Protestant Readers Read On
My beautiful wife has brought my attention to some "convert stories" that, though they vary somewhat in particulars, they are almost identical to our own stories in substance. Both of these men were Reformed Calvinists. Both of these men's stories will more than likely upset Calvinist readers, but read them anyway. For it's that very "upset" feeling that is confronted and answered.
Introduction to the Orthodox Church for Truly Reformed Calvinists by Hugh BensusanHere's an analogy that I'm sure most Orthodox will agree with and most Protestants ought to pay head.My pilgrimage to the Orthodox Church. by Eric Simpson.
A British friend gave me an analogy. Any bookstore will sell you a Shakespeare play. Now it goes without saying that there is a world of difference between reading a play and seeing it performed. (Christianity is more than just a book!) But even aside from this, my friend noted that the stage directions in a Shakespeare play are quite sketchy. They might tell you "Romeo exits," but you won't know where the characters are standing, and so forth. A director who decides to put on a Shakespeare play may end up staging it quite differently from another director. However, there is the Shakespearean tradition. Shakespeare knew how he wanted his plays staged. He had no need of writing these directions into the script, since the script is for the actors, not for the director. Those who studied under Shakespeare learned how these works were to be performed, and they in turn passed these unwritten directions down to our day. So if you want to stage "Hamlet" as the playwright intended, you have to learn from a Shakespearean director. Of course, you can pick up the scripts and direct the actors any way you choose, but it is debatable whether you can still call this a Shakespeare play. It would end up similar to Shakespeare, but what would Shakespeare think of it?More? OrthodoxInfo.com Posted by jeremy stock at June 6, 2003 01:27 PMThe Apostle Paul instructed Saint Timothy: the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also (II Tim. 2:2). This shows that the deposit of the faith was entrusted by the Apostles to the next generation of bishops. Saint Timothy was then to pass this tradition down to his successors, and so forth. Four generations of Apostolic Tradition in one verse! And not a word about passing on a specific collection of twenty-seven separate writings. What would come to be known as the New Testament did not receive its final formulation until the end of the fourth century. It is said that the Protestants believe in Christ because the Bible says so, while the Orthodox believe in the Bible because it is Christian.