Christianity in Eastern Russia

We download and listen to a variety of Christian podcasts. One of the most fascinating this past week was "The Catholic Church in Eastern Russia". The podcast was a great summary of the revival of the Church in Russia. The program starts with an overview of the demographic collapse of Russia. Then the effects of Communism on the Russian family is discussed. The plight of Russian orphans and "unheld babies" follows. The last half of the podcast is a question and answer period with calls from listeners during the original radio broadcast. Click the arrow below to launch a flash MP3 player with the podcast.



Some of the ear and mind candy includes:

- The Great Russian Far East is one and a half times the size of the continental United States.

- Every year the Russian population is 800,000 fewer than the year before. That's the equivalant of losing an urban city like San Franciso each and every year.

- The primary cause of the decline is the high death rate from alcoholism and traffic accidents. The life expectancy of a Russian is 57 for both males and females.

- Russia was the first country to legalize abortion in 1921.

- Fewer than 10% of Russian orphans have any chance of a normal life. Most orphans end up dead in their 20's from drug abuse and crime.

- If you are older than 50 in Russia, then you know nothing about religion, of any sort.

- Fewer than one half of one percent (.5%) of the population practice any religion whatsoever. The criteria for practicing is attending church or synogogue two or more times each year. Those figures includes the Russian Orthodox Church.

- About 75% of the population has been baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church. That's a dramatic increase from about 10% just 20 years ago. However, most baptised Russians were baptised without even 5 minutes of instruction in the Christian faith. Most of the newly baptised never go back to church ever again, not even for weddings or burials!

The podcast really makes one appreciate the gift of faith that has been passed down from generation to generation in the Western world. We hope you'll take time to listen to the entire podcast.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Matthew 28:19

Related Posts:
Demographic Winter
Easter Food Blessing - An Ancient Polish Custom

Source: Mary Mother of God Mission Society, Vladivostok

Orthodox Church in America Increasing

Kendall Harmon of the Anglican blog TitusOneNine, a CAS must read, notes a recent USA Today article on a welcome trend among the Orthodox Church in America. Namely, their congregations are increasing. Not only are they increasing, but the congrgeations are swelling with both Catholic and Reformation Christian converts.

According to a study by the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute in Berkeley, CA, 29% of Greek Orthodox in America are converts. Amazingly, as many as 56% of clergy among the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) are converts.

A commenter Ad Orientem on TitusOneNine noted:

"The fundies generally come to Orthodoxy when they start discovering church history. By which I mean the part between the end of the New Testament and Martin Luther / John Calvin. To read the Fathers is to end forever the weird ideas that so called “Bible Christians” have about things like sola scriptura etc. I have yet to meet a fundamentalist Protestant who was well read in the Fathers and early Church history. It is absolutely impossible to square Protestantism with the faith of the first millennium."

If you'd like your voice to be part of the discussion, click over to TitusOneNine. Don't forget to set a bookmark while you're there.


Related Posts:
Pew and the U.S. Religious Landscape
Ordination Prayer for Women Deacons Differs

Source: Study finds more U.S. Orthodox Christian converts

The Great Commission

This past Sunday was Ascension Sunday on the liturgical calendar and the Gospel reading was the Great Commission in Matthew.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.."
Matthew 28:16-20

It occurred to me in church Sunday, while I stood and heard these words proclaimed aloud that many Christians were familiar with the first two imperatives of Christ, but few seemed to faithfully follow the third imperative. The three imperatives are:

make disciples of all nations

Overall, Christians have done well spreading the Good News and converting all nations to Christianity. However, are we fulfilling the Great commission to make disciples? Converts are not necessarily disciples. Note how often the Bible refers to Jesus and his disciples and not Jesus and his converts. Who was called a disciple in the Bible? The Apostles, not the crowds that followed. In order to make disciples, we need to be faithfully be implementing the third directive in the Great Commission.

