Can it really be TRUE?

Can it BE?

I think it's normal to be skeptical of the idea that one church claims to be "the true church" of Christ. Goodness, many denominations try to make that claim without a leg to stand on, and those of us who have enjoyed a "nondenominational" status get sick of hearing about it. 

But....what if, just as a child waking on Christmas morning to discover they really did get a pony - that unthinkable dream - what if we could imagine for a moment that the original church of our Lord and Savior still exists today? What if we can say prayers and sing songs that were spoken by the apostles in the early years of the Christian church? What if we could put down our defenses and trust without question (the way we trust the Bible!) that our church doctrine and tradition is sound and full of life. The first time I imagined this idea it took my breath away! I realized I had become a bit cold and calloused, assuming that it was just our lot in life to wrestle with doctrinal discrepancies, hoping to make the best of them with as much wisdom as we could muster. 

But when I was shown another path...it was such a delight. I hope, somehow, I can communicate that delight in small ways through this blog. For starters, it feels as though the secret wish I never dared to utter has been fulfilled: there is a Church that stands firm before me, as it has since its inception. My heart leaps to think that I could dare to trust that Church as a gift from God, just as I trust the Bible as being divinely inspired. 

I Always Thought we NEEDED Reform...

I always believed that the early church was a mystery to us, except what we are able to perceive by reading about it in the Bible. I believed that the church had been obscured and marred by man's own purposes - that the Catholic church took liberties outside of God's will and created a "works-based" religion that removed Christ from his rightful place at the center. 

The goal, then, was to "make it right." This is what the Reformers set out to do, and this was our task as well. Since sinful man will always stray away from the truth, we must "always be reforming" to be sure that we come back to our "true North" - the Bible. So, we're always reforming and re-reforming....until we've re-reformed ourselves into several thousand different Christian churches across the country. 

While I did always recognize that this was a little bit crazy, I didn't really think there was anything we could do about it. I mean, if the early church was still around, then there'd be no question of who is right, how to structure the church, and so on. But it's not around, so we just have to come before God with humble hearts and do the best we can using the Bible and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. (Interestingly, 1000 people can come at that same goal, using the same resources, and land on different results. And this is exactly what has happened.)

Here's the game-changer: What if the early church DOES still exist today? 

Each individual Orthodox church across the world can trace its lineage directly back to the time of the Apostles. (Can you believe that?) And what's more, while there HAVE been human failings and disputes, the original faith and the common practices of that faith seem to be completely in tact. Those disputes have not resulted in a broken and dismantled Orthodoxy. It's my understanding that they have been confronted and settled, with the common goal being to clarify existing doctrines and to defend original truth, but never to change them or add a new "more relevant" interpretation.  Even today, the original faith marches on. 

This sounds a good deal like Jesus's own description of his Church: "On this rock I shall build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not overcome it." 

This post, in a nutshell, is why I feel it's so important to explore Orthodoxy: If the claims of Orthodoxy are true, it's a game-changer for the rest of us.