November 18, 2024 • 43 mins
This show will provide the history of Sola Scriptura of how it came to be. The early church had no knowledge of this topic since it was an innovation by Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.
Why does the Orthodox Church reject this innovation and why?
O Gladsome Light is broadcast live Mondays at 11AM ET Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com O Gladsome Light is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
O Gladsome Light Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Why does the Orthodox Church reject this innovation and why?
O Gladsome Light is broadcast live Mondays at 11AM ET Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com O Gladsome Light is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
O Gladsome Light Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the Old Blansome Light podcast. This program contains
preaching and teaching from an Orthodox Christian perspective to help
you when your walk with Jesus Christ into me victorious
in Him.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's Old Gladsome Light here every Monday at eleven o'clock
Eastern Standard chime, and I'm your show host, Almans with
a doctor degree in Divinity, also known as Father Petros
of the Orthodox Church of Upyrus, Greece, broadcasting on w
FOCY Internet radio around the world twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Also, I have a podcast on.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
iHeartRadio called Old glassom Light and please visit my website
Oldglassomlight dot org and light and subscribed. And I have
two YouTube channels. I've got one called al Man's and
the other one called Arch Petros.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So the first al Man's is the.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Is a radio show, the Old bless and Light Radio Show,
and the other one is my Sunday sermons. In addition,
I'm posting my sermons as I mentioned on Rumble, under
the name of Man's a. The show is blessed by
Metropolitan Chasel Deck of the Orthodox Church of Pyrus. The
(01:33):
slogan for this show it's called Preparing Souls for Heaven.
Preparing Souls for Heaven and also broadcasting from Saint Peter
and Paul Orthodox Chapel here in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Now, the subject topic for the show is called Sola
Scriptura and is it yes or no?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And what I'm going to do before I get into
part two, I'm going to do a short recap on
part one, but I really want you to go back.
If you're listening for the first time, go back to
part one. It's on YouTube and listen to that because
I'm going to give this a give you just a
thumbnail update on what part one was all about it,
(02:21):
and then we'll get.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Right into part two.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So, solo scriptur is a Christian theological doctrine that holds
it the Bible is the sole, infallible source of authority
for Christian faith and practices. But here are some differences
between solo scriptur and the Orthodox Church, because this is
an Orthodox broadcast, Orthodox Eastern Orthodox broadcast.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Now, the origin the Orthodox.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Church has never experienced a Protestant Reformation, and the questions
and answer that led to solo scriptur are foreign to
gets practiced and in your life.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
What about authority?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Solo script rejects an infallible authority other than the Bible,
while the Orthodox Church holds a totally different principle of
guidance but about ecclesia authorities. So the scriptorre makes every
person their own authority, disregarding other ecclesia authorities. Solo scriptory
(03:18):
is one of the five solos of the Reformation which
distinguished the Reformers from the teachings of Rome.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Those five solos are in part one.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Solo scripture or scripture alone, is the heresy within Protestantism
that begets all other heresies. Undoubtedly, the Protestant Christians hold
to this doctrine out of sincere piety, rightly insisting that
the Scriptures are from God and we must trust them completely.
(03:51):
This reverence for the Holy Scriptures is commendable. Though in
theory Protestantism does not deny Christian history and tradition, it
relies on the Scriptures as the only word of authority
in establishing dogma, and thereby negates the influence of the
two former In practice, solo scriptura also falsely assumed as
(04:14):
a fact that the scriptures are precipitous or translucent and
easy to understand to anyone who reads them.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It is interesting to.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Note that the Orthodox Church has one theological stance, whereas
the Protestant Church has over forty five thousand different flavors
of Doctor and All's statements. Aside going to Baskin and Robbins,
they have SORTI one flavors, So which one do you want?
They're all good, but they don't they conflict with the
(04:43):
Orthodox Church in theology. Now, this solo scripturists all started
with Martin Luther in fifteen seventy when he nailed the
ninety five feces or complaints against the Roman Catholic Church.
He was to struggled with this church, the Roman Church,
because one of the major players that he was upset
about was indulgences. People could buy their loved ones out
(05:07):
of purcatory.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And bring them into heaven.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
That's the so as a money making scheme that the
Catholic Church invented. Luther's promotion of the scripture alone lets
everyone interpret the scriptures for himself. What could possibly go
along with this concept? The fruit of this is realized
in all the different denominations of Protestant Christianity.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Said before in part one.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
There's only one Holy Spirit, there's only one Christ, There's
only one resurrection. So how can there be forty five
different angles forty five thousand different angles on protescant or
Christianity the Christian theology.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
By rejecting the.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Apostelic tradition and the Church Father, anything goes.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
This is not an issue with the.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Apostolic Church and this tradition, which are handed down by
the Apostles, by Jesus Christ, who is the author and
the prefector of our faith.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Now let's get right into part two and pick it up.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
So, really, what Martin Luther was doing was making every
person his own pope.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
You know, he can do anything goes. You know, at
the end of part one, I.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Talked about using the New Testament determine what is acceptable
in worship.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
So I behoove.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
You to go to that part one towards the end
of the show and see what I talk about. How
we got our form of worship from the Jewish you know,
from the Hebrews, what God had started with the Hebrews
in the wilderness, and then how that emanated straight into
the Orthodox Church, not following the law but using grace.
(06:56):
So let's go on now part two in more detail.
Now if we these Protestants often cite the New Testament
as our doctrinal authority in determining.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
What is and what is not allowed in worship.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
However, careful examination of the books of the New Testament
exposes a flaw in this approach. We can divide the
New Testament into four genres or four sections. One the Gospels,
which tell Christ's life, death, and resurrection to historical narratives
(07:32):
history of the Early Church.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Three the epistles address specific.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Problems in the early Church, which was really ortho Apostolic
the early Church was Apostolic. And then number four apocalyptic prophecy.
The Book of Revelation shows us God's ultimate triums. Notice
none of these give any details on how to worship
in the Church, or rather the Old Testament. These example
(08:02):
le Vegas, the Book of Psalms. Granted, the Crotesance will
cite these as well, albeit out of context. What references
to worship. We do see that the early Christians worship
as their father did before them, observing prescribed hours of prayer.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Now look at Acts chapter three, Verse one.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Now, Peter and John went up together into the temple
at the hour of prayer being the ninth hour.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
And we your orthodox church, we also keep the.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Hours first hour, third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, also
worshiping in the Temple, Acts chapter two forty six. And
they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and
breaking bread from house to house. They eat their meat
with gladness and singleness of heart, showing unity, and also
(08:58):
worshiping in the Temple. As I say, let's look at
Acts chapter eighteen, verse four. And he reasoned in the
synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
The New Testament does.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Not provide comprehensive doctrinal instruction either. There is no catechism
or systematic theology. The Bible doesn't clearly contain teachings on
every important subject.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
In the church. The church that handed down and.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Preserved the Holy Scriptures as the same church from which
we receive our patterns of worship. If we mistrust the
Church's faithfulness in preserving apathetic worship, then we must also
mistrust her preservation of the scriptures. Now number three asserting
anyone can interpret the scriptures on their own. When solar
(09:51):
scripture first came about, reformers reason that anyone could understand
scripture simply by reading it. In other words, didn't need
the Church to help correctly interpret the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Sounds like pride to me.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Someone will say that, on one hand, the scriptures are
absolutely free from error, but on the other hand, they
have been concealed by much obscurity, so that without the
interpretations of the spirit bearing Fathers, they could not be
clearly understood. Now to bing Lutheran scholars, the scholarphote a
(10:29):
letter to Patriarch JEREMIAHS the Second what had been said
in a scarcely perceptible manner in some places in the
Scripture had been stated in other places in them explicitly
and most clearly, so that even the most simple person
can understand them. Though these scholars argued the writings of
(10:50):
the Fathers are necessary, they use the same writings often
so long as their interpretation of scripture aligned.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
With the Fathers.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Where Scripture and the Fathers diverged, they claimed their interpretation
of the scripture superior to the Church Fathers, who had
proven themselves righteous and holy. Patriarch Jeremiah the Second exposed
the true character of their teachings and his response, Let
us except in the traditions of the Church, with the
(11:21):
sincere heart and now the multitude of rationalizations. Let us
not allow ourselves to learn a new kind of faith
which is condemned by the tradition of the Holy Fathers.
For the Divine Apostle says, if anyone is preaching to
you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let
him be a curse the Latian Chapter one, verse nine.
(11:43):
We must adhere to the tradition passed down to us
by the Apostles through the Church, and lean on the
collective understanding of centuries upon changing worship, doctrine, and faith.
Believing our mind alone is sufficient to understand the complexity
of God's Word is the height of excessive pride or
(12:04):
even self confidence.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And I think about that.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
If Saint Paul would come and visit a Protestant church
today or a megachurch, he would not feel at home.
He would say, well, if you go to megachurch, he says,
good entertainment because they have a band and all that
going on. I know they're singing praises on for God,
but it's like a rock and roll band. And then
(12:32):
he would go to an Orthodox church and feel fully
at home, because that's the way it was during Saint
Paul's time. Another subject responses you might receive from a
Protestant Christian The false assumptions we utline above result in
the inevitable splintering within Protestantism. However, this is often not
(12:54):
enough to dissuade someone from supporting solar Scriptural supporters of
this heresy may say many things to defend their beliefs.
In this section on Winter, be will explore some.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Of these statements.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Now two Timothy, chapter three, verses fifteen through seventeen. They say,
pruse sola script tourists, So I'm going to read that
scripture student tewod Timothy, chapter three, verses fifteen through seventeen,
and that from a child down has known the holy
scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scriptures given
(13:30):
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, will
reproved for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that demand of
God may be perfect thoroughly furnished onto all good works.
Nowhere does the Bible actually say it is the soul
authority that we should reject holy tradition. However, if you
(13:52):
ask a Protestant where the Bible says is, they would
always point to the scriptures I just read in Second
Timothy Versus fifteen through seventeen. In faulty translations, sufficient takes
the place of profitable, which is where the scriptural argument
comes from. In the contact, Saint Paul wrote this letter
(14:15):
to Timothy, who is a bishop in the latter half
of the first century. At this time, several books and
letters would have become part of the New Testament had
yet to be written, and they would not be canonizing
into the Bible we know today until the fifth century.
When the front of uses this passage to justify sol
(14:35):
the scriptura, the unwittingly refute themselves by excluding the entire
New Testament canon including Two Timothy itself. Another common argument
here is that Saint Paul doesn't mention tradition explicitly, which
means he therefore rejects it.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
That's served with him.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Not only is this theological, but has also ignored the
use of oral tradition. Just a few versus earlier, in
Two Timothy three verse eight, Paul mentions Jenison jambres the
magicians of Pharaoh. Neither of these men are mentioned by
name in the Old Testament. Paul draws upon the oral
(15:15):
tradition of the Exodus account to provide these names. Another
subject why the Church canonized the Bible. The Church compiled
authoritative lists of books canonized the Bible to establish what
books could be read allowed during corporate worship in the church. Additionally,
(15:39):
the canons served to protect the church from the works
of heretics, like the Gospel of Thomas, for example, Heretics
could not base their teachings on holy tradition because their
teachings originated outside of the church. By protecting themselves from heresy,
the Church did not intend to imply that all of
(16:00):
the Christian faith and all the information necessary for worship
and good order in the church would be contained in
those books. The Bible says what it means, and means
what it says.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
The interesting thing.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
About this statement is that the person who says it
often contradicts themselves and cannot maintain consistency. If you produce
a verse or a passage with a literal translation they
disagree with, Suddenly that verse or passage is not.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Meant to be taken literally.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Perhaps The best example of such a passage is the
Last Suffer, in which Christ explicitly states, now that's coming
out of Matthew six, chapter twenty six, verses twenty six
or twenty eight. And as they were eating, Jesus took
bread and blessed it, and broke it and gave it
to the disciples and said it take heat.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
This is my body.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
He then took the cup and thanks They gave it
to them, they saying, drink, yeat.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
All of it.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
But this is my blood of the New Testament, which
is shed for you and for many for the remission
of sins. A couple others are when Christ empowers the
apostles to forgive sins, which establishes the sacrament of confession,
and when Paul tells women they should cover their heads
during worship. Protestants will claim that such verses are merely
(17:28):
symbolic and not meant to be taken literally because they
don't agree with the liberal interpretation. Point out this inconsistency
with kindness and ask the person, why do you feel
it is acceptable to apply literal translations only when they
decide to do so. I want to stop your embellish
(17:54):
reading in the scriptures. In John chapter six is very important.
When Jesus was talking ab about.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
His body being the true food and his blood being
the true drink, some of.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
The disciples walked with him no more. They couldn't under
they couldn't handle the truth. And so as they walked away,
the Lord did not run after them and tell him
come back, let me explain myself. He stated a truth,
they couldn't handle it, and they walked away.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
That's John six, verse sixty six.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
You can look it up in any version of the
Scripture of King James, the American standard.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
However, but when the Lord turned around, the apostles.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Were standing there with him, and the Lord said to
the apostles, you're still here.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
And Peter, being the.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Spokesman for the apostle, says, Lord, where should we go?
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Only you have the words of eternal life.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And so we see a line drawing in the sand.
The ones that walked away couldn't handle the truth. But Peter,
in the apostles that he had chosen, were there and
saying where should he go?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Only you have the words of internal life.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
And he was talking about his body and his blood
being the true food and being the true dream. Now
clear passages that can interpret the unclear. This seems like
a nice solution, since one would use scripture itself to
(19:33):
interpret scripture.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
However, how does.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
One determine which passages are clear and which ones are not.
In the end, it all boils down to each person's
subjective opinion and the prideful belief that their approach must
be correct while everyone else must be wrong. Unfortunately, Protestance
will never reach consensus here either, as we read in
(19:58):
the Scripture's pride go before the fall or destruction and
the haughty spirit before a fall Proverbs chapter sixteen Versus eighteen.
What about this statement, the Holy Spirit will guide me
to the right interpretation. Imagine you decide to interpret a
(20:20):
Bible first in a certain way, and you are convinced
that the Holy Spirit guided you to do that interpretation. Naturally,
anyone who disagrees with you cannot possibly be led by
the same Holy Spirit. Otherwise, how could we explain all
these different contradictory interpretations. God is not the author of confusion,
(20:42):
and we know where confusion comes from the enemy, the devil.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Divorce from holy tradition of the Church.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
One cannot unilaterally assume their individual interpretation comes from the
Holy Spirit. So if it's not coming from the Holy Spirit,
then is coming from a different spirit. Remember, spirits are eternal.
