An Even Greater Union
TimeWatch Editorial
February 16, 2016
The very recent Declaration signed by Pope Francis and Russian Eastern orthodox Patriarch Kirill unites the long separated branches of Catholicism since 1054. In this article, we will take a look at precisely how many people this involves. With the present global population at 7.4 billion, Roman Catholics number 1.2 billion worldwide. Then additionally, there are approximately 250 to 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians. Of that number, approximately 150 million are Russian Orthodox. But the picture grows even larger. There is a group named the Oriental Orthodox Church which numbers approximately 86 million. The Oriental Orthodox communion comprises six churches: the Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Syriac and Armenian Apostolic and Malankara churches. These churches are in communion with one another and are hierarchically independent.
One of the things worth noticing is the infiltration of Catholic error into the protestant churches today. For instance, the debate concerning the Godhead, we mentioned in our previous Editorial dated February 14, 2016 entitled: The Schism Healed.” Notice how the ideas concerning the Persons of the Godhead has seeped into God’s remnant church.
“Both Orthodox and Roman Catholic tradition believes a doctrine they call “the Holy Trinity”, which states that God is composed of three parts: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Roman Catholics follow the Nicene Creed, which states that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father "and the Son." The Eastern Orthodox Church believes that because Jesus “was human”, “he” should not be considered the same as God. They also believe that the “Holy Spirit” can only come from the Father.”TimeWatch Editorial, February 14, 2016, “The Schism Healed”
Notice also that the Oriental Orthodox split over theological issues as well. Some of those issues will sound familiar to you also.
The Oriental Orthodox Churches and the rest of the Church split over differences in Christology. The First Council of Nicaea (325) declared that Jesus Christ is God, that is to say, "consubstantial" with the Father; and the First Council of Ephesus (431) that Jesus, though divine as well as human, is only one being, or person (hypostasis). Twenty years after Ephesus, the Council of Chalcedon declared that Jesus is one person in two complete natures, one human and one divine. Notice here that this apparent theological debate has filtered into Protestantism and in some cases into God’s Remnant Church. Again it must be made absolutely clear that this is not accidental. The rank and file Protestant in their congregations is completely unaware of the source of the error that flows from their pulpits. But the source is clear. The error is clear.
“The schism between the Oriental Orthodox and the rest of Christendom occurred in the 5th century. The separation resulted in part from the refusal of Pope Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria and the other 13 Egyptian Bishops, to accept the Christological dogmas promulgated by the Council of Chalcedon, which held that Jesus is in two natures: one divine and one human.” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
These varied formally divided parts of Catholicism are now reunited by the signed agreements of the past few years. But what has remained, is the resulting spread of their error across the Protestant World. While many of the churches are unaware of it, the theological positions that they now embrace are not based upon scripture, but in many cases based upon Catholic heresy. The spread of this philosophical apostasy is in many cases purposeful, intending to water down the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. When therefore these various elements of Orthodoxy reunite, the resulting objective of drawing into the circle those previously protesting Churches is accomplished, through the agreed theological error.
Cameron A. Bowen
