How important is the Bible to Orthodox Christians vs Protestants and Catholics?

[Shane R]

ArmyMatt is right. A youtube video will give you a general idea of the format of divine liturgy, but one must participate - seeing, smelling, hearing, singing - to fully experience the divine liturgy.

 

[ArmyMatt]

ArmyMatt is right. A youtube video will give you a general idea of the format of divine liturgy, but one must participate - seeing, smelling, hearing, singing - to fully experience the divine liturgy.

yep, it's also the doing. we DO the worship that is seen in the book of Revelation, Hebrews, and you can see a lot in the OT Tabernacle and Temple worship. whole lot more than watching a vid

 

[yogosans14]

Ok Ive been doing some research and I like what I read so far.

I have some questions:
1.Why does it take a year to get baptized in the EO if they see it as essential to salvation?I know you need to learn, but in the book of Acts they were baptized immedialty after belief in Jesus.

How many more books do they have in their canon of Scripture.

3.Do they believe in speaking in tounges, feeling the Holy Spirit present, prophetic gifts, etc.

4.Do they believe if you dont convert to EO you will go to Hell?

 

[Lukaris]

Ok Ive been doing some research and I like what I read so far.

I have some questions:
1.Why does it take a year to get baptized in the EO if they see it as essential to salvation?I know you need to learn, but in the book of Acts they were baptized immedialty after belief in Jesus.

How many more books do they have in their canon of Scripture.

3.Do they believe in speaking in tounges, feeling the Holy Spirit present, prophetic gifts, etc.

4.Do they believe if you dont convert to EO you will go to Hell?[/QUOTE


1. The apostles had the power of the Holy Spirit but divisions soon emerged among those who were baptized which is clearly evident like in the warnings of Sts. Jude & John in their epistles etc. Some early Christians even deferred their baptisms till later in life. Some did not understand infant baptism even though it is generally understood that whole households being baptized included infants like those of Cornelius those mentioned by St. Paul etc
In a certain sense, anyone who had repented to the Lord is reckoned to those like the thief on the cross who repented, martyrs etc. Since it is hoped that most people will be blessed to longer life to do good, the practice of catechesis & later baptism is the norm for new converts; a year is probably average but instruction could be less time or longer.

Sorry, I am running out of time to answer more but I would like to mention that we believe other Christians & non Christians will be judged the same as the Orthodox. You will come hear there is no salvation outside the church and Jesus Christ is the high priest and to love Him is to love our neighbor. We are to have the same hope for ourselves as for anyone which is necessary & a real challenge to live by in this fallen world, for anyone. We cannot mix & match non Orthodox doctrines but we know God will not easily forsake anyone.

 

[ArmyMatt]

1.Why does it take a year to get baptized in the EO if they see it as essential to salvation?I know you need to learn, but in the book of Acts they were baptized immedialty after belief in Jesus.

well, this is not a blanket statement. it depends on the person. some folks converted much sooner, some it took a while longer. if someone, say, just refuses to get over something like iconography, well the priest might postpone it a bit. someone else it might not take as long.

How many more books do they have in their canon of Scripture.

same length of the NT, but our OT is the Greek version, so we have more books, additions to others, and one more Psalm. so it is longer.

3.Do they believe in speaking in tounges, feeling the Holy Spirit present, prophetic gifts, etc.

yep

4.Do they believe if you dont convert to EO you will go to Hell?

that's not our call, that's God's call. for those that are outside of the Church, we entrust them into the hands of the God who saved them too. that being said, Christ did start His Church for a reason, and it is best that all join it before their departure.

 

[Lukaris]

Is Christianity based on the New Testament, or is the New Testament based on early Christianity?

I would venture to say that the New Testament is based on Christianity since Christians were already defined as such within the book of Acts for ex. (Acts 11:26).

 

[LarryP2]

"Holy Tradition is the guarantee for the right interpretation of the Scriptures; the 2 are inseparable. Heretics in all ages have always quickly set aside Tradition and endeavored to base their individual interpretations of Christian truth on the Scriptures alone."

As one who was born into one destructive cult, and was sucked into yet another even more destructive one in his 20's, I can assure you that is the primary reasons why I am in the process of aggressively converting to EO.

Sola Scriptura is utter madness. Not until you have struggled with overwhelming internal demons of the soul for 55 years can you fully-appreciate the role of tradition. Sola Scriptura is just wildly absurd......complete insanity....and based on the truly-mentally ill notion that I can "think" - all by myself - my way into understanding. I have had zero faith in that proposition for most of my life without admitting it, and am openly declaring rebellion by converting to EO.