Dating & Marriage With Women From Russia, Ukraine, Belarus & FSU > Dating in the FSU and Other Countries

Her Orthodox faith--and your marriage

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mendeleyev:
Rasputin, that is a great story!  I enjoyed getting to know your situation a little better and hope you will write more about your experiences....very cool.

Congrats on your baptism.

Sincerely,
Mendeleyev

Manny:
Hey that was me!  :laugh:

mendeleyev:
Hey Manchester, you are right.  Well, as someone who is over 50 obviously old age is getting to me.  I'll put my thick reading glasses back on and go back to feeding the squirrels.  :happy0023:

Manny, it's truly nice to see so many of us here who are Orthodox.  Not to the exclusion of other fine gentlemen, but it brings a more heightened understanding to how these ladies grew up and to their overall world views.

windchimes:

--- Quote from: mendeleyev on November 21, 2007, 01:55:41 AM ---what it would mean to her if advised by her family priest to "wait" until the wedding was performed.  So much for that good and close communication we're banking on. 

BTW, after confession, if it was sincere, she is under the understanding that she has a fresh start and can enter the union pure.  It's not so mindlessly American as "well we did it before so what does it matter to God now."  Maybe, in her heart in might just matter.  Ah, that is why she confessed (without telling us first) by the way. 

I won't write a long theological background but suffice it to say that in her Orthodox understanding confession involves two things:  Confessing a sin and then Sanctification.  Our Roman Catholic or Protestant upbringing is very different so it's hard to understand.  That Sanctification means a "continuing state of grace." In other words she promises God in her confesssion that she will continue to live purely in this short period until married.  After marriage the sexual act becomes Sanctified and she is free to enjoy it with you (except during fasting periods). 

A Roman Catholic or Protestant could sin over and over again as long as they confess over and over again. 

--- End quote ---

 :whistle:

Not the protestant beliefs that were taught in my Methodist church and which I grew up with. Admitedly, it was a more conservative congregation. I don't think that one can paint Protestants with a broad brush.  I mean, how do you really define Protestants? Is a Lutheran service and congregation the same as one of those Evangelical Mega-Churches?
There seems to be an effort out there in the Russian Orthodox church to paint themselves as more strict, true, faithful, etc... I am not hostile to them, but at the same time, "I am not buying it"...

mendeleyev:
Windchimes, thanks for your post and I concede your point about painting with too broad a brush.  I enjoy reading your posts.

There is a lot of variety within Protestantism and one could correctly point out that services and practices vary widely from protestant group to group.

From a theological perspective however, the whole of Protestantism
 is defined by the Augustinian concept of "Justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law."  Prominently featured in the 16th century writings of Martin Luther and also John and Charles Wesley, founders of the Methodist Church, the Justification by faith theory relies heavily upon the concept of "conditional sanctification" which is what I referenced.

Methodist and Lutheran theologians call their understanding of this "Arminianism," which is the idea of soteriological thought in Protestant Christian theology best articulated by the Dutch theologian Jacobus Hermanszoon. 

Differences do abound however and while a key part of the Reformation and it's "justification by faith alone" idea, the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches seperate view of Sanctification (as expressed in the popular Calvinistic concepts of the Swiss theologian John Calvin and Scottish John Knox) are very different from the understanding of Sanctification as shared by the founders of the Methodist and Lutheran churches.

Such finer points are difficult to articulate briefly on such a forum and for that I also apologize.

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