Orthodox Christian

I, like many other people have found it puzzling that the God of the OT seems unlike the God of the NT who is defined as love. I have really shelved my concerns because I can't find an answer. However, recently I have been thinking that maybe certain attributes that the OT describe as God's might have been an invention. For example where God orders Israel to kill every living thing in the case of the Amelakites. Could it be that Israel attacked these people, commited atrocities and then later, on writing about it in the Bible they suggested that Gold told them to do it, when in fact he didn't? What are your thoughts?

Well this has made me think. I think a hollowness in our faith experience is quite a common phenomenon. As your post is concerning your personal situation now, I will keep my post on that personal level, if that's OK. When I became Orthodox, initially I was buzzing, I devoured all I could about Orthodoxy both in books and You Tube etc. The most important thing in Orthodoxy is to attend the Divine Liturgy and receive the Eucharist, the great Thanksgiving. But there were times that I made an excuse, and didn't go, or when I was there I might be thinking whether to make mashed potatoes or roast with the meat for Sunday lunch . Yes distractions of such a mediocre kind crept in. Put away all earthly cares, we sing in the Liturgy, that literally means leave the world at the door. On entering into the church we believe we enter into Heaven on Earth, it is so sacred an event. There is a responsibility you see, on becoming a Christian of any tradition, Luke 12.48, was what made me look at myself in relation to God. To those to whom much is given, much is required (my paraphrase) and I wasn't taking my responsibility to God seriously enough, my faith was superficial and lacking in depth. So a slow transition commenced, an awakening if you like, and it started in the Liturgy, that sacred space where we are in the presence of God. Who do we go to meet in the Liturgy but Almighty God, Who do we receive in the Eucharist but Almighty God? That's serious stuff! We come together, congregate, a group of individuals who especially in that space become His body, the Church, who God ,through his grace, empowers us to live the life He wants for us and the world. The Liturgy is divine and transformative, it is holy and demands our attention and our taking part. There is no room for worldly cares when you realise Who God is, and Whose presence you are in. He wants us to be entirely there, with Him, it's awesome! But you have to accept that responsibility, to put your hand in His, Be still and know that I am God, he says. And for me that's the crux of it , I had to realise Who God is who invites us to come to Him. Why? I have nothing to bring or give to him, nothing I have ever done can make me worthy of such grace. When I contemplate such love it leaves me bereft of words, but the Holy Spirit has graced me with deep gratitude. God wants to walk with us in the cool of the evening as He did in the beginning, we have to turn ourselves over to that, to take our religion seriously and get to know Him as far as we can. I'm still a work in progress, I'm still learning to walk with Him, I fall and He picks me up. I don't know if this is at all helpful. I do know that if you want your faith to deepen you have to make the effort, you have to be willing to walk with Him. Dump your phone please, would you get you phone out if you were in the presence of the President? Isn't God worthy of our attention? I commend to you the Psalms . Psalm 24/23 is wonderful in explaining Who God is, Psalm 33/34 is especially beautiful. Buy a Psalter and mark out you favourites and read them regularly, and pray from your heart. God bless

I've migrated quite a bit. From raised nominal protestant to almost Mormon, to more protestant groups, to Catholic and now to Orthodoxy, my forever faith I hope. I was searching, but as I had no criteria, I didn't really know what for. One thing I did realise was that I loved Liturgy, and I loved God, that much was true, however, I didn't know where to place my love for Him where it could be expressed. Many people leave their religious tradition because they weren't getting anything out of it. That wasn't my case, I had something inside of me that I needed to find a home for, and until I encountered Orthodoxy, nowhere else had provided that home. Maybe it's a kind of hunger, a kind of knowing, that faith is more than their present experience that makes people migrate. "I am the bread of life", He said , He promises that whoever comes to Him will never go hungry or thirsty. I believe that's what people are looking for, to make that their reality.

