Vanity, again

"Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of the hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men,  leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." Romans 1:24-32




The virgins have become whores. Love has turned to lust. Prayer has become an inconvienience. Money has become the god we worship placed upon the altar of the worldly. Chastity has turned to unrestriction, fasting to gluttony and forgiveness to eye for an eye. Understanding has been perverted to condemnation. We will burn in the hell we have created because of our own willingness to be ignorant of truth, to create our own truth in place of the absolute.

We, unfortunately, live in an era in which God has given many of us over to ourselves, to practice what we desire because of our hatred towards the authority of God. As soon as man began to think he was capable of doing things without God, man began his downward spiral. We have grown to believe that we can have heaven here, as well as after our death. Many strive for material wealth and use God to justify this behavior, as if vanity is some sort of virtue. There is also a growing number of people who practice sexual immorality and again use God to try and justify it as being moral. This includes but is not limited to: homosexuality, pornography, adultery, pedophilia, etc. There are those who stop and wonder why we live in such a world where people can commit some of the most disgusting crimes, and they are left guessing as to the cause of this madness. This anarchy did not begin suddenly, but over a period of time in which we slowly started to see serial killers, but not on a massive scale like we see today. There were people such as H.H. Holmes who constructed a very elaborate hotel which was actually created to torture individuals who happened to come through, mainly the rich. Jack the ripper was also a very prominent killer who was never caught. There was Albert Fish in the early part of the 20th century, who murdered and ate his victims. One in particular girl he murdered, raped, and ate, he sent a letter to her mother describing what he had done and how she had tasted.

On top of the horrific murders of serial killers, there is the ever growing mindset of materialism. The love of money. The allure of material wealth is all too strong for the vast majority of those who inhabit this earth, and it destroys the nature of man. Our nature is not to serve money, but God. For we cannot serve two masters, we will end up loving one and hating the other. (Mt. 6:24, Lk. 16:13) That is exactly what is taking place today and has been since the beginning of the industrial revolution, which in my opinion sparked this materialist overconsuming mindset. Have we forgotten the words of St. Paul? "The love of money is the root of all evil." 1 Tim. 6:10 We have fallen in love with material things and money that we are willing to go into debt to get what we want, and almost cannot escape it. Yet again we have forgotten the words of the wise Solomon "The borrower is servant to the lender." Prov. 22:7 If we owe someone, they become our master. We slave to pay them off and retain them and our debt in our mind and not God, the one we truly owe everything to.

The world as we know it is becoming more promiscuous. Everywhere we look we see pornography. We see the objectification of women so much that women grow up feeling the need to objectify themselves. The women decorate themselves up like a whore, for what reason? Many bare their breasts and wear tight fitting clothing, what is the purpose for this? They are happy to dress like whores, they are practicing the opposite of chastity. No unmarried woman, especially a virgin, would have even thought of dressing like this in the early church and yet our leaders even permit this disgusting display of whoredom. When you cannot tell the difference between a whore and an Orthodox Christian woman, you know we have all failed.

The end is now, pray.

All is Vanity Pt. 2

"For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." 1 Tim 6:10


                      Capitalism, an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. In short a system based upon money. Our unrestrained spending and consumption has led to many severe problems. One is debt, which almost every single American is affected by directly or indirectly. Credit card debt is the largest totally somewhere in the trillions and as the politicians whore themselves to the major banks filing for bankruptcy is virtually impossible anymore. This also comes with an increase in predatory tactics used by banks to sink more people deeper into debt. These companies are unforgiving and relentless, even demonizing the borrower to justify their unmerciful approach. Oddly enough our own government is in debt is somewhere around 13 trillion dollars, and counting. What is unique is how the U.S. government persuades countries like China to be merciful, and jumping through hoops for the Federal Reserve (which is not federal) in order to avoid paying outrageous interest and other compounded fees. Christ speaks of this very same thing in Mt. 18:32 in which a servant begged his master to forgive his debt, and the master did. The servant had then gone out and found a fellow servant who owed him money, and would NOT forgive his debts. This is the exact same thing the U.S. government is doing and it is unacceptable.


                     If we borrow money in order to buy a house, a car, or other unnecessary things, we then become a slave to the lender. (Prov. 22:7) Can we serve God and our banks? According to Christ in Mt. 6:24 and Lk 16:13 we cannot serve two masters, can we serve God and mammon? Mammon meaning wealth as evil influence or a false object of worship. Christ tells us no, yet we still try. Why is it a necessity to buy something we cannot pay cash for? Our system is based on spending. If we stop spending our economy will collapse. Therefore they want us to spend, they want us to be in debt and they want us to do this our whole lives, its another form of slavery. 


