tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74216723788209667152024-03-12T19:58:26.998-07:00joypeacehopeJoypeacehope fading
- Light of day waning
- Dark of night waxing
- Saddened heart weary
- Brightened eyes dimming
- God have mercyEuphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.comBlogger278125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-49512511954448861272018-02-25T11:14:00.001-08:002018-02-25T11:29:38.388-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
TRIUMPH OF ORTHODOXY</div>
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He who does not kiss and worship the icon of Christ, </div>
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he who does not kiss and venerate the icon of the Theotokos, </div>
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he who does not kiss and venerate the icons of the Saints, </div>
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let him be anathema*!</div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">*cursed, denounced, excommunicated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">To be against icons, is to be against Christ, </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Any teaching condemning the holy icons of Christ, the Theotokos, or the Saints is heretical and those that do not worship the icon of Christ or venerate the icons of the Mother of God and His Saints are heretics!</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Christians of the ancient church wouldn't recognize the Christianity of our day. Protestants and all modern Christians by whatever name they are called or with what ever group they are associated, are in no way part of the Church established by Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">The teachings of modern day Christianity are from the demons and the demons delight in the gathering of those whom in ignorance are worshiping God in defiance of the ancient decrees established by the Church Fathers of long ago. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">A person can be sincere but misguided, seeking but on the wrong path, faithful but in vain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Unless you are rooted and planted in the soils of the Orthodox Church, established since antiquity, your faith, your hope and your life will have been lived in vain. Why? Because you are living under an anathema from God decreed and confirmed by the Church Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">With the Lord, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. Now is the day of repentance and now is the day, God is calling you back to the one, true, holy, apostolic faith. Amen</span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-7640349632532112352017-02-19T22:42:00.000-08:002017-02-19T22:42:27.147-08:00CONSPIRACY THEORY OR FACT?<div class="gmail_default" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">
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<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "arimo" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;">"And in the morning, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? Mathew 16:3</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "arimo" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;"><b>FACT:</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: "arimo" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">God gave us a mind to be used to discern information and for some, it is special gift from God but for all it is a part of our being. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>F</b></span><b style="color: black; font-family: 'helvetica neue', verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start;">ACT: </b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The bite from the apple symbolizes the following:</span></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The sway of the serpent over Adam and Eve</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Having fallen from temptation</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Disobedience</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Death</span></li>
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<span class="m_730120661395857218gmail-versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; vertical-align: top;">"</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: 'helvetica neue', verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">is</i><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> 666." Revelations 13:18</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>FACT:</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It takes wisdom to understand what is to come. Wisdom is equated with age, experience and discernment. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Antichrist is identified by the number 666. The Antichrist causes all to worship Satan. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the </span><span class="m_730120661395857218gmail-small-caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Lord </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">confused the language of all the earth; and from there the </span><span class="m_730120661395857218gmail-small-caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Lord</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth." Genesis 11:9</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>FACT:</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The means by which mankind in his pride sought to conquer the heavens was by building a tower and God scattered mankind after this incident. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A worldwide communication network is now in place that will serve as the means by which to bring the whole world together again to usurp God's rule over mankind. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>DEFINITION OF A CONSPIRACY</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">- a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: 'helvetica neue', verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">under the sway of</i><span style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> the wicked one." 1 John 5:19</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>FACT:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Eve was an ignorant but willing participant in the first conspiracy of which the serpent was the author and the serpent, Satan, is the author of all conspiracies and his unwitting participants and partners through out history have been the sons and daughters of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>CONCLUSION:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">The greatest conspiracy of all time is unfolding before our eyes and we who are of God, in obedience to Jesus Christ are to discern the times, resist temptation and prepare accordingly for what is to come.</span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-67030084962882756682017-02-19T12:53:00.002-08:002017-02-19T12:53:47.389-08:00SAVE THE TRUE CHURCH - ANATHEMATIZE LATINS <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: maroon; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17.8px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Saint Photios the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>St. Photios (Photius) the Great (Feast Day - February 6)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">By Hieromonk Makarios of Simonopetra</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Our Holy Father Photios the Great was born into one of the great families of Constantinople in 810. His father, the spatharios Sergios, was the brother of the Holy Patriarch Tarasios (Feb. 25) and his mother Irene's brother had married the sister of the Empress Theodora. His parents loved the monks and were martyred during the iconoclast persecution, bequeathing their son a more precious legacy than wealth and high rank, namely, love of the true Faith unto death. He received the best possible education in every branch of learning, both sacred and secular. He spent whole nights in study and, possessing exceptional intellectual ability, there was no field of contemporary knowledge in which he did not become proficient. In breadth and depth of learning, he was the greatest scholar of his time and a central figure in the intellectual renaissance of Byzantium after the turmoil of iconoclasm. He occupied a professorial chair at the Imperial School established in the Megnaura Palace, where he taught the philosophy of Aristotle and theology. In the course of an embassy to the Caliph at Baghdad, he composed from memory, for the benefit of his brother, a critical summary of around 280 books of all kinds - his <i>Myriobiblos</i> (<i>Library</i>), a proof of the extent of his knowledge. On his return from Baghdad with his mission accomplished, he was appointed chief secretary to the imperial chancellery (<i>protasecretis</i>), but he still had time for his academic duties and for his beloved studies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In 857 Bardas, the uncle of Emperor Michael III, assumed power with the title of Caesar. He forced the resignation of the Holy Patriarch Ignatios (Oct. 23), who had denounced his immoral behavior, and prevailed on the clergy to elect the wise and pious Photios as his successor. Photios held out against his election as strongly as he could, since he regarded death itself as preferable to that perilous office in those troubled times; but, in the face of injunctions and threats he at last gave way, and agreed to give up the peace of his study and philosophical discussions with like-minded friends. He was consecrated Patriarch of Constantinople on 25 December 858, having been raised through all the degrees of the priesthood in the previous six days. In a letter to Caesar Bardas, he wrote: "Our promotion has not been willed by us and we are enthroned as a prisoner...." The more extreme supporters of Ignatios then used every means to oppose and discredit the new hierarch, alleging the irregularity of his sudden elevation from layman to Patriarch. Photios sought to avoid confrontation and did all in his power to re-establish unity and peace in the Church by strengthening Her in love, the "bond of perfection". He took firm action against the remaining Manichean and Iconoclast heretics, and took in hand the restoration of the many churches, monasteries and charitable foundations damaged by the Iconoclasts, and took a special interest in missions to spread the Gospel among the barbarians. But his attempts to appease the supporters of Ignatios failed; and, while expressing disapproval of the violent measures taken against them by the government, he was obliged to summon a Council in 859, which confirmed the deposition of Ignatios and exiled him to Mytilene and then to Terebinthus. Agitation against Photios continued however and, in 861, another Council, known as the "First-Second", assembled in the Church of the Holy Apostles with the official purpose of approving the restoration of Orthodoxy and of pronouncing the definitive condemnation of iconoclasm. In addition, the Council recognized the validity of the nomination of Photios, with the full agreement of the papal legates there present, who, although acting contrary to the Pope's instructions, thought that they had thus achieved the triumph of papal authority.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The arrogant and ambitious Pope Nicholas I (858-68), who supported Ignatios, took the opportunity of the controversy to assert openly for the first time the pretension of the Popes of Rome to jurisdiction "over the whole earth and over the universal Church". To the primacy of honor of the Roman Church and her authority as arbiter in matters of dogma, which had always been acknowledged by the other Churches - especially when the Arian, Monothelite and Iconoclast heresies were being promoted by Emperors in Constantinople - the Papacy now ascribed to itself the hegemonic claims which the Frankish Empire, after the death of Charlemagne and the Treaty of Verdun (843), could no longer sustain. On the initiative of authoritarian Popes, the Papacy sought to exercise a supremacy over the whole Church that was supposed to have been granted by Christ Himself and to have given the Popes the right to intervene in the domestic affairs of other Churches, and to impose on them all the usages of the Roman Church, such as clerical celibacy, Saturday fasting and unleavened bread for the Eucharist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The opposition of Pope Nicholas I and his interference in the internal affairs of the Byzantine Church, when he had only been requested to pronounce decisively on Iconoclasm, drove Saint Photios to condemn the novel usages of the Roman Church. "Abolition of small things which have been received through tradition". he wrote, "will lead to complete contempt for the dogmas." Incensed by this response, the Pope wrote to all the bishops of the East accusing Photios of adultery as being in illicit possession of another's See, and he decreed on his own initiative the deposition of the Patriarch of Constantinople - a thing never before heard of. Moreover, asserting the right of Popes to judge Councils, he declared that the decisions of the "First-Second" were invalid. Nor did he stop there, but summoned to Rome a Council of Western bishops, which declared Photios deposed and excommunicated all the clergy ordained by him. When Emperor Michael III objected to these proceedings, the Pope informed him (in 865) that he derived his supremacy over the Universal Church from Christ Himself. Then, in successive letters, he subjected Photios to a litany of insults, to which that true disciple of the Savior made no reply.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Holy Patriarch did not allow these conflicts and cares to hamper his apostolic activity. With the support of the Emperor, he promoted the evangelization of the Slav peoples, engaging his learned friend and colleague Constantine (whom we venerate as Saint Cyril) and his brother Methodios, an ascetic from Mount Olympus, to undertake a preliminary mission to the Khazars of Southern Russia in 860. Three years later, at the request of the Prince of Moravia, he sent the two brothers on that great missionary endeavor which marked the beginning of the conversion of the Slav peoples of the Balkans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">At about the same time, Boris (Michael) the Khan of Bulgaria, who had recently been baptized by Photios with the Emperor Michael as his godfather, bringing his whole nation into the Christian fold, turned away from Constantinople, which had refused to grant him a patriarch, and looked to Rome for support (866). Seizing his opportunity, the Pope immediately sent Latin missionaries to Bulgaria with instructions to spread their innovations in this young Church which the Byzantines had evangelized, especially the addition of the <i>Filioque</i> to the Creed. Seeing the peril of an innovation which touched on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, Saint Photios estimated that it was time "for the meek to become a warrior" (Joel 4:9 LXX) and that he would have to break his silence and issue a rejoinder. He addressed an Encyclical Letter to all the bishops of the East in which he vigorously condemned the errors of the Latins, especially the <i>Filoque</i>. He summoned a great Council to Constantinople, which in 867 proclaimed the victory of Orthodox doctrine over all the heresies, and anathematized Pope Nicholas and his missionaries in Bulgaria. The two Churches were thus separated by a formal schism, which was a precursor of the final break in 1054.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Michael III was assassinated at the end of 867 and Basil I, the founder of the Macedonian Dynasty, became Emperor. He immediately deposed Saint Photios, whom he imprisoned in the Monastery of the Protection, and recalled Saint Ignatios. In spite of the irenic efforts of Ignatios, the enemies of Photios then began a regular persecution of all the clergy ordained by him. In view of the continuing disturbance, the Emperor decided to refer the case of the two claimants to the Patriarchal throne to Rome for judgement, which was a godsend for the Papacy. Hadrian II, Nicholas' successor, assembled a Council in 869, which once again condemned Photios, declared the Council of 867 invalid, publicly burnt its <i>Acts</i> and ordered that a new Council should meet in Constantinople. The bishops, few in number, who attended this false Council - called the "Eighth Ecumenical Council" (870) by the Latins - were overawed by the Emperor and, in their cowardice, condemned the Beacon of the Church and exiled his supporters to the boundaries of the Empire. More than 200 bishops were then deposed and many priests were deprived of their orders. Haled like a criminal before the synod and summoned to answer the accusations made against him, Saint Photios, after a long silence, replied: "God hears the voice of him who keeps silent. For Jesus Himself by keeping silent did not escape condemnation." As they insisted that he answer, he replied: "My justification is not of this world." As a worthy imitator of the Passion of the meek and long-suffering Jesus, Saint Photios, in spite of illness, bore for three years the pain of harsh imprisonment, deprivation of books and company without a word of complaint. Imputing no responsibility to the blameless Ignatios for these cruelties, he encouraged his suffering friends by letter and prayed for the Emperor and his persecutors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Meanwhile, the bishops took cognizance of the fact that their cowardly opportunism had led them to submit their Church to the dictates of Rome; and they persuaded the Emperor to declare invalid the decrees of the Council of 870 and to release Photios. The Saint was then received at court with great honor, and Basil appointed him as his children's tutor. Photios lost no time in making his peace with Ignatios. The two Saints, victims of the rivalry of contrary parties which had made use of their names, embraced warmly, and Photios gave his entire support to the aged and infirm Patriarch, whom he visited daily. On the death of Saint Ignatios on 23 October 877, the Church unanimously placed Photios once again on the Patriarchal throne. Veneration of the memory of Saint Ignatios was introduced not long after by Photios himself, and the Church thus befittingly eulogizes them together in the <i>Synodikon</i> read on the Sunday of Orthodoxy: "Eternal memory to the very blessed, very Orthodox and very illustrious Patriarchs Ignatios and Photios!" A Council was convoked at Constantinople in 879-880 attended by 383 Fathers under the presidency of Photios and in the presence of legates from the Pope. The Council confirmed the rehabilitation of Photios, annulled the Council of 870 and restored communion between the two Churches, anathematizing all innovation and especially the heretical innovation of the <i>Filoque</i> to the Symbol of Faith. With the restoration of peace and unity in the Church, the greatest desire of the hierarch was fulfilled. He immediately set about the task of peacemaking, seeking reconciliation with his enemies and showing a fatherly care devoid of bitterness for the former partisans of Ignatios.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When Leo VI (886-912) succeeded his father Basil I, he summarily deposed the Holy Patriarch, holding him indirectly responsible for making known to his father a plot which Leo had hatched against him. Saint Photios was imprisoned as an evildoer in the Monastery of the Armenians and was confined there for five years, lacking all human consolation but shining like gold tried in the furnace of manifold temptations (1 Pet. 6-7). This was the period which, without books of his own, he wrote the <i>Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit</i> - a systematic refutation of the <i>Filioque</i> heresy, in which he shows that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Person of the Father, the "Source of the Divinity", and is sent to us <i>by</i> the Son in order to make us "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4). Leaving this treatise as his testament to the Holy Church in view of conflicts to come, he departed to join the choir of Holy Fathers and Doctors on 6 February 893. The miracles which soon took place in plenty at his tomb helped to convert even his inveterate enemies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Humble, serene and long-suffering in tribulations, this true Confessor of the Faith, unjustly called a fanatic by his enemies, remains one of the great luminaries of Orthodoxy and a wholly trustworthy witness to the spirit of the Gospel.*</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">* The calumnies spread about St. Photios by the extreme partisans of St. Ignatios, accepted for centuries by historians and Western apologists alike without serious examination, made him responsible for all the discord and division which paved the way for the Great Schism of 1054. Fortunately, the researchers of modern Roman Catholic historians (notably F. Dvornik, <i>The Photian Schism</i>, Cambridge 1970) have reestablished the facts of the matter, which in all respects corroborate the tradition of the Orthodox Faith.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">From <i>The Synaxarion</i> (vol. 3), translated by Christopher Hookway, 2001, pp. 422-429.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">St Photios' refutation of the Roman Catholic <i>Filioque</i> heresy, <i>Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit,</i> may be found here:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/photios_mystagogy.html">http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/photios_mystagogy.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Article about St Photios the Great as Defender of Orthodoxy and Missionary:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.stjamesthejust.com/features/(077)%20St.%20Photios%20the%20Great%20-%20Defender%20of%20the%20True%20Orthodox%20Faith,%20by%20Fr.%20Dr.%20Photios%20(W).pdf">http://www.stjamesthejust.com/features/(077)%20St.%20Photios%20the%20Great%20-%20Defender%20of%20the%20True%20Orthodox%20Faith,%20by%20Fr.%20Dr.%20Photios%20(W).pdf</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Encyclical to the Eastern Patriarchs</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Countless have been the evils devised by the cunning devil against the race of men, from the beginning up to the coming of the Lord. But even afterwards, he has not ceased through errors and heresies to beguile and deceive those who listen to him. Before our times, the Church, witnessed variously the godless errors of Arius, Macedonius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Discorus, and a foul host of others, against which the holy Ecumenical Synods were convened, and against which our holy and God-bearing Fathers battled with the sword of the Holy Spirit. Yet, even after these heresies had been overcome and peace reigned, and from the Imperial Capital the streams of Orthodoxy flowed throughout the world; after some people who had been afflicted by the Monophysite heresy returned to the True Faith because of your holy prayers; and after other barbarian peoples, such as the Bulgarians, had turned from idolatry to the knowledge of God and the Christian Faith: then was the cunning devil stirred up because of his envy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">For the Bulgarians had not been baptised even two years when dishonourable men emerged out of the darkness (that is, the West), and poured down like hail or, better, charged like wild boars upon the newly-planted vineyard of the Lord, destroying it with hoof and tusk, which is to say, by their shameful lives and corrupted dogmas. For the papal missionaries and clergy wanted these Orthodox Christians to depart from the correct and pure dogmas of our irreproachable Faith.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The first error of the Westerners was to compel the faithful to fast on Saturdays. (I mention this seemingly small point because the least departure from Tradition can lead to a scorning of every dogma of our Faith.) Next, they convinced the faithful to despise the marriage of priests, thereby sowing in their souls the seeds of the Manichean heresy. Likewise, they persuaded them that all who had been chrismated by priests had to be anointed again by bishops. In this way, they hoped to show that Chrismation by priests had no value, thereby ridiculing this divine and supernatural Christian Mystery. From whence comes this law forbidding priests to anoint with Holy Chrism? From what lawgiver, Apostle, Father, or Synod? For, if a priest cannot chrismate the newly-baptised, then surely neither can he baptise. Or, how can a priest consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord in the Divine Liturgy if, at the same time, he cannot chrismate with Holy Chrism? If this grace then, is taken from the priests, the episcopal rank is diminished, for the bishop stands at the head of the choir of priests. But the impious Westerners did not stop their lawlessness even here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">They attempted by their false opinions and distorted words to ruin the holy and sacred Nicene Symbol of Faith — which by both synodal and universal decisions possesses invincible power — by adding to it that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, as the Symbol declares, but from the Son also. Until now, no one has ever heard even a heretic pronounce such a teaching. What Christian can accept the introduction of two sources into the Holy Trinity; that is, that the Father is one source of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that the Son is another source of the Holy Spirit, thereby transforming the monarchy of the Holy Trinity into a dual divinity?