Love in Action vs Religious Sickness

What is the nature of Christ's love?

I've been watching Jimmy Swaggart's program "Message of the Cross" to see how close to Orthodoxy he manages to make his explications of The Cross.  His Capo Bastone (under boss) speaks in constant Evangelical slogan speak, and yesterday he made the statement that "what we do has absolutely nothing to do with our salvation, or the work of the Cross."  

I remember a childhood friend telling me that the object of being a christian "was to become a good person."  To my young Evangelical mind, that was silly and shallow. After all the object was about Evangelism, it was about missions and campaigns and being "greatly used by the Holy Spirit."  Little did I know that the crux of the Gospel, the work of Healing/Salvation and indeed the Meaning of the Cross, was perfectly stated in her simple sentence.  The object of being a Christian is to become a good person. It may be that your "vocation" is to faithfully endure the "mundane," to simply live in the moment, doing what you are doing and expressing God's love in the ordinary everyday life. But in reality there is nothing mundane about this, nor ordinary, IF we understand what THIS goodness is?  


Mark 10:17-18 (KJV) 
17  And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 
18  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
Many Orthodox Theologians, saints and writers have explained the meaning of the Gospel in these short words, "God became man, that man may become God."  Not a competing god, nor holding the power of the God Head, but LITERALLY a part of God, existing IN HIM.  When Jesus looked at his disciples as he was on the way to The Cross and prayed the following. What do you think he was talking about?
" John 17:19-23 (KJV) 
19  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 
20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 
21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 
22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 
23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Ecumenical heretics have told you this scripture is about "uniting (so-called) divided churches."  They teach this using the phrase, "that they may be one, Father, as you and I are one" as if Jesus was talking about some overarching umbrella of "heretical religious unity" when rather he is talking about Literal ABSORPTION into the ONENESS WHO IS GOD.  That is, sharing in both his created energies as we all do, but also "becoming to share" in his uncreated energies, which hold the power of eternal life.  


Anyone who grasps Orthodoxy SOZO (healing/salvation) theology, and understands what the Church has taught from the beginning, from the very mouth of Jesus and the Apostles,  knows that the statement by Swaggart's Capo's is only half true. He turns this process of deification into "evangelical religion" and makes it about "campaigns, missionary missions, evangelistic effort and resultant earthly prosperity."  He said, in fact that such was the ONLY witness of the Holy Spirit's presence and work. 

You see my childhood friend was right, she understood that the object of the Christian life is not mission, or ministry, or gifts of the spirit, or to wallow in some self-created spiritual and emotional experience, or to experience some sweet emotions we call "God's Love" but through God's Love, through the God who is LOVE, to become a good person. But not a good person in the broken human understanding of goodness, (though that reflects a shadow of the goodness we mean) but to be part of and absorbed into the Goodness that IS God, reflecting then that healing goodness in every aspect and relationship in our lives.  Without this FIRST, all else is wasted and turns to religious sickness. 

In English we continue this absurdity of talking about "the Kingdom of God" as if God's Kingdom is a "thing."  Even the latest Orthodox Bible did not correct this mis-translation of the Greek Word, "Baseleian tou Theou" The REIGN of God. That REIGN exists in the human heart, making it prone to GOOD actions, instead of first being prone to sin. EVERY TIME "Kingdom of God" appears in the New Testament it is actually the "Reign of God" and NOT the "Kingdom of God" that is the meaning.  THIS IS NOT A SMALL MATTER. People believe in their "religionism" that they are "creating the Kingdom of God" in their religious endeavors, in the world, outside of themselves.  And sadly, very little "Reign of God" exists in that great Chaos. See how this sentence uttered by Jesus makes more sense when it is properly translated, "Seek ye first the Reign of God, and everything of which you have need, will follow." The Reign of God in the heart produces GOODNESS, God's GOODNESS; it creates THAT GOODNESS that cannot be found anywhere else in the Universe.  The GOODNESS that cannot be faked. It is the REAL work produced in healing/salvation, healing, purifying, enlightening and becoming GOOD. Ultimately so sharing God's Goodness we become part of HIM. 

I said to a friend the other day that "religious acting" is the thing that I hate the very most of all the evils, of all the sins. In my "Pentecostal Heritage" the biggest lies I heard spoken were spoken with the faux "anointing of the Holy Spirit."  Great lies of theology, erroneous dogma, warped piety, and so-called "prophetic utterance" ending often with the blasphemy, "Thus Saith The Lord."  It dawned upon me in my teens, that God's Word is Eternal. How basic a theological concept is that? It is core! God speaks and it COMES TO BE. God's Word is Truth!  "John 17:17 (KJV) Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." And that TRUTH isn't a book, but a person. "I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE," Jesus said.

Aside from TRUTH, which is Eternal, God CANNOT SPEAK. If God said it, or says it, it has ETERNAL REALITY.  I've come to see and know, that the greatest part of the "prophecy" and preaching I heard growing up was not prophecy (truth speaking) at all, but rather the misguided emotions of some pious though religiously sick people, the unchecked egos of others, and yes, many, many times, the enslaving, confusing and cunning utterances of demons.

Also in this same Heritage I met many, many very precious people, human people, filled with real love, which is the spirit of God. People who ACTED, not with religious pride, who were not part of the "religious parade" whose quiet guidance and encouragements, spiritual and moral challenges, helped in the process of growing and coming to understanding and wisdom, a process that continues. Their words of Wisdom were so Eternal, that sometimes I did not fully appreciate their meaning until decades later.  You see, they had through the struggles of life, become good (not religious) but GOOD people.

