How old is the Orthodox faith?
by Rev. Dr. Miltiades Efthimiou
If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by
Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the
Catholic Church, in the year 1517.
If you belong to the Church of England, your religion
was founded by King Henry VIII
in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the
right to
re-marry.
If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by
John Knox in Scotland in the
year 1560.
If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was
originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582.
If you are Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an
offshoot of the Church of
England, founded by Samuel Senbury in the American colonies in the 17th
century.
If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your
religion to John Smyth, who
launched it in Amsterdam in 1606.
If you are of the Dutch Reformed Church, you recognize
Michelis Jones as founder
because he originated your religion in New York in 1628.
If you are a Methodist, your religion was founded by
John and Charles Wesley in
England in 1774.
If you are a Mormon (Latter Day Saints), Joseph Smith
started your religion in
Palmyra, New York, in 1829.
If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began
with William Booth in London
in 1865.
If you are Christian Scientist, you look to
1879 as the year in which your religion
was born and to Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.
If you belong to one of the religious organizations
known as "Church of the Nazarene, Pentecostal Gospel,"
"Holiness Church," or "Jehovah's
Witnesses," your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects
founded by men within the past hundred years.
If you are Roman Catholic, your church shared the same
rich apostolic and doctrinal
heritage as the Orthodox Church for the first thousand years of its
history, since during the first millennium they were one and the same
Church. Lamentably, in 1054, the Pope of Rome broke away from
the other four Apostolic Patriarchates (which include Constantinople,
Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), by tampering with the Original Creed
of the Church, and considering himself to be infallible. Thus your
church is 1,000 years old.
If you are Orthodox Christian, your religion was founded
in the year 33 by Jesus
Christ, the Son of God.
It has not changed since that time. Our church is now
almost 2,000 years old and
it is for this reason, that Orthodoxy, the Church of the Apostles and
the Fathers
is considered the true "one Holy Catholic and Apostolic
Church."
This is the greatest legacy that we can pass on to the
young people of the new
millennium.