I was wrong. The true reason is some other faith that reject the idea of spreading of the Gospel to world. Since it's a later addition, they say that Jesus never command the diciple to spread the Gospel to the world, so Jesus only came for the Jew. Meanwhile their religion is the final revelation of God to the world.

Anastasios,

You are a Godsend, brother. Are you at all familiar with the series I mention? It is based on his book "Doctrine" from the "Rainbow Series."

http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Orthodox-Faith/Doctrine/index.html

I'd really like to purchase it if I could ever find it. I didn't see it on the SVS Press web-site.

Thank you,
Ghazar

Dear Simeom,

This is so silly. Anyone who claims things were added to our Bibles that weren't meant to be there and therefore are distorting the true Orthodox Faith of Jesus Christ, don't understand the first thing about how we got the Bible or how we got the Church. Without the Church we wouldn't even know what the Bible was. Of course we can trust her judgement about the authenticity of the Scriptures we now have. My advice is not to waste your time listenting to the ragings of the heathens and heretics. Lord knows there are plenty of them out there. The Church is Apostolic which means it is sent on an official mission by Christ our Lord to spread His Word throughout the world. Here's a little article from Fr. Hopko's book which might be helpful:

http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Orthodox-Faith/Doctrine/Church.html

Thanx a lot, Ghazar and others. Please pray for me, so I can have a stronger faith in Christ the Lord. Amen.

Yes, Ghazar.
I think we can all agree that the Church is the pillar and mainstay of truth, and not the private interpretations of individuals.
The big and most central question then we need to ask ourselves is: Where this Church to be found?
Stephanos I

The Bible is the Bible only because of its reception by the Church and it is only within the Church that we can discover how it is to be understood.

Ghazar,

Sorry, I have been busy. If you call the SVS Bookstore between about 10 am and 1 pm tomorrow or Friday, (it's a 1 800 number) and ask for me [by my 'real' name, Dustin], I will try everything I can to get you the tapes.

If those times don't work for you, private message me and I will help you out while I am at the bookstore tomorrow.

Anastasios

Respected Stephanos,

I think the Bible is the Bible because it is God-breathed. The Lord did not need men to make written revelation. The Decalogue is one manifestation of this fact. Yet He did use men to write it and gave us men as leaders of His Church with the authority to teach all nations. One part of that teaching authority was the recognition of the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures and the seperation of them from the false and/or non-inspired books. Many of these, as you know, were considered inspired in the early Church. The Church's role was therefore one of official recognition of the Holy Books.

As for identification of the Church, this sounds like a topic for another thread but I know for you Stephanos, "Communion with Rome is absolutely necessary for fidelity to the truth" as you said in another thread. Perhaps for you the Church can only be that which is in Communion with Rome.

I don't believe this (obviously). I recognize that Rome is part of the Church but so also are all of the Churches built on the foundations of the Apostles. These Churches' own mutual recognition of one another is one sign of their authenticity. The Apostolic faith which they all hold in common is another. There are other indicators which I look to as well.

Trusting in Christ's Light,
Ghazar

Dear Anastasios,

My work prevents me from calling you during the day, but thanks for the offer. I will send you a PM but I justed wanted to say that I really like your web-site. I have just joined it and look forward to benefitting from it.

Thanks, Ghazar

Dear Ghazar and Anastasios,

Thanks for your comments on Fr. Hopko. I will be getting some more of his talks on tape. When I find a speaker that provides so much substantial food for deeper Christian understanding, I have to listen. In my car (sometimes) I can listen to him when running errands or driving kids around. A couple of my teens even like to listen when the talks are this good! How's that for inspiration?! Thanks again!

In Christ and the Theotokos,

Tammy

I have a couple of tapes by Bishop Kallistos - it takes about 10 minutes to get use to his voice and style - but then - you are just drawn into him

I have an old set of tapes of Archbihops Sheen.. and these are stunning. His style is wonderful - his emotion absorbing.

-ray

Thank you for that insight.

-ray

Just a couple comments upon this question. Was the end of Mark the "first ending." Many scholars do not think this is actually the case, but that Mark did provide a full ending, but, the page it was on got lost, and lost early enough that many copies were made without the original ending.

Then the "second" ending was someone (maybe even Mark himself, much later) fixing the problem.