Various Sources for Dialogue between
Orthodox & Protestants
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Excerpts from Eastern Orthodox Response to
Evangelical Claims
by Fr. Paul O'Callaghan, Antiochian Archdiocese
Light & Life MN 55426-0421, (1984) ISBN 0-937032-35-2
[Tradition]"Hold to the traditions you were taught by us, whether by
word of mouth or letter" (II Thess,2:15)
[Mary & Saints]..do not worship Mary.."all generations shall call me
blessed" (Luke 1:48).. Jesus Christ is an eternal, divine Person who took on
a complete human nature through the Virgin Mary (cf John 1:1,14). He is
expressly called "G*d" in the Scriptures (cf John 20:28). As Mary gave birth
to and nurtured a divine Person, she is rightly called the "Mother of
G*d"..ask Mary and other saints to intercede for us before G*d in prayer..
reality of the Church encompasses both the living and those who have died and
are now "with Christ" (Phil 1:23). Those who have died in Christ do not care
for us any less.. G*d has been pleased to grant many miracles and blessings
by the intercessions of the saints..Jesus showed that the departed can be
aware of events on earth when he asserted "Your father Abraham rejoiced to
see my day. He saw it and was glad" (John 8:56).. Jeremiah is represented as
constantly praying before G*d for the people of Israel (2Macc 15:14)..
epistles refer to all faithful Christians as "saints".. does not say that
those who are uncanonized are not saints in the Biblical sence.. canonizes
saints to hold up individual Christians as images of the work of the Holy
Spirit and examples of the fullness of life in Christ..
[Scripture & Tradition] Heresies and distortions result when the
Bible is torn away from the Church or interpreted privately outside the
catholic tradition of the Church (cf 2Pet3:16). The same Holy Spirit that
inspired the Scriptures is promised to guide the Church unto all truth and
preserve her from error (cf John 16:13). The Bible is not "alone" - it
belongs to the Church..Orthodox Church history can be traced from Jesus
himself directly to medern times without interruption.. accepts the Bible as
the divinely-inspired, infallible Word of G*d.. Scriptures must be
interpreted according to the catholic tradition of the Church.. oral teaching
of the Apostles as it has been handed down in the Church (cf 2Thess2:15). It
is the result of the fact that the Holy Spirit lives in the Church (cf John
14:26).. teachings of the Ecumenical Councils..
[Icons] G*d himself commanded that two images of the cherubim be made
and placed upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant (cf Exod 25:18)..
St. John of Damascus.. G*d, being invisible, inconceivable, and limitless,
could not be represented.. because G*d has in Christ takn on human nature,
Jesus Christ the G*d-man could legitimately be depicted in His human
form..7th Ecumenical Council in 787.. do not pray to icons.. praying before
an icon.. If a person kisses a picture of his mother, is he honoring a piece
of paper?.. St. John of Damascus wrote: "I do not worship matter, but Him who
took on the matter for the sake of my salvation"..
[Scripture & Tradition] If you do not accept the authority and
infallibility of the Church, how can you accept the authority and
infallibility of the Scriptures? It was the Orthodox Church that decided
what books constitute Holy Scripture.. promised to guide the Church unto all
truth.. would not prevail against her (cf John 16:13, Matt 16:18)..
[Priests] St Paul also did not hesitate to call the male parents in
Ephesus by the title "father" (Eph 6:4).. official title of an Othodox priest
is "presbyter" in Greek, which translates to "elder" in English.. "Royal
Priesthood" of all believers (cf 1Pet2:9).. gave his Apostles special
authority and special functions that were not given to all his followers (cf
Matt 16:19, 18:18, John 20:22). The Apostolic ministry has been passed down
in the Church by the laying on of hands (cf Acts 14:23, 1Tim4:13), and
continues today in the priesthood of the Orthodox Church..
