Recent content by The Liturgist

You don’t know if any Edomites are still alive, much less if they practice Islam or not. Nor do you know the extent to which their DNA is distributed among Israel. Many could be Christians. The population of the former provinces of Judea and Galilee consisted almost exclusively of Christians...

This I agree with entirely. That said, if I might ask, what are your views on the recent changes in doctrine on sexual morality by the mainline churches? These changes have affected both those which baptize infants, such as the Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians, and those who do not...

Theology literally means “knowledge of God”, and this is what the Orthodox Christians interpret it as. So in our belief system, anyone can have knowledge of God, and be a theologian, even an infant or a mentally disabled person (they mere lack the ability to communicate it). Conversely, we...

Specifically your statement that only the twelve disciples received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and were born again, to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. I realized that your view was not the traditional Baptist view, although it was similiar; I don’t normally debate Baptists except...

And unfortunately I can’t recall the exact wording of the translation of Kierkegaard’s quote on the liturgy that I used, and other translations make it look like his view was less favorable. What is more I can’t recall where I read it… I am working with ChatGPT 4o, which is the newest...

No its not. Mantras are completely different. They are typically devoid of meaning, and literally consist of babbling. Now, in Orthodoxy, we do not pray the Rosary because we believe using the visual imagination in prayer can be dangerous, but we do pray both the Hail Mary and also the...

Oh by the way, you may or may not recall that I quoted Soren Kierkegaard on the subject of the liturgy as my signature, until the genocide of the Armenian Christians in Artsakh last September, which will dominate my signature until I see more Christians advocating for the protection of the...

It does in so far as the Nicene Creed and the 27 book New Testament canon were both largely the result of work by fourth century theologians, in particular St. Athanasius of Alexandria, and his predecessor as bishop of Alexandria, St. Alexander, who initially deposed Arius and made St...

I wrote a reply but realized I need to edit it a bit more.

On the contrary, since we know from John 1:3 that all things were made through our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son and Word of God, one of three coequal and coeternal persons of the Trinity, (together with the Holy Spirit, who eternally proceeds from God the Father, and...

No worries - I just wanted to make sure I understood what you were saying. I myself have made similiar and at times even more embarassing slips. For example, I have always been a fan of Ricardo Montalban, to the extent that I am deeply upset at Chrysler for not only discontinuing the...

My numbers include the confessional Lutheran churches, and show the Reformed churches in third place, after the Lutherans.

Actually simony was a major problem in the Church of England until the 19th century, with benefices being bought and sold as recently as the 18th century, and also ecclesiastical obligations being attached to some real estate to this day. In the 18th and 19th century, legislative reforms were...

The Sign of Cross is a form of prayer, by which we express thanks to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; additionally, the Cross itself, and any representations of it, such as the Sign of the Cross, literally dispels demons. However, this is because of what Christ did on the Cross, which they...

Indeed. And nothing in the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church, properly defined, prevents such love, but rather, our tradition is designed to promote real, authentic love. Indeed, we have traditions to prevent hate - for example, at one of the ancient councils, perhaps it was Trullo, we...