Expositing the Word Ministries
Expositing the Word Ministries
Expositing the Word Ministries was created in response to 2 Timothy 4:2, which states, "preach the word." The focus of this ministry is to bring the Word of God to the forgotten churches of America.
Samuel and Mercy Farag joined Village Missions in 2021, after they felt God leading them to serve among the forgotten churches in Rural North America and bring the Gospel message to those in their own Jerusalem. Sam and Mercy have two daughters and enjoy spending time with family and friends, baking, reading, and getting outdoors. Sam served as Youth Pastor at his home church in Richardson, Texas, and Mercy cares for their daughters and served in the Children’s Ministry.
We invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with the Farags and Village Missions to help rural churches thrive through your encouragement, prayer, and financial partnership. Please see expositingtheword.org/give for more information.
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Jonathan (is not our father) and he could learn a lot about humility and truth from Sam.
I recommend you study ancient church history. 99% Protestants know nothing about it. I was one of them. They usually have a fuzzy idea that the church immediately went into apostasy right after the apostles died, and so the Church that was supposed to never fail even being placed at the gates of hell, did-for 1500+ years and yet the Bible was still canonized by the bishops of a fallen church? Go to original documents such 4:25 as the Didache, read the writings of the earliest apostolic bishops like polycarp. You’ll learn more about the apostolic teachings on communion. You’ll learn that the 300+ bishops who canonized the Bible were Orthodox, not Protestant. How can Protestants trust that the holy spirit worked through these men who by the standards of modern Protestants are often viewed as idolaters? How is it that these same men expounded at length on the Trinity, the nature of Christ, baptism, and more? It starts to occur to you that the Bible didn’t fall out of the sky into the hands of reformed or modern Christians. No doubt, the early reformers had their hands full with Roman Catholic heresies and corruption, but there existed without pause, the Orthodox Church and without distortions such as occurred in RCC.
You have it all wrong
Bad understanding. Don't waste your time and listen to this man.
You realize you quote songs about battles won when Mary appeared in combat against Muslims and this is not about sin? Ask an Orthodox not a protestant.
Mary is venerated, not worshipped. Do you have any idea what "worship" actually means to Orthodox.
Jay Dyer. protestantism began in 1500s, Orthodoxy began with Jesus Christ. Against the church the gates of hell will not prevail. If that verse isnt true, Christianity is a fraud.
How do you discern which ideas from the early Church fathers to retain, and which ones to ignore? It sounds like from Constantine onwards you would say it's invalid. Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 AD, the Nicene creed was in 325 AD, and (just looked it up) it seems that the books of the bible that were canon were decided on in 397 AD. Would you keep all these, but remove icons? If the Church had become so rotten after Constantine's conversion and the Roman empire becoming Christian, why would one take the Nicene creed's ideas as being legitimate (Jesus being God the Son and his relationship to God the Father)? Would you say Arianism might be correct? Weren't Roman emperors viewed as being son of god? Or the books of the bible - how are you deciding which books are canon? There were disputes about which books are or aren't canon, and the 397 Council of Carthage played a crucial part. Seems that you're arbitrarily accepting some things, and disregarding other things from the early Christians.
Note one thing - all churches who have Apostolic origins use icons... only Protestants who do NOT have Apostolic origins are Iconoclastic heretics, including Muslims who also do not have Apostolic origins and Jews alike. Think about it.
I'm a Syriac Orthodox considering Eastern Orthodoxy so I'd have known a lot above Orthodoxy. I knew there would be a limitation with a Non-Chalcedonian apostate to Protestantism as the video would equate the two groups rather than an Eastern Orthodox apostate to Protestantism. As a Syriac Orthodox, whether or not I knew about Dioscorus, Flavian, Pulcheria, Euphemia, Cyril etc, I still heard the gospel, I knew the meaning of the cross and the sacrifice, I read the Bible, entirely contradicting his experience. While knowing the Chalcedonian schism did affect my faith so much I could have become Protestant, my own Pope, my own Church, I'd have felt insecure building my own interpretation that could violate patristic, spiritual teachings to a more simple, and human manner. But that's just what it is at the end of the day, experience. Entering the video on Doreen's channel, I sensed this video would be clearly biased from Doreen's lack of awareness, if Doreen wanted to learn about Orthodoxy why did she take it from someone who would have obviously have suited her Protestant biases, of course, if she got Fr Peter Heers or Jay Dyer, despite the bias they'd have, she could have learnt about Orthodoxy from an educational perspective from an experienced Orthodox Christian who knew their faith with great sufficiency rather than a way that would have made her go against Orthodoxy from an apostate. She didn't need to go against Orthodoxy, the video itself could have been about learning Orthodoxy rather than poking it. What's even more worse is that if she had a negative impression of Orthodoxy, and felt very against it, why couldn't she have gotten Kyle, or Fr Josiah, or Jay and debated. So many refutations.
“Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ And he said to them, ‘Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.’ And he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, ‘Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban’’ (that is, given to God)- then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” - Mark 7:1-13
@@expositingtheword Tell me, Jesus, Paul, and the Apostles spoke about the Church, the Church being mentioned nearly 120 times in the Bible, this one Church must exist, hence the phrase, 'one, holy, Catholic, apostolic, orthodox Church.' What came first the Bible or the Church? Matthew 16:18, 'I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not overcome it.' From your belief, Jesus must be lying, the Church is weak, the Church faded until a man has to come and 'reform' the Church, not the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church. The issue of continued Protestant denominations were mentioned, Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, they were started by men, while the Church at Pentecost was started by the Spirit. The Spirit who has been protecting the Church. The Church is Christ's body, the Church is the 'pillar and foundation of truth.' 'Traditions of men' what does that mean anymore, any practise or belief that is not liked by a Protestant so we go sola scriptura? Be specific. Three 'traditions' I'll go over- saints and icons, sacraments, and monasticism. Let's agree that good works produces good faith like how a good tree produces good fruit, while a bad tree produces bad fruit. So you don't think . After all, if you think that Orthodox Christianity is a works-based salvation, some of our saints have said things that go against our own righteousness, like 'if we believe that they are saved by their own value, we have been decieved' and 'It is not one's own efforts which lead to the goal, because without grace, works produce very little. Nor does works without faith bring sought... grace acts in our efforts.' In Corinthians, Paul says 'woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel' and Jesus told us to evangelise, He also told us to love him, and by doing so we keep His commands. You'd consider saint veneration as a tradition, but we honor the saints because they protected Christ's bride, the Church, from heresies, like Nestorianism, Marcionism, Monophysitism(this is the heresy that has sadly caused the separation between Syriacs and Copts with the Greeks and Romans, Macedonianism, Puragtory etc. If the saints are 'dead' then they did not die in Christ, but God is not a God of the dead, he is a God of the living (Mark 12:27), His people live. The video slandered the Orthodox faith by claiming we ask for materialism, but if praying to God for materialism is considered shameful, then it would be shameful going to the saints, the saints pray for us. In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes that the saints shall judge the Earth. 'Those who honor me, I shall honor.' As much as 1 Timothy 2:5 is used as a top trump, the Orthodox understanding is that Jesus allowed a relationship to be brought between the Divine and Man. You accuse the Orthodox of idolatry but idolatry is praying to the created, rather than the creator, but the saints are in God, God exists, He is not a false God. Veneration is respecting, not worshipping. Throughout the Old Testament, there are episodes of men being bowed down to men. If images of men are allowed, but not one of Christ, then you deny that Christ was a man, and therefore, that's docetism. Yes, we shouldn't have graven images, images of the false Gods. The Ark of the Covenant should be made as an example. The church in Dura-Europos in the 3rd century was , many icons before the 7th council were destroyed hence many will argue that there aren't many icons before the 7th century. Of course, with God the saints can perform miracles like the miracle of St Euphemia at Chalcedon. Never have I heard that the liturgy is infallible, and I will never defend the heresy of the Kollyridians and those who are identical but even in the second century titles like 'the Cause of our Salvation,' and 'the Virgin,' and 'Ever-virgin.' Even in Luke 1: 48 she says 'many generations shall call me blessed.' Elizabeth blessed her. On the topic of her virginity, while many say that Jesus had many siblings, the Greek term of 'adelphos' was a bland term for family members because a house in those days included extended family. Many will question why Mary is never mentioned ever again, because we come to Christ first, first you come to Christ, know him, then His mother and His Church. You'd consider the sacraments as a man-made tradition but for 2000 years of the sacraments why did a man called Uldrich Zwingli neglect them. If the Church practises the sacraments only for one man to deny them then the rejection of sacraments is the man-made belief because that man has went against what the Spirit-protected men had established. Confession- John 20:21-23 Marriage Matthew 19:5-6, John 2:1, Ephesians 5:32, James 5 As much as many Prod denominations will say that 'this is my body' is a metaphor, this is a rational, and humanistic manner. The pagans misunderstood this, and thought Christians were committing cannibalism. The first letter of Corinthians mentions the sacrament and there are moments in Acts where the Lord's Supper is practised. 'Do this in memory of me.' Luke Baptism, I think this is one of the few sacraments that is accepted across many Churches- Nestorian, Baptist, Catholicism, Anglicanism. Priesthood 1 Peter 2:9 When we pray we should not just say it without meaning it in the heart, nor should we ask for materialism (something that was sadly used to slander the Orthodox Church). St. Athanasius said that the Arian prayers are vain for their heresy. While Prots reject Sirach, there is a similar quote but since the Orthodox Church use the book, there is a quote that says that we shouldn't repent without meaning it. Look at the Old Testament, elaborate prayers said to a false God, self-harm is done so that the false God can hear them but while Saint Anthony deprived himself of sleep, as a monastic, his refusal of sleep would have shown as self-control against the flesh, like a fast, unlike Baalists, St Anthony was not praying to a false God but a one, true God. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said the same prayer three times.
