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What Luther Got Right
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
If you read my previous essay Heresy: That Special Moment When..., you might have concluded I thought that all of Luther's doctrines are incorrect. Actually, Martin Luther got several things right! Let's take a look at them:
The article "Martin Luther's Confession of Orthodox Christianity" describes the teachings of Martin Luther, a former Roman Catholic monk-priest who in the 16th century rejected papal supremacy, celibacy of all clergy, purgatory, and indulgences, which the Orthodox Church also rejects. It was only in the 11th century that Pope Gregory VII issued a decree requiring all priests to be celibate and he expected his bishops to enforce it. Thus celibacy has been the rule for clergy ever since A.D. 1054, when the Catholic Church broke away from the Orthodox Church.
In a debate with Johann Eck, Luther "...invoked the Orthodox Church as an example of true Christianity for the past thousand years. Indeed, he held up the Orthodox Church as a source of truth to show that the Roman Catholic Church had deviated from the principles of the Early Church, saying, 'The truth lies with the Greeks' (i.e. Orthodox)." In his recent book, Rock and Sand (Amazon), Archpriest Josiah Trenham provides "a competent overview of the history of Protestantism and its major traditions, from its beginnings in the 16th century to the present day. This overview relies heavily upon the Reformers' own words as well as the creeds of various Protestant faiths." Highly recommended!
Why didn't Luther unite with "the Greeks" (the Orthodox Church)? Because after nailing his 95 Theses in Wuerttemburg and his trial at Worms, he needed an army, not merely theological support, to withstand Rome's military forces. Constantinople no longer had an army because in the previous century it had been conquered by the Muslim Turks. So he allied with the German princes. Several years later, after Lutheranism had solidified its theology, they sent emissaries to Constantinople. Read "Luther Had His Chance" (online), a detailed recounting of Luther's emissaries to Patriarch Jeremiah in Constantinople. The Patriarch welcomed the Lutherans as friends and fellow Christians, but was at first reluctant to respond to their doctrines. At last he was persuaded to give a detailed refutation to the erroneous teachings that Luther had carried over from Catholicism. Contacts continued for a couple more exchanges, but eventually were broken off.
In our last issue, we quoted from an article from LifeSite News about the visit to Romania of Pope Francis, who said - "The Eastern Orthodox differ markedly from Catholics on several points of doctrine. The Orthodox tend to defend the liceity [legitimacy - ed.] of artificial contraception within marriage, for example, and Orthodox bishops will bless up to two 'remarriages' when the divorced person's spouse is still living. The Orthodox also deny the Catholic dogmas of Original Sin and the Immaculate Conception. Most obviously, the Orthodox reject the supreme authority of the pope, instead considering the bishop of Rome 'first among equals' in the episcopal hierarchy, with no special powers of infallibility."
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Lutherans agree with the Orthodox that priests don't need to be celibate. Concerning divorce, both believe it should be avoided if at all possible. An abandoned or victimized spouse is free to remarry (I Cor. 7:13) but should seek pastoral counseling beforehand because of the psychological and spiritual factors involved in divorce. The Orthodox do not allow a fourth marriage, as the pre-schism Catholics also believed. Recall English King Henry VIII who abandoned the Pope (which started the Anglican Church) so he could marry his dead brother's wife! Artificial contraception within marriage is now allowed by Lutherans, although prior to the 20th century Lutherans along with most Protestants did not permit it.
Concerning original sin, Lutherans have carried over this doctrine from the Roman Catholic Church that all people are born guilty of Adam's and Eve's original sin. What do the Orthodox believe? As I wrote in my last essay, In the late-300s, Augustine of Hippo, trained as an orator and lawyer, was converted from paganism to Christianity. Although he was born and raised around Carthage, North Africa, part of the Greco-Roman Empire ruled from Constantinople, his native language was Latin and he only knew Greek poorly. So he relied on St. Jerome's translation of the New Testament from Greek into Latin. Unfortunately, Jerome had translated a key passage incorrectly:
Jerome in his Latin Vulgate translation rendered the end of Rom. 5:12 as "...death passed to all men, in whom [Adam] all sinned." The pronoun, however, cannot be translated as "whom" because it is neuter in Greek. People deserve or earn death only for their own sin: this corresponds to the Greek text of this verse - "Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, in that all sinned." So Augustine, who knew less Greek than did Jerome, picked up as the basis of his early teaching the idea that all sinned in Adam and are guilty of Adam's sin. Orthodox teaching is that human nature is weakened by the Fall, predisposed to sin and subject to death, but not guilty of Adam's sin. The doctrine that all mankind is subject to death (but not guilt) because of the Fall is repeated in 1 Cor. 15:22 - "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive."
