Podcasts about eastern orthodoxy

Pr. Joshua Schooping of St. John’s Lutheran-Russellville, AR Pastor Schooping’s YouTube ChannelThe post Eastern Orthodoxy, Part 6 – Pr. Joshua Schooping, 3/2/26 (0612) first appeared on Issues, Etc..

History part 1

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-eastern-orthodoxy

Not that long ago many church-going Americans saw Russia as a godless place, an “evil empire” in the words of Ronald Reagan. But in President Trump's second term, US-Russia relations have been turned on their head. Last year, the White House sided with the Kremlin at the United Nations, voting against a resolution to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.This seismic shift is also being felt in parishes across America. Increasing numbers of US Catholics and Protestants are embracing Eastern Orthodoxy. Many converts disillusioned by the showbiz elements in many megachurches, say they are drawn to a faith with enduring traditions. Some, uneasy with social and demographic change, believe the churches they were raised in have lost their authority by going “woke” – shorthand for supporting equal marriage, female clergy, pro-choice, Black Lives Matter and other liberal issues.Some converts have hundreds of thousands of followers online, and push Kremlin narratives that Russia is the world's last bastion of true Christianity - a few of the most radical have even emigrated there. Last year, Lucy Ash went to Texas – one of the most religious states in the US – to meet some new converts.This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

In this final episode of our German Reformation series, Dr. James Spencer and Dr. Greg Quiggle step back from the 16th century to ask a pressing modern question: what does it actually mean to be Protestant today—and what have we gained (and lost) since the Reformation? Greg frames Protestantism with a memorable realism: it isn’t perfect—it’s the “least problematic” of the major options(Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism). From there, the conversation explores Protestantism’s strengths—Scripture in the common language, broad engagement with the Bible, the dignity and responsibility of ordinary believers, and the freedom to test tradition against God’s Word—while also naming the hazards that come with that freedom. James and Greg dig into one of the central tensions of modern Protestant life: authority without a pope must still include accountability. The Reformation wasn’t a call for every individual to interpret Scripture with equal authority; it assumed a teaching office and depended on catechesis to form faithful readers. But in today’s digital ecosystem—where influence is often determined by charisma, algorithms, and audience-size—Protestantism can drift into fragmentation, echo chambers, and “pastor-as-pope” dynamics inside independent churches. This episode also turns practical and pastoral: how should Christians live faithfully amid online outrage cycles, misinformation, and slander—especially when “everyone is a publisher”? Greg and James connect these issues to biblical ethics (truth-telling, false witness) and to the urgent need to rebuild theological formation in the local church. In this conversation, you’ll hear about: Why Protestantism is a “best worst” option—and why that matters The strengths of Protestant diversity (and why it’s also dangerous) Why the teaching office matters—and what happens when it collapses How the loss of catechism has weakened Protestant interpretation The modern digital “echo chamber” problem and credibility collapse Why truth, slander, and false witness apply directly to social media Practical next steps: near-term wisdom + long-term formation Quotelos Travel offers small, expert-led “Tours for Ten” that provide an intimate and unforgettable way to explore church history and culture with guides who truly know the locations. Learn more at quotelostravelservice.com, and check out their upcoming trips to Germany, England, and Switzerland. Subscribe to our YouTube channel

In this enlightening conversation, Ben McDonald sits down with David Goa to explore the essence of the church from an Eastern Orthodox perspective, emphasizing the importance of communion, the role of the Holy Spirit, and the significance of tradition in spiritual growth. They discuss the challenges of modern ideology, the relationship between scripture and tradition, and the need for a deeper understanding of faith that transcends mere dogma. The dialogue encourages listeners to embrace a holistic view of spirituality that fosters unity and compassion in a diverse world. Listen as they break down the sacred connection between evangelism and discipleship, showing that sharing Jesus and building others up are inseparable pursuits.

Who do you think you are? Not the mask you wear on a good day, not the collapse you fear on a bad one—but the person whose thoughts shape feelings, whose feelings drive actions, and whose actions can be changed by a wiser rhythm. We trace a clear line from identity to behavior and show why life isn't as random as it feels: see yourself one way, and the pattern follows; shift the lens, and healing becomes possible.Join Jeremy Jeremiah, Mario Andrew, and Cloud of Witnesses special guests Father Deacon Anthony, an ordained deacon in the Antiochian Orthodox Church, and associate marriage and family therapist, Jacob Sadan (https://jacobsadan.com/) in this frank and inspiring discussion of sin.We explore how identity shapes feelings and actions, why guilt heals while shame condemns, and how the church's ordered practices offer a reliable path from chaos to wholeness. Stories from Scripture, honest talk on pride and despair, and a call to stillness make the way forward clear and practical.• identity as the lens that drives emotion and behavior• order in Scripture and the church as a healing system• fasting as meaning-filled practice tied to memory and love• Peter's guilt vs Judas's shame as a map for repentance• pride hiding inside despair and perfectionism• rhythm and stillness re-regulating a dysregulated life• engineered emotion contrasted with prayerful quiet• objectivity through tradition and the witness of saints• shame withering in light and communityWe unpack the difference between guilt and shame through the stories of Peter and Judas. Guilt invites repair and repentance; shame condemns the self and hides in the dark. Along the way, we confront the hidden pride that fuels despair—“backwards pride” that says we should have been above failure—and we offer a kinder, truer stance: you are not uniquely good or uniquely bad. You are human, loved, and in need of a system that helps you grow.That system has roots. From order in Scripture to the structure of worship, fasting, and community, the church provides reliable practices that re-regulate a restless heart. We contrast engineered emotion with drawn-out stillness, arguing that while loud rooms can stir real feelings, quiet prayer forms real people. Listening becomes a two-way relationship where we stop only asking and start hearing the “small voice” that clarifies who God is and who we are.Finally, we make the case for objectivity in the spiritual life. Tradition and the witness of saints give us a mirror that doesn't flatter but frees, helping us see our true place on the path without shame or pretense. When light replaces secrecy, shame shrinks, and habits of love take root. If this conversation helps you swap chaos for rhythm, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with the line that stayed with you—what truth do you want to keep in the light?Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses: https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTok.Please leave a comment with your thoughts!

Daniel joins Michael at the Gospel Revolution Headquarters in Clarksville, Tennessee for this week’s Powercast. As the guys discuss their recent experience preparing the upcoming conference they rehearse the hermeneutics of Catholicism, Protestant Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Judaism. All of these require a mediator and refuse to accept the Gospel Hermeneutics that state the Scriptures […] The post 260213 Law Is Law: Hermeneutics of Islam first appeared on Gospel Revolution.com.

Your Church Should Be Older Than Your Mom | Orthodoxy Preserves While Protestants Still Cannot Agree.A restless teenager collides with the Jesus People and catches fire for Christ—but the fire has no hearth. Years later, after Anglican ordination and years of pastoral ministry on the Canadian prairie, Fr. Lawrence Farley (https://nootherfoundation.ca/) names the ache many believers feel today: Scripture untethered from apostolic Tradition slowly dissolves into preferences, platforms, and personality-driven faith. What followed was costly and clarifying—laying down his orders, entering the Orthodox Church, moving a young family with almost nothing, and helping plant a mission that had to fight for every soul. Along the way he discovered the priest's true work is fatherhood: gathering a family at the altar, preaching Christ, serving the sacraments, and learning to wash feet when it hurts.Together we take up the questions filling comment sections and pews alike. Why did streams of Protestantism drift toward liberalization? How did separating the Bible from the Church that preserved it fracture Christian unity? What does it mean to “live on Catholic capital,” and why do new conservative movements keep splintering from older ones? Fr. Lawrence traces a line from Reformation fault lines to the Jesus People's wide tent, showing how experience without shared confession leaves believers unmoored. Against that churn, he explains why Orthodoxy's ancient worship, coherent doctrine, and living tradition are quietly drawing young men, families, and weary pilgrims across the West.But this isn't nostalgia or culture-war comfort. “Come because we're anti-woke, stay because of Jesus,” he insists. Canons and rules matter only if they serve repentance and the healing of the heart; otherwise we trade chaos for a new Phariseeism. Fr. Lawrence offers bracing counsel on vocation—if you can be happy doing anything else, do it—and describes pastoral life as a slow crucifixion that somehow becomes a wellspring of joy. He points listeners to accessible resources for evangelicals exploring Orthodoxy, deep dives into the Psalms, a forthcoming book on suffering through Lamentations, and his weekly blog, No Other Foundation.If you're searching for a faith that's older than trends and sturdy enough for modern storms, this conversation offers clarity, challenge, and hope. Subscribe, share with a friend who's restless, and leave a review telling us where you're seeing ancient tradition bring new life today.Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses: https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTok.Please leave a comment with your thoughts!

We live in a world flooded with stories, opinions, and noise, and I find myself wondering which ones are actually worth giving our attention to. In this conversation, I sit down with mythologist and storyteller Martin Shaw to explore why some stories shape us toward life while others quietly hollow us out. We talk about myths that function like prayers rather than spells, why Jesus taught through parables, and how stories still have the power to form us into more loving, grounded human beings.Martin shares his own unexpected journey back to Christianity through a long wilderness vigil and reflects on grief, evil, beauty, and the kind of attention that makes something holy. This is a conversation about becoming human again, about learning how to see clearly, and about allowing the story of Jesus to break our enchantments and draw us toward love.Martin Shaw is a writer, mythographer and Christian thinker. He's Visiting Scholar at the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University, and a Fellow of the Temenos Academy. Author of seventeen books, Dr Shaw is the director of the Westcountry School of Myth and founder of the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University. His book Bardskull was described as “rich and transgressive” by Erica Wagner in The Sunday Times and was Book of the Day in The Guardian. A hugely respected oral storyteller, Shaw has toured internationally numerous times, and led symposiums at both Oxford and Cambridge University, Robert Bly describing him as “a true master, one of the very greatest storytellers we have.” His more recent work is what he describes as a developing “Christian mythopoetics”—a reminder of the depth and mysticism latent in this middle-eastern mystery religion. Shaw converted to Eastern Orthodoxy after a 101-day vigil in a Dartmoor forest. He still lives nearby to the wood, writing and teaching. The Irish Times call Martin “a seanchaí, an interloper from the medieval.”, Charles Foster adding, “there's Shaw and there's everyone else.”Martin's Book:Liturgies of the WildMartin's Recommendation:Our Thoughts Determine Our LivesConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.comGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTubeConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link belowGet Your Sidekick Support the show

What if the ache you feel on Sunday isn't a lack of passion, but a hunger for roots? Tony Nektarios Vasquez joins us to share how a Pentecostal upbringing, a non-denominational season, and eventually a Calvinist-leaning church plant still left him asking where the first 1,500 years fit in. His story is not a theory lesson—it's a family saga: a praying father discovering the Desert Fathers, a brother slipping out to Vespers, a wife and children encountering reverence for the first time, and a co-pastor who realized that history, Scripture, and worship belong together.We trace Tony's path from Pentecostal roots and a non-denominational church plant to a sober look at church history, liturgy, and apostolic succession. Family doubts, online study, and the beauty of Vespers turn hesitation into conviction as Scripture and tradition align.• questioning charismatic altar practices and emotionalism• moving from Reformers to the first 1,500 years• parish visits to St James and first Vespers• answers on icons, relics, and intercession from Scripture• liturgy as continuity with Old Testament worship• apostolic succession and the promise that the Church endures• closing a young church to enter Orthodoxy• finding healing and stability in the sacramentsWe walk through the uncomfortable questions most avoid. Are altar manifestations genuine or coached? Does sola fide stand when held beside James and the early Church? How do relics, icons, and the intercession of the saints square with the Bible? Tony takes us inside St. James Orthodox Church in Modesto, where incense and chant weren't novelty, but a doorway to Christ-centered prayer. He shares the moment his daughter said the hymns made her want to cry, the way Revelation reframed prayer as a communion of heaven and earth, and how apostolic succession answered the authority problem that haunted his independent church.This conversation is a guided tour from system to story, from proof texts to a living tradition. We touch on the continuity between Old Testament worship and the Divine Liturgy, the claim that the Church Christ founded never paused or rebooted, and the quiet courage it took to close a young church for a faith that felt both ancient and alive. If you've wondered where the dots connect—Scripture, history, and sacrament—this is an honest map drawn in real time.If this resonates, share it with a friend, subscribe for more thoughtful journeys into the ancient faith, and leave a review to help others find the show. Your questions and stories shape future episodes—drop them in the comments and say hello to Tony.Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses: https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTok.Please leave a comment with your thoughts!

