Salvation among the Orthodox patristic concept
And heresies influenced by “Anselm, Luther and Calvin” [1]

the introduction:
“Are you saved?!” This question is a recurring challenge facing the Orthodox Christian by Protestants who are apparently jealous of the faith and who feel that it is their duty to challenge everyone by asking every person: “Are you saved?!” Whatever the other’s answer, the Protestant begins to brag that he is one of the “saved” and “born again” group, and that if he dies at this moment, he will fly to the Kingdom of Heaven with an unparalleled guarantee! Here the Protestant looks at the other with pity and lamentation, and in his own words he says: If you do not feel what I feel, and if you do not believe what I believe, then you are not a believing Christian and you deserve pity, compassion, and pity.

This topic could consume pages after pages to study all its dimensions and aspects, especially since its roots in Western Christian thought go back to the theological origins of this thought, from philosophy and Augustinianism.

It is natural to ask first, what does “salvation” mean in Christianity? Defining words and expressions is important in every discussion, otherwise both parties to the discussion would be in a confused conversation. Because salvation in Orthodoxy is different from that in Western Christianity (Catholicism); From the latter, Protestant thought borrows whatever it pleases.

Salvation for Orthodoxy is union with God. Because man was unable to ascend to God, God rose “and lowered the heavens and descended” (Psalm 18:9) with His only Son to the earth to embrace man, unite with him, sanctify him, and save him. There are differences in dealing with this issue between the Orthodox on the one hand and the Catholics and Protestants on the other. Westerners see the Orthodox definition of salvation as strange because their thinking pattern is modeled on Western scholastic thinking influenced by Anselmus, Luther, and Calvin.

The creation and fall of man:
The doctrine of salvation is deeply rooted in the issue of human fall. Man is created in the image of God and is called to become like Him. But the fall of man made him lose his calling to be like God, and destroyed or distorted the divine image in him. She's still there, but she's sick.

Before the fall, man was not perfect, that is, he did not reach where God wanted him to reach. He was perfect in the sense that His creation was perfect and without blemish. But he was placed in communion with God. He had to grow in this fellowship and strengthen this relationship with God to perfection. That's what he didn't get. Today we do not return to Paradise where Adam was, but rather we go to the heavenly kingdom that Christ prepared with his blood on the cross. Protestant thought, on the other hand, believes that Adam was created perfect and in full communion with God. However, this thought could not answer the question: If Adam was perfect and in full fellowship with God, how did he fall?

Man fell because he wanted to become like God without God. Man lost communion with God, the source of life, true freedom, and eternal bliss. Adam and Eve committed suicide because they cut themselves off from God, the source of life. That is why, because of their sin, death entered human nature. God did not create death, evil, sin, or corruption. The sin of Adam and Eve allowed all of these to exist. They have become parasites on human nature. With this, God announced after the fall of Adam as a result of this fall: “For dust you are, and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19). In Western Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism), death was divine retribution created by God as punishment for Adam for his sin. Adam died spiritually. His spiritual death brought on other calamities.

“أجرة  الخطيئة”:
The inherited guilt of original sin does not exist in the Bible and in the Orthodox Fathers [2]. Instead, they teach that humanity inherited Adam's fallen nature, along with corruption, death, spiritual illness, and distance from God. [3]. Sin means failure, deviating from the right path, and not hitting the goal. Although we often define sin as certain specific acts or transgressions, these transgressions are merely symptoms of our sick, fallen state. Sin is the rejection of personal fellowship with God. When religion sees sin as merely specific violations of a law or moral code, it trivializes God's commandments and perpetuates sin itself and the fall by considering God something external and replacing it with a law or moral code in place of personal communion with God. It is possible for a person to be morally pure, that is, without transgressions according to the constitution, and to be spiritually dead.

When Paul said, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), he does not mean that God rewards man’s works with death, but rather that sin is our fatal disease. Adam's sin was in declaring that he was self-sufficient and independent and that his choice was to resort to nature and biological life to meet the requirements of his existence. Biological life is associated with corruption and death. By separating himself from God, who alone has immortality (1 Timothy 6:16) and the only source of life, Adam lost the Holy Spirit, true life. God did not create death and does not take pleasure in the death of the living. He allowed the curse to pass to the earth: “Cursed is the earth because of you” (Genesis 3:17), leaving man to the natural consequences of his earthly nature: “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

death:
When the Fathers refer to Adam's death as judgment and punishment, they do not mean that God was the cause or cause of death or that He created it and announced the punishment. God “judged” Adam and all humans, not by His rule, but by His presence as the Creator of man in the image of His divine freedom and immortality, an image that can only exist through fellowship and grace. The fathers refuse to attribute the cause of death to God, who did not want man to perish. This does not mean that references to the state of corruption and death as judgment or judgement are absent from church literature. They exist, but they are meant to express our repentant human experiences under death, not God's will or God's judicial or punishing action. (These works often say that death was not a command from God, but rather an enemy who was defeated in battle by the incarnate Lord, and not a tool that was abolished by a mere divine command.)

God allowed death as an act of mercy so that man would not be eternally sinful. Theophilus of Antioch says: “This is truly a great benevolence: a person does not have to remain in sin forever.” The funeral service echoes the words of Gregory the Theologian: “lest evil remain in vain.”

God created Adam to be immortal and perfect in freedom and love like God, because he was created in His image and likeness. The death of the soul (loss of divine grace and communion with God) and the corruption of the body made this goal impossible. Corruption and death will forever linger as parasites on human nature. As a direct result, the power of Satan, “who has the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14), will forever seize people’s souls and be the source of sin.

Romans 5:12:
Adam died because he sinned; We now sin because we die: “Therefore, as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men; Because of this all have sinned” (Romans 5:12) [4]. In other words: because of death everyone sinned. This is the correct reading of the text and not as it was translated into Latin and understood by Augustine and Western thought after it: Death passed to all people as a punishment because all people inherited Adam’s fallen, corrupt nature, inclined to evil from his youth (Genesis 8). This is how they also inherit death, just punishment. Western translations reflect a misunderstanding of this text and obscure the fact that “sin reigned through death” (Romans 5:12) in our corruption, and that “the sting of death is sin” (1 Corinthians 5:56), and that death is the origin and sin is the thorn that stems from it. .

“The last enemy to be defeated is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). Christ achieved this in advance through his death and resurrection, abolishing the never-ending cycle of corruption and death, the ride of sin. Without His resurrection there is no salvation. His resurrection killed Satan and sin by nullifying the very source of their power: death and corruption. From here we repeat that Christ overcame the three barriers that separate man from God: with his incarnation, he overcame the barrier of sick, sinful human nature, sanctifying it through his incarnation and its union with his divinity, overcame the barrier of sin with his death, and overcame the barrier of death with his resurrection.

incarnation: Because Christ is God incarnate, He alone is able to reveal God to us, and He alone is able to renew the divine image in man because Christ Himself is the eternal image of the Father’s person (Col. 1:15 and Heb. 1:3). The incarnation of Christ allowed us to become “partakers of the divine nature,” in the words of the Apostle Peter (2 Peter 1:4). Maximus the Confessor says: “If the Word of God and the Son of God the Father became the Son of Man and Man Himself for this reason, to make people gods and sons of God, then we must believe that we will be where Christ is now as the head of the entire body, and He in His human nature has previously become toward the Father for our sake. God will be in <<وسط الآلهة>> (مزمور 82: 1)، أي أولئك المخلَّصين (مزمور 82: 6)، واقفاً في وسطهم وموزِّعاً هناك صفوف الغبطة بدون أي مسافة حيزية تفصله عن المختارين” (الفصول في المعرفة 2: 25).

