Click here. Trust me. You’ll love it.

John

While running through a blog about the Rapture theory, the author (an Orthodox deacon) quotes a protestant pastor, John L. Gray, who says concerning the Rapture:

“Though many believe and teach this “Pre-Tribulation Rapture” theory, they erroneously do so, because neither Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, nor any of the other writers of the Bible taught this. Nor did the early church fathers, nor any others for many hundreds of years…. Did you know that NONE of this was ever taught prior to 1812, and that all forms of Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching were developed since that date? …. If I were to preach something, or believe something, supposedly from the Bible, but cannot find that ANYONE ELSE before 1812 ever believed it or taught it, I would seriously question that it is based on the Bible.”

Let us take this quote to its logical conclusion. I will restate it here:

“Though many believe and teach this “sola Scriptura” theory, they erroneously do so, because neither Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, nor any of the other writers of the Bible taught this. Nor did the early church fathers, nor any others for many hundreds of years…. Did you know that NONE of this was ever taught prior to the 16th century, and that all forms of sola scriptura teaching were developed since that date?…. If I were to preach something, or believe something, supposedly from the Bible, but cannot find that ANYONE ELSE before the 16th century ever believed or taught it, I would seriously question that it is based on the Bible.”

Of course, one could insert any protestant teaching, be it the five solas of the Reformation, the Rapture theory, Calvinism, total depravity, substitutionary atonement, take your pick and reject them by that same criteria. It’s any wonder why this pastor only goes that far with his statements and does not take them to their logical conclusion.

The link to the blog that I am referring to is here.

John

I almost forgot. I wanted to post something on the recent earthquake in Haiti.

I had heard on various news programs that even after five full days after the earthquake, people were being dug out of rubble alive and well. The human body can’t survive more than three or four days without water. But clearly, by the grace of God, people are alive after all. I’m not sure just how many people survived under the collapsed buildings; even one survivor would be enough to give glory to God for His Providence.

Here is a news article of one of the people who made it out alive after being buried. It’s wonderful to know that while buried, this women said she kept praying. What beauty in the midst of tragedy.

John

I’m not sure how many folks read this blog, but for those who do you all know that sometimes I’m a blogging machine. Not so, lately.

In the future, I plan on sharing more excerpts from Elder Paisios and a few things about Saint Nektarios. Preparing for college in the fall has already started. Specifically, I’m in desperate need to brush up on my Spanish. I’ll see what I can do about getting a few more posts in. I always enjoy rereading and typing up various passages from books. I do miss it a bit.

Here’s to future posts a plently.

John

Father Paisios told us the following story, wishing to give us an example of the way God looks after His children, while many times we get angry at Him and do not understand His actions:

An ascetic was praying to God asking Him to reveal why the righteous and pious people are miserable and suffer unjustly, whereas the unrighteous and sinful ones are rich and contented. While he was asking God to reveal to him this mystery, he heard a voice saying to him:

“Do not ask to comprehend what your mind and power of knowledge cannot grasp and do not examine the mysteries of God, as His judgments are like an endless ocean. However, since you wish to know, go out there in the world and watch carefully the people, and you will be able to understand a small part of God’s judgment. Then, you will know that God’s prudent governing is unexplored and inscrutable.”

When the ascetic heard all this, he left for the world. After walking for a while, he reached a meadow. There was  fountain nearby and an old tree with a large hollow. He hid inside the hollow, in order to watch the busy street passing by the meadow. After a while, a rich man passed by riding his horse. He stopped by the fountain to drink some water and rest. While he was sitting there, he took a purse out of his pocket containing one hundred golden coins, and started counting them. When he finished counting, he mistakenly left the purse on the grass instead of putting it in his pocket. After he ate, he rested and slept for a while, and then took off without realizing that he had left his purse on the grass.

After some time, another passer-by appeared. He stopped by the fountain, and when he saw the purse with the golden coins, he took it and left running in the fields. A few minutes later, a third man came along. As he was tired, he too went by the fountain to drink some water and sat to eat a piece of bread. As this poor man was eating, the rich man cam back to look for his purse. He had an extremely angry look on his face and went straight to him, shouting, who had no idea about the purse and the golden coins, assured him that he had not seen it. Then, the rich man began beating him up so badly that he finally killed him. He searched through his clothes and found nothing. He left feeling very sad.

The ascetic was watching the incident sitting inside the hollow and was astounded. He felt very sad and began to cry, feeling sorry for the unjust death of the poor man and prayed to God:

“Lord, what is the meaning of this will of Yours? Let me know how Your kindness can tolerate such an injustice. Someone lost the coins, another man found them and a third man as unjustly murdered!”

As he was praying and crying, an angel of the Lord appeared to him:

Do not feel sorry for the poor man, nor think that this incident is not the will of God. Bear in mind that some things occur, either because God permits them to, or in order to instruct people or because He causes them to happen for our benefit.

Now, listen: The man who lost the golden coins is the next door neighbor of the one who found them. He owned a farm with one hundred gold coins. the rich man, who was an avaricious person, forced him to sell his farm to him for only fifty gold coins. The poor man, feeling helpless, prayed to God to punish his unjust neighbor on his behalf. And God rewarded him in double. The second man, the tired and poor one, who was unjustly killed, had once committed a murder. He had honestly repented and lived the rest of his life according to God’s will. He constantly prayed to God to forgive him and said to Him: “God, let me have the same kind of death as the one I gave.” Of course, our Lord had forgiven him since the first time he expressed his repentance for his sinful act. However, He was moved by the sensitivity and righteousness of this man, who not only tried to live according to His will, but also wished to pay back for his sinful act. So, God fulfilled his wish and gave him the chance to experience a violent death, -as he himself had asked for- and took him to heaven by His side, granting him a glorious laurel for his deep responsive repentance!

The third man, the avaricious one, who lost the golden coins and committed the murder, had fallen into two sins, avarice and stinginess. God permitted a violent murder to be committed, so that he may experience pain, which in turn, would lead him to repentance. The sin of murder turned out to be the cause for his decision to leave the world and become a monk.

So, where and under what circumstances do you see that God was unjust, merciless and cruel? You should not examine God’s judgements, as He always makes them correctly and according to the way He knows, whereas you misjudge them and find them unjust. You should also know that many things happen with God’s will for reasons we do not know. Therefore, the right thing for us to say is: “Righteous art though, O Lord, and right are thy judgments” (Ps. 118:137).

Here is a short but thoughtful post from Energetic Procession on the inconsistencies of Protestant iconoclasm. The link is here. Enjoy!

John

I am writing this post in response to a recent incident that took place in the last week or so. Someone whom I am somewhat familiar with said that when two people disagree long enough “either you will change, they will change or you will stop talking to each other”. This is a sad truth that has taken place recently.

My venture into Orthodoxy has left some of my friends and acquaintances (both of the Roman Catholic and Protestant persuasion) a bit perplexed. On the one hand, I was told by a Roman Catholic friend that one such as I, being intelligent as I am, should not be sucked into Orthodoxy as I appear to have been. I am assuming that this person meant that anyone who was reasonably intelligent would be drawn to the Roman Catholic Church. True, the RCC does have an intense focus on reason and rationalism (as do the Protestants) but this is but one reason among many why I reject both traditions as unbiblical, unapostolic and unpatristic.

From a different perspective, a Protestant friend has suggested that my entrance into Orthodoxy has put me in spiritual danger. I can’t help but notice that when it comes to humility, obedience, love and self-sacrifice, the Orthodox, or so it appears to me, exhibit this par excellence. This statement, of course, does not mean that these qualities cannot be found in other traditions, but rather that the Orthodox Tradition contains the best examples throughout history. If I am in danger of anything, I am surely in danger of learning a thing or two about true holiness, humility and sacrifice. Such “danger” is no danger at all.

I have parted ways with only one friend so far over Orthodoxy. This is the first, but sadly I must admit that it may not be the last. I wish that there were ways to mend and heal the relationships that have been damaged or destroyed because of my move to Orthodoxy, but in the end, I must choose Christ’s Church. Maybe one day, when I have learned to be humble, to love as God loves, to live as Christ lives, the damage can be reversed. For now, I must focus on humility, obedience, love and self-sacrifice. Without these qualities, these virtues, true reconciliation is mere fantasy.

John

I read this in an article on Christianity Today. The link to the article is here.

“Furthermore, Protestants insist that God speaks to the reader of the Bible in a direct manner rather than being mediated by the church. Just as the Reformers placed Scripture above tradition, they placed the Scriptures above the church. It was the Word of God that gave birth to the church, Calvin insisted, and not the other way around.”

Before I wig out, I really would like to know the context of Calvin’s statement. Is he referring to the Word of God, the eternal Logos of the Father, or the Word of God, the Scriptures? This, certainly, is the key to understanding what Calvin meant. But given the context of the author of this article, it seems that he thinks that Calvin meant that the Word, that is the Bible, gave birth to the Church. If such an understanding of Calvin’s statement is true, then that statement is patently false and Calvin has failed Church History 101.

Further along in the article, the author says thus:

“Furthermore, contrary to Calvin, the Orthodox note that the church existed some 300 years before the ecumenical councils and the formation of the scriptural canon. The Reformed idea of ‘Scripture alone’ seems privatistic (allowing each person to interpret truth on his or her own) and therefore dangerous. By way of contrast, converts to Orthodoxy vow to ‘accept and understand Holy Scripture in accordance with the interpretation which was and is held by the Holy Orthodox Catholic Church of the East, our Mother.’”

If anyone is familiar with Church history, he would know that the present form of the Scriptures that is sitting on your bookshelf did not come together until almost 400 years after the resurrection of Christ. To assume that the Word of God, the Scriptures, gave birth to the Church is not just incorrect, it is a willful ignorance of Church history.

On the contrary, God the Word did establish the Church. We know that the Church existed before the Bible was brought together. The Old Testament (though not officially closed by the Jews until after the time of Christ) and the memoirs of the apostles were present in the early Church, their usage was mininal, in that not everyone had a copy of ever book, nor could they because of the great expense necessary to copy and distribute the books (in the case of the NT letters and gospels) and scrolls (in the case of the OT books). Let me reiterate, by minimal I do not mean the Scriptures were ignored or unused, but that as a whole and complete Bible like the one on your bookshelf they were unavailable to the Church. Each congregation had a letter here, a gospel there, and until the early Christians were booted out of the synagogues, they would hear the Old Testament readings that were apart of the Jewish Liturgy. It was not until many hundreds of years later would we see a compiled and completed Old and New Testament and these were rare so the Scriptures were used in the Liturgy with the entire community present rather than by each individual in his own home.

Again, let me say that I do not know the context with which this statement was made by Calvin except the context given to us by the author. I do not know if the author of this article is being faithful to Calvin’s works. I would hope so. Enough said.

John

While talking about failures with a good friend of mine, he said this and I think it bears repeating:

Remember Paul’s concept of ‘pressing towards the mark’. Living a life of spiritual warfare is an endurance race. You have failure; however, it is all part of the endurance. Christ truly wants children who learn the beauty of consistently choosing Him in the face of adversity.

Very true indeed, Alex. Thank you.

John

Here is a link to one of my favorite blogs, Orthodox Way of Life. I often struggle with my own thoughts (who doesn’t?) and Deacon Charles gives us an excellent post on the subject. The link is here. Enjoy!

JOhn