Orthodox Reflections

While there have been irregularities in voting across many areas, it appears that the presidential race was largely untampered with. Too big to rig? Not really. The phantom Biden voters from 2020 would have done the trick, if properly placed. Instead, they failed to materialize. Even more interesting, after Trump’s victory there were no riots. No marches of thousands of angry women in “pussy hats”. No shouts of “Russian collusion” or any other kind of collusion. Unlike 2016, Trump looks set for a relatively peaceful start to his term as the 47th President of the United States.

It is almost as if the so-called “Deep State” (really the U.S. National Security State) wanted Trump to win. Or, more precisely, perhaps the Deep State needed Trump to win.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/is-trump-the-designated-salesman-for-more-war-and-christian-persecution/

The current hysteria over Christian Nationalism seems to stem from author Stephen Wolfe’s 2022 book, The Case For Christian Nationalism. From an Orthodox Christian perspective, Wolfe’s ideology is a complete mess. It is a mishmash of postmillennial Reformed eschatology (perfect society so Christ can return), Calvinistic examples of governance in Massachusetts and Geneva, combined with his own meandering thoughts that are often dark and totalitarian. Bafflingly, Wolfe manages to write 488 pages, dedicated to the intersection of Christian Faith and governance, without using any Orthodox or Roman Catholic historical examples or social teaching.

1,600+ years of Christian governance, for Wolfe, simply does not exist.

Had Fr John chosen to go after real “Christian Nationalism”, as espoused by Wolfe, he would not have had to rely only on American Founding Fathers for philosophical support. Fr John could have used actual Orthodox sources. For example, while the Orthodox Church does want civil government to maintain decency and good order, Orthodox Christians recognize the severe limits of civil law. Civil law can’t save souls, perfect humanity, or “redeem nations”. Our beliefs in the limits of civil law are explained in the Bases of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church https://orthodoxreflections.com/is-there-a-christian-nationalist-threat-to-america-and-orthodoxy/

Therefore, the Perennialists hold that God has assigned each of the “great world religions” to a specific sector or race of humanity, and “each is fully true in the sense that it provides its adherents with everything they need for reaching the highest or most complete human state.”4 Islam for the Arabs; Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism for the peoples of the Far East, Christianity for the peoples of the West; Judaism for a selection of the Semitic peoples, and so on.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/perennialism-in-religion-and-science/

Fr. Saša Petrović of St. Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church in Omaha, Neb., delivered his speech, “Eastern Rite Protestantism: Archbishop Elpidophoros’ Destructive Influence on Orthodoxy in America,” in late August. That title is a mouthful, and so is the speech, which covers the unsavory details of Archbishop Elpidophoros’ reign as the head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOARCH) since 2019.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/fr-sasas-warning-elpidophoros-leads-his-entire-archdiocese-to-spiritual-destruction/

You can’t wait on the federal government to help you in a crisis.

FEMA has a grand total of about 20,000 employees distributed among ten regional offices and its HQ throughout the United States. Far fewer are temporary and non-career staff, who are generally activated only to respond to emergencies.1 I know because I applied to several FEMA jobs and was contacted to fill a temporary position that the HR rep informed me meant no pay if I wasn’t actually engaged in a disaster. Also, while they do conduct regularly scheduled exercises, reality on the ground during a real world crisis can be a lot more challenging than any simulation.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/after-hurricane-helene-what-have-we-learned/

During COVID, Orthodox Reflections focused on the already known side effects of the mRNA, but we also focused strongly on the potential spiritual effects of taking shots whose production and testing were dependent on aborted fetal cells. In one of the articles from November 2022, we featured a video of a Greek Orthodox priest who felt demonic possession after taking the vaccine. We are republishing a link to that video below, as contributor Augustine Martin found a transcript of it which saves you spending 30 minutes reading subtitles to understand the story. A link to the video, the transcript, and some comments from Augustine are below. Given the uncertain times we live in, we Orthodox need to remember the importance of spiritual warfare. https://orthodoxreflections.com/greek-priest-reports-demonic-possession-after-mrna-shot/

