What's your opinion on Orthodoxy?

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You agree with me that in the incarnation God became sometime He had not previously been, Human.

I call that a change. But also fully understand & agree that God can not change. It’s a mystery.
I do not want to suggest you subscribe to Modalism, I am not sure exactly what you really think, but this does sound a bit like it.

I suggest (in charity) you print out your statements and take them to Mass with you tomorrow (or tonight) and grab your pastor after liturgy and ask him to read what you have been posting here and give you his blessing. You can put them all in an envelope with your contact information, and he will call you one way or another.

God Bless,
 
Christ is Truth and it is He who established the Papacy. It is only in union WITH the Papacy that the fulness of Truth, Jesus, can be found.
Once again we have an example of how the Papal dogmas trump all others in some peoples minds.

One can be absolutely correct in every other way, in belief and in action, but to not be under the Pope one’s eternal future is in doubt.

One can be under the Pope and believe a whole bunch of stuff no one ever taught before, if the Pope has not stopped it.
 
You agree with me that in the incarnation God became sometime He had not previously been, Human.

I call that a change. But also fully understand & agree that God can not change. It’s a mystery.
I believe in the Nicaean Creed, in which we affirm that “for us, men, and for our salvation, (He) came down from heaven, and was incarnated of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” But your question is about a change in God, and no, I do not believe that this is a change in God in any way. If I believed it were, I’d be a Eutychian heretic, and I am not. The incarnation did not create some kind of new thing that we now call “God” that is different than before. God is still the same God before the incarnation as after. Again, it is man whose nature is elevated, not God whose nature is somehow changed or degraded…perish the thought! This is what all that stuff about “without mingling, without confusion and without alteration” is about. That God, with the incarnation, united His divinity with our humanity WITHOUT ALTERATION.

Sorry to yell, but this is a very important point, as the OO have been accused of being Eutychian in the past (and by some in the present, I suppose), but what Eutyches believed is not what we believe. Eutyches believed that the incarnation created a kind of “hybrid” or “combined” nature that was neither fully human nor fully divine, which is just ridiculous, blasphemous, and absolutely unacceptable to us as Orthodox people.
 
I always wonder,what Catholics and Protestants think about Orthodoxy?In general,we (Orthodox) are hostile to Catholics (because of the arrogance of the Popes) and a bit to Protestants.
Feel free to share your opinion 🙂

PS I’m not hostile to anyone.We are all Christians.
I walked into an Orthodox parish for the first time a couple years ago, nervous out of my mind on how I’d be welcomed.

But I was treated with a warm welcome and great curiosity by parishioners - as well as the priest - on my visit. Love them all dearly.

I like Orthodoxy. I think it’s grand, holy, and obviously Christian.

But I lean closer to Catholicism, theologically. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I’m a Westerner and was raised in Western Christianity, but I consider myself closer to Catholicism.

While I find the Orthodox an amazing bunch, I have found hostility with regards to Protestant theology. Great hostility. It seemed to me the discussions always ended in ‘Orthodoxy is right, you’re wrong, and what you say doesn’t matter.’

Certainly not indicative of all Orthodox, but not a very good impression either. Although I have had a similar experience with Catholics.

Arrogance abounds all about, including in Protestantism too, before anyone suspects I’m excluding it.
 
While I find the Orthodox an amazing bunch, I have found hostility with regards to Protestant theology. Great hostility. It seemed to me the discussions always ended in ‘Orthodoxy is right, you’re wrong, and what you say doesn’t matter.’
I think it very much depends on what form of Protestantism you’re talking about. Certain forms truly are something we find offensive. If early Lutheran’s had to settle for a “We’re all Christian, but you are wrong.” I wouldn’t expect any more.

All are welcome to join us in the truth, but we will not compromise that truth.
 
I think it very much depends on what form of Protestantism you’re talking about. Certain forms truly are something we find offensive. If early Lutheran’s had to settle for a “We’re all Christian, but you are wrong.” I wouldn’t expect any more.

All are welcome to join us in the truth, but we will not compromise that truth.
That’s not the point at all. I’m not asking you to dilute your faith or to pretend that I’m correct in any shape or form.

But the point is, when I’ve had discussions with Orthodox, it was always a context of the supreme, impeccable Orthodox Church versus the lowly Protestants. Without the ‘why do you think the way you do’ part in between.

Starting the discussion with why the Orthodox are supreme and brilliant won’t make for a nice debate.
 
That’s not the point at all. I’m not asking you to dilute your faith or to pretend that I’m correct in any shape or form.

But the point is, when I’ve had discussions with Orthodox, it was always a context of the supreme, impeccable Orthodox Church versus the lowly Protestants. Without the ‘why do you think the way you do’ part in between.