 The Word That Endures Forever: Creeds, Canon, and the Test of Doctrinal Consistency  In this foundational teaching, Jacob Prasch examines the nature of biblical Christianity by contrasting the unchanging authority of Scripture with the evolving doctrines of religion. Beginning with the early creeds—the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed—he explains how the “line of faith” preserved essential Christian truth before the New Testament canon was fully written and recognized. From there, the message traces a consistent biblical warning against adding to or subtracting from God's Word, drawing on Deuteronomy, Proverbs, Isaiah, the Gospels, the Epistles, and Revelation. Prasch argues that while Scripture remains coherent and self-consistent, false expressions of Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and modern ecumenical and emergent movements are marked by progressive doctrinal invention and internal contradiction. By documenting historical developments, shifting dogmas, and extra-biblical authorities, the teaching exposes religion as man's attempt to reach God, in contrast to the gospel—God's unchanging revelation reaching fallen humanity. The message concludes with a clear test of truth: what is from God remains consistent, but what adds to His Word will inevitably prove unstable, contradictory, and false. This teaching was originally taught on RTN TV's "Word for the Weekend" on July 6, 2024 and can be found on RTN and Moriel's YouTube and ministry channels. Word for the Weekend streams live every Saturday. See RTNTV.org for more information.

Welcome back to Gnostic Insights. Today is part three of my book report on David Bentley Hart's book called That All Shall Be Saved, Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. The past two weeks we covered the beginning of his book, the Introduction. I'm going to begin this section by reading out of his final remarks, because he does a good job of simplifying his arguments here at the end of the book. So we'll start with that. Hart says on page 201, It may offend against our egalitarian principles today, but it was commonly assumed among the very educated of the early church that the better part of humanity was something of a hapless rabble who could be made to behave responsibly only by the most terrifying coercions of their imaginations. Belief in universal salvation may have been far more widespread in the first four or five centuries of Christian history than it was in all the centuries that followed, but it was never, as a rule, encouraged in any general way by those in authority in the church. Maybe there are great many among us who can be convinced to be good only through the threat of endless torture at the hands of an indefatigably vindictive god. Even so much as hint that the purifying flames of the age to come will at last be extinguished, and perhaps a good number of us will begin to think like the mafioso who refuses to turn state's evidence because he is sure he can do the time. Bravado is, after all, the chief virtue of the incorrigibly stupid. He goes on to say, I have never had much respect for the notion of the blind leap of faith, even when that leap is made in the direction of something beautiful and ennobling. I certainly cannot respect it when it is made in the direction of something intrinsically loathsome and degrading. And I believe that this is precisely what the Infernalist position, no matter what form it takes, necessarily involves. And to remind you, if you didn't hear the past two episodes, Infernalist refers to the notion that there is an unending hell of pain and torture for the unregenerate or the unrepentant. Further down page 202, Hart says, I honestly, perhaps guilelessly, believe that the doctrine of eternal hell is prima facie nonsensical for the simple reason that it cannot even be stated in Christian theological terms without a descent into equivocity, which is equivocation, so precipitous and total that nothing but edifying gibberish remains. To say that, on the one hand, God is infinitely good, perfectly just, and inexhaustibly loving, and that, on the other, he has created a world under such terms as oblige him either to impose or to permit the imposition of eternal misery on finite rational beings is simply to embrace a complete contradiction. All becomes mystery, but only in the sense that it requires a very mysterious ability to believe impossible things. [Jumping down the page, he says,] Can we imagine logically, I mean not merely intuitively, that someone still in torment after a trillion ages, or then a trillion trillion, or then a trillion vigintillion, is in any meaningful sense the same agent who contracted some measurable quantity of personal guilt in that tiny, ever more vanishingly insubstantial gleam of an instant that constituted his or her terrestrial life? And can we do this even while realizing that, at that point, his or her sufferings have, in a sense, only just begun, and, in fact, will always have only just begun? What extraordinary violence we must do both to our reason and to our moral intelligence, not to mention simple good taste, to make this horrid notion seem palatable to ourselves. And all because we have somehow, foolishly, allowed ourselves to be convinced that this is what we must believe. Really, could we truly believe it all apart from either profound personal fear or profound personal cruelty? Which is why, again, I do not believe that most Christians truly believe what they believe they believe. So, what he's saying here, what I've been talking to you about, is the idea that God, the God Above All Gods, what we call the Father in Gnosticism, would condemn people to everlasting torment, everlasting torment, with no other goal than to punish, because they're never going to get out of it. That's what everlasting means. And so it's just punishment for the sake of punishment, and that that great, unlimitable God would impose this punishment on little, limited, finite beings who only lived a brief millisecond of time in the great span of time of God. That God would create these people for the purpose, basically, of condemning them to everlasting torment. You see, that is not even rational. It doesn't make any sense. Not if you believe God is good. It's impossible. Now, if you think that God is evil, well, then that's not God, is it? By definition, if you believe that God is cruel and vindictive and unreasonable, well, that's not the God Above All Gods. And this should come as relief to those of you who think you can't believe in God, because God is so cruel and vindictive. Perhaps you were raised in an extremely cruel household with extremely vindictive parents, or schoolteachers, or somebody got to you and, in the name of God, inflicted cruelty upon you. Then you have come to accidentally transpose their human cruelty onto God, because they told you to. But that's not God, by definition, you see? And when I say, by definition, that means, like, cold is not hot, by definition. Cold is cold. And if you're going to start arguing, oh no, cold is hot, well, then you're not talking about cold, you're talking about hot. Do you see what I mean? And if you have been rejecting God, the God Above All Gods, because you have this view of God as merciless and vindictive, cruel, illogical, unfair, unjust, take comfort, because that's not God you're talking about. Now, it may be the small g god of this world. It could be the guy whose best friend is Satan, because remember, that is a small g god of confusion. And its main job is to cause you to forget that you come from transcendent goodness, that you come from above, from the God Above All Gods, and that you do have freedom. You do have free will. You are meant to inherit joy. You are to do good works, and to be happy, and to be in love, and to love everybody else. Don't let some evil archon, or evil Demiurge, or evil human, redefine God in such a way that you reject God, because that's the mistake. That's a categorical error. And that's why I say, take comfort, have joy, receive the love that was meant for you. Throwing out the baby with the bath water means to reject the Good because you can't sort it out from the bad. Refusing to accept God or Christ because you reject the flawed Christian Church is an example of throwing out the baby with the bath water. Okay, back to the book. On page 205, Hart says, It was not always thus. Let me at least shamelessly idealize the distant past for a moment. In its dawn, the gospel was a proclamation principally of a divine victory that had been won over death and sin, and over the spiritual powers of rebellion against the big G God that dwells on high, and here below, and under the earth. It announced itself truly as the good tidings of a campaign of divine rescue on the part of a loving God, who by the sending of his Son into the world, and even into the kingdom of death, had liberated his creatures from slavery to a false and merciless master, and had opened a way into the kingdom of heaven, in which all of creation would be glorified by the direct presence of big G God, [or the Father, as we call him in Gnosticism]. And by the way, this paragraph that I just read about early Christianity, is entirely consistent with this Valentinian Christianity that I share with you here. That is the entire purpose of we second-order creatures being sent down here below, to bring the good tidings of life and love and liberty to the fallen Demiurge, and now subsequently to all of the people who have been hoodwinked by the Demiurge and Satan into believing in the false god that does not incorporate love. Hart goes on to say, It was above all a joyous proclamation and a call to a lost people to find their true home at last, in their father's house. It did not initially make its appeal to human hearts by forcing them to revert to some childish or bestial cruelty latent in their natures. Rather, it sought to awaken them to a new form of life, one whose premise was charity. Nor was it a religion offering only a psychological salve for individual anxieties regarding personal salvation. It was a summons to a new and corporate way of life, salvation by entry into a community of love. Nothing as yet was fixed except the certainty that Jesus was now Lord over all things and would ultimately yield all things up to the Father, so that God might be all in all. Now we're going to go back into the earlier part of the book to explain some of these concepts in more depth. Hart has broken his book into four meditations, or four subjects we could call it. The first meditation is, who is God? The second meditation is, what is judgment? The third meditation is, what is a person? And the fourth meditation is, what is freedom? A reflection on the rational will. So in the first meditation, who is God? Hart explains to us that, The moral destiny of creation and the moral nature of God are absolutely inseparable. As the transcendent good beyond all things, God is also the transcendental end that makes every single action of any rational nature possible. Moreover, the end toward which He acts must be His own goodness, for He is Himself the beginning and end of all things. This is not to deny that, in addition to the primary causality of God's act of creation, there are innumerable forms of secondary causality operative within the creative order. But none of these can exceed or escape the one end toward which the first cause directs all things. And so what he is saying here is that the first causality is the expression of God's goodness, the purity of God reaching out through the Son and into the Fullness of God—emanating. That is the principal causality. That is the prime mover of all things, what we call the base state of consciousness, the matrix. But then there is a secondary causality that takes place subsequent to that. And I guess the first act of secondary causality was probably the fall, in that it was the first act of will prompted by ego that apparently deviated from God's original plan, although the Tripartite Tractate does say we shouldn't blame Logos because the fall was the cause of the cosmos which was destined to come about. But whereas the Father is the prime mover and remains shielded in purity and fullness and goodness—you see, all the love emanates from the Father, evil doesn't swim back upstream. It's all emanating from the Father, and it's all good. But we do have secondary causality down here in the created cosmos, primarily due to the actions of the Demiurge and the never-ending war that runs amuck down here. Hart says, page 70, First, as God's act of creation is free, constrained by neither necessity nor ignorance, all contingent ends are intentionally enfolded within his decision. And second, precisely because God in himself is absolute, absolved, that is, of every pathos of the contingent, every affect of the sort that a finite substance has the power to visit upon another, his moral venture in creating is infinite. One way or another, after all, all causes are logically reducible to their first cause. This is no more than a logical truism. In either case, all consequence are, either as actualities or merely possibilities, contingent upon the primordial antecedent, apart from which they could not exist. In other words, all the things that happen down here in the cosmos couldn't have happened without God giving it the first start, without the Father giving it the initial emanation. He goes on to say, And naturally, the rationale of a first cause, its definition, in the most etymologically exact meaning of that term, is the final cause that prompts it, the end toward which it acts. If, then, that first cause is an infinitely free act emerging from infinite wisdom, all those consequence are intentionally entailed, again, either as actualities or as possibilities within that first act. And so the final end to that act tends is its whole moral truth. The traditional definition of evil as a privation of the good, lacking any essence of its own, in other words, what we would call in Gnosticism, evil is the shadow of the good. Evil is the shadow of Logos. It's not a thing in itself. It's the absence of the love and the light of the Father. It is also an assertion that when we say God is good, we are speaking of Him not only relative to his creation, but as he is in himself. All comes from God, and so evil cannot be a thing that comes from anywhere. Evil is, in every case, merely the defect whereby a substantial good is lost, belied, or resisted. For in every sense, being is act, and God, in his simplicity and infinite freedom, is what he does. He could not be the creator of anything substantially evil without evil also being part of the definition of who he essentially is, for he alone is the wellspring of all that exists. Jumping down the page on 71, Hart says, “God goes forth in all beings, and in all beings returns to himself.” That's how I describe as we all carry the Fullness of God within our being, and within every cell of our being. And since we are carrying the Fullness of God within us, we will have to return to the Fullness of God ultimately. We can't be lost in everlasting torment, because we are the Fullness of God, and God cannot torment itself. Hart says, God has no need of the world. He creates it not because he is dependent upon it, but because its dependency on him is a fitting expression of the bounty of his goodness. Doesn't that remind you of, in the beginning, the Father was alone, and he admired his goodness and beauty and love. He was full of love and beauty, and gave birth, so to speak—He emanated the Son. And the Son and the Father gave glory to one another. And in that giving of glory to one another, then the Son emanated the Fullness. And then in giving glory to one another in the Fullness and to the Son, the Fullness emanates us, the second order of powers. And it's all because you can't love without having an object to love, even if it's only in your own mind. Love requires an object of devotion, and giving glory is the reciprocal of love. We give glory because we were first loved. It's a fitting expression of the bounty of goodness, as Hart puts it. Then he goes on to say, This, however, also means that within the story of creation, viewed from its final cause, there can be no residue of the pardonably tragic, no irrecuperable or irreconcilable remainder left behind at the end of the tale. For if there were, this irreconcilable excess would also be something God has directly caused. Now, in our Gnostic gospel, there is a remnant “left behind at the end of the tale.” And that is the shadowy archons that were never a part of the original creation because they did not come from the “first cause” discussed earlier. The shadows of the Demiurge did not come from the Fullness or the fallen Aeon, but are only the absence of the qualities of that Aeon, this is why they are referred to as shadows. They are figments that do not have a reality outside of the Deficiency. Therefore, they have no home to return to in the Fullness of God. They are not from the Fullness. And he talks a bit about Hegel's system and dismisses it, and I'm not going to go into it. Hart says, The story Christians tell is of creation as God's sovereign act of love, neither adding to nor qualifying His eternal nature. And so it is also a story that leaves no room for an ultimate distinction between the universal truth of reason and the moral meaning of the particular, or for any distinction between the moral meaning of the particular and the moral nature of God. Only by insisting upon the universality of God's mercy could Paul, in Romans 11.32, liberate himself from the fear that the particularity of that mercy would prove to be an ultimate injustice, and that in judging His creatures, God would reveal Himself not as the good God of faithfulness and love, but as an inconstant God who can shatter His own covenants at will. Hart reminds us that down through the centuries, Christians have again and again subscribed to formulations of their faith that clearly reduce a host of cardinal Christian theological usages, most especially moral predicates like good, merciful, just, benevolent, loving, to utter equivocity, and that by association, reduce their entire grammar of Christian belief to meaninglessness. [On the next page, 75, he says], consider, to begin with the mildest of moral difficulties, how many Christians down the centuries have had to reconcile their consciences to the repellent notion that all humans are at conception already guilty of a transgression that condemns them justly to eternal separation from God and eternal suffering, and that in this doctrine's extreme form, every newborn infant belongs to a massa damnata, hateful in God's eyes from the first moment of existence. Hart loves to throw in Latin. Massa damnata obviously means that the masses would be damned. The very notion of an inherited guilt is a logical absurdity, rather on the order of a square circle. All that the doctrine can truly be taken to assert, speaking logically, is that God willfully imputes to innocent creatures a guilt they can never have really contracted out of what, from any sane perspective, can only be called malice. But this is just the beginning of the problem. For one broad, venerable stream of tradition, God, on the basis of this imputation, consigns the vast majority of the race to perpetual torment, including infants who die unbaptized. And may I point out that in Gnostic Christianity there is no inherited guilt at all because the Fall was not caused by the first humans, Adam and Eve, but occurred at the Aeonic level. Christianity carries a remnant of that understanding forward when it refers to “fallen angels,” but it does not connect the dots to realize their culpability in original sin. And then the theology of grace grows grimmer, for according to the great Augustinian tradition, since we are somehow born meriting not only death but eternal torment, we are enjoined to see and praise a laudable generosity in God's narrow choice to elect a small remnant for salvation, before and apart from any consideration of their concrete merits or demerits, and this further choice either to predestine or infallibly to surrender the vast remainder to everlasting misery. So it is that, for many Christians down the years, the rationale of evangelization has been a desperate race to save as many souls as possible from God. The time has really gotten away from us, and we've only touched the first meditation, so I hope you are enjoying this theology. It's theology, and I know that's difficult slog, but I'm sharing with you these thoughts because they comprise basically the sum total of Christian theology for the past 2,000 years, and it has gone through changes here and there. David Bentley Hart is a scholar of Eastern Orthodoxy and a scholar of religion and philosopher and so forth, and I think that he has very clear sight. So we'll pick this up one more time next week, and I promise we'll wrap it up. Onward and upward! God bless us all! This book gathers the essential insights of gnosis into a clear, approachable form. Gnosis can be as simple or as intricate as you choose to make it, but its heart is always accessible. A Simple Explanation guides you through the often tangled vocabulary and shifting landscapes of Gnostic thought, offering a path that is both illuminating and easy to follow. The glossary alone is a treasure—an indispensable reference for anyone exploring ancient Christian mysticism, the Nag Hammadi texts, or the deeper layers of spiritual philosophy. Now available in paperback, hardback, Kindle, and audiobook editions through amazon and your local booksellers.