Humanity needed an “antidote to death” (Ignatius of Antioch). “Our sick nature needed a healer. Our fallen man needed someone to correct him. He who has lost the grace of life needs a life-giver” (Gregory of Nyssa). As Al-Dimashqi says: “He who is without beginning and without body was incarnated for our salvation, so that the like might be saved in the same way.” “Fallen nature” refers to the entire human being who needed to be reborn again in body and spirit, in order to rise and return to the path of incorruption and immortality. When the Savior said that the only cure for humanity's illness was rebirth, he was talking about a spiritual, psychological, and physical reality in man, not a legal idea. Rebirth means liberation from the control of Satan, from the slavery of whims, self-concerns, and self-gratification, rising from the state of corruption in which we are, and finally liberation from death and corruption.

The antidote to this condition is “the humanity of God” (Gregory the Theologian), the leaven and fermentation of our enlightenment and sanctification: the incarnation, which was always the divine essence before the ages. [5]. Therefore, our restoration did not require a change in God’s plan toward us, which was always an uninterrupted love. To be born again in body and spirit means to become the children of the second and new Adam, the only true human being and the true image of God. Therefore, redeeming likeness with likeness means that the second Adam would give birth to people with the human nature that he took from his mother and glorified her through resurrection.

The body and blood of the incarnate Word are “the antidote to death, the medicine for immortality” (Ignatius of Antioch). Christ says: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:54). With these words, Christ does not refer to a legal solution, but rather to an antidote that heals and frees the soul from the toxins of sin and the influence of parasitic corruption on the soul. When the Lord offers His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, they are for the continuous healing of the body and soul, and for their sanctification, purification, enlightenment, and deification. Through body and blood, the entire human being, body and soul, participates in the new humanity of the second Adam to restore and reassemble the shattered first Adam into every human being torn apart by the laws of his mind and warring members.

This is how man got rid of corruption and death, that is, from the abode of sin, and his restoration to eternal life begins in the present life so that he will have a righteous resurrection when the Lord comes again in glory. St. Irenaeus says: “But we now receive a certain portion of His Spirit, which works toward perfection and prepares us for incorruption, so that we gradually become accustomed to receiving and bearing God (in preparation for that time)... when, when we rise again, we will see Him face to face...” Therefore, the life-giving mysteries of the Holy Eucharist are clearly indispensable to the soul and body of the believer because they are the promise of resurrection and our participation in eliminating evil, death and corruption. This has never been understood in the West, which views satisfying justice as the only possible solution.

The West understands redemption and corruption in a literal legal sense, as part of a modern legal discourse. Augustine and the West teach that corruption and the sins resulting from it are merely the results of original sin. Augustine says: “Lust arises as a penal consequence of (original) sin.” When he refers to healing humanity, he does not mean curing the original disease, but rather lifting punishments. Sin, corruption, and death are, in the Western sense, punishments imposed by divine justice. Lifting punishments is lifting a curse, allowing the elect to exercise external virtues.

Christ's death and resurrection: Christ was incarnated and took on human nature in all its aspects. Gregory the Theologian says: “Whatever he does not do, he will not be healed.” That is, in order for Christ to free us from the control of sin and death, and in order to give us eternal life, he had to participate in our death as well as in our life. He said this to respond to Apollinarius, who denied the existence of NOUS (in Greek, meaning mind or soul). Jesus took a human NOUS and a human will, otherwise he would not have saved them.

Christ did not die because he had to die [6]. He did everything by his own choice. Christ's death and resurrection led to:

1. Forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God.
2.  Freedom from the power of death.
3.  The promise of renewing the whole world.
4.  General resurrection.
5.  Victory over Satan.
6.  Crushing hell.

Forgiveness of sins: Irenaeus says: “The sin that brought about the tree (Genesis 3:6) was canceled by the tree of obedience to God when the Son of God was nailed to the tree. There he overcame the knowledge of evil and brought the knowledge of good. Evil is disobedience to God, and good is obedience to God.” If our disobedience is the ultimate act of selfishness (self-love and self-centeredness), then Christ's voluntary death on the cross is the ultimate act of self-denial.

Freedom from the power of death: Jesus not only eliminated the power of sin and opened the way for us to return to the Father's house, but He also eliminated the chains of death that held people captive. Because Jesus was the Son of God, it was impossible for death to take hold of Him. Saint Basil wrote: “When he descended from the cross into hell - to fill all things with himself - the pangs of death came.

He rose on the third day and made a path for every body toward resurrection from the dead, because it was not possible for the Creator of life to be a prey to corruption. With his death and resurrection, Jesus removed the sting of death. Now people continue to die, but because Jesus filled the world of death with His life, death is no longer the end of human existence: it has become a path to eternal life in God. Jesus' resurrection from the dead is our guarantee that one day all people will rise from the dead and share God's eternal life.

Redemption:
God does not change. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). This is important in the discussion of salvation, because the West and Western thought believe that God changes, and that man can bring about change in God.

God is incomprehensible, but he revealed himself to us: “God the Lord has appeared to us. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” The Christian God is not an unknown God, but rather a God who has revealed himself to the pure in heart because they see God. Saint Athanasius says that it is meaningless for a person to be created unless God reveals himself to him.

Palamas says: “There are three truths in God, that is, essence, power, and a trinity of divine persons” (150 chapters: 75). That is, in God we distinguish nature from divine forces, and we distinguish the person from nature.

The distinction between nature and forces was to preserve the Church's teaching that God created the world ex nihilo. Origen said that God is a creator by nature, and because God's nature cannot change, therefore God must always be a creator. This means that the world is as eternal as God. This is exactly what the pagan and Greek philosophers believed, but this is not the faith of the Bible. This is why Saint Athanasius drew a dividing line between what God is and what God makes. Also, without this distinction, it is not possible to distinguish between the Son of God, “born of the Father before all ages,” and the material creation that God created from nothing.

The second distinction between nature and person helps to understand the Holy Trinity and the incarnation of the Son. The person of the Son was the one who was incarnated, yet he remained the same without change. God became a human being, suffered, died, and rose again without any change occurring in the divine nature.

deification: The misunderstanding of theosis by Protestants and Catholics is behind the misunderstanding of salvation in Orthodoxy. Saint Athanasius says that God became man so that man could become God. This confused many who saw this as a return to paganism and a mixing of gods and humans.

There are two sins that people commit in the concept of salvation: Some people think that people are part of God or divinity. In order to escape this misunderstanding, Protestants resort to the second error, which is the conclusion that there is no true union between God and man.

In its belief in deification, the Church relies on the Council of Chalcedon’s definition of the Christology of Christ, in which the divine nature is united with human nature “without mixing, confusion, separation, or division.”

Man is not by nature divine. He is created and will always be that way.

The union between the divine and human natures in the person of Jesus Christ is not according to nature, but rather according to the hypostasis, “the hypostatic union” (Cyril of Alexandria). This is what Leonidius of Jerusalem dealt with: The hypostasis of the Son impersonated the human nature that he included with him, so he became its hypostasis, and it became a part of him. The divine nature does not accept any temporal accident. But the human nature united with it accepts to be filled with the rays of divinity, with the essential divine powers. As for the union between God and man, it is not according to nature or according to the hypostasis, but rather according to the powers. These forces are uncreated. This is an important and main difference between Catholics and Orthodox. For Catholics the powers of God are in essence and therefore inaccessible to man. Man communicates with God through created blessings [7]. But created blessings cannot divinize man.

