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To: kosta50

So when the Bible says that an Overseer (Bishop) must be the husband of one wife, and his children must treat him with respect, you allow your Bishops to be married, right?


4,187 posted on 03/17/2008 5:38:57 PM PDT by irishtenor (Check out my blog at http://boompa53.blogspot.com/)
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To: irishtenor; Forest Keeper; MarkBsnr; jo kus; Kolokotronis; stfassisi; HarleyD; Dr. Eckleburg; ...
So when the Bible says that an Overseer (Bishop) must be the husband of one wife, and his children must treat him with respect, you allow your Bishops to be married, right?

That simply means that a bishop may not have more than one wife. It doesn't mean that a bishop must be married. Unmarried bishops is a discipline the Eastern Churches adopted as a matter of choice and dedication to Christ and the Holy Apostles.

If you believe this contradicts the Bible, then St. Paul does so too when he urges celibacy. Celibacy and virginity were considered virtues by the earliy Christians, including and especially St. Paul, the Desert Fathers, and the monastics who followed in their steps, ultimately imitating our Lord Jesus Christ who was a vergin, celibate and unmarried.

This is simply Church discipline, a choice, perfectly allowed. Your argument is on thin ice because Christ commanded us to pray only one prayer. Does that mean we cannot have any other prayers, lest we violate the Bible?

I hope you are beginning to understand where literalist private interpretations lead and why the Bible warns against them.

4,194 posted on 03/17/2008 6:05:08 PM PDT by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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