@@fadikhoory5350 I am Syriac Orthodox Christian as well, born and raised. I agree with a lot of what you’re saying and I messaged Doreen about what seems to be a lack of knowledge or clearly an agenda on her end (yet, disappointingly, no response, of course) and expect your comment to be deleted because mine has been. However, we do NOT believe in Monophysitism theology as we have been falsely accused of and that has been clarified many years ago. We believe in: “Miaphysitism is the Christology of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. Miaphysitism holds that in the one person of Jesus Christ, Divinity and Humanity are united in one "nature" ("physis"), the two being united without separation, without confusion, and without alteration.” We believe our Lord Jesus indeed has two natures but without any commingling or confusion. You can look this up in plenty of our church documents and there is a huge difference between Monophysitism and that is a false accusation. It’s truly a matter of words at this point which I believe was due to politics, power and control. Sad to hear you leaving. Although, all of our churches seem to have faults whether it be culturally or leadership issues or that they all think they’re the “truth” but I still love ours, God saved me from the hell I was in and lead me back to my Syriac Orthodox faith and opened my eyes to so much (we are not perfect, but who is or which community is? Only our Lord Jesus is perfect). In the end, I believe God knows what’s in our hearts and we are blessed to be able to receive his Holy Sacraments in any of the apostolic churches. All I’ve seen from the Greek Orthodox, in particular, is bashing, condemning our community to hell, judging our people and Oriental Orthodoxy as a whole, talking down to us as if we’re inferior to them, boastful and full of pride 🤔 in such a way it baffles me to even proclaim that is Christian like behavior with so much hate; it’s sad to even have such divisions. Anyway, many other Eastern Orthodox Christian communities and leaders want unity. I do appreciate you clarifying what Doreen is falsely spreading. Wish we would all focus on the unity rather than focusing on so much division and on what truly matters in the end; Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God bless. 🙏✝️
What abominations, what blasphemies! What paganism!!! 🤢🤮 Disgusting!
This guy is FULL OF B U L L S H I T...don't step in it.
We do not Separate The. CHURCH INTO PIECES. Scripture EXISTS within The Church, for The Church. So the Church KNOWS. The Scripture is a lived thing within The Church. It isn't something you read only. It isn't something you get graded on. It isn't something you are called to recite without understanding. Holy Scriptures are like the engine of a car. ....sure. you can put a nice engine in your garage. But. It won't take you anywhere without the rest of it.
Orthodox Christians do not Worship Mary. This SFB just DOES NOT understand what ACTUAL Worship IS. MARY was WHO GOD CHOSE to ask to be the Ark of The Incarnate Word. She did NOT HAVE to say yes. But she did. You were not chosen, or clean enough or good enough to even be asked. No one was. She is The Mother of ALL of the Living. That is what it is to understand Mary in the context of The BODY OF JESUS. SO YES, she gets respect and veneration above all other who are of the Living within the Body of Jesus.
