I know Mike.

Also, purgatory is scriptural as in 1st Corinthians 3

The entire chapter is about it.

So I will be joining the Catholic Church absolutely.

Sorry, Orthodox brother ❤

Thats good to hear cathobro

@Iakovos also if you want to give a more in-depth view on orthodox view on purgatory

http://orthodoxinfo.com/death/stmark_purg.aspx

check this

@Iakovos I'm also happy that you did you found out your faith again ^_^

If God allows that I live through this summer, I will be joining RCIA this August at my Priest's recommendations. I am extremely excited, I can't wait for summer to pass and begin catechization.

I wish you luck bro

I knew that once I came back that God loved me, and so I sought him for advice and guidance to worship him to the best of my ability. I know in my heart the Catholics worship correctly.

God never abandons anyone, he is waiting patiently for everyone to come back

AS LE JOO I SUPPORT THE FOUNDING OF FALASTIYN

Orthodox worship is equally valid, don't deny them that. They are schismatic, not heretic.

Christ is literally present in the Eucharist of an Orthodox Mass

I think we probably believe the same thing about purgatory but explain it differently. The Catholic explanation sounds more like a place, and the Orthodox more like a state of existence

@Deleted User Exactly

thats why we don't scrap the idea of a place like purgatory but don't accept it as a place that the souls go before go to haven

Your picture sucks 🤣

What I see when I open it ☝🏻🤣

daymn xD

open it on original

On phone

it should look like this

Had to save it to my phone just so I can see it 🤣

xD

not my fault there 😛 The source photo was bad it seems haha

I'm off to uni cya all

So the Assyrian and oriental orthodox joined back into Catholics?

maybe some joined as some eastern orthodox joined the papacy

Also... you do realize that most Protestant churches don’t have 1 centralized organization that controls doctrine right? There’s like 5 for Baptists. Each one is a little different on their doctrines. Then you have the numerous independent churches whose doctrine is controlled by the current pastor and whatever leaders they have.

Some denominations have largely gone to heresy. Methodist is the first I think of. There’s plenty of good Methodist churches, but some of their ruling organizations have allowed female pastors and gay weddings and other crap.

The Methodist church I grew up in was forced to retire their good ole fashioned fire and brimstone pastor and replace him with one chosen by the United Methodist Church. The first guy was really good. He actually dressed in a robe like he was a monk or something. Had sound messages, from what I remember. Then the organization decided to move him after like 4 years and replaced him with a woman.

The woman just talked about how we should be kind all the time because Jesus was kind all the time.

True, but as I said most of the protestant churches are revisioning the bible thus turning it to heresy

Like one of the protestant church in US that allow same sex marriagw and the woman that is bishop there is an lgbt hedonist

I don’t think saying “most” is fair. Now if you’re referring to Protestant churches that accept gay pastors, gay weddings, and women pastors. Then yeah those are heresy.

Or ones that teach that God isn’t a trinity.

Or there’s no hell...

The Methodist church in my town actually was all upset and sort of protested when the UMC decided to not allow gay marriages in the churches.

It obviously has a female pastor. She looks like a middle aged cat lady lesbian too.

The lack of a central organization has its pros and cons.

A Protestant Church can have a certain denomination on the sign, but without talking to the pastor you don’t really know what doctrines are actually taught in the church.

That is one thing I admire about orthodox and Catholics. Doctrines are supposed to be the same worldwide.

definitely don't agree with gay weddings and gay church leaders

but where in the bible does it say women pastors are wrong?

I think it’s Timothy. It’s the part about the requirements for deacons.

That usually translates to the same requirements for priests/pastors as well.

Then we have numerous times it’s explained that men are supposed to be the head/ruler.

Then the other New Testament part that gets most modern feminist educated women upset, women are to be subservient to their husbands. So another example of women not being in charge.

@Deleted User Women in orthodox arent allowed to place their foot inside the holy places of the churches nor are allowed to our sacred monasteries

@Andrules Orthodoxy is a decentralized church but we dont have such problems

I know you don’t have a pope, but don’t you have some sort of council or organized group that makes doctrinal decisions for the Orthodox Church?

the penticostals have the Penticostal Holiness Church as an organization who makes decisions

and also our church is sponsored by Global University which teaches theology and biblical greek

Aren’t there multiple Pentecostal organizations? I know there are for most other Protestant denominations.

oh heck

well that's the one we have

probably a branch to a bigger organization which makes the actual decisions

@Andrules

Since you’re in Malta... might bee too small to have that many different groups, but I’m just guessing here.

yeah its only Pentecostal holiness church here

idk about worldwide organizations

Can you post the link? @Deleted User

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church_organization

scroll down for church governance and jurisdiction

Thanks.

if you want a more in-depth analysis I can send you one

Screenshots don’t always do well on the phone 🤣

true, I forgot you aren't on pc 😛

They work okay when I take them and crop everything around. Desktop likes to make it huge, then discord compresses the image. So it gets all fuzzy when I try to zoom in.

