THAT THEY BE ONE AS WE ARE ONE

THAT THEY BE ONE AS WE ARE ONE

  In the past week or so, I used this blog to expose the terrible crimes of the pseudo-church, and the sordid character of those are reputed to be successors of Peter. and now we will attempt to shine forth  the beauty of Orthodoxy. Not with the shadowy light of ecumenism, but with the light of the truths  of Jesus Christ.

Christ prayer:   “Neither do I pray for these alone, but to them also that shall believe on me through their word; that they may all be one, as you Father are in me and I in you, that they may also be one in us. That the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you have given to me, I have given to them. That they may be one. I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me and has loved them as you have loved me” (John17:20-23).

    It is impossible that Christ prays for the unity of heretics with believers, for He forbids this. Christ prays for  a unity in truth of minds, hearts and spirits. God is a Trinity united without confusion, three in one and one in three. The true Church is almost countless in number, but it is the one Catholic Church, having one Lord, one faith, one hope, and one Baptism by triune immersion. In Orthodoxy we concentrate entirely upon Christ and not on any patriarch or pope, for only Jesus Christ has preeminence. Jesus does not allow for any preeminence among His disciples. “Do not be called Teacher, for one is your Master Christ, and call no man Father upon earth for one is your Father." The unity in Christ includes one King, one Sacrifice, one Master, one Lord, one High Priest, one Savior, one Head, one Godman, one Theotokos, one Gospel, one true Church, one Creed, one Baptism, one Eucharist, one Pascha, one Body of Christ.

  

   
     The one Gospel is preached to every creature, being the Good News proclaiming that salvation has come into the world. The first purpose of preaching is to bring the believers to the Church and baptize them in triune Baptism. However when, they fail to baptize, they break Christ’s commandment, and  deprive those souls of the introductory saving mystery of the Church. Christ orders that everyone be baptized, not just those born of church families.  He specified the three necessary immersions, when He said: “Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Though many hear the Gospel, few care to carry out its purpose in its entirety. The New Testament is an agreement between God and each of us, which means that we are bound to it if we desire everlasting life.  If we break the covenant we break our hope for everlasting life. We must embrace all truth of Christ, and live by those truths, for Christ is the one Living Truth who came down from heaven and dwelt among us “full of grace and truth.”

WE SHOULD NOT EVEN CONSIDER ORTHODOX UNITY WITH THE PAPACY?

WE SHOULD  NOT  EVEN CONSIDER 

ORTHODOX UNITY WITH THE PAPACY?

   There is some publicity in the world about church unity, praying together to the same god, working together in brotherly love, etc., and concerns relations of the Orthodox Church with the Papacy and  with others. The idea of unity may sound sweet to some, but in any form it always leads to a bitter end. For Orthodoxy and heresy can never unite into one. Why any proposed unity is beyond consideration is fundamental, because that which is unlike can never be the same. The Papacy has defined itself and it is what it is and will not change its dogmas.  The Orthodox Church which is the Bride of Christ and His Body will not change its dogmas and it is totally different from the Papacy.

     The Orthodox Church is a divine human institution, having as its Head  Jesus Christ,  it is guided by the Holy Spirit, and peopled by those who are baptized by the one triune immersion for the remission of sins, into the death and Resurrection of Christ.  It is the ancient Church which has remained the same. Orthodoxy, as is well known,  has remained true to the Apostles, kept firmly the dogmas of the Fathers and the Seven Ecumenical Synods. Orthodoxy cannot and does not have a second human head for the Godman Jesus Christ alone is the Head of the Church.  Patriarchs are simply bishops having the voting power of a single  bishop and they are not superior. St Paul says: “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church” (Eph. 5:23).  All the important dogmatic and  historical decisions of Orthodoxy, were made with the guidance, approval and cooperation of the Holy Spirit who rules the Church which is not a human institution.

     The original Roman church, when it was still Roman was once part of the genuine Catholic church, which produced many Saints and Martyrs,  but they were taken captive by different unscrupulous demagogues who sole purpose was the acquisition of worldly glory and tyrannical power. These leaders seized the church and led the masses into apostasy, and there it was no longer recognizable as a church, being mostly a seat of worldly tyrannical power. They  spilled much blood and tortured many people, lead people on Crusades, but lead no one to salvation.  (If anyone wants more detail:  Google “papal states”, “crusades”, and “inquisition”.) That this is true is verified by their own unbelievable dogmatic canons, the following were formulated by the Vatican Council of 1870. Ref. Decrees of Vatican Council on Faith and the Church, Chair of Unity Apostolate, Graymoor, Garrison, NY.

