I grew up cradle Orthodox in an active family. We attended Divine Liturgy, kept the fasts (mostly), served at the altar, and kept a nightly prayer rule. Mornings occasionally as well, but that was a much more hit or miss proposition. One thing we did not do much of was Bible reading. We would sometimes read from the lives of the saints, but typically the only Bible I heard was during divine services or catechism classes.
There was no particular reason we didn’t read the Bible. The verses for the day were right there on the church calendar we kept on the fridge. We just never made it a daily habit. Like many cradles, I took what the priest and catechism teachers told me at face value and went on with my life. It was a serene existence that did nothing to prepare me for coming face-to-face with Protestantism.
My first real exposure was joining a Christian club in high school. As a Gen Xer, I am old enough to remember when those existed. Part of the club’s activities was a weekly “Bible Study”. Kids would share a Bible verse, and then explain what that verse meant to them personally. As the year wore on, often the verses were targeted at me and the one Catholic kid who belonged. All the typical anti-Orthodox / Catholic “proof texts” made their appearance sooner or later – justification by faith, call no man “father”, don’t “worship” graven images….
The fact that my fellow students were using the Bible to denigrate the Church was shocking to me. What was even more shocking was my realization that I didn’t know how to respond. Up to that point, no one had equipped me to successfully explain and defend the Orthodox Faith. It shook me up so badly, that I wondered if the kids who seemed to know so much more about the Bible than me might be right. Maybe the Orthodox Church was wrong after all.
I started reading the Bible for myself, and most importantly, Orthodox commentaries on the scriptures. I dove into Church history as well. Once I immersed myself in the proper understanding of the scriptures, and the true history of the Church, all doubts and uncertainties dissipated. Starting from that period in high school, I have continued to study the scriptures daily with the guidance of the Church. That task was made immensely easier after the publication of the Orthodox Study Bible with its articles and footnotes. Though I still read Orthodox commentaries, because sometimes more explanation is needed.
A few decades and a few kids later, I feel very confident in my ability to both explain and defend Orthodoxy to Protestants and Roman Catholics. Most adult converts to Orthodoxy are also able to do so, but this ability is still less common among cradle Orthodox. Understanding your faith well enough to articulate it is important for all Orthodox Christians. If you can’t do so, then you or your kids could find yourselves vulnerable to doubts and even to proselytization to other faiths.
So let me encourage you all to learn as much as you can. Read the Bible properly in accordance with the tradition of the Church. Read the lives of saints. Read books on Orthodox topics written by reliable authors. Watch the videos of the many good priests who explain topics. For those who might want to get started learning more, I highly recommend the video below from Fr. Mark Hodges. This is a shorter excerpt of a longer video. For Orthodox Christians, or even non-Orthodox who are interested in the Faith, the excerpt covers the most important challenges to Orthodoxy from Evangelicals.
In about 15 minutes, Fr. Mark explains that there is no personal interpretation of scriptures. The Bible can only be interpreted by the Church through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Church Fathers revered the scriptures, but never made them “idols” that could replace a relationship with God. The scriptures themselves refute Protestant claims of the “all sufficiency” of the Bible (without the Church) or sola scriptura as the teaching is called. Personal Biblical interpretation leads to complete and utter chaos, a fact that even atheists have noticed. Removed from the context of the Church, the Bible becomes whatever any reader wants it to be.
Fr. Mark also explains the Orthodox teaching on salvation in a way that is easy to understand and easy to repeat. In addition, Fr. Mark does a great job addressing the common Protestant objection to Orthodox practices / worship that only “what is in the Bible” is allowed.
The best section is towards the end, where Fr. Mark addresses the common Protestant insistence that we are saved by faith alone, and not by works. This Protestant claim is often used to teach against the sacramental life of the Church. Fr. Mark does a great job of explaining that Apostle Paul was writing against Judaizers who were trying to make Christians follow Jewish laws. His treatment of “works” was specific to a time, place, and set of circumstance. James, in his book that came later, defends “works” against those who had misunderstood Paul. The two books are not in contention, but rather complement each other for a full understanding of how to live as a Christian. Please take the time to listen to Fr. Mark’s explanation.
Historical context matters in interpreting the Bible. That context is preserved by the Orthodox Church. Those kids in my high school, all those years ago, meant well but were misleading themselves and others. Today, they are full grown Protestants who are probably still doing the same thing. We Orthodox must first learn our own faith, and then we need to help those around us embrace the love and truth of the Gospel.
Nikita is cradle Orthodox Christian, a native born American of Russian descent, and currently lectures in history for an American University.
[…] An article and videos for Protestants who want to explore the Orthodox Church, https://orthodoxreflections.com/understanding-and-defending-the-orthodox-faith/ […]
And another thing. Cacophany in Monologue was ordered to remove their scandalous pieces about Fr. Josiah Trenham.
They haven’t. And look at this one: https://orthodoxyindialogue.com/2022/09/27/fox-news-and-tucker-carlson-partner-with-accused-son-sodomizing-josiah-trenham-in-transphobic-interview/
I know this is off topic, so don’t feel that you need to publish it; I’m just musing…
It’s so ironic that this priest was .suspended by a bishop in the OCA (who happened to be my bishop at the time) simply for attending the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington on in January of 2021… Accused of “guilt by association”???