[Eucharist, Rituals] Divine Liturgy has always been described as a
sacrifice from the earliest Christian times. In a document such as the
"Didache," (50-100 AD), it is described as the sacrifice prophesised by the
Prophet Malachi (cf Mal 1:11).. sacrificial connotations of the Eucharist in
I Corinthians 10.. physical acts of worship take place in the heavenly
kingdom (cf Rev 5:6-14, 8:1-4, etc.).. We know from early documents, such as
the Apologies of Justin the Martyr (Apology 1:67), that the basic elements
have remained the same.. If at times Orthodox missions have been relatively
inactive, it has been due to Moslem or Communist domination.. calls all
Orthodox Christians to be missionaries and witnesses for Christ..
[Baptism, Born Again] baptism.. John 3:5.. Titus 3:5.. The phrase
"born-again Christian" today is often used to refer to someone who has
experience a certain type of emotional conversion experience. This is not a
Biblical teaching. The new birth is a spirital event which may or may not
have emotional consequences.. does not deny that a believer is "saved;" it
only denies that a person can infallibly know he is going to heaven..
possible to fall away from Christ through sin (cf Heb 6:4-6). Christians are
not fully saved until they enter the heavenly kingdom (cf 1Pet1:5)..
Doctrine of Assurance.. absolutely unscriptural.. "Let him who thinks he
stands take care lest he fall" (1Cor10:12).."Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any one of you an evil heart of disbelief, departing from the living
G*d" (Heb 3:12).. "For we are partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning
of our confidence steadfast to the end" (Heb 3:14).."..again entangled
therein.." (2Pet2:20-1).. "Not every one who says to me Lord, Lord, will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father who is in
heaven" (Matt 7:21). We must, as Peter says, "strive to make our calling and
election sure" (2Pet1:10).. faith naturally issues forth in good works (Eph
2:10, Jas 2:17-26, 1John1:4)..Personal..Savior.. does not use those
particular words, and neither does the New Testament.. vast majority of
Christians in the world practice infant baptism.. It is the Baptists and
other evangelicals who are the innovators in this regard.. not after
profession of faith, but in anticipation of faith.. faith of children as an
example for adults (cf Mark 10:15).. The parents and sponsors of the infant
to be baptized pledge that the child will "unite himself to Christ" as he is
raised within a Christian home and the family of the Church..
[Confession] gave his apostles the power to remit or retain sins (cf
Jn 20:23) This same authority is still possessed by the Church.. Serious
sin, however, results in excommunication from the sacramental life of the
community (cf 1Cor5:1-5) and thus the individual is restored to the community
by the absolution of the priest upon evidence of repentance..
[Communion] "this is my Body" (cf Matt 26:26).. "This is my blood.."
(Matt 26:27).. "He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and
I in him" (Jn 6:56). And "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and
drink His blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:54). Just as in the
present, there were many then who heard this teaching of the Lord but could
not accept it. The Scripture tells us that these disciples ceased to follow
the Lord rather than accept His teaching (John 6:60-66). They were in truth
the first Protestants!"..
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Orthodox Observer 26SEP84
Evengelical Orthodox
Elaine Alexis Gournaris
..In 1968 and 1969, many top staff people of Bill Bright's Campus
Crusade for Christ left.. "We were evangelizing students and bringing them to
Christ, but we were not baptizing them and bringint them to the Chruch."..
1974 they established themselves as the New Covenant Apostolic Order..
studied Church history.. Saints Ignatios and Athanasios became their
teachers and heroes. Then in 1979, using a service they had discovered in
their study, the men ordained themselves bishops and established the
Evangelica Orthodox Church.. began to meet Orthodox priests and bishops who
enabled them to see that the Church they were seeking to become already
existed.. modeled itself after the early Christian Church - small communities
located in one area (primarily in the South, West, and Midwest) centered
around the bishop, and accountable to the ecclesiatical authoroties..
dialogue.. While a scripturally sound practice, the ordination of married
men to the episciopate is no longer part of the life of the modern Orthodox
Church.. [A few years after this article, a most of the Evangelical Orthodox,
under Bp. Peter Gilquist, joined the Antiochian Archdiocese of America,
because of all the Orthodox jurisdictions in the USA, they were the most
assimilated to American life.]
