THE SECULARIZATION OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANTIY
The Body of Christ is no longer recognized as such but is just a group of like minded people who have formed an organization to their liking.
The building where the Body of Christ meets is no longer a holy temple but just a building.
Its design no longer reflects the holiness of the kingdom of heaven but the ordinary ugliness of a meeting hall.
The sanctuary has been replaced by a stage.
The holy altar has been replaced by a lectern or pulpit.
The service of Holy Communion has been replaced by a preacher, lecture or sermon
The icons of the saint, martyrs and angels have been replaced by plain bare walls, mood lighting, theatre screens and folding padded seats just like in a theatre.
The services are no longer built around the Gospel for the day but all manner of secular themes and celebrations in step with the world.
America and the flag is more celebrated, honored and venerated than the Church and the heroes of the Church.
The “holy” days of the church year are really the secular days of the world.
The holy chanting that conveys spiritual compunction has been replaced by Hollywood and Grand ole Opry style entertainment that appeals to the flesh.
The modest and chaste dress that identifies the worshipers as being in a holy place has been replaced by all manner of immodest and suggestive attire and behavior more fitting for a night club or a house of ill repute.
The fasting to prepare to receive the Lord’s Body and Blood has been replaced by snack bars and even coffee drinking during the service.
The atmosphere of prayerful preparation that approaches God in holy awe has been replaced by loud, boisterous, passionate laughter, jesting and all manner of secular conversations.
Everything resembles a concert in a concert hall for the entertainment of the people.
There is no accountability to anyone for what the people belief or how they live.
There is no such thing as heresy and no such thing a discipline.
American Christianity, by and large, is thoroughly secularized in appearance, understanding and message and bears little or no resemblance to the historic Church of Christ.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
HOW OLD IS YOUR CHURCH AND WHO STARTED IT?
HOW OLD IS YOUR CHURCH AND WHO STARTED IT?
By Rev. Dr. Miltiades Efthimiou
If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Roman Catholic Church, in the year 1517.
If you belong to the Church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to re-marry.
If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560. If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582.
If you are Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot of the Church of England, founded by Samuel Seabury in the American colonies in the 17th century. If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1606.
If you are of the Dutch Reformed Church, you recognize Michelis Jones as founder because he originated your religion in New York in 1628. If you are Methodist, your religion was founded by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744.
If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865. If you are Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.
If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as Church of the Nazarene, Pentecostal Gospel, Holiness Church or Jehovah's Witnesses, your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men within the past hundred years.
If you are a Roman Catholic, your church shared the same rich apostolic and doctrinal heritage as the Orthodox Church for the first thousand years of its history, since during the first millennium they were one and the same Church. Lamentably, in 1054, the Pope of Rome broke away from the other four Apostolic Patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), by tampering with the Original Creed of the Church, and considering himself to be infallible. Thus your church is 1,000 years old.
If you are an Orthodox Christian, your religion was founded in the year 33 by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It has not changed since that time. Our Church is now almost 2,000 years old. And it is for this reason, that Orthodoxy, the Church of the Apostles and the. Fathers, is considered the true "one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church."
By Rev. Dr. Miltiades Efthimiou
If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Roman Catholic Church, in the year 1517.
If you belong to the Church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to re-marry.
If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560. If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582.
If you are Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot of the Church of England, founded by Samuel Seabury in the American colonies in the 17th century. If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1606.
If you are of the Dutch Reformed Church, you recognize Michelis Jones as founder because he originated your religion in New York in 1628. If you are Methodist, your religion was founded by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744.
If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865. If you are Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.
If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as Church of the Nazarene, Pentecostal Gospel, Holiness Church or Jehovah's Witnesses, your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men within the past hundred years.
If you are a Roman Catholic, your church shared the same rich apostolic and doctrinal heritage as the Orthodox Church for the first thousand years of its history, since during the first millennium they were one and the same Church. Lamentably, in 1054, the Pope of Rome broke away from the other four Apostolic Patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), by tampering with the Original Creed of the Church, and considering himself to be infallible. Thus your church is 1,000 years old.
If you are an Orthodox Christian, your religion was founded in the year 33 by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It has not changed since that time. Our Church is now almost 2,000 years old. And it is for this reason, that Orthodoxy, the Church of the Apostles and the. Fathers, is considered the true "one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church."