The same spirit that deceived Am and Eve in the
(21:13):
Garden of Eden.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Is still alive today, and that spirit is.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Moving throughout the earth and poisoning mankind's mind. Everybody thinks
they're right, Well, there's going to be a filter, and
it's called the judging State of Christ, and everybody, all
the nations are going to stand before the judgment State
of Christ and given account.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
And if you've give an account, the books are.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Opened and all the deeds are going to be looked at.
And that's just strike terror into each one of us hearts,
knowing that we've all fallen short of the glory of God.
But also there is repentance of the salvation, as the
scripture teach us. And without repentance, how can one inherent salvation?
(22:09):
Why would God want to be with somebody who doesn't
think like him. He is the embodiment of all wisdom
and truth, and Jesus Christ is the one that came
from heaven to this earth in piscile form.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
He was called the god Man. He was all God,
he was all man.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
And that mystery confused a lot of people when he
dwell among us for that thirty three years, and all
Jesus did. He's come here to love his creation and
to tell them the truth. But he ran into trouble
with certain groups like the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and
(22:50):
they saw him as a threat to the law of Moses.
But Jesus came to explain to them the scriptures when
he was twelve years old. In the temple he was
teaching the elders, and they were totally amazed at his
wisdom at.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Twelve years old.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
But did they realize he was the son of God
and the son of man. So let's look at the
Orthodox approach to this whole thing of solo script tuitra
Saint urineus.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Once of this heresy. It is craftically decked.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Down in an attractive dress, so as by its howard.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Form to make it appear to be to the.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Inexperience ridiculous, as expression may seem more true than truth itself.
Online Protestantism, Orthodoxy does not approach the Holy Scriptures in
a scientific and therefore inherently limited way. The Orthodox Church
(23:53):
claims a superior understanding of the Holy Scriptures on the
basis of its relationship to the author, Jesus Christ. The
Church is the body of Christ, and it is through
the Church that God wrote and preserved the Scriptures.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I want to say that one more time.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
The Church is a body of Christ and it is
through the Church that God wrote and preserved the Holy Scriptures.
Without the Church's holy tradition, we would not have the
Bible at all. Interesting statement, Huh, Let's look more into that.
How do we know the tradition of the Orthodox Church
(24:35):
is the right one? It's a good question. Avoid pride
in answering such a question. Instead, approach it with understanding
and patients. Remember that as a Protestant, the other person
may have limited knowledge about the history of the Church,
the ecumenical councils and.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Even the Church fathers, and even the Orthodox itself. They
may have.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Also a limitation of the history of the Church, the
councils and also the Church fathers, and they should the
Orthodox Christians should be fully studying these matters so they're
fully equipped.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Now tracing back through trying.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
No matter where we start, we will all arrive at
the same church whose faith has remained steadfast, and I'm
change since the beginning.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Thankfully, many products since our doing this.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
And becoming Orthodox as a result, and I'm one of them.
I was raised by my mom and dad as a Catholic,
and when I got to a certain age, I defected
from the Catholic Church and became.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Basically apostate. I didn't go to church. I just did
what I wanted to do and thought I was the
commander of.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
My own soul. And so my friends said, hey, once
you come to our Baptist.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Church, and I thought, well, I know, I wanted you
to do that.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
But I went off to a Baptist church and spent
a few years there, and then also to different churches,
you know, evangelical churches and so forth, and I hear
all this different theology, and one day I just cried out.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
To the Lord, Please, the Lord take me to the.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
First century church before all this confusion happened in theology.
And within a few moments of time, a couple of
weeks or so, I found myself in the Orthodox Church.
And when I walked into the church, everything was weird
because I saw icons and incense and bells and all
that was going on. But Also, I felt like I
(26:45):
really came home, and I've been in the Orthodox Church
for many, many years, and there's no place to go
because I am truly home. And so that's my little
story on you know, I was a growing and then
I went into prostant churches, and then because of that,
(27:06):
something was lacking and my perception until the Lord led
me to the Orthodox Church and everything became clear.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
We need the church.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
In the absence of true unity, Prostantism has created a
false one through relativism. In other words, the only belief
Protestants often condemned is one that makes exclusive claims about
the truth and aside the capital T tradition versus the
lower case T tradition.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
But let me explain a little bit about that. Capital
T is what Christ taught.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
The lower T is independent to the churches. You know,
that depends of its Greek, Romanian, Georgian, Russian, Ukrainian hope.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
You know, that's the little T.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
But the capital T is tradition that Christ taught the apostles,
which disseminates to all the Orthodox churches.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
One we refer to a tradition with a capital T.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
We speak of the deposit of faith manifest in the church.
Let we read a couple scriptures here. First Corinthians chapter eleven,
verse two. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember
me in all things and keep the ordinances as I
deliver them to you. Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse fifteen. Therefore, brethren,
(28:41):
stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught,
whether by word or our epistle. And one more scripture,
second Thessalonians three six.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourself some every brother that
walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received
of us.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
So the word tradition, what does it mean? In Greek?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
It means radosus, meaning literally to hand down or to deliver. Thus,
Saint Paul prefaces his confession of faith with these words,
for I delivered to you first of all that which
I also received in one Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verse three.
(29:32):
The source and inspiration for the Holy tradition is the
teaching of the apostles and the continual guidance of the
Holy Spirit in the church.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
John sixteen thirteen.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Holy tradition preserves the face as it was received from
the apostles and their disciples. So that works that this
is how the latter works. Christ taught his twelve show,
and then those apostles taught their disciples, and those disciples continued,
(30:07):
and we end up with as an apostolic succession. And said,
some people fight me on the truth of the Apostolic succession.
So you see, there is an Apostolic succession. As we
moved through time, as the apostles grew old and were
getting ready to die.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Or be martyred, they.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Ordained bishops and priests and deacons, as it says in
the scripture, ordained to carry on the truth of Holy tradition,
the teaching of the original Apostles, and the guidance of
the Holy Spirit in the church. They received it from Christ,
(30:54):
and they bequeathed it down to the succession of more.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Bishops or priests and deacons.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
The unity stretches back through chime and extend into the
present moment, which I was trying to explain there from
the beginning till now, it's one continual line.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
The Church is united.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
This unity stretches back through time and extend into the
present moment. Though the Apostles departed, this life long ago.
They never departed from the unity of the Church. We
are all alive in Christ, even of those who have died.
