by Petros Presbeftes
Inspired by a booklet written by Father Paul O'Callaghan, who is
a priest
serving the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese.
Father Paul's booklet addresses the Orthodox Christian in
defending against
unwarranted attacks against the Orthodox Faith by Protestant faithful. I will
in this paper reconfigure its slant to address the Protestant and Roman
Catholic Community.
Grace and Peace be with all of you who read this through the
Risen Christ,
and Blessings be with each one of you, now and for ever, and from all Ages
to all Ages. Amen. Dear Lord Jesus Christ, send down by Thy Holy Spirit,
your Divine Wisdom upon all those who read this document, so that each one
may be spiritually edified and truly educated about the True Undivided
Faith which You deposited with us and help us to be True Stewards of your
Holy Commandments. Amen.
Where some theologians often become bogged down with terms such
as to
confuse the average lay person, I will try, as a lay person myself, to
avoid the use of any non-straightforward terms. Since the inception of the
Christian Faith in 33 AD, there have been debates and disagreements among
[wo]men concerning various aspects of 'what we believe', 'how we believe',
'how we worship', etc. I venture to say that what was true then, and today
about debates and disagreements will likely continue on as long as it takes
for our Lord Jesus Christ to Come Again. As a matter of fact, it is a
theme inside the Book of Revelations which makes prophesy about this
situation becoming far worse than it is even today, if you can believe it
can become any more worse than it already is! Obviously, debates and
disagreements on the fundamentals of the very Faith we hold and believe in,
will result in many abandoning that Faith for its loss of meaning!!
But now, let us harken back to the first real disagreement among
the 12
Apostles themselves, as a controversy developed between Peter and Paul
which threatened to tear the fabric of the Church in Two! You'll find this
chronicled in the Book of Acts in the New Testament. I'd like to make a
recommendation here: Try reading these passages with a Greek-English
Interlinear Bible as your preferred translation. This Bible prints the
original Greek text along with a literal translation plus additionally the
King James Version is paralled with that. If you can team this up with the
Revised Standard Version, which corrects for some faulty translations from
the Greek which plagues the King James Translation, even the better! This,
together with the fact that the King James uses the King's English which is
very different from the everyday English of the 20th Century, makes it a
text which is challenging at best or difficult to impossible at worst to
read and comprehend.
Now, at this point in time (1st Century AD), we can all agree
that the
Faith was fresh in the minds of the Apostles, and yet, these disagreements
and debates concerning the Gentiles still plagued them. Now, how did this
become resolved and how was division avoided? Well, let us drink in here
the surroundings of our freshly created Community of Christ:
Therefore, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, the
debate between
Peter and Paul was settled in the Community's 1st council. The outcome of
this council was not the work of men, but the action of God through His
Holy Spirit.
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The first Ecumenical Council which was convened in Nicea in the
year 325 AD
was the first time that the whole Body of Christ came together in council
since the Original Apostles had fallen asleep in Christ. By this time, the
individual communities had become more mature in worship, but less and less
together in the matters of the Faith. Just as had been the case with Peter
and Paul in the 1st Century, there were deep disagreements over which parts
of the Faith were valid and which were not. Indeed, there was disagreement
over which of the vast amount of writings were actually to be included in
the Scriptural lessons during worship. These were issues that had to be
settled! Otherwise, the whole fabric of the Faith would be torn into
myriads of fine shreds. Mankind, alone, would never have been able to
solve or settle these issues, because mankind cannot do anything without
Godly help. Indeed, these problems seiging the early Church were a result
of the elaborations and the fantasies of [wo]men in flights of thought:
attempting to clarify the Faith and understand it fully. Doing that,
however, is far beyond the scope of any man or woman! That is where the
Holy Spirit of God comes in to help mankind out in the search for Godly
Wisdom and Truth.
[Sysop Note: Expand on this to tell how a Council comes together and how it
is
known that matters are settled according to God's Will.]
Typical Claim 1: Anything, which
was from any other source other than the
Bible, is man made doctrine and is to be held suspect, or even to be False
Doctrine!
During the period of time between 33 AD and 70 AD, the New
Testament as we
know it today was not yet written! During that time, the members of each
Christian Community depended upon the Oral Traditions of Jesus Christ as
transmitted by the Apostles.
Indeed, if we think about it, before Paul wrote his letters to
the
Community at Corinth, they did not have an Epistle Reading from I or II
Corinthians, when coming together for worship. Paul wrote these Apostolic
(of the Aplostles) Letters to Corinth for their Spiritual Edification, much
like today when a Bishop sends a Letter to the Parishes of his
responsibility.
Although New Testament Scripture did not exist during those times
on paper,
it has existed through those times by the spoken words of each of the
Apostles and they continued the Oral Tradition through various writings
which later became New Testament Scripture, and also by passing on various
other True Teachings by Spoken Word to the growing numbers of Apostles as
Christianity spread.
If we look for a moment at the workings of this Body of God which
Christ
established for our Salvation, we will see that it is not a Body that you
tuck away and store for future use, but is a LIVING BODY which is THRIVING
as it did then, even today! One of the things that trip most people up in
Protestant circles is that they think of the Bible as a stationary
document, and they tend to think of God as an abstract being Who requires
time in a Church building to worship Him, through a lot of repetitious
prayer and stale verbiage telling what wrecks we are in the sight of Him!
However, God intended His Body to be a thriving Organism which is
in a
state of constant purification. Amen. Recognizing that we are indeed
wrecks in the sight of God, simultaneously with the fact that God causes in
us a remission of our sins, we grow in our Spiritual stature here on earth
becoming perfected (or moving towards perfection in our daily struggle).
POINT 1: A Thriving Organism does
not suddenly cease to function anymore.
FALSEHOOD: The Early Church is DEAD.
(Many people think it is!)
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TRUTH: The "Church", meaning the
Community of Christ, is forever alive.
Additionally, written and Oral Scripture is forever a part of its daily
life; whereas New and Vibrant Epistles filled with the Spirit of God are
constantly being created by God for our spiritual well being. Amen.
TRUTH: The Early Church lives on and has been continuously
active from 33
AD to the present. Before the Schism of 1054, the Communities of Christ
knew no scandal which was so great as to cause a Schism. After the Schism,
the Communities of Christ adopted the term "Orthodox" from "Ortho-doxa"
meaning "Right Glory" to describe themselves as those who properly defended
the Faith as Christ gave it to them. Thus, the Early Church became known
as the Holy Eastern Orthodox Churches of Christ. The Eastern Orthodox
Churches did not then, nor do they now recognize Papal Authority. There is
no scriptural basis upon which to supplant Jesus Christ's role as Head of
His Body!!
Typical Claim 2: The Roman
Catholic and Orthodox Churches believe in
Salvation by Works. This is born out by their Worship of the Saints and
Worship of their Good Deeds.
The Salvation of our souls, via the Oral and Written Scripture,
is only
accomplished by Grace, through our Faith in Jesus Christ. James made a very
good point in his Epistle when he stated: