A Commentary on the Orthodox Church

Last modified 2024-07-02 ....(under construction)................... 1 page



In Brief: The Orthodox Church (all branches, Russian, Greek, Antiochan, Eastern, etc.): Needs to dump their veneration of icons. Icons clutter up the church and distract us from worshipping Christ. Certainly no kissing the feet of, nor jenuflecting before pictures or statues of mere men. These saints up in heaven are embarrased by this conduct, during a worship service of God the creator and God the redeemer, and God the H.S. our preserver and sustainer. Just as Mary is embarrased by all prayers to her. Do they not constantly turn to Jesus and say, "cant you get them off me, and focussing on you". He says "suffer it for a little while longer". Needs to dump 90% of their liturgy: get rid of the wall down front, have the priest stop disappearing behind the wall, bring in more congregational singing and preferably of rousing, danceable, victorious hymns and psalms, like the Geneva Jigs.
I'll bet the worship services up in heaven look a lot more like hundreds of young people line dancing in a country dance bar, with big smiles on their faces, as they move their bodies in sync with the rhythm, than the lone droneing voice of the priest as he chants part of a historic creed.' Needs to embrace the Protestant Reformation, specifically Sola: Gratia, Fide, Scriptura
Needs to embrace Calvinism
Needs to dump their high bar between clergy and laity
Needs to start preaching more replacement theology
Needs to start preaching more preterism
Needs to start preaching more postmillennialism
Needs to keep their good emphasis on living a holy life (the protestants fall short here)
They can keep their church govt, Bishops, Priests, etc. but tear down that high clergy - laity distinction.

In many respects Orthodoxy is just Roman Catholicism (R.C.) on steroids. All the things we Protestants wanted to leave behind, and just worship God in Spirit and Truth empowering the priesthood of all believers, not the clergy, and simpifly doctrine by sola: grace, faith, scripture. And eliminate all the distractions during the worship service of smoke and mirrors, lights, candles, bells, vestments, flowing robes, pictures, icons, holy relics, all possible idols which only the clergy are "empowered" to produce, and maintain. Cannot the preaching and exposition and meditation of Gods word excite us enough to more perfectly worship God in spirit and truth? Where does that phrase come from "worship God in Spirit and Truth"? Phil 3:2. Where we find Judaism being left behind with all its "worship aids", holy spaces, multiple sacrifices, seperate priesthood from the laity, with a high bar to cross to become a priest, smoke, high priestly robes, liturgical prayers being constantly repeated as if they were magical incantations, etc. Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy have held on to the trash of Judaism.

But I have my chronology backwards. It would be more accurate to say Orthodoxy is merely Judaism lite, and Roman Catholicism is merely Orthodoxy lite. And Martin Luthers "traditional" Lutheranism with its requirement of Baptism for salvation, and keeping of much RC liturgy, and Con-substantiation of the elements at the Lords Supper, is merely Roman Catholicism lite. It took the calvinists to go deep enough into the freeing doctrine of grace to throw off most of Judaism, but even Calvin falls short for he is no Replacement Theologian.

Jean Calvin (1550's) said in his commentary on Romans 11: "(the Apostle) Paul wrote ... That it (the old covenant) should fail through any perfidiousness of men, was wholly unreasonable; for Paul holds this as a fixed principle, that since adoption is by grace, and based on God alone and not on men, it stands firm and inviolable, howsoever great the unfaithfulness of men may be, which may tend to abolish it."

Oh Really, John? No matter how "great the unfaithfulness of men may be" that old covenant "shall not fail through any perfidiousness of men". What then shall we do with Hebrews 8:13 "now when He said A NEW COVENANT, He hath made the first obsolete. And whatever is obsolete is vanishing away, and ready to dissappear." God Himself is obsoleting that old covenant, yet staying faithful to it in its "last days" by giving the Jews what they deserve, under the promises of blessings and curses of that old covenant. Calvin needs to change his doctrine to include being a REPLACEMENT THEOLOGIAN.

Luther was not really faithful to the creeds of the Reformation, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide (he includes the good work of Baptism as a requirement). He could be said to be faithful to Sola Scriptura, depending on how vehemently he denied that "right straw epistle" James. Luther needs to keep James in the canon, and redefine the use of the word "justified" in James to mean "temporal" Justification, or down here on earth, justification. The kind of good works that keep you in the church, keep the earthly blessings of God flowing to you. But not any R.C. works of super-erogation. Abraham would still have been spiritually and heavenly justified to be saved and go to heaven, if he had refused to offer up Isaac. He just would have lost earthly justification to reap Gods earthly blessing of being the father of many nations.

James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

note: this verse cannot in any sense refer to Abe's heavenly salvation justification, else salvation is indeed partially "of works" as the Orthodox and RC churches maintain. Which of course introduces a contradiction to the Pauline doctrine of sola gratia, sola fide.

I intend to develop each of these thoughts in more detail later on.