Closer To The Source

God is love as part of His nature. His love is uncreated. Love is triadic in nature in that it overflows to all of creation outside of itself. For example a singular love is self-serving A dualistic love is a closed loop. It's like when a father and mother have a child, now their love and concern must extend to the entire world for the benefit of that child growing up in said world, so the love can no longer be contained only within the relationship. So if God was only a singular person, love would be a created reality. So when you understand that God's love is uncreated, part of His very divine nature, then you can begin to see how amazing and powerful His love is for us. And that He wants to adopt us in such a personal way that we partake of His divine nature and love actually. It's not the perfect explanation but I hope you can appreciate something from that perspective. 🙏☦️

@Eli_StayFocused sola scriptura leads to every individual; their own sect. so its actually worse than what I said

@CloserToSource Your articulated logic is so flawed that you repeat scripted talking points that have been debunked over and over again. Try better. x.com/i/status/20611…

Does anyone else notice how protestants are able to articulate and get their point across, without the use of profanity, and have their point carry more weight than OrthoBros? Articulating your point like an adult is not that hard, but it requires a level of maturity #Jesus

Advice to young guys: 1. Find a solid Orthodox Church & spiritual father. 2. Focus on building a business/career that monetizes your talents/skills. 3. Learn social dynamics and how to communicate and talk to women. 4. Cut down gaming and read important religious, historical, philosophical and literary texts. 5. Limit internet time to only productive/ beneficial uses (informative podcasts etc). 6. Learn basic finance / investing - mainly Bitcoin. 7. Buy a gun and/or learn some self defense. 8. Cut out crap processed soy slop, drinks and exercise / gym. 9. Plan for family / kids / legacy now.

@johncdirks It was not a revision of the faith, it was adding onto the Creed which was already universally believed since the apostles, to combat error. And it is bound for every Christian to hold to this Creed, otherwise you're not a Christian.

@CloserToSource They prayed that they would make the right decisions, showing that they did not view themselves as infallible. Also the creed was later revised (things were added and removed) at Constantinople If it was revised then was it deemed at that time to be infallible?

EOs do you think the fathers at Nicaea knew that they were an infallible council? If Nicaea did not even view itself as an infallible council why would I view it as such?

@johncdirks It is. Just read the Canons of Nicaea to see the phronema of the Church at the time. newadvent.org/fathers/3801.h…

@CloserToSource But that’s not how Nicaea saw it nor the people in that time.

@johncdirks Jesus gave us apostles and their successors to bind and loose. That's how the church operates. That's what He left us when He ascended.

@CloserToSource Why is it binding?

@japan_nobunaga It's literally the source of life, survival for working folk who need inexpensive lunch. Imagine not having cup noodles for Japanese!

My American friends on X won't shut up about peanut butter 🥜 They put it on bread, apples, celery, and apparently even burgers?? In Japan, peanut butter exists but it's not a personality trait 😂 How deep does the peanut butter rabbit hole go? What's YOUR weird combo?

@johncdirks Of course it's binding. They are the successors to the apostles: Matthew 18:18 Also the creed was formulated for every Christian to believe: hence ecumenical.

@CloserToSource This prayer shows that they knew they were fallible and were taking seriously the deliberation of scripture. So what made this council authoritative at the time? Did the Christian’s at that time believe that it was an ecumenical council, infallible and binding?

@Snek_Snack Free speech is the most humanitarian issue. Without it, no other cause other than the pre-programmed narrative will be heard.

Literally has all the money in the world and has not resolved a single humanitarian issue

The world does not need more Christians who merely talk about Christ. It needs Christians through whom Christ can be seen.

The goal is not to win disputes. The goal is to reveal the presence of Christ. Many hearts have been opened by kindness, patience, and mercy.

@travisakers If only schools would dump the expensive chromebooks and have kids actually write with pencils again!

Elon Musk: Trillionaire Jeff Bezos: Billionaire Public School Teachers: Can anyone help me get some pencils for my students?

@OrthodoxLurker At least she isn't tying them to the ceiling fan by their hair, naked, and then flipping the switch on.

The hardest part about being an Orthodox girl dad is that my four year old doesn’t understand the importance of making her Barbies wear head coverings. Ive glued headscarves to all her Barbie’s heads to try and correct this descent into unrepentant immodesty

@DylanDyylas Perhaps the problem isn't money

people starving all around the world and this asshole has a trillion dollars btw

Terrible ideas that have languished in my draft tweets: Orthodox Jeff Dunham

@HosannaHosannaa @Cr1ng3rZ The way you put it though. This forensic baptism idea. Out of fear of this "hole under the fence" Orthodoxy is being reduced to a nominalist legal declaration the same as protestants teach.

