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Hi Brushstroke, There were times in my university days when I doubted the existence of God (as an evangelical then). But when I remembered my personal encounter with Christ 6-7 years earlier, which was so real I can still see Christ in my mind's eye 50 years later, it suddenly became clear to...

No, you're not crazy! While serving as an evangelical missionary in Russia, I began finding out more about Orthodoxy. I was shocked to see an in-the-floor baptistry in a little Orthodox church in central Russia -- up to that point I thought Orthodoxy was pretty much the same as Roman...

It belongs to the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church (UAOC) jurisdiction, and the website looks pretty canonical, quoting Fr. Morelli and Fr. Jacobse, mentioning Ancient Faith Radio, etc. But it's not canonical, in communion with most other Orthodox jurisdictions. Take a look at the "Location"...

Are they Orthodox cigars, or Catholic, or Cuban communist cigars? ;-)

Hmm... how about: 1. Papal infallibility 2. Mary as co-mediatrix along with Christ 3. Rome's armies sacking Constantinople and desecrating Hagia Sophia Cathedral 4. Rome installing false patriarchs in Constantinople, Antioch and Kiev 5. Homosexual priests molesting children by the hundreds...

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It depends on whether the two people are married to each other or not! ;-)

Shalom to all! Just as Mary gave birth to the Person Jesus Christ, God the Incarnate Word (not just His human nature), so the whole Person Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. Being man, He could give up His life and die; but being God, He had the power to receive His life back again and...

The notion of inherited original sin is due to a mistranslation of Romans 5:12 into Latin. The original Greek does not say that we inherit sin, but rather that we inherit death. "As in Adam all died, so in Christ all are made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). This false notion of inherited original sin...

"Who draws the line?" The line was drawn when the Roman pope (patriarch) began insisting that he had the right to dictate changes in the Creed. The other patriarchs objected that he had only a preeminence of honor, not of authority. Going back to the 1st century, Peter was first bishop of...

Distrust anything you find on the Internet until you research it yourself. It's too easy liars to distort the truth and disseminate their distortions on the Web.

A "dogma" is a doctrine or teaching that one must accept in order to be Orthodox. I was told by an archpriest (now archmandrite) some years ago that the ever-virginity of Mary is not a dogma, but rather a "theologumenon" (widely-held pious belief), and he said that a person does not need to...

My wife fixed pork "sloppy joes" for the Agape meal after liturgy today. Mmm! And we have a little left over - would you like to drop by?

The popular Evangelical doctrines of "once saved always saved" predestination, "sola fide," "sola Scriptura" and "the priesthood of every believer" may attract lots of new converts, but because these ideas appeal to human ego, they often lead to presumption and pride which in turn lead to a...

There are bad traditions and good traditions: in Mark 7:1-13 we read how Jesus excoriated the Pharisees for replacing the commandments of God with human tradition, and in Col. 2:8 Paul tells us to beware of men's traditions that are not according to Christ. Those are bad traditions. But let's...

On the topic of homosexuality, please see the article "PATRIARCH KIRILL BELIEVES SAME SEX RELATIONSHIP SINFUL, BUT SPEAKS AGAINST ANTIGAY REPRESSIONS" at this link: interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=6769 Perhaps Patriarch Kirill was responding to the situation in Finland when he made these...

Allow me to refer you to - The Old Testament Apocrypha - an article on the Orthodox Old Testament "deuterocanonical" books. I can't find any mention of Orthodox canons on the inclusion of 1 Esdras and 3rd Maccabees in the OT. It seems to be more a matter of what's in the Septuagint OT vs. what's...

It's called "phenomenological language" when we describe something as it appears to us, like saying the sun rises and sets. Nowadays we know it's Earth that's turning on its axis, but we still use words like sunrise and sunset.

Last night I posted my latest e-newsletter: go to - agape-biblia.org/hosken-news/ and scroll down, then click on the "26 July" button.

Justin - "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Eph. 6:11, see also verses 12-18). No armor? Unclean life? Then don't mess with dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.