InChristAlone's Blog

[InChristAlone]

Prayer of Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow (1867)

My Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of Thee.
Thou and Thou alone knowest my needs.
Thou lovest me more than I am able to love Thee.
O Father, grant unto me, Thy servant, all which I cannot ask.
For a cross I dare not ask, nor for consolation;
I dare only to stand in Thy presence.
My heart is open to Thee.
Thou seest my needs of which I myself am unaware.
Behold and lift me up!
In Thy presence I stand,
awed and silenced by Thy will and Thy judgments,
into which my mind cannot penetrate.
To Thee I offer myself as a sacrifice.
No other desire is mine but to fulfill Thy will.
Teach me how to pray.
Do Thyself pray within me.
Amen.

Morning Prayer of the Optina Elders

Translation #1

Grant unto me, O Lord, that with peace of mind I may face all that this new day is to bring.
Grant unto me to dedicate myself completely to Thy Holy Will.
For every hour of this day, instruct and support me in all things.
Whatsoever tidings I may receive during the day, do Thou teach me to accept tranquilly, in the firm conviction that all eventualities fulfill Thy Holy Will.
Govern Thou my thoughts and feelings in all I do and say.
When things unforeseen occur, let me not forget that all cometh down from Thee.
Teach me to behave sincerely and rationally toward every member of my family, that I may bring confusion and sorrow to none.
Bestow upon me, my Lord, strength to endure the fatigue of the day, and to bear my part in all its passing events.
Guide Thou my will and teach me to pray, to believe, to hope, to suffer, to forgive, and to love.
Amen

Translation #2

O Lord, grant that I may meet all that this coming day brings to me with spiritual tranquility. Grant that I may fully surrender myself to Thy holy Will.
At every hour of this day, direct and support me in all things. Whatsoever news may reach me in the course of the day, teach me to accept it with a calm soul and the firm conviction that all is subject to Thy holy Will.
Direct my thoughts and feelings in all my words and actions. In all unexpected occurrences, do not let me forget that all is sent down from Thee.
Grant that I may deal straightforwardly and wisely with every member of my family, neither embarrassing nor saddening anyone.
O Lord, grant me the strength to endure the fatigue of the coming day and all the events that take place during it. Direct my will and teach me to pray, to believe, to hope, to be patient, to forgive, and to love.
Amen.

Translation #3

O Lord, grant unto me that with Thy peace
I may greet all that this day is to bring.
Grant unto me grace to surrender myself
completely to Thy holy will.
In every hour of this day instruct and guide
me in all things. Whatever tidings I may
receive during this day, do Thou teach
me to accept tranquilly in the firm belief
that Thy holy will governs all.
Govern Thou my thoughts and feelings in
all I do and say. When unforeseen things
occur, let me not forget that all is sent by
Thee.
Teach me to behave sincerely and reasonably
toward everyone, that I may bring
confusion and sorrow to no one.
Bestow on me, O Lord, strength to endure the
fatigue of the day and to bear my part
in its events.
Guide Thou my will and teach me to pray, to
believe, to hope, to suffer, to forgive and
to love. Amen

[InChristAlone]

Russian Orthodox Chant: the Cherubikon, Cherubic Hymn or Chant. The hymn symbolically incorporates those present at the liturgy into the presence of the angels gathered around God's throne.

I love this moment when I am at the Liturgy. It’s solemn and glorious and gives a feeling as if angels are presenting at the worship.

Performers: Festal Choir of St. Elizabeth Monastery, Minsk, Belarus
Conductor: Nun Irina (Denisova)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8FO2rk_sWk

[InChristAlone]

One more beautiful Russian Orthodox Chant:

The Polyeleos ("much oil" or, by connotation, "much mercy") is a festive portion of the All-Night Vigil service as observed on higher-ranking feast days in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Polyeleos consists of Psalms 134 and 135 (Septuagint numbering; King James Version: Psalms 135 and 136), which are solemnly chanted in a festive melody, with refrains Alleluia chanted between each verse. The refrain for Psalm 134 is "Alleluia.". The refrain for Psalm 135 is "Alleluia, alleluia. For His mercy endureth forever. Alleluia." This repeated chanting of the word "mercy" is another reason for the chanting of these psalms to be called Polyeleos. (from Wikipedia)