THE OLD CHURCH IN THE NEW WORLD – 7

Continued excerpts from:

THE OLD CHURCH IN THE NEW WORLD

                                     – 7 

By Archpriest Basil M. Kherbawi

St, Nicholas Greek-Orthodox Cathedral

Brooklyn, NY

Published 1930

SOME REASONS WHY ORTHODOXY CAN NEVER UNITE WITH THE PAPACY

SYNOPSIS OF THE LIVES OF POPES

Continued:

    The Sultan of Egypt was fully justified in his reply to a letter of Pope Innocent IV: “We have received your epistle and listened to your envoy, He has spoke to us of Jesus Christ, whom we honor more than you honor.”

     Pope Clement IV left behind him a disgraceful name for world ambition and wanton cruelty. After his death the Chair of Peter was vacant for nearly three years. I suppose this is the longest period given to Christ to be the head of the church.  

    RJM NOTE: Pope Clement IV gave his support against the Orthodox Byzantines who had been under rule of the Latins forty seven years,  after the attack of the Crusaders in 1214.

     Pope Boniface VIII removed Pope Celestine V and took over his office. In this the Pontiff lived the spirit of Gregory VII and of Innocent III. He commenced his pontificate by asserting his right to adjudicate in all matters whatever in every part of the world. Albert of Austria had slain his competitors for the imperial crown and therefore sent to the Pope for the customary confirmation.  Pope Boniface VIII  replied to the messenger by putting the crown upon his head and exclaiming: “It is I who am Caesar – it is I who am emperor.” And from that time it became usual for the pontiffs to wear a double crown, indicating their temporal as well as spiritual supremacy, until the conceit of a later Pope added a third diadem to the bauble.

     RJM: Pope Boniface brutally arrested his predecessor who had fled. This inane Pope in the year 1296, issued a bull called Clericis Laicos, which divided the Papacy turning clergy and laity into enemies For in the bull Clericis Laicos he stated that  “the lay people are the enemy of the clergy”. After a temporary armistice, the latent enmity between the king and  the Pope broke out again. 

Pope Boniface VIII issued his Bull Unam Sanctam, this egomaniac’s arrogance is beyond description. His words betray his supreme self aggrandizement. “We declare state and define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human These are his own words, creature be subject to the Pope.”

     There seemed to be literally no limits to the arrogance of Pope Boniface.  As if he were more than human, he pretended to give and take away crowns and scepters by the mere expression of his will. . . . 

 The hands of Pope Nicholas V were stained with the blood of Porcari and nine of his confederates who were hanged from the battlements of St. Angelo. The crime of Stefano Porcari the noble and honorable Roman was that he urged his countrymen to ask the new Pontiff to give them constitutional liberty. 

     Pope Sextus IV who succeeded Pope Paul II had several illegitimate sons who, for enriching them, seized on the estate of one of the nobles of Romagna with the intention to confer them on one of these children, and the story of that trouble fills a volume.   The Pope formed a plot for the assassination for Lorengo’s whole family in revenge of him, because he interfered on behalf on the injured man. For two years this Vicar of Christ filled northern Italy with bloodshed and terror, and if it were not for the conqueror Turks entry into Italy and taken Otsanto, God alone knows what he would have committed of crimes and iniquities.

Pope Sixtus IV was succeeded only by Pope Innocent VII who was as feeble and indolent as his predecessor; his life was quite dissolute and his most earnest public wish was to enrich the seven children whom he publicly acknowledged as his own.

     The whole ten years of the pontificate of Pope Julius II were devoted to fraud and stratagems and deeds of violence and injustice, and bloody wars, in which he took personal part, forgetting the divine commandment: shall not kill.

   Philip the Fair, King of France had a long dispute with Pope Boniface VIII. The King imprisoned a bishop for committing treason, and wrote to the Pope desiring that the culprit might be suspended from office. The Pope got very angry and said in his reply to the King: “God has set me over the nations and kingdoms, to root out and pull down, to build and plant in His name.” 

