0:03

Hi , this is Jeremy with Cloud of Witnesses

0:05

Radio . Very , very excited . Today

0:08

we have joining us Priscilla

0:10

Priscilla , who's my friend from TikTok

0:13

. How you doing , Priscilla ?

0:14

I'm good . How are you ?

0:16

Doing wonderful . Glory be to

0:18

God . You know so , priscilla

0:20

. You and I know

0:22

each other from TikTok

0:24

. How amazing is that . Do

0:27

you want to tell our audience a little bit about how

0:29

you and I met ?

0:31

Yeah , so actually I

0:33

was Protestant at the time

0:36

and I believe this was around

0:38

the time during COVID , where everybody

0:40

kind of was just we all joined

0:42

, got on the app and

0:46

you had stitched some of my videos .

0:48

You were Eastern Orthodox , you're still Eastern , and

0:50

Say Priscilla , tell our audience

0:52

, for those of them that don't know what stitch

0:54

means . What does stitch mean ?

0:57

So a stitch is like where I make a video

0:59

and then Jeremy would do

1:01

a react kind of to it

1:03

. He would do a reply video to

1:06

one of my videos and

1:08

eventually he had taken a break

1:10

and when he had came back

1:12

from that break

1:15

I was an

1:17

Eastern Orthodox inquirer and

1:20

now currently I am

1:22

a catechumen since December

1:24

3rd . Thanks , megan .

1:26

That's awesome , Priscilla , to

1:29

me . I'm going to give some color to that

1:31

because it's so true and

1:33

this is over the course of I don't

1:36

know , I mean at least

1:38

a couple years . I want to say

1:41

something along those lines where , for

1:43

the audience to know , I mean TikTok

1:46

, and here I'll just show just to give people an

1:48

idea of what

1:50

this world is like . You

1:58

know , TikTok obviously is very , very busy , A lot of activity . Priscilla has a great channel

2:00

on there and , Priscilla , obviously later in this episode we'll give you an opportunity to talk

2:02

about your channel and how people can find you

2:04

and whatnot . But on TikTok

2:07

there's something called Christian TikTok

2:09

, which Priscilla and I are part

2:11

of , and it's this kind

2:14

of a very large community

2:16

, yet a subset of

2:18

TikTok where there's a bunch of Christians

2:20

, Protestants , Roman Catholics

2:23

and Eastern Orthodox , and then

2:25

, of course , there's a whole slew of other

2:27

things . Huh , Priscilla , you got your

2:29

Mormons , you got your Jewish Witnesses . Oneness

2:31

Pentecostals , yes , yes yes

2:34

, charismatics , and

2:37

then you get your ones . You get your ex-evangelicals

2:39

right . You got these people who have left

2:41

evangelicalism and they've made

2:43

it their mission to talk about

2:46

the terrors of evangelicalism

2:48

. There's so many different perspectives

2:50

on tick tock and

2:52

it was in this kind of culture

2:55

you know this , this community that

2:57

priscilla and I met , and she's so right

2:59

because , priscilla , you were a protestant and

3:02

you were at the

3:04

time you were kind of looking into Calvinism

3:06

. I think Calvinism really appealed to

3:08

you on some levels and , as you know , I'm

3:10

a former Calvinist , so I completely get

3:12

it . Can you talk to our

3:15

audience a little bit about ? Well

3:17

, I think we need to get into your whole story really , but

3:31

I just wanted to kind of just highlight how it's been such an amazing journey to see

3:33

your kind of the what is it ? The marketplace of ideas , right , and in that marketplace

3:35

of ideas , you coming to grapple really with all kinds

3:37

of Roman Catholic ideas , orthodox ideas

3:40

, other Protestant ideas , you

3:42

know , non-christian ideas

3:44

, and for you to find Orthodoxy

3:47

in the midst of all . That is truly , truly amazing

3:49

. So as we

3:51

head in that direction , priscilla , can

3:54

we go back and talk

3:56

about who you are and

3:58

where you've come from ? Can you tell us about your

4:00

story .

4:02

For sure . So currently

4:04

, right now , I

4:06

am 28 . I am a mother

4:08

of two , I live in a small town

4:10

, I work from home . That's

4:13

pretty much where I'm at right now , nothing

4:15

too big or drastic . But

4:18

as far as my childhood goes

4:20

and my upbringing and up

4:23

to today , it's been a

4:25

journey . So , starting

4:28

off , I did

4:30

not have parents . Growing

4:33

up , my parents

4:35

were alcoholics

4:38

, they were drug addicts , they were

4:40

in and out of prison , they were very violent and

4:42

fighting , and so

4:44

they never once had custody of

4:46

me . I ended up going

4:48

to my dad's

4:50

sister , which is

4:52

my aunt , and both

4:55

of their mom , which is

4:57

my grandma , and living

4:59

with them , and they ended up raising me my

5:01

aunt and my grandmother Now them and they ended

5:03

up raising me my aunt and my grandmother , now my aunt . She

5:06

worked two jobs and so

5:08

she was always busy and she couldn't really

5:10

teach me anything about the

5:12

faith . I

5:28

did grow up Roman Catholic .

5:29

So she did her best to try and implement Roman Catholicism . I went to church regularly

5:32

every single Sunday I did CCD . So

5:38

she was devout . She actually went to Mass , took you to Mass .

5:39

That was an important part of her life , it sounds like For sure . But I don't think I was

5:42

catechized . Well , despite

5:44

going to youth group

5:46

and DCYC

5:48

and all of these you

5:50

know events , I

5:52

was never . I never opened up a Bible

5:54

. I was not told to read the catechism

5:57

thing about

5:59

the faith . I thought , for

6:02

example , the Immaculate Conception

6:04

. I thought that was to Jesus , the Immaculate Conception . I thought that was a reference to Jesus

6:06

the whole time .

6:08

Interesting . Yeah , I think that's , and I'm sorry

6:10

for cutting you off , priscilla , but I'm just I'm so fascinated

6:12

by your story and I want to really let you tell your

6:15

story . So I want , I want to get the detail

6:17

in there . Do you think that you weren't

6:19

catechized well because she was working two

6:21

jobs and so busy ? Or do

6:23

you put more of the reason

6:25

on the church itself , the Catholic church

6:28

? What were your thoughts on that ?

6:30

So , looking back , I do definitely think

6:32

it is the church 100%

6:35

, because not everybody

6:37

there's this emphasis of , or

6:39

overemphasis of , placing all

6:41

of the responsibility and burden of

6:43

the parents , and sometimes

6:46

kids don't have a two

6:48

parent household and so it's very difficult

6:51

and they also don't really promote it

6:53

, like during after the mass

6:55

or during announcements or anything to like go home , read

6:57

your Bible , make sure your catechism

6:59

, things like that that's

7:01

not really encouraged . And

7:04

then , yeah , things

7:07

like that , that's not really encouraged . And then , yeah , my grandmother she did not

7:09

know English very much at all , but I did see her

7:11

pray the rosary every day , so that kind

7:13

of also influenced me to do

7:16

that , and but outside of that

7:18

, I really didn't have an understanding or

7:20

or concept of anything

7:22

like the Trinity , I just

7:24

knew Jesus

7:26

was . I

7:28

didn't know all of these , that

7:30

it's so intricate and there's so many details

7:33

. And I do

7:35

100% think like , yeah , it is the

7:38

church . Because if you look within Eastern

7:41

Orthodoxy , I see it so

7:43

differently . Now , given

7:49

the godparents as well , especially within Catholicism

7:51

, you're usually given two and

7:53

they have to meet certain requirements , and those

7:56

requirements can be kind of hard to

7:58

find , so they usually just get anybody

8:00

that can meet the requirements , whereas

8:02

within Eastern Orthodoxy

8:04

, your godparents are very much and

8:06

well active .

8:09

And I think I think it sounds like you've got excellent

8:11

godparents , priscilla , if I'm here , or a

8:13

godparent , if I'm hearing you correctly , which

8:15

is pretty awesome . I think they vary . They

8:18

vary in how you

8:20

know connected and active . They are probably

8:22

dependent on their personalities , but I

8:25

do just want to mention .

8:26

In addition , I received all my sacraments

8:29

and then , when I was 19

8:31

, I ended up leaving Catholicism

8:34

on my own , as

8:37

I ended up getting married to

8:40

a guy and my first daughter's

8:42

dad and , looking

8:44

back , his family was

8:47

Pentecostal Interesting . Yeah

8:49

, his , his grandparents were actually

8:52

the . The

8:55

grandfather was a pastor , was the

8:57

pastor of that church

8:59

, he would call himself apostle

9:02

and yeah , and

9:04

I remember you

9:07

know weird things like being pushed back

9:09

and not feeling like I wanted to do

9:11

that . And also there was

9:13

like this false prophet that said

9:15

my sister in law that

9:18

was pregnant at the time , his sister , she

9:20

was of a boy

9:23

and named him Samuel and

9:25

she ended up having a girl . Me

9:29

not reading the scriptures , I

9:31

did not know any better . So

9:34

, as I was entering with him

9:36

in this new religion

9:39

or denomination , I actually

9:41

had no concept of denominations

9:43

, I just thought there was just a whole bunch of churches

9:45

and they're all local and you just go to

9:48

one and if you like it and if you don't

9:50

, then go find another one . And I

9:52

ended up being getting pregnant with our

9:54

first daughter and so the issue

9:56

came up with whether

10:00

or not we were going to baptize her as Catholic

10:02

. I did at the time

10:04

, still associate myself as

10:06

Catholic , and so I wanted to

10:09

baptize her because I knew that's what you

10:11

were supposed to do . And

10:13

even then , like I said , I did not have a proper

10:15

understanding of why we do infant baptism

10:17

. I just knew we were supposed to do it . And

10:20

then his grandparents called us over

10:22

to their house and they

10:25

explained to me you know , catholics

10:28

worship Mary and it's not

10:31

OK to put her on the

10:33

same pedestal as Christ

10:35

, and

10:38

yeah , so I ended up going

10:42

through with his family . We got her

10:44

just dedicated Dedication

10:47

.

10:47

I was dedicated as a Protestant . Yeah

10:50

, as a little baby , but go on .

10:52

Wow and yeah

10:55

, both of my daughters , I believe . They were dedicated

10:57

and so

10:59

that happened , but then , unfortunately

11:02

, that did not work

11:04

out . The marriage , you know , ended

11:08

up just not being healthy . We

11:10

parted ways and

11:12

then I ended

11:14

up getting a job and

11:17

then I met my second daughter's dad and

11:19

so I had her and

11:21

at this point I think I considered

11:24

myself just a floating

11:26

christian . Interesting , I don't

11:28

think I can link any longer

11:30

to catholicism just because

11:33

of the previous family

11:35

. My daughters , my first daughter's dad's family

11:37

got me out of that

11:39

and so priscilla

11:41

.

