Why I Am Orthodox (Part 2): Because of History

Orthodox? Isn't That Jewish?

The Orthodox Church is foreign to many in the West simply because it has been hiding unintentionally in the East. Even if it is foreign, many people know it as "Russian Orthodox", "Greek Orthodox", or simply "Eastern Orthodox". And though many may know of the existence of this church, it is not readily understood. It may even be seen, as I thought, as an Eastern expression of Roman Catholicism. So, first, let's explain what the Orthodox Church is, then we can discuss what the Orthodox Church believes.

A Bit of History

In my seminary classes, we had several church history classes. Every good church history class begins with Jesus in the gospels and the Apostles in the book of Acts. Since most of you know this story, then I will not reproduce it here. But I want to focus on the church in what it comprised of from the time of the Apostles to the time of 1054, which, if you know anything about church history was the "Great Schism" (but we will get to that later). What is important here is that there was ONE church in this time, the "catholic" (universal, not Roman) orthodox church. This church had 5 cities that became their Christian headquarters (or patriarchates): Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Rome. The Roman empire was separated into 2 regions politically: West (Latin speaking) and East (Greek speaking). These two regions became culturally divided over time which effected the church later. The church held 7 Ecumenical councils on which all bishops of each of the headquarters (patriarchs) regions agreed on certain doctrinal conclusions about the already believed but not defined doctrines concerning the nature of God (Trinity), nature of Christ (fully God/ fully man), and the church. These councils are where we get the Nicene-Contantinopolitan Creed, the term for Mary as the "Mother of God" (which is more of a statement about Jesus than Mary), and the use of icons (a statement of the incarnation of Christ and the goodness of the material world).
The church was ONE church throughout these 7 ecumenical councils (even though there were cultural and language barriers). These councils were primarily initiated by heresies that cropped up over time. In 1054, in essence, the bishop of Rome declared that he was over all jurisdictions, and though the Orthodox church had seen the Roman bishop as first among equals, the church had always been conciliar in all matters. The rest of the Christian world did not agree with the Roman bishop, and so, the first split in the church: Roman Catholic in the West and Eastern Orthodox in the East.
Eventually, out of the Catholic church due to it's abuses, the protestant church emerges. Out of the protestant church comes even more splits eventually becoming a knot of indecisive/ incoherent/ divisive denominations which confuses the unbeliever and causes the seeker to give up out of hopelessness. Though made up of fallible human beings, the Orthodox church, through the Holy Spirit, has remained united and virtually unchanged and faithful to the Apostolic Tradition.

Why am I Orthodox?

I am Orthodox because it is the original church and has kept the Tradition of the Apostles. The Orthodox Church has not innovated as the Roman Catholic church and initiated a new form of church governance. The Orthodox church has not formed many of thousands of denominations which mar and pollute the icon of Christ, which is the church; a church that should be spotless and blameless when presented to the Groom.

Now that we know a bit about where the Orthodox church comes from, in part 3, I will discuss what the Orthodox church believes and it's praxis.