@Cr1ng3rZ Surely it will still be dismissed as a “quote mine” anyways😂

Every day, each of us speaks or hears these words in the temple: In iniquity I am conceived, in sins my mother bore me. But, as time has shown, not all believers these days understand their meaning correctly. In what kind of lawlessness are we conceived? What "sins" were you born into? In what "lawlessness" could the blessed prophet David, who spoke these words, born of pious parents, strictly following all the prescriptions of the old law, be conceived? Recently, more and more often from different sides there is an opinion that small children are quite innocent, sinless, harmless and, therefore, if they die without Holy Baptism, they cannot be inheritors of hades just for Adams sin. Really: “what is their fault, what is their own sin, what should they be punished for in the end? Just because their parents didn't baptise them? Only because they are descendants - very, very distant - of Adam, who sinned before God a long time ago? But can it be at least a little fair? Can the goodness of God allow that for the fault of another - an adult - a small innocent child, who has not yet been guilty of anything, losing his life, would be deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven? What is rejected of earthly joys, would the joy of heavenly - eternal - life be removed?” Indeed: starting to judge our ordinary rationalist, earthly logic, verifying the judgments of God by the standards of purely human concepts of justice and mercy, we will come to endless confusion and doubts, in the end, we will begin to recheck and distort all the teaching of the Church about the fall, punishment and salvation of the human race. All these questions somehow rest precisely on the concept of original sin, on the judgment of its essence, it’s depth, consequences and atonement. Without understanding this concept quite clearly and thoroughly, a believer will not be able to understand and deeply, correctly understand any dogma of the Church. He will not be able to appreciate the greatness and significance of the redemptive feat of our Lord Jesus Christ, the meaning of the Savior's sufferings on the cross. He will not be able to navigate correctly and stand on the way of salvation. It will not give the proper value, does not recognize the full necessity of the Holy Sacraments of the Church, and in short, will not understand the meaning and mystery of Christianity at all. The one who stumbled in the concepts of original sin will certainly limp on all the paths of Christian knowledge. It is precisely the sin of Adam, the crime of the commandment of God by the first people, that is the very lawlessness that has fallen on the entire human race, like a kind of dark shadow, and under the deadly seal of which each of us is already at the very conception in the womb of the mother. It is necessary to know that since a person has a body and a soul, he has two deaths: one is the death of the soul, the other is the death of the body; and two immortalities - spiritual and physical, although both are in one person, because the soul and body are one person. So, Adam died in his soul as soon as he tasted it, and then, nine hundred and thirty years later, he died in his body. For as the death of the body is the separation of the soul from it, so the death of the soul is the separation from it of the Holy Spirit, with whom God who created it was favored to be in man. For this reason, the whole human race later became as the forefather Adam became through the fall - mortal and dead in both soul and body. The Orthodox Confession says: Primordial sin is the crime of the law of God given in Paradise to the forefather Adam, when it was said to him: From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, do not eat from it, for on the day you taste from it, you will die (Life. 2, 17). This progenitoral sin passed from Adam to all human nature, since we were all in Adam at that time, and thus the sin spread to all of us through one Adam. Therefore, we are conceived and born with this sin, as the Scriptures teach: Sin entered the world by one person, and death from sin, so death passed into all people, because in him all sinned (Romans 5:12). But this fundamental dogma of Orthodoxy is especially difficult to understand for the rationalist/humanist mind, and here today most of all stumble those people who are used to being guided more by analytical thinking, rather than by the simplicity of faith. Christian simplicity is characterized by the wings of humility and trust in the teaching of the Church to easily and quickly fly through all dogmatic difficulties and incomprehensibility. But a heavy mind relying on it’s own power and reasoning is to limp with limping feet, with great effort to climb through all the elevations and irregularities of the orthodox way. And many could not overcome this difficulty, this incomprehensible truth for the mind, revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures, and they fall hard. It is often possible to hear such a puzzled and even asked with spiritual indignation question: "Can the sin of Adam really make us guilty and responsible for him the one who is not involved at all by deed and will to this sin, and only for what is a descendant of Adam?" Not so long ago, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) expressed his non-Orthodox understanding of this issue in his work "The Dogma of Redemption": "We are not the grandchildren of Adam at will: why will we