Catechumen questionnaire number 1/of 999

My priest has asked for the following information on Facebook. Facebook. Ugh. So, a blog post instead. 

Questions in bold:

Anybody should be able to answer these questions!

Please describe your former beliefs. Use multiple sheets of paper if necessary. 

My beliefs were the apostles creed with a big caveat on the One Apostolic Catholic church part with the redefinition of all that to mean anyone calling themselves Christian.

I believed God had wrath on humanity that was poured out on Christ at the cross, and if you didn't believe, that wrath still was on you.

I believed that one you were saved you were always saved, and that anyone who claimed to be saved and acted bad wasn't really saved to begin with.

I believed in the Great Apostasy, but it was 1500 years not the 1800 years as reported by Joseph Smith.

Please describe the good things in your former beliefs. This would involve practices, doctrines and the culture.

I was (am) Trinitarian. I believed in sharing the Gospel with the lost. Evangelicals give a lot of time and money to their churches and communities. Bible study is very important.  

Please describe the bad things in your former beliefs. This would involve practices, doctrines and the culture.

Because of the priesthood of all believers doctrine we were all our own pope. Self delusion is rampant. Because of the fear of being seen to preach salvation by works, asceticism was unknown. When the need was felt for asceticism it was filled with fads like the Daniel fast or whatever Zondervan needed to move that month. Because the church was a democracy, worldliness came in rapidly. Feminism is in firm control of Protestantism now.

What are the best things for you about coming to the Orthodox Church? Don’t be cheap. You should come up with at least three.

The wonder of tactile succession of bishops.

Icons. Beautiful mystical icons. 

Dinner after church every Sunday. 

Standing can be a form of exercise. 

Candles.

Cool hats.

It is moving to see the children line up and cross their arms on Sunday morning.

Theotokis!

Would you please mention three things that you think are different about the Orthodox Church in your former beliefs and/or practices?

Infant baptism.

Infant communion.

Authority.

Do you have any struggles with differences between Orthodox doctrine, practice or culture as you experienced it so far, with your former doctrine, practices or culture? Your answer may also include how your family members or friends think about your desire to convert the church.

The insistence that the Orthodox Church is The church and all the others aren't. This is also why I joined. 

The Orthodox faith demands a lot more of you that other churches, especially time. 

Fasting when you are the only Orthodox in a home is a disruption for everyone. My family has been extremely supportive and changed the meals to accommodate me. It has not been easy on them, but it has made me feel their love in a new and more profound way.

Describe what your former beliefs taught about salvation. Now do the same for the Orthodox Church.

I understood salvation to be a substitution of Jesus for me in God's wrath. You could not add to God's righteousness or subtract from it. Judgement day would be a court trial where Jesus would judge you guilty, but pay the fine Himself. Then you would go to heaven and the lost would go to Hell.

My limited understanding of Orthodox teaching of salvation, is that Adam and Eve chose to break relationship with God to become individuals. This tarnished God's image within us and left us with sin. We sin because we turned into a cul de sac o' death. Jesus became man to reunite the human and the divine in a man. Just like when Jesus touched a leper and rather than Jesus becoming unclean, the leper became clean, when Jesus died He broke death. Things run in reverse when Jesus is involved.  This gave all men the ability clean God's image in themselves. God has done everything for anyone to be saved, but we must accept it.

So because we are made in the image of God, we are eternal. We will spend eternity facing God. If we love God, and are becoming like Him more every day, His holiness is a warm loving embrace. If we cling to our right to rule ourselves and reject God all our lives here, that pride and sin will cause God's holiness to be an eternal consuming fire. 

So salvation is yielding constantly to God's efforts to rid of us of sin and anything that is not God. So we become like Christ in the process called theosis. This is repentance. Every day and in every way repenting from sin, and practicing love. Moving away from being fallen to be raised up. It is hard because we cling to out rights. It is easy because God has done the work.   

Why do you think fasting is emphasized in the Orthodox Church?

I think it is to show how little self control you really have. It is also an exercise in obedience.

What you think about our long services?

They are long.

Why do you think we have so many prayers that are deeply theological and describe the Holy Trinity in various ways?

Repetition is a time honored learning technique.

Describe your patron saint, the name by which you will be baptized. Should know something about this St., and ask his or her intercessions.

St Judas Thaddeus was a half brother of Christ. He argued against Joseph including him in the inheritance. James said Jesus could have his. Because of this he was ashamed of his sin so was called brother of James from then on.  He wrote the book of Jude.

How do you deal with things in the Orthodox Church that seem very different or even weird compared to what you formally believed?

I came to Orthodoxy because on an intellectual decision that authority is important. I decided to eat whatever is put on my plate. I thought that would be hard, but it has been quite easy. If you look for reasons to argue, it is easy to find them. If you look for reasons to agree, you will find them too. I have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it has been. Orthodox doctrines make way more sense than reformation ones.   

When it gets down to it, how do you think we are saved? By faith, or by works?

I see it more like multiplication. Salvation is not linear, but an area. So 100% works multiplied by 100% faith gives 100% salvation. Like marriage. Faith has had its meaning changed in the last century. It now means believing something without evidence. Originally it meant trust. You believe because someone you trust told you. So you have to trust God about salvation or you will do no works. If you do no works, can you say you trust God? You cannot do any work which could save you. But you don't have to because Jesus did. But if you trust Jesus, you will do what He said to do, and He said for us to do a lot of things. So they dance together.