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And why should the Holy Spirit proceed from the Son as well as from the Father? For if His procession from the Father is perfect and complete — and it is perfect because He is perfect God from perfect God — then why is there also a procession from the Son? The Son, moreover, cannot serve as an intermediary between the Father and the Spirit because the Spirit is not a property of the Son. If two principles, two sources, exist in the divinity, then the unity of the divinity would be destroyed. If the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, His procession from the Father alone would of necessity be either perfect or imperfect. If it is imperfect, then procession for two hypostases would be much more contrived and less perfect than procession from one hypostasis alone. If it is not imperfect, then why would it be necessary for the Spirit to also proceed from the Son?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If the Son participates in the quality or property of the Father's own hypostasis, then the Son and the Spirit lose their own personal distinctions. Here one falls into semi-Sabellianism. The proposition that in the divinity there exist two principles, one which is independent and the other which receives its origin from the first, destroys the very root of the Christian conception of God. It would be much more consistent to expound these two principles into three, for this would be more in keeping with the human understanding of the Holy Trinity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But since the Father is the principle and source, not because of the nature of the divinity, but because of the property of the hypostasis (and the hypostasis of the Father does not include the hypostasis of the Son), the Son cannot be a principle or source. The <i>Filioque</i> actually divides the hypostasis of the Father into two parts, or else the hypostasis of the Son becomes a part of the hypostasis of the Father. By the <i>Filioque</i> teaching, the Holy Spirit is two degrees or steps removed from the Father, and thus has a much lower rank than the Son. If the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son also, then of the three Divine Hypostases, the Holy Spirit alone has more than one origin or principle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">By the teaching of the procession from the Son also, the Father and the Son are made closer to each other than the Father and the Spirit, since the Son possesses not only the Father's nature but also the property of His Person. The procession of the Spirit from the Son is either the same as that from the Father, or else it is different, in which case there exists an opposition in the Holy Trinity. A dual procession cannot be reconciled with the principle that what is not common to the three hypostases belongs exclusively to only one of the three hypostases. If the Spirit proceeds also from the Son, why then would something not proceed from the Spirit, so that the balance between the Divine Hypostases would therefore be maintained?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">By the teaching that the Spirit also proceeds from the Son, the Father appears partial towards the Son. The Father is either a greater source of the Spirit than the Son, or a lesser source. If greater, the dignity of the Son is offended; if lesser, the dignity of the Father is offended. The Latins make the Son greater than the Spirit, for they consider Him a principle, irreverently placing Him closer to the Father. By introducing a dual principle into the Holy Trinity as they do, the Latins offend the Son, for by making Him a source of that which already has a source, they thus render Him unnecessary as a source. They also divide the Holy Spirit into two parts: one part from the Father and one part from the Son. In the Holy Trinity, which is united in an indivisible unity, all three hypostases are inviolable. But if the Son contributes to the procession of the Spirit, Sonship is then injured, and the hypostatic property damaged.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If, by the begetting of the Son, the power was thereby given to the Son that the Holy Spirit would proceed from Him, then how would His Sonship itself not be destroyed when He, Who Himself has a source, became a source of Another Who is equal to Him and is of the same nature as He? According to the <i>Filioque</i> teaching, it is impossible to see why the Holy Spirit could not be called a granson! If the Father is the source of the Son, who is the second source of the Spirit, then the Father is both immediate and the mediated source of the Holy Spirit! A dual source in the divinity inescapably concludes in a dual result; therefore, the hypostasis of the Spirit must be dual. Therefore, the teaching of the <i>Filioque</i> introduces into the divinity two principles, a dyarchy, which destroys the unity of the divinity, the monarchy of the Father.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Having here explained the Latin understanding only briefly, I will leave its detailed presentation and refutation until we are assembled together in council. These so-called bishops thus introduced this foul teaching, together with other impermissible innovations, among the simple and newly-baptised Bulgarian people. This news cut us to the heart. How can we not grieve when we see before our eyes the fruit of our womb, the child to whom we gave birth through the Gospel of Christ, being rent asunder by beasts? He who by his sweat and suffering raised them and perfected them in the Faith, suffers the greatest pain and sorrow upon the destruction of his children. Therefore, we mourn for our spiritual children, and we will not cease from mourning. For we will not give sleep to our eyes until, to the extent that lies in our power, we return them to the House of the Lord.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Now, concerning these forerunners of apostasy, common pests and servants of the enemy, we, by divine and synodal decree, condemn them as impostors and enemies of God. It is not as though we were just now pronouncing judgement upon them, but rather, we now declare openly the condemnation ordained by the ancient synods and Apostolic Canons. If they stubbornly persist in their error, we will exclude them from the communion of all Christians. They introduced fasting on Saturdays, although that is prohibited by the 64th Apostolic Canon which states: </span><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;">“</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">If some cleric is found fasting on Sundays or Saturdays except the one Great Saturday before Pascha, let him be removed from the ranks of the clergy, and if he be a layman, let him be excommunicated.</span><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;">”</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Similarly, by the 56th canon of the holy Fourth Ecumenical Synod which states: </span><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;">“</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Since we have learnt that in the city of Old Rome some, during the Great Fast, in opposition to the ecclesiastical order handed down to us, keep the fast even on Saturdays, the holy Ecumenical Synod orders that in the Church of Old Rome the Apostolic Canon which prohibits fasting on Saturdays and Sundays is to be followed exactly.</span><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;">”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Similarly, there is a canon of the regional synod of Gangra which anathematises those who do not recognise married priests. This was confirmed by the holy Sixth Ecumenical Synod, which condemned those who require that priests and deacons cease to cohabit with their lawful wives after their ordination. Such a custom was being introduced even then by the Church of Old Rome. That Synod reminded the Church of Old Rome of the evangelical teaching and of the canon and polity of the Apostles, and ordered it not to insult the holy institution of Christian marriage established by God Himself. But even if we did not cite all these and other innovations of the Latins, the mere citing of their addition of the <i>Filioque</i> phrase to the Nicene Symbol of Faith would be sufficient to subject them to a thousand anathemas. For that innovation blasphemes the Holy Spirit, or more correctly, the entire Holy Trinity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Having presented this matter before our brotherhood in the Lord, according to the ancient custom of the Church, we invite and ask you to come and join in council with us, for the purpose of condemning these foul and Godless teachings. Do not abandon the order established by the Holy Fathers which they, by their acts and deeds, handed down to us as a legacy to preserve. Rather, straightway send your representatives and deputies, adorned with piety and the priestly rank and by the goodness of their life and words, and by common synodal decree this new rot of evil belief will be excised from the Church. Once we have rooted out this godlessness, we can hope the newly-baptised Bulgarian people will return to the Faith they first accepted. And not only the Bulgarian people, but also all of the formerly terrible people, the so-called Rus, for even now they are abandoning their heathen faith and are converting to Christianity, receiving from us bishops and pastors as well as all Christian customs. Consequently, if you now move to help erase this newly begun evil, then the flock of Christ will yet more increase and the Apostolic learning will reach the ends of the world. With this purpose, then, send your representatives and deputies equipped with the authority of the Apostolic thrones which you inherited by the Holy Spirit, so that these and all other matters may be brought to judgement by lawful authority.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">From the Italian region, we have received a synodal letter citing many grave matters against the bishop of Old Rome. Accordingly, the Orthodox there ask us to free them from his great tyranny, for in that area sacred law is being scorned and Church order trampled. We were told this earlier by monks who came to us from there, and now we have received many letters stating frightening news about that region and asking us to relay their message to all the bishops and to the Apostolic Patriarchs as well. For that reason, I communicate to you their request by way of this epistle. Once a holy and ecumenical Christian synod has been assembled, it will fall upon us together to resolve all these matters with the help of God and according to the rules of previous Synods, that in so doing, a deep peace may again prevail in the Church of Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Moreover, it is necessary to confirm the holy Seventh Ecumenical Synod, to the end that all the faithful in the Church everywhere reckon and include that Synod as Ecumenical together with the other six. For we have heard that in some places it is not yet so counted, although its decisions are accepted and honoured. This was the Synod that overcame and destroyed the great heretical godlessness of iconoclasm. Representatives of the other four patriarchates attended its sessions. After they were all assembled, together with our uncle, the most Tarasius, Archbishop of New Rome, this great and ecumenical synod crushed the Antichrist's blasphemous heresy. Therefore, this Synod must be declared and numbered with the six preceding ones, so as to show the union of Christ's Church and deny the godless iconoclasts of the claim that their heresy was condemned by only one throne. Thus do we seek and propose as brother to brethren, and we dutifully beseech your Holinesses and also ask that you remember our humble self in your prayers.</span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-89891647543396211802017-02-19T12:36:00.000-08:002017-02-19T12:48:27.267-08:00IT'S TIME TO PREPARE, DON'T DELAY ANOTHER DAY!<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Sermon On The Last Judgment</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">by St. John Maximovitch</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The day of the Last Judgement! That day no one knows — only God the Father knows — but its signs are given in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. Revelation speaks of the events at the end of the world and of the Last Judgement primarily in images and in a veiled manner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">However, the Holy Fathers have explained these images, and there is an authentic Church tradition that speaks clearly concerning the signs of the approach of the end, and concerning the Last Judgement. Before the end of life on earth there will be agitation, wars, civil war, hunger, earthquakes… Men will suffer from fear, will die from expectation of calamity. There will be no life, no joy of life but a tormented state of falling away from life. Nevertheless there will be a falling away not only from life, but from faith also, and “when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” (St. Luke 18:8).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Men will become proud, ungrateful, rejecting Divine law. Together with the falling away from life will be a weakening of moral life. There will be an exhaustion of good and an increase of evil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Of these times, the holy Apostle John the Theologian speaks in his God-inspired work, the Apocalypse. He says that he “was in the Spirit” when he wrote it; this means that the Holy Spirit Himself was in him, when under the form of various images, the fate of the Church and the world was opened to him, and so this is a Divine Revelation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Apocalypse represents the fate of the Church in the image of a woman who hides herself in the wilderness: she does not show herself in public life, as today in Russia. In public life, forces that prepare the possibility for the appearance of Antichrist will play the leading role.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Antichrist will be a man, and not the devil incarnate. “Anti” means “old,” and it also signifies “in place of” or “against.” Antichrist is a man who desires to be in place of Christ, to occupy His place and possess what Christ should possess. He desires to possess the attraction of Christ and authority over the whole world. Moreover, Antichrist will receive that authority before his destruction and the destruction of the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">What is known of this man — Antichrist? His precise ancestry is unknown: his father is completely unknown, and his mother a foul pretended virgin. He will be a Jew of the tribe of Dan. He will be very intelligent and endowed with skill in handling people. He will be fascinating and kind. The philosopher Vladimir Soloviev worked a long time at presenting the advent and person of Antichrist. He carefully made use of all material on this question, not only Patristic, but also Muslim, and he worked out a brilliant picture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Before the advent of Antichrist, there was a preparation in the world, the possibility of his appearance. "The mystery of iniquity doth already work" (II Thes. 2:7). The forces preparing for his appearance fight above all against the lawful Imperial authority.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The holy Apostle Paul says that Antichrist cannot be manifested until "what withholdest is taken away" (II Thes. 2:6-7). St. John Chrysostom explains that the “withholding one” is the lawful pious authority: such an authority fights with evil. For this reason the “mystery,” already at work in the world, fights with this authority; it desires a lawless authority. When the “mystery” decisively achieves that authority, nothing will hinder the appearance of Antichrist any longer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Fascinating, intelligent, kind, he will be merciful — he will act with mercy and goodness; but not for the sake of mercy and goodness, but for the strengthening of his own authority. When he will have strengthened it to the point where the whole world acknowledges him, then he will reveal his face.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">For his capital, he will choose Jerusalem, because it was here that the Savior revealed His Divine teaching and His person. It was here that the entire world was called to the blessedness of goodness and salvation. The world did not acknowledge Christ and crucified Him in Jerusalem; whereas, the whole world will acknowledge the Antichrist’s authority and Jerusalem will become the capital of the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Having attained the pinnacle of authority, Antichrist will demand the acknowledgement that he has attained what no earthly power had ever attained or could attain and then demand the worship of himself as a higher being, as a god.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">V. Soloviev describes the character of his activity well, as “Supreme Ruler.” He will do what is pleasing to all — on the condition of being recognized as Supreme Authority. He will allow the Church to exist, permit her Divine services, promise to build magnificent churches…, on the condition that all recognize him as “Supreme Being” and worship him. Antichrist will have a personal hatred for Christ; he will see Him as a rival and look upon Him as a personal enemy. He will live by this hatred and rejoice in men’s apostasy from Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Under Antichrist, there will be an immense falling away from the faith. Many bishops will change in faith and in justification will point to the brilliant situation of the Church. The search for compromise will be the characteristic disposition of men. Straight-forwardness of confession will disappear. Men will cleverly justify their fall, and gracious evil will support such a general disposition. There will be the habit of apostasy from truth and the sweetness of compromise and sin in men.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Antichrist will allow men everything, as long as they “fall down and worship him” and the whole world will submit to him. Then there will appear the two righteous men, who will fearlessly preach the faith and accuse Antichrist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">According to Church tradition, they are the two Prophets of the Old Testament, Elijah and Enoch, who did not taste of death, but will taste it now for three days, and in three days they must rise. Their death will call forth the great rejoicing of Antichrist and his servants. Their resurrection will plunge them into great confusion and terror. Then, the end of the world will come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Apostle Peter said that the first world was made out of water — an image of the primordial chaos, and perished by water — in the Flood. Now the world is reserved unto fire. The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up (II Peter 3:5-7, 10). All the elements will ignite. This present world will perish in a single instant. In an instant all will be changed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Moreover, the Sign of the Son of God, the Sign of the Cross, will appear. The whole world, having willingly submitted to Antichrist, will weep. Everything is finished forever: Antichrist killed, the end of his kingdom of warfare with Christ, the end, and one is held accountable; one must answer to the true God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“The end of the world” signifies not the annihilation of the world, but its transformation. Everything will be transformed suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye. The dead will rise in new bodies: their own, but renewed, just as the Savior rose in His own body and traces of wounds from the nails and spear were on it, yet it possessed new faculties, and in this sense it was a new body. It is not clear whether this new body will be the same as Adam was made, or whether it will be an entirely new body.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Afterward, the Lord will appear in glory on the clouds. Trumpets will sound, loud, with power! They will sound in the soul and conscience! All will become clear to the human conscience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Prophet Daniel, speaking of the Last Judgement, relates how the Ancient of Days, the Judge sits on His throne, and before Him is a fiery stream (Daniel 7:9-10). Fire is a purifying element; it burns sin. Woe to a man if sin has become a part of his nature: then the fire will burn the man, himself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">This fire will be kindled within man: seeing the Cross, some will rejoice, but others will fall into confusion, terror and despair. Thus, men will be divided instantly. The very state of a man’s soul casts him to one side or the other, to right or to left.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The more consciously and persistently man strives toward God in his life, the greater will be his joy when he hears: “Come unto Me, ye blessed.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Conversely: the same words will call the fire of horror and torture to those who did not desire Him, who fled and fought or blasphemed Him during their lifetime!</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Last Judgement knows of no witnesses or written protocols! Everything is inscribed in the souls of men and these records, these “books,” are opened at the Judgement. Everything becomes clear to all and to oneself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Moreover, some will go to joy, while others — to horror.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When “the books are opened,” it will become clear that the roots of all vices lie in the human soul. Here is a drunkard or a lecher: when the body has died, some may think that sin is dead too. No! There was an inclination to sin in the soul, and that sin was sweet to the soul, and if the soul has not repented and has not freed itself of the sin, it will come to the Last Judgement with the same desire for sin. It will never satisfy that desire and in that soul there will be the suffering of hatred. It will accuse everyone and everything in its tortured condition; it will hate everyone and everything. “There will be gnashing of teeth” of powerless malice and the unquenchable fire of hatred.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">A “fiery gehenna” — such is the inner fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">“There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Such is the state of hell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Doxastikon of Matins in Tone One</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Let us go before, O brethren, and cleanse ourselves for the Queen of virtues; for behold she hath come bringing to us fortune of good deeds, quenching the uprisings of passion and reconciling the wicked to the Master. Let us welcome her, therefore, shouting to Christ God, O thou who arose from the dead, keep us uncondemned, who glorify Thee, O Thou who alone art sinless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Kontakion in Tone One</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">When Thou comest, O God, upon the earth with glory, the whole world will tremble. The river of fire will bring men before Thy judgment seat, the books will be opened and the secrets disclosed. Then deliver me from the unquenchable fire, and count me worthy to stand on Thy right hand, Judge most righteous.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Excerpts from</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>"The One Thing Needful</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>,"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Sermons of</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko, 1893-1978)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>Last Judgment</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Now we have come to the Gospel about the Last Judgment. It determines everything, for everyone and forever. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal" (Mt. 25:46). Here everything is summed up; everything is clear, unchangeable, eternal. Here God’s Truth meets with God’s Mercy, and God’s Love with the Wisdom of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">We walked away from Christ’s manger from which we received the spirit of adoption (sonship). On the Day of the Lord’s Circumcision, our New Year, we consciously dedicated ourselves to the service of the Lord in the coming year. On the day of the Lord’s Baptism, we received the special Grace to do God’s will. But on the very first steps of our new life we did not stand fast, but yielded to temptation and sinned. It is not without reason that the very first Sunday after the Baptism called to us: "Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Mt. 4:17). And with all the subsequent Gospels the Holy Church has been teaching us how to repent. She has given us wonderful images of repentance: Zacchaeus changed his whole life. The Publican was justified by his prayer: "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Lk. 18:13). And the Prodigal Son returned to his Father. All this is true, all this happened, and it has been repeated thousands of times throughout the history of Christ’s Church. And all of this exists right now; all this is possible for both you and me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And the picture of the Last Judgment, which might startle us, does not disrupt our cycle of Gospel readings. It gives them meaning, makes them more exact, sums up for us all that was before in the Church and all that will be further on. After all, to be placed at the right side of the King and to hear His voice: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom" (Mt. 25:34) — this is the purpose of our life. But we rarely think about this and often forget it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The great Sophia Cathedral in Kiev is not dedicated to the Martyr Sophia. The word "sophia" in Greek means "wisdom," and this Cathedral is dedicated to the Wisdom of God. The Cathedral’s feast day is celebrated on the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God. On the day of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God begins the plan of the Wisdom of God which alone can save sinners, which means all of us. The Most Holy Virgin was raised at the temple to become the Mother of God. She experienced the day of the Annunciation. Then came the days of the Nativity of Christ, the flight into Egypt, the hard life in Nazareth, and finally they led her Godly Son to Crucifixion. They led Him away! The Mother of God was at the Cross. Her Son was dying on the Cross.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Here is how the Wisdom of God accomplishes our salvation; and how the Truth of God is satisfied. In fact, another similar sacrifice could not even have been conceived. This is the Pure Lamb of God, Who takes upon Himself the sin of the world. Why, there is not a single person in existence who could become the sacrifice for the sins of the world. After all, there is no man without sin. And if anyone suffers, then this is for his own sins. Only Christ could accomplish this, because He alone was without sin. He is the Only One, the Irreplaceable One... "It is finished" (Jn. 19:30).</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">On the western wall of the Kiev cathedral of St. Vladimir, remarkable for its murals, right over the entrance to the church is a wonderful representation of the Last Judgment. First of all, we are struck by the mass of people, their faces, eyes. And you have the vivid awareness that you are among them. Involuntarily, you try to find yourself, to determine your place according to your spiritual state. And within you occurs, as it were, a private judgment upon yourself. There are faces expressing terrible sorrow, a totally perished life trembles in them. There are others, 11 of malice, hatred, murmuring, envy, insatiable desires. **fe passed on, but something is gnawing at them and will eternally gnaw at them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">But here, rays of light start to break their way through the enormous clouds, and they show us other faces: quiet, calm, joyful, happy. This is life! And the closer they are to the Throne, the more clear these faces are. And over the Throne shines the Cross. On the Throne is seated the Lord Savior of the world Himself, and around Him, John the Baptist, the Apostles, all the Saints are praying, triumphing. Here is harmonious rejoicing. Only one cry, one wail disturbs it. The Mother of God has fallen on the shoulder of Christ, and she alone is pleading for the salvation of sinners, for mercy for all those without hope. She alone has been given the power to intercede to the end before the Mercy of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Dear brothers and sisters! Wherever you may be in this terrible picture, do not despair. You have not yet perished! There is our Mother. She is whispering for you, and it is doubtful that even the Almighty God can refuse her. She is the "finder of those who are lost." Just believe in this and warmth will begin to fill your heart, and a new hope will light up in it. Then love of the Wisdom of God will begin to reveal itself to you!</span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-43491398548588496432017-02-03T06:31:00.002-08:002017-02-03T06:32:33.887-08:00He Stood Alone And Wouldn't Compromise!<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">St. Mark Eugenikos, Bishop of Ephesus</span></strong></div>
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<em><strong>St. Mark Eugenikos, Archbishop of Ephesus - Commemorated on January 19th, and on the first <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_892277775" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> in November</strong></em></div>
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"St. Mark was born ca. 1391-1392 in Constantinople. His parents belonged to a prominent family of considerable means. His father was a deacon at the Church of the Holy Sophia, the Wisdom of God. His mother was the daughter of a physician. In Holy Baptism, the future Holy Hierarch received the name Manuil (Emmanuel, meaning “God is With Us”); one can see in that fact a prophetic description of his future significance to the Church.</div>
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Manuil’s first instructor in academic subjects and in piety was his father. The boy was so successful in his studies that while he was still a young boy, his father schooled him in rhetoric and mathematics. When he was 13, Manuil lost his father, but did not succumb to laziness; he continued his studies in Constantinople with renowned professors John Cartasmeno and George Gemistus Plethon. Thanks to his great dedication, remarkable intellect and unquestionably high morals, soon the future confessor of the Church himself became an instructor, attracting the most talented youth. His great spiritual gifts would not remain unnoticed. Manuil became the favorite spiritual child of Patriarch Euphemius of Constantinople (1410-1416); the future Holy Hierarch’s closeness to and love for the Patriarch were later reflected in the canon and sticherae he composed following the archpastor’s death. Emperor Manuil II brought him into his circle as a confidant and advisor. At the direction of Manuil II’s successor, Emperor John VIII, St. Mark authored a great number of compositions addressing difficult theological questions. These works, and the extremely high position St. Mark held among the delegates to the Council in Italy indicated that he was held in great respect by Emperor John VIII.</div>
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Thus, closeness to the Emperors opened up to him a path to wealth and to finding all manner of benefits. A brilliant career stretched forth before him. However, the soul of the true lover of wisdom was seeking something else.</div>
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In 1418, at the age of 26, Manuil left the capital and went to Antigone, one of the islands then governed by Byzantium , and located at the mouth of the gulf of Nicomedia. Abbot Simeon became the Saint’s spiritual father, and tonsured him into monasticism, with the name Mark. That great spiritual director, about whom unfortunately more detailed information is unknown, led St. Mark along the narrow path toward salvation.</div>
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Life on the island of Antigone was one of constant stress and worry over expected attacks by the Turks. Under such circumstances, it was difficult for the spiritual strugglers to maintain calm, focus, and silence. Thus, Mark and his spiritual father departed for a new home at the famous Monastery [of St. George] of Mangana in Constantinople . There the spiritual Elder reposed, and there Holy Hierarch Mark later valiantly completed his own life’s course. At the Monastery of Mangana, the Saint gave himself over to the greatest spiritual struggles.</div>
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At the Emperor’s direction, St. Mark was appointed Metropolitan of Ephesus after the aged Metropolitan Joasaph reposed in 1437. The Holy Hierarch was not to remain long with that flock. On November 24, 1437, he left for Italy as part of an enormous delegation to the Council of Ferrara-Florence.</div>
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The bulk of the Greeks who left for Italy went with a sense of spiritual enthusiasm. Before their departure, patriarch Joasaph had said that they were going to the Council to contract a Union, but that they would not compromise any of the traditions of the Holy Church that had passed on to them, and that if need be, they were ready to die for those traditions, for what could be more glorious than a martyr’s crown?! Alas, everything turned out otherwise. As we know, the Patriarch never returned to Constantinople, but died in Florence. Orthodoxy was betrayed and sold out, and the Greeks returned to their Homeland not as conquerors bearing spiritual trophies, but in shame and sorrow.</div>
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The Council, held to consider the question of unification of the Eastern and Western Churches, was solemnly convened in the Cathedral Church of Ferrara on April 9, 1438. Emperor John VIII Palaeologus, head of the delegation, looked upon the Unia as a political act allowing Byzantium to count on Western support in its battle with the Turks. The Emperor, in whose court Italian influence was great as the result of his marriage to Sophia of Monferrato, thought that reaching an agreement with the West was not merely possible, but essential. Accordingly, he summoned to his ranks such accomplished enthusiastic supporters of Orthodoxy as Holy Hierarch Mark, and demanded that at the Council, sharp polemics with the Latins on theological questions be avoided. He hoped that a compromise acceptable to all might be accomplished through vague wording. Pope Eugene IV of Rome pursued other goals. First of all, he wanted to use the Unia to raise his prestige in the Catholic world, something that had been shaken at the Council of Basle; second, he wanted to assert his control over the Orthodox Church. Therefore, he insisted that as soon as possible, the two Churches form a bilateral commission to identify and analyze the points of contention between the two sides, and to chart the paths to contracting a Unia. After some delay, the Greeks authorized only Holy Hierarch Mark of Ephesus and Metropolitan Bessarion of Nicaea to take part in discussions with the Latins. Of those two, St. Mark took the lead, and was also authorized to represent the Patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch.</div>
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At the request of Cardinal Julian Cesarini, before the commission began its work, St. Mark laid out for Pope Eugene IV the position of the Greek delegation. The Holy Hierarch yearned for Church unity, believed that a Unia was possible, and sought unity with the Latins, but a true unity, based on unity of faith and ancient liturgical practice. Holy Hierarch Mark emphasized that the purity of Orthodoxy must be preserved, and that the talks might end without success unless Rome made certain concessions, renouncing innovations introduced into the dogmas and liturgical practice of the Western Church which were alien to the ancient Church and which were reasons for the schism. The Cardinal immediately delivered that appeal not only to the Pope, but to Emperor John as well. The Emperor, who had naively hoped that in concluding the Unia, painful theological questions could be avoided, was extremely displeased, and even wanted to have the Holy Hierarch brought to trial before the Synod. However, at the urging of Bessarion of Nicaea and others, he did not act on that proposed decision. At the same time, the Pope demanded ever more insistently that the Greeks explain themselves, and finally, at the third session of the commission the Catholics themselves proposed issues for consideration: 1) the issue of the Procession of the Holy Spirit; 2) the issue of the use of azymes, unleavened bread, for the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church; 3) the teachings with respect to Purgatory; and 4) the primacy of the Pope of Rome.</div>
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The Greeks considered the question of Purgatory to be the simplest one, and that coming closer together on that issue would more likely allow them to come closer to agreement on the other issues. However, the subsequent debate on that question, during which Holy Hierarch St. Mark of Ephesus spoke out several times, ended without result on July 17, 1438. The Greek delegation did not agree to accept as dogma the Latin teaching with respect to a purgatory fire through which sinners could avoid eternal torment by undergoing a temporary punishment and purging. Such a view would cast doubt on the Church teaching with respect to an after-death recompense, and would tempt people of weak faith to take a “broad path” to salvation.</div>
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After the Orthodox and Latins failed to reach agreement with respect to Purgatory, the first question under discussion, and after the first attempt to find rapprochement on Orthodox and Catholic dogmatic positions failed, followed several months of inaction. It was only on October 8, 1438 that new discussions were begun, on the most important point of disagreement between the two sides – the question of the “Filioque” (i.e. “and [from] the Son,” the Roman Catholic teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from God the Father but also from God the Son.) The Latins insisted that the actual teaching with respect to the “Filioque” be reviewed, but the majority of Greeks, together with St. Mark of Ephesus, demanded that they review the question of whether it was legal to make any alteration in the Creed, the Symbol of Faith. In the course of discussions, St. Mark cited the decision of the Third Ecumenical Council which directly forbade such alterations, and called upon the Latins to acknowledge their error. However, Roman Catholic orators, aware of how vulnerable was their position, strove to justify themselves through a variety of subterfuges. After many sessions in which a number of orators spoke, many of the Greeks came to the conclusion that discussions with the Latins were going nowhere, and that it would be better for them to return to Constantinople. </div>
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<em><strong>St. Mark Bishop of Ephesus</strong></em></div>
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In early January 1439, at the last meeting of the Council in Ferrara, a papal bull was read, announcing that the Council was being moved to Florence. Florence became the place at which, in St. Mark’s words, the Latins threw off their masks, not just with respect to their attitude toward the Orthodox delegates, but with respect to their treatment of them. The Orthodox Greeks found themselves in a difficult position: exhausted, suffering from privations, submitted to a variety of restrictions, lacking the resources to return to their homeland, and recognizing Byzantium’s truly sorry state. In effect, they were invited to “sell out” the Orthodox Church in return for generous assistance both to the state and to the Greek delegates to the Council; they were even promised that a Crusade would be launched against the Turks. All of these factors led to a fracturing of the unity that had made the Greek delegation so strong in Ferrara. While in Ferrara, Holy Hierarch St. Mark of Ephesus had had the support of Metropolitan Bessarion of Nicaea and Isidore of Kiev, and the Emperor himself was on the side of the enthusiastic supporters of Orthodoxy, but in Florence the picture changed. The Greek hierarchs’ original objectives – to preserve Orthodoxy in all of its purity and to sway the Latins toward Unia by convincing them that they had an erroneous understanding of the dogmas on which they disagreed with the Orthodox – were replaced by a search for compromising, ambiguous decisions and unstable, shaky, dogmatic definitions. The fundamental theological search pursued by the Greek delegates became “To find some middle ground.” In essence, Holy Hierarch St. Mark of Ephesus found himself alone, in isolation. The Catholics, in their turn, no longer sought an agreement on unification, but rather sought unconditional dogmatic and administrative capitulation by the Eastern Church. Having accepted the Latin “Filioque” teaching, the Orthodox delegates to the Council of Florence were forced to compromise on other issues as well. On July 5, 1439, they signed the Florence Unia. St. Mark was the only Council participant who did not sign the Act of Union. In fact, he turned out to be the only one to have defended Orthodoxy. That is evidenced by the fact that on hearing of St. Mark of Ephesus’ categorical refusal to sign the Acts of the Council, the Roman Pope stated that the Unia was a complete failure.</div>
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St. Mark, along with the Emperor and others who represented the Orthodox Church at the Council in Italy, returned to Constantinople on February 1, 1440. An active opponent of the Unia, St. Mark left the capital on <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_892277776" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">May 15</span></span> without notifying the Emperor. He departed for Ephesus, which was under the control of the Turks. There St. Mark devoted all of his efforts to putting his ravaged diocese in order: converting those who had gone astray, ordaining priests, and interceding with the authorities on behalf of the needy. At the same time, he considered the battle against the Unia to be the most pressing issue. Thus, in his encyclicals, he continued to denounce the Greek-Catholics and the decisions of the Council of Florence. An encyclical he addressed to all Orthodox Christians of the East in July 1440 was of particular significance. It elicited both extreme dissatisfaction on the part of the uniates, and wrath on the part of the Emperor. As a result, during a journey to Mt. Athos, the Saint was arrested on the island of Limnos, and was incarcerated for two years, during which he suffered from sickness, a severe climate, and deprivation of many of the essentials of life.</div>
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In 1442, at the order of the Emperor, Holy Hierarch St. Mark was released, on the day of commemoration of the Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus (<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_892277777" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">4 August</span></span> or 22 October). In a poem written on that occasion, the Archpastor thanked the Holy Youths of Ephesus for their intercession and assistance. St. Mark returned to Constantinople , where he lived until his blessed repose in 1457. It was God’s Providence that he remain a warrior for Orthodoxy until his final hour."</div>
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<em><strong>Icon of the three new hierarchs Sts. Photios the Great, Gregory Palamas, and Mark of Ephesus. These three great defenders and pillars of Orthodoxy are jointly commemorated on the first <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_892277779" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> in November.</strong> </em></div>
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<strong><em>St. Mark's final meeting with the Pope</em></strong></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "palatino" , serif;">"The Pope asked of the Emperor that St. Mark appear before him. The Emperor, having summoned him beforehand, persuaded him, saying: 'When the Pope asks you to appear before him already two and three times, you must go to him; but have no fear, for I have spoken and requested and arranged with the Pope so that you will be given no offense or injury. And so, go and listen to everything he says, and reply openly in whatever manner will seem to you the most suitable.' And so Mark went to appear before the Pope, and finding him sitting informally in his own quarters with his cardinals and his bishops, he was uncertain in what fashion he should express respect to the Pope. Seeing that all who surrounded the Pope were sitting, he said: 'I have been suffering from a kidney ailment and severe gout and have not the strength to stand,' and proceeded to sit in his place. The Pope spoke long with Mark; his aim was to persuade him also to follow the decision of the Council and affirm the Union, and if he refused to do this, then he should know that he would be subject to the same interdictions which previous Ecumenical Councils laid upon the obstinate, who, deprived of every gift of the Church, were case out as heretics. To the Pope's words Mark gave an extensive, commanding reply. Concerning the interdictions with which the Pope threatened him, he said: 'The Councils of the Church have condemned as rebels those who have transgressed against some dogma and have preached thus and fought for this, for which reason also they are called ''heretics''; and from the beginning the Church has condemned the heresy itself, and only then has it condemned the leaders of the heresy and its defenders. But I have by no means preached my own teaching, nor have I introduced anything new in the Church, nor defended any foreign and false doctrine; but I have held only that teaching which the Church received in perfect form from our Saviour, and in which it has steadfastly remained to this day: the teaching which the Holy Church of Rome, before the schism that occurred between us, possessed no less than our Eastern Church; the teaching which, as holy, you formerly were wont to praise, and often at this very Council you mentioned with respect and honor, and which no one could reproach or dispute. And if I hold it and do not allow myself to depart from it, what Council will subject me to the interdiction to which heretics are subject? What sound and pious mind will act thus with me? For first of all one must condemn the teaching which I hold; but if you acknowledge it as pious and Orthodox, then why am I deserving of punishment?' Having said this and more of the like, and listened to the Pope, he returned to his quarters."</span></div>
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<em><strong>St. Mark Archbishop of Ephesus</strong> </em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "palatino linotype" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><em>Troparion - Tone 4</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "palatino linotype" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><em>By your profession of faith, O all-praised Mark, the Church has found you to be a zealot for truth. You fought for the teaching of the Fathers; you cast down the darkness of boastful pride. Intercede with Christ God to grant forgiveness to those who honor you!</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "palatino linotype" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><em><br /></em><em><strong>Kontakion - Tone 3</strong></em><br /><em>Clothed with invincible armor, O blessed one, You cast down rebellious pride, you served as the instrument of the Comforter, and shone forth as the champion of Orthodoxy. Therefore we cry to you: "Rejoice, Mark, the boast of the Orthodox!"</em></span></div>
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<em><strong>St. Mark Bishop of Ephesus, depicted as shaming the Pope through his steadfast adherence to Orthodoxy</strong></em></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-8626911519193830132016-08-26T16:52:00.004-07:002016-08-26T16:54:35.944-07:00THE SOUL OF THE EAST<img border="0" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AugrrlcrxqY/V8DVquX4sjI/AAAAAAAAFjs/Nwoe8oqwHU8O74vR26DSppgOeLD1pu6ygCK4B/s640/copy-borodino-prayer-vi.jpg" width="640" />This image is the header for this website: https://souloftheeast.org/2016/08/26/biblical-defense-of-icons/<br />