Welcome back to Gnostic Insights. Today is part three of my book report on David Bentley Hart's book called That All Shall Be Saved, Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. The past two weeks we covered the beginning of his book, the Introduction. I'm going to begin this section by reading out of his final remarks, because he does a good job of simplifying his arguments here at the end of the book. So we'll start with that. Hart says on page 201, It may offend against our egalitarian principles today, but it was commonly assumed among the very educated of the early church that the better part of humanity was something of a hapless rabble who could be made to behave responsibly only by the most terrifying coercions of their imaginations. Belief in universal salvation may have been far more widespread in the first four or five centuries of Christian history than it was in all the centuries that followed, but it was never, as a rule, encouraged in any general way by those in authority in the church. Maybe there are great many among us who can be convinced to be good only through the threat of endless torture at the hands of an indefatigably vindictive god. Even so much as hint that the purifying flames of the age to come will at last be extinguished, and perhaps a good number of us will begin to think like the mafioso who refuses to turn state's evidence because he is sure he can do the time. Bravado is, after all, the chief virtue of the incorrigibly stupid. He goes on to say, I have never had much respect for the notion of the blind leap of faith, even when that leap is made in the direction of something beautiful and ennobling. I certainly cannot respect it when it is made in the direction of something intrinsically loathsome and degrading. And I believe that this is precisely what the Infernalist position, no matter what form it takes, necessarily involves. And to remind you, if you didn't hear the past two episodes, Infernalist refers to the notion that there is an unending hell of pain and torture for the unregenerate or the unrepentant. Further down page 202, Hart says, I honestly, perhaps guilelessly, believe that the doctrine of eternal hell is prima facie nonsensical for the simple reason that it cannot even be stated in Christian theological terms without a descent into equivocity, which is equivocation, so precipitous and total that nothing but edifying gibberish remains. To say that, on the one hand, God is infinitely good, perfectly just, and inexhaustibly loving, and that, on the other, he has created a world under such terms as oblige him either to impose or to permit the imposition of eternal misery on finite rational beings is simply to embrace a complete contradiction. All becomes mystery, but only in the sense that it requires a very mysterious ability to believe impossible things. [Jumping down the page, he says,] Can we imagine logically, I mean not merely intuitively, that someone still in torment after a trillion ages, or then a trillion trillion, or then a trillion vigintillion, is in any meaningful sense the same agent who contracted some measurable quantity of personal guilt in that tiny, ever more vanishingly insubstantial gleam of an instant that constituted his or her terrestrial life? And can we do this even while realizing that, at that point, his or her sufferings have, in a sense, only just begun, and, in fact, will always have only just begun? What extraordinary violence we must do both to our reason and to our moral intelligence, not to mention simple good taste, to make this horrid notion seem palatable to ourselves. And all because we have somehow, foolishly, allowed ourselves to be convinced that this is what we must believe. Really, could we truly believe it all apart from either profound personal fear or profound personal cruelty? Which is why, again, I do not believe that most Christians truly believe what they believe they believe. So, what he's saying here, what I've been talking to you about, is the idea that God, the God Above All Gods, what we call the Father in Gnosticism, would condemn people to everlasting torment, everlasting torment, with no other goal than to punish, because they're never going to get out of it. That's what everlasting means. And so it's just punishment for the sake of punishment, and that that great, unlimitable God would impose this punishment on little, limited, finite beings who only lived a brief millisecond of time in the great span of time of God. That God would create these people for the purpose, basically, of condemning them to everlasting torment. You see, that is not even rational. It doesn't make any sense. Not if you believe God is good. It's impossible. Now, if you think that God is evil, well, then that's not God, is it? By definition, if you believe that God is cruel and vindictive and unreasonable, well, that's not the God Above All Gods. And this should come as relief to those of you who think you can't believe in God, because God is so cruel and vindictive. Perhaps you were raised in an extremely cruel household with extremely vindictive parents, or schoolteachers, or somebody got to you and, in the name of God, inflicted cruelty upon you. Then you have come to accidentally transpose their human cruelty onto God, because they told you to. But that's not God, by definition, you see? And when I say, by definition, that means, like, cold is not hot, by definition. Cold is cold. And if you're going to start arguing, oh no, cold is hot, well, then you're not talking about cold, you're talking about hot. Do you see what I mean? And if you have been rejecting God, the God Above All Gods, because you have this view of God as merciless and vindictive, cruel, illogical, unfair, unjust, take comfort, because that's not God you're talking about. Now, it may be the small g god of this world. It could be the guy whose best friend is Satan, because remember, that is a small g god of confusion. And its main job is to cause you to forget that you come from transcendent goodness, that you come from above, from the God Above All Gods, and that you do have freedom. You do have free will. You are meant to inherit joy. You are to do good works, and to be happy, and to be in love, and to love everybody else. Don't let some evil archon, or evil Demiurge, or evil human, redefine God in such a way that you reject God, because that's the mistake. That's a categorical error. And that's why I say, take comfort, have joy, receive the love that was meant for you. Throwing out the baby with the bath water means to reject the Good because you can't sort it out from the bad. Refusing to accept God or Christ because you reject the flawed Christian Church is an example of throwing out the baby with the bath water. Okay, back to the book. On page 205, Hart says, It was not always thus. Let me at least shamelessly idealize the distant past for a moment. In its dawn, the gospel was a proclamation principally of a divine victory that had been won over death and sin, and over the spiritual powers of rebellion against the big G God that dwells on high, and here below, and under the earth. It announced itself truly as the good tidings of a campaign of divine rescue on the part of a loving God, who by the sending of his Son into the world, and even into the kingdom of death, had liberated his creatures from slavery to a false and merciless master, and had opened a way into the kingdom of heaven, in which all of creation would be glorified by the direct presence of big G God, [or the Father, as we call him in Gnosticism]. And by the way, this paragraph that I just read about early Christianity, is entirely consistent with this Valentinian Christianity that I share with you here. That is the entire purpose of we second-order creatures being sent down here below, to bring the good tidings of life and love and liberty to the fallen Demiurge, and now subsequently to all of the people who have been hoodwinked by the Demiurge and Satan into believing in the false god that does not incorporate love. Hart goes on to say, It was above all a joyous proclamation and a call to a lost people to find their true home at last, in their father's house. It did not initially make its appeal to human hearts by forcing them to revert to some childish or bestial cruelty latent in their natures. Rather, it sought to awaken them to a new form of life, one whose premise was charity. Nor was it a religion offering only a psychological salve for individual anxieties regarding personal salvation. It was a summons to a new and corporate way of life, salvation by entry into a community of love. Nothing as yet was fixed except the certainty that Jesus was now Lord over all things and would ultimately yield all things up to the Father, so that God might be all in all. Now we're going to go back into the earlier part of the book to explain some of these concepts in more depth. Hart has broken his book into four meditations, or four subjects we could call it. The first meditation is, who is God? The second meditation is, what is judgment? The third meditation is, what is a person? And the fourth meditation is, what is freedom? A reflection on the rational will. So in the first meditation, who is God? Hart explains to us that, The moral destiny of creation and the moral nature of God are absolutely inseparable. As the transcendent good beyond all things, God is also the transcendental end that makes every single action of any rational nature possible. Moreover, the end toward which He acts must be His own goodness, for He is Himself the beginning and end of all things. This is not to deny that, in addition to the primary causality of God's act of creation, there are innumerable forms of secondary causality operative within the creative order. But none of these can exceed or escape the one end toward which the first cause directs all things. And so what he is saying here is that the first causality is the expression of God's goodness, the purity of God reaching out through the Son and into the Fullness of God—emanating. That is the principal causality. That is the prime mover of all things, what we call the base state of consciousness, the matrix. But then there is a secondary causality that takes place subsequent to that. And I guess the first act of secondary causality was probably the fall, in that it was the first act of will prompted by ego that apparently deviated from God's original plan, although the Tripartite Tractate does say we shouldn't blame Logos because the fall was the cause of the cosmos which was destined to come about. But whereas the Father is the prime mover and remains shielded in purity and fullness and goodness—you see, all the love emanates from the Father, evil doesn't swim back upstream. It's all emanating from the Father, and it's all good. But we do have secondary causality down here in the created cosmos, primarily due to the actions of the Demiurge and the never-ending war that runs amuck down here. Hart says, page 70, First, as God's act of creation is free, constrained by neither necessity nor ignorance, all contingent ends are intentionally enfolded within his decision. And second, precisely because God in himself is absolute, absolved, that is, of every pathos of the contingent, every affect of the sort that a finite substance has the power to visit upon another, his moral venture in creating is infinite. One way or another, after all, all causes are logically reducible to their first cause. This is no more than a logical truism. In either case, all consequence are, either as actualities or merely possibilities, contingent upon the primordial antecedent, apart from which they could not exist. In other words, all the things that happen down here in the cosmos couldn't have happened without God giving it the first start, without the Father giving it the initial emanation. He goes on to say, And naturally, the rationale of a first cause, its definition, in the most etymologically exact meaning of that term, is the final cause that prompts it, the end toward which it acts. If, then, that first cause is an infinitely free act emerging from infinite wisdom, all those consequence are intentionally entailed, again, either as actualities or as possibilities within that first act. And so the final end to that act tends is its whole moral truth. The traditional definition of evil as a privation of the good, lacking any essence of its own, in other words, what we would call in Gnosticism, evil is the shadow of the good. Evil is the shadow of Logos. It's not a thing in itself. It's the absence of the love and the light of the Father. It is also an assertion that when we say God is good, we are speaking of Him not only relative to his creation, but as he is in himself. All comes from God, and so evil cannot be a thing that comes from anywhere. Evil is, in every case, merely the defect whereby a substantial good is lost, belied, or resisted. For in every sense, being is act, and God, in his simplicity and infinite freedom, is what he does. He could not be the creator of anything substantially evil without evil also being part of the definition of who he essentially is, for he alone is the wellspring of all that exists. Jumping down the page on 71, Hart says, “God goes forth in all beings, and in all beings returns to himself.” That's how I describe as we all carry the Fullness of God within our being, and within every cell of our being. And since we are carrying the Fullness of God within us, we will have to return to the Fullness of God ultimately. We can't be lost in everlasting torment, because we are the Fullness of God, and God cannot torment itself. Hart says, God has no need of the world. He creates it not because he is dependent upon it, but because its dependency on him is a fitting expression of the bounty of his goodness. Doesn't that remind you of, in the beginning, the Father was alone, and he admired his goodness and beauty and love. He was full of love and beauty, and gave birth, so to speak—He emanated the Son. And the Son and the Father gave glory to one another. And in that giving of glory to one another, then the Son emanated the Fullness. And then in giving glory to one another in the Fullness and to the Son, the Fullness emanates us, the second order of powers. And it's all because you can't love without having an object to love, even if it's only in your own mind. Love requires an object of devotion, and giving glory is the reciprocal of love. We give glory because we were first loved. It's a fitting expression of the bounty of goodness, as Hart puts it. Then he goes on to say, This, however, also means that within the story of creation, viewed from its final cause, there can be no residue of the pardonably tragic, no irrecuperable or irreconcilable remainder left behind at the end of the tale. For if there were, this irreconcilable excess would also be something God has directly caused. Now, in our Gnostic gospel, there is a remnant “left behind at the end of the tale.” And that is the shadowy archons that were never a part of the original creation because they did not come from the “first cause” discussed earlier. The shadows of the Demiurge did not come from the Fullness or the fallen Aeon, but are only the absence of the qualities of that Aeon, this is why they are referred to as shadows. They are figments that do not have a reality outside of the Deficiency. Therefore, they have no home to return to in the Fullness of God. They are not from the Fullness. And he talks a bit about Hegel's system and dismisses it, and I'm not going to go into it. Hart says, The story Christians tell is of creation as God's sovereign act of love, neither adding to nor qualifying His eternal nature. And so it is also a story that leaves no room for an ultimate distinction between the universal truth of reason and the moral meaning of the particular, or for any distinction between the moral meaning of the particular and the moral nature of God. Only by insisting upon the universality of God's mercy could Paul, in Romans 11.32, liberate himself from the fear that the particularity of that mercy would prove to be an ultimate injustice, and that in judging His creatures, God would reveal Himself not as the good God of faithfulness and love, but as an inconstant God who can shatter His own covenants at will. Hart reminds us that down through the centuries, Christians have again and again subscribed to formulations of their faith that clearly reduce a host of cardinal Christian theological usages, most especially moral predicates like good, merciful, just, benevolent, loving, to utter equivocity, and that by association, reduce their entire grammar of Christian belief to meaninglessness. [On the next page, 75, he says], consider, to begin with the mildest of moral difficulties, how many Christians down the centuries have had to reconcile their consciences to the repellent notion that all humans are at conception already guilty of a transgression that condemns them justly to eternal separation from God and eternal suffering, and that in this doctrine's extreme form, every newborn infant belongs to a massa damnata, hateful in God's eyes from the first moment of existence. Hart loves to throw in Latin. Massa damnata obviously means that the masses would be damned. The very notion of an inherited guilt is a logical absurdity, rather on the order of a square circle. All that the doctrine can truly be taken to assert, speaking logically, is that God willfully imputes to innocent creatures a guilt they can never have really contracted out of what, from any sane perspective, can only be called malice. But this is just the beginning of the problem. For one broad, venerable stream of tradition, God, on the basis of this imputation, consigns the vast majority of the race to perpetual torment, including infants who die unbaptized. And may I point out that in Gnostic Christianity there is no inherited guilt at all because the Fall was not caused by the first humans, Adam and Eve, but occurred at the Aeonic level. Christianity carries a remnant of that understanding forward when it refers to “fallen angels,” but it does not connect the dots to realize their culpability in original sin. And then the theology of grace grows grimmer, for according to the great Augustinian tradition, since we are somehow born meriting not only death but eternal torment, we are enjoined to see and praise a laudable generosity in God's narrow choice to elect a small remnant for salvation, before and apart from any consideration of their concrete merits or demerits, and this further choice either to predestine or infallibly to surrender the vast remainder to everlasting misery. So it is that, for many Christians down the years, the rationale of evangelization has been a desperate race to save as many souls as possible from God. The time has really gotten away from us, and we've only touched the first meditation, so I hope you are enjoying this theology. It's theology, and I know that's difficult slog, but I'm sharing with you these thoughts because they comprise basically the sum total of Christian theology for the past 2,000 years, and it has gone through changes here and there. David Bentley Hart is a scholar of Eastern Orthodoxy and a scholar of religion and philosopher and so forth, and I think that he has very clear sight. So we'll pick this up one more time next week, and I promise we'll wrap it up. Onward and upward! God bless us all! This book gathers the essential insights of gnosis into a clear, approachable form. Gnosis can be as simple or as intricate as you choose to make it, but its heart is always accessible. A Simple Explanation guides you through the often tangled vocabulary and shifting landscapes of Gnostic thought, offering a path that is both illuminating and easy to follow. The glossary alone is a treasure—an indispensable reference for anyone exploring ancient Christian mysticism, the Nag Hammadi texts, or the deeper layers of spiritual philosophy. Now available in paperback, hardback, Kindle, and audiobook editions through amazon and your local booksellers.