For Protestants, nature and forces are rarely talked about, but they assume that graces are created and that there is no way for man to participate directly with God. Therefore, for them, all that remains is moral improvement. But man thirsts for union with God, for direct communion with Him, and this is impossible unless God makes Himself capable of communion with man, unless He bestows Himself through divine powers. Thus man is deified and remains human, and God is able to be shared with him and remains transcendent in essence. Western scholastic metaphysics was unable to reconcile Peter's words (2 Peter 1:4) regarding participation in the nature of God with other verses that made him unattainable.

Divine justice:
Divine justice means something different between Orthodox and Catholics. For the Fathers, divine justice is the elimination of Satan and death and the restoration of the entire human body and soul to immortality and incorruption and to the knowledge of God in His glory. Until this happens, there is no required change in God, no atonement, or judicial compensation. People are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Divine justice is not a legal, judicial, or legal program or plan. God's justice and God's love are the same thing. The idea of atonement did not exist among the fathers because they knew that God’s justice is love that does not demand anything in return. John of Damascus says: “His justice was demonstrated by the fact that when man was defeated, God did not leave it to anyone else to defeat the tyrant, nor did he rescue man from death by force. Rather, the righteous and just made Himself, whom death had enslaved in the past through sins, return today again and triumphant, thus saving the like with like.” (The Orthodox Faith, Book 3, Chapter 1). The death of God's creation and the death of the righteous is unjust, because God did not create death and does not take pleasure in the death of His creation. But death entered the world because of the evil one, because of the fall and sin of man. The West equates death with divine justice, but in the East, death is unjust. God came in the flesh to abolish this injustice and evil and to preserve his children, redeeming them from the grip of evil and death. Thus Saint Paul declares: “But now the righteousness of God has been made manifest…” (Romans 3:21). In this context we find the meaning of justification and righteousness.

Satan and death have always been the enemy and have never been a tool or partner of God as the West understands.

The West believes that its understanding of divine justice is a reflection of the just nature of God and bears a striking resemblance to human justice. The West thinks this way because it inherited Augustine's method of knowledge based on the existence of a similarity between God and creation, because created reality for him is a copy of uncreated reality, which are eternal ideas in the essence of God called universals.

In times following Augustine, the West began to understand the work of salvation as exclusively propitiatory atonement for an angry, vengeful God, a view that expressed vestiges of pagan faith. Augustine said: “God threatened Adam with this punishment of death if he sinned.” Bound by the imperatives of divine justice, God can only demand blood and vengeance as a tax for human transgressions against divine law. The divine need for revenge and retribution against man is the main cause of death. However, the death of the entire human race was not enough. It was necessary to give birth to someone whose blood was sufficient to push. This necessity was the main reason for the incarnation in the West's view: Christ was born because he was the only one capable of making the necessary, unlimited atonement that would change God's attitude toward man and that would enable God to grant legal pardon or absolution for sins. The West's teaching about the atonement was an unequivocal declaration of necessity in God. Of course, necessity in God was originally inherited in the teaching of divine ideas about the divine essence, according to Augustine. Necessity replaced God's freedom and selfless love in his relationships with his children and dictated the incarnation.

On the part of the Fathers, they defined divine justice as the judgment of the incarnate Word on evil and death, the enemies of humanity. On the other hand, Augustine saw Satan and death as partners and punitive tools in the hands of God, and he saw salvation as man’s escape from the clutches of God. This is why, for the West, all evil in the world comes from God's punishing will. On the contrary, Gregory the Theologian explains the consensus of the Fathers by saying:

“It was not by the Father that we were wronged. On what basis did the blood of His only Son delight the Father, who would not even accept Isaac when his father offered him, but rather changed the sacrifice, putting a ram in the place of the victim? Is it not clear that the Father accepts him (accepts Christ) but does not ask for him or require him, but because of the plan (of the incarnation), and because humanity must be sanctified by the humanity of God, so that he may give himself to us, overcome the tyrant, and draw us to himself through his Son?

Atonement: The book appears to be a truth with many faces. In the Middle Ages, the theologian Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (1033-1109), invented the theory of atonement that has prevailed in Western thought to this day.

Anselmus says that man's sin was an insult to God (in the Middle Ages the crime was not against the people or the state, but against the person of the king, like England today). Since the sin was against God, the guilt was unlimited. A person cannot atone for an unlimited sin because man is limited. This is why there was a need for a God-Man, that is, an incarnate God, to atone for the sins of humanity through His suffering and death.

People put different tones to Anselmus's theory: some said that divine justice is what must be satisfied. Others said that it was the dignity of God wounded by human sin. Others said that God's wrath must be quenched.

Protestants accepted Anselmus's theory. The difference between Catholics and Protestants was not whether divine justice, God's honor, or God's wrath was to be satisfied. Rather, the main difference between them was whether man could add anything by repentance to atonement.

The theory of atonement is very important, very influential in Western thought, and very powerful as well. If an important person committed a murder and was brought before a judge who ordered him to pay a ransom or be killed; The chosen one came and paid the ransom for the criminal, then the judge declared his “innocence” and released him, leaving him justified. Did this change the nature of man, his desires, his evil, or...? of course not. This is also the case in the theory of atonement: Christ paid the ransom for us to satisfy God’s wounded dignity, extinguish His wrath, and satisfy divine justice. All that is required of us is to “accept” this ransom and emerge justified!

This is what Protestants do in their conferences and meetings: Christ paid the ransom for you. you are wrong. Accept Christ's ransom and you will be justified. In 60 minutes or less, a person goes from a sinner destined for hell to a saint within the kingdom [8]!

There are three theological problems with this theory:

First problem: It is based on the idea that God has human characteristics: He becomes angry, holds grudges, takes revenge, is insulted, has his dignity injured, etc. But we found that God does not change. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that man's sin makes God angry. This means that God was not angry before man's sin. According to this theory, God's wrath was removed after Christ satisfied him with his redemption on the cross. This means that God changes, and that this change is caused by the actions of man!

If we leave aside God's wounded dignity and wrath and take divine justice. God is just. Because He does not change, He cannot let man escape unless divine justice takes its course. This means that justice is greater than God because God is subject to justice! This is against Christian theology. This is what God says about Himself: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8).

Second problem: It makes sin a problem for God rather than a problem for man. One aspect of this theory is that God is both merciful and just. God's mercy wants to save all people. But he cannot violate his divine justice. Therefore, sin is actually a problem for God. The problem here is not what sin does to man, but rather what effect sin has on God and on His attitude toward people. In the Christian East, sin is seen as a disease that afflicts man. According to the atonement theory, this disease affects the doctor more than the patient, and recovery depends more on the doctor's attitude toward the patient than on the patient's health.

The third problem: Salvation in the Western theory of atonement remains external to man, and therefore man remains unchanged. Salvation means that man’s sin has been removed, and if this sin is merely a legal judicial position before God, this means that man remains without a change in his nature and without a cure for his diseases. In other words: Belief in Christ’s atonement on the cross, according to the Western theory of atonement, does not erase the sins of the believer, but rather this believer is no longer accused of these sins. In essence, man remains a sinner without change.

This means that God and man remain external to each other throughout the event of salvation. Man is not changed or recreated, but is merely declared “not guilty.” This is because the theory of atonement assumes that God and man cannot unite on any level other than the level of moral obedience. This is a practical denial of the divine incarnation in Western thought.