Starting the discussion with why the Orthodox are supreme and brilliant won’t make for a nice debate.
I think I see what you mean.

But again, it does depend on the protestant tradition, and the individuals you’re talking to, whether you’re talking with those who were converts from a protestant view, or those who were born into the Orthodox Church.
 
While I find the Orthodox an amazing bunch, I have found hostility with regards to Protestant theology. Great hostility.
I am really surprised, and saddened, that Orthodox have given you the impression. They should see Christ in you.

It is ironic that many Roman Catholics think of Orthodox are some kind of Protestant, actually ‘in rebellion’ and sometimes point out that when in fact the Orthodox and some Protestants are in agreement on some matters it proves their point.

Nothing could be further from the Truth.
… It seemed to me the discussions always ended in ‘Orthodoxy is right, you’re wrong, and what you say doesn’t matter.’
Well, essentially they are right.

Sorry.
 
“(He) came down from heaven, and was incarnated of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” no, I do not believe that this is a change in God in any way.
  1. God is Trinity consisting of 3 fully Divine Persons Father, Son, Holy Spirit
  2. The Son is One of the fully Divine Persons.
  3. The Son is eternal. No beginning/no end.
  4. At a point in human history the Son became that which He had not been before: Incarnate, He took on our human nature elevating it
  5. God is still Trinity and now consists of 2 fully Divine Persons Father, Holy Spirit AND 1 fully Divine & fully Human Person Jesus
  6. is different from 5.
In 5. God is no less than He was before, but there is a difference. The only term I know to use to describe this difference is “change”.

Please help me, what other word would do you suggest, rather than “change”, to describe the difference between 1. & 5. ?
 
Actually the RC has never agreed that Apostolic Canon 34 applies to it in the case of the Papacy that I am aware of (while Orthodox have always assumed that it did, but not in the way proposed at Ravenna).
I don’t mean to claim or imply otherwise. But Apostolic Canon 34 is certainly in great accord with the spirit of the full context of Catholic ecclesiology as clarified through the Vatican Councils.
Secondly, it does not apply to infallibility. It applies to jurisdiction, actual authority over the discipline and practices of some key responsibilities of the bishops. Infallibility as such and jurisdiction according to the RC are two separate charisms.
Of course. The principle is, however, helpful as a point of comparison for people to understand better that the pope is not infallible apart from and above the Church - or the faith that has been handed on to us.
Finally, it should be recognizable to most people who read them that the Apostolic Canons taken as a set (the context of Apostolic Canon 34) are actually contrary to universal jurisdiction.
I haven’t noticed that… but I’m no expert, I confess.
These specifically assign duties to Metropolitans and the other bishops of local synods powers that are claimed to be exclusive to the papacy in the modern RC.
Like what?
None of this addresses the declaration of dogma by one individual (something unthinkable in the early church) at all.
And yet even when the pope personally exercises the Church’s infallibility in declaring a dogma, he does not do so in isolation from Tradition, the Church, or the episcopate…
This is a good illustration of the problem.

If it was a dogma we would have believed it from the beginning as received from Christ through the Apostles…
I agree.
We didn’t. We can not make Truth out of popular opinion. The fact that the RC has a mechanism in place to facilitate that is extremely disturbing.
There’s no mechanism in the RCC by which we can add new truths to the faith…
I am not trying to troll here or be a meanie, but everything you just posted is outright heresy. Even the most Papal Supremacist would never claim the Pope can change Church teaching.
I agree. The pope is the servant of God’s Truth.
History is also very important and has to be reconciled with current Church teachings. How is it that popes of prior times taught against the filioque and current popes teach the filioque in light of our Church’s teaching that popes can not error in matters of faith?
“Filioque” is a word. Depending on one’s cultural, theological, and linguistic context, the word either expresses the orthodox Trinitarian faith accurately… or it doesn’t.

The dogma concerning the Holy Trinity, the faith, is the same as it’s always been.

In the judgment of earlier popes, adding the filioque was a bad, bad thing (and I do believe they were right).

In the judgments of later ones, it was necessary. You act as though we have to explain why they changed the teaching, the doctrine, the faith. They didn’t. They expressed it differently. They added a word.

Please recall that the eastern Catholic churches, in full communion with the Apostolic See, do not use the filioque. The pope himself doesn’t want them to. Sometimes, if there’s an eastern Catholic parish that still uses older books that still have the filioque, it will even be crossed out with a pen. When Pope Benedict XVI recites the Creed with the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, he does so without the filioque.
 
Nothing could be further from the Truth. Well, essentially they are right.

Sorry.
I’m sure that strategy, instead of actually showing through scriptures and tradition why Orthodoxy is correct, will win millions to Orthodoxy.
 