                    Let us say that you buy a house. To buy that house, assuming you have not saved for 30 years, you would need someone to loan you the money. Therefore you go the bank, who determines your worth and your trustworthiness and then gives you a loan with a hefty amount of interest added to the principal. Let us also say that you never re-finance your home, which is possible but increasingly rare. It will take you approximately 30 years to pay off that house, assuming you make your payments on time every month. For 30 years you are basically part of a feudal system in which you do not own the land, the land owns you. This is also assuming that the bank who lent to you does not use any shady business practices to get you further into a mess. For atleast 30 years you will attempt to serve two masters, because "the borrower is servant to the lender." (Prov. 22:7) and therefore you have no choice in the matter.


                  This exchange of goods and services is equivalent to financial prostitution. You pay more money than the house is worth because of the added interest, granted you may eventually own that house but at what cost? Just as a pimp takes an unfair percentage of her money, so too does the bank take an unfair percentage of the borrowers money. If a pimp does not get his money or his whore tries to escape, he will hunt her down at all costs and punish her severely. The banks also hunt you down with such sophisticated techniques it is impossible to hide. These banks show even less mercy than the pimp, they will take everything without thinking twice, and the law is on their side giving them an unfair advantage.
Yet we subscribe to this system based on money. A system that turns the average person into a materialist, desiring the most useless and unneeded of things. Over consuming and being proud of it, flaunting it to the world. 
    
                 Once caught in this cycle of spending and over consuming, it is virtually inescapable. Our minds have been taught to spend, to over consume so we know no other way. We must reject the worldly and understand our spirituality. "All is vanity" (Eccl. 1:1) And it is true, everything worldly is worthless. Why do we strive to attain these things that have no spiritual value whatsoever? Why do we beat it into our childrens head that they must be successful in the world? We send them out to an un-Christian world and expect them to be un-phased. Simplicity is the answer. We are waiting for the second coming of our Lord, which is not far off based on the deteriorating conditions of this world, so why are we busying ourselves with worldly distinction, and attaining worldly things? It is the weakness of man, doing what he wants to as opposed to what he should do. Trusting in himself more than the God he claims to believe in. Giving in to his own personal desires instead of casting them to the wayside. 






This blog is a precursor to the upcoming book "All is Vanity".

The Days of Creation

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light." - Genesis 1:1-3


                         When God created all things, did he do it in six twenty-four hour days or do these days represent epochs of time ranging from millions or billions of years? We would have to speculate on the motive of God for each creation belief. God is beyond time, above it, creator of it, and ruler over it. God has no need to constrain Himself with time or a timeframe so what is the purpose of six literal twenty-four hour days? God uses this to establish time and structure for mankind, since time is of no use to God He is not bound by it. Creating all things in a millisecond would do mankind no good, it establishes no structure and shows no compassion or care in His own creation and therefore cannot be a possibility. If indeed each day were an epoch of millions or billions of years, we also run into a similar problem. Instead of God needing only a short time, He needed or used, a very long period of time. This does no good for mankind as it establishes nothing except again that God does not seem too interested in His own creation. He seems to be starting things off in each day or epoch and just kind of letting it go, which is not only uncaring but lacks the structure required for man.
    
                      St. John Chrysostom warns us of delving into creation with "human reasoning" in Eight Sermons on the Book of Genesis, pg.31-33. This shows how much wisdom St. John really did possess, to know that science would ignore God's incomprehensible infiniteness and subject Him to scientific scrutiny. Since the theory of evolution did not exist until recently, why should we apply it to scripture? Evolution is a convoluted theory based on interpretation of "evidence", what is factual about that, and why should we apply it to scripture? We should not, it does not even make sense when it is applied. As stated previously, what is the point of having days or epochs of millions or billions of years? God could created all things in any sort of time frame He chose to, an evolutionary standpoint does not make sense. There is no motive in doing so. To create all things in an instant is not only against scripture but just lacks any sort of common sense and again, motive or purpose.

                     The only logical interpretation would be a literal one. The purpose of God is clear in this instance, mankind. Mankind needs structure and time, our biological clocks revolve around time and when it is thrown off by travel or working the late shift, our bodies let us know. Each day God created something new, he was also establishing time for us in a way that we would understand, what other reason would God create in such a way? God is in no need of time, therefore if you are a theistic evolutionist then you must be like a detective and establish a motive first, and think science later. Purpose, we have established the purpose and necessity for six day creation, but there no purpose for millions or billions of years.

