Posted on 10/24/2025 10:16:36 AM PDT by Cronos
Popular protestant apologist “Cleave to Antiquity” has announced that he is becoming an Orthodox Christian, catching many of his recent collaborators by surprise.
“Cleave to Antiquity” is the moniker of Pastor Benjamin Merritt, who serves at a non-denominational church in Holiday, Florida. There, Merritt leads apologetics classes “Defend the Faith,” which cover topics ranging from refuting Seventh-day Adventism to addressing Freemasonry and Catholicism.
Notably, pastor Ben started his YouTube channel specifically to respond to claims of Eastern Orthodoxy and has been active in the apologetics circuit since then, laying down show after show exposing the errors of their beliefs. And not just years ago, but recently, making his conversion very sudden.
Four months ago, he appeared on Ruslan’s channel for the episode “Before You Convert from Protestant to Orthodox, Watch This,” where he specifically argued against converting to the Orthodox Church. Three months ago, he appeared on the “YourCalvinist” podcast, arguing that Eastern Orthodoxy has problematic views on justification. Two months ago, he joined Gavin Ortlund’s “Truth Unites” to defend the Protestant canon against Eastern Orthodoxy.
In a short span of time, he has made a complete 180, announcing that he is converting to the very faith he spent years arguing and debating against. He shared on the Orthodox Ethos channel that he ultimately made the decision after grappling over the issue of praying to the saints, resulting in having a mystical experience after praying to Mary.
Merritt recounted praying for guidance on whether to continue debating against Orthodoxy, specifically wrestling with the practice of praying to saints.
During one such prayer, he invoked the intercessions of the Theotokos (Mary) and experienced a profound sense of her presence: a thick fragrance of incense filled his room, accompanied by a gentle warmth. He described this as transformative, not something he sought but a confirmation from God.
Days later, he prayed again and felt "the scales fall from [his] eyes," interpreting it as divine clarity. As a self-described skeptical person who doesn't "see miracles in everything," these events were pivotal, shifting him from intellectual resistance to personal conviction.
Merritt concluded that the Protestant principle of Scripture alone as the ultimate authority was unsustainable. He could no longer defend it against Orthodox arguments for Tradition, viewing it as incomplete for preserving apostolic faith.
He embraced the Orthodox understanding of the Eucharist as the true body and blood of Christ, contrasting it with symbolic Protestant views.
He recognized the importance of unbroken succession from the apostles, seeing Orthodoxy as the church that maintained this historic continuity without the innovations he associated with Protestantism. These insights built over time, including after recent appearances where he argued against Orthodoxy (e.g., on Ruslan KD's channel in May 2025 and the YourCalvinist podcast in June 2025), only to find his positions untenable in conscience.
Seduced by God’s grace to Orthodoxy
Remind me of when Richard John Neuhaus and Robert Wilken joined the Church. As a college kid i met both and had Wilkin as a theology prof.
IMO - the ‘main’ reason for the east west schism was the role of the Pope. Does Merritt explain why he now embraces Eastern Orthodoxy rather than Roman or Eastern Catholicism?
Famous Protestant apologist Hank Hanegraff (the Bible Answer Man) had the same experience a few years ago, converting to Orthodoxy from Evangelicalism. Newman was right when he said, “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.”
—> During one such prayer, he invoked the intercessions of the Theotokos (Mary) and experienced a profound sense of her presence: a thick fragrance of incense filled his room, accompanied by a gentle warmth. He described this as transformative, not something he sought but a confirmation from God.
Once you shift from ground of objective truth to subjective feelings, you go astray.
This is why Mormonism wants you to leave scripture and pray for a feeling to confirm Mormonism is “true”
1. Merritt did not “leave Scripture.”
He spent years immersing himself in the *patristic* interpretation of Scripture—the same Fathers who compiled the canon, defined the Trinity, and articulated Chalcedon. When he finally prayed *with* the Church’s historic exegesis (e.g., the Theotokos as the living Ark, the saints as the “cloud of witnesses” in Heb 12:1), the Bible *cohered* in a way his prior proof-texting could not. The “objective” text led him to the Church that authored it.
2. The Mormon analogy collapses on inspection.
Mormonism asks you to pray for a *private* confirmation that contradicts the public witness of Scripture and history. Orthodoxy asks you to test the spirits *within* the apostolic tradition (1 John 4:1–6). Merritt’s experience was not a blank-check “burning in the bosom”; it was a *response* to the Church’s public, verifiable claims—icons, liturgy, councils, martyrs—after years of rigorous debate. The Mormon prays *apart* from history; the Orthodox convert prays *inside* it.
3. Prayer to the saints is not “subjective” but *relational.
Scripture itself models intercession:
- “Pray for us” (1 Tim 2:1; James 5:16)
- The martyrs under the altar *cry out* to God (Rev 6:9–11)
- Moses and Samuel are invoked post-mortem (Jer 15:1)
Orthodoxy simply believes death does not sever the Body of Christ. Asking Mary to pray is no more “feeling-based” than asking a living friend to pray—except she is *more* alive in Christ than we are (cf. Luke 20:38).
Merritt’s own words: he *grappled* intellectually for years, then *tested* the Church’s practice. The grace he received was the *confirmation* of truth already discerned, not its replacement. This is classic Orthodox epistemology: “We knew the apostles by their miracles; we know the miracles by the apostles” (St. Gregory Palamas). Doctrine and experience mutually validate.In short: Merritt did not trade objectivity for subjectivity. He discovered that the “objective” Protestant canon *points beyond itself* to the living Church that canonized it—and that Church prays with the saints. The real question for Amorperfectunion is not “Why trust feelings?” but “Why trust a canon *without* the Church that gave it to you?”
Thanks!
But I disagree and think you are wrong as you almost always are on these matters.
But I do wish you well.
The reason for the schism in 1054 was politics and language.
In 476 AD Odoacer deposed the last Emperor of the western empire but didn’t declare the end of the western roman empire. Rather he sent the imperial robes to the empror Zeno in Constantinople saying that there was now just one emperor, in Constantinople.
In 800 AD the crowning of Charlemagne as Western roman emperor pisdd off tbe emperor in Constantinople. And by 1054 the west no longer spoke Greek and the East no longer spoke Latin.
It was politics and imho it was politics in the 5th century when the non Greek speaking parts of the empire broke away into Oriental Orthodoxy.
It was politics in 240 AD when the Assyrian church under the Persian Empire split away as the Sassanid emperor dis not like his people cavorting with the enemy
Why specifically related to the reply I gave you, do you disagree?
Can you point out where exactly in the text I replied to you, where you disagree?
Just saying “you are wrong” without specifying why shows that you just can’t admit that the text is correct and is the adult equivalent of “nya,nya”
Unable to resist the sirens’ call of the ison.
“Popular Protestant Apologist Pastor Ben ‘Cleave to Antiquity’ Is Converting to Eastern Orthodoxy”
It doesn’t matter one bit.
Its ALL Religiosity. Which sport or which team you play for doesn’t matter.
They ALL want the same things from you.
1. Your money
(Does God NEED your money?)
2. Your time
(Are you spending this time for God or is it for the “church”?)
3. Your children
(Are they teaching your children about faith, or are they brainwashing them “church” dogma?)
The FOUR things you actually NEED are:
1. The Father.
2. The Son.
3. The Holy Spirit/Ghost.
4. The Bible.
It appears that this man had a mystical experience which directly led to his conversion. However as an intellectual believer and scholar, his faith in the Protestant diversion must have been already severely strained as he has witnessed in his lifetime the devolvement of mainline Protestant denominations.
I guess we are to understand all candidates for baptism will do so in their birthday suits.....IF he’s truly appealing to antiquity.
When one has to have "feelings" instead of faith it's a strong indication of a weak faith.
It is instructional to remember in these cases the enemy will give you a false affirmation.
What he should have done was turn to Scripture. A mind saturated in Scripture will not have to rely upon "feelings" for validation.
To finish my thought: was Paul’s conversion experience a subjective delusion?
O heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of Truth
who are in all places and fillest all things:
Treasury of good things and Giver of life:
Come and dwell in us and cleanse us from every stain,
and save our souls, O good One.
Thanks. No, I disagree with the statement quoted. I do wish you well.
“Is all prayer a bad idea, an indulgence in “subjective feelings”? Are all claims of spiritual healing fake? Were the visions described in the Book of Revelation fake, or a demonic deception?
No
Many
Scripture stands on it’s own.
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