Mopac

No, I'm saying that you don't know what I believe in. You have too many blanks, and a mind that likes to fill them in. 

You don't understand my beliefs. Not at all. 

No.

When did I use the bible to justify anything?

You are simply prejudice.

You don't know what I believe in. Don't kid yourself.

We certainly do believe that we partake of the body and blood of Christ. 

I am an Orthodox Catholic, not a Roman Catholic.

Before we partake of the eucharist, we sing "I will not speak of thy mysteries to thine enemies, neither will I give thee a kiss as did Judas."

Before all worlds, before all ages, with God there was His Word, Truth. With Him was His Spirit, Truth. God is One with His Word and Spirit.

Through His Word, the universe was created, through His Spirit the universe was enlivened.

The Word became incarnate through that Holy Spirit and undefiled wisdom, dwelling among us so that we can rightly bare witness to the Uncreated God. God took the form of creation without sacrificing His divinity. The World, unable to bear The Incarnate Truth, killed it. But as The Truth cannot be overcome by falsehood, as darkness cannot overcome light, The Truth rose again. In becoming death, and rising again, death itself was conquered, and all that ever was, is, and will be has been brought up with it. On the last day, the eternal day, all of creation will be resurected, and the Light of Truth will reveal all as truly is. A resurection of glory to those who abided in Truth, and a resurection of shame who put their trust in vanity.

For God is everywhere present, filling all things, and it is that presence of God that draws all back to Him. The Incarnation effectively deifying creation, and the resurection being the death of death itself.

The incomprehensible God is not something to be apprehended.

I am not a pantheist. I am an Orthodox Christian. We are probably more accurately called panentheists than pantheists.

You are assuming that I am making an assumption.

If there is no ultimate reality, nothing can even properly be called real. Your experience is a scientific experiment that conclusively proves there is some form of existence. If there is an existence as you experience it, there by necessity is an existence as it truly is.

There is nothing extraordinary about the claim that God exists.

No other belief is more justified than belief in my God.

Why would non believers give money to a monastery?

All monasteries have different ways of supporting themselves. Certainly, some people donate to monasteries. Many pilgrims appreciate monasticism.

The Ultimate Reality is the foundation of all existence. It is not composed of parts. It is singular, not existing in relation to anything else. It is not contingent. Rather, everything that exists is contingent on it. The Ultimate Reality is what gives existence to all things. Everything that exists is contained within it. 

Why call it God? Nothing else is deserving of being called God. This is the God that was revealed to us.

It is what we believe and teach. It has certainly been revealed to us. I think the stupidity of taking anything else as a god is solid enough proof.

It is better to have the Truth as God than anything else that can only be a god in pretense.

I don't need any more justification for what it is that is meant by a word.

It should be apparent that nothing else is worthy of being called God, there is nothing greater. Nothing else that is called a god can even properly be called divine when compared to The Ultimate Reality. Nothing even truly compares to God. 

My belief is entirely justified. What is the point of many words? I can certainly talk at length about this. However, if you are discerning, I have said all that is necessary. The Ultimate Reality is God. Accept that this is God, and nothing more needs to be said. To deny that this is God is to not speak of my God.

The Truth is God.

And I certainly know what I believe better than you do, or anyone else does.

The arrogance is in telling me what I believe and being unwilling to be corrected because of prejudice.

Why do you say I have no justification?

Maybe you shouldn't concern yourself with these hard things then. Instead, you should learn what the faith is about. You are only confusing yourself.

What you are demanding from me is not nearly as reasonable as you think it is. Rather, it is presumptious.

I am telling you the truth when I say that this isn't the place to start if you want to understand the faith. That is, assuming you care to understand the faith.

If you do, I will tell you right now that it is nothing like you imagine it to be.

As I said earlier, apart from what it is the church teaches, scripture is always taken out of context.

Your reasoning has nothing to do with what we believe or teach.

Your idea of what "believing the bible" means is polluted by protestant ideas such as "sola scriptura" and other nonsense. It would be of no benefit to discuss these things with you.

Besides that, because you have no discernment, you make judgements about me that is based on previous interactions with others. Others that would be considered heterodox even by us.

Instead of presuming to know, it would be better to say "I don't know", and be open to learning something.

May the measure you use to judge be used to judge you.

Yet, you don't know the God we worship. Nor does calling Jesus "the savior of the world" say anything meaningful about what we believe.

You still can't tell me what I believe, because you have dismissed it before coming to any real understanding of it.

Since the very start, we have believed and taught that The Truth is God.

In a world that wants to make fantasies, forces of nature, and every created thing under heaven into a god.

The modern secular and materialist worldview, which was constructed by academics who very intentionally wanted to do away with God, does not negate in any way the truth of our faith. The only thing it does is obscure it.

What is an atheist to us? Someone who is in denial of their gods. Functionally, they have their gods. They are pagans in practice.

What is atheism towards The One True God? A profession of nihilism, that there is no ultimate reality or absolute truth. 

 

Meaning is arbitrary to the nihilist. Statements are simply a fill in the blank game.

The fact that you are having an experience at all is proof that there is some form of reality. If there is some form of reality, reality as it truly is must exist. The Ultimate Reality is reality as it truly is. That is what we call God.

And that is why if you deny God, you are delusional.

Let me ask you something.

