an ongoing, life-long process. Salvation is past tense in that, through the death and Resurrection of Christ, we have been saved. It is present tense, for we are "being saved" by our active participation through faith in our union with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is also future, for we must yet be saved at His glorious Second Coming.

I could not have put it in better terms. Also this website is up to date and very informative you may want to put it in your favorites.

http://aggreen.net/beliefs/beliefs.html

Fr. Peter Gillguist deals specifically with this issue of salvation. I tried to find you a link but only found one. I will try again.

Hope that helps,
God bless,
Philothei :)

[stivvy]

Great answers and explinations here! :thumbsup: :clap:

[HowardDean]

Okay. I think I understand. One knows Jesus, then they grow and have faith and works(which one should have ; they come out of faith) and one day one could sin and lose it, so we must be ever faithful.

[Philothei]

That is it in a nutshell Howard :).

Salvation depends on how much we walk with Christ. As long as we keep his commandments and recieve his Holy Spirit through the sacraments we are in communion with Him and we are saved. This is an everyday struggle not something that happens once and we forget it. It is a journey.

My hubbs will post to this later...

Hope that helps,

Philothei

[choirfiend]

Well, it's not like our walking with Him is what saves us, though, because no matter what, we are still in need of His mercy, as we walk more closely to this Light, we see how dirty we still are, and know more clearly how much we cannot ever attain salvation on our own, but need His grace and His forgiveness and mercy, granted salvation as a gift--to the longsuffering servant, to be sure, but entering into Paradise with Him by His mercy, always.

[Michael the Iconographer]

Salvation does not occur until the last judgement when Christ says to you "welcome to eternal rest my child."

[Akathist]

I would like to understand the EO position of "being saved."
Myself, one day I was spiritually dead, the next I was alive.
I had whats called being born again. I made a decision to accept Jesus.
Now that was 28 years ago, and I have learned and grown much.
If I understand correctly, this is different from what the Orthodox church has happen.
If you can explain to me the differences between what I went through and what an Orthdox does as far as salvation?
Thank you.:thumbsup:

You talk about how you were spiritually dead and the next day you were alive.

I think in many ways that also describes my understanding of salvation. As I walk through my life, I walk in the direction of life and love or I drift from that in the direction of death (or dead faith)... away from God. The thing is that the more I walk toward life and Love the more I can see my death like sins, and the more I can see how far away I am from Life and Love. The more I notice this, the more I also see the great mercy of God and His Love. But sometimes, I get to feeling sorry for myself, and I let myself be distracted by material things, or lusts for food, or emotional selfishness and I wander away from Life and Love.

It is a long walk wandering back and forth with days in which I feel spiritually dead (or deader) and days in which I feel more spiritually alive.

The plan is to train myself as an athlete trains themselves.

24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.


I train myself to keep walking toward Love and avoid taking the detours into things that move me away from that. The final Judgement of Christ will be when the outcome of this effort is determined. There is no certainty of salvation but there is faith in the Love and Mercy of Christ.

[ProfChrysostomos]

Well, it's not like our walking with Him is what saves us, though, because no matter what, we are still in need of His mercy, as we walk more closely to this Light, we see how dirty we still are, and know more clearly how much we cannot ever attain salvation on our own, but need His grace and His forgiveness and mercy, granted salvation as a gift--to the longsuffering servant, to be sure, but entering into Paradise with Him by His mercy, always.
Salvation is ultimately the gift of God that benefits the man of faith, but it can only benefit man when he begins assuming the full life in Christ, whereby we DO WALK together with Him faithfully, obediently, and humbly. This implies living the sacramental life of the Church, following the dictates of the Gospel, and putting them into practice on a daily basis. For Christ to teach these things obviously implies that they are prerequisites for salvation.

In the end, it is the Lord God who assesses the degree to which we have participated and awards or denies salvation. We are only called to do our best and follow Christ (i.e. walk with Him). There is a balance to the process of salvation: God's love and mercy on the one hand and man's genuine contribution on the other. We must be careful not to assume that God's mercy (though far greater than our own contributions) can bring even the most unrepentant man to salvation, if he freely chooses to remain in sin. This is what the Fathers call synergy.

The ratio is not even 50:50 (God does His 50% and we do ours). The ratio is 100:100 (God gives us 100%, but only He in His wisdom can assess whether or not we have reached the 100% He requires.)

+ Prof.

[Philothei]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Akathist again.

thanks Akathist that is the walk I was talking about....

God bless,
philothei