Question 1:How would I respond if my friend came up to me and said that National Geographic found evidence that the bones of Jesus were found? I would say: that isn’t possible. As it says in the Bible, Jesus was born to save us from our sins. Jesus had to defeat death to save us from all our wrongful doings. The way He did this is, Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins and resurrected from the dead, therefore defeating death.
One other reason that those bones could not have been His is, if Jesus hadn’t resurrected then Christianity would not have existed, which it clearly does. Those bones that were found were definitely not Jesus’s bones. I’d tell them that death was already defeated by God when he became a man and died on the cross for all of us. It also wasn’t His will. Man has free will and God didn’t let the child die. In John 3:16 it states, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The child is with God now, and because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, we can be with Him after we pass too. During the old covenant, those who died went to Abraham’s bosom.
But since Jesus died on the cross for us, we can now be with God after we die. In heaven. In Hebrews 9:15 it says, “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” The new covenant started after Jesus died and resurrected. In 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 it states, “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgement to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” If we take the body and blood of Christ without any preparation or repentance, then there is no point in taking it at all. Jesus does love all of us, but He gave us His body and blood, not to take advantage of it, but to get closer to God with it. We will never fully understand the Lord’s full divinity and greatness. And though He is infinite and we are finite, in the Nicene creed it says that Jesus became incarnate and became man to die on a cross for our sins. He took upon all of our sins and shed His blood for us.
He resurrected and defeated death also. So we can’t agree, but we also cannot disagree with the statement. We all have the right to choose what we want to believe. No one else can force us to believe something that we don’t or be something that we are not.
Each one of the religions that Smith named, teaches something different. Some of the things may be true and some may not be, but we can believe what we want to. Question 2:In the parable of the sower, the main lesson that comes about in this story is: among Christ’s parables about the land, this one about the sower and the seed stands out as the most insightful in its depth of teaching about how the seed of the gospel of the Kingdom is sown and works in the field of life. No other parable shows us how the devil, the allure of the world and the cares of life conspire to root from our lives the eternal truths of the Kingdom of God.
Our modern world is full of distractions—the rocks, thorns and birds that conspire to prevent God’s Word and His calling from taking root and bearing fruit. In that knowledge, it is vital understanding for us all. The stony ground, pictures a man who professes delight with the Word; however, his heart is not changed, and when trouble arises, his so-called faith quickly disappears. The thorny ground depicts one who seems to receive the Word, but whose heart is full of riches and attention away from the Word, and he ends up having no time for it. The good ground portrays the one who hears, understands, and receives the Word—and then allows the Word to accomplish its result in his life.
The man represented by the “good ground” is the only one of the four who is truly saved.Christ is warning us that we should not discriminate but spread the Word of God to everyone.When St.John Chrysostom says this, he is telling us that we have to make an effort to be fruitful.
Work without faith is dead. If we do not believe deeply then we cannot spread the word. We need a solid foundation in our faith. We need to have faith in our work, otherwise it has no purpose. We must spread the word of God with good hope and joy, otherwise we will be tempted by worldly things and will not have our minds centered on God. This verse is trying to explain to us that not everyone will fall upon good things. It is very hard for us not to commit sin because we are not fully Christ like. If we truly do become closer to God, we will be one of the seeds that falls upon ‘good ground’.
Also, another way to look at this verse is to show that there are many non-believers in this world. Not everyone believes in Christ. So basically it is showing that us believers will fall upon good ground because we are on our way to being followers of Christ, on the other hand, non-believers haven’t found that good ground yet to be like God.
This verse applies to us today as it shows that not everyone can become believers. But as Christians, we are called to spread the word to other non-believers, and bring them to Christ.Our job as Orthodox Christians is to understand the word, learn it, study it, and find joy in it. We must take the joy that we have and spread it. We should share it unconditionally. However, we should go and do it expecting results because God’s ways are mysterious.
We need to have faith and believe in ourselves and our beliefs in the Orthodox Church. We also must know the seed we are sharing, and believe in it firmly ourselves. If we do not believe and understand our faith, we can easily be swayed by other beliefs.Question 3:Free willTheotokosFall of manTrinity Theosis Question 4:In the Nicene Creed it says that Jesus came down from heaven and became incarnate o that He could die for our sins.In the Nicene Creed it says, “We believe in One True God the Father, Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, of all things visible and invisible.”It states it in one of the hymns from Holy Qurbana, “Immortal in His nature And who by His grace Descended for all mankind To bring life and salvation For our fallen human race; Who did become incarnate Of the pure Virgin, The holy and glorious Theotokos.
He became man without change And was crucified for us, Christ who is our Lord and God; Who trampled death by His death And destroyed our death; Who is one person of the Holy Trinity.” “Because of his love for us, and for the sake of our salvation, He took flesh and willingly emptied Himself and suffered in the flesh. In the night of His passion, he took bread, blessed, consecrated, broke and gave to His disciples, and said: ‘Take, eat, this is my Body which is given for the remission of debts, for the forgiveness of sins, and for life everlasting.’ Likewise, He took the cup, blessed, consecrated, and gave to His disciples and said: ‘Take, drink this, all of you, for the remission of debts, for the forgiveness of sins, and for life everlasting.'” This is when Jesus made his own flesh and blood into our Holy Qurbana, which gives us eternal life with God. The reason we leave the middle aisle open, is for the departed to worship with us. At the end of Holy Qurbana, we remember all those that have departed and we say a prayer to honor them.Question 5:Church is one of the most important things in my life.
At church, I can worship God with no distractions and I can also take part in the Holy Qurbana. Many of my friend were also made in church. I was born again in the church and I take the body and blood of Christ at church.
Church helps me get closer to God every time I go.Even if we stopped going to church, I would probably still read the Bible and pray everyday, but that also means I wouldn’t be able to take part in the Holy Qurbana or see it happen. Taking part in Holy Qurbana is a major part in the Orthodox church. I wouldn’t be able to be involved in the church as much either. Not going to an Orthodox church would change my life a great deal.
