The Eastern Orthodox Church

A communion of self-governing churches, chiefly of Eastern Europe and the Near East, which holds that it has kept the faith of the apostles and the seven councils unchanged.

Synod of Jerusalem (1672), Confession of Dositheus, in J. N. W. B. Robertson, tr., The Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Jerusalem (1899)

The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church (St. Philaret of Moscow, approved by the Holy Synod, 1830)

Second Council of Nicaea (787), definition

Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs (1848), Internet Modern History Sourcebook

Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (Crete, 2016), Encyclical

Oros of the Great Church of Christ on the baptism of converts from the West (1755)

Orthodox Church in America, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 1: Doctrine and Scripture

Orthodox Church in America, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2: Worship

Orthodox Church in America, The Orthodox Faith, vol. 4: Spirituality

Orthodox Church in America, Questions & Answers: Musical Instruments

Orthodox Church in America, The End of Iconoclasm

Council of Florence, session 6 (6 July 1439), Laetentur caeli

Paul VI and Athenagoras I, Joint Catholic–Orthodox Declaration (7 December 1965)

Sack of Constantinople (1204) (Wikipedia)

Synod of Constantinople (1484) (Wikipedia)

Patriarch Job of Moscow (Wikipedia)

Council of Constantinople (1872) (Wikipedia)

John of Damascus (Wikipedia)

Gregory Palamas (Wikipedia)

Mark of Ephesus (Wikipedia)

Dositheos II of Jerusalem (Wikipedia)

Philaret Drozdov (Wikipedia)

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Wikipedia)

Eastern Orthodox Church (Wikipedia)

Synodikon of Orthodoxy (Council of Constantinople, 843), English text, Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries

Fr. Lawrence Farley, Defending the Synodikon (Orthodox Church in America, Reflections)

Epiphanius of Salamis, Letter to John of Jerusalem (394), Jerome, Letter 51, New Advent

The Patriarchal Encyclical of 1895 (Anthimos VII and the Synod of Constantinople), Internet Modern History Sourcebook

Orthodox Church in America, Questions & Answers: Original Sin

Mount Athos (Wikipedia)

Monastic community of Mount Athos (Wikipedia)

UNESCO, World Heritage List: Mount Athos

Constitution of Greece, Article 105 (English text, GlobalCit)

Orthodox Church in America, Fasting and Fast-Free Seasons of the Church (quoting The Lenten Triodion, tr. Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware, 1978)

The Apostolic Canons, New Advent

The Didache, New Advent

Pew Research Center, Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century (2017)

The Orthodox date their Church to Pentecost and hold that nothing essential has changed since. They see themselves as the church of the seven councils (325–787), from which Rome went out in the West. The dates below follow the documents: the icons restored, the break with Rome and the sack of 1204, the councils that, in the Orthodox view, confirmed the faith against new errors in 1351 and 1672, and the quarrels of the national churches down to 2018. Historians treat 1054 as a marker in a separation that took centuries.

Pentecost: the Orthodox account of its origin

The Orthodox Church teaches that it was founded by Christ and the apostles and has continued unbroken. In 2016 the bishops gathered on Crete wrote that it "constitutes the authentic continuation of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, as this is confessed in the Symbol of faith and is confirmed in the teaching of the Fathers of the Church."

The Seventh Council and the icons

After decades of iconoclasm the Second Council of Nicaea defined that images of Christ, Mary, the angels and the saints are to be given "respectful veneration," though not "the full adoration" owed to the divine nature alone. The council followed the six before it, and the Orthodox count it the last of the seven ecumenical councils.

Rome's legates and the patriarch excommunicate each other

In 1054 the legates of Rome under Cardinal Humbert laid a sentence of excommunication on Patriarch Michael Cerularius and two others, and the patriarch and his synod answered with a sentence of their own. The sentences named persons, not churches. In 1965 Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras agreed to "remove both from memory and from the midst of the Church the sentences of excommunication," but communion was not restored.

The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople

On 12 April 1204 the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade launched the assault that took Constantinople, and the city was sacked. They divided the empire with Venice and crowned a Latin emperor in Hagia Sophia. In 2004 John Paul II asked Patriarch Bartholomew, "How can we not share, at a distance of eight centuries, the pain and disgust."

The councils of St. Gregory Palamas

A series of councils at Constantinople (1341–1351) took up the quarrel between Gregory Palamas, defender of the praying monks of Mount Athos, and his critics, beginning with Barlaam. Palamas taught a distinction between God's essence, which no creature can share, and his uncreated energies, in which the saints truly share. The last of them, in May 1351, upheld Palamas and condemned his opponents.

Florence, and its repudiation

The union with Rome signed at the Council of Florence (1438–1439) remained a matter of contention among the Eastern churches. After Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, Patriarch Symeon I convened a synod (1483–1484), with representatives of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. It was "the first synod to condemn the Council of Florence," and it set the rite for receiving Latins into the Orthodox Church: chrismation and a written renunciation of Florence, not a new baptism.

A patriarch for Moscow

On 26 January 1589 (Old Style), with the blessing of Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople, Metropolitan Job was consecrated the first Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'. The Russian church, the largest in the communion, now had a patriarch of its own.

