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@Stephen
Proverbs 4:23
"Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life."
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@Deb-8-a-bull
I believe the natural inclination of the human is to believe there is Ultimate Reality. God is written on the hesrts of all.
People are educated and exposed constantly to culture that causes confusion.
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@Reece101
Perhaps on a superficial surface level, they might look similar, but they are very different. Certainly, there were some "pagan" Greek philosophers who were aware of God, and even made Him the focus of their worship. Most people have heard of Socrates, so he is a good example. This was a man who clearly valued The Truth above all things. I wouldn't call him a pagan.
The language of Greek philosophy in particular has been utilized by the church to more precisely formulate its doctrine.
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Trump is going to win. It was the desperation of democrats to destroy Trump that will be their undoing.
That is what I think.
They would have had better chances if they didn't invest so much energy into hating the president. It makes them look really desperate, weak, and incompetent.
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@3RU7AL
It is not possible to truly know The Way without abiding in it.
Information isn't what you need. What you lack is not information, but faith.
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@Stephen
The church certainly uses scripture as it was intended to be used, and our use of it is the proper context. The way we use scripture fleshes out the typology in such a way to where the meaning of the faith is revealed.
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@zedvictor4
Everything is meaningless to a nihilist, that is the joke.
Atheism towards my God is nihilism.
I can say that because my words do have meaning, and the last thing you should do when you don't understand something is adopt an attitude of arrogance. There is grace that comes with humility.
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@Reece101
^^^^
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Yeah, truism.In paganism it happens less than you’d think (adoring nature as god(s)). Having power over nature, well that’s a whole different thing, which the Christian god is also guilty of.
Our God is not an emotion, an ideal, or objects fashioned by hands. It is not facts or truths that we worship. What we worship is The Supreme and Ultimate Reality in Spirit and in Truth. The God who became incarnate, dwelling in all things by His Word and life giving breathe.
So what we are in fact is very different than the pagan. The pagan worships creation. That is what distinguishes a pagan for us.
The One True God is Righteousness itself, perfectly sinless, and can not be "guilty".
Yes, christians like many other religions do — by Interpretation, cherry picking, upbringing and other ideological factors such as politics.
The problem is always in deviation from orthodoxy. We would consider it folly to make idols of these things.
You don’t think ideals are involved with God? This is what I find the most stupid. I’ll just throw out the most obvious... the Ten Commandments.
If you really think it is stupid, maybe you should be more charitable.
The 10 commandments are not an ideal so much as a guideline on how not to be a piece of shit.
You don’t think “true” orthodox christians warship symbols? This is very close to the number one spot for stupidity
Idols of Jesus? The Creation of Adam painting? Wine and crackers/bread. I’m sure there’s plenty of adoring/worshiping going on.
There is a very big difference between the worship we give to God alone and the use of iconography. As created beings, we use the medium of creation to express things. We are not worshipping a prayer when we pray to God. We are not bowing to idols when we stand before a portrait of a great saint and venerate them for the Christ that shone through them. See that even in the venerating of saints, the adoration is directed at God. That is certainly the proper use of icons. Worshipping wood and paint is superstitious. The saints are Holy not because they themselves are holy so much as that in their lives God managed to shine bright through them. That is why they are venerated. It is the God in them we adore, not the saint. We honor the saints.
The eucharist is quite a bit different than those other things, as it is a sacred mystery of the faith. It is something to be experienced. Do you know what eucharist means? It means thanksgiving. Thanksgiving isn't something to be intellectualized as much as it is to be experienced. That is the case with all mysteries. We do not worship bread and wine, we worship the God that in His incarnation gave life to all things, even becoming the flesh that is our food and the blood that is our drink.
We do not worship matter any more than we worship a man as God.
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@zedvictor4
There is obviously an ultimate reality.But whether the rituals of Mopac's church have anything to do with it, is another matter completely.Mopac undoubtedly has a conditioned bias. As do most ardent theists
You don't judge rightly, because you don't understand why we do anything that we do. If you did, you'd realize many of these things you don't understand are part of what make the church truly catholic.
