RELIGION: 101 PART SIX

Christianity is 33% of the world’s total religion. I will list them again and then we shall start to look at them individually.

Catholic
Protestant
Eastern Orthodox
Pentecostal
Anglican
Monophysite
AIC’s
Latter Day Saints
Evangelical
SDA’s
Jehovah Witnesses
Quakers
AOG
Nominal

Included in this I will cover Scientology the newest and most up and coming belief.

We will not look at these in the order listed. We can see from looking at them that some beliefs have passed to another group and others have broken away to leave many beliefs behind. Hopefully the way I present them will give you an idea as to how evolutions in religion took place.

Monophysite in Christianity is one who believes that Jesus Christ’s nature remains altogether divine and not human even though He has taken on an earthly and human body with it’s cycle of birth, life and death. Doctrine asserts that in the Person of Jesus Christ there was only one divine nature rather then two.

In modern times, those churches usually classified as Monophysite [Armenian Apostolic, Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Syrian Orthodox] are generally accepted by Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant Christendom as essentially orthodox in the Person of Jesus Christ.

The Eastern Orthodox Church believes that death and separation of body and soul to be unnatural; a result of man’s fall. They also felt that the congregation of the Church is comprised of both living and the dead. All members of the Church who are in heaven are considered to be Saints. There are however those saints of distinction whom God has revealed to us as good examples for us to learn from either their teachings or their lives. When a saint is revealed and ultimately recognized by a large portion of the church a service of official recognition [glorification] is celebrated for the saint.

This does not make the person a saint, it merely recognizes them and announces it to the rest of the Church. A day is prescribed for the saint’s celebration, hymns are composed, and icons painted. They are venerated [shown great respect and love] but are not worshiped, for worship is due God alone. In showing the saints this love and requesting their prayers, it is believed by the Orthodox that they assist in the process of salvation for others.

Preeminent among the saints is the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos [birth giver of God]

[We will go more in-depth about Mary later as she plays a predominate part in many of the Christian religions.]

Because of the holiness of the lives of the saints, their bodies and physical items connected with them are regarded by the church as holy. Many miracles have been reported throughout history connected with the saint’s relics.

According to scripture, the first name ascribed to members of the church was “Christian” and the new religion, “Christianity”. To better define it the Church later used “The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” to signify its unity and its direct link to the Apostles.

As differences arose and heresies became manifest it chose the term “Orthodox” to distinguish itself as the body that remained in alignment to the original concepts of Christian belief, the Church most reluctant to the adoption of innovative theology. Later as the Church expanded to all continents it became common to use geographical designators to indicate that particular congregation.

Some of the beliefs of the Orthodox Church follow.

Belief in God the Father, Who is without beginning, indescribable, incomprehensible, Who is beyond every created essence, Whose essence is known only to Himself, to His Son and the Holy Spirit; as it says in the Holy Scriptures, upon Him even the Seraphim dare not gaze.

God the Father never became the likeness of any material form nor was He ever incarnate. In the Trinity they worship three persons -- three hypostases -- that of the Father, that of the Son and that of the Holy Spirit. They do not confuse the persons of the Most Holy Trinity. Do not believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are, as it were, three masks of a single person.

Believe that from the moment of His conception in the virginal womb, Jesus Christ was one person, yet having two natures. From His conception, He was God and Man before birth, during birth and after birth.

Believe and confess that the Most Holy Virgin Mary, after the image of the bush, which burned and was not consumed, truly received the fire of the Godhead in Herself without being consumed thereby. Believe and confess that She truly gave of Her own blood and of Her own flesh to the Incarnate Word and that She fed Him with Her own milk.

Confess that Jesus Christ was, in His Godhead, begotten of the Father outside of time without assistance of a father. He is without mother in His divinity, and without father in His manhood.

Creation will be purified by the fire of the Last Judgment at the moment of the glorious Advent of our Savior Jesus Christ and that it will be restored and regenerated and that it will constitute a New Creation, according to the promise of the Lord: "Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. 21.5). "New heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness" (II Peter 3:13).

