Mopac

You don't know how we use the bible, and you don't know what we believe, so why mock us?

The baggage is all your preconceptions.

Besides, you have already made your mind up that these events are impossible. Does it really matter what answer I give you? You have your mind made up.

A better question would be to ask what it is we use scripture for.

A child who is raised by one parent is an orphan.

They are at a disadvantage. 1 good parent is not going to fill all the roles 2 good parents can do.

Except what you are saying isn't true.

Yes, that is why you are a delusional pagan.

You don't like the way things are, so you substitute reality with fabrications of your vain imagining.

Your faith is an aesthetic choice.

I don't believe in a god, I believe in God.

You don't know my God.

What I am saying has nothing to do with the judicial system or government at all.

Allows us to.

And we Orthodox likewise do not force people to believe or persecute those who don't believe. At least, that is not the Church's stance on things. Very much against coercion, even the types of coercion that some missionaries of other confessions do when they go to the poorest places in the world, promising them food or water in return for going to their church service.

Because it is a choice, and that is a gift God gave us. And sure enough, we are different than other creatures in that with God's grace we can overcome our animal nature.

Yes, and it was God's will that we have what is called free will.

So we can use that free will to reject God or we can use that free will to love God.

No matter what we choose, God's will is not frustrated.

But if you are going to go that route, that is what Calvinists believe. This is, however, not what Orthodoxy teaches, and so we would say that the Calvinists are wrong.

A God who is perfect has no need to evolve or develop.

Well by that reasoning, everyone here cares about Christ and religion.

Yet, we do have the ability to choose, and it was God who granted us this ability.

So we can choose to go with God or choose to forsake God.

I see that you take me as a nobody.

That is what you think I think.

But what I actually think means little to nothing to you, so I'd be surprised if you actually took that into account. You don't account for nothing, after all.

Little to nothing to you.

If you wish to reduce yourself to a rock, go ahead.

I know One who neither had beginning nor will have an end. The Eternally Existing One, who created both man and rock. Man was created in God's image, and though that image can be distorted through sin, the image is still there. 

And we can see God, but a rock cannot see anything. A rock can not move on its own, nor can it create anything. A rock is dead. Rocks serve men, who use rocks to construct structures. Men seperate material from rocks to make tools that we use to plant gardens in desolate places, create furniture for our rest, and steward over all creation.

What is a rock to envy? I would no sooner envy the longevity of a rock than I would the corpse of pharoah, preserved for thousands of years so that children can point, stare, and mock at it. Just like the rock, Pharaoh is dead. Dead as the mammoth frozen in ice for countless ages, preserved even more immaculately than Pharaoh. I do not envy the Pharaoh or the beast frozen in the ice. Not even the man frozen in the ice long before pharaoh, who did not even care to preserve his corpse, showing how God makes humble even the haughty Pharaoh. A king who on a whim could eradicate nations and have colossal monuments carved in his honor, out of stone. A man who fancied himself a god, who cared very deeply about the state of his corpse, for a primitive and barbaric man has been preserved for a longer period and a better state.

But you are alive, made in the image of God, and you are worth much more than a rock. And you can even come to see God through that image in you if you were to were the mud and dust from it.

I suppose the idea of man being a microcosm is nonsense when everything is understood in a materialistic sense.

A rock cannot make youtube videos that I'm not going to watch.

No, there is something special about people.

And I would like to point out that the tool you are using to measure these things is you, a people!

Most agnostics are effectively atheists, but I have to agree with skepticalone and 3RU7AL that one can be an agnostic theist. That is, have faith that God exists without knowing that God exists.

Or in the case of all theists, even those who know God exists, we do not know God, because knowledge is creation and God is The Uncreated. The essence of God is not really knowable, as The Ultimate Reality is not really something that can be totally comprehended.

We know God through The Word by The Holy Spirit. Through The Most Perfect Image by The Spirit of Truth.

Yet a rock is not The Ultimate Reality, nor would the Ultimate Reality change by the destruction of this rock.

Even today, there is no promise of tomorrow.

You could be hit by a meteorite, or ran over by a truck before then for all you know. Have a heart attack. Who knows? Choke on something.

You only have so much time in this life to go with God.

I am certainly not defining a god, and I would not call God everything that exists, because not everything that exists is God, though God is what gives it existence.

And this "tautology" dismissal is not, nor has it ever been valid. I can't see it as anything other than a pseudointellectual way of dismissing the subject all together.

We are not talking about a god, we are talking about God, and there is no if about the existence of God.

As I have stated before, it would be incorrect to say that a rock is God, even if you can see God in the rock.

A rock is not The Ultimate Reality.

Excommunication is what the church does to orthodox Christians as a temporary disciplinary action. What it means is that they are unable to take the eucharist.

Obviously, you cannot excommunicate the church. The church does the excommunicating.

Anathema is the complete expulsion from the church, and it is done in the case of unrepentant heresy and schism.

In both cases, excommunication or anathema can be reversed through repentance.

I maintain that the Orthodox Church does not believe that St. Christopher had a head of a dog. I have seen Roman Catholic depictions of him with a dog's head though, so it isn't true that this isn't done over there.