11:42

They , if I'm hearing you correctly and correct

11:44

me if I'm wrong their their influence

11:46

. The time you were spent

11:49

with your husband at that time

11:51

, they in essence convinced you

11:53

that , hey , catholicism is bad . And

11:56

so did you see yourself

11:58

as a Protestant . It sounds like

12:00

you weren't really thinking in those categories . You

12:02

just thought you were a Christian , were

12:05

you ? Was your faith important to you back

12:07

then ?

12:08

I believe that I knew

12:11

I was supposed to believe in God

12:13

. I don't think that ever wavered , I don't think

12:15

I ever lost my

12:17

faith , but I

12:19

do believe I was like a nominal Christian

12:21

, like you just believe because you know you're supposed

12:24

to , but you don't know anything about

12:26

Jesus Christ or what he

12:28

did for you . And so , yeah , I

12:30

knew I did not associate with Catholicism

12:32

at this point when I met my second daughter's dad

12:34

, but I also did

12:36

not know the terms like Protestantism

12:38

, and so I just knew I was like a Christian

12:41

or a believer . Yeah , I

12:47

was like a Christian or a believer and then with that situation , unfortunately , like

12:49

I just had , I guess , had a habit or I ended up getting into myself

12:52

into the same situation twice and

12:55

things did not work out with that

12:57

one as well , with that

12:59

relationship and

13:01

, um , he ended up taking

13:04

his own life after

13:06

we ended and

13:09

looking back , I'm

13:11

like I I do believe he would have loved eastern

13:14

orthodoxy . I ponder

13:16

about that a lot . Um

13:18

, now , and

13:21

I've healed from it

13:23

. It's been . My daughter now is

13:25

almost six years old , so

13:27

it's been a few years and

13:30

I've got the help that I needed for

13:32

that and I end up going to a

13:35

pregnancy resource center

13:37

that ends up helping me

13:39

. From there , they end

13:41

up referring me to

13:43

a non-denominational church

13:45

I end up going

13:48

to . So now , leaving Pentecostalism

13:51

to a floating Christian . I'm

13:54

officially a non-denominational

13:56

Christian At

13:59

this point . I end up going to church

14:01

regularly . This was something new

14:03

to me . I end up going to church regularly . This was something

14:06

new to me . The Bible studies were so new to me and I absolutely loved

14:08

them and enjoyed them , and

14:10

I even went as far as to get baptized

14:13

with this non-denominational

14:15

church and I actually had two of

14:18

my baptisms . Oh , wow

14:20

. So it was a small

14:22

, non-denominational church

14:24

. It was not a mega evangelical

14:27

church . I

14:29

will get'll talk about it more later

14:32

, but you know , I just feel

14:34

very honored to know you and that you

14:36

are sharing your story

14:38

with our audience .

14:39

I have no doubt is going to resonate

14:41

with people out there . I

15:26

also wanted to just say thank you to despite me being baptized and going to church

15:28

regularly and studies still managed to almost fall for mormonism . Yeah , tell how

15:30

this happened . Tell this .

15:31

I want to hear this whole thing , oh yeah , so just

15:33

for the disclaimer to be out

15:35

there , I 100 believe all

15:38

of this is from just not reading

15:40

the scriptures , not knowing the word of god

15:42

, um , which is why

15:44

I ended up becoming extremely soulless . Script

15:46

Torah , which we will get into later

15:48

.

15:49

Yes , we will .

15:51

Yeah . So , once again , not knowing the scriptures

15:53

, I ended up getting in touch with these missionaries

15:56

from the Mormon church , the church of Jesus Christ of

15:58

Latter-day Saints .

16:00

You mean they got in touch with you ?

16:03

This was during COVID too , so they

16:05

definitely reached out . They were

16:08

able to go through Facebook , and

16:10

so I actually never

16:13

ended up joining the church . I was

16:15

only involved with it for

16:17

three months . But

16:20

I want to emphasize that

16:22

it's so traumatizing

16:25

that even for a person like myself

16:27

, who was only involved for three months , there's

16:30

so much that you're just

16:32

affected by , and

16:35

that three months really felt like a year

16:37

. I was

16:39

attending their church every Sunday

16:41

. I was . I read

16:43

the Book of Mormon before I even read

16:46

the Bible . Wow

16:48

.

16:48

Did you know what Mormons were ? Did

16:50

you did people at your church ? Were

16:53

they like why are you going to a LDS

16:56

church ? Like , like , talk to us about that . What was

16:58

that time period like ?

17:00

Yeah , so I actually

17:02

didn't tell my non-denominational church

17:04

that I was attending this church

17:06

in secrecy , checking

17:09

it out , and my attendance

17:11

with my non-denominational church was actually

17:13

decreasing and I would go every once

17:15

in a while to kind of check in and make

17:17

it seem like I was still , you

17:19

know going to the church . So

17:22

I loved how family

17:24

oriented they were . I loved

17:27

that they were

17:29

very convincing and

17:31

they made it seem like like , for

17:33

example , they told

17:36

me that the reason

17:38

why there's so many 1000s of

17:40

different denominations is because you

17:42

only have half of the truth of different denominations is because you

17:44

only have half of the truth . The Bible is for one

17:46

side of the world and the Book of Mormon

17:48

is for the other side of the world , and

17:50

when you put the two books together , you

17:53

have the restored gospel in

17:55

its full lens and

17:58

you know the whole families

18:00

can be forever . You can get sealed

18:03

in the temple with your children , don't

18:06

you want to do that ? And um

18:08

, wow , yeah , all

18:10

of these misleading things they don't tell you . There's

18:12

a lot that they do not tell you . They withhold

18:14

from you until after

18:16

you join um , and

18:19

so , yeah , I didn't know anything , anything about mormonism

18:21

, um to you .

18:23

It was just some other christian

18:26

body that was like , hey

18:29

, we have more information for you and

18:31

and and . Because you were going

18:33

to that non-denominational church , it might have

18:35

been appealing . Because you're like , oh , this

18:38

, you know , because there are thousands of denominations

18:41

and I'm just going to this little non-denominational

18:43

church and you're telling me about this big

18:46

, full thing that gives the complete

18:48

picture like , oh , I can see why that's

18:50

appealing , you know .

18:52

Yeah , and so I

18:54

will admit to you know , at

18:56

this point , I was

18:59

gullible and naive . I

19:01

still , to this day , think I am a little

19:03

bit , but I'm at least aware of it now

19:05

. So , yeah , some other

19:07

things that I ended up doing with them

19:10

within this three months was I

19:12

began to obey what is

19:14

called the word of wisdom

19:16

, which is don't drink coffee

19:18

or tea , and

19:22

also I had downloaded the

19:24

gospel library app app , and

19:26

for them it's so convenient because

19:28

everything is on that app .

19:31

It's true , the , the , the Mormon organization

19:34

, right , the , the church of the Latter-day Saints

19:36

. They are very well funded

19:38

, right ? This is just common

19:40

knowledge . People know this . They have a

19:42

lot of money , they're very well organized

19:45

, they're very they're

19:47

administratively , they're run run

19:49

very well like a business , if you will . And

19:51

yes , like I've heard of these things , I've even seen

19:53

that they have other sources online

19:56

because , as you know , even

19:58

from TikTok , priscilla , there's all

20:00

kinds of X they call it XMOs

20:02

, right , x Mormons who are on

20:04

TikTok and , you know , on YouTube of course as

20:06

well , who are basically saying

20:09

hey , you know , try to open the eyes

20:11

of Mormons to say this stuff . You know you should

20:13

leave . And the

20:15

Mormon church has responded right

20:17

, the Mormon church has created websites

20:19

where they give literally

20:21

the answers , kind of like hey , are you being challenged

20:24

with this question ? Here's the answer

20:26

for you .

20:27

Yeah , and also they are

20:29

very cult like

20:31

. So they have a lot of attributes that

20:34

are very like . If you

20:36

try to point something out that's actually

20:38

legit , questionable , they

20:41

will tell you doubt your doubt before

20:43

you doubt your faith . I

20:46

personally , and also they

20:48

recommend you to stay away

20:51

from anybody that is telling you anything

20:53

negative about the church because it's considered

20:55

anti Mormon literature

20:58

or anti Mormon doctrine . I

21:00

ended up fasting with them for the first

21:02

time ever in my life I

21:05

began to dress more modest and

21:09

I will admit this , there's a lot of good

21:11

that I did take from them . You

21:13

know you take the good of what you learn

21:15

from everything , and what

21:17

I learned from them was definitely modesty

21:20

. So , yeah , I did many lessons

21:23

with the missionaries . I

21:25

got really close to the

21:28

church members . I even

21:30

got to experience general conference , which that

21:32

only happens twice a

21:34

year , where the prophet speaks

21:36

, big event where everybody gathers

21:39

and watches on their TV

21:41

to see the new revelation

21:43

, and so I thought that was really cool that I got to experience

21:45

that within just the three months that I was there

21:48

.

21:48

You're absolutely right , they're

21:50

not bad people . They

21:53

do a lot of good things . In fact , recently

21:57

there was the Walk for Life here

21:59

in San Diego and actually around the country There've

22:02

been various Walk for Lives in the pro-life movement

22:04

and Mormons are very pro-life

22:06

. I think you're , you know , lord

22:08

willing , you're seeing that all of

22:11

those things were little pieces

22:13

of the fullness of the truth , because

22:15

orthodoxy has all of that right . Orthodoxy

22:17

is all of that . It's

22:19

important to say that . You know we're not bashing

22:22

Mormons , we're not bashing Roman Catholics . Know , we're not bashing Mormons , we're not

22:24

bashing Roman Catholics , we're not bashing non-denominational

22:28

, uh , christians , because , by

22:30

and large , most people I look , I was there , you

22:32

were there , priscilla I think we were in some

22:35

way trying to sincerely follow

22:37

and find God right and have a

22:39

relationship with God . Um , and

22:42

, and all I can is let's , let's continue

22:44

to pray , you know , for for

22:46

those people in those scenarios that they

22:48

might someday , you

22:50

know , come to the fullness of the faith .

