Mopac

Why would I go on a wild chase to compile evidence of you lying when you will just ignore it anyway?

Besides that, I am very secure that your dishonesty is apparent.

And as we all know, you will just parade around as if you were triumphant, because well... you are, after all, the real clown around here.

Keep living in your own world Stephen, but The Truth is what sets you free.

You quote scriptures out of context, even if it changes the meaning. When you are corrected, even by several people, you persist in doing the same thing.

If I answered your questions, you would simply refuse my answers and pretend no one is answering your questions.

Yeah, I have plenty of good reason to believe you are dishonest. 

How is mercy God's weakness?

Yeah, and even after you were shown the context of the first one, you still persist in weaponizing it to maelke God, and by proxy, all Christians evil.

And your type of rhetoric leads to things like oer 20 million Orthodox Christians being martyred in the last century. The governments that execute these atrocities use the same rhetoric as people like you and others who make their life's mission to crusade against something they don't understand.

Well, I hope you eventually have a change of heart.

Pretty much.

How about "being"

"the quality or state of having existence"

Very related. Exist, real, being... you'll often find these words or variations in the definitions concerning these concepts.

A false existence is a nonexistence.

A nonexistence doesn't exist 

Right?

Now if you were to take a false existence as an existence that is not another existence, it would still be an existence. The "false thing" would be like, "Oh, I thought that was a dog, but it was actually a sheep. It is a false dog.". That is a different animal altogether.

Perception tricks and illusion go together.

What is a simulation?

"the imitative representation of the functioning of one system or process by means of the functioning of another"

How do our senses work?

It seems to me like our experience is simulated reality.

"Because they received not the love of truth, they jave been cursed with strong delusion"

All the nihilists running around here do seem to have a big truth sized hole in their heart.

Discernment is a gift of the spirit.

We are to have righteous judgement.

But charity tempers even this.

Mercy triumphs over judgement, eh?

Stephen is more obnoxious to those who go by sola scripture than he is for Orthodox.

All we really have to say is, "that isn't what the church teaches."

I think his dishonesty is apparent to all, and even people who don't believe the bible can see that he simply throws as much crap against the wall as he can in the hopes that something will stick.

Guy found a copy of the skeptics annotated bible or something and fancies himself a scholar.

I really try my best to be cordial, polite. And charitable.

Sometimes I do lapse. I don't want to make excuses.

The virgin birth has been passed down by church tradition since the earliest days, as well as the perpetual virginity of Mary after Jesus.

Besides that, there is, like everything pertaining to the life of Jesus, a more significant allegorical meaning to Mary. 

This is one of those mysteries protestants really don't understand. They can't, and it makes sense.... if you get it.... lol.

Let the demons come out.

Yeeeeeeah, except you don't understand my beliefs or my faith.

No turning that around, you are the one being haughty.

Sorry your pride doesn't allow you to be wrong.

I don't understand you nihilists. Your entire worldview is self sabotaging. 

The "sola scriptura" idea is a protestant thing, which is quite natural because the protestant churches don't really have church history or tradition.

We Orthodox pray that they find their way to Orthodoxy.

"Pay up or repent",is certainly not what the church teaches.

The Roman church, which was excommunicated by the way, during a certain time did sell indulgences, and that ended up triggering what is called "the protestant reformation".

Most churches in America came out of this protestant reformation, which is really a reaction against the schismatic Roman Catholic Church.

I am not talking about noumenon.

You are defining God as "unknowable", which would make God as a noumenon.

The definition I am using is The Supreme And Ultimate Reality.

Now, this may be unknowable, but that is not what defines it.

The world's idea of what constitutes riches is very different than the riches we value.

You are kind of proving my point.

Really, the main difference between the Oriental Orthodox Churches(by the way, is Ethiopia yellow and asian?) and Eastern Orthodox(which Greek is actually a part of) has to do with ecumenical councils. The Oriental Orthodox churches only accepted 2, while the Eastern accepted 7.

I suppose I would be considered Eastern, but considering one of the elders at my church was talking very fondly of the Ethiopian church, I'd say we are all on pretty good terms and recognize eachother.

The ecumenical councils, to simply, had mostly to do with clarifying doctrine in the face of heresies that would spring up.

