Hello Esme,
Good news! There is no question on the issue. Homosexual activities are without reservation rejected by the Church as immoral, unlawful, and absolutely against God's plan for His creation. There is not a single father of confession in…
Hello Tigran,
There is a difference between considering a sect to be properly "a church," even that due to its roots that it is "a church originating with Christ," and saying that this church is in union with the "One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Orth…
Hi Mabsoota,
By all means, I don't want to debate people in Christ. I don't consider these discussions "debate," but only as discussions with fellow members of Christ's One True Church, who genuinely seek to know and love the truth (as St Severus t…
Hello Tigran,
We've addressed St Nerses Shnorhali before, and basically there are a few reasons why we cannot use him to support the modern idea of ecumenism:
1. St Nerses did not say that the Chalcedonian heretics were always orthodox. He wanted t…
Hi Aba,
Excellent points. It is, of course, true that our Holy Fathers knew more during their time, since they routinely debated Chalcedonian Nestorians, other Nestorians, and other groups of theological dissidents. Also, our Holy Fathers were hol…
Hello Tigran,
Yes, I can send you St Pope Timothy II's excellent refutation of the Tome of Leo (he basically quotes from 1/3-1/2 of the entire Tome and refutes it part by part) and the Synod of Chalcedon. I'm not sure exactly what percent of the To…
Hello Tigran,
Sure thing! But, to contextualize what I said:"To speak of two natures as 'unified,' only as it regards being conjoined, but not as synthesizing into one nature [is Nestorian]"
By this, I mean that the same metaphysical category which…
Hello Mabsoota,
Christ did not take on the tendency to sin, which is why His temptation was purely from without, and in no way from within. St Mary did have this "tendency to sin" and was purified in the Annunciation, though she never committed any…
Thank you for the book recommendation. The Assyrian Church of the East is actually closer to Orthodoxy than the Chalcedonites, interestingly, in that they allow for the profession of one theandric operation and one theandric will - whereas the Chal…
Hello Tigran,
Actually, only some Chalcedonites made this mistake (namely John the Grammarian and Anastasius of Antioch/Sinai) of identifying Christ as all individuals. This was what St Severus the Great warned John the Grammarian of - that if he t…
My friend,
It's clear that while two wills come together into one, they compose one will. This is the very thing that the Chalcedonians rejected, that one will is composed of two. They maintained that you must profess an enduring duality of wills …
Hello Tigran,
For one, after the fall the blameless passions affect one in physically damaging ways (sleep depravation, starvation, etc.) and ultimately these can lead even to physical death. We don't believe that Christ's death was on account of h…
Hello Tigran,
The way the blameless passions affect man is different before the fall and after the fall, and so it is experiencing the blameless passions qua after the fall which is called "corrupted."
Manzikert is working from the incorruptibility …
Hello Tigran,
There may be a slight miscommunication, as I should qualify what I have said by saying:
The prospect for reunion is a good one, and we ought not to be opposed to it, but as the essence of what heterodox sects are, they are as St Grigor…
Hello Tigran,
Saying that Christ took from our sinful and corrupted body and soul from St Mary is not the same as saying that Christ's soul is corrupted by original sin. Tatevatsi is saying that that which Christ took from (St Mary) had original si…
Hello,
Some information from the Armenian Orthodox Saint Gregory of Tatev, who is the most relevant Armenian Orthodox saint on this matter due to the history that the Armenian church had to endure up to his point:
"Now, the heathen and the schismati…
Hello Tigran,
St Severus never affirmed that the blameworthy passions were experienced by Christ, only blameless passions of hunger and sleep etc., it is these blameless passions which Christ did not have anymore after the Ressurection. Julian clai…
Hello Mabsoota,
The original poster is referring to the debate between St Severus and Julian of Halicarnassus. You'll recall from your personal studies of the Chalcedonian schism of this debate from St Severus' "anti Julianist" writings and apologe…
Hello,
The debate over corruptibility and incorruptibility of Christ was probably the most contentious Christological debate in the sixth century Church of Christ.
There was a heretic named Julian of Halicarnassus who taught that Christ's nature was…
Hello,
Yes, Orthodox (Miaphysites) accept the Essence-Energy Distinction, however we reject the Palamite innovations that the Chalcedonite schismatics later accepted.
As such, we necessarily reject Absolute Divine Simplicity, which posits that every…
The one nature of our Lord, the Word incarnate, Jesus Christ the Son of David, the Son of Mary, is both created and uncreated, because after the union of hypostases, the composite hypostasis of Christ retains natural propriety. Divine properties re…
Though this is a very old thread, for those it would benefit, a preliminary remark must be made:
The idea that the Orthodox Church has not responded to the interpretation of the Chalcedonian churches of the Council of Chalcedon is incorrect. St Sev…
Hello my friend, blessed forty days to you and a joyful feast.
Non-Orthodox will try to point to the Fathers pre-schism to justify dyophysitism, but this is all sophistry which is meant to detract from the dogma defined at the Council of Ephesus in …
Hello James, it was a delight hearing about your experience and walk with God, so I have to start by thanking you for your heartwarming story.
I'm not sure about Copts crossing themselves very fast. In my experience Coptic Christians cross themselve…
@ophadece hello my friend.
I'm not sure exactly what the question is yet, but preemptively I will say this:
St Augustine was a pre schism individual, and as such he was part of the Church and not a schismatic body. However, he believed many false …
The Ethiopian veneration of the heretic John of Damascus is a novelty, and it is illegitimate. It's simply an abuse which is likely due to scholastic Latinization. The Synaxarion entry for the pseudo-saint shows a certain unfamiliarity with his pers…
@mabsoota thank you, I appreciate it.
As for what you're saying about the Chalcedonian schism involving politics, there is some truth to this, but to avoid scandalizing people, we should specify that:1. The political affairs were not the reason for …
@mabsoota I really like how you took the time to explain our view of salvation, and how salvation is not a "switch" like some of the Protestant traditions try to explicate it.
In essence, we believe that the sense of being "saved" or "not saved" ult…
I'm not sure where what you read, but Oriental Orthodoxy teaches that it is the One True Church. Now, this doesn't mean that none of the people found in other churches are not saved, but it does mean that it is obligatory upon oneself to join the Tr…