The Synod of Jerusalem

Patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem convened a synod to answer the Calvinist confession circulating under the name of Cyril Lucaris. Its Confession affirmed seven mysteries, the change of the bread "transubstantiated … into the true Body Itself of the Lord," the deuterocanonical books, prayers that deliver souls from Hades, and justification "through faith and works." It remains one of the classic statements of Orthodox doctrine.

Western baptism declared no baptism

Patriarch Cyril V of Constantinople, with the patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem, ruled that converts from the West must be baptized, because only three immersions, "going under the water instead of under the earth," are the apostles' baptism. Of those baptized otherwise it said, "we receive those who come over to us from them as unholy and unbaptized." It reversed the rite of 1484, which had received Latins by chrismation.

Phyletism condemned

When a Bulgarian exarchate set itself up apart from Constantinople, a council there (29 August to 16 September 1872) condemned organizing the church by nation: "We repress, blame, and condemn phyletism, i.e., distinctions of races, disputes, emulation, and national divisions within the Church of Jesus Christ." The schism with the Bulgarians lasted until 1945.

The council on Crete, without four churches

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, by the common will of the primates, convened the Holy and Great Council on Crete at Pentecost 2016. Ten of the fourteen churches sent delegations and signed its encyclical; the churches of Antioch, Russia, Bulgaria and Georgia did not attend. The encyclical named the councils of 1351, 1484, 1672 and 1872 among the councils that carried on the work of the seven, and called the Church "a Council, established by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit."

Constantinople, Moscow and Ukraine

On 11 October 2018 Constantinople moved to grant self-government to a church in Ukraine; on 15 October the Russian church broke communion with Constantinople. On 5 January 2019 Bartholomew I signed the tomos making the Orthodox Church of Ukraine autocephalous. Moscow has since broken communion also with the primates of Greece, Alexandria and Cyprus.

John of Damascus

A monk of Mar Saba near Jerusalem, hymn writer and theologian. His Apologetic Treatises against those Decrying the Holy Images answered Emperor Leo III's ban on the veneration of images, and his Fountain of Knowledge became the principal textbook of Greek Orthodox theology.

Gregory Palamas

A monk of Mount Athos and later archbishop of Thessalonica, who defended the hesychast monks' prayer, the uncreated light of the Transfiguration and the distinction between God's essence and energies. The council of May 1351 upheld him and condemned his opponents.

Mark of Ephesus

Metropolitan of Ephesus and one of the Eastern bishops who refused to sign the union at Florence. During the council he wrote Ten Arguments Against the Existence of Purgatory. The Orthodox honor him as a pillar of Orthodoxy.

Dositheus II of Jerusalem

Patriarch of Jerusalem and theologian, known for standing against both Roman Catholic and Protestant influence. He convened the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672 and gave his name to its confession.

Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow

Metropolitan of Moscow and the most influential figure in the Russian church for more than forty years. Among his many works is the Christian Catechism (1823), known in English as the Longer Catechism and quoted below.

Bartholomew I

Born Dimitrios Archontonis on the island of Imbros in 1940 and elected on 22 October 1991, the longest-serving Ecumenical Patriarch. Called the "Green Patriarch" for his work for the environment, he has paid formal visits to Roman Catholic, Oriental Orthodox and Muslim leaders seldom visited by a patriarch before.

The icons restored twice. Iconoclasm returned under Leo V in 815. In March 843 the Empress Theodora restored the icons, and the procession of 11 March 843, the Triumph of Orthodoxy, is kept every year on the first Sunday of Lent as the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

Neither Rome's daughter nor its rebel. The Orthodox do not see 1054 as the year they left Rome. In their account, Rome left the common faith of the councils by adding the filioque to the Creed and by claiming jurisdiction over the whole Church. The 1848 Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs, answering Pius IX, made that case at length.

The councils after the seven. The Orthodox count seven ecumenical councils, but they also receive later ones. The 2016 Encyclical names the council of 879–880, the Palamite councils (1341, 1351, 1368), through which, it says, "the same truth of faith was confirmed," and the councils of 1484, 1638, 1642, 1672, 1691 and 1872, the conciliar work continuing "uninterrupted in history."

Nation and church. Most Orthodox churches are national churches, and their boundaries have followed nations: Moscow in 1589, Greece and Romania in the nineteenth century, Bulgaria (reconciled only in 1945), Ukraine in 2019. In 1872 the Orthodox condemned phyletism, dividing the Church by race or nation within one territory, and they argue today over who has the right to grant autocephaly.

Not the same as the Oriental Orthodox. The Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian and Syriac churches, which did not receive the Council of Chalcedon (451), are a separate communion, though they share much of the same worship.

God's revelation is kept in Holy Tradition, in which Scripture holds the first place; the Church, guided by the Spirit through its councils and Fathers, cannot err in defining the faith.

The Orthodox speak of one Holy Tradition, the life of the Church as the Spirit guides it, and they place the Bible first within it. Next come the liturgy, the definitions of the councils, the Fathers, the lives of the saints, the canons and the icons. The seven ecumenical councils are received as inspired, and later councils accepted by all the churches also bind. The Church as a whole, not any one bishop, is the guardian of the faith; the Orthodox reject papal infallibility. Their Old Testament includes the deuterocanonical books, such as Wisdom, Sirach, Tobit, Judith and Maccabees.

