Why Holy Water?

Jamesbong said:

The priest took the water in the Scripture as the physical water that he knew of by instinct, and he failed to see God's divine nature that was contained in the word.
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)
In John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life."

When we want the answer to 'water,' we should look to the Word of God for the answer.

In 1 John 5:6, "This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth."

There is also John 4:10, Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

Surely one would not think that Jesus had some secret location of a fountain of physical water that you would think of; that's the flesh. The water means the message about Jesus, and we should be drinking that water, meaning, we should be receiving the message about Jesus Christ into our hearts.
The physical water cannot make you a better Christian; it's just water. Your free will has to accept the gospel that is proclaimed; you can't accept the gospel of your own free will if only some water is sprinkled at you.

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Jamesbong said:

The priest took the water in the Scripture as the physical water that he knew of by instinct, and he failed to see God's divine nature that was contained in the word.
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)
In John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life."

When we want the answer to 'water,' we should look to the Word of God for the answer.

Click to expand...

-Sasha- said:

Many times throughout the Gospels, physical things were used in addition to spiritual things. The example that comes to mind straight away was Christ's healing of the blind man...He used dirt and spit along with His prayer and the mans obedience and faith. We are physical and spiritual. Christ came to us physically and spiritually. I can think of no reason to disregard the physical entirely. So, the water is materially water, but we are calling down God's blessing upon it and physically using it for spiritual purposes.

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Jamesbong said:

The priest took the water in the Scripture as the physical water that he knew of by instinct, and he failed to see God's divine nature that was contained in the word.
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)
In John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life."

When we want the answer to 'water,' we should look to the Word of God for the answer.

In 1 John 5:6, "This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth."

There is also John 4:10, Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

Surely one would not think that Jesus had some secret location of a fountain of physical water that you would think of; that's the flesh. The water means the message about Jesus, and we should be drinking that water, meaning, we should be receiving the message about Jesus Christ into our hearts.
The physical water cannot make you a better Christian; it's just water. Your free will has to accept the gospel that is proclaimed; you can't accept the gospel of your own free will if only some water is sprinkled at you.

Click to expand...

Jamesbong said:

The priest took the water in the Scripture as the physical water that he knew of by instinct, and he failed to see God's divine nature that was contained in the word.
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)
In John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life."

When we want the answer to 'water,' we should look to the Word of God for the answer.

In 1 John 5:6, "This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth."

There is also John 4:10, Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

Surely one would not think that Jesus had some secret location of a fountain of physical water that you would think of; that's the flesh. The water means the message about Jesus, and we should be drinking that water, meaning, we should be receiving the message about Jesus Christ into our hearts.
The physical water cannot make you a better Christian; it's just water. Your free will has to accept the gospel that is proclaimed; you can't accept the gospel of your own free will if only some water is sprinkled at you.

Click to expand...

Dave G. said:

James, I think they will be shot down here in this portion of the Orthodox forum for doing something other than fellowshipping, if you want to debate etc., where you are not EO, you will need to use a sub forum and link it here. That's if I have it right myself lol !! It takes a while to learn your way around CF for sure.

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~Anastasia~ said:

Hello and welcome to TAW.



Yes it's true that the congregational forums (all of them, not just the Orthodox one) are open to visitors only as fellowship. Officially at least. There are varying degrees of tolerance among different ones. We try to be tolerant here because there can be such a gap in understanding what we believe, or even what we mean by certain words. And if we don't discuss, we can't understand each other.

But yes, the Orthodox congregational forum actually has an area set aside for debate. I think we are the only one to offer that. It's not that we want to prevent all debate. We just want/need an area where we don't constantly have to defend ourselves. Sometimes a haven for peaceful fellowship and edification is good to have - especially during fasting periods (which we are in right now) and times that are trying.

I'll echo what Fr. Matt said though - that's not how we understand Holy Water. If you have questions about what we DO believe, feel free to ask. And if you'd like to debate, St. Justin Martyr's is the place.

St. Justin Martyr's Corner: Debate an Orthodox Chr

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Dave G. said:

I'm not here to debate but thank you Anastasia.

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Markie Boy said:

So the Holy Water is blessed - and where the water goes, the blessing goes - is that the Orthodox view of how it works?

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