joypeacehope: The Great Protestant Cover Up

Monday, September 22, 2014

The Great Protestant Cover Up

I have spent some time today reading and contemplating ancient historical texts, regarding the travels of the Apostles and the Seventy and it has been a truly amazing experience. Think about this for a moment; twelve Apostles and the Seventy, not to mention their companions and helpers spread out over the entire known world of their time preaching the gospel, accompanied everywhere with signs and wonders, (as Christ had promised), and wherever they went they appointed bishops to rule and shepherd the masses that were being converted to ensure the ongoing propagation and preservation of the gospel message in their absence.

This first generation of Apostles and Seventy ministered for perhaps a very conservative total of 720 years among them all, if we were to calculate that each of them was active in ministry a mere ten years which of course for most was far short of how long many ministered. For example, the Apostle John lived to be over hundred years old and came to Christ as a young man. So, if we double that number to a conservative twenty years each, we can count it as, say, 1500 cumulative years of preaching with signs and wonders. That is amazingly long span of history and probably still a conservative number!

Tell me this, how much of this history have you read? How much of this Apostolic history has any Protestant read? Can you enter into a brick and mortar or online Protestant Christian bookstore anywhere and find references to one of the most amazing periods of history in whole span of man's existence on this earth? Can you pull a book off the shelf of any public or university library that refers to the travels and exploits of the greatest men who have ever lived in the history of the world? Where are these history books? Were none ever written?

Could it be possible that of all the ancient libraries in the world today, housing tens, if not hundreds of thousands of texts, books and manuscripts, that none would speak of the greatest period of history the world has ever known? Of course not, the texts, the manuscripts, the books are all there, it's just that Protestants ignore them all. To say nothing was recorded for this period of history would be absolutely ludicrous. Yet of the thousands of books, texts and manuscripts that are available from this period of history, the typical Protestant would say, "Oh you can't believe anything but the b-i-b-l-e, that's the book for me!" Do Protestants say that about historical texts from any other period of history? No, they don't. Why not? What's up with that? I'll tell you what's up with that, it's called, the greatest cover up of all time and it was all perpetrated by the father of lies, the great deceiver, the one who portrays himself as an angel of light, a beacon of truth and a bulwark of faith.

Modern man and more specifically, Protestants dwell in darkness and have been kept from reading some the most inspirational stories ever recorded in the history of mankind! What can be said of a supposedly Christian nation and a supposedly Christian church that has kept these blessed historical books, narratives and stories from us?

I'm only scratching the surface here. What of the first 1,000 or so years following the appearance of the Messiah. Cultures of the East refer to this period of history as the golden age of the Church? This is the period of history when the gospel had such an influence on the world that entire empires were under the righteous rule of Jesus Christ working through great and honorable Christian emperors and rulers. This was a period when art, architecture and science flourished and as matter of fact, all the great advances of the West can be attributed to what came out of the golden age of the Church but they won't tell you that in school. I think that's called, identity theft.

Do you know what Protestants and our American school system call that period of history? Well, I was taught that it was the, 'dark ages' and never once did I hear it referred to as the 'golden age' of history. As a matter of fact, that period of world history is either entirely ignored or left out of the history books or else it is reported and recorded in a manner seekers of truth would call, revisionist history or propagandist history.

I have been challenged as of late by a Protestant, who has challenged the veracity of the Orthodox Church and as a consequence, I have been inspired to dig deep to better understand the Protestant American mindset, so that I could give a proper defense for the hope that is me. As a result, my faith has been tested by fire repeatedly over the past four months and all I can say is that it is shining brighter than ever.

No comments:

"Anathema To Him Who Divides And To Him Who Confounds"

This statement was made by the most reverend bishops of the
Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. As the mind of God was, so the seven holy councils of the first 800 years of the church spoke, establishing and confirming the great doctrines of the Christian church universal which stand firm and solid to this day and will for all eternity. In ignorance most Protestants and Romanists today aren't even aware of Byzantine history and the glorious reign of the church during the first thousand years of history after the coming of the Blessed One. If you knew that to not embrace the decrees and canons of these councils put you in an anathematized condition, would you not repent and return to the 'true faith' of your fathers? "Do not move the ancient boundary stone", so it states in the Proverbs and what happens when we do? We will be prosecuted and thus shall it be for us who violate these ancient decrees and canons of the Holy Ecumenical Councils.

Icon Of The Descent Into Hades

Jesus Christ stands on the doors of Hades and breaks them open. The doors are in the form of a Cross to remind us that Jesus shattered these doors through the power of the Cross. Christ is pulling Adam and Eve out of Hades or Sheol, the place of death. Notice the limp hand of both Adam and Eve. The limp hand symbolizes that it is through Jesus' power that they are taken to heaven out of this place of death. It is Jesus' death and that alone that has conquered death. Left of Jesus we see John the Baptist preaching about the one who is to come to Hades to save them. John the Baptist is Jesus' forerunner even in Hades. Next to John the Baptist is King David and King Solomon. Right of Jesus we find Abel, the first saint of the Old Testament. This icon is also called the Icon of the Resurrection.

