Western Influences Upon Early Christianity

by Petros Presbeftes

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 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 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

Holy Orthodox Church. We must say that never before have we been SO CLOSE

to accomplishing this miracle between East and West.

This paper deals with today's current situation in most Denominational

Churches today: That of Monarchical Tendencies concerning decisions that

affect the Church in toto.

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.

BUT ONLY JESUS CHRIST IS PERFECT IN ALL THINGS, AND ONLY JESUS

CHRIST HAD A PERFECT UNION OF DIVINE AND HUMAN; THE HUMAN PART OF

HIM BEING BOTH IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD. JESUS MADE HIS

HUMAN NATURE PERFECTLY HUMBLE WITH RESPECT TO GOD THE FATHER'S

WILL. NO MAN COULD DO WHAT JESUS DID, BECAUSE IT TAKES THE POWER

THAT GOD HAS TO TRANSFORM MAN'S FLESH BACK INTO THE INSTRUMENT OF

GOD'S WILL. MAN'S NATURE HAS NOT BEEN RESTORED INTO TOTAL

LIKENESS WITH GOD, SINCE MAN HAD LOST THIS LIKENESS AT THE GARDEN

OF EDEN BECAUSE OF ADAM AND EVE'S ORIGINAL SIN. BECAUSE OF THE

HEALING POWER OF JESUS CHRIST, WE ARE GRANTED THE OPPORTUNITY TO

GROW TOWARDS THE GOAL OF PERFECT LIKENESS WITH GOD (THEOSIS), BUT

IT IS NOT OURS TO ATTAIN FULLY HERE ON EARTH, BUT IN HEAVEN WHEN

WE MEET OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IN THE AIR.

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

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,

Petros Presbeftes

Sysop,

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