Orthodox Evangelism 1: Challenges in Orthodox Evangelism

[@alamamia1]

I moved away for work opportunities, but I left my heart in Sts. Peter and Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in SLC, UT. Fr. Paul is a master teacher and Shepard for Christ.

[@OrthoBroJoe]

Grew up Southern Baptist and happened across a video on KZbin from Mar Mari. I now know he’s a Nestorian and a heretic but his video led me to other Fathers like Fr Zechariah, Fr Josiah, and you as well Fr. Paul. I then took my first steps into a Divine Liturgy after watching from a distance for a couple years and it was overwhelming but in a good way. Everyone was so loving but loving in a way that they were excited for me to be there not that they were trying to trap me in the faith. Now I go to any and every service at the church. Praise be to God. I’ll be baptized around Pascha is what I’ve been told. I can’t wait!

[@prosoblue]

Thank you Father Paul, I'm a catechumen from down south in Louisiana and I feel like I am being called to spread my faith, especially in my local area.

[@TheActualCorrectOpinion]

I feel a calling to evangelism, and I'm not even a catechumen.

[@JustApeasant855]

Glory Be To God and bless you Father Paul i needed this more than i knew im not yet Orthodox but would like to be i shold be attending Churtch soon i offten get scittish talking about Christ especaly with some of my love ones this has bean a massiv help to me to anybody reading this i simply ask you pray for me jamie G and hayley G.(sorry for the spelling im dislexic) Christ be with you allways

[@ProtestantismLeftBehind]

I was a Protestant layman for 24 years and became Orthodox July 2023. I’ve been doing evangelism for 20 years as a Protestant, now I’m doing it for Christ as an Orthodox

[@johnrusch5098]

What is the Gospel message from the Orthodox church as compared to the Protestant church? Jesus died for our sins to reconcile us back to God if we believe. We must be born from above. What is the Orthodox version of this? Would what an Orthodox believer say to anyone if there was on a street corner just talking to people about the Gospel? ( I know Orthodox do not do that BUT if they did what would be the message? I am having a hard time finding out this information from Orthodox believers? It is always come and see in the church)

[@ProtestantismLeftBehind]

@@johnrusch5098 The differences between the Orthodox and Protestants on the Gospel are numerous. First, there are similarities depending which Prot tradition you follow. . The good news proclaimed about God becoming man, being sinless, living a life of devotion to His Father always doing His will, ruffly 3 years of ministry, preaching the good news Himself that the kingdom was coming, even had come, His death on a cross dealt with all humanity’s sins, defeated Satan, and death, He descended into hades to proclaim the gospel to those held there and emptying out hades, rising from the dead, ascension, constant intercession and presence, and the call to respond to the King’s good news, to join in, to commit to a life of allegiance to the King, Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. There’s some similarities at face value. But vast differences that some I’ll mention, but which you must research yourself. A post won’t do this justice. The details that touch on the gospel, connect to it in some way, are things that cause a difference in understanding. What is the meaning and purpose of life? How is being made in the image and likeness of God understood? What is sin? How did the fall affect mankind? How had God redeemed fallen man? What is salvation? These kinds of questions will be answered differently from Orthodox to Protestant, and from Protestant to Protestant. Start by considering without judging the answers from the Orthodox side. I’ll give you one example. What is sin? It is described at times as a failure to keep the law. But it goes deeper then that. Sin is a missing of the mark. It is also like sickness. The sin of Adam affected him as well as all humanity. However, Adam was guilty of his own sin. Humanity is not guilty of Adam’s sin. Rather we are guilty of our own sins. Although we are born with the affects of sin, we are not born with a sin nature. That is a Western innovation. The human nature retains its good nature, although sin corruption has affected all of humanity. Why is this important? Because Jesus Christ assumed all human nature in the incarnation so that He could redeem all of humanity. The consequences of sin was death. Yet, all men will be raised, some to life and some to eternal second death. Protestants maintain a sinful nature understanding. Therefore, Christ assumed either also a fallen nature or a different nature from all of mankind (if all human nature is a sinful nature). Either way leads to serious Christology problems. Check out vids by Jay Dyer of these topics. Last, I do evangelism as an Orthodox Christian. With the state of the world and ourselves individually, we are all headed down a path toward darkness, not light, we are choosing death over and against life. Adam and Eve chose that path for themselves affecting everyone. But we too chose the same path of pain, sickness, pride, and more. However, God who created and loves human kind, who had made us in His image and wanted humanity to struggle to grow in His likeness, came to defeat the enemies of humanity that ourselves have even embraced, our sin, death, and Satan. These enemies have been dealt with by the Divine Logos, God the Son, becoming Man through the Virgin Mary, taking her flesh and blood to Himself. He lived a life in devotion and love to God His Father, died on a cross taking upon Him all human sin, died, defeated death and Satan, descended into hades, preached the gospel, emptied hades, rose again victoriously, seen by many as risen, ascended in heaven, and will come again to judge the world. All who come to Jesus Christ in faith, trusting in Him will find salvation. All who repent and are baptized for the forgiveness of sins (which happens in the Church) will have their sins washed away. All who desire to enter into communion with Jesus Christ can do so by partaking in the Eucharist. If you love Jesus Christ keep His commandments. Salvation is not a one moment in time event when a person made a mental affirmation, but an entire life lived out within His body, the Church, in faith working itself out in love. Salvation is the reaching of the goal of that “likeness” of God accomplished only by the grace of God through the Person and work of Jesus Christ lavished upon us who join in and work out our salvation with fear and trembling, within the life of the Church, which there is only one. We hope and pray to reach heaven. All our efforts are like zeros. Some have more zeros than others. But when the one 1 comes, Jesus Christ, He is the reason we don’t remain zeros. He brings the value, the healing, life itself.