CULTIVATING SAINTS, SAGES, AND STATESMEN THROUGH THE GREAT TRADITION OF CHRISTENDOMIn this episode, we interview our friend and convert from Eastern Orthodoxy, Ben Bollinger. He explains why Eastern Orthodoxy is "close, but not it." We focused especially on the papacy and Purgatory. Ben has a great love and respect for the Eastern Orthodox, with whom he encountered not only many great and profound truths of the faith, but joyful and edifying fellowship. As good as these things were, however, he explains how Eastern Orthodoxy does not enjoy the fullness of truth and communion found in the Catholic Church.You can read Ben's many great writings on the Catholic Faith at his Substack: https://benjaminjohn.substack.com/VISIT OUR WEBSITEhttps://eternalchristendom.com/BECOME A PATRON OF THE GREAT TRADITIONAs a non-profit, you can support our mission with a tax-deductible gift. Help us continue to dig into the Great Tradition; produce beautiful, substantive content; and gift these treasures to cultural orphans around the world for free: https://eternalchristendom.com/become-a-patron/CONNECT ON SOCIAL MEDIAX: https://twitter.com/JoshuaTCharlesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshuatcharles/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshuatcharles/DIVE DEEPERCheck out our “Becoming Catholic” resources, where you'll find 1 million+ words of free content (bigger than the Bible!) in the form of Articles, Quote Archives, and Study Banks to help you become, remain, and deepen your life as a Catholic: https://eternalchristendom.com/becoming-catholic/SUBSTACKSubscribe to our Substack to get regular updates on our content, and other premium content: https://eternalchristendom.substack.com/EXCLUSIVE BOOKSTORE DISCOUNTShttps://eternalchristendom.com/bookstore/CHAPTERS00:00 - Intro and Guest Bio09:53 - Steelmanning the Orthodox Case: Starting with Scripture12:42 - The Keys, Typology, Matthew 16, Isaiah 2224:18 - St. Cyprian and the Patristic Case for Unity36:02 - The Leadership of St. Peter at the Jerusalem Council51:58 - Papal Claims: Infallibility, Universal Jurisdiction, and the Councils01:01:45 - Orthodox Claims, and the "First Without Equals" Debate01:42:06 - Other Issues: Original Sin, the Filioque, and Purgatory02:12:07 - Final Thoughts and Closing RemarksThis podcast can also be heard on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

