Seven Ecumenical Councils

[ChristusVlCTOR]

Orthodox Churches, against the express Commandment of the LORD, make for themselves images of Almighty God. By the LORD's own counsel this is Idolatry, and heresy. Be not deceived no idolaters shall inherit the Kingdom of God.

By the mercies of Almighty God, repent, and do not seek, by the traditions of your fathers, to make the Commandment of God to none effect.

[knowthytruth]

ORTHODOX OR CATHOLIC?

[beastclaw33]

@knowthytruth i would say orthodox.

[AngelOfSephiroth]

Great video. I am interested in why you did not mention the Schism caused by Chalcedon though, was there any reason? (also; mind your pronounciation, some of the things you said eg. Monophysitism, Chalcedon, Ephesus were hard to understand.

[aplacetotalkatgmail]

great video... thanks for sharing.

[taliesin939939]

Before the Ecunemical Era... Early Christianity.. was a largely Jewish sect, which celebrated Passover, worshipped on Saturday (the original Sabbath) and adhered to Mosaic Law. Why do modern Christians not celebrate Jewish holidays if Jesus, the disciples, and ancient Christians did? Furthermore, how do you know the orthodoxy is right? take it on faith? seems like the monopoly of thought. might i add that lots of muslims, jews, and hindus take things on faith. they just believe.

[davidpwithun]

@taliesin939939 I'm not sure where you got your information from, but your statements regarding early Christian practice are incorrect. Early Christians celebrated Passover in the same way that Orthodox Christians today celebrate Passover (we generally use the Greek term "Pascha") -- as the Resurrection of Christ (known to Western Christians as "Easter" today). Their primary day of worship was Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, not Saturday. They celebrated Jewish holidays in the same way that

[davidpwithun]

@taliesin939939 we do today -- as their Christian equivalents. Shavout, for instance, is the festival of Pentecost -- a commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. As for how I know that Orthodoxy is correct -- absolutely do not "take it on faith" -- QUESTION EVERYTHING -- rather, I hope that you will do the research, dig deep into the history of the Church, just as I did, and if you do so thoroughly and honestly I'm sure you will reach the same conclusion as I did.

[Paulkazey1]

Great presentation. Thanks.

[avonbathbianco]

God bless you for you work- revealing of the truth. Orthodox Church is the mother and the first of all churches. The rest are versions after so many perverse generations and the last of humans to cut and fit religion according to their needs. May Jesus enlight all of us to go on the right path.

[bmomofmany]

LOVE your videos - my husband's been raving about them - great work! However, I'm confused by your "energies - whatever that means..." comment. As a former Prot, (as well as being very sensitive about "new age" sounding lingo), I struggle w/ defining this for those outside the Church. But surely in your studies you've encountered the Church's teaching on energies - right? Thank you for all the "energy" you have poured into these (pun intended). May you, your family + ministry be blessed!!!

[davidpwithun]

@bmomofmany Thank you very much the positive comments and encouragement! Yes, I do know about the Church's teaching on the energies of God. The reason I said what I did in this video is because the concept of energies was very loosely and vaguely defined by the adherents of monoenergism. They intentionally remained very vague about what they meant by it in order to allow both the Orthodox and Monophysites to believe in it, each in their own way. I apologize for my own vagueness! :)

[LovingScrubbies]

I thought the Council of Jerusalem was the first ecumenical council.

[davidpwithun]

@LovingScrubbies It should be, shouldn't it? :) I've thought the same thing more than once. Generally that's referred to as the "Apostolic Council" though -- and I see the point: make sure to designate that it was really one of a kind.

[gdzlightningbug]

Could you explain why the Orthodox Church does not worship on sabbath even though Christ and the apostles worshiped on it?