IN SEARCH OF TRUTH
IN SEARCH OF TRUTH
If you came to American and knew nothing about our country but wanted to learn all about it so you could maybe become a citizen what would be the best course of action. You could go to a bookstore and buy all kinds of books written about America. Then you could read all those books and think about all that you have read. You might imagine that you now understand America and are ready for citizenship. But out of all those books you read some of the authors didn’t know their subject very well. Some of the books, for whatever reason, included false or misleading information. Some of the books were written by people who understand our history and some by people who don’t. Some of the authors love America and some dislike it. Some are written to give a clear picture of America, some to express the author’s bias or personal agenda. So you could read all those books and still not know what you should know or need to know. And even if you then think you understand America, you might not understand it at all.
The other option would be to read the books that relate the history of America, clear certain facts that are known by all. You could read the writings of the founding fathers, their very words, ideas and intentions – not some one’s interpretation of their words, two hundred years later. You could read the Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, the Jefferson Papers, the Bill of Rights and other similar documents. Then you would know the truth about America and what it means to be a citizen. This truth would be drawn from objective, established and known truths, not from what you feel or think or from a thousand different modern voices.
Then if you wanted to become a citizen you would not, could not start your own America. Your only option would be to embrace the America that has existed for two hundred plus years. You would have to submit yourself to the America that is and abide by its laws. The way you would be able to identify this America is by its Constitution, its unbroken history and it line of succession of the same beliefs, values and government from one generation to another. If you did not want to do all of this you would be rejecting America and saying you do not want to be a citizen.
All of this can be applied to the Church that Christ established. The Church is His Body of which He is the Head. There are not many Churches, just as there are not many Christs or many Americas. There are not many different Christian Faiths. There is only one God, one Christ, one Faith and one Church. The Church is an historical entity and reality. You can trace its history and read its “constitution” and read the writings of its founders and trace its unbroken succession of truth, life and government from the time of Christ to the present. To learn about the Church we must learn about the Church as it has been from the beginning. To enter the Church we have to embrace what is and not try to create our own or what others have created two thousand years later. We can’t recreate the Church on our own anymore than we can recreate America as though it has no history or historical existence. We can only submit to what is. Christ established His Church with its truth, its life and its way as the means for our salvation. The Church is like a ship sailing across the ocean of time inviting us to enter her safety.
Unfortunately, mankind in his pride tries to create his own “church” according to private interpretations of the Bible and according to personal likes and dislikes. And then, knowing that the Bible clearly teaches there is only one Church, man invents something called the invisible church to allow for all kinds of contradictory beliefs to be included in this “invisible church”. This idea of the invisible church is a new invention of Protestantism that has no history in the historical Church and no basis in the Bible. The only invisible Church is the Church in heaven, i.e., the Church triumphant vs. the Church on earth.
If you came to American and knew nothing about our country but wanted to learn all about it so you could maybe become a citizen what would be the best course of action. You could go to a bookstore and buy all kinds of books written about America. Then you could read all those books and think about all that you have read. You might imagine that you now understand America and are ready for citizenship. But out of all those books you read some of the authors didn’t know their subject very well. Some of the books, for whatever reason, included false or misleading information. Some of the books were written by people who understand our history and some by people who don’t. Some of the authors love America and some dislike it. Some are written to give a clear picture of America, some to express the author’s bias or personal agenda. So you could read all those books and still not know what you should know or need to know. And even if you then think you understand America, you might not understand it at all.
The other option would be to read the books that relate the history of America, clear certain facts that are known by all. You could read the writings of the founding fathers, their very words, ideas and intentions – not some one’s interpretation of their words, two hundred years later. You could read the Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, the Jefferson Papers, the Bill of Rights and other similar documents. Then you would know the truth about America and what it means to be a citizen. This truth would be drawn from objective, established and known truths, not from what you feel or think or from a thousand different modern voices.
Then if you wanted to become a citizen you would not, could not start your own America. Your only option would be to embrace the America that has existed for two hundred plus years. You would have to submit yourself to the America that is and abide by its laws. The way you would be able to identify this America is by its Constitution, its unbroken history and it line of succession of the same beliefs, values and government from one generation to another. If you did not want to do all of this you would be rejecting America and saying you do not want to be a citizen.
All of this can be applied to the Church that Christ established. The Church is His Body of which He is the Head. There are not many Churches, just as there are not many Christs or many Americas. There are not many different Christian Faiths. There is only one God, one Christ, one Faith and one Church. The Church is an historical entity and reality. You can trace its history and read its “constitution” and read the writings of its founders and trace its unbroken succession of truth, life and government from the time of Christ to the present. To learn about the Church we must learn about the Church as it has been from the beginning. To enter the Church we have to embrace what is and not try to create our own or what others have created two thousand years later. We can’t recreate the Church on our own anymore than we can recreate America as though it has no history or historical existence. We can only submit to what is. Christ established His Church with its truth, its life and its way as the means for our salvation. The Church is like a ship sailing across the ocean of time inviting us to enter her safety.
Unfortunately, mankind in his pride tries to create his own “church” according to private interpretations of the Bible and according to personal likes and dislikes. And then, knowing that the Bible clearly teaches there is only one Church, man invents something called the invisible church to allow for all kinds of contradictory beliefs to be included in this “invisible church”. This idea of the invisible church is a new invention of Protestantism that has no history in the historical Church and no basis in the Bible. The only invisible Church is the Church in heaven, i.e., the Church triumphant vs. the Church on earth.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
THE TRUE ISRAEL OF GOD
THE TRUE ISRAEL OF GOD
When God called Abraham and entered into a covenant with him, the Jewish nation did not exist. Thus, the covenant God gave to Abraham was not based on a worldly nation or a people of a certain ethnic descent or nationality but the promise was to Abraham and his seed – not seeds as in many but seed as in one. “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, ‘And to seeds, as of many; but as of one,’ and to thy seed, which is Christ.” Gal. 3:16. This is the same seed, i.e. Christ, that God had promised in the Garden of Eden, the seed that would ultimately crush the head of Satan.
The promise to Abraham was the promise of the coming Messiah. In Him, i.e. Christ, all nations of the earth would be blessed. God called Abraham and his descendents to be the depository, so to speak, of this promise. If they would believe this promise and live in God’s covenant, they would be joined to the Messiah and His covenant blessings and they in turn, by bearing witness to this faith and covenant, would be a source of blessing to other nations who did not know of this Messiah and covenant. The promise was the promise of Christ the Messiah. The descendents of Abraham would participate in the promise if they would believe God’s promise and live in His covenant. The promise was not based on the people or their nationality but on their relationship to God in this covenant through faith. The promise was not based on the people or their nationality but on their relationship to God in this covenant through faith. The Promise, Covenant, Seed was Christ. Abraham and his descendants were the package God chose to market the Covenant, so to speak. The world would not be blessed by a particular nationality but by Christ who would descend through them. When they, as a whole, rejected the Messiah, God chose the Church as His package.
This same covenant of grace found it’s ultimate fulfillment in the coming of Christ of which the Church partakes today as the New Israel. “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:27-29.
In the Old Testament the Church was composed of those who embraced and lived in the covenant by faith. It is the same for the Church of the New Testament. Just as our participation today in the Kingdom of God has nothing to do with our nationality or ethnic heritage, so it was in the Old Testament. The descendents of Abraham participated in the covenant, not because of their nationality but because they embraced the covenant God revealed to Abraham.
Later, after the covenant had been established, Jacob a descendent of Abraham who embraced the covenant, after wrestling all night with an angel, was given the name Israel which means struggler with God or upright with God. Thus Israel denotes those who are in a covenant relationship with God, not people of a certain nationality. It had nothing to do with them being Jews, it had everything to do with the fact that God chose these descendents of Abraham to be the depository of his covenant, which was based on faith in his promises.
Eventually Israel came to think of their relationship to God as being based in their nationality as Jews and their keeping of the law that God had revealed to Moses. This was their downfall.
Those today who see the Jewish people as the chosen people of God simply because they are Jews are making the same mistake. This wrong understanding resulted in the Jews thinking of their relationship to God as being based on their physical descent rather than their faith in God’s promises and being in covenant relationship with God through faith in the Messiah.
We see this mentioned in a number of passages in the Scriptures.
In the 8th chapter of St. John’s Gospel, Jesus had a long conversation with some of the Jews. They were looking for a physical kingdom and a physical king and basing their relationship to God on their nationality and the law just as many today still do when they refer to the Jews as God’s chosen people. Thus, when Christ came in humility and spoke of his death, the Jewish people as a whole rejected him as the Messiah.