22:53

Going off what you were saying , with

22:55

the modesty and promoting families

22:57

and things like that , a

22:59

lot of it can kind

23:01

of come off as they

23:04

do it for salvation

23:06

, because they need

23:08

to do those things in order to get

23:11

to their highest

23:13

heaven . They believe in three heavens and

23:15

that , you know , marriage is essential

23:18

into being exalted

23:20

and becoming a god of your own

23:23

planet , and these were things that I was not

23:25

taught , you know , by the

23:27

missionaries and when I found out I was very

23:29

shocked and kind of hurt and angry

23:31

. Sure . So yeah , it is a very

23:34

high , demanding religion

23:36

. And , with that being said , I

23:38

had a friend who had passed

23:41

away from cancer in the

23:43

Mormon church and

23:45

I remember going to

23:47

their funeral and

23:50

I was completely shunned , I was isolated

23:52

, nobody talked to me , they

23:55

were taking pictures all

23:58

together smiling , and I

24:00

was just kind of by myself because

24:02

I had left a little while back

24:04

and I was kind

24:06

of outspoken about it and they

24:08

don't want you to talk about your experiences

24:11

. The brother actually

24:13

ended up coming up to me and said how did

24:15

you know my brother ? And

24:18

I told him I had met him while I was

24:20

inquiring into the church for a little

24:22

bit and everything you said about him

24:24

was true Like he loved nature , he loved animals

24:26

like pets inquiring into the church for a little bit and everything you said about him was

24:28

true Like he

24:34

loved nature , he loved animals like pets , he loved cooking and he loved music . And I just think it's really

24:36

unfortunate that they kind of outcast

24:39

you when you leave , because

24:42

it's not about how a

24:44

church treats you when you

24:46

join , because any church can be welcoming

24:49

. It's about how they treat you

24:51

if and when you

24:53

decide to leave and walk away

24:55

. So , yeah , most of the time

24:57

they end up just going after people

24:59

who are spiritually

25:02

, emotionally and mentally vulnerable

25:04

and I just have one of those people at the time

25:07

and

25:09

that's for converts , for

25:11

people that are born into the faith . Obviously

25:14

they're victims as well because

25:16

they're indoctrinated from birth .

25:20

Like you said , it's kind of this bubble right , They've created this bubble that they want

25:22

their adherence to remain in bubble right , They've created this bubble that they

25:24

want their adherence to remain in .

25:25

But once again , there are some things that I do take

25:27

away from them that were good

25:30

, like , for

25:36

example , one of the missionaries actually told me to , or they asked if I pray with my kids

25:38

at night , with my children , and I never thought about that and it's

25:40

literally because of that missionary

25:43

that every single night , ever since

25:45

I was with my kids at

25:47

night . That's awesome . But going

25:50

to how I got out

25:52

of that , I had actually

25:54

went to my last Bible

25:56

study with my

25:58

non-denominational church and

26:01

I had told them I

26:03

didn't just leave . I ended up telling

26:06

them this is going to be my last Bible study

26:08

. I found a faith

26:11

group that's a little bit more suiting

26:13

to me and my family and I

26:16

told them that it was the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints

26:18

, the LDS Church , and

26:21

then that's when they sat me down , they

26:23

pulled me aside from the rest of the study group

26:25

and they closed the door

26:28

and they told me the

26:30

deeper doctrines that I didn't know about

26:32

, and so

26:34

that's kind of how I got out

26:36

of that . I canceled my baptism

26:39

because I was actually supposed to be baptized

26:41

that weekend I

26:43

believe that week . So yeah , it's very interesting

26:46

because , overall , they believe in

26:48

three gods with

26:50

one purpose , whereas we believe

26:52

there's one God with

26:54

three purposes .

26:56

Well , they , they , yeah , I mean they completely deny

26:59

the Trinity , right they believe in . Really

27:01

, if you take their theory

27:03

of that , you know , when you are in

27:06

the exalted afterlife

27:08

, you will have your own planet , you will

27:10

procreate spiritual children . You

27:13

know , with this endless uh

27:15

, you know celestial sex

27:17

, like it's , you get countless

27:20

gods , right , you get countless , countless

27:22

, countless gods , and it's so . It really is

27:24

a a , a polytheistic

27:27

religion . You know , tragically

27:29

and sadly . And of course , you know you talk to

27:31

any mormon on the street and they're going to say no , no

27:34

, we only believe in one god . Because what they're

27:36

saying is what they mean is they

27:38

only believe in our

27:40

god , the god of this planet , right

27:42

, which is our father , right ? Who's

27:45

that ?

27:46

Father that , honestly , if there's

27:48

one term that really affects

27:50

me to this day , it's

27:52

whenever I hear Heavenly Father . Even

27:55

when I went back to my non denominational

27:57

church , I would say

27:59

that occasionally , from time to time

28:01

, like once in a blue moon , Heavenly

28:04

Father , and it really

28:06

, it's it , just it bothers

28:08

me so much .

28:10

But the idea has been so skewed

28:12

in Mormonism to

28:14

create because they believe we are literally

28:17

the offspring right

28:19

of God , the God the Father , in Mormonism

28:22

. From my Protestant background

28:24

I talk about this a lot . Actually , I

28:26

still have all kinds of Protestant hangups

28:28

, things , that ways of thinking about

28:30

things . One of the beautiful

28:33

things of Orthodoxy that

28:35

I love is this idea that you

28:37

know , because God is eternal

28:40

right , we know that God is , you know , has

28:42

forever existed and

28:44

he's completely infinite and

28:46

his love is infinite and his knowledge

28:48

is infinite . All you know all these , these

28:50

attributes of God , and so this

28:53

idea that we will forever be

28:55

learning and growing

28:57

towards God and

28:59

getting closer to God and learning more about

29:02

God . I love that because

29:04

it's not static .

29:06

Absolutely so

29:08

. Then from Mormonism

29:11

I end up reverting back

29:14

to my non-denominational

29:17

church . When

29:19

I ended up reverting back and sticking

29:22

with my non-denominational church , I ended

29:24

up becoming very hell-bent

29:27

on the scriptures . Because

29:29

I was so traumatized

29:32

by Mormonism I said , had I only

29:34

known the scriptures , or if everybody

29:37

knew the scriptures or read them , nobody

29:41

would be falling for all of these false

29:43

gospels . And so

29:45

I was very . I became super

29:47

sola scriptura . As you know

29:50

, I started even

29:52

going extreme to

29:54

Calvinism . I

29:56

considered myself a reformed

29:58

, non-denominational Calvinist

30:02

, if that makes sense . Yeah

30:06

, wrap your head around that one , yeah . And then I learned that it's not enough

30:08

actually just to believe in the

30:10

five points of tulip

30:12

and the five

30:15

solas . Just

30:18

because you're a Calvinist , that does not make

30:20

you reformed . And

30:23

I think once I learned that

30:25

I was actually shocked by that

30:27

.

30:28

What do you mean by that , Priscilla ? Can you say more about that ?

30:31

Yeah . So I

30:33

thought in my head I

30:36

can go to my non-denominational church

30:38

and have that personal relationship

30:41

with Christ On

30:43

the side . When I go home

30:45

I can do my reform studies

30:48

and I Calvinist and

30:50

the five solas and the 5.2

30:52

lip , um kind

30:55

of deal . And then I learned

30:57

that when you

30:59

zoom out in a scope and you see the forest

31:01

for the trees , historically true

31:05

reform Protestantism , the classical

31:07

high church Protestants , are

31:10

not the same as the

31:12

1800 restorationist

31:16

movement it's called the Scott Campbell

31:18

stone movement , I

31:20

believe and the

31:22

non-denominational people that I was a part

31:24

of . They not

31:27

them specifically , but the founding

31:29

like group . The

31:31

whole idea was no creeds

31:34

but Christ , not

31:36

hold on to creeds or

31:39

anything . And this is where you have

31:41

this whole . I don't believe in denominations

31:43

and it's just a relationship

31:45

. They

31:48

were actually trying to get away from things like Calvinism

31:50

. So it's not compatible with the true

31:53

1500 Protestants

31:55

versus the 1800 Protestants

31:57

.

31:58

It was that devolution , that continuous

32:01

, which happens in any sort

32:03

of revolution , which the Reformation

32:05

was . Our Reformation brothers

32:07

and sisters , they don't realize

32:10

how radical

32:12

the shift was that the

32:14

Reformers introduced . They don't

32:16

realize the radical paradigm

32:19

shift it is For all of

32:21

our Protestant brothers and sisters out there . I

32:24

pray , pray , pray that they

32:26

continue to look critically

32:28

at the foundations

32:30

of Protestantism because

32:33

it's so , so destructive

32:35

to the , to the unity of

32:37

the church .

32:40

I ended up

32:42

obviously stumbling

32:44

upon or discovering this

32:46

fact and

32:49

I'm a person who I can take

32:51

correction even though it

32:53

might not seem like it . If it's

32:56

proven , if it's fact , it's

32:58

fact , I have to ultimately accept it . I'm

33:00

not going to reject it or

33:02

be in denial or have cognitive dissonance

33:05

Like I want to know the truth . At

33:07

this point I'm thinking I want to know

33:09

the truth . Yes , when

33:11

somebody presented that information to me

33:14

, I was stuck in a loop of like well

33:17

, I either now have to still

33:19

be non-denominational or I have

33:21

to move up to reformformed

33:24

Protestant , the high classical church , and be

33:26

either Presbyterian , lutheran

33:28

or Anglican . Covenant theology

33:30

is actually what ended up really getting

33:32

me out of non-denominational

33:35

, at least for the time being

33:37

, because covenant theology

33:39

includes things like infant

33:42

baptism and things , whereas

33:44

you know within non-denominational and

33:46

Baptists and they believe

33:48

more so in adult

33:51

baptism and that it's spiritual , it's symbolic

33:53

.

33:53

You believe in baptism yep . From

33:56

that non-denominational perspective you were in

33:58

as you're coming into Calvinism , the

34:00

covenant theology is very eye-opening

34:02

right , because it fits all the boxes . You

34:04

can categorize everything , no doubt .

34:07

Yeah , and so my issue , though

34:09

, was accepting infant baptism

34:11

, because I'm like , in

34:14

my head , I'm thinking , no

34:16

, they can't accept it

34:18

. They have to be

34:21

consciously , like , aware of it . And

34:23

I was doing a lot of talking with

34:25

other people behind the scenes , and

34:27

what somebody told me was you

34:30

know , in the old covenant , god

34:32

did not care whether or not

34:34

a child knew or

34:36

could be conscious about

34:38

circumcision . You

34:40

know , he commanded it

34:42

, and so it's the same thing . And

34:45

also , if it's something good , why

34:47

would you withhold it from your

34:49

child ? You know , just because

34:52

your child does not understand how

34:54

to eat yet , does that mean

34:56

you don't feed them ? They

34:59

don't have to have a proper understanding

35:01

in order for the parent or

35:03

the guardian above them to

35:05

do what's best for

35:07

them .

