telosbound

The Limits of the Church

10K views · 2w ago · 55:39

Are there real sacraments outside the canonical boundaries of the Church? This video sets the historic practice of the Orthodox Church against sacramental rigorism, from St Cyprian and Pope St Stephen to the 1755 decree, and argues for the answer Fr Georges Florovsky gave in "The Limits of the Church" (1933): the sacraments outside are real, and the canonical boundary still matters for salvation.

Topics: Is there grace outside the Church? · Florovsky's thesis · St Cyprian, Pope St Stephen and rebaptism · Carthage (419) and the Second Ecumenical Council · What makes a baptism real · St John of Damascus

Eastern Mysticism vs Western Rationalism?

21K views · 4w ago · 22:16

St Gregory Palamas argues from the natural world that the world had a beginning. Thomas Aquinas, the supposed arch-rationalist, says only faith can know that it did. So who is the rationalist?

Topics: Palamas, Aquinas, and a question · The East–West narrative · Where it came from: the Slavophiles · Eurasianism and Spengler · Lossky's genealogy of Western error · What the Greeks actually criticized

Dogma and the Church - Orthodox Dogmatic Theology

2.3K views · 1mo ago · 51:44

Guest: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology

Today we (finally) cover chapter four of St. Dumitru Staniloae’s Experience of God (vol 1). If you’d like to support our work, please consider becoming a YouTube member or a Patron for lots of bonus content and other cool perks.

God saved the world by destroying it

7.7K views · 2mo ago · 12:25

God makes the world in seven days and takes it apart in forty. The water that drowns the world is the water that lifts the ark. One act, two sides. This video follows the Flood from Cain to Golgotha: what Noah's name spells backwards, why Genesis calls the pitch on the ark by the word it later uses for atonement, what a raven and a dove have to do with your baptism, and where the technology to build the ark came from.

When sin became flesh

4.8K views · 2mo ago · 11:28

By Genesis 6, the world has filled with violence. The line of Cain has risen to power, building cities and forging weapons, turning God's gifts into instruments of death. At the head of it stands Lamech, singing over the corpse of a man he killed and boasting that his vengeance will surpass even God's. But the corruption runs even deeper than merely human evil.

Topics: The Song of the Sword · Sin is self-destruction · The false incarnation

When the ground drank the blood of God

8K views · 3mo ago · 10:38

The first man ever born grew up to kill his brother. We tend to read Cain and Abel as a mere moral lesson, but the text is stranger - with more metaphysical implications - than that. Two brothers come to the same gate with two gifts. One is received. One is refused.

How God quenched the flaming sword

6.7K views · 3mo ago · 10:47

Genesis opens with light spoken into a void and closes Eden with a flaming sword. The sword is stranger than the picture we inherited. Genesis lists it separately from the cherubim, and it spins on its own, engulfed in flames. This video follows that fire from Eden's gate to the offering of Cain and Abel, from Israel's altars to Golgotha, and asks what the Church means when she sings that the wood of the Cross quenched the flame.

Topics: The angelic guards · The sacrifice at the gate · The cross replaces the sword

Scripture, Tradition, and Doctrinal Development - Orthodox Dogmatic Theology

1.2K views · 3mo ago · 57:09

Guest: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology

In this video we cover the third chapter of St. Dumitru Staniloae’s Experience of God (Volume 1) which is concerned with the Orthodox view of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. If you’d like to support our work, please consider becoming a YouTube member or a Patron for lots of bonus content and other cool perks.

Topics: More Orthodox e-drama · Lecture

The devil spread the Gospel

13K views · 3mo ago · 15:12

Satan was made the guardian of Eden and the servant of the creature God meant to raise above the angels. He refused. What followed was a war he has lost with every weapon he ever picked up. This video traces the accuser from the throne room of Job and Zechariah, through the curse of Genesis 3 and its foreshadowing in Goliath, Sisera, and Abimelech, to the war in heaven of Revelation 12. Every plan he made grew the Church he tried to destroy.

Topics: The pride of the demons · The curse of the devil · The grave the devil dug himself

Understanding God's Revelation - Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (w/Q&A)

1.5K views · 3mo ago · 1:00:04

Guests: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, Understanding God's Revelation

Going through chapter 2 of St. Dumitru Staniloae’s “The Experience of God”. If you’d like to support our work, please consider becoming a YouTube member or a Patron for lots of bonus content and other cool perks. And, of course, make sure to read the Church Fathers on

Topics: Lecture · Q&A

God's Revelation in Nature - Orthodox Dogmatic Theology

2.3K views · 3mo ago · 1:09:40

Guest: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology

Here begins our bi-weekly livestreams going chapter by chapter through all six volumes of the Experience of God by St. Dumitru Staniloae. On Thursday I’ll be covering chapter 2 at 6 PM PST. If you’d like to support our work, please consider becoming a YouTube member or a Patron for lots of bonus content and other cool perks.

Topics: Natural Revelation - St. Dumitru Staniloae · Q&A

This angel is literally God

20K views · 3mo ago · 11:38

The very first thing God does is create heaven, a dwelling place for Him to live, and He does not live there alone. While the foundations were laid, the morning stars were already singing. This is the divine council, the gathering of angels who stand in the throne room and carry God's own work down into creation. This video traces what an angel is. A messenger who brings heaven to earth, and a tutor who raises the human race so it can one day climb past him.

Topics: The divine council · The kenosis of the angels · War in heaven

The World is Created on the Cross

40K views · 4mo ago · 13:45

Genesis says creation was finished on the seventh day. The Gospel of John says it was finished on the Cross. This video follows that single thread from the first page of Scripture to Golgotha to answer the question: when was the world actually made? Along the way we look at why Day Two is the only day God never calls "good," what the firmament has to do with a body beaten and nailed to wood, and how St. Maximus the Confessor read the whole of creation through the Cross.

Topics: The day that isn't good · Man, microcosm of creation · When God dies, the world is made

Why God hung naked

7.3K views · 4mo ago · 12:48

Why does the Bible care so much about clothing? Why fig leaves, then skins, then a priest's vestment, then a seamless tunic the soldiers refuse to tear? And why does God Himself end up hanging on a tree with nothing on at all This video follows one thread—the garment—from the shame in Eden to the cross to the empty tomb, and the curse Christ takes onto Himself by hanging exposed.

Topics: Firmament and fig leaves · Barriers and communion · God tears the veil

The devil ate Adam

14K views · 5mo ago · 12:39

The serpent tricked Adam and Eve into eating from the tree. A few verses later, God tells the serpent what his food will be: dust. The same dust Adam is becoming. This video walks through the curse on Adam, the curse on the serpent, and the curse Christ takes on Himself—and the strange logic by which the dust-eater ends up consumed by what he tried to consume.

Topics: What is death? · Who is the Serpent? · How Christ overcomes death and destroys the Serpent