""God preserved His Canon, not in a centralized organization in Rome, but through his universal church of all believers."
Amen brother!"
Lest you misunderstand (and maybe you didn't) it was Blogger who said that, not me. My position is that The Church prserved the canon as God's institution on earth. You know how we Orthodox view what The Church is.
"Why then would your Roman counterparts claim they alone can edit and interpret the "God breathed" Scriptures?"
That, WF, you'd have to ask them. I suspect they would point you to Christ's commission to +Peter and the claim that the Roman Church has preserved inviolate the Holy Tradition of the One Church. We Orthodox disagree, of course, otherwise we'd all be Roman Catholics I suppose. By the way, I've not seen any editing on the part of Rome beyond some listings of what constitutes the Apocrypha and how the psalms are numbered. Orthodoxy does disagree with a number of Rome's interpretations of both scripture and Holy Tradition.
"As you have explained in the past, the EOC does not differentiate status among it's Bishops, other than in managerial duties. Whether you want to admit it or not, in church structure you are much closer to Baptist's and Presbyterians than RC's."
I am sure, WF, that you mean that as a compliment, but I don't think I'd go that far at all! :) The Apostolic Succession is what it is in both the Latin Church and Orthodoxy. From an ecclesiological point of view, the only real difference, and it is a very, very big one which reaches into virtually every aspect of Church life, is the immediate, universal jurisdiction claimed for the Bishop of Rome.
Sorry for the mistake K. For a moment there I thought you might have had a personal revelation. ;-)
The Apostolic Succession is what it is in both the Latin Church and Orthodoxy.
The THEORY is proven false by Scripture and the lives of the Apostles. The early church was congregational in structure not hierarchal. The monobishophoric system developed after the Apostolic Era, not during.
I suspect they would point you to Christ's commission to +Peter and the claim that the Roman Church has preserved inviolate the Holy Tradition of the One Church. We Orthodox disagree, of course, otherwise we'd all be Roman Catholics I suppose.
At least we have something to agree on!
BTW, I came across this in the catechism
424 Moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the Father, we believe in Jesus and confess: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. On the rock of this faith confessed by St. Peter, Christ built his Church.
It sure seems that their interpretation of that one passage in Matthew may have changed as well as their view towards irresistible grace.
True. I am at a loss as to what Wmfights is talking about as well.