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Keyword(s): Jesus is God, theos | divinity of Christ
Question:
If Jesus is God why is he refereed to as the Son of God? Is he one in the same? He is God but took human form ? Where can I find it in the Bible?
Date answered: 1/21/2012
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Keyword(s): adding water to holy water |
Question:
I am newly orthodox. Is it true I can add water to my holy water from theophany to make more?
Date answered: 1/21/2012
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Keyword(s): apostolic succession |
Question:
What is the difference between Orthodox and Catholic understandings of apostolic succession?
Date answered: 1/22/2012
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Keyword(s): pacifism, war, army |
Question:
What does the Orthodox Church teach about the use of violence? Does it teach pacifism/non-violence? Does it teach a just-war theory? Does it condemn the pacifist position?
Date answered: 1/21/2012
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Keyword(s): spiritual help |
Question:
Greetings! Christ is born! Glorify Him! I come to you guys from a spiritual desert. I converted and was baptized several years ago after a lengthy stint of historical studies on Christian history. I was at the time married to a Ukrainian girl who cheated on me for the 5 years of our marriage with multiple guys. We have a son together and I was devastated! After the divorce begin she confessed her sins glory be to God to our spiritual father at the time and he allowed her to commune as he felt the canons of the church were too harsh and it might push her away from the church with our son. I moved out of state for work and the churches would not give me sacraments due to my divorce. I felt lonely and alone. I turned and even begin to doubt the existence of a God who cared. I still very much do at times. I have turned to a life of depravity and am fearful of my outcome as I had an experience that I dare not go into to much detail where I had an actual out of body experience and was in a VERY bad place of mental anguish. My question is now that I have not been in communion with the church for more than a year and I'm terrified of my demise yet terrified that there is no caring God though I hope for one, I am unsure of what I must do to find peace. Please help! There seems to be no answers except that I am headed for Hell and maybe it's hopeless. My spiritual grandfather is St John Maximovitch. I still pray from time to time. I don't know if anyone is listening. May God have mercy on my soul!
Date answered: 1/11/2012
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Keyword(s): marriage with spiritual relative | marriage with God brother
Question:
Can you marry your God brother or is there a way to make it so you can?
Date answered: 1/10/2012
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Keyword(s): orthodox liturgy boring |
Question:
My son is seriously considering conversion to Orthodoxy. I have no objection, he is an adult, and should make his own choices. In fact, I agree with the teachings of the Church. But the practices are onerous, and the liturgy boring, and tedious. The music sounds like a dirge, and everyone seems to be singing their own melody. Is this normal?
Date answered: 1/10/2012
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Keyword(s): temporary tattoos | children
Question:
I understand that the Orthodox Church is against tattoos because it desecrates the body which is God's Temple but is it wrong for kids to have temporary tattoos or to have their face painted at county fairs?
Date answered: 1/10/2012
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Keyword(s): obedience to parents | parents discouraging church attendance
Question:
How should I, an Orthodox youth in his 20s, respond to a biological father who does not practice our faith very much and discourages me from doing so?
Date answered: 1/11/2012
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Keyword(s): elisha, the boys and the bear |
Question:
I am struggling to explain some of the Old Testament stories to my sons. Can you help me with just one for now? The story with Elisha calling the bears out of the woods to kill the children who mocked his baldness seems incredibly harsh (one of our boys is named Elisha after this saint). How can we make sense of this story?
Date answered: 1/11/2012
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Keyword(s): Name of God, Jehovah | Trinity
Question:
In the Holy Trinity, who is Jehovah, is it the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit? Thanks
Date answered: 12/16/2011
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Keyword(s): 144,000 | 144000
Question:
Revelation 14:3-- Are there only 144 000 who will be saved? Can you please elaborate on the interpretation of passage.
Date answered: 12/16/2011
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Keyword(s): virginity | John of Kronstadt
Question:
As I understand it, the reason someone like St. John Kronstadt would desire a life of virginity is because sex is a fusion between two people, and so he wanted to maintain whole within himself and offer that to God. How accurate is that, and what other reasons would there be for celibacy (other than having less obligations as St. Paul says)?
