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THE RISE IN ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE

 

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For the past few weeks we've been receiving reports about a sharp increase in the burning down of churches and homes, and other anti-Christian violence led by Muslim extremists. Our contact 'Y' in Pakistan, sent us this message as he was driving his family to a safe location after leaving his home and all his possessions behind: "Christians are requested to pray for the Christians of the Christian Colony of Baraf Khana, Rawalpindi, because the Christians spent the last night in fear. There is a church near Chhoti Palli in Baraf Khana Christian Colony."

"Someone has mischievously said that Christians have committed blasphemy here, while according to initial reports, no such incident could have happened. However, in the night, all the Baraf Khana Christian Colony was evacuated and the Christians there temporarily left their homes along with their wives, children and family like in the Jaranwala tragedy. Which is the state where the guards ask the minorities to leave their homes for fear of these few evil elements and cannot protect them."

The army and police in Pakistan are doing very little to stop this violence, so their passivity and complicity encourages the extremists to continue. In Prov. 29:2-4 we read – "When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan. Whoever loves wisdom brings joy to his father; but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth. The king by justice makes the land stable, but he who takes bribes tears it down." This applies both to Pakistan and to the U.S., as well as other parts of the world: we've recently received reports of anti-Christian riots and persecution in India and Africa.

Persecution of Christians is to be expected, as the Lord and the Apostles foretold. It's not only in faraway countries, but also here in the West: We've been conditioned by centuries of social pressure, first under the Moslems who conquered the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, the Balkans, and parts of France, Italy, Russia and Hungary, and who at best consigned Christians to second-class "dhimmi" status and forbade them to have any social outreach – only Moslems were allowed to do that. Christians were limited to only hold religious observances within four church walls. At worst, Christians were persecuted and killed if they wouldn't convert to Islam.

Then in Western Europe, after driving the Moslems back and after several religious wars that decimated the populations, the various Edicts of Toleration reinforced the notion that people should stop fighting and show "tolerance" to those of other religious convictions, not pushing their religious beliefs on others. Today this has led, however, to the widespread notion that everything is relative, there are no absolutes, and that's the absolute truth!

But in the Christian East, communism took hold shortly after the collapse of the Moslem Turkish Empire, and at best strictly limited the Christian faith to only religious observances within four church walls, they were forbidden to have any kind of social ministry: only communists were allowed to do that. At worst, Christians who wouldn't meekly comply were tortured and killed.

And in the West it's just a bit more subtle: the ever-expanding secular humanism under the guise of "democracy", "freedom" and "tolerance" exerts strong social pressure against living out one's Christian faith in the public square. Leftists now push the idea that religious freedom means only the right to attend the worship service of your choice, not freedom of religious expression (as the First Amendment's clearly states). Do you see a pattern developing here? Our courses can help you break out of these cultural stereotypes!

How often have you heard, "Don't shove your religion down other people's throats!" and Christians being labeled as "intolerant" or "bigoted" or "haters" if they speak of or live out their beliefs in public? We've internalized these social pressures, accepting them as "normal" and even come to believe in them almost as religious dogma. We must break out of this "psychological box" that we've been shoved into, and reclaim the free exercise of our religion in society, as the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees and as Christ commanded us to do.

You likely don't have the gifts of healing or exorcism. Perhaps you're not a great evangelist: you get real nervous if asked to speak in public. It's OK if you don't have those spiritual gifts. Remember Christ's parable of the ten talents, five talents and one talent? The person with just one talent buried it, so the Master took it and gave it to the person who had ten.

But actually, you most likely have ten talents already! What are those things attached to your palms? Ten fingers! You have ten spiritual gifts, called the gift of helps! Learn how to start using them, and perhaps the Master will entrust you with some of the greater gifts. Break out of the box!

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A CALL TO SANCTIFICATION

 

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God's will for us is our sanctification (Romans 12:1) – He wants us to become holy ("saint" and "holy" are the same word in Greek and other languages) – "Saint Jerry" or "Saint Sally." The Lord wants us to Experience the Fullness of His glory, to be transformed into His likeness.

