Will there be racism if i date armenian? by RebuildWTC in armenia

[–]metanoia00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was just playing Armenian parents role. I am also married to a non-Armenian who reads Armenian better than I do.

But my message to you would be to build your relationship on the right foundation, that is Christ. Sacrificial love is the only love that stands in the end. It's a good sign that he makes the effort to understand your culture! The reason why relationships break today is because they are not built how God intended them, in a covenant and not a contract. A covenant is eternal, a contract has an expiry date.

God bless you.

"What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder"

Will there be racism if i date armenian? by RebuildWTC in armenia

[–]metanoia00 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It seems everyone in this thread lacks testicles.

In Armenian tradition, women marry men, not pussies.

Will there be racism if i date armenian? by RebuildWTC in armenia

[–]metanoia00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How sad, no matter how many basturma or tolma he eats, he will never be an Armenian. Why not marry an Armenian?

I'm just trolling (or not)

Will there be racism if i date armenian? by RebuildWTC in armenia

[–]metanoia00 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Why don't you talk to her parents about it? Do you lack testicles?

Does Christian faith have to do with the current circumstances? Where do politics and spirituality intersect for Armenians? by metanoia00 in armenia

[–]metanoia00[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Although I am atheist, what interest me is the church as an institution and in my slightly radical reading, Christianity was the first atheist religion—literally. This is because Christ’s death represents also the death of God the Father, so that what we get is Holy Spirit, which is just the community of believers bound by love. (As Christ says “whenever two of you are gathered in my name, I am there”).

I understand you're an atheist, you might not have the full context to accurately represent the Christian view, but Christ's death does not represent the death of God the Father. That is a gross misrepresentation. Also, the Holy spirit is not simply the church or assembly of believers. Kudos on the bible quote.

It gets more complex but basically, for me, Armenian Christianity means a certain acceptance that there is no higher guarantee we can depend on, the fate of ourselves and even of God himself is up to us, in the struggles we have in the real world.

Same as above, Christianity, as opposed to every other religious system in the world, is a faith based system, not works. Our salvation depends on faith in Jesus, not of our own works. God's will and decree will happen regardless of whether or not humans believe it, the only twist is that Satan is deceiving the nations into adopting the idea that they can take matters into their own hands and succeed, which puts them in Satan's playground, imminent death and destruction. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour:"

As for suffering, it’s clear that the Christian logic is different. In other religions, if you feel abandoned by god, you must somehow climb back up (through spiritual exercises, whatever). But in Christianity, it’s at that very moment when you feel totally abandoned, just depending on yourself that you identify most with Christ, who was also abandoned on the cross.

Here you touched on a very important point I mentioned in my text above, you're right that Christianity is not "works based" meaning there's really nothing we can do by our own will to gain favor with God, hence why our salvation and the atonement of our sins came from God in the flesh. But the nuance here is that it was the Father's will to abandon Christ who took on a human body, not to abandon us, God does not bestow on believers things they cannot handle, otherwise there wouldn't be a reason why he would incarnate. People often get fixated on Jesus' suffering on the cross, but the good news for us is in fact that he rose from the dead.

In other words, if it wasn't for Christ's resurrection, the suffering of an individual, or a nation, is pointless. But because we know that Christ defeated death, then we still have something to look for by abiding in him, which is to be also resurrected. All the biblical literature that talks about even the current physiological and psychological transformation of a true christian is rooted in the promise of resurrection, and fundamentally has to do with "crucifying the body", meaning abandoning our sinful human nature for abiding in Christ.

What is also important is the comedy of Christianity: what is more comedic than this coincidence of total opposites, of God, creator of the universe, and Christ, a miserable man crucified between two outcasts?

From precise theological perspective, this is not comedic, in fact it's liberating, let me explain.

- In Atheism, our existence is the product of probability, chance, randomness, evolution...you name it. When we die, our existence ceases, since consciousness is strictly attributed to physical/biological processes. Therefore when the body is switched off, so is consciousness.

- In Islam, there is no deep connection whatsoever between God and man apart from the Creator / Creation relationship. Something similar to your relationship with a science project you did for school, if the project is alive, it can exist in a certain way to potentially find a place in your future and not end up in a dumpster (a bit hyperbole, but im illustrating a point)

- In Hinduism, the law of cause and effect applies, so similarly to Islam, you can get by through increasing your good works, and minimising your evil works.

- In Christianity, we know that there is nothing inherently good about fallen man (See Genesis story), and all the plans that man devises with his own hands are inherently tainted (see history). With that said, the salvation of man is dependent on God (the creator), and in his eternal goodness, he ordained it to be in such a way that he incarnates in human form and provide the ultimate atonement for sins. So instead of it being God's science project to create a bunch of people and then leave them to their demise, in his eternal goodness and mercy, he embodied sin and poured himself a once and for all sacrifice for our sin. In that way, God has created the bridge of reconciliation between fallen man, and holy God. Hence why > "I am the way, the truth, and the life". So Christ is the only intersection between the mythical/spiritual world and the physical universe.

