Secret Eastern Orthodox Christian

[Castle12]

Hey guys hope you’re all well and may God Bless you and yours for visiting this post, I’ve been searching for a long time for a Christian forum place to talk with others on that would be somewhat secretive, this one seems good. I live in Australia so Christianity isn’t persecuted in fact it’s the major religion here, however I am mandean or supposed to be at least. I’ll tell you my story if you’re keen to read

TL;DR: I was 11 years old found Christ till 14 and had a strong connection then I got caught and whooped, became strong athiest and then till 40-50 days ago became Christian again and stronger than ever with a clearer understanding on topics, am 20 and male and Iraqi. 
 

So this all starts with an oooldd friend named C--- in school growing up I’d hang out with him and we’d talk eventually he’d mention Christ almighty and I was curious who was this Christ he kept talking about and he said that is God and he is the one and only God. I didn’t really understand back then but one thing I did understand is, how strict my own religion/culture (since mandeanism is mix of both and also a language) is very anti converting to anything else and strict , it had to be secret because I would get whooped. So I started watching these documentaries about Christ in the living room with my parents who were suspicious as to why , and then about Moses was last I saw and then I eventually download a Bible app a year later and a proverbs app or something on my iPad at school and would read bit by bit everyday or most days of the week. Till eventually I got caught, now there’s two things that I cannot explain even as an adult with prestigious marks that’s doing psychology right now and hence why my faith is so unwavering, there’s several more but these are the most profound. Sorry if this is dragged, but one day I was on this Christian website, and mind you I didn’t know what prostration was back then nor did I know what denomination I was getting my information from (probably Protestant), but my dad was gonna abuse me if je caught me and I ran outside in my backyard and was panicking and prayed that God would give me this sign and remove everything and I bowed my mt head and body all the way to the ground when I was 14 and after 2 minutes my dad just called me to get my haircut saying I didn’t catch you now boy but when I do you’ll never forget it. What’s weird is, I had the tabs opened, the history was there everything was out in the open but when I came back my iPad was closed and the website was gone and everything associated with it. At first I thought maybe a glitch but then remembered I did pray and like Matthew 17:20-21 says, I did believe so and it did happen because I trusted in God. Now whilst this one was very quick prayer and was answered also accordingly the next one happened few weeks after this one when I finally got caught with the Bible app on my iPad and by my who,e family including my older brother was abused either emotionally or physically for being a Christian and not mandean, week prior I was walking outside and just conversing naturally with myself and looked at the sky and said to God when I’m 21 or 22 years old Lord make make me more religious and freely too or something along those lines and I had a vivid image of my future say self (my back turned this is just my imagination at the time) holding  a Bible in hand. What’s amazing about this prayer is before my Serbian friend talked to me about Christ not too long ago I was heavily athiest and as was he till say 4 months ago, but he is the most if not one of the most religious Christians I’ve met and I love that about him, he started to talk about Jesus randomly out of nowhere when I had another mate over and at the time this Serbian friend and I past 2 years had beef and lowkey hated one another for a long while but in HighSchool were best friends . It’s a long story for another day, anyways we forgave eachother and said sorry and when I heard from another friend he was religious and mocked God I mocked him saying what a delusional idiot, just a week later I started reading the Gospels after having a very long and insightful talk with him, stopped all porn and masturbation (though the temptations are strong, but my love for the Lord is stronger so God willing I’ll prevail as I have) and have become really fascinated in all things Christianity. Especially since I’m now 20, going to turn 21 in but 5  months which is what it prayed to God for which I still can’t get over that. I mocked God, I was lustful as a teenager (still a virgin, in fact besides masturbation haven’t done anything else honestly) and even at some point would mock Christ but again only so my family would leave me, though when they mocked him I don’t know, I felt guilt or guilty even tho I was a strong athiest and even narcissistic at some point. Moving on from all that, I don’t really have a community so I’m trying to build one on this site to have a sense of belonging in that I’m not alone as a secret Christian, and in the future when I’m more independent I’ll definitely worship the Lord more openly but now I can’t risk it, and it’s not just me that’ll get abuse it’s a lot of other things, and some trauma inducing stuff. Regardless my main question is a long one, I used to work with my dad and at his workplace in Blacktown there were a lot of Christians and islanders in that workplace, I would love to attend church and meet like minded people and most importantly worship our Lord, but I fear that if someone from work sees me there since they’re all best mates they may tell my dad “ hey I saw your son at church yesterday!” And we all know where that leads. I guess the question is, is it okay for me to not attend church? And for the fasts (I know orthodoxy generally has the most), since I go gym a loooot and eat lots of dairy and protien and don’t like fish much, what should I cut out or do? I know this is a question for a spiritual advisor of sorts but I don’t have access for now, but if you made it this far then thank you regardless if you don’t have anything to say. This was just my personal journey to our Lord and I was hoping to share it with you fine people. Thanks again for listening and may God Bless you!

Edited August 31, 2023 by Castle12
Removed personal details

[George]

Shalom Castle12,

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[Castle12]

Sorry for the grammatical errors, they weren’t abused by my family and brother, I was to clear things up, sorry for the confusion everyone. Hope all is well with yous and God Bless you all. 

[garee]

On 8/30/2023 at 12:57 AM, Castle12 said:

Hey guys hope you’re all well and may God Bless you and yours for visiting this post, I’ve been searching for a long time for a Christian forum place to talk with others on that would be somewhat secretive, this one seems good. I live in Australia so Christianity isn’t persecuted in fact it’s the major religion here, however I am mandean or supposed to be at least. I’ll tell you my story if you’re keen to read

TL;DR: I was 11 years old found Christ till 14 and had a strong connection then I got caught and whooped, became strong athiest and then till 40-50 days ago became Christian again and stronger than ever with a clearer understanding on topics, am 20 and male and Iraqi. 
 

So this all starts with an oooldd friend named C--- in school growing up I’d hang out with him and we’d talk eventually he’d mention Christ almighty and I was curious who was this Christ he kept talking about and he said that is God and he is the one and only God. I didn’t really understand back then but one thing I did understand is, how strict my own religion/culture (since mandeanism is mix of both and also a language) is very anti converting to anything else and strict , it had to be secret because I would get whooped. So I started watching these documentaries about Christ in the living room with my parents who were suspicious as to why , and then about Moses was last I saw and then I eventually download a Bible app a year later and a proverbs app or something on my iPad at school and would read bit by bit everyday or most days of the week. Till eventually I got caught, now there’s two things that I cannot explain even as an adult with prestigious marks that’s doing psychology right now and hence why my faith is so unwavering, there’s several more but these are the most profound. Sorry if this is dragged, but one day I was on this Christian website, and mind you I didn’t know what prostration was back then nor did I know what denomination I was getting my information from (probably Protestant), but my dad was gonna abuse me if je caught me and I ran outside in my backyard and was panicking and prayed that God would give me this sign and remove everything and I bowed my mt head and body all the way to the ground when I was 14 and after 2 minutes my dad just called me to get my haircut saying I didn’t catch you now boy but when I do you’ll never forget it. What’s weird is, I had the tabs opened, the history was there everything was out in the open but when I came back my iPad was closed and the website was gone and everything associated with it. At first I thought maybe a glitch but then remembered I did pray and like Matthew 17:20-21 says, I did believe so and it did happen because I trusted in God. Now whilst this one was very quick prayer and was answered also accordingly the next one happened few weeks after this one when I finally got caught with the Bible app on my iPad and by my who,e family including my older brother was abused either emotionally or physically for being a Christian and not mandean, week prior I was walking outside and just conversing naturally with myself and looked at the sky and said to God when I’m 21 or 22 years old Lord make make me more religious and freely too or something along those lines and I had a vivid image of my future say self (my back turned this is just my imagination at the time) holding  a Bible in hand. What’s amazing about this prayer is before my Serbian friend talked to me about Christ not too long ago I was heavily athiest and as was he till say 4 months ago, but he is the most if not one of the most religious Christians I’ve met and I love that about him, he started to talk about Jesus randomly out of nowhere when I had another mate over and at the time this Serbian friend and I past 2 years had beef and lowkey hated one another for a long while but in HighSchool were best friends . It’s a long story for another day, anyways we forgave eachother and said sorry and when I heard from another friend he was religious and mocked God I mocked him saying what a delusional idiot, just a week later I started reading the Gospels after having a very long and insightful talk with him, stopped all porn and masturbation (though the temptations are strong, but my love for the Lord is stronger so God willing I’ll prevail as I have) and have become really fascinated in all things Christianity. Especially since I’m now 20, going to turn 21 in but 5  months which is what it prayed to God for which I still can’t get over that. I mocked God, I was lustful as a teenager (still a virgin, in fact besides masturbation haven’t done anything else honestly) and even at some point would mock Christ but again only so my family would leave me, though when they mocked him I don’t know, I felt guilt or guilty even tho I was a strong athiest and even narcissistic at some point. Moving on from all that, I don’t really have a community so I’m trying to build one on this site to have a sense of belonging in that I’m not alone as a secret Christian, and in the future when I’m more independent I’ll definitely worship the Lord more openly but now I can’t risk it, and it’s not just me that’ll get abuse it’s a lot of other things, and some trauma inducing stuff. Regardless my main question is a long one, I used to work with my dad and at his workplace in Blacktown there were a lot of Christians and islanders in that workplace, I would love to attend church and meet like minded people and most importantly worship our Lord, but I fear that if someone from work sees me there since they’re all best mates they may tell my dad “ hey I saw your son at church yesterday!” And we all know where that leads. I guess the question is, is it okay for me to not attend church? And for the fasts (I know orthodoxy generally has the most), since I go gym a loooot and eat lots of dairy and protien and don’t like fish much, what should I cut out or do? I know this is a question for a spiritual advisor of sorts but I don’t have access for now, but if you made it this far then thank you regardless if you don’t have anything to say. This was just my personal journey to our Lord and I was hoping to share it with you fine people. Thanks again for listening and may God Bless you!

