A staunch transhumanist is completely untrustworthy.
"Why did the Protestant Reformers abandon the Greek Septuagint for a rabbinic textual tradition?"
I regret buying corn through KYC rails 😔
Friendly reminder: 12 days of Christmas starts now. Next stop, Theophany!
Merry Christmas brother!
He is a wonderful man, his book on the Orthodox Veneration of The Mother of God is outstanding. Really a great polemic for converts/Protestant friends who have a hard time with our deep love of the Theotokos.
From the perspective of the Theotokos, the Nativity shines as the mystery in which she offers her full and fearless obedience to God, not as a rival to Christ but as the one who freely receives Him in her flesh and becomes the living gateway of our salvation. In her womb, the Creator fashions for Himself a human nature taken wholly from her, and she bears Him in love while confessing, with deep humility, that the child she nurses is the One through whom all things came to be. Saint Gregory Palamas speaks of her as the boundary between the created and the uncreated, because in her person the human will responds without reserve to divine grace and makes possible the coming of the Word in the flesh (Gregory Palamas, Homily on the Entry of the Theotokos). Her motherhood never diminishes Christ but proclaims His full divinity and full humanity, since He receives from her what He does not possess eternally — our mortal life — while bestowing upon her, and through her upon us, the pledge of glorification. In the Feast of the Nativity, the Church honours her not as the source of salvation, but as the one who consents to become its vessel, and whose joyful assent echoes in every heart that dares to say yes to God.
Christ is born!
Glorify Him!
The grotto of the Nativity, Bethlehem, birthplace of our Lord
After many types and prefigurings, messengers and heralds, prophets and righteous men, wise men and kings, finally He appeared, the Lord of the world and King of kings, to perform the work of the salvation of mankind that could not be performed by His servants. May His be eternal glory and praise! Amen.
Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One,
And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One!
Angels with shepherds glorify Him!
The wise men journey with a star!
Since for our sake the Eternal God was born as a Little Child!
Kontakion for the Nativity of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ
The Jews are preparing to celebrate “Nittel Nacht,” a parody of Christmas, where they mock the “hanged” with “latrines,” while reading “Toledot Yeshu,” a medieval story mocking the the Gospel which describes the life of Jesus, from birth to death, and is filled with blasphemous insults. Modern Judaism is not an "alternative continuation of the Second Temple religion, which evolved differently from Christianity,” but a false religion primarily built on rejection and opposition to Christ and Orthodox Christianity.
"Is there not a great gulf between us and the Jews? Is it not for the most important of matters that this dispute exists? Why do you mix what cannot be mixed? They crucified Christ, whom you worship."
☦️Saint John Chrysostomos
What a wonderful time of year! Without the incarnation of the God-Man Jesus Christ we would not have His Theophany, Transfiguration, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension!
“What was prefigured at that time in the flame of the bush was openly manifested in the mystery of the Virgin… Just as on the mountain the bush burned but was not consumed, so also the Virgin gave birth to the light and was not corrupted.” —St. Gregory of Nyssa in The Life of Moses and On the Birth of Christ☦️
So difficult to choose but St Paisios is on my list too 🤝 as well as St. John Maximovitch.
Let's hear it!
From Anthony of Westgate*
God entered His creation here 🫂
Why should a person trust what you or I have to say? Why should a person trust the texts or the authors who wrote them?
Christianity is not a religion based on a book or a collection of them. It is based off of divine revelation, more specifically of the God-Man Jesus Christ. We can trust this truth because of the great witnesses (holy men and women) that have lived and dedicated themselves to that revelation often unto death for the last 2000 years. It is the Apostles and afterward, the Saints who Christ works through. Christ's Church, like Christ himself, is incarnational (exists physically in time and space). It is through His Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, where people can find the fullness of this divine revelation. It it through His divinely appointed Church where Truth is preserved and passed down through the ages.
☦️ GM
Fenix ammunition accepts bitcoin.
Not a bumper sticker guy but I would.
Ok, so this portion of Acts is the first documented council in Christendom: The Jerusalem Council where St. James (Bishop of Jerusalem), St Paul, St Peter, and St Barnabas as well as other elders (priests) preside over a very important decision in the early Church. I posted this portion of Holy Scripture to show you that there is Scriptural precedence for Bishops and Priests. There are 9 more councils held by the Church that are authoritative and were presided over by Bishops. These councils were not declaring new theology but rather defending the revelation it received from Christ Himself. Here are 7 that most folks are familiar with, the final 2 councils are debated between the East and the West. They primarily cover the filioque clause (and the Son) that the Latins inserted into the Nicene Creed and the essence energies distinction.
1. Nicaea 325 Arianism Christ is fully God
2. Constantinople 381 Divinity of Holy Spirit Trinity affirmed
3. Ephesus 431 Nestorianism Mary = Theotokos
4. Chalcedon 451 Nature of Christ Two natures, one person
5. Constantinople II 553 “Three Chapters” Clarified Chalcedon
6. Constantinople III 680–681 Monothelitism Two wills in Christ
7. Nicaea II 787 Iconoclasm Icons venerated
The same authority you see in Acts is the very same authority (The Church guided by The Holy Spirit) you see in the councils that follow. Additionally, these same councils bring you the canon of Scripture (The protestant canon is not the canon that is eventually confirmed as it is missing the Deutercanonical texts) and the earliest complete list comes from St. Athanasius in the 360s.
Good thread and discussion. We've reached the point where honestly I would be outside of the scripture and that's not where I am led.
To a Protestant images of Jesus are Iconography and don't take it personally. The very church I have recently joined has images of Jesus in a few places.
Orthodox and Catholic churches have even more iconography and it definitely is against the scripture to do so.
Liturgical is fancy for I'll read this for you.
Christ definitely is against much talking publicly for show.
Matthew 6:5 KJV “¶And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”
Truly we need to look at the fruit of the messenger.
Matthew 7:15-20 KJV “¶Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17. Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
Look at the places where the church is a powerful
We are not just winging it. We study the gospel and we have made it open source.
Jesus has performed miracles for me this year and he's working through me every day. The Church is the body of Christ and we are party of it. Not in ecumenism but in experience, faith and study. We are also purposely separated to prevent false powerful churches from hiding the Word of God.
Matthew 23:9 KJV “And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”
That eliminates all the "priests" who want to be called Father and specifically:
Mat 23:9 Byzantine “και πατερα μη καλεσητε υμων επι της γης εις γαρ εστιν ο πατηρ υμων ο εν τοις ουρανοις”
Shared using AndBible: Bible Study. (https://andbible.github.io)
I too will give a response to the rest of your post but this addresses a portion if it.
https://inklesspen.blog/2025/07/21/call-no-man-father-dont-you-read-the-bible-bruh/
Yep! When you find yourself justifying a behavior it's because that behavior is separting yourself from God.
Very few
“The Gospel is a harsh document; the Gospel is ruthless and specific in what it says; the Gospel is not meant to be re-worded, watered down and brought to the level of either our understanding or our taste. The Gospel is proclaiming something which is beyond us and which is there to stretch our mind, to widen our heart beyond the bearable at times, to recondition all our life, to give us a world view which is simply the world upside-down and this we are not keen to accept.”
– Metropolitan Anthony Bloom
🔥🔥Blueeeeeeeegrass 
This aligns with the prophecies of many modern Saints. There is a group of folks translating and publishing their work.
I should note that this IS NOT dispensational theology/rapture nonsense.