be responsible for his obedience? Did the condemnation of all because of Adam befell people besides the guilt of each of them?" This is how he shows his rational fabrication, built on fear: as if the revealed truth about the punishment of all people for Adam's sin would not turn out to be contrary to the fallen human mind. But another kind of misunderstanding of the same question by the "theologian" already modern to us - Doctor of Philological Sciences, Head of the Department of Patrology of the Tbilisi Theological Academy E. Chelidze: "And it's true," he says in his article, "if our will did not participate in Adam's sin in any way, how do they say that each of us sinned in Adam? Really without a will? Then there was no sin. Moreover, if we did not participate in Adam's sin in any way, it turns out that the Lord unjustly imposed a punishment on us. Then how do all the saints consider it our own sin?" Here we see two extreme misconceptions, but the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church already revealed to us only one thing: as in Adam we all became participants in his sin and sinners, so in Christ we all became righteous. And it is necessary to understand that the Holy Scriptures testify that we are guilty for the sin of Adams, we are subject to punishment and death for it - and precisely for that sin, and not for our personal sins alone. The Holy Fathers clearly indicate that we become guilty of Adam's sin, "as if we fell ourselves", although "did not eat from the forbidden fruit”, - only because "he fell". These words emphasize our involuntary involvement in that sin. Nevertheless, the responsibility falls on us, "as if we fell ourselves". And we are told that the ancient Adam made everyone guilty in his fall, although they did not do it themselves, so Christ justified everyone, although they did nothing for which they should be justified. That's why he is an image of the future, Christ. Now lets pay attention to the following: the truth that all people are punished by death by Divine justice because of Adam's sin is almost never considered with another truth - that all people are saved by the grace of one Man - Jesus Christ. If we discuss the first fragmentally, without connection with the second, then the action of Divine justice, which condemned us to death through the fault of our forefather who sinned in Paradise, may not seem quite fair. So if we keep in mind that everyone is saved by the suffering of One, then we will not see any injustice in the fact that others are punished by the fault of One. In the "Orthodox Confession" we find: "Since all people were in Adam in a state of innocence, as soon as he sinned, everyone sinned in him and are in a state of sin. And therefore not only are subject to sin, but also to punishment for sin. Also the outstanding theologian of the 20th century St Justin Popovic says: "Since all people are descended from Adam, the original sin was inherited and was transferred to all people. Therefore, original sin is at the same time a hereditary sin. Accepting human nature from Adam, we all accept sinful corruption with him, because of which people are born as children of wrath by nature (Eph 2:3), because the righteous wrath of God rests on the sin-infected nature of Adam." And “the heredity of original sin is nothing more than a continuation of the state of sin in the descendants of Adam.” Since Adam is the father of all people, he is also the creator of the universal sinfulness of all people, and through this - the universal infection of death. Slaves of sin are at the same time slaves of death. Inheriting sinfulness from Adam, they also inherit mortality. From him and through him, his "αμαρτία" entered into all descendants. Finally, let's note that by original sin the Church understands not just our tendency to sin - that every person often bends will to the ungodly after the example of Adam and, thus, is responsible only for personal sins that he has already committed himself, having perceived from Adam only the tendency to sin. No! Original sin is a much more than that. The human race had become mortal and guilty before God, excommunicated from the grace of the Holy Spirit for the sin of the forefather himself, before we commit any sins of our own. Now our modern mind is trying hard to find a personal sin, done voluntarily and consciously, to tie guilt and punishment to this sin, which is said to be the burden and seal of Original sin, otherwise the justice of God does not seem quite perfect to us. As already mentioned, misunderstanding of the dogma of original sin most often leads to the fact that attention is shifted to the "weight" of personal sins of each person separately. They begin to look away from the main reason for our condemnation, that is, that a person is born both mortal and guilty. This bewilderment is especially clearly revealed - in the question of infants, their spiritual state, what they will be before the just and merciful gaze of God. It is no coincidence that during disputes about original sin, the Orthodox always exhibited as the main evidence of the universal heredity of original sin the sacred custom of the Church to baptize the youngest children “for the forgiveness of sin" - a custom that has been established since Apostolic times and has always been observed extremely strictly. So, it is clear that all the bewilderments and mistakes arising from the lack of understanding of the dogma about the heredity of Adams sin leads to controversy and various