Small Orthodox corner

[Sir Adrian]

We have gone down this road before. Christ himself created the first ikon.

[conon394]

Sir Adrian,

He is indeed risen yet that is nothing like described by all those that saw Him after He was risen. Indeed it is nothing like how the prophets described Him. In fact it is a complete disregard for the Second Commandment, "Thou shalt have no graven images before Me...." So, why have them if we are to believe by Faith and not sight especially imaginary sight?

But if God and Jesus are the same, and Jesus was on earth as a man, than a depiction of him is not putting an an image before god,but an attempt to capture the image of god on earth so not violating the law.

[basics]

We have gone down this road before. Christ himself created the first ikon.

Sir Adrian,

What icon did Jesus creat? The reason I ask this is because if He did and disobeyed the Second Commandment then He couldn't have been sinless and therefore quite unable to wash my sin away on the cross. That He became sin before being nailed to the cross was so that He could be my substitute and yours paying our dues for our sin not for anything He had done as He never broke the Law, in fact it is written that He fulfilled it all His life on this planet.

[Sir Adrian]

[Sir Adrian]

[alhoon]

While we celebrate Christmas at the 25th, I wish Merry Christmas to all my Orthodox brothers and sisters that celebrate it at 7th January.
May God's coming bless you all and bring health, peace and prosperity to you and yours.

[Pontifex Maximus]

Merry Christmas and Happy new year!

I recently had a discussion from a Russian orthodox priest at a local parish in which he informed me (a Catholic) that we do not worship the same God. I laughed and asked him something along the lines of "Oh, so you don't worship Jesus Christ?" He gave me some weak response about muh schisms/popes/whatever. The whole "we don't worship the same God" argument seemed like a total cope. I understand this argument - when Muslims tell me we worship the same God I point out we do not and more often than not they argue, because they cannot contend with the divinity of Christ. But, how could any Orthodox church tell me, a Roman, we do not worship the same God? What's the logic? Before the Russian priest made that statment to me I thought ecumenism was a 50/50, but since then I basically thought of orthodoxy as schismatic protestantism of a different/devout vein.

[Sir Adrian]

Merry Christmas and Happy new year!

I recently had a discussion from a Russian orthodox priest at a local parish in which he informed me (a Catholic) that we do not worship the same God.

No idea what that guy was about. Most Catholic sacraments are valid in the Orthodox Church and Catholic converts only need to be chrismated, no baptism or life confession necessary.

[alhoon]

Merry Christmas and Happy new year!

I recently had a discussion from a Russian orthodox priest at a local parish in which he informed me (a Catholic) that we do not worship the same God. I laughed and asked him something along the lines of "Oh, so you don't worship Jesus Christ?" He gave me some weak response about muh schisms/popes/whatever. The whole "we don't worship the same God" argument seemed like a total cope. I understand this argument - when Muslims tell me we worship the same God I point out we do not and more often than not they argue, because they cannot contend with the divinity of Christ. But, how could any Orthodox church tell me, a Roman, we do not worship the same God? What's the logic? Before the Russian priest made that statment to me I thought ecumenism was a 50/50, but since then I basically thought of orthodoxy as schismatic protestantism of a different/devout vein.

That guy is wrong, absolutely wrong. We acknowledge the Catholics as heterodox Christians. However the Russian Orthodox Church strongly dislikes the Catholics and protests any attempt of reconciliation. So, that Russian Orthodox was simply trying to tell you that he doesn't believe you are a true Christian, despite believing in the same God. And that is a bad thing to do.
Pope John Paul II and our Archbishop Christodoulos met in 2001 and performed a holy liturgy together since we do believe in the same God.
The hardcore anti-Catholics within Orthodoxy (in all the Churches) protested and defamed our archbishop for that. Some still do and consider it treason, apostasy etc.

On the other hand, you are wrong too. Catholics broke away from Orthodoxy not the other way around. That's why we are called Orthodox and you are called Catholics.
Furthermore, many Protestants do not believe in Holy Tradition, we do. However, we are Prima Scripture. The Patriarchs and the Synods etc do not go equal to the Scripture and we don't accept the primacy of the Pope or that his statements are infallible.
We also have hierarchy that most Protestants don't. Each Patriarchate is autocephalous and so are the various autocephalous churches, but there is a more structured hierarchy with 14 different churches for the world's 200 million Orthodox.

[AnthoniusII]

Today for all Orthodox Christians is the day devoted to Snt George.

[MaximiIian]

Sir Adrian,

He is indeed risen yet that is nothing like described by all those that saw Him after He was risen. Indeed it is nothing like how the prophets described Him. In fact it is a complete disregard for the Second Commandment, "Thou shalt have no graven images before Me...." So, why have them if we are to believe by Faith and not sight especially imaginary sight?

It's not a graven image, it's (to them, in their tradition), a holy one. I'm not Orthodox or even Christian-- point in fact, I'm a Pagan in the Neoplatonic tradition, so I have no bias to defend Orthodox Christianity. But there is ample justification and a long tradition in Christianity of using images as a way to focus the mind towards the sacred.