Orthodox Christianity

Speak the Truth and Carry Your Cross Toward the Kingdom of Heaven

by Chris Banescu –
“Pick up the cross of your tragedy and betrayal. Accept its terrible weight. Hoist it onto your shoulders and struggle impossibly upward toward the Kingdom of God on the hill. The alternative is Death and Hell.” ~ Jordan Peterson

This wisdom from Jordan Peterson is as close to an Orthodox understanding of what it means to be a Christian as you can get from a non-Orthodox Christian. He speaks the truth and honors the Truth. He helps people understand fundamental principles. A lot of his teaching is grounded in Scriptures. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).

I believe that Peterson is an authentic follower of Christ and a trustworthy messenger, even though he himself does not seem to see it or is not willing to admit it. It’s not “flesh and blood” or earthly (godless) knowledge that have revealed these truths to him. It’s evident that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, Who proceeds from the Father, co-eternal with Christ (the Logos), illumines his teaching. This is why his words have authority and power. This is why he gives people genuine hope. [Read more…]

Why do the Righteous Suffer? God’s Answer is a Question

Why do the Righteous Suffer? God Answer is a Questionby Chris Banescu –

In his book, Making Sense Out of Suffering, Peter Kreeft offers us a partial explanation of the mystery of why righteous men are afflicted by seemingly random and unjust suffering and many trials and tribulations in this life. He points us to the Scriptures, specifically the Book of Job, and the lessons we can learn from the suffering of the righteous Job and God’s answer to Job. “Who do you think you are, anyway? By what right do you unquestioningly assume that you can know the answer to this question? Are you in a position to answer it? Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”, the author paraphrases God’s response to the long-suffering Job.

Kreeft explains that for many of us, the suffering we experience in this life will remain a mystery. While sometimes we may grasp the reason “why” we endure afflictions or God allows us a glimpse into the purpose behind our tribulations, most often we cannot know. To truly understand why we suffer would mean to know the mind of an infinite, omniscient, and omnipotent God. And that’s impossible. [Read more…]

Entire Church is Engaged in the Battle Against Evil

St. Stephen the Great Battle of Baiaby Chris Banescu –
In his reflection on the Lord’s Prayer, Orthodox Christian theologian Olivier Clément reminds us that all Christians, especially Orthodox Christians, must fight against evil and the powers of darkness that assault us individually and the world we live in. This spiritual and physical warfare goes on continually and no baptized Christian should avoid or ignore it.

Clément points out that this internal and external battle against the “Evil One” (meaning Satan and all the fallen angels) must be fought both internally and externally by all Christians, including monastics, clergy, and lay men and women alike. He calls on Christians to struggle against the evil inside us and also to fight against the evil surrounding us, in our society and culture, that’s constantly being fueled by demonic forces driven by Satan whom the Scriptures identify as the “Lord of death.” [Read more…]

Speak Out Against Evil and Reproach Evildoers To Preserve Justice

Speak Out Against Evil and Reproach Evildoers To Preserve Justice
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future.

When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” ~ Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

If You Fall, Rise Up, Don’t Despair, Wait on Christ

f You Fall, Rise Up, Dont Despair, Wait on Christby St. Peter of Damascus –
If you fall, rise up. If you fall again, rise up again. Only do not abandon your Physician, lest you be condemned as worse than a suicide because of your despair. Wait on Him, and He will be merciful, either reforming you, or sending you trials, or through some other provision of which you are ignorant.

For the devil is in the habit of promoting in the soul whatever he sees is in accordance with the soul’s own disposition, whether this be joy or self-conceit, distress or despair, excessive toil or utter indolence, or thoughts and actions that are untimely and profitless, or blindness and unreflecting hatred of all that exists.

Quite simply, he inflames in the soul whatever material he finds there already, so as to do it as much harm as he can, even though in itself the thing may be good and acceptable to God, provided that it is used with due restraint by one who is able to judge things and to discern the intention of God hidden in the six passions that surround him – those, that is, above him and below, to his right and to his left, within him and without. [Read more…]

Christian Martyrdom in Modern Age: Be Pious, Chaste, Moral, Faithful to God

Christian Martyrdom in Modern Age: Be Pious, Chaste, Moral, Faithful to God by Chris Banescu –
“If you never chase God out of your house, your soul, and your heart, it is the last and greatest martyrdom.” ~ Fr. Calistrat Chifan

We often think of Christian martyrs as men and women who lived long ago and courageously gave up their lives in defense of their faith. We think of saints and disciples who were fed to the lions, tortured, maimed, burned alive, dismembered, or slaughtered for proclaiming Christ as Lord and Savior or refusing to renounce Christianity.

We also witness similar modern day martyrdom of Christians living in the Middle East, Africa, and China. Like their ancient brethren these innocents are persecuted, shot, decapitated, tortured, blown up, burned alive, and murdered for simply being Christian or daring to publicly proclaim the Gospel.

Few of us would think of modern Christians living in North America, South America, Europe, Russia, Australia, or other parts of the world, where there’s no widespread oppression or persecution of the faithful, as doing anything worthy of the title “martyr.” We have freedom and religious liberty to worship God as citizens or residents of secular democracies or constitutional republics, where Christianity is either protected (in Russia, Romania, and a few other Eastern European countries) or tolerated, at least for now (in other Western countries). [Read more…]