What Does ‘Orthodox’ Actually Mean?

What does the term Orthodox actually mean? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE. You can also email us anytime at questionsatcorechristianity.com. And before we go to calls today, Adriel, I want to share an email that we received from overseas.

I thought you'd enjoy this. This is from a new CORE donor in Singapore, and she says, Wow. Yeah, and she says, Wow. Christine, thank you so much. I just want to say amen. May God truly continue to be at work and use His Word to minister to those who are hurting and broken.

I know, Bill, you feel like, I mean, what a privilege. And it's a sobering thing, really, to think about, you know, talking to people about God's Word and wanting to apply the Word of God to those who desperately need it, and some of them really, really hurting. And so, striving to be compassionate and also cling to our convictions related to God's Word, you know, and applying God's Word faithfully. And so, thank you so much, Christine. And may the Lord continue to bless you and use this ministry to encourage you. So great to hear from you, Christine, there in Singapore. And we'll be praying for you that you find a good church, that you've been able to plug into a community of Bible-believing people in that country. And thank you so much for taking the time to write. Well, we'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. And of course, as I said, you can always leave us a voicemail anytime at 833-THE-CORE.

Here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Ray. I see a lot of times on TV all these people saying that these miracles happened to them where they were visited by an angel in a perilous situation, and all of a sudden they look around and that angel is gone. I'm just wondering, does God send angels to those who are not Christians?

Thank you. Well, God can do whatever he wants. Really, I mean, I believe that. I mean, the question is, well, do angels also minister to or intervene in the lives of those who are not believers? And I think that the answer to that is, yeah.

I mean, I don't see why not. Now, we know specifically, according to the book of Hebrews chapter one, that they are sent out to minister on behalf of those who are going to inherit salvation. This is what the author to the Hebrew says in Hebrews 114. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? And do they do that, you know, prior to their conversion, the conversion of those individuals?

I believe so. And so what does that look like? I mean, maybe, you know, an angel, you know, in God's providence intervening in a way to preserve or to help someone who is in a difficult situation. But we just got to say, look, there really is a lot of mystery at work. We don't get to see the angels with our eyes, but we know that they're there and that God is working in and through them for the good of his people. We also know that there are evil angels, deceptive angels, that Satan himself goes out like an angel of light, Paul says in 2 Corinthians.

And so those evil demons are at work in the lives of those who reject the gospel and are unbelieving. So everyone, every human being, I think, has encountered angelic influence or intervention at one point or another, even though they can't see it or maybe don't realize that they've experienced that. But we know that the Bible teaches that there are angels, good angels and bad angels, who are at work in the world today and that God is able to use all of them for his sovereign purposes. And let me just say, you know, it's easy for us to get caught up with, and you see this especially in the New Age movement, you know, people hyper focus on angels and your angel and so forth. You know what the New Testament says angels are focused on and what they marvel at?

The grace of God towards sinners. Those are the things into which angels long to look. And so that's where our focus should be as well, is on God and his grace towards us in Jesus Christ.

That's where we want to focus our attention. And you mentioned how Satan will often masquerade himself or his demons will masquerade as angels of light, and that's a concern to me when someone is so caught up with angels, but not with the gospel, not with the truth of Christ. You wonder if Satan could lead them astray by making them think that they are somehow communicating or interacting with angels. Yeah, and like I said, I mentioned the New Age movement because you see that especially there where, you know, it's really spiritual and light and angels and all of these things, but it draws people's attention away from the gospel and from the word of God, what God has revealed to us.

And insofar as it does that, it's demonically influenced and we have to be aware of that. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open. We'll be taking your calls for the next 20 minutes or so. Maybe you've got a question about a Bible passage that's always confused you or maybe a question about doctrine or theology. Maybe your church's beliefs that you're kind of struggling with something or maybe something going on in your own personal walk, your Christian walk that you really could use prayer for. Give us a call at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. We also receive emails here at Core Christianity and here's an email from one of our listeners named Beth. She says, I was raised Catholic but adopted my husband's religion of Lutheran when we married.

