Apologetics

I am an Orthodox Christian for the simple reason that I don\'t want anything other than my God in my life. I don\'t want to be apart form Him for even a second and I wish I were never apart form Him to begin with. He literally descended into this mess we made and suffered the horrible scourge and ill will of this world up to His very Death, for us. He literally bought our freedom with His Prescious Body and Blood and overthrew the fiend who would swallow us up whole into his dungeon. He reunited us with Love, with Himself! I don\'t want anything else, at all.

You should read the new book on Elder Cleopa. There is a part in there where he is confronted on the train by some very atheist officers. They ask him how he can possibly believe in God, and he gives them some great anwsers! Much better then what I could ever explain to you. http://www.amazon.com/Elder-Cleopa-Sihastria-tradition-Velichkovsky/dp/0971073503/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226585096&sr=8-3

Nikola - That\'s great, man! I\'m a Christian {And will be Orthodox} for the same reason. But what makes you believe in Him? When someone asks me that, I\'m stumped. I do believe, but it seems mysterious. I can\'t put it into words. But that\'s not something unbelievers will accept, and St. Peter told us to be ready to put it into words. karatebon - Thanks. I\'ll definately look into getting that book.

First: I think, for unbelievers it will always remain a foolishness, that christians believe in (a) God and even love Him. If there is definitely no God (as a unbeliever will claim, than it is foolish to believe in a God. In such a case there is no common basis for talks. And even with an agnostic, who doesn\'t believe but thinks it possible that there maybe a God: to believe in God and to love Him are not explicable with clear reasoning. This goes just as much for the love between two human beings. Why do I love a particular person? In the end: I don\'t know. I can not really explain it. Love happens to me, is a gift and only secondarily a willful decision. This is true also for the relationship with God. First He loves us and arouses faith and love in us. Only then we can answer willfully. Secondly: I think that St. Peter with his \\"reason of the hope that is in you\\" means Christ and what He did and what He does for us every day of our life. He gives advice to christians who maybe have to reckon on suffering because they are followers of Christ. Their \\"good conduct\\", their christian behaviour shall shame their adversaries. And now comes this \\"reason of the hope\\": because God loves me, I love Him and my neighbour and even you, who threaten and trouble me. And even if you would kill me - I have this hope in me, because Christ died and rose from the dead and has me connected with His fate in my baptism. And then one could tell about his experiences with Christ in his daily life that nourish this hope, this faith, this love. Jannis

Ioannis, Thanks for the reply. But if what we believe will always seem foolish to unbelievers, how can we witness to them? Alot of the things we say will seem foolish, so they won\'t believe. And if we just witness by our lifestyle, well, there are still good behaving people who aren\'t Christians.

That\'s good. I like it. dorotheos