Message from @FreshWholeMilk
Discord ID: 541463641984073732
The CotE was huge up into the 14th century
Fresh is Orthodox
it started declining after that
it was under very heavy persecution in the 20th century during the Assyrian genocide
yea, the church being based in Assyria was bad news
fuckin muzzies
Well, I don’t believe God would allow His Church to decline to such an extent. The gospel was said to be preached to all nations
A semi-Arian could have said that to an Orthodox Christian in the 4th century
The CotE spread Christianity to as far as China, Mongolia, and Japan
And it has been preserved in India to this day
The Arian crisis didn’t last for very long, your sect has been in decline for many centuries
Since the 14th
Before that, it was by many estimates larger than the Latin church
I would rather talk on theological grounds than appeals to the size of the church
one can say the catholic church and the orthodox church suffered the same
^
The church is probably leaving its period of decline now, at least it seems so to me
Are you Assyrian?
No
Along with about 15% of the church
Well, I’m no theologian, so I’m not exactly equipped to debate that matter, but as a rule I don’t take seriously small sects claiming to be the true Church. Same with the Sedevecantists and those sorts of people
The difference with the Sedevecantists is that they do not occupy any apostolic see
Depends, there are Conclavists with their own ‘Popes’
Their elections weren't valid though
Church of the East has her own Sedevacantists, they are called Old Calendarists and elected their own Patriarch
Maybe not, but I don’t believe your hierarchy is valid either
Respectfully it is valid whether you believe it or not
The issue of our apostolic succession has been firmly settled
You might have ‘Apostolic succession’ in a physical sense, but it doesn’t mean you’re spiritually descended from the apostles. The Lutheran Church of Sweden will also claim apostolic succession
Stockholm isn't an apostolic see though
Bawai Soro proved Selecuia-Ctesiphon developed independently from Antioch in his book
Rome is an apostolic see, but I don’t think either of us would recognise the Pope as having legitimate succession
What do you mean a legitimate succession
Recognizing him as orthodox? Of course not
He’s a heretic
Right
So have ‘succession’ doesn’t matter much in that case
If the issue is whether or not we are heretics, we are not
Well, like I said, I don’t think I’m learned enough yet for a theological debate
That's fair
Don't conflate Nestorius with Baptists though, then 🙃