How to not become Catholic - learning from conversion trends

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Indeed, it is eye-opening to see sola-scriptura
being promoted by the Eastern Orthodox Church!!
I read in Scripture that Christ gave PETER, the
first Pope the AUTHORITY and the CHARGE to
“feed My sheep”, this would include handing down
His teachings faithfully(John 21:15-17) AND the
Authority to “bind and loose”(Matt 16:17-19)
If THAT is not a reference to the need to follow
the Church’s Magisterium, I don’t know what IS!!
 
It seems that Hank has CONVERTED to Eastern Orthodoxy. He is the one changing HIS views not the Greek Orthodox.

There is nothing wrong with the scriptures, it’s OKAY to pick up and read the WORD of GOD.
 
christiannews.net/2017/04/11/bible-answer-man-hank-hanegraaff-chrismated-into-eastern-orthodoxy/
“I am now a member of an Orthodox church, but nothing has changed in my faith,” Hanegraaff said. “I have been attending an Orthodox church for a long time—for over two years, really, as a result of what happened when I went to China many years ago.”
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He said that in witnessing the simplicity and passion of Chinese Christians, he was led to study Watchman Nee and theosis (a teaching of the Eastern Orthodox regarding union with God) and felt drawn to the days of the early Church.
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“I saw Chinese Christians who were deeply in love with the Lord, and I learned that while they may not have had as much intellectual acumen or knowledge as I did, they had life,” Hanegraaff explained. “I was comparing my ability to communicate truth with their deep and abiding love for the Lord Jesus Christ.”
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“One man … said to me, ‘Truth matters, but life matters more.’ In other words, it is not just knowing about Jesus Christ; it is experiencing the resurrected Christ,” he said. “As a result of that, I started studying what was communicated by the progeny of Watchman Nee with respect to theosis and that drove me back to the early Christian Church.”
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Hanegraaff says that since then, he’s “been impacted by the whole idea of knowing Jesus Christ, experiencing Jesus Christ, and partaking of the graces of Jesus Christ through the Eucharist or the Lord’s Table.”
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sharperiron.org/filings/041017/33112
Some thoughts on my part. First, I’ve been in Catholic masses, and it’s simply a beautiful thing well-done. Heretical, but beautiful. Part of it we shouldn’t emulate–we are not trying to emulate an old Temple sacramental/sacrificial system, after all–but there is a sense of timelessness and transcendent beauty there, as well as a real reverence when someone walks into the church. Not much idle chit-chat like in our churches. When you go into a Catholic or Orthodox auditorium, you instinctively tend to look up to see the artwork–it communicates a sense of awe. Look around at the stained glass windows–preferably with a priest or nun telling you what you’re looking at–and it’s not just about veneration of the saints. Rather, it’s reminding you of an artistic view of the stories of Scripture–it is, really, the reason Chaucer’s fictional pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales often seem to have Biblical knowledge which makes ours look pale and shabby in comparison.
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Take out the icons and statues (in some cases yes, idols), and you’ve got the same tendency to look up–probably a lesser tendency to silence, though. One thing that I do like about the Anglican churches is the Scripture readings–in my Methodist (Methodist Episcopal–it’s sort of Anglican) church growing up, you’d have an Old Testament reading, a new Testament reading, and a Gospel reading each service. The sermons can be horrible, but at least you are reminded of what God actually said about the matter from time to time.
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What can we do to get some of this without crossing the Tiber or Bosphorus, or even the Thames or Rhine? I think we need to remember that the words are, as they say, only 10% of communication, and we get an incredible amount of of the tone, what we see, what we smell, and the like. What is, or is not, on the walls? What message is said by the cross? Does it communicate the reality of the Crucifixion, or is it “just pretty”?
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Again, no need to give up the Fundamentals or the Solas, but if we have a tiny hint of what guys like Hanegraaff are thinking, we might be able to reach people in a wonderful new way.
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christianpost.com/news/bible-answer-man-hank-hannegraaf-leaves-evangelicalism-joins-greek-orthodox-church-180035/
“Many evangelicals seek the early church; well here it is, in Orthodoxy,” he continued.
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“I am sure some will be scandalized by Hannegraaf’s conversion but I hope at least some will wonder how someone as knowledgeable about the Bible as Hank could convert to Orthodoxy, and go to a Divine Liturgy to taste and see what it’s like.”
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Dreher humorously told CP that 11 years ago, he came to the “foreign country called Orthodoxy” and now cannot imagine being anywhere else.
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“The richness of Orthodox theology and worship is incomparable,” Dreher said, and Orthodox life is “sedimenting love for Christ into my bones.”…
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The Orthodox view of the Church is that it is “an icon of Christ and the Body of Christ,” he said. Just as Jesus had a physical body, so too, the Church; it is not a spiritual phenomenon as some evangelicals understand the Body of Christ.
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“And by physical we mean hierarchical and sacramental … the expression of her concrete reality,” he continued.
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Casilda said:
This link leads to various authors and their comments about EO, the text you quoted was by Bert Perry, not Mr. Hanegraaff.
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This thread is not about Hank Hanegraaff. It’s about conversion trends similar to Hanegraaff’s. I did not indicate that the quote was from Hanegraaff.
 
john1513 said:
sharperiron.org/filings/041017/33112
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Just another preaching division, damning by faint praise. Notice that he deigns to use the term “heretical”? I find that simply rich with irony - projection of the first order. His jealousy is palpable as he dismisses the Sacraments in lieu of only bible.

About 15 years ago, Lutheran pastor Jaroslav Pelikan converted from Lutheran minister to Orthodox layman. Not much of a kerfuffle back then. He gave a hint when he edited one of a series of books on world religion writings. He selected Christianity, but included the Deuterocanonical books in his collection - very odd for a nominal Lutheran.
 
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