We Christians have to defend Matthean priority because, to our great surprise two thousand years later, the credibility of the entire religion depends on it. If Matthean priority is false, then Jesus did not rise from the dead, and what John and Luke promised that these things are written for you to know the certainty of them is a lie. This is not the obvious conclusion of Markan priority, and it sounds absurd on its face, but scholars have rightly drawn that line of conclusions. They reject Matthean priority because Matthean priority, and only Matthean priority, means that Jesus is who the gospels say he is. https://orthodoxreflections.com/why-matthean-priority-matters/

According to most proponents of the Roman Catholic concepts of Papal Supremacy and infallibility, both doctrines were known and followed in the Church of the 1st Millennium. One thing is certainly clear, many Roman Popes in the 1st Millennium did have a high opinion of the inherent authority of their office. The question is, however, did the rest of the Church in the 1st Millennium share that opinion?

Why does it matter how the Church outside Rome viewed the Papacy? Because to be part of the Catholic Faith, as articulated by St. Vincent of Lérins in the 5th Century, “Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.”

Was the unchallenged authority and infallibility of the Roman Papacy “believed everywhere, always, by all” in the 1st Millennium? Let’s look at that question across several different areas: the relationship of the Papacy to Ecumenical Councils, the historical excommunication / deposition of Popes, and a brief examination of the record of the Papacy in maintaining Church unity. https://orthodoxreflections.com/were-the-roman-popes-supreme-in-the-first-millennium/

I therefore ask: Can I blame “the atrophy of the chest” in men — and the resultant disregard for truth — for most of the world’s problems?

What hath an entire century of rampant secularism, relativism, and other “isms” wrought in men? Whatever it is, it ain’t pretty.

Along with scores of other powerful men, are the pope and the EP clever but hobbled? Have they traversed their entire lives with core character deficits nurtured and rewarded instead of corrected and healed? I’m sure they think they have everything figured out. I’m sure they believe they are making the world better. But with “atrophy of the chest,” aren’t they fundamentally flawed? Basically untrustworthy? Chronically out of whack? If they are missing the stable sentiments of love, humility, and compunction, what honor, truth, or godliness should I expect from them?

Lewis notes deftly that “no justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous. Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism. I had sooner play cards against a man who was quite skeptical about ethics, but bred to believe that ‘a gentleman does not cheat,’ than against an irreproachable moral philosopher who had been brought up among sharpers.” https://orthodoxreflections.com/men-without-chests-the-metaphor-for-our-times/

The main purpose of the economy is not the present improvement of the “well-being” of individuals at the cost of ignoring the future. Nor is it to make a few overlords fabulously wealthy while everyone else begs for scraps. It is also not “Maximizing Shareholder Value” in an ever rising stock market casino.

According to the Orthodox Christian perspective of the Russian Church, the primary purpose of the economy is provide the means for citizens to form and support large, healthy families living in comfortable suburban settlements. Those of us who are both Christian, and conversant in economics, have been talking about the need for “family friendly” economic policies for years. Those policies were normally advocated for in the same kind of “shopping lists” quoted earlier – higher child tax credits, school choice, reduced inflation, lower property taxes. Some good ideas were put forward, but the “pro-family” faction was just one more interest group competing with immigrants, childless cat ladies, and the National Security State to get regulatory and legislative attention. Our disjointed wish lists, put together with no underlying theme really, almost always got pared down, ignored, or so reduced in scope as to be meaningless.