I'll send you in pm a more in-depth analysis of how orthodoxy is structured

👍🏻

So there’s 15 bishops?

Or does every worship center have a bishop?

Pretty sure they have more than that

We have thousands

@Andrules Kinda a lot as they do have different ranks

Yeah and a bishop reigns over a diocese. Which is several parishes. Referring to rags on Catholics.

It's just that its bishop has authority only in his church and not the others

So they have authority only in their own jurisdiction

Same here

But then you have councils of bishops that meet to keep the church doctrine established.

The wiki says synods.

Except the Bishop of Rome has primacy

Ecumenical council, synod etc

So you have synods of bishops that convene and determine Orthodox Church doctrine.

Our doctrines and theirs are pretty much settled already. Councils just clarify ideas and interpretations

So Orthodox is decentralized, in that you don’t have a pope, but you still have a governing body that keeps the Orthodox Church in line.

Yes, the autocephales are meant to keep their church in-line

If one of the bishops decides to change, it seems that he and his churches would be removed from the title of orthodox.

what do you mean change?

Like no longer considered orthodox by the the others.

No

they would be either schismatic so the communion with the churches would end

like the church of Constantinople with the church of Russia

@Deleted User yeah that’s what I meant. I know y’alls doctrines are basically established and unchanging. But like you said, questions arise about interpretations of verses and stuff.

Ah ok. So Russia and “Greek” orthodox aren’t in communion now?

wrong

Greece has its own church nowdays

it isn't the same church with Constantinople

Oh I see.

Before our revolution against the ottomans we were under the jurisdiction of Constantinople

The only thing I could say that its bad in a decentralized church is that it can be weaponized like it has been done in Russia numerous times

Yeah. There’s a lot of pros and cons in a centralized vs decentralized church.

Local pastors can be corrupted and paid off to influence people. And without a governing body for them to report to, it may never be discovered.

Corruption isn't an issue at least for the Greek church

That’s part of what happened in West Virginia during the miner riots and strikes.

Pastors were corrupted to give messages of being passive and allowing the mine owners to just run all over the workers.

“We should be long suffering like Jesus was. Just ignore the fact you will never be paid enough to not be a miner and your kids will be miners and never have another option.”

How do you think you can’t have corrupted Orthodox priests?

Depends, in the era of my father and his father, corrupted priests would be thrown out of the church from the people, tore their clothes and shave them

Nowdays we don't do that so the "big" fish can get corrupted the patriarchs etc but the common priests here aren't like that. They may be harsh with the punishments for your sins but not extort money

The Patriarchs though are another story though

At least they don't kiss moosies and endorse gays "shots fired 😛 "

jokes aside, corrupted priests are a big problem because the govt have their back with their laws and you can't do much anymore

Ah. So you were fucking around when you said orthobros don’t get corrupted 🤔🤣

Well, the higher ups kinda do nowdays :/

@Andrules Forgot to mention, we had a drama here because a patriarch of us said that we need to ostracize gays and leave them out of our group and the Law here sued him ahahaha

Oh wow

That’s dumb 🤣

Was it some hate speech bullshit?

Yes

Our govt doesn't even allow us to sing some march songs we do have because it give birth to faschists 😛

Wow, restorationism was a branch of protestantism. I really had it wrong.

Also, Priest said RCIA is free and they have dinner on Tuesday nights. I can't wait for summer to pass.

Are you going to become a priest? @Iakovos

No, I want a family. If I was to be a priest I would participate in the Maronite Catholic Church

RCIA is Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults

Like baptism?

For people who come from other denominations.

first time I hear it

No.

I've already been baptized.

This is just a class to he confirmed Catholic

Weren't you baptized as a catholic? Why do you need RCIA

Or it is because you were in the church of christ ?

I was baptized as Church of Christ but it is still valid by Catholics.

Ahh I see

It's mainly to educate me on Catholic doctrine.

If you have the bible it will help you a lot in your studying too

Lots of churches have a class of some sort they want you to take in order to join. (For Mike)

Didn't knew that, it's kinda new to me.

I guess if all around you is Greek Orthodox, there’s not much reason to have the class 🤷

Yeah

Well, now that my country has become neutral religion, heretics will pour in with the buckets

Religion heretics 🤣

here I fixed it 😛

But because we do not have guns here we are going to burn down the mosques with gas

Cheaper and more efficient anyways

true I can get a camping gas with only 1 euro here

I have both the protestant bible and the Catholic edition.

Why lying, we all know you will come to Greece to assimilate and become orthodox ☦ @wwezombiegod 🤔

Depends, Computer science here is good 😛

Sorry, my US taxes are enough. Don’t want the Greek ones. 😜🤣

But we have FrEe HeAlThCaRe

🤣🤣

Yes, it's free to die here, just not for your family. It will net them at least 3k

Well, here even if you die tough luck to see a doctor cAuSe Muh Socialism that funds only the gypsies here

Haha do you hate them so much?

We all do

They are just like pests

Here they are mostly weed traffickers, their suburbs are literal trash and not some ppl you want to cross tbh

Especially that the govt we do have is giving them benefits and the power to vote too now

But no worries if you don't go to cheap poor areas here you aren't going to meet any of that literal wastes of humanity

Well you could <:thinking:445724717450526731>

Or you can be my right hand when I'm crowned as an Emperor and execute at least 40% of my population

No wories, no jet flights as I will enforce martial law until the deed is done and Cleanse my country from the filth and gypsies

You will have a lot of free tea too

>dumps tea into the sea and deliberately changes how we talk

How did the American accent change?

>Sips salt water infused with tea
What do you mean?

I was asking some historian *sips sugar infused coffee*

>Unlocks a cabinet full of ouzo
Probably it was from testing nukes on your own people <:thinking:445724717450526731>

>Takes shots of ouzo and tzatziki
That's not such a good idea brother

Fuck I hate gypsies

If anything redeems Hitler it's killing the gypsies

He didn't do it in Greece though and we are stuck with 300k of them here

F

@Iakovos American accent didn't change

The accent around Virginia is most accurate to original English

British accent is an artificial construct from their aristocratic schools to separate themselves from the common people

Aristocrats and their kinks as always

Really? Virginia is the closest to “colonial” English?

Closest to colonial and British Isles

Interesting.

Focus on the highlighted parts...

I’ve never heard that the book of revelations was insane ramblings 🤣

I guess this guy also skipped over the part of the gospels where Jesus is flipping tables and whipping people 🤷

Sell ur shit and get a sword

Don't forget to give your money to the papacy

Or your orthobro church. Need more gold plated stuff for your bishop 😜

We need more gold for our Icons*

;p

Yeah bro. Fuck helping the poor and stuff. Need more golden images to worship 🤣😜

Well, We didn't forced them to be poor 👀 <:smugpepe:445634631950139403>

🤣🤣

Fun-fact: the mongols that sided with Emperor Leo III against the icons in Byzantine were the poor 😛

Rapture isn't biblical

wait its not?

isn't the Rapture in Revelations?

or does the strife not count as the Rapture

Rapture is nowhere in the Bible

You're thinking of tribulation, strife, or an all around shitty experience

https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/timeeternal/rapture-orthodox-understanding-infographic/ @Deleted User

oh yeah, i was talking about the tribulations

didn't know the Rapture wasn't part of that, didn't read revelations in depth

So the official catholic stance on the rapture, is it isn’t a thing?

Correct

Oh

Interesting.

So where does it come from then, if not the Bible?

Puritans I think

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture

Not seeing a date for when the belief first started.

i dont believe in the rapture lol

@Iakovos

Ephesians 4:11-12

Hebrews 5:1

1st Timothy 3

Titus 1:7-9

1st Timothy 2:7

1st Timothy 4:14

Matthew 16:18-19

Acts 20:28

John 20:21-23

Ephesians 4 literally describes the body of the church

@Andrules The book of Revelations is also a prophecy about Jerusalem being destroyed.

The 7 headed beast (City of 7 Hills) is Rome, and the Harlot (Jerusalem) sits on top of it. It talks about the harlot being a city in which Christ our Lord being crucified. That confirms the Harlot is Jerusalem.

Eventually, the beast grows angry with the harlot, and consumes her with fire. (The burning of Jerusalem).

This will be enabled

Though I might be wrong.

when they rebuilt the temple of solomon there

Thats when the end-times will begin

Yeah I’ve read revelations.

Did a very small study on it one time.

The most time and effort I put into studying a part of the Bible was the story of Elijah.

Everything Elijah did was to show how weak/powerless/nonexistent Baal was.

Honestly, Revelations for now isn't pertinent to our salvation. It will be made readily available for us to understand when the time is necessary. Some has already passed, I believe more is to come.

With that thinking, all we need is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Could probably even just cut it down to one of them 🤷

@Andrules wrong. The Apostles had the Holy Spirit and revealed for us more commandments.

The problem is, we can't understand all of Revelations. It's a metaphor. Some has already passed, some is yet to come I believe.

Mostly, I believe it was a code written to the Churches so that they can be saved.