Western Christianity as Heresy

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

Western Christianity as Heresy
By Patrick Barnes

It is not uncommon today to hear Orthodox theologians and clerics teach that Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have never “formally declared by the Church” to be heretical. Many who teach this — undoubtedly motivated as they are by misguided ecumenical interests — wish to extend the boundaries of the Church in an illegitimate way. Their desire is to convince others that the Church views Western Christians somehow differently than, say, early heretical groups such as Arians or Nestorians. They argue that Protestants and Roman Catholics are merely “estranged brethren” who have maintained some “invisible ties” to the Orthodox Church proportional to the “degree of Christianity” remaining in their confessional body. These false teachings supposedly serve to foster Christian unity. As can be readily attested by anyone who is familiar with Orthodoxy’s internal divisions — most of which have arisen directly as a result of our participation in the Ecumenical Movement —, such teachings have only served to UNDERMINE true unity and leave the heterodox with stones instead of bread (Saint Matthew 7:9).

A few examples will suffice to give the reader an idea of what is often heard in Orthodox circles heavily influenced by ecumenism. Consider the statement by Nicolas Sernov:

[Western Christians] present…a mystery of the DIVIDED CHURCH which cannot be solved on precedents taken from the epoch of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. It is a NEW PROBLEM requiring a search for a fresh approach and confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit to guide the Church in our time as He guided her in the past.
It is necessary to state from the outset, that the attitude to the Christian West HAS NEVER BEEN DISCUSSED BY ANY REPRESENTATIVE BODY OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH. Neither Roman Catholics or Protestants HAVE EVER BEEN CONDEMNED OR EXCOMMUNICATED AS SUCH, so a common policy in regard to them has never been adopted.

Or consider this statement by Metropolitan Maximos of Aenos, the Presiding Hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Pittsburgh, in an unpublished paper on “Sacramental Recognition According to Saint Basil [the Great]” that he presented to a meeting of Church leaders in 1997:

“Protestants, who have the basic Christian faith, and thus “valid” Christian baptism, should be accepted into the Orthodox Church by chrismation. Ultra-conservative Orthodox Christians groups try to apply the name of heretic to Protestantism. However, this is an exaggeration, which is not accepted by the “mainline” Orthodox Church…

The Eastern Orthodox Church has not taken a final stand in the evaluation of its sister church, the Roman Catholic Church… In spite of the rhetoric of the Encyclical [of 1848 (addressing, in part, how Latins coming to Orthodoxy are to be received)], which speaks of “Latin heresies,” the reception of Latin faithful reflects Saint Basil’s practice of receiving the “schismatics.” (The the way, I am personally very happy that the term “schismatic” has recently been supplanted by “estranged.”)

This Bishop has a doctorate in theology. When statements such as these are made by men of weighty credentials and of Episcopal rank — and many more statements from a variety of sources could be cited —, it is no wonder that so many have an incorrect understanding of the real situation. Let us examine these astonishing claims in the light of Holy Tradition.

Roman Catholicism

The many heretical innovations introduced into the Faith by the Latin communion — especially the insertion of the FILIOQUE clause (“and the Son”) into the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, and the Papal dogmas of universal authority and infallibility “ex-cathedra” — have without any doubt led to the declaration by numerous pan-Orthodox synods and Church Fathers that Roman Catholicism is persistently and defiantly heretical…While it is true that at various times prior to the rulings the Church was hesitant to issue a formal declaration concerning the heresy of Roman Catholicism, this was often due to exigencencies in which prudent archpastoral guidance dictated silence. It was not due to any wavering of the ecclesial consciousness. Such is the explicit thought of Saint Mark of Ephesus:

But [Saint] Mark [of Ephesus], daring more than the rest, proclaimed that the Latins were not only schismatics, but heretics. “Our Church,” said Saint Mark, “has kept silence on this, because the Latins are more powerful and numerous than we are; but we, in fact, have broken all ties with them, for the very reason that they are heretics.”

Whatever reticence the Church may have had regarding the Latins in the first two centuries following the Great Schism can also be viewed as patient hope for their full return. The largely symbolic date of 1054 does not pinpoint the date of separation of West from East. Nor can one responsibly state that the Roman church ceased overnight to be a repository of ecclesial Grace. Rather, it became spiritually ill, the disease of heresy spread, and the great branch of the West was finally detached from the rest of the Body, a reality which the Saints and various Synods since that time attest. This process may have lasted for decades — or even centuries — after the Great Schism.

PROTESTANTISM

Unfortunately, classical Protestantism is cut from the same cloth as Papism, while at the same time it is often much further from Orthodox Christianity than is Roman Catholicism. We cite Father Michael’s useful summary:

“In the 16th Century, despite the Turkish yoke Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople rejected the Lutheran overtures in his Three Answers on the ground of heresy while the Council of Constantinople (1638) repudiated the Calvinist heresies; the Council of Jassy (1642) with Peter Moghila denounced “all Western innovations” and the Council of Jerusalem (1672) under the famous Patriarch Dositheos published its 18 decrees together with the pronouncements of the Patriarch, Confession Dosithei, forming thereby the “shield of truth” which opposed “the spirit of the ancient Church” to “the heresies of both the Latins and the Protestants” (See I Mesolora, Symbol of the Eastern Orthodox Church (vol. IV), Athens, 1904). Of course, the heresy of the Papists and Protestants is a clear affirmation of the Orthodox Church as the “On, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” as declared the Council of Constantinople (1672), the Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs (1848), the Council of Constantinople (1872), the Patriarchal Encyclical of 1895, the Holy Russian Synod of 1904, and the memorable words of [the] Patriarch of Constantinople, Joachim II, “Our desire is that all heretics shall come to the bosom of the Orthodox Church of Christ which alone is able to give them salvation…” (in Chrestos Androutsos, The Basis for Union.. Constantinople, 1905, p. 36).

Proliferation of heretical doctrine is especially a characteristic of much modern Protestantism. Although most Protestants do not consciously espouse any of the early Trinitarian and christological heresies, even the most “traditional” of the “churches” to which they belong affirm (at most) on the first four Ecumenical Synods. In those cases, however, major inconsistencies can be found which betray a superficial understanding of Christian truth. “For in Protestantism, the fundamental principle of Papism is brought to life by each man individually. After the example of the infallible man in Rome, each Protestant is a cloned infallible man, because HE PRETENDS TO PERSONAL INFALLIBILITY IN MATTER OF FAITH. It can be said: Protestantism is a vulgarized Papism, only stripped of mystery (i.e., sacramentality), authority and power” (Archimandrite Justin (Popovich) of Chelije in his famous treatise, “Papism as the Oldest Protestantism”) [Resources: The Non-Orthodox. The Orthodox Teaching on Christians Outside of the Church]

About the Author

Patrick Barnes was born in Arlington, Virginia in 1964 and reared in a loving non-Christian home. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1986. He subsequently flew FA-18 Hornets for almost six years before resigning his commission in 1994.
While at the Naval Academy, Mr. Barnes converted to Christ and for the first eight years was actively involved in various non-denominational charismatic churches. In his twenties he began more carefully to examine his own beliefs. His discoveries unsettled him, and, spurred on by the question “What is the Church?” as well as by a yearning for something deeper and more firmly rooted, he embarked on an intellectual and spiritual journey that left him through Presbyterianism and Anglicanism to the Orthodox Church. Mr. Barnes was received into the Church on Pentecost in 1995.
In 1998 he earned a Licentiate in Orthodox Theological Studies from the Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies in Etna, California. His thesis, under the direction of Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna, formed the basis for this book.

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“Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!”
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George