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@PressF4Respect
No, I would say that our experience of reality is our relationship with God. The reality we experience is a type and shadow of reality as it truly is.
God is The Ultimate Reality. Our experience is a reality, but it is not ultimately real. All realities derive their existence from The Ultimate Reality, which is what gives existence to all things.
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@Stephen
You are splitting hairs.
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@3RU7AL
(IFF) there is variation in the interpretation of the holy scriptures (multiple Christian denominations) (THEN) the holy scriptures cannot be the true and plain, infallible, perfect, literal word of an all-wise and all-knowing god.
The main problem here is that it is not orthodox to call scripture "the true and plain, infallible, perfect, literal word of an all-wise and all-knowing god."
The answer to the rest of your question is The Orthodox Catholic Church.
If you want to learn Christianity, this is the definitive Christian Church. It is the original church. All other churches can be traced back to their deviation from Orthodoxy.
Do you really care to know? Go to The Orthodox Church. Accept no other substitute.
Can't please God without faith.
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@Reece101
Even ancient forms of paganism make gods out of forces of nature, emotions, ideals, and at the most base objects fashioned by hands.The only difference your saying is the leaning towards nature aspect. That’s less than you might assume. Everything else applies to Christianity too. Are you serious?
I am not sure what you are saying, but we do not adore nature as God, nor do we make gods out of emotions, ideals, or objects fashioned by hands. Certainly such practices are not orthodox.
Like the cross or a statue of Merry? Symbolism is in most if not all major religions
We do not adore statues or symbols as God. Rather, we recognize that as created beings our relationship with God is through creation. The object of our worship is The Supreme Ultimate Reality. When God became incarnate, it sanctified creation and matter, because God is present in it. God is with us. But we are not pantheists, that is, we do not adore creation itself or the universe as God. It would be more accurate to describe us as panentheists, because we understand God as being bigger than creation, yet at the same time filling all things. The divine nature is very different than the created nature.
I say ultimate reality is what is, not what’s imagined to be.
I agree 100%
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@PressF4Respect
I am speaking of God, not god. There is a distinction.
A lower case "g" god refers to a created being.
Capital "G" God very specifically refers to The Ultimate Reality.
And if you know what that means, it should be apparent that while the essence of God is unknowable, it can be discerned that God by necessity exists. If God does not exist, then it would not be possible for us to have an experience of reality. If there is no Ultimate Reality, nothing is ultimately real. Yet clearly there is some form of existence, as all of our experience scientifically concludes. There is reality as we perceive it. If this exists, there must be a reality as it truly is. A reality that is not contingent on anything, but on which all realities derive their own existence.
There is One True God, The Supreme and Ultimate Reality.
Of course God exists. I have no doubt. I don't believe there is any other reasonable position. Certainly my God exists.
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@PressF4Respect
I am simply asserting what is fact, that is not a logical argument.
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@Reece101
Even ancient forms of paganism make gods out of forces of nature, emotions, ideals, and at the most base objects fashioned by hands.
So we would still say that the thing that unifies paganism is the worship of created things. That is pretty much what defines paganism to us.
To contrast, we believe in One God, The Ultimate Reality. The Ultimate Reality is not created, but The Uncreated.
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@PressF4Respect
I am not making a logical argument.
The Truth is God.
If you disagree, I don't believe in whatever god you don't believe in either.
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@Alec
It seems as if there is something wrong with every church. The only true Christian died on the cross.
If the only true Christian died on the cross, you call Jesus a liar when he says thst the gstes of bell will not overcome the church. You also are denying the many saints and martyrs who suffered torments for being shining beacons of Christ in the world.
Is there something wrong with every church?
Christ Himself took on flesh. Weak human flesh that needs to eat, drink, and rest. Weak human flesh that is subject to time and the elements. The Church here on Earth is as the flesh. The Church up in heaven is as the divine. Just as Christ himself was fully God and fully man, so to is the Church fully God and fully man. The Church here on Earth and the Church in heaven constitute one Church, they are not 2 churches.
Are you a sinner? Great, then the church is for you. The Church is not a museum of the saints or courthouse to stand before the judge. It is a hospital of the spirit to help you to free yourself from passion and delusion.
