THE FATE OF EVANGELICAL APOSTATES INTO ORTHODOXY
Every now and again we hear of a person becoming an apostate and leaving the Evangelical Faith to join the Eastern Orthodox religion. Ironically, perhaps even mega ironically, this brings up theological and doctrinal issues that expose conversion to Orthodoxy as the apostasy it really is. So let us examine the issues and see how it highlights the underpinning errors of Orthodoxy.
WHEN WERE YOU BORN AGAIN?
Let us suppose a person leaves an Evangelical house group church (the nearest modern day equivalent of the first church) and walks across the road to a big newly built Orthodox "church", full of swinging thuribles of incense, an avalanche of icons, gold leaf, uniforms, repeated prayers, reading off cards, golden chalices etc. The person "marvels" at all the trappings of religion, and is deceived and decides to convert or be subverted into Orthodoxy. (wherefore didst thou marvel?)
The first thing he finds out is unlike the Evangelical Christian Faith, he is not part of the church immediately by his simple belief in Christ (John 3:16). He is in effect suddenly "the laity", contrary to the scripture Matthew 23:8 (ye are all brethren) under the power of "the cloth", a priest, as to whether or not he is "allowed" by him to "join" the so called church. To get into the church he must go through a process found nowhere in scripture, a "catechumen" period to see if he is suitable (suitably indoctrinated in heresies) to be confirmed (another thing non existent in the new testament) and then triple baptized (again unbiblical) triple exorcised (again unbiblical) and then chrismated (more total heresy outside of scripture). This then supposedly leads to him being born again, sometimes referred to as regenerated. Of course none of this is in Acts 8, where the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized there and then on the spot, leading one to wonder if it was the early Nicolaitane style heretics who tried to remove this scripture from the bible, as evidenced in the corrupted Alexandrian text.
So let us say the person submits to all the man made rituals of Orthodoxy, that are designed to show a convert you are the laity, they are men of the cloth, the clergy - in other words the Nicolaitane style heresy, a laity and a clergy, where they have "power over the laity". (note: priests are non existent in the ministries - 1 Cor 12:28 - Christ died once for all. Evangelicalism teaches the priesthood of all believers in that they offer up spiritual sacrifices of praise, worship to God, nothing to do with "a mass").
You then meet this apostate from the the true spiritual Faith, the born again house group movement, into the ritual ridden counterfeit faith of Orthodoxy, as he walks along the street. He has not been reading the holy bible much, as he is far too busy becoming familiar with the spurious writings of a herd of Orthodox pseudo saints (the diversion tactic of the devil, along with their bogus rendering of history). You discuss his conversion (subversion) with him, then ask him a simple question that is shocking in its difficulty to answer:
"When were you born again?"
If this person was already born again through the gospel and preaching of the Evangelical Faith, why does he need to cross over the road and start reading off cards to worship God?
stance 1
If he is a son of God by spiritual rebirth in Evangelicalism (preachers of the Good News) he is in a state of salvation (if he died then he would go into Paradise eternally with Christ). Why does a born again person in a state of salvation need some person in a uniform, doing rituals, and an exorcism on him, saying quote:
"The Lord rebukes you! O Devil!"
"O Devil..... and all the powers that work with you....depart from him!"
"O Lord.... expel from him all the workings of the devil.....rebuke the impure spirits and banish them......Amen!"
Well now ...... let us suppose you answer:
stance 2
"He needs to cross over to the Orthodox church, because he WAS NOT born again in the Evangelical church."
Ah well ........ that at least is making a stand. Fine. So the Evangelical "Jesus Saves" gospel is therefore WRONG according to the Orthodox. It does not save. It is ANOTHER GOSPEL that does not lead to spiritual rebirth. Well I feel just fine when people are clear and make their open stance on doctrine, theology and what the quote "gospel by which we are saved" is. So we have it plain. The Evangelical gospel by which we are saved is NOT the same as the Orthodox "way of salvation". Now we have it clear then.
What this apostate is saying then, if he adopts this second view, is that he was formerly not saved, not born again, not a Christian, and not a true believer in Evangelicalism. So we are dealing here with a person who says he has been religiously deceived all his life, not a true Christian at all. So why would anyone think he was not doing that now then, with a track record of insincerity like his? He wants to convince you to step outside the bible into a land of man made rituals, uniforms, and religious trappings like embellished buildings and fancy thuribles, and icons with weirdly distorted almost alien faces, with halos around their heads more like space helmets than anything in the bible. No thanks. But thanks for making it clear if you adopt stance 2 that its a straight choice between Heaven and Hell between Evangelicalism and Orthodoxy....... ah but I was forgetting, the Orthodox don't actually believe in Hell. They cannot even get that right.
LET US GET IT CLEAR!
Let us make the situation clear. Very clear! We have two different gospels here. One born in Heaven and one in Hell. I openly renounce now the Orthodox Faith and its tri--synergist false gospel. The only thing an Orthodox bishop's crown makes me want to do is to stamp it into powder. What an insult all that gold is to those living in poverty in Greece and Russia, while in Greece they defraud the public of their money with a funeral scam worthy of the Mafia. Jesus tread on the head of the serpent and it bruised his heal he defeated Satan so completely, and he has given us power to defeat all spiritual deceptions. We defeat in Jesus name their uniforms, their clockwork lying liturgies, their addiction to heathen calendars, and the quagmire of man made rituals, exorcisms, chrismations and bogus cannibalisations. It is all man made religion.
Let us see then who goes into the Kingdom of Heaven forever and who goes to Hell! Orthodoxy is so totally unlike the bible's description of the first church anyone who is deceived by it must be totally spiritually blind. It is rather obviously described in Revelation 18. The various Orthodox churches are not churches at all - they are the daughters of the Whore of Babylon, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. They have followed after the Roman corruptions of the Faith that found their final fulfilment in their real leader Constantine the Great. We follow Jesus not Constantine. We preach the real good news! The just shall live by Faith, and salvation is in Christ alone! His work on the cross and the resurrection was complete! We don't need the add-ons of Orthodoxy!