As with the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church’s prescription for being justified with God and worshiping Him acceptably is simply not the Great Physician’s prescription set forth in Scripture. Both the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church are rooted in unbiblical tradition.

Here are some examples:

Use of images and icons in worship: Those who defend this practice will not confess to worshiping these things, however God said in the Bible that to represent Him by human innovations fashioned with people’s hands (such as icons or images or statues) is a form of idolatry (and both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church indeed represent Jesus Christ through such things- while they both bow to such).  Bowing down before icons and/or images and/or statues is idolatry- period.  

Exodus 20:4-6: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.   Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”  

Praying to dead people (so-called saints): It is also misguided and idolatrous to pray to dead people and seek their intercession.  This is assigning powers to mere humans which belong to God alone.  And though the Orthodox Church doesn’t officially call Mary a co-redemptrix with Jesus like the Roman Catholic Church does, it still considers her to be an intercessor with Jesus for humans on earth.  It thus still venerates her in an idolatrous way.

1 Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

The same error in the Roman Catholic Church related to the Mass being regarded as a bloodless sacrifice of Christ, whereby bread and wine are supposedly literally turned into His body and blood, is also present in the Orthodox Church (though the Orthodox Church uses the term Divine Liturgy instead of Mass).  This is contrary to the truth set forth in the Bible (especially Hebrews chapters 9 and 10) regarding the sufficiency of Christ being offered once for sins.  The Orthodox Church also sets the priest as an allegedly necessary mediator to offer the sacrifice of the alleged body and blood of Christ like the Roman Catholic Church does.

And also contrary to 1 Timothy 2:5-6, the priests in both the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church perform the allegedly necessary sacrament of auricular confession whereby they are set up as mediators between God and men.

And like the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church practices infant baptism as part of its sacramental system.  This practice is not rooted in the Bible and deludes people to think that they are Christians from infancy.  Infant baptism is a counterfeit of the authentic new birth in Christ (evangelicals have their equivalent counterfeit in the ritualistic sinner’s prayer which they often systematically run people through- especially little children).

In both the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church, Jesus’ finished work of atonement on the cross and sufficient High Priesthood are opposed and an alternative system of justification is set in its place.

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR FRONT PAGE FOR ALL THE STUDIES

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR 3RD WORLD MISSION TO THE IMPOVERISHED