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Well worth checking out...Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-10284754511553088232016-05-01T12:07:00.002-07:002016-05-01T12:10:10.657-07:00WHY THE WORLD AND MAN WERE CREATED<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b> Lactantius was an early Christian author who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his religious policy as it developed, and a tutor to his son. 240 AD to 320 AD</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><u>WHY THE WORLD AND MAN WERE CREATED</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Now let us mark the whole argument by a brief definition. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The world has been created for this purpose, that we may be born; </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">we are born for this end, that we may acknowledge the Maker of the world and of ourselves -- God; </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">we acknowledge Him for this end, that we may worship Him; </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">we worship Him for this end, that we may receive immortality as the reward of our labours, since the worship of God consists of the greatest labours; </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for this end we are rewarded with immortality, that being made like to the angels, we may serve the Supreme Father and Lord for ever, and may be to all eternity a kingdom to God. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is the sum of all things, this the secret of God, this the mystery of the world, from which they are estranged, who, following present gratification, have devoted themselves to the pursuit of earthly and frail goods, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and by means of deadly enjoyments have sunk as it were in mire and mud their souls, which were born for heavenly pursuits."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: "trebuchet" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From the Divine Institutes by Lactantius</span></div>
Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-71890071997465279932016-03-03T05:32:00.001-08:002016-12-12T13:29:28.096-08:00The Computer Is Satan's Favorite Tool <div class="" data-block="true" data-offset-key="dlum-0-0" style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">"The whole world lies under the sway</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> of the wicked one." 1 John 5:19</span></span></h3>
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<span data-offset-key="90bg9-0-0" style="font-size: large;">Whole means everything...relationships, entertainment, education, politics, science, business, history, medicine, food, water...air, land and sea. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="28tmf-0-0" style="font-size: large;">What is real becomes fake and what is fake becomes real.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bd0gv-0-0" style="font-size: large;">Love is called hate and hate is called love.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="eu2ef-0-0" style="font-size: large;">Chaos is idolized and order is disdained.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4m1lr-0-0" style="font-size: large;">The Evil One is a liar and there is no truth in him.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="7tqfj-0-0"><span data-text="true" style="font-size: large;">Anyone not of God the Father, God the Holy Spirit and God the Son, Jesus Christ is of the devil and will perish in their sins.</span></span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-20835129589932643152016-02-24T17:44:00.000-08:002016-12-12T13:29:48.808-08:00SCIENCE REALITY CHECK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="border-bottom-left-radius: 0px !important; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px !important; border-top-left-radius: 0px !important; border-top-right-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">“For they willingly forget the fact that the heavens existed long ago by the word of God, and the earth was formed out of water and by water.” 2 Peter 3:5</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Hydrogen is the first element on the Periodic Table.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Hydrogen broken down means hydro, (water) and gen, (beginning)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Hydrogen is the building block from which all other elements of the Periodic Table are built.</span></div>
<div class="passage-display" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Humans are not 70% water, we are 100% water and everything is 100% water in different configurations and densities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">These are forgotten facts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is real science.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Welcome to reality!</span></div>
<div class="passage-display" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="border-bottom-left-radius: 0px !important; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px !important; border-top-left-radius: 0px !important; border-top-right-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">“For they willingly forget the fact that the heavens existed long ago by the word of God, and the earth was formed out of water and by water.” 2 Peter 3:5</span></div>
<div class="passage-display" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="border-bottom-left-radius: 0px !important; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px !important; border-top-left-radius: 0px !important; border-top-right-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="passage-display" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="border-bottom-left-radius: 0px !important; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px !important; border-top-left-radius: 0px !important; border-top-right-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"><a href="http://greenfieldnaturals.com/" target="_blank">greenfieldnaturals.com</a></span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-26747765960804634512016-01-31T13:58:00.003-08:002016-12-12T13:30:49.603-08:00The Foolishness Of Man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w0V2Dp8EcgE/Vq6DHRSa33I/AAAAAAAAEso/urHII7s0nks/s1600/ephraim-the-great.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w0V2Dp8EcgE/Vq6DHRSa33I/AAAAAAAAEso/urHII7s0nks/s400/ephraim-the-great.jpeg" width="286" /></a></div>
<i><span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;"><b>Excerpts from the writings of Ephraim, the great light of the Syrian Church of the fourth century.</b></span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">Who is more foolish than men, who rather than for himself cares for his dwelling! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">The garments that are in his closet he examines daily, and a worm is lurking in his body. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">The tears that are in his clothes, he mends, but a tear is made in his soul. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">His house is lit up but his soul is dark. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;">He shuts up his senses but opens his windows.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">He closes his door and guards his money; his mouth is open and the treasure of his thought is stolen. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">The fool makes more of his animals than himself, for he cares for his possessions rather than his own soul. </span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">Good seed he sows in his ground; in his heart he sows tares.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">His understanding is thrown open and cast down; but at the fences of his vineyard he labors.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">He chooses and plants vine plants; while his mind is a vine of the vines of Sodom.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">He keeps off the wild ass from his sowing; but the wild boar of the woods devours his thoughts.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">By closing men's eyes I teach the signs of the Zodiac, though they are not in the heavens.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">The Evil One said, "I fear Him, even Jesus, lest He destroy my arts. For lo! I am thousands of years old, and never have I had repose. I have seen nothing established, that I have not turned from and left. There has come one making the unchaste pure; there is sorrow since He has destroyed all that I have built. Many have been my labors and my teachings, that I might cover all creation with all evils. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">Blessed is He who came and laid bare the wiles of the Crafty One!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span>
Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-37507827309403314232016-01-25T17:05:00.000-08:002016-12-12T13:31:09.532-08:00"Heliocentrists Are Possessed By The Devil!" John Calvin <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u2f8NviGxyQ/VqbLoR1biWI/AAAAAAAAErY/FQcoCsqGbbE/s1600/flat-earth-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u2f8NviGxyQ/VqbLoR1biWI/AAAAAAAAErY/FQcoCsqGbbE/s320/flat-earth-3.png" width="298" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<div style="color: #042eee; font-family: times;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/yi2NbIf_7p4">One of the founders of the Protestant faith was a flat earther!</a></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="color: #042eee; font-family: "times";"><u>(and the other great reformer wasn't much </u></span></b></span><span style="color: #042eee; font-family: "times";"><b><u>different)</u></b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 46, 238); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #042eee; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cMwwGRs5LqQ/VqbKOawfoWI/AAAAAAAAErI/MhXmhtSiZ6g/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-01-25%2Bat%2B8.20.42%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cMwwGRs5LqQ/VqbKOawfoWI/AAAAAAAAErI/MhXmhtSiZ6g/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-01-25%2Bat%2B8.20.42%2BPM.png" width="277" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/yi2NbIf_7p4" target="_blank">The Global Lie!</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: times; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Copernicum principal places humanity as inconsequential participants, unimportant, having evolved out of goo and devolving into nothingness in a universe too vast to even contemplate that mankind is anything but an insignificant accident upon an tiny speck of a planet in a universe of endless galaxies of millions and billions of planets and stars of which earth is but a speck of granular sand. All is meaningless, yet awesome but fleeting and a Creator has no place in this plan, only chaos, aliens, pride and fear.</span><br />
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NTwm0oV1_Bg/VqbXufajuVI/AAAAAAAAEro/vYUqpFT-5oA/s1600/Ancient-Hebrew-view-of-universe.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="636" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NTwm0oV1_Bg/VqbXufajuVI/AAAAAAAAEro/vYUqpFT-5oA/s640/Ancient-Hebrew-view-of-universe.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-33663820334742235242016-01-17T21:25:00.002-08:002016-12-12T13:31:28.822-08:00A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;">WHICH OF THESE IMAGES IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS?</span></h2>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0b5394;">(sung to the Sesame Street tune)</span></div>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tazNnjvd_Mo/Vpxwej-bk8I/AAAAAAAAEoU/vlOwbj_tjHs/s1600/UNFlatEarthMap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tazNnjvd_Mo/Vpxwej-bk8I/AAAAAAAAEoU/vlOwbj_tjHs/s320/UNFlatEarthMap.png" width="317" /></a></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_6Z92W7tlkM/VpxwlU2dqsI/AAAAAAAAEoc/yTq3Q1mlwAU/s1600/WorldHealthOrganization.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_6Z92W7tlkM/VpxwlU2dqsI/AAAAAAAAEoc/yTq3Q1mlwAU/s320/WorldHealthOrganization.png" title="Flat Earth" width="306" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M4zWW0tTsOA/Vpxwp3NIfeI/AAAAAAAAEok/aX2b8x11ykQ/s1600/InterMeteorologyOrganization.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="246" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M4zWW0tTsOA/Vpxwp3NIfeI/AAAAAAAAEok/aX2b8x11ykQ/s320/InterMeteorologyOrganization.png" title="Flat Earth " width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0_jzyxhqheQ/VpxwtXgkcII/AAAAAAAAEos/c3LOSQ2GHHY/s1600/InterMaritimeOrganization.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="254" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0_jzyxhqheQ/VpxwtXgkcII/AAAAAAAAEos/c3LOSQ2GHHY/s320/InterMaritimeOrganization.png" title="Flat Earth " width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GZ508tJa6hI/Vpxww6nIs_I/AAAAAAAAEo0/pBc2eZIOGnA/s1600/InterAviationAuthority.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="252" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GZ508tJa6hI/Vpxww6nIs_I/AAAAAAAAEo0/pBc2eZIOGnA/s320/InterAviationAuthority.png" title="Flat Earth " width="320" /></a></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U_rmbjI1evA/VpxxChB9X7I/AAAAAAAAEpE/X2kRi3hRzfA/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U_rmbjI1evA/VpxxChB9X7I/AAAAAAAAEpE/X2kRi3hRzfA/s400/images.jpeg" title="Flat Earth" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The map on the left is an map of flat earth. The map on the right is an map of flat earth.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YSsZG1NPFRY/VpxynRO47kI/AAAAAAAAEpY/hbv4EzKUYps/s1600/Fake-Earth.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YSsZG1NPFRY/VpxynRO47kI/AAAAAAAAEpY/hbv4EzKUYps/s400/Fake-Earth.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-small;">This is the famous 'Blue Marble' image of earth supposedly photographed by Apollo 17 in 1972. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">
Did You Guess Which Is Not Like The Others?</span></h4>
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</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">NASA claims it's the only actual photograph ever taken of earth. Supposedly there have been tens of thousands of satellites orbiting earth for decades and yet we don't have even one real photograph of the globe. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">How come? Because there is no globe and there are no satellites. There is a growing movement on youtube and the internet exposing one of the most diabolical lies of all time. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/xHwfVn4xZFY" target="_blank">Click here for just one of hundreds of flat earth videos showing up on Youtube</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><a href="http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=77085" target="_blank">Here's a link to a NASA site telling the story behind one of the other only images of earth.</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">note: perhaps I should have titled this blog post: "A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Lies"</span></div>
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<br />Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-35672057527916037642016-01-17T11:30:00.001-08:002016-12-12T13:31:41.457-08:00Death Conquered Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eOtbNQ-lfNk/Vpvrskc-S0I/AAAAAAAAEoE/N600KmZAay0/s1600/joy-peace-hope.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eOtbNQ-lfNk/Vpvrskc-S0I/AAAAAAAAEoE/N600KmZAay0/s400/joy-peace-hope.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The tree that conquered Adam of old</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Is the tree that conquered death foretold</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The wood that darkened Adam of old</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Is the wood illumining all who behold</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Adam and Solomon were easily swayed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So it has been for every age</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The tempter of old ruled the hearts of men</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Not knowing that his time would soon end</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Adam of new went forth conquering</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The tempter lost his sway among men</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Adam fell to promises false</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Christ fell but to promises true</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">All far and near must pass by the gates</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The unquenchable heat and flames thereof</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Though you be singed, will you live?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">As you pass the demons way</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Two men of old, they did prevail</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Not a hair was burned nor smoke was smelled</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Enoch and Elijah men of renown</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Though Satan searched, he found them not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">His treasure chest has overflowed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Though riches he disdains</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is only souls of men he seeks</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The rich, the poor, the great, the low</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It matters not to him of old</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He takes them all into his fold</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In darkness and dungeons deep</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He keeps them there, his treasures to keep</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But lo not the gates of hell prevail</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Against He who is both mighty and lowly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For no one else could enter in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Yet escape the awesome darkest foe</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As bubbles pop upon the froth</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The tombs enclosed burst open forth</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As light shines forth in brightest beams</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Upon the earth and glistening seas</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The dead rose up like shining stars</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">To brighten the heavens for all to see</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The gate keeper has been trampled down</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The gates he no longer keeps</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For He who goes conquering forth</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Has forever done away with him</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And glorious shall our dwellings be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For those who put their trust in thee.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ephraim The Syrian, One of the early Church Fathers inspired me to compose this poem.</span><br />
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<br />Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-46818530281468539972016-01-16T15:45:00.000-08:002016-12-12T13:31:58.527-08:00Muslim Mocks Bible Teaching Flat Earth<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 37, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jHS86ByFEw4/VpxxR41LtVI/AAAAAAAAEpQ/jz0d_tq99XQ/s1600/BiblicalCreation.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="353" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jHS86ByFEw4/VpxxR41LtVI/AAAAAAAAEpQ/jz0d_tq99XQ/s640/BiblicalCreation.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">A Graphic Interpretation Of A Biblical Earth And Heaven</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Comment: The post below was taken from the site of a Muslim who was attempting to expose the Bible as a book of lies. I must say this dear chap did a wonderful job of accurately interpreting the Bible. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>I am reminded of the scripture that states, "What men mean for evil, God means for good." Be prepared to have your world shaken up and literally deflated by a Muslim!</i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Bible says: The Earth is flat!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The sections of this article are:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">- The Bible says: The Earth is flat! <br />
<b>- The flat Earth is established and can never move?! The Sun hurries back to where</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> it rises?! </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">- The Earth has pillars?! <br />
- The Earth has Edges?! <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">The wicked might get shaken off of it and fall off in <br />
space?! </span><br />
- Does Isaiah 40:22 really say that Earth is Round? <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">The Earth is a flat circle?!<br />
</span><b>- Christian Theologians' Commentaries that further suggest that the Earth </b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> is flat. </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">- The light of the Universe and the flat earth's dimensions in the Bible.<br />
- Conclusion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When it comes to scientific claims, the Bible has the dumbest claims, with all due respect to Jews and Christians. The Bible claims that Earth has four ends and four corners. Nobody can ever think a ball or a cycle to have corners and ends! Only flat items can have corners and ends, and this is exactly what the bible is trying to express regarding the shape of the earth. The earth is not flat, as once thought and it has no corners or ends at all. If Magnetic Poles can be taken as ends or corners of earth, then this definitely opposed to the axis of rotation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">Genesis 11:1-9<br />
</span>The Tower of Babel<br />
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. <br />
2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.<br />
3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. <br />
4 Then they said, <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>"Come, let us build ourselves a city, </b></span><span style="background-color: #fffc3e; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>with a tower that reaches to the heavens</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>,</b></span> so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."<br />
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. <br />
6 <span style="background-color: #fffc3e; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>The LORD said</b></span>, "If as one people speaking the same language <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>they have begun to do this, </b></span><span style="background-color: #fffc3e; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>then nothing they plan to do will be </b></span><span style="background-color: #fffc3e; color: #ff2500; text-decoration: underline;"><b>impossible</b></span><span style="background-color: #fffc3e; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b> for them</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>.</b></span> <br />
7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."<br />
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. <br />
