168. For the Saturday of Souls: What does the Orthodox Church teach about the Afterlife? Part One

This is a subject of considerable interest to me, since I am 81 years old and getting older. Fast. The End All traditional Christians agree here. “All the peoples of the earth will …see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”  Matthew 24:30 Then will be  the Resurrection […]

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126. War and Peace: Part One – Christ, the Early Church, the Just War Theory

Christ is risen! Truly he is risen! “Wars and Rumors of Wars” The time to think about war rationally is before we get into one. Once war begins it’s too late. Then all sorts of emotions and reactions, pride and propaganda take over. And after people are killed in war, there is a fervent and very […]

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75. Orthodoxy and Other Faiths: Modern Protestantism, Part 3 – Why is the Mainline down? Why are Evangelicals up? Pentecostals. Charismatics.

We’ve been tracking the decline of the Mainline Protestants and the rise of the Evangelicals.  According to Pew Research in 2014 above, maybe the change in American religion has been even more radical. Look who’s growing fastest now, and rapidly. I can’t begin to describe how different the American religious scene feels today compared to 50 […]

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66. The First 3 of 6 Thoughts about Pentecost

 1. The “Spirit of Disorganization” Years ago the cowboy humorist Will Rogers said, “I don’t belong to any organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” I sometimes want to say, “I don’t belong to any organized Church. I’m Orthodox.”  On the whole, the Orthodox Church is the most disorganized organization I have ever heard of – […]

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56. Orthodoxy and Other Faiths: Roman Catholicism, Part Three – The Great Schism and What Followed

Results of the Great Schism in the West Rome, cut off from the other four traditional Patriarchates, now saw herself as the One True Church. In isolation her authoritarian and legalistic tendencies were magnified. Some examples: 1 Purgatory, where after death peoples’ sins “are purged away through torment or ‘purifying’ punishments”. Catechism of Pope Paul VI, 1967. […]

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