Posted on 02/12/2003 8:35:27 PM PST by rwfromkansas
Jesus is against war??? Oh really!!
Numbers 31
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.
3 And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the LORD of Midian.
Deuteronomy 20
1 When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
2 And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people,
3 And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them;
Ecclesiastes 3
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Jean
"War is evil. But it is necessary when peace and good order are threatened. This basic fact has been glossed over by years of leftist propaganda in the media and especially in education.
No longer the transmission of the body of knowledge, education has been used as a brainwashing tool to teach an anti-Christian and amoral philosophy. The Holy City of Jerusalem has been replaced with the Liberated City of Sodom.
And do not think for one moment that we as Orthodox Christians have not been touched or influenced by these seeds of secularism. Even in the Church, today there are many who have become totally secularized, thinking that they can indeed serve God and Mammon. In the 1920s, Archpriest Valentin (see below) preached fervently about this.
St John the Baptist when asked by the soldiers what should they do, answered: “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.” (Luke 3: 14).
St John did not tell the soldiers to lay down their arms.
Pacifism is not a Christian principle. St Sergei of Radonezh blessed the soldiers before they went into battle. During the combat the saint prayed for the souls who died bravely fighting against the Tartars.
St Nikolai of Japan blessed the Orthodox soldiers in the Japanese Army before they fought the Russians. For this the Tsar decorated St Nikolai for defending his adopted country. During WW2, the late Archbishop Anthony of San Francisco served in the trenches with the Serbian Army. He ministered to the wounded and dying, not just in the safety of the Field Hospital, but in the trenches. It is said that he was communing a dying soldier when a bullet glanced off the chalice. What did Fr Anthony do? He did not run off and seek cover. He continued his prayers and then only then did he retreat to safety.
And what of Vanya, a lieutenant in the Polish Army at Monte Casino? He prayed that he would not have to kill anyone during combat. God heard his prayer.
Single-handed he stormed a German machine-gun nest and took the enemy prisoner. He told me that he fired into the air, hoping that he would not hurt anyone. The surprised Germans gave up without a fight. Vanya was decorated for bravery. Later St John of Shanghai awarded him a gramota for loyal service to the Church as choirmaster and warden. I had the honour of knowing this brave ‘pacifist’!
Of course these values are totally lost on a generation that has been brought up on left-wing history texts. Should a boy show any signs of manhood, he is immediately referred to the shrink for a course of Ritalin. If this fails, he is made a pariah in our effeminate hedonistic society.
When the Russian writer Solzhenitsyn first came to the west, he warned us that what had happened in Russia would happen on American soil. At that time I thought that what he was predicting was far-fetched nonsense. Today I think differently.
The forces of the antichrist have already gathered in Europe and are making their demands known.
Was Europe founded on sodomy and immorality? Was western civilization the product of socialist serfdom and godless humanism? No. Europe was founded on the Judeo-Christian tradition.
America too was established by God-fearing men who founded that great nation on the basic Christian values, paying tribute to the virtues of sacrifice, honour and courage. Now we are being told that this is all bigotry and we have to consider other religions. We must not offend others with the truth. Not that the left cares about religion. The left hates absolutes except in its own godless religion of socialism.
When I see the ‘No War’ stickers, I wonder whether these people driving their SUVs would start riding bicycles to avoid our need for oil. Would they stop flying in jets? Do they ever consider the brave men and women who gave their lives for the peace we enjoy?
Perhaps we as Orthodox Christians are waging a rear-guard action. Nevertheless it is our duty to sacrifice ourselves as did those before us for what is true, honest, just, pure, is lovely, or of good report.. (Phil 4: 8)
Fr Serafim
Nice try. You ~KNOW~ that's not reality. But you guys just luv to hide behind that every time.
It would seem to me that there SHOULD be NO "opinion" among Romanists if "THE" church's interpretation is, as you say, "inspiried."
If the interpretation is "inspired", there should be NO other opinion.
But we both know that ain't the facts, Jack.
Jean
The bible was written by men under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But I don't think G Larry was alluding to this. There was no protestant Calvinist church until the 16th century. The Catholic Church, as we first heard it called by Ignatius of Antioch in his writings dating back to 107 AD, preserved and stewarded the Sacred Scriptures for all time. Read about the scriptoriums, Mom. That was the Church under the Divine protection of the Holy Spirit. Of course none of this is our doing; all that we are, all that we can do that is good is from God. But it was the Catholic Church nonetheless.
as for the non canonical books..they are not a part of the inspired Hebrew Cannon
Please tell me how you know the difference between the Hebrew Canon and the Septuagint Canon and how you can tell one is Inspired and the other is not. And you can't use the Council of Jamnia (so-called) as an example.
St Jerome...
Everyone who has studied canon knows that Jerome didn't agree on the Deuterocanonicals (at first). So what! There had been four centuries of discourse and debate.
However, as you are always quoting Augustine as if he was some quasi Calvinist; he was the leading proponent of the deuteros as being Inspired and it was the Councils of Hippo, Carthage and Hippo ( Who was the Bishop of Hippo? ) that did define the same 73 that we Catholics use today. That, BTW has never changed. The exclusion of the seven was innovative with Protestantism.
Yep.
Polycarp signed up 2002-05-10.
This account has been banned.
BigMack
Polycarp signed up 2002-05-10.
Sorry
BigMack
BigMack
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