hellfire and that such

I said earlier that I wanted to use this as a chance to spout off theologically, which I don't much allow myself to do in public. What I'm writing here is just my opinion...the Greek word is theologoumena. I wonder what the plural of that is?

OK, first point. I believe that all will be judged on the last day, by Christ. Second point: you are judged on the basis of what you know. Using the tired example of the tribesman in a mud hut, this tribesman in a mud hut has never heard of Christ. I don't think that person would be judged in the same way as someone who has. Or supposing you have heard of Christ, but what you've heard is inaccurate. Or maybe you've heard bits of accurate but not enough to make a whole picture. Do I know how God is going to judge you? No I don't. God is the judge. Not me. Thank goodness. I wouldn't want his job.

I want to be saved. I am being saved. Salvation is present continuous and future. You can't speak of it as the past participle, 'have been saved', unless you modify it with the other tenses. I am being saved, and I hope that I will be saved. But I can no longer use Protestant language of "I'm going to heaven for sure!". I can't say that! I'm not God. "Let he who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." (I can't remember which Gospel that verse is from.)

My personal motto and favorite prayer is "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."

I'm leaving the name alone for now...

I thought about renaming it "Theoloblog" but it turns out that's already taken.

I'm going to turn this into the site for my musing on matters theological and philosophical. I do a lot of listening to other people's opinions and nodding my head, uh huh, uh huh. It's hard for me to put forth an opinion verbally. I can do it in writing. But matters theological only make their way obliquely into my emails. I don't want to step on toes, hurt feelings, whatever. I keep a running commentary in my head.

Like tonight, I got invited to this thing, I thought it was going to be a birthday party. It turned out the first part was, well, not a Bible study exactly...a study on the topic of peace, and at the end everybody usually prays for world peace. Yeah, THAT'LL happen. It turned into a party later, and that was good. But I was kind of annoyed to have not been forewarned. It is hard to muster enthusiasm for a study of this kind when you are taking 19 frikin hours of theology already. What, more? Between chapel and classes I am doing "God stuff", so to speak, all day long. I have no objection to a free-flowing discussion- they happen naturally around here- but something organized annoys me.

I confess I was also annoyed by the opinion of the, er, sponsor of the evening. She seems to believe that all religions have functional equivalence. I don't agree. I think that Christianity is the best of all religions and that Orthodoxy is the best of Christianity. If I didn't believe it, I would be neither Christian nor Orthodox.

There was a discussion on another blog recently on the question of whether unbaptized babies go to hell. Interestingly enough, we discussed that in Dogmatic Theology class recently. The Orthodox viewpoint is that baptizing babies isn't freeing them of any 'original sin'-- we don't hold with that Augustinean concept--because a baby hasn't sinned yet. Baptism serves the function as initiation into the Church, into the kingdom of God. A person is only responsible for the sins that that person, personally, commits. A baby can be baptized because it is God who does the baptizing, ultimately...it does not depend on human reason but on the grace of God.

And now a true confession...my prayer life has been wretched lately. I am having enough trouble just dragging myself to church. We are supposed to go twice a day, Matins (7:30 am!) and Vespers (5 pm) on weekdays. I've only made it to Matins twice so far this semester. Missed Vespers tonight (but I had a good excuse, I was picking up an antibiotic for my sinus infection). I have to really push myself to get myself to go. But once I'm there, I like it. They are really meaningful. And aside from the whole corporate prayer thing, my personal prayer life is pretty darn lousy at the moment. It's another case of making myself carve out time and make myself do it. UGH! Time management1

I invite your comments!