The Head of the Orthodox Church Was a Calvinist

[00:00:00]last year sometime or maybe the year before we did a program with Jason Wallace on zero licaris and gave the story he he there's a a great video you can go watch at ancient paths.tv TV uh the ancient paths TV u YouTube channel that Jason put together on Selicarus and Sarah Licaris was the ecumenical patriarch he was the head of the Eastern Orthodox churches not the head in the sense that Rome has a singular head but it's an interesting ecclesiastical system certainly developed over time not apostolic but they'll argue that one too serus was exposed to reformed writing and embraced reformed beliefs and taught reformed beliefs. Now, there are some, you know, some of the ways that the East has dealt with this is some have denied that. They've said that the Calvinists created what he wrote and it was all fake and none of that's true. The video goes through that, refutes that, provides even more evidence um that this was most definitely what Sir Lucaris believed. It's obvious that it was what he believed because you would not have had to have had to send out of Jerusalem in 1672 if Lucaris had not actually taught these things and if this wasn't part of the whiplash reaction to it. Okay. So what I'm going to do with the little bit of time we have here is I want to read through S Larus produced a confession and this is primarily what the confession of the Cytheus is in response to. So by looking at this, we're looking at the background of this document, which gives us the most information about how Eastern Orthodoxy, at least in an official sense, responds to reformed theology. What's more is I have a video Qub uh from Frank Turk and some of the guys from Trinity Seminary doing their normal surface level anti-calvinism stuff. And again, God bless Frank Turk, but he is he cannot get past Norm Gistler.

[00:02:32]And some of us have dealt pretty fully with Norman Gistler's misrepresentations of reformed theology, you know, a quarter century ago. And so repeating the same stuff over and over and over again gets a little bit on the tiring side. Anyway, here is the confession.

[00:02:50]Now, um I want to get down to, for example, chapter 2 here. And I don't have uh I haven't I didn't come over here to do this, but um might as well. Um, we believe the Holy Scripture would be given by God to have no other author but the Holy Spirit. This we ought undoubtedly to believe for it is written. We have a more sure word of prophecy to which you do well to take heed as to light shine in a dark place. We believe the authority of holy scripture to be above the authority of the church. This is important. Okay, this is we looked at the confession of the cytheus and saw immediately that the confession of the cytheus its primary concern was to safeguard traditional authority.

[00:03:42]And now you can see why because this is what they're responding to. This is what what they are reacting against. Compare this with what you have coming out of um Geneva at this very same time period.

[00:03:57]So so so the confession to Cytheus is 1672.

[00:04:01]Um Calvin died 1564.

[00:04:06][snorts] So reformed theology has been percolating, shall we say, and spreading because Calvinists have always been very missionary-minded.

[00:04:19]That may shock you, but that's the case.

[00:04:23]So listen to what I say. We believe the authority of the Holy Scripture to be above the authority of the church.

[00:04:30]To be taught by the Holy Spirit is a far different thing from being taught by a man. For man may through ignorance er deceive and be deceived but the word of God neither deceives nor is deceived nor can and is infallible and has eternal authority. This language is going to be used in the confession of dosytheus and transferred to the church.

[00:04:53]Remember we we covered this. Is that the last time or the time before last? We covered this already and pointed out that the only way to understand what the confession of dosytheus is saying is to view the church as theustas god breathe because it's transferring these divine attributes of god's word to the church and that's exactly what they were doing.

[00:05:22]So I mean this is thoroughly orthodox from our perspective, thoroughly biblical and it recognizes the ontological nature of scripture as being the very speech of God. That's why they had to respond to this um because that places the church in its proper place as the recipient of this revelation and not as the authoritative interpreter of it. But the the word remains the interpreter of the church. You cannot have reformation when the word does not interpret the church.

[00:06:05]there there's no way to have reformation if the church goes the wrong direction and they would even have to admit well under Lucaris it did right well how do you correct that biblically from scripture scripture becomes the the norma the norm that norms all norms so we believe the authority of the holy scripture to be above the authority of the church that is huge and that's why you had the the discussion that you had there. Uh so chapter 3, we believe that the most merciful God has predestined his elect unto glory before the beginning of the world. So here's what they're responding to. without any respect of their works and there was no other impulsive cause to this election but only the good will and mercy of God. That right there I would argue is the essence of reformed theology.

[00:07:11]That that that's what makes reformed theology reformed. No, it's infant baptism. No, it is the freedom of God.

