Am I Saved? : Ancient Eastern Christianities Fr. Thomas Hopko speaks on Salvation#.1/2

[MikeJordanGroupie]

I love the preaching style of this father, but he's a crypto-Nestorian, if not openly. He quotes St. Cyril in an apologetic response to Nestorus, but he confidently states that our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ is 'ignorant in His Humanity'! Imagine! He says that the Lord Jesus Christ is not OMNISCIENT! This is heresy and the worse kind, because he is well respected amongst many. He stresses the Lord Jesus' humanity to the point that the Lord's divinity 'dims' and this is the great danger!

[uncleoscar7]

Miriam danced a real dance and beat on a real cymbal and Gabriel has the most real trumpet of all. good grief! How far will you be willing to twist Scripture to try to make them not mean what they mean and not say what they say?

[mishakol129]

@uncleoscar7 I don't understand, when did Miriam and Gabriel do this?... I am not twisting the Scriptures; we are the one's who are twisted by sin and we need the Holy Church to help us understand them. For you to take the stance that you hold is nothing less than for you to affirm yourself as an infallible teacher - like the Pope of Rome. You must come down from your high throne and come to the lowly and holy Church of Christ - the ancient and original Church of Sacred Tradition.

[uncleoscar7]

1 John 5:11,12  This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life

[uncleoscar7]

praise ye the Lord praise Him with the sound of the trumpet praise Him with the psaltery and harp praise Him with the timbrel and the dance praise Him with stringed instruments and organs praise Him upon the loud cymbals Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord Psalm 150 do your sacred rituals include worshipping according to these commands?

[mishakol129]

@uncleoscar7 Your must understand that Psalm 150 must not be interpreted literally but in a spiritual sense. When it says "trumpet", it does not mean an actual physical trumpet - it means the kind of trumpet that St Paul said would sound when He comes back. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:" (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The Bible is the Word of God and we are only humans.

[uncleoscar7]

Matthew 18:20 Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I Am in the midst of them

[uncleoscar7]

1 Timothy 2:5 there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus . the church is a gathering of those who have met the Mediator. Yes you can, and MUST obey Jesus' words directly. then YOU become a PART of the CHURCH. the church is made up of REDEEMED ONES. The church is not the REDEEMER. Christ is the REDEEMER, and He does it all by Himself, without the the church being between Himself and the REDEEMED SOUL

[mishakol129]

@uncleoscar7 As the Orthodox Church, we can believe that Jesus can work outside of the Church, but in order for you to come and worship Him and have real communion with Him, you must join His Church which He has established by His Divine Providence... We believe that Jesus is the Savior in all things and we believe %100 in the Holy Scriptures. The rituals of Sacred Tradition and the Church Sacraments bring us into the most powerful communion with God that is possible or imaginable.

[dimic]

@uncleoscar7: Yes, and only by partaking in the body of Christ, that being the Eucharist, can you be redeemed. The question now is which Body of Christ do you subscribe to? The invisible body, created by men in the 16th century, or the visible body, begotten of Jesus Christ in Pentecost?

[mishakol129]

@uncleoscar7 You're only speaking from your own understand and knowledge; how could you possibly know what the truth of the matter is? There are over 270 million people across the globe who will tell you that you are wrong and that there IS a physical Church and Ancient Tradition which has been handed down to us Christians from the 1st century AD.

If you don't want to open your mind to this amazing fact, then you are conceited and will never understand that Truth...

The bears Divine Grace.

[uncleoscar7]

Romans 3:4  Let God be true, but every man a liar

[uncleoscar7]

what I think is of no importance. It is the words of Jesus Christ that are the words of God and must be believed and obeyed

[mishakol129]

@uncleoscar7 We believe that we must obey Jesus' words as well, but we cannot do this without the help of the Church. If you try to obey Jesus' words without the Church, that is like a baby trying to eat meat. We all need milk first, which only the Church can give us because it has the Holy Mysteries...Sola Scriptura is not a teaching of the Holy Spirit. The Bible needs a spiritual person to interpret it. Read this: w w w . orthodox-christianity . com/2011/06/if-not-sola-script­ura-then-what/

[uncleoscar7]

read the first three chapters of Revelation Jesus' letters to the seven churches that is what He thinks of organized religious systems They either love and obey HIM or they don't

[mishakol129]

@uncleoscar7 Yes, Revelation speaks of 7 churches, but the Orthodox Church of Christ is %100 Christ-centered, so if you love this Church, you also love Christ, and if you love Christ, you also love His Church.

