Some Common Protestant Questions

[Theophan]

Greetings Everyone,

The Lord is with us - and always will be.

Below and attached are some common questions asked by Protestant Christians regarding some issues found in the more historic churches. Usually these topics are "Hot" and not only filled with emotion, but often based on miscommunication, misinformation and different definitions for the same words. My prayer is that those who hold these beliefs will have an understanding of them that can be discussed free of emotional defensiveness and Protestants will have a better understanding of why we practice some of the things we do. The person who sent these to me asked me to try and answer them in a way he could understand, having some trouble with concentration and not theologically sophisticated. He was basically raised in a charismatic Church more Charismatic than the 4 Square or Assembly of God Churches. BTW: I am still collecting questions, so send any my way as they might come to mind. If you do send them let me know if want an answer or are just adding to my question accounts. Your friend and brother in Christ, Gregory-Theophan 5 pages with 12 point font.

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February 27, 2010

2nd Saturday in Holy and Great Lent

Eve of the Feast of St. John Cassian the Roman (4th C. A.D.)

And St. Gregory Palamas Bishop of Thessalonica. (12th C. A.D.)

Dearest B______,

The Lord rewards those who diligently seek Him and walk in His ways.

I am so thrilled that you are rediscovering God, making the time “to search for His with all your heart – and He shall be found by you, if you seek Him and love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We know we have the requests we ask of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” I am also very privileged to be the one to attempt to answer questions of great depth and mystery in a way that you – or anyone else may be able to understand – maybe not everything about how things work, but at least the truth of them. “The secret things belong to the Lord, but the things revealed belong to us and our sons forever.” I am going to begin my answers now, but I may not finish it all in one sitting. I appreciate your willingness to wait as well as your patience in me and your faithful “waiting on God.”

1. The trinity how can one be begotten and not be created, or have a beginning? How did they come around and still be there at the beginning?

The best illustration is that of the Sun as an illustration of the Holy Trinity. This illustration was frequently used by the earliest of the Church Fathers. Just as the light (or ray) and the warmth of the sun occur simultaneously with the presence of the sun itself, yet are dependent on the sun, so is our Holy Triune God. The Father is the source of the begotten Son of God from all eternity and the Holy Spirit proceeding. The Father is the orb or sun itself. The Son is the Ray or light and the Holy Spirit is the warmth. While these last two members of the Trinity have their origin and source from the Father, they are also simultaneous with the Father without beginning.

2. Why do we need to confess to a Priest when we can confess to God? Only God can give redemptions right?


A) Only God can redeem us from sin and hell, but He chooses to use people to mediate this salvation and continued spiritual growth. He used a person to present the Gospel, to pray for others, to help the poor, the downcast, discouraged and spiritually ill. In John 20 our Lord breathed on the Apostles and said, “whose sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retain are retained.” This is one of the strongest passages indicating who God appointed to give assurance of sin to the repentant sinner, but there is a strong and long Biblical tradition for this. When someone sinned in the O.T. they brought the appropriate sacrifice or offering, laid their hand on the sacrifice and confessed their sins to the officiating priest. When the multitudes came to John the Baptist we are told that they confessed their sins to him.

B) And this carries on into the N.T. But the real fact of the matter is that we are confessing to God in the presence of the officiating priest not only because of the command, but because we are members of the one Body of Christ and every sin we commit is also a sin against the Church. The priest represents the Church in this manner and hears the sin, forgives the penitent, assures him of the Church’s forgiveness in God and true fellowship is restored.

C) There is another reason as well: the priest is in a sense, the pastor of the sheep, the father of that local church, and the physician to those ill with sins. During confession we reveal our sins as exposing a wound to a doctor and the priest gives us a prescription and therapy called penance. Only in the privacy of confession can the priest/pastor really get to know Christ’s sheep under his charge and offer individual and custom remedies for his self-tormenting sins.

D) There is also another reason to confess to God in the presence of the priest. After hearing our struggles he prays for us. It is no secret that the closer a person is to God, the more affective his or her prayers are. It is also no secret that those who are closest to God are those who make the most time for Him and His Kingdom. And, who spends more time with God than a priest or a monk or lay ascetic? No one. We need their prayers, compassion and healing remedies.

