Hi, I've been meaning to ask you. Gavin Ortlund (a Protestant apologist) made a video about his biggest objection to Orthodoxy: its claims of soteriological exclusivity. He says that denying salvation to the millions of non-Orthodox Christians is horrible and contrary to Christianity.
What do you and the Orthodox Church think?
The damndest thing is that I honestly find Protestantism to be way more guilty of this than Orthodoxy.
Back when I was Evangelical, everyone "knew" that all atheists and non-Christian religious people and a great many Christians (most Catholics, for starters, plus liberals and cultural Christians) were damned and hence, although no-one had the stones to say it, the great majority of people were hellbound. Contrast that to:
"You ask, will the heterodox be saved... Why do you worry about them? They have a Saviour Who desires the salvation of every human being. He will take care of them. You and I should not be burdened with such a concern. Study yourself and your own sins..." (St. Theophan the Recluse, found here)
"I remember a conversation between [Silouan] and a certain hermit who declared with evident satisfaction,
‘God will punish all atheists. They will burn in everlasting fire.’
Obviously upset, [Silouan] said,
‘Tell me, supposing you went to paradise, and there you looked down and saw someone burning in hell-fire – would you feel happy?’
‘It can’t be helped. It would be their own fault,’ said the hermit.
[Silouan] answered him in a sorrowful countenance:
‘Love could not bear that,’ he said. ‘We must pray for all.’" (St. Silouan the Athonite as quoted by St. Sophrony of Essex, found here)
Yes, the Orthodox Church is the True Church in which salvation is found. But that doesn't mean everyone outside it is damned. To use an analogy I'm fond of, the Orthodox Church is the hospital for sinners - if you want healing, you should go to a hospital, if others ask for healing, you should direct them to a hospital, and if you want there to be less illness and injury in the world you should help build more hospitals, but plenty of people recover from illnesses and injuries, including serious ones, outside of hospitals.
