Is there salvation for the Baptists converted to Orthodoxy?

Question:

I believed in Jesus, was baptized and I was part of a baptist church, but it happened so that I got married to a Christian who used to beat and force me to have sexual relations and my life with him was a nightmare. He threatened me with divorce and kept saying that he did not want to live with me any longer. I did not handle it anymore and I left him without returning back. It was a disaster, a long time passed and I was apart from church. Then I met a man from a family who practice the orthodox religion. I attend the orthodox church’s services but I cannot accept many things that I know from the Holy Bible. In this way, I do not kiss the icons and I do not do anything I consider wrong and against the Bible. I just close my eyes and ask God to have mercy on me. Tell me, please, when Jesus will come back after His church, will the orthodox believers who have a clean heart be saved? This question bothers me…

I am sorry for the experience you had with the so-called Christian husband, but he was not a born again man, because a true Christian does not sexually or physically abuse his wife, instead he loves her as Christ loved His Church.

When he started to abuse you, you should have gone to your pastor to tell him about the problems you face and to ask for help and guidance in spiritual counseling. On this occasion I want to invite pastors, church ministers and Christian counselors to the Bible study session on Spiritual Counseling, which I will be teaching in Chişinău from September 5 to 17, 2016. At this session we will study the Inductive Bible study course “Marriage without regrets” by Kay Arthur.

You did wrong by staying away from church. When problems appear in a family or in our personal life or of any other kind, we must go to church to find solutions in the Word of God and prayer support from the pastor and from all the church. If you had done that, you would have had chances to save your family and your marriage as it is written:

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. (Hebrews 13:4)

If you see in the church you are attending now different practices that are contrary to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures such as icon worshiping, saints or Mary worship, veneration of relics, infant baptism or other similar things, you should think about our Savior’s words from His Sermon on the Mount:

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:18-20)

First Corinthians says:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

It is very important to understand that the criterion we will be judged by and according to which we will receive or not the Kingdom of God is not being a member of one church or another, but it’s living the sound teachings of our Savior as we find them written on the pages of the Holy Scripture:both in the Old and the New Testament. This must be the standard by which every person chooses the Christian church he wants to be a member of on this Earth. If the doctrines of your church are contrary to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, the right and wise thing to do is to join the one that follows faithfully the teachings of the Bible.

Another fundamental requirement to inherit eternal life is to be born again, as Lord Jesus Christ said:

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

If you want to save your soul and your husband’s soul, you have to tell him the truth about salvation that you already know and urge him to accept and follow the sound teachings of our Savior as we find them in the Holy Bible. Even if you were wrong and got away from God, you have a big and blessed promise from Him:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 Ioan 1:9)

Confess your sins and come back to the sound teachings of Lord Jesus Christ and to His Church.