If a person believes in original sin and guilt inherited from the Fall, then how could the Virgin Mary give birth to Jesus, the sinless Messiah? This is where the Catholic doctrine of Mary's immaculate conception originated. They teach that Mary was "infused with a special grace" at her conception and thus was exempted from the guilt of original sin. But the Orthodox do not believe that people have inherited Adam's and Eve's guilt, only the tendency toward sinning ("concupiscence") and the fact of death, which actually has the beneficial effect of keeping a person from committing more and more sins ad infinitum.
Virtually all of the Early Church Fathers affirmed the ever-virginity of Mary, as did the early Reformers Luther, Calvin, Wesley and others. Only in the Radical (Anabaptist) Reformation that discarded many traditional doctrines and practices did the ever-virginity of Mary begin to be questioned. Orthodoxy teaches that Mary was born with a tendency to sin (the Orthodox understanding of original sin), but by God's grace was able to keep from committing any personal sins.
Regarding the supreme authority of the pope, this was one of the primary doctrines that Luther rejected, replacing it with the primary authority of the Bible, or "sola Scriptura." Later Protestants, especially those of the Radical Reformation (Anabaptists), elevated Scripture to a verbally inerrant authority to supplant the supreme authority of the Roman pope, the Magesterium of the Catholic Church, and Holy Tradition. It was only on 18 July 1870 that the Roman Catholic Church declared papal infallibility when defining doctrine "ex cathedra" (from the throne). So what we have here are two conflicting, supposedly "absolute" authorities: an inerrant Bible versus an infallible pope. From an Orthodox perspective, neither is absolute because only God the Holy Trinity can be absolute. There are verbal discrepancies in the Bible, for example, when you compare the four Gospels; and papal infallibility doesn't work because some earlier popes have been contradicted by later popes.
So let us worship neither the Bible nor the pope, but only God the Holy Trinity!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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NOW, THE NEWS:
HOW AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST MADE THIS ABORTIONIST PRO-LIFE
from: Live Action
(13 Jul.) Former Planned Parenthood medical director Dr. Kathi Aultman had quit her job as an abortionist shortly after giving birth to her daughter but still felt that women had a "right" to abortion. 
While she was no longer willing to carry out abortions as she had in the past, she was willing to refer her patients for them. Even after becoming Christian, Aultman said she had trouble accepting the idea that abortion is unnecessary. That is, until her close friends shared with her an article about the Holocaust. Aultman discusses this starting around 9:49 in this interview:
"The thing that finally did it was I had friends who were very good friends and accepted me even though they knew my position but they were brave enough to at one point say, 'We understand your position but would you read this article?'" she explained to Live Action president Lila Rose. "And it was an article on the Holocaust and comparing the Holocaust to abortion."
Aultman's father was with the military group that liberated the first concentration camp during World War II. She had heard stories about his experiences her entire life. When she became a doctor she couldn't understand how the Nazi doctors had done what they had done.
"When I read that comparison between the Holocaust and abortion, I finally understood how they could do the horrible things they did," she said. "Because just as I didn't see the fetus as a person, they didn't see the Jews and the Gypsies and the others as people. And if you don't consider someone human, you can do anything you want. That's when I realized that I was a mass murderer, that I had killed all of these people. And that's when I completely changed my view on abortion." [read more...]
PROVIDING CHRISTIAN RESOURCES AMIDST UPHEAVAL IN CHINA
from: Mission Network News
(23 Jul.) China and Hong Kong have been regular staples for news headlines thanks to recent upheaval and uncertainty. Some of that uncertainty is touching the local Church as tighter regulations and limits on Bible sales make it difficult for local believers to get their hands on Christian resources.
That's why Jason Woolford and Mission Cry want to take advantage of the windows of opportunity they have right now before it's too late. Through their programs, they’re collecting Bibles, books, and other Christian resources, packing them into shipping containers, and sending them to China. Thanks to local business partners, Mission Cry can clear their containers for shipping, then have locals manage distribution once the crates arrive.
Their last shipping container has already been distributed. "Nearly 40,000 people got either a free Bible or Christian book and they're begging us, as there's nearly 7.4 million people living in Hong Kong, they're begging us for another sea container," Woolford says. Now, they are prepping for their next container. Money is a major obstacle to the project, though shipping the container will still be cheaper than it might be for someone without their contacts.
