Should i convert to orthodox christianity

Unbeknownst to myself, I was a deist God created and then walked away from the world. Orthodox worship was formed after the resurrection of Christ based on these implications: on the fact that we are physical and spiritual beings. It is the soul and the body that compose the human, not one or the other but both together.

In the Eastern Church we use candles, icons, and incense. We bow, prostrate, and kiss. We baptize our children and allow them to take the Eucharist—because rational understanding is not necessary for salvation but participation in Christ is. All of these things are based on the reality that Christianity is an experiential reality and, as human beings, the gospel is not merely an ethereal, rational truth.

All of these things bound up together affected a major paradigm shift in our Western mind. All of these things were contributing factors in our conversion. On Sunday, September 15, , two years after we began searching, we were brought into full communion with the Orthodox Church. The story has many other facets to it as well—at the beginning of those two years unbeknownst to us Fr. Gregory, feeling called by God to our area, sent a letter to His Bishop requesting to start a mission Orthodox term for a church plant in Southwest Michigan.

Two years later, alongside us being brought into the Church, on September 15, we held our first Divine Liturgy, which was served by Fr. This account of our conversion from protestantism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity is just one of many.

As others have said, I feel like the journey is just now beginning. I do not want to give you the impression that we are perfect little Christians now that we have converted. Far from it. In fact, things actually got much harder after our conversion. But healing is possible; and it is Christ, the healer, whom we seek. I would like to highlight again that I am not trying to set forward a systematic defense of the dogmas of the Orthodox Church. This being the case I would also like to affirm that doctrine is very important and, having also looked at things rationally, Orthodoxy not only works it also holds up under scrutiny.

I affirm and accept the Orthodox faith and doctrine in its entirety—and where doctrines of other traditions vary, I believe it is an aberration from the truth revealed through the Church.

For there are beliefs I now hold that, when I was a protestant, I once mocked—and at this I am ashamed. So what convinced me otherwise?

It was participation in the life of the Church and experience of these things—tied tandem, of course, with a healthy and balanced intellectual search as well.

For Christianity is something you must experience and participate in, not something you can speak about from a distance. In closing I ask that you pray to God for me, His servant, that he may have mercy on me and my family and remember us in His kingdom.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to whom be all glory, honor, and worship, now and ever and unto ages of ages. View Sources. Photo courtesy of spbpda. Interested in learning more about Eastern Orthodoxy? View Suggested Resources Below are some of the resources that were helpful on my journey. Orthodox Prayers for Daily Life. The Orthodox Way — Kallistos Ware.

Everywhere Present — Stephen Freeman. How Are We Saved? The Inner Kingdom — Kallistos Ware. The Ladder of Divine Ascent — St. John Climacus. Great Lent — Alexander Schmemann. On The Holy Images — St. John of Damascus. Joseph Honeycutt. Defeating Sin — Fr. Lifted by Angels — Joel J. The Freedom of Morality — Christos Yanneras.

The Deification of Man — Georgios Mantzaridis. Partakers of the Divine Nature — Christoforos Stravropoulos. Relational Ontology — Christos Yanneras. On The Incarnation — St. Beginning To Pray — Anthony Bloom. Living Prayer — Anthony Bloom. Athanasius — F. Seraphim of Sarov — Valentine Zander.

Arseny: Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father. Wounded By Love — Elder Porphyrios. The Original Christian Gospel. Doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Notes On The Septuagint. Religion, Rules, and Reality. Original Sin vs. Ancestral Sin. Orthodox On Original Sin. Original Sin? A Better Atonement. Love Wins: An Orthodox Perspective. Are You Saved? The Gospel — Illustrated With Chairs.

Salvation In Chris t. There most certainly will never be a "Southern" or "Confederate" Orthodoxy". And yet another reason not to join is the hopes of having a base of operations for a goofy political ideology. That there are too many people joining the Church with a silly belief that they rebelling against the modern world, and hoping to instate absolute monarchy. But it's just fantasies, and they going to get themselves hopeless frustrated when it become clear that the fantasies can't become reality.

Many people believe the Church is a social group gathering or a place to network with other like minded people. This may be to some extent true but it is much more than that. At times it can be a healing group especially during the Liturgical services in particular the Eucharist and the Holy Prayer Oil services. Other times it is a youth group or Bible study group inspiring and educating. The Orthodox Church has existed since the day of Pentecost and when we truly believe and become truly attached, not merely by baptism or chrismation, not merely by our presence but by our actions and our inner convictions, then and only then do we truly become connected to the Church, to Jesus Christ the Saviour and therefore to the Trinitarian God, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately most "Orthodox Christian" are nominal even despite their active presence they are nominal because they extinguish the Holy Spirit and do not have a relationship with God, they outwardly seem to be praying but like the Pharisee praise themselves for being 'good with God'.

If only they would realise that they are rotting corpses trapped in worshipping themselves. Thank you for this post! My husband and I were just Chrismated into the church on Christmas day. We are looking forward to our journey in the church.

I assumed this would somehow convince me not to continue on my discovery of the Orthodox Church, but it has more solidified it! Your email address will not be published. And yet, not all of these journeys have worked out. Some have even ended in apostasy.

Shortly after the beginning of our own catechumenate as a family, we saw friends—and their families—begin journeys towards the East. The more familiar I became with Orthodoxy by serving in a local parish, on a parish council, and as an altar assistant, the more I saw others approach the Church, test the waters, and walk back out the narthex door. I love the Church, and so I find it difficult to understand how a person could not see the beauty in our faith, leaving it all behind.

However, I do think that there are certain factors that influence and even cause these abandonments and apostasies from the one, true Church. Many times, inquirers approach the Orthodox Church as a safe haven from controversy and scandal, believing that the Orthodox Church—as the one, true Church—is immune to such things.

This perspective presupposes a defective Christology—one that fails to account for the anthropos of the theanthropic Divine-human Church. While the Church is certainly Divine in one respect, She is also comprised of human beings—human beings that can, and do, err. Failing to remember or be taught this, we are scandalized and even lose our faith in the Church, not distinguishing between the divine and human natures, or confusing them.

Another issue is becoming Orthodox because one thinks the Church will reward them in some way for doing so. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke through the prophets. In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come. Nick Damascus is one who seeks to discover and apply the proverbial question of what is truth and wisdom, to fill that gaping hole, to become complete and to become realistically and synergistically functional.

In an attempt to live the Christian life, which he says is a definite work in progress, he has discovered that he's created the Christ that fits his lifestyle and agrees with his ego and boy what an ego, he says , often finding himself avoiding what God intended him to be. Tags ask an eastern orthodox christian conversion and orthodox church orthodox church. Your email address will not be published.

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