Thanks for sharing and defining mandeanism as a secret eastern orthodox denomination .New to me. 

Must be a branch to the orthodoxy that use the wisdom of men as oral traditions  passed down from the Sadducees , simular to the Pharisees , passed down as Roman Catholicism . 

Pharisees with Sadducees two groups as denominations that put aside their differences  to come as one to destroy the gospel of grace in a attempt at hoping the flesh of mankind could profit for salvation.(sign seekers) No faith as it is written (sola scriptura) the sword of the Spirit. 

Matthew 16:1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

 

[Castle12]

2 hours ago, garee said:

Thanks for sharing and defining mandeanism as a secret eastern orthodox denomination .New to me. 

Must be a branch to the orthodoxy that use the wisdom of men as oral traditions  passed down from the Sadducees , simular to the Pharisees , passed down as Roman Catholicism . 

Pharisees with Sadducees two groups as denominations that put aside their differences  to come as one to destroy the gospel of grace in a attempt at hoping the flesh of mankind could profit for salvation.(sign seekers) No faith as it is written (sola scriptura) the sword of the Spirit. 

Matthew 16:1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

 

Hello and God bless you, no worries but mandeanism is very complicated as I wouldn’t say our since I’m Christian but the religion doesn’t allow conversion and essentially you are only born in to it (yeah makes no sense) they also have as their chief prophet John the Baptist, but no Jesus and they essentially mock him in a way. If you want to learn more about it I can find a YouTube link that goes through the whole history, there’s only 70k in the world left and most were wiped out in the ‘Islamic Golden Age’ and killed, however I believe it was started around 100 A.D but Sources vary. I won’t even lie it’s really really contradictory it’s why I wanted to become Christian when I was younger and now I am as well. Just doesn’t make sense because if we’re born into it and nobody can convert, then is everyone else doomed? If not then why ? Yeah it’s pretty tough tryna find answers honestly. 

[Castle12]

1 hour ago, Castle12 said:

Hello and God bless you, no worries but mandeanism is very complicated as I wouldn’t say our since I’m Christian but the religion doesn’t allow conversion and essentially you are only born in to it (yeah makes no sense) they also have as their chief prophet John the Baptist, but no Jesus and they essentially mock him in a way. If you want to learn more about it I can find a YouTube link that goes through the whole history, there’s only 70k in the world left and most were wiped out in the ‘Islamic Golden Age’ and killed, however I believe it was started around 100 A.D but Sources vary. I won’t even lie it’s really really contradictory it’s why I wanted to become Christian when I was younger and now I am as well. Just doesn’t make sense because if we’re born into it and nobody can convert, then is everyone else doomed? If not then why ? Yeah it’s pretty tough tryna find answers honestly. 

Also might I add, I think you misunderstood me but all good since my wording was poorly written. It’s not a secret orthodox Christian denomination at all, it’s an entire different belief system , of which I don’t believe nor agree with cause a lot of contradictions and heresy (despite being some of the most humble and nice people might I add) but I myself as a ‘mandean’ am secretly an Eastern Orthodox convert. Sorry for the confusion. But I also appreciate your answer as it is still enlightening, also I just finished the four Gospels, where should I go from here if anyone has answers and in which order? 

[Marathoner]

Let me say that it's good you came to Jesus Christ from Mandaeism, @Castle12. Praise the Lord!

I'm only familiar with Mandaeism from studying obscure Gnostic sects, which was tough considering the dearth of historical information. Many of us in the modern day don't know what Mandaeism is; some will be familiar with Gnosticism, but don't know that Mandaeism is virtually the only ancient Gnostic sect that endured for almost two thousand years. 

Mandaeism is also known as "Sabianism." I'll offer a brief synopsis of what I know considering the language barrier you're dealing with, so readers will know exactly what you're writing about. Correct me if I'm mistaken about anything!

Mandeans revere Adam, Seth, Noah, and John the Baptist. They are considered prophets, with Adam being the first. John the Baptist is the final and greatest prophet.

This school of Gnosticism was referred to as Sabianism by classical authors, which is probably the name most will recognize. A plethora of Gnostic schools appeared after the Lord ascended to sit with our Father upon His throne, and Sabianism/Mandaeism is the only sect to survive in the modern day.

[Castle12]

On 9/1/2023 at 3:09 PM, Marathoner said:

Let me say that it's good you came to Jesus Christ from Mandaeism, @Castle12. Praise the Lord!

I'm only familiar with Mandaeism from studying obscure Gnostic sects, which was tough considering the dearth of historical information. Many of us in the modern day don't know what Mandaeism is; some will be familiar with Gnosticism, but don't know that Mandaeism is virtually the only ancient Gnostic sect that endured for almost two thousand years. 

Mandaeism is also known as "Sabianism." I'll offer a brief synopsis of what I know considering the language barrier you're dealing with, so readers will know exactly what you're writing about. Correct me if I'm mistaken about anything!

Mandeans revere Adam, Seth, Noah, and John the Baptist. They are considered prophets, with Adam being the first. John the Baptist is the final and greatest prophet.

This school of Gnosticism was referred to as Sabianism by classical authors, which is probably the name most will recognize. A plethora of Gnostic schools appeared after the Lord ascended to sit with our Father upon His throne, and Sabianism/Mandaeism is the only sect to survive in the modern day.

Wow in all honesty I never knew you had known that much about it. Public information from , I’ll say my culture because it is (not whom I believe in just to make things clear), is very and I mean very hidden out of spite for Muslims. Generally mandeans don’t hate any religion besides Islam due to obvious reasons and you’ll usually see lots of mandeans and Christians as close friends and mandeans refer to Christians as mostly good people. 

This link her is the best YouTube video [removed] I’ve found to date explaining essentially all public knowledge. However I was never religious enough to begin with because I never believed in it, due to the aforementioned (it making no sense and very very little info was even provided to me, which is all in that video as far as I know). Most of the information is withheld from public and usually among the sheiks (priests and high priests) as far as I know. Personally I like the culture, very kind and nice people however the religion makes no sense as you’ll see in the video as well as obviously no Lord Jesus. It’s why I questioned it, if at our hieght we had reportedly 5-8 million people maybe more, then why we all dead , answer was Muslims . Okay fine, but why do we not revere Lord Jesus? Explains in that video but I find it disrespectful as both a Christian and a person, some even go far as to say that Jesus doesn’t even exist for them. It’s definitely weird. They’re a great nice people speaking from personal experience and some of the most humble. But Jesus is Lord and only through him are we saved, is what I discovered when I was young and after also being athiest due to above first post reasons. Too many things happened in my life to believe otherwise that the Lord isn’t watching and granting me my prayers, whereas in mandeanism I never experienced anything, nor the love of their Maree (their god’s name), so even looking at it logically it’s the only way. And I’ve been so happy since having Jesus in my life again, I do have to be careful till I’m more independent but most of my problems have disappeared and fears practically gone. Never felt that secure when athiest, was very narcissistic and depressed. Sorry if I digressed , but definitely watch the video, it’s I think 15-18 minutes but is really good.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Michael37
Videos not allowed in this section

[Marathoner]

@Castle12, we don't allow videos in areas of the forum not designated for their inclusion. Please edit your post and remove the youtube link. Thanks!