9 That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Not only these verses are <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>seriously very insulting</b></span> to Allah Almighty because they present Him as a GOD who feared men, but they also reveal <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>a very serious scientific blunder</b></span> through suggesting that the <a href="http://www.answering-christianity.com/earth_flat.htm"><span style="color: #0433ff; line-height: normal;">earth is both flat and sitting still</span></a> in the universe - <a href="http://www.answering-christianity.com/detailed_meanings_of_scientific_words_in_verses.htm"><span style="color: #0433ff; line-height: normal;">something that is quite contrary to what the Holy Quran teaches</span></a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Isaiah 11:12<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH.</b></span> (KJV)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Revelation 7:1<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH,</b></span> holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. (KJV)<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Job 38:13<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">13 That it might take hold of the <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>ENDS OF THE EARTH,</b></span> that the wicked might be shaken out of it? (KJV) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jeremiah 16:19 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>ENDS OF THE EARTH,</b></span> and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. (KJV) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Daniel 4:11<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">11 The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>ENDS OF ALL THE EARTH:</b></span> (KJV) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Matthew 4:8 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; (KJV) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Astronomical bodies are spherical, and you cannot see the entire exterior surface from any place. The kingdoms of Egypt, China, Greece, Crete, sections of Asia Minor, India, Maya (in Mexico), Carthage (North Africa), Rome (Italy), Korea, and other settlements from these kingdoms of the world were widely distributed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The flat Earth is established and can never move?! The Sun hurries back to where it rises?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Psalm 104:5 and Ecclesiastes 1:5 verses from the Bible in this section were sent to me by <a href="mailto:abdullah_bisyir@hotmail.com"><span style="color: #042eee; line-height: normal;">Abdullah Bisyir</span></a>; may Allah Almighty always be pleased with him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Psalm 104:5)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. The world <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 37, 0); color: #ff2500;">[The deceiving translators should've said <b>"earth"</b>, not "world"]</span> is firmly established; it cannot be moved. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Psalm 93:1)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns." The world <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 37, 0); color: #ff2500;">[Again, the deceiving translators should've said <b>"earth"</b>, not "world"]</span> is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Psalm 96:10)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:5)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well, I don't think there is any need for much explanation to the nonsense above! It is crystal clear that the Bible is full of man-made corruptions and alterations. Since when the Earth is flat and can never move?! We all know that the Earth and the other planets rotate and move in space around the Sun. Since when the Sun hurries back to where it rises, like if there is some hole it rises from and another hole it sets through on Earth?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For those Jews and Christians who would like to see where in the Noble Quran does Allah Almighty say that the planets in space rotate and move, read the following Noble Verse:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"It is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its orbit with its own motion. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(The Noble Quran, 21:33)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For more information and other Noble Verses, please visit:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.answering-christianity.com/sci_quran.htm"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Science in the Noble Quran and Islam.<span style="color: #042eee;"></span></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.answering-christianity.com/earth_round.htm"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Earth is round according to Islam.<span style="color: #042eee;"></span></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Earth has pillars?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Job 9:6)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Job 38:4)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Earth has Edges?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Job 38:13)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Job 37:3)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Job 28:24)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Job 11:9)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Does Isaiah 40:22 really say that Earth is Round?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is quite clear that the above Biblical Verses suggest and claim that the Earth is flat, has Edges, has Four Corners, has Pillars, and has Foundations. No unbiased person would deny the straight forward quotes above. Only the desperate biased Jews and Christians would.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some desperate Christians have gone as far as presenting Isaiah 40:22 to try to prove that the Bible claims that the earth is round.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let us look at what the Verse says:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"He sits enthroned above the <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>circle of the earth</b></span>, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">(From the NIV Bible, Isaiah 40:22)</span>"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">First of all, a circle is not a ball or sphere or an egg-shaped object. A circle is a flat round surface, similar to flat rectangular, or square, or triangular surfaces. So if the Bible claims that the Earth is a circle, then this is still bogus because the earth is obviously not a flat surface.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We have two conditions here:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1- Isaiah 40:22 is claiming that the Earth is a flat circle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">2- Isaiah 40:22 is claiming that the Earth has a circle above it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If we were to take condition #1, then we are left with a clear and irrefutable contradiction between Isaiah 40:22 and some of the Bible's verses that I mentioned above in the article, because a flat circle doesn't have "four corners", and ironically in either case, we still have a scientifically false claim about the Earth's shape.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">IF we were to take condition #2, then it doesn't prove that the Earth is an egg-shaped figure, and Isaiah 40:22 surely becomes irrelevant to this subject.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One thing is for sure clear, and that is Isaiah 40:22 is obviously ambiguous and not clear if we wish to prove from it that the Earth is not flat and is egg-shaped. If we look at what the entire Bible says (as presented above by all the Verses) about the shape of the Earth as the Roman Catholic Church did in the past, then we would reach the same conclusion they reached, and that is: The Earth is Flat!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Certainly, when Christopher Columbus thought that he could reach India by going west in the Atlantic ocean instead of east as it was traditionally done, the Church in Europe was afraid that he will eventually reach the "end of the earth" and the "Edges of the earth" as the Bible clearly says above, and fall off into the space and die.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After he was able to convince the Queen that the adventure was worth the try, Christopher Columbus had survived several assassination attempts while he and his people were sailing in the ocean, because his Christian Church-believing mates were afraid and wanted to go back. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When he finally found America, he thought he reached India. That's why the North American Continent was called "India", and the Native Americans were called "Red Indians".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is at least what I learned from my "US History" class when I was in High School.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christian Theologians' Commentaries that further suggest that the Earth is flat:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The following is an email I received from brother <a href="mailto:MOHAMMEDALTAFK@aol.com"><span style="color: #042eee; line-height: normal;">Mohammed</span></a>; may Allah Almighty always be pleased with him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Subj: (no subject)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Date: 4/24/02 8:22:58 AM Central Daylight Time</span></div>
<div style="color: #042eee; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">From: <a href="mailto:MOHAMMEDALTAFK@aol.com"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 46, 238);">MOHAMMEDALTAFK@aol.com</span></a> </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #042eee; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To: <a href="mailto:ISLM4EVR1@aol.com"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 46, 238);">ISLM4EVR1@aol.com</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Assalamu alaikum Dear brother</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Look at this Pre-scientific view: Ancient Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area and Middle East taught that the universe was quite tiny. Earth is more or less flat, like a dinner plate. Mountains around the edges held up a rigid dome which formed the sky. The sun, moon, planets and stars traveled across the underside of the dome of the sky on a daily basis. God sits on his throne in Heaven, which lies above the canopy. This applies to Isaiah 40:22.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The site that is talking about this is at: <a href="http://www.religioustolerance.org/cosmo_bibl.htm"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 46, 238);">http://www.religioustolerance.org/cosmo_bibl.htm</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Further on we now have refuted those layman scholars who say the word in Isaiah means a Globe: EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN scholars who agree that Isaiah 40:22 does NOT speak of a spherical earth. There are even Evangelical publishers of books and Bible commentaries who do NOT teach that Isaiah 40:22 speaks of a spherical earth. BAKER BOOKS and evangelical publisher published the following book about Isaiah 40:22:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What You Know Might Not Be So: 220 Misinterpretations of Bible Texts Explained by David C. Downing Paperback (September 1987) Baker Book House; ISBN: 0801029759.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And EVANGELICALS now have a commentary on Genesis available which takes the ancient Near Eastern context of Genesis seriously. It is Genesis, The NIV Application Commentary by John H. Walton (past professor of OT at Moody Bible Institute, and now at Wheaton),published by Zondervan, 2001. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Although it is not a technical commentary like Gordon Wenham's, it is a solid scholarly piece of work. 759 pages, nearly half of which deal with Genesis 1-11. Paul Seely, an Evangelical scholar, has even written a paper that was published in the WESTMINSTER REVIEW (an EVANGELICAL college), in which he says the following:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Geographical Meaning of Earth Seas in Genesis 1:10 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">by Paul Seely:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"There is one verse in the OT, however, which has often been cited at least by laymen as a proof that the earth was understood to be a globe. I refer to Isaiah 40:22 which speaks of God as the One sitting above the circle of the earth. This verse does imply that the earth is circular, but there is nothing either in the underlying Hebrew word <b>(hug)</b> or in the context which necessarily implies anything more than the <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>circularity of the flat earth-disc</b></span> which the historical context and Genesis 1 have given us as the meaning of. If Isaiah had intended to speak of the earth as a globe, he would probably have used the word he used in 22:18 <b>(dur)</b>, meaning 'ball.' "</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For as E. J. Young noted, Isaiah 40:22 describes God as seated on the zenith, the highest point directly overhead. Thus the verse implies that earth's dwellers, all mankind according to Psalm 33:13, 14, are clearly visible from a very high point directly overhead. This imagery fits most naturally the conception of the earth below as a flat disc, not a globe. For if the earth were a globe, part of all mankind namely earth's dwellers in Australia, Argentina, South Africa, etc... could not be seen from a point directly overhead. One could force the issue by appealing to God's omniscience, but Isaiah 40:22 (as well as the other verses which mention God looking down) is focused on God's height above the earth; and his seeing all mankind is derived from that height. That phrase "the circle of the earth" in no way implies sphericity is confirmed by the fact that in Egypt this phrase was used to refer to the earth as a flat circular disc. So when interpreted within its historical and biblical context Isaiah 40:22 implies indeed that the earth is circular in shape but also that it is flat. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The light of the Universe and the flat earth's dimensions in the Bible:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The following is an email I received from brother <a href="mailto:Mimuk2002@aol.com"><span style="color: #042eee; line-height: normal;">Mohammed Riaz M</span></a>; may Allah Almighty always be pleased with him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is excellent proof that the author of the corrupted bible thought that the earth was a flat one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">1. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">Job 37:33</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span>He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Riaz : Lighting doesn't travel around the earth the biblical god thought his earth was a small, flat one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">2. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">Job 38:44</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span>"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Riaz : If the author of the bible thought of a globe earth then the last question in job 38: 44 should of read "Who stretched a measuring line around it?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">Job 38:13</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span>That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Riaz : Does a sphere have ends, and how can you grab the ends of a sphere? Only a flat disc or square could be grabbed and shaken in this way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Conclusion:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Bible not only failed to claim that the Earth was egg-shaped, but it also claimed in numerous verses as shown above that the Earth is flat, has Edges, has Four Corners, has Pillars, and has Foundations. As I said above, no unbiased person would deny the obvious and embarrassing quotes above. Only the desperate biased Jews and Christians would.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">My Closing Comments</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The Ancient Fathers of the Church interpreted the scriptures as teaching that the earth is flat and is covered by an impenetrable firmament. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Within this firmament are located the sun, the moon and the stars. Planets are merely wandering stars or luminaries with no physicalness to their structure. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The sun and moon are disk shaped luminaries identical in size and approximately 32 miles across and approximately two to four thousand miles from earth. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">The sun, moon and stars are revolve around the earth which is the center of the universe. That's right folks, it was all made just for us by our Creator God.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">There is so much more to say on this topic and as much as you may be thinking that I have lost my mind, then I must say I'm in good company with the ancient Church Fathers and the Word of God. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Gary Greenfield </span></i></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-60031563354043984882016-01-14T21:41:00.003-08:002016-12-12T13:32:17.254-08:00St. Basil the Great And Flat Earth<div class="page" title="Page 1">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PKOp4sISI4w/VpiEPAlnJ6I/AAAAAAAAEmY/OcKZ_ucuXaI/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PKOp4sISI4w/VpiEPAlnJ6I/AAAAAAAAEmY/OcKZ_ucuXaI/s400/Unknown.jpeg" title="flat earth" width="283" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is a splendid work spilling over with refreshing waters of truth from one of
the great teachers and illuminators of truth given to the Church for her edification
and sanctity. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 13.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 13.000000pt;">St. Basil gifted and inspired by God lays for us a firm, immovable
foundation on which to stand and if we so choose to stand on that foundation, we
will not be moved by any force from any place beside, below or above.
</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Glory to God for His perfect provisions for His people that we should never thirst
or hunger for He has given us St. Basil as a protector and shepherd to guide,
help and feed us as we journey through the green peaceful pastures and the
hard, steep, rocky terrains of this world.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Hexaemeron
Homily II</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 17.000000pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">by St. Basil the Great</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"In the beginning God created the heavens and earth"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Question:</i></b> Why do heavy objects fall to the ground, such as an apple from a tree
which Newton describes as evidence of gravity?
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Answer:</i></b> Gravity is only a theory to support a globe earth. On a flat earth as
Basil explains it is simply weight or density that causes such an action.
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">7. “Now, as according to their nature, heaven occupies the higher and earth the
lower position in space, (one sees, in fact, that all which is light ascends
towards heaven, and heavy substances fall to the ground); as therefore height
and depth are the points the most opposed to each other it is enough to mention
the most distant parts to signify the inclusion of all which fills up intervening
Space.”
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Question:</i></b> Does the earth spin at 1,000 mph while orbiting the sun at 60,000
mph and traveling through a so-called vast universe at 500,000 mph as is taught
by modern science or is the earth set immovable on a foundation?
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Question:</i></b> Do not ‘supports’ imply immovableness?
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Question:</i></b> Does not the earth ‘resting upon itself', imply stillness?
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">9. "Do you suppose that a heavier body prevents the earth from falling into the
abyss? Then you must consider that this support needs itself a support to
prevent it from failing. Can we imagine one? Our reason again demands yet
another support, and thus we shall fall into the infinite, always imagining a base
for the base which we have already found. And the further we advance in this
reasoning the greater force we are obliged to give to this base, so that it may be
able to support all the mass weighing upon it. Put then a limit to your thought, so
that your curiosity in investigating the incomprehensible may not incur the
reproaches of Job, and you be not asked by him, "Whereupon are the
foundations thereof fastened?" If ever you hear in the Psalms, "I bear up the
pillars of it;" see in these pillars the power which sustains it. Because what
means this other passage, "He hath founded it upon the sea," if not that the
water is spread all around the earth? How then can water, the fluid element
which flows down every declivity, remain suspended without ever flowing? You
do not reflect that the idea of the earth suspended by itself throws your reason
into a like but even greater difficulty, since from its nature it is heavier. But let us
admit that the earth rests upon itself, or let us say that it rides the waters, we
must still remain faithful to thought of true religion and recognize that all is
sustained by the Creator's power. Let us then reply to ourselves, and let us
reply to those who ask us upon what support this enormous mass rests, "In His
hands are the ends of the earth." It is a doctrine as infallible for our own
information as profitable for our hearers.”
</span><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mf4ep8mg8Zk/VpiONzCgVeI/AAAAAAAAEmo/mSWpjViNAGA/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mf4ep8mg8Zk/VpiONzCgVeI/AAAAAAAAEmo/mSWpjViNAGA/s400/images.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Question:</i></b> Does the phrase, “the world never falls”, imply it is not falling, it is not
moving?
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Question:</i></b> Is the sun the center of our universe as is taught by modern science?
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">10. “Do not then be surprised that the <u>world never falls: it occupies the centre of
the universe</u>, its natural place."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Comment: </b>This statement changes all the rules of modern science! The scientists of our day are painting St. Basil as the fool and themselves as the wise men. </i></span></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"The earth was invisible and unfinished"</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Question:</i></b> Does the earth revolve around the sun as is taught by modern
science or does the sun revolve around the earth?
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Comment:</i></b> Modern science throws us off track by claiming that the sun is 93
millions miles away with a 432,000 mile radius. The ancients measured the sun
as the same size as the moon with a 32 mile radius and approximately 3,000
miles up in the heavens."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">8. "Thus, every time that, in the revolution of the sun, evening and morning
occupy the world, their periodical succession never exceeds the space of one
day."</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">
</span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the Firmament<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sZqWYvY1uY8/VpiPADfsC4I/AAAAAAAAEm0/cESgOsv32q4/s1600/e149a352a5939803a3c3c1a3b5dc4e71.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sZqWYvY1uY8/VpiPADfsC4I/AAAAAAAAEm0/cESgOsv32q4/s320/e149a352a5939803a3c3c1a3b5dc4e71.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Comment:</i></b> The firmament above appears as a spherical or concave body to us
as we look up but it is not necessarily convex on the other side such as is the
case with a cave which appears to us as concave but on the other side is a
mass of rock and not convex and could very well even be a body of water under
which is located a cavernous space. Such may be the scenario in which we live. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No one has ever seen the other side of the firmament because it is
impenetrable. The luminaries are all contained within the first heaven which is
contained within and under the firmament."</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">4. "And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it
divide the waters front the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided
the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above
the firmament." Before laying hold of the meaning of Scripture let us try to meet
objections from other quarters. We are asked how, if the firmament is a
spherical body, as it appears to the eye, its convex circumference can contain
the water which flows and circulates in higher regions? What shall we answer?
One thing only: because the interior of a body presents a perfect concavity it
does not necessarily follow that its exterior surface is spherical and smoothly
rounded. Look at the stone vaults of baths, and the structure of buildings of
cave form; the dome, which forms the interior, does not prevent the roof from
having ordinarily a flat surface. Let these unfortunate men cease, then, from
tormenting us and themselves about the impossibility of our retaining water in
the higher regions.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Question:</b></i> Modern science claims we live on a sphere. If this is so, given the
natural God endowed qualities of water, how is that the waters don’t fall off the face
of the earth as would be seen in a simple experiment when water is poured over
a globular object? Who will you trust, modern science or St. Basil?
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Comment:</b></i> The natural attraction of water is to flow downwards and to rest upon
the earth, (not under or beside a globe), filling whatever cavity it inhabits always
seeking for equilibrium.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 13.000000pt;">5. "But let us continue our explanation: "Let it divide the waters from the waters."
The mass of waters, which from all directions flowed over the earth, and was
suspended in the air, was infinite, so that there was no proportion between it
and the other elements. Thus, as it has been already said, the abyss covered
the earth. We give the reason for this abundance of water. None of you
assuredly will attack our opinion; not even those who have the most cultivated
minds, and whose piercing eye can penetrate this perishable and fleeting
nature; you will not accuse me of advancing impossible or imaginary theories, </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">nor will you ask me upon what foundation the fluid rests. By the same reason
which makes them attract the earth, heavier than water, from the extremities of
the world to suspend it in the centre, they will grant us without doubt that it is
due both to its natural attraction downwards and its general equilibrium, that this
immense quantity of water rests motionless upon the earth.”</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Comment:</i></b> The sun travels from one region to the next. Note that St. Basil
doesn’t say that the earth travels around the sun but just the contrary, the sun travels around the earth.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">7. "Besides, we see that the great wisdom of Him who governs all, makes the
sun travel from one region to another, for fear that, if it remained always in the
same place, its excessive heat would destroy the order of the universe. Now it
passes into southern regions about the time of the winter solstice, now it returns
to the sign of the equinox; from thence it betakes itself to northern regions
during the summer solstice, and keeps up by this imperceptible passage a
pleasant temperature throughout all the world.”
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Comment: I would suggest that the translator of this particular text had a bias to
assume that St. Basil meant planet when he most likely meant earth."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 13.000000pt;">7 "thanks to the singular virtue of this </span><span style="font-weight: 700;">planet</span><span style="font-size: 13.000000pt;">...”
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is the definition of a planet:</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.000000pt;"></span><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.000000pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Planet</b> - a celestial body distinguished from the fixed stars by having an
apparent motion of its own... a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit
around a star.</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 13.000000pt;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Note: The historical definition of the word planet is not synonymous with globe
or sphere and modern science even admits that the definition of the word,
‘planet’ is evolving, which is convenient for their ever changing models.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This definition is contrary to all St. Basil wrote on the this subject. Throughout
his writings, he refers to the sun, moon and stars as luminaries and discs revolving around a fixed
earth.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Additionally, modern science further confuses the true nature of creation by
referring to the planets as celestial bodies rather than stars, luminaries or discs. The Church Fathers oftentimes refer to these so called planets as wandering stars or luminaries.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Hexaemeron
</span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Homily IV</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17.000000pt;"></span><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 17.000000pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">by St. Basil the Great</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 17.000000pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 17.000000pt;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"Upon the gathering together of the waters"</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1. "Heaven, poised like a dome, to quote the words of the prophet; earth, this
immense mass which rests upon itself...”
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Comment:</i></b> Here again we see reference to a dome which contains the first
heaven above. As St. Basil stated earlier in this discourse, a dome has a
foundation upon which it is firmly situated and that foundation is the earth.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here again, the earth is resting upon itself...Does this infer that the earth is
spinning on an axis faster than a speeding bullet while at the same time hurling
though the universe at an inconceivable speed of 60,000 mph while our
universe is moving even faster through space at an incomprehensible 500,000
mph? This scenario painted by modern science is pure lunacy mocking the
gullibility of mankind, the Scriptures, the Holy Fathers and the Lord Himself."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">2. " Hear then how Scripture explains itself. "Let the waters be gathered together,
and let the dry land appear." The veil is lifted and allows the earth, hitherto
invisible, to be seen. Perhaps you will ask me new questions. And first, is it not
a law of nature that water flows downwards? Why, then, does Scripture refer
this to the fiat of the Creator? As long as water is spread over a level surface, it
does not flow; it is immovable. But when it finds any slope, immediately the
foremost portion falls, then the one that follows takes its place, and that one is
itself replaced by a third. Thus incessantly they flow, pressing the one on the
other, and the rapidity of their course is in proportion to the mass of water that is
being carried, and the declivity down which it is borne. If such is the nature of
water, it was supererogatory to command it to gather into one place. It was </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">bound, on account of its natural instability, to fall into the most hollow part of the
earth and not to stop until the leveling of its surface. We see how there is
nothing so level as the surface of water.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 13.000000pt;"><i><b>Comment:</b></i> Here St. Basil provides us with a beautiful definition of water which is
contrary to what modern science would have to believe about water. </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Modern science tells us that water flows upwards or north in steams and rivers
yet this is contrary to nature. On a sphere water contradicts the laws of nature
by flowing upward whenever it is flowing north but we don’t live on a sphere, we
live on a flat earth, therefore water may flow north and still be flowing
downward.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Modern science would have to believe that water naturally curves around a
spherical earth again contradicting the law of nature which states that water
always levels itself.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">St. Basil teaches that water doesn’t stop flowing until a leveling surface is
created. Whatever space water fills, it always seek to level itself. He even goes
so far as to say that nothing is so level as the surface of water. This is why
builders have always used a bubble in water to determine a perfect level.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">All bodies of water on the earth are level because we live on a flat earth. This is
a sensible, logical and intelligent statement.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Glory to St. Basil for enabling us to maintain sanity and reason in a world gone
mad.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Euphrosynos </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.000000pt;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.fisheaters.com/hexaemeron.html" target="_blank">St. Basil's teaching complete work on creation</a></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UfBS7pfChIo/VpiPIYuYYSI/AAAAAAAAEm4/silNvuwGTmQ/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UfBS7pfChIo/VpiPIYuYYSI/AAAAAAAAEm4/silNvuwGTmQ/s400/Unknown-1.jpeg" width="380" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arialmt"; font-size: 13.000000pt;"><br /></span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-27701586552265249502015-12-04T11:02:00.000-08:002016-01-15T05:37:13.498-08:00The Scourge Of Modern Culture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6uCxRUf2yOY/VmHhZ6I8thI/AAAAAAAAEi4/eQ4b5D3tN5Q/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6uCxRUf2yOY/VmHhZ6I8thI/AAAAAAAAEi4/eQ4b5D3tN5Q/s400/images.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Isolationism is a mind and heart destroying disease which is subtly fragmenting mankind and isolating each of us from one another. The war cry of this disease is, "Divide and conquer". This strategy is at work within the human heart and mind trickling down to and infecting the entire earth. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As a predator seeks to separate its prey from the herd before it moves in for the kill, so it is with the disease of isolationism. The disease is infecting all mankind and the communication technologies are the primary vehicles used to infiltrate its host. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Texting, twittering, emailing, video and TV are representative forms of this pathogen. These communication technologies are now the norm and despite the benefits of convenience, the downside is resulting in people being dealt with as digitised entities of synthetic energy forms that are neither natural or real. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The technologies that support these digitised forms of interaction are in and of themselves facilitated by energies that interrupt all natural life systems contributing to sickness, disease and ultimately death whether it is bees, birds, animals or man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The disease of isolationism has also infected sciences by dividing every field of study into separate disciplines. By doing so lines of communication are cut and interaction between disciplines are minimised. The end result is biological systems no longer being congruent and holistic but fragmented and independent resulting in retardation, perversity and chaos instead of coordination, order and structure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Isolationism is a limb of modern culture which is leading to a bleak and lonely future and its destruction is immanent but out of the ashes will arise something beautiful, something that has been lost to this modern world of plastics, chemicals and faux wood. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">All that which is false will burn up in the end, it will disintegrate, it will vaporise, it will cease to ever be known again while that which is true, right and good will stand and the fires of devastation will only make more pure that which is true, right and good. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For some the future will be bright and beautiful filled with joy and peace while for others the future will be dark and ugly filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where you will be then will be determined by where you are now. Where are you, do you know?</span></div>
Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-54023185312527048532015-09-12T19:35:00.002-07:002020-04-27T23:17:21.560-07:00An Open Letter To Doug Wilson Who Is Yet Again Seeking To Impose Harm Upon The Innocent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is Gary Greenfield and I'm going to reminisce a bit here. It's been a long time since we've interacted with each other and it's been a long time since we first met in 1976 when you were playing guitar in the Christian fellowship we both attended as young men still in college. You advanced quickly from guitarist to teacher after the older teacher/pastor ran off with a young lady in a our very small group and you ended up taking over as our teacher. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">From the first time I heard you teach, I knew you were going to become a dynamic and renown Christian leader. Why? You were endowed from the very beginning of your ministry with a knack for teaching in a very powerful and compelling manner that was unique, fresh and forceful. Just as Jesus says, the student will be become greater than the teacher, I think the charisma of your father, who was a great teacher and evangelist was passed on to you and you ended up building your ministry on the shoulders of your father. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I still look fondly back on the days when you would faithfully drive down to Lewiston from Moscow every Sunday to teach the small band of converts that met in the living room of our tiny home. That gathering evolved into Port Cities Evangelical Fellowship and our friendship grew as we both led that group as elders for something like ten years. I still remember computers being something of a novelty back then and you talked about how much one of those contraptions could help you to become a more prolific writer and I ended up purchasing your first computer printer for you. It brought me great joy to know I was helping you to practice your gift of writing and teaching for the benefit of helping more students and young families to become better grounded in the truths of God's word. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">During those early years of living out our faith as zealous and committed followers of Jesus Christ, we were filled with innocence, exuberance, sincerity and a great hope in the power of the gospel to change lives in significant ways first in Moscow and Pullman, then Lewiston and Clarkson and eventually the entire country. Early on, we were just a bunch of folks, young and old who loved Jesus with a desire to live out our lives without hypocrisy or fakery and we were ready to take the world captive for Jesus Christ. I also remember the day I opened up my computer to a message from you asking me to review the formation document for what was then to be called, The Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Christians. I opened it, read it, and closed it and I never responded to your request for input. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Something in my heart told me that this was a bandwagon that I was not going to jump onto. I had been adverse to organised religion since I was a little seven year old crying boy who was forced to go to confession to talk to a man I didn't know who was hidden behind a screen in a dark little closet. Maybe my fears of being alone in a dark closet with a man I didn't know stemmed from being sexually abused by my uncle when I was two years old. Maybe a lot of problems I encountered in my early years or even perhaps even later years were a result of sexual abuse that was kept a secret for most of my life and when I finally did get up the courage to talk to someone, I was an older man and I told my Mom. Her response was a total emotional shut down, she couldn't cope and refused to believe it or talk about it and that was the end of it. For all of my life, I've lived with traumatising memories that I have found too repulsive and too embarrassing to talk about to anyone, not even my wife of 32 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Anyways, I attended mass with my Mom most every Sunday until I was old enough to rebel at which time I refused to spend time in a place I felt was a waste of time. Why did I feel it was a waste of time? Because my heart hungered for truth and I intuitively knew the Church was supposed to be the place where we learned God's word but it wasn't being taught there, so I angrily left at the age of thirteen and never went back. When I became a follower of Jesus Christ at the age of twenty-one, I ended up attending a few services of various mainline denominations but even then, something in my heart drove me away from those places. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For all of my life up until the age of fifty, I've had an aversion to organised religion institutions and when Doug Wilson sent me a document that would make the church I attended an official religious organisation like all the others I had known, everything in my being told me to flee and to have nothing to do with it, but yet, this was my family, these were my brothers and sisters in Christ, these were the people with which so many rich memories had been created over the years, not bad memories like from my past. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">After the formation of the Confederation of Reformed Evangelicals, I began to quietly distance myself from the leadership of the CRE while at the same time seeking to raise my family in the church, develop friendships and to be involved in selective ministry that was not an official part of the church. As time went on, my fears that the CRE would become like all the other religious organisations came to fruition. It's not that I expected perfection or a problem free environment but because it was what I thought was the Church of Jesus Christ and I expected that problems and challenges that would inevitably arise would be dealt with in loving, honest and sincere ways that reflected the heart of Christ and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As Christ Church grew to be huge and the CRE grew across the country and around the world, of course problems and challenges became bigger and the wherewithal to deal with those challenges and problems required a great degree of knowledge, wisdom and experience and what I observed time and time again with increasing regularity was a departure from exercising the love of Jesus Christ and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and more of doing what was expedient and necessary to eliminate troublesome situations which oftentimes meant dealing with individuals in hypocritical and even downright evil ways.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">During the fifteen or so years of attending Christ Church as a dysfunctional member and not as a full fledged passenger on the bandwagon, I began to come under ever increasing scrutiny to either get on board, conform or suffer the consequences of choosing to remain aloof while keeping arms length between my family and Christ Church elders with whom I found myself increasingly at odds. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">During this time, my wife and I remained heavily involved in Christian ministry within the Moscow community, not only as owners of Bucers Coffeehouse Pub but also within our home where the front door was never locked and students were free to come and go as they pleased, to study in our living room or eat at our table. Our house was always full and we always had boarders. All of these activities and more, we were involved in because of our love for Jesus Christ and for our brothers and sisters in Christ and especially for college students who were away from home and family. I can say with all conviction, that my wife and I were 100% committed to being faithful servants for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whom we both loved with all our hearts, minds, soul and strength. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I can also say with all conviction of heart that my wife and I did the very best we knew how to raise up our children in the ways of the Lord. Were we perfect in doing so, of course not, but I can say with all confidence that we gave our hearts, minds and souls to taking care of our children, to giving them childhoods with rich and fun memories while making every effort to protect them from the pitfalls and dangers of this broken world. We even homeschooled our kids because we wanted to protect them from the evils of the world, yet ironically, the evils of the world found their way into the bedroom of my teenage daughter. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Even now as I contemplate what took place only feet from our bedroom, the tears flow from my eyes and my breaths become gasps of grief and I mourn and lament, knowing that my daughter will have to live with such filthy memories from her youth. I know what she's going through because I've been there and I've lived through it. It was different though for her, because when she finally told us what had been occurring within our home, we believed her, we embraced her, we loved her, we supported and we grieved with her. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That was something I never experienced as a little boy who was sexually abused. Nobody comforted me, nobody helped me work through the trauma, nobody believed me and now as I share what I've never shared with anyone, the tears flow and my heart is sad, yet, I know with all confidence that ever since I was a little innocent boy, even though my own parents couldn’t care for the wounds inflicted by my perverted uncle, I know God did and has and will continue to heal my wounds and take care of me until the day I pass from this life to next and even into all eternity and He will make all things new again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I’m sure many of you may be thinking, what really happened to cause the breakup of our marriage of thirty-two years? It’s been ten years now since Pat and I separated and eventually divorced. I’ve never talked about what happened between us in a public forum and I’m not quite sure how far to go with this but I do think its important to talk about for the sake of the greater good of perhaps helping others gain clarity and even perhaps comfort from knowing that perhaps their concerns and intuitions are indeed valid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Troubles began to escalate to an intermittently intolerable level between Doug, myself and the church elders shortly after moving to Moscow from Lewiston in the year 2000 to be closer to the Moscow Christ Church community of believers and to our business, Bucers Coffeehouse Pub. Sometime around early 2004, we made a decision to quietly begin extracting ourselves from the Moscow community to begin a new life in the Couer d Alene, Idaho area. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I was a serial entrepreneur and figured we would start a new life and new business there. My primary goal in moving was to get out from the under constant pressure from Doug to get with the program and join the club, lock, stock and barrel but that was something I wasn't about to do. Given the circumstances, it would have been like giving up my masculinity and the authority of my home to a person who had gone from being someone I respected and was proud to call my friend to being a mega maniac and control freak.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, by the grace of God, we were able to secretly sell our mansion in the historic section of Moscow for significantly more money than we paid for it and it was accomplished without listing it or anyone even knowing that we sold it. The family that purchased it even agreed to allow us to live in the home for year while we worked out the rest of the details of our move. The next step was to quietly sell Bucers without listing it and without any public fanfare. It was at this stage of the plan that Pat began to act rather oddly in that whenever we would find a buyer which wasn't all that difficult, she would find excuses not to sell. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Eventually, she confessed to me that she didn't want to sell Bucers and she wanted to figure out a way to move to CDA while also keeping an apartment in Moscow so that we could run Bucers, while also starting a new business up North. So, because both our names were on the business papers as partners, I couldn't sell without her consent, so, I put money down for the purchase of an office/apartment building downtown to live in, so that we could commute between CDA and Moscow. For me, this was a compromise because I really wanted to get out of Moscow but Pat was now coming out of the closet with her adamancy to remain in Moscow and I was between a rock and hard place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the meantime, having been a part of the Christ Church/Wilson community in one capacity or another since 1976, I was always searching and studying the scriptures as a check and balance regarding the Wilson teachings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As concerns and conflicts began to become increasingly apparent over the years and so much more so as the CRE grew, I began to come to the conclusion that perhaps this Christian movement had evolved into a cult like religious organisation that claimed the name of Christ but was gradually drifting away from tenants of faith as they had been preserved and passed down through the centuries. It all became clear to me as I was sitting in church one Sunday and I asked myself if the Holy Spirit was really here with us. I am a man who follows my heart and my intuition and I've been that way since I was a little boy, so I couldn't ignore what my heart was telling me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the meantime, we were somewhere in the midst of dealing with the fallout of our daughter’s sexual abuse. ‘I’m not going to discuss the details of how that stress contributed to our breakup. Why? Because to do so would in no way be loving, kind, gentle or considerate of the wife of my youth from whom I am now estranged. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Shortly after I came to the realisation that Christ Church was what I would consider to be a cult and not the true Church that Jesus Christ founded on the earth two thousand years ago, I met a professor of ancient Christianity from Oxford who was hanging out in the Bucers cigar room enjoying a dessert. I was enjoying a cigar and a beer and I struck up a conversation with the man and after he told me he was a professor of ancient Christianity at Oxford, I asked the question, “What is ancient Christianity?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was after my decision to leave Christ Church and attend the Eastern Orthodox Church that the #$%@ hit the fan big time. Again, I'm not going to go into the details other than to say things literally got crazy, insane and intolerable. Meeting with Doug and Peter which I did solely to pacify my wife to try to mend what was quickly falling apart was a last ditch effort out of desperation to try to win my wife back and fix the brokenness. Ultimately meeting with Doug and Peter did just the opposite in that they securely hammered the final nails into the coffin suffocating what life was left in our marriage. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the end, that which I feared most occurred and my authority as the head of my household was snatched away. My wife's allegiance was transferred to the church and to the pastor and that is where it remains to this day and enough has been said. Lord have mercy on us all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here is a link to a letter I wrote to Doug back in Feb. 2007.</span></div>
