To know more about Orthodoxy!

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w_stewart

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To be honest, I have a little knowledge about Orthodoxy. One major reason is that Orthodox Churches are virtually inexistent in our country.

Our apologists spend so much time defending the Faith against the heresies of Protestantism.

Had I not joined CAF, I would not have increased my knowledge about Orthodoxy. 90% of my very little knowledge was through CAF.

My first question is:

Is Orthodoxy teaching that “outside of the Church, there is no salvation”?

Knowledgeable Catholics and Orthodox adherents, please educate me.🙂
 
w_stewart said:
To be honest, I have a little knowledge about Orthodoxy. One major reason is that Orthodox Churches are virtually inexistent in our country.

Our apologists spend so much time defending the Faith against the heresies of Protestantism.

Had I not joined CAF, I would not have increased my knowledge about Orthodoxy. 90% of my very little knowledge was through CAF.

My first question is:

Is Orthodoxy teaching that “outside of the Church, there is no salvation”?

Knowledgeable Catholics and Orthodox adherents, please educate me.🙂
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Glory to Jesus Christ!

There have been a lot of threads on Orthodoxy as of late.🙂 I’ll try to answer your question as best I can, but someone far more knowledgeable than me can feel free to step in.

From what I have read on the subject and from what I understand the Orthodox think of it this way: “we know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not.” That is to say, that we believe the Orthodox Church to be Christ’s Church, but we recognize that God can give grace and salvation to those outside of it.

Hope that helps.

In Christ,
Andrew
 
“Outside the Church there is no salvation” basically means all salvation comes from Christ our Savior through His Body the Church, which is the Sacrament of Salvation. By the prayers and sacrifices of the faithful, graces are obtained from Christ for the salvation of all souls.

But not all souls accept God’s graces, unfortunately; some choose to go to Hell.

The Orthodox hold the same belief.
 
Harpazo said:
Glory to Jesus Christ!

There have been a lot of threads on Orthodoxy as of late.🙂 I’ll try to answer your question as best I can, but someone far more knowledgeable than me can feel free to step in.

From what I have read on the subject and from what I understand the Orthodox think of it this way: “we know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not.” That is to say, that we believe the Orthodox Church to be Christ’s Church, but we recognize that God can give grace and salvation to those outside of it.

Hope that helps.

In Christ,
Andrew
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That sounds pretty similar to the teaching of the Church, does it not?
 
My first question is answered. But if there is differing view, I am open to it.😃

My next question is:

How come the Orthodox Churches have not spread the Gospel such as what the Catholic Church has done? Like here in the Philippines, Orthodoxy is virtually inexistent.

I apologize for the wordings of my question but I do not see any better way of stating it. Believe me I do not have any evil intention.
 
w_stewart said:
My first question is answered. But if there is differing view, I am open to it.😃

My next question is:

How come the Orthodox Churches have not spread the Gospel such as what the Catholic Church has done? Like here in the Philippines, Orthodoxy is virtually inexistent.

I apologize for the wordings of my question but I do not see any better way of stating it. Believe me I do not have any evil intention.
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Because Orthodox, like the Jews, believe everyone goes to Heaven, so there’s no need to convert souls.
 
Eucharisted said:
Because Orthodox, like the Jews, believe everyone goes to Heaven, so there’s no need to convert souls.
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:confused:

Eucharisted, where are you hearing this stuff? Seriously, that is a grave mischaracterization of Orthodoxy. I don’t think Jews even believe that.

Consider the many Orthodox missionaries throughout history, some shared when the Church was undivided. St. Innocent of Alaska, St. Herman, St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre and St. Nicholas of Japan come to mind as some more recent missionaries. You could even consider Archbishop Dmitri (Royster) in the OCA as a missionary to Mexico.

For w_stewart, Orthodoxy has been trying to make inroads in Asia and has managed to gain a small presence in China and Japan. India has had an Orthodox presence since St. Thomas the Apostle. But missionary activity has been very difficult for the Orthodox for a variety of reasons. One is due to the Ottoman Empire, which held a great amount of the Orthodox under strict Islamic law for centuries. Then we had the Communist fiasco through much of the 20th century. So it was hard for Orthodox missionaries to spread the faith.

Orthodoxy is thriving in Africa though. How? Missionaries(ultimately the Holy Spirit).👍

I think there is at least one or two Orthodox churches in the Philippines. There is a poster on here who lives there and is Orthodox, but he has not been active lately. I’ll have to look him up.

