Me too. And I am Western Orthodox. And the Church is Conciliar, full acceptance of the Seven Ecumenical Councils (and the Local Councils they blessed) being a prerequisite for membership in the Orthodox Church.
I am glad we agree.
And I presume you also accept those councils.
I can tell you this:
I accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the world.
I presume you do to...
I accept the fact that I am a sinner and that no matter what I do or anyone does or says will not and cannot change that. Thus I accept that
only the saving grace of Jesus Christ can remit sin.
I presume you do to....
I have been hoping and praying that I live as God commands his faithful people and that where I fail He will have mercy on me because I want to go to heaven with the saints.
I presume you do to......
I pray that you and I and all true believer and followers of Christ (inside and outside His Holy Church) will recieve mercy from the Lord and be freed from our bondage in this corrupted world and be accepted into the enternal grace with Him. I want and pray that all of us succeed at this no mattrer how many council we accept or not, or which pope leads because Christ is the "finisher and Author" of our faith alone. He does not need our help. WE are to follow Him.
I assure you that if our fathers (all of us) had only a small precentage of the humility, patience and long suffering that Christ exhibited and 'admonished' us to also have many of these "councils" if not all of them would not have been necessary to have in the first place. Where there is unity of the spirit than this is evidence of the providence of God. God is not party with confusion, diivision, lovelessness, emnity etc. Its thus clear that anything that acts to 'divide' in this age of mercy which started on earth upon Christs ascension to the right hand of God and will end at Christs return to earth for the 'judgement' of mandkind is not for the people of God.
WE (Christians) are a merciful nation having all patience, love and care for and with all matters and all people; particularly and unyeildingly where the body of Christ (the Holy Church) is concerned.
My hope is that Christ will in the end accept all people into the enternal kingdom no matter what they are doing or believing right now and not crush us for not following His true faith. It seems rather unfair since as orthodox we lead such rigorous lives of prayer and fasting and dwelling in the word of God and than all others who could care less end up reaping the same reward. This is a hard thing. It is easier to believe we are (you are) better because of the fact that we (you) are orthodox and follow so many councils etc; AND THEY DO NOT. WE are the TRUE CHURCH. But the Holy Church teaches that we are to be ready for this...'universiality'. WE must start with each other with mercy and passion toward each other for everything. Mercy and compassion prevents fear and thus without the chain and bondage of fear love grows to full grown being uninhibited with our weaknesess.
So I want the baptist, methodist, evangelical etc to succeed at obtaining eternal grace. I believe the scripture teaches that "every knee shall bow". What or who would "every" not include?
I am hoping and praying that Jesus Christ has mercy on us all (all people)!.....This (mercy) is the fount of the faith of the Universal Apostolic Orthodox Church.
The councils of the church are called for order and unity of Apostolic belief. 'for unity' thus to adhere to Gods command that "we are to be of one mind". So if unity prevailed from a council (or councils) than they (the councils) are of course fruitful and as such are the keepers of Gods commandments for His Holy Church. If the councils (council) divides (it does not matter why or by whose cause) than it is clearly outside of Gods commandments and therefore can not bear fruit until unity is regained. Thus a council in this condition (resulting in division) is 'not yet finished' and is 'still in session' and has been and will remain in session 'until UNITY prevails'.
Gods house can not be divided. "A house divided among itself cannot and wil not stand. This is contrary to Gods word which teaches that His Church (HIs house) will not fall. Thus such idioms as 'eastern orthodox', 'western orthodox' and 'oriental orthodox' are by nature heretical within the absolute adherence to what the Holy Orthodox Church actually is.
There is only One Church, One baptism, One faith and it is neither eastern, or western or oriental or protestant or black or white....God teaches this not councils!
The Church is One body and One word...UNI-VERSE-al
The rest we made up ourselves which serves as a bonafide testament, a totem; symbolic of our unjust, unruly and adulturous age.
Christ is coming back for His Church.
Lord have mercy on us!