Exactly 1 MINUTE 15 SECONDS into this video and this guy IS ALREADY full of crap. #1 WHY do we Worship on Sunday? ??? BECAUSE it. Is The Apostles teaching. And this is CONTRARY to the 4th commandment. #2 Why do we HAVE Images of Jesus??? BECAUSE IT IS APOSTOLIC TEACHING ...do NOT deny the Incarnation of The Word and still claim you are Christians. The 2nd commandmet is about Idols and Praxis that Israel would have to DEAL with for the next 1000 years. Yet, if one READS Duteronomy and Numbers, one realises the message. Icons of The Truth IMAGES of THE TRUTH are STILL THE TRUTH!
I’m not persuaded by your argument not only because it’s not consistent with biblical truth, but because of the way you comport yourself. To criticize his position as “Crap” only shows the hypocrisy that is demonstrated on your part (which is one of the reasons why I opted out from converting to Eastern or Oriental Orthodoxy and stuck with biblical truth). I would strongly encourage you to examine yourself before making additional criticisms of others whether it be myself, Pastor Samuel or anyone else.
Uuuuuuummmmmmmmm?????? Wrong take. Lol. Peace. God Bless.
"the words of the prayer are fine" 2 seconds later "they're empty". with all love id suggest reading read st. Gregory palamas "The Triads In Defense of Those Who Practice Sacred Quietude" translated by Fr. Peter A. Chamberas, this completely rebuttals everything from your western mindset. one of St Gregory's greatest critique of how the west views the Theology, Scripture, Tradition and philosophy is that it eventually leads to mass atheism, which is exactly what happened in the west. God way does lead to atheism, yours does, historically. dont take this as an attack on you, take this as a moment to actually understand a worldview that you're talking about.
I pray both gentlemen in this video may educate themselves properly in Church history tradition , Apostolic succession and tradition . Pardon my ignorance, it does not come across as though you have an educated understanding of Orthodoxy . Perhaps visit an Orthodox Church near yourselves and humbly ask the priest there if he is willing and able to answer some of your questions. This video for me personally comes across as a way of an attack on Orthodoxy.
If the Devil can pervert the Bible, surely he can ruin mysticism. The Charismatic Movement is of the Devil, but what about the Orthodox Church, surely, the Devil used an Orthodox belief and twisted a sect of Protestantism, so when ex-Charismatics search Orthodoxy, they'll be reminded by the abuse the Charismatics did tarnishing the Orthodox Church. It's sad that bible quotes end up being read in simplicity, and rationality, and in human knowledge. When we pray we should not just say it without meaning it in the heart, nor should we ask for materialism (something that was sadly used to slander the Orthodox Church). St. Athanasius, sorry can't mention him, but he said that the Arian prayers are vain for their heresy. While Prots reject Sirach, there is a similar quote but since the Orthodox Church use the book, there is a quote that says that we shouldn't say sins without meaning it. Look at the Old Testament, elaborate prayers said to a false God, self-harm is done so that the false God can hear them but while Saint Anthony deprived himself of sleep, as a monastic, his refusal of sleep would have shown self-control, like a fast, unlike Baalists, St Anthony was not praying to a false God but a one, true God. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said the same prayer three times. Becoming sinless is a problem? But the Methodists believe in a path of sanctification where you reach a point when you stop sinning.
I Have No Discourse nor Dialogue With The Heretical and Hetrodox Teachings of The Apostate Protestant Reformation. ☦️🕊🕯🔥🙏☦️⛪️‼️
Pro Tip: never let a protestant teach you Orthodox dogma or theology the only guarantee is they will get it wrong either intentionally or unintentionally but wrong nonetheless. Just stay in your lane and talk about what you know.
that implies no one would the orthodox church as long as they properly understand what it teaches not how it works
@@InitialPC no idea what you're trying to say. It is exactly what it says and "implies" nothing. You should not attempt to learn about things from people who consistently have no idea what they are saying. This video is so fundamentally flawed my comment is the only thing that made sense to say. It'd be the equivalent of me starting a math KZread channel and posting a video about why 7+7 = 17. Everything about it is categorically wrong. This man knows what he knows about protestantism and or his protestant sect. He knows literally nothing of orthodoxy he should stay in his lane
@@Abr1895 You just said a whole lot of nothing. None of that addresses the point in my comment, which was a very simple comment.
@@InitialPC re read your comment and edit it... In English
@@Abr1895 It IS in English. You are aware pride is one of the seven deadly sins right? turning a blind eye to what others have to say does not make you right.