I have also began studying the Bible and I enjoy your program very much. My question is about the Catholic practice of praying to various saints such as Joseph, Mary, Christopher, etc. I find nothing in the Bible about this and it seems to point solely to prayer to our Father God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit. Can you speak to the practice of praying to the saints? I think you're onto something when you say I haven't been able to find anything in Scripture to support this because there really isn't anything in the Bible that supports praying to those who have died or asking those who have died and gone before us to pray for us on our behalf. One of the Protestant reformers, he made an argument from Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 1 where God is speaking to Israel and he says, Then the Lord said to me, speaking through Jeremiah, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people.

Send them out of my sight and let them go. In other words, he's saying, Look, even if Moses and Samuel were interceding, praying for you right now, I wouldn't listen to them. And so the argument was we shouldn't expect or go to those who have died, the saints who are truly in heaven in the presence of the Lord, we shouldn't go to them and say, Hey, be praying for me. We should go to other believers here on earth, the church militant, and we ought to encourage each other to be in prayer and pray for one another. But the practice of going to the saints, quote unquote, and asking them for prayer, that's not something I think that you see in the New Testament. And so it was a tradition that developed over time that I don't think is rooted in the teaching of Scripture.

And this is why, by and large, the Protestant reformers rejected this. We should go directly to God. And we can go directly to God through our high priest and mediator, Jesus Christ. We don't need other mediators in the sense of, you know, I can't really approach God.

I need someone who's closer to him to sort of get me in through the door. Well, the New Testament says that that one is Jesus. Jesus is your great high priest. You can go boldly to the throne of grace, directly to God through Jesus Christ. And I think for many who embrace this doctrine, that's one of the things that you can lose out on, is that confidence of access that you have to God, feeling like, I can't really go to God right now.

I need to go to someone else. And they're going to go to God on behalf of me. Brother, sister, because of what Jesus has done, you can go with confidence to the throne of grace. And so I hope that as you continue to study the Scriptures, as you continue to study the Bible, that this is solidified more and more in your mind, and that you grow in that confidence of access that you have to God in prayer through Jesus. God bless you. Thanks so much for your call and for your emails. We loved hearing from you here at CORE Christianity. Here's the number, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. We also have a YouTube channel. You can watch Adriel live on YouTube every day at 1130 a.m. Pacific time. You can see what's going on in our studio and send him a question through YouTube.

Have this one from one of our YouTube viewers named Neil. Neil says, Pastor Adriel, thanks so much for your ministry. My question is about Romans 1-18. Do you think what is going on in our culture today is what Paul wrote about in this letter? Are we experiencing God's wrath upon our nation?

Neil, thank you for that question. Well, let me read this text, and let me just say at the outset, I don't think that as Paul was writing Romans 1-18 and what follows that he was prophesying about what's happening with us here in the United States of America, but I do think that all scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for us and that what he speaks about here is relevant to our current cultural situation. And so here's what Paul says, Romans 1-18, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up to the lusts of their hearts, to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. And then Paul gets into how this idolatry, this self-worship, has caused people to regress, to go further and further down the rabbit hole of sin, leading to all sorts of kinds of sexual immorality. And I'm guessing, Neil, that this is what you were thinking of when you brought this up. Paul goes on to say in verse 26, For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And so I think one of the applications that you can see is, look, when as a society we reject God's Word, His truth, even just natural revelation, we can see that God is to be worshiped just by virtue of the creation around us, and yet instead of worshiping Him, when we suppress that truth in unrighteousness, things get worse and worse, and we go down this deep, dark rabbit hole of sin and begin to do things that are contrary to nature. And here the apostle Paul specifically mentions things like homosexuality and sexual perversion. And certainly this is something that we are seeing all around us today in the culture, just to sort of embrace this. This is normal, it's fine, it's good, but that's not at all what the Word of God says.

