Who can circumscribe God's love? What earthly being can dare to say who will be saved? Only Our Lord God Himself can answer your question.
Christ died for us all, and yet we can only be saved through believing on Him and His truth. The Orthodox Church believes that the fulness of that Truth is to be found within its teachings and practices; it is the best hospital for the spiritual sickness that ails us all. Is it the only hospital? Clearly not; but since Orthodox folk believe it is the best, they would rather be in it than any other hospital - however modern it claims to be.
It is interesting that no one has tried to answer your question. Orthodox Christians are not in the business of disrespecting other Christians, and no one here would wish to cast any aspersions on other denominations. We believe that God's ways cannot be known wholly to us. How and why He allows so many denominations to worship Him can be guessed at and argued over; but as with the question of who will be saved - He, and He alone decides that.
Does being in the Orthodox Church make it more likely that we shall be saved? Much is asked from those to whom much is given; but His goodness and His mercy are infinite - and we should trust in Him.
I hope that is a helpful contribution towards an explanation of why none of us here could give a definitive answer. But those of us who are Orthodox have the assurance of being in the best place for our spiritual sickness. But we also, I hope, love and respect all our Trinitarian Brothers and Sisters.
Comments
Who can circumscribe God's love? What earthly being can dare to say who will be saved? Only Our Lord God Himself can answer your question.
Christ died for us all, and yet we can only be saved through believing on Him and His truth. The Orthodox Church believes that the fulness of that Truth is to be found within its teachings and practices; it is the best hospital for the spiritual sickness that ails us all. Is it the only hospital? Clearly not; but since Orthodox folk believe it is the best, they would rather be in it than any other hospital - however modern it claims to be.
It is interesting that no one has tried to answer your question. Orthodox Christians are not in the business of disrespecting other Christians, and no one here would wish to cast any aspersions on other denominations. We believe that God's ways cannot be known wholly to us. How and why He allows so many denominations to worship Him can be guessed at and argued over; but as with the question of who will be saved - He, and He alone decides that.
Does being in the Orthodox Church make it more likely that we shall be saved? Much is asked from those to whom much is given; but His goodness and His mercy are infinite - and we should trust in Him.
I hope that is a helpful contribution towards an explanation of why none of us here could give a definitive answer. But those of us who are Orthodox have the assurance of being in the best place for our spiritual sickness. But we also, I hope, love and respect all our Trinitarian Brothers and Sisters.
In Christ,
John
Anglican (now Orthodox ;D) has answered your question as well as any of us can.
I simply wish to recommend a book. It is called Salvation in the Orthodox Concept by Pope Shenouda the Third.
It should tell you more about this topic. I haven't been able to find an online copy of this book, but you will certainly find it at any Coptic Church. This is a church locator http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/directory/
There is also a plethora of information online
http://www.suscopts.org/literature/
http://saint-mary.net/books/
http://www.saint-mary.net/youth/ebs/
http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/thecopticchurch/index.html
I'm sure there is more out there that i am not aware of. Others on this site can point you to the right direction.