Proverbs 6:19
A false dilemma. No one is disputing the authority of Scripture as God-breathed. But what the Scripture says is understood in the context of Holy Tradition, which simply means original Christianity, rather than a 15th century invention.
The Bergoglio "Catholic Church" is making moves to be separated from Biblical teachings, Tradition maintained over 2,000 years and true Councils, excluding Vatican II, which have guided the Church over the centuries. Bergoglio is a loose cannon!
Thank you sir for solidifying why I went from being a Protestant to now Eastern Orthodox. The true path highlights the extreme difficulty of facing myself and my sins
Heres some of the dumb things i heard from this man. "There's been studies done where if you ask Eastern orthodox people what is the gospel you will get various different answers because it's not very clear Whereas if you ask a protestant it's very clear, trust in Jesus and soforth" "Sola ecclesia" "Church [that wrote an infallible bible] is not infallible" "Hymns are considered infallible" "The message derived from the bible is not there in the orthodox church" We literally wrote the Bible Did Jesus leave a Bible at pentacost? Or did he leave a Church? You dont even have the right canon of scripture dude, Jesus knew the septuagint you have no clue whats going on. You dont even have proper christology because all your theology is centered on sotireology and escatology 😂😂😂
Some people ought not be teachers, it could be to their own detriment
2:44 _When they (clergy?) speak in "official capacity," that's the same level as Scripture (i.e. infallible)_ The statement above is totally incorrect, in fact, it's a complete misunderstanding of the Orthodox teaching. Speaking in "official capacity" of anyone from Orthodox clergy or non-clergy, is never a guarantee of the correctness of teaching, and much less of any sort of infallibility (this is in sharp contrast with Roman Catholics, where Pope does claim such infallibility ex cathedra). Even if that particular teaching is voiced by an Orthodox Patriarch himself ex cathedra, or even by a whole council of ALL Orthodox Patriarchs together, and even if that council claims itself to be "Oecumenical"! Why? because that could have been a "robber council," and if so, all Orthodox Christians are in no way bound by it. Practically, that means, that beyond the 7 Oecumenical councils, which indeed are accepted as the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the decisions of which could be, with some stipulations, be deemed "infallible", no contemporary person or ecclesiastical body, or even the assembly of such bodies, can claim infallibility. Thus, when the Orthodox talk about infallibility of the Church, they don't mean any particular church organization, Orthodox or not. They really mean the Church as defined by Saint Basil the Great as _the spiritual unity of all creatures who are in communion with God, those who lived before us, those who still live now, those who will live after us, and those who are never to live in human form (like Angels)._ *This is the ultimate and the only infallible authority in the Orthodoxy.* If that authority has accepted a particular teaching or tradition, it is considered "Orthodox" or correct, if it has rejected it, maybe even hundreds of year after its initial introduction, it is rejected and considered unorthodox. *In short, the reality is much more complex and this question is completely misrepresented in this video.*
☦☦☦
The problem that many Protestants have is that their arguments are circular and they don’t realize it. They claim Sola Scriptura but they cannot identify an authority that can define which interpretation is actually the correct interpretation. This is what leads to the constant splitting of the church. They fail to realize that the Church is actually the body of Christ and is Holy. The ancient church defined doctrine by holding ecumenical councils and did not tacitly accept any single person’s teaching unless it was affirmed as genuine by the Church as the whole body. This is largely gone from modern western Christianity and as a result heresy runs rampant. May God have mercy on us and judge our intentions and not our doctrine.
Scripture itself emphasizes its sufficiency and authority for teaching, correcting, and equipping believers (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The New Testament models collective discernment (Acts 15:6-29) but also encourages individual engagement with Scripture (Acts 17:11). The early ecumenical councils derived their authority from alignment with Scriptural truth, not independent ecclesiastical power. Although heresy is a concern (2 Peter 2:1), believers are called to test teachings against Scripture (1 John 4:1), underscoring the primacy of Scripture and the Holy Spirit's guidance in maintaining doctrinal integrity. No need for Popes or anything of the likes.
@@kevnev342 I’m not trying to be confrontational but is it possible that we are putting too much emphasis on individual engagement and as a result we are experiencing an almost exponential increase in new denominations? We are also witnessing the resurgence of some of the first heresies like Arianism (Jehovah Witnesses), and different forms of modalism (Oneness Pentecostals), etc. I am not discouraging anyone from reading the Bible, but the devil can even use this beautiful act of pious devotion as a way to sin if we puff ourselves up with pride and end up becoming modern Pharisees blindly leading others into a pit. Acts 8:26-40. God bless you my brother in Christ, and may He richly bless you to the Glory of His Holy Name.
