I do agree with you, Scott, that the Catholic and Orthodox church both claim to be the original church and that it's one of the two that has a linear/apostolic right to say to that. (Wasn't the split in 1054 AD over the filioque clause and papal supremacy? That's what both the Catholic and Orthodox churches say is the "Great Schism." Not sure why the 4th century keeps coming up as the pinpoint of the split.)
Two things prompted my husband and I to back out on the teaching of the Bible being the foundation of the faith: 1) Realizing that the Bible itself doesn't teach that doctrine, and seeing the divisions it has brought in to Christ's Body because of wide and divergent interpretations, and 2) Learning that there was a historical church that still existed (in my prior ignorance, I'd thought there was the original church, then idunno, something went wrong and finally at the reformation everything was righted by ... um, someone). At that point, we knew we had some searching and decision-making to do.
We looked at both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Well, not really because we somehow knew from the start we couldn't get behind papal supremacy (we later learned why). And, in our understanding, the Catholic church has changed tremendously. They have not stuck to decisions made in church-wide ecumenical councils that they'd attended and been a part of, they changed the Nicene Creed without approval from the other patriarchs, they replaced papal primacy with papal supremacy, they have added new doctrines (the immaculate conception doctrine is less than 200 years old, for example) and so on. The Orthodox Church has not become something new/different. It has developed to be sure (just like an infant develops in to adulthood but is still the same being), but in theology and doctrine, it has not changed.
"Thy Word is truth." Yes, I agree. Thy Word is Christ Jesus the Lord, though, it's not a book -- it's CHRIST. Logos ("word") and graphe ("scripture") are two different words and are not used interchangeably in the New Testament. When logos is used in the Bible, it's referring to Christ or His oral words or to oral preaching. Look it up. "Scripture" (something written) is graphe. I didn't find one time in the New Testament that logos referred to anything written (in dozens of uses). So I don't see that "the Word of God" means anything but Jesus Christ (and by nature, His Church since the Church is Christ's body). Christ came to start a church, not to write a book. The Bible is honored and venerated within the Church because it is a gift of the Holy Spirit to us (and truth be told, I've never seen the Scriptures honored more than since becoming Orthodox; they fill the text of our services, the book is encased in precious metals, we stand when the gospels are read, etc.). But it's the the Church that has the "faith handed down," it's the Church that is Christ presenting Himself tangibly to the world (i.e., His Body), it's the Church that is the "pillar and foundation of the truth." Not the Bible.
In one place where I saw logos used, if it meant the Bible and not Christ, it would have been idolatry. There were several places where it made no sense for it to be a written word. But in all uses, it made wonderfully clear sense to be words taught/spoken by Christ and those He trained (and those they ordained).
Eek I have to work at 6:45 a.m. I better go. I probably talk too much anyway, but I'm just so FULL with the faith of the ancient church. I love it all, every little bit even the hard, difficult parts.
May the Lord have mercy on us all.
_________________ Warmly, Darla Juliana "Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle" (Philo of Alexandria)
Last edited by Darla on Fri Oct 26, 2012 11:19 am, edited 3 times in total.
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