American families always end up as the last priority. There is always another war to fight. Another expensive fighter jet to acquire. Foreign aid to dole out. Corporate donors to pay off with public funds. Always something more important that leaves American families increasingly worse off than before. https://orthodoxreflections.com/economic-focus-on-the-family/

The long-prophesied global government is now. Do you actually think voting will slow down the impending end-times events? The entire world is a technocratic, debt-laden, interlocking collection of Potemkin villages masquerading as sovereign governments. Are you naïve enough to believe that good guys behind the scenes will save the system and make everything okeydoke? Sorry to burst your bubble: Evil is baked in, no matter where you live, and most political endeavors result in unintended consequences and moral blindness.

https://orthodoxreflections.com/not-through-me-nonparticipation-in-a-mad-mad-world/

All of this is very tough to hear for many traditionalists in Western countries. Nevertheless, we all have to face the ugly truth – the Roman Catholic Church, as she is currently constituted, cannot “save the West”. In fact, Rome is an active and enthusiastic participant in Western decline and possible ultimate annihilation. This was not always the case, of course.

Once upon a time, Roman Catholic bishops felt ties to local places and to their local flocks. The Roman Church felt an obligation to preserve and protect the local cultures in which she operated. It was common to refer to the “Polish Church”, to the “Anglo-Catholic Church”, to the “Austrian Church”, etc. and for those terms to really mean something in practice.

Sadly, not anymore. The Roman Catholic Church is now an integral part of the Globalist enterprise actively seeking to erase the West. https://orthodoxreflections.com/pope-francis-and-the-roman-church-versus-orthodoxy-on-immigration/

Some observers speculate that Elpidophoros’ intervention in Ukrainian church affairs is motivated by a desire to undermine Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon (his main competitor in the struggle for the patriarchate), and thus boost his own chances of becoming the next Ecumenical Patriarch. This guess fits well with his broader pattern of using international issues to advance his ecclesiastical influence — unless, of course, the issue is his Turkish birthland’s attack on Byzantine Orthodox Christian heritage. On those topics, His Eminence is usually strangely silent.

That’s why Archbishop Elpidophoros is reported to have been very interested in the proposal that Metropolitan Onufry might start a dialogue with the OCU. With the stipulation, of course, that the OCU ceases seizing temples from the UOC’s parishes. Victor seems to have asked GOArch’s Primate for a meeting between Bartholomew and a group of bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, whom he promised to attract, to discuss a possible transfer to the temporary jurisdiction of the Phanar. https://orthodoxreflections.com/archbishop-elpidophoros-misplaced-priorities/

I would like to be clear that Orthodox Christians do not discount the Grace of Christ, who will judge all of us (even non-Christians) when our life on earth ends. I do not want my non-Orthodox Christian friends to think that we, Orthodox Christians, have any say in how or on whom the Lord decides to bestow His Grace, despite any individual members of our faith (including hierarchs) saying anything to the contrary. The latter is not for us to say. However, we, Orthodox Christians, can say – and justify beyond a reasonable doubt, (the standard which man uses to judge one another, even for death sentences) using historical evidence – that we practice Christianity in the way that Christ taught his original disciples. Those practices were then captured in written words and in demonstrable traditions explained to us by the divinely-inspired “Fathers” of the Church and passed down to us since Pentecost. These two elements – the Word and Holy Tradition – are what we mean by “Orthodox” and “Orthodoxy”. Our bottom line is this: Christ established one church – His Church, the Church – which has been attacked since the day it became manifest on earth, has suffered schisms (including within the Church itself) and will continue to be attacked from the outside and from within but which can never be broken or divided. For my protestant friends, I recommend the book Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells by Matthew Gallatin to understand the differences between the various (thousands) of Protestant denominations and Orthodoxy. In my view, the following quote from this book captures what Orthodoxy is, succinctly and eloquently, at pages 179-180 of the softcover edition: “The misconception is this: Christianity is essentially a faith that one can individually interpret and apply as one pleases … Thus, true Christianity has no room for personal interpretations, preferences, qualifications, exemptions, or adjustments. Anyone … who wants to enter into a real relationship with Jesus Christ must accept the fact that the Faith of the Apostles preserved in Holy Orthodoxy is an historical reality, not just a theological school”. For my Catholic friends, I recommend that you research pre-1054 Catholicism and the slippery-slope changes that your various Popes have introduced since then – and make your way back onto an Orthodox Christian path. https://orthodoxreflections.com/archbishop-sotirios-of-canada-and-the-order-of-the-phoenix-a-few-simple-but-important-questions-for-his-eminence/

If the Shroud of Turin is authentic, then God Himself made an icon through His own supernatural power. An icon the Church possessed from the beginning in 33 AD. An icon that seems to have heavily influenced the depiction of Christ in succeeding centuries. https://orthodoxreflections.com/two-reasons-evangelicals-reject-the-shroud-of-turin/

What if some highly motivated and influential Zionists are correct in their predictions about Donald Trump?

What if they say that Trump will regain the White House this year and will serve both Israel and their impending Jewish messiah?

What if they call Trump their “non-Jewish messiah” and compare him to Cyrus the Great, who helped to reestablish the Jews in Israel after their exile in Babylon, some 2,400 years ago?

What if their signs of Trump’s anointing are his right ear being grazed in a symbolic gesture of Exodus 21:6 and his name in Hebrew gematria being 424, the same as “Messiah Son of David”?

What if Trump will help to rebuild the temple and to establish a Jewish kingdom over all of mankind in Jerusalem?

What if Trump is destined to represent Western society by personally greeting their Jewish messiah in Jerusalem? https://orthodoxreflections.com/dress-rehearsal-for-dictatorship-how-are-you-helping-to-set-the-stage/

If ordination of women remains a sort of “backwater” affair, then perhaps it can be ignored / papered over. That is largely what is happening right now. Most Orthodox hierarchs appear to be ignoring the new female Deacon, fervently hoping she will just go away. Such a strategy, however, stops working as soon as a female ordination occurs somewhere too prominent to ignore. There are limits to the differences that can be swept under the rug in the name of “unity”.

Ironically, a larger, more serious schism in the Orthodox Church could end up being caused by a “unity” of sorts between Constantinople, perhaps with Alexandria in tow, and the Roman Catholic Church, possibly with the Anglican heritage churches along for good measure. That is the kind of development that even the most schism-averse synods could not ignore. https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-way-to-schism-part-2-fake-ecumenical-unions/

By request, we opened up a chat because users have asked to respond back to us directly. Not at all sure what we are doing on this app, as it has always been a challenge for us. We have much larger followings and more expertise on X and Gab. But Telegram is a big community, so we are doing our best here. Please be kind.

The Elder Athanasios Mitilinaios pulls the curtains back further on the anti-Christian nature of the US government and others. Speaking of the battle of Armageddon in Revelation 19, he says (via Fr Peter Heers’ presentation):

These ungodly powers will consist of the atheist communism with its stronghold in the East, the atheist materialism of the West [i.e., the US, Western Europe, and their allies—W.G.], and the atheist Zionism of the Jews. Although these are different ideologies they share one common interest, which is to do away with Christ and His Church. . . . They set aside their differences in order to accomplish the goal. https://orthodoxreflections.com/americanism-continues-to-prepare-the-way-for-antichrist/

A large portion of those present at the RNC are Evangelicals. TV shots of the crowd during Trump’s tribute showed a lot of emotional faces, many even streaked with tears. Would the speech have had the same emotional impact without a visual representation of Comperatore? Or without the physical veneration of his helmet by President Trump?

Absolutely not. The physical presence of the hero of the moment was needed for everyone to have a connection to him and his actions. Humans need to see, to touch, and to experience. It is how God made us. Which is why the Orthodox venerate what God has made, but worship only the Creator.

Not one Evangelical has criticized Trump for idolatry. Not one Evangelical has said that somehow Trump was “worshipping” Comperatore. On the stage at the RNC, Trump’s actions have given us Orthodox a perfect way to introduce Evangelicals to veneration. We should not let this opportunity slip. https://orthodoxreflections.com/three-spiritual-lessons-from-the-republican-national-convention/