The below is from a poster on the Eastern Orthodoxy (Christian) site (monachos.net), concerning reincarnation and life-after-death:
From the book "Gifts of the Desert" by Kyriacos C. Markides (pg 248):
St. Silouan wrote: "My soul knows the mercy of God towards sinful humanity. Standing faced to face with Gode I am writing the truth: that every one of us sinful human beings will be saved. Not even a single soul will be lost, if it undergoes metanoia. It is so because the Lord is so infintely Good in His very nature that it is impossible to described with whatever words". (emphasis mine)
The author of the post then gives his commentary on St. Silouan's quote:
The point being that life after death 'must imply an eternal evolutionary process of purification', that all souls will sooner or later mature spiritually and undergo genuine metanoia which will open the gates for them to experience the eternal love of the Creator.
The author of the post then relates a story from "Gifts of the Desert" about the famous religious studies scholar Huston Smith and Smith's experience in India:
He then goes on to write about a story of Huston Smith, who, in 1964, while at the foothills of the Himalayas in India, he met a missionary of the Eastern Orthodox Church named Father Lazarus who had made an incredible impression on him. Mr. Smith went on to tell Father Lazarus that he was attracted to Hinduism because of its doctrine of universal salvation.
"Brother Lazarus responded by telling me his views on that matter. They took off from the passage in Second Corinthians where St. Paul tells of knowing someone who twelve years earlier had been caught up into the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body he did not know... in that heaven the man 'heard things that were not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.'... Paul was speaking of himself, Father Lazarus was convinced, and the secret he was told in the third heaven was that ultimately everyone in saved. That is the fact of the matter, Father Lazarus believed, but it must not be told because the uncomprehending would take it as a license for irresponsibility. If they are going to be saved eventually, why bother? That exegesis solved my problem and has stayed in place ever since."
The poster finally shares his uneasiness with openly discussing "apokatastasis ton panton", or "the final restoration/salvation of all":
I do hesitate in quoting this, being that the idea of apokatastasis ton panton can be spiritually damaging and Lord have mercy on me if it strays people form the correct path by reading this. Many Church Fathers have spoken against this idea and I am only a simple laymen. I can't imagine it being a sin, however, to pray for such an outcome and hope that in the end all of us sinners will reach theosis. I know ultimately, such things are left for the mystery of God, though I hope one of our members could correct me if I am wrong in thinking this way.
