Protestant soteriology is incompatible with the Christian soteriology taught for the first 2000 years. It is completely disconnected from the historical church (Orthodox Church).
If Protestants were serious about adhering to the Pauline epistles, they would hold fast to the traditions which they were taught, by epistle AND WORD (2 Thess 2:15)
St. Athanasius the Great (reposed in 298 AD) said "The Son of God became man, that we might become god"
This is in reference to, for example, 2 Peter 1:4 where he talks about us being partakers of the divine nature, which is only possible through Christ and His Grace. This is Theosis.
We are already made in His Image. Theosis is a call to strive to become like God in likeness. What that means is it is a call to follow Christ’s commandments to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Secondly, to love our neighbors as ourself. If we do these truly do these things, we unite ourselves to Christ.
Theosis is indeed apostolic tradition, and has nothing to do with Hesychasm. Many saints who were not Hesychasts achieved Theosis.
And Hesychasm was very present in the early church, especially in early monasticism, their lives can read about here: https://stanthonysmonastery.org/products/the-lives-of-the-great-desert-fathers
"Still, it is not necessary to view the world around us as all bad. In fact, for our survival as Orthodox Christians we have to be smart enough to use whatever is positive in the world for our own benefit. Here I will go into a few points where we can use something in the world which seems to have nothing to do directly with Orthodoxy in order to formulate our Orthodox world-view.
The child who has been exposed from his earliest years to good classical music, and has seen his soul being developed by it, will not be nearly as tempted by the crude rhythm and message of rock and other contemporary forms of pseudo-music as someone who has grown up without a musical education. Such a musical education, as several of the Optina elders have said, refines the soul and prepares it for the reception of spiritual impressions.
The child who has been educated in good literature, drama, and poetry and has felt their effect in his own soul—that is, has really enjoyed them—, will not easily become an addict of the contemporary movies and television programs and cheap novels that devastate the soul and take it away from the Christian path.
The child who has learned to see beauty in classical painting and sculpture will not easily be drawn into the perversity of contemporary art or be attracted by the garish products of modern advertising and pornography.
The child who knows something of the history of the world, especially in Christian times, and how other people have lived and thought, what mistakes and pitfalls people have fallen into by departing from God and His commandments, and what glorious and influential lives they have lived when they were faithful to Him—will be discerning about the life and philosophy of our own times and will not be inclined to follow the first new philosophy or way of life he encounters. One of the basic problems facing the education of children today is that in the schools they are no longer given a sense of history. It is a dangerous and fatal thing to deprive a child of a sense of history. It means that he has no ability to take examples from the people who lived in the past. And actually, history constantly repeats itself. Once you see that, it becomes interesting how people have answered problems, how there have been people who have gone against God and what results came from that, and how people changed their lives and became exceptions and gave an example which is lived down to our own times. This sense of history is a very important thing which should be communicated to children.
In general, the person who is well acquainted with the best products of secular culture—which in the West almost always has definite religious and Christian overtones—has a much better chance of leading a normal, fruitful Orthodox life than someone who knows only the popular culture of today. One who is converted to Orthodoxy straight from “rock” culture, and in general anyone who thinks he can combine Orthodoxy with that kind of culture—has much suffering to go through and a difficult road in life before he can become a truly serious Orthodox Christian who is capable of handing on his faith to others. Without this suffering, without this awareness, Orthodox parents will raise their children to be devoured by the contemporary world. The world’s best culture, properly received, refines and develops the soul; today’s popular culture cripples and deforms the soul and hinders it from having a full and normal response to the message of Orthodoxy.
Therefore, in our battle against the spirit of this world, we can use the best things the world has to offer in order to go beyond them; everything good in the world, if we are only wise enough to see it, points to God, and to Orthodoxy, and we have to make use of it."
-Fr. Seraphim Rose
Likely Christian. The Celtic cross has been a sign of Irish Christians for many centuries.
Most people do not realize that St Patrick of Ireland (4th century) brought Orthodox Christianity to Ireland.
https://orthodoxwiki.org/Patrick_of_Ireland
The circle on the Celtic cross symbolizes eternity.
"Seek the simplest in all things, in food, clothing, without being ashamed of poverty. For a great part of the world lives in poverty. Do not say, 'I am the son of a rich man. It is shameful for me to be in poverty.' Christ, your Heavenly Father, Who gave birth to you in the baptistery, is not in worldly riches. Rather he walked in poverty and had nowhere to lay His head."
- St. Gennadius of Constantinople
This so true for most people, who are on the path that leads to destruction.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
"Let them push you, but do not push; Let them crucify you, but do not crucify. Let them insult, but do not insult. Let them slander, but do not slander. Be meek, and do not be zealous in evil."
- St. Isaac the Syrian
Not sure if either of you have seen this debate, but it made me realize I can no longer support Bryson.
https://www.youtube.com/live/CzH_2YjH9pQ?si=teW3jFEiAAaMt2j2
He made it very clear he only knows the Holy Scriptures in terms of memorization. Quite literally picks and chooses verses and his own interpretations to come up with his own custom Theology that isn’t shared by anyone else (common among Protestants)
He is a prideful heretic.
Brave allows me to download YouTube videos for offline playback, and has really good native ad blocker. Main reasons why I use it, especially nice for road trips
It’s really good. Startup times are a little slow but it’s running LND on device, and does all pathfinding on device as well.
And if you have channels to the LSP, all generated invoices by default (but can be disabled) are wrapped to provide better privacy by not exposing your nodes pub key to the payer.
And there’s lots more coming. Evan is cooking up some next level stuff.
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