Posted on 12/20/2012 12:52:36 PM PST by don-o
Hello and welcome to my site. My name is Richard Shaward and this site reflects my Christian journey.
What I share on this site are things regarding Christianity that have had a personal impact on me, articles that I like, articles that have shaped my theological thinking, and what I would like to share with others while on my Christian journey.
A little background about me. I was not raised a Christian. I became a Christian at age 20 in a small Dutch Reformed and Calvinistic denomination and those early years were formative and meaningful. I went to a Reformed College and received a B.R.E degree. Later I became went to a Baptist Seminary and received a MDiv degree. I became a Baptist Pastor and served in three Baptistic type Churches.During all these years my life worldview was mainly within a mindset of the Anti-Rome Protestant Reformation. There are many Protestant Christians who, like me, are/were often very ignorant of a broader deposit of Christianity outside of a post 16th century box. In sincere ignorance I never knew that Christianity was broader than that Western historical context. I stumbled upon Eastern Orthodoxy. My family entered the Orthodox Church and after five years. I desire to have an Evangelical Orthodox Christianity that has existed throughout all of the Church’s History since the book of Acts and yet as powerful of a witness today.
I do not want to be labeled ”Eastern Orthodox” but I desire to be an Orthodox Christian. The word “Orthodox” simply means “right glory” or “right belief,” and Orthodoxy therefore is the fullness of the Catholic (whole) Christian Faith that has once been delivered to God’s people (Jude 1:3). To be Orthodox is not just an exercise of the “head” but is also “right living.” It has been said that the “only heresy is a heresy of life” and it is our life that we will be held accountable for, not for what we may fallibly believe and may even get wrong in our continuing journey.
Thanks for visiting. I don’t allow many comments to show publicly with a post as most comments are invites to debate and arguing; and this site does not have debating as its purpose. It simply expresses my Christian journey, and that journey is thankfully always being tweaked.
But I invite all comments and I assure you I DO read them all. Again, thanks for visiting.
I found the site to be well presented and easy to navigate to a number of topics. I am not posting to start another of the the usual and lamentable wars; rather I post for the lurker who may be seeking.
I would be happy to engage discussion with rational and cordial conversation. All other shall be ignored.
In reading that, I see that “Orthodox” (as he spells it) should actually be “orthodox” - thereby not a “proper name” of a group, but more in line with what he’s saying.
And then, “Catholic”, as he spells it, should also be “catholic” - and not used as a “proper name” - being that this would be the actual name of a church group - while “catholic” is not.
I would hope that he would make those corrections ... :-)
For me, the value of the site is the essays that he has compiled, not his introduction.
Later on I discovered Russian Orthodox Christmas cards ~ studied them, and other things (huge tracts of sermons) and discovered I already belonged to a church which had had at its beginning an ambition to recreate the First Century Church in America.
There is an Orthodox attitude ~ a good one ~ so it's not just an invisible sort of difference. It exists among Roman Catholic aide workers, and the priests who participate in Catholic charities.
Some day I'll figure that one out ~
Think I'll take a look at that blog and see what he has for us ~
If they are unintentional misspellings they indicate an amount of carelessness that is surprising for someone with a Master’s of Divinity. If they are misspellings then they indicate some very muddled thinking.
He is a Baptist who has discovered that all Christians are catholic and should be orthodox in both belief and practice. Maybe he is avoiding the shock factor that a Baptist experiences when he is told he is catholic.
Then I suspect I shall be ignored (and perhaps so should you), since your selection of this article is a transparent claim that folks seeking truth end up with the RCC. You did not begin with a "cordial conversation", but an obvious propaganda piece like those the Roman cult peddles incessantly.
Whether this fellow is actually a believer at all is yet to be determined...by Jesus Himself. That he migrated to Rome gives the rest of us definite pause.
If I may intrude, I believe the poster may intend to ignore the Calvinist bullies, who regularly bait Catholic FReepers into title posts for discussion, overwhelm them with overlong material, and then use that as an excuse to practice their snark lines, to insult Mary, the Holy Father, and generally dash any hope for a discussion.
