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Finding a Religious Wife - Discussion
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<blockquote data-quote="MichaelWitcoff" data-source="post: 1263677" data-attributes="member: 16038"><p>For the Orthodox, a man's vocation (marriage or celibacy) is not something to be taken lightly, but discerned carefully and prayerfully together with his priest and/or spiritual father (if his spiritual father isn't his parish priest). I don't think your logic here plays out, though; it sounds like saying "I desire a Lamborghini and therefore God's will for me is to attain wealth." One of the reasons I left the world of Protestantism behind was specifically because "God's will" to most Protestants is simply "whatever they wanted to do anyway." But our emotions are tricky, and there's a reason the Scriptures warn that we are "led away by our own desires." </p><p></p><p>To your second point, the Bible is not actually all that clear on what constitutes sexual sin besides adultery and sex outside of marriage in general. For example, the Bible says nothing about anal sex within marriage - something Orthodoxy very strictly calls sin, but which I've heard Protestants say is perfectly fine. It also says nothing about watching pornography or masturbating - both sins to every Orthodox, but only to some Protestants (depending on which denomination you're in and who you ask). </p><p></p><p>This is why we don't go by "sola Scriptura:" there are a lot of things not explicitly written in the Scriptures, but are contained in other ancient Church documents and/or Ecumenical Councils and/or local councils and/or canons. All these things together are what guide our faith, not just our desires or personal interpretation of Bible passages. This is how we can help kill off the sins of pride and idolatry (of ourselves and our own opinions), by humbly submitting to what the Church has always taught on these and many other topics.</p><p></p><p>To your final point, saying "God gives us sexual passions" is theologically and anthropologically incorrect. Before the Fall there was neither sex nor the desire for sex; these things are the result of the Fall and of the entrance of sin and death into the world. There's nothing wrong with normal sex within the context of marriage, which is ideally about a lot more than just sex, but we have to be careful which of our feelings we attribute to God when Christ Himself - our ultimate role model - didn't see any need to partake of it Himself.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MichaelWitcoff, post: 1263677, member: 16038"] For the Orthodox, a man's vocation (marriage or celibacy) is not something to be taken lightly, but discerned carefully and prayerfully together with his priest and/or spiritual father (if his spiritual father isn't his parish priest). I don't think your logic here plays out, though; it sounds like saying "I desire a Lamborghini and therefore God's will for me is to attain wealth." One of the reasons I left the world of Protestantism behind was specifically because "God's will" to most Protestants is simply "whatever they wanted to do anyway." But our emotions are tricky, and there's a reason the Scriptures warn that we are "led away by our own desires." To your second point, the Bible is not actually all that clear on what constitutes sexual sin besides adultery and sex outside of marriage in general. For example, the Bible says nothing about anal sex within marriage - something Orthodoxy very strictly calls sin, but which I've heard Protestants say is perfectly fine. It also says nothing about watching pornography or masturbating - both sins to every Orthodox, but only to some Protestants (depending on which denomination you're in and who you ask). This is why we don't go by "sola Scriptura:" there are a lot of things not explicitly written in the Scriptures, but are contained in other ancient Church documents and/or Ecumenical Councils and/or local councils and/or canons. All these things together are what guide our faith, not just our desires or personal interpretation of Bible passages. This is how we can help kill off the sins of pride and idolatry (of ourselves and our own opinions), by humbly submitting to what the Church has always taught on these and many other topics. To your final point, saying "God gives us sexual passions" is theologically and anthropologically incorrect. Before the Fall there was neither sex nor the desire for sex; these things are the result of the Fall and of the entrance of sin and death into the world. There's nothing wrong with normal sex within the context of marriage, which is ideally about a lot more than just sex, but we have to be careful which of our feelings we attribute to God when Christ Himself - our ultimate role model - didn't see any need to partake of it Himself. [/QUOTE]
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