I have on seldom occasion met a Christian who I agree with at any significant theological level. Any in depth conversation with these people nearly always ends with them calling me a Satanist.. in so many words. "I'm leading people from God, I'm making things too complicated, I'm ignorant, stupid, heretical."
Why?
Simply because I maintain that a Christian's foremost duty is to abstain as much as possible from sinful behavior. This throws these so called people of God into a fit. The Protestants are the worst of the sects. For a people who "don't interpret God's word," they sure do interpret circles around "if your right hand offend against thee, cut it off."
I now realize that what I am arguing against is not a logical theology. By a vast margin, people turn to God as a cope. They are unhappy with the state of the world, unhappy with their lives, frustrated with lack of success, seek healing and comfort. Perhaps I am guilty of this as well in some sense. It is an emotional adjournment as the result of some trauma. Yes, God will be your high tower. But what does Christ say to the rich man who asks *what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?*
The answer, *if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.* So yes, there are terms on eternal life; Jesus lists various conditions multiple times.
However the average Christian is far from a zealot. This is a person who seeks one thing from God and to disrupt the uninvolved ease at which he believes the end is obtained has confronted his desire of comfort. He wants to sin, and by simply feigning ignorance of scripture he believes that he receives both the world of the flesh and the spirit. But what does Jesus say?
I'm heavily leaning towards becoming Orthodox. I talk to and about Jesus every day. I watch videos of sermons and/or theological debates and/or evangelizing on the street all the time. An hour on Sunday is not enough for me, I know that.
My former Church is officially a gathering of faggots and cuckolds now. I've been Churchless for longer than I'd like. I'm a parent and my kiddos school is a Christian one with a Church, but imo the pastor is too modern. Not even like liberal, just way too accepting and accommodating. There's a blue-haired butch woman with mixed kids that he smiles at and talks to all the time. I guess I'm waiting for him to pull the Batman meme where he smacks Robin to knock some sense into him. But nope, just smiling and waving.
I see a lot of evangelizing, Churches and pastors trying to bring the lambs and the lost sheep in to hear about God, but I don't feel like very many are trying to bring God unto them, if that makes sense?
Like they're leading a flock towards water but they stop to smile and wave at the flock, while the flock stands there not knowing what to do, still too far away to even drink. Then the flock starts to walk away, one by one, and the shepherd still just smiles and waves.
I guess that's how I see modern Churches anyway. If Jesus were here, I feel like he'd be throwing over some tables for sure.
Have you been to any Latin Masses? I tried the Orthodox for a little but was unimpressed. If you are Germanic like I am, they spoke against our ancestors and cousins, the Latins and Franks, blaming them for the schism when it was Greek egotism that initially drove the wedge. Their liturgy seemed vain to me, but the Catholic Latin Mass was compelling.
A lot of people believe the Vatican was infiltrated and subverted. I grabbed some books about it online but haven't read anything on any of it yet.
There are those who will disagree, but I think this alone disqualifies Rome's claims of primacy. It completely flies in the face of the Seat of Peter being an infallible magisterial position that God is personally tending to at all times. The very concept of an "Antipope" sounds almost satirical in light of their own theology.
I definitely believe the Church is a people, not a place.
Services differ only very slightly between Orthodox Churches. Orthodox are still worshipping God in the same way they were *thousands* of years ago.
There is no Vatican presiding over Orthodoxy, there is no Orthodox Pope. 300+ years ago, I can see why this might not have been as favorable, but in modern times, it means the leaders of the Church can't be infiltrated and the entire Church subverted like the Vatican has done. If an Orthodox Bishop goes rogue, the people, the Church, will move away from him. All other Orthodox Churches would be immune from whatever subversion he enacted in the Churches he presides over.
Further, from what I see in Orthodox services, there is no bending the knee to BLM Marxists or LGBT or acting like its all flowers and sunshine and rainbows when dancing around certain subjects.
Sermons are biblical first, not culturally focused. The people are there to worship God first and foremost. There is not a lot of "Southern hospitality" happening between people who are mostly there to compete at socializing with one another. Well, there is at the end but services are long, and the people stand most of the time. There's basically no silenced cell phone games being played or social media scrolling by the people in the back.
There are a lot of positives drawing me towards Orthodoxy. Putting God first is big for me.