Why I Am Orthodox (Part 3.2): Traaaaaaditionnnnnn!

Tradition!

One of my favorite movies is Fiddler on the Roof. Any person who loves this movie and sees this image feels a warm spot in their hearts. The song he sings in the very beginning of the musical is a song called Tradition. He says "Because of Tradition, we've kept our balance for many, many years...and because of our Tradition every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do". This is our identity as Orthodoxy Christians. This is what the world longs for in a world of relevancy, relativism, and a lack of authenticity. In the Christian world, especially in America, there is a desperate search for solid ground, tradition, roots, and authenticity. It is curious to me that those around me who are Christian but not Orthodox still feel like something is missing, and I felt the same way! Even though you go to the best rock concert, amazing sermon, emotionally charged Sunday church service at the local church, at the end of the day, something is missing. I believe the protestant/evangelical/restoration church are searching. I am not pointing fingers; I owe a great debt to these churches. As a church of Christ member, I remember thinking there is more to this. I wanted to discover the first church, and though the church of Christ were making this attempt, I also saw them being swayed by other Christian Denominations and seemed to pick and choose what part of the first century church they wanted. I delved head first in the emergent movement because this group was searching as I was. I am thankful to God for that, and here is why. If I had not, I would not have began to think outside the church of Christ box. When I did, I discovered other Christians reaching back into history to find something else. The house church I attended was a church that were primarily church of Christ former members. Our services consisted of a more liturgical feel, especially during the Lords Supper where the host was given by going up and receiving the bread and cup from those who offered it (which is not the practice in the church of Christ). I am indebted to that church for allowing me to discover the depth that Christianity can have and has had for two thousand years. It also revealed to me that Christianity has lost its identity and is searching desperately for its roots. My question to all (and please answer if you would like) is: Why re-invent the wheel when the original is already present. Christ has not left his Church nor has he caused confusion. Simply look at the Churches history and discover what has happened. People became prideful and have decided to go their own way. And we, in the twenty first century are victims to those decisions and have lost our true identity. So where should we go from here?

Go Ask Your Fathers

If you read my previous blog post (http://myorthodoxlife.blogspot.com/2013/02/why-i-am-orthodox-part-31-scripture.html), you would know that the early Church did not have an official New Testament for quite some time. In fact, the Nicene Constantinopolitan Creed was completed and affirmed before the official New Testament was canonized. This means that the Church was being guided by something for hundreds of years and keeping Her from corruption and protecting her from heresy. Again, I want to emphasize this...It was the Spirit of God through Tradition that kept the Church from error. Scripture was a product of Tradition. Who did the people go to for authority? The Apostles were no longer around and there was an Old Testament but not an official New Testament. The people went to their Bishops, and in that time, they went to the leaders who had direct contact or the closest contact with the Apostles; the Apostolic Fathers.

Let me begin with 4 of the earliest Church Fathers, who were either directly associated with the Apostle or one step removed from the Apostles.

1. St. Clement of Rome (the 4th Bishop of Rome, lived around AD 96) spoke of Apostolic Succession in the early church:

1 Clement 42 and 44

So then Christ is from God, and the Apostles are from Christ. Both therefore came of the will of God in the appointed order. Having therefore received a charge, and having been fully assured through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and confirmed in the word of God with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth with the glad tidings that the kingdom of God should come. So preaching everywhere in country and town, they appointed their firstfruits, when they had proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons unto them that should believe. And this they did in no new fashion; for indeed it had been written concerning bishops and deacons from very ancient times; for thus saith the scripture in a certain place, I will appoint their bishops in righteousness and their deacons in faith...For this cause therefore, having received complete foreknowledge, they appointed the aforesaid persons, and afterwards they provided a continuance, that if these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed to their ministration. Those therefore who were appointed by them, or afterward by other men of repute with the consent of the whole Church, and have ministered unblamably to the flock of Christ in lowliness of mind, peacefully and with all modesty, and for long time have borne a good report with all these men we consider to be unjustly thrust out from their ministration.

  

2. St. Ignatius (80-110 A.D), possibly ordained as Bishop of Antioch by St Peter, spoke of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the Hierarchy, and Unity:

To his letter to the Smyrnaeans he says:

 

Real Presence:

"Consider how contrary to the mind of God are the heterodox in regard to the grace of God which has come to us. They have no regard for charity, none for the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, none for the man in prison, the hungry or the thirsty. They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His graciousness, raised from the dead." Letter to the Smyrnaeans chapter 6

Hierarchy:

"...for there is one Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the union of His Blood; one altar, as there is one bishop with the presbytery (priests) and my fellow servants, the deacons." 

Unity:

"Come together in common, one and all without exception in charity, in one faith and in one Jesus Christ, who is of the race of David according to the flesh, the son of man, and the Son of God, so that with undivided mind you may obey the bishop and the priests, and break one Bread which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death, enabling us to live forever in Jesus Christ." Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 20

3. St. Irenaeus (AD 130-202), a disciple of Polycarp (who was disciple of the Apostle John) also speaks of the Real Presence if Christ in the Eucharist and in combating the Gnosticism states that the Church's authority comes from Apostolic Tradition, not secret knowledge.

Against Heresies

"But, again, when we refer them to that tradition which originates from the apostles, [and] which is preserved by means of the succession of presbyters in the Churches, they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but even than the apostles, because they have discovered the unadulterated truth. For [they maintain] that the apostles intermingled the things of the law with the words of the Savior; and that not the apostles alone, but even the Lord Himself, spoke as at one time from the Demiurge, at another from the intermediate place, and yet again from the Pleroma, but that they themselves, indubitably, unsulliedly, and purely, have knowledge of the hidden mystery: this is, indeed, to blaspheme their Creator after a most impudent manner! It comes to this, therefore, that these men do now consent neither to Scripture nor to tradition."

"[Christ] has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be his own Blood, from which he causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as his own Body, from which he gives increase to our bodies." 

4.  St Justin Martyr (AD 100–165), was a philosopher who became a Christian and Apologist.

 First Apology

"This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God's Word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus."  First Apology, Chapter 66

He also writes about the Liturgy in the 2 Century. This Liturgy consist of the first half being the Liturgy of the Word and the second half being the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The same way the Liturgy is done in the Orthodox Church today

In conclusion, These Traditions were handed down from Christ to the Apostles to the Apostolic Fathers to the Bishops through History to the the modern day and are still held by the Orthodox Church today. These are just some of the Traditions we hold which the first Christians believed  and were taught and have passed down to us.

Apostolic Succession

The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist

Hierarchy of the Church (as Bishop, Priest, Deacon)

Unity

Apostolic Tradition

Baptismal Regeneration

The form of the Liturgy (Liturgy of the Word & Eucharist)

I hope this was informative.

Next, I hope to discuss the 7 Ecumenical Councils and the impact they have had on my journey to Orthodoxy.