Our Homecoming
Going on 14 years ago, when my wife and I had decided to become Orthodox Christians, I began writing this essay called "Our Homecoming." It's been updated a few times since then: I added some things, improved the format, and fixed two "dead" links that had new web addresses. You'll notice the latest update is the same day as I'm writing this article. You can read it online and also download it for free as a 26-page PDF.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Why on earth would an older Evangelical couple who had spent most of their working lives involved in foreign missions decide to become Orthodox Christians? Was it the "Stockholm Syndrome" that some captives experience while being held hostage or as a prisoner? A few people have suggested this syndrome to me. After all, we had been Evangelical missionaries to Russia for 17 years! But such syndromes fade away after several months of freedom, and we had returned to the U.S. in October 2007, becoming Orthodox in December 2008, not in Russia but in the U.S. where Orthodox Christians are less than 1% of the population. And now, after almost 14 years, we're still Orthodox. No, the "Stockholm Syndrome" doesn't fit us.
The word "orthodox" means "right praise" or "true worship" – like when people go to the orthodontist to have their teeth straightened, or to an orthopedic surgeon to have their bone structure corrected. So... what is "true worship" anyway? Allow me to quote just a few paragraphs from the above essay:
In Eph. 4:3-6 we read - "being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all." Many other Bible texts stress the oneness of the Body of Christ. The Eastern Church believes that "one body" means one visible, united Church. In contrast, Paul writes in Gal. 5:20 that "strife... divisions, heresies" are works of the flesh, right along with adultery, murder, drunkenness and gluttony, and he writes, "those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God" (v. 21). So strife and division are just as serious "mortal" sins as is heresy. When Western toleration is taken to the extreme that all viewpoints are equally acceptable and true, we've crossed the line into approving of theological and moral relativism, strife, divisions and heresies.
In the West, if we disagree with others in church, we often will simply start a new church, denomination or an un-denomination. But because strife and divisions are just as serious sins as heresies, the Eastern Church looks upon "sectarians" who split away from the Church as just as sinful as "heretics" whose doctrines may deny the Trinity (Molokans, United Pentecostal Church, Children of God, Witness Lee movement, etc.), even though they may have fairly orthodox doctrines, or deny the unique God-manhood of Christ (Arianism, Nestorianism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons). And because the tsar or emperor was blessed by the patriarch or pope as the protector of the Church, the clergy could call upon state power to put down both "sectarians" and "heretics." The enforcement of Church teachings with state power gradually diminished in the West after the Protestant Reformation led to Western Europe's population being decimated by decades of religious wars, which finally caused the Austro-Hungarian Emperor to issue an Edict of Toleration. So it may not be such a tragedy that there has never been a Reformation in Russia: it may have been spared decades of religious wars. All of this at least partially explains why there is a lack of western-style "religious toleration" in the former USSR.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims all believe God is one, not many. But which one is the true God? That is our free choice. Religious freedom, however, includes the chance of being wrong. Historically, those who have claimed to know all truth absolutely have tended to force others to accept their beliefs. But ecclesiastical and doctrinal authority should not extend to all of society, only within that religious organization. There should be true religious toleration – but not syncretism – in today's multi-cultural society, because having one state-enforced religious confession brings only superficial unity at the price of insincere belief. True belief can't be forced, or else it leads to unbelief. President Eisenhower, when Americans were deciding to put "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, stated the matter with secular clarity: "Our government makes no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith – and it doesn't matter which one." No, it matters very much which one is true, but it is not within the domain of the state to tell its citizens which faith is the true one.
So religious toleration in society needs to be carefully framed something like this: "The state upholds freedom of religious belief, confession and practice, and cannot enforce only one or a few religious confessions. This does not mean, however, that the state supports the idea that all belief systems are equally true, that no belief system is ultimately true, or that only unbelief is true." Each person's right to believe does not make wrong beliefs right, rather, the freedom to choose inherently includes the possibility of making wrong choices. But we acknowledge that religion has historically played a leading role in forming society's laws and morals. Laws assume moral standards, so it is impossible to keep religion and morality private, because religious beliefs or the lack of them affect all of human behavior, both public and private. Therefore the state should encourage all citizens, including those with religious beliefs, to participate in the formulation of morals and laws.
Have you ever noticed what Phil. 4:4-7 tells us about Enthusiasm, Efficiency and Effectiveness?