So it's interesting to say that we have in the
church services for those who have departed. We call the
(31:39):
Slavonic we say Ponihidah in Russia the Pontia.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
We pray for those who have departed.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
So when we have a divine liturgy, the whole church
is united in the Divine Liturgy because we're remembering those
who are alive and those who have departed. It is
still one church under Christ. So every time we celebrate
the Eucharist in the Divine Liturgy in our local parishes,
(32:10):
we celebrated not only with those who had departed before us,
but the entire body of Christ that is still alive.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
On this church.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
And we hear the terms in the Orthodox Church the
Church glorified and the Church militant. Church militant is the
church on this earth. In the Church glorified is those
who have departed. But it's still one church. It is
not separated.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
We are not.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Isolated, even though it may seem this way in our
limited understanding. Even in small Orthodox chapels where the Divine
Liturgy that served. It is still unity with the whole
Church of Christ.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Because of this unity, we know we.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Are not only learned from those in the flesh God
has placed in the Church to guide us, but also
from the teachers of the Church who are no longer
with us. Then that means like the Church Fathers. And
some people kick against the Church father and say, well,
we don't need to read the Church Fathers. Why I
say that's wrong thinking, because those church fathers were ascetics,
(33:20):
lived in a desert, totally turned their back on the world,
and became God bearers in their flesh. And all they
wanted to do is live in the spirit and hear
from God. And what they do is they read the
Holy Scriptures, and they put their paraphrase on the Holy
Scriptures so we can understand them. Some of us, we
(33:43):
can't gain that understanding without the Holy Spirit and the
Church Fathers.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
That has to be that unity.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
So we have basically three liturgies we served in the
Orthodox Church. Our common liturgy is the Liturgy of Saint
John Pasostom, and then about ten times a year we
celebrate or serve the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great,
and during lynch we serve the Saint Gregory Liturgy, which
(34:14):
is also called the Presanctified Gifts. We don't forget those
three liturgies are always before us. And there's even the
liturgy of Saint James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem. So
Saint John Crisosum is as much our teacher as our
bishop or Christ today as he is alive in Christ
(34:38):
and part of the all encompassing unity of the Church. See,
we tend to limit our minds saying, well, they're gone
and they're dead, whether or not, because did not God
say I'm the God of the living, you know, Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, I'm not the God of the dead. Therefore,
we must interpret scriptures of the Church as body, and
(35:01):
that as individuals, relying on our own exclusive understanding, which
is prideful. This is the reality of the Church and
it demands we exercise self denial, humility and love.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
So how does the Orthodox.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Church interpret scripture and the correct approach to the scripture?
Speaker 2 (35:24):
We do not worry about originality.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Our goal is to understand the tradition of the Church
and comprehend.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
The interpretations of the Bible.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
In this context, we must faithfully pass on the tradition
we received, as Saint Paul urges us to do. In
order to do this, we must enter deeply into the
mystical life of the Church.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
In his work on the.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Christian Doctrine, Saint Augustine explains the type of person one
must be in order to correctly understand the scripture.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Notice he doesn't focus.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
On the amount of knowledge you must have, but on
the constitution of your character.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I'm going to give you six.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Points, sir, to show you what Saint Augustine was talking about.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
First point, love.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
God with all thy whole heart, and it makes sure
it's empty of pride. Number two, seek the knowledge of
God's will with faith and reverence.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Not pride or greed.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Number three possesses a pious heart and a purified mind.
Doesn't fear men or seek to please them. Number four
seeks nothing but union with Christ. Item five hungers and
thirst after righteousness.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
And number six.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
And diligently engages in works of mercy and love. What
an incredible standard if we have to live up to.
If we examine ourselves honestly, no one can say that
he met all of these criteria. There are may be
even half of them. This is why we must lean
on the guidance of the Church and the fathers who
(37:09):
did meet these standards.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
We can't delude.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Ourselves into thinking we have more knowledge of understanding of
God than they, which is another form of pride. This
makes us horribly arrogant, especially if we believe this without
taking the time to learn about holy tradition at all
and decide we somehow know better. And so I've gotten
(37:37):
questions about, well, how did the first church who worship
Christ is spirit and truth. Well, if there's a document
that the Apostles put together in the first century called
the dd He and the heat is a short book,
maybe sixteen chapters, very shorty, it's like a pamphlet, and
(38:00):
what it does it shows how the church was obstructed
to worship God, who's a guidebook, very good guidebook. And
by using the dd He they could have organization and
(38:20):
not be shattered and splintered.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
But all were of one mind and one.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Heart as they followed the teachings of the Apostles and
the d He. In conclusion, now, the a doctrine of
Sola scriptura operates under a number of false assumptions and
incorrect solutions, and thus it can be easily refuted. Taken
in the proper context. With holy tradition, the message of
(38:46):
the scriptures becomes clear.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
And if we ever question something.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
We read, we must turn to the writings of those
who knew the apostles well, like Saint Ignatius and other
church fathers, and not nurse our own pride by thinking
we know better than they.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
And which is this?
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Pride goes before a fall, doesn't every It's so easy
if you look at the sins that we commit, and
we do commit sins daily, Lord, have mercy on us
for doing that. But you can seem like it's all
flows back the pride.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Pride is like the the.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Number one sin, and all and all the all those
sub sins fall under that label of pride. Even in
the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve were given
they had the chance.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
To be immortal. They weren't i mortal at that time.
They were.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
They were given a chance. All they had to do
is follow the commandments of the Lord. They were given
to Adam, and Adam taught Eve, and remember the tree,
the knowledge of good and evil.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Of all the tree, you cant have accept that one abide?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Would they would go for that one because you know
when you're cold, no, and then that pride pops up.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
He said, I'm going to do it anyway. And we
know what happened through pride.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
They were cast out and an angel of flaming swords
stood guard so they couldn't enter back in. They became mortal,
and then they died in the flesh. And because of
pride and all of us, we need to fight that
passion of pride.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Because it's so easy to get on us.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
All I got to do is get a You go
to a saloon or a ar in, the person gets inebriated,
and next thing another there's going to be a fight
because someone's done somebody wrong.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
And then I believe it's all because of pride.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
They get all worked up, and if they were.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Not inebriated, they wouldn't do that.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Why would a young man, a little man want to
fight a big man.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
You know he's going to lose because a big man's
more powerful.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
But you get this false you get this false boldness
that turns out to be no good because of pride. Now,
the conclusions of this teaching on Soloscript Toura today, Christ
tells us that every good tree bringeth forth good fruit,
but a bad tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Matthew said
(41:30):
a seventeen If we judge Sola script for by its fruit,
we are left with one conclusion. This tree must be
human down and cast into the fire. And that sounds
pretty bold statement to say that we need to take
this Sola script Dora and we need to throw it
away because there's.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Nothing good comes from up.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
You know, as I said, there's so many different denominations
of Christianity forty five thousand plus and the all can't
be right. You all can't be wrong. But if you
come into the unity of the Orthodox Church. And I'm
not teaching church denomination because the Orthodox Church is pre denominational.
(42:13):
Remember fifteen seventeen when Martin Luther nailed the ninety five
complaints against the.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Wittenberg Chapel in Germany. We don't have that problem in
the Orthodox Church. Unity in the church.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
In the epistles tell it as Paul wrote the epistles,
and Saint Peter wrote the epistles and Saint John wrote.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Them that they.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
Were showing the church how to correct itself if they've
gone off the path, and the epistles help us come
back onto the path, and.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
So I hope this this.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Two part study on Solis Fiptura has been beneficial, played.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Back many times, review it.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
And treat it into your heart, and that God would
bless you and show you the truth of why solo
scripture is a heresy in the Church and the Church
at Christ started back in thirty.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Three AD at Holy Pentecost.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
The name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy script worry me to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Thank you for listening to the O Glassome Light podcast.