In John 8 beginning at verse 23 when the Jews rejected His talk about His death, Jesus said to them:
“Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. 24) I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins; for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. 30) As he spake these words, many believed on him. 31) Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32) And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
[Notice that they were not already his disciples by virtue of simply being Jews. There is nothing here to suggest they are his chosen people. They have already abandoned God’s covenant and are therefore lost in their sins. Only those who embraced the covenant by believing in him were true descendents of Abraham. Their physical descent contributed nothing.]
33) “Then they [the Jews who did not believe in him] answered him, We are Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man; how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?” [They think they are God’s chosen people by virtue of physical, national descent.]
34) “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 36) If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 37) I know that you are descendents of Abraham; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 38) I speak that which I have seen with my Father; and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39) They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 40) But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God; this Abraham did not do. 41) Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. 42) Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God: neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43) Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44) Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him…47) He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God…56) Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 57) Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58) Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.”
So we see how being Jews by nationality was of no benefit because they saw the kingdom of God as a worldly and physical thing and thus rejected the Messiah. They could no longer be called God’s chosen people even as the Jews today who reject him cannot be called God’s chosen people. The promises of God given to Abraham ceased to have any fulfillment in them when they rejected him as we see in the words of Jesus as he wept over Jerusalem as he set his face to go to the cross and said, “O Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you under my wings as a chicken gathers her chicks but ye would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” The promises of Abraham no longer pertained to them. They were forsaken as God’s chosen people because they rejected God’s Son as the Messiah. Not long after this, in 70 AD, Jerusalem was invaded and destroyed. The Jews were slaughtered and the temple was destroyed. These were all signs that the promises given to Abraham would no longer pertain to them but only to those who embraced the covenant in Christ through faith.
St. Paul spoke of this in his letter to the Romans, chapter 4:
11) “And he [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised; that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also…13) For the promise that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14) For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.”
St. Paul uses the term law to express an understanding of the Jews which based their relationship to God on their nationality and their keeping of the Jewish laws. He says clearly that their relationship to God has nothing to do with their nationality or physical descent or being possessors of the law but rather on faith in the promises of God in Christ. This, he said, is what Abraham believed and only those who believe this are true descendents of Abraham.
In Romans 2: 28-29 St. Paul states it again, “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly: neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
Later, St. Paul answers those who in effect say, “But if the Jews are no longer the chosen people then God has changed and is not faithful to his promises given in the Old Testament.” But this contention is based on seeing the promise in the Old Testament as based on nationality, which it wasn’t. Thus St. Paul said, “ It is not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all of Israel, which are of Israel: Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” Rom. 6-8
Here we see again that the chosen people of God are those who embraced God’s covenant through faith in the Messiah and not those who are merely physical descendents called Jews.
The fact that the Jews do not continue to be reckoned as the chosen people of God merely by virtue of their nationality is emphasized again in Romans 11:21 “For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee” Here St. Paul is talking about how the Jewish people had been cut off from God’s grace by their rejection of God’s covenant in Christ.
The promise to Abraham and his descendents was conditional. God told them that He would be their God and He would bless them but only if they embraced His covenant and lived as His covenant people according to all that He would lay out for them. God was clear in His warnings. If they turned away from His covenant and in unbelief of His promises turned to the false gods of the other nations, God would inflict severe punishment on them. We see this happening repeatedly in the Old Testament as God allows the surrounding pagan nations to take them into captivity and slaughter them and enslave them, depicting that apart from their embrace of God’s covenant they are not heirs to God’s promises.
In the New Testament all the promises of God that had been given to Abraham and his seed are fulfilled in Christ and now belong to the Church, the new covenant people, the new chosen people as St. Paul said in Galatians 3: 9 “So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” And again in verse 14: “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” St. Peter taught the same thing in I Peter 2:9 when he spoke of the church as “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, a holy nation; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. “ These are Old Testament covenant words, once applied to those who embraced the covenant and now applied to the Church.
Thus all the promises given to Israel of old will be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. Just as the animal sacrifices and all the temple rituals found their fulfillment in Christ, so the promises to Israel in the Old Testament now find their fulfillment, not in physical land in the nation of Israel, but in the New Jerusalem, the city not made by hands whose builder and maker is God; the one St. John the Revelator saw coming down from God out of heaven. The promised land is possessed by the Church, now and in eternity. It is the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven. Those who still look for an earthly kingdom, fall into the same mistake as the Jews. which caused them to reject Christ as the Messiah and which will lead many to embrace the Anti-Christ because they are looking for a millennial kingdom on earth..
