"The saying "Getting there is half the fun" became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines." - Henry J. Tillman

One of the first things they teach you about composing good photos is to pay attention to things that will look like they're coming out of the subject's head.


This will be a brief post. It's been a long day and the Packers/Falcons game is on. Once Pam is home we'll talk briefly, I'll have some dessert and then head for bed.

The normal list of Saturday chores got longer last night when we got home from dinner at Paradise Bakery and discovered that, once again, Jack had engaged in some passive aggressive behavior to protest getting left alone. In addition to a piece of paper he'd torn into small pieces he'd left a puddle over by the leather chair. This despite having been on his walk and relieving himself just before we left.

So I was at it shortly after Pam left for work. I removed all the furniture from the living room and TV area, vacuumed, and then mopped. In the process I discovered area from sometime earlier this week. While the room was empty I cleaned all the baseboards and vacuumed/dusted all the furniture before I put it back.
The good news is we have wood flooring in this area. Had it been carpet...yuck!

Got the rest of the chores done and then went shopping for a wire kennel. I couldn't find one in stock that was reasonably priced so I'll order one online and have it shipped. Once it's here Jack will be kenneled every time we leave the house. Until then we'll put him in our bedroom where I think he'll behave himself.

Oh yeah, he knew he was in trouble. He hid out when we got home last night (after a strong scolding) and didn't venture out of the bedroom until almost 2:00 this afternoon.

My lesson tomorrow is on the second commandment, re. idols and images. As part of my prep I did some reading in my church history books and online about iconography and the iconoclastic movement. By wandering from linked article to linked article on the web I ended up reading some articles written by Eastern Orthodox theologians.

I've never had a clear understanding of Eastern Orthodox theology re. salvation and so couldn't answer the question, "Is the teaching of the Orthodox church biblical re. salvation?" That is, whatever they may have added in ceremony and rite, are they Christian in the biblical sense of that term?

Wow!
After reading several articles (incl. this one, if you're interested) it's clear that the Eastern Orthodox view of salvation is clearly NOT biblical. In fact, they reject the substitutionary death of Christ as heretical and blasphemous. According to them Christ did NOT die to pay the penalty for our sin. Such an understanding makes the Father cruel, unjust and demented.

Instead, Christ fooled Satan, thereby securing our salvation. Satan had justly demanded the life of every human because of their sin. As the ruler of Hell he laid claim to every soul because all mankind sins. (They reject the doctrine of original sin passed down to us from Adam.) Christ came and lived a sinless life but Satan had him killed anyway.

Aha! Satan, you just showed yourself to be unfair and unjust by taking the life of the sinless One. Gotcha!

And because Christ's crucifixion, accomplished by the hand of Satan, was without justification, Christ claims us as his own. Because Satan has been shown to be a liar and a cheater he forfeits his claim on us.

Faith? Naw. Everybody except those who consciously reject Jesus (i.e. reject the Orthodox Church) goes to heaven - Buddhists, Hindus, animists.... Those who have been obedient to Orthodoxy get better seating, a better status in heaven. But everybody except the infidels goes to heaven because Christ showed up Satan as a cheat.

Wild, huh? Who knew? OK, I should have.
I've always been interested in the art and ceremony of the Orthodox Church. The iconography is a problem (we'll talk about that tomorrow) but hey, they walked out on the Roman church so they get points for that.

Now I know better. Calling me Harrison Ford don't make it so. And calling it the Orthodox Church doesn't make their theology correct. Turns out it's clearly heretical.