Do Doctrinal Differences Among Denominations Matter?

Summary

In a video titled "Do Doctrinal Differences Among Denominations Matter?" Fr. Paul Truebenbach explores the significance of doctrinal differences between Christian denominations, emphasizing the perspective of the Orthodox tradition. He argues that doctrines are not only essential but historically integral to the Christian faith, drawing on the teachings of the Apostles and early Church Fathers. Fr. Paul contends that maintaining doctrinal purity is imperative for true faith practice and unity with the teachings of Christ. Addressing common objections, he bolsters his viewpoint by referencing scriptural interpretations and historical continuity within Orthodoxy.

Highlights

• Fr. Paul emphasizes the unforeseen viral impact of discussing Orthodox doctrines online. 🎥
• Unexpected engagement with controversial doctrinal content led to a deeper dive into theological education. 📚
• Direct challenges from online comments prompted Fr. Paul to address misinterpretations and underline Orthodox claims. 💬
• He underscores that both scriptural and historical contexts show the necessity of unified doctrines in Christianity. 📖
• Fr. Paul plans future content to explore the integration of Orthodox teachings with modern counsel. 🧠

Key Takeaways

• Doctrinal differences are essential and significant in maintaining the true essence of faith. 🛡️
• Orthodox Christianity emphasizes historical continuity and adherence to early church teachings. 📜
• Doctrines serve as a spiritual medicine, influencing believers' relationship with Christ. 💊
• Historical church resolutions showcase the importance of unified doctrine to prevent contradictions within faith. 🔗
• Engagement with differing doctrines is not about division but understanding true revelations of faith. 🤝

Overview

In this thought-provoking video, Fr. Paul Truebenbach delves into the question of whether doctrinal differences among Christian denominations hold any significance. Having experienced a surprising level of attention from a previous video on Protestant arguments against Orthodoxy, he decides to address what he perceives as misconceptions about the importance of doctrine. His underlying message is clear: doctrines are indispensable to the Christian life, shaping how believers connect with their faith.

Fr. Paul takes viewers on a journey through history, arguing that doctrines were paramount to the Apostles and remain so today. He dismisses the modern notion that only essential doctrines matter, citing historical and scriptural evidence to support his claims. By emphasizing that doctrine acts as spiritual medicine, Fr. Paul asserts that true, consistent doctrines are foundational to nurturing one's relationship with Christ, illustrating the potential harm of doctrinal discrepancies.

In light of the feedback on his previous video, Fr. Paul announces a shift in his content schedule to delve more deeply into fundamental Orthodox teachings. He acknowledges the challenges of conveying these complex theological ideas, especially through a digital medium, and calls for an open-hearted exploration of true church principles. Fr. Paul concludes with a prayerful hope for understanding and a commitment to teaching with humility, aiming to foster genuine investigation into the Orthodox approach to Christianity.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Video Expectation The chapter titled 'Introduction and Video Expectation' discusses the speaker's reflections after releasing a video that provides a concise five-word response to Protestant arguments against Orthodoxy: 'Show me your St pisos.' The speaker mentions the unpredictability of the viewership of their videos, with some gaining significant attention and others not as much.
• 01:30 - 03:30: Video Comments and Reactions The chapter titled 'Video Comments and Reactions' discusses the unpredictability of video viewership and audience engagement. The creator expresses surprise at which videos garner attention, noting that some videos receive unexpected attention while others do not. However, the lack of views does not bother the creator as the primary goal is to share their faith rather than to gain views. Whether the content benefits a large audience or a small one, the creator values the impact it has on its viewers.
• 05:00 - 09:00: Understanding Saints and Sanctity The chapter 'Understanding Saints and Sanctity' reflects on the unexpected attention received by a particular video related to the topic. Contrary to expectations, the video garnered more views than anticipated. The speaker discusses breaking a personal rule regarding reading comments, usually ignored and deleted as per habit. However, due to the overwhelming volume of feedback, the speaker was prompted to engage with the comments during this instance.
