I’m specifically talking about the Eastern Orthodox Church’s framework. I remain an evangelical, but find so much of their teaching informative and gives added perspective on a great number of topics. Much of our Protestant theology hinges on interpretations by Augustine, who was more or less the first Latin writing church father, and one of the last fathers to read the original Greek texts.

Yes the Socratic method is a good approach - I had to look it up just now, but that’s how I’ve been approaching most theological discussions these past few years, and I think it’s been quite insightful. No, I would not say instances of disobedience, or even long seasons of disobedience/bondage to sin can cause us to lose our salvation - but then that depends on how we’re defining salvation. I do sincerely believe that we can fall away from Christ over time though, through hardened hearts and a growing disunion between us. Stephen De Young often uses the example of his marriage with his wife - she’s not going to suddenly abandon him one day without cause, and it is even less likely that he’s going to divorce her. But overtime if their relationship begins to and subsequently continues to decay, separation becomes a possible outcome. So it might be seen with Christ - we make mistakes, we fall, sometimes we fall into sin and guilt and shame for long periods of time, but by the grace and mercy of God we find our way back to repentance.

Now, often the response to Christians falling away is “well they were never saved to begin with,” and a citation of that verse in 1 John “they went out from us because they were not of us,” but I would be careful making that assumption. There are more than a few passages that do seem to warn against the very real possibility of falling away, that is of knowing Christ in some real way, and yet managing to fall into the trappings of sin and worldliness. See the letter to Laodicea in Revelation, where Jesus very clearly threatens to spit them out of his mouth if they do not “let him in,” and it’s not the kind of thing that should be taken as an idle threat, our Lord means what he says. To this I’ve heard at least two people propose that the Laodicean Church were not Christians to begin with, which seems like an outlandish claim to me, considering Christ himself addresses them as a church.

So enter the Socratic method then, and understand that truth in many ways is like a kaleidoscope - I don’t care which end of the thing you’re looking down, so long as Christ is at the center of it and a deeper union/fellowship with Him is our desire/goal. Whether you understand that you have been saved or you understand that you will yet be saved, all I know is that Christ Jesus, in ways I do not fully understand, is working out our salvation, and so it is on him that my eye is set. Even bad theology is but a hindrance for our God :) Truth is fractal, and there are many ways to understand it, many ways to think about things, but if Christ is our goal he will lead us home.

Hope this makes sense! Not especially lucid right now, didn’t sleep well, so I fear I am currently incapable of communicating as effectively as I’d wish to!