The Catholics, apart from doing something that I think is mary worship, have a sex abuse scandal that the pope does not much about.
The Roman Catholic Church broke away from The Orthodox Catholic Church a thousand years ago.
The biggest obstacle towards them reconciliation with Orthodoxy is their doctrine of Papal Supremacy, which the Church at large has NEVER accepted. Besides that, they altered the creed of the church which cannot be done outside of an ecumenical council, and they have introduced. a lot ofnother innovations to the faith.
We Orthodox love Mary very much, because she is the ark of the covenant, the throne of God, the mother of the church, the Theotokos. Christ took his flesh from her. We don't worship her as God, though she is easily the most venerated and loved of the saints.
To give an idea of how we might think differently of Mary, note that it isn't uncommon to see icons of Mary in the Latin church where she is alone by herself. With very rare exceptions, every icon you see of Mary in The Orthodox Church has her pictured with Jesus, and she is always trying to direct your attention to Him, be it through her hand gesture or eyes.
Historically, Christians have always venerated Mary, for it is even written in scripture, "all generations shall call me(Mary) blessed."
The unitaritarians are too liberal for God. They are all about accepting sin, rather than rehabbing those who have done sinful things.
Unitarians do not accept the Trinity, which frankly disqualifies them from even being called Christian. If they do not believe that God's Word and Holy Spirit are divine, they are effectively denying that God ever became man. They are denying that God is with us. They aren't really Christians.
The evangelicals are too conservative for God. They reject undocumented immigrants, which is not very christian.
It's a bit more complicated than that I am sure. For example, breaking the law is not very Christian. If you want a better reason for rejecting Evangelical Christianity, it's that it has become overly Calvinistic, and Calvin's teachings are very much in opposition to what the church has always taught.
Another good reason to reject any evangelical church is lack of consistency. The only thing you might find consistent is a lack of depth and a whole lot of going from the cuff. Oh, you found a church you like and the pastor is really on point? Well, he died or moved away, and the next guy that replaces him is a mug.
Really though, you'll find a lot of conservatives in the Orthodox Church. It is a conservative Church. We have been doing the same liturgy for over a thousand and a half years! Politically, it's a mixed bag. I have friends at church that are Democrats and Republicans. I think at least at my parish, politically people are a little more conservative.
I personally do not have much faith in politics.
I think every Christian should be an independent Christian from a religious standpoint, so they can think for themselves on the bible.
That is a very protestant way of thinking!
And that is why there are 30,000+ protestant denominations.
Humility is very important in the Christian walk. You can't do that if you take yourself as having more authority to interpret scripture and doctrine than even a bishop! Besides, there is no such thing as a lone wolf Christian. Christianity is not an individualistic faith, it is in a way very communal. Even monastics and recluses partake of the eucharist and participate in liturgical life.
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@Reece101
Luciferianism like Christianity has various doctrines and a lot of dogma surrounding it. That being said Paganism is older than Christianity. There’s no perversion from paganism... Christianity on other hand
The religion that we Orthodox Christians follow is The Way.
That isn't immediately obvious to those who are not initiated into the mysteries.
We would actually say that The Way is the primordial religion. True Religion has always existed in some form or another.
True Religion is to abide in The Way. It is to live The Truth.
Paganism, varied as it is, is united by one common thing. The adoration of creation as divine. Because pagans worship the creature rather than the creator, we would say that paganism is infact an aberration of true religion. While True Religion is natural to the pure in heart, paganism only manifests itself when a heart is defiled by idolatry.
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@Alec
Though I am sure you could find many good videos that convince of God's existence, it is actually even much simller than that.
The Truth is God.
You will find this understanding is consistently present in the writings of the church going back to the beginning.
Do you really need to be convinced that Ultimate Reality exists? By definition, it is more real than anything else you think is real.
The existence of God is one of maybe a handful of things you can be certain of. The only thing that I am 100% certain of is that God exists. To profess that level of certainty tends to be met with scoffing by those who have superstitious conceptions of God.
