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@ethang5
The trinity is not "God is three and one at the same time."
For the sake of clarification, how would you explain The Trinity?
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@BrotherDThomas
I don't recognize you as a Christian, nor do I acknowledge you as having any true knowledge concerning what it means to be one.
The fact that you would charge God with murder, or unlawful killing is both ludicrous and blasphemous.
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@ludofl3x
@Salixes
I think it is also worth noting that God certainly creates through natural processes. Even when we humans artificially create things, God is acting along with us. In that way, we are co-creators with God.
So we can rightly say, God created all things.
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@BrotherDThomas
There is One God. The Supreme and Ultimate Reality.
How can one confuse this God with created gods? These gods are gods in name only.
The Supreme And Ultimate Reality is God, and this is known through The Most Perfect Image that is The Incarnate Word of Truth, by The Holy Spirit of Truth. God is One with His Word and Spirit. 3 hypostases, 1 ousia. One God.
And to say there is one God while denying The Trinity is to take a conception of God as being God.
I am not ashamed to confess the Trinity, and how it reveals how God is with us. How God is salvation.
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@Salixes
The Ultimate Reality is God.
Time is contingent on God, God is not contingent on time.
God is not simply eternal, but pre-eternal.
As God exists before and outside of time, God does not evolve. Evolution or change is something that effects temporal beings.
If God can be replaced, or can cease to be God, we are not really talking about God. The Ultimate Reality must always be what it is, that is, there never is a time when God isn't God.
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@Dr.Franklin
Natural consequence of toxic individualism. Unfortunately, toxic individualism is the American way.
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@TheRealNihilist
I never knew state highways had feelings, consciousness and the ability to voice their grievances.
It's 2020, so believe it.
Or be unjustly labeled as hodophobic.
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@Salixes
I tolld you, The One True God is The Ultimate Reality.
You do not understand this why? You say my words are meaningless.
Nihilism is stupid.
How is nihilism self defeating? In denying absolute truth, it destroys everything along with itself. If there is no absolute truth, nihilism cannot be true.
And indeed, it isn't true.
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@Salixes
What is it about homosexuality that classifies it "along with all forms of sexual immorality".Are you inferring somehow that homosexuality is immoral?And, if so, apart from out of sheer ignorance, what reason do you have for making such an erroneous judgment?
If you have already discounted me as ignorant, and consider this view erroneous, why should I answer your question?
As I said, sexual immorality is a symptom of idolatry. Idolatry naturally leads to delusion as it is a rejection of the The Truth.
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I identify as a state highway.
Where my rights?
I serve the world, I carry an unfathomable weight, a path I make straight.
I collect taxes, but I didn't ask for them.
I have become the mask I wear, a mask of concrete.
It's 2020, I'm a state highway.
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@BrotherDThomas
I do not respect your advice as coming from a Christian.
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@Salixes
Homosexuality along with all forms of sexual immorality are symptoms of idolatry. Therefore it is not appropriate for a Christian to practice these things.
People who make their sexual behavior a matter of personal identity don't understand that they are demeaning themselves.
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@BrotherDThomas
I am an Orthodox Christian, which means true Christian.
You blaspheme Christ through your irreverence. Besides, accusing God of being a serial killer is idiotic.
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@Salixes
What I am saying is not rhetoric, it is how we have understood this for thousands of years.
The Ultimate Reality is God. This is The One True God. If this isn't your God, then you naturally have another god you place before God.
To.deny The Ultimate Reality is a position of nihilism, and it is self defeating.
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@Salixes
The Ultimate Reality is reality as it truly is.
There is nothing metaphorical about it.
Ifnit doesn't exist, nothing truly exists.
That's nihilism. It is self defeating.
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@Stephen
When God became incarnate, the body of His flesh was circumscribed, but God's divinity is never circumscribed.
Jesus Christ, The Word of Truth and Eternal Way was, as the creed states "incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man;"
To illustrate a type of the reality, think about how we use words.
When The Divine Word takes the flesh of a written word, the written word can only point to The Divine Word if it the written word is recognized in truth as being The Incarnate Divine Word. Only when you believe the written word is The Divine Word it says it is do you have The Holy Spirit comforting you.
If the flesh of the written word is destroyed, or say, all books were burned.. does The Divine Word perish? No, of course not. Rather, it descends into the grave, the lowest hell, conquering death by death and ascending back to heaven, filling all things. The stones cry out! God is with us, everywhere present and filling all things. The Word of God is eternal, and this is the Salvation we preach.
