- Jul 6, 2004
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I'm not posting this as debatable. (Please forgive me for being too brief, or 'in general' on such a subject.)
We need to know this about our common history: The scriptures that we call the New Testament come from inside a service. It was done verbally before it was written down.
It comes from Christian worship in Jerusalem between 33ad and 69ad. The first ones were 'written down' by The Church of Antioch (ACTS 15) in an effort to insure Antioch was doing exactly what Jerusalem was doing on Solomon’s porch.
It is the celebration known to Christians as 'The Liturgy', aka The Divine Liturgy. Divine because it was taught by Christ to the Apostles as proper worship. The written gospels now hold the place in the liturgy that was reserved for the Apostles teachings. In other words... it was, and is, an organized system of worship revolving annually so that all throughout mankind in all places and all time (even future) would learn and partake.
The primary purpose for the liturgy is to teach the human soul to be prepared for death and the life to follow.
The condition of the soul at death is at the core of the teachings of every liturgy. This is not something that is done once a year, it has been performed every day, from the beginning. These things are not in dispute by anyone who knows any Christian history.
Not everything that a Christian would be reassured of can be found in the written New Testament. Attending the liturgy we learn all the Christian Truths, and once we know what 'Christian Truths' look like, it becomes very easy to recognize things that do not come to us from it.
These are the historical facts of the nature of our texts that we now carry with us and call our bible. With the exception of Revelation, the entire New Testament is the product of the liturgy and can be badly misused in any other context.
The fact that the Psalms are in the middle of our bible is a direct testament to the existence of the liturgy. The entire liturgy could be done with the texts given in our bibles if we know what order to read things.
Such universal teaching is the Apostolic way. The Gospel, THE CHRISTIAN TRUTH, that is to say, what Christ taught the Apostles and was passed onto us was a service. A Liturgy. We were to gather together to be taught Christian truths and partake of communion. We are to take the utmost care that these things are not lost or changed.
Anyone who comes to you preaching that 'the soul is not eternal' is in direct contradiction to every liturgy, every burial service, every baptism and all the teaching of the Apostolic Churches.
ALL OF THEM. All of the Churches that are orthodox, of any color!
Those who teach 'the soul is not eternal' are leading us AWAY from the Christian Truths. They do violence to the Gospel and The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
God be gracious to me a sinner.
We need to know this about our common history: The scriptures that we call the New Testament come from inside a service. It was done verbally before it was written down.
It comes from Christian worship in Jerusalem between 33ad and 69ad. The first ones were 'written down' by The Church of Antioch (ACTS 15) in an effort to insure Antioch was doing exactly what Jerusalem was doing on Solomon’s porch.
It is the celebration known to Christians as 'The Liturgy', aka The Divine Liturgy. Divine because it was taught by Christ to the Apostles as proper worship. The written gospels now hold the place in the liturgy that was reserved for the Apostles teachings. In other words... it was, and is, an organized system of worship revolving annually so that all throughout mankind in all places and all time (even future) would learn and partake.
The primary purpose for the liturgy is to teach the human soul to be prepared for death and the life to follow.
The condition of the soul at death is at the core of the teachings of every liturgy. This is not something that is done once a year, it has been performed every day, from the beginning. These things are not in dispute by anyone who knows any Christian history.
Not everything that a Christian would be reassured of can be found in the written New Testament. Attending the liturgy we learn all the Christian Truths, and once we know what 'Christian Truths' look like, it becomes very easy to recognize things that do not come to us from it.
These are the historical facts of the nature of our texts that we now carry with us and call our bible. With the exception of Revelation, the entire New Testament is the product of the liturgy and can be badly misused in any other context.
The fact that the Psalms are in the middle of our bible is a direct testament to the existence of the liturgy. The entire liturgy could be done with the texts given in our bibles if we know what order to read things.
Such universal teaching is the Apostolic way. The Gospel, THE CHRISTIAN TRUTH, that is to say, what Christ taught the Apostles and was passed onto us was a service. A Liturgy. We were to gather together to be taught Christian truths and partake of communion. We are to take the utmost care that these things are not lost or changed.
Anyone who comes to you preaching that 'the soul is not eternal' is in direct contradiction to every liturgy, every burial service, every baptism and all the teaching of the Apostolic Churches.
ALL OF THEM. All of the Churches that are orthodox, of any color!
Those who teach 'the soul is not eternal' are leading us AWAY from the Christian Truths. They do violence to the Gospel and The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
God be gracious to me a sinner.
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