Performers: Festal Choir of St. Elizabeth Monastery, Minsk, Belarus
Conductor: Nun Irina (Denisova)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUOD22Dicjg

PS English version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coQw0qM5Cxs

[awareness]

Originally Posted by InChristAlone

One more beautiful Russian Orthodox Chant:

The Polyeleos ("much oil" or, by connotation, "much mercy") is a festive portion of the All-Night Vigil service as observed on higher-ranking feast days in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Polyeleos consists of Psalms 134 and 135 (Septuagint numbering; King James Version: Psalms 135 and 136), which are solemnly chanted in a festive melody, with refrains Alleluia chanted between each verse. The refrain for Psalm 134 is "Alleluia.". The refrain for Psalm 135 is "Alleluia, alleluia. For His mercy endureth forever. Alleluia." This repeated chanting of the word "mercy" is another reason for the chanting of these psalms to be called Polyeleos. (from Wikipedia)

Performers: Festal Choir of St. Elizabeth Monastery, Minsk, Belarus
Conductor: Nun Irina (Denisova)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUOD22Dicjg

PS English version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coQw0qM5Cxs

These chapters contain reasons for Lee to dismiss parts of the Psalms:

Psa 136:17 to him who struck down great kings, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Psa 136:18 and killed mighty kings, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Psa 136:19 Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Psa 136:20 and Og, king of Bashan, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Psa 136:21 and gave their land as a heritage, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Psa 136:22 a heritage to Israel his servant, for his steadfast love endures forever.

By this take God's steadfast love doesn't extend to anyone but the Jews.

God gives them their land as a heritage, but they have to go in and "take" the land (not much of a gift), and kill everything that breatheth:

Deu_20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

[InChristAlone]

Originally Posted by awareness

By this take God's steadfast love doesn't extend to anyone but the Jews.

In the EOC, we believe that after Christ, the Covenant of God, the Covenant of Abraham and Moses became open to gentiles, i.e. us Christians. Therefore, the Church is Israel and Christians are true Israelites, since most of the Jews rejected Jesus Christ. The Church is built on the foundation of one God, one Christ, one Israel, one Covenant, and those who reject any Revelation of this Covenant, or its oneness, do not participate in this Covenant and place themselves outside of the Church. The Orthodox Church does not claim to replace the Old Israel precisely because the New Israel (i.e. the Church) is nothing else but that very Israel of Abraham, Moses and the prophets, but already opened (revealed) to those non-Jews who believe in Christ.

The emergence of the Christian church was conceived by its early Apologists as being the inheritor of this heritage from the Old Testament. The church is in continuity with the Israel of God. The church Fathers made this clear in their writings and the Orthodox Christian Church maintains the position that the church is the people of God and the new Israel. Father Georges Florovsky made this clear in the following statement:

The first followers of Jesus in the "days of His flesh," were not isolated individuals engaged in their private quest for truth. They were Israelites regular members of an established and instituted Community of the "Chosen People" of God ... Indeed; a "Church" already existed when Jesus began His ministry. It was Israel, the People of the Covenant... The existing Covenant was the constant background of His preaching. The Sermon on the Mount was addressed not to an occasional crowd of accidental listeners, but rather to an "inner circle" of those who were already following Jesus . . . "The Little Flock" that the community which Jesus had gathered around Himself was, in fact, the faithful "Remnant" of Israel, a reconstituted People of God. . Each person had to respond individually by an act of personal faith. This personal commitment of faith, however, incorporated the believer into the Community. And this remained forever the pattern of Christian existence: one should believe and confess, and then he is baptized, baptized into the Body.

The New Covenant continued the Hebrew understanding of the people of God in its own terminology and perception. The Christians looked on the people of God as the "saints" and "holy people." That is, Jesus' disciples, or the Church corporately conceived, were thought of as the gedoshin, "hoi hagioi," the saints and gedosh, "ho hagios," the holy ones."

The term "hagioi" was used in the early church to designate those who followed Jesus or all the Christians. The terms "saints" or "holy ones" came to designate a universal community, one that was not distinguished according to race or nationality or class or sex, as explicitly stated in the letters of St. Paul. Paul writes, "There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus."' The term "holy people of God" designates the church. The church is open to all, transcending all barriers between Jews and gentiles.

