The Life of the World

 Orthodox Serbia

Velikoretsky Procession, 2012

June 2-7, 2012 - Russia: Around 35,000 pilgrims participated in the Velikoretsky Procession, held annually in the Kirov Oblast. The procession is associated with the Icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker “Not-Made-by-Hands.” According to tradition, a local peasant named Semyon Agalakov found this icon in 1383 on the shores of the Velikaya River. After one of the villagers, who had not been able to walk, was healed by the icon, it was recognized as miraculous and became the object of pilgrimage.

Sunday of All Saints

(Commemorated on the first Sunday after the Feast of Holy Pentecost)

The first Sunday after the Feast of Holy Pentecost is observed by the Orthodox Church as the Sunday of All Saints. This day has been designated as a commemoration of all of the Saints, all the Righteous, the Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Shepherds, Teachers, and Holy Monastics, both men and women alike, known and unknown, who have been added to the choirs of the Saints and shall be added, from the time of Adam until the end of the world, who have been perfected in piety and have glorified God by their holy lives.

Background

On the Parable of the Prodigal Son

St. Cyril of Alexandria ca. 376-444

I hear one of the holy prophets trying to win unto repentance those who are far from God, and saying, “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God: for you have become weak in your iniquity. Take with you words, and return to the Lord our God.” What sort of words then did he, under the influence of the Spirit, command them to take with them? Or were they not such as become those who wish to repent; such namely, as would appease God, Who is gentle, and loves mercy. For He even said by one of the holy prophets, “Return you returning children, and I will heal your breaches.” And yet again by the voice of Ezekiel, “Return you altogether from your wickednesses, O house of Israel. Cast away from you all your iniquities which you have committed, that they be not to you for a punishment of iniquity. For I have no pleasure in the death of the sinner, as that he should turn from his evil way and live.” And the same truth Christ here also teaches us, by this most beautifully composed parable, which I will now to the best of my ability endeavour to discuss, briefly gathering up its broad statements, and explaining and defending the ideas which it contains.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

His hand is stretched out still

Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, as when at first He lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles.

The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. You have multiplied the nation And increased its joy; They rejoice before You According to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For You have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every warrior's sandal from the noisy battle, And garments rolled in blood, will be used for burning and fuel of fire.

The Unity of the Church & the World Conference of Christian Communities

By Saint Hilarion (Troitsky)

This is the first audio book offered by the Orthodox Christian Information Center. Please see the Introduction, below, for more on this book.

The entire book is contained in two MP3 files of almost equal length...

Forum's Back Up - New Address

Click on Image to visit

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†IC  XC†

†NI  KA†

Who Decides? Unraveling the Mystery of the Old Testament Canon

by Daniel Lieuwen

When the Church began, there were no New Testament books. Old Testament texts alone were used as Scripture. The Old Testament used in the early Church throughout the Roman world was not the Hebrew Old Testament, but a translation of the Old Testament into Greek called the Septuagint (LXX). The LXX was translated in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the middle of the third century B.C., and was the standard Old Testament in the synagogues throughout the Hellenistic world (including Palestine) at the time of Christ.

In addition to the books included in a Protestant Old Testament, the LXX contained a number of other books now commonly referred to as Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical. Some of these books are Tobit, Judith, Maccabees, and a longer version of Daniel.

The LXX is based on a very different text of the Old Testament from the Masoretic text, on which modern English translations are based. For instance, in many places the wording is quite different, and the content of the books also differs—generally the LXX text is longer, but there are also interesting additions to the Masoretic text that are not found in the LXX. The text on which the LXX is based is as ancient as the Masoretic text, as testified by the Dead Sea scrolls and many other ancient witnesses.

A 'Standardized' Judaic Text

Judaism was quite fluid (fragmented; lost) at the time of Christ. There were seven distinct sects of the Jews in the early first century, according to Eusebius. The different sects accepted the authority of different collections of books (e.g., the Sadducees and Samaritans accepted only the five books of the Prophet Moses, the Torah), and there were often significant differences in the composition of the books they accepted in common. Sometimes the same sect might even make use of multiple text bases, or as scholars call them, text traditions. For example, the Dead Sea scrolls, (likely) containing the sacred texts of the Essene sect of Judaism, show evidence of the Masoretic, Samaritan, and LXX text bases.