If you consider yourself a Christian now, I suggest you find an Orthodox Church. Evangelical/Protestant churches are too inconsistent, often times preaching recognized heresies from the pulpit. Besides that, The Orthodox Church has been around since the very beginning, and so it has HISTORY. It understands the faith it preaches. It knows the God it worships.
Coming from someone who spent an awful amount of time, effort, and study trying to find the right church. If I could save you the trouble, I would! But I understand that these are choices you habe to make, and that is between you and God.
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@Stephen
I don't think that the books of Samuel (or 1st and 2nd Kingdoms as they are titled in the septuigant) are texts that have been preserved too well. My opinion comes from the vast differences between the septuagint and the masoretic texts when it comes to these books. However, in this case the septuigant even says "Goliath" rather than brother of Goliath.
However, it is more consistent with the rest of scripture, including psalms ascribed to David about slaying Goliath, to say that Goliath that was slain by David. The parallel to this passage found in 1 Chronicles 20:5 says that Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath.
I have heard an argument that an early copyist error produced this anomaly, and it purports to show this through grammatical anomalies in the masoretic text version, but unfortunately I am not familiar enough with the Hebrew language to really appreciate the argument.
It would have to be an early copyist error, because the septuagint was translated from older manuscripts than what was used to produce the masoretic texts.
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@3RU7AL
Faith is a choice, and faith is more than simply intellectual assent. Faith is a living thing.
God is The Truth. So the real question is, what are you choosing in preference to The Truth? There is where you find the idol you prefer to God.
Simply believing that God exists is not worshipping God in Spirit and Truth. That requires a life of humility, self examination, prayer, and repentance. It is not enough to believe that God exists, the struggle is to abide in The Way, and that necessarily implies work.
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@Stephen
This is a lot simpler than all this talk in the topic would have it be.
Right before your quoted scripture, it says
"Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.
His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?"
His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?"
Thomas is refering to the fact that they are going to Judea, where they want to kill Jesus. Lazarus is in Judea.
So actually, yes, context does clear this up.
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@Athias
@Reece101
The incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ effectively sanctifies creation. What does that mean? It means we should not see the use of matter as evil.
Is it so strange? How do you reach a people who in their pagan superstition worship images made of wood and paint or stone? What the church does is take what is actually a very common and almost universal pagan practice and adapts it in such a way as to no longer be pagan. The idolaters worship matter. To contrast, when we venerate say, an Icon of Saint Raphael of Brooklyn as an example, what we are truly doing is worshipping God by adoring the Christ in them. We do not adore the saints as we do God, and our veneration of them is even directed at God. We do not worship the wood and paint. We do not worship men in the place of God.
The iconoclasts who would charge the Church with idolatry, not truly understanding how it is we use holy images. If you are an iconoclast, I suggest you look into the 7th ecumenical council and read the book "On the divine Images" by St. John of Damascus.
What the church has always done in its great charity is take the deluded practices of pagans and direct those practices towards God in such a way that is conducive to right worship.
All that said now, it is silly to accuse the church of hijacking holidays. How can you hijack a holiday? Calendars are almost invariably based on celestial events. I don't believe the church appropriated pagan holidays any more than the pagans who also tended to order their feasts based on celestial events.
I have heard the church accused of appropriation in regards to us coming together on Sundays. The truth is, we celebrate on Sunday because to us it represents the eternal 8th day(Saturday being the 7th, the sabbath) which has more to do with Christ's resurrection than a connscious effort to meet on the same day that many Roman pagans did.
My viewpoint is whether or not the church baptized so to speak pagan holidays, which by the way, I don't necessarily regard as a reality, it was fully in its authority to do so.
But I'd also like to point out a somewhat relevent scripture..
"One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God."
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I wonder if anyone here noticed that New Years is the day that the incarnate Jesus, taking the flesh of a Jew under the mosaic covenant, would have been circumcised.
If you didn't, now you got some trivias for ya you probably didn't want to know.
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@sylweb
What do you mean by Ultimate Reality?If all you mean by "Ultimate Reality" is some vague sense of order and natural or moral law, then you haven't really dealt with God. God isn't just order and reality. When we talk about God, we generally mean a personal God with intentions, actions, discretion, and maybe even a name.