3. Purgatory is it really in the bible, and why doesn't other churches believe it? Does it really exist?

A) The teaching of purgatory has some potential clues in the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles but not the Protestant Bibles. The Protestants removed like a third of the Old Testament because they did not agree with what it taught or could be used to teach! Talk about arrogance. Basically one Bible for 1,500 years and along come the Protestant Reformers. Some, like Martin Luther also removed parts of the N.T. as well. Purgatory can possibly be inferred from certain passages, implied, but not explicit or obvious. In fact, purgatory as taught be Rome did not exist until 1438.

B) No other Churches teach the existence of purgatory whether Orthodox, Coptic, Ethiopian, or Protestant-in this you are quite correct. I will not answer for every group regarding why they do not believe, only the other historic churches such as Orthodox. We do not believe it exists firstly, because it was never taught by the Apostles or Church Fathers, Ecumenical Counsels before the split of East and West. This is the main reason. Another reason is that according to the Orthodox doctrine of salvation purgatory is not needed.

C) Does it really exist? It depends on who you ask. If you ask a Western or Eastern Rite Roman Catholic, maybe even an Anglo-Catholic, they will say “yes,” believing they have good evidence for this belief. If you ask others, they will say “no” believing they have the best of the argument.

4. Is jealously bad? If so why is God a jealous God?

A) There is are some words you need in your vocabulary in order to explain this answer. The words are “Passionate” and “Dispassionate.” Passions are ingrained habits or even second nature to sin in particular sins. “Passion” comes from a word meaning passive. In other words, when a person loses control of him or herself in a particular sin. The Bible calls these “besetting sins.”

B) God is never passive. He is always active, purposed and in control of Himself. We, on the other hand find ourselves giving ourselves over to fits of whatever our emotional sins may be.

C) The original words in both Hebrew and Greek translated “Jealous” are also translated as “zealous.” Zeal is compared to warmth, initiation, whole-heartedness, and other characteristics usually attributed to a parent or spouse. Thus God is a jealous or zealous God in His relationship to His people, yet, not in a sinful way as described above. He protects, chastises, guides, teaches and loves. We too are to follow the example of our Lord Jesus as our elder brother by grace and the His Father as our Father in Christ. We are called in many places to be zealous and especially zealous with knowledge. Those who are zealous without knowledge and control are sinning. Those who are diligent according to God are not sinning.

D) We can always test ourselves by how we feel inside. God never loses His Divine peace, nor did His Son when He took on human flesh. If we get stressed out about something, dejected, discouraged angry, possessive or whatever connected to our jealousy or zeal, then it is sinful jealousy or zeal.

E) Jealousy or zealously is neither good not bad in itself. It depends on how it is used.

5. A. Why can we pray to saint when we can pray to God. . .?

A) Why do you ask others to pray for you? I will bet you, like most Christians would rather have the prayers of the most holy, godly, and grace-filled persons you could find. Am I right? Some people are closer to God than others, which is obvious.

B) A beatified “Saint” is a Christian man or woman whose walk with God is well above the average; those who live Christ-like denying themselves, taking up their crosses and following Him. A Saint is a person who has literally crucified his flesh with its passions and lusts; who lives, yet Christ lives in him; who forgets those things behind (the world), counting them rubbish in order to gain Christ. A Saint is frankly one who lives a saintly life. The word “Saint” actually “means a holy one.” A Saint is one who literally has crucified himself to the world and the world to him; one who follows Christ as the Apostles and other early God-pleasers have throughout Church history.

C) So, I could ask you, “Why do you ask others to pray for you when you can pray to God yourself? Yep. That’s is what I thought.

D) Now consider the Body of Christ – the Church. We are one Body with many members and one head, who is Christ, who is in heaven praying on our behalf. If a person could gain such intimacy with God while still on this earth, and his or her prayers become so effectual – do you believe they will stop praying for those they care about when they are in Christ’s direct presence?

E) What does it mean to pray to a Saint? To pray in its simplest definition means to petition or ask someone for something. There are other kinds of prayer, but those are for another topic on another day. When we pray to a Saint, we are asking them to intercede or pray on our behalf, as we would if they were on earth. The main difference now is that they are “alive in Christ” in Paradise.