For the Orthodox, the situation is exactly the opposite. The issue is not man's moral stance toward God, but man's estrangement from the goal for which he was created, which is communion with God, to be with him and unite with him. The lost human destiny has been restored in Christ, the second new Adam...what he is by nature we become by grace.

This is why the Orthodox Church rejects the theory of atonement through redemption because it violates the most basic principles of Christian theology and because it leaves man unchanged. For the Orthodox: to be saved means to regain your spiritual health. It is not God's attitude toward man that needs to be changed, but rather the condition of man. Salvation in Orthodox theology is not the state of Western righteousness, but theosis (Yugoslav Saint Justin Popović on the Fathers). We obtain its seed in baptism and reach its culmination in the bitter spiritual struggle crowned in the general resurrection by shining like Christ on the mountain. Righteousness in itself is not deification. It is not a fixed situation. They are continuous gains in jihad with the grace of redemption. In Ephesians (1:7), redemption through the blood of Christ is the forgiveness of sins.

Faith vs works:
Nothing has generated so much controversy as the topic of faith and works. The problem began in the New Testament days when some assumed that if we had faith there was no need for works. To this false assumption, Saint James answered: “...faith also, if it does not have works, is dead in itself...” (James 2: cf. 14-20). James here does not disagree with Paul, as Luther and other Protestants mistakenly assumed. Rather, James here disagrees with Paul’s misunderstanding, saying: “We then consider that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” (Romans 3:28). The works here are the works of the Jewish law of Moses. That is, Paul says that a person cannot make himself justified by works of the law, otherwise Christ would have died without a cause. The works of the law have no saving value in Paul’s eyes, and their rule in Christianity has disappeared.

Protestants and Catholics: Protestants place this issue on the level of an opposite duality: If a person is saved by works, then what Christ achieved on the cross was not sufficient for salvation. Because this is impossible, because Christ accomplished on the cross everything that was sufficient to save man, this means that salvation comes exclusively through faith, and therefore there is no need for works.
But if a person is not justified by works of the law, this does not mean that a person is saved exclusively by faith. This is what Saint James wanted to say. Also, if works detract from the value of what Christ did, this means that salvation is external to a person’s spiritual state. That is, it assumes that the theory of salvation is the theory of atonement.

If we begin by assuming that sin is an affront to the dignity of God that requires unlimited atonement, and if we also assume that only the Only Begotten Son is capable of this unlimited atonement in place of man, then all that remains is how this atonement can be applied to people as individuals. Every group in the time of the Reformation, Protestants and Catholics, insisted on the necessity of faith in Christ. But the question is: “Is there anything else necessary?”

According to Catholic theology: human sin causes eternal and temporal punishment. Christ atoned for eternal, not temporal, punishment. This is why the Sacrament of Penance is necessary to atone for temporal punishment. If a Christian dies without this atonement, he goes to purgatory to atone there. “Indulgences” were invented to shorten the period of time in purgatory.

The Protestant reaction to this was logical: How could Christ's sacrifice not be enough to pay the debt of sin? We saw previously that the question in the theory of atonement between Catholicism and Protestantism was this: Can repentance add anything to the atonement of Christ? Protestants answered: No. The Orthodox will agree to this only if we accept the Western theory of atonement.

Salvation in the Orthodox sense:
All Protestant concepts of all kinds assume that sin is a legal act that insults God's dignity and arouses His wrath. Therefore, God's honor and wrath must be satisfied. Practically nothing is said about man except his appearance before God.

The Orthodox concept of salvation stems from very different axioms. As we have seen, the idea that man's sinful actions cause a change in God (provoking His wrath and wounding His dignity) is close to blasphemy. God does not change. God is not subject to an internal conflict between His justice and His mercy.

بالنسبة للأرثوذكسية: الخطيئة ليست جريمة ضد العدالة الإلهية، لكنها مرضٌ يُتلف الإنسان. لم يأتِ المسيح لكي يشفي كرامة الله المجروحة، بل ليشفي الإنسان من مرضه. بسبب الخطيئة صار الإنسان أسير الموت والفساد. الله حياة، والإنسان قطع نفسه عن الله مصدر الحياة الأبدية. جاء المسيح ليُعيد هذه الحياة الضائعة للإنسان.
When we talk about salvation, we are talking not only about the restoration of sick human nature, but also about the sick human person.

Because of the sin of Adam and Eve, human nature became corrupt and captive to death. Man did not inherit the guilt of Adam's sin. This is a personal sin. Rather, he inherited the consequences of the fall that affected general human nature as a whole. Also, we inherited not only a mortal nature, but also a nature whose faculties were corrupted. The human will has become paralyzed by sin and prefers evil to good.

Through his incarnation, Christ began the process of healing our sick nature. His divine nature was united with our human nature, and His divine will sanctified our human will. Through his obedience to God the Father, Christ healed the human will with his blood, and through his death and resurrection, he eliminated the power of death and freed captive man, restoring human nature to true life.

This is the objective dimension of salvation. Christ saved human nature, granted it His glory, immortality, and deified it. But there is a personal dimension to salvation. Even if all people will rise from the dead on the last day, not all people will taste the blessed resurrection.

If salvation were a matter of God's attitude toward man rather than man's free participation in God's life, heaven would be full of people declared “not guilty” by God, yet their souls were still corrupted by sin.

Sin is not God's problem but man's problem. Christ did everything to restore human nature and open the doors of the Kingdom to man, but our entry into the Kingdom depends on us [9].

God does not force man to do anything. Man, with his absolute freedom, must accept or reject Christ. Christ restored the divine image in man to what it was. Our attainment of the divine ideal depends on our free choice. In other words, God can make us immortal, but He cannot make us good and loving.

The Orthodox emphasis on the synergism between God and man, between the human will and the divine will, does not mean diminishing the work of Christ to save man: Christ conquered the power of sin and death and restored human nature to the divine image. More than this, only in Christ, that is, only by union with his body, is man healed, body, soul and person: “For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

Also, the Orthodox doctrine of mutual aid does not mean that human salvation is something that a person can “deserve,” “deserve,” or “earn.” The whole idea of merit is alien to Orthodox theology. When Christ returns, He will be all for all, and we will experience His presence either as light and life or as judgment of darkness. The difference does not lie in Christ’s attitude towards us: because he is love and will continue to love everyone. The difference is in our attitude towards Christ: this is the personal or some personal aspect of salvation; This is the world of faith and works [10].

Once saved, always saved?
The difference between the Orthodox and the West is not just abstract, theoretical theology. The differences affect even aspects of Christian piety. This comes up when discussing salvation. The Protestant boasts that he has been saved once and for all. As for the pious Orthodox, he admits that he is a sinner and says that what he is is the grace of God. The Protestant explains the Orthodox position by saying that he does not know Jesus. There is stupidity and pride in the Protestant's position. Paul said that he was the first of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). A Protestant does not beat his chest like a tax collector.

For most Protestants: It is possible to know with certainty that one is saved and assured of the heavenly kingdom. This important idea needs discussion.

Blessed assurance of salvation:
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).

For the Protestant, it is self-evident that the Christian should know that he is saved and guarantee his salvation. How can the Orthodox deny what is simply said in the Bible?

The answer is that the Protestant and the Orthodox use the word “salvation” in two different meanings, which is why they reach two contradictory results in discussing this issue.

Protestant understanding Rooted within the framework of the theory of atonement mentioned above. The difference between the saved and the lost is in God’s position on them, and not in any of their characteristics. It also assumes that a person's condition can change in an instant from a great sinner to a great saint.