In order for that to happen, though, we must strengthen the weak believers but not have communion/fellowship (the same word, "koinonia" in Greek) with unbelievers or false believers – "hirelings." The call to sanctification is also a call to separation from worldly activities and behavior:

"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever? What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, 'I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.' Therefore, "'Come out from among them, and be separate,' says the Lord, 'Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

The saints of old and even those of more recent times are called "saint" or "holy" because they have been cleansed of worldly passions and lusts and have devoted themselves to the pursuit of holiness: "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). "Therefore, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us" (verse 1) – may we follow their examples and Christ's example!

God created mankind in His image and likeness so that we could share in His glory. After the Fall, however, the image was marred and the likeness was destroyed: we became spiritually "dead" in our trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:5-9) – this passage tells us about not only our spiritual death, but also about the gift of God's grace that saves us. Salvation is a life-long process of healing and restoration: the Greek word for "salvation" is "soteria" which also means "healing."

When a little child is given a present all wrapped up in shiny, colorful paper and with a pretty bow on it, the child is often fascinated with the box and the bow, so the parents say – "What's in the box? Open the box!" Grace is indeed a gift, but what's in the box? Grace is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the divine nature that restores and transforms our nature and our whole life.

But as the Old Testament scripture quotations in this photo illustrate, it's easy to get wrapped up in the side effects – health and wealth – of God's grace: Jesus, the good shepherd, wants to give us abundant life – "The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly" (John 10:10). However, there are thieves, wolves in sheep's clothing, who are just in it for the money – "hirelings" who want to steal, kill, and destroy the flock. We must beware of them, not hire them, or even give them a place at the table:

"But as it is, I wrote to you not to have fellowship with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don't even eat with such a person" (1 Corinthians 5:11) and "But if one of those who don't believe invites you to a meal, and you are inclined to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions for the sake of conscience. But if anyone says to you, 'This was offered to idols,' don't eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience" (1 Corinthians 10:27-28).

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THE UNCONSCIOUS CONFIRMATION BIAS PHENOMENON

 

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As Warren Buffett once stated – "What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact." Most of the time, we are totally unaware of our biases. We are unconsciously interpreting the world around us to make sense of all the bits of signals from our vision, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling, etc. The way that we make sense of it all is by comparing it to past experiences and knowledge. First impressions are usually the most-lasting impressions. But this often prevents us from really understanding what's happening in the world or what others are trying to communicate to us.

A good case in point is the news reporting about the war in Ukraine. Various news sources interpret what is happening from their own point of view: I read many articles in Russian written by pro-Russian and pro-Ukraine sources, and they lead the reader to just the opposite conclusions about the same events. If a person has a pro-Ukrainian position, the natural tendency is to block out information from the opposite position, and vice-versa. People have an unconscious bias toward their own family, religion, ethnicity, and nationality: both birds and people tend to flock together with those who are like them. Also, social media algorithms learn our views and desires so they can feed us more posts and ads reflecting our views, thus unconsciously confirming our biases. This is why it's important to study both sides of an issue, so that we can come to well-informed and more accurate conclusions. This same principle applies to political and social issues.

Another example: when an older person has a disability or has just experienced a health issue, others may often interpret that as a permanent condition that indicates mental decline or even soon-approaching death. Then they write off that person as permanently, totally disabled and about to depart this world... so why spend much time with that person? But when the older person's condition improves, the onlooker's prior conclusions remain intact – new information or evidence is ignored: "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts!" People often refuse to admit they have an unconscious confirmation bias precisely because they are unaware of it.

How does all of this relate to our spiritual worldview: our beliefs and behavior? Do we automatically dismiss or challenge interpretations of Scripture that don't agree with our existing convictions? Do we argue, or interrupt, or ridicule, before we hear out another person? Are we thinking of how we are going to disprove another's position instead of actually listening to what they're saying? Often is is better to say nothing, to refrain from arguing, than to try convincing someone with facts if their mind is already made up: a good way to lose friends.

