THE UNAVOIDABLE QUESTIONS AND
UNBRIDGEABLE ANSWERS
OF ECUMENICS

© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003 by Orchid Land Publications

[completely revised on 20030418]

This page has two parts.  Part I deals with direct contradictions; Part II deals with general questions where different answers are given.  Part I represents the futility of current approachs to ecumenics, since (as Einstein is reputed to have said), "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." On the level of belief, which is basic to- (but not higher than) Worship and moral behavior, there is no known honest way of reconciling the contradictions--other than one side's giving up its beliefs and embracing those of the other side.   Note that where alternatives are given, O refers to the traditional Orthodox position, while W refers to the Western position.  Where the West differs,  L refers to the Latin/Papal position, and  D refers to the Reformation/ Denominationist position.

I

1. Is Grace created or uncreated?  Is it an Energy?  Both Western concepts are incompatible with the Orthodox view of Grace as uncreated Energy--God's Life.

2. Were the souls of the first human immortal by nature (W) or only by Grace (O)?  It's not logically possible that they were and were not  immortal ONLY by Grace.

3. Was the Fall ontological (separation from the Assimilation to God of Gen. 1:26, which energized the reasons and freewill of the Image of God to do what is pleasing to God [O]); or was it mainly juridical--divine punishment by death--W?  The Orthodox say that it was satan who imposed death--something that God allowed in order to avoid the perpetuating of sinning.  In W thinking, the Image and Assimilation to God are the same; the Image got "marred"--and all newborns inherit the guilt of our first parents . . . and not only that:  They inherit it physically, i.e. "by natural generation."   For O, newborns do not inherit the guilt of any ancestor.

4. Salvation and Unity with God reverse the Fall:  If the one was ontological, so is the other; if one was juridical, so must be the other--and, just as guilt can be transferred to another, so can "merits"--either physically or by divine imputation.
     In the ontological O outlook, Salvation is the restoration of the lost Assimilation to God, which culminates in ontological union with God's uncreated Energies--Théosis "Divinization.".  Unity is achieved (a) between human nature and divine nature in the Incarnation; (b) between individuals and God by becoming a member of Christ by being re-born or recreated as a new creating that share His uncreated Life; the Crucifixion is expiatory and necessary to removing religious obstacles to that membership.  In the juridical scheme, God has to punish--by death--in order to forgive; a propitiatory (appeasing) Crucifixion is central, and the Incarnation and Resurrection are soterially incidental, as leading L and D theologians assert.  Unity with God is not Divinization but Deification with His imparticipable Essence (which for the West, in contradistinction from the East, includes God's uncreated Energies, as He is pure Energy or Realization).  However, since God's imparticipable Essence cannot be shared by a creature ontologically, unity with God  is a virtual unity--intentional/conceptual for Aquinas and the Latins; will-based (covenantal and imputed) for Denominationists.

5. The Theotókos (God-bearer, mother of YHWH in Luke 1:43) is essential for the ontological understanding of O; it is incidental for the juridical outlook of W.  Since NO newborns bear an ancestors sin in Orthodoxy, there is no need for an immaculate conception; since death is not a punishment for sin, there is no problem with her dying.

6. Is the unity of the all-holy Trinity approached from the Person of the Father O; or does Its unity depend on the single Essence W.  First, Jesus is YHWH for O (cf. John 58:8 with Exod. 3:14; cf. Luke 1:43).   The Father is the source of unity for O, and the Son and Holy Spirit are eternally generated from and proceed from Him, respectively, being co-essential and co-equal with Him.  The West says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from Father and Son (Filioque; for the other contradictions involved in this teaching, click HERE).

II

      The following questions are skirted around in much ecumenical discussion that one encounters; yet they are the questions that should be up for discussion.  

1. Is God's Essence unknowable by reason O; what and how do humans know about God?  Is God's Essence participable by created beings--not O?

2. Is Jesus Christ one Person in two complete Essences--wedded "unconfusedly, unchangingly, indivisibly, inseparably"; is He completely divine and completely human (OL) with unconfused, separate will-powers and energies appropriate to each nature OL (D?)?