All of the icons I have personally seen depict Saint Christopher without a dog's head, but a normal human head. 

But regardless, no, we don't believe that Saint Christopher had a dog's head. 

Look, you are wholly ignorant of what Orthodoxy is, so why don't you stop pretending to be a know-it-all and take advantage of the fact that this is a Q&A topic?

Yes, I know your opinions. You are not going to persuade me with your vain rhetoric.

Now if you have any questions about Orthodoxy, I am glad to answer, because it is a form of Christianity alien to you, and it is the real historical church. It is a church with a continuity of government stretching back 2,000 years. None of these other churches claiming to be Christian would exist if it were not for us. The scriptures they use? We wrote them. We compiled them. It is OUR book, not theirs. And none of their claims to being the original church can be substantiated. Yet our claim can be. 

History rules in our favor. None of these protestant churches are older than 500 years old. The Roman Catholic Church broke off from us and has not been Orthodox for 1000 years. Their church has obviously been corrupted, and that is plain for all to see. The Orthodox Church has maintained its consistency. 

So you can get hung up on these what-ifs and rest on your ignorance, or you can seriously consider that maybe, just maybe, The Orthodox Church is the real deal, and you should stop wasting your time listening to these other so called Christians who don't even know the God they worship.

How many others have you seen going around proclaiming "The Ultimate Reality is God"? These other so called Christians don't even know their God. We know the God we worship. 

So why don't you put your head down for a moment and ask some real questions? Do you want to hear the truth or do you want to feel justified in doing what is wrong?

If you don't believe what I am saying, fine, but I am going to give you answers, and just because you don't accept the answers does not mean that they are not answers. I am not here to tell you what you want to hear. I am here to answer real questions about The Orthodox Church and what it teaches.

So if you want to take advantage of this, go ahead, because there might be a time when I will no longer be here to answer questions.

Jesus said "The gates of hades will not overcome the church".

And well, The Orthodox Church is that Church. In fact, the point of our bishops is to protect the church from corruption. Even if there are a few bad bishops, it will not frustrate this.

Contrast this with Roman Catholicism, which you seem to be confusing us with, where all you have to do is get to the Pope and the entire church is corrupted.

God is not water in a sponge.

God is certainly omnipresent, and you can't hide from God.

"All things came into being through Him, and without Him, there is nothing that came into being."

If there is reality to something, God is there. If it exists, it is there. Even illusory things exist as illusions. God is there. 

God is with us. Nearer than your breath. Nearer than your blood.

If you have questions about Orthodoxy, that is what this topic is for. I will do my best to tell you what the church teaches. 

You don't have to believe it. 

And why? Because I express beliefs you don't like.

You are dismissive and intolerant, and simply too unintelligent to have a meaningful conversation with those who you feign superiority over.

What a scary thought that someone as immature as you works in education. You can't even educate me, instead you expel me for contradicting your dogma.

You're a total loser.

Don't see you apologizing for essentially saying that I shouldn't be allowed to post here, and that I should pretty much go and die.

I'm still blocked by you.

But I'm the one who is full of hate.

No apologies. 

The Greek word that we use as "heart" in the context of what it is I am talking about is "Nous", and being that you use words that are derivative of this word (such as noumenon), you should at least already, I would hope, have a rudimentary understanding of the concept.

Purify the heart in another way of expressing, to cleanse the intellect.

And I am saying that cleansing the intellect is more important than knowledge itself.

And Orthodox discipline is mostly centered around cleansing the intellect. Purifying the heart. The west departed from this, and as a result their theology became corrupted, and their philosophy nihilistic. 

What does that even mean to you?

More rhetoric, nothing of substance.

You aren't going to believe anyway, because you have chosen what you prefer to the truth.  Everything else becomes the justifications of an addict.

Like I said, tradesecret is not an Orthodox Christian, and that is what this topic is about.

You don't know what we believe because you hate us too much to learn.

I'd like to point out that tradesecret is not an Orthodox Christian, and so this little argument that you all are having is serving little purpose other than to clutter this topic.

If ya'll wouldn't mind doing this in another topic, I would appreciate it.

Once again, I must ask you... 

Do you ever say anything that isn't just rhetoric?

The truth in what I am saying is most evident in how an addict will find the most creative ways to rationalize their addiction.

Do you ever say anything that isn't just rhetoric?

That is what you say.

So are you going to dismiss the whole thing?

That isn't what I am saying.

I am saying that purifying the heart will do more for you than having all the knowledge or knowledge so called in the world.

You give the same information to a group of people and ask them to make a judgement.. What effects the judgement of each individual more so than the information itself is the state of their heart.

And what follows is...

"When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."

What do you think my case is?

Yet a protestant would not be allowed to partake of the Eucharist in an Orthodox Church, and we would not take communion in a protestant church.

The unity is in Orthodoxy. We don't recognize anyone outside of the Orthodox Church as being with the church. 

Protestants however love to count us as among them so long as they can claim our martyrs.

The Orthodox Church does not believe that St. Christopher has a head of a dog.

Apparently, this is a popular way of depicting him in Roman Catholicism. 

Why? I neither know or care.