"I will have nearly a half a million dollars worth of used Bibles and Christian books on it, and we can we can send that and get it there and get it distributed for $10,000," Woolford says. In other words, it's comparatively affordable; it costs less than 30 cents to get a Christian book from the U.S. into a Chinese believer's hand. [read more...]
(24 Jul.) After the court decision on the transfer to the use of the Russian Ministry of Property of the Crimea, the property of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Cathedral of the Holy and Equal-to-the Apostles Volodymyr and Olha in Simferopol was "looted and destroyed," Archbishop Klyment of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU told Krym.Realii.
According to him, the Russian Ministry of Property and Land Relations of Crimea began "internal repair of the Cathedral. The situation is critical. Everything happened when I was outside Crimea. According to the court decision in 2017, 110 square meters of the first floor were seized. It was sealed and locked up. Simultaneously, the Church property was taken stock of and was stored there: chairs, icons, furniture, carpets, dishes, tables, cutlery. Now it's all looted and destroyed. Some of these things I saw in the dump on the street. Where have the other things gone I do not know," said the priest.
"They started the pogrom right at the moment when I was at the conference on religious freedom. It is Russia that shows to the whole world its attitude towards the global community and religious freedom," the hierarch believes. The Russian Ministry of Property and Land Relations of Crimea did not answer the phone calls of Krym.Realii. The community of the Crimean Diocese of the UOC-KP - which merged into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine - holds worship in the Cathedral of Sts Volodymyr and Olha in Simferopol. [read more...]
METROPOLITAN HILARION DOESN'T CONSIDER MOSCOW "THE THIRD ROME"
from: Interfax-Religion
(15 Jul.) Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Hilarion believes that old concept “Moscow is the third Rome” is outdated and cannot be referred to present-day Moscow. "I don’t think that today we can use concepts that were formulated many centuries ago, they reflected a certain historical reality, but can hardly be applied to current reality," Metropolitan Hilarion said on air Church and the World program on Rossiya-24 TV.
He explained that absolute majority of Russians today are not enchurched people and the Church is facing "a great missionary task" - to enchurch people who consider themselves Orthodox Christians, but in fact, are far from being such. "I think that it is much more important task than any talks about the 'third Rome' and the role of Moscow as the the center of Christianity," Metropolitan Hilarion said. However, according to him, everyone who comes to Moscow and in Russia notes that Russia is a country with very deep Christian roots.
"And for us Christianity is not a phenomenon of the past, it is a phenomenon of the present and the basis for the future," the hierarch said, "If we enter the Cathedral of Christ the Savior or any other Orthodox church on a great feast, we'll see how many people come to the service! Anyway, it is not a reason for triumphalism and creating geopolitical theories which can collapse like a house of cards when the wind blows on a certain way."
The "Moscow is the third Rome" concept appeared after the fall of Constantinople in period when the Moscow principality was rising, it laid a foundation for Messianic ideas about Russia's role and meaning in that time. The most authoritative and popular was the version that the concept of the third Rome was clearly worded in 1523-1524 by elder Philotheus from Pskov Eleazar Monastery in a formula: "Two Romes fell, a third stands, and a fourth one there will never be." [read more...]
POLISH PRIEST: THOSE WHO PUSHED COMMUNISM NOW PUSH GENDER IDEOLOGY
from: Church Militant
(25 Jul.) Polish priest and professor Fr. Dariusz Oko is linking advocates of gender ideology to those who previously peddled communism. In an interview publicized Wednesday with the Polish radio station Radio Maryja, Oko identifies those pushing genderism as communist sympathizers.
"The same people who announced communism yesterday, today preach genderism," said Oko. "The same people (or their physical or spiritual children), who proclaimed the praises of Stalinism and its communist crimes, are now preaching genderism and applying similar methods."
Oko, best known for his 2012 explosive exposé With the Pope Against the Homoheresy heralding the crisis of homosexual clergy, is an expert on the pro-LGBT movement. Being from Poland, which was under the communist boot for decades, he's also well-versed in pro-communist rhetoric. Referring to the communist May Day marches, Oko noted marches promoting gender ideology and communism were "often organized by the same people." He further described how genderism was "a mutation of communism":
"Atheists, who rejected God and considered themselves superhuman, confessed communism and committed the greatest genocides in history. But when communism was disgraced by its crimes and economic disasters, it needed a different ideology, and this ideology is genderism. This is the main ideology of atheists today. By fomenting the struggle between women and men, through the alleged liberation of sexual minorities, they want to achieve full power." [read more...]