3. Is not God the Son, the LOGOS ("Reason"; John 1:1,3) and Wisdom (SOPHIA, practical Reason) of God (1 Cor. 1:24, etc.--O), the Creator of the Cosmos--as the holy Fathers declare--even though God the Father is the eternal Origin of all being, uncreated and created, for which reason both Father and Son are viewed as Creators in the Creed?  Was not the Holy Spirit also present at, and involved in, the original Creation of the cosmos, as the opening verses of Genesis make clear O?  Or is the Son a "Word" (W) or "Saying" (pre-Vulgate Latin Bible sermo), rather than God's Reason?

CLICK HERE FOR "THREE KINDS OF CHRISTIANITY"
AS WELL AS HERE & HERE

4. Is the victorious Resurrection of Christ over death and the devil what realizes human Salvation, making a worshiper a newly created member of Christ, ontologically sharing His uncreated Life--O?  Or does Salvation simply come from a juridical and propitiatory Crucifixion of Christ--W?

St. Athanasios the Great, who suffered to keep one heretical iota out of the Standard of Belief; and St. Photios the Great, who kept the cacodox idea of the Filioque out of the Creed endorsed by various Ecumenical Synods, including the Eighth Orthodox Ecumenical Synod.

5. Since the Latins do not accept all of the nine Orthodox Ecumenical Synods, and the Orthodox do not accept the many others of the Latins (and Reformers?), how is that difference to be squared?

6. Was the creation of non-spiritual beings good or bad for religious purposes?  In other words, are created matter (Incarnation, Mysteries [sacraments]) and time (evolution, developmental tradition) necessary for Christianity OL--or not D?    Is antimaterialism and a purely spiritual resurrection of the soul (which cannot have died if it is immortal by nature) a Gnostic heresy, as traditionalists have always maintained?  In understanding Worship, are water, bread, wine, oil, etc., as well as kneeling and prostrating proper in Biblical and Incarnational Christianity OL . . . or not D?   

7. Is the development of doctrine, not by changing what has been but by deepening the understanding of what has been previously understood compatible with the changeless dogma that the doctrines seek to make intelligible to human understanding?  Is revelation a static and once-for-all thing, or are the conclusions of the Ecumenical Synods (those accepted by a given body) that narrow down what is and is not an acceptable interpretation of previous understandings to be regarded as revelatory?  OL say "yes"; many D say "no."  (The idea of "progressive" revelation endorsed by some is different in that it allows for changes in or replacements of what has gone before.)  

8. Did the sinning of our first ancestors result in humanity's loss of the Assimilation to God that energizes the dynámeis or capacties/faculties of reason and freewill belonging to human essence--the Icon/Image of God--O?  Or did the capacities (dynámeis) of human essence get lost or themselves "marred" at the Fall?

9. Is what we inherit from our first ancestors guilt (W) or death and the deprivation of the Assimilation to God--and neither another's guilt--O?  O did we lose the Icon/Image of God (some W)--which would have made us like irrational animals (W)?  Do we physically inherit Adam's guilt--W?  Does God simply impute Adam's sin and guilt to us (D), in which case it would seen that God is the Cause of sin?

10. Is the notion of a "sinful" human NATURE compatible with the idea of a nature W?   Or can only persons, not natures, sin--O? 

11. Does doxology or glorification of God (what happens at the Altar) have to be accompanied by human-addressed preaching and prayers (pulpit) for human needs Worship--D?  Are sacrament visible words, as Augustine contended in His Enarrations on John's Gospel--D?

12. Is Christian Worship partly corporeal (with prostrations, use of icons, etc.--OL?  Or, despite 1 Cor. 6:20, is it only spiritual--D?  Are statues (graven images) impermissible according to the Ecumenical Synods--OD?  Is it proper (for other than the infirm) to pray sitting when standing or kneeling is possible?

13. Is it un-Christian to venerate Saints and to use and venerate icons, relics (cf. Acts 19:12), and other blessed objects and holy places--D?  Are worship and veneration separate acts--OL?  Since the Gospel of Luke calls the Theotókos "the bearer of YHWH" (Hebrews substituted "my Lord" for YHWH; see Luke 1:43)-- after the Archangel St. Gabriel told her that she was to be called blessed throughout all generations--, is it proper (OL) or wrong (D) to accord her hyperduly "superveneration" (but not latry "Worship") and invoke her help as the Queen of the cosmos and the human who is closest to our Savior--OL?  

