Exploring my Christian Conservatism

The Liturgist

Traditional Liturgical Christian
Supporter
Nov 26, 2019
10,934
5,592
49
The Wild West
✟461,677.00
Country
United States
Faith
Generic Orthodox Christian
Marital Status
Celibate
So recently, I dialogued with the Liberals, and realized I have some common ground with them, after being accused by someone as a liberal, but I have always considered myself a conservative Christian, which is why I left the UCC after realizing any attempt to make a dent in the radical theology of that denomination was futile.

So, how would you rate my conservative Christianity?

  • I believe the sacred scriptures compiled in the Holy Bible, including the deuterocanonical books recognized by the Anglicans, Lutherans, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Oriental Orthodox, specifically, everything in the Septuagint, and everything in the Ethiopian narrow canon such as 1 Enoch, because St. Jude quotes it, as the inspired and inerrant primary revelation of God, but the protocanonical scriptures are our primary source of doctrine.
  • I believe in a strongly Trinitarian theology, emphasizing the Nicene Creed, the Apostles Creed, and Quincunque Vult, also known as the Athanasian Creed, although St. Athanasius did not write it, in all cases sans the filioque, which was not originally in the Nicene Creed, and is absent from the Eastern Orthodox version of Quincunque Vult.
  • I believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, his humanity and divinity united without confusion, comingling, separation, or division, and in the principle of communicatio idiomatum.
  • I am opposed to homosexual marriage and believe people with homosexuality are called to holy celibacy, as are unmarried heterosexuals such as myself, and that casual sex is morally repugnant, and adultery, a profoundly destructive sin that destroys families and ruins the lives of the children.
  • I reject Pelagianism; I am not Calvinist, or monergist, but I believe the grace of the Holy Spirit allows us to have the choice to cooperate with him for our salvation or reject him, because God desires our voluntary love, but all spiritual progress we make is enabled by God the Holy Spirit.
  • I believe in the ancient Eastern and Oriental Orthodox doctrines of the baptism, chrismation (confirmation) and communion of infants and children, the veneration of icons and relics, frequent communion and confession, and salvation through Theosis.
  • I believe that at a minimum, Christians should endeavor to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day, and having a more sophisticated prayer rule is highly desirable; it is also of great benefit, and completely satisfactory, to focus on continual recitation of the Psalms or the Jesus Prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me, a Sinner.”
  • I believe that the great moral evils of our time are embodied in abortion, euthanasia, sexual promiscuity, Progressive politics, Islamism and resurgent Communism and militant Socialism, for example, the Communist takeovers of Venezuela in 2000 and Nepal in 2007.
 
Last edited:

Pavel Mosko

Arch-Dude of the Apostolic
Supporter
Oct 4, 2016
7,236
7,312
56
Boyertown, PA.
✟768,575.00
Country
United States
Faith
Oriental Orthodox
Marital Status
Single
  • Friendly
Reactions: The Liturgist
Upvote 0

Tigger45

Romans 12:2…be transformed…
Supporter
Aug 24, 2012
20,713
13,149
E. Eden
✟1,264,386.00
Country
United States
Faith
Pentecostal
Marital Status
Private
Politics
US-Constitution
You are squarely within the conservative spectrum of beliefs. The person who accused you of being a liberal is probably a fundamentalist.
So recently, I dialogued with the Liberals, and realized I have some common ground with them, after being accused by someone as a liberal, but I have always considered myself a conservative Christian, which is why I left the UCC after realizing any attempt to make a dent in their radical theology was futile.

So, how would you rate my conservative Christianity?

