The Scriptures say there is enough around us in the world to clearly show God the Creator. The human body has hundreds of miles of blood vessels and is much more complex than anything made by man. The fact we have a conscience, inherently knowing good and evil (although it can be seared into silence). Only God can show man how fragile he really is and convict him of sin and need for repentance and a new life in Christ. The natural man wants none of this, since he believes he is his own master, not realizing he is serving Satan. The glamor of the world is nothing, even when one is merely sick, which shows what a façade it all really is.
I strongly agree. "The heavens declare the glory of God," (Psalms), and it says in Romans 1 "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."
People reject God not because of reason, logic and evidence. To say that everything just sort of exploded out of non-being into being is supremely irrational, and denying the existence of a Creator is also extremely irrational.
Also, it says elsewhere, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." People reject God because they are blind and dead in sin.
And, the glamor of the world is a deception, as you say. This was even taught by Plato, who said that the physical world passes away while there is a higher realm of truth that endures unchanging. But, while he went as far as human reason could go, he was completely ignorant of the nature of this invisible spiritual reality, which was manifest in Christ.
The Cathars believed the God of the OT was evil and the God of the NT is good. The Vatican, of course killed the Cathars. More recently, our newest "Vicar of Jesus Christ" weighed in on the US presidential election.
It is a shame that the teachings of Jesus Christ are now only honored in Russia.
I wouldn't want to say that they are honored ONLY in Russia - but from what little I have heard or read there is more recognition there than in the US of the importance of faith in God and Christianity (mostly in the Orthodox form) as necessary to social stealth and stability.
Of course, they have experienced at first hand the socially destructive evils of atheism.
As to the pope, I pay no attention to whatever he says. He is in no sense a Christian leader to me, since I consider the entire institution of the papacy to be nothing but a medieval fiction.
That is not to deny that individual Catholics may be nice people, and may even be accepted by Christ in the last day because of their faith - but if this happens it will be in spite of their medieval baggage, not because of it.
As to the Vatican persecution of the Cathars, all of the crimes of the Roman Church have nothing at all to do with biblical Christianity. The kind of church envisaged in the New Testament had nothing to do with the Roman variety. And, it has little to do with many Protestant churches today.
Certainly the Russian Orthodox Church has gotten a number of positions correct, for example, regarding the evil of LGBTQ+. Where I feel the Russian Orthodox Church fails is not seeming to emphasis the need of individual repentance, salvation, and holy living. It is like the Vatican in that it appears to love high pomp and ceremonies, icons, candles, and ornate cathedrals.
I know less about the Russian Orthodox Church than about the Roman Catholic Church, because of general readings about Western Europe and the Protestant Reformation. I have also read some Russian history, but (if my understanding is correct) the Russian Church has been completely controlled by the state since the days of Peter the Great, and even earlier.
It does seem that the Russian church has long been interested more in ceremonial externals as you say, but there is also the Greek Orthodox Church which does have a stronger mystical and theological tradition which has influenced the Russian Church as well.
Yet, the Russian Church does seem more socially conservative as you say, and I should know more about it.
Some Protestants in need of something deeper than modern evangelical Protestantism have been drawn more to Greek Orthodoxy than to Catholicism.
I suspect you are also right about an insufficient emphasis on "individual repentance, salvation and holy living," yet there is also a deficiency in those areas in many nominally evangelical churches. They may stress those things more, and talk more about them, yet while the word are used there is also a superficiality, and holy living in the abstract that does not reach deeply enough into daily life (one of my own problems, which is why I am concerned about it).
The Scriptures say there is enough around us in the world to clearly show God the Creator. The human body has hundreds of miles of blood vessels and is much more complex than anything made by man. The fact we have a conscience, inherently knowing good and evil (although it can be seared into silence). Only God can show man how fragile he really is and convict him of sin and need for repentance and a new life in Christ. The natural man wants none of this, since he believes he is his own master, not realizing he is serving Satan. The glamor of the world is nothing, even when one is merely sick, which shows what a façade it all really is.
I strongly agree. "The heavens declare the glory of God," (Psalms), and it says in Romans 1 "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."
People reject God not because of reason, logic and evidence. To say that everything just sort of exploded out of non-being into being is supremely irrational, and denying the existence of a Creator is also extremely irrational.
Also, it says elsewhere, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." People reject God because they are blind and dead in sin.
And, the glamor of the world is a deception, as you say. This was even taught by Plato, who said that the physical world passes away while there is a higher realm of truth that endures unchanging. But, while he went as far as human reason could go, he was completely ignorant of the nature of this invisible spiritual reality, which was manifest in Christ.
The Cathars believed the God of the OT was evil and the God of the NT is good. The Vatican, of course killed the Cathars. More recently, our newest "Vicar of Jesus Christ" weighed in on the US presidential election.
It is a shame that the teachings of Jesus Christ are now only honored in Russia.
I wouldn't want to say that they are honored ONLY in Russia - but from what little I have heard or read there is more recognition there than in the US of the importance of faith in God and Christianity (mostly in the Orthodox form) as necessary to social stealth and stability.
Of course, they have experienced at first hand the socially destructive evils of atheism.
As to the pope, I pay no attention to whatever he says. He is in no sense a Christian leader to me, since I consider the entire institution of the papacy to be nothing but a medieval fiction.
That is not to deny that individual Catholics may be nice people, and may even be accepted by Christ in the last day because of their faith - but if this happens it will be in spite of their medieval baggage, not because of it.
As to the Vatican persecution of the Cathars, all of the crimes of the Roman Church have nothing at all to do with biblical Christianity. The kind of church envisaged in the New Testament had nothing to do with the Roman variety. And, it has little to do with many Protestant churches today.
Certainly the Russian Orthodox Church has gotten a number of positions correct, for example, regarding the evil of LGBTQ+. Where I feel the Russian Orthodox Church fails is not seeming to emphasis the need of individual repentance, salvation, and holy living. It is like the Vatican in that it appears to love high pomp and ceremonies, icons, candles, and ornate cathedrals.
I know less about the Russian Orthodox Church than about the Roman Catholic Church, because of general readings about Western Europe and the Protestant Reformation. I have also read some Russian history, but (if my understanding is correct) the Russian Church has been completely controlled by the state since the days of Peter the Great, and even earlier.
It does seem that the Russian church has long been interested more in ceremonial externals as you say, but there is also the Greek Orthodox Church which does have a stronger mystical and theological tradition which has influenced the Russian Church as well.
Yet, the Russian Church does seem more socially conservative as you say, and I should know more about it.
Some Protestants in need of something deeper than modern evangelical Protestantism have been drawn more to Greek Orthodoxy than to Catholicism.
I suspect you are also right about an insufficient emphasis on "individual repentance, salvation and holy living," yet there is also a deficiency in those areas in many nominally evangelical churches. They may stress those things more, and talk more about them, yet while the word are used there is also a superficiality, and holy living in the abstract that does not reach deeply enough into daily life (one of my own problems, which is why I am concerned about it).