14. Given that there are reported to be at least 23,000 denominations in America and 28,000 in the world, most of which allegedly interpret the (or rather a) Bible (translation) "literally." does that not indicate something wrong with upholding individualist  interpretations (OL)?  Or are only the views and interpretations sifted out from error by the holy tradition correct (O)?

15. Can a collection of books like the traditional Greek Bible be infallible if the entity that assembled and ratified it is fallible?

16. Is the continuity (that is one condition for the authenticity of a Christian body) material as well as spiritual (OL); or is it simply spiritual and "invisible" without any material continuity (D)?

17. If the Orthodox Church differs from other bodies on many points, as it does, does that mean that the (infallible?) promise in John 16:13 lapsed (as though the all-holy Paraclete had gone to sleep during the millennium and a half before the Reformers appeared on the scene)--D?  If so, where was the alleged true Christianity during that time?

18. Did our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ preach the Beatitudes (and should it be part of Worship, as in O)?  Or did he emphasize mainly the Ten Commandments (which Calvin [D] prescribed to be written on the walls of prayer houses and which Calvinists and early Anglicans began their main services with)?

19. Can humans be good enough to save themselves without being members of Christ through Grace (denied by most Christians).  Is Salvation instantaneous (the way conversion sometimes is)--D; or is it a life-long journey worked out with fear and trembling (Philp. 2:12) as the uncreated Energies of Christ energize the members of His Body to do what is pleasing to God (Philp. 2:13; cf. item 19)--O?; Or should we go  further (as did the Reformers) and hold that personal goodness does not make any essential contributon to that Salvation?  

20. Does sincerely saying Jesus is "my Lord and Savior" or assenting to the slogan that "Jesus died for EGO" suffice for Salvation, even when What Jesus's Natures are remains undefined and unbelieved in?  Is there no way of understanding how one Person's death can accrue to the soterial benefit of another except by will--imputation--O?   

21.  Is Salvation ontological (O) or virtual unity with God--W?

22.  Are Baptism, Communion of Christ's real Body and Blood, and other Mysteries needed for Salvation--OL?  Is it necessary to baptize in the name of the Trinity, or is all that is needed  (some D, who reject the all-holy Trinity) baptizing only in the name of Jesus?

23. Are incorporation into Christ's risen Body and being a member of Christ's Body a material-corporeal as well as spiritual unity, achieved through material-spiritual Mysteries properly received with true belief and repentance (OL); or are "bodily" resurrection and Salvation virtual and imputed to those in God's Covenant--D?  

24.  Is the Resurrection of flesh/the body "spiritually" in content rather than simply in manner? And if so, how?  
25. Is saving (incorporating) Grace the uncreated Energy of God (TO); or is it something non-energetic--a created, not energetic form of the soul (T) or simply divine benevolence (D)?

20. Are the most holy Eucharist and the other holy Mysteries purely volitional or  spiritual, requiring an accompanying sermon (D) and only virtually equivalent to receiving Grace (D); or do they have an irreducible material-bodily component as well (TO)?  Can the Church live fully on words, even if the sacraments are dispensed with or only seldom served?

21. Is John 6:48-58 to be literally understood as having ontological import (TO); or is its import simply volitional or metaphorical--not literal?  If it is non-literal, why were the kosher Jews repulsed by the idea to the point of leaving Jesus, as the chapter in question recounts?

22. Do the bishops, priests, and deacons of the Apostolic and post-Apostolic Church parallel the high priests, priest, and levites of the Old Testament (TO), or not?    Are presbyters sacrificial ministrants (TO) or non-sacrificial ministers (one of the words that translates the Greek word for "deacon"), not essentially more than laypersons specially trained and delegated to serve special functions?

23. Are the good works that Christ performs in His members (Philp. 2:13)  a necessary part of the scheme of Salvation (OL); or are they just extras with respect to that end (D)?

24. Are bodily practices like fasting conducive (OL) or irrelevant (D) to Salvation?

25. Is the goal of Salvation to be energized with the ontological, uncreated Light of Christ (Light is the purest form of energy) and to become an ontological partaker of the divine Energies (O); or is Salvation simply to be judged righteous by Christ?

26. Ought we pray for all of the faithful, both living and departed (OL); or are prayers for those fallen asleep wrong (D)?  Is it proper to ask the Saints fallen asleep, and especially the all-holy Theotókos, to pray for us (O)?