To be “saved” for a Protestant means to be declared “not guilty” by God. This means that when God looks at you, he sees the righteousness of Christ instead of your sins and your fallen, sinful condition. Through Christ's substitutionary redemption on the cross, Christ satisfied the Father's justice and dignity and extinguished His wrath. Because the “saved” person stands before God “justified,” that is, innocent of all charges of sin against him, he can enter the kingdom and enjoy eternal life.

On the other hand, whoever denies Christ and does not accept him as his personal Lord and Savior remains in sin. When God looks at him, he does not see the righteousness of Christ but rather the sinful state of this man, which is why this man is cast into hell.

Within this framework, the doctrine of blessed certainty makes sense. If one accepts Christ and places all his trust in Christ's redemptive work, then he can be confident that God will keep His promise: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21). I accepted Christ, that's why I'm saved. Nothing could be simpler than this.

For the Orthodox The question of salvation is not how God sees man. God always looks at man with love, regardless of man’s actions: “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). It is man's ability to communicate with God, not God's ability to communicate with man.

Since salvation, for the Orthodox, ultimately refers to the actual spiritual state of the Christian, this is why we find the Orthodox Christian reluctant to declare that he is saved. To say that He is saved means that He takes God's place in judgment. When a Protestant says he is saved, he is not describing the state of his soul, but rather that God no longer sees him as a sinner. For the Orthodox, saying that he is saved means that he has reached a sublime state of righteousness before God. This is what the Orthodox do not dare to utter. He knows that John the Ladder said that a person's final state is linked to the moment of his death (26:107). Antonius the Great said that the experience remains until the moment of death. Chrysostom said that Jesus completes those who are destined for glory at the last moment. All this means that glory is linked to jihad until the last breath. This is not enough because nothing is pure before God. Rather, it is God who completes us at the last moment. In Western thought, it is a static state, while in Orthodox thought, it is dynamic. Repentance is dynamic, continuous, and fervent.

The essence of man's downfall is pride. The core of a person's spiritual illness is his selfishness (his self-love). In order for a person to be healed, he must be humble and embrace spiritual poverty. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3, 8). The kingdom of heaven is not for those who have been declared “not guilty,” but for those who are poor in spirit and pure in heart.
This is why the pious Orthodox Christian refrains from evaluating himself and his spiritual life. He leaves this to his spiritual father (the Protestant does not have spiritual fatherhood and does not understand its meaning, so he is very far from Christian piety in the Orthodox sense). The closer he gets to God, the more he feels unworthy and realizes how great God is and how small man's soul is. Conversely, the farther a person moves away from God, the more he sees God as small, sees himself as great, and feels his greatness and pride. The greatest saints in the Church put their trust in God's grace but never boasted of being saved or saints. This does not mean losing trust in God. God forbid, rather it means deep humility before God. The saint says with Isaiah: “Woe is me! for I am destroyed, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).

For Saint Isaac the Syrian, humility is when a person sees himself as inferior to all created beings [11]. A truly humble person will not condemn or judge anyone. But the moment we think we have arrived, pride separates us from God.

Eternal guarantee or doubtful illusion?
According to the fathers, a person must be humble in order to reach the kingdom of heaven.

For the Protestant, he knows not only that he is saved but also that he cannot fall again [12]. This teaching undoubtedly has roots in the teachings of Calvin. However, its strength is not in the ideological aspect, but rather in the psychological aspect.

Eternal security is the result of Calvin's teaching on perseverance. According to the original teaching, those whom God chose for salvation before the world began will be preserved until the end and will never fall from grace. This teaching of perseverance is a corollary of Calvin's other teachings. Since the elect are chosen by God regardless of their works, there is nothing you or I can do to influence God's choice. And since God's grace cannot be resisted according to Calvin, then you cannot reject it even if you wanted to: then it is self-evident that we arrive at the theory of eternal security, because nothing can make you forfeit your salvation. Perseverance has nothing to do with the Christian or his powers but with the strength of God's will.

The striking thing here is that the majority of believers in the theory of eternal security are not followers of Calvin. For Calvin's followers, the theory of eternal security is meaningful because they believe that God pre-selected the saved before the world began independently of their strength, piety, or free will. Since this “salvation” has nothing to do with their faith, they cannot lose it. Therefore, eternal security for them is self-evident to teach them this. As for the followers of Jacob Arminius Jacob, they saw that a Christian could accept or reject Christ. Yet they believe in eternal security! How can a person choose his salvation and how can he not lose it if he chooses like this? Southern Baptists (the majority of Protestants in America) are of this contradictory opinion: A person chooses with his free will, and yet he is saved, his salvation is guaranteed and he cannot lose it!? That is: A person can choose Christ freely, but once he chooses him, he cannot reject him?!

The majority of the world's Protestants currently adhere to this principle. They do not care whether their theology is self-contradictory or not [13]. The doctrine of eternal security - “once saved, saved forever” - had enormous psychological appeal that attracted many people to Protestantism. This teaching means that salvation is a once-in-a-time process that depends on God's attitude towards man.

Of course, the Orthodox Church rejects this false teaching about salvation because it rejects the framework in which this teaching was formulated. Salvation is a living event of continuous communion with God. Salvation cannot be said to be complete until the day of the general resurrection, when Christ will become “all in all.” As long as we live in the flesh, our salvation depends on our free choice, which God respects no matter what. Saint Paul speaks about his spiritual life, saying: “So I run like this, as if it were not without certainty; This is how I strike as if I am not hitting the air; Rather, I oppress my body and bring it into slavery, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be rejected” (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).

In other words, Paul was working toward his salvation until he achieved what he hoped for. However, he knew that he was not working in his own strength, but in the power of God. This is how he urged the Philippians: “Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only as in my presence, but even more so in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12- 13). The Orthodox do not doubt for a single moment that God is the one who works in us to desire and work for our salvation, but: not against our will, otherwise we would no longer be humans but animals with instincts without reason and free will. Salvation means free communion, otherwise there is no communion at all.

In every Divine Mass, we pray: “That the end of our Christian life will be peaceful, without sadness or shame, and a good response from the feared pulpit of Christ.” This is because our salvation depends not on God’s position on us (God is love and loves us whether we accept or reject Him), but rather on our position on God before our death. . No Orthodox, no matter how holy he is, dares to say that he has reached the pinnacle of spiritual life while he is still alive. Because the holiest person is the person most able to see his sinful condition. That is why the Christian remains awake and alert lest he fall. If he falls, he believes that God will accept him immediately when he repents sincerely.

Review of biblical verses about salvation:
Many Protestants are tempted to quote verses from the Bible to indicate that a person achieves salvation once he accepts personal faith in Jesus Christ, and that this salvation is guaranteed. [14]. Of course, most Orthodox are not good at dealing with the verses of the Bible, and unfortunately, the topic of salvation has never been raised in the Orthodox Church in this way. Studying the subject of salvation in writing is outside the scope of this discussion, but I must mention some general observations that help the Christian understand the biblical verses.

First, we must define the salvation we are talking about, especially when discussing biblical verses. If man was created without blemish and in a state of communion with God, and this communion developed until he fell because of the deceiver, then “salvation” naturally means returning, at least, to the state of man before the fall, i.e. salvation means getting rid of the corruption, sin, and death that It all affects human nature and human life. Of course, in Christ, we will reach what Adam was called to, not just a life of fellowship with God, but union with God, sanctification by God’s uncreated grace, “partakers of the divine nature,” that is, deification. This is in Orthodoxy. As we found, God does not change because of our fall. He always loves us and wants us to share his life. It depends entirely on us: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” He always calls us to Him. In Orthodoxy, salvation is not God’s judgment on us, whether “guilty or innocent.” God's judgment does not change our sick nature. Salvation is new birth by the Holy Spirit; It is to restore the shattered divine image in man to its splendor and health. He is endowed with spiritual weapons through the Holy Spirit who lives within us when we are anointed with the holy chrism. It is a person's spiritual struggle, in spirit and body, until he reaches the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. This is why we notice that Western theology practically denies the divine incarnation and its effects in human life [15]. If salvation were a judicial matter issued by God, the Lord would not have needed to be incarnated, crucified, and resurrected.