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Catholics and Orthodox immediately recognize these words, as most are recited while making the ancient sign of the cross and recalling their own baptism. Here we have a command from Christ to baptise using a "Trinitarian" formula. Seems pretty clear to me and its also well documented in Christian writings from the Didache forward as THE words for baptism. How some congregations continue to baptise in Jesus name only, I will never understand.

teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you

When you hear someone mention the Great Commission, do you immediately think "obey everything I have commanded you"? I didn't. "Make disciples" and "baptise" are what pop into my mind. In fact Sunday, I was almost shocked to hear that there was a third part to the Great Commission.

Obey everything. Its somewhat difficult to obey everything when one may not know everything Jesus commanded. This where my beef with "sufficiency" and "essential" and "non-essential" doctrines comes from. Jesus didn't equivocate. Sufficient is not everything. Sufficient is some lower level. Ditto for non-essentials. According to this portion of the Great Commission there is no such thing as a non-essential. The third imperative is clear: "obey everything I have commanded".

So, let us all go forth making disciples by teaching them everything, so they may obey everything that Christ commanded.

 

Christian Apologetics for Muslims

VirtueOnline, an Anglican blog, has a very good post on Fr. Zakaria Botros, a Coptic priest, who is having very good results with his own TV show aimed at Muslims in Arabic lands. In fact, Fr. Zakaria is having so much success that he has drawn a lot of Isamic hatred and disdain.

While many of us Christian Apologists don't have access to satelitte TV or are fluent in Arabic, we can adopt the third leg of Fr. Zakaria's system -- irrefutable polemics.

A third reason for Botros's success is that his polemical technique has proven irrefutable. Each of his episodes has a theme -- from the pressing to the esoteric -- often expressed as a question (e.g., "Is jihad an obligation for all Muslims?" "Are women inferior to men in Islam?" "Did Mohammed say that adulterous female monkeys should be stoned?" "Is drinking the urine of prophets salutary according to sharia?"). To answer the question, Botros meticulously quotes -- always careful to give sources and reference numbers -- from authoritative Islamic texts on the subject, starting from the Koran; then from the canonical sayings of the prophet -- the Hadith; and finally from the words of prominent Muslim theologians past and present -- the illustrious ulema.

Typically, Botros's presentation of the Islamic material is sufficiently detailed that the controversial topic is shown to be an airtight aspect of Islam. Yet, however convincing his proofs, Botros does not flatly conclude that, say, universal jihad or female inferiority are basic tenets of Islam. He treats the question as still open -- and humbly invites the ulema, the revered articulators of sharia law, to respond and show the error in his methodology. He does demand, however, that their response be based on "al-dalil we al-burhan," -- "evidence and proof," one of his frequent refrains -- not shout-downs or sophistry.

More often than not, the response from the ulema is deafening silence -- which has only made Botros and Life TV more enticing to Muslim viewers.

Note that Fr. Zakaria is not attacking Muslims for worshippind a false "moon" God or for disbelieving in the triune nature of God. Anyone seeking to engage Muslims and Islamic clerics in Christian apologetics would do well to read this article and to study Fr. Zakaria's methods and arguements. The article includes a link to Fr. Zakaria's website.

UPDATE

Fr. Zakaria has a website in English. Under his Books link, Fr. Zakaria provides the text of his arguments in both Word and PDF formats. Recommend fellow Christian apologists bookmark Fr. Zakaria's site.

Source: Islam's "Public Enemy #1"

Apologetics - Perpetual Virginity of Mary

One of the reasons, there aren't daily updates to the CAS blog is that I devote considerable time responding to apologetic errors on other blogs. This morning, I discovered a well meaning Christian, who obviously spends much time dwelling in and on the Word, posting against the Christian doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary. Yes, I said Christian. The doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary is a universal Christian doctrine dating back to the earliest days of the Church. It is not uniquely Roman Catholic.

Our earnest brother (or sister) in Christ says "...we gather that Jesus had at least four brothers and some sisters from Mary, his mother! Mary was not a perpetual virgin." Our brother bases his arguement on Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3.

”Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?”
Matthew 13:55

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?”
Mark 6:3

Of these passages, our brother says; "The context alone provides plain evidence that Christ had actual blood brothers and sisters. The Catholic Church, however, denies the context." Does the Catholic Church deny that context? Absolutely! Not just the Catholic Church at Rome, but all the Eastern Catholic Churches as well.