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<a href="http://joypeacehope.blogspot.in/2007/02/one-must-endure-many-tribulations-to_12.html">http://joypeacehope.blogspot.in/2007/02/one-must-endure-many-tribulations-to_12.html</a></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-36775337566882635312015-04-27T07:47:00.002-07:002015-12-04T11:32:24.705-08:00The Church Is Now Suffering Through Many Corruptions...<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: #663300; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;">"If even they smash me up, I wilt not have relations with the Constantinople Church while it </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;">dwelleth<span style="color: #663300;"> in bad-faith". </span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-variant: normal;"><i>These words came from the heart and mind of St. Martin and the Church of these last days is again embroiled in heresy which requires similar actions such as those displayed by this courageous Saint. </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: large; font-variant: normal;"><i>Our present day Church leaders are cowardly and disgraceful, following after the ways of this world, their flesh and the Evil One, rather than the ways of our Lord, Jesus Christ.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Sainted Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome,</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Commemorated on April 14</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: "lucida fax" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 1.5em;">Saint Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome, was a native of the Tuscany region of Italy. He received a fine education and entered into the clergy of the Roman Church. After the death of Pope Theodore I (642-649), Martin was chosen to succeed him.</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "lucida fax" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At this time the peace of the Church was disturbed by the Monothelite heresy (the false doctrine that in Christ there is only one will. He has a divine, and a human will). The endless disputes of the Monothelites with the Orthodox took place in all levels of the population. Even the emperor Constans (641-668) and Patriarch Paul of Constantinople (641-654) were adherents of the Monothelite heresy. The emperor Constans II published the heretical “Pattern of Faith” (Typos), obligatory for all the population. In it all further disputes were forbidden. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The heretical “Pattern of Faith” was received at Rome in the year 649. St Martin, a firm supporter of Orthodoxy, convened the Lateran Council at Rome to condemn the Monothelite heresy. At the same time St Martin sent a letter to Patriarch Paul, persuading him to return to the Orthodox confession of faith. The enraged emperor ordered the military commander Olympius to bring St Martin to trial. But Olympius feared the clergy and the people of Rome who had descended upon the Council, and he sent a soldier to murder the holy hierarch. When the assassin approached St Martin, he was blinded. The terrified Olympius fled to Sicily and was soon killed in battle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In 654 the emperor sent another military commander, Theodore, to Rome. He accused St Martin of being in secret correspondence with the enemies of the Empire, the Saracens, and of blaspheming the Most Holy Theotokos, and of uncanonically assuming the papal throne. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Despite the proofs offered by the Roman clergy and laity of St Martin’s innocence, the military commander Theodore with a detachment of soldiers seized St Martin by night and took him to Naxos, one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. St Martin spent an entire year on this almost unpopulated island, suffering deprivation and abuse from the guards. Then they sent the exhausted confessor to Constantinople for trial. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">They carried the sick man on a stretcher, but the judges callously ordered him to stand up and answer their questions. The soldiers propped up the saint, who was weakened by illness. False witnesses came forward slandering the saint and accusing him of treasonous relations with the Saracens. The biased judges did not even bother to hear the saint’s defense. In sorrow he said, “The Lord knows what a great kindness you would show me if you would deliver me quickly over to death.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">After such a trial they brought the saint out in tattered clothes to a jeering crowd. They shouted, “Anathema to Pope Martin!” But those who knew the holy Pope was suffering unjustly, withdrew in tears. Finally the sentence was announced: St Martin was to be deposed from his rank and executed. They bound the half-naked saint with chains and dragged him to prison, where they locked him up with thieves. These were more merciful to the saint than the heretics. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the midst of all this the emperor went to the dying Patriarch Paul and told him of the trial of St Martin. He turned away from the emperor and said, “Woe is me! This is another reason for my judgment.” He asked that St Martin’s torments be stopped. The emperor again sent a notary and other persons to the saint in prison to interrogate him. The saint answered, “Even if they cripple me, I will not have relations with the Church of Constantinople while it remains in its evil doctrines.” The torturers were astonished at the confessor’s boldness, and they commuted his death sentence to exile at Cherson in the Crimea. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There the saint died, exhausted by sickness, hunger and deprivations on September 16, 655. He was buried outside the city in the Blachernae church of the Most Holy Theotokos, and later the relics of the holy confessor Martin were transferred to Rome. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Monothelite heresy was condemned at the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680.</span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-57883073329132395032015-03-15T21:35:00.000-07:002015-12-04T11:43:13.093-08:00Attempts of Iconoclasts to Lessen The Glory of the Queen of Heaven;They are put to shame. By Fr. Seraphim Rose<div style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 21.59375px; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">After the third Ecumenical Council christians in Constantinople and in other places began more fervently hasten to the intercessions of the Mother of God and their hopes in Her intercessions were not vain. She manifested Her help to innumerable sick people, helpless people and those in misfortune. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Many times she appeared as defender of Constantinople against outward enemies, once even showing in visible fashion to St. Andrew the Fool for Christ Her wondrous Protection over the people who were praying at night in the Temple of Blachernae.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Queen of Heaven gave victory in battles to the Byzantine Emperors, which is why they had the custom to take with them in their campaigns Her Icon of Hodigitria (Guide). She strengthened ascetics and zealots of Christian life in their battle against human passions and weaknesses. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">She enlightened and instructed the Fathers and Teachers of the Church ’ including St. Cyril of Alexandria himself when he was hesitating to acknowledge the innocence and sanctity of St. John Chrysostom. The Most Pure Virgin placed hymns in the mouths of the composers of church hymns, sometimes making renowned singers out of the untalented who had no gift of song, but who were pious laborers, such as St. Romanus the Sweet-Singer (the Melodist). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Is it therefore surprising that Christians strove to magnify the name of their constant Intercessor? In Her honor feasts were established, wondrous songs were dedicated to her and her Images were revered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The malice of the prince of this world armed the sons of apostasy once more to raise battle against Immanuel and His Mother in this same Constantinople, which revered now as Ephesus had previously, the Mother of God as its Intercessor. Not daring at first to speak openly against the Champion General, they wished to lessen Her glorification by forbidding the veneration of the Icons of Christ and His saints, calling this idol-worship. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Mother of God now also strengthened zealots of piety in the battle for the veneration of Images, manifesting many signs from Her Icons and healing the severed hand of St. John of Damascus who had written in defence of the Icons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The persecution against the venerators of Icons and Saints ended again in the victory and triumph of Orthodoxy, for the veneration given to the Icons ascends to those who are depicted in them; and the holy ones of God are venerated as friends of God for the sake of the Divine grace which dwelt in them in accordance with the words of the Psalm: “Most precious to me are Thy friends.” The Most Pure Mother of God was glorified with special honor in heaven and on earth, and she even in the days of the mocking of the holy Icons manifested through them so many wondrous miracles that even today we remember them with contrition. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The hymn “In Thee All Creation Rejoices, 0 Thou Who Art Full of Grace,” and the Icon of the Three Hands remind us of the healing of St. John Damascene before this Icon; the depiction of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God reminds us of the miraculous deliverance from enemies by this Icon, which had been thrown in the sea by a widow who was unable to save it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">No persecutions against those who venerated the Mother of God and all that is bound up with the memory of Her could lessen the love of Christians for their Intercessor. The rule was established that every series of hymns in the Divine services should end with a hymn or verse in honor of the Mother of God (the so-called “Theotokia”). Many times in the year Christians in all corners of the world gather together in church, as before they gathered together, to praise Her, to thank Her for the benefactions She has shown and to beg mercy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But could the adversary of Christians, the devil, who goeth about roaring like a lion seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8), remain an indifferent spectator to the glory of the Immaculate One? Could he acknowledge himself as defeated, and cease to wage warfare against the truth through men who do his will? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And so, when all the universe resounded with the good news of the Faith of Christ, when everywhere the name of the Most Holy One was invoked, when the earth was filled with churches, when the houses of Christians were adorned with Icons depicting her, then there appeared and began to spread a new false teaching about the Mother of God. This false teaching is dangerous in that many cannot immediately understand to what degree it undermines the true veneration of the Mother of God.</span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-33743932279703681112015-03-15T21:34:00.000-07:002015-12-04T11:48:34.260-08:00The Nestorian Heresy and The Third Ecumenical Council<div style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 21.59375px;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">When all those who had dared to speak against the sanctity and purity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary had been reduced to silence, an attempt was made to destroy Her veneration as Mother of God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the 5th century the Archbishop of Constantinople, Nestorius, began to preach that of Mary had been born only the man Jesus, in Whom the Divinity had taken abode and dwelt in Him as in a temple. At first he allowed his presbyter Anastasius and then he himself began to teach openly in church that one should not call Mary “Theotokos, since She had not given birth to the God-Man. He considered it demeaning for himself to worship a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Such sermons evoked a universal disturbance and unease over the purity of faith, at first in Constantinople and then everywhere else where rumors of the new teaching spread. St. Proclus, the disciple of St. John Chrysostom’ who was then Bishop of Cyzicus and later Archbishop of Constantinople, in the presence of Nestorius gave in church a sermon in which he confessed the Son of God born in the flesh of the Virgin, Who in truth is the Theotokos (Birthgiver of God), for already in the womb of the Most Pure One, at the time of Her conception, the Divinity was united with the Child conceived of the Holy Spirit; and this Child, even though He was born of the Virgin Mary only in His human nature, still was born already true God and true man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Nestorius stubbornly refused to change his teaching, saying that one must distinguish between Jesus and the Son of God, that Mary should not be called Theotokos, but Christotokos (Birthgiver of Christ), since the Jesus Who was born of Mary was only the man Christ (which signifies Messiah, anointed one), like to God’s anointed ones of old, the prophets, only surpassing them in fullness of communion with God. The teaching of Nestorius thus constituted a denial of the whole economy of God, for if from Mary only a man was born, then it was not God Who suffered for us, but a man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">St. Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, finding out about the teaching of Nestorius and about the church disorders evoked by this teaching in Constantinople, wrote a letter to Nestorius, in which he tried to persuade him to hold the teaching which the Church had confessed from its foundation, and not to introduce anything novel into this teaching. In addition, St. Cyril wrote to the clergy and people of Constantinople that they should be firm in the Orthodox faith and not fear the persecutions by Nestorius against those who were not in agreement with him. St. Cyril also wrote informing of everything to Rome, to the holy Pope Celestine, who with all his flock was then firm in Orthodoxy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">St. Celestine for his part wrote to Nestorius and called upon him to preach the Orthodox faith, and not his own. But Nestorius remained deaf to all persuasion and replied that what he was preaching was the Orthodox faith, while his opponents were heretics. St. Cyril wrote Nestorius again and composed twelve anathemas, that is, set forth in twelve paragraphs the chief differences of the Orthodox teaching from the teaching preached by Nestorius, acknowledging as excommunicated from the Church everyone who should reject even a single one of the paragraphs he had composed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Nestorius rejected the whole of the text composed by St. Cyril and wrote his own exposition of the teaching which he preached, likewise in twelve paragraphs, giving over to anathema (that is, excommunication from the Church) everyone who did not accept it. The danger to purity of faith was increasing all the time. St. Cyril wrote a letter to Theodosius the Younger, who was then reigning, to his wife Eudocia and to the Emperor’s sister Pulcheria, entreating them likewise to concern themselves with ecclesiastical matters and restrain the heresy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was decided to convene an Ecumenical Council, at which hierarchs, gathered from the ends of the world, should decide whether the faith preached by Nestorius was Orthodox. As the place for the council, which was to be the Third Ecumenical Council, they chose the city of Ephesus, in which the Most Holy Virgin Mary had once dwelt together with the Apostle John the Theologian. St. Cyril gathered his fellow bishops in Egypt and together with them travelled by sea to Ephesus. From Antioch overland came John, Archbishop of Antioch, with the Eastern bishops. The Bishop of Rome, St. Celestine, could not go himself and asked St. Cyril to defend the Orthodox faith, and in addition he sent from himself two bishops and the presbyter of the Roman Church Philip, to whom he also gave instructions as to what to say. To Ephesus there came likewise Nestorius and the bishops of the Constantinople region, and the bishops of Palestine, Asia Minor, and Cyprus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On the 10th of the calends of July according to the Roman reckoning, that is, June 22, 431, in the Ephesian Church of the Virgin Mary, the bishops assembled, headed by the Bishop of Alexandria, Cyril, and the Bishop of Ephesus, Memnon, and took their places. In their midst was placed a Gospel as a sign of the invisible headship of the Ecumenical Council by Christ Himself. At first the Symbol of Faith which had been composed by the First and Second Ecumenical Councils was read; then there was read to the Council the Imperial Proclamation which was brought by the representatives of the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian, Emperors of the Eastern and Western parts of the Empire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Imperial Proclamation having been heard, the reading of documents began, and there were read the Epistles of Cyril and Celestine to Nestorius, as well as the replies of Nestorius. The Council, by the lips of its members, acknowledged the teaching of Nestorius to be impious and condemned it, acknowledging Nestorius as deprived of his See and of the priesthood. A decree was composed concerning this which was signed by about 160 participants of the Council; and since some of them represented also other bishops who did not have the opportunity to be personally at the Council, the decree of the Council was actually the decision of more than 200 bishops, who had their Sees in the various regions of the Church at that time, and they testified that they confessed the Faith which from all antiquity had been kept in their localities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thus the decree of the Council was the voice of the Ecumenical Church, which clearly expressed its faith that Christ, born of the Virgin, is the true God Who became man; and inasmuch as Mary gave birth to the perfect Man Who was at the same time perfect God, She rightly should be revered as THEOTOKOS.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At the end of the session its decree was immediately communicated to the waiting people. The whole of Ephesus rejoiced when it found out that the veneration of the Holy Virgin had been defended, for She was especially revered in this city, of which She had been a resident during Her earthly life and a Patroness after Her departure into eternal life. The people greeted the Fathers ecstatically when in the evening they returned home after the session. They accompanied them to their homes with lighted torches and burned incense in the streets. Everywhere were to be heard joyful greetings, the glorification of the Ever-Virgin, and the praises of the Fathers who had defended Her name against the heretics. The decree of the Council was displayed in the streets of Ephesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Council had five more sessions, on June 10 and 11, July 16, 17, and and August 3 1. At these sessions there were set forth, in six canons, measures for action against those who would dare to spread the teaching of Nestorius and change the decree of the Council of Ephesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At the complaint of the bishops of Cyprus against the pretensions of the Bishop of Antioch, the Council decreed that the Church of Cyprus should preserve its independence in Church government, which it had possessed from the Apostles, and that in general none of the bishops should subject to themselves regions which had been previously independent from them, “lest under the pretext of priesthood the pride of earthly power should steal in, and lest we lose, ruining it little by little, the freedom which our Lord Jesus Christ, the Deliverer of all men, has given us by His Blood.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Council likewise confirmed the condemnation of the Pelagian heresy, which taught that man can be saved by his own powers without the necessity of having the grace of God. It also decided certain matters of church government, and addressed epistles to the bishops who had not attended the Council, announcing its decrees and calling upon all to stand on guard for the Orthodox Faith and the peace of the Church. At the same time the Council acknowledged that the teaching of the Orthodox Ecumenical Church had been fully and clearly enough set forth in the Nicaeo-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith, which is why it itself did not compose a new Symbol of Faith and forbade in future “to compose another Faith,” that is, to compose other Symbols of Faith or make changes in the Symbol which had been confirmed at the Second Ecumenical Council.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This latter decree was violated several centuries later by Western Christians when, at first in separate places, and then throughout the whole Roman Church, there was made to the Symbol the addition that the Holy Spirit proceeds “and from the Son,” which addition has been approved by the Roman Popes from the I I th century, even though up until that time their predecessors, beginning with St. Celestine, firmly kept to the decision of the Council of Ephesus, which was the Third Ecumenical Council, and fulfilled it. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Thus the peace which had been destroyed by Nestorius settled once more in the Church. The true Faith had been defended and false teaching accused.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Council of Ephesus is rightly venerated as Ecumenical, on the same level as the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople which preceded it. At it there were present representatives of the whole Church. Its decisions were accepted by the whole Church “from one end of the universe to the other.” At it there was confessed the teaching which had been held from Apostolic times. The Council did not create a new teaching, but it loudly testified of the truth which some had tried to replace by an invention. It precisely set forth the confession of the Divinity of Christ Who was born of the Virgin. The belief of the Church and its judgment on this question were now so clearly expressed that no one could any longer ascribe to the Church his own false reasonings. In the future there could arise other questions demanding the decision of the whole Church, but not the question</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Subsequent Councils based themselves in their decisions on the decrees of the Councils which had preceded them. They did not compose a new Symbol of Faith, but only gave an explanation of it. At the Third Ecumenical Council there was firmly and clearly confessed Previously the Holy Fathers had accused those who had slandered the immaculate life of the Virgin Mary; and now concerning those who had tried to lessen Her honor it was proclaimed to all: “He who does not confess Immanuel to be true God and therefore the Holy Virgin to be Theotokos, because She gave birth in the flesh to the Word Who is from God the Father and Who became flesh, let him be anathema (separated from the Church)” (First Anathema of St. Cyril of Alexandria).