East and West
I’ve been taking classes at an online Seminary for the
past four years, and one thing that I’ve learned is an appreciation for the
writings and theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Up until my early 50’s I had not been exposed
to the Eastern Orthodox Church. My church
roots as a child were in the Episcopal Church, followed by the Quaker Church and
followed by the United Church of Christ.
When I was 17 I had a conversion experience that we in my tradition call
being “born again.” It was an intensely
emotional experience in which I asked the Lord Jesus to come into my life and to forgive
my sins. I surrendered to Him as Lord of my life. After that experience I began attending a Pentecostal Church in Huntington,
New York, which was part of the Assembly of God denomination. I had a very godly pastor named Charles Shaffer. He was the first Christian leader I had ever met who believed that the
Bible was an inspired message from God and that it could be depended on for
guidance in every area of life. I
learned a great deal from him.
In 1982 I enrolled in a non-denominational charismatic Bible College
in Texas called “Fountain Gate Bible College." This college was led by Dr. Fuchsia
Pickett. It was there that I learned how
God could open up the words in Scripture and give us amazing insights into his
nature, plan and purpose for our lives. Dr.
Pickett was an amazing woman who had been a Methodist pastor and then had come
into the Pentecostal experience of the “baptism in the Holy Spirit” with the gift
of speaking in heavenly languages. This
practice is also popularly called “speaking in tongues.” She also was used by God in healing and saw
all kinds of diseases healed through prayer during her lifetime of
ministry. I spent four years at Fountain
Gate and that was really foundational to my relationship with God for the next
20 years. Over the past 14 years I’ve
been learning about the way the early believers in the New Testament met
together. Ecclesiology is the fancy word
for that – it is the study of the structure and organization of the
church. I’ve become a member of a house
church here in Texas as a result of this study. More recently I’ve been challenged by the theology of N.T. Wright, who
is an Anglican Professor of the New Testament. Through him I’ve learned a better way (in my opinion) of understanding
what took place in the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus. The fancy term for that is “Atonement
Theory.”
What I want to share in this blog is a little of what I’ve
been learning about the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Eastern and Western branches of the church
are very different. The western church
is called the Roman Catholic Church because it was centered in Rome. The Eastern Church was originally centered in
Constantinople (present day Istanbul) and is now concentrated in Russia, Serbia, Egypt and Greece. These two
churches were originally one unified church but they began to drift apart after
800 CE and formally split in 1054 CE in what was called “the Great Schism.”
The Protestant Reformation in Western Europe began in the 16th
century and spawned such movements as the Lutherans, Reformed, Presbyterians, Anglicans,
Anabaptist groups (Mennonites, Amish), Moravians, Methodists and Baptists.
These movements reacted to perceived errors and corruption in the Roman
Catholic Church but many of them retained much of the theology and practice of
the Roman Catholic Church.
The Eastern Orthodox branch of the church remained
unaffected by the Protestant Reformation.
They were also unaffected by many doctrinal developments in Catholicism
that took place between 800 CE and 1530 CE.
Their beliefs are based on the statements of the Seven
Ecumenical Councils of the church that were held between 325 CE and 787
CE. They have not added any new doctrines
since then. That is pretty amazing. They can trace their roots back to the early
churches of the 1st and 2nd centuries in Egypt, Syria and
Greece.
One major difference between the two communions is that the
western Christians (Catholics and Protestants) were both heavily influenced by
Augustine whereas eastern Christians were not. Augustine was a church leader
who lived in North Africa in the 5th century. He was a theologian and a prolific writer. Much
of Catholic theology was derived from Augustine. In the 16th century Protestant Reformers such as Luther and
Calvin rediscovered the theology of Augustine and drew on his ideas as they
developed what later became Lutheran and Reformed theology.
One area where Augustine was
influential on the Western Church was with the concept of sin. For Augustine, humanity was totally depraved. There was nothing in humanity that was good
or praise-worthy. Outside of the
salvation of Christ which could change an individual, every inclination of a
human being was toward evil. In addition, Augustine
framed the idea of salvation in legal terms. God was a Holy Judge, man was guilty of sin, and therefore deserving of
punishment. According to Augustine,
Christ came to earth to die for the sins of humanity so that
God could grant forgiveness of sins for those who trusted in Christ.
The Eastern Church did not emphasize the total depravity of
humanity. Instead they emphasized that
the image of God was present in all humans. The Bible tells us in the book of Genesis
that all humans were made in the image of God. The essential qualities of God such as kindness, love, truth and
humility are present in all human beings, but they have been marred through
sin. Eastern Orthodox theology saw salvation as a healing process. God in
Christ came to heal the sin-sick soul. His
death and resurrection created a new humanity – a new creation. Humans that trust in Christ and live their
lives in surrender to Him become part of this new humanity. They are engaged in a process of being
spiritually healed so that the image of God (humility, kindness, truth, patience, etc) can
be seen clearly in their lives.
The Apostle
Paul wrote this in his second letter to the Christians in
Corinth, Greece around 50 CE:
“And we all, who with unveiled faces
contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with
ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2
Corinthians 3:18)
Therefore the Christian life is one of
surrender and contemplation. As we
surrender our wills to God and contemplate the beauty of His Son Jesus,
the Spirit of God transforms us inwardly so that we reflect more and more
accurately the very image and likeness of God’s character.
I will have more to write on Eastern
Orthodoxy in the future.
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