In Romans 2:5 and 8 we read – "But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God... to those who are self-seeking, and don't obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation." When a person has a pre-set bias toward sin, his heart is hardened and unable to repent and he will suffer the consequences. He may rationalize his beliefs as righteous in order to justify his sinful behavior, but the objective truth does not change, and God Who is the final arbiter of truth will judge rightly. "He who conceals his sins doesn't prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy" (Proverbs 28:13).

It is important to be accountable to mature Christians, especially to those whose teachings have been accepted "always, everywhere, and by all." Heresies develop in isolation when theologians neglect accountability from the broader Christian tradition. To guard against it, we should study theology in the context of a community of believers who will together submit to godly men who "rightly divide the word of truth." So avoid "private interpretation," especially by those who have little or no theological qualification.

The Nicene Creed, which I've written about in some of my recent posts, represents what the historic Church has believed for centuries. It was written and accepted by the Church even before the canon of the New Testament was officially adopted. We tend to rationalize beliefs that we received earlier and want to be true, so we invent a "rational" explanation for them, selecting only the data that confirm our position. Beware of confirmation bias!

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IS THE NICENE-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED SCRIPTURAL?

 

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Read "Is The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Scriptural?" online, or get it as a PDF, 2 pages. The online version links to the Scripture references for each word or phrase in the Creed which affirm that this concise summary of Christian doctrine, accepted by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestants, is indeed Scriptural!

Most of the Creed was written in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicea [the definition of the Holy Spirit was added to the Creed at the Council of Constantiniple in 381 A.D.]. It was at Nicea where Athanasius of Alexandria led the debate against the heresy of Arianism, 68 years before the 27 books of the New Testament canon were officially recognized as Scripture in 393 A.D. at the Council of Hippo. Many holy writings were widely read and accepted by the early 300s, and in about 360 A.D. that same Athanasius, now Bishop of Alexandria, composed the list of 27 books of true apostolic origin that would become the New Testament.

So when people say – "I only believe in the Bible, not human tradition!" – thereby denigrating the holy men of God who rightly interpreted Scripture, they are putting down the very same holy men of God who decided which writings were inspired Scripture! The issue isn't Scripture vs. tradition, but rather Holy Tradition being the correct interpretation of Scripture. This Creed has been a unifying factor for Orthodox Christians over the past 18 centuries. But sadly, disunity creeps in due to all-too-human ethnic pride, lusts, and greed.

As you may know, ever since Russia's greedy 2014 invasion of Ukraine's Donbas region and takeover of Crimea, I have been following closely and reporting on events in Ukraine in my newsletters and social media posts to tens of thousands of readers. In early 2018, I was asked to write an article about religion in Ukraine for an upcoming edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia.

In May 2023, a copy of the World Christian Encyclopedia, Third Edition was presented to Pope Francis in Rome. There's much in it about the Carpatho-Russian Church. The date of my last draft of the article was dated "June 8, 2018" which is before the Ecumenical Patriarch issued the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in December 2018.

The published article, with photos and maps added, is dated April 4, 2019. You'll note that at the end of this final version of the article (just before the bibliography), it says – "Contributions by Anatole Glukhovskyy and Robert Hosken" but as you'll see by comparing my draft with the published article, most of it is my work, as the June 2018 draft indicates.

The religious basis for the current war in Ukraine goes very deep: Two Greek Orthodox Christian brothers, Methodius and Cyril (after whom the Cyrillic alphabet is named), who lived in Crimea – at that time part of the Greco-Roman Empire – had learned the Scythian language spoken by proto-Slavic peoples just north of Crimea. These two brothers were sent to evangelize the Scythians. In 988 A.D., over 1,000 years ago, Prince Vladimir was converted to Orthodox Christianity and had the whole nation of ancient Rus' based in Kyiv baptized in the Dnipro River. At that time, Moscow was just a small village on the side of a river. Only about 200 years later did the principality of "Muscovy" – the territory ruled by Moscow's princes – grow big enough to fight against and conquer Kyiv, eventually shifting the center of Slavic Christianity to Moscow and renaming itself as "Russia." So this religious rivalry between the two capitals is almost 900 years old by now.

