Thoughts on the Orthodox Church?

Discussion in 'Religion, Beliefs and Spirituality' started by ZioKyo, Jul 25, 2018.

  1. Did you miss my post to you?

    If you don't care to reply thats fine just thought maybe you missed it.

     
  2. Uh oh. Couldn't find it in this thread. Which one are you talking about?
     
  3. I did a fast study of the orthodox Christian church .

    I have some questions , that I didn't see the answers too in my research .


    #1 Your leaders of the church are called what ? Priest, father , bishop ?
    #2 do you have statues like the Catholic church and do you bow down to them entering and leaving the church ?
    #3 do you confess your sins to a father like what is done in a catholic church .
    # 4 does the Orthodox Christian church follow all of Gods and Christ teaching written in the Bible ?
    # 5 what Bible do you study in ?
     
  4. That's honestly the kind of question that needs a spiritual kinship or some sort of spiritual relationship like between a spiritual son and spiritual Father, or between soul friends to answer, as it's just such a vast answer, it's a lifetime of conversations and learning and teaching by study and experience. But I can try with my small amount of knowledge to answer... I guess, firstly it starts with correct theology. In order to build a spiritual house, you need the correct foundation, which is right belief. That's exactly what Orthodox means, is right belief. The Orthodox Church is the Eastern Roman Empire's Church, what today is called the Byzantine Empire. At the time, for the first thousand years of Christianity, there was One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. The word Catholic means universal. The Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church.. we are not Roman Catholics, because Rome split from the rest of the Catholic Church, and took most of the west with it, in the the early 1,000's A.D. Basically there began to be theological differences in the development of the Western Catholics from the Eastern Catholics, so much so that they weren't compatible in the Orthodox sense, meaning, according to the tradition of keeping to what has always been taught by the Apostles, the Holy Scriptures, and the Holy Fathers and Saints of the Orthodox Church... their theology was becoming what we call heretical, it was teaching not founded on tradition, and not right. One of the main differences was the changing of the Nicene Creed by the Catholics to say that the Holy Spirit eminates from the Father AND the Son... instead of from the Father as the Scriptures teach... now on a side note the Holy Spirit it is said can come from the Son in a way, according to St. Maximos the Confessor, in I think his writings in Ambigua, he talks about this... but I'm not familiar enough with the topic to speak on it really at all... but anyways.. the point is that the Roman Catholic Church (Western) had deviated from Orthodox Belief, and then the western Catholic crusaders ended up attacking and sacking and burning part of Constantinople, which was the Capital of the Holy Roman Empire since Emperor St. Constantine the Great, and the spiritual capitol of the Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church, which only deepened the divide between the Western and Eastern Churches... So after the Pope then declared himself as supreme authority over the other Bishops, where before as I understand it, he was the first among equals, and the Church split in two, the development of theology in the two Churches took different paths.. for instance in the west they have an over-rational approach to theology, which to most of you reading this will laugh that I say this, but let me explain... They base alot of their theology on rational speculation rather than mystical experience. The Eastern Fathers purely taught from experience. They contemplated and experienced God first hand, spirituality became a science to them and they learned and were taught by divine revelation everything, that we teach as dogma in Orthodoxy. Our view of salvation is based on theosis. Also called divinization. We believe that by living the true spiritual life, by becoming Orthodox, having correct faith, living correctly according to the commandments of God, and by ascetic labors, such as reading scriptures, fasting, praying, doing prostrations and metanias, which are bows from the waste, (metanoia means repentance, or to change one's mind, away from sin..) by going through voluntary and involuntary hardships, giving alms, etc... that we become sanctified, and then illumined. We believe and experience that after living the true Christian life, as briefly outlined above, in ascesis, in ascetic labor, that we begin to paticipate in the divine energies of God. Not His essence, which is unknowable, but in his energies, in His Grace. Grace is the uncreated energies of God. The more we participate in Grace, the more it fills us and we become one with the energies of God, the more like God we become. We seek and strive to become as much like God as possible. God is love, He is perfect love, perfect humility, perfect kindness, perfect mercy, perfect compassion, perfect and just in every way. Obviously we can not reach the full measure of God, but we strive to become as much like Christ as humanly possible. Archimandrite Maximos Weimar of New York says, that theosis isn't drawing near to God, but allowing God to work more fully through us. Which is describing an aspect of theosis. I'm sure he would say that it is both drawing near to, and allowing God to work more fully through us, but for the sake of clarity the comparison works.

