Nope. Again, apples and oranges. Communist countries have one-party uncontested elections where people can't choose anyone but Communists, so by definition, they are not "democratic", even if they use the name.
Eastern Orthodox Churches on the other hand, use scripture at EVERY service, and having reading and understanding the bible as a major component of their faith, and have done so for nearly 2000 years. Go to any Eastern Orthodox Church for a Sunday liturgy and you will hear multiple bible readings, and their pastor will discuss what the passage meant during his sermon afterwards. Thus, by definition, they are scriptural and bible-based.
If you find an Orthodox Church that claims to be bible-based but NEVER once uses a bible at their services, then your "Communist countries that call themselves Democratic" allegory would make sense.
Just because you flat out lie about Orthodox Christianity and claim they don't study scripture or follow the bible doesn't make it true, anymore than if I were to claim Billy Graham shouldn't be allowed to discuss Heaven and Hell because "he is a member of the Baptist faith and their churches do not believe in the afterlife"
RE: Just because you flat out lie about Orthodox Christianity and claim they don’t study scripture or follow the bible doesn’t make it true, anymore than if I were to claim Billy Graham shouldn’t be allowed to discuss Heaven and Hell because “he is a member of the Baptist faith and their churches do not believe in the afterlife”
I think you are misrepresenting what I said.
You were arguing this — that the name of the organization is the “Christian Research Institute” (CRI) and the name of his show is “The Bible Answer Man” (BAM), not “the Protestant Research Institute” and “The Evangelical Answer Man”
Sure,that’s their name, but they have NEVER, EVER stated or pretended that because they use the word “Christian” or “Bible” for their name, that their point of view do not reflect Evangelical Beliefs.
Your argument seems to be this — Because they use the name :”Christian” or “Bible” in their organization or their show, they should then ALLOW others who are Christians like Catholics or Eastern Orthodox to lead their organization or their show.
As for Hank Hanegraaf, If you change your views, you should say so, openly and with explanation. It just breeds suspicion and undermines credibility as well as making you look dishonest if you pretend there’s no differences.
Second, he should have simply added some Orthodox material to balance things out. And then add a blurb saying to the effect that CRI recognizes that Christians disagree on such and so issues so we present both sides for consideration. That would have allowed them to take a more impartial stance by taking a step back. It would signal that Hank was not trying to make CRI into the Orthodox Christian Research Institute. It certainly would have helped not to alienate his evangelical base quite so much. But that train has left the station.
Also, Hank has more direct problems. The CRI Doctrinal Statement is REQUIRED for all employees. You have to sign it to work there.
Well just for starters look at section 6, which reads,
“(6) Jesus’ death on the cross provided a penal substitutionary atonement for the sins of humanity. In salvation we are rescued from God’s wrath by His unmerited grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone.”
Now, I am pretty darn sure that that is not Orthodox teaching and it is not compatible with Orthodox teaching anymore than say, the decree on justification from Trent is compatible with it. It doesn’t matter if you think the doctrines the CRI doctrinal statement expresses are true or false. What matters is that it expresses WHAT THEY BELIEVE and it is binding on CRI employees of which Hank is one.
Does he affirm the CRI doctrinal statement as it stands or not? If not, how can he work there when CRI advances doctrines that directly contradict the teaching of his church? To do so, gives tacit assent and support to those doctrines. If he does assent to it, how can he be in communion with the Orthodox church when at his chrismation he either explicitly or implicitly publicly swore before God and the church to uphold all the teachings and traditions of the Orthodox Church and those teachings are incompatible in some important areas with the CRI doctrinal statement?
For that matter, why doesn’t Hank just come out and say he doesn’t believe in Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura anymore and explain why?
BTW, Hank doesn’t get to play the persecution card here and Orthodox should not fall for it. Here is why. If those Evangelical networks had not dropped him, I would certainly take them less seriously, and it would probably be straight out dishonest. It is part of their job as Evangelical networks to promote, well, what EVANGELICALS believe.
If we had an Eastern Orthodox radio host who became a baptist, do you think they would leave him untouched? Not a chance. They are just policing their own borders.
Finally, I challenge you to show me where I said that the Eastern Orthodox do not believe or use scripture. C’mon, point out one post I made in this thread. If you can’t you owe me an apology by calling me a liar.
What I did was HIGHLIGHT the major differences in PRACTICE between Evangelicals and Eastern orthodox ( See Post #13 above ), even as they read the same scripture.
THOSE DIFFERENCES form the dividing line between Evangelicalism and Eastern Orthodoxy even as they share many things in common. Let’s not pretend that there are no differences.