An Apology to the Eastern Orthodox Community

BY J.D. HALL

SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2017/04/21/an-apology-to-the-eastern-orthodoxy-community/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

As the owner and president of Pulpit & Pen, I feel that I need to
issue a public apology to the Eastern Orthodox community in regards to
my managing editor’s recent words. In a series of posts, Pulpit & Pen
editor, Jeff Maples, took it upon himself to essentially anathematize
the Bible Answer Man, Hank Hanegraaff, and in the process said some
hurtful things about an old and revered religious tradition. I would be
remiss not to clarify Jeff’s remarks and in the process, make some
apologies. I pray that it is received well by all of our friends in the
Eastern Orthodox community.
Firstly, we would like to apologize on behalf of
Protestants everywhere for overlooking the grave and damning heresies of
the Eastern Orthodox tradition, compared to our stalwart protest of
Rome. This has been an oversight of Protestants, due mostly to the
revival of actual Biblical orthodoxy (you might call it Protestantism)
developing primarily in the West, and under the wicked authority of
Rome, and not under the Eastern schismatics known by the misleading name
of “Orthodox.” While we have rightly called the Bishop of Rome the
“antichrist” in our Confessions of Faith, we have overlooked the many antichrists that have gone out into the world
and settled in their positions as leaders in the Eastern Orthodox
tradition. It was not right of us to prejudicially focus on the Western
anti-christ church just because they happened to be the ones murdering
us for several centuries. In the future, we will strive to explain that
anyone who seeks the title of ‘priest,’ (a blasphemous title if ever
there were one), lead people into idolatry, claim the sole mediary
position between God and man, practice necromantic prayers to the dead,
engage in corpse worship, and promote meritorious salvation is an
antichrist, every bit as much as the Roman Catholic abomination. We are
sorry for leaving out specific condemnations of your religion in our
Confessions, as it wasn’t very inclusive of us.
Secondly, we are sorry that many Protestants have
stopped protesting, sending the impression that our confessional
doctrinal beliefs don’t anathematize you as not only being
sub-Christian, but being anti-Christian. We are sorry that men like Albert Mohler, Paige Patterson, Russell Moore and Carl Trueman,
all who should certainly know better, seem to have affirmed you in your
superstitious and pagan religion. While the Intelligentsia class of
evangelicalism are happy to learn about how Rod Dreher’s monasticism
fetish might be a valuable tool for fleeing the culture wars, the rest
of us failed to speak up loudly enough to challenge them on this,
partially because the idol-factory of our hearts are quick to make our
own popes out of mere men, and we don’t like to challenge our popes. The
fact is, Greek Orthodox men like Rod Dreher have no part in the Kingdom
of God on Earth, because they have no part of the Kingdom of God in
Heaven, unless they were to recant their idolatry and believe the one,
true, catholic doctrine of Sola Fide. There’s no such thing as being
“kind of Christian,” and the Trinitarian ontology of the Eastern
Orthodox Church doesn’t undo the fact that trusting in your merit for
salvation is just as damning as being a Modalist like TD Jakes or
believing in 9 divine persons like Benny Hinn. So, therefore, we
apologize for our evangelical leaders who have stopped protesting, even
though they call themselves Protestants. Much of your outrage
(the thousands of angry, F-bomb dropping emails we have received) is due
to the fact you’ve never heard a Protestant say you’re not a Christian.
It’s not because Protestant doctrine doesn’t say you’re lost (it
certainly does), but because we’ve become a bunch of limp-wristed
milksops. Forgive our cowardice.
Thirdly, we apologize for making it seem, should you
have perceived it that way, that you’re unchristian because your
priests wear dresses and you burn incense. While true religion has
little patience for pretentious pageantry, the issue for us concerning
your doctrinal apostasy is your denial of Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura, and
Penal Substitution. The fact that you adorn your buildings in gaudy and
sacrilegious, bedazzled idols is second to the more blatant
soteriological heresies that damn your soul (although idolatry is
damning enough). The fact that you believe that superstitious voodoo oil
poured over someone’s head fills them with the holy spirit and brings
them back from apostasy is secondary to your hope in your own
righteousness for salvation. We (still-protesting Protestants) shouldn’t
have focused upon your bizarre, extra-biblical rituals that resemble
more seance than Biblical service of worship; we should have focused far
more upon your doctrinal beliefs that oppose Jesus and the very Gospel
itself.

A
Greek Orthodox believer sent this to our email, which was going around
to great applause in Greek Orthodox social media forums. This is Jeff
Maples and his daughter, in hell with the Reformers.