• 10:00 - 12:00: Announcement of Upcoming Videos The chapter titled 'Announcement of Upcoming Videos' seems to discuss dealing with feedback, particularly addressing negative comments on previous videos. The speaker mentions a personal rule of not commenting unless it's to offer clarification or help. Through this process, patterns and recurring themes are noticed among the critics, indicating that the speaker is attentive to audience feedback despite maintaining certain rules to manage interactions constructively.
• 12:00 - 17:30: Doctrinal Importance and Apostolic Perspective In this chapter, the speaker discusses the nature of online discourse and communication, particularly when it involves doctrinal issues. The speaker notes that they often avoid responding to online comments unless they find the discussion particularly curious or worth exploring further. They acknowledge the potential for misinterpretation in written communication due to the absence of vocal tone and facial expressions, which can sometimes make queries seem argumentative even if they are not intended as such. This reflects on the apostolic perspective regarding the importance of understanding intent and spirit behind communication.
• 17:30 - 28:00: Common Objections to Doctrinal Differences The speaker acknowledges their own emotions and potential missteps, expressing a need for personal reflection and forgiveness. They admit that if they had anticipated the video's reach, they would have provided more detail and clarity in their discussion on doctrinal differences, recognizing the impact and misunderstanding that can arise from such discussions.
• 28:00 - 32:30: Doctrine as Medicine and Truth The chapter discusses the complexities of conveying ideas in online discourse, especially when the audience lacks contextual knowledge. It emphasizes the challenges of being misconstrued if the viewer is not familiar with Orthodox perspectives, illustrating the difficulties in ensuring that the intended message is properly received.
• 32:30 - 44:20: Addressing Objections and Conclusion The chapter discusses the continuity and legitimacy of the Christian faith and church as established by the Apostles. It questions the validity of claims made by those who broke away from the original church, suggesting they aimed to correct perceived false beliefs within the church.
• 45:00 - 50:00: Final Thoughts and Prayer The chapter discusses the effects of diverging from traditional dogma and doctrine within the church. It highlights how the creation of new denominations or lines of belief can lead to significant changes in spiritual leadership quality. Particularly, it points out that upon establishing a new line or denomination, there is a notable decline in the emergence of figures with apostolic authority. This suggests a cessation of holy figures within these new branches, contrasting with the original church's ability to cultivate such individuals.

Do Doctrinal Differences Among Denominations Matter? Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen well dear ones I'm filming this video after having released my video on the five-word response to every Protestant argument against Orthodoxy those words being show me your St pisos when I release videos I sometimes expect some videos to get a good amount of views other ones I don't expect to get a lot of views and uh I'm
• 00:30 - 01:00 often very surprised there are videos that I expect will get a lot of attention that get very little and there are some videos that I put out that I expect to get very little attention and they get quite a bit uh which is fine none of that bothers me I don't do the videos for views I do the videos because I wish to share the faith and uh those who are benefited wonderful uh if that's a large amount of people people great if that's
• 01:00 - 01:30 a small amount of people that's fine um that was a video that I expected to get you know a relatively small amount of views and instead it received much more attention than I ever expected and in getting all this attention I broke my rule uh I have a rule for myself that I really don't read comments typically uh but so many comments were pouring in I get email notifications usually I just delete them without even looking at them but so many came in that I decided to read just a
• 01:30 - 02:00 couple a day I would delete you know dozens of comments but read one or two of them and after a while I started to see certain themes that kept coming back uh in people who were not very happy with that video um and I broke a much more established rule rule for myself that um if it's not a helpful comment I don't uh I don't comment at all um maybe somebody's just asking for a clarification me know maybe once in a
• 02:00 - 02:30 while I'll comment again if I see a comment um but uh in in most cases I don't reply at all in this case there were a couple people I I responded to um I typically do this just out of curiosity I want to know if people are really asking what they're asking and sometimes uh I'm afraid it comes off as argumentative when it's not meant to be um but this is the nature of online discourse is you can't tell somebody's Spirit you can't hear the inflection of their voice you can't see their face and
• 02:30 - 03:00 so uh if if uh if I come across as uh as somehow perturbed or annoyed or angry uh that's my own sin and uh I have to confess that and ask forgiveness for that um had I known how much attention that video was going to receive I probably would have spent a little bit more time going into more depth with some of what I talked about and I often forget that uh a lot of things that are said if
• 03:00 - 03:30 you're Orthodox a lot of things that I say will be understood in the proper light but if you're not Orthodox and are not familiar with the context in which I'm saying things they can be easily misconstrued and unfortunately when when you're dealing with online discourse uh there were a lot of comments that made me just kind of scratch my head and say I I'm not sure if they watched the whole video or not or really heard the arguments but the basic idea of that video which was mainly implicit and maybe not as explicit as it should have
• 03:30 - 04:00 been was was this if the Christian faith produced by the produced The Apostles if the if the establishment of the Christian church at Pentecost produced The Apostles and after all of the Apostles reposed the church continued to produce similar figures if someone broke from that church claim claiming that that church had false beliefs and they were going to correct
• 04:00 - 04:30 the dogma and Doctrine and and and practices of that church and created a new line of belief basically a new church or what we would call a denomination resulting in those holy lives ceasing in that new denomination in that new line no more Apostolic figures as such were being created no no no longer
• 04:30 - 05:00 was that particular denomination creating figures from the branch off of which they broke which they continue to produce then the inability to create the same results as that main line from the time of her Inception until the Protestant Reformation which is the year 1500 that would indicate that something is wrong that the so-called correctives they applied weren't really
• 05:00 - 05:30 correctives they had attempted to correct the faith and correct the practices but the results ceased that's the basic argument of of that that particular Video St pus I mentioned in that video is one of many figures and and really thousands upon thousands of figures that we could talk about over the course of the 2,000 year history of the church in 2,000 years Orthodoxy has created and I
• 05:30 - 06:00 mentioned a few of them already like St Anthony St Martin of tourus St basil the great uh St Gregor palamas St Sim the new Theologian uh the list goes on and on St Demitri of rostov St sarap from of s is a wonderful one the church has continuously created figures like this for 2,000 years and and what is it what is it about being a saint exactly what does it mean to be a saint this is not just about being a good person
• 06:00 - 06:30 there were a couple comments where somebody said well there could be there are good people found in every branch of Christian fine I don't deny that of course this isn't about being a merely good person and it's not as I stated just about Christ working miracles through that person Miracles alone are not the sign of sanctity the devil can create Miracles too and uh it is it is possible that Miracles exist in places where maybe holy lives are not
• 06:30 - 07:00 uh you know what I what I mean for instance Saul persecuting the church witnessed a m miraculous appearance of Christ and that was meant for his repentance it didn't mean at that time that Saul would be considered a holy figure he was living a a life that fought Christ so we wouldn't consider him holy at that time rather being a saint is about being deified it's about having Christ dwell within you the words of St Paul it is no longer I who live but Christ
• 07:00 - 07:30 lives in me and thus being transfigured you know when when Christ Shone on Mount table with with that that Heavenly light the uncreated grace there are many figures of the church who while praying have experienced the exact same and people have witnessed them shining with the same light why because Christ dwells within them the another comment that I got was you know we should just focus on Christ that's what the Saints are about is about pointing us to Christ and what is possible with a life in
• 07:30 - 08:00 Christ so being a saint is about living a crucifixion life it's about putting to death one's will and one's Comforts and one's desires so much so that the heart is emptied of self and then is filled with grace and that Grace redefines or or or more more accurately properly defines the person a new they become who
• 08:00 - 08:30 they were created to be this is not something that can be easily explained in a video by the way if you experience it you realize that it's something not of this world it's just simply not of this world to be in the presence of such a figure can be [Music] life-changing since meeting with such figures which I have
