Questions from a curious Protestant.

HTacianas

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I would love to discuss salvation. What are some of your views on sin, like are our sins kept on record to be held against us at judgement? I don't get to go to confession so I struggle with my sins and how to best deal with my failure.


I'm glad you you have come here. To answer your questions, as to salvation, a person repents of their sins, is baptized to cleanse themself of previous sins, then chrismated to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then participates in the sacramental life of the Church. Ultimately our salvation is granted at the Day of Judgement.

The disposal of sin afterwards is through the sacrament of confession. Confession is an ongoing thing that lasts all of our lives. There is no single point when we are "saved" during this life, but "he who endures to the end shall be saved", see Matthew 24:16.

As a former protestant, I can tell you that you are heading now in the right direction. The Orthodox Church holds the fullness of the gospel and is the "place where God dwells among men".
 
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d taylor

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If you want Eternal Life (salvation)

Then believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah from The Old Testament prophecies and trust in The Messiah for His Gift of His Eternal Life.

If you or any person does this, they become born again and at your new birth (this time not physical but spiritual) you become a child of God. Leaving behind being a physical birth leading to death. But now having a spiritual birth leading to life (everlasting life)

Then being a believer when you sin (and you will) confess yours sins and ask for forgiveness, if it is a sin you are constantly committing, then repent of this sin and ask forgiveness and try to uphold your repentance of that sin asking for God help.
 
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~Anastasia~

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I would love to discuss salvation. What are some of your views on sin, like are our sins kept on record to be held against us at judgement? I don't get to go to confession so I struggle with my sins and how to best deal with my failure.
Glad to see you made it over to TAW!

For our visitors here, welcome! Please note this question is asked in the Eastern Orthodox forum. :)

Orthodoxy holds a less legalistic view of sin than the west. It's not as though you have x-sins and they must have weighted atonement of some sort.

Rather it's about the healing of a person, becoming what God intended and created us to be - like Jesus and in communion with Him. Sins affect us in the opposite way, making us less like Christ and drawing us away from God. The particular effect of each sin on each person is different. Our life in Christ is meant to be a healing from that.

The sacrament of confession is one way we receive the grace of God to have His help in this, and it is provided through the Church. However, God can offer His help in as many ways as He sees fit. We cannot promise anything apart from the Church, but it IS the nature of God to be loving, forgiving, and to draw people to Himself and desire to heal us. So the various ways He might choose to do this are His work.

I will say that the Church offers many tools to help us, and some of these are not sacramental and so are available to anyone, such as fasting, spiritual counsel, prayer rules, the wisdom of the Saints, and so on. It is good to be in contact with a priest or guide to avoid certain pitfalls with some of these (particularly self-directed fasting and prayer rules). But these things can all help a person who is still outside the Church.
 
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ArmyMatt

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I would love to discuss salvation. What are some of your views on sin, like are our sins kept on record to be held against us at judgement? I don't get to go to confession so I struggle with my sins and how to best deal with my failure.

yes, our sins are recorded (as are our virtues), but not so much as a list of what we did wrong. rather, it's more a diagnosis of our sickness and brokenness. salvation is being prepared to accept the healing of the Great Physician.
 
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