Phew! I’m relieved! I guess Guest’s blog site is a good example at one of what can happen to biblical data removed from its full context and mooring in the fullness of Christian Tradition. It ought to serve as a warning to all of us.

It might be good for you to unpack sometime what you mean by the “once saved, always saved” doctrine being boastful, prideful and arrogant. (To be technical, only people and fallen angels can be this way.) It also needs to be balanced with the reality that Orthodox can hold “triumphalist” attitudes as well.

God bless!

1) guest has made no real attempt at engaging us in conversation. Instead, he has done exactly what I was talking about in my OP — trying to convert me to Jesus, as if saying one single prayer is going to make me set for life. The Christ described by the Gospels, the Christ witnessed to by the Church, and the Christ I know requires daily conversion. It is not a single event, and I fully believe that the doctrine of “once saved, always saved” is boastful, prideful and arrogant. People saying that “saved” people don’t sin and don’t struggle is exactly what drove me to agnosticism and the black metal culture in the first place. At any rate, I am not interested in having people try to “convert” me on this blog. I am more than willing to have discussions, but I don’t need to be “witnessed” to.

2) guest’s initial posts come verbatim from his blog. This blog, however, is not going to be a sounding board for theological concepts that the true Christian church finds dangerous and spiritually damaging. I still don’t know what guest’s agenda here was other than to “convert” me, and that is not acceptable.

3) I am insulted that both Karen and I (but Karen especially) have been making rather long and thought-out posts, only to be met with cliche one-liners about religion and how to be “saved.” Sorry, but THAT is what I call a false gospel. Repentance and struggle, once again, takes a lifetime.

As a result of all of this, guest is now known as just that — guest. His real name has been deleted, as have links to his email address and his blog. Any subsequent posts by guest are going to be deleted upon sight. I am not happy to be appearing so heavy-handed, but to allow this nonsense to continue is not edifying for anybody.

Forgive me.

May the Lord have mercy on his soul and ours!

I believe you are blessed indeed.

I have often reflected on the paradox that since I gave up the “once saved, always saved” ideology of some forms of evangelicalism for the fully personal paradigm of understanding salvation within Orthodoxy, it has effectively enabled me to keep throwing the full weight of my trust back onto the mercy of God made manifest in Christ, not on my having somehow (at least at one decisional moment in time) fullfilled the requirements of “repentance” and “faith” within some forensic scheme of understanding our salvation in Christ as a legal exchange or transaction and upon a rationalistic understanding of “faith” as requiring a rational understanding of Who Jesus is (if only a very rudimentary one) rather than as personal trust engendered by a real personal encounter and experience of Him. Funny, how that works . . .

guest,
Why would you think that we are advocating a faith in Christ that is a denomination or “religion?” Nevertheless, no matter what our (yours or ours) persuasion of what style of worship, preaching, etc., most befits the gospel of Jesus Christ, we all (you and we) express our faith in some way and have convictions about how that should look (at least for us personally) based on our own experience of God and our understanding of Scripture and how that has been interpreted within the Church historically (expressed in Creeds, etc.). After coming to Christ in the simple way you describe myself as a child, I have found no formal dogmatic expression of Christian belief and/or worship more fitting to the sometimes very profound encounters I have had with the Spirit of Jesus Christ than that of historic Eastern Orthodoxy. At 48 years of age and after more than 30 years as a practiciing, active evangelical (charismatic), that was a surprise to me when I discovered it, but it is the only formal corporate expression of Christian faith that I have found that ultimately makes full sense of the work that God has done in my heart and life up until this point and of the Scriptures. Paradoxically, after attempting to function as an adult Christian in this world under the assumptions of my Protestant and Evangelical roots, much confusion entered despite the “essentials” that were supposedly clear to all–why so many different conflicting theological pictures of Christ under this seemingly generous tolerant inclusive “evangelical umbrella?” Surely, if God is One, our doctrine should be, too? My experiences within charismatic circles was also very mixed and mostly, in retrospect, not very sound spiritually and ultimately led into confusion and a sense of distance from the love and grace of Christ I had experienced as a child through simply hearing the gospel stories in a small Methodist Sunday School. Becoming Orthodox for me represents a return to that simple childlike trust in Christ, although I certainly agree with you that going under the banner of Orthodox (or evangelical or charismatic for that matter) is no guarantee of salvation (no Orthodox so claims).

Knowing Jesus as your personal Saviour is not a religionor a denomination, calling yourself catholic,orthodox,protestant cuts no ice withour Lord. A christian is someone who has simply come to Jesus asking Him for forgiveness for their sins, and asking Jesus to be the Lord of their life. A child with no scriptural knowledge of the Bible yet when simply coming to Christ knowing that Jesus was crucified for our sins and raised from the dead on the third day and is exalted and reigning withGod in heaven, knowing this and knowing Christ alone will save anyone.

I commented on judging others because I cannot help but think that’s exactly why guest felt the need to post in response to this blog. I am asking you, guest, once again: what of the Lord’s work are you looking to accomplish here? Am I preaching a false gospel? Do you think I am lost or something? You cannot know whether I will be saved any more than you can know whether you’ll be saved. Seek the grace of God fervently and fight the good fight — we know that in the end, God is merciful. To pronounce one “saved” or “unsaved,” however, is to play God, a grave offense indeed. If you have some problem with what I am saying, I would appreciate a direct response so as to make dialogue possible. At this point, I still do not know exactly what you are trying to tell me/us.

John in Dallas: my personal thoughts regarding the chaplet of divine mercy are nothing profound. It was never a part of my devotional life as a Catholic, so I never use it. However, I know some Orthodox priests who say it’s more or less acceptable to one who has converted from Catholicism. It’s really something one should discuss with one’s own spiritual father (which holds true for everything one sees online, frankly!).