Dear NitzWalsh,
So the only other alternative, then, was that the church, true church, was established
during your own lifetime, and there was no true Christian church on earth before you and I
came on the scene.
Did you even read my post that you're replying to? I said Jesus Christ is the one that formed the church. Where you're getting this "only alternative" from I don't know but it wasn't from anything I said.
Or, maybe, perhaps, we can only find our way back to 1517 AD, with
Martin Luther's 95 theses; surely, then, Herr Doctor Martin Luther, Augustinian, had the
whole, gospel truth. Or, if Luther wasn't the founder of "our church", maybe it was John
Wycliffe, or the Waldensians, or some other medieval group.
Quit grasping at straws, I already said that Jesus Christ founded the church
.
After Catholicism fell away in
1054 AD. Only by reforming the false , papist church can we find the true church! The true
church is found by reforming the Antichrist. The pope of Rome is the Antichrist, and, so, if
you reform the pope's doctrines according to the Bible alone, you get a Reformed
Antichrist "church"! No matter that the true Church existed for 1054 years in the East, in
Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, and even in Western Rome until 1014 AD
(or 1054 AD). Really, Rome was in heresy since 1014 AD!
I don't know when Rome went into heresy, but replacing one false church with another isn't really fixing any problems. Oh and that other false church I'm referring to is of course the Eastern Orthodox church in case you were unclear on that.
The only church, then, according to you, is whatever you say that the Bible says that the
church is, that is what the church is. It's church doctrine according to your own personal,
private opinion. You know better than any of the church fathers or saints or any average
Christian of the first 1000 years of Christianity.
There's some more straw grasping, like I said, the church is founded by Jesus Christ, and the doctrine comes from the Holy Scriptures which the Eastern Orthodox seems to have put on the back burner in favour of the traditions of men.
You are free to accept or to reject any of
their doctrines as you yourself see fit, for, in the end, the final authority for you is your
own personal, private reading of the Bible by yourself, as you read the Bible "for yourself".
Baptist preacher Tim LaHaye even wrote a book titled, "How to Read the Bible For
Yourself". So, you accept the Apostolic writings, but you reject that Apostolic Church that
gave you the writings! The Bible just fell "magically" out of the sky, dictated by God, word
for word, in "perfect", King James English! Minus the Apocrypha, of course! Because
Martin Luther told you so! So, it's up to you and me to go it all alone; we don't need any
bishop or successor of the apostles to gather around; we don't need an Orthodox priest to
confess to.
Every time you post like this it makes me see the low regard you hold for God's word.
Well, I have said enough.
Usually when people have "said enough" they don't keep going further and further into nonsense.
I need to get back to church.
Really, unless and until you attend an Orthodox Church, you don't know what you are
missing! I'm glad every time I actually do enter an Orthodox Church. It tells me more
than my finite mind can absorb. I get a feeling for the true worship of the true NT church
every time I attend Divine Liturgy. The place even smells better than the average
Protestant iconoclastic assembly.
Why would I want to attend an Orthodox Church after the glowing reviews you've been giving?
God bless you.
Goodbye for now. I'll just ask you to read every post I posted before you make
comments on me personally.
I don't need to read every post by you to see how you skirt around things and focus on things like a persons nickname when you can't find fault in their arguments. Or how you start talking about Luther and Protestant churches when you can't answer questions.
I don't sit here judging any of you. Of course, some of you say I'm a cult member or a
sect member, or say I am immature. You use all kinds of ad hominem language about me
personally, but you never read the Bible and show how the Church Fathers are wrong, or
how what I say about John 15:26 is wrong.
It's Homonym, and I don't think you even know what it means.Plenty of people, including myself have shown from the scriptures that the Eastern Orthodox church has 'wrong' traditions of men, you just refuse to believe what is written in the scriptures.
And I believe what the Church says about John
15:26. I believe that one verse shows Eastern Orthodoxy to be preaching the true
doctrine about the Holy Trinity, along with the other doctrines of Chalcedonian
Christology, the Christology of the Creed (of 381 AD0, the doctrines of the 7 holy councils
of the One Church. I just need to get back to church in September.
Starting in September.
Before you go off into error, save your soul from false translations of the Bible, and read:
Orthodox New Testament. 2 volumes. Volume 1, The Holy Gospels, Evangelistarion.
Volume 2, Acts, Epistles, Revelation, Praxapostolos. Copyright 2000, by Holy Apostles
Convent, Buena Vista, CO. You can't criticize what you do not understand. You can't say
the Eastern Orthodox Church is false if you have never taken the time to see whether or
not what she says, does, and preaches, and teaches, is the Gospel truth. You need to
show that your Protestant doctrine was taught between 100 AD and 200 AD. Where is
justification by faith alone and scripture alone in any of the Ante-Nicene Apostolic
Fathers? If it's not taught by the early church, it is not true!
God bless and save you. Lord have mercy on us all. Amen and Amen.
In Erie PA Scott R. Harrington
Like I said once before, I don't identify as protestant, I get my beliefs from the Bible, not from the false teachings and traditions of men. Your question about justification by faith alone has been answered countless times. As for the rest, if the traditions taught by anyone, Ante-Nicene, or otherwise, are found to be in disagreement with what is written in the scriptures, those traditions are false teachings and should be put aside.
If it's taught by the early church (100 - 200) it doesn't automatically make it true.