No*s
Captain Obvious
For my part, my real introduction to Orthodoxy came via a debate on IRC. Up until that time, I had always considered Orthodoxy exactly like Roman Catholicism...and even considered it evil, which is something the RCC has never received from me. The first Orthodox Christian I met tried to tell me the Holocaust never happened and wrapped it in with the Church. Naturally, the two were rather closely connected in my mind.
I had been gradually moving that way for some time. I'd come to believe the "ideal" ecclessiology would be one of an "overseer" over a city with "elders" serving the people. Government would be concilliar, and thus would problems be dealt with, giving it a bit of semi-autonomy (Ironically, one friend of mine with foresight told me "That's Catholic!" to which I objected "But I don't see how Christ's structure is doomed to failure" and we agreed to disagree).
My professor (again, a Baptist) laid the Foundation for an Orthodox understanding of Heaven and Hell. He asked in class, "If we don't have a deist heaven, how can we have a deist Hell?" He then proceeded to explain both were the presence of God. This was facilitated after a discussion with a friend on a bus over whether "If we hadn't fallen, would Christ have become man anyway?" After which, we all agreed that Christ's work was much more than simply forgiveness, and Gene and I both agreed He would have: Christ's sacrifice did more than enable some forgiveness of sins but enabled us to be changed in some way we didn't have a clue about. Soteriology was, thus, changing rapidly.
Through my own studies, I'd found out about "energies" and rejected Sola Scriptura, the latter spelling certain doom for my being a Baptist. I also was developing a strong principle of "If it isn't historical, it's not right," which caused severe tension with the Baptist faith I had. More and more it became troubling, because so many of the views I held were clearly not part of Early Christianity.
My changes were, thus, gradual. They inevitably moved in this direction, though I could be overly analytical and still am. The only thing that kept me from being a Roman Catholic during this process was that I felt it had innovated quite a bit themselves. I'd come very close several times to choosing it, though.
At this point, I encountered a man on IRC arguing an Orthodox soteriology, and consequently being railed on by the other side, and he wa alone. Being the type of person that I am, I coudln't resist a good argument, so I jumped in on his side and defended his Christianity (he was a pagan according to the room). After the discussion, a Greek Orthodox priest's wife talked a little while and challenged me on the Church. After that, everything fell into place.
That's what has happened (and is still happening) with me in a very small nutshell. How did the other Orthodox Christians on this forum come to the Church?
I had been gradually moving that way for some time. I'd come to believe the "ideal" ecclessiology would be one of an "overseer" over a city with "elders" serving the people. Government would be concilliar, and thus would problems be dealt with, giving it a bit of semi-autonomy (Ironically, one friend of mine with foresight told me "That's Catholic!" to which I objected "But I don't see how Christ's structure is doomed to failure" and we agreed to disagree).
My professor (again, a Baptist) laid the Foundation for an Orthodox understanding of Heaven and Hell. He asked in class, "If we don't have a deist heaven, how can we have a deist Hell?" He then proceeded to explain both were the presence of God. This was facilitated after a discussion with a friend on a bus over whether "If we hadn't fallen, would Christ have become man anyway?" After which, we all agreed that Christ's work was much more than simply forgiveness, and Gene and I both agreed He would have: Christ's sacrifice did more than enable some forgiveness of sins but enabled us to be changed in some way we didn't have a clue about. Soteriology was, thus, changing rapidly.
Through my own studies, I'd found out about "energies" and rejected Sola Scriptura, the latter spelling certain doom for my being a Baptist. I also was developing a strong principle of "If it isn't historical, it's not right," which caused severe tension with the Baptist faith I had. More and more it became troubling, because so many of the views I held were clearly not part of Early Christianity.
My changes were, thus, gradual. They inevitably moved in this direction, though I could be overly analytical and still am. The only thing that kept me from being a Roman Catholic during this process was that I felt it had innovated quite a bit themselves. I'd come very close several times to choosing it, though.
At this point, I encountered a man on IRC arguing an Orthodox soteriology, and consequently being railed on by the other side, and he wa alone. Being the type of person that I am, I coudln't resist a good argument, so I jumped in on his side and defended his Christianity (he was a pagan according to the room). After the discussion, a Greek Orthodox priest's wife talked a little while and challenged me on the Church. After that, everything fell into place.
That's what has happened (and is still happening) with me in a very small nutshell. How did the other Orthodox Christians on this forum come to the Church?
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