By two channels—holy tradition and holy Scripture.

the witness also of the Catholic Church is, we believe, not of inferior authority to that of the Divine Scriptures

the protector of religion is the very body of the Church, even the people themselves, who desire their religious worship to be ever unchanged and of the same kind as that of their fathers

The Orthodox Church in America's catechism puts it this way: "Among the elements which make up the Holy Tradition of the Church, the Bible holds the first place," and "Tradition is the very life of the Church itself as it is inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit." It distinguishes Holy Tradition from "merely human customs." The Synod of Jerusalem went further: the Church, taught by the Spirit, "like the Divine Scriptures, is infallible, and hath perpetual authority" (Decree 2). The council held on Crete in 2016 described the Church as "a Council, established by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit," and Philaret's catechism teaches that "we must follow that tradition which agrees with the divine revelation and with holy Scripture."

Baptism by three immersions, given to infants and adults alike, washes away all sin and gives new birth; salvation is by faith working through love, and the baptized can fall away and be restored by repentance.

In Orthodox teaching baptism is a person's death and resurrection with Christ, a "new birth by water and the Holy Spirit." It is given by three immersions in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the Orthodox hold that the immersion belongs to its very form. Infants are baptized, with sponsors confessing the faith for them, and are chrismated and given Communion at once.

The Orthodox do not speak of justification by faith alone. A person is saved by faith working through love, cooperating freely with God's grace, and the goal of salvation is union with God. Baptism cannot be repeated, but a baptized person can turn away, even into apostasy, and is restored through the mystery of repentance and confession.

Trine immersion in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

it is necessary even for infants, since they also are subject to original sin, and without Baptism are not able to obtain its remission

We believe a man to be not simply justified through faith alone, but through faith which worketh through love, that is to say, through faith and works.

Asked why children are baptized, Philaret's catechism answers: "For the faith of their parents and sponsors, who are also bound to teach them the faith so soon as they are of sufficient age to learn" (Q. 292). Of those who sin after baptism it says "they are more guilty in their sins than the unbaptized, since they had from God special help to do well, and have thrown it away" (Q. 305).

The Oros of 1755 held that those baptized "going under the water instead of under the earth, in three immersions" are baptized as the apostles commanded, and that baptism given otherwise is none.

In the Divine Liturgy the bread and wine are changed into the very Body and Blood of Christ, offered as a bloodless sacrifice for the living and the dead, and given in both kinds to all the baptized, infants included.

The Eucharist is the center of Orthodox life, "the sacrament of sacraments." The Liturgy is served every Sunday and on feasts, and only once on any day in any one community. At the invocation of the Spirit the bread and wine become the true Body and Blood of Christ. The Orthodox insist the change is a mystery beyond explaining, and the Synod of Jerusalem and Philaret's catechism both used the word transubstantiated, the Synod adding that the word does not explain the manner of the change. The gifts are worshiped. The Liturgy is called a "bloodless sacrifice," offered for the living and the departed.

Communion is always given in both kinds, bread and wine together from a spoon, to every member of the Church, infants included. The faithful prepare by fasting and confession. Philaret's catechism grants that the first Christians communed every Lord's day, but requires Communion only at least once a year.

the bread and wine are changed, or transubstantiated, into the very Body of Christ, and into the very Blood of Christ

a true and propitiatory Sacrifice offered for all Orthodox, living and dead

The primitive Christians communicated every Lord's Day; but now few have such purity of life as to be always prepared to approach so great a Mystery.

The OCA catechism says the Eucharist "is always given in both forms—bread and wine," to "all members of the Church, including infants who are baptized and confirmed." Philaret's catechism goes on from the answer above: the Church calls the devout to confess and commune "four times yearly, or even every month, but requires all, without exception, to receive it at the least once in the year" (Q. 343). The Synod of Jerusalem taught that the bread is "transmuted, transubstantiated, converted and transformed into the true Body Itself of the Lord," while denying that the word explains how.

Bishops, as successors of the apostles, govern dioceses, with priests and deacons under them; all bishops are equal in order, the patriarchs preside, and no bishop is infallible or rules the whole Church.

Holy orders has three degrees: bishop, priest and deacon. Each bishop oversees a diocese, and the priests he ordains lead its parishes under him; without the bishop's cloth on the altar a parish cannot celebrate the Liturgy. Bishops meet in synods, where a metropolitan or patriarch presides. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is first in honor, but he has no jurisdiction over the other churches, and the Orthodox reject the papacy.

A married man may be ordained deacon or priest, though a man may not marry after ordination, and a priest may not remarry if his wife dies. Since the sixth century bishops have been chosen from unmarried men or widowers, usually monks.

the dignity of the Bishop is so necessary in the Church, that without him, neither Church nor Christian could either be or be spoken of

No bishop in Orthodoxy is considered infallible.

the Bishop not only hallows the Sacraments himself, but has power also to impart to others, by the laying on of his hands, the gift and grace to hallow them

The OCA catechism stresses the equality of bishops: "No bishop is 'over any other bishop in the Church,'" and metropolitans and patriarchs "are not superior or more powerful as far as their bishop's office is concerned." It also says that priests today "normally exercise the function of pastors of the local churches or parishes, a function which was normally done by the bishops in early times." On marriage: "In the Orthodox Church a married man may be ordained to the priesthood," but "since the sixth century it has been the rule in the Orthodox Church that the bishops be single men or widowers."