However, with the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, an intense standardization process began. Only the Pharisaic and the Samaritan sects of Judaism survived this process. The collection of Old Testament books into what eventually became the Masoretic text was begun by the Pharisees at the Council of Jamnia, somewhere between AD 80 and 100

A New Forum... A Non-Judaized Orthodox Christianity.net

Click Image To Visit

I don’t know if this’ll catch on or not… or if there are enough of us – or what but I was banned from http://orthodoxchristianity.net for talking about Jews specifically and 9/11 peripherally, so I decided to just start my own forum... Why not?

I don’t know what’s going on over there as far as administration goes or why I was really banned (the excuses they gave were arbitrary) and I don’t even really care that much anymore – though I was there long enough to know that many of the posters there are actually Jews or have Jewish ancestry, so that has to be a contributing factor along with otherwise (seemingly) predominantly Zionist, Protestant Judeophilic backgrounds.

They’re over there… framing every debate, turning every mention of Jews or Judaism into slanderous accusations of hate and antisemitism, same old, same old, blah blah blah. I’m sick of it.

Is Christianity From the Jews? Are the Jews God's Chosen?

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."

- Matthew 23:15

Many people today calling themselves Christian will tell you that, "Our faith comes from the Jews, our Lord was a Jew, the Jews are God's chosen," etc, etc, ad nauseum... but is this really the case?

"They are the enemies of the cross of Christ."

- Phillipians 3:18

The current head of the Papcy (Benedict) has stated similar fallacies in his book-length interview with Peter Seewald entitled 'Light of The World':

He explains why he no longer calls Jews "our elder brothers" but rather “fathers in the faith,”

An Orthodox Perspective on Christian Zionism

By Father Daniel Swires

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In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

There is an ancient belief among some people known as “millenarianism” or “chiliasm.” This is the belief that Christ will set up an earthly kingdom and will rule it for a thousand years, usually referred to as the “Millenium.”

This belief actually has its origin in post-exilic Judaism. An anticipation that survived the Babylonian exile was that one day God would restore the kingdom of David under a model anointed king, the Messiah. Even though idealized, this would be an earthly, historical kingdom, and most often its relation to the end-time was not specified.

Another expectation that developed, especially in apocalyptic writings, was that God would directly intervene in the end-time, without any mention of a restoration of the Davidic kingdom.

One way of combining the two expectations was to see two divine interventions: (1) a restoration of an earthly kingdom or period of blissful prosperity to be followed by (2) God’s end-time victory and judgment. Many writers speculated about these two events. They are found in 1^st Enoch, in 4^th Ezra, in 2^nd Baruch, in the Ascension of Isaiah. It is interesting, though, that each of these writers sees a different time frame for these events. It is quite probable, in fact, that most of them never intended to convey exact times. Rather, they were symbolic ways of predicting divine victory over evil forces that are an obstacle to God’s Kingdom or rule.

St. John, then, in writing the Apocalypse, also used the idea of a thousand-year reign of Christ, not to describe a historical, earthly kingdom, but as a way of saying that ultimately, in His own time, God will have the victory. (It is worth reminding ourselves that only one passage in the Apocalypse, consisting of two verses, mentions a thousand-year reign: from this one small passage has come a lot of exaggerated speculation.)

The Orthodox Christian Church Is...

The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Christian Church is:




(a) The Body of Christ

(b) The community of believers and followers of Jesus Christ since Pentecost — that point in time at which that community has been guided by The Holy Spirit, as had been promised by Our Lord prior to His Crucifixion and Resurrection:

[John 16:13: “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” Matthew 16:18: "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”]

(c) The same yesterday, today and forever, just as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever [Hebrews 13:8]

(d) One, as Jesus Christ Himself is One and Indivisible

(e) Holy; sacramental; liturgical - as opposed to being merely some sort of club for social networking, or activism, or community organizing, or debating, or …. whatever is the trend of the week

(f) Catholic; universal; The Church for all of humanity in all places at all times, and also with each “Church” — each place of Orthodox worship, and each Autocephalous Church — complete in itself as the nexus between time and eternity, between Heaven and Earth.

(g) Apostolic; in continuity — both temporally and in terms of teachings and tradition — with the Apostles, who themselves were guided by Our Lord and Saviour, and who were in continuity with the teachings and traditions of the Israelite people prior to the temporal ministry of Jesus, the Messiah

(h) Orthodox; of correct teachings, correct worship, correct glorification.  Lex orandi, lex credendi.

The Orthodox Christian Church Is...