In the 1960s, on the Pentecostal Bible College Campus where I was raised, the mother of one of the most important and respected teachers became terminally ill. Her illness quickly degenerated needing total nursing care. The teacher and his brother were both unmarried, and ill equipped for the work of "nurse."  Across the street from the college was a Roman Catholic Widow, whose husband had been the neighborhood drunk. She was very sweet and never spoke an unkind word to anyone or about anyone. I watched her give herself to that dying woman in such a prayerful, yet concrete way, quickly becoming a "practical nurse" attending hours everyday. She was poor, yet the quickest to give riches. It was a lesson I took to heart, so that ultimately a great part of my life has been in ministry to the dying and those most in need.  Her service was an IKON for me.  It was many years later that I read the concept of Christ HIMSELF, standing in the shoes of such ministers of mercy.   "How near Thou art in the day of sickness. You Yourself visit the sick; You Yourself bend over the sufferer's bed. His heart speaks to You. In the throes of sorrow and suffering Thou bringest peace and unexpected consolation. Thou art the comforter. Thou art the love which watches over and heals us."   Of all the experiences of my childhood, the quiet love expressed in the work of mercy by this little Roman Catholic widow balances all the sermons I heard, theological and moral lessons I learned.

"What you do to the least of these, you do also to me," Jesus said.  What you DO, to the least of these.  NOT, what you theorize and theologize about, to  the least of these, but what you DO to and for them.  Yes, witnessing the healing/saving power of Jesus Christ is a very kind and good action, IF it is the Reign of God you are creating, which is witnessed to produce GOODNESS, and not the Kingdom of God, which is witnessed to produce Religious Sickness, human pride and greed. 

What prompted this talk about True Religion vs Religious Sickness?
This morning 2.28.2014, I received this wonderful paragraph from a friend whose father in life was cruel.  The details and means of the cruelty is not important, just to say that there was huge emotional distance between father and son created by sin. In his old age, no siblings were willing to "take in" their father, but without much discussion, to keep him from being at the mercy of strangers in a nursing home, my friend and his wife prayerfully gave themselves to this very concrete service, becoming as it were, his practical nurses. My friend spoke of his grief at his Dad's repose:

"As far as my Dad goes - you know I had many conflicted feelings regarding him and never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would do what I have done the last 2 1/2 yrs. There were many times I wished to myself and sometimes out loud (not by him) that he wasn't here. There were many times I thought of putting him in a home - any home but mine and then there were (sic) times when I grieved for him, felt sorry for him, loved him and told him so (and also times I didn't) but I think the Lord knows that I did (we did) what we needed to do for him because of Him (note - because of Jesus Christ) and we both knew it was the right thing to do. At the end (my wife's name) cleaned him (I helped hold him) cleaned him and oiled his body with olive oil. I did the prayers I felt I needed to do for him even though he had Last Rites a couple weeks earlier. We put his Cross on him, dressed him, folded his arms across his chest and entwined his Rosary around his hands. It was all rather peaceful with what we had witnessed and had to do the 2 weeks leading up to it. Yes, I never thought I would say it but I do miss him, miss his presence as hard as it was sometimes. It feels like we hit a brick (sic) wall and are kind of suspended wondering what's next. I have thought of him each day and prayed for him each night."

This paragraph touched me deeply, showing the humanity of it, the natural goodness of it, the love expressed in concrete actions when even the person is not "lovable."  This couple unwilling to allow the care of their elder to strangers, would not even allow the undertakers to clean the body upon his repose, instead, prepared it in loving action and respect. It hit me in the imagery of the women preparing Jesus' Body, for the tomb.  It shows the GOODNESS of GOD, reaching in MERCY to those in the care of HIS GOOD PEOPLE.  It shows that the struggle to act in the REIGN OF GOD is not without inner conflict, that inner conflict IS the 'field of battle.'  In fact it is through this very inner conflict that WE OURSELVES ARE HEALED.  You see, we have to in every instance CHOOSE the Good and in our ACTIONS become the Good.  Saint Paul was not speaking lie when he said, "Faith without works is DEAD." And as Jesus clearly stated, that same DEAD FAITH may move mountains, may heal the sick, may cast out demons and might even raise the dead, yet that is not the "work of salvation."  Such things are not the "REIGN of God." Because to those people, who had succeeded in "miraculous ministry" but failed to gain the RULE of GOD in their HEART, failed to, in the chaos of it all, BECOME GOOD, Jesus said the Judge would say to them on that last day, "Depart from me ye workers of iniquity.  I NEVER KNEW YOU." 


1 Peter 4:8 (KJV) 
8  And above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover the multitude of sins.

 James 5:19-20 (KJV) 
19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 
20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. 

God is merciful to the sinner. We are all sinners. Those who "glory" in their evangelical works, bragging about the marvelous displays of "God in Action in their ministry" do so at their own peril. 

Conversation with a Protestant Church Historian.

Protestant Church Historian: 1. What do you mean when you use the terms "worldly history" and "secular history" in reference to my sources?

You yourself have described your work as non-dogmatic. And the tools you use are that of a secular historian. I am not minimizing the good that secular history can bring, indeed all Christians have been ultimately blessed by the work of secular historians, from every field of scholarly research including every form of hermaneutics, even from the secular traditions that have attacked the validity of scripture and tradition. Yours is a rational pursuit of the extant publicly available record of history, correct? I think this is correct, because it corresponds to everything I've read on your website so far - and it is very good but not "complete" as the tools of secular history cannot rightly judge Sacred History. The tools are different between secular history and sacred history. The Sacred Historian needs look no further than the deposit of the Liturgy of the Church, which is in fact the Church's record of itself, to find both the history and the dogma of The Christian Church. Sacred history is in fact, worship. The bible itself was created not as a document of secular history, to be anatomized by secular means, but rather as a "liturgical" instrument, containing the Tradition (big T) that is the dogma and history allowed to be read and taught during the church's worship. The Worship of the Orthodox Church is Living Tradition, containing both the history, tradition, and dogma of The Church. Nothing I've said negates the value of secular research. It is simply a different field of endeavor.

2. You refer to those who hold "sola" as heretics. So if someone holds to "sola" you view them as non-Christian heretics?