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ATROCITIES IN THE NAME OF RELIGION

 

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Unspeakable atrocities are taking place in various countries: This photo from the CNN article "Eleven killed in Manipur as new bout of ethnic violence grips India’s northeast" shows Indian soldiers calmly patrolling in Manipur, northwest India. But the intro "Eleven people have been shot dead and 14 injured in a fresh outbreak of ethnic violence that has gripped the northeast Indian state of Manipur" does not convey the horrors that Indian Christians are experiencing. Nor does the article "Manipur Christians: ‘The Violence Has Shattered Us’" from Christianity Today shake us from our complacent neutrality.

An Indian pastor in our "Morning Prayers and Readings" Skype group posted some videos about the anti-Christian violence in Manipur, asked for prayers, for spreading this info, and any support if possible. After searching online to verify these reports and and finding the above articles, it turns out this anti-Christian violence has been ongoing for a few months now: I hadn't heard a peep about it in the news and the few articles I found don't convey the awfulness of these persecutions. So I downloaded these videos and saved them on my Google Drive. But Google notified me that 2 of these videos "may violate Google Drive's Violence and Gore policy." So I moved them from my Google Drive and uploaded them to my server. They are terrible to watch, but just reading about these atrocities doesn't make much of an impression: we can walk away and forget about it. Here are 5 of the videos:
www.agape-biblia.org/Christians-houses-destroyed.mp4
www.agape-biblia.org/Christians-beaten-with-slippers.mp4
www.agape-biblia.org/Christians-murdered-along-the-road.mp4
www.agape-biblia.org/Christian-woman-tortured-and-executed.mp4
www.agape-biblia.org/Christians-march-for-108-victims.mp4

The news media do not want us to see the actual "Violence and Gore" that's taking place in the world: they want us believe that we can all get along if we just go along, feeling "warm fuzzies" by being insulated from the truth. We can also allow ourselves to be lulled into complacency by the latest news about Russia's invasion of Ukraine: our eyes glaze over and our attention drifts away to the next news report about the weather or a warm-fuzzy, feel-good story. On February 18, 2023, Reuters reported that the "U.S. declares Russia committed 'crimes against humanity' in Ukraine" – why did it take 12 months to come to that official announcement, after the genocide in Bucha?

It is finally being covered in major news outlets: the BBC reported on June 27 – "Ukraine war: Russia executed 77 civilians detained by its forces, UN says" and showed a photo of an apartment building that was demolished by a Russian missile. It mentioned that "the UN documented 864 individual cases of arbitrary detention by Russia since it launched its invasion last February. Ukraine also violated international law by detaining civilians, though on a much smaller scale." We should be careful not to adopt a "moral equivalency" or "but Ukraine is as bad as Russia" view out of this: 91% of all atrocities in the UN report were by Russia.

The Guardian reported on June 27, 2023 – "UN says Russian forces have tortured and executed civilians in Ukraine" saying – "the UN human rights office... interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses for a report detailing more than 900 cases of civilians, including children and elderly people, being arbitrarily detained in the conflict, most of them by Russia." It also stated – "Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, had implicated Vladimir Putin in war crimes by admitting the original invasion had not been justified by any provocative actions by Ukraine."

And Deutsche Welle also reported on June 26, 2023 – "Ukraine: German judiciary takes on Russian war criminals" describing how "hundreds of people in Ukraine have been sexually assaulted by Russian soldiers since the invasion of their country began. Now, for the first time, four alleged perpetrators are in the sights of Germany's justice system." Human rights lawyers in Europe are preparing cases against these perpetrators and their superiors, two high-ranking commanders.