  1. God is Trinity consisting of 3 fully Divine Persons Father, Son, Holy Spirit
  2. The Son is One of the fully Divine Persons.
  3. The Son is eternal. No beginning/no end.
  4. At a point in human history the Son became that which He had not been before: Incarnate, He took on our human nature elevating it
  5. God is still Trinity and now consists of 2 fully Divine Persons Father, Holy Spirit AND 1 fully Divine & fully Human Person Jesus
  6. is different from 5.
In 5. God is no less than He was before, but there is a difference. The only term I know to use to describe this difference is “change”.

Please help me, what other word would do you suggest, rather than “change”, to describe the difference between 1. & 5. ?
The focus of number 1 is on explaining that this man we knew as Jesus is not just the Son of God. He is God. One God, three persons.

Then people started saying, oh during the incarnation he was partly God and partly man.

Number 5 just explains that he is not half and half. He is fully God and fully human.

I’m typing from my iPhone while getting my feet done so please excuse my simple response with no references whatsoever. 🙂
 
Well, HERESY as defined is any teaching that is not consistent with what the Apostles taught. So for a Pope to teach a new “truth” is not only heretic in itself, what he teaches is heresy by its very definition.
Interesting. So according to this logic, it’s actually heretical to declare that it’s a grave matter to become a Freemason, or to perform stem cell research, since the Apostles never mentioned anything about Freemasons or stem cells?

How can a Church believe that there are no new “truths” at all concerning new modern-day sins? Surely the Orthodox don’t believe that sin cannot change either.:confused: Surely we can agree that there are “new” sins all the time…🤷
 
With all due respect, it seems from what you have posted that you are looking at the Holy Trinity as a problem to be solved. This is not something that ever leads to greater peace.

I would suggest, rather than just picking a word, you also take this question to your priest, along with your other posts of this thread as another poster has suggested. I’m not sure that it is helpful to continue this particular discussion within the context of other, much broader issues that you are likewise seeking answers to. I am not a Catholic and cannot tell you what their answer to your question would be. I have provided the OO belief with textual reference to our liturgies and the famous Christological formula of our father St. Cyril, but since this is one area on which Chalcedonians are likely to differ from us (since you are dyophysites, but certainly wouldn’t think yourselves to be anti-Cyrilian), I’m afraid this one is beyond me. I don’t want to instruct you wrongly because I am not of your tradition (and I don’t feel myself fit to discuss anything beyond what I have been taught as Oriental/non-Chalcedonian belief), so this question is definitely best answered by your priest.

I hope this doesn’t seem like a dodge of some kind, it’s just that I’ve pretty much exhausted the Christological dogma of the Oriental Orthodox Church, in so far as I know it, and Christological debate is not what I am here for. So I don’t really have anything more to say on this issue. We believe that Christ is fully God and fully Man, with no division, separation, or alteration. Furthermore, we affirm that His divinity parted not from His humanity for a single moment, nor the twinkling of an eye. So, in accordance with these two statements, questions about what to call the change if not “change” do not make sense, because we don’t agree that a change has happened at all in the first place. God has not changed. God does not change. God is One in the undivided and uncreated Holy Trinity.
 
I’m typing from my iPhone while getting my feet done so please excuse my simple response with no references whatsoever. 🙂
Can we all take a moment out of our discussions to appreciate this level of dedication to CAF/feel sorrow at this overabundance of technology? (whichever may apply, in your view) :D:p
 
I’m sure that strategy, instead of actually showing through scriptures and tradition why Orthodoxy is correct, will win millions to Orthodoxy.
True, but your average lay person is ill equipped to have that discussion. Orthodoxy has no tradition, as the Protestants do, of memorizing large tracts of the bible that back up their beliefs - in part because Holy Tradition is just so vast and relies on no single source.

You’ll find people on the forum doing that now and then, but they also have the entire internet at their fingers.
 
“Filioque” is a word. They added a word.
I do disagree with you, in a friendly way 🙂

“Filioque” is not just any word.

It’s a word that changes in inner dynamics of our very God!

That’s a HUGE deal. Not something to be dismissed and brushed under the rug.

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father (only)
OR
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son

Who God is is the biggest and most important thing ever! How can we love Who we do not know.

If God, did not become “bound” in heaven by the pope when he added “filioque” to the creed, a matter of faith of which he is infallible, and change His inner Self by causing Jesus the Son to be a 2nd source of the Holy Spirit to proceed from then: a. The filioque is false or b. The pope is not infallible or c. The pope doesn’t have the keys or d. All of the above

I chose e. and came up with an explanation to reconcile the prior popes decrees regarding the filioque and the current stance. The two stances honestly don’t jive.

Sigh 🙂

Hanging by a thread and I hope there’s something soft below me to land on. 😃
 
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