the Orthodox faith is the only true faith of God

I learned something crucial from the Bible that's different from all other religious books

most religious books ask you to accept what's written

while the Bible is more so an existential truth immovable from any force of man...it's like gravity or oxygen

dont be discouraged in your struggle of keeping The Law from what you didnt accomplish in the past

instead, be hopeful from what you can accomplish today

Let it be beautifu-u-ul

Jesus I pray you forgive Chris brown

If I confessed my sins in this thread yall would not believe it

Interested in what you mean by this How does the Bible not ask the reader to accept what's written in it?

I think Paul is a brilliant writer, my favorite books in the Bible were written by him. But I question some of what he says about homosexuals being condemned and masturbation being a unique kind of sin I don't necessarily disagree with him about masturbation, but it's weird how he speaks about love, being united in the spirit etc but then homosexuality is specifically condemned

@DaddyC I'd like to get your perspective on this too

I didnt choose to be baptised. So this is science Im dealing with

in a different topic...science doesnt cancel the Bible nor does the Bible cancel science

science tellls us ''how''

the Bible tells us ''who''

I’m gonna need some time to think on this

My initial thoughts are:
Paul is justified and speaks with the Holy Spirit. Most of the New Testament doesn’t speak on the temptations of flesh and homosexuality as explicitly as Paul does but again Paul is speaking via the Holy Spirit. We can’t pick and choose what we want to follow in the Bible all we can do is try to Love Jesus live just by the commandments and ask for forgiveness.

Great answer Tbh, I can't even find the verse anymore where he mentions homosexuality I feel like it was Romans, but I skimmed through it and I don't see it

Romans 1:26-28?

have you read seraphim rose?

Yeah I’ve come across him

However, I am more interested in the day to day practices due to my circumstances (born into Orthodoxy, but raised in the US, and in an area with legitimately no Orthodox presence, and family not very observant), I probably have more theological than practical knowledge

all religions outside the Orthodox Church of Christ worship demons

there are no orthodox churches here

Perennialism: The End of Ecumenism & The Transcendent Unity of Religions
Protopresbyter Peter Heers, D.Th, Lecturer in Ecclesiology, Holy Trinity Seminary, Jordanville, NY
Introduction: The Devil’s Dichotomies and Their End
A tried and constant tactic of the enemy of mankind’s salvation in Christ is to limit man’s choices to two options, which are seemingly opposed, and to block from view any other possibility, or rule it out as impractical or untenable. For example, one is either rational or irrational, supra-rational not being an option. Or, one must be either blindly obedient or self-willed and rebellious, true obedience being rejected. Or, on a larger scale, to the Africans he presents a terrifying black magic and then for escape a “good” white magic. Or, for the impoverished masses, the greed of capitalism is countered and corrected by the “equality” and “fraternity” of communism. Or, for those who suffered under the authoritarian rule of papal Protestantism there is the self-rule and individualism of reformed Protestantism. And one could go on and list many other such false dichotomies in which both options are the enemy’s inspiration. Even today, with our current “Covid crisis,” the accepted narrative states that the only solution to a deadly virus is an experimental and potentially more deadly “vaccine” — early treatment with existing medicines being largely ignored.

I wish there were brother

A Brief Orthodox A***ysis of the Perennialist Vision
What can one say, in the limited time allotted us, about the perennialist outlook? Firstly, with regard to the question of knowledge, gnosiology, it can be observed that although it is held that esoteric insights must be gained a posteriori, they are assumed a priori. What is essentially pure, rational speculation on the part of the writer - since he cannot, by definition, have a personal experience of every religion - is posited with exceptional, but unjustified, confidence (pride). Moreover, the religious perspectives represented by perennialist apologists are almost exclusively non-Christian, and especially non-Orthodox. This does not prevent them from assuring their readers that essentially, esoterically, the way of prayer, purification and communion are really similar if not identical across the religious landscape. It is very convenient for perennialism that the “unity of religions” lies beyond the esoteric-exoteric dividing line and thus is a reality that can never be empirically confirmed since each adherent must remain within his own religious tradition. It is, ultimately, then, a matter of trust in the perennialist “masters“ and one observes that even high profile converts to Orthodoxy retain high levels of trust in them, such that Orthodoxy is viewed through the prism of perennialism and not the other way around.

However, we should ask: is the sharp contrast between exoteric and esoteric even legitimate? From the Orthodox Patristic Tradition and experience of God do we have any basis to make such a sharp distinction between the forms and the Spirit? Orthodox realism does not allow us to separate the Flesh the Logos put on with the Spirit the Logos sent and which descends upon the forms of bread and wine to transform them into the Body and Blood which sits now at the right hand of the Father. Indeed, the transformation of these exoteric forms by the Spirit into Life Eternal takes place beyond the esoteric-exoteric “dividing wall,” where we, still in the flesh, ascend. It is precisely this “scandalous” particularity of the Incarnation and the Eternal Identity of the Logos with the Flesh He assumed that is a “stumbling block” for the religions of the world and sets the Body of Christ apart as Heaven on earth and no religion at all. In the Person of Christ the esoteric Absolute was made manifest in exoteric form, for “he that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father,” (John 14:9), and “through Him we...have access by one Spirit unto the Father (Eph. 2:18).

We have no eye-witnesses of the Logos who attest to His being in the form of a book, let alone the Koran, but rather, He, “being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7). Contrary to the theories of the perennialists, the experience of the religions, especially Islam, is not that of a kenotic God, Who “being found in appearance as a man,...humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8). Contrary, likewise, to the perennialist idea of a limited economy of salvation in Christ to one sector of humanity and to limitation of the Name of the Incarnate Logos to the “exoteric” sphere, and even to only a portion of it, we preach a Crucified Christ Who “God also has highly exalted” and given “the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2: 9-11)

In Christ’s Body, the Church, we have the unity of the earth and the heavens, of time and eternity, of the origin of Revelation and the manifest Truth, of the absolute and finite. Since the Logos became and remained sarx, the “exoteric” Personal mode of God is at once the “esoteric” “higher mode” of God. Since the Logos became flesh and the flesh put on Christ, the “exoteric world” ceased to be a qualified reality. The Logos which became flesh and sits at the “right hand” of God came, and will come again, to judge all men, and not just a sector of humanity, not on the basis of an esoteric, mystical, hidden spiritual law but on the basis of His Commandments which have been given for all to live by and in, for they are not created forms but uncreated divine energies.

the enemy has successfully manipulated Western man for many generations, from the time of the Great Schism until today, keeping him within a constant series of actions and reactions, like a pendulum which ceaselessly swings from one extreme to the next. All spiritual balance, the divine perspective, discernment of spirits, and the royal path of the Fathers was lost. In this chaotic state, for those who do not have the eternal perspective or see the A and Ω of history, it is impossible to determine where we are in the flow of history or where these events are leading us. For one who can see, however, this is a process of advancing dissolution, which is bringing mankind step by step closer to the fulfillment of the mystery of iniquity, to the inversion of Salvation in Christ and his supplanting by the Antichrist.

Finally the pendulum has ceased its swinging, for we are arriving at the 12th hour of history, the heart of the night of this world, when disciples sleep and traitors betray, and the Incarnate Christ, the Crucified One, is set aside for a cross-less Savior.