A Christians questions about Orthodoxy

[moses916]

(lol nevamind, Oblio already answered the question)

 

[orthodoxy]

Ok so anonykat, I went to your tripod website and clicked on the Phil thompson website that you suggested. In reading about some of the differences in the orthodox churches and the western churches, I found this unique(to me anyways) bit of information;

[font=Arial, Helvetica]According to the Orthodox, God himself is both heaven and hell, reward and punishment. All men have been created to see God unceasingly in His uncreated glory. Whether God will be for each man heaven or hell, reward or punishment, depends on man’s response to God’s love and on man’s transformation from the state of selfish and self-centered love, to Godlike love which does not seek its own ends.[/font]

God is an all consuming fire. Hebrews

Nothing can seperate man from the love of God. Romans

Blessed Theophylact said "Let this shut the mouths of those that teach that all the souls in hell will be restored [and united with those in heaven] after they have been punished in accordance with their sins. Let them hear that there is no exchange that can be made there for one's soul. No one is kept in hell as a punishment then restored to glory. Rather, it is the weight of his own sins which holds him there."



[font=Arial, Helvetica]

God himself is heaven and hell? This is truly something new to me. What do you guys think about this? Is this a widely accepted orthodox view? Or is this like a roman catholic doctrine that most lay people aren't even aware of?

Widely known mystery. Orthodoxy will mess a protestants mind all up so we try not to discuss it in mixed company.

[font=Arial, Helvetica] Here is something else;

[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]While the brain (according to the Orthodox) is the center of human adaptation to the environment, the noetic faculty in the "heart" is the primary organ for communion with God. The fall of man or the state of inherited sin is: a) the failure of the noetic faculty to function properly, or to function at all; b) its confusion with the functions of the brain and the body in general; and c) its resulting enslavement to the environment.

[/font][font=Arial, Helvetica]Each individual experiences the fall of his own noetic faculty. One can see why the Augustinian (Latin, Frankish) understanding of the fall of man as an inherited guilt for the sin of Adam and Eve is not, and cannot, be accepted by the Orthodox tradition[/font]

[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]
Very good now you are getting it.

So the Fall of man is not carrying the original sin of Adam, but the seperation or covering of the noetic faculty from God?

Basically yes.

So when Adam fell and God kicked him out of Eden, Adams seperation from god was a covering of his noetic ability which was then passed down from generation to generation?

Basically yes however God removed him lest he live forever in his fallen state.

[font=Arial, Helvetica]
This is something along the lines of what I have been trying to tell my friends lately;

[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]There is no metaphysical criterion for distinguishing between good and bad people. It is much more correct to distinguish between ill and more healthy persons. The sick ones are those whose noetic faculty is either not functioning, or functioning poorly, and the healthier ones are those whose noetic faculty is being cleansed and illumined

I keep trying to tell them there is no Good and Evil. There is only God and Sin. So since we are not God we are sinful same as the crack addict living in the slums, or the thief just trying to make a buck, the only thing that seperates us from them is what side of the "tracks" we live on. The qoute above rings truer with me than the teaching I have had so far about being completely clean because I have "accepted Jesus into my heart". Again is this a widely known doctrine of the orthodox church or a little known one?
[/font]

The Holy Orthodox Church and its teachings are the best kept secrets in America, shhh.....

kyril[/font][font=Arial, Helvetica]


[/font]