There are no non-christian heretics. Heretic only has meaning inside the family of those calling themselves Christian. Sometimes we substitute the more polite word heterodox, which means "other than Orthodox" and holds the exact same meaning as heretic. I was heretic/heterodox for most of my life, and held a genuine love of and for Jesus Christ, but my knowledge of the true Jesus Christ was greatly wounded by my lack of Orthodox understanding of who He really was and what He really did and further HOW to commune IN Him. It didn't stop me from creating healing in my life and the life of others, by the power of the Holy Spirit through my personal connection to Jesus Christ. Yet, it was not the "fullness of the Gospel" just one of the warped wheels with broken spokes, in fact some very important spokes missing altogether. (Spokes missing)  So for the Orthodox the term heretic is not an insult or even a judgement of the person's FAITH, but an ontological understanding of their grasp of the Gospel. There is a saying "It is upon the field of Faith, where the Orthodox meet the heterodox and the pagan alike." And as you are discovering under the umbrella of the name Christian is found Orthodox, Heterodox and yes, Pagans. I was and probably in some ways still am a heretic. But as an Orthodox Christian I constantly look for the errors in my own understanding and life, and am very quick, having found the security of the clear waters, to trust them and to spit out any muddy water when I come to view it and choose instead the clear.

BTW, I can imagine the guff you have taken from Church-hating protestant/evangelical friends, family and acquaintances. When I became Orthodox Catholic my friends and family thought I had gone nutz. It took them nearly two decades before they began to ask questions. The last few years has been a marvelous period of teaching them, because over the years they have seen my heart and the solidity of my walk in The Way. I'm not talking about some religious act, they have witnessed me become more truly natural and human, more understanding and compassionate, my heart grow. They have bumped up against the lines I will not cross and seen the strength of my convictions. They have come to realize that my Orthodox understanding and practice is not all that foreign after all or indeed removed from simple faith in Jesus Christ. They would be hard pressed to criticize it now, since those questioning have themselves gained much understanding and year by year come to grasp the various heresies of their evangelical teachers. This new understanding has allowed them to see the REASONS for the great confusion of evangelicalism and how wrong teachings have harmed them in their own life's experience and damaged their witness. Even my childhood pastor (Pentecostal - a PhD in philosophy and ThD) called me to his bedside when he was close to death and requested Holy Unction. He kept me for hours, telling me about his own journey into orthodox understanding and how he had come to completely rely on the early Holy Fathers to explicate the Holy Scriptures to negotiate the confusion of his "denomination." And how he had come to understand the absolute need of purification and that it would happen here or in the next life as the true scriptures state. (Septuagint) He was 90 years old and had lost his wife several years previous. He told me about her coming to him in vision and explaining that on the other side there was "remedial training." It was a great blessing to me.

Consider if you will. For the Orthodox having found the Body of Christ, where we meet Jesus Christ in the power of His Spirit and His REAL Body and Blood, we know this to be precious and we know this precious "thing" does not extend to every person and sect calling themselves "Christian." We know that the Holy Spirit Authority for this and thus the reality of the unbloody sacrifice (the Divine Liturgy) flows in our Tradition (in our Ortho-doxia and Ortho-praxis - proper beliefs, proper worship, proper practices) directly from the Apostles. Not that this Orthodoxia and Orthopraxis create some kind of "correctness" of which we can hold human pride, rather that these things protect the purity of the Living Water that flows to us, healing and saving us. Those outside the bounds of the Church, we know have some admixture in their practice and teaching that warps to one degree or another the IKON of the Cross, damaging its healing efficacy and sometimes killing it all together. So all heterodox are not equal. Some are like branches broken from the vine, still containing LIFE but dying, heading toward rot and decay. We have been greatly heartened by some of the moves in Roman Catholicism toward their foundational Orthodox Catholicism, which was in very real danger, the errors creating much confusion, pain and heartache in her ranks. We witness the great apostasy taking place in the Protestant world, as not only the life of the Eucharist is missing but also where all true moral teachings are becoming very cloudy and even absent, where myriad of substitutes are offered instead, like a great carnival show, where the hucksters sell snake oil. This is not to say that there are not failures of clergy and laity in the Orthodox Church, no rather the Church Militant is filled with saints and sinners. When we see any person or group of these Christians being graced with an especial mercy and grace of the Holy Spirit, that Spirit not absent ANYWHERE, but present everywhere willing to lead to Christ any who will truly seek him . . . when we see those escaping the false teachings, and abandoning their attacks on Christ's Body the Church, we are greatly encouraged for them, and seek to simply further enliven their efforts.

The Individual Isolation of Sola Scriptura Heretics.

I can't help feeling sorry for those who believe in the error called, "scripture only" (Sola Scriptura) who have to constantly re-invent the Christian Wheel, and create their own theology outlining an opinion on EVERYTHING.  I'm not exaggerating, here is a quote from a FB Friend I assume to be a sincere Christian, yet, he like every other person caught in the error of Sola Scriptura is lost in the minefield of creating a belief system and theology by his Bible and his "enlightened" opinion alone.  That is "re-inventing the Christian Wheel."  Would that these efforts truly created the beauty of the Christian Wheel, held most clearly by the Church,  but instead it creates millions of approximations, broken, bent, flat, warped, truncated, small and inadequate, more times than not that wheel is missing spokes and even rim.  



Here is my friend's statement of absolute pride - after all, in Christianity when we don't seek the teaching of the LIVING Body of Christ, The Church, it is an exercise in pride and leads to cynicism and such statements as, "I for one am not interested in opinion or people's interpretation of what God is saying. I am only interested in what God says. And that can only be found in His Word and illuminated by His Spirit."  