  • I believe the sacred scriptures compiled in the Holy Bible, including the deuterocanonical books recognized by the Anglicans, Lutherans, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Oriental Orthodox, specifically, everything in the Septuagint, and everything in the Ethiopian narrow canon such as 1 Enoch, because St. Jude quotes it, as the inspired and inerrant primary revelation of God, but the protocanonical scriptures are our primary source of doctrine.
  • I believe in a strongly Trinitarian theology, emphasizing the Nicene Creed, the Apostles Creed, and Quincunque Vult, also known as the Athanasian Creed, although St. Athanasius did not write it, in all cases sans the filioque, which was not originally in the Nicene Creed, and is absent from the Eastern Orthodox version of Quincunque Vult.
  • I believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, his humanity and divinity united without confusion, comingling, separation, or division, and in the principle of communicatio idiomatum.
  • I am opposed to homosexual marriage and believe people with homosexuality are called to holy celibacy, as are unmarried heterosexuals such as myself, and that casual sex is morally repugnant, and adultery, a profoundly destructive sin that destroys families and ruins the lives of the children.
  • I reject Pelagianism; I am not Calvinist, or monergist, but I believe the grace of the Holy Spirit allows us to have the choice to cooperate with him for our salvation or reject him, because God desires our voluntary love, but all spiritual progress we make is enabled by God the Holy Spirit.
  • I believe in the ancient Eastern and Oriental Orthodox doctrines of the baptism, chrismation (confirmation) and communion of infants and children, the veneration of icons and relics, frequent communion and confession, and salvation through Theosis.
  • I believe that at a minimum, Christians should endeavor to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day, and having a more sophisticated prayer rule is highly desirable; it is also of great benefit, and completely satisfactory, to focus on continual recitation of the Psalms or the Jesus Prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me, a Sinner.”
  • I believe that the great moral evils of our time are embodied in abortion, euthanasia, sexual promiscuity, Progressive politics, Islamism and resurgent Communism and militant Socialism, for example, the Communist takeovers of Venezuela in 2000 and Nepal in 2007.
 
Upvote 0

The Liturgist

Traditional Liturgical Christian
Supporter
Nov 26, 2019
10,934
5,592
49
The Wild West
✟461,677.00
Country
United States
Faith
Generic Orthodox Christian
Marital Status
Celibate
Off topic but I try to refer some of your stuff over to my best friend who is Assyrian in the creedal and liturgical sense, but as American as they come. e.g.- The Assyrian liturgy video you posted a week or two ago for instance.


Yeah I think I know that guy. I am well connected in both the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syriac Orthodox Church. They are the only two churches where I have met the Patriarch personally.
 
Upvote 0

Pavel Mosko

Arch-Dude of the Apostolic
Supporter
Oct 4, 2016
7,236
7,312
56
Boyertown, PA.
✟768,575.00
Country
United States
Faith
Oriental Orthodox
Marital Status
Single
You are squarely within the conservative spectrum of beliefs. The person who accused you of being a liberal is probably a fundamentalist.

It almost makes me wonder if this could be over something like Creationism, because some folks can be very dogmatic on that!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Arctangent
Upvote 0

Pavel Mosko

Arch-Dude of the Apostolic
Supporter
Oct 4, 2016
7,236
7,312
56
Boyertown, PA.
✟768,575.00
Country
United States
Faith
Oriental Orthodox
Marital Status
Single
Yeah I think I know that guy. I am well connected in both the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syriac Orthodox Church. They are the only two churches where I have met the Patriarch personally.

Well that is more than me! Stan met the guy that succeeded Mar Dinkah met him somewhere by accident (Providence) which was nice because we got shut out by Bishop Soro back in the days of ACE talking to the Catholics concerning some kind of reunification around 2000-2001.
 
Upvote 0

The Liturgist

Traditional Liturgical Christian
Supporter
Nov 26, 2019
10,934
5,592
49
The Wild West
✟461,677.00
Country
United States
Faith
Generic Orthodox Christian
Marital Status
Celibate
You sound Catholic, dude. Good, smart, traditional, conservative, compassionate, prayerful Catholic.

