SeraphimSarov

You and me both brother!

Because of this, I always offer to help others struggling because that was once me (and probably will be again).

Glory be to God!

It is truly awesome to see you listening to the call of God on your soul.

It’s been a long journey for my wife and I and we have grown greatly in Christ through learning humility, repentance and to forsake ourselves for Him.

Orthodoxy is the fullness of the Faith. It means “correct/straight” and it truly is the narrow way in which we follow Christ.

I’d recommend attending services at several different jurisdictions (Antiochian/OCA/ROCOR, etc) and start with Vespers services on a Saturday.

May God bless you and keep you as you seek Him. Will help in any way I can.

Not my best analogy but all I had at 2140 hours at night.

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Um... so anyone who isn't catholic isn't a member of a Church?

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You misunderstood sir. The word Catholic, in the context of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ means the following:

“Orthodox Christians understand the word “catholic” word to mean “whole, complete, lacking in nothing.” Hence, when we say “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church,” we mean that the one, holy, and apostolic Church is “whole, complete, and lacking in nothing.”

The word “catholic” with a small “c” has nothing whatsoever to do with Roman “Catholic” with a capital “C”. If it were incorrect to use the word “catholic” in the Nicene Creed, we wouldn’t use it”

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Y'all don't own sole claim to decide who are members of the body of Christ, no matter how much you want and try to.

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You’re 100% correct, I have absolutely no right nor claim to decide who is and isn’t a member of the Church.

Jesus Christ as the cornerstone laid the foundation on which the Church is built. After Christ ascended into Heaven and took His seat at the right hand of the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost as attested to in the Acts of the Apostles as written by St. Luke.

From there the Church spread like wildfire amongst the darkness with apostolic succession unbroken from 33 A.D. to this very day.

It is Christ Himself who directed us to uphold the Eucharist whenever we gathered together and to walk the narrow way unto salvation.

Any gathering that “teaches another gospel” than that has to make peace with the dissonance.

Please elaborate, as I don’t understand your reference.

The Gospels and Epistles were not written in Hebrew nor Aramaic but in Koine Greek.

The Greek word used often is ecclesia / ekklesia which means a gathering, an assembly.

That is the word used in the New Testament to describe Christian liturgical experience.

“Individual Christians of the early Church left their respective homes on Sunday to assemble and gather in a particular prearranged place - maybe a home, maybe a synagogue, even in fields or barns to remember Christ at the Eucharist as He promised that He would be in their midst, even if the assembly were so small that only two or three were there [Matthew 18:20].

Christian assembly/ekklesia is what happens after the Christians assemble; however the place of assembly is not the Church, it is the people in whom Christ manifests His presence as He promised He would.

One can there talk of the ekklesia or church in the plural because Christians assembled in many assemblies throughout the world. One can also talk of the ekklesia or church in the singular, because wherever one went throughout the world one found the same Christ in every single assembly. The assembly in Thessalonica was the same as the assembly in Corinth because Christ was equally present in both. Christ’s presence made the different assemblies into one Assembly—one Church.

Since 33 A.D., Christians came together with the expectation of meeting Christ there. That is the whole reason for assembling.

Valuable as sermons are and uplifting as the choir sounds one mostly assembles to meet the Lord and to be fed with His Body and Blood. We go in our brokenness to be healed, and in our filthiness to be washed clean. We assemble because the only one who can heal and cleanse is there and He has promised to do both for us if we come in penitence and faith.

Finally, if we plan on assembling on Sunday we must live in anticipation of this event on the six days previous. The priest will call us to the Chalice by saying the words, “The holy things for the holy!”—or, in another possible translation, “The sanctified things for the saints!” The usual New Testament term for a believer is the word “saint” [Greek agios], which is what we are. A saint is not a sinless person, but a person who belongs to God and who is striving to please Him, whatever his or her rate of success. It is as saints that we assemble, which is why the priest uses that term.

As members of the Ekklesia and the Household of God we must strive to become what we are.”

I lived most of my life in the Southern Baptist and “non-denominational” world and just couldn’t live with the cognizant dissonance anymore of being told to live a life according to “biblical principles” yet those same pastors want to ignore or explain away the commands of Christ to “eat of my body, drink of my blood” etc.

When I learned of the Lives of the Saints and the rivers of blood that flowed from the martyrs and continues today and realized I sat without any knowledge of the warriors of the Faith such as St. Ignatius, St. John Chrysostom, St. Mary of Egypt and on and on…

Changed my life brother.

Meaning of Church as known for 1054 years after Pentecost:

The visible and organic body of Christian believers, especially as accepting the ecumenical creeds of Christendom and as exhibiting a historic continuity of organized life.

When we ask why do churches allow gay preachers or why does church A believe in the “prosperity gospel” ad nauseam we misuse the word Church.

All of these countless denominations that follow their own ways with no accountability to the Traditions and Canons of the Church that is unbroken since Pentecost are not the Church…they’re assemblies.

Looking at it all wrong…if company is sanctioned by our godless blood thirsty govt…then it’s probably a good business.