What do we Orthodox Christians teach and believe?

You have no idea. Therefore, it is you who won't sit down and listen. You don't even know what scripture is used for.

I'll help you out a little. We don't teach genocide. You have nothing to fear.

But please, don't lump me in with these fellows you mentioned. We do not share the same faith. To us, they are heterodox, not orthodox.

To compare acknowledging The Truth as God with your delusion about a dragon in your garage is patently idiotic, and a testament to your nihilistic ways of thinking.

You have no idea what I believe because you are too arrogant.

Presuppositional apologetics is a protestant thing that has nothing to do with my approach or beliefs.

Obviously, God's existence is not contingent on any ideology.

I don't believe you know as much about orthodoxy as you think you do. You seem pretty dismissive.

I am not sure what you are trying to say.

The Ultimate Reality is God.

Reality in the truest sense of the word.

That is what God is.

If you believe there is an ultimate reality, you believe that there is a God.

That would at the very least make you a deist.

You have your tradition to help interpret these passages.

It is moreso an issue for the protestants who take it on themselves to interpret individually. "Sola scriptura" opened up a big can of worms, as they have to constantly deal with the godless using scripture as a weapon against them.  Besides that, there are thousands and thousands of these protestant and protestant descended churches that do not really share the same beliefs. They do not have what we call "Holy Tradition".

Orthodox Christians do not have this problem, because we habe what we call "Holy Tradition". If an unbeliever attempts to use scripture against us as a weapon, all we have to say is "That isn't what the church teaches". 

The important thing to note is that God is, was, and always will be.

It isn't as if evil is a threat to God. If evil dominated the entire universe, it would be no threat to God.

People who want to control others often times cannot control themselves. God gave us the choice to choose good or evil. To choose power is to choose evil. To choose love is to choose good. If God so willed, certainly we would all be perfect little robots.

But rather, God has willed that we come to Him voluntarily out of love. We were given the freedom to choose evil ways instead of love. In that way, we can truly experience the mystery of love. God used His free will, the only true free will, to give us the freedom of choice. To control what we say and what we do. Just as God chose to not control us, so we are supposed to choose not to attempt to control others. As God chose to love us in giving us this freedom, so we are supposed to choose to love others and respect their freedom. As man is made in the image of God, you cannot love God without loving mankind. 

When people forsake God, and their love for many waxes cold, evil proliferates. There is war, famine, environmental catastrophe, mental illness, instability, and wickedness abounds.

To accept the fact that there is evil in the world is to accept God's will. It is better to blame oneself for the evils of the world than to blame others. We are all sinners. What do we have control over? What we say and do. Leave the rest to God. Abide in the way of love.

As St. Seraphim of Sarov said, "Aquire the spirit of peace, and thousands around you will be saved."

Aquisition of The Holy Spirit is the purpose of Christian life.

Evil is the direct consequence of mankind taking what was given by God, and misusing those gifts for the sake of ego worship, the feeding of passions, and the fulfillment of fantasies. Idolatry is what causes  evil. The forsaking of God. A preference for vain imaginings over The Truth.

It is the case that western "Christianity" has long since fallen away from orthodoxy, starting with the Roman Catholic Church. Long after, the reformers attempted to return to orthodoxy, but were unable to rid themselves of the currents that lead to Rome's falling away.

The modern secularist worldview is a direct consequence of western Europe's falling away from orthodoxy.

I am not a protestant, but I think that even protestants understand the "I Am that I Am" to be a statement of eternally existing rather than simply a "right now".

To defend the translators a little bit here, all translations are to some extent interpretations. 

That would be a silly accusation considering this is what we have taught for thousands of years.

Yes, The Absolute Truth, that is, God, does not require observation to exist.

How do you think this changes things?

At least in the Greek, what seems to be conveyed is absolute existence.

What about "I will be what I will be" would be different from "I am that I am"?

No. 

The King James is a really old translation. Protestants prefer the masoretic text, that is why all their bibles are translated from it.

How do you think exodus 3:14 should be translated?

That word even in Greek communicates existence.

IS

AM

These words are all forms of "exist".

The King James is translated from the masoretic text, which the Orthodox church tends to not use.

It wouldn't be appropriate to translate the name as "will be", as God is eternal. Pre-eternal even. 

I Am That I Am communicates that God Is what Is. What truly Is. Reality in the truest sense. That is why I personally believe that "The Ultimate Reality" better communicates the intended meaning.

Who is God? The Truth is God. This is very distinct when compared to the pagans who worship forces of nature and created things as gods.

When we translate from the Greek(The Orthodox Church prefers the Septuigint to the Masoretic text), what comes out in English is "The Eternally Existing One" as far as the name of God.

I Am That I Am, Eternally Existing One, etc.

They are all different ways to translate the name of God which I believe is most clearly articulated in English as "The Ultimate Reality".

In English versions of our liturgies, we say at one point, "Christ The Existing One" which could easily be translated into English as "Christ the I Am".

People who wish to have control over others very rarely have control of themselves. We have control over what we do, and what we say. 

The way of love is to excercise control over yourself. 

People put their faith in vain imaginings all the time. To do so, as scripture states, is to forsake ones own salvation.

Cooperation with the grace of God.

One thing that can be certain of is the resurrection. 

All are saved from death. No one is exempt from the judgement.