doubts about the condition and future fate of the children who died early unbaptized. The Church categorically condemns the opinion that the Baptism of children "for the forgiveness of sins" is not performed on them in the true sense. That is, babies really have sin - a sin that makes them guilty and responsible before God, despite the fact that this is not their own, but "another's" sin, and there is a "need" for them to be cleansed from it. "Need", that is, necessity! St. Simeon the New Theologian, says that no one is sinless except God, even if only one day of his life was on earth (Job 14:4-5), not talking about those who personally sin, because how can a one-day-old child sin? But this expresses the mystery of our faith that human nature is sinful from its very conception. Blessed Augustine says also that: "So, the human race was under righteous condemnation, all were children of wrath.” But in our time, other concepts are heard more and more often, that is, as already mentioned, more and more emphasis is placed on the personal sins of a person, and the weight of the most original sin lying on us from our very conception is greatly eased… How wrong it is to look to our personal sins alone for our guilt before God… Also, some try taking advantage of the fact that the Church often softened its word about those who were outside it, some "lawyers" of fallen humanity decided to become defenders and patrons of this non-church gathering, using all the more or less clearly expressed words of the Fathers of the Church that are more or less suitable for this purpose, or by reinterpreting them in their own way, trying to somehow push people alien to the Church into Paradise. But behind all these "tricks" there is another thing: increased erosion of all concepts about the boundaries of the Church, distortion of its clear doctrine of sin, the fight against sin, the conditions of salvation. All this, of course, is in the hands of those who are preparing the enthronement of the antichrist; for clear concepts of good and evil, saving for the soul or hindering, preventing salvation, are the main obstacle on the way of this enthronement, world domination. All these new teachings are only branches of one process directed against the Church - renewalism, which has been leading an invasion of Orthodoxy in many directions for about a century. So the effort to defend the opinion of the salvation of unbaptized children, which looks so "innocent" and "maliceless", in fact is only the most hidden attempt to cut a narrow loophole, to make a barely noticeable pit under the fence of the Church - which is often immediately noticed by the discerning Orthodox Christians. But we are sure that if we let this loophole be, it will soon turn into a wider loophole, and after small children, then very big strangers will try to enter through there. It may seem that we are thickening the paints. But very soon time itself will show that this is not the case. It is in our days that the roots of the tree of retreat and lies are strongly formed, fertilized and irrigated, a tree that should soon cover the whole world with the shadow of spiritual darkness and ignorance, under the shade of which liars, deceivers, villains and false prophets of all kinds led by the antichrist will build their nests. It is today that the most lively work is being carried out to ensure that humanity forgets and loses the last guidelines of good and evil, permissible and unacceptable as soon as possible. The work goes in all directions - clearly and secretly, rudely provocatively and subtly flatteringly. And in order not to lose the true guidelines in this plethora of concepts, strictly distinguish between good and evil, we must quite often turn the eye of faith to the distant past, remember again and again what happened when our ancestors were present to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, how boldly they stretched out their hand to the forbidden fruit, tempted by the devil, how they were deceived then and how we are now happily saved from that deception! Delivered and saved by blood of God Himself! Amen. -Archimandrite Lazar (Abashidze), The Sin of Adam

@LukasNectarios Catechumen receive Orthodox funeral, I bet even in your Church. So you're only focusing on the most extreme rhetoric and ignoring God's mercy

Yes all catechumens go to hell if they don’t receive baptism and Eucharist as Saint John Chrysostom says > For the Catechumen is a stranger to the Faithful. He has not the same Head, he has not the same Father, he has not the same City, nor Food, nor Raiment, nor Table, nor House, but all are different; all are on earth to the former, to the latter all are in heaven. One has Christ for his King; the other, sin and the devil; the food of one is Christ, of the other, that meat which decays and perishes; one has worms' work for his raiment, the other the Lord of angels; heaven is the city of one, earth of the other. ... We risk no common danger; for if it should come to pass, (which God forbid!) that through the sudden arrival of death we depart hence uninitiated, though we have ten thousand virtues, our portion will be no other than hell, and the venomous worm, and fire unquenchable, and bonds indissoluble. `St. John Chrysostom, Homily 25 on the Gospel of John, Concerning John 3:5`

So correct for you isn’t in synods but local priests opinions ? Since when did parish priests even take part in councils to have such an exalted role ? Such that they can determine if a council is wrong