This Page Last Updated October 25th, 2008 (new style reckoning)
Frequently Asked Question’s about the Orthodox Church
A brief outline of its History
What about the divisions of churches?
Do you have a Pope like the Catholic Church?
Is it similar to the Greek Orthodox Church?
You follow a different calendar, Easter is at a different time, why is that?
What about the Church Language used for prayer?
How do we learn what is right?
The
term Orthodox has its roots in two Greek words, “ortho” (which
means “correct” and/or “straight”) and
“doxa” (which means “worship” and/or
“faith”). This term is used outside of religion, like in modern
medicine, in relation to proper medical practice, and is used similarly in
other non-religious context. The term is perhaps most largely used within the
religious context and this is how I am using it here, specifically Eastern
Christian Orthodoxy.
There
have always been those who deviate from the Church. Church councils kept
straight the way of faith and worship, such a council can be seen in The Acts
of the Apostles. The Church always has held high the Sacred Scriptures. It was
in the church councils that the Scriptures were canonized, you will likely hear
of the “Canon of Scripture” as expressing what the Holy Bible is.
Canons are the precepts of Councils. Modern bibles are often not even close to
what the Councils understood scripture to be, so we need to be careful there.
Councils have also dealt with the early errors which caused some different
teachings to arise. One early error taught that Christ was not divine. The
confusions of faith are now greatly multiplied.
Until
one thousand years ago the popes basically conducted their Christianity in an
Orthodox Christian manner, with a few exceptions not worth mentioning here.
What was known as Christendom in the ancient world had strong foundations.
There was One Faith, One Lord, One Baptism and
What about the divisions of churches?
About
1000 years ago, when the Pope’s went wrong with Papism
(Supremacy) there were still people with good faith in the East. The
Christians in the West remained more or less with the Pope. Those Christians in
the East did not remain with the Pope. The Pope established many
contradictions to the councils and to faith. One, as I mentioned, was papal
supremacy; others were celibacy of clergy, changing worship from bread and wine
to a wafer and he also confused the Holy Trinity with the false teaching on the
Filioque. At this time the Eastern Christians remained committed to the
councils which used the term orthodox, so they called themselves Eastern
Orthodox. It is important to say that for brief times previously that the Eastern
Churches had fallen into errors of faith, temporarily, but had made a full
repentance. At one of these earlier times the confusion that the Eastern
Christians were in taught that Christ had only one will (during the time of St.
Maximos the Confessor), then they returned to correct faith. The
After
the papists went wrong there are some important things to understand.
Historically
and scripturally it can be shown that the Church always had bishops. Among the bishops
it was customary to select one who was most respected or esteemed more highly.
This bishop would be given the place of honor, but his position was never more
than a “first among equals”. I have heard that the patriarch of
How do the Greek Orthodox fit in
today?
I will
say that the capital of the Greek Christian Empire,
The
Old Believers have most frequently used the ancient Christian Calendar which
dates from the creation of Adam and Eve, the year is now 7512 from Adam and
Eve. Easter is a pagan title that Western Christians use; the East has always
gone by the name Pascha which means Passover, as Christ is, for those of
correct faith, the Passover to a glorious immortality. The Nativity of
Christ is also not expressed as “Christmas” and actually is weeks
after the Western date. Dates are expressed not in Pagan titles like “Friday”
but in weeks from celebrations, such as the Feast of Pentecost, say
“three weeks after” and so on, then stating with the day of the
week. So depending on what the date is we might hear the date as, “The
third day of the third week after Pentecost, 7512 years since Adam and
Eve”. Of course days are reckoned sunset to sunset, as Scripture explains
at the beginning, “There was evening and there was morning, the first
day” and so on. This is how Christians have calculated time for
centuries; I see no reason to follow the example of heretics (except for civil
duties).
What about the Church Language?
The
Old Church Slavonic was specifically made, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
for the teaching, worship and prayers of the
I can explain how I have learned. It began
by deciding that real hope in faith and love are the most important things of
all. Deciding that every effort possible will be made.
Spare nothing in the pursuit to that which is of such urgency. I first realized
that death was a large issue to deal with in all this, that the historical
Christian Faith was the only hope of resolving such a dilemma. I would suggest
that people take a good look and see if anything comes closer to correctly
dealing with death than the faith passed down through the Old Believers.
History is often misrepresented so it becomes necessary to understand that
testing and confirming will always be part of this process. It is possible to
acquire enough information to make the right choices about this. We need to
also decide what matters and what does not. We are all able to use the God
given conscience we all have in order to make the right choices, so there is no
excuse. I began to study the topic of Church History so as to better understand
what I would personally believe. I weeded through many accounts and was able to
come to a few solid conclusions. There are a lot of records about how and what
the Church has been doing, from the beginning until today. I learned that after
2000 years of Christianity there are a lot of contradicting beliefs. I learned
also that it is possible to find out how certain groups became how they are.
Knowing that good faith would never
contradict itself I simply proved what had actually been believed always and
everywhere by all good Christians. I learned that there are many forgeries and
that this can be proven one way or the other as well. The end result is worth
all the effort, for we will be satisfied that we are continuing to properly learn
all things. It is important to realize that everyone and anyone can and does
make mistakes, so we need to always keep this diligence to test what we are
doing, constantly. I would be unable to give all the sources I have gone
through in my studies; they are so many thousands of sources. My recommendation
would be that if you can search for the topics I mention on this page that you
will begin to see what perhaps many others do not see. On my web site are more
topics, which I work to reference well. Leave no resource unturned in studying
and at every opportunity look into whatever even remotely applies to good
faith, you might be surprised what you will find. Just be very careful. I will
be glad to explain in more detail any good aspect of the faith I have found. I
feel like a beginner. I know something’s but not most things and I want to
learn all that I should. I know I have a lot to learn, so feel free to contact
me, we can compare notes.
Like one of my friends reminded me not so
long ago, in the end God will show what is right to anyone who is constantly
working to see it.