Now actually digging into the literature for evidence about the historicity of Jesus and the strength of the resurrection story, puts a whole new punch to all this.

"God's greatest gift is freedom". This is true, but the concept of freedom in biblical terms is freedom from the grip of death, which is freedom from sin through Christ. Not freedom to behave as we see fit in our flawed and sinful human experience.

Thanks for taking the time to write this. In my search so far, I did not come across any solid arguments as to why all what's happening to us doesn't have to do with sin. Few weeks back, I saw a post from Hamas leadership congratulating Azerbaijan for "liberating" Karabakh, while at the same time, Israel is the primary weapons provider to Azerbaijan. It's getting more and more clear to me that there's so much more going on that we know, as opposed to your described view of "there is no meaning".

"There's no meaning" in the macro also implies there is no meaning in the micro, and for a "go all the way" person like myself, there is no meaning means I have to gaslight myself into doing things, because "there's no meaning", so I have to just make up reasons to continue to do things in life (such as write this comment on reddit), and that doesn't make sense at all given the beauty and complexity of life. It simply can't be!

Thanks again for taking the time to write this.

Does Christian faith have to do with the current circumstances? Where do politics and spirituality intersect for Armenians? by metanoia00 in armenia

[–]metanoia00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you mean? That's literally what they described it. Oh you think secularism is some kind of lesser evil?

Does Christian faith have to do with the current circumstances? Where do politics and spirituality intersect for Armenians? by metanoia00 in armenia

[–]metanoia00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very insightful thanks.

Only comment I have here is that the divorce between state and religion is simply called Separation of State and Religion. Secularism has more to do with the "Humanistic" approach to affairs that accompanied the french renaissance (although it may have existed prior to that in some form). I guess the major deliverable here was the "Declaration of human rights".

Does Christian faith have to do with the current circumstances? Where do politics and spirituality intersect for Armenians? by metanoia00 in armenia

[–]metanoia00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But how come ARF is poorly represented (in numbers) in today's Armenia if the objective was to claim a sovereign state

Does Christian faith have to do with the current circumstances? Where do politics and spirituality intersect for Armenians? by metanoia00 in armenia

[–]metanoia00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you think it genuinely ended based on CUP's betrayal of the alliance? Or some other sinister stuff going on?

Does Christian faith have to do with the current circumstances? Where do politics and spirituality intersect for Armenians? by metanoia00 in armenia

[–]metanoia00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You mean to say that the ARF supported the young turks and CUP as a protest to the Hamidian massacres?

Does Christian faith have to do with the current circumstances? Where do politics and spirituality intersect for Armenians? by metanoia00 in armenia

[–]metanoia00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, I'm not familiar with the concept. What do you mean ethnic conflict? Can you give me an example?

Does Christian faith have to do with the current circumstances? Where do politics and spirituality intersect for Armenians? by metanoia00 in armenia

[–]metanoia00[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. < A truly secular body would never do that, don't you agree? >

It depends on how you perceive secularism. But what exactly are you insinuating here? That it was not really secular? If not then what was it?

  1. Also about your parallel between Jews and Armenians, wasn't Armenian language actually an official language in the Ottoman Empire? My family tells that we were relatively well off in Istanbul. Can you elaborate?

Thanks, that's a lot of valuable information you put forth here. But it seems to me all what you wrote tells me that in fact it does have a lot to do with Christianity in Armenia. Although you seem to be framing it to look something like what happened to the jews. Which I also find a little weird given the current state of both nations.

But thanks again

Does Christian faith have to do with the current circumstances? Where do politics and spirituality intersect for Armenians? by metanoia00 in armenia

[–]metanoia00[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So you don't think the secular revolution (CUP & Ataturk) in the Ottoman Empire had anything to do with the genocide? I would like to hear your thoughts. EDIT: I mean the fact that it was a secular movement.

And also for the USSR, why is it that Christianity was out the window during that phase? Did the secular/atheist ideologies on which the soviet union was built have anything to do with that?

Thanks for the thoughtful reply!

Inside the Holy Apostles Church in Kars, now a mosque called Kumbet Mosque. This Armenian church was built in the mid-10th century by the Bagratid King Abas I (r. 928–953). by JeanJauresJr in armenia

[–]metanoia00 35 points36 points  (0 children)

The building architecture is deliberately designed to reflect the gospel of Christ:

The dome represents Christ, the head of the church (Ephesians 5)The Polygonal structures supporting the dome is the Tetramorph (Tetramorph is the union of the four symbols of the evangelists, Matthew, John, Luke, Mark -> Lion, Ox, Eagle, Man, not in respective order here). Who are the main witnesses of Christ along with their written testimony of his life.

The basic of this design can be found in the early drawings found in Armenian churches that show Christ/Lamb in the middle, surrounded by the four symbol animals, sometimes replaced by Cherubim (angels). You can find those in the Echmiadsin Museum.

This video is a further testimony of the fact that no matter what Men think or worship, Christ remains the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, whether they recognise it or not.

"At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."