Are you Orthodox in your Beliefs?

Tonight my heart is breaking. To tell you that we have Christians who are deceived would be an understatement; however, my heart is breaking because we have Pastors who are literally opening the doors of Hell and letting people feel the heat and telling them to come on in! I know this sounds really crass and more than likely to some critical and judgmental. One of my favorite books says it best “If the Devil appears as an angel and quotes Scripture, then he can use even “churches” to lead people away from the one true God and His plan of salvation.” However, as a Christian, who has had my heart and mind really opened to Christ and His teachings by sitting under a godly teacher/Pastor, I can tell you that many of our pastors are seriously delusional and unfortunately lost. So much so that this has left me heartbroken for the church, and the souls around us that are also lost and in need of a savior. 

Over the past year, my life has changed quite a bit; I’ve delved into the Bible harder than anyone I know, I’ve started really digging deep into the scriptures, looking for nuggets of the gospel that I have never thought of. I’ve called my pastor more times than I probably should just to share these “Can you believe this?” Posts from Facebook and also to talk about how broken hearted I am that we are ordaining left and right, men and women who are standing before an almighty God who are so far left that they wouldn’t know how to make a right turn. Gratefully, my pastor has allowed me to express the heartbrokenness and allowed me to come to terms that not everyone who says they are a Christian is and not every minister follows the Bible or even has Orthodox Christian beliefs. 

Tonight, however, I have decided to what it means to have Orthodox Christian beliefs. 

What is Orthodoxy?

Orthodoxy comes from the Greek ὀρθοδοξία orthodoxía "right opinion” and is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. In the Christian sense the term means "conforming to the Christian faith as represented in the creeds of the early Church.” The first seven ecumenical councils were held between the years of 325 and 787 with the aim of formalizing accepted doctrines.

Originally Orthodox Christianity referred to doctrines that were believed and taught by the early and original church and generally accepted by all Christians.  After 1054 in what was called the Great Schism, the church split into two camps; one was considered the universal or Catholic Church (the word catholic means “universal”) and the other was considered the Orthodox Church. However, when I am talking about “Orthodoxy” I am talking about the doctrines that were believed and taught by the early Church fathers. 

Much of what early Christianity believed was voted on by ecumenical councils:

An ecumenical council is a conference of ecclesiastical dignitaries and theological experts convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice in which those entitled to vote are convoked from the whole world (oikoumene) and which secures the approbation of the whole Church. 

The Ecumenical Councils: 

In the history of Christianity, the first seven ecumenical councils, include the following: the First Council of Nicaea in 325, the First Council of Constantinople in 381, the Council of Ephesus in 431, the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, the Third Council of Constantinople from 680–681 and finally, the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. You can read more about the councils here.

So what does it mean to be Orthodox in your beliefs? 

For me, if you can’t back it up 100% with scripture, then it’s not orthodox. However, that’s not exactly what it means, so let’s take a look at Orthodox Beliefs: 

First off it’s the doctrines which were believed by early Christians. Most of what Orthodox Christians and believe is summed up in the Nicene Creed (and The Apostles Creed). To read them side by side, you can check out this site. The word Creed comes from the Latin credo, "I believe." From the earliest days of the Church, creeds have been living confessions of what Christians believe and not simply formal, academic, Church pronouncements. Such confessions of faith appear as early as the New Testament, where, for example, Saint Paul quotes a creed to remind Timothy, "God was manifested in the flesh.. ." (1 Timothy 3:16). The creeds were approved by Church councils, usually to give a concise state­ment of the truth in the face of the invasion of heresy.

Some believe the most important creed in Christendom is the Nicene Creed, the product of two Ecumenical Coun­cils in the fourth century. Fashioned in the midst of a life-and-death controversy, it contains the essence of New Testament teaching about the Holy Trinity, guard­ing that life-giving truth against those who would change the very nature of God and reduce Jesus Christ to a created being rather than God in the flesh. The creeds give us a sure interpretation of the Scriptures against those who would distort them to support their own religious schemes. Called the "Symbol of Faith" and confessed in many of the services of the Church, the Nicene Creed constantly reminds the Orthodox Christian of what he personally believes, keeping his faith on track.

So what are Orthodox Beliefs? 

1. GOD THE FATHER is the Head of the Holy Trinity. The Scriptures reveal that the one God is Three Persons–Father, Son and Holy Spirit–eternally sharing the one divine nature. From the Father the Son is begotten before all ages and all time (Psalm 2:7; 2 Corinthians 11:31). It is also from the Father that the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds (John 15:26). Through Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit, we come to know the Father (Matthew 11:27). God the Father created all things through the Son, in the Holy Spirit (Genesis 1; 2; John 1:3; Job 33:4), and we are called to worship Him (John 4:23). The Father loves us and sent His Son to give us everlasting life (John 3:16).

1. JESUS CHRIST is the Second Person of the Trinity, eternally born of the Father. He became a man, and thus He is at once fully God and fully man. His coming to earth was foretold in the Old Testament by the Prophets. Because Jesus Christ is at the heart of Christianity, In reciting the Nicene Creed, Christians regularly affirm the historic faith concerning Jesus as they say, “I believe…in one Lord Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again from the dead, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose Kingdom shall have no end.”

1. THE HOLY SPIRIT is one of the Persons of the Trinity and is one in essence with the Father. He is called the “Promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4), given by Christ as a gift to the Church, to empower the Church for service to God (Acts 1:8), to place God’s love in our hearts (Romans 5:5), and to impart spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7-13) and virtues (Galatians 5:22, 23) for Christian life and witness. We are to grow in our experience of the Holy Spirit for the rest of our lives.

1. INCARNATION refers to Jesus Christ coming “in the flesh.” The eternal Son of God the Father assumed to Himself a complete human nature from the Virgin Mary. He was (and is) one divine Person, fully possessing from God the Father the entirety of the divine nature, and in His coming in the flesh fully possessing a human nature from Mary. By His Incarnation, the Son forever possesses two natures in His one Person. The Son of God, limitless in His divine nature, voluntarily and willingly accepted limitation in His humanity, in which He experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue–and ultimately, death. The Incarnation is indispensable to Christianity–there is no Christianity without it. The Scriptures record, “Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God” (1 John 4:3). By His Incarnation, the Son of God redeemed human nature, a redemption made accessible to all who are joined to Him in His glorified humanity.

1. SIN literally means “to miss the mark.” As Saint Paul writes, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We sin when we pervert what God has given us as good, falling short of His purposes for us. Our sins separate us from God (Isaiah 59:1,2), leaving us spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). To save us, the Son of God assumed our humanity, and being without sin, “He condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). In His mercy, God forgives our sins when we confess them and turn from them, giving us strength to overcome sin in our lives. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

1. SALVATION is the divine gift through which men and women are delivered from sin and death, united to Christ, and brought into His eternal Kingdom. Those who heard Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost asked what they must do to be saved. He answered, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Salvation begins with these three “steps”: 1) repent, 2) be baptized, and 3) receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. To repent means to change our mind about how we have been, turning from our sin and committing ourselves to Christ. To be baptized means to be born again by being joined into union with Christ. And to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit means to receive the Spirit who empowers us to enter a new life in Christ, be nurtured in the Church, and be conformed to God’s image.

1. JUSTIFICATION is a word used in the Scriptures to mean that in Christ we are forgiven and actually made righteous in our living. Justification is not a once-for-all, instantaneous pronouncement guaranteeing eternal salvation, no matter how wickedly a person may live from that point on. Neither is it merely a legal declaration that an unrighteous person is righteous. Rather, justification is a living, dynamic, day-to-day reality for the one who follows Christ. The Christian actively pursues a righteous life in the grace and power of God granted to all who are believing Him.

1. SANCTIFICATION is being set apart for God. It involves us in the process of being cleansed and made holy by Christ in the Holy Spirit. We are called to be saints and to grow into the likeness of God. Having been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, we actively participate in sanctification. We cooperate with God, we work together with Him, that we may know Him, becoming by grace what He is by nature.

1. THE BIBLE is the divinely inspired Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16), and is a crucial part of God’s self-revelation to the human race. The Old Testament tells the history of that revelation from Creation through the Age of the Prophets. The New Testament records the birth and life of Jesus as well as the writings of His Apostles. It also includes some of the history of the early Church and especially sets forth the Church’s apostolic doctrine. Though these writings were read in the churches from the time they first appeared, the earliest listing of all the New Testament books exactly as we know them today is found in the Thirty-third Canon of a local council held at Carthage in A.D. 318 and in a fragment of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria’s Festal Letter for the year 367. Both sources list all of the books of the New Testament without exception. A local council, probably held at Rome under Saint Damasus in 382, set forth a complete list of the canonical books of both the Old and New Testaments. The Scriptures are at the very heart of worship and devotion.

These are just a summation of the major beliefs that are Orthodox. I hope that if you are reading this blog, you will delve deeper in to the scriptures; and that you will truly seek out what it means to hold Orthodox beliefs. Friends, there comes a time when you can no longer hold to every wind of doctrine that comes your way. Don’t be fooled by the teachings that look good to you or sound good or tickle your fancy. Friends, do not be scared to call sin, sin. To point your brothers and sisters to the truth. You won’t be popular, matter of fact, you’ll be down right heart-broken when people won’t listen. Love them anyway; but remember that even Jesus teaches in Matthew 10:14 “And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.” Sometimes you are just there to plant the seeds; you may never see the results and that is okay, keep planting. 

May those who are lost, hear God calling them and may they answer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me, a sinner.”