First - the biblical verses that indicate that salvation is a temporary matter that is only achieved through words:
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13)

“And the Lord daily added to the church those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47)

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31)

“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

“For we know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16)

“By grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:5)

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of your own. It is the gift of God. “Not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:17)

“By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:37)

We note here that the New Testament writers use the word “salvation” in many meanings that are different from the Western (especially Protestant) concept. For example: Saint Paul used the word “saint” in a way that differs from its current usage. He called all believers saints, that is, “separated” because their lives had been changed by Christ, so they had become different from the people of the world and separated from them. [16]. It is the same in salvation: all believers who believed in Jesus Christ received “salvation.” They became “saved,” just as they became “sanctified,” “saints,” and “set apart.” Believers in Jesus received things that non-believers in Jesus did not obtain. That's why they are saved. But did the writers of the previous verses mean by salvation what today’s Protestants mean? This is what we will see below.

But before moving to the second group of verses, we must note the following regarding the previous verses:

1. When talking about salvation by faith versus works, what is meant exclusively is the works of the Law of Moses and not the works of the Christian faith, as we will see later. The Law of Moses caused a major problem for early Christianity. We see its echo in the verses of the Bible that emphasize that salvation is exclusively by faith, not by works of the Law, so that no one can boast.
2. The saying, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13) does not mean that it cancels the role of baptism and other things in saving a person. Rather, what is meant is that there is no salvation except in the name of the Lord Jesus, whom “God also exalted and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

Protestants are fond of quoting the first group of verses to prove the validity of their teaching. But is it the teaching of the New Testament as well? This is what the next sets of verses will discover [17].

Second - Verses that indicate the necessity of jihad for “saved” believers until the expected salvation is achieved:
If we were “saved” in the Protestant way, we would not need to struggle against passions, desires, etc. If the “savior” in the Protestant way guaranteed his salvation, he would be in a state of salvation from passions, desires, temptations, pains, the possibility of falling, etc. Is this what the New Testament writers intended? Let's see:

“Because the will is present with me, but I have no power to do what is good. For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I do not want I do... It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:18-20). Even after “salvation,” Paul does the evil that he does not want, because of the sin that dwells in him.

“Therefore I myself serve the law of God with the mind, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). Therefore, let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts, neither present your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin...” (Romans 6:12-13).

“Try yourselves, are you in the faith? Examine yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Why do we examine ourselves if we think we are “saved” in the Protestant way?!

“So that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and after you have accomplished all things, to stand (Ephesians 6:13). We must resist, carry out, and stand firm in order to obtain salvation!

“Not that I have already attained or been made perfect, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me” (Philippians 3:12). “Salvation” means “perfection.” But Paul does not dare to say that he has reached perfection. Is he saved in the Protestant way?! of course not. Rather, he is saved in the Christian way: he has received a pledge of salvation and is now struggling to reach the fullness of salvation that he will obtain on the last day when he sees God face to face. This is what he repeats before and after, as we see:

“Brethren, I do not consider myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead” (Philippians 3:13).

“Let us not sleep, then, like others, but let us stay awake and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6).

“You have not yet resisted to the point of blood, striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4).

Eternal security is an important Protestant teaching on “salvation,” as we have seen. The Savior does not fall because Christ raises him up if he falls and saves him. Protestants say: “Christ is faithful and does not abandon his loved ones even if they fall.” The question here is: What if these loved ones fall and do not repent? What if these “beloved” people rejected Christ even after accepting Him? This is what the third group of verses answers:

Third - Verses that indicate that “the saved” are vulnerable to trials, fall, and destruction:
The story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11) is an eloquent example for us: Ananias and Sapphira believed in the Lord Jesus and became “the saved.” But they lied to the Holy Spirit and did not repent, so they received fair retribution, of course. If Ananias and Sapphira had been sincere Protestants, they would have been guaranteed eternity no matter what! Let us not deceive ourselves, beloved ones.

“If anyone is called a brother who is an adulterer or a covetous person…” (1 Corinthians 5:11). Paul says that it is possible for a “saved” brother to be an adulterer or a greedy person. If lust is still alive in the Savior, and this is a reality, then how can he be “saved and from what?” It is clear, then, that the Christian does not reach the stage of complete salvation except on the day of the general resurrection.
“Therefore whoever eats this bread and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:27). Those who partake are of course “the saved,” so how can the saved be criminals in the body and blood of the Lord?!

“I am amazed that you are turning so quickly from Him who called you by the grace of Christ to another gospel” (Galatians 1:6). “Having begun in the spirit, are you now completing it in the flesh?!” (Galatians 3:3. See also 4:9). Were the Galatians not “saved” when they accepted the faith? How did they abandon the good news of the Gospel?

“For many walk, whom I have often mentioned to you, and now I also mention with tears, and they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction” (Philippians 3:18-19). Will the “saved” become enemies of the Cross of Christ and end in destruction?! Paul says this is what actually happened. So: There is no guarantee that the “Savior” has guaranteed the kingdom because he may fall at any moment and abandon Christ. This is what the following verse means:

“But the Spirit clearly says that in recent times some will depart from the faith” (1 Timothy 4:1).

“…taking notice so that no one fails of the grace of God” (Hebrews 12:15). God's grace does not abandon you; Rather, you are the one who abandons it.

“Hold fast to what you have, lest anyone take your crown” (Revelation 3:13). This is the precursor to the angel (shepherd) of the Church of Philadelphia. This wreath is temporary, not eternal. We obtain the eternal crown at the general judgment. Then it will not be taken from us. As for the temporary crown, it is a temporary one that we may lose if we do not deserve it.

Where, then, are those who claim that they have become “saved” and that if they die now, they will fly to the kingdom of heaven? How do “saved” Protestants judge themselves that they truly became “saved” before the Lord the Judge judged them?! Is this what the Bible teaches? Look at the fourth group of verses:

Fourth - The judgment on the last day will decide who will be saved:
“The work of each one will become apparent because the Day will judge him. For it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one’s work...” (1 Corinthians 3:13).

“Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the opinions of hearts; and then praise will come to everyone from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5).

“Let each one examine his work, and then he will have boasting of himself only and not of others” (Galatians 6:4).

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive the things he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10). Salvation and judgment depend on the rule of Christ on the last day

“But whoever boasts, let him glory in the Lord. For not he who praises himself is approved, but he who is praised by the Lord” (2 Corinthians 10:17-18). It is not the one who says, “I am saved,” who is saved, but the one whom the Lord declares to be saved. Clearly, Paul was not a Protestant because he did not understand salvation in the Protestant way!

“May he present you holy and blameless and blameless before him, if you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moving away from the hope of the gospel” (Col. 1:23).

