Rejecting ratiocination as the standard of truth for conservative Christians, Eastern Orthodox controversialists usually offer “The Church” in its place. Today’s lecture refutes the church-as-standard-of-truth thesis in three steps. First, we give a plausible definition for what the Bible means by the word “church” in such passages as 1 Tim 3:15 (which calls the church the “pillar and ground of truth”) and Mt 18:17 (which likens those who do not hear the church to heathens and tax collectors). If by “church” the Bible means the institutional Eastern Orthodox Church, then the phrase “pillar and ground of truth” must have a greatly attenuated meaning because hagiographies (saints’ lives) routinely mix history and fiction (something that many in the laity suspect but demur from stating for fear of being branded as impious). An institution claiming to uphold truth like a pillar would certainly not pass off such impostures as history. Thus, we have to conclude that 1 Tim 3:15 and Mt 18:17 refer to something other than the brick-and-mortar Eastern Orthodox Church. Second, we show that attempting to find a brick-and-mortar institution corresponding to the concept of the “true church” commits an error in reasoning known as “word magic.” One would not go on the hunt for a living, breathing unicorn on the basis that the concept of unicorns exists on paper. In short, all of the propaganda concerning Eastern Orthodoxy’s being the “true church” amounts to yet another instance of reification. Third, we show that when Eastern Orthodox controversialists use the word “church,” they actually mean clergy. The sad reality is that the layman has no value in the institutional Eastern Orthodox Church. Encomiums paid to the “royal priesthood” of laymen amount to lip service only. The bishop is a living pillar and ground of truth in this paradigm, which puts one on a rather odd footing given that some of history’s most noisome heresies--the Apollinarian, the Nestorian, and the Macedonian--are named after bishops. Thus, the standard of truth for Christians can neither be a conclave of bishops nor one supreme bishop. Having shown that bishops are but fallible men, today’s lecture then dismantles the paternalistic myth that laymen are children who cannot operate as Christians without the bishop’s explicit permission. Indeed, a bishop’s permission slip (his “imprimatur”) is completely worthless. As warrant for this assertion, we present excerpts from a catechism approved by an Orthodox Metropolitan despite the fact that the catechism endorses original sin, total depravity, infant depravity, and the ransom-to-God theory. While concepts like infant depravity would be at home in a Reformed congregation, they are inimical to the restored-icon model of atonement, which the Eastern Orthodox Church has traditionally embraced. Given these failings, perhaps the Eastern Orthodox Church in theory is the “true church,” but the Eastern Orthodox Church in brick and mortar is about as doctrinally erratic as the Protestants whom Orthodox triumphalists routinely mock. Run time: 30:03; Posted: 3/19/16

• published: 23 Mar 2016
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