                      Would God actually need that time in which to "perfect" His creation, or could He create it all as is? When Adam was created, he was not created as an infant and was not born. Adam must have been middle aged, whatever that is for that time. I am assuming that when things were created, they were created in a similar manner, mid aged or so. Believing God is constrained by time would mean that you believe God to be limited and below time. Needing millions or billions of years would mean that God is unable to create things right the first time and needs time for them to evolve until the next day or epoch to create the next thing. Again what is the purpose for mankind here? It lacks purpose and logic, theologically speaking anyways. This is an attempt to reconcile the two belief systems. People who do this cannot, or will not, part with one or the other. So the only logical thing to do for an illogical mind, put them together. Unfortunately for them these two beliefs are opposed to one another, unless you selectively embrace different parts of scripture and science.

                    Science's evidence for evolution is like evidence for the existence of God, when a spiritual man looks at the evidence for God, his argument is strengthened by it because he is interpreting it through a spiritual mindset. When a scientist looks at the evidence for evolution, he feels his belief is fact, because he is interpreting it through an evolutionary mindset. There may be evidence that we feel points in one direction but none of it empirically shows that either is true, both are faith. In the Christian view we see that God established time for us, and then gave it structure for us, and this is the purpose for the literal six twenty-four hour day creation, which the theistic evolutionists lack in their explanation.

The Widow

 "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8


A bold statement by our Lord, that should come as a slap in the face to all Christian people. If Christ is even questioning this it should serve us well in knowing that we should be fervent Christians, seeking Him and not our own selfish desires. Working on our salvation daily and not caring for this world.
(Lk. 21:34,35) The Lord uses this very form of a question when speaking of characteristics that are rarely found (see Lk. 11:11 and 12:42), in this case faith in the people upon His return. This graphically shows us that by the time He returns that many will think they are faithful and Christian, but very few are actually left. Many protestants, if not all, will follow the antichrist because they think that either he has come to "rapture" them, which is an erroneous doctrine, and or this is the 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth, which is actually happening now. So many will be worshipping the antichrist as God because they actually do believe that he is indeed Christ.

Will He find faith on the earth, probably not much if any. If any true Orthodox believers can survive than He will find faith, if the antichrist is able to then he will exterminate everyone who refuses to worship him as God. Because protestantism does not know nor understand persecution, the few protestants who have not yet been deceived will fold under the slightest pressure. This is why protestantism is dying in Europe, Islam is gaining a foothold and also the Orthodox countries in persecution, namely Egypt, are strong in their faith. American protestants know nothing of persecution and will fold like a house of cards.

More to come.......

There is no room for concession

Ecumenism, the spirit of the age. It seems now that everyone is finding a reason to unite with everyone. Find the similarity no matter how small and unify on the basis of that alone. This is nonsense. We are not all the same, we have differences and that is quite alright. When it comes to religion I have even less patience. What is the need to unite with the Latins? Yes we share similarities, that does not mean we are the same, and that certainly is no ground for unification. The creed would be "We believe in Christ, whom we share no common opinion." And that is exactly what it would be, a superficial unity.

Josef Ratzinger erroneously and deceitfully refers to himself as a Pope. This title was negated once Leo I came to power in Rome and split the church with his newly introduced ideas of the papal supremacy of Rome and worldly ideas of church government. They have left the grace of the Holy Spirit, they have added to the creed and introduced foreign doctrines. The last two leaders of Rome have knowingly covered up sex abuse scandals and in the worst way, moving the abusive priest to another church, over and over again. Yet we are to believe that the leader of Rome is infallible, in no way is he infallible.

According to Fr. Cozzone's The Changing Face of the Priesthood, almost %50 of the clergy of Rome is homosexual, keep in mind Cozzone is a Catholic priest. How can we be unified with this? Homosexuals administering the sacraments, teaching our children, and leading people to overcome sin, this is absurd.  Karol Józef Wojtyła, the false pope before Ratzinger, kissed the Koran, placed an Idol og buddha on the altar in Assisi, was blessed by a pagan priestess, and worshipped with jews in the synagogue, as did Ratzinger much later. This is all heretical and unacceptable to Orthodoxy. This is clearly not in line with our church, nor the writings and history of our church fathers. The glorious St. Dioscorous anathemized Leo I for supporting a nestorian heretic Theodoret of Cyrus, I highly doubt he would accept the Latins now especially since they are much worse off than in his time. There can be no concessions made! There can be no unity with heretics! 


I will not recognize Ratzinger or anyone from Leo I on as a legitimate Pope, and there is no reason anyone else should. I will show him the same respect I would show Arius, I will not kiss his hand or recognize anything they have done or continue to do as in line with Orthodoxy. There should be dialog, that is a good thing, but participating in their worship service is unacceptable in my view as I am sure it would be in our early fathers eyes. 

The Woman, the Serpent, and the Flood

"And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman; and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth." - Apoc. 12:15-16


This verse is of course not to be interpreted literally but metaphorically. The woman is a symbol of the Church, according to St. Andrew of Caesarea ( Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scripture: Revelation, p.191) Of course we need not guess at whom the serpent represents, the devil, who has been at war with the church for ages and has been bested by Christ. What is meant by this flood from the mouth of the serpent? There is a great parallel here in scripture, in Num. 16 Korah and 250 others rebel against Moses and Aaron. Korah states to Moses and Aaron: "You take too much upon yourselves, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: why then to you exalt yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?" Korah is rebelling against the priesthood, an office which God Himself established, which still exists today. Korah is telling Moses and Aaron that everyone is the same and then accuses them of self exaltation, a sin which they themselves were committing through their lack of humility, pride. God gave a response to Korahs inquiry, and it was a swift one, he opened up the earth and swallowed him whole and he went straight down to Hades alive.
Moses had said before that in Num. 16:30 that: "Then you shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord."

How does this pertain to the serpent and the flood which came from his mouth? In the 16th century came a flood of heresy. The protestant reformation came about which resulted, and still results to this day, in schism upon schism and a multitude of denominations (38,000 to be exact, World Christian Encyclopedia, 2001.) with all kinds of varieties of heresy within them. Not only have the majority of these attacked the church openly or inadvertently, but the multitude of these denominations have seemed to drown out the true church. Worse yet, these denominations hinder the minds of their adherents by demonizing the true church and brainwashing them with the two pillars of protestantism, sola scriptura and sola fide. Sola scriptura, the bible as sole authority, gives people the false impression that they can read scripture and interpret for themselves what it says. even though this is condemned in scripture: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation." 2 Pet. 1:20 Yet this verse is ignored and instead they choose to be empowered by themselves and their own desires and this causes them to pervert scriptures and has resulted in hundreds of thousands of denominations.

This is the flood coming from the mouth of the serpent. So this verse is a double entendre in that it refers to Korahs rebellion and protestantism. In the same way God answered Korah, and saved the church from his corruption, He will do also with protestantism. Does this mean that the ground will literally open up and swallow all protestants? Many will be deceived in the end times because of the antichrist, and this is when the ground starts to open up and upon Christ's return all evil will be swallowed up. The protestants, for their willful ignorance, those who believe in the rapture will be deceived by the antichrist. For the simple fact that the antichrist will proclaim himself to be the messiah, therefore they will believe that this is the rapture and he is Christ come to whisk them away to avoid suffering. And those who believe in chilliams or millenialism will think that this is Christ's reign on earth for 1000 years. Those who are smart enough will turn from their stupidity and become Orthodox.

Amen.

Love

What is the true definition of love? Is it what we see on television, or on the billboards, and in the magazines? Like so many other things given unto us by God, love has been perverted to such an extent it is almost unrecognizable from is origin. The origin of love is God, "for God is love." (1 John 4:8) In Focus on The Coptic Family Fr. Mikhail E. Mikhail teaches us that there are three persons in marriage, the man, the woman, and God. Therefore if God is absent, then it is not love but something else, a perversion. True love has no necessity or desire for the flesh but a union between the persons and God.

How do you love someone in the way God intended? Love is an emotional and spiritual connection, not a physical desire for the flesh of another individual. If we are looking at another in a physical way and we believe that is love, we are lying to ourselves. It is through the love of God that two people love one another and when two get married, they receive communion meaning they are receiving God as two people united in one through the body of Christ. This is love, everything else is superficial and vain. Everything else is perversion dressed up and called love when it is not.

What exactly is the scriptural definition of love so that we may know it and work towards it.
 "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." (1 Cor. 13:4-8) This is how we love. St. Paul teaches us how to love the way God intended and gives us the true definition of what love really is.

"For this is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12) Christ tells us to love in the way that God has set forth, true love. Not in the way the world tells us to love, which is false love, a love that will leave you empty and struggling. We must ask ourselves, in what way am I loving? Am I loving as the world has taught me, or as Christ has taught me? This test I offer unto all will show if you are a disciple of this world or a disciple of Christ.