Does any other Christian Church deny the context? Why yes, thank you for asking. All of the Orthodox Churches also deny the context and hold the Christian doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary.

Did any of the Reformers deny the context and hold the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary? Yes, all of them did.

Luther wrote on the Virginity of Mary: "It is an article of faith that Mary is Mother of the Lord and still a virgin.(Weimer's The Works of Luther, English translation by Pelikan, Concordia, St. Louis, v. 11, pp. 319-320; v. 6. p. 510.)

John Calvin wrote of Mary's perpetual virginity: "Helvidius displayed excessive ignorance in concluding that Mary must have had many sons, because Christ's 'brothers' are sometimes mentioned." {Harmony of Matthew, Mark & Luke, sec. 39 (Geneva, 1562), vol. 2 / From Calvin's Commentaries, tr. William Pringle, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1949, p.215; on Matthew 13:55}

Ulrich Zwingli wrote of Mary's perpetual virginity: "I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin." (Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Berlin, 1905, v. 1, p. 424.)

John Wesley wrote of Mary's perpetual virginity: "The Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as when she brought him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin." (Wesley, Letter to a Roman Catholic, 1749)

Why do most of the world's Christians still continue to hold and teach the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary? Because denial of the doctrine pulls the rug out from beneath the doctrine of the divinity of Christ. Islamic apologists, atheists, and cultists see the denial of Mary's perpetual virginity as the gateway to disproving the divinity of Christ. They argue, if Mary had seven children and these six are human, then the seventh is human as well. Therefore, Christianity is a sham as it is built on a lie. God is one and there is no Trinity. Allah Ahkbar!

The denial of the perpetual virginity of Mary was a heresy made popular by Helvidius during the early Christian Church. My favorite reply to Helvidius was made by the one man who surely knew the true context of Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3. Jerome. Yes, the very same Jerome who translated the Bible from Greek and knew the meaning of adelphos. Jerome's Against Helvidius is the classic apologetic for the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. Its a shame that more Christians have not read it. Our brother doesn't even mention Jerome in his apologetic for the heresy.

However, Jerome was not alone and apologies were written by: Athanasius (Alexandria, 293-373); Epiphanius (Palestine, 315?-403);Augustine (Numidia, now Algeria, 354-430); and Cyril (Alexandria, 376-444).

So how do we as modern day Christians follow Jerome, the early Church fathers, and the Reformers in responding to those mis-informed brothers and sisters (adelphos) that have rediscovered the error of Helvidius and now embrace a dangerous heresy? Bible believing Christians, knowing the inerrency of scripture, should respond with charity and kindness by focusing on these main points:

First it is important to note that the Bible does not say that these "brothers and sisters" of Jesus were children of Mary. Only Jesus is said to be the son of Mary.

Second, the word for brother (or sister), adelphos (adelpha) in Greek, denotes a brother or sister, or near kinsman. Our brother in Christ stated "In the Greek text, the word “brother” is adelphos, which literally means “from the womb,” indicating these are Christ’s brothers from His mother." But how is adelphos actually used in scripture?

In the Bible, the word adelphos is used for:
(1) male children of the same parents (Mt 1:2);
(2) male descendants of the same parents (Acts 7:23);
(3) male children of the same mother (Gal 1:19);
(4) people of the same nationality (Acts 3:17);
(5) any man, a neighbor (Lk 10:29);
(6) persons united by a common interest (Mt 5:47);
(7) persons united by a common calling (Rev 22:9);
(8) mankind (Mt 25:40);
(9) the disciples (Mt 23:8); and
(10) believers (Mt 23:8).
(From Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Thomas Nelson, Publisher.)

Third, a strong proof text against the Helvidian Heresy is John 19:26-27.

When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
John 19:26-27

Jesus, the perfect Jewish son and fulfiller of the Law of Moses, would not have violated Jewish law by giving his mother over to the care of John if Mary had any other children. Our brother may have overlooked John 19:26-27 or not connected the passage with Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 since they are all in different books.