• 08:30 - 09:00 I have felt more inspired to follow Christ more fervently than I ever have in my entire life and this is what meeting such a figure can do it can it can be a life-changing experience being the presence of such a figure can calm calm all thoughts and anxieties in a way that you didn't even realize was possible you begin to realize what it what it means to live with peace completely in your heart in mind you're you're filled not only with peace but with joy and literally in some
• 09:00 - 09:30 cases a particular passion a deeply rooted sin that has plagued your soul for years or decades can be eradicated with a single mean I I would I would suggest um if someone wants to to read a couple of books that I think give a good at least little taste or indication of what it's like to be in the presence of such a figure there are many lives of saints that are wonderful but there are two figures written by people who knew saints that I think really display kind
• 09:30 - 10:00 of what it's like to be in their presence the first one is about St pesus it's called the gurus the young man and Elder pesos it's by St Herman press St Herman of Alaska press the gurus the young man and Elder pesos and then the second is about another uh contemporary Saint at the church who St pus knew well St pidos and it's called father pidos the Discerning the foreseeing the Healer and I'll try to link uh to Amazon both of those books in the description really the negative responses to that uh
• 10:00 - 10:30 the the the previous video I actually view as a blessing um I had planned out to put uh a few videos over the next couple weeks uh about my assessment uh of Orthodox spirituality and its relation with modern-day counseling and I was going to talk about in the three videos the negative view I have of counseling the positive view I have of counseling and how we can integrate counseling and Orthodox spirituality together um but I'm going to put those off for a while because I I found that
• 10:30 - 11:00 there's such a great need for some basic education in in some basic Theology and so I'm going to use this as a springboard you know those those comments I really thank God for them because they point out areas that probably needed to be discussed more and and talked about more um I was really surprised uh I will say that in the I probably read maybe 30 or so comments many of them revealed that a lot of people
• 11:00 - 11:30 really don't seem to think that the differences among Christian groups matter that that Doctrine somehow doesn't actually matter this is a view never shared by Christians before the Reformation literally you cannot find that sentiment expressed by a single Christian author or even by a heretic that I know of and I I I would guess I
• 11:30 - 12:00 haven't studied this enough but I would guess that neither Calvin nor Luther nor zwingley felt that way that differences really didn't matter I could be wrong about that but for 1500 years no Christian felt that way and even the Heretics didn't believe it so to answer the title of this video do differences in doctrines among Christians matter or whatever I'll name this yes they matter and they matter a
• 12:00 - 12:30 great deal and that's that's really what I want want to what I want to explain in this particular video so what I want to do from here on out is look at five essential points uh that explain why Doctrine matters and then talk about some of the common objections and the response that we would have so why do doctrines matter why do the differences matter and why is it important to have the right beliefs in these doctrines number one well they clearly mattered to the apostles and
• 12:30 - 13:00 especially to St Paul you can't you can't read the New Testament and come away believing that the apostles and St Paul belied that certain doctrines it just didn't matter just believe these core ideas and these other beliefs don't matter one of the groups that St Paul dealt with his entire life and much of his writings deal with this were the judaizers the judaizers were Jewish Christians who believed indeed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah that's what
• 13:00 - 13:30 Christ means Jesus was the Messiah however Jesus is coming as a fulfillment of the law meant that the law still stayed in place and therefore if you are going to become a Christian for as a gentile you become a Christian you also need to embrace the Torah and the the Mosaic law then what does that mean it means that you must participate in basically three things I mean it's a little bit more complex but essentially three things uh Jewish eating
• 13:30 - 14:00 regulations and fasting certain Jewish feasts and for the men circumcision and the judaizer said in order to follow God properly if you accept Jesus as the Messiah you must follow these things and everything else they you know they they seem to agree that the apostles were rightly leading the church and so you look at that and say well Paul didn't just look at them and say well we can agree to disagree on this rather he said if you accept that you
• 14:00 - 14:30 are denying the true gospel just in that which seems like a minor point he says no no no it's a major point it may seem like a small thing to you but actually the implications of what they're teaching you are massive and it's actually a denial of the true gospel of Christ and thus of Christ himself to Paul Doctrine mattered a great deal this is why when in the west