We hope this program is encourage you to fight the
good fight of faith and walk in the accordance with
the commandments of our Lord. May God bless you on
your journey to salvation.
Welcome to the Old Blansome Light podcast. This program contains
preaching and teaching from an Orthodox Christian perspective to help
you when your walk with Jesus Christ into me victorious
in Him.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's Old Gladsome Light here every Monday at eleven o'clock
Eastern Standard chime, and I'm your show host, Almans with
a doctor degree in Divinity, also known as Father Petros
of the Orthodox Church of Upyrus, Greece, broadcasting on w
FOCY Internet radio around the world twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Also, I have a podcast on.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
iHeartRadio called Old glassom Light and please visit my website
Oldglassomlight dot org and light and subscribed. And I have
two YouTube channels. I've got one called al Man's and
the other one called Arch Petros.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So the first al Man's is the.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Is a radio show, the Old bless and Light Radio Show,
and the other one is my Sunday sermons. In addition,
I'm posting my sermons as I mentioned on Rumble, under
the name of Man's a. The show is blessed by
Metropolitan Chasel Deck of the Orthodox Church of Pyrus. The
(01:33):
slogan for this show it's called Preparing Souls for Heaven.
Preparing Souls for Heaven and also broadcasting from Saint Peter
and Paul Orthodox Chapel here in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Now, the subject topic for the show is called Sola
Scriptura and is it yes or no?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And what I'm going to do before I get into
part two, I'm going to do a short recap on
part one, but I really want you to go back.
If you're listening for the first time, go back to
part one. It's on YouTube and listen to that because
I'm going to give this a give you just a
thumbnail update on what part one was all about it,
(02:21):
and then we'll get.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Right into part two.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So, solo scriptur is a Christian theological doctrine that holds
it the Bible is the sole, infallible source of authority
for Christian faith and practices. But here are some differences
between solo scriptur and the Orthodox Church, because this is
an Orthodox broadcast, Orthodox Eastern Orthodox broadcast.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Now, the origin the Orthodox.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Church has never experienced a Protestant Reformation, and the questions
and answer that led to solo scriptur are foreign to
gets practiced and in your life.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
What about authority?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Solo script rejects an infallible authority other than the Bible,
while the Orthodox Church holds a totally different principle of
guidance but about ecclesia authorities. So the scriptorre makes every
person their own authority, disregarding other ecclesia authorities. Solo scriptory
(03:18):
is one of the five solos of the Reformation which
distinguished the Reformers from the teachings of Rome.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Those five solos are in part one.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Solo scripture or scripture alone, is the heresy within Protestantism
that begets all other heresies. Undoubtedly, the Protestant Christians hold
to this doctrine out of sincere piety, rightly insisting that
the Scriptures are from God and we must trust them completely.
(03:51):
This reverence for the Holy Scriptures is commendable. Though in
theory Protestantism does not deny Christian history and tradition, it
relies on the Scriptures as the only word of authority
in establishing dogma, and thereby negates the influence of the
two former In practice, solo scriptura also falsely assumed as
(04:14):
a fact that the scriptures are precipitous or translucent and
easy to understand to anyone who reads them.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It is interesting to.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Note that the Orthodox Church has one theological stance, whereas
the Protestant Church has over forty five thousand different flavors
of Doctor and All's statements. Aside going to Baskin and Robbins,
they have SORTI one flavors, So which one do you want?
They're all good, but they don't they conflict with the
(04:43):
Orthodox Church in theology. Now, this solo scripturists all started
with Martin Luther in fifteen seventy when he nailed the
ninety five feces or complaints against the Roman Catholic Church.
He was to struggled with this church, the Roman Church,
because one of the major players that he was upset
about was indulgences. People could buy their loved ones out
(05:07):
of purcatory.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And bring them into heaven.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
That's the so as a money making scheme that the
Catholic Church invented. Luther's promotion of the scripture alone lets
everyone interpret the scriptures for himself. What could possibly go
along with this concept? The fruit of this is realized
in all the different denominations of Protestant Christianity.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Said before in part one.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
There's only one Holy Spirit, there's only one Christ, There's
only one resurrection. So how can there be forty five
different angles forty five thousand different angles on protescant or
Christianity the Christian theology.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
By rejecting the.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Apostelic tradition and the Church Father, anything goes.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
This is not an issue with the.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Apostolic Church and this tradition, which are handed down by
the Apostles, by Jesus Christ, who is the author and
the prefector of our faith.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Now let's get right into part two and pick it up.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
So, really, what Martin Luther was doing was making every
person his own pope.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
You know, he can do anything goes. You know, at
the end of part one, I.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Talked about using the New Testament determine what is acceptable
in worship.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
So I behoove.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
You to go to that part one towards the end
of the show and see what I talk about. How
we got our form of worship from the Jewish you know,
from the Hebrews, what God had started with the Hebrews
in the wilderness, and then how that emanated straight into
the Orthodox Church, not following the law but using grace.
(06:56):
So let's go on now part two in more detail.
Now if we these Protestants often cite the New Testament
as our doctrinal authority in determining.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
What is and what is not allowed in worship.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
However, careful examination of the books of the New Testament
exposes a flaw in this approach. We can divide the
New Testament into four genres or four sections. One the Gospels,
which tell Christ's life, death, and resurrection to historical narratives
(07:32):
history of the Early Church.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Three the epistles address specific.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Problems in the early Church, which was really ortho Apostolic
the early Church was Apostolic. And then number four apocalyptic prophecy.
The Book of Revelation shows us God's ultimate triums. Notice
none of these give any details on how to worship
in the Church, or rather the Old Testament. These example
(08:02):
le Vegas, the Book of Psalms. Granted, the Crotesance will
cite these as well, albeit out of context. What references
to worship. We do see that the early Christians worship
as their father did before them, observing prescribed hours of prayer.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Now look at Acts chapter three, Verse one.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Now, Peter and John went up together into the temple
at the hour of prayer being the ninth hour.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
And we your orthodox church, we also keep the.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Hours first hour, third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, also
worshiping in the Temple, Acts chapter two forty six. And
they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and
breaking bread from house to house. They eat their meat
with gladness and singleness of heart, showing unity, and also
(08:58):
worshiping in the Temple. As I say, let's look at
Acts chapter eighteen, verse four. And he reasoned in the
synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
The New Testament does.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Not provide comprehensive doctrinal instruction either. There is no catechism
or systematic theology. The Bible doesn't clearly contain teachings on
every important subject.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
In the church. The church that handed down and.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Preserved the Holy Scriptures as the same church from which
we receive our patterns of worship. If we mistrust the
Church's faithfulness in preserving apathetic worship, then we must also
mistrust her preservation of the scriptures. Now number three asserting
anyone can interpret the scriptures on their own. When solar
(09:51):
scripture first came about, reformers reason that anyone could understand
scripture simply by reading it. In other words, didn't need
the Church to help correctly interpret the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Sounds like pride to me.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Someone will say that, on one hand, the scriptures are
absolutely free from error, but on the other hand, they
have been concealed by much obscurity, so that without the
interpretations of the spirit bearing Fathers, they could not be
clearly understood. Now to bing Lutheran scholars, the scholarphote a
(10:29):
letter to Patriarch JEREMIAHS the Second what had been said
in a scarcely perceptible manner in some places in the
Scripture had been stated in other places in them explicitly
and most clearly, so that even the most simple person
can understand them. Though these scholars argued the writings of
(10:50):
the Fathers are necessary, they use the same writings often
so long as their interpretation of scripture aligned.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
With the Fathers.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Where Scripture and the Fathers diverged, they claimed their interpretation
of the scripture superior to the Church Fathers, who had
proven themselves righteous and holy. Patriarch Jeremiah the Second exposed
the true character of their teachings and his response, Let
us except in the traditions of the Church, with the
(11:21):
sincere heart and now the multitude of rationalizations. Let us
not allow ourselves to learn a new kind of faith
which is condemned by the tradition of the Holy Fathers.
