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.

The Gospel in 155 Words

Jesus Christ, God’s Only Beloved Son, was sent into the world to be mankind’s Savior and Lord. Jesus lived a sinless life and then offered himself in the place of sinners upon the cross to bear the judgment of God’s holy wrath against sin for their sake. After he suffered and died, Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, having secured forgiveness, peace and eternal life with God for those who trust in him. God regards those who believe in Christ as righteous in His sight, for He credits the righteousness of Christ to the account of those who turn from sin and receive Jesus by faith. All of this—forgiveness, peace with God, righteousness and eternal life—come about, not by right thinking or good works, but only by the free grace of a just and loving God who chose to deliver from sin and death those who could never deliver themselves.

Growing Old Reaching High

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree….They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright.” Psalm 92:12, 14

I turn fifty-nine in a few days and I’m asking some of the same questions I asked as a young man. What am I going to do next? What do I need to know? Who will I learn from? What if I fail?

On the one hand, I see the sands in the hourglass piling at the bottom. If there is a holy sense of carpe diem, I feel it. Time is running out. What can I do today to love God and others better? How can I seize the opportunities and make each day count?

On the other hand, I see that more and more people are living to 90, even 100 years in good health. Perhaps I should be contemplating the possibility of quite a long life. And such a life will most certainly include some aches and pains and diminished capacities.

We naturally associate aging with frailty. But the Bible depicts old age as both a time of frailty and potential. Attitude makes a difference. J. Oswald Sanders said, “It’s attitude, not arteries, that determines the vitality of our maturing years.”

Moses thought to deliver his people from Egypt when he was 40, but he was 80 when God finally made it happen. Abram was 100 years old before God fulfilled the promise of a son he gave to Abram long before. Caleb was young when he spied out the Promised Land and saw a mountain he wanted for himself, but not until he was 85 years old, after enduring 40 years of testing in the wilderness, did God give Caleb a second chance to take that mountain. And at 85 Caleb was still eager to get after it:

And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.”  Joshua 14:10-12

Caleb had a vision that waited a long time, but finally God brought him back and he conquered the sons of Anak in the fortified cities of the hill country.

What’s your vision? Mine was always to become a faithful man of God--a person who reflects the character of Jesus and bears spiritual fruit in the lives of others. For me, mountain-taking is the daily overcoming of the world, the flesh and the devil through faith in Christ and the power of his Holy Spirit. When I was younger I did not realize how very difficult it is to do these things and do them consistently. And then after many setbacks I doubted that I would ever become a man of God.

So it has been strengthening for my faith to consider how Abraham, Moses and Caleb experienced fresh grace and blessing from the “God of the Second Chance” late in their lives. So also Job, “And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning” (Job 42:12).

For all we know the Sovereign Lord has ordered our lives in just such a way that only in our last years, after many failures and adversities have softened our hearts and humbled us and caused us to feel weak and dependent on God, are we able at last to move forward with the dreams of our youth and begin claiming the high country.

Grace Inexhaustible and Undeterred

It is good to sorrow over sin, and in our day when we are preoccupied with things of the world and find so little leisure for reflection, true sorrowing is perhaps rare. But we must also guard against the opposite danger and not allow the enormity of our sin to so overwhelm us that the small flame of our passion for God is quenched. In those cases, it is good to think of Jesus praying from the cross for those who proved faithless and abused him and stubbornly refused his love: “Father, forgive them.” 

 

“Men may flee from the sunlight to dark and musty caves of the earth, but they cannot put out the sun. So men may…despise the grace of God, but they cannot extinguish it.”  A.W. Tozer

“God never gave a believer a new heart that it should always lie a-bleeding, and that it should always be rent and torn in pieces with discouragements.” Thomas Brooks (1608-1680)