"Filioque" Does It Matter?

I watched a video in which a Greek Orthodox priest looked at Catholicism.

and i was stunned to hear what they regards as the chief heresy of Catholicism,

Filioque

I will explain

The ancient creed of the Church says that the Holy spirit proceeds (ie comes from) from the Father. some time in the mid middle ages someone added the word filioque to make the passage say that the Spirit proceeded from the Father AND the Son.

and this piece of trivial minutia the Greek Orthodox are idolatrously obsessed about to the point of mania and they will not let it go. Even after more than a thousand years.

I wrote the following in reply to the video:


So. we Christians actually know enough about the inner workings of the Holy Trinity such that we can dare pronounce with certainty EITHER WAY whether the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or from the Father and the Son. Really? This is itself a self willed and daring speculation i would not even dream of making, and i certainly would not require others to hold it on pain of damnation. I know I have the Spirit for I was an atheist; and only by the power of said Spirit could I ever declare that Jesus Christ is Lord. This same spirit testifies to me of the divinity of the Son, the Trinity, faith, redemption and all the rest. And he convicts me of sin that I may repent of it. Do you know any other Spirit who would do this? But the question of filioque has never come up in 35 years of dialogue with the Holy Spirit of Christ. I neither know nor care which it is, though i am adept enough as a thinker to be able to argue both ways, coming up only with an idea not any real knowledge of a mystery we all should deem too sacred to dare interfere with and if i have the spirit what matters is having the spirit, seen by other things, and certainly defying St Paul by wrangling about words to the ruin of the hearers is not one of them

If some church is going to draw a line in the sand over a piece of trivial theological minutiae it shows it s own presumption and arrogance and i for one will not seek them.

it seems to me this arose when someone altered a piece of church tradition, some recitation of doctrine which had become hidebound dead and legalistic; and in their fury at something they thought was time honoured being defaced they declared this alteration a heresy on a matter where the Bible is largely silent or at least ambiguous.

but Greek quibbling over trivia is not new.

you have heard of the Old Believer Schism in 17th century Russia? they quarreled over such mind numbing trivia as to whether to cross themselves with two fingers twice or three fingers three times, and one side savagely persecuted the other side who were too hidebound to give way over a complete trivium.

And we wonder why the world looks at us quarreling over such stuff and blaspheme the name of God because of US (also a scripture quote) and decide that the gospel of Christ is nonsense and the stamping ground of bigots.

Here my post ended.

If I have the Spirit I do not need to know the details save that He came through Jesus Christ and witnesses to Him. , in fact what is more important to all of us is believing him. confessing our unbelief when he makes it clear to us, repenting of our sins, both of thought and life as He leads , and obeying His promptings, which , unlike the impossible Law of God, are the nature of the yoke which is easy and light.

Such violent and arrogant quarreling over Who sent the Holy Spirit is proof of not having Him at all, or of having forsaken Him for self perfection in the flesh.