Biography of Saint Basil, Fool for Christ

Saint Basil the Blessed, was born in December 1468 on the portico of the Elokhov church outside Moscow. His parents were commoners and sent their son to be trained as a cobbler. During Basil's apprenticeship, the master cobbler happened to witness an occurrence, which showed him that his apprentice was not an ordinary young man. A merchant had brought grain to Moscow on a barge and came in to order boots, specifying that they be made in a particular way, since he would not pick them up for a year. After taking the order, Saint Basil began to weep and said, "I wish you would cancel the order, since you will never wear them." Confused, the master cobbler questioned his apprentice, and he explained that the man would not wear the boots, for he would soon die. After several days the prediction came true.

When he was sixteen, the saint arrived in Moscow and began to display what is called "Yurodivy" or foolishness for Christ. In the burning summer heat and in the freezing Russian winters, he walked barefoot through the streets of Moscow. His actions were strange, for instance, he would topple kalachi and kvas stands in the marketplace. Angry merchants would throttle and beat Saint Basil, but he welcomed the abuse with joy and he thanked God for it. Soon after it would be discovered that the kalachi was poorly cooked, and the kvas was badly prepared. The reputation of St Basil quickly grew. People saw him as a holy fool, a man of God, and a denouncer of wrong.

Another story tells of a merchant who wanted to build a stone church in Moscow, but its arches collapsed three times. The merchant turned to the saint for advice, and he pointed him toward Kiev. "Find John the Cripple," he said. "He will advise you how to construct the church." Traveling to Kiev, the merchant sought out John, who sat in a poor hut and rocked an empty cradle. "Whom do you rock?" asked the merchant. "I weep for my mother, who was made poor by my birth and upbringing." Only then did the merchant remember his own mother, whom he had thrown out of the house. Then it became clear to him why he was not able to build the church. Returning to Moscow, he brought his mother home, begged her forgiveness, and built the church.

Preaching mercy, Saint Basil helped those who were ashamed to ask for alms, but who were more in need of help than others. Once, he gave away a rich imperial present to a foreign merchant who had been left destitute. Although the man had eaten nothing for three days, he was not able to beg for food, since he wore fine clothing. The saint harshly condemned those who gave to the poor for selfish reasons, not out of compassion, but hoping for an easy way to attract God's blessings. St Basil also visited the taverns, where he tried to see goodness, even in people who others had given up as lost, and to strengthen and encourage them by kindness.
Once Saint Basil even reproached Tsar Ivan the Terrible, saying that during the divine services the Tsar was preoccupied with thoughts of building a palace in the Vorobiev hills.

St Basil died on August 2, 1557. His body was buried in the cemetery of Trinity church, where in 1554, In an early icon, St Basil is portrayed as old, with white hair curling at his ears, and a short, curly white beard. He is completely naked, and holds a handkerchief in his hand. The veneration of St Basil the Blessed was always so strong that the Trinity temple and the attached Protection church were renamed for him as the famous St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. The saint's chains, his relics, are preserved at the Moscow Spiritual Academy.

RUSSIAN ICON "GUARDIAN ANGEL"

"Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven." Matt. 18:10 " Although we can not see them with our bodily eyes, we can see them clearly with the eyes of faith. Are we really so poverty stricken in sensitivity and spiritual awareness that we do not wish to believe anything except the easily visible world? Are our hearts so occupied with worldly vainglory that they love nothing which does not pertain to wealth and temporary pleasure?" The Guardian Angel pg. 10

Icon of the Holy Archangel Michael, Captain Of The Angelic Host.

Saint John Chrysostom The Golden Mouthed

St. Gregory The Theologian

St. Gregory the Theologian, when barely thirty years old, won acclaim throughout the region as a mighty warrior in the fight against paganism and heresy. He headed the reorganisation of the Orthodox Church which had been torn asunder by the heresy of Arianism from within and by the harassment of pagans without. In the course of this holy work, he achieved distinction as an orator, traditionalist, and a crusader that earned him the title of "Theologian" despite the opposition of Maximos the Cynic, who had been set up against him by the bishop of Alexandria. He was the instrument of God in unifying the Church into a cohesive unit that could withstand any internal or external pressure.

St. Basil the Great

St. Basil set Christian perfectionism as the goal of monastic life. The monks were to practice Christian virtues together, especially love; to practice obedience to a spiritual father; to practice chastity and poverty, and share the common goods of the monastery. After they achieved Christian perfection, they were allowed to come back to the world and help others to achieve Christian perfection. Thus, the monks had the mission of "social workers" as well. St. Basil's institutions, especially his Basileias, which was at the same time an orphanage, a "kitchen for the poor," and a school for the illiterate was in practice run by monks. This was St. Basil's way of utilizing the monastic movement to benefit the mission of the Church in the world.

Prayer of St. Ephram The Syrian 306-373

O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, lust of power, meddling and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chasity, humility, patience and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and to judge not my brother; For thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen. (The church historian, Sozomen credits Ephrem with having written over three million lines of hymns, poems, homilies and biblical commentary). His works are known only within Orthodoxy. "The greatest poet of the patristic age and, perhaps, the only theologian-poet to rank beside Dante." — Robert Murray.