The title “chosen people of God” has always pertained to those who believed in and embraced God’s promises in Christ. It never was based on some physical or ethnic descent. There is no basis at all for applying the promises of God to a physical nation. In fact, such a concept contradicts the Scriptures that tell us that God is no respecter of persons, that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile since all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that no one can come to the Father but by Christ.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Is Gambling a Sin?
IS GAMBLING WRONG?
I recently heard a prominent and popular preacher on TV doing a question and answer session – giving answers to questions from members of his congregation. The question at hand was, “What’s wrong with gambling?”
The preacher’s answer was short and predictable. “It’s trying to get something for nothing,” he said. This, of course, isn't true since most gambling I am familiar with requires an investment of money. In anticipation of the next logical question he tried to explain why playing the stock market is not the same as gambling. Then, as if realizing his answer was ringing a little hollow, he added, “Besides, if you’re playing the stock market you won’t have a cocktail waitress trying to serve you drinks.” (This is a good ploy when you sense that your arguments are weak. Use humor to distract and deflect attention away from your answer.)
As I thought about his answer I couldn’t help but raise a few questions. If the “sin” of gambling is trying to get something for nothing wouldn’t that make it wrong for homeless people to go to the rescue mission for a free meal and place to sleep? Wouldn’t that make it wrong for needy people to accept Thanksgiving food baskets or Christmas toys from his church? And what about Christmas gifts or any gift? Isn’t that getting something for nothing? If a rich man is handing out hundred dollar bills on a street corner, would it be a sin for me to try to get one? And would I be sinning if I signed a slip of paper and dropped it in a box for a drawing for a TV at a new store opening? And wonder of wonders, isn’t the Grace of God about getting something for nothing? Oh, no! What will we do now?
Social Media - A Barometer of Society
Social Media - A Barometer of Society
The Social Media of a society are pretty good reflections of the heart and soul of that society. Which comes first is hard to say. Does the media create the way society lives and thinks or does the media simply reflect what is? Perhaps there’s some of both. It’s debatable. It is still true that the media gives us a good insight into our culture.
Take Facebook, for instance. It is a good barometer of contemporary society – how people think, feel, react and what’s important to them. Some people seldom post anything except something about sports. Others post mostly about animals. Some post what they are eating or other such mundane activities. Others seem to post things that make them appear to be wealthy, important or special. No doubt all of these things are important to those who post them and they apparently are important to a lot of people who like to read them.
As Andy Rooney would say, “it seems to me” that Facebook mostly reflects a society that is bored and living and thinking mostly on the surface of life without much thought for the deeper or greater questions and issues of life. It appears that life is pretty much lived and understood on a trivial level. Many in our society rarely think beyond sports, trivia games, videos, the latest fad or movement, some Hollywood event or celebrity, or the latest movie. The meaning of life, as seen on Facebook, is reduced to entertainment, having fun, egoisms and cute little slogans and warm fussy quotes.
And as usual, contemporary Christianity in America always becomes a reflection of society at large (which should tell you that it is sick and confused). I see a lot of this reflected on the religious posts of Facebook.
On Facebook, as in society at large, we see a Contemporary Christianity that is really into reductionism – reducing the Christian Faith to its least common denominator so there are few doctrines or requirements of belief or practice. This reflects the multi-culturalism and inclusive campaigns of society.
You see this in how all the churches these days want to drop defining names and be called something cool like New Life, or New Wine, or Celebration Ministries, or World Outreach or The Rock, etc. - anything that reflects being hip and cool and all-inclusive. The name of the game is entertainment and fun. Churches are reduced to smorgasbords with the biggest ones offering the best dishes and people choosing churches based on their appetites (passions). Content, beyond how to live a happy, prosperous and fulfilled life (i.e. how to sanctify the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life), is absent. Whatever resemblance to content remains is reduced to cute little quotes and slogans that fill the pages of Facebook. They sound cute but in the end they mean nothing and serve no purpose except to entertain for a brief moment. They are, to borrow words from Shakespeare, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing - a good reflection of society and contemporary Christianity.
The Orthodox Septuagint or the Protestant Masoretic?
The Orthodox Septuagint or the Protestant Masoretic?
