Audience Questions - List One for TurretinFan

These questions to be answered by TurretinFan:

1. Tradition and Basil

TurretinFan,

As a Protestant myself, it would be nice to see your response to the Basil quotes by Orthodox. If you had the chance to respond to the Basil citations, what would you say? Or, what is the Protestant understanding here?

Thanks for a great debate. It has been edifying.

Jeff

2.Is Athanasius your Father?
(from Lucian)
Oh, yeah ... and I almost forgot: what about all those written-down Gnostic & Apocryphal "Acts" of various Apostles? Other "UN-written documents", I presume.

3. Is Athanasius your Father?
(from Lucian)
the Gnostic appeal to a supposed unwritten Apostolic tradition

So, ... the literally dozens of GNOSTIC NT APOCRYPHA (Gospels, Apocalypses, and Letters) amount to You and Philip Schaff "to a supposed unwritten Apostolic tradition". Just go to "CCEL", or "NewAdvent", or "Comparative-Religion" and download this "UN-written documents" for Yourself.

4. Chained to a Wall
(from Lucian)
the historic Christian approach, as evidenced by the Bereans in Scripture.

YET, according to Your own belief, You perpetually deny what You just now affirmed (You rather think that the historic Christian consensus, "unfortunately", didn't follow the example and teachings of Scripture). -- Why are You self-conflicting here?

5. Mockery of Spirit’s Testimony a Red Herring
(from Lucian)
It feels like persuasion, conviction of fact.

Have You been reading much of Malcolm X lately, ... or ?

6. The Council of 754
(from Lucian)
We've already established the relative paucity of early priests and doctors affirming the use of icons in worship

Why? ... has anyone by any chance denied icons? ONE example?

(you could only identify a small handful of alleged teachers of the doctrine, while you acknowledge that there were dozens of doctors and thousands upon thousands of priests).

So? Name at least ONE that said anything to the contrary.

Christ Himself said: if these will shut up, the stones will speak for them: name to me at least ONE un-decorated, un-icon-clad Church building found among the ruins of ancient Christian cities. -- doesn't common-semse tell You that all these "thousands upon thousands" of priests had to serve SOMEWHERE (I mean, they're priests, right?) -- so why weren't they shocked and horrified by the presence of "all za colours" on the Church-walls?

P.S.: passages from works directed against paganism don't particularilly impress us. Try something else for a change... OK?

7. The Council of 754
(from Lucian)
Anyone can call himself anything: that's not a problem, believe me. The problem is if there're also people to bear witness to the truth of those sayings, for anyone who testifies of himself is a liar. The Fathers are (by definition) the masculine element of the equation: they "give" of themselves the "seed" of God's Word (Matthew 13; Mark 4; Luke 8). The Church is the feminine element: she "receives". -- have their [rejected] teachings been "received" by the people of God, the pillar and foundation of all truth?

Apropos corruption of dogma via foreign, pagan influences: guess what foreign, pagan religion appeared on the face of the earth about the time the iconoclasts had their way with the Orthodox?