{"id":721,"date":"2009-02-27T17:46:59","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T17:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxonline.org\/theology\/innovations-and-heresies\/modern-heresies\/the-salvation-between-east-and-west\/"},"modified":"2009-02-27T17:46:59","modified_gmt":"2009-02-27T17:46:59","slug":"the-salvation-between-east-and-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxonline.org\/theology\/en\/innovations-and-heresies\/modern-heresies\/the-salvation-between-east-and-west\/","title":{"rendered":"The heresy of salvation in an instant - salvation between East and West"},"content":{"rendered":"

Salvation among the Orthodox patristic concept<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n

And heresies influenced by \u201cAnselm, Luther and Calvin\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/strong> <\/a>(1)<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

the introduction:<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cAre you saved?!\u201d 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: \u201cAre you saved?!\u201d Whatever the other\u2019s answer, the Protestant begins to brag that he is one of the \u201csaved\u201d and \u201cborn again\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It is natural to ask first, what does \u201csalvation\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Salvation for Orthodoxy is union with God. Because man was unable to ascend to God, God rose \u201cand lowered the heavens and descended\u201d (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.<\/p>\n

The creation and fall of man:<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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: \u201cFor dust you are, and to dust you will return\u201d (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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wages of sin\u201d:<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The inherited guilt of original sin does not exist in the Bible and in the Orthodox Fathers <\/a>(2)<\/a>. Instead, they teach that humanity inherited Adam's fallen nature, along with corruption, death, spiritual illness, and distance from God. <\/a>(3)<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

When Paul said, \u201cFor the wages of sin is death\u201d (Romans 6:23), he does not mean that God rewards man\u2019s 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: \u201cCursed is the earth because of you\u201d (Genesis 3:17), leaving man to the natural consequences of his earthly nature: \u201cFor dust you are, and to dust you shall return\u201d (Genesis 3:19).<\/p>\n

death:<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

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 \u201cjudged\u201d 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.)<\/p>\n

God allowed death as an act of mercy so that man would not be eternally sinful. Theophilus of Antioch says: \u201cThis is truly a great benevolence: a person does not have to remain in sin forever.\u201d The funeral service echoes the words of Gregory the Theologian: \u201clest evil remain in vain.\u201d<\/p>\n

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, \u201cwho has the power of death\u201d (Hebrews 2:14), will forever seize people\u2019s souls and be the source of sin.<\/p>\n

Romans 5:12:<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Adam died because he sinned; We now sin because we die: \u201cTherefore, 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\u201d (Romans 5:12) <\/a>(4)<\/a>. 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\u2019s 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 \u201csin reigned through death\u201d (Romans 5:12) in our corruption, and that \u201cthe sting of death is sin\u201d (1 Corinthians 5:56), and that death is the origin and sin is the thorn that stems from it. .<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last enemy to be defeated is death\u201d (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.<\/p>\n

incarnation:<\/span> 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\u2019s person (Col. 1:15 and Heb. 1:3). The incarnation of Christ allowed us to become \u201cpartakers of the divine nature,\u201d in the words of the Apostle Peter (2 Peter 1:4). Maximus the Confessor says: \u201cIf 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 <? \u0627\u0644\u0622\u0644\u0647\u0629>> (\u0645\u0632\u0645\u0648\u0631 82: 1)\u060c \u0623\u064a \u0623\u0648\u0644\u0626\u0643 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u062e\u0644\u0651\u064e\u0635\u064a\u0646 (\u0645\u0632\u0645\u0648\u0631 82: 6)\u060c \u0648\u0627\u0642\u0641\u0627\u064b \u0641\u064a \u0648\u0633\u0637\u0647\u0645 \u0648\u0645\u0648\u0632\u0651\u0650\u0639\u0627\u064b \u0647\u0646\u0627\u0643 \u0635\u0641\u0648\u0641 \u0627\u0644\u063a\u0628\u0637\u0629 \u0628\u062f\u0648\u0646 \u0623\u064a \u0645\u0633\u0627\u0641\u0629 \u062d\u064a\u0632\u064a\u0629 \u062a\u0641\u0635\u0644\u0647 \u0639\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u062e\u062a\u0627\u0631\u064a\u0646” (\u0627\u0644\u0641\u0635\u0648\u0644 \u0641\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0639\u0631\u0641\u0629 2: 25).<\/p>\n