Men's souls have no pre-existence. The how of the soul's birth, as well as separation from the body at the moment of the latter's biological death that it might be reunited to the body when the dead are raised at the Second and glorious Coming of our Savior is a mystery which has not been revealed to us.

God permits trials and sufferings without having created them. When suffering comes upon me, I must receive this as an unfathomable proof of His love, as a blessing in disguise and without feeling indignant, we must seek out its significance.

God created man neither mortal nor immortal, but capable of choosing between two states, as St. John of Damascus teaches us (Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, chap. 30). Baptism in the true Church liberates us from the effects of sin and enables us to "work" for our salvation.

Apostles, faith engenders true works; and true works, which are the fruit of the Holy Spirit, bear witness and prove the existence of a true faith. Since faith is neither abstract nor sterile, it is impossible to dissociate it from good works. It was by this same faith in the same Jesus Christ that the righteous of the Old Testament (who are venerated to the same degree as the other saints in the Orthodox Church) were saved, and not because of their legalistic or disciplinary observance of the Law.

As the Fathers say, "God became man so that man could become God." Thus St. Gregory the Theologian writes: "O marvelous fall that brought about such a salvation for us!" man, created " a little lower than the angels" (Ps. 8:5), can, by God's grace, surpass even the angelic state, and so we praise the Most Holy Virgin Mary.

God "glorified those who glorify Him" (I Kings 2:30), that He is "wondrous in His saints" (Ps. 67:35), and that He is the "Savior of the body" of the Church (Eph. 5:23). We believe that we are saved insofar as we are members of the Body, but that we cannot be saved by any individual relation with God outside of the Church.

We venerate holy icons in perfect accord with the second commandment of the Decalogue [Ten Commandments].

We venerate the holy icons by prostrating yourself before them, by kissing them, by showing them a "relative worship" (as the definition of the Seventh Ecumenical Council says) while confessing that only the Most Holy Trinity is to be offered adoration. We worship the saints, their holy relics and their icons only because He dwells in them.

We believe and confess that when we venerate and kiss the holy relics, the grace of God acts upon our total being, that is, body and soul, and that the bodies of the saints, since they are the temples of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:9), participate in and are endued with this totally sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. "

We believe that all the Scriptures are inspired by God and that, as St. John Chrysostom says, "It is impossible for a man to be saved if he does not read the Scriptures." However, the Holy Scriptures cannot be dissociated from the Church, for She wrote them. The Scriptures were written in the Church, by the Church and for the Church. Outside the Church, the Scriptures cannot be understood.

We believe that the Church of Jesus Christ is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, and that It was instituted by God through the power of the Holy Spirit and by revelation. Outside of the Church there is no true Baptism, nor any other Mystery. Hence, the Apostolic Canons and the canons of the Ecumenical Councils forbid us to pray with schismatic's and heretics, be it in private or in Church, as they forbid us, under the penalty of defrockment and excommunication, to permit them to function as clergymen.

We do not believe in "purgatory," but believe, as the Scriptures attest, that the prayers and fasts made by the living for the sake of the dead have a beneficial effect on the souls of the dead and upon us, and that even the souls that are in darkness are benefited by our prayers and fasts. The public prayers of the Church, however, are reserved exclusively for those who have reposed in the Church.

This brings us into the Anglican [meaning the English Church] Church which is used to describe the people, institutions and Churches as well as the liturgical traditions and theological concepts developed by the state established Church of England, the Anglican Communion.

The Episcopal Church in the United States and the Scottish Episcopal Church are members of the Anglican Communion, but do not use the term Anglican in their names. The Anglican Communion considers itself to be part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church and as being both Catholic and Reformed.

The term Catholic Christians entered Roman Imperial Law when Emperor Theodosius [Emperor from 379-395] defined its followers as adherents that “..should continue the profession of that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition and which is now professed by the Pontiff [Pope] Damascus” “…but as for the others, since in our judgment they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give their conventicles the name of churches.”

This law was enacted in Thessalonica and published in Constantinople on February 27 AD 380 and forms part of the Codex Theodosiani Liber Decimus Sextus, De Fide Catolica—The Catholic Faith. This established Catholic Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The Church traces its history to Jesus and the Twelve Apostles, and sees bishops of the Church as the successors of the Apostles in general. The Pope is the successor of Saint Peter, leader of the apostles.

Catholic writers quote from early Church Fathers that the See of Rome had jurisdictional authority or primacy over other churches. This though is disputed by Orthodox writers.

Central to the doctrines of the Catholic Church is Apostolic Succession, the belief that the bishops are the spiritual successors of the original twelve apostles, through the historically unbroken chain of consecration.

Throughout the centuries the Church has responded to people or groups attempting to change core beliefs. Some of these opponents were declared heretical. We will not go in depth into the Inquisitions here. Many who did not agree with the teachings of the Catholic Church were murdered.

The Catholic Church undertook one of the most comprehensive reforms in its history during the Second Vatican Council [1962-1965] and the decade that followed. There were changes in the liturgy, it encouraged the up-to-date renewal of religious life. It empowered episcopal conferences to enact adaptations in disciplines such as abstinence from meat on Fridays.

Some Catholics rejected many of the changes which they viewed as inconsistent with what the Church had always taught. They viewed some of the more controversial changes as watered down, protestantized, or even invalid.

In a report released April 21, 2007 Pope Benedict XVI has reversed the teaching of limbo. The Church says there are serious grounds to hope that children who die without being baptized can go to heaven.

Theologians said the move was highly significant-for what it says about Benedicts’s willingness to buck a long standing tenet of Catholic belief and for what it says theologically about the Church’s views on heaven, hell and original sin-the sin that all faithful believe all children are born with.

Benedict approved the findings because the advisory panel was reassessing traditional teachings in light of “pressing” pastoral needs. It was approved by the Pope on Jan 19.

The document traces centuries of Church views on the fate of unbaptized infants. St. Augustine the 4th century bishop wrote that such infants go to hell, but they suffer only the “mildest condemnation.”

In the document the commission said such views are now out of date. The report also said that no one can know for certain what becomes of unbapitized babies since Scripture is largely silent on the matter. The commission further stated that this is not a valid reason to not baptize new born babies.

Vatican watchers hailed the decision as both a sensitive and significant move by Benedict. Parents who are mourning the death of a child are no longer burdened by the added guilt of not having gotten their child baptized. It could also be seen as suggesting that non-baptized adults could go to heaven if they led a good life.

It shows that Benedict is trying to balance his view of Jesus as being central as the savior of the world.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the official catechism of the Church. All canonical books of the Bible, which includes the Deuterocanonical books, the Tradition of the Church and the interpretation of these by the Magisterium constitute the complete and best resource for fully attaining to God’s revelation to mankind.

Again some Catholics argue that statements made in CCC conflict with past Catholic teachings on many topics. That it is in fact infected with Gnosticism, promotes the theory of evolution, exonerates the Jewish people and presents then as still in a covenantal relationship with God, that it favors indifferentism, false ecumenism, secular collaboration and compromise, homosexuality and internationalism.

They maintain that though theological opinion was not intended to be a part of CCC, it in fact does not distinguish between matters of fact and theological opinion. Further that CCC displays a shift away from presenting dogma as fact and toward presenting the Catholic faith itself as a search for truth.

To end this section I will merely list some of the Catholic Traditions that are still practiced today.
Call priest father
Forbidding the priesthood to marry
Mary never had other children
Mary is the queen of heaven
Mary is the mother of God
Pope called Holy Father
Purgatory
Nuns
Pope
Venerating/worshipping images. [Bowing to statues of Mary, worship the Eucharist, and have candles/statues in their homes and churches]
The mass. [ Through transubstantiation, the wafer/host and the wine become the actual blood and the body of Jesus Christ when the priest prays over them]
Saved, in part, by good works
Church is found on Peter
Confessing sins to a priest
Petitioning saints and Mary
Saying masses for the dead
Praying the rosary
Penance

With that I will stop and meet you again tomorrow.

God Bless
rECj/LJG