A contemporary scholar makes the following observation of the New Testament understanding of Israel as the people of God. He states:

For Matthew, Israel has been replaced by another people, coming from all Gentile peoples: Matt. 8:11-13; 21:43; 27:15-26.

Paul grants Israel, as the people of God, a general amnesty, as the whole of Israel after a temporary rejection shall be saved at the end of times: Romans 11.

The Gospel of John shows that throughout the history of Israel there were always two groups among the people; these were separated through the coming of the Messiah-Jesus. Only one of the groups is and has been Israel, and this group is found in the Church.

The church is the Israel of God, "nor a new Israel, but the one and only people of God, Israel in a new Face of history, namely, that of Jesus."

The church is all encompassing and provides divine revelation and salvation to all people and races. One interpreter of St. Paul makes the point that; "In Jesus there is a new universalism, not a bare transposition from Israel to the Church. "

There is a relation of Church (Ekklesia) and the people of God as perceived by the New Testament documents. However, the Church of God (He Ekklesia tou Theou) is also an eschatological community and exists to gather all peoples and nations under the rule of God in recognition of Christ as the Messiah.

http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith9285

[InChristAlone]

Probably, Lee was influenced by John Nelson Darby. In case if you are interested in the topic:

The Rev. Jerry Fallwell, a leading Fundamentalist, once wrote: “If this nation wants her fields to remain white with grain, her scientific achievements to remain notable, and her freedom to remain intact, America must continue to stand with Israel” (Listen America; New York, 1980, p. 98).

Fallwell and the others who demand unconditional support for Israel consider the modern Jewish State a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. They are heavily influenced by dispensationalism, a method of Bible interpretation which became popular through the writings of John Nelson Darby (died 1882). Darby, a one time cleric of the Church of England, joined the Plymouth Brethren in 1831 and developed a complicated system of Biblical interpretation that divides God’s saving action into individual eras or dispensations. This scheme influenced thousands of American Protestants through the Niagara Bible Conference of 1895 and the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield the next year.

Dispensationalism makes a strong distinction between the promises made to the Jews before Christ and the reality of the Church after Pentecost. Thus dispensationalists teach that God’s promises to the Jews were not fulfilled through the Church but remained unfulfilled during the Church age. They consider the Church a new and separate creation by God with its own separate agenda, not the heir to the promises made by God to ancient Israel. Therefore, it is natural that the dispensationalists should see the founding of the modern state of Israel as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.

Dispensationalists interpret the words, phrases, and sentences of the Bible in a very literalistic manner. Thus they reject or fail to see the importance of an ancient and almost universal principle of Biblical interpretation known as typology. Typology is the method of Biblical understanding which seeks the spiritual meaning of the historical events described in the Old Testament.

Fundamental to the typological method of Biblical interpretation as practiced by the early and later Fathers is the belief that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment and completion of the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament. For example, the near sacrifice of Isaac points towards the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. The ark that saved Noah and his family from the Flood is a type of the Church which saves the faithful from sin and death. The burning bush is seen as a type of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who bore God in the flesh, yet was not consumed by the presence of the divinity within her womb.

The typological method is not just the invention of the Fathers, but is based firmly on the New Testament. Our Lord Himself used the example of Jonah as a type of the three days that He would spend in the tomb (Matthew 12:40). He also compared the lifting up of the serpent by Moses to his own ascent of the cross (John 3:14). Saint Paul considered the passing through the Red Sea as a type for baptism (I Corinthians 10:1-2). Saint Peter even uses the term “antitype” to compare the ark with baptism (I Peter 3:20-21). Thus the typological method of interpretation is firmly grounded in the Holy Scriptures.

According to the typological method, God’s promises to Abraham and his descendents were fulfilled through Christ and His Church. One Orthodox scholar has written: “In Christ, then, the covenant with Israel was fulfilled, transformed, and transcended. After the coming of the Messiah—the Incarnation of God the Son—only those who are ‘built into Christ’ are counted among the people of God. In Christ, the old Israel is superseded by the Christian Church, the new Israel, the body of Christ; the old covenant is completed in the new covenant in and through Jesus Christ” (George Cronk, The Message of the Bible; St. Vladimir Seminary Press; 1982, p. 80).