That sounds great, until you look at the result evangelicals and protestants in general have produced with this very dictum!  And it suggests, that he alone has the power of perfect interpretation and explication of scripture.  He would of course say, "No, of course I don't, but the Holy Spirit Does!"  And he would be partly right, the Holy Spirit does illuminate, but that same Holy Spirit speaking through the Apostle Paul cautioned against the very method of interpretation he is using, saying, "2 Peter 1:20 (KJV) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation."  Prophetic speech is the ability to speak what is TRUE, this is its first meaning, and truth is eternal, so it may appear at times and does at times make the "prophet" appear as a "seer."  But who is Saint Peter addressing here, but the INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN.  My dear friend also fails to realize the difference between God's Living Word, who is a person, who is OF HIMSELF, TRUTH, Truth the person, not a book, and the Blessed Ikon of that person, Jesus Christ, that is the Bible. The Ikon requires interpretation and the Holy Spirit says that NO Truth is of PRIVATE interpretation. 

Submitting to Holy Spirit Placed Teachers requires some level of humility.  I came to that humility late. So much of my spiritual life was spent for decades wading through the lies and false teachers, trying to grasp just exactly what was the Church? how did it really exist? did it really exist at all or was it just an analogy, as shadow of some "ideal?  and what did it really teach? I spent decades knowing that the Church I saw witnessed by the earliest Church fathers, and the religionism in which I was raised, held very little in common. The plethora of competing and confused Protestant dogma left me without theological anchor. My study of Hermaneutics and Greek informed me that the standard "fundamentalism" of my family and friends could not be actually defended without deforming scripture, and literally ripping scripture from its historical context, making of it a mere "koran" if you will, a magic book with all the answers, but objectively observed through subjective interpretation creating "chaos."   As a Methodist pastor when someone would ask me. What denomination are you?  I would answer, "I'm devout nothingness.  I haven't found any denomination's theology that doesn't ended in rational idiocy, conflicting positive statements and teachings refuted in Scripture.  But I know and love Jesus Christ.  I know he loves me, but none of it makes any sense to me." I was always surprised and disappointed that my Methodist Bishop and my theology teachers didn't find my response a little "shocking."  Instead I could see they found identity, assurance and satisfaction in it. I felt a real kinship to Wesley's writings but still they were too "emotional" for me, but still there was something real there. The problem was, that "something" was totally absent in my experience of the United Methodist Church.  I have to admit that the SEARCH was all consuming and exciting. I held much pride in the knowledge I had gained.   I studied every major religion, the mystical classics, and not in a cursory manner. The Search became part of my identity.   The thrill of the hunt, came to a crashing end when I found Orthodox Christianity, and I experienced two conflicting reactions. The first was tears and extreme comfort and the feeling of finding home, of literally walking into the communion of Jesus Christ, meeting not "religionists" but friends of his and at the same time extreme grief having to give up the thrill of the hunt. You see, by that time I was addicted to it. It took time to realize that the hunt had just begun, merely the field of investigation had changed. It was and is a search now on a different plane, this time in my interior, with different rules that require much prayer and discipline, and most of all humility before the LOVE that is Christ held in the deposit of The Faith, which is limitless and inexhaustible.  So now, I for one am so very relieved as an Orthodox Christian, that The Church Teaches, and I don't have to create a self-invented theology and hold a self-created opinion about EVERYTHING.  I can say, "The Church Teaches" and she does and has preserved the RICHNESS AND FULLNESS of the Gospel, in tact for almost 2100 years. And has also created a wealth of testimony of the Saints as they have shared their stories of healing/salvation with us. We have now not just "a cloud of witnesses" but a cloud of examples, teachers and prayer partners, in the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant.  

This struggle with Sola Scriptura as been on my mind of late.  I ran across a man's work on the net that was truly impressive as he has worked with amazing energy to "re-created the christian wheel," while rejecting the Wheel that already exists, the wheel whose rotations are powered by the Holy Spirit protected by the Bishops of each age.  I recognized the "zeal" of it, and listening to him teach with "zeal" as he wanted to share what he has learned.  He is an historian, very learned, very polished. The depth of his work is really quite something to see. I will be very quick to say that I have learned some things of the Secular History of the Church I did not previously know, some details of things and one major event that I have verified and did not previously know. Yet, with his PhD., sophistication he has only invented one more protestant approximation and may have truly missed the very CORE.  He teaches a "philosophy 101" course at some college, and I listened to him describe to the class the very thing that blocks most birth Protestants from finding the Living Waters in The Church Militant.  He stated that everyone approaches any subject with preconceived notions that color, and even blind one to the very object they observe. This was certainly me, in my anti-catholic, anti-sacramental days. I have to give him credit because to a degree he has stepped out of his previous Sola Scriptura heresy, and his history work has brought him to a new level of understanding.  That Tradition is not evil, and that the early Church fathers were (wait for it) actually Christian - though I get the impression he believes them guided more by secular philosophy than by The Holy Spirit.  To describe his work (and that of some others I come across) I coined the phrase, "Sola Scriptura et Secularis Historia", i.e. "Only Scripture and Worldly History," upon which private interpretation of these creates a new "Tradition" a new deformed Christian Wheel. The evangelicals have several of these movements working at the moment, "First Things" and "New Advent" are two examples.

Contemporary with my reading this "historian's website", I have been watching Jimmy Swaggart's particular show called "The Message of the Cross."  What is amazing is that he is giving (so far) a very Orthodox interpretation of the meaning of the Cross and its relationship to healing/salvation, (as accurate as can be given by an anti-sacramentalist) mostly devoid of the sloganeering of the Evangelicals, and the myriad FALSE teachings on the subject, using Saint Paul's Letter to the Galatians to outline the struggle for purification, etc.  It is obvious that Swaggart's own personal/public humiliation has produced "understanding" most evangelicals do not share.  