Even before and especially since this war flared up on February 24, 2022, we learned that it has had a religious dimension: acccording to "How the Ukraine war is dividing Orthodox Christians" from over a year ago, March 7, 2022, "both sides of the conflict are not merely Christian, they are members of the same church, sharing a thousand years of religious history. Today, 71% of Russians and 78% of Ukrainians identify as Orthodox Christians. In fact, until 2019, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was part of the Moscow Patriarchate (MP), and many parishes remain there (UOC-MP), in conflict with a self-governing Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU)," At the war's flare-up in 2022, Metr. Onufriy of the UOC-MP denounced it as a "fratricidal war" and many of his parishes refrained from commemorating their mother church's head, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, just like Kirill and his subordinates stopped commemorating the Ecumenical Patriarch. This signaled a break in communion: schism. Since then, hundreds of UOC-MP parishes have switched to the OCU.

See also the article – "The Russian-Ukrainian War is Now a Theological Crisis" of April 30, 2023. It explains that "symfonia" – the ideal of a harmonious relationship betwee church and state – has become the theological justification for the Russian state using its captive Orthodox Church to provide the theological-ideological basis for Russia's invasion. Ukraine, on the other hand, although it has a higher percentage of Orthodox believers than Russia, doesn't exercise such tight bonds between church and state: all religious confessions can freely practice their faith.

"Russian Invasion Reveals Fissures Among Orthodox Christians," a March 3, 2022 article on "Religion Unplugged," tells how this war has provoked schism in Eastern Orthodoxy worldwide: "Statements from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Church of Antioch and the Church of Jerusalem have asked for prayers for peace without naming Russia as an aggressor. On the other hand, statements from the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Georgian Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church and, of course, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine have more directly criticized Russia or President Vladimir Putin."

Our last issue of ARC-News closed with the quip – "Taking a middle of the road position is dangerous. You can get knocked down by the traffic from both ways." Some issues require a decision: "Not to decide is to decide." If we do not speak out and take action against atrocities that use religion as a justification, we are tacitly supporting these atrocities. Mouthing meaningless aphorisms such as "thoughts and prayers" or "prayers for peace and harmony" is nothing less than meaningless religious mouthwash that you gargle, spit out, and rinse down the drain. War crimes are being committed in the name of religion. It is time to take a stand against this anti-Christian violence!

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Respecting the Personhood of All Humans

 

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"I AM the Lord." This phrase is repeated over and over again in chapters 18 and 19 of Leviticus. Chapter 18 is mostly concerned with rules of sexual morality and after every group of rules comes the phrase "I AM the Lord." But in Leviticus 19:9-18 we find rules about our ordinary social relationships:

9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.
10 You shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.
11 You shall not steal; neither shall you deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
13 You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
14 You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall fear your God. I am the Lord.
15 You shall do no injustice in judgment: you shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
16 You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people; neither shall you stand against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.
18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Notice the special care for the poor, the deaf, and the blind. What do we see here? Because of the "I AM" we can have objective rules for living – family relationships, wider social relationships, and business relationships – that are not just subjective, based on our feelings and "what's in it for number one." Because God – the "I AM" – exists, we can have an objective, solid foundation for morality and truth. This is because humans are unique among all living creatures: we are created in the image of God, intended to reflect His nature and His glory. This life on planet Earth is intended to be a testing ground for our eternal life with God.

There's much talk these days about animal rights and the rights of nature, the environment. We humans are to treat these other creations with care and respect because God created mankind to be stewards over all the earth. But only human persons have the God-given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (in the sense of eternal bliss).

The very first God-given right is the right to life. This comes before the right to liberty because without life we have no liberty. Today's "Right to Life" movement understands this, but the "Right to Freedom of Choice" group doesn't seem to grasp this fundamental fact. Liberty or freedom is not the right to unjustly deprive other persons of their life. The "Freedom of Choice" folks in politics and the abortion industry actually limit this freedom to just one choice: killing unborn babies.

