I do not believe one can point to any one church and say "This is the true church". Frankly, most of those who judge in such a way have only done enough studies to "prove themselves correct", rather than taking an unbiased approach to the whole subject matter. I am familiar with Trenham’s material, as I felt it was the strongest ‘Ironman’ argument for Orthodoxy and approached it with a humble heart.
One example of an error in Orthodox doctrine is that no Bishop is married within the Orthodox Church, though you do find the occassional Priest who is married within the church.
The reason you do not find any Bishops married and only a few Priests married is because of their approach to theology. With the Apostle Paul's commands to Deacons and Bishops we find the scripture to say that a Bishop is "to be husband to one wife". They read this as a prohibition against polygamy, rather than a commandment for the Bishop to be married.
As a result of their belief that it is to steer Bishops away from polygamy, they go a step further and only allow non-married men to become Bishops. This is unscriptural and even hinted at by Paul to be a doctrine of devils (1 Tim 4 forbidding marriage).
Orthodox also teach that baptism is for remission of sins, which is a dispensational error that arises from not rightly dividing the Scriptures. (2 Tim 2:15)
Out of curiosity, would you say that because the leader of my church was not ordained by a Greek Orthodox bishop, that we are no church of God?
What exactly is inaccurate? I didn’t include primary sources because this is a casual forum discussion, but I wrote from doctrinal statements on an Orthodox website. Why are the bishops not allowed to be married when even Peter was married and Paul explicitly describes it as a doctrine of devils?
As someone not affiliated with orthodoxy but who has a deep love for Christ, His Word and His church, there is enough in this issue alone to be extremely wary as the Holy Ghost warns me in Colossians 2:8-
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”
Yes I am familiar with autocephaly, but that is only granted by permission of an ecumenical orthodox council. My church has not sought this permission from any council. I live in New Zealand where there is virtually no orthodox presence. Therefore your orthodox bishops would label my church not of God, and therefore of Satan, correct?
I’m not here to start a war. From our conversation I can sense you truly are my brother in Christ, and I love you and hope to meet you after this life is all over and have a good laugh.
New Zealand and Australia anyone can preach. Even with close to 0 understanding of scripture or Greek.
If you don’t see this as a problem.. hard to help you.
They can tell you anything and you will believe it.
Thinking critically - will lead you to the true words. And the true words are only in Greek. And this is why the Greek Orthodox Church often blesses churches who preach the true word - then gives them autocephaly - which means complete independance.
I do not believe one can point to any one church and say "This is the true church". Frankly, most of those who judge in such a way have only done enough studies to "prove themselves correct", rather than taking an unbiased approach to the whole subject matter. I am familiar with Trenham’s material, as I felt it was the strongest ‘Ironman’ argument for Orthodoxy and approached it with a humble heart.
One example of an error in Orthodox doctrine is that no Bishop is married within the Orthodox Church, though you do find the occassional Priest who is married within the church. The reason you do not find any Bishops married and only a few Priests married is because of their approach to theology. With the Apostle Paul's commands to Deacons and Bishops we find the scripture to say that a Bishop is "to be husband to one wife". They read this as a prohibition against polygamy, rather than a commandment for the Bishop to be married. As a result of their belief that it is to steer Bishops away from polygamy, they go a step further and only allow non-married men to become Bishops. This is unscriptural and even hinted at by Paul to be a doctrine of devils (1 Tim 4 forbidding marriage).
Orthodox also teach that baptism is for remission of sins, which is a dispensational error that arises from not rightly dividing the Scriptures. (2 Tim 2:15)
Out of curiosity, would you say that because the leader of my church was not ordained by a Greek Orthodox bishop, that we are no church of God?
Much of what you wrote here is inaccurate.
The Orthodox Church believes in autocephaly - DuckDuckGo that.
If christians stayed true to orthodoxy there would be no Christian brother wars - and a fight against the globalist cabal pope
IC XC NIKA
What exactly is inaccurate? I didn’t include primary sources because this is a casual forum discussion, but I wrote from doctrinal statements on an Orthodox website. Why are the bishops not allowed to be married when even Peter was married and Paul explicitly describes it as a doctrine of devils?
As someone not affiliated with orthodoxy but who has a deep love for Christ, His Word and His church, there is enough in this issue alone to be extremely wary as the Holy Ghost warns me in Colossians 2:8- “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”
Yes I am familiar with autocephaly, but that is only granted by permission of an ecumenical orthodox council. My church has not sought this permission from any council. I live in New Zealand where there is virtually no orthodox presence. Therefore your orthodox bishops would label my church not of God, and therefore of Satan, correct?
I’m not here to start a war. From our conversation I can sense you truly are my brother in Christ, and I love you and hope to meet you after this life is all over and have a good laugh.
New Zealand and Australia anyone can preach. Even with close to 0 understanding of scripture or Greek. If you don’t see this as a problem.. hard to help you. They can tell you anything and you will believe it. Thinking critically - will lead you to the true words. And the true words are only in Greek. And this is why the Greek Orthodox Church often blesses churches who preach the true word - then gives them autocephaly - which means complete independance.