[uncleoscar7]

The words of Jesus outrank the words of any earthly teacher. Jesus said come to ME that you might have Life. Come unto ME all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. JESUS CHRIST IS NOT A DENOMINATION OR AN ANCIENT SYSTEM OF RELIGION. HE IS THE VERY PERSON OF GOD SO YOU MUST BYPASS THE SYSTEM AND GO TO HIM DIRECTLY, OR YOU MISS THE WHOLE THING "yE MUST BE BORN AGAIN!" WASHED IN CHRIST'S BLOOD, RENEWED BY THE HOLY GHOST

[mishakol129]

@uncleoscar7 You're just talking about what you yourself think is true... There are millions of people who think the opposite... do you really that what you think is more correct than the millions of others?

[uncleoscar7]

to be awake and conscious of your existance is NOT the ETERNAL LIFE that Jesus talks about. The consciousness of the soul goes on forever. Eternal life is what the Lord gives. eternal death---conscious and awake in Hell--is what sin does to us. The Lord was PUNISHED FOR our sins on Calvary. Believing and receiving gives us new eternal life. refusing to believe and receive is eternal death, where we are TORMENTED BY our sins. the torment lasts forever because we do...

[mishakol129]

@uncleoscar7 You need to become an ancient Eastern Orthodox Christian, then you will be able to experience the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and you will have your body become a Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20)

[brucefetter]

Fr Tom is a great teacher and spiritual father to many.

[Varangius]

Fr. Thomas Hopko is a brilliant theologian. His love for Christ is amazing. Humility and love entails us to unconditionally love all, even our enemies. This is not possible unless we can build bridges between our fellow Christians. I love the Orthodox Christian Liturgical & sacramental worship as celebrated in the apostolic age. Nevertheless I admire the organisational structure & discipline of the Catholic Church & missionary zeal of Protestants. Humility & love are essential

[talkingfortruth]

5:50 this is universalism and heretical.

[brucefetter]

@talkingfortruth Orthodox are not Calvinists, nor are we universalists. Salvation on God's part, in Christ and the Holy Spirit, is given to all. Subjectively God will not force the will. "The doors of hell are locked on the inside."

[paulomi123]

@talkingfortruth why is it heretical??.........dosent everyone have eternal life??? thanks to Christ ,, heaven or hell is after that,but scripture clearly says that everyone will be united body and spirit, which clearly means everyone will have eternal life thanks to Christ

[paulomi123]

@talkingfortruth otherwise how would you justify all people coming to judgement after death,if they do not have eternal life

[Pilgrim1411]

Why is he wearing a Roman collar?

[mishakol129]

@Pilgrim1411 I don't know. Are you sure that those are specifically for Romans?

[Pilgrim1411]

@mishakol129, Yes. It's Roman Catholic and contrary to Orthodox tradition. It's a sign of modernism and ecumenism.

[mishakol129]

@Pilgrim1411 Just because its Roman catholic doesn't necessarily mean its bad. Have you ever read Unseen Warware? That book was written by a Roman Catholic and edited by not 1 but 2 Eastern Orthodox Christian Saints because they found the instructions to be very good.

[AegeanKing]

@Pilgrim1411 A roman collar? what ywould you like him to wear? the fancy suit of a protestant pastor?

[Pilgrim1411]

@AegeanKing , the traditional ORTHODOX garb and robe.

[AegeanKing]

@Pilgrim1411 The vast majority of Orthodox priests in the western hemisphere wear the "roman collar" when they are not performing liturgy. that is just a fact. The Church hierarchy has not condemned it so you have no right to either.

[Pilgrim1411]

@AegeanKing, It's a sign of modernism and ecumenism. Many books and encyclicals have condemned these innovations. Are you Orthodox even?

[AegeanKing]

@Pilgrim1411 I can tell by your comments that you are an old calendarist nut-job. I am sure you dont even recognize the current ecumenical patriarch.

[Pilgrim1411]

@AegeanKing, I follow the Churches calendar, yes. I can give you extensive resources refuting the modernism we see in most of mainstream Orthodoxy today.

[AegeanKing]

@Pilgrim1411 My point is exactly. Next thing I know you'll be telling me about vast conspiracies from the masons and the NWO. Old Calendarists not in communion with the EP is the dwelling place of demons. They are torn apart by intrigue and schism at every turn.

[mishakol129]

@Pilgrim1411 If everybody followed what Fr Hopko taught us, then the Church would be in tip-top shape.

He's more Orthodox and Christian than anybody I know. His teaching is Christian to the core.

[Pilgrim1411]

@mishakol129, Father Thomas has defended ecumenism.

[mishakol129]

@Pilgrim1411 The question which we should be asking ourselves is not "Are you even Orthodox?", as it really should be, "Do you know God?", "Are you with Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit?" "Are you preserving yourself in the Love of God?" "Do you fulfill the Commandments?" "Do you love your neighbor? (even you enemies)" "Are you forgiving?" "Do you repent everyday?" "Are you trying to shine the light of Christ on everyone you interact with?" "Do you want to spread the Faith?" "Are you faithful?"