[davidpwithun]

@gdzlightningbug First, it should be pointed out that we do worship on Saturday, though we hold Sunday as being of more importance. In addition to the seven regular prayer services of the Church which are conducted every day of the week, we also regard Saturday as a day of rest and preparation for Sunday. On Saturday evenings, for instance, those are planning to receive the Eucharist on Sunday morning pray and begin fasting in preparation for that Sacrament. That said, Sunday is a much more

[davidpwithun]

@gdzlightningbug important and holy day as it is the day upon which Christ Resurrected. Just as the Old Testament was preparation for the new, so Saturday is a preparation for Sunday. Christ fulfilled the perfect Sabbath rest by spending all of Saturday in the tomb and he resurrected Sunday morning. The resurrection is the primary event of Christianity, around which all else revolves, and so the early Christians (just as Orthodox Christians today), held their Liturgies on Sunday morning.

[fingerpickinman]

What does it mean to say that the orthodox faith has established the universe? Thanks

[davidpwithun]

@fingerpickinman It means a few different things. Perhaps the underlying and overarching idea being expressed here is the same as the conception the Jews have regarding the law of the Torah. The Orthodox Faith, because it is the God-given truth, is the law upon which the entire universe is built -- it is the eternal and immutable law of God. And since the universe hinges on the law of God, you can say that the Orthodox Faith has established the universe. A further foundational idea being 

[davidpwithun]

@fingerpickinman expressed here is the Orthodox concept that the presence of a single righteous man prevents the destruction of a city or even of the world as a whole. The most obvious example of this concept from Scripture is Abraham's "bargaining" with God over the destruction of Sodom. As long as there is one righteous man, like Abraham, to intercede on behalf of the world he lives in, God withholds his wrath. In this sense, the Orthodox Faith also then preserves the universe.

[Castleman711]

Energy = operation

[N00bcrunch3r]

Actually, Iconoclasm and Nestorianism still exist, and guess what I am still one of them. :)

[Tov0voT]

Very good. A lot of info!

[moosh27]

Very well done David...not just for this video, but for all of them. You are doing a great service to your faith by educating others about Orthodoxy, especially those who are struggling with their faith during these secular modern times.

Keep up the good work, and God bless you and yours.

[kiransimon15]

you need to make a video on Oriental Orthodoxy and educate us :)

[davidpwithun]

I plan on it eventually :)

[threepureones]

thanks

[Reazzurro90]

"Triumph of Orthodoxy" - sounds like an awesome feast. We don't have anything like that :-P.

[davidpwithun]

It sure is :)

One of my favorites.

[cclus]

Dude slow down in your videos. I can't keep up.

[davidpwithun]

Sorry! Will do. Trying to pack as much info into 5-10 mins as I can. I'll try to slow down from now on.

[kiransimon15]

hehe I love the way you explain things :)

[psevdhome]

Oh and you seem to have had (by accident I presume) listed that the council of Chalcedon was in 431, when it was in 451?

[davidpwithun]

I sure did. I never noticed that until now; I accidentally repeated the date of the Council of Ephesus. I'll put the correction in my sidebar. Thanks for pointing that out!

[psevdhome]

Not exactly related to this topic, but it has been known for some time now that the creed known today as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed actually predates the II ecumenical council by at least ten years. I thought that would be an interesting factoid. :)

[davidpwithun]

Very interesting; I've never heard that before. I've heard several scholars put forth the theory that the original Nicene creed was in use before the the Council of Nicaea, though I'm not sure how much real evidence there is for that idea, as I haven't researched it much myself.

[leshawnm]

Do you have more information on origenism? there is a bishop preaching what he calls the gospel of inclusion it sounds alot like origenism.

[davidpwithun]

Interesting. The Catholic Encyclopedia has a very informative entry on Origenism online. YouTube won't let me give links here, but if you type "Origenism" into google it should be the first thing that pops up. My advice: avoid this "bishop" at all costs. Origenism is very dangerous, spiritually speaking.

[gambleor]

If you put spaces between the "dots" and the words in the link, it'll post.

[rowanrox]

I'm a Protestant who believes that the Orthodox Church is the future of Christianity. I believe in all the seven councils of the Church because this is the Church and the faith that governs the universe handed over from Christ himself.

[davidpwithun]

Thank you for your comment!

God bless you.

[thequakerchannel]

Good video from a historical view point but you talk rather fast...

God Bless!

[davidpwithun]

Trying to fit in as much info as possible in as little time as possible! haha... I'll try to slow it down from now on.