It is often said within Orthodoxy that modern heresy is simply
ancient heresy repackaged. Those who refuse to unite with the One Holy
and Apostolic Church in our day are most frequently engaging in the same
heresies that separated groups from the Church in the ancient world:
The hierarchy, the oral (relational) authority of revelation, the
sacraments, icons, the mother of God; These are all real and genuine
subjects that are crucial to our relationship with God as Orthodox
Christians. Any attempt to publish doctrines against these teachings or
attempt to establish a separated church in the spirit of condemning
these things, is what we call heterodoxy (false teaching).
With that said, it is not of the Orthodox spirit to condemn
non-Orthodox, as if God is not doing anything in their lives. We are ALL
created in the image of God, and are capable of spiritual growth.
Non-Orthodox will glean from our Canon (the Bible) as well as many other
spiritual avenues of our faith, but to hold them up to be a part of the
One Holy and Apostolic Church is simply not honest and can be harmful
to the spiritual growth of all involved in the conversation.
St. Maximus the Confessor (580-662) says this regarding schismatics
- who were far closer to Orthodox standards than today’s modern Bible
believers:
“I write these things not wishing to cause distress to the heretics
or to rejoice in their ill-treatment — God forbid; but, rather,
rejoicing and being gladdened at their return. For what is more pleasing
to the faithful than to see the scattered children of God gathered
again as one? Neither do I exhort you to place harshness above the love
of men. May I not be so mad! I beseech you to do and to carry out good
to all men with care and assiduity, becoming all things to all men, as
the need of each is shown to you; I want and pray you to be wholly harsh
and implacable with the heretics only in regard to cooperating with
them or in any way whatever supporting their deranged belief. For I
reckon it hatred towards man and a departure from divine love to lend
support to error, so that those previously seized by it might be even
more greatly corrupted.” (Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 91 col. 465c)
Why bother discussing such subjects? Because the very unity of our faith is at stake here, as St. Maximus demonstrates above.
Protestants do indeed share the kingdom with Orthodox. They may not be
at the center of it and they may not be able to manifest it in a
holistic manner, but they nonetheless take part in what God has given
humanity. And if we Orthodox think that we are not going to be affected
by Protestantism, we are delusional and arrogant.
We are adopting converts from Bible groups faster than any other time
in history, and many of these converts are bringing in their
anti-materialistic/Gnostic leanings to the Church. Not only that, but it
is our general calling in Christ that we evangelize the lost into the
Church. This is not “proselytizing” as some might say; rather it is
evangelizing and discipleship. We are not forcing our faith on anyone
even when we speak of what the councils and fathers say about heresy.
This is not hate; rather it is love, if done with charity; charity of
person, that is: offering ourselves to them in any way that we can.
Charity is not compromising our faith and pretending to agree with their
doctrine or religion, charity is holistic, an offering of our whole
life. We may have to cancel that trip to Disneyland in order to spend a
more quality time with someone in need. We may have to take a drive,
using our vacation days to help a struggling convert. Or, we may just
need to listen to what they are about and offer a very basic friendship
within the context of whatever the Lord provides.
Orthodoxy has always been very in tune with the harmony of community.
Orthodoxy is a holistic faith that involves much more than doctrine on
paper; it involves doctrine in deed, in culture. We model this first by
our leadership: The monastics, the priesthood, and the monarchy, have
always been the connectors of the faith. The monastics have never ceased
to speak the prophetic voice; the deacons, priests and bishops have
never ceased to teach the faith and “rebuke convince and exhort” with
all longsuffering, as Saint Paul puts it; and the monarchy has never
ceased to gather councils and administer protection from heresy and
other sinful patterns that destroy her culture and threaten the unity of
her Church.
Orthodoxy is unity of Christ! It is not a religion or a movement, Orthodoxy is the very manifestation of Christ within community. From the time that Saint Constantine began to protect the faith, in the fourth century, all the way up to the 20th
century, Orthodoxy has been, in my opinion, the strongest community in
the entire world, occupying an entire empire in the east until recent
times.
In 1917 the last emperor of the Orthodox Church, Saint Nicholas II,
was murdered along with his family, and the revolution within Russia
gained enough momentum to take Russia for an entire generation (70
years, which is exactly what Saint Seraphim of Sarov prophesied). Since
then, it has been very difficult to gather councils for the Orthodox
Church, much less prosecute any heretical and barbaric action against
Orthodox countries.