Worship is the Divine Liturgy and the daily services, sung without instruments; icons are venerated, and Mary and the saints are asked to pray, while adoration belongs to God alone.

Orthodox worship is sung from beginning to end, and by tradition without instruments; organs appear only in some parishes in America, which the Orthodox themselves call a recent innovation. Around the Liturgy stand the daily services, the feasts and fasts of the church year, and the mysteries: baptism, chrismation, the Eucharist, repentance, marriage, holy orders and anointing of the sick. The OCA catechism notes that counting the mysteries as seven was learned from the West.

Icons of Christ, Mary and the saints cover the icon screen and the walls, and the faithful kiss them, light candles and burn incense before them. The Orthodox hold that the honor passes to the person shown and that icons are "spiritually necessary" because the Word became flesh. They ask Mary, the Theotokos, and the saints to pray for them, and distinguish that honor from the worship due to God alone.

he who venerates the image, venerates the person represented in that image

calling upon the Lord, as Sovereign and Father, but upon the Saints, as his servants, and our helpers and mediators

the tradition of the Orthodox Church is to have no musical instruments in the church

The OCA catechism: "It is the Orthodox faith that icons are not only permissible, but are spiritually necessary." Philaret's catechism answers the objection from the second commandment: it would be otherwise "if any one were to make gods of them; but it is not in the least contrary to this commandment to honor icons as sacred representations" (Q. 521). On music the OCA answer adds that in Christian worship "the human voice becomes the musical instrument par excellance," and that organs in some American parishes are "an innovation of recent origin."

The Holy Spirit is given in chrismation, joined to baptism even for infants; the Christian life is the acquisition of the Spirit and growth toward theosis, a real sharing in God's uncreated energies.

Chrismation, the gift of the Holy Spirit, is always given together with baptism, to infants as to adults. The priest anoints the whole person with chrism prepared by the bishops, and in it, the OCA catechism says, "we receive 'the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" The Orthodox see this as each believer's own Pentecost.

The Orthodox describe the whole Christian life as the "acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God" (St. Seraphim of Sarov), and its goal as theosis, or deification: becoming by grace what God is by nature, through a real sharing in his uncreated energies, as the councils of 1351 defined. The Church credits the Spirit with guiding its councils and Fathers. It honors miracles in the lives of the saints, while warning that medieval lives often added legends.

The sacrament of chrismation, also called confirmation, is always done in the Orthodox Church together with baptism.

the baptized believer, being anointed with holy chrism on certain parts of the body in the name of the Holy Ghost, receives the gifts of the Holy Ghost for growth and strength in spiritual life

the resurrectional perspective of theosis by grace

The Encyclical of the council on Crete (2016) says the Palamite councils confirmed the faith "as concerns the participation of human beings in the uncreated divine energies." On miracles, the OCA catechism warns that the lives of saints often added "supernatural and miraculous events of the most extraordinary sort," yet this "should not lead to the conclusion that all things miraculous in the lives of the saints are invented for literary or moralizing purposes."

At death souls go to a foretaste of rest or of torment until the resurrection and final judgment; the Church prays for the departed and offers the Liturgy for them, but has never defined purgatory.

The Orthodox confess with the Creed that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead, and they look for the resurrection. At death the soul goes at once to a foretaste of joy or of sorrow. Neither is complete until the body is raised and the last judgment is given. Hell is real and eternal. Many Orthodox teachers describe it not as a material fire but as the presence of God's love, which the saved know as joy and the lost as torment.

The Church prays for the departed at every Liturgy and at memorial services, and holds that these prayers help those who died in faith without fruits of repentance. It has never defined purgatory, temporal punishment or indulgences as Rome did, and at Florence Mark of Ephesus argued against purgatory. The Synod of Jerusalem nonetheless taught a punishment in Hades from which such souls are released.

they may be aided towards the attainment of a blessed resurrection by prayers offered in their behalf, especially such as are offered in union with the oblation of the bloodless sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ

depart into Hades, and there endure the punishment due to the sins they have committed

God does not punish man by some material fire or physical torment.

Decree 18 goes on: such souls "are delivered by the Supreme Goodness, through the prayers of the Priests, and the good works which the relatives of each do for their Departed; especially the unbloody Sacrifice availing in the highest degree." Florence (1439) defined that penitent souls "are cleansed after death by cleansing pains," and the Orthodox repudiated that council in 1484. The OCA catechism objects only to the funeral Liturgy being made mournful, "converted into a 'requiem mass' offered 'on behalf of the dead,'" which it calls "an innovation of recent centuries under old Roman Catholic influence."

Icons

Icons of Christ, Mary and the saints are kissed, censed and lit with candles; the Seventh Council (787) bound their veneration under anathema, and the Church keeps the victory of 843 every year as the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

For the Orthodox an icon is not decoration and not only a teaching aid. Because the Word became flesh, Christ can be painted, and to refuse his image is, in their view, to deny that he truly became man. The Second Council of Nicaea (787) defined that icons are to be given "respectful veneration," with "incense and lights," but not the adoration owed to God alone, and it laid anathemas on any who will not honor them. The honor, they say, is "relative": it passes through the image to the person shown.