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On Western Confessions of Faith
Alexis Khomyakov
[This article has been translated from the 1864 French, to
Russian to English. A polymath, he is considered the
greatest Orthodox theologian of the previous century. In
many ways, he is the father of modern ecumenism. In the
preface to this version, his biographer, A Gratieux, a
Vaticanist, is quoted as saying his polemics were "supremely
irenical.. best way of preparing union is to posit the
problems in their depth and thus to dissipate all
misunderstandings" (Paris, 1939, v1 p147). ISBN
0-913836-46-x Schmemann, Ultimate_Questions, 1977 StVlad, NY
10707, repr 1965 Holt R&W. tr 4/1964 Ashleigh E Moorhouse]
..Western Schism.. has been in existence for more than a thousand
years [indicating Charlemagne's forcing of the filioque and not the actual
Schism] How is it that during this time the Church governed by the patriarchs
has not given birth to its own brand of Protestantism?.. In the West things
developed very rapidly. Scarcely three centuries passed before Luther and
Calvin came forward with uplifted heads, strong words, definite principles,
and fixed doctrines.. Protestantism is one world simply negating another.
Take away this other world which it is negating and Protestantism will die,
since its whole life consists in negation.. Protestant world falls into two
parts.. One has its own logical tradition, even though it denies a more
ancient tradition. The other is satisfied with an illogical tradition. The
first is composed of the Quakers, the Anabaptists, and other sects of that
sort. The second includes all other so-called Reformation sects.. first half,
having broken almost all ties.. claiming for themselves an unquestionable
tradition and constant inspiration.. basic datum may be false, but its
application and development are completely reasonable.. other half.. accept a
tradition, and at the same time deny the principle by which tradition is
justified.. to believe in the infallibility of learning, moreover of a
learning which works out its propositions dialectically, is against common
sence.. Protestantism has by no means extended the rights of free
investigation, but has only reduced the number of reliable data subject to
the free investigation of its believers (by leaving them only the
Scriptures), as Rome has reduced this number for most of its laity, too (by
depriving them of the Scriptures).. heresies did not violate this divine
unity; they bore the character of private errors and not of schisms of whole
regions..
at the moment of its origin, Romanism manifested itself as
Protestantism.. It was as if the right of deciding dogmatic questions were
suddenly altered. Previously this right had belong to the whole Ecumenical
Church; now it was assigned to a regional Church.. pope became a kind of
oracle deprived of all freedom.. Rationalism grew up in the form of arbitrary
definitions: it invented purgatory in order to explain prayers for the dead;
it placed between G*d and man a balance of obligations and merits.. barter of
illusiory merits.. the Church-State introduced a state language: Latin..
informal bands of crusaders, and later, organized armies (the orders of
knights-religious); and finally, when the sword was torn from its hand..
Jesuits.. are rationalists, and yet they accuse others of rationalism..
The Papacy says: "The Church has always prayed for the dead, but this
prayer would be useless if there was not an intermediate state between heaven
and hell; _therefore_ there is a prurgatory." The Reform answers: There is
not a trace of purgatory either in Holy Scripture or in the early Church;
_therefore_ it is useless to pray for the dead and I will not pray for them."
The Papacy says: "The Church appeals to the intercession of the saints..
completes the merits of prayer and works of satisfaction." The Reform
answers: The satisfaction for sins made by the blood of Christ and
appropriated by faith in baptism and in prayer is sufficient for the
redemption not only of man.." Clearly the sacred Communion of Saints is
equally incomprehensible to both.. back and forth at each other with
syllogisms through the centuries.. Romanism began at the moment it placed the
independence of individual or regional opinion above the ecumenical unity of
faith; it was the first to create a heresy of a new type, a heresy against
the dogma of the nature of the Church, against her own faith in herself. The
Reform was only the continuation of this heresy under another name..
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