Early in the 4th Century, when the seeds of Papal Authority in Rome were beginning to be sown, we started to see the growth of what eventually became to be known as Western Scholastic Thought centered around individualistic Monarchical attitudes concerning the interpretations of Church Government and the Word of God. In the area of Church Government, we saw radical motions toward New Dogmatic Declarations without benefit of a Church wide Council. These dogmatic declarations along with increasing claims of Papal Authority caused great alarm in the Early Christian Church, and led eventually to the East/West Schism of 1054, whereby the Roman Bishop in the West was excommunicated from the Church. The Roman Church has continued in a state of Schismatic behaviour towards the undivided Church until the early 20th Century, when talks between the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople began making progress towards a change in Roman attitude concerning Papal Authority, and the adoption of the Nicene Creed in its original form. But the work is still not yet over, and the Roman Church today is still considered Schismatic because the Roman Church still holds to unsupported Dogmas not considered by the Whole Undivided Body of Christ. Therefore, until this situation is healed, we have to postpone our enthusiasm over the possible return of the Roman Catholic Body to God's One, Holy, Universal, and Apostolic Church.
In 1988, I said:
"We must say that never before have we been SO CLOSE to accomplishing this miracle between East and West."
"The Roman Church has not shown any signs of repentance. In order to gain a further insight into these issues, one should read Revelations Chapter 13 to the end of the Book at the very minimum."
1.
"Could the Roman Church and its position in world leadership place it into the very description we see in Chapter 17 of Revelations?
"Could the Pope of Rome be the man by which the "number of his name" is revealed in Chapter 13 of Revelations?"
The Pope of Rome has the following Title:
the "inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication" (false blood of Jesus), (Verse 2)
"the golden cup full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications" (false Communion Cup), (Verse 4)
the Harlot "is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth", (Verse 18)
"The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the Harlot sitteth". (Verse 9)
Points to ponder:
The Roman Catholic Heresy was prophesied in Revelations.
Nowhere in Revelations are any Churches mentioned except those which are part of the Holy Eastern Orthodox Church.
The beginnings of the denominations of western Christendom came about as a result of rebellion from the Harlot's fornications.
The denominations of today suffer greatly from inheritances received from the Harlot consisting of the filth and abominations contained in her golden cup.
As a demonstration of the problem posed above, we have the following fictional example:
Some brethren get together in a prayer meeting, and then make declarations about interpretations of the Bible, and seemingly are in contact with God, the Holy Spirit. Anything they would say in the Spirit' would be viewed as infallible with the feature of perfect communion in the 'Spirit' being placed forward as the argument for why this is an 'infallible' revelation.
Therefore, we might question whether or not the brethren in our fictitious example have the authority to do what has been by Tradition the actions of the whole body of Christ in toto? How can an EAR do the HEARING AND the SEEING AND the SPEAKING AND the other things that are naturally done by each of the other members of the Body according to their function. It would seem that some could easily arrive at the conclusion that these brethren above cited are taking on BODY OF CHRIST-WIDE FUNCTIONS RESERVED FOR THE ENTIRE BODY AND/OR FOR JESUS CHRIST.
YET THIS SITUATION IS NOT NEW TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH WHICH THROUGH THE OFFICE OF THE POPE ASSERTED THE SAME TYPE OF BEHAVIOUR AS THAT OF OUR EXAMPLE ABOVE. The only difference here is that each of the Pope's decisions AFFECTED THE ENTIRE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH whether the individual members consented or not.
After the East/West Schism of 1054, matters in Rome became worse and still worse. It was quite evident that as Divine Rule ended in favor of Worldly Rule, all Holiness left and Evil instead took over. Gross injustices, Greed, Lust for Power, Hatred, worldly councils of judges; pawns to the Holy Roman Empire, and other sundry evils infested the Roman Catholic Church. These were the dark ages in the West, and Roman Theology began taking on Pagan Influences and Philosophies, transforming the Holy Trinity into a very impersonal 'God' with pagan attributes 'Who' would squash all who would dare attack the Roman Catholic Church. It is amazing how fast we saw the EGO TRIPS of the individual Popes one after the other. Not all Popes were this morally corrupt, nor is a judgment being passed here, but the visible elements of many of these were apparently Evil. All of this led to a climax point in Western Church History: the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.