• 14:30 - 15:00 the the uh Western Christians added the felo to the Creed the Christians of the East vociferously rejected it and when they looked at the Theology of it you can read there's two uh two major treatises written by Orthodox Saints St Fus the great wrote on the mogy of the Holy Spirit which is in English and then uh St Gregory palamas wrote an apodictic Treatise on the Holy Spirit which is also new translated into English when
• 15:00 - 15:30 you read these you'll find that they did not see this as a minor theological Point whatsoever but they saw that there was a ripple effect that would have major major implications on the entire belief of the Christian faith if the foke were accepted belief certainly mattered and it mattered clearly to the apostles and especially in the writings of St Paul two the promise that Christ gave in John
• 15:30 - 16:00 16:13 is this however when he the spirit of Truth has come he will guide you into all truth not just essential truth but all truth not some truth all truth now we have to ask was that promise just for the apostles or was it for the entire church for all human history from then point that point on if it's just for the apostles it's pretty meaningless if after that Christians were then going to
• 16:00 - 16:30 debate what they really meant what they really believed what Christianity really looked like and they split into all these different groups because now we have various doctrines all over the place and Christians are not being led into all truth and well what good was it that the apostles were led into all all truth the promise of Christ and the Holy Spirit is that the church would be led into all truth and so differences and Doctrine matter because if there are two competing beliefs there's only two options either
• 16:30 - 17:00 one is wrong and one is right or both are wrong and there's a right answer somewhere else the only options available that leads us to number three which is that the church is called the body of Christ Christ is not separated from the church but rather Christ and the church are one they're seen as the same body and they're also seen as a marriage of a bridegroom and a bride some people look at that as contradictory images but what does St Paul say about marriage what does Christ say the two shall become one flesh
• 17:00 - 17:30 so there's no contradiction there but that word is what we're going to focus on contradiction if the church and Christ can't be separated can there be contradiction within Christ to sit there and say well all all Christians who believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and that he died and and Rose for our sins we're all the same Christians it doesn't matter if we we disagree on all these other issues but then there are contradicting you know basically the
• 17:30 - 18:00 idea there is we're all the body of Christ but then there's multiple contradicting beliefs within the body of Christ and the body of Christ is full of contradictions can that be possible in our perfect Christ who is the fullness of all who fill fills all in all or the fullness of him who fills all in all it can that be Poss of course it can be of course it can't be there cannot be contradiction within the body of Christ like that there can be debates but when things have been establish and we say this is firmly what we believe you can't
• 18:00 - 18:30 have other Christians saying well this is what we firmly believe and if those two beliefs are exclusive and cannot be met well then the proper role of the church like happened in acts with the Council of Jerusalem is that the church comes together and and and declares this is the proper belief but we don't allow dozens and maybe hundreds of contradictory beliefs to be thrown around that actually affect the faith of the of the faithful and the way that they live their
• 18:30 - 19:00 Christian faith four that leads us to four opposing and contradictory doctrines within the church makes St Paul's definition of the church as the pillar and ground of truth from 1 Timothy 3:15 a lie if the church is the pillar and God of Truth it means we can look to the church to rightly divide the word of Truth and decide and and declare this is truth this is falsehood but with this idea of an invisible Church all these these differences and doctrines don't actually matter well the church loses that ability the
• 19:00 - 19:30 church is no longer the pillar and ground of the truth it just doesn't work so that verse becomes null and void and five Doctrine is medicine Doctrine is medicine what you believe affects how you live and relate to to Christ and thus it affects that relationship if we have a false Doctrine at best what we have is a bad medicine
• 19:30 - 20:00 that is simply less effective at worst at worst we have a medicine that's become a poison and it can actually poison and defeat our spiritual life rather than make it flourish so true so Doctrine and belief need to be properly balanced and if you change anything on one side the other side has to change to balance out when you change a lot of the doctrinal beliefs a lot of the ways Christians live change and you're not going to get