And part of the reason people are so open to this and it's, well, this is just normal and fine and good, the reason they say that is because of that great spiritual blindness that comes with rejecting God and suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. And so, while I don't think that Paul was thinking of our country per se when he wrote this, I do think that this is relevant to things that we're seeing, and the call for us as the church is one, for us to repent of our sins, but two, to hold fast to the truth of God's Word and to proclaim that gospel, and to call others, regardless of what their struggle is, into the light of Christ to receive His grace and His mercy, to know His salvation. And that's how Paul begins all of this in verse 16 of chapter 1.

It's important for us not to forget this. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In other words, brothers and sisters, it's easy to get discouraged when we look at the world around us and say, man, so many people have rejected God and they're embracing all sorts of things that are contrary to nature, but here's what we have. We have the everlasting gospel of salvation, the same gospel which saved us from our sins. We have that gospel and God calls us to be faithful to it and to proclaim it with confidence, knowing that it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

That's good news. So well said. And I know you would agree that whenever we talk about these things, we're to do it with gentleness and respect, not be in somebody's face about their sin. Even when you do that, there are people who are still going to hate you because you just disagree with them.

They're going to be frustrated with you, but they shouldn't hate us because of our abrasiveness or pugnaciousness because we're always just wanting to fight and demean others or whatever. No, that shouldn't characterize us as the followers of Jesus. We should be faithful to the truth and courageous and bold with it, but as you said, with respect and in love, truly out of a love for those to whom we're speaking, longing to see them know and embrace the gospel. And so, boy, if we're going to be hated as Christians and Jesus said that we would be, let's be hated for the gospel's sake, not for our own foolishness.

And Peter talks about that as well. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We do receive a lot of calls on this program about spiritual warfare and the influence of Satan in this world, and can his demons impact us?

Can they affect us? We've written a really great resource on that topic. We want to make it available to you today. It's called Can the Devil Read My Mind?

Yeah, I'm holding it right here in my hand. It's about 70 pages long. It's a short booklet that you could probably read just in an afternoon, but it dives into the subject of spiritual warfare.

The introduction is titled The Prince of Darkness, Grimm, Chapter 1, Your Adversary, the Devil, Chapter 2, The Devil's Defeat, Chapter 3, Resisting the Devil, Chapter 4, FAQ on the devil and his work. And then there are some recommended resources that are given, but this is really meant not to draw attention to Satan, but to have a proper biblical understanding of spiritual warfare and to think about this with a clear head and according to what the word of God teaches. And so get ahold of this resource written by Pastor David Cassidy, an excellent resource. Again, you can find it over at corechristianity.com. And while you're at our website, feel free to browse around and check some of the other resources we have, many of them absolutely free. Our core questions, our core guides. Again, our site is corechristianity.com. We do receive voicemails here at Core Christianity. Call us 24 hours a day, leave your voicemail question.

Here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Donna. My question is, what does Orthodox mean? Russian Orthodox Church, Greek Orthodox Church? Like, what does Orthodox actually mean?

Thank you. Simple question. Yeah, and everybody uses that word. At least everybody wants to use that word. You know, all Bible-believing Christians want to lay claim to the fact that we're Orthodox. I've used that word on the broadcast, I'm sure, a number of times, and so thank you for calling in and asking that question, because I know it's not a word that everybody just sort of totally understands, but it's a compound word made up of two Greek words, orthos and doxa.

Sometimes, you know, the word doxa, you might think of doxology. It's oftentimes associated with worship or belief, and simply it's right or healthy beliefs. And so when we're talking about Orthodoxy, we're saying this is what's true. The doctrine that is true, sometimes it's compared also with orthopraxy.

