DOES ANYTHING IN RELIGION PERPLEX YOU?

     Before discovering the Orthodox Christian Church there was always a rather large problem that I could never reconcile in my mind. I could never make peace with the fact that there were a myriad of different theological opinions, interpretations, and conclusions amongst so-called orthodox Christians, all claiming to follow the same Bible and have the same Holy Spirit guiding and teaching them.  Is the Holy Spirit the author of confusion?  I would ask myself, how can we have both Calvinists and Arminians, co-exist and not consider the others heretics? Both can’t be true! How can all the parties claim to be exegetical, but still fail to agree on things like ecclesiology, sacramentology, eschatology and soteriology – the very doctrine of salvation itself?  Was it possible for any group to be right about everything? Who gets to decide right from wrong?  Is ultimate truth left to the individual?  Are we each forced to be infallible popes? To sum it up, I was relentlessly troubled by the fact that in Protestantism the final conclusion over the truth is one’s own.  Could that be what the Lord had in mind when he told His disciples to go and teach ALL THINGS whatsoever things I have commanded you?  Is that what He had in mind when He told His disciples that those who hear you hear Me and those who reject your teachings reject Me? Doesn’t this include at least everything they wrote in all the Epistles and not just “Do you believe in Jesus”?  If it’s only a few so-called essential doctrines that really matter then the rest of the Bible is unessential, unnecessary and superfluous.  Why waste time with it, it only serves to divide people?  Isn’t all of it inspired by the same Holy Spirit? Do some really believe that some things spoken by Christ, the Apostles and the Holy Spirit are unnecessary to our salvation and can be understood in whatever way we choose?  And what do the Scriptures mean when they tell us there is only one Faith, one Church, one Spirit and one Baptism?  How do we reconcile that with thousands of each?  Is this oneness different from the oneness of one true God? Can there be many different versions of the one true God like there are many different versions of the Church?  And what about the Scriptures that tell us to obey those who have the authority over us and that the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth?  Which truth? Which church? Yours or mine?

    These are not just cute or novel ideas.  They pertain to our very salvation since our salvation is derived from Truth and not from our opinions or our feelings.