Recent content by Melodist

I measure distance in time, the main exception to that would be for purposes of determining when/where to stop for gas.

I think people stopped referring to Jesus as "son of Joseph" some time around when they saw him risen from the dead.

I wouldn't go so far as to say gun ownership should be required. I would say that in a country where the citizens are given the constitutional right to be armed, more emphasis should be placed on training, safety, and education. I'm not personally against it. In my opinion, military service...

Manuscript variations have been around about as long as people have been copying manuscripts. Not really that big of a deal as long as it's interpreted consistently with Orthodox Tradition (which includes scripture, however you define it) and it's not purposely mistranslated.

Why are priests in the military called "chaplains"?

Read the scripture, I wouldn't expect too much to be wrong with it, and ignore the commentary.

It's not really fair or accurate to call Gnosticism "Christianity", simply because it's not. One example... Gnostics claim the God of the Old Testament (the demiurge who created the material world) is a separate God than that of the New Testament (the Father from whom all pure spirits/aeons are...

We reached an impasse preventing us from marrying each other.

And it's a no-go.

This would have been good to discuss. Anyway, there are multiple occurrences in how Christ lived out His mission and parables told in which our participation in his saving work requires voluntary dedication on our part recorded in the four gospels.

A 2,000 year history of the Holy Spirit acting in and through the Body of Christ.

Rome has admitted that the filioque would be heretical if inserted into the original greek text. There is a difference between a grammatical difference and a theological change.

When becoming a catechumen, one is asked if they desire to be joined to the Orthodox Church (implying a disjoining from any other church). When being formally received into the Church (whether by baptism, chrismation, or confession of faith), there is a formal renunciation of any...

The church I currently attend does coffee hour. I'm the only convert.

The Baptists that I was exposed to as a child/teenager always taught that you had to say the sinners prayer to "get saved" and that baptism was making a public statement that you were saved. They made the analogy to marriage where "getting saved" was the wedding and baptism was simply the ring...