For the Divine Apostle says, if anyone is preaching to
you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let
him be a curse the Latian Chapter one, verse nine.
(11:43):
We must adhere to the tradition passed down to us
by the Apostles through the Church, and lean on the
collective understanding of centuries upon changing worship, doctrine, and faith.
Believing our mind alone is sufficient to understand the complexity
of God's Word is the height of excessive pride or
(12:04):
even self confidence.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And I think about that.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
If Saint Paul would come and visit a Protestant church
today or a megachurch, he would not feel at home.
He would say, well, if you go to megachurch, he says,
good entertainment because they have a band and all that
going on. I know they're singing praises on for God,
but it's like a rock and roll band. And then
(12:32):
he would go to an Orthodox church and feel fully
at home, because that's the way it was during Saint
Paul's time. Another subject responses you might receive from a
Protestant Christian The false assumptions we utline above result in
the inevitable splintering within Protestantism. However, this is often not
(12:54):
enough to dissuade someone from supporting solar Scriptural supporters of
this heresy may say many things to defend their beliefs.
In this section on Winter, be will explore some.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Of these statements.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Now two Timothy, chapter three, verses fifteen through seventeen. They say,
pruse sola script tourists, So I'm going to read that
scripture student tewod Timothy, chapter three, verses fifteen through seventeen,
and that from a child down has known the holy
scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scriptures given
(13:30):
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, will
reproved for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that demand of
God may be perfect thoroughly furnished onto all good works.
Nowhere does the Bible actually say it is the soul
authority that we should reject holy tradition. However, if you
(13:52):
ask a Protestant where the Bible says is, they would
always point to the scriptures I just read in Second
Timothy Versus fifteen through seventeen. In faulty translations, sufficient takes
the place of profitable, which is where the scriptural argument
comes from. In the contact, Saint Paul wrote this letter
(14:15):
to Timothy, who is a bishop in the latter half
of the first century. At this time, several books and
letters would have become part of the New Testament had
yet to be written, and they would not be canonizing
into the Bible we know today until the fifth century.
When the front of uses this passage to justify sol
(14:35):
the scriptura, the unwittingly refute themselves by excluding the entire
New Testament canon including Two Timothy itself. Another common argument
here is that Saint Paul doesn't mention tradition explicitly, which
means he therefore rejects it.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
That's served with him.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Not only is this theological, but has also ignored the
use of oral tradition. Just a few versus earlier, in
Two Timothy three verse eight, Paul mentions Jenison jambres the
magicians of Pharaoh. Neither of these men are mentioned by
name in the Old Testament. Paul draws upon the oral
(15:15):
tradition of the Exodus account to provide these names. Another
subject why the Church canonized the Bible. The Church compiled
authoritative lists of books canonized the Bible to establish what
books could be read allowed during corporate worship in the church. Additionally,
(15:39):
the canons served to protect the church from the works
of heretics, like the Gospel of Thomas, for example, Heretics
could not base their teachings on holy tradition because their
teachings originated outside of the church. By protecting themselves from heresy,
the Church did not intend to imply that all of
(16:00):
the Christian faith and all the information necessary for worship
and good order in the church would be contained in
those books. The Bible says what it means, and means
what it says.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
The interesting thing.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
About this statement is that the person who says it
often contradicts themselves and cannot maintain consistency. If you produce
a verse or a passage with a literal translation they
disagree with, Suddenly that verse or passage is not.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Meant to be taken literally.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Perhaps The best example of such a passage is the
Last Suffer, in which Christ explicitly states, now that's coming
out of Matthew six, chapter twenty six, verses twenty six
or twenty eight. And as they were eating, Jesus took
bread and blessed it, and broke it and gave it
to the disciples and said it take heat.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
This is my body.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
He then took the cup and thanks They gave it
to them, they saying, drink, yeat.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
All of it.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
But this is my blood of the New Testament, which
is shed for you and for many for the remission
of sins. A couple others are when Christ empowers the
apostles to forgive sins, which establishes the sacrament of confession,
and when Paul tells women they should cover their heads
during worship. Protestants will claim that such verses are merely
(17:28):
symbolic and not meant to be taken literally because they
don't agree with the liberal interpretation. Point out this inconsistency
with kindness and ask the person, why do you feel
it is acceptable to apply literal translations only when they
decide to do so. I want to stop your embellish
(17:54):
reading in the scriptures. In John chapter six is very important.
When Jesus was talking ab about.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
His body being the true food and his blood being
the true drink, some of.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
The disciples walked with him no more. They couldn't under
they couldn't handle the truth. And so as they walked away,
the Lord did not run after them and tell him
come back, let me explain myself. He stated a truth,
they couldn't handle it, and they walked away.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
That's John six, verse sixty six.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
You can look it up in any version of the
Scripture of King James, the American standard.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
However, but when the Lord turned around, the apostles.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Were standing there with him, and the Lord said to
the apostles, you're still here.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
And Peter, being the.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Spokesman for the apostle, says, Lord, where should we go?
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Only you have the words of eternal life.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And so we see a line drawing in the sand.
The ones that walked away couldn't handle the truth. But Peter,
in the apostles that he had chosen, were there and
saying where should he go?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Only you have the words of internal life.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
And he was talking about his body and his blood
being the true food and being the true dream. Now
clear passages that can interpret the unclear. This seems like
a nice solution, since one would use scripture itself to
(19:33):
interpret scripture.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
However, how does.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
One determine which passages are clear and which ones are not.
In the end, it all boils down to each person's
subjective opinion and the prideful belief that their approach must
be correct while everyone else must be wrong. Unfortunately, Protestance
will never reach consensus here either, as we read in
(19:58):
the Scripture's pride go before the fall or destruction and
the haughty spirit before a fall Proverbs chapter sixteen Versus eighteen.
What about this statement, the Holy Spirit will guide me
to the right interpretation. Imagine you decide to interpret a
(20:20):
Bible first in a certain way, and you are convinced
that the Holy Spirit guided you to do that interpretation. Naturally,
anyone who disagrees with you cannot possibly be led by
the same Holy Spirit. Otherwise, how could we explain all
these different contradictory interpretations. God is not the author of confusion,
(20:42):
and we know where confusion comes from the enemy, the devil.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Divorce from holy tradition of the Church.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
One cannot unilaterally assume their individual interpretation comes from the
Holy Spirit. So if it's not coming from the Holy Spirit,
then is coming from a different spirit. Remember, spirits are eternal.
