Orthodox & Evangelical Beliefs

A young man from Greece attending Iowa State University asked me to explain how Orthodox and Evangelical beliefs differ. I touched on two or three points as best I could--and then dashed off an email to a friend in Athens who teaches theology at the Greek Bible College. Here's his explanation:

The main differences between the Greek Orthodox and Evangelical churches are:

1. Evangelicals believe that salvation (justification) is received by faith alone through Christ alone, whereas the Orthodox Church believes that salvation is gained by faith and works, through Christ and the church.

2. Evangelicals believe that the Bible (Old and New Testaments) is alone the authoritative word of God (sufficient for faith and practice), whereas the orthodox Church believes that the Bible is supplemented by Church tradition, which is equally authoritative and binding for the believer.

3. Evangelicals believe in the priesthood (and sainthood) of all believers, whereas the Orthodox Church believes in the distinction between priests and lay people, as well as the distinction between those that have accomplished sainthood and those that have not.

4. Evangelicals believe that the living believers do not have communion (communication) with the dead in Christ (thus we cannot pray to them), whereas the Orthodox Church believes that all living and dead believers have communion with each other, thus we can pray to the dead who have passed away.

5. Evangelicals believe in the substitutionary atonement of the death of Christ, which results in the immediate justification of the one who believes, whereas the Orthodox Church believes that the death of Christ accomplished only victory over sin and death (in general), which results in the empowerment of the believer to continually resist sin (and eventually gain salvation and be justified at the very end).

6. Evangelicals do not hold to the veneration of icons, whereas the Orthodox Church believes that the saints (or Mary) are spiritually present in the icons, and so their veneration is justified.

There are probably a few more differences (e.g., regarding the sacraments, regeneration, etc.), but the ones mentioned above are the main ones.

Now, when a Greek asks us the same question, we usually answer it in one of the following ways:

·   We redirect the question back to Christ, by telling them that the differences do not matter as much as it matters to know Christ personally and restore one’s relationship with God.

·   We mention one of the main differences, usually a more practical one (like we do not venerate icons), and then redirect them back to Christ.