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by St. Augustine of Hippo The most skillful interpreter of the sacred writings, then, will be he who in the first place has read them all and retained them in his knowledge, if not yet with full understanding, still with such knowledge as reading gives, — those of them, at least, that are called canonical. For he will read the others with greater safety when built up in the belief of the truth, so that they will not take first … [Read more...]
This was taken from the Our Life in Christ Program. It is a must read. I would like to challenge any Reformed or Evangelical out there to read this. It will likely change your perspective of what the revelation of God is all about! From Hank Hanegraaff’s CRI Series What Think Ye of Rome (Part 3) CRI – All Apostolic Traditions are in the Bible OLIC: We agree! Most people just haven’t underlined all of them. CRI – It is true … [Read more...]
For those struggling with the necessity of confession, or who need to preach about it, here is what the Scriptures and the Church Fathers say about the necessary participation in this Holy Mystery. This was taken from the St. George Church of Prescott website. Confession of sins is very much a part of Biblical Faith and especially Biblical Christianity, and was closely related to the worship of the True God. From the Old Testament on, it is … [Read more...]
Bible scholars and students! Since most contemporary preaching is primarily either therapeutic or exegetical, especially during Lent, we offer this little list for your exegetical homilies. These are principle examples of why the Septuagint Old Testament is the 'official' Old Testament of the Orthodox Church (that and the fact that the Masoretic text didn't even exist until 1,000 a.d.). Enjoy! Of the approximately 300 Old Testament quotes in … [Read more...]
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon Before he ever met the Apostle Paul, the life of young Timothy was already full of blessings. Indeed, Paul himself, among the last lines he wrote on this earth, reminded Timothy of those blessings: “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to … [Read more...]
Greetings, friends of Preachers Institute, I'm adding a little section to the top of the front page "A Word To The Fore" which will contain a pithy quote containing some wisdom or common sense in an age gone mad. This is just a little thing, but I feel worthwhile. Also, including Scriptural quotes, and quotations from the writings of the saints and fathers, we'll be including wise words from others as well. Our hope is that this will … [Read more...]
Continued from Part One. 3. THE CASE OF THE MISSING PROPHET We have written in a previous article (“The Neutralization of the Netherworld”) that the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament represents an ancient and authentic Hebrew tradition. Due to the fact that there were variances in the Hebrew texts, the textual tradition that the Septuagint translation presents often differs widely from the Masoretic Hebrew text of … [Read more...]
by Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston Preface The purpose of these articles was to explain to our faithful, in a simple and easily-understood manner, some of the differences that exist between the Old Testament (Masoretic) text used by most of today’s Roman Catholics and Protestants and the Septuagint Old Testament used by Orthodox Christians since the time of Christ. All told, there are some 300 textual differences between the … [Read more...]
by Fr. John A. Peck Part Two of our Five Part series. A Short History of the Liturgical Location for Preaching: The Ambo, the Pulpit and the Lectern. The Ambo An Ambo (pl. Ambones) is a Greek word, supposed to signify a mountain or elevation. This was understood in the west as well – and well after the Great Schism. Even Pope Innocent III of Rome so understood it, for in his work on the Liturgy (II.I. 33), after speaking of the … [Read more...]
How to reconcile them? It's a bogus problem. by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon Not long ago, in a Q&A session following a lecture in a distant city, someone inquired of me, "How do you reconcile children to the violent stories found in the Old Testament?" My response went along these lines: I believe this is a bogus problem. In truth, I have never met a child disturbed by violence in literature. In my experience, on the contrary, … [Read more...]
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