The Orthodox Church

[NeitherFirstnorLast]

InChristAlone, I felt I had to address this statement of yours:

Originally Posted by InChristAlone

...The Orthodox Church is not simply another denomination. It is the original Church, founded by Christ Himself and described in the New Testament. She traces her history in unbroken continuity all the way back to Christ and His Twelve Apostles... for the first thousand years of Christian history, there was one unified worldwide Church... the Eastern Church maintained unchanged the "faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" ... The word "orthodox," which comes from the Greek word meaning "correct belief," not only identifies, but also describes the Orthodox Church, which has maintained the correct belief, practice, and worship of the New Testament Church, unaltered and undiminished, for two-thousand years. The Church has preserved the Faith, neither adding to nor subtracting from it; confessing the original Nicene Creed and guiding her people to growth in Christ through union with Him. .

I want to address this quote of yours, with this one from "Got Questions?.org" My own input I have put in umber.

The Eastern Orthodox Church is not a single church but rather a family of 13 self-governing bodies, denominated by the nation in which they are located (e.g., the Greek Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church). They are united in their understanding of the sacraments, doctrine, liturgy, and church government, but each administers its own affairs.

The head of each Orthodox church is called a “patriarch” or “metropolitan.” The patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) is considered the ecumenical—or universal—patriarch. He is the closest thing to a counterpart to the Pope in the Roman Catholic Church. Unlike the Pope, who is known as VICARIUS FILIUS DEI (the vicar of the Son of God), the bishop of Constantinople is known as PRIMUS INTER PARES (the first amongst equals). He enjoys special honor, but he has no power to interfere with the 12 other Orthodox communions.

The Orthodox Church claims to be the one true church of Christ, and seeks to trace its origin back to the original apostles through an unbroken chain of apostolic succession. Orthodox thinkers debate the spiritual status of Roman Catholics and Protestants, and a few still consider them heretics. Like Catholics and Protestants, however, Orthodox believers affirm the Trinity, the Bible as the Word of God, Jesus as God the Son, and many other biblical doctrines. However, in doctrine, they have much more in common with Roman Catholics than they do with Protestant Christians.

Sadly, the doctrine of justification by faith is virtually absent from the history and theology of the Orthodox Church. Rather, Orthodoxy emphasizes theosis (literally, “divinization”), the gradual process by which Christians become more and more like Christ. What many in the Orthodox tradition fail to understand is that “divinization” is the progressive result of salvation, not a requirement for salvation itself. Other Orthodox distinctives that are in conflict with the Bible include:

* The equal authority of church tradition and Scripture (you need the interpreted Word!)

* Discouragement of individuals interpreting the Bible apart from tradition*
(our church currently has a Missionary in Greece operating as part of team, and the giving away of Bibles has been a very contentious hot-spot for the Greek Orthodox churches there. Personal ownership of Bibles is frowned upon by the Greek Orthodox churches.)

* The perpetual virginity of Mary (God couldn't allow his vessel to have a normal married life, so she was somehow preserved despite bearing children after Jesus and is therefore less human and more Mother-of-God type).

* Prayer for the dead (possibly taken from the Book of Judith? See below).

* The Orthodox Bible includes in it's OT:

1) Maccabees
2)Tobit
3)Judith
4)Wisdom of Solomon
5)Bara Sirach
6)Baruch


In addition to this: After Daniel 3,23- the Prayer of Azariah and the three Young Men, who were put in the fire by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar
*Story of Susanna in 64 verses (Chapter 13 of the Book of Daniel)
*The Bel and the Dragon (Chapter 14 of the Book of Daniel)
*Some parts of Esther.
*Psalms 151

* Baptism of infants without reference to individual responsibility and faith

* The possibility of receiving salvation after death

* The possibility of losing salvation

* Iconography: As the Catholics have statues of saints, the Orthodox church uses Icons (two dimensional images of saints.) While Orthodox christians admit that "they often kiss, respect, venerate and honour icons", they do not equate that veneration with worship. I don't understand how they make that distinction, given the kissing, respecting, venerating and honoring. Seems largely semantic to me - and certainly there is no indication in the Bible that icons and relics were a part of the early Christian ecclesia.

* Animal Sacrifice: The Armenian Orthodox Church has practiced animal sacrifice since its inception in 301 AD and still does until this day. It is referred to as Matagh and performed outside of the church on holy days such as Easter or to ask for forgiveness. The practice was instituted by St. Gregory the Illuminator in his efforts to convert pagans, so it is an example of adapting a pagan practice to further conversion efforts. Please refer to the following article:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3154334


Please note that the Armenian Orthodox Church was the first nationally established church, the country officially converting in 301 AD. The second was its neighbor, the Kingdom of Georgia, which was officially declared Christian in 337 AD. Georgian Christians also occasionally perform animal sacrifices. The Armenian Orthodox Church is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches which rejected the ruling of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, over the definition of the Trinity, so it has split with the larger Eastern Orthodox community. However, there are other groups within the Eastern Orthodox church who also have maintained animal sacrifice as part of their worship service (see http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...e-christianity)



Also for a history of animal sacrifice within Eastern Orthodoxy, see the following:


http://www.academia.edu/1183305/The_...istian_Context


While the Eastern Orthodox Church has claimed some of the church's great voices, and while there are many in the Orthodox tradition that have a genuine salvation relationship with Jesus Christ, the Orthodox church itself does not speak with a clear message that can be harmonized with the biblical gospel of Christ. The call of the Reformers for “Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, and Christ alone” is missing in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and that is too precious a treasure to do without.

Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Eastern-Orthodox-church.html#ixzz2yo0B7lUP