Cary.Melvin said:
I have asked these questions of the Catholics and Protestants and I'd like to know how my Orthodox bretheren would answer.
Do you think you are going to Heaven? (If yes, no or don't know, please explain why)
Do you consider yourself saved? (If yes, no or don't know, please explain why)
Do you consider these 2 question ask the same thing?
Thanks,
Right now I tremble at the thought of meeting the Lord. I haven't truly repented I don't think. Surely if I found myself face to face with Him, my conscience would condemn me in the worst way.
We are all saved from returning to nothingness. All people, by His resurrection, will have eternal being.
More and more I wonder at what people view salvation as. Because the more I study Orthodox theology and the writings of the saints, the more I take on the belief that there are varying degrees of blessedness, according to the state of our hearts. I dare not think that I would have an equal place in His Kingdom as such holy Saints as, the Holy Martyr Photini, St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Symeon the New Theologian, or St. Stephen the Protomartyr and thousands upon thousands of others.
I think the question can mean the same thing...depending on who you talk to. To me it doesn't mean the same thing necessarily. I don't look at salvation so much as deliverance from hell, but as deliverance from non-existence, which is where the human race was heading.
"each one's work will become clear, for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built in it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, be he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." (1 Cor 3:13-15) St. John Chrysostom writes "for the sinner is saved as through fire." That is to say, he will remain tormented in fire.