This week, Matt and Tyler attempt to discuss Eastern Orthodoxy, and we enter the TOP 20 in the state rankings.Stick around to the end for a MASSIVE announcement from Tyler...

“Did Vatican 1 go too far on papal authority and tradition?” This question opens a discussion on the balance of authority within the Church, while also addressing related topics such as the 1995 Vatican gathering on the filioque, the Orthodox perspective on the Immaculate Conception, and insights from Eastern Orthodoxy that could benefit Catholics. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 02:00 – Did Vatican 1 go too far on papal authority? 15:43 – Are you aware of a gathering in the Vatican in 1995 that clarified the teaching on the filioque? Why isn't it mentioned in online debate? 29:40 – Is there anything from EO that Catholics can learn or adopt that would be beneficial? 35:40 – Why to the Orthodox reject the Immaculate Conception? Do you think it is a stumbling block for them to convert? 41:41 – I'm Protestant and hear Catholics claim to be the one true Church but Jerusalem was under the Orthodox and that’s where the Church was founded. What’s your response? 48:30 – What are your thoughts on how the East has handled contraception? 52:30 – Why don't we see a lot of icons of St. Joseph in the eastern Churches?

Reaction and Response to "Why Roman Catholics Should Not Become Orthodox?"What if the hunger for stability isn't nostalgia, but a compass? Cloud of Witnesses discussion panel today is made up of John St John, James St Simon, Mario Andrew, and Jeremy Jeremiah.  The panel reacts to a pro-Catholic video that warns against becoming Orthodox and use it to surface the deeper questions: where does authority live, how does doctrine truly develop, and what keeps worship both beautiful and trustworthy?We react to a polemical Roman Catholic video urging Catholics not to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy and test its claims about apostolic unity, papal authority, doctrinal development, and universality. Along the way we share personal stories, weigh history against worship, and ask what sustains faith without constant change.• claims about Peter, Rome and Antioch• first among equals versus universal jurisdiction• councils as the arbiter of faith• slowness as protection against novelty• filioque and changes to the Creed• Marian dogmas and the limits of development• beauty and recognition in unchanging liturgy• ethnicity, national churches and real unity• pastoral gaps, weak catechesis and frustration• how to speak to Catholics considering OrthodoxyWe start with apostolic unity and the claim that Peter's office guarantees visible communion. From there, we trace how Orthodoxy understands primacy as “first among equals,” rooted in the shared authority of the apostles and the ecumenical councils. The conversation tests historical flashpoints—Peter in Antioch, Chalcedon weighing Leo's Tome, and moments when Rome's stance faltered—asking whether unity requires a single final arbiter or a conciliar process that takes time to mature. Rather than papering over differences, we probe them: is slow consensus a weakness, or a safeguard against novelty?Doctrinal development takes center stage as we compare clarifications in the West with what the East calls faithful continuity. We wrestle with the filioque's addition to the Creed, later Marian dogmas, and the principle that the symbol of faith should not be amended. Along the way, we get personal: stories of Catholics who feel adrift amid liturgical inconsistency, the draw of Orthodox worship that “feels” ancient because it is, and the complicated mix of ethnicity and universality that outsiders often misread. Beneath jurisdictions, we argue, stands a single sacramental life held together by councils, shared prayer, and a reluctance to innovate.If you've ever wondered why some Catholics look East, or how Orthodoxy claims to hold the line without a papal office, this conversation gives you history, theology, and lived experience in equal measure. Listen, reflect, and tell us where you stand—what convinces you most: authority, continuity, or the beauty that calls you home?Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses: https://www.patreon.com/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTok.Please leave a comment with your thoughts!

What do myth, wilderness, and ancient story have to teach a culture drowning in information but starving for meaning? Russell Moore sits down with mythologist, storyteller, and author Martin Shaw–called our “greatest living storyteller”–in a conversation centered on Shaw's upcoming book, Liturgies of the Wild (releasing February 3). Drawing on folklore, wilderness tradition, and Christian theology, Shaw argues that Christianity is not merely a belief system but an initiatory path—one that modern culture has domesticated into something safer, quieter, and far less demanding. Shaw reflects on his own journey from Baptist church pews to decades spent studying myth, living in a tent, and eventually returning—reluctantly—to Christianity through Eastern Orthodoxy. Their conversation touches on his 4-day-retreat-turned-conversion, myth versus fact, the resurrection as “disturbingly strange,” the dangers of cynicism and sarcasm, the rise of psychedelic spirituality, and how practices as simple as memorizing a poem or sitting by a fire can begin to re-form the soul. If you're beginning the year considering longing, risk, and what it means to become fully human in a world that prefers comfort to transformation–and you're wanting to hear poetry recited in a British accent–this conversation is for you. Keep up with Russell: Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying. Submit a question for the show at questions@russellmoore.com  Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription. Resources mentioned in this episode: Liturgies of the Wild — Martin Shaw The Moviegoer — Walker Percy The Pilgrim's Regress — C.S. Lewis Against the Machine — Paul Kingsnorth (Listen here for Paul's interview with Russell) The Hero with a Thousand Faces — Joseph Campbell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eastern Orthodoxy vs. Reformed Baptist: History, Authority, and the Gospel In this episode of G220 Radio, we examine the claims of Eastern Orthodoxy in light of Scripture and historic Reformed Baptist theology. While Eastern Orthodoxy often appeals to antiquity, tradition, and church continuity, the question remains: What is the ultimate authority for the Christian faith—and what is the true gospel? We'll walk through the historical development of Eastern Orthodoxy, including the split between East and West, and compare it with the Reformed Baptist commitment to Scripture alone. This discussion focuses on authority (Scripture vs. tradition), justification, salvation, and the nature of the gospel, testing every claim by the Word of God. Is age the same as truth? Does tradition carry equal authority with Scripture? And does the Eastern Orthodox system faithfully preserve the biblical gospel of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone? Join us as we contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, uphold the sufficiency of Scripture, and clearly proclaim the gospel that saves. New episode of G220 Radio — defending biblical truth, proclaiming the gospel, and calling believers to discernment.

In this interview, Matt sits down with William Albrecht for a discussion about the Blessed Virgin Mary, the biblical foundations for our beliefs about Mary, what Protestant Reformers (particularly Luther) believed about Mary, what Catholics get wrong about Mary, plus Eastern Orthodoxy, the papacy, and more! Enjoy! Ep. 560 - - -

A Street Preacher tries to share the gospel with someone and gets threatened with the police. Not by an atheist, not by a secular activist, but rather by someone who claims to be part of the ‘one true church.' On today's podcast we will look at someone from the Eastern Orthodox Church explaining how they evangelize how they bring people into their system, their tradition, and their church. And as always we will be comparing what he says to what we see in Scripture. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodfightministries Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodfightministries Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/goodfightmin TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@goodfightministries We're on Rumble! https://rumble.com/GoodFightMinistries Support Us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/goodfight

Sin is often reduced to a list of bad behaviors, but this conversation reframed it as a rupture in relationship and a distortion of identity.  Join Jeremy Jeremiah, Mario Andrew, and Cloud of Witnesses special guests Father Deacon Anthony, an ordained deacon in the Antiochian Orthodox Church, and associate marriage and family therapist, Jacob Sadan (https://jacobsadan.com/) in this frank and inspiring discussion of sin.Drawing from early Christian teaching and cognitive behavioral therapy, our guests showed that actions flow from thoughts and feelings, and those are shaped by how we name what is happening inside us. If we see ourselves as inherently evil, despair follows; if we deny fault, pride grows. The older Christian vision holds a paradox: we are made very good in God's image, yet wounded by passions and habits that pull us from life. That paradox calls for clarity, not condemnation. Naming the wound without becoming the wound is the beginning of healing.  A vivid metaphor carried the dialogue: the black spot on the skin. We can ignore it, try to cut it out ourselves, identify with it in shame, or bring it to the physician. Only the last path actually heals. The physician, Christ, works through the church's rhythms—fasting, prayer, confession, feasting—because rhythm regulates what is dysregulated. Like a garden, the soul shows its beauty when tended with boundaries and care. The point isn't legalism but formation: seasons that humble pride, awaken joy, and train our loves. In this frame, guilt is not a curse; it is the pain signal that says, return to the Doctor. Shame, on the other hand, fuses sin to identity and locks the soul in a closed room.  Psychologically, the cycle is simple and stubborn: beliefs spark feelings, feelings drive behaviors, behaviors reinforce beliefs. If I believe I must fix myself alone, I will overreach, fail, and destroy self-trust. Addiction lives in that gap between imagined control and actual powerlessness. The first step to freedom is admitting limits and sorting what I can change from what I must surrender. Confession becomes a structured pause to observe the inner world: what happened, why it happened, and what to do next. Spoken aloud to a trusted guide, the most terrifying truths lose their sting and regain their meaning as invitations to growth.  Finally, community matters. A church that engages body and senses, offers communion and confession, and pairs diagnosis with prescription becomes an arena where grace meets effort. Outside that arena, there are no crowns because there is no contest. Inside it, accountability interrupts self-deception, and mercy makes change plausible. The way forward is not self-loathing or self-excuse but love, truth, and rhythm: see the spot, feel the healthy sting of guilt, ask for help, and return to the practices that tame the garden. We are beloved and broken, not worthless or sovereign; healing happens where we stop pretending to be judge and return to being patients of the true Physician. Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses: https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTok.  Please leave a comment with your thoughts!