35:08

You know we'll maybe talk about it a bit more

35:10

later , but you know , you and I

35:12

, you know we used to go back and forth on TikTok

35:15

quite a bit . You know , something I think we maybe

35:17

I want to remind our audience of

35:19

is over this course

35:21

of what we've been talking about more recently

35:23

, right , this , this Calvinistic

35:25

you know interest

35:28

that you had , et cetera . This is all

35:30

happening while you're on TikTok and

35:34

we're discussing it . And you

35:36

know we went back and forth quite a bit

35:38

of

35:46

occasions , priscilla , to your credit , where it wasn't necessarily me , but somebody would say something

35:48

to you and you would do a response video and say something along the lines of

35:51

you know what ? I don't

35:53

agree with Joe here

35:55

and here , but I will admit that

35:57

what Joe says here , I think

35:59

he's actually correct about that , or I can

36:01

. I can respect that you're . You were

36:03

always very interested , priscilla , in

36:06

truth , and you were willing to admit

36:08

, when you saw something eventually

36:10

, that you were like you know what ? I think that was wrong about that

36:12

and that takes a lot of

36:15

of strength

36:17

. It's that willingness that you showed

36:19

even back then that , I

36:21

imagine , ultimately gave you

36:23

the skills and the tools

36:25

to allow you to start to open your

36:28

eyes to orthodoxy . But I don't want to

36:30

jump ahead to that , but I just wanted to point that out .

36:32

I can't wait to get to the

36:34

reactions of all of the

36:36

people when I told them that I

36:38

was considering just considering

36:40

joining Eastern Orthodoxy

36:43

or inquiring into it . I

36:45

have not yet to take any of my videos

36:47

down because I'm not ashamed of them . I've

36:49

had people come to me and

36:51

tell me look at how quickly

36:54

you've jumped from religion to religion

36:56

to religion . I don't view it as

36:58

insulting . I view it as me being able

37:00

to be vulnerable . I've had people tell

37:02

me that that's respectable , that you

37:04

are keeping your journey up for people

37:07

to see you go through these changes

37:09

. So I do want to go back a little

37:11

bit and talk about Calvinism . During

37:15

this time I or

37:18

looking back , I do view it

37:20

now as God being a

37:22

very hateful and

37:24

angry God , and

37:27

it took a lot to deconstruct

37:30

from that . They believe in things like double

37:32

predestination , whereas predestination

37:35

is not bad in reference

37:37

to the elect . We just believe

37:39

in single predestination versus

37:42

them . They believe that

37:45

people are

37:47

it's decreed that both

37:49

not only go to heaven , but some are decreed

37:51

to hell , whereas we know

37:53

that theologically this is incorrect

37:56

and god

37:58

desires all to go to heaven and

38:00

through our free will we

38:03

go to , we

38:06

choose , you know to go , and

38:08

and so now I kind of just want

38:10

to talk about the different beliefs

38:13

within Protestantism that I

38:15

held on to . So we

38:17

have things such as the rapture

38:19

. You know , come to find out

38:21

that's an innovation that some

38:23

woman had a dream and then a

38:25

guy took that and ran with it

38:28

, and now it's this huge

38:30

thing .

38:31

Yeah , absolutely .

38:34

And then , of course , we have the

38:36

visible church versus the

38:38

invisible church . As a Protestant

38:40

, I believed in the invisible body

38:42

where oh , it's just , but now

38:45

I know that it is truly

38:47

God left a visible

38:49

church and part of it

38:51

is the invisible

38:53

body under the invisible

38:56

body of believers , falls under

38:58

that visible church . And

39:01

then , of course , you know , I would hear things like

39:03

it's all about a relationship and

39:05

to me , when I left

39:08

, I thought to myself

39:10

I want to deepen that relationship

39:12

A hundred percent . It's about a relationship

39:14

. An example or an analogy

39:16

that one

39:19

of our TikTok friends used was you

39:21

know , are you going to settle

39:24

for a relationship

39:26

with no wedding ring

39:28

, you don't have any commitment to

39:31

do , and or are

39:33

you going to go all the way and are you going

39:35

to get married ? Are you going to commit

39:38

?

39:38

And I say on that point , because

39:40

you know you mentioned how

39:42

you know someone or people said

39:44

to you you know , oh , you know , you're whatever

39:47

. You're jumping quickly from religion

39:50

to religion . You know , hearing your story

39:52

here today , priscilla , in

39:54

fullness , I've always , I think I've known a

39:56

good portion of it , but not all of it

39:59

. I don't see that at

40:01

all . You know , what I see is someone

40:03

who , in the early stages

40:06

, you were in certain places by

40:08

circumstance , right . You were brought

40:10

up in a Catholic environment because that's who your aunt and your grandma were right . You were brought up in a Catholic environment because that's

40:12

who your aunt and your grandma were right , and

40:14

that makes sense . And then

40:16

you know , you get married and they

40:19

were , you know , pentecostal or you

40:21

know whatever that sect was , and

40:23

so you were there , you know . But

40:25

I think , from that point your

40:27

story , I see this person who

40:30

is genuinely looking for truth because

40:32

you want that truth , and so that's what

40:34

I see there and I think that there's a , a

40:37

humility there . Now don't get me

40:40

wrong , can that be dangerous ? Sure

40:42

, right , of course we don't want to just be constantly

40:45

, you know , tossed to and fro

40:47

, you know , in the wind

40:49

or in the waves , and so I

40:52

think that that's actually a strength

40:54

of your story and not a weakness

40:56

.

40:56

And maybe he knew I couldn't handle

40:59

it all at once and I needed to go through these

41:01

things in order to make

41:03

it to where I am now

41:05

within Eastern Orthodoxy , and

41:08

so one of the other

41:10

many things that I had to

41:12

or I came across was the

41:14

Masoretic text versus the Septuagint

41:17

and coming to find

41:19

out that the Septuagint is the one that's most

41:22

accurate , or it's more accurate . It

41:25

was the one Greek

41:27

language was used

41:29

. Was the language the universal

41:32

language at that time for the region

41:34

or that area , and that

41:36

Jesus quoted often from it , and

41:39

why the Masoretic wasn't necessarily trusted

41:41

? Because the Jews kind of tampered with it

41:43

.

41:44

Let's paint this picture a little bit . You

41:48

have been , you know , at this point in

41:50

your journey you've

41:52

basically are , you know , kind

41:54

of pretty much a Calvinist , or certainly

41:57

appreciating Calvinism a lot

41:59

more . You're defending Calvinism

42:01

in a lot of ways . On your TikTok channel You're

42:04

combating Catholics

42:07

and other . You know , regular Protestants

42:09

who are not Calvinist , and you're also talking

42:12

with some Eastern Orthodox people . Can

42:14

you talk to us about that time frame

42:16

, because it sounds like this

42:19

is where Orthodoxy

42:21

maybe makes its appearance in your life

42:23

. Is that accurate ? Can you tell us about that ?

42:26

Yes , so I end

42:28

up questioning , yes

42:42

, so I end up questioning , so I'm still putting out Calvinist

42:45

content and what I believe to be reformed

42:47

content , as I am questioning myself and my own beliefs behind the

42:49

scenes , things like Sola Scriptura , where it's , you know , the Bible is

42:51

viewed as the fallible or the soul .

42:52

The soul , infallible , source of truth

42:54

and doctrine .

42:55

Authority . Yes , it's the highest

42:57

, and it doesn't mean that they can't go

43:00

outside or use other sources

43:02

. And um

43:04

, and that too is a funny thing

43:06

, when I left I

43:08

got a lot of people asking or

43:11

they'll always tell you

43:13

that you never truly understood it

43:15

? And my response is

43:17

first of all , I give them the definition

43:19

and I tell them I

43:21

fully understood it , I think . And

43:24

the second , people can

43:26

fully understand something and

43:29

reject it . That is an option

43:31

. Yeah .

43:34

I have to . I have to jump in on that because

43:36

, as you know , I was , I was a Calvinist

43:38

, I spent years as a Calvinist

43:41

. Okay , I was a Calvinist for for years and

43:44

you know , at the time , you

43:46

know I was very , very

43:48

interested in , I read constantly

43:51

in Calvinism . I absolutely

43:54

understood Sola

43:56

Scriptura and Sola Fide

43:58

and Sola Gratia , et cetera . And

44:01

they I get told all the time , oh , you just

44:03

didn't understand it , you don't understand

44:05

.

44:07

And yeah , I think that whenever they hear

44:09

that we don't believe

44:11

in Sola Scriptura , I think to them

44:14

what they hear is you don't

44:16

believe that the scriptures are infallible

44:18

, and it's like no , we believe

44:21

that they are infallible , we just

44:23

don't believe they're the sole

44:25

or only infallible source

44:28

. And so , as far as scripture

44:30

goes , you know , you'll hear oftentimes

44:33

that scripture can interpret scripture

44:35

. And I would argue

44:37

and disagree with that and say scripture

44:40

is clear in some places

44:42

, like I will admit , scripture is clear in some

44:44

places , but in a lot of other

44:46

places it's not clear . So

44:48

then that , then that's where you

44:51

know what are you going to do and that's where you get

44:53

these other , these , all these

44:55

other interpretations or misinterpretations

44:58

um , bingo , you

45:00

.

45:00

You nailed it , priscilla . You talk

45:02

to anyone , I don't care , go grab a denomination

45:05

. We can find certain passages that

45:07

they are going to say this is

45:10

clear . But then you

45:12

go and talk to some other disagreeing

45:14

denominations are going to say , no , that's , that's less

45:16

clear and that's , it's actually this scripture

45:19

. That's more clear .

45:19

It should be your guy , it's like and so that's

45:22

when I started realizing like , yes , the church

45:24

authority is important

45:26

and it does matter . And

45:28

and

45:30

then you , you , you get to the canon

45:33

conundrum , right , the question

45:35

how many books are in the canon

45:37

, or how do you know which

45:39

books belong in the canon ? And

45:41

then you have the people that

45:43

throw Second Timothy 316

45:46

, all scripture is breathable

45:49

except these books . Except

45:57

the ones that we're not referring to exactly , and so

45:59

it's like well , when it says all scripture

46:02

is breathable . What is all

46:04

scripture ? What

46:08

you ?

46:09

know like that is right there in itself , orthodoxy . It

46:11

, as you know it doesn't get too bogged

46:13

down in quote-unquote

46:15

, the strict theology of

46:17

this or that , but rather we know that christ

46:19

and they , through his apostles , created

46:22

a real church with

46:24

a real structure of bishops

46:27

and priests and deacons , and

46:29

that in that church

46:31

the scriptures have

46:34

come right . The scriptures reflect

46:36

the truth of the living

46:38

word , right , the living

46:41

body of Christ through

46:43

the power of the Holy Spirit .

46:45

I do now . I see it as Christ

46:47

being the head , the

46:50

church which he left

46:52

and is guided by the Holy

46:54

Spirit . It is alive and

46:56

well and it is showing

46:59

that it is prevailing every single

47:01

day for the past 2000 years . And

47:03

church .

