So according to some Christian denominations you dont have to be saved and Christian to go to heaven? Just be a good person, right?
It's a interesting conversation to have amongst Orthodox/catholic christians that understand their faith. Usually they've studied the church fathers who themselves discussed Plato/Socrates and the "redemptive" wisdom passed down through the ages.
This is a marked departure from evangelical fundamentalism that believe in total depravity "scripture alone".There is a departure from this position amongst some evangelicals but it's not mainstream at this point. C.S. Lewis who is popular in some evangelical circles articulated why he believes he will see head hunters in glory, he does a sound job using scriptural principles.
Part of sacred tradition in Orthodoxy is that if a person truly believes they are right (with good motives) but are not pursuing Christianity they are running into the arms of Christ.
What makes it complicated of course is no one knows someone else's motives, and not our own much of the time.
In short the Orthodox approach is one of humility concerning this issue, both about themselves and others. The conversation is about what Orthodox Christianity believes but not about a zero sum game concerning salvation.
For instance I've had some healthy conversations with Orthodox about Buddhism which usually is very positive about redemptive teaching in Buddhism.
Orthodoxy sees salvation as a recovery of the soul from wounds and corruption of the world. The church is viewed as a hospital for recovery and a place for renewal for man to be restored to his original purpose.
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2017/12/05/the-morality-of-christmas-2/
When we lose a common understanding of reality itself, all that is left is bald assertion. The morality of the modern world is simply
power. It is, in one form or another, the use of violence (or its threat) that argues. Certain positions and behaviors are extolled while others are not only condemned but increasingly demonized. In the baseless morality of modernity, those with whom we disagree are not simply wrong: they are evil. This is the only conclusion that can be reached when what is right is established solely through
choice. If what is good is only good because I choose it, then choosing otherwise must be seen as evil and named as such.
Classical Christianity, on the other hand, need demonize no one. No human being can ever be the “enemy” (Eph. 6:12). What is right and what is true is not a matter of
choice – it is established by reality itself. In our modern setting, many (even most) will argue with the nature and character of reality. Some will even assert that reality is nothing more than a social construct. However, if something is true because it is
real, then it ultimately makes its own argument. You don’t have to defend gravity.
In the confusion of our present times, however, it is easy to overlook the true morality that God and creation uphold. An absolutely essential element of that reality is expressed in the mystery of Christmas. God becomes a man and is birthed into our world. This reveals human beings as bearers of the image of God and dictates the very reason for the manner we are commanded to treat others. More than this, the Incarnation of Christ reveals the reality of life-as-communion (indeed, the whole work of Christ makes this known). It tells us that when we harm another, we not only harm the image of God, but we, in fact, do harm to our own selves.
St. Paul appeals to this understanding when he speaks about marriage:
So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. (Eph 5:28-30)
This same reality is revealed in Christ’s statement: “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me” (Matt. 25:40). It is very much worth pondering that Christ does not say that what we do to others is “as if” we had done it to Him. No. He reveals the utter Divine solidarity of the Incarnation. He is the
other – each of them, everywhere and always. This reality undergirds the whole of His “ethical” teaching. To love as Christ loves begins with recognizing Him in the fullness of the Incarnation.