“The word is faithful, that if we have died with him, we shall also live with him.” If we become, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us” (2 Timothy 2:11-12). Notice something important here: “If we deny Him, He will also deny us.” The Lord will deny whoever denies Him because He is faithful. This is why in the literature of the Fathers of the Desert, the teachers of the universe, we find that the greatest hermits are the most aware of their sins and fear the dreaded day of Christ, not because Christ is dishonest. On the contrary: because the faithfulness of Christ is what will judge this person and it is what will decide whether he accepts Christ honestly and sincerely from his heart, soul and mind.

“But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Amen!

For my life, do “saved” Protestants have a red telephone line with divine glory through which they can know who they are saved even before the Day of General Judgment?!

So: Protestants cannot mislead the Orthodox or Catholics about the issue that the Protestant has attained salvation and is guaranteed the kingdom, and that by accepting Jesus to whom glory is due, he has become one of the greatest saints, while he does not know the alphabet of Christian spiritual life.

So: By accepting Christ as a personal Savior, by spiritual rebirth through baptism, by the Holy Spirit receiving glory through the anointing of holy oil, and by receiving the body and blood of the Lord and uniting with Him, a person obtains salvation from his fallen state, the state of sin in which he lived before he became a Christian. The “salvation” that occurs in the Christian is, in brief, all the meanings and effects of baptism. But when a Christian is born again, he is born a new little child who must grow in Christ until he reaches the measure of the full stature of Christ. Then: If the Christian remains faithful to Christ and does not deny him, he will obtain the fullness of salvation on the last day and in the general judgment: deification and “sharing with God his divine nature,” in the words of the Apostle Peter. So: Christian salvation is a dynamic, moving, evolving matter. It is a continuous event that is not completed until after death when it passes. The Lord is the goats of the sheep. Let's read the fifth group of verses.

Fifth - Verses that indicate that salvation is not complete before death/salvation is a continuous event:
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. If we are children, then we are heirs also, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If we suffer with Him that we may be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:16-17): We have not yet been glorified with Him. Even if Paul called us “heirs,” we have not yet received this inheritance, but rather “a deposit of our inheritance to redeem the possessions, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:14).

“For the creation itself will also be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails together until now. And not only so, but we, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, ourselves also groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:21-22): Notice here this very important idea: the creation is still groaning and travails to this day. Creation has not yet been liberated from corruption into the freedom of glory of the children of God. We have not received adoption yet, but we have received an adoption pledge. So: After all of this, how can we say that we are saved in the Western sense? By saying this, we are deceiving ourselves: we have obtained the pledge of salvation, the pledge of adoption, and the pledge of the heavenly kingdom. We will not reach them until the last day after we have proven that we have remained faithful to Jesus. Then creation will be freed from corruption and believers will receive adoption and become children of God in the kingdom, like angels, who will no longer sin. Then they can say they are saved.

So: If we have not yet received the fullness of salvation, but rather we have received its pledge, then it must be said that we are saved through hope. The great Prophet says:

“For it is in hope that we are saved. But hope is foreseeable, not hope. For what a man sees, how can he hope for it also? But if we hope for what we do not see, we expect it with patience” (Romans 8:24-25). Our salvation is not yet foreseeable, but we expect it with patience: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for if he is approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). Notice that he said “to those who love him,” meaning they love the Lord, not “to those whom the Lord loves,” because the Lord loves all people, good and bad. So, based on our love for the Lord and our steadfastness in this love, the Lord decides our salvation.

Before continuing with the verses, we must stop here at what Paul said: “For through hope we have been saved.” Then he said: “But if we hope for what we do not see, then we expect it with patience.” If we have not obtained salvation, but rather expect it through patience, how can Paul say, “It is through hope that we are saved,” instead of saying, “It is through hope that we will be saved”? How does Paul use the past tense for an event that will only take place in the future?

The answer is simple: Paul emphasizes that even if we have not yet attained the fullness of salvation, we are tasting it and living something of it now. We have not reached the kingdom yet, but we know that many saints tasted this kingdom before they left the world. This is why Paul uses the past tense for an event that will take place in the future as if this event had already occurred. This reminds us of Paul’s own words: “And raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). It is clear that Paul does not mean that we have risen with Christ and sat with him in the heavenly places (because we are still on earth awaiting the day of our death), but he means that we have received the pledge of resurrection and the pledge of sitting with Christ in the heavenly places, because we have received, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, “the pledge of our inheritance for the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of his glory.” ” (Ephesians 1:14). However, Paul warns us that God does not force our salvation if we reject Him. That's why he said:

“May he present you holy and blameless and blameless before him, if you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel” (Col 1:22-23).

“Now that you know the time, it is now the hour for us to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than it was when we believed... Let us put off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:11-12). Notice here this: If we read Paul who said: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9) without reading anything else, we would conclude that we obtain salvation simply by believing in Christ. But that is not what Paul means, even if the haters hate it. Because it was Paul himself who said above: Our salvation now is closer than it was when we believed... This means that we have not yet attained salvation. Paul uses the word “salvation” in more than one sense: it means salvation from the state of sin and darkness in which we lived before knowing Christ, it means the pledge of salvation that we obtain now based on our faith in Jesus Christ, and it means the salvation that we will attain to its fullness on the last day if we remain faithful to Christ. The nearer our death, Paul says, the nearer our salvation. The meaning is clear.

“And when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then the word that is written will come true: Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54).

“Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:49). What is meant here? Paul says: Just as we bore the image of the (first) earthy Adam, so we will bear the image of the heavenly (second) Adam, that is, Jesus. That is, we are after incorruption, but: “At the last trump, for it will sound, and the dead and the incorruptible will be raised, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this corruptible puts on incorruption, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the written word will come to pass: “Death is swallowed up in victory...etc.” (1 Corinthians 15:52-58). Therefore: We have not yet put on incorruption and immortality, and we have not yet put on the image of the heavenly Adam (Jesus Christ), and the written word or (the promise) has not yet been fulfilled. This will all happen on the last day. When all rule, authority, and power are abolished, and all enemies are under His feet, and the last enemy to be abolished is death, then all will submit to Him, and God will be all in all. Only then will we attain salvation from corruption, from sin, and from death. Only then can we say that we will no longer sin, we will not become corrupt, and we will not die, so we will become like the angels in the heavens.
“My little children, I am again in travail for you until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). If Christ had not yet been visualized among the “saved” Galatians, how were they “saved” in the Protestant sense?!

“...until we all come to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ...but being true to love, we grow in all things into Him who is the head, Christ” (Ephesians 4:13-15). The Christian is called to grow in faith and knowledge until he reaches the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

“So that you may be able to discern what is different, so that you may be saved and without offense until the day of Christ” (Phil. 1:10). If we do not recognize the different things we have followed, we will not be saved on the day of Christ. It is clear that salvation is not guaranteed and depends on human, not divine, will.

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to know for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12). The Apostle cries out: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Your salvation is not yet complete. They fulfilled it with fear and trembling. Do not murmur, saying: We are saved! This false thought is miserable. Instead of working out our salvation with fear, trembling, love, and humility, we hold our heads high and say: “We are saved”?! Obviously Paul was not a Protestant or he would not have said what he said.

Is a person justified by faith or by works?
The answer depends on what is meant by faith and works. Because a person is justified by faith and works without there being a contradiction between the two statements. how?