47:05

Then we get these scriptures it's

47:07

so beautiful to hear you say this we

47:11

get these scriptures . It's so beautiful to hear you say this . You know

47:13

, having heard your journey , now it is you're absolutely . You've been

47:16

so blessed by God , even through the difficulties

47:18

that you faced in your life . This

47:21

was coming out in a time

47:23

when you were in TikTok and , like you had said

47:25

, I had kind of left and

47:27

kind of ironically , priscilla , the

47:29

reason I left TikTok is

47:32

because of this right here , me

47:34

and Nick started building

47:37

Cloud of Witnesses radio about

47:39

a year ago and it began

47:41

taking more and more

47:43

and more of my time . And

47:45

then I came back and I think

47:47

in I believe it honestly , priscilla

47:49

, it's , it's fortuitous , as

47:51

it was the hand of god on

47:54

this one of the very first things

47:56

I saw , for whatever reason , when I just

47:58

popped back on a tiktok , it

48:00

was a video of you and it was something about

48:02

you know , I could get the the

48:04

name wrong , but something along the lines of why I'm

48:07

considering orthodoxy or something like

48:09

that , and I was like Priscilla

48:12

, like Priscilla , priscilla , you

48:14

know what I mean . I couldn't believe it . And

48:17

so talk to us

48:19

about that , cause I want to know cause

48:21

I wasn't around what was

48:23

going on , during that time

48:26

period , when I was not on Tik TOK and

48:28

you were , you were coming to learn

48:30

more about orthodoxy . Can you tell us about

48:32

that ?

48:32

Yeah , so I was

48:35

talking to . I ended

48:37

up encountering a wonderful

48:39

group of Eastern Orthodox

48:41

brethren and

48:43

they kind of pointed

48:46

out all of these issues to me . They were very

48:48

patient with me . I was stubborn

48:50

, I kept . I had to get told multiple

48:53

like things multiple times in order for it to

48:55

finally click . Like as far

48:57

as the how do you know how

48:59

many books go in your Canon ? I would

49:01

try to dismiss it and explain it and

49:03

be very um , argumentative

49:06

or combative or you

49:08

know , and then , after

49:11

getting told so many times , it

49:13

just ends up , I don't know

49:16

, getting through , I guess . And

49:18

so , through those people

49:20

, I'm very blessed that they

49:23

worked with me through they worked

49:26

with me through these , these topics

49:28

, and I'll and I'll get more into the topics

49:30

that we were discussing . Like

49:33

we were just talking about

49:35

sola scriptura and

49:37

um , next is

49:40

once saved , always saved . We'll

49:42

get into that . But overall

49:45

, the gist is , yes , while

49:47

you were away , I ended

49:49

up realizing , or coming to this

49:51

conclusion , that it's not

49:54

just Catholicism

49:56

, roman Catholicism and Protestantism

49:58

, there's this third option

50:01

, and it's when

50:03

I discovered that I was like , wow

50:05

, like the West as a whole just

50:08

seems so messy , like

50:13

the West as a whole just seems so messy , and the wild , wild West , right

50:16

, yeah , and it's getting wilder every day

50:18

, yeah . Yeah , and so

50:20

I just looked at it historically after

50:22

the schism , which one kind of succeeded

50:26

a little bit better , and

50:28

so we'll get

50:30

into like the one saved

50:32

, always saved , and I kind of . The reason

50:34

why I do want to talk about these theological

50:37

topics is because I

50:40

had actually taken notes as I

50:42

was transitioning and leaving

50:44

out of Protestantism into Orthodoxy , just

50:47

because I didn't want to forget what

50:49

my thought process was

50:51

like . Because I think oftentimes what

50:53

ends up happening is one

50:55

of two things either one , a

50:58

person is born catholic and

51:00

so they can never understand a protestant's

51:03

mind and they and

51:05

it almost comes off as mockery they mock

51:07

protestants . Or two

51:09

, um , they , they end

51:11

up leaving Protestantism and they convert

51:14

to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy

51:16

, but then they forget what

51:18

it was like being in their position

51:20

. And so I told myself I

51:22

never want to talk down on

51:25

my non-denominational

51:27

brothers and sisters and or

51:29

anybody . That because

51:31

and that's also something that I really love about

51:34

orthodoxy and at

51:36

the very end I'll kind of wrap it up

51:38

with all the things that I love about

51:40

eastern orthodoxy and one of

51:42

these things is , um , this

51:44

whole mindset or or mantra

51:46

of heterodox

51:48

versus heretic right .

51:50

Like .

51:52

Catholics deem you heretic

51:54

, whereas the East

51:56

handles people with

51:58

delicacy and , like

52:01

I said , I've seen nothing but love , grace

52:03

and mercy within Eastern Orthodoxy

52:05

and

52:07

I kind of just want to give that back , because these people

52:10

just need correction

52:12

. They don't need to be condemned , they need

52:14

to be corrected with

52:16

love and out of love . Going

52:19

back to some of the talking points that

52:21

I was doing behind the scenes

52:23

with these Eastern Orthodox brethren

52:27

and friends , one

52:29

of them , you know , as we mentioned , with soul script Torah

52:32

. This next one is one saved , always saved

52:34

, and I

52:37

learned that it was . It's a heresy , called

52:40

fatalism to actually

52:42

believe that . Well , for

52:45

one within Calvinism , it's a heresy

52:47

because you're , you're saying that somebody's fate

52:50

is already doomed to

52:52

hell . So that's them . And

52:55

then the flip side , even if you're not

52:57

Calvinist and you're just an evangelical and

52:59

you say I know I'm saved

53:01

, once saved , always saved . Eternal security

53:04

, preservation of the saints , perseverance

53:06

of the saints , whatever you want to call it , perseverance

53:13

of the saints , whatever you want to call it , um , that is still fatalism . You're saying that

53:15

your fate , you know where your fate is and that you're going to go

53:17

to heaven . So , um

53:20

, that I learned and I and I , I

53:22

was told . I think it was condemned actually in a

53:24

council , the council of jerusalem

53:27

, not the first one in acts but

53:29

but the Council of Jerusalem later

53:33

, and I think it was that one where fatalism

53:35

was actually addressed .

53:38

Can I speak to that a little bit , priscilla

53:40

, because it is ? It's such an important point and

53:42

I want to speak more to the you

53:46

know the practice , the praxis

53:48

in orthodoxy . What's so

53:50

important and so beautiful about

53:53

orthodoxy in relation to how

53:55

it's different from

53:57

the determinism

54:00

, the fatalism , you know , of

54:02

the once saved , always saved , belief

54:05

, is that , because I've seen

54:07

it and I saw it in my own life as

54:09

a Protestant , when I was a Protestant and

54:11

I was a , you know , I believed in once

54:13

saved , always saved for a time . It's

54:16

, it's . We talked earlier about the static

54:19

, that static nature and it's so true

54:21

of in the West , the way we think of things in

54:23

the West , of this

54:25

idea I'm saved . It

54:27

happened on October 27thober

54:30

27th , you know , whatever , you

54:32

know , 2012 , whatever it was , that's

54:35

it . And it's kind

54:37

of like , well , now what , now what

54:39

? And and I believe

54:41

it's one of the reasons , priscilla , that

54:44

in protestantism , people

54:46

tend to spin

54:48

out of the church over time

54:51

. Right , there's people leaving Protestantism

54:54

in droves , right , they call them nuns

54:56

, n-o-n-e . Right , like

54:59

none , like no religion , but they still

55:01

think they're Christian in some way , even

55:03

though they don't go to church . It's because

55:05

, why ? Why go to church

55:08

? You're saved , you're saved

55:10

. There's

55:13

no relationship that we talked about , right . There's

55:15

no involvement , there's no free will in the

55:17

sense of , hey , I am trying

55:19

every single day to

55:22

be that prodigal that's

55:24

coming back right . I'm trying every single

55:26

day to learn and grow

55:29

in Christ . To me

55:31

, it's one of the most important elements

55:33

of the distinctions

55:35

between orthodoxy and people

55:38

who are , you know , once saved , always saved

55:40

, is that our faith is meant

55:42

to be lived , right . Paul says offer

55:44

yourselves as living sacrifices

55:47

, right ? So , anyways , I

55:49

love that you brought that up . Thank you

55:51

for bringing that to our attention , because

55:54

it is , it is a very important distinction

55:57

between our groups .

55:59

Not only are we saved , but

56:01

we're being saved and we hope

56:04

to be saved . And so I

56:06

actually have a tattoo on me

56:08

of a scripture 1 Corinthians

56:10

118 , where it

56:12

says for the message of the cross

56:15

is folly , it's foolish

56:17

. To those who are perishing

56:20

I-N-G . Perishing

56:23

, not perished . But

56:25

to us who are being

56:27

saved , not saved , being

56:30

I-N-G again , it is

56:32

the power of God . And

56:35

so , yeah , or I would like

56:37

to go on to the topic of faith

56:39

alone sola fide

56:42

, no works or

56:44

works cannot save you . And

56:48

so it's always this question

56:50

is faith a gift or is

56:52

it a work ? And I always

56:55

like to say that it's both , because

56:58

say very clear that

57:00

faith is a gift

57:02

, but that gift

57:04

must be put to work

57:06

, that gift needs to be used

57:09

, put

57:13

to work , that gift needs to be used , this whole works thing . The way that I see the

57:15

gospel is in the Old Testament it was works

57:17

out of obligation with

57:20

no grace , because Christ had

57:22

not yet come right . So

57:25

works out of obligation

57:27

with no grace , and

57:29

that was considered faith

57:31

as a whole . The whole thing is faith

57:33

. But the New Testament

57:36

you have works

57:38

no longer out of obligation

57:40

but out of love , and

57:42

now there is grace

57:44

because Christ now has came

57:47

and that is

57:49

now considered faith . And

57:51

then obviously there's topics like monergism

57:54

versus synergism . Right Do

57:56

we ? Does God do all

57:58

of the work within us ? So

58:02

those that believe in monergism . They

58:05

view synergism as bad

58:07

, because if you do anything

58:10

, you're taking away glory

58:12

from God . If you say you do anything

58:14

, you cooperate with him , you

58:17

have stripped glory from God and that's why

58:19

they cling on to all

58:21

glory to God . He does all of the work , none

58:24

of me . But what

58:26

if I told you that

58:28

by using the free

58:31

will that God gave you and

58:33

wants you to use to

58:36

cooperate with his grace out

58:38

of love , you are

58:41

giving him the ultimate glory

58:43

?

58:43

And he allowed in the Garden

58:46

of Eden , for there to not

58:48

only be the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

58:50

, but he allowed the serpent

58:52

to come in . You think God couldn't

58:54

have stopped the serpent ? Of course it could

58:57

have , but he allowed them . Why

58:59

, as a test right

59:01

To give the excuse me , to give

59:03

the opportunity for his

59:05

creatures to freely

59:07

choose either to follow his commands

59:10

or not because people

59:12

always ask you know atheists or whoever

59:14

they can say ?

59:15

why did he even put them there in the first place if he

59:17

knew they were going to sin and this whole thing was going to happen

59:19

? And it's like because if

59:21

he didn't , they would

59:23

have been trapped and

59:25

caged . And that is not love

59:27

. Free will and choice

59:29

are like inseparable

59:32

, like you know you .

59:34

They're together and but

59:36

that's not to say that you're saved

59:38

one second . You're not saved the next . This

59:40

is all within running

59:42

that race that paul talks about and you've mentioned

59:45

priscilla right to , so that we

59:47

might endure until the end . Ultimately

59:49

, ultimately speaking , it's

59:52

all in the eternal

59:55

grace and days of obligation . And

59:57

you know mortal sins and

1:00:12

did you commit a mortal sin ? You have to . You know all

1:00:14

these categories In orthodoxy

1:00:16

. It's much more about we

1:00:18

all fall . We're all falling short of the glory

1:00:21

of God . So what do you do ? Start

1:00:24

now anew .

1:00:25

Then Jesus said to the 12 , do you

1:00:27

also want to go away ? So

1:00:29

he's giving you the free will to choose him because

1:00:32

he loves us . And then

1:00:34

it says but

1:00:36

Simon Peter answered him Lord

1:00:38

, to whom shall we go ? You

1:00:41

have the words of eternal life . And

1:00:43

so we hear that because we love

1:00:45

him back , we

1:00:48

do we , we , we choose , we choose him

1:00:50

daily by the free

1:00:52

will he has given us .

1:00:53

He was telling them if you don't eat

1:00:56

my flesh and drink my blood

1:00:58

, there is no life in you

1:01:00

, Right ? And he repeats himself , and

1:01:02

it was a hard saying , and that's

1:01:04

why some of these people like we can't

1:01:07

understand this and they left , because

1:01:09

another crucial

1:01:12

doctrine of orthodoxy

1:01:14

, and that is , we believe in the real body and

1:01:16

blood of Christ in the Eucharist

1:01:18

, and it's it's a practice

1:01:20

to this day and it's one Eucharist

1:01:25

, and it's a practice to this day and it's one , unfortunately , many Protestants have completely

1:01:27

rejected and have moved away from . And I think it's

1:01:29

a great highlight with

1:01:31

what you're talking about , priscilla . We

1:01:33

have the choice every day to

1:01:36

follow Christ or not , as well

1:01:39

as to see that there are hard

1:01:41

things , right , there are hard

1:01:43

things to understand , there are hard things

1:01:45

to do . Orthodoxy is hard

1:01:47

.

1:01:48

It's so interesting because in

1:01:50

Genesis he actually commands

1:01:53

either Moses or Noah

1:01:55

, I don't remember , but I

1:01:57

made a video about this on my TikTok

1:01:59

, actually and in Genesis

1:02:02

that's the first time that he actually commands

1:02:05

do not eat flesh

1:02:07

and blood . And then the

1:02:09

beautiful parallel where Jesus

1:02:11

it's because we're waiting for him

1:02:14

to come down and then he commands

1:02:16

unless you eat my flesh

1:02:18

and blood . And then he gives the

1:02:20

okay and the consent and the command to

1:02:23

do it , to do so .

1:02:25

You can see where Protestants are

1:02:28

trying to fill the vacuum

1:02:30

. Right , they've gotten rid of all

1:02:33

the sacraments of the church , except for a couple

1:02:35

, maybe , depending on what denomination you're in

1:02:37

. And so they think , well , we

1:02:40

should do something , right , there should be something special

1:02:43

that we do with babies , right

1:02:45

, ceremonially . So they think , well

1:02:47

, let's dedicate them , let's pray

1:02:49

over them , right , and that's all great

1:02:52

, and that's fine , and it's you know , you can see

1:02:54

, it's a good intention . But they

1:02:56

don't realize the church has

1:02:58

had a ceremony for

1:03:01

bringing the babies into the church for

1:03:04

2000 years , right , and it's ? And

1:03:06

it's the baptism that you've been referring to

1:03:08

. You don't need a dedication , you don't need

1:03:10

to make it up on your own . Hey guys , let's

1:03:12

, let's call it dedicating . You know what I mean

1:03:15

, and so I love that , priscilla . So

1:03:17

thank you for bringing that to our attention

1:03:19

.

1:03:19

So , going to the non-denominationals

1:03:22

, something that I

1:03:24

think we all see present

1:03:27

currently in modern time is

1:03:29

you know , if you were to remove the sound

1:03:32

from a mega church and

1:03:34

just watch the video , you wouldn't be able to tell the difference

1:03:36

between if it's a church

1:03:38

or a concert . It's not a show

1:03:40

for us , us , it's supposed to be for god , and

1:03:42

the scriptures are very clear when it talks about

1:03:45

do not be conformed

1:03:47

by this world or do not be conformed

1:03:50

to this world because I

1:03:52

I really want to talk about

1:03:54

something here and can I , can

1:03:56

I show it ?

1:03:57

I , I think it's um so

1:04:00

awesome because it was one of the . Where

1:04:03

is it ? Well , you posted

1:04:05

so

1:04:12

there . You posted this video and I'm not

1:04:14

exactly sure what date this is , I can't see

1:04:16

it , but ready to be made

1:04:18

a catechumen tomorrow , right ? And you

1:04:21

said , yes , right , it's such

1:04:23

a beautiful thing . And then you posted

1:04:25

this video here . So that is

1:04:27

awesome . That's Priscilla right there

1:04:29

during the catechumen

1:04:33

, being made

1:04:35

a catechumen in the church . How

1:04:37

beautiful Priscilla . That is awesome

1:04:39

. Can we watch a little bit more of this ? Yeah

1:04:50

for sure . The spirit of air

1:04:52

, the spirit of God , the spirit of adultery

1:04:54

. So awesome , you

1:04:58

had someone video this

1:05:00

.

1:05:01

Yeah .

1:05:02

Oh , and there you are saying the

1:05:04

creed . I love that . No

1:05:06

, philly McQuay , we

1:05:09

don't have to get into it . What

1:05:12

I need to do , priscilla , we're going to definitely

1:05:14

have to have you on more , because

1:05:16

there's obviously so much to talk about .

1:05:19

So yeah , with these mega churches

1:05:21

, it's just interesting because you see

1:05:23

these 6,000 people who

1:05:25

they're not getting the help that they need . And

1:05:28

I actually know somebody on TikTok who they just

1:05:31

barely met their pastor

1:05:33

with him and

1:05:35

they uploaded it and I'm like that's

1:05:37

not good , that you just met

1:05:39

a pastor and there's no

1:05:41

way that all these people are going

1:05:43

to be able to get the help that they truly need

1:05:46

. Something else within Protestantism

1:05:48

that I felt was the sense of urgency

1:05:51

and responsibility

1:05:54

to share the gospel , and we know

1:05:56

that fear is from the enemy and

1:05:58

we're told not to worry or

1:06:01

be anxious During this

1:06:03

time . Fast forward . I actually

1:06:05

was going through something and

1:06:08

during this time it was very lonely

1:06:11

. People struggle with real things

1:06:13

and you know

1:06:15

, all you get told is we'll pray for you

1:06:18

or pray about it or read

1:06:20

the scriptures . That's all you have is the scriptures

1:06:23

and so there's no pastoral

1:06:25

counseling or advice that

1:06:27

can really be there for you and help you . Yeah

1:06:30

, I made multiple attempts with very

1:06:32

little to no

1:06:35

advice . You know , coming into

1:06:37

Orthodoxy , I've learned to love

1:06:40

the priest . I used

1:06:42

to be like you know why would I just confess

1:06:46

to another sinful

1:06:48

man when I can go directly

1:06:50

to God . You

1:06:52

know , going directly to God sometimes is

1:06:54

very lonely and

1:06:56

, as we talked about , god

1:06:59

left us a

1:07:01

church with a hierarchy

1:07:03

that is meant for

1:07:06

the people . It's meant to

1:07:08

be there to help us . So

1:07:10

I just have a deep respect for priests

1:07:12

and the overall role that they serve .

1:07:14

Amen , it's there for our salvation . That's

1:07:17

because it's so true Priscilla

1:07:19

, true

1:07:23

Priscilla again . The role of the priest and your spiritual father and being able

1:07:26

to go to somebody and talk about sin and your sins and get

1:07:28

forgiveness from God in

1:07:30

the supervision , if you will , of

1:07:33

the priest and the guidance of the priest

1:07:35

, the wisdom of the priest , is such a

1:07:37

beautiful thing . And you're exactly right

1:07:39

, God knew that his people

1:07:41

would struggle with sin and

1:07:44

problems , and you know tragedies

1:07:46

in lives . And so what did he

1:07:48

do ? He didn't leave us just with

1:07:50

a book , right . He left us with

1:07:52

people . He left us with the church

1:07:55

, right , and that includes deacons and

1:07:57

the presbyteras , right , the

1:07:59

priest wives who , as I'm sure you

1:08:01

know or you're starting to see , the

1:08:04

priest wives have an incredibly

1:08:06

important function in the church .

1:08:08

A fun fact that I learned was

1:08:11

that when the priest bows , that's

1:08:13

his way of asking

1:08:16

us for forgiveness , and I just thought

1:08:18

it was beautiful . Everything in Orthodoxy has

1:08:20

meaning behind it . I

1:08:22

also like that it's a case-by-case scenario

1:08:24

with priests , as far

1:08:26

as when I was in Catholicism

1:08:28

your priest was not reachable

1:08:30

at all . You could not just go

1:08:32

up to your priest like that after

1:08:35

Mass , but

1:08:38

after a divine liturgy during Trapeza

1:08:40

everybody's talking to everybody

1:08:42

and I just love that . That's

1:08:44

another thing that I also really love

1:08:46

about orthodoxy . But let's

1:08:48

get into the non-denominational

1:08:50

filler traditions that we were talking about

1:08:52

. I'm going to go ahead and name a few that I've

1:08:54

personally experienced within my non-denominational

1:08:57

church , and so

1:08:59

one example is recently , during

1:09:01

Christmas time , they

1:09:04

did a candle

1:09:07

lit vigil service

1:09:09

and it's just like how

1:09:11

you were saying they don't know

1:09:13

why they're doing it , but it's pretty

1:09:16

and so they just want to do it

1:09:18

. They don't have a proper understanding

1:09:20

, they just want to do it , and

1:09:23

so it's like it's interesting to see

1:09:25

orthodoxy trick

1:09:28

gets all the way down

1:09:30

to non-denominational

1:09:33

. They

1:09:44

maybe have like two , but understand

1:09:47

the why behind those traditions

1:09:50

. It makes you want to accept

1:09:52

all the other wonderful

1:09:54

traditions of the church

1:09:57

, the reformed Protestants , you have

1:09:59

them having icons of

1:10:01

people like Martin Luther . So

1:10:05

you see it kind of even in

1:10:07

Reformed as well . I do

1:10:09

remember during a Bible study

1:10:11

in a house

1:10:13

they had blessed

1:10:15

water and anointing oil and

1:10:18

it was kind of put up in a cabinet . You

1:10:20

know , even with fasting , like we were talking about

1:10:22

earlier , it's

1:10:29

basically non-existent in non-denominationalism , unless you specifically

1:10:31

are seeking it out or searching for it or ask about it .