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@Salixes
As you say, Christians were charged with being atheists by the ancient Romans who persecuted them.
Yet, I deny that there are any true "no gods at all" atheists.
Examine a person's life, what they chase after, strive for, what they are motivated by. There you will find that person's god.
I believe The Ultimate Reality is God, that this is The One True God.
Anything that a person shows preference to this God is the idol they bow to, the god or gods even that they worship.
In the end, even these idols have no existence on their own. They are contingent beings, while God is self existing.
To say my God does not exist is nihilism in the truest sense. Denial of absolute truth.
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@Salixes
You do not understand what I am saying.
The Ultimate Reality is God.
Do you deny the existence of Ultimate Reality?
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@zedvictor4
My motive is to point you in the right direction, and that only.
The right direction is to go with how the church understands and uses scripture.
It should be evident that there is no end to the amount of creative extrapolation one can get from scripture. That being the case, correct interpretation belongs to the church. If you are against the church, your points cannot be valid.
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@Stephen
I am not discounting the times they lived in.
You can have your bacon, I'll pass.
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@Salixes
Certainly, bad religion leads to delusion.
Everyone to some extent suffers from delusion.
followers are required to believe in an entity that is invisible, silent and completely unproven.
I assume you are speaking of God. It is impossible to prove God when it isn't understood what God means. The Ultimate Reality is God. Accepting the existence of God is a simple matter of accepting that absolute Truth exists. The only alternative is nihilism.
fundamental principals of religions state that humans have a "soul". Again there is not one piece of evidence to support such a concept
The Greek word that gets translated into the English word "soul" is psyche.
If the soul doesn't exist, then psychology and psychiatry have no scientific basis, because these areas of study have everything to do with the soul.
Merriam-Webster has as a definition of religion "a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith."
That being the case what can be considered a religion may be more broad than what you realize. For example, a good and true scientist would be faithful to the scientific method!
In a lot of languages, religion is understood simply as a way of life.
What is good religion? To recognize that there is One God, The Supreme and Ultimate Reality. To love this God with all your heart, soul, and mind. If you love The Truth, naturally you will love what exists in Truth. Love every human as being made in the image of God, possessing the noetic faculties to recognize God and walk in The Way of Truth. Love nature as the breathe of God fills all of it and gives it life. Work on yourself, to walk in The Eternal Way of Truth, listening to it's voice, and discarding that in your psche that keeps you from abiding in The Way.
Truthfully, those who believe there is no Ultimate Reality are deluded. Truly those who believe they practice no religion are deluded.
What gives your life value? What are you obsessed with? What influences and motivates you? There you will find the idols that come between you and The Truth. In your adoration of these created things, you have your devotion to gods.
But there is One True God, The Truth itself, and true religion is to worship God in Trinity. That is, to worship The Ultimate Reality in Spirit and in Truth. To abide in The Eternal Way.
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@BrotherDThomas
Yes, because it is nonsensical to judge God.
Refusing to accept reality leads to nad mental health.
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@Stephen
Sure, pigs are a lot cleaner than they used to be. Still nasty.
If you or anyone else wants to eat a slab of hog ass, go right ahead. Lets not pretend that pork is good for you though.
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@BrotherDThomas
The Truth is God.
That being the case, whether things or good or bad, the sane route to take is to always accept God's will over your own.
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@zedvictor4
The scriptures are not really intended to be removed from the context of orthodox Christian teaching. If you don't know why these things are written and what they are to be used for, you are merely being creative. It is better to be in creative harmony with The Holy Spirit than to channel the creative deceit of devils. The Way of Truth is in everyway superior than the way of delusion.
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The Law given through Moses is intended to write on the heart of the one who is observing it love of God and love of one's neighbor. The point of the law is to purify.
A new situation arose where both Jew and Greek came together and confessed the same God and Lord. They were eating together. It was not necessary that those who followed Christ among the gentiles become Jews. It was not necessary that those who followed Mosaic law seperate themselves from gentile believers while eating. We could come together as One Israel.
A new situation arose where both Jew and Greek came together and confessed the same God and Lord. They were eating together. It was not necessary that those who followed Christ among the gentiles become Jews. It was not necessary that those who followed Mosaic law seperate themselves from gentile believers while eating. We could come together as One Israel.
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@Outplayz
Apocalypse is a Greek word thst means "revealing, disclosure, to take off the cover."
Revelation is often what the word gets translated into.