They argue that personhood doesn't exist until the baby is born or develops self-awareness, which begins at about the age of 18 months, so it's OK to kill the baby before then. A balanced article on this is What is 'personhood'? The ethics question that needs a closer look in abortion debates. Another criterion they list is the ability to think logically, but this would exclude people who are unconscious long-term (in a "persistent vegetative state") or with limited intellectual ability. So they sometimes conclude that it is OK to euthanize these adults, although many "Pro Choice" people find that is going too far down the slippery slope of un-personhood.

The Right to Life isn't limited to the beginning of life, to unborn babies (not a "fetus" or "lump of tissue" – very dehumanizing terms), but also to those approaching the end of life, as I've discussed in PCHETA, THE SENATE’S DEADLY PALLIATIVE CARE BILL, IS BACK ON THE TABLE and elsewhere: "MAiD" (Medical Assistance in Dying) and turning palliative care into hospice care and then into euthanasia.

So "Respecting the Personhood of All Humans" concerns the whole spectrum o human life, from birth to childhood, adolescence, adulthood. and old age. It means treating each person with respect, just as we would like them to treat us: "you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

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HANDLING ACCURATELY THE WORD OF TRUTH

 

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This picture aptly illustrates the issue at hand: can every cowherd and every milkmaid correctly understand and interpret the Scriptures? Or does the King James Version's wording give us a hint of what can happen? "Dividing" can mean causing division: many illustrations I looked at showed a vertical sword stabbed into a Bible and one picture actually showed the mathematical symbol for division! Staking one's own position on a mistaken interpretation can cause division. What does the Bible really say about this, why have we come to the point where many insist that their personal view is the only right one and if you disagree they disown you?

The wording in the above title – "handling accurately the word of truth" – is from the NASB version, a very exact and accurate Evangelical translation. In 2 Timothy 2:15, the Apostle Paul is instructing Timothy how to shepherd the flocks in the region of Ephesus, where Paul had appointed him (1 Tim. 1:3) to ordain leaders in the churches there (1 Tim. 3: 1-10), just as Paul and appointed Titus to do in the churches on the island of Crete (Titus 1:5-7). This illustrates the apostolic oversight over churches to insure that correct doctrine is being accurately taught: Timothy and Titus were both to fulfill this apostolic function.

Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica to "stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us" (2 Thes. 2:15). And he instructed Timothy to "guard that which is traditioned to you, turning away from the empty chatter and oppositions of falsely so called knowledge; which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen" (1 Tim. 6:20-21). The word "tradition" is "paradosis" in Greek, meaning that which is passed down from one person in authority to another. Also note "by word of mouth" – in the first 15 centuries of the Church, written copies of Scripture were rare and expensive, so much "traditioning" was oral from one generation of apostolic teachers to the next.

When Jesus was tempted right after His baptism, the devil mis-quoted Scripture to challenge Jesus to show off His power – see Mat. 4:5-7. Over and over in the New Testament we are warned to guard against false teachers and teachings. There are hundreds if not thousands of mistaken answers to a problem in higher math, but only one right answer: the same is true of Christian doctrine. Jesus told the Sadducees – "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures, or the power of God" (Mat. 22:29).

The Apostle Peter wrote that "no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation, just as no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (1 Pet. 1:20-21). Notice the connecting words "just as": in the same way, or just as, holy men of God spoke, so also we need "holy men of God" – saints and Church Fathers, those recognized by the Church – to correctly interpret Scripture. Not "every cowherd and every milkmaid" can do it correctly.

St. Peter also wrote that the wise writings of the Apostle Paul were sometimes hard to understand – "our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you; as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction" (2 Pet. 3:15b-16).

Finally, St. Paul instructs Titus how to train new elders – "holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him. For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain's sake." (Titus 1:9-11).

There are those whose mistaken ideas contradict sound doctrine: unruly, vain talkers and deceivers who are seeking self-gratification. But there are also those who are able to exhort in the sound doctrine. Let us strive to become the latter, by the example of the Apostles and their successors!

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