Of course Swaggart is framing the teaching as some "deeper revelation" when in fact it has been the constant teaching of the Church for 2000 years.  I assume that he has secretly been reading some of the saints because he has adopted some of their language, where he is talking about "distorting the image" (Ikon) of the Cross by false teaching concerning the Cross, and false teachings (error) being poison to the means of healing salvation. He even said as many of the saints have said, "It might just ruining it and make it of little use, or it might be deadly error that will succeed in killing the people who drink it."   



There are five panel members, two have been offering very Orthodox explications (it may just be a fluke, I don't know),  two have remained mostly quiet, and the last has struggled and struggled trying to place this correct theology within his anti-church/anti-catholic/anti-tradition evangelical theological "spirit-filled" construct.  It is obvious comment after comment that he just does not grasp what was CLEARLY taught by Saint Paul and the young man (panelist) Larson's explication of it. 


Having met Jimmy Swaggart in his arrogant days, in fact having played music with him many times in the 1960s, to me, he is not the "clown" the media makes him to be, he is not merely the disgraced T.V. Evangelist, struggling to regain an audience, but a human person for whom I hold love and respect, a fellow sinner, struggling to come to sanctity, day, by day, by day, by day. I have kept him on my prayer list for decades.  And I don't mean that sentence in any superior way. Trust me I am no better than Swaggart.  Knowing the theological confusion in which he was brought up, having shared most of it, I hope that God continues to open Christian Orthodoxy to him, and that he manages to overcome his evangelical pride and continues to be taught the Ancient Christian Faith. 

What is sad and not Orthodox in his teaching is the "Context."  They constantly referencing "The Church" when they (the panel) mean merely "differing evangelical schools of religion."  Yet, the heresies they have been exposing, the errors contained in these self-invented theologies that differ group to group, that distort the IKON of the Cross and put barriers between people and its healing efficacy have been very insightful . . . so-far.

"The CHURCH of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth." 1 Timothy 3:15 - note it does not say, the BIBLE of the Living God, but the CHURCH of the living God.  The CHURCH imbued with the Holy Spirit formed the Bible, the Bible being a dead letter DID NOT form Christ's Body, THE CHURCH.

Jesus Christ himself said, "Matthew 18:17 (KJV) And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."  Matthew 18:17 

WHAT? Have you never heard these scriptures?

IF you accept the heresy of Sola Scriptura, then tell me, how do you know what books belong in the Bible?  How can you tell me from whence the Bible came to be?  Chances are the answers you give, IF you are a true Sola Scriptura Heretic, will have more in common with the magic of Mohammed and the Koran, than with the Sacred Tradition of Christianity, the creation of the Bible in HISTORY, INSIDE CHRIST'S BODY, THE CHURCH.

Or maybe you can quote me the chapter and verse in the Bible, that tells us which books belong in the Bible?

As much as you HATE to hear it.  It is ONLY the Sacred Tradition of the Church, imbued with the HOLY SPIRIT, that formed the Bible, that defines to this day, the Books in it.

_______________________
Our Heavenly Father 
Let us not be caught in the fear of servile religion; keeping Tradition out of ignorance and offering our "correctness" as sign of righteous enlightenment.
Let us not be caught in the tyranny of our rational minds, which creates "innovations" upon the faith, which leads us to hold prideful "theologies" that diminish God to the level of our understanding, or worse, which deny Him altogether.
Let us not be caught by the tyranny of our emotions, mistaking our soul's phantasy producing powers for the working of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. 
Let us not be caught in the mere form of the visible church, but in the LIFE of it, who is Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, present to all that truly seek Him. Let our keeping of Tradition spring from the warmth of your Love, from a heart that seeks continual repentance, from a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise. Amen.


Archpriest Symeon Elias (Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the U.S.A. - Archbishop Alexander (Bykowetz) -Detroit MI)

Stump the Priest: Is There Anything Special About the Virgin Mary?

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Stump the Priest: Is There Anything Special About the Virgin Mary?

Question: I know a protestant who argues that there was nothing significant about the Virgin Mary, and that just about any woman who was a believer "would have been just as good a selection.” How would you reply to someone that said there was nothing special about the Virgin Mary and basically anyone else could have done what she did?

There is of course a great deal that could be said about the Tradition of the Church to contradict what this protestant said, but when arguing with protestants, the arguments that they will find most persuasive are arguments from Scripture.

I would point out, first off that he has no basis in Scripture for the assertion that any other woman would have been just as good of a selection. Scripture does not tell us explicitly why God chose the Virgin Mary, but when we see her obedience, humility, love, and long-suffering in the Gospels it is clear that she was not just a randomly chosen Jewish girl, but rather an extremely holy woman.

Secondly, there are three places in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke alone in which it is made clear that the Virgin Mary was "special":

1. The Archangel Gabriel greeted her with the words: "Rejoice, thou that art full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women" (Luke 1:28). It is no small matter to be full of grace, for the Lord to be with you, and to be the most blessed of women.

2. When the Virgin Mary went to visit St. Elizabeth, the mother of St. John the Baptist, we are told: "And it came to pass, that, when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit: and she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord" (Luke 1:41-45). At the sound of the Virgin Mary's voice, Elizabeth was filled the Holy Spirit. We are again told that she is the most blessed of women, she is called the mother of the Lord, and Elizabeth states that she is unworthy of the honor that the mother of her Lord should visit her. She also states that she is blessed because of her faith.

3. The Virgin Mary herself, in her Magnificat, said "...from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed" (Luke 1:48). So I would ask your protestant friend why, if every generation will call her blessed, he refuses to do so along with them?