• 20:00 - 20:30 as the last video talked about the same results so with these there are quite a few objections that are brought up I'm going to talk about the three most major objections that are raised and talk about what the Orthodox response to these things are the first is this most commonly people say well it doesn't
• 20:30 - 21:00 really matter that we disagree on all these small doctrines what matters is that we all agree on the essential doctrines as long as we agree on the essential the uh essential doctrines everything else is okay well the first response to this is this is actually an unbiblical belief there's no listing in the New Testament anywhere of essential versus unessential doctrines with without clear ISO Jesus ISO Jesus is reading into the the text what it doesn't actually say if you want to find
• 21:00 - 21:30 a list of essential versus non-essential doctrines you are reading that into the text you cannot using ex that Jesus pulling out of the text see that there was any listing as such now you may say that well I found certain places where the most foundational doctrines are listed but these are listed with an understanding that the foundation must be properly built upon false doctrines improp properly build upon that
• 21:30 - 22:00 foundation and therefore they give misunderstandings of a divinely given worldview that's supposed to come along with them what I mean by that is if the foundation is solid then it comes with a particular worldview and the doctrines built upon those are part of that divinely given worldview to have the mind of Christ not a not a Man created but if you have a those foundational
• 22:00 - 22:30 doctrines but your understanding of their context and their application are not divinely given then you're going to have man-created understanding you're going to basically try to use just pure logic man-made logic to build those doctrines and that's going to be a very shaky build and it's going to fall and that's why there are so many contradictions next there are clear disagreements concerning what is and is not essential is the belief in Eternal salvation and eternal security is that is that an
• 22:30 - 23:00 essential Doctrine or unessential is it essential or not to believe that baptism actually does something is not just simply an outward symbol is in the belief in in practice of infant baptism an essential or unessential doctrine is the belief that Holy Communion is truly the body and blood of Christ essential or not for those who believe in it it's very essential for those who don't believe in it it's not
• 23:00 - 23:30 how about the use of icons in their veneration is that acceptable is it essential to believe One Way Or Not Another or not we can't even agree on what's essential in the first place so to say that we as long as we agree on the essential doctrines that assumes that we all agree what the essential doctrines are next Christians never believed this before the Reformation even back to the Christians taught directly by the apostles if you read the apostolic fathers you can find plenty of of translations of this the people taught directly by the apostles none of them
• 23:30 - 24:00 none of them not a single one who were taught directly by the apostles delineates that there are essential doctrines versus non-essentials and these are all options for Christians nobody believed that of course this also goes against the previously mentioned verse from the Gospel of John the holy spirit will guide the church into all truth and it also suggests that doctrines are interpreted and speculated upon but not revealed and that runs against what happened in
• 24:00 - 24:30 the council in Acts 1528 when the apostles declared after that council with the decision of that Council for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us they didn't say it seems good to us based on logic but rather that this is revealed the entire faith is revealed and so we don't speculate merely on Doctrine rather holy figures blessed are them pure at heart for they shall see God God reveal this to them
• 24:30 - 25:00 the next objection these issues only serve to divide us why are we focused on these issues they only divide us well I'll do a whole video on this at another time but I would argue it's not doctrines that divide us it's free will that divides us and it's Fallen Free Will truth divides only because people object to truth and believe in falsehoods do we believe God left us a Faith with no way to figure out which doctrines are true and not of course he left us away the church is
• 25:00 - 25:30 the pillar and ground of the truth so we seek the true church do we believe that he only left us a way to figure out some of those doctrines but not all of them and all all the others are up for grabs this doesn't seem to be consistent with the scriptures the reality is that truth will always do this truth always divides because some people are always going to choose different beliefs we could say the same thing about politics politics only serves to divide so we should just