The same spirit that deceived Am and Eve in the
(21:13):
Garden of Eden.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Is still alive today, and that spirit is.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Moving throughout the earth and poisoning mankind's mind. Everybody thinks
they're right, Well, there's going to be a filter, and
it's called the judging State of Christ, and everybody, all
the nations are going to stand before the judgment State
of Christ and given account.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
And if you've give an account, the books are.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Opened and all the deeds are going to be looked at.
And that's just strike terror into each one of us hearts,
knowing that we've all fallen short of the glory of God.
But also there is repentance of the salvation, as the
scripture teach us. And without repentance, how can one inherent salvation?
(22:09):
Why would God want to be with somebody who doesn't
think like him. He is the embodiment of all wisdom
and truth, and Jesus Christ is the one that came
from heaven to this earth in piscile form.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
He was called the god Man. He was all God,
he was all man.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
And that mystery confused a lot of people when he
dwell among us for that thirty three years, and all
Jesus did. He's come here to love his creation and
to tell them the truth. But he ran into trouble
with certain groups like the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and
(22:50):
they saw him as a threat to the law of Moses.
But Jesus came to explain to them the scriptures when
he was twelve years old. In the temple he was
teaching the elders, and they were totally amazed at his
wisdom at.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Twelve years old.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
But did they realize he was the son of God
and the son of man. So let's look at the
Orthodox approach to this whole thing of solo script tuitra
Saint urineus.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Once of this heresy. It is craftically decked.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Down in an attractive dress, so as by its howard.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Form to make it appear to be to the.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Inexperience ridiculous, as expression may seem more true than truth itself.
Online Protestantism, Orthodoxy does not approach the Holy Scriptures in
a scientific and therefore inherently limited way. The Orthodox Church
(23:53):
claims a superior understanding of the Holy Scriptures on the
basis of its relationship to the author, Jesus Christ. The
Church is the body of Christ, and it is through
the Church that God wrote and preserved the Scriptures.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I want to say that one more time.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
The Church is a body of Christ and it is
through the Church that God wrote and preserved the Holy Scriptures.
Without the Church's holy tradition, we would not have the
Bible at all. Interesting statement, Huh, Let's look more into that.
How do we know the tradition of the Orthodox Church
(24:35):
is the right one? It's a good question. Avoid pride
in answering such a question. Instead, approach it with understanding
and patients. Remember that as a Protestant, the other person
may have limited knowledge about the history of the Church,
the ecumenical councils and.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Even the Church fathers, and even the Orthodox itself. They
may have.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Also a limitation of the history of the Church, the
councils and also the Church fathers, and they should the
Orthodox Christians should be fully studying these matters so they're
fully equipped.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Now tracing back through trying.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
No matter where we start, we will all arrive at
the same church whose faith has remained steadfast, and I'm
change since the beginning.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Thankfully, many products since our doing this.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
And becoming Orthodox as a result, and I'm one of them.
I was raised by my mom and dad as a Catholic,
and when I got to a certain age, I defected
from the Catholic Church and became.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Basically apostate. I didn't go to church. I just did
what I wanted to do and thought I was the
commander of.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
My own soul. And so my friends said, hey, once
you come to our Baptist.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Church, and I thought, well, I know, I wanted you
to do that.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
But I went off to a Baptist church and spent
a few years there, and then also to different churches,
you know, evangelical churches and so forth, and I hear
all this different theology, and one day I just cried out.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
To the Lord, Please, the Lord take me to the.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
First century church before all this confusion happened in theology.
And within a few moments of time, a couple of
weeks or so, I found myself in the Orthodox Church.
And when I walked into the church, everything was weird
because I saw icons and incense and bells and all
that was going on. But Also, I felt like I
(26:45):
really came home, and I've been in the Orthodox Church
for many, many years, and there's no place to go
because I am truly home. And so that's my little
story on you know, I was a growing and then
I went into prostant churches, and then because of that,
(27:06):
something was lacking and my perception until the Lord led
me to the Orthodox Church and everything became clear.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
We need the church.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
In the absence of true unity, Prostantism has created a
false one through relativism. In other words, the only belief
Protestants often condemned is one that makes exclusive claims about
the truth and aside the capital T tradition versus the
lower case T tradition.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
But let me explain a little bit about that. Capital
T is what Christ taught.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
The lower T is independent to the churches. You know,
that depends of its Greek, Romanian, Georgian, Russian, Ukrainian hope.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
You know, that's the little T.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
But the capital T is tradition that Christ taught the apostles,
which disseminates to all the Orthodox churches.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
One we refer to a tradition with a capital T.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
We speak of the deposit of faith manifest in the church.
Let we read a couple scriptures here. First Corinthians chapter eleven,
verse two. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember
me in all things and keep the ordinances as I
deliver them to you. Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse fifteen. Therefore, brethren,
(28:41):
stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught,
whether by word or our epistle. And one more scripture,
second Thessalonians three six.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourself some every brother that
walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received
of us.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
So the word tradition, what does it mean? In Greek?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
It means radosus, meaning literally to hand down or to deliver. Thus,
Saint Paul prefaces his confession of faith with these words,
for I delivered to you first of all that which
I also received in one Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verse three.
(29:32):
The source and inspiration for the Holy tradition is the
teaching of the apostles and the continual guidance of the
Holy Spirit in the church.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
John sixteen thirteen.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Holy tradition preserves the face as it was received from
the apostles and their disciples. So that works that this
is how the latter works. Christ taught his twelve show,
and then those apostles taught their disciples, and those disciples continued,
(30:07):
and we end up with as an apostolic succession. And said,
some people fight me on the truth of the Apostolic succession.
So you see, there is an Apostolic succession. As we
moved through time, as the apostles grew old and were
getting ready to die.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Or be martyred, they.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Ordained bishops and priests and deacons, as it says in
the scripture, ordained to carry on the truth of Holy tradition,
the teaching of the original Apostles, and the guidance of
the Holy Spirit in the church. They received it from Christ,
(30:54):
and they bequeathed it down to the succession of more.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Bishops or priests and deacons.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
The unity stretches back through chime and extend into the
present moment, which I was trying to explain there from
the beginning till now, it's one continual line.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
The Church is united.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
This unity stretches back through time and extend into the
present moment. Though the Apostles departed, this life long ago.
They never departed from the unity of the Church. We
are all alive in Christ, even of those who have died.
