Pentecost: The Holy Catholic Orthodox Church Begins

Orthodox Pentecost is a significant Christian feast celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter, marking the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. It is often referred to as the "Birthday of the Church" and is celebrated with special liturgies, and prayers. Pentecost proclaims the importance of the Bible and Traditions as one, not separate.

Orthodox Christians love the Bible. It is read in every service, chanted, proclaimed in reading the Gospels, and structure Orthodox liturgical year is structured by the Scriptures. The Church gave us the Bible. With thousands of modern denominations, all reading the same Bible, all claiming the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and all coming to different conclusions about baptism, communion, church government, and salvation itself. They don’t seem to have the same faith.

The early Christians lived and worshiped for decades before the New Testament was even finished being written beginning with Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-31). It signifies the empowerment of the Apostles to begin their mission of spreading the teachings of Jesus. They worshiped through the Divine liturgy,  were baptized, celebrated the Eucharist, ordained bishops, and died as martyrs, all before anyone had compiled the 27 books, we now call the New Testament.

When disputes arose about which books were genuinely apostolic and which were forgeries, the Church decided. Councils met. Bishops compared notes. They asked: What do we use in our liturgy? What did the apostles hand down to us? What reflects the faith we’ve always believed? Bible didn’t fall from heaven with a table of contents. Written by Apostles, Disciples, Bishops met to defend “What the Bible says” and “What does the Bible means” within the “traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

The idea that the Bible alone is the sole authority for Christian faith and practice is a Protestant doctrine from the Reformation.[1] A 16th-century movement in Western Europe reformed more than the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, itself a reformation. The See in Rome separated from the original Ecumenical Christian Church of the Five Sees established by the Apostles, Apostolic teachings, Ecumenical Councils, Cannons and Holy Traditions and The Nicene Creed. The Creed defines the “In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”[i] The Apostles' Creed was used prior to 140 A.D. while the Nicene Creed was formally adopted in seven councils of the church in 325 A.D.

The Reformation is foreign to the “In one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church (Orthodox) has always understood Scripture. For 2,000 years there has been One Christian Orthodox Church, in 1054 with the schism, there were two. Since the Reformation in the 16^th century, there are an estimated 47,000 denominations with different interpretations, traditions, bibles, and social arbitrary interpretations.

In Christianity, Scripture and Tradition go together. They’re not two different sources of truth competing for authority. Holy Tradition is the whole life of the Church as the Holy Spirit has preserved it from the apostles until now. Scripture is the crown jewel of that Tradition, the most precious part, but it’s never been separate from it. Holy Tradition includes the Bible, but it also includes the Divine Liturgy, the decisions of the seven Ecumenical Councils, the writings of the Church Fathers, the Nicene Creed, the canons, the icons, and the lived faith of Christians across the centuries. All of this together forms one coherent whole. You can’t pull Scripture out of that context and expect it to function properly on its own.

St. Paul himself tells the Thessalonians to “stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Notice that? He doesn’t say “only what I wrote down.” He says the traditions, plural, whether spoken or written. The apostles passed on the faith in multiple ways, and the Church has guarded all of it.

“The Divine Liturgy was officiated long before the beginning of the writings of the New Testament and was the center of the inspiration of the first Christians in their communion with God and with one another.”

The Bible needs the Church. It was written by the “Church” , for the Church, and it’s meant to be read and understood within the Church. When you remove Scripture from the Tradition that produced it and has always interpreted it, you lose the guardrails. Private arbitrary interpretation takes over. And that’s not what the apostles intended.

The Orthodox Church reads Scripture the way the Fathers read it, the way the councils interpreted it, the way the liturgy proclaims it. We don’t approach the Bible as isolated individuals trying to figure it out on our own. We read it as members of the Body of Christ, guided by two thousand years of the Spirit’s work in the Church.

Orthodoxy asks, “What does the Bible say?” and “What does the Bible mean?” And to answer that second question, you need the Church. Christians need the Fathers, the councils, the liturgy, and the consensus of the faithful across time. Christians need the Bible, Tradition and The Church.

[1] Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Sola Fide (faith alone), Sola Gratia (grace alone), Solus Christus (Christ alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (glory to God alone) dates to the 20th century; sola gratia and sola fide was used in phrases by the Reformers themselves. In 1554, for example, Philip Melanchthon wrote, "sola gratia justificamus et sola fide justificamur" ("only by grace do we justify and only by faith are we justified"). All of the solae appear in writings by the Protestant Reformers.

[i] I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father through Whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And He rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father; And He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke through the prophets.

In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.

Amen.