Why Orthodoxy?
Orthodoxy: The True Christian faith
The Orthodox church is the original and first church tracing back to the earliest days of Christianity. Even though over 2000 years have passed since the time of Christ on Earth, all of the holy traditions and sacraments have been kept within the Orthodox church. If we study the etymology of "Orthodoxy"- in Russian there is an association with "right" or "correct faith". Similarly, in Greek «orthos» means «straight» or «correct». That is, the direct path to the Lord: you turn neither to the right nor to the left. And the word «doxia» means «opinion» or «thought». Therefore, Orthodoxy means correct thoughts about God. Basically, Orthodoxy has a legacy of not changing the original church in any way in order to "fit in" with the modern times.
On Protestants:
The Orthodox bible contains at least 76 books, while Catholics have 73, and protestants with only 66. Over the last few centuries, heretics have either removed books from the bible or changed scripture all together- which resulted in more than 30,000 protestant denominations today. It is important to point out that the protestant reformation broke off from the Catholic chuch in the west, and not the Orthodox church in the east. In their defense, protestants know their bible extremely well, and do an excellent job of spreading Christianity to the masses through evangelism. God looks at what is in the person's heart, and salvation is only through Jesus Christ. (John 14:6). For this reason, famous pastors such as Derek Prince and Billy Graham who have contributed an immense amount to the Christian community will be featured on this site.
On Catholicism:
It is a fact that a few catholic priests support abortion, LGBT, and the church has been bogged down with scandals over the years. The Catholic church has a dark history, with about 2 million innocent people dying at the hands of bloodthirsty crusaders about a thousand years ago. Catholics have a very relaxed fasting schedule as well, compared to the Orthodox. Every year it becomes clearer that the catholic church is just a watered down version of the Orthodox faith, as Catholics adapt to fit in with the modern times, unfortunately. Finally, if you read the entire Bible, you will find no scriptural basis for a pope. Jesus is our one and only king, as he is the Messiah and the Son of God.
Final thoughts:
Although this site first and foremost will be a portal to Orthodoxy, it will still feature content from Catholicism and Protestants. The reason for this is simple. We are all Christians at the end of the day, and any Christian content that brings us closer to Jesus will be beneficial. As Christians, it is not our right to judge others. Ultimate love towards God and our neighbor is the most important of the commandments- so this site will focus on unity of the Christian religion, and not division. (Matthew 22:37-40) The role of Christians in the world is to filter the negative environment on earth and expand the atmosphere of the Kingdom of God by working together.
About me:
My name is Josh and I am the owner of this site. I am 29 years old, of Puerto Rican descent, and have been living in Ukraine since 2015. I work as an english teacher online because it allows me to live a much better life abroad. It dawned upon me to create this project "Orthodoxy4all" after I've been blessed with many miracles in my personal life, and against all odds saved by the grace of God. Indeed, it was made very obvious to me that Jesus is alive and the Bible is the living word of God through my personal experience. However, my journey to Orthodoxy was by no means immediate, I stumbled, failed and made every mistake a person could possibly make along the way. Raised as a Roman Catholic, I saw first-hand how no one in my family practiced the religion except for my grandmother. This is the case for most Americans.
After living in Ukraine for over 5 years, I became highly interested in Orthodox Christianity. As a person living alone for many years, I naturally wanted to find comfort, happiness, and love- but always seeked to find it externally instead of digging within. Fortunately, God never gave up on me- and so Orthodoxy4all was born. The main purpose of this site is to spread Orthodoxy to the west and to China- where it is mostly unknown. Please take advantage of the "Free downloads" section, where there will be bibles, prayers, and Christian literature which will be extremely useful on your path to Orthodoxy.