It seems to me that is those in the middle who are punished the most by society. The wealthy are barely touched due to their wealth, and they can afford costly accountants that keep them wealthy etc. We have in the UK the welfare state, which was founded on the principal of careing for the ordinary people from the cradle to the grave. And somehow working for some has been degraded, resulting in several generations now who don't and won't work, they see it as a mugs game. Some able bodied people even believe that they have a right to live on benefits and for the state to support them. Then there are those who are genuinely poor and homeless for whatever reason. Those in the middle work because they value it as well as having to, but they are caned by taxation, and survive from paycheck to paycheck. Many now have no chance of buying a home and so are the prey of private landlords. And on top of it all thousands of migrants are sold the lie that the West is Utopia, and as a result we are inundated by unskilled, illegal immigrants. The whole thing in our Western capitalist countries is a mess, and people are miserable for a lot of the time. Then come lunatic leaders who cause wars and suffering and possible world economic collapse. Your country whichever it is in the West, I guarantee sounds pretty much like mine, we all are suffering from the same malaise from the ordinary man to the wealthy, to politicians and governments: selfishness,greed,pride and vanity. All vices that are contrary to Christ. We do not love God,nor our neighbour, we do not live His commandments, we do not do His will. Politicians sell us lies to win elections, promise those things for the greater good with no intention of keeping them. They allow themselves to be bought and corrupted, they cause wars to force countries to accept our take on democracy. We steal land, my country has been the worst, and don't expect resistance from our victims, and the rich get richer out of these catastrophies. If ever there was a time when Christian countries so called should return to Christ it is now. Repent, He said, that's where it begins on a personal level. If politicians and leaders will ever see their fault is debatable, in this life, but one day they and we will all have to give account for our own part in the human tragedy.

C S Lewis called it churchianity. The institution replaces it's Founder; pharasaical devotion to living the letter but missing the spirit. I've been there. The bells and smells, the lengthy wordy prayers, all very beautiful, but does that produce what God wants in us. The answer can be no for many people, it has been for me. But hopefully, with His help, my faith will become really transformative. It seems that we need ritual, but if it's effects only transforms us on a Sunday, then something is off. My hope is that finally, when God looks at me, He will see Himself accomplished by the work He has completed in me. All I can offer Him is my broken self.

Thankyou for this wise post. Someone once wrote that we will only be judged on how we loved. This makes sense to me. God is love, and I believe that the journey that we are on as Christians is one of sanctification through the the grace and love of God. I believe that we really do have to put on Christ in order to grow into the likeness of God, so that when He looks at us He sees Himself, His image restored from that which was tarnished by our self centredness. And you are right, it is between the individual and God, we have to work out our salvation in our lives, walking as closely as we can with the Holy Spirit, who we are promised will not leave us as orphans. He is our sanctifing grace, in Him we are blessed.

There is much truth in what you have said. Thankyou.

As I said there have been wars all over the world all my life. The fact that nuclear powers have restrained themselves, well since the great Hiroshima experiment, from open warfare between themselves doesn't surely constitute a long peace. As you say, they don't openly fight each other, they fight their battles on foreign soil. And what is achieved? Christian countries have betrayed God by having no regard for humanity, they do not love their fellow man...sadly

That may be so, however the destruction that we are now capable of is surely far greater. Sorry about the mispel.