The emperors banned icons a second time from 815. Theodore the Studite, abbot of the great Studion monastery, led a public procession with the icons in defiance of the order, was exiled, and became the icons' main champion. In March 843 the Empress Theodora restored the icons, and the procession of 11 March 843, the Triumph of Orthodoxy, is kept on the first Sunday of Great Lent. On that Sunday the faithful carry icons in procession, and the Synodikon, or part of it, is read. This text, issued by the council of 843 and enlarged in later centuries, blesses those who honor the icons and anathematizes those who reject them. In the church building, icons cover the screen before the altar, with Christ on one side of the royal gates and the Theotokos on the other, and the walls and ceilings as well.

If anyone does not salute such representations as standing for the Lord and his saints, let him be anathema.

To them who persist in the heresy of denying icons, or rather the apostasy of denying Christ

Therefore we depict the likeness of Thine outward form, venerating it with an honor that is relative.

Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me,

Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man.

And he did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places, and brake the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.

My little children, guard yourselves from idols.

The Orthodox are right that the Word became flesh, and Scripture does call Christ the image of the invisible God. But the apostles set Christ before the churches by preaching, not by painting: "belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). The law forbade any likeness made to "bow down thyself unto them" (Exodus 20:4-5), and Paul told the Athenians "we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man" (Acts 17:29). Philaret's catechism answers that the same Moses was told to set golden cherubim in the tabernacle (Q. 518). But an image made at God's own command still had to go once Israel burned incense to it. Hezekiah, who "did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah" (2 Kings 18:3), "brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it" (2 Kings 18:4). No church in the New Testament had an image, no apostle kissed or censed one, and John's last word in his letter is "guard yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21). The line between veneration and worship is drawn by the councils, not by the text. And Nicaea II and the Synodikon go further than practice: they curse anyone who will not honor icons, so a Christian who, like the apostles, will not bow to an image or kiss it stands under the Orthodox Church's anathema.

Before the councils. In 394 Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, found a curtain bearing an image "either of Christ or of one of the saints" in the church of a village called Anablatha, on his way to Bethel, and tore it down. He wrote that he would not have "an image of a man" hung "in Christ's church contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures" (his letter to John of Jerusalem, kept among Jerome's letters).

Tradition under anathema. Beside the icons, the council of 787 also anathematized anyone who "rejects any written or unwritten tradition of the church." The Synodikon gives "Eternal Memory" to those who "hold fast both the written and unwritten tradition which extends from the apostles to the fathers, and who for this cause depict and honor holy things in icons." The icons rest on unwritten tradition, by the councils' own account.

Read in part today. Fr. Lawrence Farley, an OCA priest, writes that his parish read "just a tiny snippet" of the Synodikon on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the part "dealing with the legitimacy of icons," because the whole is long and names many old heresies.

Mary, the Theotokos

Mary is the Theotokos, the Mother of God, ever-virgin and free of personal sin; at her Dormition she died, was raised and was taken into her Son's kingdom, and she prays for the faithful. The Orthodox reject Rome's dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

The Orthodox honor Mary first as the Theotokos, "the one who gives birth to God," the title the council of Ephesus defended in 431. They confess her ever-virgin, before, during and after the birth of Christ, and teach that the "brethren" of Jesus in the Gospels were "either cousins or children of Joseph." They hold that she committed no personal sin, and also that she "truly needed to be saved by Christ as all human persons are saved." Her icon with Christ within her stands over the altar as "the image of the Church," because she is the pattern of all believers in whom Christ dwells.

The greatest of her feasts is the Dormition, or falling asleep, on August 15, after a two-week fast. It teaches that she truly died, was raised by her Son, and was taken into his kingdom "in the fullness of her spiritual and bodily existence." The OCA catechism says plainly that for this feast, as for her nativity and her entrance into the Temple, "there are no biblical or historical sources." The Orthodox ask her prayers, and they sing that by her prayers she delivers souls from death.

Here the Orthodox part from Rome. They hold no dogma of the Immaculate Conception, that Mary was kept free of original sin from the moment she was conceived. In 1895 the Patriarch of Constantinople and his synod called it a "novel dogma" laid down by Rome "scarcely forty years ago." The OCA explains that "while everyone bears the consequences of the first sin, the foremost of which is death, only Adam and Eve are guilty of that sin." So, they hold, Mary inherited no guilt from which she had to be kept free.

As Mother of the Lord she excels in grace and nearness to God, and so also in dignity, every created being; and therefore the Orthodox Church honors her far above the cherubim and seraphim.

In falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. You were translated to life, O Mother of Life, and by your prayers, you deliver our souls from death

the Papal Church scarcely forty years ago again made an innovation by laying down a novel dogma concerning the immaculate conception of the Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, which was unknown to the ancient Church

And it came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the breasts which thou didst suck. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

and knew her not till she had brought forth a son: and he called his name JESUS.

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended in him.