     RJM: After reading this series it is obvious that the Papacy is absolutely contrary to Jesus Christ and his Gospel, There is no church among them, To even think of union is to deny Orthodoxy.  There is no grace sanctifying their sacraments. We must end the folly of intermarriage and recognition of their sacraments, for they do not exist.  Instead let us go after their stolen sheep and bring them into saving Orthodoxy.

The end of this series

THE OLD CHURCH IN THE NEW WORLD – 6

(Continued) Excerpts from:

THE OLD CHURCH IN THE NEW WORLD 6

By Archpriest Basil M. Kherbawi

St, Nicholas Greek-Orthodox Cathedral

Brooklyn, NY

Published 1930

SOME REASONS WHY ORTHODOXY CAN NEVER UNITE WITH THE PAPACY

SYNOPSIS OF THE LIVES OF POPES

Continued:

    German Emperor Frederick Barbarosa was compelled to seek reconciliation with Pope Alexander III. An interview took place between the two at Venice in 1177, and it is related that when the Emperor kissed the feet of the Pontiff he placed his feet on the Emperor’s neck. Apostrophizing himself in the language of the Scripture: “You shall tread upon the adder and the lion.” It was this same Pontiff also who first gratified the pride of the Roman clergy by parading the streets of Rome, having his horse led by two powerful monarchs, Emperor Henry of England and Louis of France, who reverently held the bridle while the Pope rode to his habitation.

  While Pope Celestine III was performing the ceremony of coronation for the Emperor Henry VI with all the usual solemnities, on the monarch’s bending of his knees before the Pop e, the proud Pontiff rudely kicked off the crown which he had just placed on the Emperor’s head, to show that he could, with equal ease, confer crowns and take them away, an instance of audacity to which history hardly furnishes a single parallel. To such a perfect contradiction had the Pope arrived of the example of Him whom they pretend to represent and who emphatically said: “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble in my heart.”

     Time fails us and space does not permit us to inscribe the details concerning “The Holy Inquisition” or the ecclesiastical tribunal established in the thirteenth century by Popes Honorius II, Gregory IX, and Innocent IV to try the heretics. Nor can we fully describe the terrible persecution of the Albigensians and the Waldenesians in which no fewer that a million lives were sacrificed, and thousands who escaped the sword were compelled to flee from the homes of their childhood and endure the horrors of poverty, with new forms of persecution. Pope Innocent III said in his bull to the nobles and princes who would take up arms in the cause of destroying the heretics: “We exhort you to destroy the wicked heresy of the Albigenses, and do this with more rigor than you would use toward the Saracens themselves”, promising the murderers seats of honor in Paradise and the full remission of their sins. From 1233 onwards to 1687, the severities of the inquisition, imprisonment, torture and the stake, continued to be inflicted on the Waldenses, supplemented by occasional “crusades”.

   The most notable of these took place in 1418, under Pope Innocent VIII, when among other barbarities a multitude of fugitives – men, women and children, were piteously smoked to death in an Alpine cave. We cannot dwell, either on the massacre of August 24th of 1572, known as the massacre of St. Bartholomew, which took place in France, a tragedy which has no equal in ancient or modern times, and which is written in dismal characters upon the annals of the French nation, and in the history of the church of Rome. We need not stain these pages with the particulars of that awful slaughter of seventy thousand unoffending and unresisting victims, some bent with age and venerable with hoary locks, others too young to have even lisped the prayers of a “heretical” church, the rivers of France were dyed with the blood of these innocent martyrs.

 Rome received the news of the direful massacre with loud demonstrations of joy, and it was momentarily expected in the “holy city.”  Cardinal Alessandrian exclaimed joyfully: “The king of France has kept his word,” and Pope Gregory VIII decreed that there should be public rejoicing to celebrate the event. High Mass was performed with every circumstance of pomp and splendor, and ere the wailing of the widows and orphans of France crying to heaven for vengeance had died away,

The solemn strains of the

Te Deum arose from the choir of St. Peter’s, thanking God for the accomplishment of the most monstrous crime which history records, and worst of all is, that the Pope caused a medal to be struck in memory of the dead, bearing on one side, the likeness of his own face, and on the other an effigy of the destroying angels, surmounted by the inscription: “Ugonottorom strages – “The slaughter of the Hugenots.” 

To be continued