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@Stephen
You shouldn't be interpreting scriptures anyway, the scriptures belong to the church. Outside the context of the church, you do not know what scripture is used for.
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@Stephen
If bad fortune befalls you, it does you no profit to curse reality itself.
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@zedvictor4
As of yet, I only see you contradicting what has been taught for 2000 years. That Jesus did not have sexual relations.
Just a contradiction.
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@Outplayz
Revelation or apocalypse is the revealing of what always has been, always is, and always will be.
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@EtrnlVw
to believe that creation is somehow different or distinct from God is not seeing the whole picture, it only appears that way. But would anyone here argue that God exists through all things and pervades all of creation?? I doubt it, that's a basic Theistic premise that has been articulated in just about every religion including Christianity, and if you say otherwise that means God is no longer Omnipresent and that something exists outside of God.
The Uncreated and Created are definitely distinct physis or natures.
But they are united and made One through the divine hypostasis of The Son. The two physis being united without separation, without mixture, without confusion and without alteration.
That is how we Orthodox understand it.
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@EtrnlVw
The question of the OP was "what does God do for fun" and that may be a strange way to word it but I take is as the same as asking "what does God WANT to do"?
I think that is a pretty good way of looking at it.
And you are right, God is a creator! The Creator even.
Why? We could probably come up with many reasons, but when it comes down to it, this is what we can see, and that is just the way it is.
How can you say you love God when you don't love what he has created?
Good stuff.
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@Outplayz
But revelation is also reasoning/imagination... but i would argue with some added endorphins and other chemicals that make you feel the rush of it.
Revelation is not a feeling. In fact, strong feels tend to accompany delusion.
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@ludofl3x
What matters is that the church doesn't advocate genocide.
And also that isn't the subject of this thread.
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@ludofl3x
If a Christian does not follow the commands of Jesus, it is their deviation from Christianity that is the problem, not Christianity. That is why your reasoning is faulty.
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@ludofl3x
Self declaration is not proof of identity. If someone claims to be a pascifist, but goes around beating people up, how does this reflect on pascifism? It doesn't, because the on le claiming to be a pascifist is not a pacifist.
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@ludofl3x
What I don't get is how you think the soviets slaughtering people of your church was immoral, and the hebrews slaughtering the amalekites was moral.
Christians don't sacrifice children, spread disease through sexual immorality, and oppress the poor. To do so is certainly unchristian. There is no good reason to persecute Christianity.
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@ludofl3x
Right and wrong.
Right as in correct and true.
Wrong as in false and incorrect.
It has everything to with The Ultimate Reality and The Way. In other words, God and Jesus Christ.
It is patently ridiculous to accuse The Truth of being wrong.
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@EtrnlVw
Calvinism is a regarded as heretical by the church. Fyi. I am not a Calvinist.Thanks for the opinion. I'm not of the Calvinist sect but thanks
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@ludofl3x
Your ideas about morality have very little to dk with how we actually understand morality.
Morality to us has everything to do with our relationship with God. It has nothing to do with a "universal code".
God is incapable of doing evil, because God is the essence of goodness itself. Morality is for people, not God. God's will is law.
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@ludofl3x
Naturally. It is even God's love for us that gives us the ability to reject Him.
But how could you?
That is the source of evil in the world.
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The Truth establishes The Law.
How ridiculous to think that The Truth is subject to The Law He established!
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Though Job suffered greatly, he knew it was wicked to condemn God. To do such a thing is to choose death. It makes no sense. Embracing delusion does not save. Love of The Truth is how you embrace and transcend suffering.
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@ludofl3x
The problem you and Stephen are having is that your reasonings do not take into account Who God Is.
The Ultimate Reality is God.
Of what profit is it to be in denial of The Truth? To be unwilling to accept reality? It's self destructive. Accusing God is not rational, it is patently foolish.
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@Outplayz
The Truth comes by revelation, not imagination or reasoning.
The Eternal Way is not wishful thinking, but an observance of the heart.
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@Stephen
Ethan is right though, you have no understanding of what you are saying.
The Ultimate Reality is God.
Surely, judgement against this God cannot stand.
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@Stephen
I am not calling you a liar Stephen, but I am saying that you are approaching the whole matter with an unclean heart. An unclean heart perverts reasoning in a way that is often imperceptible.
You try to hard to conform whatever scripture it may be to your own understanding. The proper interpretation cannot be done independently of The Holy Spirit, which itself is The Spirit the prophets spoke by.
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