ORTHODOXY IS THE ONLY WAY

ORTHODOXY IS THE ONLY WAY

     There exists different branches in what is called Chrstianity, Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism (the Papacy), the Anglicans or Episcopalians, all the many Protestants, with Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons and  and all are by nature, inimically disposed against the truths of our Orthodox Faith. 

There exists the holy Orthodox Christian Church and the vasrious sects which are called Christian but remain outside of the Church.

     None of these sects have the truths regarding our beliefs and faithful heritage, but teach and practice their own viewpoints. Ecumenism  is promoted by many Orthodox leaders as being useful and beneficial to the Orthodox Church but they are completely wrong for ecumenism opposes the Orthodox Church, and is evil because it corrupts and wars against the truths of Orthodoxy. The fundamental purpose of ecumenism is their claim that the church, meaning all outside Orthodoxy and Orthodoxy itself, is divided and needs to be reunited into a single belief and onr body. However the true Church  can never be included with them nor be divided for it remains one, but they are speaking of their various heresies which divides them. Orthodox leaders have no right to change what the Church has already decided. They have no authority to drag pernicious Ecumenism into the faultless and pure Church that Christ founded, for it spirit its totally foreign to the Holy Spirit which unites and protects Orthodoxy. So erroneously proclaiming the disunity of the Church, Ecumenism is seeking to reunite the various heresies as if they were the church, the evil being, that they all include the Orthodox Church in their calculations.

     One example, is the heretical so-called “Oriental Orthodox” being a new dishonest name,  for they are not Orthodox, having been outside the Church for over 1500 years because of their monophysite, heresy, which is their recognition of a single nature in Jesus Christ instead of His two natures, divine and human, this being the truth established by the Church.  These heretics reject four out of seven Ecumenical Synods, more than half, which has separated them even further from the Church. They were specifically condemned for rejecting the Fourth Ecumenical Synod at Chalcedon, and became known as pre-Chalcedonians, due to their rejection of  the truth established by Synod of Chalcedon.  This Synod had ruled that Jesus Christ as the result of two births, eternally from the Father the divine and from the Virgi the human,  Jesus Christ had two natures. Born of God He had a divine nature, and born in time of the Virgin He had a human nature. He raised the dead by His divine nature and was crucified and put to death in His human nature, but the Godman resurrected on the third day!

     King Henry VIII of England  broke away from the Papacy and Rome and formed the Anglican Church with himself as its head. In the US they are usually known as Episcopalians. Jehovah Witnesses anAs stewards of the true Church  our Orthodox leaders are required to always defend her truths and testify to all the truths of the Orthodox Faith, and they should testify before all the sects listed above of her pure and faultless teaching. They need to inform them that we Orthodox have the true faith and doctrine whereas their beliefs embraces untruths which remove them far from salvation and everlasting life So long as they remain outside the Church they are also outside the kingdom of God and are not walking on the path of life.

     It is not only differences in doctrine that separates those outside of Orthodoxy, for they gather in false churches and remain outside of all the true Church’s truths.  They are separated from Orthodoxy’s Head Jesus Christ whom they fail to recognize as Head of His holy Church. For Jesus Christ founded  and is the head of His Church which alone offers salvation and He promises its permanent protection against the gates of hades, and the mouths of heretics which seek to prevail against her. The rock upon which the Church is built was not Peter or any other man. The rock is Peter’s  confession, when Christ asked “Who do me say that I the Son of man am?” Simon Peter answered and said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say unto you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hades will not prevail against it. The Church is built upon the rock which Peter had confessed after receiving it from the Father, hence he is called blessed.  It is the acceptance and belief that Jesus is “the Christ Son of the living God.” This is the fundamental confession of all those who choose to become part of the holy Church.

     Our Church has been under frequent persecution and attacks from the beginning and its  defenders are all numbered among the many saints whose weapons were the divine truths which she had preserved from the beginning. This was effected mostly through the meetings of the Seven Ecumenical Synods. These Synods of God-bearing holy fathers, met between the years 325 AD and 787 AD, wherein they defined the true Orthodox dogmas and repudiated the many false and  heretical ideas. The seventh and last Ecumenical Synod defined and affirmed and defended the veneration of holy icons as established by the Church. This is why the Orthodox Church greatly rejoices in the Seven Ecumenical Synods.

     What is an Orthodox Christian?  One who is baptized and lives according to the teaching of Christ, giving himself completely to Christ and living for Him and in Him. This is the divine life, the life meant for all men. It is not a miracle, but the norm. The rule of faith in Christ governs the lives of all true Christians.  Life according to the Gospel which is a holy life, expected of all Christians. This is not something miraculous but is the norm. “Be holy,” the Lord says, “for I am holy.:” Be perfect as your Father in heaven.” Peter writes: “As the holy One who has called you is holy, so you be holy in all manner of life” (1Peter 1:15).

     We need to increase our faith, and wake up to the fact that being part of the true Church of Christ is one of the greatest of responsibilities, and the source of all joy. We must be faithful to her and be very attentive to her teaching, for we all must all go through the door of death to judgment, either to eternal life or eternal death, according to our faith and deeds. The Church being the body of Christ is the best and holiest line of  communication with our Head Jesus Christ the Godman,.the  Mormons evolved out of the Protestants, and formed new heretical religions having nothing to do with Christ or His Church.

     The Roman Catholics or Papacy always seek the union of the whole world under the authority of the empirical Pope of Rome, whom they consider to be their head, an ordinary man whom they elevated superior to all other men, and claimed him to be kept free from error free by conferring on him a fictional  infallibility.