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And it is more than this... James states it clearly... Out of the works (of the Faith) is the Faith perfected (in the faithful)...
The Faith we prize CANNOT be perfected in us unless we do the works of the Faith which Christ discipled to His Apostles...
He even says that the flippin' DEMONS...
Great post... Thank you...
Actually, this is not my interpretation of the meaning of the text, but only of its words, which form the basis of all interpretations... My job, where we disagree, is to do my best to make you right and me wrong... And this precisely because you do not have the...
False or distorted translations are why I go to a literal Greek translation...
Then if you disagree with my literal translation, we can do a word study where we disagree...
Engage the text and we can talk...
You have the literal that I provided, of which the KJV is a VERSION...
Arsenios
James 2:22
βλέπεις ὅτι
You are seeing that...
ἡ πίστις συνήργει τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ,
The Faith is working together (literally, synergizing) with his works...
καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἔργων
And out of the works
ἡ πίστις ἐτελειώθη
The Faith is being perfected.
How do you understand the above...
The doctrine of the Real Presence is one thing...
The HOW is another...
For us, the HOW is Mystery, and any further accounting MAY be but pious opinions... (theologoumenoi)
Do you affirm the first 7 Ecumenical Councils? Do you deny Communion to those who do not?
IMO (and this is NOT - in...
The Latin Church was very much Orthodox for the first thousand years...
She separated from the Eastern Communion of Churches in the 11th century...
So we have differences in many things... Even the meaning of Salvation...
And we certainly do not agree with the Lutherans as affirmed on this...
Lutheran Narrow-sense Justification seems to be much the equivalent of Orthodox Salvation, and I haven't seen much opposition, except for the Scripture which reads that we are saved by our works, and not by faith alone in James, which for some reason you have not engaged...
But I do have...
You keep coming back to this "Narrow Justificaiton" issue with the Latin Church of the West, which condemned Luther's view... So finally, I must ask you this:
What do you understand to be the difference between the EO and the RC understanding of Salvation?
Arsenios
Well, since I am devoid of God's Grace in your eyes,
are you advising me to stop helping little old ladies across the street
and to start kicking them down into the gutter instead?
Or do you actually endorse my hypocrisy in helping others?
I do love your advice...
Arsenios
I simply know that I am a sinner, and the race is not over till the end, and temptations will come... So IF I simply persevere in vigilance of soul as we are all instructed to do to the end, and do not turn myself back to sin, I will be saved, even as I am now saved... It is simply a matter of...
Nor am I...
I live in profound Peace and Joy that has very little to do with the state of affairs of the world or of my physical presence in it... And I am found in stillness and prayer day and night... And God is always closer than near to me...
Arsenios
Gosh, I must have forgotten to mention for the 87th time: "We are Justified and Sanctified by Christ when Christ baptizes us into the Ekklesia, the Body of Christ, at the hands of the Servants of Christ in that Ekklesia... You will never see a more holy and more justified person than the one...
Baptism into Christ, as Scripture tells us...
And not a "Spiritual Event"...
God is the Judge of them as well, of the Living AND the DEAD... And many, many of these will be far, far ahead of me in the line of Salvation... IF I make it at all...
You are describing me for my first 36...
Anyone can quote a bunch of Scripture and the pronounce their interpretation of what it all means...
You need to learn to argue from and through Scripture...
And the problem even with this is that when Jesus was tempted by Satan after His 40 day fast in the wilderness just after His Baptism...
Discipleship is repetition... A disciple is a mathiti in Greek, not unrelated to math... One enters into a Way of Life, and Christ, as you know IS the Way AND the Life... Prior to being first called Christians in the beginninngs of my Church at Antioch, the followers of Christ were known as...