I belong to an Antiochan Orthodox church, which is actually the city that Christians first were called as such. The Ethiopian Church was founded by the Apostle Philip. The start of that is actually accounted of in the book of Acts, which is in the New Testament.

The Apostle Thomas founded the church in India, and I believe that would be considered Oriental Orthodox as well.

"It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom. The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted. As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation."

RM, I really have to tell you this, and it is in my heart to be polite about it.

You don't really understand my beliefs, nor do you understand the Orthodox faith is or what it teaches. 

It's not about understanding things exactly the same way.

Orthodoxy does not teach that Mary is a part of the Trinity. Neither does Orthodoxy teach polytheism as they claim. Neither do the scriptures refer to the paraclete as a prophet to come such as Mohammed. It refers to The Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Truth, and this could not be made more plain in the text. 

So a faulty understanding of Orthodoxy is built into Islam. It's in their Koran. It's in what their scholars teach.

Their book says Mary is part of the trinity. They also think the comforter was Mohammed(it's not, it's the spirit of truth, which is right there in the text)

Muslims don't understand Christian theology. If they did, they would be Christians.

Fyi 

Orthodoxy teaches synergy.

A gift that God has given us is the ability to accept or reject.

If you reject God, you are rejecting reality, and this is not good for you.

If you accept God, you are accepting reality, and that is good for you.

If you are at least trying, you should be fine. We all fall short, and admitting that is admitting the truth. Christianity is about loving the truth.

Love God(The Truth), be sincere. Show charity to others. 

Instead of looking ill at God for putting you in this situation, be thankful that you exist at all. Did we do anything to earn this life?

Thanksgiving makes life more enjoyable. It really does effect how you go about things as well.

That isn't actually a correct understanding of The Trinity. That can be any number of recognized heresies, but it kind of looks like Arianism(actually popular misconception these days).

The idea that The Son is a created being. The Son is The Word of God, not simply a "good teacher" or even just "a man".

Everything was made through The Word of God. To those with understanding, that should give new meaning to what the eucharist is.

OT God and NT God are the same.

And Christianity isn't what you think it is either.

Sorry, Christianity isn't what you say it is, and the gnostics are liars.

Let me clarify...

If you are not a discordian, you have certainly been effected by their pranks. 

Also, it's probably dangerous to give you this literature, because it'll either make you a madder man or knock you into sanity.

The word "Eris" in Greek means "strife". It is a cult started in the 60s centered around the worship of the goddess "Eris". The Goddes of dischord, chaos, confusion, and.. well, strife.

Also very postmodern, because contained within are such nuggets such as..

"All affirmations are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true, false, and meaningless in some sense."

What good did it do for me? In the end, helped me to realize the difference between the created and the uncreated. But also lead me into insanity for several years.

Dangerous stuff.

Another interestinf fact about occulting things. "Thelema" is literally the Greek word for "will". As the Erisians worship strife as their god, the thelemics worship will as their god.

And I don't expect you to take my word for it, but all of these things are abominable and Satanic errors that lead to death.

Satan isn't your friend though, madman. Only comes to kill, steal, and destroy. If he wasn't beautiful, no one would be tricked.

I understand that this is what you understand these two traditions to be, but I don't really believe you get either.

And well, I certainly don't see in my faith what you ascribe to it.

I would also like to point out that the vast majority of English speaking Christians would be considered heretics by Orthodox standards.

Because I know that God exists.

In fact, like I said, I am more certain of God existing than literally anything else. More certain of God's existence than the sun rising in the morning. More certain of God existing than even myself.

Only thing I can even think of at the moment that I am 100% sure of.

I think a fruitful discussion of this subject would require a real sit down. But we Orthodox certainly do see ourselves as the new Israel. 

You though... you sound like a discordian to me, and I say that as someone who has caused a great deal of mischief as an old school discordian. 

It's a lot easier to get people to go along with lies than the truth. When people don't love the truth, they will just about go for anything else.

My goal here really, at this point, is to combat the superstition of atheism. If people want to go deeper than that, it really takes experience.

In the Orthodox understanding, mysteries are not things to be solved or intelllectualized, but experienced. It is very different in the west, and well... Western Christianity looks at God and church as some kind of a courthouse rather than a hospital... or worse yet, a place to make a god in their own image.

St Gregory of Sinai wrote...