Protestants do not give much credence to Tradition, but they have a harder time dismissing what the early fathers of the Church had to say, and one of the earliest was St. Ireneaus of Lyons (ca. 130 - 202 AD). St. Ireneaus grew up in Smyrna, and as a boy heard the preaching of St. Polycarp, who was a disciple of the Apostle John. In his famous work, Against Heresies, he speaks of the role that the Virgin Mary played in our salvation as the new Eve, whose obedience and faith undid the disobedience of our firth mother:

"In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin (for in Paradise “they were both naked, and were not ashamed,” inasmuch as they, having been created a short time previously, had no understanding of the procreation of children: for it was necessary that they should first come to adult age, and then multiply from that time onward), having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race. And on this account does the law term a woman betrothed to a man, the wife of him who had betrothed her, although she was as yet a virgin; thus indicating the back-reference from Mary to Eve, because what is joined together could not otherwise be put asunder than by inversion of the process by which these bonds of union had arisen; so that the former ties be cancelled by the latter, that the latter may set the former again at liberty. And it has, in fact, happened that the first compact looses from the second tie, but that the second tie takes the position of the first which has been cancelled. For this reason did the Lord declare that the first should in truth be last, and the last first. And the prophet, too, indicates the same, saying, “instead of fathers, children have been born unto thee.” For the Lord, having been born “the First-begotten of the dead,” and receiving into His bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, He having been made Himself the beginning of those that live, as Adam became the beginning of those who die. Wherefore also Luke, commencing the genealogy with the Lord, carried it back to Adam, indicating that it was He who regenerated them into the Gospel of life, and not they Him. Andthus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith" (Against Heresies 3:22:4).

Mirror of article by Fr. John Whiteford, Russian Orthodox.

AVOIDING CLERICALISM

Bishops and Priests Must Serve
Their People with Simplicity and Christ-like Love

Orthodoxy has traditionally avoided clericalism, yet in more recent times this very corruption of priestly service has enter the doors of the Orthodox Church. It has led some clergy to seek out, for personal gain, even the heavy burden of hierarchical service to Christ's Church. Motivated by their desire for princely honor, their sight is clouded so as to endanger not only their own souls, but the souls of the laity who are in need of humble, fatherly, pastoral care, and who will suffer under their "pastoral" guidance.

This quest for honor has led many clergy to participate in a culture of abuse, where they even turn on one another in their sad attempt at aligning themselves with "officialdom". The culture of abuse that is encouraged and fomented by refusing to live in adherence to the simplicity and humility of Christ's example, is not much different than that of the grade school pecking order where the bully builds alliances based on fear.

It is the same culture that chooses to ignore destructive behavior which undermines the message of the Gospel, and displaces the ministry of healing, replacing it with a worldly culture not unlike that of the fiefdoms of medieval Europe. Those in priestly service must be close to their people, serving as both fathers and brothers, ever being gentle, patient, and merciful. Those in priestly service must be animated by inner poverty, and give themselves over in the freedom of the Lord. Their lives must be in witness to the outward simplicity and austerity of life as exemplified by Christ Himself.

Orthodoxy must be returned to the basics, putting off all royal pretensions and princely ways. Our bishops need to lead their dioceses with biblical standards based on love of their priests, and love of their people, for rule by fear and tyranny is not of Christ. Priests, too, must lead their people as loving fathers, and not as local governors appointed by Caesar.

These are dangerous times, and the people of God must be given the spiritual tools needed to thrive as society falters and Christianity itself is under increased attack. The road ahead requires bishops and priests be more than religious officials, they must be holy men who lead their people as loving, caring, and merciful pastors.

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Merciful-Saviour-Orthodox-Christian-Monastery/104578182913886

Why Is Sunday the "Special Day of Worship" for the Church

Worship on Sunday, the Eighth Day
Worship, specifically the Celebration of the Divine Liturgy, where Christ Himself, appears on the altar of Christians around the world and shares his Body and Blood with those who believe and follow Him, is especially celebrated on Sundays and Feast Days.   

The early church fathers give us many examples of the Ancient Church's practice of celebrating Divine Liturgy on Sundays.  For those Christians who do not celebrate the Divine Liturgy, their "worship" is a secondary form, more like the "Hours Prayers" of the Church and it matters little what legalistic rules they have invented to worship on this day or that, since for this type of worship, everyday is appropriate. But we are talking about the weekly celebration of the Divine Liturgy, the center point of the Christian Community.

Why did the Ancient Church come to view the eighth day as special and choose it for this especial Celebration? It was to celebrate Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, who rose from the dead, on Sunday Morning, trampling down death by death. The Eighth Day, Sunday, was immediately the New Sabbath for the earliest Christians, stepping outside what had been before. Many early Jewish Christians attended the Synagogue Worship that actually began, in our time keeping on Friday night at sunset. And following the Jewish Sabbath they would attend the "New Sabbath" which began, at Sunset on Saturday, the beginning of the first day according to the old tradition of counting days. The Church continues this practice, with Vespers at sunset on Saturday and Divine Liturgy Following, either late in the night or some time after sunrise.  Some have framed this as an anti-Jewish reaction of the Gentiles of the early Church, but what is ignored in this assumption is that it was primarily Jewish Christians who created this practice.  This Eighth Day Sabbath was as common in the Jerusalem Church as it was in the Church of Antioch or Rome.
Yes, it is clear that the early Christians knew that the sacrifice of animals in the Jewish Temple was over. That was of one era, and a new era had begun.  "Your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot endure." Wrote the Jew, and Apostle Barnabas.  What was he saying? He is telling his fellow Jews, it is not your present Sabbaths that are acceptable, but the Sabbath which Jesus Christ has made..."when I have set all things at rest, I will make the beginning of the eighth day the beginning of another world, the world of the New Creation in Christ Jesus. Therefore, we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in which Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended into the heavens. Moreover I will tell you likewise concerning the temple, how these wretched men, being led astray, set their hope on the building, and not on their God that made them, as being a house of God."    - Barnabas 15:8-16:1 (Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol 1 page 146)

The Didache, which many scholars date to be older than sections of the New Testament, and to record the first commonly accepted "practices" of the Church, the second earliest example of the exercise of Apostolic Authority (a book the Orthodox Church has never rejected) also speaks of worship on the Lord's day, a reference to Sunday (Didache 14:1)