Humanity needed an \u201cantidote to death\u201d (Ignatius of Antioch). \u201cOur 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\u201d (Gregory of Nyssa). As Al-Dimashqi says: \u201cHe who is without beginning and without body was incarnated for our salvation, so that the like might be saved in the same way.\u201d \u201cFallen nature\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

The antidote to this condition is \u201cthe humanity of God\u201d (Gregory the Theologian), the leaven and fermentation of our enlightenment and sanctification: the incarnation, which was always the divine essence before the ages. <\/a>(5)<\/a>. Therefore, our restoration did not require a change in God\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The body and blood of the incarnate Word are \u201cthe antidote to death, the medicine for immortality\u201d (Ignatius of Antioch). Christ says: \u201cWhoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day\u201d (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.<\/p>\n

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: \u201cBut 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...\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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: \u201cLust arises as a penal consequence of (original) sin.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Christ's death and resurrection:<\/span> Christ was incarnated and took on human nature in all its aspects. Gregory the Theologian says: \u201cWhatever he does not do, he will not be healed.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Christ did not die because he had to die <\/a>(6)<\/a>. He did everything by his own choice. Christ's death and resurrection led to:<\/p>\n

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

    Forgiveness of sins:<\/span> Irenaeus says: \u201cThe 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.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

    Freedom from the power of death:<\/span> 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: \u201cWhen he descended from the cross into hell - to fill all things with himself - the pangs of death came.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    Redemption:<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

    God does not change. \u201cJesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever\u201d (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.<\/p>\n

    God is incomprehensible, but he revealed himself to us: \u201cGod the Lord has appeared to us. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

    Palamas says: \u201cThere are three truths in God, that is, essence, power, and a trinity of divine persons\u201d (150 chapters: 75). That is, in God we distinguish nature from divine forces, and we distinguish the person from nature.<\/p>\n

    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, \u201cborn of the Father before all ages,\u201d and the material creation that God created from nothing.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    deification:<\/span> 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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    In its belief in deification, the Church relies on the Council of Chalcedon\u2019s definition of the Christology of Christ, in which the divine nature is united with human nature \u201cwithout mixing, confusion, separation, or division.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Man is not by nature divine. He is created and will always be that way.<\/p>\n

    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, \u201cthe hypostatic union\u201d (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 <\/a>(7)<\/a>. But created blessings cannot divinize man.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    Divine justice:<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

    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 \u201cjustified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus\u201d (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\u2019s justice is love that does not demand anything in return. John of Damascus says: \u201cHis 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.\u201d (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: \u201cBut now the righteousness of God has been made manifest\u2026\u201d (Romans 3:21). In this context we find the meaning of justification and righteousness.<\/p>\n

    Satan and death have always been the enemy and have never been a tool or partner of God as the West understands.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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: \u201cGod threatened Adam with this punishment of death if he sinned.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

    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\u2019s 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:<\/p>\n

    \u201cIt 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?<\/p>\n

    Atonement:<\/span> 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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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 \u201cinnocence\u201d 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\u2019s wounded dignity, extinguish His wrath, and satisfy divine justice. All that is required of us is to \u201caccept\u201d this ransom and emerge justified!<\/p>\n

    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 <\/a>(8)<\/a>!<\/p>\n

    There are three theological problems with this theory:<\/span><\/h3>\n

    First problem:<\/strong> 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!<\/p>\n

    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: \u201cFor my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord\u201d (Isaiah 55:8).<\/p>\n

    Second problem:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

    The third problem: <\/strong>Salvation in the Western theory of atonement remains external to man, and therefore man remains unchanged. Salvation means that man\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

    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 \u201cnot guilty.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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 Popovi\u0107 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.<\/p>\n

    Faith vs works:<\/span><\/h2>\n

    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: \u201c...faith also, if it does not have works, is dead in itself...\u201d (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\u2019s misunderstanding, saying: \u201cWe then consider that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law\u201d (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\u2019s eyes, and their rule in Christianity has disappeared.<\/p>\n

    Protestants and Catholics:<\/span> 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\u2019s spiritual state. That is, it assumes that the theory of salvation is the theory of atonement.<\/p>\n

    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: \u201cIs there anything else necessary?\u201d<\/p>\n

    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. \u201cIndulgences\u201d were invented to shorten the period of time in purgatory.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    Salvation in the Orthodox sense:<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    For Orthodoxy: Sin is not a crime against divine justice, but a disease that destroys man. Christ did not come to heal God's wounded dignity, but to heal man from his illness. Because of sin, man became a prisoner of death and corruption. God is life, and man has cut himself off from God, the source of eternal life. Christ came to restore this lost life to man.
    When we talk about salvation, we are talking not only about the restoration of sick human nature, but also about the sick human person.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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 \u201cnot guilty\u201d by God, yet their souls were still corrupted by sin.<\/p>\n

    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 <\/a>(9)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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: \u201cFor in him we live and move and have our being\u201d (Acts 17:28).<\/p>\n

    Also, the Orthodox doctrine of mutual aid does not mean that human salvation is something that a person can \u201cdeserve,\u201d \u201cdeserve,\u201d or \u201cearn.\u201d 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\u2019s 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 <\/a>(10)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Once saved, always saved?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    Blessed assurance of salvation:<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

    \u201cThese 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\u201d (1 John 5:13).<\/p>\n

    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?<\/p>\n

    The answer is that the Protestant and the Orthodox use the word \u201csalvation\u201d in two different meanings, which is why they reach two contradictory results in discussing this issue.<\/p>\n

    Protestant understanding<\/span> Rooted within the framework of the theory of atonement mentioned above. The difference between the saved and the lost is in God\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

    To be \u201csaved\u201d for a Protestant means to be declared \u201cnot guilty\u201d 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 \u201csaved\u201d person stands before God \u201cjustified,\u201d that is, innocent of all charges of sin against him, he can enter the kingdom and enjoy eternal life.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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: \u201cEveryone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved\u201d (Acts 2:21). I accepted Christ, that's why I'm saved. Nothing could be simpler than this.<\/p>\n

    For the Orthodox<\/span> The question of salvation is not how God sees man. God always looks at man with love, regardless of man\u2019s actions: \u201cFor he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust\u201d (Matthew 5:45). It is man's ability to communicate with God, not God's ability to communicate with man.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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. \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven\u201d (Matthew 5:3, 8). The kingdom of heaven is not for those who have been declared \u201cnot guilty,\u201d 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: \u201cWoe is me! for I am destroyed, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips\u201d (Isaiah 6:5).<\/p>\n

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

    Eternal guarantee or doubtful illusion?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

    According to the fathers, a person must be humble in order to reach the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n

    For the Protestant, he knows not only that he is saved but also that he cannot fall again <\/a>(12)<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    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 \u201csalvation\u201d 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?!<\/p>\n

    The majority of the world's Protestants currently adhere to this principle. They do not care whether their theology is self-contradictory or not <\/a>(13)<\/a>. The doctrine of eternal security - \u201conce saved, saved forever\u201d - 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.<\/p>\n

    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 \u201call in all.\u201d 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: \u201cSo 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\u201d (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).<\/p>\n

    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: \u201cTherefore, 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\u201d (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.<\/p>\n

    In every Divine Mass, we pray: \u201cThat the end of our Christian life will be peaceful, without sadness or shame, and a good response from the feared pulpit of Christ.\u201d This is because our salvation depends not on God\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

    Review of biblical verses about salvation:<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

    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. <\/a>(14)<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

    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 \u201csalvation\u201d 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\u2019s uncreated grace, \u201cpartakers of the divine nature,\u201d 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: \u201cToday, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.\u201d He always calls us to Him. In Orthodoxy, salvation is not God\u2019s judgment on us, whether \u201cguilty or innocent.\u201d 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 <\/a>(15)<\/a>. If salvation were a judicial matter issued by God, the Lord would not have needed to be incarnated, crucified, and resurrected.<\/p>\n

    First - the biblical verses that indicate that salvation is a temporary matter that is only achieved through words:<\/strong><\/h3>\n