Fourthly, we apologize for letting you get away with
asserting your religious superiority by the age of your church. While
it is true that you happen to live in a part of the world that was first
affected by the Gospel, your geographical proximity to the early church
does not mean that you hold to the doctrines or practices of that New
Testament Church. The fact is, the heresies of Gnosticism,
Antinomianism, and the Judaizers all predate the Greek Orthodox Church.
In fact, the sect of the Nicolatians (founded by an Acts 6 deacon)
predates your church considerably. Logic, of course, would not deduce
that these groups, because they are older, are right. We apologize for
not being more forward in pointing out that Jesus specifically wrote
to the Ephesians Church (where there is now the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate) that he would remove the lamp stand (IE the Holy Spirit)
from their church for forsaking their first love, the Gospel of Jesus.
The Scripture contains a very explicit warning, directly from the
dictation of Jesus, that the church that would become Eastern Orthodox
would have the Holy Spirit depart it should they continue on their path
of abandoning true religion. While the Eastern Orthodox church is older
than, for example, churches in other parts of the world, that doesn’t
make it better. It just means that the Eastern Orthodox Church has been
apostate longer than most churches have existed. Big. Stinking. Deal.
You don’t get brownie points for the number of centuries since the Holy
Spirit left your building.
Fifthly, we apologize for not pointing out, as you
rage in anger that we anathematize you, that you anathematized us first.
Like the Roman Catholic apostate church, Eastern Orthodoxy has also
declared Protestants to be hopelessly damned for trusting in Christ’s
accomplished work alone for our salvation. While the Eastern Orthodox
community has ranted and railed with lamenting and gnashing of teeth
toward Pulpit & Pen in recent weeks, they seem blissfully unaware that, like many cults, official Eastern Orthodox teaching declares that only they are the one true church and more specifically, they teach that actual Christians like ourselves are damned for trusting only in Jesus.
We apologize for not pointing out that your man-made tradition
similarly anathematizes, only it does it wrongly. There is no moral high
ground of tolerance and open-mindedness that you can confess toward
outsiders without denying the official teachings of your church, a
church you believe infallible based upon nothing but the amount of time
it’s held to its heresies.
I pray that you, as the Eastern Orthodox Community, will receive our
apologies charitably. There has been much confusion because of the
inability or unwillingness to articulate what Protestants actually
believe about those who deny Sola Fide and Penal Substitution. We aim to
fix all that, and do better in the future.
There is no justification outside faith alone in his accomplished
work. Christ’s accomplished work includes his substitionary and
vicarious death in our place, being for us our propitiation.
No amount of smells and bells, chanting absurdities, or calling out
the gods of Ba’al and Asherah with much incense-burning, bell-ringing
pomp and circumstance will change that.
Cordially,
JD Hall
_________________________________________________________

 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

One of the biggest complaints against Pulpit & Pen we get
consistently is that we somehow don’t “have all our facts,” or are
“misrepresenting” someone or something. I received countless emails
claiming that I “misrepresented” Greek Orthodoxy in my recent posts
regarding Hank Hanegraaff and that I should do more research. Well,
what better way to research than to go straight to the source in person?
Saturday, April 15, known as Holy Saturday in the Orthodox tradition, I
along with a couple of friends went to visit St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, NC–the church that Hanegraaff was recently chrismated in.
The service began at 11:30 pm, and was still going strong showing no
signs of slowing down when we decided to leave at around 2:00 am. While
we hoped to have the opportunity to confront Hanegraaff in person, being
that we all had to get up early the next morning to worship the living
God on Easter morning, we decided to call it a night early. However,
there are quite a few things that we can take away from this experience
in this church.

This is what Hank Hanegraaff has apostatized to. He knows the Bible,
he has taught it his entire life. He now rejects it. The bible clearly
teaches against the wickedness and error found within the manmade
traditions and doctrines of demons in the Orthodox church. It would have
been easy for one to let their guard down and become entranced by the
production. While in the West it is likely less common for practitioners
of the religion to take it that seriously, it’s easy to see how those
who do take it seriously could achieve an altered state of mind which
would in effect by a spiritual experience for those truly seeking it.
After my experience at this church, not only do I fully stand by what I
have written, but it is even more clear now that this religion is not of
God and should be avoided.
[Contributed by Jeff Maples]
___________________________________________________

 

Meet Haley Nicole.

She
may ultimately end up spending the money elsewhere. We have no control
over that. The Lord will deal with her if she does. But one of the most
humbling things a Christian can do is set aside
our pride and extend grace where it is least deserved. I hope that you will prayerfully consider helping her. 

The link to her GoFundMe page is here:
https://www.gofundme.com/pzejda

Jeff
_________________________________________________________

John
________________________________________________________

 Considering we get hundreds of emails every day, I’m not so sure why you
have such a problem with it. I don’t screen anyone else’s email, sir.
And you’re the one contacting me making assumptions.

Yes, every contributor has a .pulpitandpen.org
email address. The only emails that come directly to me are the
responses to the newsletter. Why? Because I’m the one that sends them.
Simple as that. Other than that, like I’ve said, every contributor has a
link to their profile at the bottom of every single article. It’s not
my problem that you don’t want to use an “impersonal contact form.” We
respond to every inquiry that isn’t spam, and every time we respond,
it’s with our own individual .pulpitandpen.org email address.

Below
is the author box that you will find at the bottom of every article.
Feel free to add me on Facebook or message me if you like.

There
is also a link to our facebook group on our website in which all of the
contributors are active and participating members. We post all of our
articles in there and interact with people on everything. That’s under
the resources menu. Here is the direct link to it.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/638527459548792/

We
also have a Facebook page which is open to the public. We do the same
there. There is a slide up that advertises this resource on every page
on our website. Here is the direct link to it. We respond to ALL
messages that aren’t spam on that page.

https://www.facebook.com/pulpitandpen/?ref=bookmarks

So
with all the ways you could have tried to reach out to us, it doesn’t
appear you put in too much effort. If anything else, you could have used
one of the methods to ask for a specific contributor’s email address.
Have you tried? Apparently not. So how about less griping about what we
should be doing when you’re the only one that seems to be walking around
aimlessly trying to contact us.

Grace & Peace

Jeff