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[–] bessarionofegypt 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

Only last century there were many wonder workers and people witnessed miracles frequently. In our post-industrial society we have pushed God out of the picture and it is rare to meet a true believer. Read about saint john of kronstadt, saint Seraphim of Sarov, or saint Paisios the New, who lived into the 90s, or saint John of San Francisco and Shanghai who lived into the 60s, there are more I could name..

That being said, your interpretation is very Baptist/Calvinist and not at all like the church has traditionally taught. We have gratitude toward God for creating us, for creating everything, and making the world beautiful, we serve God because we were made to do so, we are made in His image, so to do what is contrary to His will is contrary to our own nature, we can't rebel against God without an inner death. The truth is that nobody is free, but the more you are a servant of the truth, the more you are free from falsehood and deceit, as Satan uses all sorts of means to trick us, and God protects us so long as we work with him. And a better comparison is the way a son serves his father, takes his reproaches, wisdom, discipline, and is obedient to the rules of his household. Otherwise he is a bad, rebellious son, and will turn out to be a degenerate of some kind. All that slave stuff denotes the first level of obedience, out of fear of punishment, the second being like a hired servant, the third and truest form being like that of a son.

I will stop but I can continue if you are interested. I see you say a lot of things about Christianity, I understand you have had a lot of experience with it, although I doubt you've ever been to an orthodox church. A lot of American Christianity is subverted, so it's a lot of work to sift out nonsense

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[–] BlackSheepBrouhaha ago 

I appreciate the insights. The denomination problem is one major reason I left the Church. If we're just going to argue, we're better served being lawyers than Christians.

If you try to solve the denomination problem, you end of in Philosophy or Science, which only leaves Aesthetics for Christianity. The Aesthetics come down to taste, so as long as your Science is rational and your Philosophy logical, your Aesthetics are welcome but insufficient for my Metaphysics. I prefer Mathematical Aesthetics because it symbiotically serves the other two. The Cross is a cube or the intersection of a graph, but there is more to math than cubes and graphs.

@LexOrandiLexCredendi teaches me about Catholicism, but the church doesn't follow the Creed so it seems like exactly the thing Christ warned against. Orthodox seems like Greek Catholicism which schismed when Rohan abandoned Gondor. It's not recruiting, it's for Greek people or philhellenes.

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[–] LexOrandiLexCredendi 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

It's much easier to see clearly if you look at the politics of each split. The Orthodox are about the closest to a legit argument, but even that was answered in later councils (Florence, I think). Luther was purely political. Henry VIII was sexual.

The Church does follow the creed, but you cannot expect sinful men to be perfect. The bottom line is this: was Jesus God Incarnate? Even the demons will tell you that. Again, back to Fr. Ripperger. Did He mean what He said when He said "You are Peter ... and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."

If Jesus' statement was false, than the Church is false and He is a liar and not the Son of God. If His statement is true, than the Church is the one true faith regardless of how sinful its members or leaders are.

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[–] bessarionofegypt ago 

It's for everyone and actually believing that the church is for any one race of people has been condemned as a heresy, I am Anglo Saxon but I go to a Russian church, and also the Romans declared papal supremacy and that caused a schism which allowed them to continue changing their doctrines.