I can relate to where you are coming from.I am a former evangelical, myself. My parenets were missionaries in Haiti under the Unevangelized Fields Mission, International. I went through high school, and two years of Bible School at Prairie Bible Inst. Three Hills, Alberta. While at Prairie, I had a year-long discussion with a staunch Calvinist. However, I could not agree with some of the points of Calvinism, e.i. unconditional election, limited atonement, and irresistable grace.
Since becoming Orthodox, three and a half years ago, I have discovered the crucial difference between Orthodoxy and evangelicalism in regards to salvation, which many miss. Evangelicalism teaches that salvation is from the consequences of sin, which is hell. Jesus took our punishment for our sin so we do not have to be punished for it. Therefore, personal holiness is not crucial to our salvation because Jesus is our holiness. The holiness groups manufactured the doctrine called the second work of grace, where one works towards personal holiness, but this is not crucial to one's salvation.
Orthodoxy, on the other hand, teaches that salvation is from sin, itself. "You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin (Matt. 1:21). Jesus came to ransom us from sin, itself, in order to restore us to the fellowship with the Father and Son through the Holy Spirit, which we lost through Adam and Eve's disobedience. "Truly our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
(1John 1:3). Salvation is deliverence from the clutches of sin, which is a life-long journey. "Who, Himself bore our sin in His own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness (1Peter 2:24). "He became sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish (in sin - implied), but have everlasting life (in fellowship with the Father and Son through the Holy Spirit - implied)." No where does it say that Jesus was punished for our sin, but rather He came to free us from our sin, so that we would not suffer from it. "The wages of sin is death" - separation from God, which one will experience as hell-fire when the day of grace is over.
I have written a document entitled "Questions Evangelicals May Ask About the Orthodox Faith". I would be happy to e-mail this to you.
Sincerely in Jesus Christ,
David Hanson
