Yes, the proper understanding of Scripture is a game changer (as it should be). Of the multitude of Old Testament quotes in the New Testament, most of them came from the Septuagint (abbreviated LXX – the Greek translation of the Old Testament). This translation of the Old Testament is the oldest in existence, was widely […]
Did Christ quote from the Septuagint?
August 17, 2019 By
by Fr. John Whiteford From Fr. John Whiteford’s “Stump the Priest” series of blogposts. Question: “I have heard that Christ quoted the Septuagint. Is there a listing of these quotes?” It is a generally recognized fact that “the writers of the New Testament used almost exclusively the Greek Septuagint” (Timothy Michael Law, When God Spoke Greek: […]
Augustine: Infant Baptism Is The Apostolic And Universal Practice Of The Church
August 9, 2019 By
by St. Augustine of Hippo What the universal Church holds, not as instituted by councils but as something always held, is most correctly believed to have been handed down by apostolic authority. Since others respond for children, so that the celebration of the sacrament may be complete for them, it is certainly availing to them […]
Calvin Knew Infant Baptism Was Apostolic in Origin
August 9, 2019 By
The Orthodox knew it first, but that’s beside the point. It’s an Apostolic practice. Only the most historically naive or uninformed would doubt it. …But I reply, first of all, that infant baptism is not a recent introduction, nor are its origins traceable to the papal church. For I say that it has always been […]
Did the Ante-Nicene Church Baptize Children? Infants?
August 1, 2019 By
The question has been answered many times, but none so definitively as with Hippolytus. At the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, the water of a spring or a flowing body of water. […]
Is Bible Study Orthodox?
July 6, 2019 By
Sadly, people are still asking this question, or worse, answering that it is not! by Fr. John Whiteford It is unfortunately not uncommon to find Orthodox people who argue that it is not Orthodox to study the Bible. Perhaps clergy and monastics should study the Bible, they might concede, but not laymen. They argue […]
The Bible and Homosexual Practice (7 Video Lectures)
June 20, 2019 By
by Fr. John Whiteford One of the best books you can read on the subject of Homosexuality from a Christian perspective is “The Bible and Homosexual Practice,” by Dr. Robert Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. I found the following videos which provide some of the highlights of that book in lecture format. The Old Testament […]
Shrimp and Homosexuality
June 19, 2019 By
by Fr. John Whiteford In reponse to Christian stands against homosexuality non-Christians often point to Old Testament laws that are no longer followed by New Testament Christians, such as the Leviticus 11:9-12 forbidding of the consumption of shrimp. Why do Christians continue to adhere to some Old Testament laws and not others? Why do Christians […]