That's right practice, right living. And so you have the right understanding, right doctrine, right practice. Those two things are related to each other, and we see, you know, in the New Testament in particular, this call to be committed to sound doctrine and to reject anything that doesn't lead to orthopraxy that isn't rooted in the truth of God's word. I think especially of the pastoral epistles, Paul writing to Timothy, where he says to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 6, if you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of this good doctrine that you have followed, that good sound doctrine.

And then just a little bit later in chapter 6 verse 2, he says, those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers, rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these things if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. And so those sound words, that healthy doctrine, that life-giving doctrine, that's what the truth is.

The word of God gives life, it sets free, it justifies, it transforms. And so orthodoxy is that right doctrine that we all ought to be committed to. Now you mentioned churches that take that title, the Greek Orthodox Church or the Russian Orthodox Church, or sometimes if you're talking to somebody who's Eastern Orthodox, they'll just identify themselves as orthodox.

And so, the other thing, we are the orthodox ones. But really, it's sort of like the word Catholic. Sometimes people hear that word and they think, oh, well, it just always means Roman Catholic. No, the word Catholic means universal. We as Christians want to embrace that title as well. We're a part of the universal church, the Catholic Church.

That is, it's not identified with one place in particular. It's not the church in Rome, it's not the church in Jerusalem. The Christian Church is this Catholic universal church.

It's not centralized in any one place. The same thing with the word orthodox. We should strive as Christians to be orthodox, not in the sense of being Greek Orthodox or Russian Orthodox or Eastern Orthodox, but in the sense of being faithful to the apostolic word that Paul was talking to Timothy about, that deposit of faith that was given by Jesus to the apostles and that they in turn passed on. Then that's what it means to be orthodox, is to embrace the apostolic teaching of the New Testament, the teaching of scripture.

And so, the orthodox are those who are striving after the truth of God's word and all godliness and embracing that word. And that's what we should do as followers of Jesus. And so, thank you for that question.

Wonderful to be able to talk about that. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you can feel free to leave us a voicemail. Here's our number, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. We do our best to review our voicemails at least once each day. Let's go to Scott, who's calling in from Texas. Scott, what's your question for Adriel? Hey, guys, can you hear me?

Hey, Scott, I can hear you. Hey, just want to say first off, thank you so much for everything you do on the program. You've been really instrumental in growing my faith and just listening to you answer the questions has just been such a blessing. Thank you, brother. I had a question for you today based on kind of a family situation that I find myself in. Me and my wife got married and then I found myself unequally yoked for a little while there. I kind of had a revelation of faith and the Holy Spirit spoke to me about a year after we got married. Anyway, trying to keep this brief, self praying for my wife's family on a daily basis and I haven't really seen any results.

I'll pick up on them kind of mocking the Christian faith openly and I don't think they're doing it to point at me and say, oh, you know, making fun of me or anything, but I'm just wondering how should I traverse these waters and is there a point where I need to just give it over to the Holy Spirit and say, hey, I've prayed a bunch and I'm going to let you do your thing or what am I supposed to do as a Christian in this moment? Yeah. Scott, can I just ask a follow up and what I might do is pick up your question tomorrow at the opening of the broadcast. One, because I just want to take some time to be able to respond because it is such an important question, but I heard you talking about your wife's family and mocking Christianity. Where specifically is your wife in all of this?

So that's also kind of a complicated response, but I feel as though she's grown kind of alongside with me. Just seeing my consistency and how much it means. You know, we go to church every Sunday and this is kind of an indicator of the fruit there. She asked me to move her car, so I got in her car and moved it and I was looking at the radio stations and what do you know, there's a Christian radio station as one of the presets.

Hey, okay, don't want to cut you off, but we are out of time. I'm going to pick up your question at the very front of our broadcast tomorrow. Let me just say, Lord, bless our brother Scott and his family. Grant him wisdom and be with him, Lord, causing him to be a light especially with his wife's family. In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, go to corechristianity.com forward slash radio or you can call us at 1-833-843-2673.

That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, let us know how we can be praying for you and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.