• 25:30 - 26:00 get rid of differences in politics philosophy only service divide we should just end philosophy let's get rid of it even in medicine you see different beliefs we should just get rid of Medicine Science astronomy math in every case there are questions and there are questions which people fall on different sides of the debate but the difference with the church is that Doctrine is divinely revealed this is part of why Orthodoxy states that church history matters and
• 26:00 - 26:30 going back to the time of the Apostles and the first generations of Christians is important because in this we can see the frona the mindset with which Christians lived and we try to embrace that and live it ourselves and be a living continuation of that but there are always those who will disagree and when somebody disagrees we can't say well we should stop preaching this because people disagree and it's only dividing us rather we say well out of love I'm going to preach the truth love first for Christ and then for you
• 26:30 - 27:00 even if you disagree third a very common thing that was said I only believe what is in the Bible and that keeps my me doctrinally safe well again I'm going to do another video on the relationship between the church and the Bible soon um and yet another on the problems of solar scriptura but the main thing to say here is that the Bible requires interpretation that's directly in the book of Acts as well how can I understand unless I have someone to teach me says the Ethiopian
• 27:00 - 27:30 unic the main thing here to say is that because the Bible requires interpretation it's necessary to realize what the fruits of saying I'm only going to base my beliefs in the Bible actually are it denies the idea that interpretation is even involved and yet what other fruits there are many many different
• 27:30 - 28:00 denominations claiming to be Bible believing and yet they disagree on so many issues including many issues that I think we would consider essential this is the fruits of saying I'm just going to believe whatever is in the Bible well you're not taking the fact that different people will interpret it differently into an account and now we have hundreds if not thousands of different denominations the Bible itself as we discussed points to the church as the pillar and ground of the truth and again another that's another topic for another
• 28:00 - 28:30 video so these are the main responses to those objections this teaching is not meant to be just as my last video was it's not meant to be condemnatory or confrontational it's meant to be educational Doctrine absolutely matters this is a Biblical assertion and it is one that has never been questions questioned by Christians until recent times and the reason that that belief came up is because eventually people had to come up and say well we're we're so divided in these things either we
• 28:30 - 29:00 continue fighting or we just agree none of this really matters and and that'll be the blanket cover to say that oh actually these things are it's it's fine it's just fine rather than deal with the fact that maybe we've made a mess of things do we know more than those who lived closer to the time of the Apostles do we think we understand the apostles better than their direct disciples or those taught by those disciples so you have the apostles and their disciples and then their disciples
• 29:00 - 29:30 do we think we understand better than them they never believe this that Doctrine didn't matter so what's needed what's needed is a humble sober prayerful investigation into the true church this is a video I have done uh again I'll try to uh link it in the description or I've never pinned a video above me maybe I'll try to do that but anyway God willing this this teaching is not meant to upset anyone I'm sure it will it's not meant to upset
• 29:30 - 30:00 anyone it's rather to guide everyone into again the fullness of him who fills all in all as St Paul says in Ephesians 1 this this video is really simply meant to show that we need to take these things seriously because again the apostles took them very seriously Doctrine absolutely matters and there's no such thing as a division between essential and non-essential uh there are certainly things that we are are still um we can still have opinions about but there are many many more doctrines that
• 30:00 - 30:30 have been fully established by the church through councils through her lurgical life through the lives of the Saints and indeed all based in Christ and the the scriptures I I really pray I pray that uh that if if you've watched this entire video it's been it's been a bit longer than I intended it to be but uh if you've watched this whole video I I I pray that that you receive it with um with an open heart and that you you understand that again my my goal is not to upset anybody but rather
• 30:30 - 31:00 to inform on why these things are so important and hopefully hopefully inspire a little spark of Investigation in you to uh maybe consider the the approach to Christianity and make it more in line with that of the Apostles and their disciples so if I have offended you please forgive me however uh I will continue to to uh to preach and teach the truth because this is what is needed uh uh certainly out of love and I hope humbly I hope I
• 31:00 - 31:30 can do so humbly in the words of the great saint of Romania Elder cleopa of castria may heaven consume me amen