Orthodox Apologetics

Elvis... has left the building!



I'll... soon be gone now!

...but what you don't quite seem to understand just yet is that the Kingdom of Heaven has NO end...

Exodus 19:15 And he said unto the people: Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives. 16 ¶And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. 17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. 18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. 19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. 20 And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.

1 Samuel 21:4 And the priest answered David, and said: There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread ; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. 5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him: Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. 6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

Long live abstinence!

( You may wish to turn up the volume on your computer ).

...to save you from Gehenna!

...and we have killed Him...

People like to wash their hands of the violence. But we all wash our hands in blood.

In vain were you brought out of Egypt, if Egypt wasn't brought out of you...

Exodus 16:2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: 3 And the children of Israel said unto them: Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

Numbers 11:5  We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: 6  But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.

Psalm 95:8  Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9  When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. 10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said: It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 11  Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Job 2:9  Then said his wife unto him: Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die!

We interrupt our usual series of boring, ethereal Lenten posts to provide those of you struggling with the current economic recession and financial crisis with a few practical, down-to-earth business tips, which we believe to be right on the money :



Judas sold Christ for thirty silvers.

Adam and Eve traded Paradise for apples.

Esau gave up his birthright for a plate of porridge.

What price tag do you put on your soul?

Luke 22:33 And [Simon Peter] said unto [Jesus]: Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. 34 And [Christ] said: I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

Whom does the Church mourn during this particularly holy and especially sacred period of the year? For whom has the whole interior of the church-building been dressed in dark funeral gowns? Why do Priests wear such pitch-black clerical vestments this time of the year? Whom are they mourning? Christ, perhaps? God forbid! He's seated in glory, at the right hand of the Father! We're mourning for our own souls and wicked deeds, for we're all dead in our sins!

Luke 23:27 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. 28 But Jesus turning unto them said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

In forty days has all sinful flesh been destroyed by the waters of the Great Flood in the days of Noah.

In forty years has the wicked, ungrateful, and rebellious generation of Israelites that came out of Egypt, and gnashed their unthankful teeth against Moses and the Lord, been wiped out in the wilderness, without ever entering into the Promised Land.

For forty days stood Moses with God on top of Mount Sinai, without touching any food or water, to receive the Law of the Old Covenant, being kept alive only by the power of God, and when he came back down the mountain, his face shone brighter than the Sun.

For forty days after His Baptism by John in the Jordan has Christ fasted in the wilderness, to defeat the devil, before beginning His Messianic activity here on earth.

Romans 7:24 Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Luke 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

To be confirmed and (re)assured of the truthfulness of their teachings,
by letting fasting, abstinence, and ascetic efforts expose and bring out to light the Total Depravity and Inability hiding in their fallen nature... because you'll never know just how estranged you truly are from God, and how far you actually lie from the Kingdom of Heaven, or how much filth there really is in your heart, and how enslaved you are by sin or just how much power passions have over you, until you'll start seriously engaging in this kind of spiritual endeavors.

...doesn't mean that the insatiable and asphyxiating craving for such things will be absent
from the souls and bodies of the damned...

Luke 17:27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

There was no intercourse and meat-consumption in Paradise, before the Fall,
nor will there be any in the Kingdom of Heaven:

Genesis 1:29 ¶And God said: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Genesis 2:16  ¶And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.

Genesis 3:6  ¶And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9  ¶And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him: Where art thou? 10  And he said: I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11  ¶And he said: Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Matthew 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

Mark 12:25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.

Luke 20:34 And Jesus answering said unto them: The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: 35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: 36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

That again: Heaven itself may be Hell for some...

Empty bellies... what are we living for?

Hold the line: does anybody want to take it anymore?...

Lent must go on!

I'll top the bill, I'll overkill: I have to find the will to carry on...

1 Corinthians 15:50 Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

1.

Job 2:9 Curse God, and die.

2.

Matthew 25:18 But he that had received one talent went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. 24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said: Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

3.

Matthew 19:25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying: Who then can be saved?

Mark 10:26 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves: Who then can be saved?

Luke 18:26 And they that heard it said: Who then can be saved?

4.

Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Christology Workshop by Dr. Jeffrey Macdonald




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Why does the Orthodox Church impose such heavy, unbearable burdens on the feeble and fragile shoulders of its poor, innocent followers?

Luke 15:16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

Deep down inside, we're all starved and craving for something...

Contra Mundum: Athanasius and the LDS on Deification by Perry Robinson

Credit to Mike Spring from Classical Christianity

I know that the Immovable comes down; I know that the Invisible appears to me; I know that He who is outside the whole creation Takes me within Himself and hides me in His arms, and then I find myself outside the whole world.

I, a frail, small mortal in the world, behold the Creator of the world, all of Him, within myself;and I know that I shall not die, for I am within the Life, I have the whole of Life springing up as a fountain within me.

He is in my heart, He is in heaven: both there and here He shows himself to me with equal glory.

- St. Simeon the New Theologian

The sad story of my life...

1 Peter 5:8 ¶Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

The Significance of Fasting in the Struggle against Fallen Spirits by St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

...just plain emptiness...

What God's Love for Sinners Does Not Mean
It doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to be saved. Yes, He will save every alcoholic in the sense that eventually He will bring each one to a “place” beyond the grave where there is no alcohol, but whether any given alcoholic will be grateful for that or be tortured by it remains to be seen. He will bring you and me to where there is no sin, but whether we feel delivered or deprived, indeed destroyed, depends upon us.

Sins and passions must be killed while still in their infancy:

Psalm 137:9 Blessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the Rock.

1 Corinthians 10:4 And that Rock was Christ.

The Matrix.

( You may wish to turn up the volume on your computer ).


The Gospel:

Matthew 4:2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said: It is written: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God". 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; 9 And saith unto him: All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10 Then saith Jesus unto him: Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve".

Luke 4:2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. 3 And the devil said unto him: If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4 And Jesus answered him, saying: It is written: "That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God". 5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said unto him: All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8 And Jesus answered and said unto him: Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve".