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To: kosta50; Forest Keeper; irishtenor; the_conscience; wmfights; Dr. Eckleburg; Kolokotronis; ...
The Apostolic Church knew the word of God from the beginning because the Apostles were there when it was received and the Apostles were there when their successors were ordained to carry on the worship which expresses our belief, and their successors' successors were there and so on to this day.

No doubt you base this upon incontrovertible empirical data, using the same methodology as your Bible criticism, and have all the evidence to prove that all the rituals and dogma of the Greek church is directly handed down from the Apostles. (BTW, that would exclude any indirect references to old testament Jewish customs)

I'll be waiting.

2,200 posted on 02/17/2008 10:22:45 PM PST by the_conscience ('The human mind is a perpetual forge of idols'.)
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To: the_conscience

LOL.

GTTM.

ROTFLOL.


2,201 posted on 02/17/2008 10:32:02 PM PST by Quix (GOD ALONE IS GOD; WORTHY; PAID THE PRICE; IS COMING AGAIN; KNOWS ALL; IS LOVING; IS ALTOGETHER GOOD)
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To: the_conscience; Kolokotronis; MarkBsnr; stfassisi; Forest Keeper; irishtenor; wmfights; ...
Kosta: The Apostolic Church knew the word of God from the beginning because the Apostles were there when it was received and the Apostles were there when their successors were ordained to carry on the worship which expresses our belief, and their successors' successors were there and so on to this day.

the_conscience: No doubt you base this upon incontrovertible empirical data, using the same methodology as your Bible criticism, and have all the evidence to prove that all the rituals and dogma of the Greek church is directly handed down from the Apostles. (BTW, that would exclude any indirect references to old testament Jewish customs)

The New Testament tells us that the Church received the faith from the beginning and that the Apostles were there to receive it.  

The point I was making, which you seem to have missed, is that at the end of the 4th century the Church canonized the New Testament. At that same time, the Church doctrines and worship are known and documented (two Ecumenical Councils, Trinitarian dogma, the Creed, the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil, etc. along with Church fathers, Cappadocian Fathers and the desert Fathers proclaiming one and the same orthodox and catholic faith in "word and in epistles").

So, to answer your question, Yes, there is objective evidence that the Orthodox Church today teaches and believes and serves the same divine liturgy as the Church served, taught and believed at the time of NT canonization.  This objective evidence is in the fact that we serve both the shorter (St. John Chrysostom's) and the full version of St. Basil's Divine Liturgy, and that we teach the same doctrines taught by the Church at the time of its NT canonization.

You can't ,on the one hand, give Church credit for knowing which books are inspired, and on the other deny its knowledge of the word of God, it's doctrine, or it's proper ancient form of worship.

2,245 posted on 02/18/2008 6:18:40 PM PST by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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To: the_conscience
BTW, that would exclude any indirect references to old testament Jewish customs

No, because the Apostles were Jews and worshipped as Jews. There are a lot of Jewish elements in the Divine Liturgy of St. The evolution of Christian worship can be discerned from the Didache and writings of St. Justin Martyr, as the ealriest documents attesting to this.

The Liturgy of James the Just (the oldest Christian Liturgy which is in its fixed portion for all practical purpsoes the same liturgy as that of St. Basil and Chrysostom, except that it has more OT references).

2,247 posted on 02/18/2008 6:25:38 PM PST by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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To: the_conscience; kosta50; Forest Keeper; irishtenor; wmfights
“(BTW, that would exclude any indirect references to old testament Jewish customs)”

My partner is Jewish, the son-in-law of a former Chief Rabbi of Budapest. Every time he attends a service or a Divine Liturgy at our Greek Orthodox Church, he comes away marveling that he could have been at a Temple ceremony, as he understands they were, except for the obvious differences. His father-in-law has confirmed this to me many times. You’re going to have to look elsewhere for evidence undermining the continuing and ancient character of our Divine Liturgies, tc.

What kosta has presented is what those of us who are Orthodox have been saying here on FR for years. We believe the same things and worship God in the same way as the bishops who determined the canon of the NT in the 4th century. This is just a statement of historical fact. Personally, I don’t understand why Christians who are committed to the notion that the HS inerrantly guides its people to correctly interpret scripture have a problem accepting what is simply history.

2,253 posted on 02/18/2008 6:34:35 PM PST by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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