"To try to discover the meaning of the commandments through study and reading without actually living in accordance with them is like mistaking the shadow of something to its reality. It is only by participating in the truth that you can share in the meaning of truth. If you search for the meaning without participating in the truth and without having been initiated into it, you will find only a besotted kind of wisdom. You will be among those who St. Jude categorized as "psychic" or worldy because they lack the spirit, boast as they may of their knowledge of the truth."

Even though this is a topic about Buddhism, this quote from St. Paul the apostles letter to Corinth is very relevent 

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” 

Really, they don't see it as being cowardly. Quite the contrary, they would probably look at you as if you are a slave to the vices and vanities of this world. 

It isn't too dissimilar to the Christian perspective.

Dispassion is something Buddhists and Christians habe in common.

Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God."

The eightfold path of Buddhism is a guideline to aid in heart purification. People who don't know better think that Buddhism is atheistic, but that isn't true at all.

In fact, it is written in the Pali Canon in Nibbāna Sutta — Parinibbana

This, what Buddha is talking about is what we call God in Orthodox theology.

Likewise, in The Tao Te Ching, what it describes as "The Tao" is what we call God in Orthodox theology.

Atheists are fools, they say that The Ultimate Reality doesn't exist.

Can't get more foolish than that.

The Orthodox Church is Israel.

And Christianity was referred to as a race even by ancient Christians.

And FYI, The Orthodox Church compiled scripture, it is our book. It isn't for you to interpret.

The Orthodox Church actually sees itself as a continuation of this. The Christian race is now God's chosen people. 

It is written in Acts...

"the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith."

The Orthodox Church has priests still, contemporary Judaism does not. The temple worship that is practiced by Orthodox today is modeled a great deal after ancient Judaic temple worship. It is different, but similar. It is a continuation.

So it isn't that the new covenant now includes Christians. Orthodox Christianity is the fulfillment and continuation of ancient Israel.

The people that call themselves Jews today are descendant of pharisaical Judaism. They are of course, welcome at any time to accept Jesus Christ, and we Orthodox have no ill will toward them... 

...on that note, before the modern state of Israel was formed, most Palestinians were Christian, and they were forced out of their homes and sent into diasphora.

People talk about the "6 million Jews" killed in the holocaust(which was horrible, and we Orthodox were helping them escape) but over 20 million Orthodox Christians were martyred in the last century. No one cares about us. It is ok to blaspheme our God and mock our beliefs. 

Absolutely not.

Instead I will say that my claims are irrelevant, because The Ultimate Reality exists whether mine or any one elses beliefs about it are true or not.

Then say "The Ultimate Reality exists" and we can be done.

You most certainly don't know what you are talking about if you say The Ultimate Reality is not true. It is by definition as true as you can get.

Supply evidence that you understand what you are asking.

All men are liars, eh?

You say The Ultimate Reality doesn't exist.

I say The Ultimate Reality exists.

What is true?

The Ultimate Reality, and what any of us say is irrelevant to that being The Truth.

No, I certainly am not. And because these people like to argue, which is probably why they joined this website, they have adopted the indefensible position that there is no truth, and despite their claims to the contrary, they are lying if they can't confess that The Ultimate Reality exists.

And we all know that The Ultimate Reality exists, so denying it is preposterous and serves no other purpose than to gender strife.

I have very little to do with it.

You can't admit that The Ultimate Reality exists.

In order to avoid this, you attach it to me, and make what you think I believe or am saying your straw man.

Well, The Ultimate Reality exists, nothing else makes sense, and there is no good reason to deny this or even be in doubt.

Can you say, "The Ultimate Reality exists"?

If it helps, erase me from your mind and admit what everyone deep down knows is the evident Truth.

You mock, but even you know deep down that The Ultimate Reality exists and is The Lord of All Worlds.

Was there ever a time when Love of The Truth was not a religion among people?

Even before people or anything at all, The Ultimate Reality existed.

It doesn't  matter if the entire world denies The Ultimate Reality, popularity doesn't make truth.

The Ultimate Reality exists, and no amount of denying. the changes the facts.

No amount of sophistry and rhetoric is going to change The Truth.

What about me saying that "I see very clearly that The ultimate Reality exists" doesn't conclusively answer the question?

What about "I am more certain of God existing that literally anything else existing." Doesn't conclusively answer the question?