Exactly what that means. The Absolute Truth. The Supreme Being.
There is nothing vague about it, it means something very specific. If you recognize what it is that is beimg spoken of, you will recognize that God's essence is certainly unknowable. It isn't vagueness that makes God unknown, it is the fact that divinity is of a whole different nature than created things. Created things are contingent existences, they come into being, exist only in relation. The Ultimate Reality on the other hand is pre-eternal in the sense that time itself is contingent on God. God has always been, always is, and will forever be, truly eternal. Truly The Singularity, very distinct in nature from creation.
We understand very well that God's essence is unknowable, because to know The Ultimate Reality is to know all that can be known. To know God you would have to be God.
God is personal in the sense that our very life and experience is our relationship with God. When we recognize that The Truth is God, we recognize God by name. When we live the lifelong struggle and discipline of abiding in The Truth and walking The Way that entails, we are worshipping God in the Orthodox sense, that is, in Spirit and Truth. That is, worshipping God in Trinity.
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@AGnosticAgnostic
I reject your knowledge falsely so called. You are clearly delusional.
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@AGnosticAgnostic
Christ is not a man - the idol worship is ridiculous.
Not man, theanthropos.
You don't understand our faith, and the worldview you are promulgating here seems to imply that you are unteachable. How can you come to know what I know if you aren't even willing to believe in order to come to knowledge?
So where can we even go from here?
You know better, right? If you know better, I certainly am not going to convince you of anything.
You certainly don't know Christ as I do, nor do you understand what I do know. So I ask you, who do you say Christ is?
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@AGnosticAgnostic
2. You cannot undo the effects of Adam and Eve's transgression. Only Christ can. It takes a believer to believe anything, so you pointing out that it takes a believer to believe evil is good is meaningless as far as I can see. The Orthodox Church teaches that there is such a thing as spiritual delusion. The Greek word is "plané" and the Russian word is "prelest". The Church has a great deal of experience grappling with this, and it is especially a focus in our monasteries. Our religion is Truth worship, so sincerity is a must when it comes to the faith. The therepeutic method of the church weeds out delusion, and exposing that which influences us unawares, helps to make the practitioner a more honest person.
3. Like me in what way? The Orthodox Catholic Church is the 2nd largest congregation of Christians in the world, and the original Apostolic church. The Church is present here in America, but Orthodox Christianity is not big here. In fact, we don't even really have a properly formed Church yet in America, and you will see that in America's peculiar situation in the many immigrant churches that are named after their country of origin. Eventually, all these churches will be united in a proper American Orthodox Church, but it is a process.
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@David
C. AuthenticityYou may not:Impersonate individuals, groups, or organizations in a manner intended to or likely to deceive others. Parody accounts are acceptable as long as they: are clear that they are a parody and not a parody of other Site users;
*coughBrotherDThomascough*
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The nativity fast starts tomorrow, so I will be absent from the forums at least until after Christmas.
I encourage everyone to spend less time in front of screens, and more time spent interacting with the real world this holiday season. Don't take your elderly relatives for granted, one day they could be gone!
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@AGnosticAgnostic
leaves me begging:1. Who is "we"?2. What do we "teach"?3. Why ought "such matter"?
1. The Orthodox Catholic Church
2. That "without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
3. The Holy Spirit of Truth abides abides in The Apostolic Church, which has faithfully preserved the good news of our salvation and reconciliation to God for millennia. It is the definitive Christian Church.
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@AGnosticAgnostic
You literally said "The root of P is either -P or +P: they are equal counter-parts.
God and Satan are not different" in post 102.
I don't appreciate your implication that I am engaging with you deceitfully.
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@SkepticalOne
The bible is not intended to be an idol placed before God. The bible is used to direct people towards God and The Way. The bible itself is not God, nor is it The Way.
The bible is also not intended to be taken away from the context of the church.
None of these believers you speak of are with the church except yours truly.
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You say you want a revolution?
Well you know, we all want to change the world.
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@n8nrgmi
That dream Peter had was moreso about associating with gentiles than eating cajun food.