</span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-40526862852655012572014-10-13T08:19:00.001-07:002015-12-04T11:53:18.566-08:00The Origins Of Nature And Evil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the beginning of time, God created heaven and earth. Time proceeds from this world, not before the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The earth is not suspended in the middle of the universe like a balance hung in equilibrium: the majesty of God holds it together by the law of His own will.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Evil arose from us, and was not made by the Creator God. It is produced by the created thing; it does not have the dignity of a natural substance. It is a fault due to our mutability and is an error due to our fall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters; .. and it was so,” Genesis 1:6. Listen to the words of God, “Let there be,” He said. This is the word of a commander, not of an adviser. He gives orders to nature and does not comply with its power. He does not regard its measurements, nor does He examine its weight. His will is the measure of things and His word is the completion of the work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But since His word is nature’s birth, justly therefore does He who gave nature its origin presume to give nature its law.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Let the earth bring forth,” God said, and immediately the whole earth was filled with growing vegetation. And to humanity it was said, “Love the Lord your God”; yet the love of God is not instilled in the hearts of all. Deafer are human hearts than the hardest rock.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The bramble preceded in time the light of the sun; the blade of grass is older than the moon. Therefore, do not believe that object to be a god to which the gifts of God are seen to be preferred. Three days [of creation] have passed. No one, meanwhile, has looked for the sun, yet the brilliance of light has been in evidence everywhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures,” Genesis 1:20, said the Lord—a brief statement, but a significant one and one widely effective in endowing with their nature the smallest and the largest animals without distinction. The whale as well as the frog came into existence at the same time by the same creative power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fish follow a divine law, whereas human beings contravene it. Fish daily comply with the celestial mandates, but humans make void the precepts of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Moses saw that there was no place in the words of the Holy Spirit for the vanity of this perishable knowledge which deceives and deludes us in our attempt to explain the unexplainable. He believed that only those things should be recorded which tend to our salvation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Word of God permeates every creature in the constitution of the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The divine wisdom penetrates and fills all things. Far more conviction is gained from the observation of irrational creatures than from the arguments of rational beings. Of more value is the testimony given by nature than the proof presented by teaching.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> From the writings of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan +397AD</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A Patristic Treasury, Early Church Wisdom for Today, Ancient Faith Publishing, pp 339-342 (excerpts from among those pages)</span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-15247977316165652752014-10-12T11:38:00.000-07:002015-03-15T21:39:12.480-07:00All Is Not Right<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Our ancestors are heretics and thieves. All of Western Europe is in heresy having been cast out of the Church in 1054. Pride and thievery were bred and birthed by Satan who in turn led the entire Western Orthodox Church into heresy. A man is known by his deeds and the works of Western heretics have always been acts of thievery and arrogance. In arrogance the leaders of the Western Church sought dominance over their brethren of the East and when they couldn’t dominate and control, they stole to satisfy their greed and carnal desires and the Crusades confirmed their allegiance to the evil one. All this, they did in the name of Jesus Christ and in doing so, they committed blasphemy, justifying their thievery and wiping their lips as dripping with arrogance as though their acts were somehow righteous. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The arrogance and thievery of Western Christians heretics continues to this day both in Europe and in America. They send out missionary wolves cloaked in sheep’s clothing to open the way for their thievery to continue, stealing the resources of nations while enslaving and impoverishing the peoples to whom they proclaim a false and polluted gospel. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">America is a classic example of how the practices of Western Christian heretics are manifest. Heretics breed heretics and they are known by their works which are done in the name of Jesus Christ while at the same time smelling of dark sulphur which emanates only from demons. These Western Christian heretics speak righteously while committing acts of wickedness. A grievous example of this was the treatment of the indigenous tribes that were evangelized in the name of Jesus Christ and supposedly for the glory of God. Yet, proclaiming to bring to Christ, these indigenous peoples, instead, they were sacrificed to the demons whom Western Christian heretics serve. Those not killed, were impoverished and their land was stolen by trickery, deceit and violence. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Western Christian heretics have committed similar acts throughout South America, Africa, and the Middle East, while making it their goal to evangelize the entire world with their false gospel, a gospel not of hope but of despair, not of love but of hate, note of charity but of theft. The Western Christian heretics have always and will continue to sow confusion and chaos wherever they set foot and at the Day of Judgement, the Lord almighty will proclaim to them, “I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of iniquity.”</span></div>
Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-14825997422485304472014-09-22T17:43:00.002-07:002015-03-15T21:00:01.335-07:00The Great Protestant Cover Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B8ZEI5PENZc/VCDCD8zO4eI/AAAAAAAADXM/zXKp49pLz-Q/s1600/Apostles-Creed-5.22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B8ZEI5PENZc/VCDCD8zO4eI/AAAAAAAADXM/zXKp49pLz-Q/s1600/Apostles-Creed-5.22.jpg" height="176" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I have spent some time today reading and contemplating ancient historical texts, regarding the travels of the Apostles and the Seventy and it has been a truly amazing experience. Think about this for a moment; twelve Apostles and the Seventy, not to mention their companions and helpers spread out over the entire known world of their time preaching the gospel, accompanied everywhere with signs and wonders, (as Christ had promised), and wherever they went they appointed bishops to rule and shepherd the masses that were being converted to ensure the ongoing propagation and preservation of the gospel message in their absence.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">This first generation of Apostles and Seventy ministered for perhaps a very conservative total of 720 years among them all, if we were to calculate that each of them was active in ministry a mere ten years which of course for most was far short of how long many ministered. For example, the Apostle John lived to be over hundred years old and came to Christ as a young man. So, if we double that number to a conservative twenty years each, we can count it as, say, 1500 cumulative years of preaching with signs and wonders. That is amazingly long span of history and probably still a conservative number! </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Tell me this, how much of this history have you read? How much of this Apostolic history has any Protestant read? Can you enter into a brick and mortar or online Protestant Christian bookstore anywhere and find references to one of the most amazing periods of history in whole span of man's existence on this earth? Can you pull a book off the shelf of any public or university library that refers to the travels and exploits of the greatest men who have ever lived in the history of the world? Where are these history books? Were none ever written? </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Could it be possible that of all the ancient libraries in the world today, housing tens, if not hundreds of thousands of texts, books and manuscripts, that none would speak of the greatest period of history the world has ever known? Of course not, the texts, the manuscripts, the books are all there, it's just that Protestants ignore them all. To say nothing was recorded for this period of history would be absolutely ludicrous. Yet of the thousands of books, texts and manuscripts that are available from this period of history, the typical Protestant would say, "Oh you can't believe anything but the b-i-b-l-e, that's the book for me!" Do Protestants say that about historical texts from any other period of history? No, they don't. Why not? What's up with that? I'll tell you what's up with that, it's called, the greatest cover up of all time and it was all perpetrated by the father of lies, the great deceiver, the one who portrays himself as an angel of light, a beacon of truth and a bulwark of faith. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Modern man and more specifically, Protestants dwell in darkness and have been kept from reading some the most inspirational stories ever recorded in the history of mankind! What can be said of a supposedly Christian nation and a supposedly Christian church that has kept these blessed historical books, narratives and stories from us?</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">I'm only scratching the surface here. What of the first 1,000 or so years following the appearance of the Messiah. Cultures of the East refer to this period of history as the golden age of the Church? This is the period of history when the gospel had such an influence on the world that entire empires were under the righteous rule of Jesus Christ working through great and honorable Christian emperors and rulers. This was a period when art, architecture and science flourished and as matter of fact, all the great advances of the West can be attributed to what came out of the golden age of the Church but they won't tell you that in school. I think that's called, identity theft.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Do you know what Protestants and our American school system call that period of history? Well, I was taught that it was the, 'dark ages' and never once did I hear it referred to as the 'golden age' of history. As a matter of fact, that period of world history is either entirely ignored or left out of the history books or else it is reported and recorded in a manner seekers of truth would call, revisionist history or propagandist history. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">I have been challenged as of late by a Protestant, who has challenged the veracity of the Orthodox Church and as a consequence, I have been inspired to dig deep to better understand the Protestant American mindset, so that I could give a proper defense for the hope that is me. As a result, my faith has been tested by fire repeatedly over the past four months and all I can say is that it is shining brighter than ever.</span></span></div>
Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-79044622749861165162014-09-22T08:28:00.003-07:002015-04-19T12:37:42.288-07:00There Is Nothing New Under The Sun - Protestantism Is An Ancient Heresy<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span class="s1">The doctrine which divides Protestantism also unites Protestants is the same ancient heresy. This heresy was held by the Acephalites and was called the Severian heresy. This heresy is exactly what Protestant sects practice to this day. Instead of returning to the one, true Church, they follow the Severians who were condemned as heretics in the 4th century.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">This false teaching held: </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: orange;">1. The Church does not need bishops, priests, or deacons.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">"The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: 2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly,[a] not for dishonest gain but eagerly;3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; 4 and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away." 1Peter 5</span></div>
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<span class="s1">1Tim 3, Philippians 1:1, John 20:23, Matthew 23:1-3</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: orange;">2. Each man is his own bishop and priest.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"> "Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine." 1Tim5:17</span></div>
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<span class="s1">1Cor 12:28-29, 1Tim1:6-7, Eph 4:11, James 3:1, 2 Peter 2</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: orange;">3. Each man has the right to interpret the Holy Scripture in his own way. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">"And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:19-21 </span></div>
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<span class="s1">"Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves." Acts 20:28-30</span></div>
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<span class="s1">We are to depend on the shepherds, teachers, elders and bishops of the Church to teach us, guide, watch over us and protect us from false teachers and wolves that will draw us away from Christ and the true Church. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: orange;">4. Each can teach others as he himself understands and believes. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">"For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness." Romans 12:3-8</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9 </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Thus we need the accountability that comes from being within the Orthodox Church which is the true Church that embodies the fullness of God's riches and gifts for His people. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Protestants also ally themselves with the arch-enemies of Christ and the Church being iconoclasts, that is, against honoring sacred images and the Cross. </span>Iconoclasts throughout the periods of history when they had influence within the Orthodox Church, imprisoned and martyred Christians who honored sacred images, whereas, when the Iconoclasts were not in positions of influence within the Orthodox Church, they were condemned as heretics but never did the Orthodox Church imprison or execute heretics or Iconoclasts. </div>
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<span class="s1">Protestants do not show honor to those to whom honor is due. </span>Protestants do not honor what Christ honors; the Saints, the Apostles, the Church Fathers, the Martyrs, the Theotokos and Virgin Mary.<br />
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<span class="s1">If a teacher who teaches well is worthy of double honor, (1Tim 5:17), how much more so those followers of Christ, the Saints, the Apostles, the Church Fathers, the Martyrs, the Theotokos and Virgin Mary, who far exceeded the requirements for double honor among elders?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">There is nothing new under the Sun and every heretical doctrine that has arisen through the Church ages was dealt with by the first Seven Ecumenical Synods of the Church as they were guided by the Holy Spirit of God.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: orange;">Take Heed...</span></div>
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<span class="s1">"Even if God determines the chief lines of our life, He, according to our prayers and merits, can change them. Thus, He prolonged King Hezekiah's life for fifteen years: "Go and say to Hezekiah, thus said the Lord, the God of David Your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold I will add unto your days fifteen years" (Isaiah 38:5), and to the Venerable Dius (July 19) he likewise prolonged his life for fifteen years. God extended the life of St. Basil the Great, according to the prayer of the saint for one day until he baptized the Jew, Joseph, his physician. But, as God can, by prayer, prolong life, so He can shorten it because of sin. Emperor Anastasius adhered to the Severian heresy, so called the Acephalites (the headless ones), who spread the foolishness that the Church does not need bishops and priests but rather that everyone unto himself is a bishop and a priest and that everyone has the right, in his own way, to interpret Holy Scripture and to teach others as he understands and believes. In vain did St. John the Patriarch counsel the emperor to return to the truth of Orthodoxy, and not only did the emperor not accept the counsel but rather ill-treated the patriarch in various ways and contemplated to have him banished. One night, the emperor saw in a dream an awesome man on an exalted throne, who held a book in his hand. This man opened the book, found the name of Emperor Anastasius and said: "I have wanted to permit you to live for a while longer but, because of your heresy, behold, I am erasing fourteen years from your life." And he erased something from the book. Terrified, the emperor jumped up from his dream and related his dream to his followers. After a few days, thunder struck the emperor's palace and killed Emperor Anastasius.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">From the Prologue from Ohrid, compiled by Nikolai Velimirovic.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: orange;">A Call To Repentance</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” </span></div>
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<span class="s1">These are the words of St John the Baptist and of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Matthew 3:2 & 4:17.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The Orthodox Church is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The true Christ can only be known by entering into the Kingdom of Heaven and the gates that open up to the Kingdom of Heaven are one and the same as the gates that lead into the Orthodox Church. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">The Ancient Orthodox Church holds the keys to heaven and the shepherds appointed by God through the workings of the Holy Spirit have been appointed as gatekeepers to protect the church from wolves and thieves. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:23</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Unless You Eat My Body And Drink My Blood, You Can Have No Part Of Me</span></div>
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<span class="s1">53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed,[h] and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Many Disciples Turn Away </span></div>
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<span class="s1">60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The sacramental mysteries can only be known within the Orthodox Church. Modern day Romans and Protestants are descendants of those believers that fell away from the Church so long ago having rejected the true Christ, embracing a Christ of their own making. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Matthew 7</span></div>
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<span class="s1">13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because[a] narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Matthew 13</span></div>
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<span class="s1">45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: orange;">Final Closing Comment</span></div>
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<span class="s1">20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. Ezekial 18:20</span></div>
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<span class="s1">We have many friends and family members who have never heard of the Orthodox faith or have not given an accurate explanation of what it is. Each of us will only be accountable for what we know and not what we don't know. God is just and merciful and will show mercy and judge accordingly.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">"For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." 1 Cor 3:9-15</span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7421672378820966715.post-50046198456921694122014-09-22T07:57:00.002-07:002014-09-22T11:47:52.338-07:00Sign Of The Cross<hr style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;" />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p81eyZq6yW8/VCA45jiDwsI/AAAAAAAADW8/g39Meeo-ov4/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p81eyZq6yW8/VCA45jiDwsI/AAAAAAAADW8/g39Meeo-ov4/s1600/images.jpg" height="400" width="309" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">As the writer of Ecclesiastes stated, “There is nothing new under sun.” Consequently, all Orthodox practices and beliefs have their origins in the Law and Prophets. Judaic traditions evolved into Christian traditions primarily under the early influence of the Apostles. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The first certain written historical evidences we have of the use of the sign of the cross is from the ecclesiastical writer, Tertullian, (230 AD) who tells us that candidates for baptism are marked with a sign of the cross on their foreheads during their time of instruction. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Additionally, Tertullian taught: "In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross".</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">St. Cyril of Jerusalem (386 AD) in his Catechetical Lectures stated, "Let us then not be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the cross our seal, made with boldness by our fingers on our brow and in everything; over the bread we eat and the cups we drink, in our comings and in our goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are traveling, and when we are at rest"</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The Lord in preparing the way for the Messiah, gave to Israel instructions regarding how they were to live out their faith as a 'people set apart', in a practical way. From the earliest Old Testament times, Jews had the practice of wearing certain Scripture texts in a little box on their arms and on their foreheads. This practice had it roots from several passages in the Law, in particular Deut. 6:4-8:</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">"Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one. Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead."</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">In this passage the first verse (the "Shema Israel") is tantamount to Judaism's Creed - the Lord is one. This basic truth of one God who is Lord of Israel set the People of the Old Covenant apart from the unbelieving "nations" or Gentiles.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Later in history God will say, "Pass through the city (Jerusalem) and put a mark on the foreheads of those who moan and groan over all the abominations that are practiced within it" (Ezekiel 9:4). Here Ezekiel is speaking of the remnant of the people of God who remain faithful, to set them apart from the unfaithful. The Hebrew word for mark is the same as for the last letter of the alphabet, Tav, which in hand-written form is cross-shaped. It was used in the ancient world to brand animals. In Greek this is Tau, T, the shape of Jesus' actual cross.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">In the book of Revelation the servants of the Antichrist are to have their own peculiar mark (Rev. 14:9) to indicate their belonging to him.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">So, as Jews wore their sign of belief in God, as the supporters of the Antichrist will wear his mark, so the Orthodox have since antiquity worn and practiced the sign of the cross, as the outward manifestation and proclamation to the world that we are followers of Christ. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The Sign of the Cross expresses belief in the Christian truths of the Holy Trinity and Christ crucified, as well as an expression to the visible and invisible world of our commitment to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength. Additionally, St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:23-24, "We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Consequently, the sign of the cross is an outward proclamation confirming to God, the saints, the angels, the demons and the world, that we are Christians who are trusting in Christ and calling on Christ, to guide us, help us, protect us and save us. </span></div>
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Euphrosynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01732343022324208163noreply@blogger.com0