This interpretation of the covenant with Abraham and his descendents as fulfilled through Christ and His Church is firmly grounded in the witness of the New Testament. In the parable of the Vineyard Owner, our Lord uses the unfaithful tenants of a vineyard to illustrate this point. The owner, representing God, sent his servants, representing the prophets, and finally his son and heir, representing Christ, to collect his rent. The tenants, who represent the Jews, ignored the request for the rent and killed both the servants and the son of the owner of the vineyard. At the end of the parable our Lord said, “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others” (Mark 12:1-9). In other words, those who faithfully believe in Him will inherit the status that Israel had before it rejected the Messiah.

Saint Paul wrote, “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham . . . if you are Christ’s then you are of Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:7-9). Indeed, Saint Paul called the body of believers “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). Saint Peter illustrated this point by applying terms used to describe Israel in the Old Testament when he wrote, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people” (I Peter 2:9).

Thus, according to the New Testament, the standard against which all doctrine and Biblical interpretations must be tested, God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendents has been fulfilled through Christ and His followers, not through a secular state, for Christ said, “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

It is true that there are some Old Testament prophecies that speak of a restoration of Israel following the destruction of Israel by Assyria and of Judah by Babylon. For example, Isaiah wrote, “It shall come to pass that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left” (Isaiah 11:11). Jeremiah prophesied, “For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers” (Jeremiah 16:15). Micah said, “I will surely gather the remnant of Israel” (Micah 12:12).

Indeed, God did restore Israel. The book of Ezra tells how Cyrus, the King of Persia who had conquered Babylon, allowed the Jews to return from exile and to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Significantly the beginning of Ezra states that the events recorded are in fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah (Ezra 1:1). Thus the Old Testament prophecies cited in support of the modern state of Israel were fulfilled long ago when the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity.

The time has come for Christians to carefully reevaluate an attitude towards modern Israel which is based on faulty premises. Both Church history and the Holy Scriptures teach clearly that Christ and His Church are the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. Saint Paul tells us that those who follow Christ in faith are the true children of Abraham and heirs to the promises made by God to the Old Testament patriarch. The prophecies concerning the restoration of Israel have already been fulfilled and should not be applied carte-blanche to the modern state of Israel.

http://www.antiochian.org/Orthodox_C...New_Israel.htm

[InChristAlone]

Originally Posted by awareness

God gives them their land as a heritage, but they have to go in and "take" the land (not much of a gift), and kill everything that breatheth:

Deu_20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

Since we know that God is love and "thou shall not kill", wish we also knew the entire story so that not to put our own meaning to certain pieces of the Bible. As we don't know the reasons why God judged those people in that way, we can only guess that their sins and corruption were so bad that wiping off those nations was the only right judgment. But it's only a guess. I don't know the entire story and I can't know God's reasons.

One more article about it:

http://www.gotquestions.org/God-killing.html

[awareness]

Originally Posted by InChristAlone

Since we know that God is love and "thou shall not kill", wish we also knew the entire story so that not to put our own meaning to certain pieces of the Bible. As we don't know the reasons why God judged those people in that way, we can only guess that their sins and corruption were so bad that wiping off those nations was the only right judgment. But it's only a guess. I don't know the entire story and I can't know God's reasons.

One more article about it:

http://www.gotquestions.org/God-killing.html

The article is just a bunch of rationalizations, trying to explain the impossible, and trying to make killing to take the land "given" to them a light matter.

So Deut 20:16 doesn't say "kill" everything that breatheth, it just says, "thou shalt save alive nothing." Which is still killing, murdering, to take someone else's land, plain and simple.

[InChristAlone]

Originally Posted by awareness

The article is just a bunch of rationalizations, trying to explain the impossible, and trying to make killing to take the land "given" to them a light matter.

So Deut 20:16 doesn't say "kill" everything that breatheth, it just says, "thou shalt save alive nothing." Which is still killing, murdering, to take someone else's land, plain and simple.

BTW, it was a Protestant explanation.

Well, it's not that the EO explanation is better. I am just unaware of it, except the idea of extreme sins and corruption of those people.