GOV'T-APPOINTED 'GUARDIAN' FORBIDS ALL CONTACT WITH ELDERLY WOMAN AT HOSPICE, TREATS HER 'WORSE THAN PRISONER'
from: LifeSite News
(24 Jul.) A government-appointed "guardian" has prohibited 103-year-old Marian Leonard, who has no terminal illness and is being held at a hospice against her will, from seeing any visitors.
"We are outraged at the guardian's treatment of Mrs. Leonard," said Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director (LLDF) Alexandra Snyder. "The guardian – a complete stranger to Marian – has forced this elderly woman to spend the rest of her days in complete isolation, with no one to oversee her care. Marian Leonard committed no crime, yet she has been stripped of her of her civil rights and is being treated worse than a prisoner."
The letter from the guardian banning visitors also instructs the hospice detaining Leonard not to allow anyone to photograph her. LLDF previously released a photo showing Leonard before and after her confinement began. Before she was forcibly taken to Diversicare of Riverchase, a hospice in Alabama, Leonard can be seen smiling at someone dressed as Santa Claus. The "after" photo shows one of Leonard’s eyes sealed shut and her looking helpless on a bed.
"When Marian was first placed into the guardian’s custody, she could walk, was energetic, and was able to eat a regular diet," LLDF previously reported. "Now, she is bedridden, lethargic, and suffers from bedsores." The guardian claims visitation, even from her concerned daughter, "is not in the best interest of Ms. Leonard." [read more...]
NOW, OUR VIEWS:
Building the ARC
You might ask - "Why would I want to build an ARC, anyway? Do I look like Noah?" How do you start building it? First, you gather people who are committed to living together as Christians in community. In his book The Benedict Option, Rod Dreher describes the immense pressure in today's world to force moral and ethical compromise upon Christians. But by mutually supporting each other in an "Agape Restoration Community," living out our Christian faith on a day-to-day basis, we will be able to withstand these pressures!
Secular materialism has led to the de-Christianizing of the world. My wife and I were missionaries to Russia for 17+ years: in its extreme form of communism, about 250,000 church buildings in Russia were destroyed or confiscated and turned into museums, breweries, factories or "Lenin Houses of Culture" during the Soviet era. Secularization worldwide has diminished the role of the church in society by leading many people to become dependent on the state for answers to all their problems. The Church must reclaim its proper role of Enabling the Disabled: ...Welcoming the Disabled to Your Church, as Rev. Dr. Theresa Taylor writes in her book.
Poor, disabled, and elderly Christians must free themselves from the idea that an unnamed "they" -- meaning someone else: the state or "the rich" or other Christians -- ought to pay to build handicapped-accessible housing and new churches. But the secular state isn't going to do it, the rich generally aren't very charitable, and there isn't enough money in all the Christian churches and mission organizations in the whole world for these organizations to build enough of such buildings so that our country and other countries can again be called "Christian nations."
Almost all Christians, however, including poor, disabled, and elderly people, have a place to live, so Christians already have the wealth needed to carry out the task of re-Christianizing their countries, in the form of their current homes. This is a "DIY" (Do It Yourself) project: by exchanging their current home for a living unit in an ARC Housing Co-op, they are providing a wheelchair-accessible building where a church can gather to worship and fulfill its God-ordained ministry to "the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind." We need to restore the spirit of agape-love and voluntary mutual self-help communities, then simply train and organize ourselves to just do it! We have the training and organization ready to go!
To get started, the pastor or deacon will prepare a "ministry team" in his parish by teaching our 1-year online program "Social Ministry of the Church" on the "how and why" of reaching out to people with disabilities in the surrounding community. Another excellent book is Building the Benedict Option by Leah Libresco that tells how to gather two or three together to form such a ministry team. Then the pastor or deacon of the associated church will serve as director of the local ARC branch. When enough people have subscribed for shares, the local branch can take out a construction loan to build a new Agape Restoration Community.
Just recently we located a beautiful 8.8-acre hilltop property in Trafford, PA, and due to zoning requirements we've come up with a smaller design that's about 1/4 the size of the earlier design: see our site plan 1 and 2, five new sketches for a 6-8-living-unit building including a community room/chapel, three classrooms, restrooms and a kitchen on the second floor, and balconies and offices or living units on the third floor, plus five side buildings each with 6 living units, altogether totalling 36-38 living units, 26 being wheelchair-accessible.