Kjv is need not any other authority to tell us what is right or wrong like the pharisee. Sola scriptura scripture alone people of the book aren't reformers they predate the catholic secular church by 300 or more years it's the church of Simon Peter and Paul started
@@daniel27560 Christ himself acknowledged the authority of the Pharisees.
@@kevnev342 The medical council is exactly what you said, collective discernment. Church continuity is the witness test for biblical interpretation. In other words, if you have doctrines like once saved always saved, it is fruitful to check and see if this doctrine has continuity going back to the early church. Is that the earliest Christians outside of the New Testament interpreted those passages? If not, then maybe that interpretation of those passages is incorrect.
I just had to comment based on the title alone lol saying Orthodox vs Biblical teachings is like saying The Celtics vs The Celtics 😂 Orthodoxy is Biblical teachings and The Bible is part of the Church they are an inseparable body along with the people.
Amazing preaching, God bless you
Jesus Christ founded the Catholic faith with his mother the Blessed Virgin Mary being the 1st Catholic convert. Christ made Saint Peter the 1st pope, thus establishing apostolic procession, Catholics are the original Bible Christians. If it weren't for Catholic Crusaders and Catholic knights the western world would be on it's collective knees 5 times a day, facing mecca and praying to allah the devil. The documented appearances and miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Lourdes, France, at Fatima, Portugal and at Garabandal, Spain are proof positive that true Christendom is the Catholic faith. The world needs to start praying the Rosary and heed the Virgin Mary's warnings especially from 10/13/1917 with 50,000+ witnesses and the miracle of the sun, with before and after photos.
Everything the church says focuses on, leads to, and glorifies Christ. As the bride of Christ, whom Christ himself established, and against whom the gates of hades will never prevail, the church is truly the ark of salvation. You are setting up a false dichotomy.
The church lives within us the church is body of Jesus christ is his People of the book sola scriptura salvation is through his blood alone and pray to christ alone not mary and not any saints
@@daniel27560 Where does it say in the Bible that the church is inside of you? That sounds very fluffy if you ask me.
The church is good for a “launch pad” to get the Word out and around the world, however people subconsciously have turn the “church” into an idol itself. Catholics are like “Pharisees of Christendom”. Subconsciously speaking, they act like the church was around before God was. No material church or material rites, traditions or ceremonies come close to GODs throne. The Tabernacle and The Temple of the Lord were PHYSICALLY lit 🔥 by the Lords glory. His stamped approval. I have yet to see something similar to happen to a church from ANY denomination. It’s not church that saves people, it’s Jesus that saves, God that proves. When you pass away most likely your pastor/priest won’t be standing next to you before God Almighty. So what’s the point of church today? Answer: Fellowship with others that are believers and followers of Jesus, The Father and The Holy Spirit, because it’s extremely difficult to fellowship with the world that is against GOD.
Everyone debating which church is the original. They act as if the church came before the Word. They subconsciously act is if the church is more important than the Bible itself. Sola Scriptura.
False dichotomy.
@@sapientum8Where in the Bible does it say that the Bible is the only source of guidance and revelation? And need you be reminded how the scriptures came to be in the first place?
@@cadenorris4009 The Holy Scriptures is but the most ancient part of the Church tradition. The source of guidance is not even Scriptures per se, but the Holy Spirit, including His guidance through the Scriptures as well as by means of the rest of the Church tradition, which is normally expressed by the Saints of the Church, who are present in each generation, including ours.
Actually the Church was established centuries before the Bible lol.
@@Elite_Orthodox wasn't it officially established on the day of Pentecost?.. or you mean something else?
As a non committed searcher for the truth who is leaning towards the Eastern Orthodox Church after much research I would say that it is incumbent on you if you are to say the Eastern Orthodox Church is teaching and err to point out doctrine that is corrupted. I would agree that if the Eastern Orthodox Church stated that they held the logos but taught error that would be anathema. At that point there would be a case for Protestantism. This video shows no evidence of that. Are you are doing is saying empty orthodox church that states that it does not teach heretical teachings And that is somehow wrong. You could be right they may teach heretical things but you have to prove that. You did not do that in this video.