Hello everyone, and thankyou for your replies. So, to return to my original post, some of you asked me to elaborate. First of all, I'm not trying to say that the end times are upon us, I don't know that, nor does anyone else. However, and this might be a bit of a ramble, that the "mystery of lawlessness works" as St Paul says, seems to be the reality through which we are living. Whenever the man of lawlessness is dealt with is for God to know, unfortunately though it seems his influence is here and now and has been with humanity throughout our existance. It is a malign influence, an opposition to the goodness of God, and it seems to me that it's malignancy has become extremely brazen. I feel that this brazeness of evil has escalated throughout the 20th century and is now hurtling with great momentum in the present moment. I am going to follow my thoughts here at the risk of offending. However, it seems to me, that God was very specific about those things He values and those he abhors, and I feel that through the 20th century until our present time we have followed or embraced those that He abhors. Divorce has been almost universally accepted in Christian countries. Adultery is accepted seemingly as just one of the things. The worship of money is very evident especially amongst the leaders of our countries. The widespread acceptance of abortion on demand, and and the push towards euthanasia that is ongoing. Dare I say, same sex marriage, gender realignment. Thought and expression control which we are seeing throughout the world, and genocide, which has been happening throughout the world since history has been able to record it. But now, in our time, we are seeing man destroy God's image in his fellow man, openly, shockingly, and sometimes glorying in it. A certain leader of a country described his perceived enemies as Amalek. A Rabbi, who does not share the ideology of this leader declared that leader as Amalek personified in that he is acting in the spirit of Amalek, what he is doing is against God. It is this bloodthirsty, murderous spirit that seems so brazen to me. Genocide has been happening all my life (I was born in 1949), there have been wars all my life somewhere in the world and to my shame, I have dismissed them as something just happening somewhere else. But this new openness to display dreadful events as they unfold, and are wilfully created, has both shocked me and brought home to me what I have been ignoring all my life, Lord have mercy. I have played my part in this sin, I have thought that certain of those things mentioned above are progressive. That those countries that reject them are somewhat backward. But are they, why should they have to accept Western values, that are those of the spirit of lawlessness I feel, and if they do not bend their knees to the West we will punish them. Many of these countries are Muslim, and throughout the Western world Islam is condemned as evil, yet they reject the values of the spirit of lawlessness, so their governments have to be changed and supplanted by ones favourable to the West. They who are not Christian uphold the values of God, may He forgive and restore us through the Grace of the Holy Spirit. Though I feel that God has given us up to our evil inclinations, and these events are happening because of this, I know that He sees what we do and He will not be mocked, and if He chooses to visit upon us that which we have visited upon others then He is justified, because it's no more than we deserve. The Christian nations have abandoned God in favour of open pride, vanity and mammon, we have all turned away from him, and this is where we are now: openly considering the possibility of using nuclear weapons. May God have mercy upon us all, that is what I pray for every day, because I believe that it is the most powerful weapon we have. Only He can change the hearts of man, so that's my prayer. God bless

Hello all, I'm gingerly tiptoing around anything political with this post. However, there are many events which are happening in this present moment, that when we read the passage in 2 Thessalonions I believe, there seem to be startling parallels. I don't necessarily mean certain individuals, but there's a spirit abroad that is reckless and lawless which is creating havoc in the world. What are your thoughts?

Wishing you all a very blessed Easter weekend, our world could surely do with some of the hope offered through Christ's death and glorious Resurrection. May this holy time be one of peace to all. However we Orthodox Christians will celebrate holy week and Pascha beginning on this Sunday, culminating next weekend. Wishing blessings and peace to you all.

As an Orthodox Christian icons are very much part of our worship experience. I guess we see them as representing that many clouds of witnesses and as such like them around us in our prayer corners, as we know that they are only dead in the flesh. These icons are venerated, not worshipped, they kind of act like a conduit to put one into the presence of the prototype. So when we stand before the icon of Christ, the icon leads us to meditate upon Him and enter into his presence in prayer. It's also quite nice when you go into whichever room holds your prayer corner, to see them, and acknowledge them in your heart with a prayer of thanksgiving.

No worries, God bless.

Hello 3DOP, tbh, I'm a bit flummoxed by the defensiveness of your reply. I haven't accused you of apostasy, in fact I haven't mentioned the word. You want us to present a united front to the people here and the world. But we are not united, if we were we would truly share the name of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We are separated by our theologies, and the hold outs as you call them on both sides do not want our theologies compromised. We do not see attributes of God as did Augustine and Anselm, therefore to many Orthodox Augustine is Blessed rather than saint. I don't know why you are asking me why I am here and what is my interest. Couldn't I ask you the same question? I am not here to hash out our theological differences, there are better people than me who can do that. I am here because I almost became LDS many years ago, but I simply did not believe and did not commit. I have retained an interest however, so that's it. I have no understanding of your references to Salt Lake LDS or your brush with Evangelicalism. I find the people here diverse and interesting, I don't know about formidable. I am sure that the RC church is not desperate for us, the feeling is pretty mutual. But I respect you. I don't know how you reach the conclusion that the Orthodox don't care about the rest of the world , that we may view things differently is true, and that's not likely to change any time soon. Anyway enough, God bless you, forgive me if I offended you in any way.