[00:07:20]That is more basic. That is more definitional. So election is is before the beginning of the world.

[00:07:28]So it's eternal.

[00:07:30]And election is without any respect of their works.

[00:07:36]And there was no other impulsive cause to this election but only the goodwill and mercy of God. There's the dividing line.

[00:07:46]That's it. It it whatever group we're dealing with, whoever it might be, Mormons, whatever, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, this is the issue. Who saves?

[00:08:02]Does God make men savable? This is the issue. This is the the whole issue with latent flowers and the [snorts] whole provisionist movement. Provisionism is a fundamental selling out of the reformation. They are not reformed. They are not children of the reformation. Oh, they benefit from the reformation big time view of scripture, the whole nine yards. But then they bite the hand that feeds them. They cut themselves off from the very root that gave them what they have.

[00:08:36]And honestly, once we get back into the confession of the Cytheus, you will not be able to tell the difference between what the Eastern Orthodox are saying about election and what these guys like Leon Flower says about election. The exact same argumentation. I'm not saying he stole it from them.

[00:08:54]Um, I mean, it's possible, I suppose, but I'll just be honest with you.

[00:08:59]Flowers got nailed again um last week for posting a um slaughtered edited quotation of John Piper.

[00:09:14]Uh in fact, the way I put it was there were so many ellipses it looked like it had chickenpox.

[00:09:21]And what had happened was this was Piper's summary of the Armenian argument.

[00:09:30]But by removing the introduction, context, and words in the quote, it was made to look like this is what Piper was saying about Romans 9 and the sovereignty of God and election and stuff like that when it was actually the objection he was going to spend the rest of the chapter destroying.

[00:09:51]Okay. Now, as I pointed out at the time, um there's two possibilities. One possibility is Leighton Flowers manhandled the quote himself, which would make him dishonest.

[00:10:03]Or much more likely, he found that quotation in a secondary source, never bothers to look at the original source, and just repeated it. And somebody else had deceptively and falsely misrepresented Piper. And then what happens on the internet is you just get it repeated over and over and over again. I bet you'll find somebody five years from now quoting that same thing, saying, "See, here's what John Piper said." When it wasn't what John Piper said at all. Provisionism is fundamentally anti-reformed and anti-reformation and agrees with Eastern Orthodoxy and major elements, Roman Catholicism.

[00:10:41]You've got Augustinians and stuff like that. Won't get into that right now. But what we will discover and sir Lucaris [snorts] was an important part in absolutely cementing Eastern Orthodoxy's detestation of reformed theology. Listen to Steven D. Young. He detests reformed theology. Um listen to the Orthodose. They detest reformed theology. Do they understand reformed theology? Well, that's always one of the issues. We never really know.

[00:11:16]Um, but that's the question. All right.

[00:11:18]Um, in like manner before the world was made, he rejected whom he would.

[00:11:26]Of which act of reprobation?

[00:11:29]I mean, wow, there are a lot of even Protestant confessions that won't go there. If you consider the absolute dealing of God, his will is the cause.

[00:11:42]But if you look upon the laws and principles of good order, which God's providence is making use of in the government of the world, his justice is the cause. For God is merciful and just.

[00:11:53]So here's here's the issue.

[00:11:56]What is the cause? You have you have two things listed here.

[00:12:02]When you talk about repribation, if you consider the absolute dealing of God, his will is the cause. If you deal with providence in time, so in other words, the way we think see things happening in time, then his justice is the cause.

[00:12:17]Why? Because of the fall. So we could discuss how this relates to super lapsarianism, infraperianism, all the other lapserian understandings because there are mediating positions and you know Robert Raymond went and stuff like that etc etc. But whoever wrote this had done some serious reading in Calvin and in his successors in Geneva really had. It's pretty obvious that that had taken place. So we believe that one God and Trinity, the father, son, and holy spirit to be the creator of all things visible and invisible. Indivisible things we call angels. Visible things we call the heavens and all things under them. And because the creator is good by nature, he has created all things good.