Enthusiasm: Phil. 4:4 – "Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, Rejoice!" The word "enthusiasm" comes from Greek "en theos" – "in God." If we try to find happiness in material things or merely human relationships, we will eventually be disappointed. But we can find true happiness, joy, only in God. We need enthusiasm in order to get anything done. Psychologists tell us that without a healthy emotional-volitional condition, people can't make rational decisions: emotionally flat or "labile" people simply flip-flop around: "Should I do this, or maybe that? I don't know, I just can't decide." Only the Lord can give us real joy, "en-theos-iasm," the emotional charge we need to get going in the right direction.
Efficiency: Phil. 4:5 – "Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." Some modern translations put "gentleness" in place of "moderation" but I firmly believe that "moderation" is the correct translation of the Greek word "epieikes" – simply look at the context, verses 11-13, where Paul writes about living a moderate lifestyle. Moderation or efficiency means to "lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us" (Heb. 12:1), not being overloaded with excess baggage. In order for cars to run efficiently, they should be kept tuned up, but first of all they must be built with a strong enough frame, yet as light as possible in order to get good gas mileage. Similarly, we should keep our bodies in shape, "tuned up" by sufficient rest and the right kind of exercise, but also shed those extra pounds that drag us down, make us tired and inefficient, and eventually cause breakdowns. We should also shed the extra baggage of too many material possessions: each added thing requires time and resources to maintain it, polish it, clean it, etc. Often, "less is more" – having fewer things gives us more time for what is really important: koinonia-fellowship or communion with God and with other people (1 John 1:3-7).
Effectiveness: Phil. 4:6-7 – "In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." It's quite possible, you know, to have efficiency without effectiveness. Efficiency is doing things right, but effectiveness is doing the right thing. You've doubtless heard of the husband driving the family on vacation down the wrong highway. He was being very efficient, getting great gas mileage, but was on the wrong road. Being anxious about this, that and the other thing, chasing down every rabbit trail of worry and fear, "What if such-and-such? I'd better take care of it!" – such excessive anxiety, messing around with little secondary details that could just as well be left alone, wastes time and keeps us from doing the main thing, worshiping and serving the Lord. When I was a systems analyst, I learned the rule: "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." How can we avoid the rabbit trails and keep on the main track? "The peace of God... will guard your hearts (emotions) and your thoughts (reason)." The Greek word for "guard" is "phroureo" – "to be a watcher in advance." Like an advance scouting party or a lookout, the Holy Spirit knows in advance, beyond our understanding, what's coming down the road in the future, and He can guard and guide us in making the right decisions, if we listen to His voice and let Him guide us.
Is There One Right Way To Worship?
The right thing, the main thing is worshiping and serving the Lord, so what's the "effective" way, the right way to do that? Let's take a look at James 1:22-25. James, the brother of Jesus, writes, "But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the word, this man will be blessed in what he does." So how do we worship and serve the Lord? By doing what the Lord says, not merely singing hymns, listening to sermons or reading the Bible, but by applying the Word of God to daily life.
The last two verses, 26-27, tell us – "If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." The Russian word for "religion" here is "reverence," which stirred my curiosity: what is the original Greek word? It is threskeia, which means ceremonial service of religion, various observances practiced by the Egyptian priests, such as wearing linen, practicing circumcision, shaving, etc. It is derived from threomai, to mutter forms of prayer, and often when it is used in the NT it often carries a negative connotation, but not always. If our religious habits and rituals, whether praying, fasting, singing hymns, preaching, listening to or reading the Bible, do not lead us into practical ministry to orphans, widows and other needy people and into leading a holy and pure life, that kind of religion is worthless. James apparently got his idea for this text from the Old Testament, Ezek.33:30-33, where the prophet Ezekiel says that people come to hear the words of the Lord simply for entertainment, just like listening to someone sing or play a flute, but they don't do them.
This James was the one who presided at the Council of Jerusalem, when the Apostles and Early Church were debating whether Christians must observe the Law of Moses, see Acts 15:5-21 especially 19-21, where he said, "Therefore my judgment is that we don't trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood. For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath." So the Gentiles didn't have to observe the whole Law of Moses, just basic morality and cleanliness, but the Jewish Christians could continue to attend the synagogue and practice its religious rituals. The heart of the issue isn't how to or whether to observe religious rituals or not, but to lead a holy and pure life, and as St. Paul adds in his description of this event (Gal. 2:9-10), "to remember the poor."
I hope these few paragraphs whet your appetite so that you'll read the whole essay and maybe even download the PDF to share it with others.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
The Old Testament tells us that God will not destroy the world again by a flood (Genesis 9:11). But the unprecedented heat waves and fires around the world signal something else to us. The New Testament says it will be by fire next time. Look what just happened: