Bruno, Abbot and Founder of the Charterhouse Monks

Although not technically an Orthodox saint, I am still a great admirer of Abbot Bruno.

Bruno, the founder of the Charterhouse Monks, was born at Cologne, about the year 1030. His parents, who were eminent in rank and goodness, sent him to the Cathedral school at Rheims, which at that time, under the direction of Herimanus, was one of the best schools in Europe. There he did so well in philosophy and theology that he took the degree of Doctor in both of those subjects. And for his extraordinary graces, when he was only about the age of twenty-seven, he succeeded Herimanus as rector of the school. But at the height of his success, a few years lather, he and six comrades, all learned men, forsook the world and betook themselves to Saint Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble. The latter, when he learned the reason of their coming, and believing them to have been figured by seven stars which one night in a dream he had seen falling at his feet, gave them a grant of land in some very wild mountains in his diocese, which are called the Chartreuses, and where was established by them the first Charterhouse monastery. * Thither Bruno and his companions withdrew themselves, in the 1084, and led for some years the life of hermits. But in 1089 Pope Urban II, who had formerly been his disciple at Rheims, commanded him to come to Rome. And there because of the afflictions which then scourged the Church, the Pope held him much against his will for some time as his counsellor. But at last Bruno, who had refused the Archbishoprick of Reggio, got leave to retire to a solitary place in Calabria, which was within easier reach of the Pope than the aforesaid Charterhouse. In this place, owing to a grant of land from his friend Roger Sovereign Earl of Sicily and Calabria, who had begun to cherish him and his comrades, he founded another Charterhouse named for Saint Stephen. And so the life he instituted began to spread. Which same is the eremitical life lived in community, under a most strict Rule. And this Carthusian Order is the only one in the Church which hath never had any reform, for it hath never stood in need of any. From Saint Bruno it learnt quietude and patience through silence and prayer, but withal a holy gaiety. At length Bruno, full of graces and good works, and famous for godliness and gaiety, not less than for learning, fell asleep in the Lord, on October 6^th, in the year 1101, and was buried in the said Monastery of Saint Stephen.

Preterist view is biblically sound, most Orthodox prophecy position

The End of The World: New Testament vs. Popular Culture


If we stopped a hundred people on the street and asked them what comes to mind when they hear the phrase “end of the world,” we might get a hundred different answers. Most of those answers though, would center around destruction of the material world and, especially, of human life. Earthquakes and asteroids, plagues and pestilence, famines and drought, World War and nuclear annihilation might all be part of what a person envisions when confronted with this term. Many no doubt would also think of a New World Order under the Devil’s apostle, Antichrist. Such scenarios have haunted people at various times in Christian history, and especially in the last century. But modern day anxiety over, and obsession with, end times largely result from major misconceptions over the purpose and meaning of prophetic bible passages. End-time fears were one motivation for my own conversion to Christianity, but with maturity and greater familiarity with the Bible, I learned that scripture teaches something different from what modern authorities say it does.

The most recent era of intense focus on end-times bible prophecy has roots in the nineteenth century. In that era numerous End Times driven denominations arose, both in Europe and America. The most influential among them are the Plymouth Brethren, one of whose founder’s, John Nelson Darby, was the first to teach about a secret “Rapture,” in which Christ would rescue His Church from imminent disaster before destroying the earthly kingdom of the Beast. His teachings were then popularized in the Schofield Reference Bible, produced by Cyrus Schofield, an American Dispensationalist. Until this time, American Christians had favored a view that God had prevailed in history through Christ, and things would progressively improve as His kingdom advanced in the world. The disaster of the Civil War, followed by the yet worse carnage of World War I, shook this confidence and left fertile soil for the pessimism of End Times speculators.

Doubtless the teachings of Premillennialism result from the conclusion that, since Christ hasn’t physically returned to earth, raised the dead, and established a visible, earthly kingdom, the prophetic passages of the New Testament are unfulfilled. I affirm that the Bible does communicate truth about God and His Kingdom, but the reader must be aware that it communicates in symbolism and idioms that require appropriate interpretation. When Christ tells the High Priest “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven”, one needs to know that “coming in the clouds” is not a description of how he travels, but is code for divine punishment. ( King James Version, Matt. 26:64 )

More importantly, the Bible reader must understand that prophecy is not offered in scripture to satisfy curiosity or even to prepare us for coming calamities, but to call people to faithfulness to their moral responsibility as believers. In the context of Jewish and Christian religion, a prophet is not someone who predicts future events, but one who acts as a mouthpiece for God, to warn His people to return to full obedience. This is the chief purpose of Old Testament prophecy, pronouncing God’s judgment on Israel for disobedience and apostasy. New Testament prophecy is in fact no different, decreeing the fate of Israel for the ultimate apostasy of executing as a criminal their Messiah, Jesus. This is where “end of the World” gets garbled in interpretation from the context of the Bible narrative to the common parlance of our day. The Synoptic gospels contain the account of the Olivet discourse, which begins with Christ shocking His disciples by predicting the razing of the Temple. The astounded apostles then ask him, “…and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” ( Matt. 24:3 ) Greek manuscripts of the New Testament show that the word rendered in English as “world” is eon, in our day more accurately translated as “age“. The apostles were concerned about the end of the Era of Jewish Temple worship, not the dissolution of the created order. For them the Old Covenant paradigm was the world, their chief point of religious and national identity, and it’s destruction marked a shattering change for them.

Finally, I am convinced that the fearful events predicted in various Bible passages were fulfilled in the past, from both the immediate time-frame references in the texts themselves, and other internal textual evidence. The example of time frames are in Revelation, “to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass,” and one verse later, “Blessed is he that readeth, …and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” ( Rev. 1:1, 1:3)

And that Revelation is about events that were concurrent with the Jewish War of 67-70 AD, can be shown in the following cross-reference. Luke’s Gospel records Christ admonishing the women that lament His execution saying, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.” ( Luke 23:29 & 30 ) This dire remark is echoed in Revelation as the vision to John is begun in earnest, “ …said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb…” ( Rev. 6:16 )

From this we can conclude that what Christ warned the lamenting women would befall them, and in fact did in the 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem, is what was foretold in Revelation would shortly take place.

What Christians have to look forward to from God is not destruction and wrath, but the fruition of a victory already won by the cross and empty tomb, the end of sin and the evils of the world that sin has brought about. While until then, some suffering may come our way, God will finally renew us, and all creation, in Christ.

Academia demonstrates again it's loathing of America

What a pathetic example of intellecual exercise. If this article is supposed to be a product of an enlightened mind, I'm a monkey's uncle.

From "First Things" magazine online, Catholic Persecution, Muslim Acceptance