1:10:33

Absolutely , absolutely , it's very much . You're

1:10:35

right , it's fasting . I spent

1:10:38

years as a as

1:10:40

protestant christian and in many

1:10:42

eras of that time

1:10:44

I was , I tried to practice

1:10:47

and believe and I was faithful , I think you

1:10:49

know , wanted to be devout etc

1:10:51

. But so it's very individualist , like , well , if

1:10:53

you want to yourself , you personally

1:10:56

sure go fast , right , it's

1:10:58

very lonely , personal , like you talked about

1:11:00

, protestantism is very lonely

1:11:03

Christianity and I know there's been a

1:11:05

Protestants that don't like hearing that because

1:11:07

they know I have lots of friends and I , you

1:11:09

know , we go to coffee hour , we have Bible studies and

1:11:11

we go preach on the streets . Yes

1:11:14

, we're not denying that . But there's an

1:11:16

element of Protestantism where it's very

1:11:19

much you , your Bible in

1:11:21

your room by yourself .

1:11:23

Yeah , there's no proper guidelines

1:11:25

or instructions on

1:11:27

how to go about these things . And

1:11:29

something else . That's funny they always

1:11:31

say pray for me

1:11:33

, which is like a tradition that we kind

1:11:35

of do , but then they don't

1:11:38

believe . They say

1:11:40

that there's only one mediator

1:11:42

between man and god , and that's jesus

1:11:44

christ . And so I'm like you

1:11:47

know , how can I ? How can I pray ? And also

1:11:49

, something else that I noticed as well

1:11:51

is um , the protestant

1:11:54

service is

1:11:56

just one big , huge homily

1:11:59

. And as far as like baptism

1:12:01

with the mediator , again , um

1:12:03

, they don't believe in a mediator for confession

1:12:06

because they don't like the priest when it comes

1:12:08

to the confession , a priest being

1:12:10

a mediator . But then they have a mediator

1:12:12

for baptism . They cannot baptize

1:12:15

. They don't baptize themselves , they

1:12:17

get somebody to do it Right .

1:12:19

And to be clear too , it's the

1:12:21

priest is not a mediator , right there , because

1:12:23

the Bible is clear there is one mediator between

1:12:26

God and man , that's Christ . Christ is our mediator

1:12:28

, he's our advocate before God . But

1:12:30

people can intercede Right , that's

1:12:32

the different people intercede . I

1:12:34

can ask you , priscilla , pray for me , right

1:12:37

, that's you interceding on my behalf . It

1:12:39

doesn't mean you're a mediator . There's a sense

1:12:41

in which a loosely sense , we can use that word

1:12:43

. But you know , mediator capital

1:12:46

M , yeah , it's Christ alone , absolutely

1:12:48

, and Orthodox are very crystal clear on that .

1:12:51

But I do love and respect my

1:12:53

non-denominational friends

1:12:55

. They were so nice

1:12:57

to me , like my church , we ended

1:13:00

on great terms

1:13:02

, like you'll have stories of

1:13:04

people who will question their priest

1:13:06

and I mean their pastor and then the pastor gets

1:13:08

all aggravated and they get ran out

1:13:10

or something . But mine

1:13:13

, I was still able to teach the

1:13:15

kids class that very last

1:13:17

time . That Sunday Next

1:13:20

I'm going to talk about all of the reactions that

1:13:22

I got when I said I was inquiring into the East

1:13:24

and finally move

1:13:26

on to all the wonderful

1:13:29

things that I love about Eastern Orthodoxy

1:13:31

. I had some people

1:13:33

say that I was brainwashed

1:13:36

. Some people said that I was

1:13:38

vulnerable because , remember , previously

1:13:40

I had stated that I was kind of going through

1:13:42

something during that time , and

1:13:44

so a lot of them were

1:13:46

like you were vulnerable and that's

1:13:49

why they got you . Yeah

1:13:51

, that's not . I had

1:13:53

a person that I was doing bible

1:13:55

studies with over the phone and

1:13:57

they were really sad and they were actually

1:14:00

sobbing that I

1:14:02

left and they were like who

1:14:05

am I going to do Bible studies with now

1:14:07

and I felt really bad . Of

1:14:09

course , you have people that were just shocked by

1:14:11

this whole thing because it happened so quickly

1:14:13

.

1:14:14

Everybody was just so blindsided , like what

1:14:16

Like it

1:14:18

happened quickly from the perspective

1:14:21

of like a TikTok viewer , but

1:14:25

it clearly didn't happen quickly as you talked about . This . Stuff was brewing

1:14:28

behind the scenes for a while .

1:14:32

Someone else said that I was spoon

1:14:34

fed , that they were spoon

1:14:36

feeding me .

1:14:37

You continue to search for truth

1:14:39

.

1:14:39

Yeah , and that's ultimately , you know

1:14:42

why I'm here today . I want

1:14:44

to put my testimony out , and if any

1:14:46

Protestant is questioning or anybody

1:14:49

watching , really I do want them

1:14:51

to know that they're not alone . And if I did

1:14:53

it , and you know , you

1:14:56

can do it too , and it doesn't matter what you've gone

1:14:58

through . You know the culture

1:15:00

shock , et

1:15:02

cetera , et cetera .

1:15:04

Absolutely Priscilla , you and me both right

1:15:06

, I'm a former , we're right

1:15:09

here on this call right now Two

1:15:11

former Protestants , two people who once

1:15:13

very ardently

1:15:15

believed in the Protestant perspective

1:15:18

and the Protestant interpretations

1:15:20

of scripture , including Calvinistic

1:15:23

interpretations , who are now

1:15:25

, by God's grace , in

1:15:27

orthodoxy . That's huge

1:15:30

Priscilla . When I

1:15:32

left Protestantism I

1:15:35

was Presbyterian and when I first started

1:15:37

going to an Orthodox church , I will never

1:15:39

forget the pastor of the

1:15:41

church , the Presbyterian Calvinistic

1:15:43

church that my parents were attending . They

1:15:47

told my parents this

1:15:49

particular pastor . He said to my parents

1:15:51

your son has left

1:15:53

the church .

1:15:55

I guess to finish off here I

1:15:57

have a list of all these

1:15:59

wonderful things that I just absolutely

1:16:01

love about Eastern Orthodoxy

1:16:04

. I feel like at this point right now , currently

1:16:06

in my life , I

1:16:08

am just absolutely obsessed

1:16:10

with Eastern Orthodoxy , Like I feel like I'm in like

1:16:12

this honeymoon phase , yeah

1:16:16

. So I think for me , like I said , the

1:16:18

really the selling point was seeing

1:16:20

the love , the grace , the mercy

1:16:23

, whole

1:16:28

heretic versus heterodox . I really

1:16:30

like the letter of the law versus the spirit

1:16:32

of the law , the

1:16:35

concept of letter versus the spirit yeah .

1:16:37

The spirit of law and orthodoxy yeah .

1:16:38

Yeah , for example , like we

1:16:40

know that the Sabbath it says in

1:16:42

the scriptures , the Sabbath is created for man

1:16:45

if he needs it , not

1:16:47

the man for the Sabbath . Man is not created

1:16:49

for rest , man is created for good

1:16:52

works , amen . And the

1:16:54

spirit of the law is supposed

1:16:57

to not just give relief , but give

1:17:00

relief and also point

1:17:02

and lead back to the

1:17:05

letter of the law . So

1:17:07

, for example , a

1:17:10

person freezing outside by

1:17:12

giving them a coat or bringing them inside

1:17:14

your house , you're giving them

1:17:17

rest and you are

1:17:19

fulfilling the

1:17:21

letter of the law . Right , you break the letter temporarily

1:17:23

for a greater cause by

1:17:26

giving that person relief temporarily

1:17:28

and then you point back and revert

1:17:30

back . It's always supposed to come back to the letter

1:17:32

of the law . And so when

1:17:35

he broke the Sabbath , he was by healing

1:17:37

that man , he was actually giving him

1:17:39

rest and so he

1:17:41

could participate in the Sabbath , giving

1:17:47

him rest and so he could participate in the sabbath . Um , another one with the spirit

1:17:49

versus the letter is rahab , which is jesus's 45th great-grandmother

1:17:52

, by the way . I don't know she

1:17:54

was known as like the prostitute and she

1:17:56

lied on with the spies

1:17:59

I think for jericho because she knew that

1:18:01

, like you know , lying's bad . I'm

1:18:03

not supposed to do that , but she broke

1:18:05

the letter . For the spirit to point back

1:18:07

, ultimately , to the letter to protect

1:18:10

me in human life ?

1:18:10

Yeah .

1:18:11

During the catechumen process you get guardian

1:18:14

angels . That is so cool

1:18:16

to me . The

1:18:18

godparents are actually active . You

1:18:20

know how I said , in Catholicism they're not really

1:18:22

nearly as active . They just kind of fill

1:18:24

the roles that needs to get filled , just so you can

1:18:27

get baptized and have godparents . But

1:18:30

, yeah , active godparents , we use

1:18:32

leavened bread . Christ

1:18:35

rises , or he rose , and

1:18:37

so the bread also rises

1:18:39

. Eastern Orthodoxy has

1:18:42

allowed me to put my guard down

1:18:44

and be vulnerable and trust

1:18:47

church authority Because , if I'm being

1:18:49

honest , I think Rome has

1:18:51

done a very poor example of

1:18:54

executing church authority

1:18:57

and that's why people

1:18:59

are so hesitant to

1:19:01

trust church authority , why

1:19:06

people are so hesitant to trust church authority and they view tradition as bad , because , oh , look

1:19:08

at these corrupt men and people cling on to the sola

1:19:10

scriptura , the scriptures .

