Modern Schism in Orthodoxy over Salvation.

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Contact with the Evangelical christian pastors, teachers and churches, and debates with them, has in recent years put the Orthodox "process of salvation" and "synergy of salvation" under such scrutiny their theology has started to fall apart. The result of this is there are now massive hidden divisions among the Orthodox over how salvation is actually achieved. To add to the complexity Catholic and Orthodox theology is very different, and the modern movement to bring the Catholics and the Orthodox closer together often means trying to modify unique Orthodox doctrines like "ancestral sin" and covertly alter the concept so it is more like original sin.

The result of this is, if you visit their websites and watch youtube videos. you will see about 10 different explanations of 10 different Orthodox salvations, as they try more an more to create various potpourri ways of salvation to sound more Evangelical, and modify their teachings to ironically sound more Catholic at the same time. This process must therefore ALWAYS mean that their messages of salvation are complicated, never simple, as if they are simple you can compare what they say side by side and prove their fraud. The fact is they have become ashamed of just how false their "process of salvation" really is. and how radically different to the definition of the gospel in 1 Cor 15:1-4 it is.

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A substitute sacrifice.

Some absolutely shocking comments are made by the Orthodox about the common Protestant belief about Jesus being a substitute sacrifice for us, the worst being comparisons with false gods demanding a human sacrifice to appease them. The Protestants who believe in the substitute sacrifice doctrine take it from God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son, and then, when Abraham was about to kill Isaac, God told him to stop, and that he would provide a sacrifice. They also believe that Jesus life was not "taken from him" he willingly offered himself for us, for "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins".

 

One absurd, yet crafty trick, I have heard the Orthodox use about the blood of Jesus washing away sins, is to say "Protestants therefore believe God is not a free will being, as Protestant doctrine is God cannot forgive sin without the shedding of blood". inserting the word "cannot" into the belief. Of course he can do as he pleases, God just chose to forgive our sins by this method, it was not some external moral principal outside of God's control dictating to God what he can and cannot do. The bible explains such crafty tricks by saying:

"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;" Ephesians 4:14.

What is more Jesus said:

"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father." John 10:17-18.

In other words Jesus chose to offer himself for our sins, it was not God demanding it because some external principal outside God's control was demanding it be done.

The tactic adopted by modern Orthodoxy, which I believe has its origin in demonic powers influencing them, is to try to make the simplicity of the gospel complex.

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So is it necessary to use the phrase "substitute sacrifice" in the explanation of "the gospel by which we are saved"? The answer to that is a definite no. But what is necessary is that we believe that Jesus "died for our sins" that is as John phrased it he "washed away our sins in his own blood" and that his resurrection saves us also. Prove the Orthodox do not believe that, or if they add works or priestcraft to that, and you prove they have a false gospel of salvation. The gospel "by which we are saved" is explained in 2 Cor 15:1-4.

 

 

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