F) We ask (pray) to Saints to ask them to pray for us.

5 B. . . . and if the Devil can't do the things that God does like hear multiple prayers, and have multiple conversations at once and stuff like that how can Saints which started out as flesh and blood just like us do it?

A) You are making some assumptions which, if true, might have some merit, but the assumptions on which this part of the question are based are not true. The spiritual dimension is not the same as our familiar time-space continuum. Yes, the devil and demons, as well as angels and departed Saints are limited, especially compared to the infinite God. However, compared to our familiarity we are the limited ones.

B) Not only are one’s senses greatly heightened, but the very substance in which they live and move and have their being allows for almost instantaneous reception when our prayers are from a pure heart. The matter is called “ether,” of which science is finally catching up to what the Church has known all along. This ether is similar in content to the covering of our souls – which means that communication is exponentially more efficient. Picture a conference call. Everyone can hear everyone else, but only one person can be listened to at a time. In heaven this limitation is very much reduced as well as the ability to hear everyone as if simultaneously – but it really is not. It only seems that way compared from our vantage point.

C) Remember also, since God dwelt in them fully in this life, making them in experience “partakers of the divine nature,” how much more of this intimate interchange with God is amplified! One day when we die, we too shall experience this phenomena to the degree that we lived the apostolic life – the Apostle Paul wrote: “Follow me as I follow Christ.” In fact, those who lived in such a tight relationship with the Lord on earth began experiencing some of this while in the flesh through prophecy, words of knowledge, etc. If this was true on earth how much more in heaven?

6.A. How exactly are we made in God's image? Do animals have souls? Everyone looks different even different colors and all. How do we have God's image and why don't animals have God's image as well?

A) When God made Man, He blew His own breath into Man’s nostrils creating in man the attribute of His image: a rational soul and natural communion with the Holy Trinity. God did not give this image to animals. Animals are not sentient beings as we are.

B) This is different from Man’s likeness which is ethical maturation in grace, of growing up into all things in Christ – becoming god-like or godly.

C) There is a theological theory that animals that have a special relationship with saintly persons form a kind of soul and will be reunited in heaven. This is a theory and has some good points but I would not put my back against the wall to defend it.

7. Tell me about the Pope, what is his purpose, and why are churches like the orthodox so against him?


A) The term “Pope” simply translates as “Papa.” It is still a common term of endearment in the Middle Eastern Churches, and the English equivalent is still used, being “Father.”

B) In this context, the Pope is the bishop of Rome. Without going into a lot of detail about church government, there is basically one head bishop of a country, called a “Patriarch.” The bishop of Rome was/is the Patriarch of the West, whereas the bishop of Constantinople is the Patriarch of the East.

C) Orthodox do not have a problem with the Pope as the bishop of Rome. In fact, one of our main worship services, used every Lent is attributed to St. Gregory the Great, Pope of Rome. Most of the bishops of Rome and the West were highly venerated and respected before the split in 1054 (a convenient date, but is more complicated). It actually began before then when certain of the bishops of Rome wanted all the other bishops of other countries to submit to him as the head of the universal (Catholic) Church. One, in the 3rd century named Stephen was challenged by all of the North African bishops and had not the respect of his predecessor nor of his successor.

D) The problem is (according to the Orthodox position) when the Patriarch of the West began making unilateral decisions without consulting with his equals from other countries. He had full authority in his sphere of jurisdiction, but when he began attempting to subjugate the other bishops a decisive split occurred which has not been healed to this day – though I hold out hope that one day all the ancient churches will be reunited.

Conclusion

Well, that is as simple as I am able to make it for you. I hope these answers are satisfactory. Oh – just so you, I still devote great amounts of time to you, though not face to face. My letters range from 30 minutes to 7 hours (this letter). This does not include all the time I spend praying on your behalf. Please do not think I do not care as I once did – if anything, I care more. You are still classified in the priority category among several others. Then there is my B list, then C and then occasional event persons and acquaintances.

I know you will have more questions after reading these – shoot them back and I will reply as soon as I am able.



Your friend,

Christ’s servant,

Theophan