    We believe that the Bible is divinely inspired, and we believe it is essential to follow the commandments of Christ, which can be discerned through a careful study of the Holy Scriptures in the New Testament, and in the Old Testament also, but we do not believe we are bound by Mosaic Law as the Jews are. Paul writes about this in his epistles in the New Testament, the liberty of Christians from the Old Covenant, or the Mosaic Law, the Law of Moses.

    By following the teachings of Christ, over a lifetime, harmony enters into our life. Only by obeying the Divine Order, the Divine Law can there ever be harmony in one's life and one's being. Only by repentance and living or at least truly thouroughly striving to live in accordance with the Holy Scriptures can a person attain true peace and the salvation of their soul. We say in Orthodoxy, we fall down, we get up, we fall down, we get up. Our lives are a constant battle with ourselves to do what is right as opposed to what is evil. What is evil is determined not by man but by God and revealed to us in the natural order of things, in the Holy Scriptures, in one's conscience. Sometimes we sin, but when we fall into sin, we repent, we confess our sins to God to our Priest, we receive absolution, we turn away from our sins, and strive and make up our minds not to sin again, we mourn for grieving God, for breaking the commandments of Christ... and when we always do these things, we are said to be living a repentant life, which is what is necessary for salvation. (Along with baptism, and belief in Jesus Christ as truly God.)

    How it differs from other Christians is vast and could never be easily answered by me, and I'm just a beginner and not and particularly smart person so I wish there were some Orthodox Priests and knowledgeable Monks here to answer better than I have.

    For the sake of brevity I will end this particular post here... but feel free to keep asking questions and I will do my best to give at least some kind of answer.

    P.S. One of our main teachings is on the Prayer of the Heart, also known as the Jesus Prayer. The prayer is "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner" or often the simplified version "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" the prayer is meant to be recited at first orally, said over and over again 50 times, a 100 times, a thousand times, even several thousand times a day, which, the constant or regular repetition of will deify the person by the recitation of the divine name. We believe that simply asking for mercy is an all encompassing prayer, bringing the help of God to the areas most needed. The name starts being recited on the lips, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" and then moves into the nous, and eventually into the heart. The nous is the similar to the mind. From the lips, to the mind, and eventually to the heart. But it takes time and effort, and will develop naturally this way. In the end the Prayer is being recited in the heart, the spiritual center of a man, transforming him through the ceaseless or frequent recitation of the Divine Name. It is a tool the Holy Fathers and many devout persons use to attain theosis, reciting it many times daily throughout their life. It becomes a rythm, and almost a necessity, like spiritual breath. Feeding on the power of the Divine Name, filling the soul with what it truly desires that nothing else can fill, only Christ. ☦

    Please ask questions, I love answering questions for people who are truly interested in the Faith. ☦
     
  5. Hey, I just saw this and will try to answer soon.
     
  6. Hey man, I wasn't in the right place to answer your message when I read it, and when I went back I think I thought like you meant to sort of end the conversation there, but I will try to get back to it soon. Please forgive me, I didn't mean to offend.
     
  7. ^that's meant for Norse..
     
  8. 1. Priest, Father, Bishop, Deacon Partriarch.. Monks are called Father... etc.

    2. We have icons and in Russia they have some statue, and we do bow to those depicted in them in reverance, not worship, unless the person depicted is Christ, or the Holy Spirit, traditionally it's not proper to depict the Father, since his form has never explicitly been revealed to us.

    3. Yes we confess our sins to God with the Priest being like a guide, even a representative of Christ, who confers absolution (forgiveness of sins)

    4. Yes we follow all of the Teaching in the New Testament of Holy Scripture and some in the Old Testament but we do not try to follow the Law of Moses like the Jews do.

    5. The Bible we study from is the Byzantine text, we use the Septuagint Old Testament... some Orthodox here in America don't mind using other translations, like the KJV NKJV.. etc.
     
  9. Brother hope your heart is into the truth and pride doesn't rule your life .

    Question 1 and 3
    The bible says call no one your father To define that statement and understand what it means ,call no one your spiritual father accept God.
    No man can forgive us of our sins,, all man has fallen short … and there is a giant difference from Holy and redeemed .

    We have soiled our self's, God and Christ can wash us off , but we still are not without past present and future sins .
    And that doesn't describe Holly .or makes any man have the authority to forgive another man sins ..

    Statues ,,,, This is the second commandment given by God to the people of Israel. The first and second command are almost same, about idol worshipping. The second commandment is written in the book of (Exodus 20:4, 5) which says “you (Israelis) must not make any idols. And don’t make any statues or pictures of anything up in the sky of anything on the earth or of anything which is down in the water. Don’t worship or serve idols of any kind, because I am your Lord God Almighty. I hate my people worshipping other gods. People who sin against me become my enemies, and I will punish them. For I will punish their children, their grandchildren, and even their great- grandchildren“.