The Orthodox Church uses the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, the one used by Christ and the apostles (as quoted in the New Testament). The Protestant world uses the Masoretic text which came some 1000 years after the time of Christ and was altered by Jewish Rabbis who tried to erase prophecies that seemed to point to Jesus as the Christ of the Old Testament.
The Septuagint was translated in Alexandra circa A.D. 250 during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphius as a publication of the Library of Alexandria. This Library was the Media Center of the Roman world. Ptolemy wanted a copy of every book in the known world to be available through the Library. Accordingly, he found a way to include a translation of the hitherto untranslated Scriptures of the Jews which could be made available through the Library. Scholars who were fluent in both Hebrew and Greek traveled from Jerusalem to Alexandria to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek.
Their translation, known as the Septuagint from the seventy-two who completed this work, was praised as grasping the true meaning of the Hebrew and setting it forth in Greek by the most erudite of the Jews who were contemporaries of Our Lord Jesus Christ, including Philo and Josephus. The Septuagint found such favor with the Jewish community in Alexandria that they established a celebration on an island in the Nile to mark each anniversary of its completion. The Septuagint immediately found a widespread reception in the pre-Christian literary world, notably in Rome itself. Both the authors of the New Testament and also the Fathers of the Church used the Septuagint as an authoritative source in teaching Christian doctrine. The Septuagint, abbreviated as ‘LXX’, is the scriptural standard for the Orthodox Church as Old Testament scripture whether in Greek or in Church Slavonic.
The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled every one of the prophecies concerning the Messiah found anywhere in the text of the Septuagint. This is the consistent witness of the Fathers from Saint Dionysius the Areopagite to Saint Irenaeus of Lyons. Indeed, the recent discovery of St. Irenaeus’ The Proof of the Apostolic Preaching in an Armenian Monastery was first published in a translation from Armenian into French in Paris, August 23, 1913 (Cf. § 30, p. 683). St. Irenaeus’ Proof comes down to this: “What the Scriptures prophesied, Christ fulfilled” and this is the keystone of the Apostolic preaching. Thus, His Resurrection on the third day, is, in the Nicene Creed, confessed to be “according to the Scriptures,” that is, in fulfillment of the prophecies of Christ recorded in the Canonical Scriptures.
The destruction and leveling of Jerusalem, which was prophesied by Christ, (Mt. 24:2; Mr.13:2; Lk. 21:6) was accomplished under the Roman General Titus in 70 A.D. Around A. D. 90 the Jews initiated a program of eliminating, wherever possible, or altering all of the prophesies of Christ in the Hebrew texts available to them, and of a further program of reconstructing their version of the text of the Old Testament by using inferior texts. As it happens, the Psalter in the Septuagint stands as that book which, more than any other in holy Scripture, is replete with prophecies of Christ. Given the widespread popularity of the Septuagint Psalter, even in the first century A. D., the Jews were limited in how far they could take their deliberate eradication or alteration of the prophesies of Christ. They chose not to alter or delete the prophesies in the Psalter quite possibly out of fear of tipping their hand as regards their extensive tampering with other texts in the Canonical Scripture of the Old Testament.
The text produced by the Jews is called the Masoretic text. The final edition of the Masoretic text appeared around 1000 A.D. This text, stripped as far as possible of the prophesies of Christ by the Masoretes, i.e. Jewish scholarship, is the text preferred and used by the protestant world. This corrupted text stands behind the Old Testament translation into German by Martin Luther and into the English of the 1611 King James Version.
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls written in Hebrew found in the Judean wilderness circa the 1950’s calls the Jewish endeavor outlined above into serious question. These scrolls dating from the first century A.D. confirm basis for the Septuagint in the Hebrew of the Qumran texts. The texts found in Qumran are in consonance with those used in the translation of the Septuagint. Further, they are dated approximately 900 years before the eleventh century rescission of the Masoretes. Each of the prophesies of Christ are in place, intact, and supported by the texts found in the Judean desert. Even apart from such modern supporting documentation for the text of the Septuagint, we can, as Orthodox Christians, continue to rely, as did the Evangelists, Apostles, and Fathers of the Church, upon the Septuagint as Canonical Scripture.
America and the Spirit of Rebellion
America and the Spirit of Rebellion
America was founded on a spirit of rebellion. Consider how the founders of our Nation and the Revolutionary War were in clear and direct contradiction to the Bible on which they claimed to base the new nation.