[00:13:06]And he cannot do any evil. And if there is any evil, it proceeds either from the devil or from man. For it ought to be a certain rule to us that God is not the author of evil. Neither can sin by any just reason be imputed to him. So you'll notice there is [snorts] the the same kind of that you even are eventually going to have well actually do have um well okay by the time of the confession of the cytheus you already have it in the Westminster but um it's already being expressed by reformed in responding to the idea of author of evil. I mean, isn't that this is there's there's the language of the provisionist, the Armenian, whatever it might be. If God has a sovereign decree, then that makes him the author of evil. He's uh uh that's the only way that uh you can you can do that from their perspective. So, we believe that all things are governed by God's providence, which we ought rather to adore than to search into.

[00:14:12]So we we cannot we cannot explain all of God's providences. Why God allows one nation to exist for 50 years, another nation to exist for 250 years even though there's sin in both. We those are those are things that will only be explained in the future in the eternal state uh if God dains to do so to his glory.

[00:14:36]Since it is beyond our capacity, neither can we truly understand the reason of it from the things themselves, in which matter we suppose it better to embrace silence and humility than to speak many things which do not edify. Well, then to speak many things which do not edify. Is that not a early 17th century description of the internet?

[00:15:00]I mean, especially when it comes to theology and things like that. Pretty much. Yeah. Chapter six. We believe that the first man created by God fell in paradise because he neglected the commandment of God and yielded to deceitful counsel servant. From then sprung up original sin into his posterity that no man is born according to the flesh who does not bear this burden and feel the fruits of it in his life. Now uh the orthodox history with the doctrine of original sin uh is complex.

[00:15:35]And to say that there are a lot of different takes, [snorts] a lot of different understandings. I would say in general that the East's view of anthropology is significantly biblically weaker uh in general than the West. But it's complex. There are um there are a lot there are a lot of orthodox writers that do understand the impact of sin and the universality of sin and things like that. So don't don't get me wrong there.

[00:16:09]But like I said, it can get really complex uh exactly uh how you're going to understand it. We believe that Jesus Christ our Lord emptied himself that he he that is he assumed man's nature into his own substance that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the ever virgin Mary. So, okay, let let's okay, the ever virgin Mary. So, what have I said a million times before?

[00:16:36]The issue of the perpetual virginity of Mary was not an issue to the early reformers.

[00:16:43]You know, Calvin had said we shouldn't argue about it. Luther believed it at the beginning and then started diminishing emphasis upon all the Marian stuff throughout his life. if you can just track it how it was how it was going. But they did not consider it a key theological issue. And again, that's because even Rome had not developed the Marian centrality that it has today. Remember the two last dogmas, immaculate conception, bodily assumption way after this time period.

[00:17:20]Um so uh Sarah Lagaris believes in her perpetual Virginia bury. Okay. Suffered death, was buried and risen in glory and that he might bring salvation and glory to all believers. Interesting. There is a whom we look for to come to judge both quick and the dead. That's a standard Christian confession right there.

[00:17:43]Chapter 8, we believe that our Lord Jesus Christ sits on the right hand of his father and there he makes intercession for us and knowing reformed theology. Um, knowing reformed theology, I really wonder at times what nonreform do with that?

[00:18:02]What does that intercession mean?

[00:18:06]What's the ground of it? What's the basis? I mean, that's what I that's what I hit everybody with. So, you know, when we do this debate uh in uh in March with uh Steven D. Young and with another fellow, since that hasn't been all worked out yet, I'm not giving names like that. He's written a book um on the subject, but um this is central atonement, intercession.

[00:18:31]That's what the high priest did. That's the one role the high priest um intercession for us. executing alone the office of a true and lawful high priest and mediator. Boy, that's that's Hebrews, which means it's reformed. And from there, he cares for his people and governs his church, adorning and enriching her with many blessings.

[00:18:54]Who can disagree with any of that? Uh I don't think anybody anybody can. Uh so has this moved down far enough? I don't think it has.

[00:19:05]No, I just cannot cannot get to it right now. Um, you know, I could fix that. I just realized that.

[00:19:16]Tada. That was easy. Um, just don't have it all the way over there. All right.

[00:19:23]Um, let's just do this one. We'll we'll that that way we can pick up with chapter 10. So, we've got what we need.

[00:19:31]All right. We believe that without faith, no man can be saved. And we call faith that which justifies in Christ Jesus, which the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ procured, the gospel published, and without which no man can please God. Now when we get back to the confession of Dosytheus, you are going to see that there is a extensive discussion therein on what faith is. And I think it's because it came. responding to this uh because now you get into siology, justification by faith alone, grace alone. What does that mean? Um, that's that's where the rubber meets the road as to the very definition of the gospel itself.