Orthodox Apologetics

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!

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

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?

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...

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.

...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".

Only because you know just how bad they actually are for you, doesn't mean you can quit.

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

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

During the summer of 2001, Eszterhas was diagnosed with throat cancer. His doctors worked to remove 80 per cent of his larynx and told him to immediately quit drinking and smoking. Eszterhas was 56. He lived a wild lifestyle and knew that changing his habits would not be easy.


His Conversion
On a day Eszterhas describes as “hellishly hot,” he was walking through a tree-lined neighborhood when he realized he had hit rock-bottom.

Eszterhas described his frame of mind: "I was going crazy. I was jittery. I twitched. I trembled. I had no patience for anything. … Every single nerve ending was demanding a drink and a cigarette.”

He sat on the curb and began to cry. In between fits of crying he began to pray, “Please God, help me.” He hadn’t prayed since he was a child. "I couldn't believe I'd said it. I didn't know why I'd said it. I'd never said it before," he wrote.


God reached out His hand
Eszterhas was immediately overwhelmed with peace. His twitching stopped. He no longer trembled. He saw a "shimmering, dazzling, nearly blinding brightness that made me cover my eyes with my hands." Similar to Saul seeing a blinding light on his way to Damascus, Eszterhas had seen the light of Christ.

Eszterhas described the experience as “absolutely overwhelming."

He went from doubting if he could make it through life without tobacco and alcohol, to knowing that he could "defeat myself and win."

Psalms 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.



Psalms 120:1 ¶In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.

After years of smut and violence, Joe Eszterhas says he found God one hot summer day in 2001 as he desperately battled to survive throat cancer and his addictions to alcohol and cigarettes.

“I didn’t even really know how to pray,” Eszterhas writes in his upcoming book Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith. “I didn’t know what to say, so one of the first things I said was ‘I’m sorry. I’ve acted like a colossal A-hole. I’m really, really sorry. I don’t deserve to be forgiven, but please try to forgive me.’”

In their effort to prolong Eszterhas’ life, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic removed 80 percent of his larynx, put a tracheotomy tube in his throat, and told him he must quit drinking and smoking immediately.

While Eszterhas wanted to change his ways, after a lifetime of wild living, the 56-year-old Hungarian native knew it would be a struggle to do so. And it was.

In the summer of 2001, Eszterhas reached a breaking point and for the first time since he was a child, he prayed for God’s help.

"I was going crazy. I was jittery. I twitched. I trembled. I had no patience for anything. … Every single nerve ending was demanding a drink and a cigarette," he writes in Crossbearer.

After his prayer, however, he felt an overwhelming peace.

It was "an absolutely overwhelming experience," he recalled to the Toledo Blade earlier this month.

Eszterhas went from doubting if he could make it through life without tobacco and alcohol to knowing that he could "defeat myself and win."

Why does He demand so much of us? Who does He even think He is!? GOD !?

Well... yeah!
Remember our father Abraham, who was righteous in the sight of the Lord, fulfilled all His laws, and never broke any of His commandments? Well, now, ask yourself this: Was God satisfied by that? Or did He ask for more?

Genesis 22:2 And [God] said [to Abraham]: Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Or the rich young man, who kept all the commandments from his youth? Was Christ satisfied by this? Or did He demand more?

Matthew 19:21 Jesus said unto him: If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me. ²² But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

Luke 18:22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him: Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow Me. ²³ And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

There's a very special Lenten Prayer that we frequently say during this particularly sorrowful time of fasting and repentance: it begins with the simple words Lord, and Master of my life – is God really the Lord and Master of your life?

Exodus 20:2-3, Deuteronomy 5:6-7
I am the LORD thy God: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me thine heart.

Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

- What do you want from me?

- I want you to be yourself. You know, I’ll tell you, boy: guilt... it's like a bag of bricks. All you got to do... is set it down. I know what you're going through: I’ve been there. Just... Let it go.

- I can't do that.

- Who are you carrying all those bricks for? God? Is that it? God!? I’ll tell you... Let me give you a little "inside information" about God. God likes to watch. He's a prankster ! Think about it! He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift... and then what does He do? I swear, for His own amusement, his own private, cosmic gag reel, He sets the rules in opposition ! It's the goof of all time ! Look... but don't touch ! Touch... but don't taste ! Taste... but don't swallow ! And while you're jumpin' from one foot to the next, what is he doing? He's laughin' !... He's a sadist! He's an absentee landlord ! Worship that? Never!

Poor guy: he sure seems worn out by all the fasting... :-(
(Looks like all that asceticism and abstinence really got to him... big time!)

Before, there were idols, pagan temples and those who offer sacrifice to the idols. And now, they exist as thoughts in the soul. He who is a slave to debauchery worships the idol of Aphrodite. He who becomes angry and enraged worships the idol of Ares. He who is avaricious and closed to the pain and misery of his neighbor worships the idol Hermes. If you refrain from all of this and preserve yourself from passions, you have overcome idols, you have rejected an evil belief and have become a martyr for the True Faith.

Here's what's holding me back...

Exodus 20:2-3, Deuteronomy 5:6-7
I am the LORD thy God: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Proverbs 23:26
My son, give me thine heart.

Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Philippians 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

None, if you're not willing to give up on the one thing that truly counts and really matters...

For instance, take this sample: he [mortal man] has imagined a heaven, and has left entirely out of it the supremest of all his delights, the one ecstasy that stands first and foremost in the heart of every individual of his race -- and of ours -- sexual intercourse!

It is as if a lost and perishing person in a roasting desert should be told by a rescuer he might choose and have all longed-for things but one, and he should elect to leave out water!

His [man's] heaven is like himself: strange, interesting, astonishing, grotesque. I give you my word, it has not a single feature in it that he actually values. It consists -- utterly and entirely -- of diversions which he cares next to nothing about, here in the earth, yet is quite sure he will like them in heaven. Isn't it curious? Isn't it interesting? You must not think I am exaggerating, for it is not so. I will give you details.

You know what the human race enjoys and what it doesn't enjoy.
1. First of all, I recall to your attention the extraordinary fact with which I began. To wit, that the human being, like the immortals, naturally places sexual intercourse far and away above all other joys -- yet he has left it out of his heaven! The very thought of it excites him; opportunity sets him wild; in this state he will risk life, reputation, everything -- even his queer heaven itself -- to make good that opportunity and ride it to the overwhelming climax. From youth to middle age all men and all women prize copulation above all other pleasures combined, yet it is actually as I have said: it is not in their heaven; prayer takes its place.

That rich gift [intercourse] which, possessed as we possess it, makes all other possessions trivial and not worth the trouble of invoicing.

You just want to SCREAM for joy!

Matthew 8:29 What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?