ORTHODOX PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Part 18   CONCLUSION

     Having presented herein a series entitled “Orthodox Problems And Solutions,” the next to last was the seventeenth article of the series. In this Part 18 which is the conclusion, we will have  mentioned the most important problems and their solutions. We firmly established that Orthodoxy alone is the Church built by Jesus Christ on the firm  rock on which He built Orthodoxy, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God,” We presented many aspects of the Church and its functions.  During the present time our bishops and rulers are not living up to their duties, the main thing being, feeding their flock with the teaching of Jesus Christ and His holy commandments.

     Every Orthodox Christian needs to realize that,  concerning the many Orthodox problems and their solutions, including lack of leadership by many bishops and other clergy, an important thing is our own personal responsibilities and our duties to testify to Christ by our lives.  Realistically the problems are  that each and every one of us are responsible because we are not faithfully living the true life in Christ. Bishops and priests come from families and if we in these families  are  not living a life of piety and love for Christ, the Christian life of the Church will not flourish. So each one of us must accept our own responsibility for the condition of our Church. The Lord completed His terrible suffering and great sacrifice, and then sent us the Holy Spirit as our Comforter and Guide; Also He nourishes and energizes us with His divine Body and precious Blood. We must remember that the present temporary world is not our final destination and our days are numbered. If we live only for this world we are far from Christ. But we are seeking eternal life and the heavenly kingdom, which is acquired by our personal deep faith and love for Jesus Christ and the earnest and total dedication of our lives to Him.

     Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the basis of the Orthodox spiritual life. Studying the Holy Scriptures daily accompanied by a faithful prayer life with a rule of prayer, will develop our souls rendering them spiritually healthy and  filling them with divine life.

     This can only be accomplished by those who realize and wish to avoid the threats of eternal fire and set their goal on eternal life. Christ makes this clear and warns that he will be our Judge, judging us according to His words, a few of which are “Therefore whoever confesses me before men him will I confess before my Father in heaven.”  “I am the Light of the world; he who follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.”  “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life.” The words and wisdom of Jesus Christ need to nourish our minds and arouse our hearts to love Him who is the Logos and Wisdom of the Father.

ORTHODOXY – PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Part Seventeenth,

 PART 2

REFUTATION OF THE PAPACY OR ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

     There are some people within Orthodoxy who assert that the Roman Catholic Church is quite similar to Orthodoxy, but nothing could be further from the truth. The differences are of immense proportions Why? Because of the impossibility of lies being dogmas. It is a blatant lie that the pope is the one and only bishop in the whole world who represents God and derives his knowledge, authority and power directly from the Creator. Further that God created and shaped the papacy as Christ’s church.  It is another lie and an impossible claim that the pope of Rome or any other man is infallible, for God alone is infallible.  It is a lie that there is a genuine place called purgatory, which was introduced by Pope Gregory the Great in the late 6th century. False also is the papacy’s claims that most souls enter this fictional place to suffer for their sins. It is a lie that the many successive popes were all holy men, the opposite being true, for many of them were evil and wicked men, who could never be successors of holy Peter the Apostle/

     The Church canons strictly forbid Orthodox intermarriage with Roman Catholics, and though it takes place it remains illicit. And the marriages?  Their baptisms cannot be considered as baptisms for theydo not use triune immersion. Their bishops and priests have no canonical connections and are thus invalid and empty. They changed the divine services by introducing strange and abbreviated ones. They falsely claim that Joachim and Anna’s  conception of the Virgin Mary was without sin, when Christ is the only sinless one.

     They lay all their claims by classifying their popes to be successors of Peter, which means that each pope has a sacred obligation as Peter’s successor to live a life in holiness and truth. But we will see that this is not the reality. Here is a quick glance at a few of their morbid and sickly lives.

Pope John XII (963

     Became pope at twenty being one of the lowest and most miserable figures ever to occupy the Holy See of Rome. Under him the Lateran degenerated into little more than brothel. Pope John who had taken savage revenge on his enemies, died on May 14, 946.

Leo IX: and the use of known forgeries -1054

The rise to power of the papacy was fueled by known forgeries well known as” the Donations of Constantine.