Here in the lower-right corner is Trafford, PA, 12 minutes south on Hwy. 48 then east on Hwy. 130 from the intersection of I-376, where UPMC East Hospital is located. Another 4 minutes south from that intersection is Forbes Hospital. Going west on I-376 from Hwy. 48 about 25 minutes takes you to downtown Pittsburgh. Next, see 1) a Trafford overview - turn left at the Burger King onto Forbes Road for the quickest route to the property, then 2) zoom in to see the property (the lower-right rectangle), the triangle-shaped hilltop, 3) the present "Urban Lane" roadcut, 4) and the existing townhouse development in an older Google streetview - the first three vehicles are where the roadcut has more recently been made.
AUG. 1 2019 - BREAKING NEWS: The owner of the above property has accepted our "Offer to Purchase" contingent upon Agape Restoration Society Inc. receiving a zoning variance to have a "community room/chapel" in the main building and passing the Planning Commission. With this signed Offer to Purchase, we will schedule a meeting with the zoning board, put up legal notices two weeks in advance, then hold the meeting for the variance. We should be granted it because our project adds 36 to 38 property-tax-paying homes to Trafford Borough. Then we'll have our architect draw a schematic presentation and we'll go to Trafford's Planning Commission for approval. Now we need to raise $175,000 (plus permits, fees and closing costs) to pay for this property and find future residents so we cans begin construction!
In HOW AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST MADE THIS ABORTIONIST PRO-LIFE, our first news article, we learn that the modern rationale for abortion is exactly the same as the Nazi's rationale for exterminating Jews, Gypsies and others: first, they dehumanize these people as "merely a fetus" or "just a clump of cells" or "vermin" or "filth" or other derogatory, non-human terms. Then of course, they can clean up the mess they have convinced themselves to believe exists.
The same rationale applies to our sixth news article GOV'T-APPOINTED 'GUARDIAN' FORBIDS ALL CONTACT WITH ELDERLY WOMAN AT HOSPICE, TREATS HER 'WORSE THAN PRISONER' - if an elderly person can be defined as "mentally incompetent" then the state can step in, appoint a guardian who decides that the old lady is in a vegetative state, so the hospice or nursing home is justified in withholding food and water - basic care - thus killing the person by thirst and starvation in just a few days.
Also see EUTHANASIA LAWS ARE SLOWLY BUT SURELY EXPANDING TO INCLUDE EVERYONE, our sixth news headline: state by state, country by country, the atheistic philosophy of death is spreading in the West. A related article is Birth rate drops to an all-time low in the United States that concludes with: "Experts contend that a birth dearth may curtail any country's plans to sustain and increase social welfare programs that currently depend on population growth." The unspoken conclusion here is that we won't have enough money to care for the elderly, so let's come up with a way to rationalize legally disposing of them.
Our third article OCU CATHEDRAL SACKED IN SIMFEROPOL describes the ransacking of the Cathedral of Saints Volodymyr and Olha in this city of Crimea that is now under Russian control. Archbishop Klyment of the Crimean Diocese of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine was, ironically, away from Crimea attending a conference on religious freedom when this gross violation of religious freedom was perpetrated against his church.
In our fourth news article METROPOLITAN HILARION DOESN'T CONSIDER MOSCOW "THE THIRD ROME" we see how Metr. Hilarion is dissembling about Moscow not considering itself "the Third Rome." This has been for centuries and continues to be the primary rationalization for Moscow's push to expand its territory. After all, if your capital city happens to be also the center of the true faith, should not all nations bow to its power and authority?
What is behind the current big "gender ideology" movement? News article five, POLISH PRIEST: THOSE WHO PUSHED COMMUNISM NOW PUSH GENDER IDEOLOGY, correctly identifies it. Marxism, which earlier used military and revolutionary forces to take over governments, now has adopted a more stealthy tactic: "Critical Theory / Cultural Marxism." The goal is the same: cause the moral underpinnings of a culture - the fabric of society - to unravel, then the society will collapse and the Marxists can pull off their revolution.
Please remember to pray for Christians in socialist countries, and for...
Your fellow-servants,
Bob & Cheryl
p.s. He who thinks he can fully comprehend God either has a very small god, or a very large head.
27 Jul. 2019