A Brief Introduction
Many Americans have never heard of The Holy Orthodox
Church. Orthodoxy is one of the three main groups of Christianity,
the other two being the Roman Catholic and the Protestant. Orthodoxy
claims to be the original Church, predating all others. In 1054 AD,
the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church separated in what became known
as "The Great Schism."
This separated the Eastern Church, based at Constantinople, from the Western
Church, based at Rome. Within the next three centuries the Roman
Church created some new innovations, among them the idea of Purgatory and
the practice of indulgences. The Orthodox Church, although wishing
that the separation could be bridged, always sternly maintained that Rome
was heading into error. The Roman Catholic Church came to dominate
Western Europe. The Orthodox Church continued to thrive in the lands
of the Byzantine Empire, including Russia and the Black Sea, Georgia, the
Balkans, and the Eastern Mediterranean.
In 1517, Martin Luther, a Catholic priest at Wittenburg,
Germany, authored his famous 95 Theses. This document was an inquiry
into the Roman Catholic policy of indulgences. Luther's position
was that the Roman tradition must be incorrect, because it conflicted with
the Holy Bible. Luther's goal was not to destroy the Church, but
to reform a policy which he felt was clearly in error. "Sola scriptura"
is a Latin term which means "the Scripture alone" or "Scripture only."
Little did Luther know at the time that by taking a stand against the Papacy,
he would ignite the Protestant Reformation. John Calvin (1509-1564) in
Geneva and Ulrecht Zwingli (1484-1531) in Zurich were two Catholic churchmen that
also contributed mightily to cause of the Reformation, developing theories
which rejected a great deal of Roman Catholic doctrine and practices.
The Protestant Reformation stormed through Europe
for 150 years, resulting in wars, bloodshed, and destruction. It
is important to understand that these conflicts were not merely about theology.
Western Europe was coalescing into the modern nation-states, and there
were political and economic causes for these wars as well. We see
a pattern of Northern European nations such as Germany, Holland, England
and Scotland adopting the Protestant cause; one reason for this was the
opportunity to throw off the yoke of Rome. These nations became fiercely
independent and fervently Protestant.
In the aftermath of the Reformation, numerous Protestant
denominations sprung up. In Germany, the "Lutheran" Church came into
being. In Switzerland, Protestants called themselves "the Reformed Church."
In England, the crown created the "Anglican" Church. In Scotland
they became "Presbyterian." These churches each claimed authority,
and all of them claimed to be free of the errors of Roman Catholic doctrine.
As time went one, we see the further development
of more and more Protestant denominations. The Baptists. The
Methodists. Now that western intellectuals were free to decide for
themselves what the Bible means, groups were free to break away and form
new churches overnight. In the beginning, there were many strong
similarities among the different Protestant denominations. But over
time, doctrinal differences, disputes, and arguments led to violent confrontations.
By the 1800's, Protestantism was fractured into dozens of different creeds
and confessions. Additionally, the 1800's saw the development of many new
theologies and bizarre ideas that had never existed before. In the
1820's, Joseph Smith claimed to receive the golden plates of the Book of
Mormon from the angel Moroni, and went on to found the Mormons. Charles
Taze Russell invented many new ideas that would lead to the later development
of the Jehovah's Witnesses. And in the 1830's John Nelson Darby, founder
of the Plymouth Brethren, proposed that Christ's Second Coming would actually
be preceded by a secret rapture, in which Christian believers would be taken
up to meet the Lord in the air years before the actual Last Day. Today, it is estimated that in the United States
there are over 2,000 different Protestant groups and churches!
The history of the United States, as delivered
in most school age textbooks, starts with the pilgrim colony at Plymouth
in 1620. These were Protestants fleeing Europe, seeking religious
freedom. And from this beginning, the United States maintained a
strong Protestant anti-Catholic background. During the immigrations
of the 1880's and 1890's, newspaper editorials lamented the arrival of
so many Roman Catholics, with their prayers to Mary, rosary beads, and
superstitious sign of the cross. Italians, especially, received rough
treatment. Of course I need not remind the reader of the uproar over the
candidacy of John
F. Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic elected to the Presidency, in 1960.
Therefore, since its inception, America and its
Christian history have been dominated by only two of the three branches of Christianity.
America was directly descended from Western Europe, and thus inherited the conflict between
the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. Even today, to many Americans,
Christian conflict is defined in terms of "Protestant vs. Roman Catholic,"
with some groups such as the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and even Baptists
taking different stands on the history of their own particular denominations in
relation to them. For
example, there are denominations today that attempt to claim that
their church existed in some rudimentary form before the Protestant
Reformation in the 1500's. However charming this romantic notion might
be, there is no archeological or historical evidence whatsoever to suggest
that the Albigenses or Waldenses were Jehovah's Witnesses. Similarly,
the Baptist movement does not, in fact, predate it founder, the Englishman
John Smyth (d. 1612). Roger Williams (1604?-1683), of course, is more
well-known as the founder of the first Baptist Church in North America, in
Providence, Rhode Island, in 1636. It is interesting to note that the
church that Smyth founded was Arminian, believing that Christ died not just
for the elect, but for all mankind. The Baptist church was an ardent
champion of religious toleration. (Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church:
Scribner & Sons, 1970: p.409, 433-434). But
anyway, let us step away from these quarrels, disputes, and arguments between the
Roman Catholics and
Protestants, and return to our topic.
The Holy Orthodox Church is not Roman Catholic,
nor is it Protestant. The Holy Orthodox Church claims that it is
the original New Testament Church, founded by Christ at Pentecost.
The Holy Orthodox Church upholds the classic tenets of the faith, fully
committed to Christ and to the Holy Bible. This church exists today
in America in many ethnic forms, with the Greek Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox,
and the Antiochian Orthodox representing the three largest bodies of
believers. There are an estimated 6 million Orthodox Christian believers
in the US. In comparison,
there are an estimated 100 million Protestants, 60 million Roman Catholics, and
5 million Jews. Due to these numbers, it is easy to see why so few
Americans are familiar with the Orthodox Church. But this is
changing. The recent motion picture
"My Big Fat Greek Wedding," one of the surprise hits of 2002, actually
takes the audience inside a Greek Orthodox Church and shows scenes from the Orthodox
marriage service.
Americans
don't yet understand that there are some very strong theological differences
between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. Protestants, including strong
Bible-believing Evangelicals, are usually encouraged to hear that Orthodoxy completely rejects
many of the problematic errors of Roman Catholic doctrine, including the
Immaculate Conception of Mary, Purgatory, and
Papal Infallibility. Yet at the same time there are
seeming similarities that disturb many American Protestants - making
the Sign of the Cross, receiving the Sacraments, the Communion of the Saints,
the Holy Icons, and of the course the
veneration (not worship) of the Blessed Mary.
This concludes this Introduction. Next I
will discuss my personal Journey Towards Orthodoxy. This is followed
by a whole bunch of really cool Orthodox study links.
Next:
My Journey Towards Orthodoxy
Contents:
1. A
Brief Introduction
2. My
Journey Towards Orthodoxy
3. Evangelical
Errors of Logic 4.
Articles, Papers, Essays, and Links 5.
Cool
Orthodox Links
Perhaps you are hungry for more information right
away! Here is a collection of excellent introductory
articles to get you started.
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