The bible says the following: The Church is the foundation of truth, the gates of hell shall not overcome it, Christ will not leave us orphans. Do you think that He would allow the entire Church for the first 1500 years to fall into error? That He would lie about giving us THE Church and instead teach us through the mouths of many fallible individuals? Of course not. As for the point about giving a definition of what the gospel is; there are 1000s of different protestantisms, only one holy orthodoxy. What, in your worldview, is the basis for your knowledge thst your interpretation of what scripture means and what the Church is, is correct, despite being radicaly different to anything before Luther? Without any eclessiastical authority, how can anyone discern one iterpretation of scripture from the other? And before you say "just dollow what it says" first of all: why would there be multiple interpretations if all you had to do was just read it. And secondly: Where do we get the canon of scripture from? Did the Bible fall out of the sky? It was authored and compiled by the Church which Christ Himself calls infailible. "O, but the Church is fallaible, because I say so", in that case, how can you trust the canon it has given us? Forgive me if I came across as angry, I'm not. Just trying to get the point across as plainly as possible.
Just because there are different interpretations doesn't make each interpretation equally valid. We can trust the canon of scripture because we trust the holy spirit working in the early church.
@@Broooooo-ww7hw And it stopped working in the church and is only for people who read the scripture? I think you did not understand his whole point
@@user-pz2lm8fi3c God uses fallible things to communicate his messages many times in the bible. Doesn't mean they stay infallible forever.
@@Broooooo-ww7hw Colossians 1:18 "And he is the head of the body, the church: the starting point of all things, the first to come again from the dead; so that in all things he might have the chief place." "We can trust the canon of scripture because we trust the holy spirit working in the early church." As Jesus Christ our Lord is the head of the Church the Church will always have the holy spirit and so we can trust the current church as well as the past and the future church. We as humans can make mistakes and separate us from the Church and start our own "church", but the true Church will always remain.
@@user-pz2lm8fi3c Israel was similar to the church, and it failed sometimes.
Thank you Pastor Farag for helping us understand the EO a lot better.
He absolutely didn't 😂
The video is both enlightening and challenging. It’s challenging as much the ideas of Orthodoxy presented is like a ball of string that is all tangled and knotted. It’s enlightening as it is a real time struggle of someone’s faith journey. I understand this interview to be primarily the story and ideas of Pastor Samuel Farag and his faith journey from his Coptic Orthodox Christian roots to Protestant Reformation Faith Tradition. In this context his views are understandable, if not acceptable. It’s unfortunate that he muddles popular piety, practices and theologoumenon with Orthodox Church teaching and doctrine. The result is spiritual, liturgical, theological and historical misrepresentation, misinformation and disinformation of Orthodox Christian (Eastern, Greek, Byzantine) terms, ideas, practices and life. I appreciate the written and video resources at the end as well as the recommendation to have the viewer go to them and reach their own conclusions. Footnote: A point worth sharing is the Protestant Reformation Tradition rejected “Holy Tradition” (the life of the Holy Spirit within the Body of Christ) 1,500 years after Pentecost. Thus both the Conciliar model of the ancient Pentarchy (with its limited checks and balances) of the first millennium and the authoritarian model of the bishop of Rome were rejected for different reasons. In absence of administrative authority the five “solas” (scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, glory to God alone) filled the void. The infallibility of “the Word” (Understood as Holy Scripture not Jesus Christ “perfect God and perfect man”, the second Person of the Holy Trinity), shaped the Protestant Vision of the world and left open the question of who “interprets” the Bible since both the Roman Pope and the Conciliar Church were rejected by the Reformers. Thus today there are thousands or 10s’ of thousands of Protestant denominations (the number depends upon the source) existing globally. The Apostolic unity of the Church was given up for diversity of opinion. It’s one of the down strokes of operating outside of the community; the Body of Christ (the Church) in the Protestant West.
He started out at Liberty University. That school is bad news.
Why are you a lib? Probably a Biden supporter?
Very sad to hear he left Christ's Church.
It's all relative. There are just as many testimonies of converts to Orthodoxy that prayed heavily, felt the call of the holy spirit to show them the truth, and they go Catholic or E. Orthodox. How do you know? Apparently the Holy Spirit knows better than all of these videos that think theyre calling out false teachings. Seems more plausible that the Holy Spirit leads people to whats more conducive to greatest growth for them.