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@n8nrgmi
is pork still unclean or is it clean now? why or why not? do you consider there to be a contradiction in the bible here?
Have you ever seen pigs? Ever hear of pig toilets? How many diseases come to people through pigs? Do you think porkchops are good for your heart even?
Of course pigs are unclean.
But think about the difference between these two different mentalities...
Righteousness is observing this list of rules and commands.
And
Righteousness is abiding in the truth.
That is the difference between the old testament and the new testament. But here is the kicker. It was actually the spirit of abiding in the truth that brought about the law of Moses to begin with. That is why we say Jesus Christ fulfills the law and the prophets.
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Interesting factoid...
Jehovah witnesses do not believe in the divinity of Christ. They are a modern day manifestation of the ancient Arian heresy.
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@n8nrgmi
Still, it is worth noting that in certain cases we still have dietary restrictions. For example, most monastics are required to eat a plant based diet.
It is worth noting that monastics voluntarily set themselves apart for a purpose, and so they do not marry either. There is nothing wrong with eating meat or marrying. In fact, marriage is considered a sacred mystery of the church!
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@n8nrgmi
Technically Christians still aren't supposed to eat blood, food that was sacrificed to idols, or food that was strangled.
One of the first controversies in the early church had to do with whether or not non-Jewish converts would have to be circumcised or follow the law of Moses. It was determined that they didn't.
That said, you are still probably better off eating kosher.
There was an early community of Jewish Christians that tried to keep itself set apart from those who were not by blood Jew, but eventually even this community ended up assimilating with the church at large. We still have some of their writings preserved in the church.
The Church is the house of Israel under the new covenant, as was spoke through the prophet Jeremiah,
"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
We don't believe that righteousness comes from following things like dietary restrictions. For even Christ said, "those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man"
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@YeshuaBought
The church has been against abortion since the Roman Empire.
Christianity is very much against child sacrifice.
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@AGnosticAgnostic
You say that God and Satan. are not different.
Then you say that satan is the inverse of God.
Not only are both of these claims mutually exclusive, but neither of these claims reflect what we teach.
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@EtrnlVw
That means there is nothing that distinguishes God from it's creation, ever.
That which is contingent and relativistic in its being is by nature different from that which is eternal, self sufficient, and existing on its own.
To say these two natures are the same is some type of monophysitism that we reject as a church.
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@Swagnarok
Are you a convert to Orthodoxy or were you born into it? If the former, what attracted you to it? Was it that you were impressed by orthodox spirtuality? Some kind of apologetic reason?
I am a convert to Orthodoxy. I became a Christian before I found the church. I was trying to find the right church. I found that Orthodoxy theology was more in line with what was revealed to me in both scripture and meditation. The fact that it is the original Christian Church kind of hammered it home.
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@Vader
@PGA2.0
I am just an Orthodox Christian. I go to an Antiochan church, but I would still go to a Greek or Russian Orthodox Church. I have. The nearest monastery to me is actually Greek.
Really, I am an American. The state of the church in America is weird because it is really made up of a bunch of old world immigrant church jurisdictions stepping on eachother's toes. It isn'tthat anyone is to blame so much as it is that the American Church isn't fully foemed yet. In the future, it probably won't be so unusual. I am happy that this is a big issue that the bishop over my parish recognizes as important for the church going forward, and he is a big part of the emerging American Orthodox Church.
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@PGA2.0
1. Is another name for your church the Eastern Orthodox Church?
It is often called that to distinguish it from Roman Catholicism, because if we called ourselves catholic it gets confusing in the west.
2. Do you teach that salvation is by faith and works?
Salvation is unity with Christ Jesus, to abide in Him. In this, there is no seperation between faith and works, because they are united in faithfulness. Christ says we will be judged according to our works. Faith without works being dead, it is like no faith at all.
What really makes an orthodox Christian? Abiding in Jesus Christ. Christ says that His disciples will be recognized by their love. In love, even the samaritan was deemed righteous. The truth is, we are all wrong. The One who is righteous is God alone. A pagan who loves may be in better standing with God than even someone who has been raised by the church and has no love to show for it.