1:19:12

Because , like I said , rome

1:19:14

has just , in my opinion , from

1:19:16

what I'm a , you know , understanding

1:19:19

um but the rome has

1:19:21

put a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths

1:19:23

, and so protestant yeah

1:19:25

, they're bad too , yeah works are viewed

1:19:28

as bad .

1:19:29

And yeah , eastern orthodoxy really

1:19:31

helped me unveil all that . And

1:19:33

and works are good and the church

1:19:35

is , is is . You can trust

1:19:37

the church right too . I love

1:19:39

the sacraments within eastern orthodox

1:19:41

. They're not

1:19:44

works-based , as we both know

1:19:46

. They are gifts . It's

1:19:49

interesting because Protestants who make

1:19:51

this claim that they're works

1:19:53

, they ironically end up being works-based

1:19:56

through many other various means

1:19:58

because they lack the sacraments

1:20:00

. They end up lacking the sacraments and end up turning

1:20:03

workspace through other means , and

1:20:05

so you have instances

1:20:07

like where they overemphasize

1:20:10

no drinking , no smoking

1:20:12

, no cussing . You have to watch the TV shows you're

1:20:14

watching , watch out for the movies , pay

1:20:16

attention to the lyrics and the music . Halloween

1:20:19

is bad , it's pagan , you can't celebrate it

1:20:21

, or any other holiday . Starbucks

1:20:23

and the Monster Energy drinks , you know , because

1:20:26

they have these symbols .

1:20:29

They become legalistic . Yes

1:20:31

, yes , ironically , absolutely .

1:20:34

I mean works based , and you know , no

1:20:36

tattoos . You

1:20:38

know , let's see . You

1:20:47

know , um , let's see , speaking of speaking of tattoos . So I added the two bars , I changed the latin

1:20:49

cross , I went from the latin cross to the obviously

1:20:51

well-known byzantine eastern orthodox cross

1:20:53

. I love even just the

1:20:55

meaning behind the cross itself . Um

1:20:58

, as we know , it might be inverted . My

1:21:00

camera , oh yeah , it's fine , it's fine .

1:21:01

No , it actually looks great . It looks perfect , at

1:21:04

least from what I can see . Yeah , it's correct .

1:21:06

Okay . So yeah

1:21:08

, there's three different meanings behind

1:21:11

this , but my favorite meaning is

1:21:13

where this

1:21:15

bottom line is actually pointing to the

1:21:17

thief on the cross . On

1:21:25

the cross , and it's an encouraging reminder to always , you know

1:21:27

, be like the thief on the cross who was ripped and even you know , um points

1:21:29

. It points to him , um . So

1:21:32

that was done recently , actually on my birthday

1:21:34

happy , happy , belated birthday .

1:21:37

May God grant you many years .

1:21:39

Thank you . I'm still trying

1:21:41

to figure out , like , what to say back

1:21:43

, because I know there are certain things that you're supposed

1:21:45

to say . When somebody says something , you

1:21:47

say something back , like my godmother

1:21:49

. When I went to church for the new

1:21:51

years she had said

1:21:54

or it was for january 7th because we're

1:21:56

old calendar oh , okay , interesting

1:21:58

, okay , yeah , uh-huh . So your christmas yeah

1:22:01

, so it was our christmas and she had christ

1:22:03

is born and I was

1:22:05

just like , like I didn't

1:22:07

know right right hey

1:22:09

, I didn't know you're supposed to say glorify

1:22:11

glorify him , amen , yeah

1:22:13

so I'm still learning these

1:22:15

like little things , yeah and

1:22:18

that's one of the beauties of orthodoxy

1:22:20

, uh , priscilla , is that there's so

1:22:23

the faith is so rich

1:22:25

. You have 2000

1:22:27

years of practice , 2000

1:22:30

years of saints , of fathers

1:22:32

, of the church , of people who have

1:22:34

lived in Orthodoxy .

1:22:37

Yeah , and one of the actually going off

1:22:39

that . One of the other things that I really love about

1:22:41

Orthodoxodoxy is that we don't try to

1:22:43

define everything

1:22:45

, like in the west , like there are certain

1:22:48

things that are mysteries , like the ukraine

1:22:50

absolutely we're not going

1:22:52

to know how it happens or how it transforms

1:22:55

into christ's body and blood , but

1:22:57

that's okay , because believe

1:22:59

it itself is revealed

1:23:01

, but how it comes

1:23:03

about and how it comes to and

1:23:05

it and it kind of that's kind of an arguing

1:23:08

point that you know the west

1:23:10

will make against the east is . everything's

1:23:12

a mystery , and

1:23:14

the truth , yeah , the

1:23:16

truth actually , though , is that

1:23:19

we don't under define

1:23:21

things , they over define things . So it makes it look like we're under defining things

1:23:23

and that we don't under define things . They over define things , so it makes it look

1:23:25

like we're under defining things and that we

1:23:27

don't define things enough , because

1:23:29

they try to over define . Triple

1:23:32

immersion you know , the Didache kind

1:23:34

of talks on that . That's kind of some of the

1:23:36

differences between the East that I like

1:23:38

and I love and I appreciate . Oh

1:23:40

, I love the icons . I love icons

1:23:43

, even though you know we get told

1:23:45

that it's idolatry . Realizing

1:23:47

that Luke , saint Luke , one

1:23:49

of the 12 apostles he actually

1:23:52

painted one of the very first icons

1:23:54

of the Theotokos , mary and

1:23:57

baby Jesus Something for me

1:23:59

was understanding

1:24:02

, or coming to this realization , that the body

1:24:04

of Christ is not divided . Death

1:24:07

does not separate the

1:24:09

body of Christ . Nothing can separate

1:24:11

us right from the love of God , and it even says

1:24:13

in the scriptures not death , nothing . I

1:24:15

love that Orthodox have Bible studies

1:24:18

too . Absolutely , absolutely

1:24:20

too

1:24:23

, absolutely , absolutely . I thought I was going to have to give that up and I was really

1:24:25

sad and I was like that's something that I'm going to really miss about . You know my

1:24:27

Protestantism and my Protestant church

1:24:29

, but Orthodox have Bible studies to

1:24:31

every single Wednesday . You

1:24:34

know , when I was Protestant I would say all these miracles

1:24:36

that are happening , you know

1:24:38

, with the saints and the icons and all this and

1:24:40

the apparitions and all of this stuff . Know

1:24:42

, with the saints and the icons and all this and the apparitions and all of this stuff

1:24:45

, it's demonic activity . But the scriptures say that

1:24:47

where , as mentioned , my patron

1:24:49

saint is mary of egypt . Um

1:24:51

, one of my favorite quotes from her is

1:24:54

he did not desire

1:24:56

the death of a sinner , but

1:24:59

awaited my conversion that's

1:25:01

beautiful and that's from ezekiel

1:25:04

18 , 23 as well . She

1:25:06

was quoting from that .

1:25:08

Priscilla , you and I can

1:25:10

talk about this for for hours

1:25:13

and I love , I love your zeal

1:25:15

, I love the beautiful

1:25:19

, really wild

1:25:22

right Story , your

1:25:25

testimony that you've told us today . Thank

1:25:28

you so much for sharing your time

1:25:30

. I want to be able to say you

1:25:32

know and show for our audience

1:25:34

. Where can

1:25:36

they find you ? Where ?

1:25:38

Yes , so I actually would

1:25:41

just do my link tree

1:25:43

. I would just say , if you guys

1:25:45

have no of

1:25:48

the link tree website .

1:25:49

I just now clicked on it , just now .

1:25:51

Usually in my bio . But if you

1:25:54

don't , if you , for whatever reason , can't

1:25:56

click the link , it's just through link treecom

1:25:58

and then forward . Slash my

1:26:01

username Priscilla XDestiny

1:26:03

.

1:26:04

I'll put links down in the video as

1:26:06

well . I have to

1:26:08

say that I love your TikTok

1:26:11

. I've always loved

1:26:13

it , but I love it even more now . I love

1:26:15

it even more now that you're Orthodox . I

1:26:19

think I used to love to hate it back

1:26:21

in the day before , when we used to

1:26:23

love to hate it back in the day before , when we used to , you know , discuss

1:26:26

issues together . But , priscilla

1:26:28

, what an amazing story

1:26:31

, what a beautiful journey . I

1:26:33

wish you God's continued

1:26:36

blessings and grace . Um

1:26:47

, you know , if I can give any little tiny piece of advice , is that just continue , uh , to grow and learn

1:26:49

, um , in the church , cause , as you know already , there's so much

1:26:51

there , right , you'll never exhaust

1:26:53

all of it . Right , we could spend our entire lives

1:26:55

trying to read all

1:26:57

of the writings of the saints and

1:27:00

the fathers and the , you know , the councils

1:27:02

, the canons will never get to it all

1:27:04

, which is a kind of a beautiful

1:27:06

thing . So , just enjoy

1:27:09

, continue sharing your faith

1:27:11

as you do so well . I love

1:27:13

the videos that you present showing your

1:27:16

parish and

1:27:18

the different things . I think it's good for people to see that

1:27:20

, because orthodoxy , even

1:27:22

though it is growing certainly it's

1:27:25

still , in many ways , the best kept

1:27:27

secret right in America , and

1:27:29

you and your channel are helping people

1:27:31

to uncover that secret

1:27:34

. So , priscilla , I'm going to give you the last word

1:27:36

. What would you like to leave our audience

1:27:38

with today ?

1:27:39

I just want to thank you guys so much

1:27:42

for just being awesome

1:27:44

. I pray that every single one of you hear

1:27:46

our conversation today as

1:27:49

something that is charitable and

1:27:51

that you take something away from

1:27:53

it . I know I kind of rambled on a whole

1:27:56

lot . I actually was on my very

1:27:58

last sentence . I

1:28:00

finished everything I got it all out , awesome

1:28:02

Good . It worked out and

1:28:05

I'm very honored to

1:28:07

be on here . Follow

1:28:10

me if you guys would like to continue

1:28:13

watching . You know my journey

1:28:15

and how that's going . Follow

1:28:17

Jeremy and his friends

1:28:19

on cloud of witnesses . Um

1:28:22

, and that's kind of all that I really

1:28:24

have to say .

1:28:25

Awesome , priscilla . I want to have

1:28:27

you back on Um . Are you interested

1:28:29

in doing other episodes with us ?

1:28:32

For sure , definitely .

1:28:33

Awesome . Yeah , this has been fantastic . Thank

1:28:35

you so much . God bless you again

1:28:37

. My name is Jeremy . This has been Priscilla

1:28:40

joining us today on cloud of witnesses

1:28:42

, a journey with the saints . This

1:28:45

is Thinking Like the Saints . God

1:28:47

bless you .