Let us examine some of the points and reasons behind the Reformation for a moment:
1. The Leaders of the Reformation Movement were looking for moral reform inside the only Church they knew: the Roman Catholic Church. They correctly perceived that The Roman Catholic Church of that day was morally corrupt and dead in the Divine Powers from above. The Roman Catholic Church had become corrupt in her administrations of God's Holy Sacraments - a thing which Jesus promised could never and would never happen to His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
2. The Leaders of the Reformation were looking for relief from the oppresive Monarchy of the Pope.
3. The Leaders of the Reformation were seeking relief from the injustices and evils from within the boundaries of the Roman Catholic Church.
Therefore the Leaders of the Reformation sought to protest from the Church authorities and break away from the Roman Catholic Church and to worship Jesus Christ by the infallibility of God's Word in the Holy Scripture, and to throw out all of the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church as heresy, whether meritorious or not. The reactions displayed by this protest were highly emotional and had the classical characteristics of a reflex prone response.
The characteristics of the Protest were to 'go back to the drawing board', 'make new dogmatic declarations by re-interpreting Holy Scripture', 'following in many cases the dogmatic declarations propounded by each of the leaders', 'while at the same time encouraging individualized interpretations of Holy Scripture by each given member in total or partial isolation from the other among the constituents of this new body of believers'. The dogmatic declarations of each individual leader of the Reformation gave way to divisions among the protesters, because the decisions upon which dogmas to keep or reject or create were each in turn made in isolation from the rest of the body. In many cases, the offices of Apostles, Apostolic Succession, and the Holy Sacraments were redefined, and/or abolished all together.
One is tempted to ask: What was accomplished by the Reformation when one set of problems were traded off for another set? Indeed the issue which was the most important was the one of Papal Authoritarianism. Giving rise to the Protestant movement, we see Authoritarianism among its members; where each member has his or her point of view about Church dogma. A trade-off to Calvinistic Authoritarianism, which then seems to have grown into individualistic Authoritarianism over the body of Protestant believers seems to be at the root cause of divisions in thought between the various Denominations.
But the key thing here is that there was as today VAST DISAGREEMENT, VAST DIVISION IN THE BODY OF PROTESTERS OR PROTESTANTS AS THEY CAME LATER TO BE LABELED BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. ALL THIS GREW OUT OF THE ORIGINAL SEED OF PAPAL AUTHORITARIANISM, AND THIS LED DIRECTLY TO THE SCHISM OF 1054.
AS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH WAS THE FIRST PROTESTER FROM THE COLLEGE OF BISHOPS, PREBYTERS, DEACONS, AND LAITY, IT SOWED THE SEEDS OF FUTURE DIVISION AND ALIENATION FROM THE ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH WHICH STILL EXISTS TODAY.
Taking a quick look, one can see the divisions today: over 100 denominations among those who call themselves 'Christians'. What a situation. What a tradgedy! In the Holy Orthodox Church, prayers are always said for the unity of the Church. What does this mean? Do we mean that a merger is envisioned whereby all the Denominations come under one government and authority to be known as the World Church? Heaven forbid we say NO! Do we mean that UNIFICATION represents the return to the principles of the Early Church? Yes, this is a part of what we mean by UNITY. But it goes much deeper than that even. The Denominations of the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches, were inspired by men, and as such in themselves lack the Divinity of God, their loss oftentimes made up for by the faith of its individual members instead of the 'church body' as a unit. These man-made manifestations of divisional Denominationalisms need to be abandoned in favor of the Early Church. This means a return to the Collegial Atmosphere of the Body of Christ acting as a unit to clarify and define the living Divine Dogmas of the FAITH in Christ and God, the Holy Trinity under the guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit of God. Instead of making a man or woman head of a church body, we need to return Jesus Christ to the Head of His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church where He has always belonged and where the Holy Orthodox Church has always and will always place Him.
How is the UNITY of the ONE Church maintained? UNITY is maintained through God's Holy Sacraments and through frequent Church-Wide Councils where unanimity is cherished as a sign from the Holy Spirit that it is indeed the TRUTH from God, and not a partial TRUTH or complete FALSEHOOD. The Body moves together in unity and through this displays the full power of Christ: full of GLORY, and Mystical in its workings, FULL OF GRACE and TRUTH.
St. Iraeneus (1st Century AD) stated that the Church is a Eucharistic (Thankful) Community gathered round its Bishop. This Bishop is charged to be our Icon of Christ; bringing to us a living example of Christ as teacher and Divine inspirer of God's Divine Word, where Truth and Love flow without bound.
+May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of the Father, and the communion of the Good and Life-Giving Holy Spirit be with you, now and for ever, and from all Ages to all Ages. Amen.
Love in Christ,
Brother Petros Presbeftes
Sysop,
Gospel Outreach Download System #2
Douglasville, GA