The salvation of Christ has been offered to every creature under heaven, the gospel having been preached to all that exists, being buried in the hearts of all. Our hearts are defiled and wicked, but if we choose to be co-workers with God rather than rebels against God, the Holy Spirit is faithful to cleanse us of our stain and purify our souls. The key is to abide. To direct your heart towards God, not vain imaginings that only bring us deeper into delusion.
If you do not have a hunger and thirst for righteousness, can your gamble or outward acceptance of Christ save you? Vain religion does not heal. Worshipping God in spirit and truth is what heals, and this is not a dead faith, but the constant realigning of ones heart towards The Truth out of love for God. A life of repentance.
3. Is the schism you refer to the breakaway in AD 879-880 or AD 1045?
It wasn't until after the later schism that the Roman church rejected the 879-880 council of Constantinople in favor of the robber council held between 869-870. The council that we consider the 8th ecumenical council was only rejected after the schism.
4. What do you believe about Mary?
That God became incarnate of The Holy Spirit and The Virgin Mary. The angels said that all generations would call her blessed, and so we honor her with the title "Theotokos". Just as the word of God was written on the tablets contained in the ark, so was God in the flesh contained in the womb of the virgin. The church is the body of Christ, and Christ's flesh comes from his mother. We honor her with this prayer of Saint John Chrystostem during liturgy...
"It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, who art blessed and all-blameless, and the mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, thou who without stain bearest God the Word, and art truly Theotokos: we magnify Thee."
5. What do you believe about baptism and communion?
We, as the creed states "acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins."
We are not like anabaptists who get their name from their practice of rebaptizing.
As the body and blood of Christ, we hold communion with utmost reverence. The mystery of the eucharist is central to the mystery of Christianity. Properly known, it is the gospel itself.
We practice a closed communion, only those recognized as being with the church are allowed to drink the blood of the new covenant (as appropriate). We will often share the body with visitors even if they don't take initiative.
6. What is your position regarding the saints?
They are not honored so much for any righteousness of their own, but the righteousness of Christ that shines through them. The ones here on Earth are the salt of the Earth. The ones who have moved on to glory can be learned from.
7. Who are the leaders of your church?
The head of the church is Jesus Christ. The church is pastored by Bishops, who following the resurrection were the apostles and those whom they ordained. The bishops appoint presbyters to act in their place and take care of local congregations.
8. Are all outside from your church (all other denominations and believers) who claim the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior heretics, in your opinion?
I wouldn't call someone who is in a heterodox church a heretic. I am sure that there are Christians who belong to heterodox churches that will be reunited to The Church in eternity. God knows the hearts of men. God also knows what we have to work with. There is plenty of room for grace, for we have all fallen short of the glory of God.
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@Deb-8-a-bull
I find it necessary to distinguish myself as Orthodox because I truly believe that The Church understands the faith in a way that only the legitimate Church can.
If someone were to desire to inquire deeper into the faith, I would want to point them to the people who will teach them sound doctrine. If it is a real Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of a real Orthodox Bishop, I know they will at least be taught sound doctrine.
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The Orthodox Catholic Church is the very Church of the Apostles. Western Christianity diverged from Orthodox Christianity over a thousand years ago, and so we tend to have a very different understanding of the faith.
With the west we share the first 7 ecumenical councils.
We used to share the 8th ecumenical council with Roman Catholicism, but after the schism, the Roman Catholic Church reverted to a council that was specifically abrogated by what we consider the 8th. This is likely because one of the things that council did was made it anathema to alter the creed of the church, which the Roman Church was guilty of doing. Altering the creed of the church is one of the reasons that The Roman Catholic Church broke away from The Orthodox Catholic Church.
So we maintain that we are the definitive Christian Church. The Orthodox Church.
So if you have any questions about Orthodoxy or how it might differ from newer forms of Christianity that developed in the west, ask away! I am very well read and do my best to answer questions.
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@PGA2.0
Skeptics annotated bible is a big one. If you get sucked into this, you'll be answering questions til the grave. No one will read the answers. If they do, they won't believe.
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