Thank you. I confess one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, but because of the schism between the three Eastern churches (EO, OO and Assyrian), in particular between the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, which strikes me as utterly pointless, I have an ecumenical ecclesiology. I believe both of those churches have sacramental grace, and I am pretty sure the Roman Catholic church has sacramental grace, and I believe I experienced sacramental grace in the Protestant church in which I grew up. My favorite food was literally the Eucharist, which that church served by intinction of leavened bread in grape juice (very similar to how the EO and Syriac Orthodox distribute the Sacrament, albeit with grape juice instead of sweet, diluted, and in the case of the EO church, due to the admixture of hot water (xeon) hot church wine); I tried several times to “make” holy communion by combining bread and grape juice, but it never worked.

I also took literally the Institution Narrative and “This is the body and blood of our Lord” and adopted a belief in transubstantiation, later abstracted to mystical transformation into the body and blood of Christ when I realized how complex the specific doctrine of transubstantiation is, relying on Aristotelian categories, and so it was easier, and more ecumenical, to just say, the bread and the wine in the Eucharist become the actual physical body and blood through the action of the Holy Spirit, retaining under normal circumstances the perceptual attributes of bread and wine, but also for some revealing both by adding perceptual attributes, or altering the perceptual attributes to flesh and blood, an event which caused a Muslim to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy when he saw for a moment what appeared to be the bloody sacrifice of an infant, only to look again and see that it was bread and wine - because conversion was illegal, he was beheaded and received the Crown of Martyrdom, one of relatively few Muslims to convert.
 
Upvote 0

Pavel Mosko

Arch-Dude of the Apostolic
Supporter
Oct 4, 2016
7,236
7,312
56
Boyertown, PA.
✟768,575.00
Country
United States
Faith
Oriental Orthodox
Marital Status
Single
I also took literally the Institution Narrative and “This is the body and blood of our Lord” and adopted a belief in transubstantiation, later abstracted to mystical transformation into the body and blood of Christ when I realized how complex the specific doctrine of transubstantiation is, relying on Aristotelian categories, and so it was easier, and more ecumenical, to just say, the bread and the wine in the Eucharist become the actual physical body and blood through the action of the Holy Spirit, retaining under normal circumstances the perceptual attributes of bread and wine, but also for some revealing both by adding perceptual attributes, or altering the perceptual attributes to flesh and blood, an event which caused a Muslim to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy when he saw for a moment what appeared to be the bloody sacrifice of an infant, only to look again and see that it was bread and wine - because conversion was illegal, he was beheaded and received the Crown of Martyrdom, one of relatively few Muslims to convert.

He had that vision being your friend, talking with you on the subject and visiting a church? That kind of would be a good topic for a thread or YouTube video.

Back in the old Days of Orthodox Christian Forums we had threads where this one famous Coptic priest came up. Their were different kinds of miracles that would pop up in connection to the Eucharist. Like people getting healed, demons exorcised, or if you snapped a camera of any sort, it looked like you could see glory rays coming from the host etc. One of my Coptic friends would post those kind of pics to some of the dismissive EO folks "So who around here thinks that the Coptic Sacraments are ineffective". But of course they had Adobe Photoshop going back to the early 2000s so that was response I got when I shared them at that time.
 
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums

The Liturgist

Traditional Liturgical Christian
Supporter
Nov 26, 2019
10,934
5,592
49
The Wild West
✟461,677.00
Country
United States
Faith
Generic Orthodox Christian
Marital Status
Celibate
He had that vision being your friend, talking with you on the subject and visiting a church? That kind of would be a good topic for a thread or YouTube video.

Oh no, that happened in the 1400s I believe. He is commemorated in the Church of Antioch. I think I read of him on the enjoyable blogs of John Sandipoulos
 
  • Like
Reactions: anna ~ grace
Upvote 0

The Liturgist

Traditional Liturgical Christian
Supporter
Nov 26, 2019
10,934
5,592
49
The Wild West
✟461,677.00
Country
United States
Faith
Generic Orthodox Christian
Marital Status
Celibate
It almost makes me wonder if this could be over something like Creationism, because some folks can be very dogmatic on that!

My views on Genesis as the amazingly accurate metaphor for what science tells us about the origin of the Universe is on my CF blog Unceasing Worship. I expect for some this makes me a Liberal.
 
  • Friendly
Reactions: anna ~ grace
Upvote 0