http://www.3waystolive.com Which is your way? Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:16:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en At our bible study we've been looking at Romans 9-11 over the past three weeks. Instead of doing individual posts on each study, I decided to do just one summarizing the whole content. The chapter are rather famous for many controversial lessons that can be derived from them. However, most of ... http://www.3waystolive.com/2008/07/romans-9-11-summary-of-study.html With so much discussion on capital punishment, this excerpt from Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" provides a fresh perspective. It is a bit lengthy, but well worth the read. And, by the way, Dostoevsky knows what he is talking about - he himself was sentenced to death and underwent a 'mock' execution. Prince ... http://www.3waystolive.com/2008/06/dostoyevsky-on-capital-punishment.html Osipov's way of explaining God of justice vs. God of love dilemma is that only the second statement (God is love) is correct, see the earlier post. It turns out this is not necessarily a view that Russian Orthodox church holds. According to my brother Kirill's comments, Russian Orthodox view ... http://www.3waystolive.com/2008/06/with-osipov-on-the-nature-of-god-my-response.html According to Osipov, understanding of the nature of God is a core difference between Western and Orthodox Christianity. At the heart of the question is an apparent inconsistency that many notice when reading the Bible. From the Old Testament, God most often often appears as a judge, punishing sinners and ... http://www.3waystolive.com/2008/05/with-osipov-on-the-nature-of-god.html In my previous post I discussed the following three statements made by Prof. Osipov: 1) One cannot treat Christian theology purely as science. To understand God one must first be a Christian, and not just a nominal one but completely devoted to God 2) Western church made a mistake by learning from ... http://www.3waystolive.com/2008/05/with-osipov-on-christian-theology-and-sola-scriptura-my-response.html What is Christian theology? Do we understand this term correctly? How can we know God? These are the questions that Prof. Osipov keeps coming back again and again in many of his talks. In Osipov's definition, Christian theology is much more than studying God and his revelation. You don't have to ... http://www.3waystolive.com/2008/05/with-osipov-on-christian-theology-and-sola-scriptura.html See the original post first. I really applaud Orthodox emphasis on the fact that we must understand that we utterly need Jesus before we can be truly saved. To be fair, the understanding of our own sinfulness is an integral part of Protestant gospel presentation as well. To give an example, ... http://www.3waystolive.com/2008/05/with-osipov-on-salvation-my-response.html What does it mean to live a spiritual life? How can we be saved? These are the topics that Prof. Osipov discusses in his talk "Foundations of Spiritual Life". Here are the key signs of true spiritual life, according to Osipov. 1) We need to understand our sinfulness. Yet the phrase `I ... http://www.3waystolive.com/2008/05/with-osipov-on-salvation.html In my previous post I outlined Eastern Orthodox view of sin, represented by Moscow Theological Seminary professor Osipov. Here are my own thoughts on the subject. 1) Definition of sin. The original word for sin in the Bible has the meaning of "missing the mark", "taking a wrong path", "breaking a ... http://www.3waystolive.com/2008/04/with-osipov-on-sin-my-response.html Today I am going to look in detail at Eastern Orthodox view of sin, based on Prof. Osipov's talk entitled "Sin and human nature".  Osipov begins by pointing out that Eastern Orthodoxy disagrees with Protestant and Catholic view of sin as violation of external God's law that leads to punishment. Instead, ... http://www.3waystolive.com/2008/04/with-osipov-on-sin.html