Thread:Superdadsuper/@comment-5188557-20151214234856/@comment-5175866-20151215200311

Akamichi, this is a very common question. First of all we need to think about this historically and logically. If the events of the New Testament haven't even occured, then there would be no fair way to say that I had the opportunity to be saved. If that were true than everyone in the Old Testament would've been to Hell, because God hadn't put Christ on Earth yet. So there would've been no opportunities, in this case it would be considered unfair.

However, this is not the case. The Bible very expressely states in the New Testament that many notable people of the Old Testament, were saved "by faith". A few those who did something by faith include Abel, Enoch , Noah and Abraham. These are only a few out of the many  listed in the chapter. Even in the context of the chapter it mentions that without faith, God cannot be pleased and that many of the people were looking forward to Heaven. It even mentions Moses doing things for the sake of Christ, rather than for Sin. The way of Salvation has always been Faith, even before Jesus Christ. After the death of Christ, one can only know God the Father through the Son. David writes about Jesus, indirectly many times (referring to him as "My Lord" (this verse cite is not even a complete list!). We know have no way of knowing God outside of Christ, but even before Christ it was always faith. There are many promises made to the OT People about a Messiah, and even though they did know specifically, they did know that one would come someday.

Being an Orthodox Christian, would not keep you from going to Heave. This applies to any Protestant or Catholic. The core beliefs of all of these divisions are about Salvation through Christ that is #1 thing. In this sense it does not matter as long as you believe in Christ, but since we are mere humans, there are divisions and denomations that have unbiblical pratices, that may not be honoring to God, but they will not take away your faith.

I personally am Protestant, and I honestly don't know enough about Orthodox to declare their pratices unbiblical. But if they believe in Jesus Christ, and pratice faith in Him then they would be saved. I would also reccomend going to our Beliefs page where you will find the essential and core beliefs that can be proven about the Bible without question. While you do not have to believe this things to be saved, it would be extremely difficult not to as a believer, and if you did not, I would be concerned about one's sincerity in their faith.