Many modern Christians in their zeal to disprove Catholicism are embracing dangerous heresies that our early Church fathers fought hard to extinguish. Christians must be careful to learn the history of Christianity and what doctrines have always been held by Christians. There are numerous collections of non-canonical writings by the earliest Christians available to us. I often use the Christian Classics Ethereal library collection. If you have not discovered this treasure of ante-Nicene Bible commentaries and "Sunday school" lessons, I encourage you to visit and read.

Source: Was Mary A Perpetual Virgin?

Protestants Following Trent On Easter

Did Spring start on Friday, March 21st? Are you or your Church celebrating Easter this year on Sunday, March 23rd? If so, then you and your church are following the Council of Trent. Although reknown for speaking against the Reformation, the Council of Trent also set the date for the start of Spring and determined the method for setting the date for Easter Sunday.

The original method for determining the date of Easter Sunday was established at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. The council decreed that Easter shall be observed on a Sunday, and on the Sunday following the first full moon after the Vernal (Spring) Equinox. This method was followed by all Christians, both Western and Eastern.

Regarding Trent, Andrew Tevington, assistant pastor at the United Methodist Church of the Servant in Oklahoma City, writes "For purposes of determining Easter's date, the Council of Trent decreed spring would always begin March 21."

So, if you rejoiced on the 21st of March that Spring had at long last finally arrived or if the morning of March 23rd found you worshipping on Ressurection Sunday, you did so because you follow the Council of Trent. You may not agree with all the the Council of Trent had to say, but on some of Trent, you do consent.

Oh, one other thing. That calendar on your desk or hanging on your wall. It's Gregorian. Named after Pope Gregory XIII who, after the Reformation, in 1582 ordered the advancement of the calendar by 10 days and introduced a new corrective device to curb further errors. America adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752.

Source: Solar, lunar calendars alter holy days' timing

Ordination Prayer for Women Deacons Differs

Finalmente! At long last, I have had the "Ah ha!" moment and can now explain and prove the difference in male and female deacons from the early Church. The answer lies within the two different prayers found within the existing Orthodox faith. God bless the poster on the troparion to Saint Phoebe the Deaconess on the Peter Akinola blog and for commenter 7 for pointing to anastasis.org.uk .

ORDER FOR THE ORDINATION OF A WOMAN DEACON

Holy and All-powerful God, through the birth in flesh of your Only-begotten Son and our God from a Virgin you sanctified woman, and granted not only to men but also to women the grace and visitation of the Holy Spirit. Now, Master, look upon this servant of yours also, call her to the work of your service and send down upon her the rich gift of your Holy Spirit. Guard her in your Orthodox faith in a blameless way of life in accordance with what is well pleasing to you, as she fulfils her ministry at every moment.

ORDER FOR THE ORDINATION OF A DEACON

Lord, our God, by your foreknowledge you send down the gift of your Holy Spirit upon those who are appointed by your inscrutable power to become ministers and to assist in the service of your most pure Mysteries.

Did you spot the difference? Only the male deacon is ordained to minister and to assist in the Eucharist (pure Mysteries). Female deacons are ordained to the work of service, which does NOT include the Eucharist. This difference in ordination prayers aligns the two groups of deacons perfectly with the historic position of deacons within the Church. The work of service for female deacons consisted largely of assisting female converts during baptism. (Early Christians were naked during baptism, just like modern day Copts are naked during baptism.)

The Roman Catholic Womenpriests have devoted considerable space to providing the ordination rite for Deaconesses and to their comparison to the ordination of male deacons. On first glance, the presence of an ordination rite for women deacons and a comparison chart showing "identical" rites seems to be prima facia evidence for the sacramental ordination of women deacons. Except, the writer of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests text omitted mentioning that the ordination prayers are distinctly and sacramentally different between male and female deacons. This omission may be either accidental or deliberate. We'll have to take the more charitable stance and assume that this was accidental. If accidental, then the comparison table will eventually be corrected to mention the difference in ordination prayeer.

So, it doesn't matter one iota that an ordination rite exists or how similar the two ordinations rites are or even how many icons of Phoebe depict her wearing a deacons stole, there was and still is a major difference in the ordination rites of male and female deacons.

Source: ORDER FOR THE ORDINATION OF A WOMAN DEACON