For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus,

Scripture calls Mary blessed, and every Christian should honor her faith. The Orthodox are right to refuse the Immaculate Conception, and in 1895 they gave the right reason: it was "unknown to the ancient Church." But by the ancient Church they mean the Church of the seven councils, and the oldest church is the one in the New Testament. Measured there, the same test removes more than Rome's dogma. Matthew writes that Joseph "knew her not till she had brought forth a son" (Matthew 1:25), and Mark names the Lord's brothers and his sisters beside "the son of Mary" (Mark 6:3). The New Testament has a word for a cousin, as in "Mark, the cousin of Barnabas" (Colossians 4:10), and never uses it of them. Nothing is written of her death, her rising or her being taken up, and the OCA itself grants the Dormition has no biblical or historical source. When a woman blessed the womb that bore him, Jesus answered, "Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it" (Luke 11:28). Christians on earth ask one another to pray, but no verse shows a Christian calling on one who has died, and there is "one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). To call on Mary, and to sing that her prayers "deliver our souls from death," has no ground in the apostles' teaching.

Ever-virgin. Philaret's catechism teaches that Mary "was dedicated to God with a vow of perpetual virginity," and that Joseph was betrothed to her "in order that he might be her guardian" (Q. 185). The Gospels say neither.

What the Dormition teaches. The OCA explains the feast as a sign of what is promised to all: "What happens to Mary happens to all who imitate her holy life of humility, obedience, and love." It says she died "not 'voluntarily' as her Son, but by the necessity of her mortal human nature."

Monasticism

Monks and nuns leave the world for a life of prayer and fasting under lifelong vows; Mount Athos in Greece is the heart of this life, and by long custom the Church chooses its bishops from the monks.

Monasticism is not one of the mysteries, and the Orthodox do not call it essential to the Christian life, but they value it highly. A monk or nun seeks repentance and love "primarily through prayer and fasting," and through "poverty, chastity, humility and obedience." There are four ranks: novice, riasa-bearer, the small schema and the great schema. At the small schema the monastic is tonsured, receives a new name, and pledges lifelong obedience to the abbot or abbess. The great schema is for the few who keep the strictest rule, often in seclusion. A monk is normally a layman, not a priest. The Orthodox have no religious orders like Rome's; some monasteries live wholly in common, some more loosely, and some monks live alone as hermits.

The heart of Orthodox monasticism is Mount Athos, the "Holy Mountain," a peninsula in northern Greece where monks have lived since at least the ninth century. In 963 Athanasius the Athonite founded the Great Lavra, still the largest of the twenty ruling monasteries. Greece's constitution makes it a self-governed part of the Greek state, ruled by its twenty monasteries and under the direct spiritual jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and by law and by tradition no woman may enter. Gregory Palamas was an Athonite monk. Bishops must be single men or widowers, and for centuries they have by custom been chosen from among the monks. Many of the Church's missionaries and teachers came from the monasteries.

The monastic vocation is the calling to personal repentance in a life dedicated solely to God.

the person pledges to remain in the monastic community in perpetual obedience to the spiritual leader and to the head of the monastery

For centuries the bishops have been traditionally selected from among the monks.

Yet I would that all men were even as I myself. Howbeit each man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that.

I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.

If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances, Handle not, nor taste, nor touch (all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (but if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

The Orthodox do not make monasticism a sacrament or call it essential to the Christian life, and that should be granted. Paul did value the single life, but as a gift, not a vow: "each man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that" (1 Corinthians 7:7). The New Testament knows no monks, no monasteries, no ranks of profession and no lifelong obedience to an abbot. Jesus prayed "not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15). Rules of "Handle not, nor taste, nor touch" (Colossians 2:21) have "a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body" (Colossians 2:23), Paul says, but they are "after the precepts and doctrines of men" (Colossians 2:22). Choosing bishops from the monks turns the apostles' rule upside down. Paul tested an overseer by the house he already ruled: he was to be "one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection" (1 Timothy 3:4), for "if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?" (1 Timothy 3:5). A monk has vowed never to have such a house, so the custom passes over the very proof the apostle asked for.

The Holy Mountain today. Athos had about 1,610 monks in 2000 and nearly 2,000 by 2009, in the twenty monasteries and their sketes and cells. UNESCO, which listed it as a World Heritage site in 1988, notes that it is "forbidden to women and children." In October 2018, when it broke communion with Constantinople over Ukraine, the Moscow Patriarchate barred its members from visiting Athos.

The fasting seasons

Most Wednesdays and Fridays are fast days, and so are four seasons: Great Lent, the Apostles' Fast, the Dormition Fast and the Nativity Fast. Meat, eggs and dairy are given up, and on strict days fish, wine and olive oil too.

Most Wednesdays and Fridays of the year are fast days: Wednesday for the betrayal of Christ, Friday for his death. There are four fasting seasons. Great Lent and Holy Week come before Pascha. The Apostles' Fast comes before the feast of Peter and Paul, and its length changes with the date of Pascha. The Dormition Fast runs from August 1 to 14, and the Nativity Fast from November 15 to December 24. Some single days are fasts too, such as the eve of Theophany and the Elevation of the Cross. Some weeks are free of fasting, such as the week after Pascha.

On a strict fast day no meat, eggs, dairy products, fish, wine or olive oil are eaten. In Lent the rules are the monks' rules: meat ends on Meatfare Sunday and eggs and dairy on Cheesefare Sunday, a week later. On Lenten weekdays the strict rule is "dry eating," vegetables cooked in water and salt, fruit, nuts, bread and honey. In Lent, Saturdays and Sundays allow wine and oil, and a few feasts allow fish. The faithful also fast before Communion. Customs differ from place to place, and the OCA notes "many local variations in the allowances of wine and oil (and sometimes fish)." The Orthodox teach that fasting earns no merit and pays for no sin. Its purpose is mastery over the passions. They call the rules an ideal to strive for, eased for the old and the sick, and they grant that today the rules are usually kept less strictly.

