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There is only one means of discovering the true nature of Christianity. We must step out upon this path, commit ourselves to this way of life, and then we shall begin to see for ourselves. So long as we remain outside, we cannot properly understand. Certainly we need to be given directions before we [...] Icon of St. Dimitri of Rostov Come, my Light, and illumine my darkness. Come, my Life, and revive me from death. Come, my Physician, and heal my wounds. Come, Flame of divine love, and burn up the thorns of my sins, kindling my heart with the flame of thy love. Come, my King, [...]
Countless hours was spend over the last year or so reading and studying about the Eastern Orthodox Church. It was now time to visit a church and see how they do things – time to move from theology to practical application. God also provided us with the perfect opportunity to visit such a church. Namely, we didn’t have any church responsibilities due to our son’s birth – yet, at the same time, he was taking his sweet time coming our of the womb. So we had a “free” day in the Valley to visit the local Greek Orthodox Church. First ImpressionsWe arrived at 10:30 am to the Divine Liturgy – a little timid and unsure about what to expect. Walking into the chapel, we slipped into the back pew and looked around. The first thing I noticed was the lack of people (only about 7 or 10 people – all in the back of the chapel). The second thing was the chapel itself. In a word, it was beautiful! Full of wonderful icons and candles with a glorious wooden wall separating the congregation from the ‘holy’ stage – my words for the part of the chapel housing all the religious items used during the service (i.e. crosses, candles, bells, bread, wine, Bible, etc). Continue reading My Visit To A Greek Orthodox Church
At the same time, there were some parts of the book that I did not like – mainly the parts where the author gets away from Biblical themes and started speculating about how things will be. For example, Engleman looks at Saint Paul’s words in 2 Thess. 2:3-8 about the ‘one’ who is holding back the antichrist and interprets it as a reference to the Christian Monarchy (ie. as long as there is a Christian king/queen on the throne of the Roman Empire, the antichrist will not be reviled). Note that for Engleman, the Christian Monarchy starts with St. Constantine in 312 AD and continues to death of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II in 1948. (Moscow is concerned the third “Rome” by the Eastern Orthodox following the destruction of Constantinople, which was the second “Rome”). This begs the question of what kept the “man of lawlessness” from showing up prior to establishment of the Christian Monarchy in 312 AD?
I recently discovered this “dangerous” side of history while researching the theological history of the physical millennial kingdom of Jesus. What was this “dangerous” item found in the dusty manuscripts of old? It is the knowledge that in 381 A.D. the Church Fathers gathered in Constantinople and declared that the pre-millennialism view of Revelation chapter 20 is a heresy. Yes – you read that right. The hugely popular pre-millennialism view of eschatology promoted throughout the world by the Protestant church was declared a heresy by the SAME guys who canonized the New Testament!!!  The Apocalypse: In The Teachings of Ancient Christianity A few months ago I mentioned that I was trying to find a commentary on the Book of Revelation from the Eastern Orthodox Church. Well, I found one – The Apocalypse: In The Teachings of Ancient Christianity. Originally written in Russian by Archbishop Averky Taushev, it was translated into English by Father Seraphim Rose in 1985. In a nutshell – it was the best book on Revelations I have ever read. Yeah. It was that good. Why? Well, for starters the book wasn’t about trying to map out the “end times”, find out what everything John means and how it plays together in the 21st century. Instead, the commentary was written with the knowledge that Revelation is a book of mysteries:
Continue reading The Apocalypse: In The Teachings of Ancient Christianity  Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells The book Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells tells the journey of Matthew Gallatin from his Seven Day Adventist youth through fundamental evangelicalism and the Jesus Movement (he was a Cavalry Chapel pastor) to Eastern Orthodoxy. As you can imagine, Gallatin has had quite the spiritual journey. In fact, it was this spiritual journey that made the book so interesting and readable. One could see themselves taking the same journey and asking the same questions. I know it made me stop and think about my beliefs and traditions…. more so then any other book in recent times… A major strengthen of the book is its honest look at Protestantism. Gallatin questions the underlining worldview of the Protestant faith – namely the reliance of Scripture alone and the right of the individual to interpret Scripture. Most Protestants would fight to the death on the principle of Sola Scripture – yet, in reality, no one can stand on just the Scripture. Everyone who reads the Scriptures brings something to the table – the writings of Calvin, Luther, Dobson, or those of the first century. The real question is how you interpret Scripture – not whether you stand on Scripture alone. Continue reading Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells by Matthew Gallatin  What Every Orthodox Christian Should Know As you might have guessed from some of my previous posts, I have been reading some books about the Eastern Orthodox Church. It has been really cool and challenging to wade through their theology and literature. When I say, “their literature” – I mean books written by them, and not book written about them. This is an important point as I have found that most books written about a particular branch of Christianity is typically slated in favor of the writer, who is usually not part of that particular branch. Books written by Orthodox priests and/or believers, on the other hand, usually gives one a good inside look into that branch of Christianity. I acquired several of these “insider” books by accident last year while on the way to South America. During our lay over in LA, we had lunch in a hotel next to the airport – which just so happened to be hosting an Eastern Orthodox leaders conference. Being myself, I struck up a conversation with some of the priests and before I knew it they were giving me a bunch of books and telling everyone that I was “close”. The Eastern Orthodox Church has fascinated me for years. They were the one church that remained faithful to the Teachings of the Apostles when all others broke apart and drifted into darkness. Unfortunately, the believers in the West do not know much about the Orthodox Church – shoot, I heard one man this [...] How do you express the emotions within? Sometimes it is hard to find the words that reflex the twisting and turning of one’s emotions…. God has been stretching me this week in two different ways. The first way is through a book about Eastern Orthodox Church written by a former Calvary Chapel pastor who [...] |
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In some ways, Ultimate Things by Dennis Engleman is a fitting end to a year of eschatological studies. 
One must be careful when studying history – for history can be likened to a wild tiger with sharp teeth and bared claws.
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