So it's interesting to say that we have in the
church services for those who have departed. We call the
(31:39):
Slavonic we say Ponihidah in Russia the Pontia.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
We pray for those who have departed.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
So when we have a divine liturgy, the whole church
is united in the Divine Liturgy because we're remembering those
who are alive and those who have departed. It is
still one church under Christ. So every time we celebrate
the Eucharist in the Divine Liturgy in our local parishes,
(32:10):
we celebrated not only with those who had departed before us,
but the entire body of Christ that is still alive.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
On this church.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
And we hear the terms in the Orthodox Church the
Church glorified and the Church militant. Church militant is the
church on this earth. In the Church glorified is those
who have departed. But it's still one church. It is
not separated.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
We are not.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Isolated, even though it may seem this way in our
limited understanding. Even in small Orthodox chapels where the Divine
Liturgy that served. It is still unity with the whole
Church of Christ.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Because of this unity, we know we.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Are not only learned from those in the flesh God
has placed in the Church to guide us, but also
from the teachers of the Church who are no longer
with us. Then that means like the Church Fathers. And
some people kick against the Church father and say, well,
we don't need to read the Church Fathers. Why I
say that's wrong thinking, because those church fathers were ascetics,
(33:20):
lived in a desert, totally turned their back on the world,
and became God bearers in their flesh. And all they
wanted to do is live in the spirit and hear
from God. And what they do is they read the
Holy Scriptures, and they put their paraphrase on the Holy
Scriptures so we can understand them. Some of us, we
(33:43):
can't gain that understanding without the Holy Spirit and the
Church Fathers.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
That has to be that unity.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
So we have basically three liturgies we served in the
Orthodox Church. Our common liturgy is the Liturgy of Saint
John Pasostom, and then about ten times a year we
celebrate or serve the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great,
and during lynch we serve the Saint Gregory Liturgy, which
(34:14):
is also called the Presanctified Gifts. We don't forget those
three liturgies are always before us. And there's even the
liturgy of Saint James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem. So
Saint John Crisosum is as much our teacher as our
bishop or Christ today as he is alive in Christ
(34:38):
and part of the all encompassing unity of the Church. See,
we tend to limit our minds saying, well, they're gone
and they're dead, whether or not, because did not God
say I'm the God of the living, you know, Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, I'm not the God of the dead. Therefore,
we must interpret scriptures of the Church as body, and
(35:01):
that as individuals, relying on our own exclusive understanding, which
is prideful. This is the reality of the Church and
it demands we exercise self denial, humility and love.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
So how does the Orthodox.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Church interpret scripture and the correct approach to the scripture?
Speaker 2 (35:24):
We do not worry about originality.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Our goal is to understand the tradition of the Church
and comprehend.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
The interpretations of the Bible.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
In this context, we must faithfully pass on the tradition
we received, as Saint Paul urges us to do. In
order to do this, we must enter deeply into the
mystical life of the Church.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
In his work on the.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Christian Doctrine, Saint Augustine explains the type of person one
must be in order to correctly understand the scripture.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Notice he doesn't focus.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
On the amount of knowledge you must have, but on
the constitution of your character.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I'm going to give you six.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Points, sir, to show you what Saint Augustine was talking about.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
First point, love.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
God with all thy whole heart, and it makes sure
it's empty of pride. Number two, seek the knowledge of
God's will with faith and reverence.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Not pride or greed.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Number three possesses a pious heart and a purified mind.
Doesn't fear men or seek to please them. Number four
seeks nothing but union with Christ. Item five hungers and
thirst after righteousness.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
And number six.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
And diligently engages in works of mercy and love. What
an incredible standard if we have to live up to.
If we examine ourselves honestly, no one can say that
he met all of these criteria. There are may be
even half of them. This is why we must lean
on the guidance of the Church and the fathers who
(37:09):
did meet these standards.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
We can't delude.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Ourselves into thinking we have more knowledge of understanding of
God than they, which is another form of pride. This
makes us horribly arrogant, especially if we believe this without
taking the time to learn about holy tradition at all
and decide we somehow know better. And so I've gotten
(37:37):
questions about, well, how did the first church who worship
Christ is spirit and truth. Well, if there's a document
that the Apostles put together in the first century called
the dd He and the heat is a short book,
maybe sixteen chapters, very shorty, it's like a pamphlet, and
(38:00):
what it does it shows how the church was obstructed
to worship God, who's a guidebook, very good guidebook. And
by using the dd He they could have organization and
(38:20):
not be shattered and splintered.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
But all were of one mind and one.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Heart as they followed the teachings of the Apostles and
the d He. In conclusion, now, the a doctrine of
Sola scriptura operates under a number of false assumptions and
incorrect solutions, and thus it can be easily refuted. Taken
in the proper context. With holy tradition, the message of
(38:46):
the scriptures becomes clear.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
And if we ever question something.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
We read, we must turn to the writings of those
who knew the apostles well, like Saint Ignatius and other
church fathers, and not nurse our own pride by thinking
we know better than they.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
And which is this?
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Pride goes before a fall, doesn't every It's so easy
if you look at the sins that we commit, and
we do commit sins daily, Lord, have mercy on us
for doing that. But you can seem like it's all
flows back the pride.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Pride is like the the.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Number one sin, and all and all the all those
sub sins fall under that label of pride. Even in
the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve were given
they had the chance.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
To be immortal. They weren't i mortal at that time.
They were.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
They were given a chance. All they had to do
is follow the commandments of the Lord. They were given
to Adam, and Adam taught Eve, and remember the tree,
the knowledge of good and evil.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Of all the tree, you cant have accept that one abide?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Would they would go for that one because you know
when you're cold, no, and then that pride pops up.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
He said, I'm going to do it anyway. And we
know what happened through pride.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
They were cast out and an angel of flaming swords
stood guard so they couldn't enter back in. They became mortal,
and then they died in the flesh. And because of
pride and all of us, we need to fight that
passion of pride.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Because it's so easy to get on us.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
All I got to do is get a You go
to a saloon or a ar in, the person gets inebriated,
and next thing another there's going to be a fight
because someone's done somebody wrong.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
And then I believe it's all because of pride.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
They get all worked up, and if they were.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Not inebriated, they wouldn't do that.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Why would a young man, a little man want to
fight a big man.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
You know he's going to lose because a big man's
more powerful.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
But you get this false you get this false boldness
that turns out to be no good because of pride. Now,
the conclusions of this teaching on Soloscript Toura today, Christ
tells us that every good tree bringeth forth good fruit,
but a bad tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Matthew said
(41:30):
a seventeen If we judge Sola script for by its fruit,
we are left with one conclusion. This tree must be
human down and cast into the fire. And that sounds
pretty bold statement to say that we need to take
this Sola script Dora and we need to throw it
away because there's.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Nothing good comes from up.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
You know, as I said, there's so many different denominations
of Christianity forty five thousand plus and the all can't
be right. You all can't be wrong. But if you
come into the unity of the Orthodox Church. And I'm
not teaching church denomination because the Orthodox Church is pre denominational.
(42:13):
Remember fifteen seventeen when Martin Luther nailed the ninety five
complaints against the.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Wittenberg Chapel in Germany. We don't have that problem in
the Orthodox Church. Unity in the church.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
In the epistles tell it as Paul wrote the epistles,
and Saint Peter wrote the epistles and Saint John wrote.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Them that they.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
Were showing the church how to correct itself if they've
gone off the path, and the epistles help us come
back onto the path, and.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
So I hope this this.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Two part study on Solis Fiptura has been beneficial, played.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Back many times, review it.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
And treat it into your heart, and that God would
bless you and show you the truth of why solo
scripture is a heresy in the Church and the Church
at Christ started back in thirty.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Three AD at Holy Pentecost.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
The name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy script worry me to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Thank you for listening to the O Glassome Light podcast.
We hope this program is encourage you to fight the
good fight of faith and walk in the accordance with
the commandments of our Lord. May God bless you on
your journey to salvation.
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