In most of the discussions of faith and works in Paul's letters, the talk was not about the works of the Christian faith, but rather about the works of the Jewish law, as we mentioned. That is why Paul said: “And by him (the gospel) you will also be saved” (1 Corinthians 15:2) and “by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:5) and “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10 :9) And “knowing that a person is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16) and “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). If we read these verses separately, we would conclude that a person cannot be justified by the works of the Jewish law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, to whom glory is due. But these verses do not mean that justification by faith eliminates the role of Christian works. Because if justification is by faith according to Paul, this does not mean that Paul abolishes the role of works in the life of the Christian, nor does he put Paul in an opposite position with James, as Luther and others wrongly assumed. What did Paul say about works and salvation by works?
“For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)

“Fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called” (1 Timothy 6:12)

“If anyone struggles, he will not be crowned unless he struggles lawfully” (2 Timothy 2:5)

“The work of each one will become apparent because the Day will judge him. For it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one’s work...” (1 Corinthians 3:13)

“Therefore judge nothing before it is too late until the Lord comes, who will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the thoughts of hearts; and then praise will come to everyone from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5)

“Let each one examine his work, and then he will have boasting for himself only and not for others” (Galatians 6:4)

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive the things done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10)

So: Man will be judged based on his deeds on the last day. These actions will reflect his faith in Christ. From here we find that salvation is through faith and works together. This is what the Lord, glory be to Him, had previously said: “…and then he will reward everyone according to his work” (Matthew 16:27). This scene was presented by the Lord in his talk about the last day: “...because I was hungry and you gave me food to eat....” (Matthew 25:14-31). Of course, actions without faith are like a bank account without balance: paper after paper and do not benefit anything. That is why the Apostle James did not bring anything new when he said: “So also faith, unless it has works, is dead in itself...” (James 2:17) and “A person is justified by works, not by faith alone” (James 2:24).

Salvation is a great mystery. The characteristic of a true Christian is humility, the humility of the tax collector who considered himself unworthy to look at heaven and came out justified. And praise be to God always.

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كتاب: سألتني فأجبتك
Written by: Dr. Adnan Trabelsi

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Study notes:

[1] This title (Salvation between the Orthodox Patristic Concept and Heresies Influenced by Anselm, Luther and Calvin) was created by the network.

[2] Father Lyonnet made a study of the texts of the Greek-speaking Fathers of the Church in their commentary on Romans 5:12. The result is orthodox. The Latin Vulgate translation of Romans 5:12 is wrong. You misled the West. The French translation BJ and its Arabic translation (Dar Al-Mashreq) corrected the error.

[3] See Dr. Adnan Trabelsi “And Adam Fell.”

[4] Old Jesuit translation: “Death passed on to all men through the sin in which they all sinned.” This means that we bear the burden of Adam’s personal sin. The new Jesuit translation (Dar Al-Mashreq) is correct: “Death spread to all people because they all sinned.” Maronite Kaslik translation: “Since everyone...” The Du Fait Que “BJ”: And thus they retreated from the error of the Vulgate (Espiro Jbo).

[5] Would the incarnation have occurred if Adam had not fallen? In “The Manifestations in the Constitution of Faith,” I discussed the topic more precisely than in “The Secret of Dispensation.” The great fathers say that the incarnation happened to save us. This will be supported by us (Espiro Djabour).

[6] Theoretically - as I said in The Secret of Management, contrary to whiskey - the human nature of Jesus Christ should have been incapable of pain and death. But he chose not to be like that. Taking on a nature susceptible to pain, death, and corruption (except for wear and tear in the grave, Secret of Management 153). Loski is fond of assuming contradictions: a judgment between the incompatibility of Jesus’ humanity to women and his voluntary susceptibility to it was contradicted by Larchet in “Deification according to Maximus, p. 512” (Espiro Djabour).

[7] In the French Dictionary of Christian Spirituality and elsewhere, authors review and discuss at length the topic of deification among the fathers. Recently, the Catholic publication Le Cerf published my friend Larchet’s monumental book: “The Deification of Man According to Maximus the Confessor” (Espiro Djabour).

[8] On the Internet there are sites where the greatest sinners become “justified” saints within three minutes!

[9] The gross deficiency in the West is the neglect of the role of the Holy Spirit. He stood at the cross and the blood of Christ. There is glorious Pentecost. The Holy Spirit brought Christ back to us on the day of Pentecost so that he might live in us and we live in him in the Holy Spirit himself. Salvation is not a fixed process, but rather a moving process in the Holy Spirit who manifests in us until we reach the full stature of Christ. Paul commanded us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The issue is not a philosophical and legal analysis, but rather a spiritual life in the Holy Spirit (Espiro Djabour).

[10] Al-Dimashqi has a nice saying that Palamas summed it up: Jesus was incarnated, crucified, died, and rose again...so he embarked on a journey of his own. But in secrets he came back to us. Protestantism abolished the sacraments, and Catholicism tampered with them, deviating from their traditional principles. This return to the sacraments by the action of the Holy Spirit is the core of Orthodox theology. In the sacraments I became Jesus and Jesus became me. Gregory the Theologian considers all the details of Jesus' life as private to his person, as if Jesus were Gregory. He mixes himself with all of Christ's life as if it were his personal life. This is Orthodoxy: Life in Christ (Acepro Gebor).

[11] This is the opinion of Chrysostom, Al-Salami, and many others. Catholicism and Protestantism need to be washed in the laboratory of Saint Ephrem and the fifth article of the book “Peace to God” in order to get rid of philosophy and rationalism. Protestantism needs to get rid of the obsession with interpretation that tore it apart to focus on an orthodox understanding of the Church as the body of Christ in history, one and not divided into individuals. Every Protestant is an individual church. It needs the prayers of Saint Ephrem and the Orthodox Trio, otherwise it will become more copied (Espiro Djabour).

[12] Not all Protestant groups believe this. Methodists, Free Will Baptists, and Campbellites do not believe in eternal security.

[13] In a Baptist book called: “Witnessing to People of Eastern Orthodox Background” by Matt Spann, the author attempts to review the differences between the Orthodox and Protestants in order to facilitate the evangelization of the Orthodox in Orthodox countries. Under the Adam before the Fall passage, it says that Protestants believe that Adam was perfect and in full fellowship with God. The author did not notice that Adam, in the Protestant sense, fell because he rejected God, even though Adam was perfect in his opinion. Today's Protestant, who is imperfect like Adam, cannot fall or reject God, even though he does not have full communion with God like Adam did before the fall (in the Protestant sense). These contradictions in Protestant theology are not strange, but they are unfortunate and lamentable.

[14] Baptists in America support the aggressor Israel. The Protestants of Germany, Britain, and America washed the world with blood and were the prominent inventors of war. Are these actions punishable crimes in the afterlife? Let them be moderate. Contemporary history against their wars, colonization, and oppression of peoples (Espiro Jabour).

[15] The incarnation raised our nature above the angels (The Secret of Divine Management, pp. 64 and 66). Orthodoxy believes in uncreated divine grace and deification. This is based on the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon and the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils: human nature exists in the hypostasis of the Son (Espiro Gebor).

[16] In Orthodoxy: We were baptized by the Holy Spirit, and we were born into Christ and lived in us. We received chrismation, received the Holy Eucharist, and became members of the “holy, universal” Church. Paul said: You have been washed, you have been sanctified, you have been justified (1 Corinthians 2:9).

[17] The biggest Protestant mistake is replacing the Body of Christ (i.e., the Church) with the Bible. Their historical existence was based on being cut off from the body of the Catholic Church to establish a separate group from every previous history. The Church is apostolic, based on the Apostles (Revelation 21:22 and Ephesians) since the Day of Pentecost. Man belongs to it by legal baptism. What is their relationship to the Day of Pentecost? Did the Holy Spirit leave the church from Pentecost until Luther in 1518? Did a new Pentecost occur in 1518? No, so Protestantism is a branch that grew outside the Church (Espiro Djabour).