On Wednesday, in memory of the betrayal of our Lord Jesus Christ to suffer; and on Friday, in memory of his actual suffering and death.

The Orthodox rules for lenten fasting are the monastic rules. No meat is allowed after Meatfare Sunday, and no eggs or dairy products after Cheesefare Sunday.

The rules of fasting, while they need to be taken seriously, are not to be interpreted with dour and pedantic legalism

And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then will they fast.

And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall recompense thee.

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day:

Here the Orthodox keep something most churches have let go, and it should be said plainly. Jesus said of his disciples, "then will they fast" (Matthew 9:15). The church at Antioch "fasted and prayed" (Acts 13:3) before sending out Barnabas and Saul, and Paul and Barnabas appointed elders "with fasting" (Acts 14:23). The Orthodox are also right that fasting earns nothing. But in the New Testament fasting is free. A church fasted together when it sought the Lord, and a disciple fasted in secret, "that thou be not seen of men to fast" (Matthew 6:18). No apostle set a calendar of fast days or a list of foods. Paul wrote, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day" (Colossians 2:16), and of days and foods alike, "Let each man be fully assured in his own mind" (Romans 14:5). The Orthodox call their rules an ideal, but the canons they receive say a layman who will not keep the Lenten fast or the Wednesday and Friday fasts is to be excommunicated. Fasting is the apostles' practice. Fixing it to set days and menus, and binding it on pain of excommunication, is a tradition of men.

An old custom, but not an apostolic command. The Didache, an early Christian church manual, already says, "fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday)," and not on Monday and Thursday with "the hypocrites." That shows how early the custom began. But the Didache is not Scripture, and no letter of the apostles sets a fast day.

The canons. The Apostolic Canons order that a bishop, priest, deacon, reader or singer who "does not fast the holy Quadragesimal fast of Easter, or the fourth day, or the day of Preparation" be deposed, "unless he be hindered by some bodily infirmity," and "If he be a layman, let him be excommunicated" (canon 69). The Orthodox receive these canons. Nicaea II embraced those "expounded by those trumpets of the Spirit, the apostles," and added, "those whom they excommunicated, we also excommunicate" (canon 1).

In practice. The Lenten Triodion grants that "In present-day practice, even for those in good health, the full strictness of the fast is usually mitigated," and that most now eat two cooked meals on Lenten weekdays instead of one.

The plumb line is the New Testament: what the apostles commanded, and what the churches practiced with their approval. Each position above is set against it, and the wall below shows how far each one stands from it. Choose a course to read the Scripture and the reason. History shows where each teaching came from. Only the text shows whether it is true.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for the one against the other.

So then, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by epistle of ours.

But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.

The inspired Scripture furnishes the man of God "completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17), and the church is to learn "not to go beyond the things which are written" (1 Corinthians 4:6). The Orthodox appeal to Paul's charge to "hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by epistle of ours" (2 Thessalonians 2:15). But those were traditions delivered by an apostle, and the apostles' word is now written. A tradition that grows, and councils that define new dogma under anathema in 1351 and 1672, are not that tradition. To call the Church's witness "not of inferior authority" to Scripture is to set men's teaching beside God's, the very thing Jesus called worship "in vain" (Matthew 15:9). This course stands a little short of the furthest because the Orthodox give the Bible first place within Tradition and have never placed one man's word above the councils, as Rome did in 1870.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But when they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.

The Orthodox are right about the form, and they should be credited plainly. Baptism is a burial: "We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death" (Romans 6:4), and their three immersions are a burial and a raising, where Rome's pouring is not. They are right that baptism is "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), and right that a Christian can fall away. But in Acts the gospel is preached, and those who believe and repent are baptized, "both men and women" (Acts 8:12). "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). An infant cannot believe or repent, and the faith of sponsors stands in no verse. A person immersed as an infant has been buried in water, but has not yet obeyed the gospel as the converts in Acts did. This course stands a little short of the furthest because the Orthodox immerse; what they rightly say of remission they give to those who cannot yet believe.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Here the Orthodox stand nearer the pattern than Rome, and the reasons should be named. The Liturgy is served "upon the first day of the week" (Acts 20:7), every Lord's day, as the churches gathered "to break bread" (Acts 20:7). They have never taken the cup from anyone: all the baptized eat the bread and drink the cup. But Paul calls what is eaten "this bread" (1 Corinthians 11:26) even after the blessing, and the Supper is done "in remembrance" (1 Corinthians 11:24) of a sacrifice finished. Christ "offered one sacrifice for sins for ever" (Hebrews 10:12), and "there is no more offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:18). The Orthodox teach that the bread is changed into the Body of Christ, worship the gifts, and call the Liturgy "a true and propitiatory Sacrifice" for the living and the dead. Philaret's catechism admits that the first Christians "communicated every Lord's Day," and still asks the faithful to commune four times a year or monthly, and binds them to once. Infants, who cannot examine themselves or discern the body, are communed. So the course stands midway, held back from the far end by the day and the cup.

Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge; if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children that believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly. For the bishop must be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre;

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

In the New Testament elders and bishops are one office, plural in each church. Paul tells the Ephesian elders the Spirit "hath made you bishops" (Acts 20:28), and Titus is to "appoint elders in every city" (Titus 1:5). Peter, "a fellow-elder" (1 Peter 5:1), charges elders to tend "the flock of God which is among you" (1 Peter 5:2). The Orthodox have one bishop over many parishes, priests who lead under his license, and a priestly order set apart from the people. The OCA's catechism grants that parish pastors now do what "was normally done by the bishops in early times." The text knows none of this. Scripture asks that a bishop be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2); the Orthodox require that he be unmarried. This course stands a little short of the furthest because the Orthodox have no pope, hold all bishops equal and none infallible, and ordain married men as parish priests.

And when it came to pass that Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.

And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

On music the Orthodox match the pattern, and few churches can say as much. The New Testament church sang: "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), and the Orthodox have kept to the human voice alone as their tradition. But there is "one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). When Cornelius fell at Peter's feet, Peter said, "Stand up; I myself also am a man" (Acts 10:26). When John fell before an angel he was told, "See thou do it not" and "worship God" (Revelation 19:10). The Orthodox call on the saints as "our helpers and mediators," and bow, kiss and burn incense before images, which no apostle commanded. The line they draw between veneration and worship is one the text never draws. The course stands a little short of the furthest because the assembly still sings, and sings as the apostles taught. Prayer to the saints and the honors paid to images keep it level with Rome's.

Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,

seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue; whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.

Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.

The promise is joined to baptism: those who repent and are baptized "shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). The Orthodox keep that bond and do not split the gift off into a later rite, which keeps this course off the furthest line. But Scripture gives the Spirit at baptism without an anointing. The gifts that came "through the laying on of the apostles’ hands" (Acts 8:18) came through apostles, and the text names no successors to that work. Chrism blessed by bishops is not in the text, and infants, who have not repented, are given it. The Orthodox also honor the miracles of their saints as the Spirit at work in the Church today, though Scripture ties such signs to the apostles and to those on whom they laid their hands (Acts 8:18; 2 Corinthians 12:12). Peter does say believers "become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), and they do so "through these," God's promises, "having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust." A council-bound doctrine of essence and energies, defined thirteen centuries later, goes beyond that, and so does crediting the Spirit with guiding councils past the faith "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3).

And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment;

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things: but now here he is comforted, and thou art in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us.

For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Men die once, "and after this cometh judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). In the story of the rich man, "there is a great gulf fixed" (Luke 16:26) that none may cross after death. Each will receive "the things done in the body" (2 Corinthians 5:10), not things done by others afterward. The blood of Jesus "cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). The Orthodox keep what Scripture plainly teaches: Christ's return, the resurrection of the body, the last judgment, heaven and an eternal hell. They have bound no purgatory, no debt of temporal punishment and no indulgences, which sets this course a step nearer the line than Rome's. But their own Synod of Jerusalem teaches souls punished in Hades and set free "through the prayers of the Priests" and the bloodless sacrifice. Prayers and Liturgies for the dead, offered to change their state, have no place in the text, so the course stands midway.

Much that the Orthodox confess, Scripture also teaches, and it should be said plainly. They confess one God in three persons; the deity of Christ, his virgin birth, his death for sin and his bodily resurrection; his return to raise the dead and judge the world; and heaven and hell. They hold Scripture to be inspired by God. They immerse, and their patriarchs in 1755 declared baptism by pouring no baptism at all. They teach that baptism is "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), that a man is justified by works "and not only by faith" (James 2:24), and that a Christian can fall away. They meet every Lord's day, give the cup to all, sing without instruments, and have never had a pope. Their worship is full of the Scriptures, and their bishops in council condemned dividing the church by nation. On these questions a member of the church that seeks the New Testament pattern stands closer to the Orthodox than to most of Western Christianity.

Measured by the New Testament alone, the Orthodox Church stands far from the pattern, a little nearer than Rome on several courses and no nearer on the rest. Its rule of faith sets Tradition and the councils beside the written word; its baptism, though a true burial in water, is given to infants who cannot believe; its Supper is a sacrifice whose bread is held to be bread no longer; its government is bishops over priests over parishes, where the apostles left elders in every church; and its prayers go to Mary and the saints, and are offered for the dead.

History shows how each of these came: the single bishop by the second century, the icons defined in 787, the councils of 1351 and 1672, the national patriarchates. The Orthodox say they have changed nothing, and in much they have kept old things Rome let go: immersion, the cup, the Lord's day table, the singing voice. But age is not the test. A teaching is apostolic only if the apostles taught it, and the text that holds their teaching is closed: "the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3).

None of this is contempt for the Orthodox. Many love Christ deeply, fast and pray with a seriousness that shames the comfortable, and have held the faith under Ottoman and Soviet rule at the cost of their lives. The answer to them is not to doubt that devotion but to bring it to the Scriptures alone, and do what the converts in Acts did: believe, repent, confess Jesus as Lord, and be buried with him in baptism for the remission of sins, then worship as the churches of the New Testament did, under their own elders, at the Lord's table on the first day of every week.

More illuminations · Harbinger's Lamp