0:03: "Eastern Orthodoxy is a pagan false religion." Well, thanks for a clear mission statement. Reasons given:

1. Rejecting Assurance: John 5:24, 6:47, 1 John, who believes has eternal life; John, you may know that you have eternal life; 1 Cor. 1:18, Paul knows he is saved.

2. Outside Orthodoxy No Salvation: Regarded as illogical because of lack of assurance of salvation inside Orthodoxy.

That's the whole argument. Now, I must grant that he seems to have a surface case that (1) We can have eternal life; (2) If we doubt (1) then we can still know that we have eternal life. I add, (3) If we doubt (2) then we can still know that we know, 1 John 2:3, which also seems enough to prove recursion. Therefore OP is not enough to declare Orthodoxy pagan.

The Orthodox answer nobody can know until the last this-life salvation event happens, namely dying and entering Jesus's presence, and (if they equal the Catholic practice on this) that is only known by our receiving proofs after the fact of their entrance such as canonization miracles. I think that all of that is merely the C & O being extra cautious about not proclaiming anyone saved without the whole church agreeing that they've heard from God on the subject. Protestants throw such caution to the winds and are not ashamed to call people saved promiscuously even though that too has its risks (i.e. being wrong, and misleading others). Clearly the Orthodox position has the risks of encouraging doubt, supporting hierarchy, and leaving others underfed.

It seems to me perfectly permissible (and I thought I had examples but they don't come to light immediately today) that early saints were perfectly assured of their future salvation in even more unambiguous words than the Bible authors were. And this is perfectly consonant because the early saints are totally fine with people having absolute revelations of the certainty of future events, so why would this not include a special revelation about the certainty of one's future salvation? (Mathematically it's been proven that any prophecy can be made with true future knowledge, which then comes true, and yet still successfully account for the fact that people are free to doubt the same prophecy: the Unexpected Egg paradox. Therefore the one who prophesies his own future salvation, declaring it certain by God's grace, cannot be proven or disproven except by equal access to the source of the revelation, namely others hearing about that certainty from God as well. To their credit, Orthodox profess ignorance over whether others outside Orthodoxy are saved; their doctrine, like EENS in Catholicism, is merely that there is no salvation outside the orthodox system as it's been revealed since Adam. Mathematically, doubt is both their right and their indulgence.)

So I appreciate the thought but it's not enough for a Baptist to separate from an Orthodox on his own account (nor vice versa). Both of them have the right of conscience to reject each other, and I have the right of conscience to accept them both.

u/SmithW1984