A common belief in some American Evangelical circles (not all) is that the nation state of Israel is the Israel spoken about in the Bible, these are the “true Israelites” so therefore it must be supported at all costs, etc. But does that align with the Bible? Who really is Israel? And why? May God grace my words in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Posts tagged as “Orthodox Christianity”
Since I get a plethora of questions from people are confused about Ukraine, the acronyms for the churches, what’s happening, etc. I have decided to make a full on explication that I can just reference to everyone who asks. This is not about the war itself between Russia & Ukraine, but specifically the Church situations occurring in Ukraine. I will try to keep it as brief as I can, as if speaking to someone who knows nothing of the situation. May Jesus Christ bless my words to be His, in grace and love. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I remember back to my elementary school days in the 1980s, I had a sweet bowl-cut, knee-high socks – yes, white with colored stripes on the top – plaid shorts and a long underwear shirt under my tee-shirt. Yes, I was bold enough to mix plaid and stripes. Sometimes I think the 90’s Grunge movement saw some of my childhood pictures and just copied them. But I have no proof. In those days of terrible fashion, I can remember sitting in school and being instructed in the emerging doctrine of the progressive seclorum – environmentalism. Of course, at that time it was simply called “global warming” and today the dogmatic title is “climate change.” Frightening images of ecological disasters were presented as the grim future that awaited us. Environmental doom was coming, no one knew the day or the hour for certain, but coming it is, this they taught as a certainty. The only possible hope of salvation was to hearken to the voices crying out on behalf of the environment. We must all work together to “save the plant.” On a basic level, a laudable endeavor. No sane human person wants the earth to implode on itself. As many in my generation, I have been instructed in the seclorum’s apocalyptic end-times dogma of “climate change.”1
This article is a preview of Michael Witcoff’s upcoming book, scheduled to be published next year.
Let us analyze Jewish life in Christian Imperial Rome. More specifically, we will examine laws implemented by Royal Saints on the topic of Judaism from the rise of Emperor St. Constantine in the early 4th century to the 6th-century reign of Emperor St. Justinian. A brief introduction to the topic is necessary, as it’s not quite as simple as an Emperor’s decree taking immediate effect throughout the Roman Empire.
Among the many things we desire, an important one is a “place to belong.” With the fragmentation of the extended family, and so much else, a growing number of people are becoming acutely aware that they do not “belong” anywhere. Our highly franchised suburban world often has the strange effect that places separated by miles (even states), all look the same, have the same stores, the same restaurants, and an overall sameness that only accentuates the sense of alienation in that it “looks the same” but is “not ours.”
The Birth of a New Religion, Part 1 by Archpriest John Whiteford In recent years, there are lines of division that not only show the…
Why Gender Restoration is the Culture War
Part 1: Introduction
Will there be any culture left when the culture war is over? Our culture is what we hand on to our children, but the West isn’t having children. The birth rates are down, and people are wondering why we aren’t having babies. Our men and women aren’t making big families and our communities are becoming sterile and childless. This is a crisis that’s been building for generations. Sterility is the real climate change crisis of our time. The poles are melting but it’s not the ice caps, it’s the sex symbols.
“The Ukrainian and Russian peoples came out of the Dnieper baptismal font, and the war between these peoples is a repetition of the sin of Cain, who, out of envy, killed his own brother”
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Onuphry of All Ukraine.
In the past I have written a number of articles that touch upon ecclesiastical issues in Ukraine, those articles may be found here.
Many are worried now that some “hot war” actions have begun in Ukraine, understandably and rightly so. Yet, speaking first to my Orthodox brethren, most of all I assume in America, I would say, the current issues have spiritual roots. Have we as Orthodox not been at best fairly passive with regard to what has been a type of spiritual fratricide in Ukraine? The spiritual fabric of Orthodoxy has been rent through the actions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (EP) in recognizing unrepentant schismatics. As I’ve noted before, for years now violence has been used by these false Christians against the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Met. Onuphry (Many Years!). At best flaccid support has been given by some here to the faithful there, mostly because those in America do not want to rock the boat. The representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in America, Archbp. Elpidophoros is an avid supporter of the schismatics in Ukraine. He openly communes and supports them. Yet he remains as head of the “Assembly of Canonical Bishops” in America. How can such a thing be? Few it seems have cared, up until now, that the faithful of Ukraine are being subjected to spiritual violence (which has manifested physically). Few it seems have cared that the EP is in open and full communion with unrepentant schismatics. So spiritual violence has been ravaging Ukraine, and few have said much. We value a nominal “peace” above true peace, for true peace cannot be had in communion with false brethren. Now major physical violence is taking place, but what is worse for the soul, spiritual or material violence?