1) In the Old Testament it is written that God hates the spirit of rebellion, which is worse than witchcraft.
2) When Israel was in captivity and reduced to slavery, God never instructed them to form an army or rebel. They were to endure in repentance until it was God’s time to set them free.
3) In the New Testament we are told to submit to and obey the authorities and to respect the government. This was written when the government at that time was pagan and oppressive.
4) St. Paul admonished slaves to obey their masters whether they were good masters or evil masters. If they endured the evil, they would have a reward but if they rebelled they would be in the wrong. When the run away slave, Onesimus, was converted to the Christian Faith, St. Paul sent him back to his owner.
5) The apostles lived and suffered under a pagan government in a pagan society. Never did they advocate rebellion. When they were arrested and mistreated for obeying God, they submitted to the incarceration and punishment. They never led a march or protest or advocated such. They trusted God for their deliverance and vindication in God’s time.
6) The Gospels clearly teach us to do good to those who do evil to us, to turn the other check and to live in humility and meekness.
Now it becomes evident that the founding fathers were not following the teachings of Scripture but a spirit of rebellion. And it becomes evident that the Protestant Evangelical world by and large follows the same spirit of rebellion in rejecting these clear teachings of Scripture by either ignoring them or saying they don’t apply to us today. If we can ignore one Scripture, why not ignore all? If one part doesn’t apply to us, why should any part apply to us? Who’s to say and who’s to decide what does or what doesn’t? Such an individualistic and private approach eventually leads to little or no beliefs, which is the salient feature of American “Christianity” today.
For the most part, the founding fathers of America were not Christians but Deists. There is a big difference. The slogans “God Bless America”, “God and Country” and “In God We Trust” are expressions of Deism but have no significant Christian meaning or content.
The rebellion against England involved politics and economics but a large part of it was religious. The spirit of rebellion did not want to submit to the ancient forms and beliefs of the Christian Faith but instead sought the freedom to form religious beliefs according to individualistic and private interpretations. Such, also, was the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The Amazing Message of TV (and other) Preachers
The Amazing Message of TV (and other) Preachers
As I sat down for my morning coffee the other day I was flipping through the channels on TV. I came across a local preacher of one of the mega-churches in Nashville. He was expounding on the unity of the church. He pointed out that on the day of Pentecost the believers were of one mind and one spirit. Then he pointed out that St. Paul taught we are to maintain the unity of the faith. (For some reason he didn’t dwell on the concept of THE FAITH.)
I should have expected the next words that came out of his mouth as I have observed when preachers quote Bible verses that don’t exactly say what they want them to say, they then proceed to explain them away and reinterpret them according to their private interpretations.
So the preacher continued, supposedly expounding on what the Bible says about unity. “Listen people”, he said, “We don’t’ have to believe everything alike or agree on everything. We don’t have to be like little robots all saying the same thing.” (The little robot analogy is a common tactic to belittle the unity of one true faith as taught in the Scriptures.) Then he said, “But there ARE some things we Have to agree on.”
“Really?” I said out loud to myself. “And who is going to decide what those essentials are?” But I already knew the answer. HE was going to decide. But why does he get to decide and I don’t? What if he comes up with five essentials we all have to agree on and I come up with six? How are we going to work that out? And what if we let the Church of Christ preacher decide? That list won’t match his. And what if we can’t all agree on what this preacher decides is essential? Does that mean we aren’t Christians? And why aren’t we like little robots if we all have to agree on his essentials? Why not leave it all open? After all, there is no Bible verse that says we have to agree on certain essentials and certainly not one that gives us a definitive list.
Then I flipped to another preacher (no, I didn’t say I flipped the preacher). This preacher was on a rant. At the top of his voice he is screaming, “I'M SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING EVERYBODY GIVE THEIR OPINION ON THIS AND THAT. I FOLLOW ONLY ONE OPINION (now he is waving the Bible in the air and prancing/strutting across the stage) AND THAT IS WHAT THIS BIBLE SAYS, THIS BLOOD BOUGHT BIBLE!" But isn’t what he says the Bible says just one more opinion?
I don’t know, but it just seems to me that if the robots sitting in the average pew on Sunday morning would ever really listen and pay attention to what is being said from the pulpit and really think it through the pews might soon be deserted.
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