Ignatius of Antioch - the third Bishop of Antioch after the Apostles Paul and Peter also makes the centrality of Sunday worship obvious.  "If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death - whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith....Let us not, therefore, be insensible to His kindness...Therefore, having become His disciples, let us learn to live according to the principles of Christianity. For whosoever is called by any other name besides this, is not of God. Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the sour leaven....It is absurd to profess Christ Jesus, and to Judaize. For Christianity did not embrace Judaism, but Judaism Christianity...  Ignatius - To the Magnesians (The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol 1 page 62)  To claim as the Seventh Day Adventists do, that Saturday observation of the old Sabbath is mandatory for Christians, one has to ignore the practices of the Apostles themselves, since had Ignatius' practice been any different than the previous two Bishops of Antioch, the Apostles Peter and Paul, he would have cause a scandal. But no where is such scandal recorded. 

The first Church apologist also confirms Sunday as the New Sabbath:
"And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration. - Justin Martyr Apology: CHAPTER LXVII (Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol 1 pg 185)

Any claim by late legalists that any day but Sunday was recognized as the New Sabbath by the Ancient Church is clearly refuted by the writings of the earliest Church Fathers.  BTW, this is one TRADITION of the Church, most Christians accept, even those who claim to accept NO "Traditions of the Church." 

The Beauty of the Sunday Worship has continued to strike the cords of the Christian soul to this day. Here is a poem by a man who lived on the streets for years, homeless, yet the resonance of Sunday Worship haunted his thoughts.

What and Why                                                   
                                                            6/23/02
Today is Sunday
It’s the Lord’s day
Time to try and protect your soul
And worship his name

God must have a plan
Something I still must do
What, I just don’t know
I should have been killed
Why that truck hit me on that road
I’ve a feeling my task
Concerns people living in the street
Maybe my poems of street life
And hard times
Are the key to what I need.
This is a new skill
I just didn’t know I had
I just started writing one day
Around my birthday,
It’s a puzzle that I have to solve.

It stays in the front of my mind
It’s all I think of
The Lord will let me know,
In His own way
All I know to do
Is be patient
And pray.

 
Author Notes
These were my thoughts on one of the 600 sundays that I spent homeless
© Barry Whitaker.

The History of the Apostolic Authority of the Christian Faith.

Is your Christianity, the True and Ancient Christian Faith?
Do you really believe what the Apostles taught and practiced? 
Do you continue the same practices? 

With so many, spiritual individualists, and house church advocates, trying to “reinvent” the Christian Faith, ( most having grown weary of “organized religion,”) I thought it would be a good thing to write about The Faith of the Apostles that has never been lost in history, has never found a period of time in history where it was dormant, has never lost the authority passed to it by the Apostles. 

When and where did this “Church of the Apostles” come into being?

Where was the upper room, when Doubting Thomas was present for the first time. When the Risen Lord Jesus turned his “disciples” into “apostles,” by breathing upon them, the Holy Ghost, for the purpose of guiding and teaching The Church. This Holy Spirit filled authority stands through the centuries, to this present day. 

John 20:19-23 (KJV) 
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 
20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 
21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 
23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. 

All Protestants and Evangelicals simply dismiss this event, and teach rather that the Church started after Jesus' Ascension, and the general fall of the Holy Spirit on the 50th day, that is the Day of Pentecost. 

Jesus before his Crucifixion, said to his disciple (not to the public in general), “When He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. “ John 16:13.

We see right away that in the Apostolic Tradition the perception of Scripture is different. Where Protestant/Evangelicals read every sentence of the New Testament as if it is a general instruction, or a universal truth, The Church remains true to the “context” of Scripture as enlightened by the Church's Tradition, the Bible being one artifact of the Church's Tradition. 

How important was it for the Christians to follow specifically the Apostolic Teaching and not bow to the temptation to “make things up”? Saint Paul said to Timothy, who he had consecrated Bishop, Timothy, 6:20 ff - “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing, have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.”

Saint Paul, pointing out the immutability of THE FAITH, which Jude admonished had be fought for, that is, contended for, protected from the false teachers and those inventing error, Jude 3, “Contend earnestly for the faith which was once, for all delivered to the saints” So says Saint Paul, in several ways, “O Timothy, Guard what was committed to your trust.” 1 Tim 6:20. “The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” 2 Tim. 2:2. “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.” 2Th_2:15 Saint John Beloved said, “Let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.” 1 John 2:24. Saint Paul was so emphatic that the Teaching of the Apostles be held without error, that he makes this remarkable statement, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:18. 

What does that say for Luther, Knox, Calvin, Zwingli, Hus, Cranmer, Henry the 8th and the rest of confused reformation heretics, all teaching competing and conflicting theology? And it speaks even more starkly to Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddie, Helen Blavatsky, L Ron Hubbard, and all others who have created demonic sects and anti-christ cults. None of them heard the Apostolic caution, “Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife,” The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 2:23. 

The error-teachers have been present in every age of the Church's history and we were and are instructed NOT to follow their innovations, even in minor things. 

Saint Clement, Bishop of Rome, writing in the year, 96 AD, in the same era when portions of the New Testament were being penned wrote, “You are fond of contention, brethren and full of zeal about things which do not pertain to salvation.” 

Writing in the same period, Saint Ignatius the third Bishop of Antioch wrote, “Study, therefore, to be established in the doctrines of the Lord and the Apostles.” Note, that Saint Paul was the first Bishop of Antioch, and Saint Peter the second Bishop of Antioch and Saint Ignatius the third Bishop of Antioch and he was also a student of Saint John the Evangelist who wrote the Gospel of John and the letters of John contained in the New Testament. Do you think this fellow was a heretic, admonishing that believers must be ESTABLISHED IN, both the doctrines Jesus taught AND those doctrines taught by the Apostles? Did not Jesus tell his disciples, who became his Apostles, “When He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.” So the Gospel is not just the words of Jesus, but the testimony of the Apostles and the teachings of the Apostles, both as to teaching and practice. Without comprehension of the Tradition of the Apostles, one cannot intuit the meaning of the Apostle's words, nor understand their teaching, even the texts of the New Testament “in context.” 

The Church holds the book called, the Didache, which was the very first general instruction to the Bishops and their churches. Many scholars date this book to as early as 80 AD, fully in the period that the Gospels – the Evangelion, and the other books of the New Testament, the Praxapostolos, were being written. It contains the practical Tradition, that is the Ortho-Praxis of the New Testament Church, how Bishops and other clergy were to be Ordained in Apostolic Succession, what were the qualifications of the same and how services were to be conducted and so on. By the way, the title Praxapostolos, was given to Acts, the Letters of the Apostles, and Revelations because they reflect not just the “teachings” of the Apostles, but their practices, “their tradition” as well. 

The Apostolic Tradition of the Church was produced by the Holy Spirit filled Apostles themselves, and were not “an addition of man-made traditions” as the Protestants teach, but rather the practices for the purpose of Healing Salvation, intimately tied to the teachings, without which the teachings become mired in false interpretations. Eighty years later we have the record of Saint Theophilus writing, “I wish now to give you a more accurate demonstration of the historical period, God helping me. I wish to do this that you may see that our doctrine is not modern nor fabulous, but more ancient and true than all poets and authors who have written in uncertainty.” written in 180 A.D. “nor will any one of the Bishops in the Churches teach doctrines different from these (however highly gifted he may be as to eloquence) – for no one is greater than the Master. Nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition. For THE FAITH is ever one and the same. So he who is able to teach at great length regarding it makes no addition to it. Nor does he who can say but little, diminish it.” Saint Irenaeus 180 A.D. 

“It is unlawful to assert that the apostles preached before they possessed 'perfect knowledge,' as some do even venture to say, boasting themselves as being improvers of the apostles. For, after our Lord rose from the dead, the apostles were energized with power from on High, when the Holy Ghost came down. (John 20:22 Not Acts 2 – since his reference was Jesus “risen from the dead” not Jesus having Ascended to the Father.) They were completely filled and had perfect knowledge. They departed to the ends of the earth, preaching the glad tidings of the GOOD THINGS sent to us from God.” Saint Irenaeus writing circa 180 A.D. 

“ In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us. And this is most abundant proof that there is one and the same LIFE-giving FAITH, which had been preserved in the Church from the apostles until, now, and handed down in truth.” Again Saint Irenaeus writing the same year. NOTE: (1) Order, Succession, Ecclesiastical Tradition FROM the Apostles, and (2) the preaching of the truth, TOGETHER these he describes as “the same LIFE-giving FAITH.” That statement of Saint Irenaeus is powerful, because it stands today as perfectly TRUE as it did the day he penned the text. 

“It is not necessary to seek the truth among others, for it is easy to obtain it from the Church. For the apostles lodged in her hands most abundantly all things pertaining to the truth – just like a rich man deposits his money in a bank. Therefore, every man who wants to can draw from her the water of LIFE.” Again Saint Irenaeus circa 180A.D. 

“True knowledge is that which consists in the doctrine of the apostles and the ancient constitution of the church throughout all the world. It also consists in the distinctive manifestation of the Body of Christ according to the succession of the Bishops. (There he gives the definition of the word “Catholic” – of the whole of those holding True knowledge, consisting of the doctrine of the Apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout all the world.) For by this they have handed down that church which exists in every place and which has come down even unto us. She is guarded and preserved without any forging of Scriptures, by a very complete system of doctrine. She neither receives any addition to, nor does she allow any diminishing of, the truths which she believes. True knowledge also consists of reading the word of God without falsification, but with a lawful and diligent exposition in harmony with the Scriptures, both without danger and without blasphemy. Above all, it consists in the pre-eminent gift of love, which is more precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, and which excels all the other gifts from God.” Again, Saint Irenaeus circa 180A.D. By this Saint Irenaeus leaves no room to separate from the Church, THE LOVE that is Christ Jesus, which shines through her members, through her “mysteries/sacraments” through her teachings, through her Apostolic Authority, and through her Ortho-praxis. When someone makes the distinction, saying “God's love is real to me, but the Rituals of the Church are just man made tradition” – NO TRUE Christian could state such blasphemy, separating God's love from Christ's Body, The Church, and her teaching and her Apostolic Tradition. God's true love for man exists in ALL of these, they are the GOOD THINGS Saint Irenaeus previously mentioned, which the Apostles “departed to the ends of the earth to freely give,” which are still held by the Church and her members, on every continent of the globe, which are still given and practiced. 

What do those in error do to keep from accepting this Apostolic TRUTH? They in late centuries, via innovative teachings, contrary to the Apostolic Tradition, redefine EVERYTHING, making it what it WAS NOT in the New Testament and Ancient Church. They redefine the place, function and Apostolic Authority of the Bishops, the Episkopos, making of them what they were NOT in the New Testament and Ancient Christian Church. They redefine the place, function, that is, under the authority of the Bishops, of the presbuteros, the priests, making of them what they were NOT in the New Testament and Ancient Christian Church. And so they make the Ecclesiastical Structure, handed down by the Apostles , a lie. In so doing, they even redefine the definition of CHURCH itself, again through innovation making it what it never was in the New Testament and Ancient Church. They redefine the Bible making it what it was NOT in New Testament and Ancient Church Times, nor has been in the entire history of the Church, the sole deposit of The Faith, ripping it from its Apostolic roots. All these innovations a few centuries old, have created 33,000 denominations of Protestants, and defy the witness of 2080 years of Church history, practice, witness and REALITY. 

February 3, 2014
Archpriest Symeon Elias.