In Christ,
Andrew
 
Eucharisted said:
Because Orthodox, like the Jews, believe everyone goes to Heaven, so there’s no need to convert souls.
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I guess that’s why there are no Orthodox missionaries.

Oh, wait … ocmc.org!

ntom.org/

antiochian.org/missions

orthodoxwiki.org/A_History_of_Orthodox_Missions_Among_the_Muslims

… there are!

But not in the Philippines, right?

Oh, wait …

orthodoxwiki.org/Orthodoxy_in_the_Philippines

But of course, they don’t believe in Hell, right?

Oh, wait …

oca.org/OCchapter.asp?SID=2&ID=208

orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php/topic,19157.0.html

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
Eucharisted said:
Here is the Orthodox understanding of salvation: orthodoxwiki.org/Soteriology
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The final coming of Christ will be the judgment of all men. his very presence will be the judgment. For those who love the Lord, his presence will be infinite joy, paradise and eternal life. For those who hate the Lord, the same presence will be infinite torture, hell and eternal death. - orthodoxwiki.org/Soteriology
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“They only see what they want to see.” - Cole Sear, “The Sixth Sense”
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😉
 
OUTSIDE TRUE CHURCH, NOT SALVATION

Only the Orthodox church includes such life-giving power of Christ and His mysteries. Outside there is not and cannot be. Also even St. Kiprian of Karfagen maintains that outside church there is not life, which means not salvation. So if our soul which does not die is important to us we will quickly begome vital members of the Holy Church of Christ.
It is great gift of God the grace to recognize our sinfulness through faith in God, through the means of the holy mysteries of Baptizing, Sorrow and Communion of Body and Blood of Christ. The mystery of Priesthood through hand-imposition uninteruppted from the apostles come priests to our day. The enemy of our salvation is devil. He knows the salvation coming from our being in the bosom of mother-church and with all his tricks tries to separate us frm God, that is to kill our soul.

Therefore, we must firmly hold to the Orthodox faith like the anchor of salvation and then we will not be upset by the tricks of devil, for being in church we will have a living connection with God, obtaining his defense and help.

Also to believe that all are saved is Origjenizm which is condemned by Church.
 
w_stewart said:
How come the Orthodox Churches have not spread the Gospel such as what the Catholic Church has done?
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Umm… it has. (And not only if you consider the spread of gospel by Roma while she was Orthodox.)

If by “Orthodox” you consider “spreading the Gospel” by the sees now being part of Orthodox Church, look at conversion of the Slavs. That is arguably the most successful conversion story ever. It continued by the same pattern all the way to Alaska and California, all the way to Aleuts and Tlingit.

BTW, none of it performed by the sword.
 
I heard there are Orthodox Churches here in the country. The Catholic Church reached here in 1521. Protestantism had reached here in the early 1900s if I am not mistaken.

Why had the Orthodoxy reached here only in early 1990s or late 1980s? This gives me the impression that missionary works of Orthodox churches are not that strong and active.
 
I don’t know if that’s fair, really. You’ve said it yourself: The (Rome-affiliated) Catholic Church has been in the Philippines since 1541. This is a long time, and Catholicism is very well-entrenched in the society.

As a point of reference, think about Latin America: It is overwhelmingly Catholic, and although there ARE Orthodox Churches in these countries, they are mostly fairly recent (example: Orthodoxy arrived in Mexico in 1965). It will take time for Orthodoxy to grow in Latin America, as it will in the Philippines or any other place where most people are not Orthodox and they have not had much exposure to it.
 
dzheremi said:
I don’t know if that’s fair, really. You’ve said it yourself: The (Rome-affiliated) Catholic Church has been in the Philippines since 1541. This is a long time, and Catholicism is very well-entrenched in the society.

As a point of reference, think about Latin America: It is overwhelmingly Catholic, and although there ARE Orthodox Churches in these countries, they are mostly fairly recent (example: Orthodoxy arrived in Mexico in 1965). It will take time for Orthodoxy to grow in Latin America, as it will in the Philippines or any other place where most people are not Orthodox and they have not had much exposure to it.
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It is not actually my intention to compare Catholicism and Orthodoxy. I only want to know the missionary efforts made by the Orthodox Churches. What are the obstacles that hindered their missionary works?
 
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