Exod. 29:38–46 Hos. 6:1–6 Matt. 5:17–20 Col. 2:16–3:6 Many are exploring movements like the Hebrew Roots, or traditions like Eastern Orthodoxy, both wildly different but filled with ceremonies. What does Scripture teach about such ceremonies? We look together at Christ's claim to fulfill the Law, and how that teaches us to seek Him in heaven, not in the earthly ceremonies of the Old Covenant, whatever form those take.

Most people know there are differences between Catholic and Protestant Bibles—but the reality is far more complex. In this video, I explore the incredible diversity of Bibles throughout history, shaped by geography, religious traditions, theological agendas, and social contexts. From variations within Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Judaism, and even Islam, to striking examples […]

A map of the diverse Eastern Churches still around today; the Orthodox and the unorthodox. Support us on Patreon for Member access to our special podcast series for in depth audio commentary on Holy Scripture.  Apply for Saint Paul's House of Formation Email us Music by Richard Proulx and the Cathedral Singers from Sublime Chant. Copyright GIA Publications  Word & Table Episode Index

Today on the Christian History Almanac, we head to the mailbag to answer a question about Eastern Orthodoxy and the Bible. The CHA Weekend Edition Presents: A Brief History of the World's Most Famous Book, Part I Weekend Edition for September 28-29, 2024   The CHA Weekend Edition Presents: A Brief History of the World's Most Famous Book, Part 2 Weekend Edition for October 26-27, 2024   The CHA Weekend Edition Presents: A Brief History of the World's Most Famous Book, Part 3 Weekend Edition for November 16-17, 2024 Show Notes: Germany / Switzerland - Study Tour  Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Coming Home for Christmas: 1517 Advent Devotional Face to Face: A Novel of the Reformation by Amy Mantravadi Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms by Chad Bird Remembering Your Baptism: A 40-Day Devotional by Kathryn Morales Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug More from the hosts: Dan van Voorhis SHOW TRANSCRIPTS are available: https://www.1517.org/podcasts/the-christian-history-almanac CONTACT: CHA@1517.org SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Overcast Google Play FOLLOW US: Facebook Twitter Audio production by Christopher Gillespie (outerrimterritories.com).

What is an evangelical, really—and is evangelicalism actually biblical? In this episode, Joel from The Think Institute makes a robust, Scripture-packed case that evangelicalism (rightly defined) is not a shallow, American invention but a deeply biblical, historically rooted movement. He walks through the history, four core pillars, and nine key Bible passages that together challenge Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and others to take a fresh look at evangelical faith. Joel also shares how The Think Institute exists to help Christian men become the worldview leaders their families and churches need, and why he's stepping into the gap as a Protestant apologist engaging Eastern Orthodox critics and online “ortho-bros.”In This Episode You'll Hear About:Why the word evangelical has fallen on hard times—and why Joel refuses to abandon it. How evangelicalism is a movement, not a single denomination, and why Joel calls it “the most biblical form of Christianity” (without claiming to be the one true church). The historical roots of modern evangelicalismThe four pillars of evangelicalism Joel's response to the claim that there are few strong Protestant apologists engaging Eastern Orthodoxy—plus why Joel happily says, “I'm your huckleberry.” Live Q&A highlights, including questions about repentance, hell, worship, and whether Jesus is the only one who ascended into heaven.Key Scriptures in This EpisodeUse these passages to follow along or study later:Acts 17:10–12 – The Bereans and noble-minded Scripture testing 2 Timothy 3:16–17 – Scripture as God-breathed and sufficient Romans 3:23–25 – Christ as our propitiation1 Corinthians 15:3–4 – “Of first importance”: Christ died, was buried, and was raised Ezekiel 36:26–27 – New heart and new SpiritJohn 3:3–7 – “You must be born again”Acts 3:19 – “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out” Matthew 28:18–20 – The Great Commission and discipling the nations James 1:27 – Pure and undefiled religion before GodNext Steps for Christian MenJoin the Hammer & Anvil Society – Get weekly cohort calls, courses, challenges, and brotherhood to become the worldview leader your family and church need.

Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/editorialtpv El día de hoy hablaremos sobre el capítulo 11 del libro The Oxford Handbook of Christmas, titulado “Eastern Orthodoxy,” por Mary B. Cunningham. Ver aquí: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-christmas-9780198831464?cc=gb&lang=en& Articulo: https://semperreformandaperu.org/2025/12/25/la-navidad-que-no-conoces-un-viaje-a-las-antiguas-tradiciones-de-la-iglesia-ortodoxa-oriental/  Video: https://youtu.be/v93uA6fFu_0?si=ayn9uRy-dSxtEE6x  PPT: https://semperreformandaperu.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/navigating_orthodox_christmas_from_cosmic_to_hearth.pdf  En este episodio nos adentramos en la Navidad de las Iglesias ortodoxas orientales: una festividad que, en su propia autocomprensión, ocupa el segundo lugar en importancia tras la Pascua y se vive ante todo como acontecimiento litúrgico y teológico, más que como temporada comercial. Acompañaremos el ritmo del calendario: el ayuno preparatorio que comienza el 15 de noviembre, la intensificación de los himnos y oficios desde el 20 de diciembre, y la “explosión” festiva cuando el ayuno se rompe en la mañana de Navidad. Veremos también por qué los regalos suelen desplazarse a san Nicolás (6 de diciembre) o al Año Nuevo (1 de enero), según tradiciones locales. Desde ahí, el capítulo nos guía al corazón doctrinal: la liturgia como pedagogía pública de la Encarnación, capaz de “re-escenificar” y, a la vez, explicar lo que la Iglesia confiesa. Luego pasamos del texto a la imagen: la iconografía de la Natividad, donde la veneración del icono, las velas y la disposición visual enseñan una teología del “mundo transfigurado”. Finalmente, descendemos a la casa: ritos serbios como el badnyak, la paja esparcida y la chesnitsa con moneda, y ejemplos griegos donde lo cristiano convive con memorias míticas y folclóricas. Un episodio para comprender cómo doctrina, símbolo y vida cotidiana se entrelazan en la Navidad ortodoxa.

In this final episode of our series on the Seven Ecumenical Councils, Stephen Boyce and Pat May examine the Second Council of Nicaea (787) — the council that defended the veneration of icons and grounded sacred images in the Incarnation of Christ.We walk through the historical background of Byzantine iconoclasm, the political and theological tensions leading up to the council, and Nicaea II's crucial distinction between veneration (proskynesis) and worship (latreia). The episode explains why the Church affirmed icons as a confession of the Incarnation rather than a lapse into idolatry.Along the way, we discuss early Christian Gospel manuscripts, the role of material culture in Christian worship, papal involvement at Nicaea II, and why this council remains a major dividing line between Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestant traditions.This episode brings the series to a close by showing how Christology, authority, Scripture, and sacred art come together in one of the most misunderstood councils in Church history.Link to the document: https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum07.htmIf you'd like to donate to our ministry or be a monthly partner that receives newsletters and one on one discussions with Dr. Stephen Boyce, here's a link: https://give.tithe.ly/?formId=6381a2ee-b82f-42a7-809e-6b733cec05a7

Recorded at the Nicaea Conference in Istanbul, this episode of The Westminster Podcast features a wide-ranging and incisive conversation with Pastor Leo de Chirico, a Reformed Baptist pastor serving in Rome, Italy. Drawing on his unique experience and years of evangelistic and theological engagement in a Roman Catholic context, Leo reflects on the significance of the Council of Nicaea, the purpose of the Nicene Creed, and what it really meant to confess Christ's divinity in the face of Arianism. Rather than treating the creed as a sentimental or purely ecumenical touchstone, Leo argues that Nicaea functioned as an exegetical workshop—a Scripture-driven response to heresy grounded in the authority of the Bible. From there, the conversation explores how different Christian traditions interpret the same creedal language within very different theological frameworks. Leo traces the divergent trajectories of Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism, contending that the Reformation did not reject Nicene Christianity but sought to recover what Nicaea assumed: the supremacy of Scripture as the norma normans. The discussion also turns to contemporary issues, including the renewed attraction of Roman Catholicism among evangelicals, the legacy of Vatican II, and the challenge of engaging a Catholicism that is adaptive, plural, and often misunderstood. Throughout, Leo presses a consistent theme: Christians may use the same words, but they often inhabit very different worlds—and faithful dialogue requires clarity, historical awareness, and a renewed confidence in Scripture alone. If you enjoy this episode, you can access tons of content just like this at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wm.wts.edu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you would like to join us in our mission to train specialists in the bible to proclaim the whole counsel of God for Christ and his global church, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wts.edu/donate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Thanks for listening!

We were down a man this time. Our Anglican co-host, Miles Smith, was on the road which left  Korey Maas (Lutheran) and D. G. Hart (Presbyterian) trying to maintain pudcasting standards.  We had help from our colleague in the English Department, Jason Peters, who grew up Christian Reformed and switched to Eastern Orthodoxy.  We talked about the various strands of Orthodoxy in America, what the appeal may be to young men, and why confessional Protestants realign with the Orthodox Church. For perspective on the current appeal of Orthodoxy, see this piece from the New York Times.  The movement of some Lutherans into Orthodoxy about twenty-five years ago was related to the so-called Finnish interpretation of Luther.    As always, we depend heavily on the production abilities of the great Southern Presbyterian, @presbycast. 

From Megachurch Disillusionment To Hope.Josiah the inquirer sits down with Cloud of Witnesses, Mario Andrew and Jeremy Jeremiah.A skull on a thumbnail, bells in the background, and a monk's voice quoting Saint Isaac changed everything. Josiah didn't set out to find ancient Christianity; he just needed something more honest than a forced smile and a quick fix. What he discovered was not an edgy aesthetic for its own sake, but a fearless way of naming reality: remember death, confront the passions, and be made new in Christ.We trace the unlikely path from hardcore shows to holy tradition, exploring why Orthodoxy can feel “metal” without the nihilism. The conversation dives into Saint Paul's call to be a living sacrifice, Saint Isaac's searing inventory of the passions, and the strange relief that comes from a church that looks you in the eye and tells you the truth. Icons and martyrdom aren't there to shock; they give shape to hope, showing lives that died to the world so that love could live. Along the way we talk Kat Von D, Holy Name, and the kind of inclusivity that rescues, not indulges—come as you are, but don't expect to stay there.• first contact with Orthodoxy through a stark video• megachurch cynicism versus honest talk about death• Saint Isaac the Syrian on the passions• Scripture's call to die to self• icons, skulls, and martyrdom as truthful symbols• baptizing subculture without baptizing sin• real inclusivity as rescue and transformation• providential friendships and cigar night community• practical next steps toward catechesis• lighthearted barber stories to closeWhat ultimately makes the search real is community: providential friendships, a cigar night, and a Clouded Witnesses feature that turned curiosity into courage. We share practical insights on taking first steps toward Orthodoxy, why asceticism answers modern anxiety, and how subculture can be baptized without baptizing sin. And yes, we close with a few unforgettable barber tales, because joy and humility are part of the medicine.If you're hungry for a faith that can hold sorrow and still make it sing, press play, share this with a friend, and tell us the moment that hit you hardest. Subscribe for more journeys, leave a review to help others find the show, and drop your questions—we're listening.Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses Radio: https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses Radio on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTok.Please leave a comment with your thoughts!

“Why Aren’t You CAtholic?” This question opens a discussion on various concerns, including the perception that the Church allows abortion and lacks discipline. Other topics include the challenges faced by those seeking to enter OCIA classes and the complexities of choosing between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, particularly regarding the Council of Florence. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 03:00 – I'm not Catholic because the Catholic Church allows abortion and sexual perversion. The Church doesn't discipline people. 10:40 – I'm not Catholic because I grew up in a very protestant area. 28:45 – My wife and I have been trying to get into OCIA classes but it’s been difficult. What other options are available? 36:28 – I'm in OCIA. Should I wait to become Catholic until my wife is ready? 45:41 – I'm considering either Catholicism or Eastern Orthodox. I'm told very different things about the Council of Florence. Was it a truly unifying council?

“Why Aren’t You Catholic?” addresses common concerns about Catholic beliefs, including the role of Mary and the saints. The discussion also touches on the significance of the Miraculous Medal, the challenges of baptism in the Catholic Church, and the differences between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, providing a comprehensive look at these important topics. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 03:56 – I'm Lutheran. What is the Miraculous Medal? How does it work? 12:12 – I'm not Catholic because of the idolization of Mary and the saints and the claim that Jesus founded Catholicism? 19:36 – How would you convince an LDS member why you think Mary is the Mother of God? 30:41 – Why is it so difficult to get baptized as a Catholic? 35:47 – My best friend is becoming Eastern Orthodox and I'm becoming Catholic. What are the reasons why I should become Catholic instead of EO? 44:03 – How would Mary and Jesus be different if they were both immaculately conceived? 50:28 – I'm not Catholic because I've been lied to about it all my life.

In this episode, Nathan and Cameron dive deep into the rise of the so-called “ortho bros” and explore why so many young men are converting to Eastern Orthodoxy in today's chaotic cultural moment. Drawing on history, theology, and their own pastoral experience, they analyze Ruth Graham's New York Times article, compare the trend to the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement, and discuss the growing desire among Christians for rootedness, tradition, and doctrinal clarity. This thoughtful conversation challenges reductive explanations of hyper-masculinity and invites viewers into a richer understanding of how ancient Christian traditions speak into modern unrest. Perfect for Christians seeking deep theological reflection, cultural analysis, and Christ-centered insight on current events.DONATE LINK: https://toltogether.com/donate BOOK A SPEAKER: https://toltogether.com/book-a-speakerJOIN TOL CONNECT: https://toltogether.com/tol-connect TOL Connect is an online forum where TOL listeners can continue the conversation begun on the podcast.

Unity sounds simple until you try to build it without a shared center. We take listeners inside the lived tension of modern Protestant life: a movement born from reform that still reforms itself into new churches, new brands, and new streams whenever conviction collides with leadership and local control. From the Reformers' early disagreements to today's non-denominational megachurches, hosts Jeremy Jeremiah, Mario Andrew, and Michael trace how authority, interpretation, and personality shape the health of congregations—and why splits feel inevitable when a pastor retires or launches a fresh vision down the street.We examine why Protestant unity remains elusive, especially for Dillon Baker, host of The Protestant Gentleman, (https://www.youtube.com/@theprotestantgentleman/videos) how non-denominational structures fuel repeated splits, and why so many seekers turn to older, historic forms of Christianity. We share lived stories, weigh online apologetics trends, and offer practical next steps rooted in church history.• the claim that Protestantism functions as serial reformations• structural fragility in non-denominational leadership models• real case of a founding pastor splitting a congregation• growth versus true flourishing in church life• online apologetics momentum and confidence gaps• questions to test practice against early Christian history• counsel to study church history before choosing a church• invitation to explore Orthodox parishes as a concrete stepAlong the way, we unpack a candid story of a founding pastor pushed to retire who planted a new church and took half the congregation, and we ask what that choice demands of ordinary people. Are they comparing preaching styles, or discerning which community is more biblically faithful? We zoom out to the online apologetics landscape where prominent voices admit Protestants are “losing” the debate on history and continuity. That candor points to a deeper hunger: believers want a faith that is ancient, coherent, and recognizable across centuries, not just persuasive proof texts. The guiding question becomes, Where have Christians practiced this?We offer a practical path forward. Start with church history: the first centuries, the councils, the formation of canon, and the worship life that carried the Gospel through persecution and empire. Test present practices against the witness of the early Church. Many seekers find themselves drawn to Eastern Orthodoxy for its conciliar authority, sacramental life, and stable doctrine—less an escape from Scripture than a home where Scripture, tradition, and worship live together. Whether you remain Protestant or explore Orthodoxy, you'll leave with sharper questions, clearer criteria, and a stronger sense of what flourishing looks like beyond weekly attendance numbers.If this conversation helps you or someone you love, share it with a friend, subscribe for future episodes, and leave a review with the biggest question you're wrestling with right now. Your voice shapes where we go next.Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses Radio: https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses Radio on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTokPlease leave a comment with your thoughts!

I Corinthians 4:9-16 St. John 1:35-51 In this homily for the Feast of St. Andrew, Fr. Anthony contrasts the world's definition of success with the apostolic witness of sacrifice, humility, and courageous love. Drawing on St. Paul's admonition to the Corinthians, he calls Christians to recover the reverence due to bishops and spiritual fathers, to reject the corrosive logic of social media, and to return to the ascetical path that forms us for theosis. St. Andrew and St. Paul's lives reveals that true honor is found not in comfort or acclaim but in following Christ wherever He leads — even into suffering and martyrdom.  Enjoy the show! ---- St. Andrew Day, 2025 The Orthodox Church takes apostolic succession very seriously; the preservation of "the faith passed on to the apostles" is maintained by the physicality of the ordination of bishops by bishops, all of who can trace the history of the ordination of the bishops who ordained them back to one or more of the apostles themselves.  You probably already new that.  But there is another part of that respect for the apostles that you may not know of: the ranking of autocephalist (i.e. independent) national Churches.  The Canons (especially those of the Council of Trullo) give prominence to the five ancient patriarchates of Rome (Sts. Peter and Paul), Constantinople (St. Andrew), Alexandria (St. Mark), Antioch (St. Paul), and Jerusalem (St. James).   St. Andrew travelled into dangerous barbarian lands to spread the Gospel, to include the Middle East, and, most notably, then North to the lands around the Black Sea; Ankara and Edessa to the south of the Black Sea in what is now Turkey, to the East of the Black Sea into the Caucuses, and up to the North of the Black Sea to the Scythian lands into what is now Ukraine.  That was his first journey.  After this, he returned to Jerusalem and then went on his second journey to Antioch, back up into the Caucasus, out to the land of the dog-headed people in Central Asia, down through what is now Afghanistan to the Arabian Sea, and then back up through Persia and finally into Greece, where he was martyred. He sacrificed so much for the Gospel and brought so many souls to salvation through the Christ he himself knew, both before and after His glorious Resurrection.  His virtue and sacrificial service allow God's grace to flow into the world and he serves as the patron of several countries, cities, and all Christians who bear variations of His name such as Andrew, Andrei, and Andrea. As Orthodox Christians, we should know his story, ask for his intercession, and imitate his witness.  And everyone, whether Christian or not, should respect his virtue.  But does it?  Does it even respect virtue?  Do we? As Saint Paul points out in today's Epistle, many of us do not.  And don't think the problem was just in Corinth; St. John Chrysostom's homilies on this epistle show that the people there were at least as guilty.  And that was in the center of Eastern Orthodoxy, during the time of alleged symphonia between the Church and State.  Should there be any doubt that we, too, allow the world to define the sorts of worldly things we should prioritize? After all … What is it that the world respects in a man?  What is it that the world respects in a woman?  Think for a second what it is that impresses you the most about the people you admire – perhaps even makes you jealous, wishing that you had managed to obtain the same things. I cannot read your minds, but if you are like most Americans, the list would certainly include: A long, healthy life, without chronic pain or major physical injury A life free of indictment, arrest, or imprisonment The respect, admiration, and popularity of their peers Money, a big house, a vacation house, and the ability to retire comfortably (and early) These are some of the things that many of you are either pleased to enjoy, regret not having obtained, or, if you are young, are currently striving for. The Apostles Andrew and Paul, gave up the possibility for all these things to follow Christ.  Not because they wanted to; not because God made them; they gave up the life of worldly comfort and respect because – in a culture and time as messed up as theirs was – this is the only Way to live a life of grace and to grow in love and perfection. A long, healthy life, without chronic pain or major physical injury? Nope – gave it up. A life free of indictment, arrest, or imprisonment? Nope – gave it up. The respect, admiration, and popularity of their peers? No again. Money, a big house, a vacation house, and the ability to retire comfortably (and early) I don't think so (unless a prison in Rome and martyrdom count!). Because St. Paul is writing as an Apostle, instructing a parish that he was called to lead, it is tempting to put his sacrifices into the category of "things that clergy do".  And clergy certainly should follow their example.  While my example is not so bright, you may know that I gave up a life of wealth, admiration, and the possibility of a comfortable retirement so that I could serve as a priest.  God has blessed that and protected me from harm, but the opportunity costs are real, nonetheless.   And while I am a pale shadow of him (and he of Christ), I, like the Apostle Paul, did these things not because I wanted to (I liked my life then!) and not because God made me, but because in a culture and time as messed up as ours is, such a life of simplicity and complete service to others is the only Way I can live a life of grace and to grow in love and towards perfection in Christ. I have made some sacrifices, but I know other clergymen who – in our time – have given up more.  Their entire lives given over to sacrificial servce to Christ.  Who have become experts in both academic theology and the real theology of constant prayer.  Who have and continue to lead their dioceses and Churches through such difficult times.  And yet, who, like St. Paul, are not only reviled by the world, but even by Orthodox Christians.  Yes, to paraphrase St. Paul, we are so smart and educated that we can criticize and heap piles of coal on their heads because we know so much more than they do – because they, like St. Paul, are fools.  We can trash-talk them on social media and applaud others who lead the charge against them because they are so weak and we are so strong. How long does it take for a Patriarch's priestly ministry to make him respectable in our sight?  For us to respect him, or at least to forebear him? It must be more than 55 years, based on the things I have heard and read us saying about Patriarch Kyrril who has been leading his Church and people through an incredibly difficult time, as he believes the West works to undermine his people's faith and traditional Christianity everywhere. It must also be more than 55 years, based on the things I have heard and read us saying about Patriarch Bartholomew, as he works amidst the persecution of the government in the place he lives to bring Christians and Christians who have long been divided into and towards the unity for which we pray daily and which our God desires us to work towards. It must be more than 42 years, based on the things I have heard and read us saying about our own Patriach John, who has seen his people and Church crucified and persecuted and who seeks to encourage the local authorities to protect the weak and the Church and people he serves (while leading the people he serves in the West to avoid the excesses of liberty).   I hope you feel the shame, if not your own personal shame for having participated in slandering and judging our bishops and patriarchs, then feel shame for seeing the world and those Orthodox Christians who are living by its rules attacking them and questioning their virtue. This is the same shame that St. Paul was trying to elicit in Corinth.  Do you feel the shame?  If not, then the world, probably through social media, has deadened your noetic senses.  It is time for repentance.   And like St. Paul, I have to tell you that – while few of you may be called to priestly or monastic service – all of us are called to reject those things that the world has led us to value, because all of these things are like barrier between us and the eternal joy and perfection we were called to enjoy. Listen to me, my brothers and sisters, as I repeat the words of St. Paul we so desperately need to hear:   "For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.  Therefore I urge you, imitate me."   We do not have St. Paul as our father, but we have one of his successors, Patriarch John, and those whom he has assigned to us, such as Metropolitan Saba, Bishop John, and even this, your unworthy servant.  Let's stop giving attention to those who attack Orthodox clerics and thereby sow division within the Church and undermine its witness to others. Let's give up our attachment to this world and its ways.  Let's give up everything worldly we love, follow Christ, and gain the things that are really worth our love, admiration, and sacrifice.

What is a human—dust and breath, body and spirit—without tearing ourselves in two? Deacon Anthony (St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church, San Diego) joins Cloud of Witnesses with hosts Mario Andrew, Jeremy Jeremiah, and John for a rich, practical conversation on an Orthodox vision of the whole person and the mind (phronema) of the Church.We trace a path away from the twin traps of indulgence (living by our appetites) and denial (pretending we're already angelic), toward a fearless embrace of reality in Christ. Through Scripture, the Fathers, and stories from parish life, Deacon Anthony shows how God meets us in the tangible—mud on eyes, bread and wine, water and oil—to heal the heart and remake our lives.In this episode you'll hear:Body & Soul together: why the Incarnation means Christianity is never “purely spiritual” or “only physical.”The phronema (mindset) of the Church: how a Christian way of seeing reshapes what we notice, how we judge, and whom we love.Using God-given tools rightly: judge ourselves, not our neighbor; fear sin, not repentance; hate the illness, not the person.Confession as healing: real accountability, a spiritual father, and why naming sin breaks its power.Community over isolation: salvation is ecclesial and relational—you can't be saved on an island.Heaven & hell begin now: entitlement and isolation taste like hell; humility and communion taste like heaven.Saints as role models: why children (and adults) need holy examples more than celebrities.Eucharist & the senses: why worship that engages sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch anchors faith in reality.If “symbolic religion” has felt thin—or if modern “live-your-truth” scripts leave you empty—this conversation offers a hopeful, time-tested alternative: sacrament, repentance, and daily love that form the whole person in Christ.Find an Orthodox Church near you today. Visit https://www.antiochian.org/home Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses Radio: https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses Radio on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTokPlease leave a comment with your thoughts!

What if reverence isn't a feeling you chase, but a reality you enter?This episode follows a grateful former Protestant named Michael from his upbringing all the way to a first Divine Liturgy in a small Orthodox chapel on a military base in Okinawa—and the quiet discoveries that happened along the way. Join Cloud of Witnesses hosts Jeremy Jeremiah and Mario Andrew as we move through warm family memories, the culture shock of military life, and the slow drift that happens when belief outruns practice. Then the trail turns: an old-school YouTube series on church history, the Jordan River baptismal site, a striking painting of confession, and even a meme about the Theotokos—little breadcrumbs pointing toward something older, deeper, and strangely familiar.What we explore (without the debate club tone):Icons, saints, Mary—through the Incarnation: not add-ons, but practices that flow from God made flesh and the Church's unbroken life.A reframing question: instead of “Were the early Fathers really Christians?” try “Would they recognize our faith as theirs?” That single question reshapes how we think about worship, authority, sacraments, and belonging to a parish that actually forms us.Worship reimagined: the first Liturgy lands as awe-filled, ordered, communal—not performance or preference but the Church at prayer.Accountability & spiritual fatherhood: why guidance matters when culture pulls hard—and how confession, obedience, and community keep us real.Vocation with roots: plans for law school and faithful presence in public life, now steadied by a tradition that tells you who you are.Gratitude without amnesia: love for Scripture and prayer received in Protestant homes, alongside honesty about what felt missing—continuity, reverence, and a daily rule of life.If you've felt restless—church-hopping, yearning for weight and continuity—this conversation offers a gentle map: the ancient path is not a museum; it's a living way that teaches hearts to pray, minds to think with the Church, and bodies to worship with all the senses.Listen & share. If this resonates, subscribe and send to a friend who's searching. In your review, tell us the one question you'd ask the early Church—what would you hope they recognize in your faith?Questions about Orthodoxy? Please check out our friends at Ghost of Byzantium Discord server: https://discord.gg/JDJDQw6tdhPlease prayerfully consider supporting Cloud of Witnesses Radio: https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnessesFind Cloud of Witnesses Radio on Instagram, X.com, Facebook, and TikTokPlease leave a comment with your thoughts!

Covered a bunch of topics from Titus 1:6 and elders to Eastern Orthodoxy and sola scriptura and other topics. Will be doing another program on Wednesday given it is a holiday week, and then I head for Pryor, St. Charles, and elsewhere on Friday!

In this very special 100th episode of Pod of the Gaps, Andy and Aaron answer questions from listeners. Naturally they cover a wide range of themes, including their takes on things like Genesis 1-11, the age of the earth, the issue of "toxic empathy", the BBC and penal substitution, whether Christians should seek to take over entire boroughs, whether Andy and Aaron should move to America, and who from church history they would choose as part of their dream line up in a football match. All this and more on this jam-packed episode of Pod of the Gaps! ** We saved some even more interesting questions for our Patreon supporters, so head over to https://www.patreon.com/wkop and sign up to hear us (and see us!) answer exclusive questions on Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, polygamy, spiritual practices, and what the UK will look like in 50 years' time! Enjoy... ** ** And the Pod of the Gaps mug has returned for a limited time only: https://bit.ly/3XN1lNS ***

Loneliness & Misinformation: Sean and Rick unpack new research linking rising loneliness, especially among young adults, to increased susceptibility to conspiracy theories and online misinformation, emphasizing the need for real community and diverse conversation partners.Tesla's ‘Robot Army': They discuss Elon Musk's ambitious plan to deploy one million humanoid robots, raising concerns about work, human purpose, and the worldview assumptions behind a future where “work becomes optional.”How Movies Get Rated: The hosts explore newly revealed insights from the film ratings board, explaining shifting standards around nudity, marijuana, violence, and how Christians can think more deeply about film beyond simple PG-13/R labels.Orthodox Christianity's Surprising Growth: A major feature covers why young men are increasingly drawn to Eastern Orthodoxy for its beauty, tradition, masculinity, and supernaturalism, and how this trend fits into broader signs of spiritual renewal in the U.S.Listener Questions: Unpacking the millennial reign of Christ.Helping someone who is struggling with pedophilia.Understanding the theological significance of rainbows in today's culture.==========Think Biblically: Conversations on Faith and Culture is a podcast from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University, which offers degrees both online and on campus in Southern California. Find all episodes of Think Biblically at: https://www.biola.edu/think-biblically. Watch video episodes at: https://bit.ly/think-biblically-video. To submit comments, ask questions, or make suggestions on issues you'd like us to cover or guests you'd like us to have on the podcast, email us at thinkbiblically@biola.edu.

Today, Joe examines the claim that the Catholic Church has changed positions to fit with the times, while Eastern Orthodoxy has remained the same since Christ founded the Church. Transcript: Joe: Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer and I want to respond to a specific criticism. I’ve heard from some orthodox against Catholicism that Catholicism is guilty of changing and developing unlike unchanging orthodoxy. And the argument goes, the Catholic church is out here changing the mass and changing her moral teachings to look more like current times unlike orthodoxy, whi...

It's a special Mailbag Thursday! You've got questions, we've got answers. Segment 1 • Am I truly forgiven after divorce, abuse, and years of regret? — Anonymous • Our pastor gave a different reason from the pulpit for another pastor's removal—was that a lie or discretion? — Anonymous • Does God still “speak” today? Should I sit in silence to hear His voice? — Anonymous Segment 2 • 1 John exposes me—how can I rest if I don't “pass the tests”? — Alex • Our church paused women-teaching-women—does that have any biblical basis? — Cala Segment 3 • What makes Eastern Orthodoxy heretical? — Joe Segment 4 • How can I defend against the Catholic belief that we do some good and Christ does the rest—and to those who say that's not a big difference? — Anonymous • How important is it for a local church to serve the needy in its community? — Paul ___ Thanks for listening! Wretched Radio would not be possible without the financial support of our Gospel Partners. If you would like to support Wretched Radio we would be extremely grateful. VISIT https://fortisinstitute.org/donate/ If you are already a Gospel Partner we couldn't be more thankful for you if we tried!

In this episode, Ronn and Mike answer five questions sent in by listeners: 1) How does a person go about studying the DCW and the related topics it uncovers? 2) How can a DCW increase a person's intimacy with God? 3) Are idols a human invention, and if so, does this show that gods are invented as well? 4) Can I combine Eastern Orthodoxy with western Protestant theology? 5) How should the gospel be presented to a child—say, a 7-year old?

Fr. Moses McPherson, an Orthodox priest, had released a few videos explaining his problems with Catholicism. Joe gives his response. Transcript: Joe: Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer and one of you recently asked in the comments if I would respond to some attacks on the Catholic Church made by a Russian Orthodox priest in YouTuber. Father Moses McPherson. Now if you’ve never heard of him, father Moses is a Protestant convert to Eastern Orthodoxy. He was originally ordained as a priest of the Orthodox Church of America, but left that for some reason to become Rus...

Not really sure why but I started off talking about my earliest childhood memory from when I was 2.5 years of age. I even got to show a picture of what I saw that day in 1965. Then we looked at some issues raised regarding Eastern Orthodoxy, then read the anathemas from the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787. Finished up talking about the New Mormons and how to reach them.

Considered issues relating to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy today, looked a bit at the new "Gay-washed" translation of the Bible accepted by the USCCB (the NRSVue), watched a video with someone washing the foot of a dead saint and then people fighting to get some of the water that fell from the foot, etc., all in reference to veneration and worship.

Thousands of American Christians are converting to the Eastern Orthodox faith — yet most American Catholics and Protestants know little to nothing about it. What do the Orthodox believe, what sets them apart from other denominations, and what has it attracting so many converts? Charlie spoke to Orthodox convert, priest, and author Fr. John Strickland for more than hour to learn the ins and outs of this ancient form of Christianity that is brand new to most of America. You can find "The Age of Nihilism" and other books by Fr. Strickland at https://store.ancientfaith.com/the-age-of-nihilism-christendom-from-the-great-war-to-the-culture-wars/ Watch every episode ad-free on members.charliekirk.com! Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com!Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.