Do YOU Feel the Spirit?

God is everywhere. Not in a room or a certain church. He is everywhere! And His Spirit dwells in every believer!

It's not in a moment or a feeling you get at church. No where in the bible does it explain the experience with the Spirit as a 'tingly feeling.'
Many other religious people would affirm the same thing about their god if all we could say was "I feel His presence," or "I just know because I can feel it." Where is this in scripture? Where is the grounds for your faith then? Feelings are temperate! They come and go. And sometimes they are deceiving!
If you base your faith on emotions, you're sadly mistaken. Don't be mislead by your heart. Don't over-spiritualize every feeling or thought as a divine intervention with God. Read the scripture and pray to Him. That's where you'll 'connect' with the Lord. Jesus doesn't come and go. He is always there.

Greg Koukl - God's Sovereignty and Evil

The Doctrine of Hell is Waning in Canada

I just read a statistic from a survey done from 23 countries about belief in a god(or gods) and Canada happens to be one the countries where people believe there is no Hell, but rather just Heaven. Although I can attest to that and say that a lot of people think there is a Hell, they'd just rather think that people like rapists, genocidal dictators and terrorists will go there instead of themselves. Read what John MacArthur has to say about the nature and reality of Hell in his blog post titled For Those Who Rail Against Hell.

Rob Bell: Part 4

Bell’s Inferno

If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that religion is a means of gain (1 Timothy 6:3-5).

No one in all the Scriptures had more to say about hell than Jesus. No stern messenger of doom from the era of the Judges, no fiery Old Testament prophet, no writer of imprecatory psalms, and no impassioned apostle (including the Boanerges brothers)—not even all of them combined—mentioned hell more frequently or described it in more terrifying terms than Jesus.

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Resource: gty.org/blog

Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Atheism and Orthodoxy in Modern Russia

"The Russian nation is a bearer of God... But, it was here that revolution broke out, and it...revealed a spiritual emptiness in Russian people."


THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011
MYSTOGOGY

By Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

In this talk I propose to outline the history of atheism in Russia during the last hundred years. I will start by considering the kind of atheism present in Russia before the Revolution. Then I will say something about the development of atheism during the Soviet period. And finally I will conclude with some observations concerning the nature of Russian post-Soviet atheism.

I should like to begin with the following questions. How did it happen that the country known as 'Holy Russia', with such a long history of Orthodox Christianity, was in a very short period of time turned by the Bolsheviks into 'the first atheist state in the world'? How was it possible that the very same people who were taught religion in secondary schools in the 1910s with their own hands destroyed churches and burned holy icons in the 1920s? What is the explanation of the fact that the Orthodox Church, which was so powerful in the Russian Empire, was almost reduced to zero by its former members?

I should say at once that I cannot interpret what happened in Russia in 1917 as an accident, the seizure of power by a small group of villains. Rather I perceive in the Russian revolution the ultimate outcome of the processes which were going on within the pre-revolutionary society and so, to a considerable extent, within the Russian Church (as there was no separation between Church and society). I would claim that the Russian revolution was the offspring of both the Russian monarchy and the Church. The roots of the post-revolutionary atheism should be looked for in pre-revolutionary Russian society and in the Church.

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Resource: JohnAanidopoulos.com

Sectarianism and Extremism in Russian Orthodoxy

'Already 10 years ago some of the most rigorous priests would not give sacraments to believers from “less Orthodox” parishes unless they repented and recounted their false beliefs.'

SUNDAY, JANUARY 16, 2011
MYSTAGOGY

Which Road Leads Away From the Church?

Aleksandr Baunov and Ilya Arkhipov
November 26 – December 2, 2007
Russian Newsweek

A young man, recently converted to Russian Orthodoxy, wandered into an ordinary Orthodox church in a Moscow side street. He was approached by an old woman, a donations box attendant, who began to instruct the young man: “You’d better take off that slip-knot. Our Lord did not wear neckties. The Devil lives in these knots.”

An old joke about a lonely Jew on a desert island who built himself two synagogues — one to go to and another one NOT to go to — perfectly fits modern Russian Orthodoxy. Already 10 years ago some of the most rigorous priests would not give sacraments to believers from “less Orthodox” parishes unless they repented and recounted their false beliefs.

There is another church, formed long ago within the confines of the Russian Orthodox Church. This inner church reads its own books, listens to its own authorities, and despises the bishopric. In the language of modern sociology, its followers may be termed “religious fundamentalists.” It’s just like the modern Islamic world, where universal peace is preached in one mosque, while jihad is preached in the one right next door, and both types of worshippers are “good Muslims.”

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Resource: JohnSanidopoulos.com