Through the past 100 years Orthodoxy has essentially survived without
an established community. Thankfully, Tsars within Russia, including
Saint Nicholas II, began planting churches in America before the
motherland collapsed to communists. From that, America has birthed about
2,000 Orthodox parishes, and she has survived the past generation with
no Tsar, no monarchy. This is quite the blessing, to be able to stand
without the monarchy, but it poses a threat to the Church. As Islam
began to dominate the empire in Constantinople, and then Communism in
Russia, so now Secularism and Liberalism is attempting to take dominion
over the Church in America. We simply no longer have the support of our
countrymen and we are thus reverting back to a type of
pre-Constantinian era, taking shelter within the residual effects of the
monarchy, which are quickly running out.
Secularism and Liberalism is taking over the leadership of our western counties, and we Orthodox are being reduced to a people that is merely ceremonial!
We no longer have the ministries we had for the past 1500 years;
ministries that involved the very shaping of our country. Rather, the
secular and liberal government has assumed the leadership within those
ministries (health care, welfare, judicial, etc.).
Why is Secularism and Liberalism attempting to dominate our Church?
Because we live in a country that does not hold to the Orthodox
worldview. The vast majority of our country has a Protestant worldview
(even the Catholics). They do not believe in many of the things that we
believe in, and it affects our Church!
Protestantism carries a philosophy that is antithetical to the
Orthodox view of creation, for starters. I am not referring to the
debates of six days of creation or even the fall of Adam, etc. What I am
referring to is the nature in which God communicates to us; his
incarnation and what that does to the entire cosmos. This particular
subject deserves much more space than I am about to give it, but I think
the just of what I am saying here is the fact that ‘matter’ matters in
Orthodoxy. In Protestantism, matter does not really matter!
Orthodoxy believes God uses a bishop to guide us, as so plainly seen
in the Scripture. We believe bread and wine can be blessed to nourish
us, spiritually. We believe that art can be set apart from the world and
exclusively blessed for theological and spiritual formation. We believe
God wants us to build communities and establish relationships with our
governance…formally and within the hospice of our sacraments, if
possible! We believe that our earth produces our Church through the
direction of our God!
The Protestant ethos of America does not believe in these things. The
Protestant philosophy and doctrine of America has fostered and even
encouraged Secular and Liberal thought since our country’a inception
(our second president was a Unitarian, for instance). In the late 1800s
Liberalism and Secularism was catapulted through the Protestant church
in America right into the very culture that it resides in! It is now
everywhere: our calendar, grocery, art, politics, etc. We Orthodox are
surrounded by it. How do we mend this? We introduce Orthodoxy! We
introduce how the Orthodox worldview involves real and genuine living,
not just doctrine, not just a religious systems that keep itself
separate from all matter and culture. Granted, doctrine is extremely
important, as I will be showing you at the end of this article with
quotes from the fathers. But what these fathers are speaking of, are not
philosophical and psychological concepts, but they are speaking of
Orthodox praxis. They are speaking just how we take what we believe in
our minds and get that to manifest in our lives.
The hierarchy, the oral (relational) authority of revelation,
the sacraments, the icons, the mother of God; these are all doorways to
communion with both God and man, and not one without the other. The
Orthodox Church is, again, a holistic Church that encompasses all of
what God said is “good,” yet under the guidelines of the holy Prophets
and Apostles. There is a complete theology behind this that some modern
Orthodox Christians have forgotten. All throughout the Scripture we see
how the earth is “groaning” for her redemption and how, according to the
Psalmist, the entire earth praises God! Our Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew says this regarding the faith:
“Orthodox Christianity is a way of life in which there is profound
and direct relationship between dogma and praxis, faith and life. This
unity of faith and life means that the reality of the eternal truths
lies in their experiential power, rather than in their codification into
a set of ideological constructs.” (Encountering the Mystery, p. viii).
The existential aspect of our faith is extremely important. The very
grace of God cooperates with all aspects that have been order by the
Church. Even our fasting, which Christ commanded us to do, and the
Church has practiced weekly (daily for the monastics), is a form of
biological conduct that draws us closer to God and allows us to give
what is left over to those in need.
Below we can see how the fathers are adamant about submission to
these various aspects of the faith. This dedication has brought the
Church through the harshest persecution and the most complex situations
for two-thousand years.
If you are a Protestant/Evangelical, please, come and taste the
goodness of the ancient Church, and experience the majesty of Christ! If
you are Orthodox, please, do whatever you can to maintain our beloved
tradition!
Those who deny the Episcopate and its Authority
St. Ignatius of Antioch ca. 50-117
Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either
by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the
bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be;
even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is
not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a
love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to
God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid.
Moreover, it is in accordance with reason that we should return to
soberness [of conduct], and, while yet we have opportunity, exercise
repentance towards God. It is well to reverence both God and the bishop.
He who honours the bishop has been honoured by God; he who does
anything without the knowledge of the bishop, does [in reality] serve
the devil. (To the Smyrnaeans)
St. Athanasius ca. 297-37
But if the organising of the Churches is distasteful to you, and you
do not think the ministry of the episcopate has its reward, why, then
you have brought yourself to despise the Saviour that ordered these
things? I beseech you, dismiss such ideas, nor tolerate those who advise
you in such a sense, for this is not worthy of Dracontius. For the
order the Lord has established by the Apostles abides fair and firm; but
the cowardice of the brethren shall cease. For if all were of the same
mind as your present advisers, how would you have become a Christian,
since there would be no bishops? Or if our successors are to inherit
this state of mind, how will the Churches be able to hold together? Or
do your advisers think that you have received nothing, that they despise
it? If so surely they are wrong. For it is time for them to think that
the grace of the Font is nothing, if some are found to despise it. But
you have received it, beloved Dracontius; do not tolerate your advisers
nor deceive yourself. (Letter 49.3-4)
Synod of Jerusalem 1672
But forasmuch as among their other impieties, the Calvinists have
fancied this also, that the simple Priest and the High Priest are
perhaps the same; and that there is no necessity for High Priests, and
that the Church may be governed by some Priests; and that not a High
Priest [only], but a Priest also is able to ordain a Priest, and a
number of Priests to ordain a High Priest; …we explicitly declare
according to the mind which hath obtained from the beginning in the
Eastern Church: That 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. For he, as a successor of the Apostles, having received
in continued succession by the imposition of hands and the invocation
of the All-holy Spirit the grace that is given him of the Lord of
binding and loosing, is a living image of God upon the earth, and by a
most ample participation of the operation of the Holy Spirit, who is the
chief functionary, is a fountain of all the Mysteries of the Catholic
Church, through which we obtain salvation…And that this great mystery
and dignity of the Episcopate hath descended unto us by a continued
succession is manifest. For since the Lord hath promised to be with us
always, although He be with us by other means of grace and Divine
operations, yet in a more eminent manner doth He, through the Bishop as
chief functionary make us His own and dwell with us, and through the
divine Mysteries is united with us; of which the Bishop is the first
minister, and chief functionary, through the Holy Spirit, and suffereth
us not to fall into heresy. (Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Jerusalem,
Confession of Dositheus: Article X)
Those who deny the Priesthood
St. John Chrysostom ca. 347-407
For indeed what is it but all manner of heavenly authority which He
has given them when He says, “Whose sins ye remit they are remitted, and
whose sins ye retain they are retained?” What authority could be
greater than this? “The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son?”
But I see it all put into the hands of these men by the Son. For they
have been conducted to this dignity as if they were y translated to
Heaven, and had transcended human nature, and were released from the
passions to which we are liable. Moreover, if a king should bestow this
honor upon any of his subjects, authorizing him to cast into prison whom
he pleased and to release them again, he becomes an object of envy and
respect to all men; but he who has received from God an authority as
much greater as heaven is more precious than earth, and souls more
precious than bodies, seems to some to have received so small an honor
that they are actually able to imagine that one of those who have been
entrusted with these things will despise the gift. Away with such
madness! For transparent madness it is to despise so great a dignity,
without which it is not possible to obtain either our own salvation, or
the good things which have been promised to us. For if no one can enter
into the kingdom of Heaven except he be regenerate through water and the
Spirit, and he who does not eat the flesh of the Lord and drink His
blood is excluded from eternal life, and if all these things are
accomplished only by means of those holy hands, I mean the hands of the
priest, how will any one, without these, be able to escape the fire of
hell, or to win those crowns which are reserved for the
victorious?(Treatise on the Priesthood)
St. Ambrose of Milan ca. 337-397
Rightly, therefore, does the Church claim it, which has true priests;
heresy, which has not the priests of God, cannot claim it. And by not
claiming this power heresy pronounces its own sentence, that not
possessing priests it cannot claim priestly power. And so in their
shameless obstinacy a shamefaced acknowledgment meets our view. (On
Repentance Bk. 1.2.7)
St. Jerome ca. 347-420
Under the old law he who disobeyed the priests was put outside the
camp and stoned by the people, or else he was beheaded and expiated his
contempt with his blood. Deut. 17:5, 12
But now the disobedient person is cut down with the spiritual sword,
or he is expelled from the church and torn to pieces by ravening demons.
(Letter 14.8)
Those who deny the Three-fold Hierarchy
St. Ignatius of Antioch ca. 50-117
I therefore, yet not I, but the love of Jesus Christ, entreat you
that you use Christian nourishment only, and abstain from herbage of a
different kind; I mean heresy. For those [that are given to this] mix up
Jesus Christ with their own poison, speaking things which are unworthy
of credit, like those who administer a deadly drug in sweet wine, which
he who is ignorant of does greedily take, with a fatal pleasure leading
to his own death. Be on your guard, therefore, against such persons. And
this will be the case with you if you are not puffed up, and continue
in intimate union with Jesus Christ our God, and the bishop, and the
enactments of the apostles. He that is within the altar is pure, but he
that is without is not pure; that is, he who does anything apart from
the bishop, and presbytery, and deacons, such a man is not pure in his
conscience.(To the Trallians)
St. Epiphanius of Salamis ca. 320-403
To those who have any intelligence it is clear that to say that
bishop and priest are equal is the utter fullness of stupidity. And how
should this be possible? This order [of episcopate] is a begetting of
fathers; for it begets fathers to the Church; but the other, not able to
beget fathers, begets children for the Church, through the rebirth of
Baptism, but not fathers or teachers. And how were it possible for
someone to ordain a priest, if he did not himself have hands laid on him
for the laying on of hands, or to say that he is equal to the
bishop?(Panarion 75.4)
Those that Deny Baptismal Regeneration
St. Irenaeus of Lyons ca. 2nd cent.-202
And when we come to refute them [i.e. those heretics], we shall show
in its fitting-place, that this class of men have been instigated by
Satan to a denial of that baptism which is regeneration to God, and thus
to a renunciation of the whole [Christian] faith.(Against Heresies Book
I.21)
Tertullian
Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of
our early blindness, we are set free and admitted into eternal life! A
treatise on this matter will not be superfluous; instructing not only
such as are just becoming formed (in the faith), but them who, content
with having simply believed, without full examination of the grounds of
the traditions, carry (in mind), through ignorance, an untried though
probable faith. The consequence is, that a viper of the Cainite heresy,
lately conversant in this quarter, has carried away a great number with
her most venomous doctrine, making it her first aim to destroy baptism.
Which is quite in accordance with nature; for vipers and asps and
basilisks themselves generally do affect arid and waterless places. But
we, little fishes, after the example of our ΙΧΘΥΣ Jesus Christ, are born
in water, nor have we safety in any other way than by permanently
abiding in water; so that most monstrous creature, who had no right to
teach even sound doctrine, knew full well how to kill the little fishes,
by taking them away from the water! (On Baptism, Chap. 1)
St. Cyril of Jerusalem ca. 313-386
Jesus sanctified Baptism by being Himself baptized. If the Son of God
was baptized, what godly man is he that despises Baptism? (Catechetical
Lectures 3.11)
Those who deny the real Presence in the Eucharist
St. Ignatius of Antioch ca. 50-117
They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess
not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which
suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up
again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death
in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it
with respect, that they also might rise again. It is fitting,
therefore, that you should keep aloof from such persons, and not to
speak of them either in private or in public, but to give heed to the
prophets, and above all, to the Gospel, in which the passion [of Christ]
has been revealed to us, and the resurrection has been fully proved.
But avoid all divisions, as the beginning of evils. (To the Smyrnaeans)
St. Hilary of Poitiers ca. 300-36
For He says Himself, My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink
indeed. He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in
him. (Jn. 6:55-56)
As to the verity of the flesh and blood there is no room left for
doubt. For now both from the declaration of the Lord Himself and our own
faith, it is verily flesh and verily blood. And these when eaten and
drunk, bring it to pass that both we are in Christ and Christ in us. Is
not this true? Yet they who affirm that Christ Jesus is not truly God
are welcome to find it false. He therefore Himself is in us through the
flesh and we in Him, while together with Him our own selves are in God.
(On the Trinity Bk. 8.14)
St. Epiphanius of Salamis ca. 320-403
We see that the Saviour took [something] in His hands, as it is in
the Gospel, when He was reclining at the supper; and He took this, and
giving thanks, He said: ‘This is really Me.’ And He gave to His
disciples and said: ‘This is really Me.’ And we see that it is not equal
nor similar, not to the incarnate image, not to the invisible divinity,
not to the outline of His limbs. For it is round of shape, and devoid
of feeling. As to its power, He means to say even of its grace, ‘This is
really Me.’; and none disbelieves His word. For anyone who does not
believe the truth in what He says is deprived of grace and of a Saviour.
(The Man Well-Anchored, 57)
St. Gregory the Dialogist ca. 540-604
Wherefore let us hereby meditate what manner of sacrifice this is,
ordained for us, which for our absolution doth always represent the
passion of the only Son of God: for what right believing Christian can
doubt, that in the very hour of the sacrifice, at the words of the
Priest, the heavens be opened, and the choirs of Angels are present in
that mystery of Jesus Christ; that high things are accompanied with low,
and earthly joined to heavenly, and that one thing is made of visible
and invisible? (The Dialogues Bk. 4 Chap. 58)
Those who do not admit that Mary is the Theotokos (God-bearer)
St. Gregory Nazianzus ca. 329-389
If anyone does not believe that Holy Mary is the Mother of God, he is severed from the Godhead. (To Cledonius the Priest)
St. Cyril of Alexandria ca. 376-444
If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that
therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, inasmuch as in the flesh
she bore the Word of God made flesh [as it is written, “The Word was
made flesh”] let him be anathema. (The Twelve Anathemas, 1)
Those Who Hold Solely to Written Tradition
St. Basil of Caesarea ca. 330-379
Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly
enjoined which are preserved in the Church some we possess derived from
written teaching; others we have received delivered to us “in a mystery”
by the tradition of the apostles; and both of these m relation to true
religion have the same force. And these no one will gainsay;–no one, at
all events, who is even moderately versed in the institutions of the
Church. For were we to attempt to reject such customs as have no written
authority, on the ground that the importance they possess is small, we
should unintentionally injure the Gospel in its very vitals; or, rather,
should make our public definition a mere phrase and nothing more. (On
the Holy Spirit, 27)
Nicea II 7th Ecumenical Council 787 a.d.
Anathema to those who spurn the teachings of the holy Fathers and the
tradition of the Catholic Church, taking as a pretext and making their
own the arguments of Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, and Dioscorus, that
unless we were evidently taught by the Old and New Testaments, we should
not follow the teachings of the holy Fathers and of the holy Ecumenical
Synods, and the tradition of the Catholic Church. (Session 1)
Those Who Say that the Son was Cut Off From the Father
St. Athanasius of Alexandria ca. 297-373
Whence neither can the Lord be forsaken by the Father, who is ever in
the Father, both before He spoke, and when He uttered this cry. Nor is
it lawful to say that the Lord was in terror, at whom the keepers of
hell’s gates shuddered and set open hell, and the graves did gape, and
many bodies of the saints arose and appeared to their own people.
Therefore be every heretic dumb, nor dare to ascribe terror to the Lord
whom death, as a serpent, flees, at whom demons tremble, and the sea is
in alarm; for whom the heavens are rent and all the powers are shaken.
For behold when He says, ‘Why have You forsaken Me?’ the Father showed
that He was ever and even then in Him; for the earth knowing its Lord
who spoke, straightway trembled, and the veil was rent, and the sun was
hidden, and the rocks were torn asunder, and the graves, as I have said,
did gape, and the dead in them arose; and, what is wonderful, they who
were then present and had before denied Him, then seeing these signs,
confessed that ‘truly He was the Son of God. (Four Discourses Against
the Arians, Discourse III)
St. Hilary of Poitiers ca. 300-368
You allow that He suffered willingly: would it not be more reverent
to confess that you had misunderstood this passage, than to rush with
blasphemous and headlong folly to the assertion that He prayed to escape
suffering, though you allow that He suffered willingly? Yet, I suppose,
you will arm yourself also for your godless contention with these words
of the Lord, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me ? Perhaps you
think that after the disgrace of the cross, the favour of His Father’s
help departed from Him, and hence His cry that He was left alone in His
weakness. But if you regard the contempt, the weakness, the cross of
Christ as a disgrace, you should remember His words, Verily I say unto
you, From henceforth you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right
hand of power, and coming with the clouds of Heaven…Your irreverence
blinds you to the natural relations of cause and event: not only does
the spirit of godlessness and error, with which you are filled, hide
from your understanding the mystery of faith, but the obtuseness of
heresy drags you below the level of ordinary human intelligence… But
perhaps you think your impiety has still an opportunity left to see in
the words, Father, into Your hands I commend My Spirit Lk. 23:46,
a proof that He feared the descent into the lower world, and even the
necessity of death. But when you read these words and could not
understand them, would it not have been better to say nothing, or to
pray devoutly to be shown their meaning, than to go astray with such
barefaced assertions, too mad with your own folly to perceive the truth?
Could you believe that He feared the depths of the abyss, the scorching
flames, or the pit of avenging punishment, when you listen to His words
to the thief on the cross, Verily, I say unto you, Today shall you be
with Me in Paradise? Such a nature with such power could not be shut up
within the confines of the nether world, nor even subjected to fear of
it. When He descended to Hades, He was never absent from Paradise (just
as He was always in Heaven when He was preaching on earth as the Son of
Man), but promised His martyr a home there, and held out to him the
transports of perfect happiness. (On the Trinity Bk. 10, 30-34)
Those who Despise Holy Images
Nicea II 787 a.d., 7th Ecumenical Council
These things thus I confess and to these I assent, and therefore in
simplicity of heart and in uprightness of mind, in the presence of God, I
have made the subjoined anathematisms.
Anathema to the calumniators of the Christians, that is to the image breakers.
Anathema to those who apply the words of Holy Scripture which were spoken against idols, to the venerable images.
Anathema to those who do not salute the holy and venerable images.
Anathema to those who say that Christians have recourse to the images as to gods.
Anathema to those who call the sacred images idols.
Anathema to those who knowingly communicate with those who revile and dishonour the venerable images.
Anathema to those who say that another than Christ our Lord has delivered us from idols.
Anathema to those who dare to say that the Catholic Church has at any time sanctioned idols.
Anathema to those who say that the making of images is a diabolical invention and not a tradition of our holy Fathers.
This is my confession [of faith] and to these propositions I give my
assent. And I pronounce this with my whole heart, and soul, and mind.
Those who believe in Denominationalism
But since the word Ecclesia is applied to different things (as also
it is written of the multitude in the theatre of the Ephesians, And when
he had thus spoken, he dismissed the Assembly), and since one might
properly and truly say that there is a Church of evil doers, I mean the
meetings of the heretics, the Marcionists and Manichees, and the rest,
for this cause the Faith has securely delivered to thee now the Article,
“And in one Holy Catholic Church;” that thou mayest avoid their
wretched meetings, and ever abide with the Holy Church Catholic in which
thou wast regenerated. And if ever thou art sojourning in cities,
inquire not simply where the Lord’s House is (for the other sects of the
profane also attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord), nor
merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this
is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the mother of us all, which is
the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God (for
it is written, As Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it,
and all the rest,) and is a figure and copy of Jerusalem which is above,
which is free, and the mother of us all; which before was barren, but
now has many children.(Cathechetical Lectures, 18)
St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves ca. 1000-1074
If someone says to you: “Both your and our faith are from God”, you,
my child, must reply to him as follows: “O crooked in faith! Or do you
think that God, too, is two-faithed? Have you not heard what the
Scripture says: ‘There is one God, one faith, one baptism’ (Ephesians 4.5)?
How many years have you kept the right, Apostolic faith, and now
through Satan’s insinuation you have been corrupted into evil belief.
Have you not heard the teaching of the Apostle Paul: ‘Even if an angel
should come from heaven and preach to you a Gospel that we have not
preached to you, let him be anathema’ (Galatians 1.8)?
But you have rejected the apostolic teaching and the decrees of the
Holy Fathers and accepted a wrong and corrupted faith, filled with all
destruction. Therefore you are rejected by us. You are dead, and the
sacrifice you offer [i.e., the Eucharist] is dead. But we offer a living
sacrifice to the living God, a pure and undefiled sacrifice, so as to
obtain eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. To Him be glory. Amen.
(Testament of St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves to the Great-Prince
Iziaslav on the Orthodox Christian Faith)
New Martyr Hilarion Troitsky 1886-1929
It is Protestantism that openly proclaimed the greatest lie of all:
that one can be a Christian while denying the Church. Nevertheless, by
tying its members by some obligatory authorities and church laws,
Protestantism entangles itself in hopeless contradiction: having itself
separated the individual from the Church, it nevertheless places limits
on that freedom. From this stems the constant mutiny of Protestants
against those few and pitiful remnants of the Church consciousness which
are still preserved by the official representatives of their
denominations. (Christianity or the Church)
Source:classicalchristianity.com