[@ProtestantismLeftBehind]

@@johnrusch5098My post was deleted. Do your research. There is an apostolic Tradition and modern innovations, which Protestantism embraces the latter.

[@bolshoefeodor6536]

Praise Jesus, what a treasure! Brilliant advice. Sharing this video with our Orthodox Parish!

[@fernandoduranmanzano]

Excellent and much needed topic to be talked about! Thanks for it and Glory to God for everything! I will for sure watch the whole serie

[@kassiani_626]

Thanks so much, Father Paul. Love this. Can't wait for the next one! ☦️💜

[@theheckplays2252]

Been loving the KZbin lectures! Keep it up Fr Paul!

[@philipeconomou7039]

Excellent video Father... thank you

[@alexanderbrown5900]

This is a really great talk, and I look forward to listening to the next ones. Will there also be a talk about how to talk with Jews about Christ? Perhaps that can be added to Talk 7? I have Jewish relatives, and I know I'm not the only one who could benefit from such a talk.

[@DonRA33]

Wwwww great stuff thank God an thank you for these videos

[@mitchelljimeno3564]

Praise God! Thank you!

[@poliektsnegirev]

where does your parish reside?

[@parkbear2370]

salt lake city

[@ExceptionalEducationalPl-pm7jd]

Based.

[@asceticmother]

44:42 - true love can’t accept brokenness - is there more on this? Like books or blogs or anything?

[@Hannah-if3cn]

You mentioned LDS, but not Jehovah Witnesses. Will you discuss them some time? Jehovah Witnesses are huge in the South.

[@joer9156]

For your future presentations, you listed 'Talking With...' every major religion...except Jews. Why can't you tell us how to talk to Jews about Christ?

[@joer9156]

You also missed New Agers and Occultists. If you really needed to cut down on time, I would roll them into the talk on Hindus and Buddhists and put Jews and Muslims into the same talk. Though really they deserve their own talks. Seraphim Hamilton has a paid course coming up on how to talk to Jews about Christ. He is also very well-read on Mormonism. He might be worh contacting. Orthodox Shahada channel has good resources on talking with Muslims.

[@BassByRon]

The Antiochians append the words, “one God” at the end of the invocation of the Holy Trinity. My opinion is this is not only not necessary, but is on the border of an imbalanced view of the Trinity. It is what the Western church did in the Creed, where they unnecessarily appended “and the Son” regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit. What started as a “clarification” (according to the RC’s) to help pagans “understand,” contributed to a now lengthy separation. The Orthodox Church has worshipped without the appendage (“one God”) for centuries when invocating the Holy Trinity. I would caution against this addition. Excellent lecture, however!

[@kalash2874]

Its litterally the 1st words of the Creed "I believe in One God.."