That same bishop posted an article written by a Protestant! giving a rationale for voting for a pro-abortion presidential candidate…! just days prior to the election. Which was obviously a plug to vote against Donald Trump and for Joe Biden…
And the same people who are now rejoicing over what has happened to my current bishop in the Antiochian jurisdiction were pleased. Called it a victory.
Even odder than that, the op-ed was published not just on the Cacophany in Monologue website, but also in the Kyiv Post!
https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/giacomo-sanfilippo-the-suspension-of-father-mark-hodges-is-a-small-victory-for-lgbtq-orthodox-christians.html
Almost as if, as considered in this piece https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-resignation-of-metropolitan-joseph-of-the-antiochian-archdiocese/ there is a certain amount of coordination occurring within the Orthodox Church by outside forces who seek to use parts of the Church for its own benefit. You can refer to Archbishop Paul. We covered the story about Fr. Mark at the time.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/guilty-by-association-the-persecution-of-fr-mark-hodges/
https://orthodoxreflections.com/fr-mark-hodges-and-orthodox-transparency/
The Kyiv Post is a propaganda outlet for the US deep state. The US Deep State is 100% committed to LGBTQ+, and so they will push that narrative. If you go back in time, you will discover that until the 2013 law on LGBTQ+ propaganda in Russia, that Putin was not vilified to the current extent. We forget that, because since late 2013 the tone has been so shrill and relentless. Our masters really are all-in on this issue.
As for what happened to Metropolitan Joseph – either you have a serious case of episcopal corruption involving real property, multiple women, and large sums of money or you have a set up job. How could the first possibility escape detection for 10 years? There are more questions than answers either way, and no one with any authority is likely to ask them.
Yes, I was looking at those old posts of yours.
What I heard then was that the OCA had REMOVED Fr. Mark from their directory.
He’s still not there.
Share the Faith took some criticism for funding Fr. Mark even though he was canonically released and is a priest in good standing with no impediments. Every single person complaining said that Fr. Mark had been defrocked, which never happened. These false memories seem to be spread on purpose.
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-mandela-effect-4589394
I sent the OCA a note and asked why he isn’t in their directory. They responded and said he’s with ROCOR now.
Yes. He was canonically released without any impediment and received into ROCOR.
Can’t help but notice who is responsible for the creation of the meme. 🙂
They’re not wrong.
No, they aren’t. Fr. John Whiteford did a great article tracking how scriptural confusion leads to atheism. It appears the communists intentionally promoted Biblical scholarship that sowed doubt and controversy, hoping to “hollow out” Christianity from the inside. It has been a stunningly effective psyop.
It’s tragic, really. The Protestant perspective has, in a sense, contributed to atheism!
Some of the best advocates for the Orthodox paradigms actually come from without (an objective opinion is always more reliable in an argument). For instance: in the modern world, there is no better discription of Orthodox salvation than C. S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce.” In Roman Catholic, the “mystics” very much reflected Orthodox thinking e.g. Madame Guyon. There are plenty of things we can point out to potential converts that are already within their reach. St Paul’s method of evengelism in Athens (think; Greek Christianity got is start here) picked out revelations within their own realm, altar to the “Unknown God.” Rather than point out where they are wrong (the Protestant tactic), start with where they are right (and you might have to dig a bit for that). Bring into their awareness, the things they are already familiar with.
Most conversions are relational in nature; a friend brings a friend. Arguments never evangelize. At the same time, we must be able to stand our ground when called upon to do so. And we must be ready to go toe-to-toe with the best of them. This requires good preparations, even practice. In the ancient world, every educated person was skilled in rhetoric, including St John Chrysostom. For them, argument was sport.
Behind every Heterodox error, there is a false assumption at the most basic level; defining what is existence/Existence. While they would never say this error outright–because they are ignorant of thinking on this level–, a simple reverse engineering of their teachings reveal it as the whole sale fallacy common thread through out.
These errors–I believe–can be boiled down to three things they are missing: 1. all truth is in an enigma of opposites or “mystery” (Chesterton, C. S. Lewis understood it, see Losky’s Theology of the Eastern Church) 2. The concept of Essence and Energies, that created existence is existence “on loan from God with His particapation because without God there is no existence and that every sin is a step toward non-being (corruption of existence). And 3. the concept of the “economy” of salvation/Christ/creation.
Those three things secure–in my mind anyway–Orthodoxy as the only explantion for what we would call reality.
In essence: western thinking takes creation–unconsciously–and puts it along side God as–more or less–His equal. Which is in essence paganism. The whole Protestant argument of “old earth, vs. young earth” is based on a theory that creation has standing next to God as His equal. While they would never tell us they think that way, when we reverse-engineer their thinking it is obviously so.
Having been on both side of the fence, I can tell you every single heterodox theology ends in a dead end causing more questions than are answered. As soon as I understood the underlying presuppositions of Orthodoxy, everything–including the Holy Virgin–fell into place, all the pieces of the puzzle came together forming a coherent picture of the cosmos. St Maximus the Confessor articulated it, St Gregory of Nyssa articulated it and it is so simple.
As a cradle Orthodox myself, your words resonate. It is never too late to learn the Church’s teachings on Scripture, and what the holy Fathers say. And in today’s environment and societal upending, there is no better time to do so.
I’m always amazed that despite how Protestants revere the Bible they don’t really follow it consistently. We must try to reach as many as we can because there is great spiritual peril in electing yourself Pope.