Nope if you convert to Orthodoxy, you are lost. There is no gospel of grace in it. You must work your way to heaven. Orthodoxy places men higher than God.
@@user-tq8dy3mm9o You think your conviction and ingroup bias is what makes you certain you are not the heretic. You are in an epistemic bubble for not seeing your fellow humans' experience, their perception of what the Holy Spirit says to them... it is tribal, and human, all too human.
My issue as an inquirer into Orthodoxy (and life long protestant) is protestants either continually misrepresent or just outright lie about stuff. I googled the Confession of Dositheus and after double checking multiple translations, that's not what decree 6 says. What he's reading is one of four catechetical style questions added to clarify the church's position (in 1672) towards Calvinism and the doctrine of predestination that were slipping into the EO church through Cyril Lucaris. Decree 6 - We believe that the first man created by God fell in paradise at the time when he disobeyed the commandment of God, following the treacherous advice of the serpent, and that from here the ancestral sin spread successively to all offspring so that there is not one of those born according to the flesh who is free from that burden and did not feel the consequences of the fall in this life. And the burden and consequence of the fall, we call not the sin itself, such as: impiety, blasphemy, murder, hatred, and everything else that comes from an evil human heart, contrary to the will of God, and not from nature; (for many Forefathers, Prophets and countless others, both in the Old and New Testaments, men, also the divine Forerunner and mainly the Mother of God the Word and Ever-Virgin Mary, were not involved in both this and other similar sins), but the inclination to sin and those calamities with which Divine justice punished a person for his disobedience, such as: exhausting labors, sorrows, bodily infirmities, illnesses of birth, hard life on earth for some time, wanderings, and finally bodily death.
I haven't read it in a while, but i think he is talking about decree 2, not 6. Either way, what it says, i actually agree with. He is essentially saying if everyone can read and interpret the bible themselves, what happens is protestantism. It's thousands of different faiths, thousands of heresies based on interpretation. It's funny to me that Protestants use that as a gotcha when, in reality, it just points out the flaws in their position.
@@SharkyG23 it's not in any of the decrees, he's reading question 2. And yes, I don't really have a huge issue with what it's saying especially when you look at it in its historical context of being a council set up to refute the attempt to bring in ideas like predestination.
Is reading the Bible considered a work? Why didn’t Jesus write anything down? Where did the Bible come from? I he does it contain the books that it does? Why does it get translated instead of the reader working to learn the language that it was written in? Is there anything lost in the translation? Jesus left a church and called on the apostles to work. I’m not Orthodox but I have never understood the Protestant position. Seems illogical and just a protestation against hierarchy and authority within humanity. It seems like a flattening of the world that leads to individualism and disintegration…and this seems evident in history since the reformation and even back to the east west schism.
Or how about the trite nonsensical phrase, "its a relationship, not a religion!" 😂 Apostolic structure is precisely a solution to the morass of post modern hyper individualist evangelical trends.
Watch a bit to see what was up and heard the absolute idiocy and flat out lies glad to see the comments are pointing it out
Title is extremely misleading. This man was never in the Orthodox Church. The Orientals are completely different and out of communion with the True Church.
So if he was Eastern Orthodox he would still be Orthodox? Makes no sense. God opened his eyes to see the truth that God saves you and you don’t need to be Orthodox.
Yes, definitely not a true scotsman.
God bless the Holy Eastern Orthodox Church ☦️. The Faith once given and received and kept by the saints and the holy fathers.
Amen Brother Lord Jesus Christ Son Of God Have Mercy On me A sinner!!
I went the opposite way. The nondenominational/baptist world gets scripture and ecclesiology wrong because they filter everything through a rationalist/nominalist paradigm which were intellectual movements in the medieval West. They are detached from the ancient, symbolic paradigm in which Scripture was written and interpreted by the early Church fathers. Worship is liturgical. The Church is the continuation of the incarnation of Christ, “the pillar and ground of truth,” “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” so how can you find salvation outside of Christ working through His Church? This man fell into pride and self love through gaining a following in the heterodox world. They have severed themselves from Christ.
Heresy. Lord have mercy. And a lot of misinformation here. This does not address the Orthodox Church. It addresses copticism, which is schismatic to the Eastern Orthodox church. And Orthodoxy is not about working for salvation... It is about THEOISIS and the Divine Liturgy of Jesus Christ
Californication is your belief. You're a hungry beast looking for your next meal, which is why you never settle, only destroy