Is the Bible a book which each person should read and decide for himself what it means, or is the Bible a book whose meaning is given by the Church? The former idea appears to contain perfect liberty to allow the Bible to speak to the individual unhindered by man’s tradition; the latter idea appears…
Almost there. Tonight is the last night of the Akathist services for the Orthodox churches around the world. I am home solo tonight with the kids so there was no chance for me to make it. This has been my experience throughout Lent this year. I’ve only attended a single Lenten service besides Sundays. Kind…
All my life I’ve admired mastery. It doesn’t even matter what sort of mastery. You could be anything from a virtuoso violinist to a champion marble player; if you’re one of the best in the world you’ve got my respect. Save me the higher degrees and titles and whatnot, I couldn’t give a hoot. I…
I happened across an odd blog article this week. It was an argument meant to refute the existence of God using the fact that moral sins are not punished physically the way that, say, walking into the street during heavy traffic is punished, or putting your hand on a hot stove, or the like. His…
I’ve never been good at praying. Reading, hell yes! If reading was an Olympic sport I would have a closet full of medals. Being in my head is very comfy and I can stay there for days, weeks even. I’ve wondered why being rational, objective, and abstract feels so good. Maybe it’s because I get to…
“You don’t need Lent to be a Christian,” my Word of Faith, Evangelical in-law said to me at the start of Lent last year. I replied, “Of course you don’t, you also don’t need the Bible.” Truly, how many Christians had a “Bible” in the first 200-300 years of the Church? Exactly zero. Yet most…
Since the time I first became a Christian 23 years ago in a wild charismatic church, I knew that I wanted to be a counselor. I didn’t know what that looked like necessarily at the time, I just knew I wanted to help people overcome their grief and internal struggles. Having come from a difficult…
I was recently asked if I could write an article giving the distinctive elements of the Eastern Orthodox Church which cause it to stand out when compared with Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and the various Protestant faiths. This is a tall order and no doubt difficult to cover even in a multiple volume work. That said,…
From the title alone it is clear that this has the potential be a controversial article. Anytime one mentions the dreaded phrase “grace and works” thoughts of endless dispute swirl in one’s head at a pace that can only bring theological vertigo before the conversation even begins. Unless one is poised to duke it out,…
“Are you Spirit filled?” This was the number one question on everyone’s mind in the charismatic, independent, evangelical churches I grew up in. This was also the question we projected on other groups or people who claimed to be Christian: “are they Spirit filled.” If they weren’t it did not mean they weren’t Christians, it…
Boys are strange. Get two little boys together, whether good friends or not, and in no time flat they’ll be wrestling. I remember me and my cousin Ryan would wrestle for literally hours at a time. It’s amazing that we ever learned the English language because the only phrase we ever heard from our parents…
The trouble with writing my reflections on the Orthodox Church liturgy is that so much of it is taught through experience. If one has not been absorbed in the Orthodox liturgy for quite some time it’s difficult to really say anything about it. Don’t misunderstand, I have plenty of books on the Orthodox Diving Liturgy,…
Recently, I was asked by a good friend who has been faithfully reading these long-winded articles to define ‘liturgy.’ Indeed, liturgy is one of those great forgotten words in many church circles today. Sad to say, even with two degrees in theology, I did not have a working knowledge of it prior to my encounter…
What is the “Church”? This routine question pops up in Christian discussions all the time. The usual answer is: The Church is not a building; it is the people who follow Christ. I suppose that’s a decent answer so far as it goes. But it’s a bit like saying, “the sun is hot.” Though true,…
(Continuation from part one) “Eucharistic,” a word that meant basically nothing to me a year ago has become the all embracing concept for understanding the depth of the salvation that Christ provided. Indeed, it has become my means of understanding almost everything about the Christian life, and will probably serve as the basis for most…
How on earth does a middle-American, charismatic, Evangelical, non-denominational church-going, ex-Mormon like me find himself drawn to Eastern Orthodoxy? Prior to a couple of years ago I had never so much as met an Orthodox Christian and I certainly could not have given a commentary on Eastern Orthodoxy, except to say that I saw “My…
"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced" -Kierkegaard
Doctrine Matters
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