Date answered: 12/8/2011
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Keyword(s): Jewish feasts |
Question:
Bless, dear brother/sister, I'm pleased to say, glory to Christ, by G-d's grace I was received last month into the Church. I am then a very recent convert, a greatful, zealous (the often-misdirected-by-my-love sort) parishioner, and much of Orthodoxy is very new... so I sincerely apologize for how unorthodox I might sound; furthermore brevity is, regrettably, not my strength... so I apologize if this becomes too lengthy. I'll try to condense it. I've spoken to my spiritual father (and he has consequently referred me to others who might have a more developed answer) for spiritual guidance on the topic I'm bringing forward, and, if you are willing to advise or counsel me in this matter, I am preparing myself to listen and embrace healing in turning from any heterodox teaching and baggage which I may be carrying into the Faith, however painful it may feel. I was a convert from a mixed bag of Messianic Judaism and Presbyterianism (before that, non-denominational, and again before this, I was born a Catholic with roots in Episcopalianism--each jump of denomination was insinuated by a family/identity crisis), so a lot of my thoughts may simply come out confused and I'm currently struggling with how to put this into words. I still find sanity and courage to persevere in the Faith in treasuring the seamlessness between the Old and New Covenant. I am wondering about privately celebrating the Jewish feasts *not* in accordance with the Rabbinics and Messianics (according to the lunar calender), but in accordance with what it fulfills: I would merely be incorporating private reading of the Tanakh in respect to the High Holy Days and private observance of the festivals/usage of Hebrew prayers, again in private devotion. I've been thinking of simply doing the readings of the Spring Festivals in addition to and in accordance with their respective Christian fulfillment in Christ's life: ie, Pesakh Seder/deliverance from the house of bondage being fulfilled in the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, or rather, in our eternal partaking in the life of the Church via the Sacraments; the rest of the Fest. of Unleavened Bread and our deliverance (roughly) corresponding with Holy Saturday and the freedom of the departed when Christ harrowed hell; First-Fruits with Pascha Sunday, and Shavuot as both the celebration of the Law and the descent of the Holy Spirit; Fall Festivals Rosh Hashanah corresponding with the Church New Year [Sept 1?], Yom Kippur ten days later (pointing to everlasting fulfilment on the Day of Judgment?), Sukkoth five days later (pointing to the eternal habitation of the Kingdom and Christ as the Water of Life?), and Channukah roughly the eight days and nights before Nativity (perhaps in anticipation of our true Light's Incarnation, and deigning to dwell with us eternally?).... Purim as well, roughly corresponding with the Western "Mardis Gras" or Fat Tuesday (but celebrating that in a more sober way in simply reading through Esther)... while maintaining the spirit and the readings of what the feasts of the Church truly are, I think perhaps simple reading or certain prayers over a meal would be quite sufficient for maintaining some sort of consciousness with the Judaic spirit of the Faith (and the fulfillment of these things, in order to preserve some sense of sanity). I may be fretting about nothing, because the chief and perhaps my sole reason for wanting to do this is simply because I wish to understand Christ better through celebration of a continuity between the Old and New Covenants. A year ago I would have wanted to do just this in order to extrapolate my own Jewishness and cultural claims of Rabbinical Judaica, but I've for the most part drowned out the voice of the Rabbis--the hope is understanding Christ better through a deeper understanding of that seamless connection between the Old and New Covenants, Christ being the end in each. Nevertheless I think most understanding Orthodox would nevertheless, I think, urge some caution about legalism, and I wonder if you're cringing at this point, because right here I am recalling Chrysostom's Homilies, Adversus Judaeos, and in light of his sermons I still wonder what you'd advise, and if my persuasion seems to be on the fence between orthodox and heterodox. I know I am inherently drawn to Judaism in some respects because of my burden for the Jewish people, and it is for that reason I am partly troubled as well as deeply attracted to celebrating these (I would perhaps naively argue) sacred times, and I want to be honest about something: I know for many Christians (and indeed for myself as a Messianic), celebrating the Jewish festivals in accordance with the Rabbinics was more or less cultural highjacking and truthfully I think this demanded a severe lack of empathy and I'm trying to avoid that as far as possible while still remaining true to my personal persuasion, remembering all the while that at the Council of Jerusalem the Apostles did not press either Jew or Gentile to conform to one another's cultural identity, but to Christ. And I've found in the Church those divides do fade away. I simply just... I wonder what thoughts you have. (Oh dear... Forgive my length and whatever confusion I may have caused.) Again, I am very open to your thoughts and what insights you would consider and what you would advise. Asking for your prayers in this and for emotional and spiritual healing in many areas. Kissing your right hand, your servant, Michael
Date answered: 12/16/2011
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Keyword(s): right hand, wedding rings |
Question:
Someone told me that Orthodox Christians are supposed to wear their wedding ring on their right hand. Why is that? What does it matter whiich hand we use? Thanks.
Date answered: 12/8/2011
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Keyword(s): mono energism and mono thelitism | natures and energies of Jesus Christ
Question:
When Christ was on Earth did he have the essence, the energies or both of God the Son?
Date answered: 12/8/2011
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Keyword(s): valid sacraments | roman catholic sacraments
Question:
Is it true that the Russian Orthodox do not recognize the sacraments of Roman Catholics as valid? If so are there any other orthodox churches that feel the same way? Thank You and God Bless Joe Fischer
Date answered: 12/8/2011
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Keyword(s): ordination, previous marriages | canonical impediment to ordination
Question:
If a man is married and divorced many time before becoming a Christian, but since becoming a Christian has had only one wife, can that man become an Orthodox Priest or Deacon?
Date answered: 12/8/2011
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Keyword(s): Great Entrance |
Question:
I have been told that the "Great Enterence" during the divine liturgy signifies the funeral procession of our Lord; I have also been told that it represents the Lord coming into the world. Which is accurate?
Date answered: 12/16/2011
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Keyword(s): salvation of non orthodox | salvation of non christians
Question:
According to Orthodox Theology, what happens to GOOD atheists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, animists, new age, and the rest who for whatever reason have not been able to put their faith in Christ? An example, by the way, is my Jewish Grandparents who escaped for their life from Eastern Europe during the progroms. Their memories were replete with images of "cultural Christians" doing them harm hence, once in the States, they never even allowed people to say the name JESUS in their home. One could understand this and then wonder, therefore, about their eternal destiny since they died fully Jewish, Orthodox at that, very pious, not arrogant, and trusting in the best view of God that they possibly could have given those circumstances. A staunch Calvinistic/Evangelical point of view would damn them to hell forever because they did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I am very curious to know what the Orthodox Faith has to say about their destiny and about the destiny of all those who die without putting their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, many of whom simply can't or won't because of their bad interaction with bad examples of Christianity over the years.
Date answered: 12/16/2011
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