    The second Commandment is the only commandment that carries a curse.

    Who has the authority to forgive sins , might look at this link .
    12. The Authority To Forgive Sins (Matthew 9:1-8)
    Please note the Heads of the Jewish sects was Calling Jesuses acts were of Satan .
    Because only God or Satan could do suck things like forgiving someone of their sins and heal people .

    Number 5 Any church that doesn't follow all of Gods and Christs teachings as in the scriptures of the Bible.

    Spiritual correct churches have a history of being moral .
    Churches that do not follow the scriptures will have a history of sinful acts ,
    Just think about anything that is terrible that any church has done ..
    My thoughts go to Catholics Fathers and little boys .

    The KJV bible is written in 12,500 words , made up of 4 languages and translated into 6,500 English words ,
    That means there are 6,000 words with two or more meanings.
    How can anyone truly understand Gods word without being able to translate the bible into the four languages its is written in ?
    Who can you trust, to translate the bible for you?
    The answer is no one ,,if you truly seek the face of God you will seek out His word .
    Not go to some man and believe anything he says just because he is called a man of God , you can Go to someone who has knowledge of Gods word and let him point you to certain scriptures .
    But its up to you to drink the water .
    If you want to know if your going to a church of God then you have to know and understand Gods word .
    Then see if the church you go to is following all the scriptures …
     
  10. A few years back I attended an Orthodox baptism and it looked like the priest was water boarding the newborn. The poor thing was screaming in fear as the parents prayed on. Good thing water boarding is not considered torture.

    I'm happy to report the little guy has turned into a fine young man.
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  11. Devils advocate: Not to argue, but in hopes of a more thorough insight.
    What is the reasoning/purpose of God forbidding graven images?
    Even protestant churches who are audibly against graven images still have a cross, and or a picture of Jesus praying on a rock or knocking on a door with no doorknob on it, literature with pictures of Jesus, or an ornate set of praying hands on a table, a dove or fish emblem on their car, etc. Is there a difference? What is acceptable and what is not? Why?
     
  12. 2nd commandment . the split between the Catholic church and the protestant church.
    Is over 3/4 of a inch ….. The difference between a 2 dimensional image and a 3 dimensional .
    A photo is a 2 dimensional if you raised any part of the photo3/4 of a inch it would become a 3 dimensional image .
    Protestants believe that it is against the 2nd commandment to have a 3 dimensional image but alright to have a 2 dimensional image .
    Which is totally insane .
    What going on between the Catholic church and protestant church seems everything about legalistic argument over what God considers is a image of Him or anything in heaven or beneath the earth and under the seas of the earth.


    Really I think part of the 2nd commandment is to smoke out all false churches of God .
    Look at all the religions that have Idols .
    , and believe in more then one God .

    The second commandment straight up God says he hates people who worship Idols .
    In other translations it says God is jealous God .
    The word hate in the second commandment shows the opposite of love ..
    Everyone thinks Love doesn't have its opposites, We hate anything that will hurt our children whom we love ..
    In every part of the bible God gives strongest warning about people who lead his children astray .
    Those people say they speak for God and know what he wants ..
    They act like Holy men or men of God or even a woman of God .
    Its all a show .... real men of God are always humble and prefer that the person they are helping find the answers them self's through prayer and studying the scriptures .
    There is only one teacher …
    God feels the same way,,, don't take his children down a false path ..

    Little story about Abraham and his father Terah .
    Terah was a idol maker and told his son Abraham to watch over the idol shop while Terah conducted some business away from the Idol shop.
    When Terah got back to the store all the idols were destroyed except one Abraham explained .
    One idol destroyed all the other Idols in the shop.
    Terah was super mad and said Bull shit the idols are nothing but hay straw and clay .
    Pretty much wraps up what statues really are and what kind of powers they really have.

    God told Abraham to leave his home and country . Abraham didn't leave and didn't obey God for I believe for 17 years ..

    The word Terah in Hebrew means delay .
     
  13. It was the other thread lol, and thanks for the reply.

     
  14. I like to visit churches/temples of all faiths and have always been made feel very welcome in Orthodox churches.
    I was raised a Catholic and anyone that rejects Rome is alright with me.

    There's a large number of orthodox Christians in Palestine, they get treated like shit by the Israelis as well.

    Palestinian Christians - Wikipedia
     

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