The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Christian Church is:

(a) The Body of Christ

(b) The community of believers and followers of Jesus Christ since Pentecost — that point in time at which that community has been guided by The Holy Spirit, as had been promised by Our Lord prior to His Crucifixion and Resurrection:

[John 16:13: “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” Matthew 16:18: "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”]

(c) The same yesterday, today and forever, just as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever [Hebrews 13:8]

(d) One, as Jesus Christ Himself is One and Indivisible

(e) Holy; sacramental; liturgical - as opposed to being merely some sort of club for social networking, or activism, or community organizing, or debating, or …. whatever is the trend of the week

(f) Catholic; universal; The Church for all of humanity in all places at all times, and also with each “Church” — each place of Orthodox worship, and each Autocephalous Church — complete in itself as the nexus between time and eternity, between Heaven and Earth.

(g) Apostolic; in continuity — both temporally and in terms of teachings and tradition — with the Apostles, who themselves were guided by Our Lord and Saviour, and who were in continuity with the teachings and traditions of the Israelite people prior to the temporal ministry of Jesus, the Messiah

(h) Orthodox; of correct teachings, correct worship, correct glorification.  Lex orandi, lex credendi.

The Prodigal Son

Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, "This Man receives sinners and eats with them."

So He spoke this parable to them, saying: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'

I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

"Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!' Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

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Then He said: "A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his livelihood.

And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants." ' And he arose and came to his father.

But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry.

Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.' But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.

So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.' "

- Luke 15

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†IC XC†

†NI KA†

A Conversation With A Protestant...

Here's a quote from a website I visited:

"The Gospel-

Sound complicated? It’s not, really. It is simply a matter of believing that Jesus is God’s only begotten Son, and that He came to Earth, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died to remove your sin — that original sin you inherited from Adam — then rose again on the third day to assure your future resurrection.

Here is what it takes to be “born again.” It is as simple as ABC:

A – Admit you are a sinner.

B – Believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again to give you eternal life.

C – Call upon Him in prayer and ask for salvation."

(...)

So... I ask you - is that  the true Gospel? Or is it a lie invented in the 16th century which only serves to fool people and keep them from the knowledge of the truth and the salvation found in His Church?

Jesus The Christ Is The Fulfillment Of The Old Testament

Mathematical Verification Through The Science Of Probability That Jesus Has Fulfilled All Of The Old Testament Prophecies Concerning His Coming...

 

There are hundreds of fulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament relating to Jesus being Christ (at least 456). What are the chances that one man (Who was born and died where and when the prophets said He would be) could fulfill them all to become the Saviour of the world?

In the late sixties, a man named Peter Stoner who was Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College in Santa Barbara California, calculated the probability of one man fulfilling the major prophecies made concerning the Christ. The estimates were worked out by himself and twelve different classes under his supervision representing some 600 university students.

Evidence For The Historical Jesus of Nazareth Pt. II - The Star Of Bethlehem

"The heavens declare the glory of God;

The firmament shows the creation of His hands.

Day to night utters speech,

And night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor language

Where their voices are not heard.

Their proclamation went forth into all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world.

Psalm 18 (Septuagint)

 

For the second part on the evidence for Jesus' existence, I'm going to examine the story of the Star of Bethlehem... Many people (including Christians) don't seem to think much about the Star... or even know about it at all. This Star is mentioned clearly in the Bible - in the book of Matthew, Chapter 2, but for some reason - no one really talks about it much. I don't understand why, because to me - the Star of Bethlehem is one of the best ways to prove the reality of Jesus the Christ to skeptics.

Does Jesus the Christ Really Exist? – Evidence For the Historical Jesusof Nazareth

Many people these days are woefully ignorant and terribly steeped in 'Jewish' (Pharisaic) anti-Christian Soviet-style atheist propaganda. They think that they're clever, educated and wise... but in reality they barely know their left hand from their right! They walk in darkness - having yet to receive the love of the truth... the truth being that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world; that Christ IS THE TRUTH!

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone say, "Jesus never even EXISTED! 

The Didache – The Teachings of the Apostles… Does Your Life Measure Up?

In today's world - with the way things are going within 'Christendom' in North America & Europe especially, it is my feeling that all those who identify themselves as 'Christian'  need to ask themselves one important question:

If the apostles of Christ showed up today in your neck of the woods... would they recognize what people who call themselves 'Christians' are doing and saying as that faith once delivered to the saints?