Sword in the Fire

The link to this article originally came from Fr. Stephen Freeman at Glory to God for All Things: Incarnational Approach to Orthodoxy in Indonesia An Interview with Fr.Dionysios (Rm.Dionisius Surya Halim)and his presbytera Artemia Rita: Orthodoxy was first established in Indonesia in Batavia, Java as a parish of the Harbin Diocese in accordance with the Ukase of the Harbin Diocesan Council of November 23, 1934, № 1559. In the late 1940's, the parish was under the omophorion of Archbishop Tikhon of San Francisco. Unfortunately, after the Dutch relinquish their powers to the local leadership, many of the Russian parishioners have already fled during this period of civil unrest, and eventually the parish closed in the early 1950s, when its rector Fr Vasily immigrated to the USA. The following is an online interview conducted by orthodox.cn with Fr.Dionysios (and his wife Presbytera Artemia Rita), one of the six newly ordained priests in Indonesia. Archimandrite Daniel Orthodox.cn: Th...

The Major Sacrifices of the OT: Whole Burnt Offering Grain Offering (also the Drink Offering) Peace Offering Sin Offering Trespass Offering A couple words on sacrifice: The sacrifice of Christ on the cross is multi-dimensional. There is not one image that can fully display all that happened. Because of this there were multiple sacrifices given in the OT in order to picture the content of the sacrifice of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ is the ultimate expression of Christ's self-emptying love. The extent of this love demonstrates for man the life of the Trinity ("if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father"). Just as the tabernacle is a picture of what is happening in heaven. We also have a sacrifice for us that is going on for us in heaven eternally. Jesus is eternally offering His perfect sacrifice to the Father on our behalf. The Greek for offering is “anaphora”. In the Liturgy we are joining into the one eternal sacrifice that Christ made to the Father on the cross...

The previous entry discussed the Tabernacle up to the Holy of Holies. The next piece will discuss the Altar of Incense and the Holy of Holies. Altar of Incense : This is considered part of the Holy of Holies even though technically not in there. For example, in the NT we see Zachariah (John the Baptist’s father) at the altar of incense making the daily offering. This is where God spoke to him through an angel about the birth of John. What were the people doing while he was offering the incense? Praying. - 3ft high - was gold and just like the bronze altar it had four horns on the four corners - the priest were to burn incense every morning and evening - the incense was made of 4 spices and was considered holy and the people could not use the formula for anything else. Lev 10:1; Num 16ff - symbol of the prayers and praises of the people of God - Ps. 141 - “let my prayer arise as incense before Thee, and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.” - Mal 1:1; Rev. 8:...

For those outside the Bluegrass, UK means University of Kentucky, not the United Kingdom. Being a red-blooded Cardinal (U of Louisville), it is difficult to type something so complimentary of Big Blue Nation. However, within the hallowed halls in Lexington there lies a philosophy professor that is upholding the banner of Orthodoxy. If you have not made yourself familiar with the writings and thoughts of Dr. David Bradshaw, you have missed out on one who speaks clearly and succinctly about the "faith once delivered to the saints". I have yet to meet the man, so I can not speak of his character, but those I respect speak highly of him. He most recently gave a lecture at the Chrysostom 1600 Anniversary lectures that I heard was fabulous. He spoke about Chrysostom's views on grace and free will. Hopefully Ancient Faith Radio was there to record and publish the lectures. He has written a book on Aristotle that seems to be a must read for religion and philosophy geeks: Aristot...

The Tabernacle: Intro: The tabernacle was a mobile place of worship that God instructed Moses to build for the people of Israel. The word tabernacle means tent of meeting. This is the place where the people met with God. (Ex. 29:45-46) "They will know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of Egypt." The important piece to remember is Moses was instructed to build something reflective of the heavenly worship of God. It was a physical earthly representation of the worship of God in heaven. Today we have the same concern for worship. Just because much of the contents of the tabernacle/temple were fulfilled in Christ, it does not negate the pattern mirroring heavenly images. We do not create our own structure or plan for worship but continue to join in eternal worship in heaven. Orthodox churches are still today modeled after the OT temple, and continue to reflect "heavenly worship". Rev 11:19 Jesus is the tent of meeting, and is where we mee...

If you have not found Fr. Stephen Freeman's blog yet, then you are missing out on one of the most edifying blogs. Yesterday, he posted an excellent article on "getting saved". Here's a link to the article and don't forget to added it to your favorites: "Getting Saved in the Church"