Catholics hear the same tired and ignorant complaints over and over. If you’re like me and tend to go ballistic, avoid those threads. These threads are generally an intellectual exercise in futility, between brick walls with no resolution to their differences. %;?D)
It most certainly did.
See. Here they come. LOL!
I have lately been visiting the Orthodox churches around me. Beautiful.
The first Divine Liturgy I experienced was a little group of Greeks, in a borrowed "modern" Catholic church - pews and all. It was long; a great deal in Greek. But, it was glorious. Unhurried - it felt timeless. I was changed on that day.
Ignorant = Do not know. That seems a statement that is either factual or not. It’s not an insult.
All human beings are ignorant. The specifics vary.
You say that only because you're very ignorant.
(Sorry, but that still doesn't seem like a great way to conduct a civil discourse.)
I was once completely ignorant about Orthodox Christianity. Today, I am less ignorant. Have I insulted myself?
They were very, very good at edification--as most Protestant churches are--but oddly enough, it was only after taking seven or so classes on theology, hermeneutics, and Koine Greek that I became curious enough, through our apologetics group, to enquire into Orthodox Christianity.
My intent was to kick the tires, then debunk it gently. Not that I thought they were wrong, but just perhaps, so I'd thought, emphasized certain things over other things.
Boy, was I wrong. ;)
Turned out that it was really the same thing, but with a fuller, more complete, history. I'm better off for it!
Admittedly, I still think "Protestant," and always will. That won't change. But after several years in an Orthodox Christian church (founded by Russian Americans), I not only have a more complete understanding of the Patristic Fathers, but of new (read: "old") ways of thinking, and even deeper wisdom into some things.
It's been beneficial to me. I honestly didn't realize that I'd been missing anything.
Of course, the story was more complex. I'm leaving a lot of information out--like how I fought certain concepts during catechism. For many months, I had the priest pulling his hair out. He was quite patient; he called on the advice of other priests, but the odd thing was this: He was what they call "cradle orthodox."
Orthodox can't speak Protestant. And vice-versa. Oddly enough, we began to understand what we *thought* he was telling us rather differently, over time, and he, us.
We need to open up a dialogue--all Christians. What my wife and I had thought was a wide gulf separating us turned out to be a mere crack.
For a while, I was referring to myself as "Proto-Orthodox," in a humorous way.
One thing I've noticed is that the Orthodox simply don't like change. At all. Never for its own sake; they have to have a very compelling reason, or they won't. They're hyper-conservative. I used to think that was a bad thing.
...but I realize now, that it's a very good thing. ;)
The Devil could not even tempt Christ in the forty days but it seems some statements written on these threads have done just that terrible equation. Ludicrous going ons about another language dictionary. What makes Jesus the Christ? Hmmmmm. Maybe the Ten Commandments. What in the world does Honor your Mother and Father mean? Well he would have to obey every commandment not just 9 then leave that one out. Meaning preferential treatment of your parents over others. Priority . Does not mean to ignore others either. But mother and father come first in the family structure.
So in a teaching lesson of words that everybody can be part of the family of God our Savior is dishonoring his mother? Which can not be. Hello. One of these things does not add up.
Catholics hear the same tired and ignorant complaints over and over. If you’re like me and tend to go ballistic, avoid those threads. These threads are generally an intellectual exercise in futility, between brick walls with no resolution to their differences. %;?D)"
With all due respect, I believe you should go back and re-read my post. I am one of those "...Calvinist bullies" who regularly rebuts the utterly demonic misinformation spread by the Romanists. The perspicuity of the Scriptures is unavoidable...Rome has overlain the pure truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with false human tradition, myths, superstitions and darkness from the pit.
Another accusation thrown out there as if truth.
Could you perhaps cite that comment you claim to have read with a link to said comment?
Who ever said the Savior is a sinner?
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