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?
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.