I am not naming names since I never notice names anyway, but methinks perhaps in the various threads about Scriptures Alone us Orthodox are missing our duty to present the conversation and subject in our own language and terms. Methinks we have been somewhat diverted into addressing it on Protestants terms. So here it is, so far as has been given unto me, according to our terms: Yes, a thousand times yes, we profess Scriptures to be the supreme source for our Faith. For they are the written revelations of who is God and who is Man, being the proclamations of the identity and purpose of Jesus Christ; the attestation of the saga of Man and God, God and Man, and finally God become Man. We revere them and we venerate them, and our day is void and our souls bereft if we do not read them. But no, a thousand times no, we will not and cannot profess Scriptures to be the sole authority for the practice and elucidation of our Faith. For that is not nor ever has been their nature, identity, and purpose. To make them such is, by our reckoning, literary idolatry, seizing from their author, the Holy Spirit, His rightful role. We dutifully preserve this truth in accordance with Gods will evinced through the righteous example of His holy Israel, the Church. Scriptures alone indeed are our source, and the Holy Spirit is our authority; we decry whoever dares make otherwise. Thus whoever makes Scriptures alone his interpreter of rites and worship and such as we render unto the Lord for all He has rendered unto us, such a one has reviled the purpose of their author, the Holy Spirit. Those who prefer otherwise are free to go whither they will, and God keep them. That is, insofar as my insufficiency can describe, Orthodoxy on the subject. I welcome and request any and all elaboration, correction, and refinement such is needed.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 05:17:15 +0000
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