War On Heresies: A Story From The Distant Past

Nestorius is quoted as saying to Emperor Theodosius the Younger, "O Emperor, give me the land free from heretics, and I'll give you the Heaven!" In fact, within 5 days since his becoming the Patriarch of Constantinople, he inspired several police actions against heretics, brought back into use the old laws with regard to heretics, which drove even the least dangerous and aggressive of them out of the city. Incidentally, these also were the days when the word 'anthropotokos' was first uttered by Anastasios, a priest who came to the Imperial Capital, the New Rome, from Antioch with Nestorius. Nestorius wasn't as quick to correct his favourite... The question is, Are those 'zealots of Orthodoxy' who are hostile towards heretics really Orthodox, that is, do they praise the LORD properly? Was Nestorius' case just a coincidence or a tendency? Feel free to share your opinions!

Primus inter Pares

First published @ http://radio-awakening.com/index.php/133-primusinterpares

What's Wrong With Apostolic Succession?

One of the main arguments in favour of the Catholic Church (and the Orthodox Church) vs. the multitude of Protestant denominations has recently been their inherent Apostolic succession. The Protestants, seeing that they cannot beat those old traditional churches in this field, tend to reject the importance of Apostolic succession – and the very concept in general. And they're right – in the way they see it.

Let's see what the concept of Apostolic succession teaches.

Church vs. Churches: What Orthodox think about the Church

First published @ http://radio-awakening.com/index.php/121-solascriptura-3

Built upon the foundation of

the apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being

the chief corner stone

Ephesians 2:20

This is going to be my final article in the Answering Protestants series, unless, of course, you ask for more :) Here we are to concentrate mainly on the concept of the Church in general, as it is seen by the Orthodox in contrast with the Protestants. Whereas I am pretty well aware that there are strikingly different views on many aspects of Christian faith and practice among the Protestants (i.e., communities, each of which claims to base their faith only on the Bible), ecclesiology (= teaching on Church) is very similar in most Protestant denominations (with the rare exception of the Anglican community) because they all have to do something in order to explain the evident fact that there are so many blends and types of Christianity, contrary to the words of our Saviour they read in the Gospel, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” So we as Christians are called to represent the Holy Trinity in our unity and joint witness to the world but unfortunately we fail to live up to the ideal of unity we read of in the Scripture due to human infirmities and sins, the greatest of which is pride. Hence we have two options: either we stop divisions and are re-unite in the faith of the Apostles and Fathers or we make attempts to justify ourselves. Sad though it is to say, the mainstream Protestant theology has chosen the second route.