The Cross, the Nativity, and Iconoclasm

Today I was reminded of the emphatic need to examine myself in what I believe. "Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Test yourself." (2 Corinthians 3:5) It's amazing how many Christians have a different perception of what the truth is, and what interpretation they use to examine and test as genuine faith. And today, all it took was a small box with simple stamps of simple Nativity caricatures to highlight this notion. 

Today, my beloved, hard-core Protestant, wife of a minister, grandmother said, "That of the Nativity is satanic." When she uttered such nonsense, my stomach churned and a taste of intense disgust emerged in my mouth. You might wonder in what context she uttered such blatant blasphemy? Let me convey to you the general context of such a comment. 

The women in my family have an immense love for thrift stores. And whenever we get together, the possibility of going thrift shopping is without fail. Today was no exception. However, on this occasion, I decided not to go. We were visiting family out of town, and near their house, downtown, one can find a few Christian Protestant thrift stores where Christian material is abundant. My mother, my aunts, and my grandmother went to scout them out while I stayed back at my relative's house. An hour later, they came back to the house, we said our goodbyes, and then departed back to our house. 

On our way back home, my family commenced to talk about their shopping, and my mother commented that in a box that my grandmother bought with stamps contained icons. "Icons?" I asked surprised, looking up from a book I was reading. My mother chuckled (she is one of the few people in the family who knows about me exploring Christian Orthodoxy), and said, "yes, icons." I paused and asked, "grandma, can I see?", hoping to see some elaborate handiwork of Christian Orthodox icons. My grandmother paused (she doesn't know about my interest, at least I don't believe so...) and said, "what for?" I persisted, and she reluctantly handed me the box. 

I opened the box, eager to find maybe an icon of some sort, expecting really Roman Catholic icons, as it would be highly unusual to find Christian Orthodox icons in the area where I live. But I found nothing of that sort; just stamps of the Nativity scene of individual cartoon-like characters of the Three Wise Men, the shepherds, the Nativity Star, and among these unrelated but Christian stamps as well as a stamp of a simple Cross.

"Grandma, these aren't icons..." I said bewildered, closing the box, and handing it back to her. "They are!", she said emphatically. "They are just stamps of the Nativity scene..." I said, as she took the box back. "It doesn't matter. There is a Cross in there too. I'm going to burn them.", she answered as she placed the box next to her. My heart literally jumped. Burn them?!, I thought to myself, incredulous. And then, with a voice of displeasure, she said,

"That of the Nativity is satanic." 

I looked up sharply, my eyes widening in disbelief at the back of her head as I was sitting in the back seat. Satanic? The Nativity? Even my mother turned her head to the side to look at her mother, and said, "Satanic? Mom, there is nothing wrong with celebrating the Nativity. In fact, we should celebrate it every day, not just Christmas..." The conversation trailed off into the background as I frowned and shook my head in disgust at the audacity of my grandmother's comment, and went back into my own world of musings, and wondering how my grandmother, who says she is a Christian, would find it ok to burn a stamper of the Cross? 

Of course, I know that those stamps are actually icons, because they are images in themselves. But when I think of icons, I think of images of the Saints with elaborate symbolism embedded in them, conveying holiness. Not a child's box with simple stamps of cartoon characters of the Nativity scene, which even so in a sense hold a holy significance because of what they represent in their simplicity. Even before I started learning about Orthodoxy and getting the gist of the beauty of icons, I don't believe I have ever had such a negative view of images conveying Biblical truths 

So, to hear such words come from my own grandmother's mouth shocked and displeasured me. To me, in that instance she desecrated something that is holy by saying she will burn those icons, along with the Cross, and topped it off with calling the Nativity satanic. From where will I now draw my respect for her? Obviously, I will continue to respect her, but believe me when I say it will be harder to take her seriously in regards to the spiritual.   

Iconoclasm is prevalent in my family. And the foundation for such virulent belief comes from the Ten Commandments,

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God... "
-Exodus 20:4-5 (ESV)

Never mind that icons have a profound and special place in the Bible, and that their place in the history of the Church has been for centuries. Never mind that it was a Christian practice to have icons of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Saints. Never mind that the illiterate learned from such precious images. Images are forbidden in the Bible, it's satanic! And that's that! (Please note, sarcasm...)

How to test yourself if you are in the faith when you think that the Nativity is satanic? And go as far as to say that because of icons? It's not in my place to contemplate what that could possibly mean for my grandmother as I know that I too have a sinful heart that needs to be cleaned. But it is alarming and scary to have heard those words come from my own grandmother's mouth.

And I ask myself now, "What will grandma say if one of her grandchildren reverted back to what she considers pagan?" Good question. Let's not think about that now. 

Through Much Tribulation

I haven't posted much during these past few weeks due to school, family matters, and unfortunately, internal conflicts that I've been having to face in my discovering Orthodoxy. In this post, I'd like to quickly share my thoughts of what has been generally going on.

Recently, my journey to Orthodoxy has been somewhat halted. A few certain people, a couple of family members, and one other person that I had considered to be a very close friend, have collided with my desire to learn about and my desire to share the richness of Orthodoxy, and have begun to project aversion towards me, and ultimately, Christian Orthodoxy. Their aversion is not so much directed towards me , but it is clear that they have an aversion towards Orthodoxy, and  it's enough to instill a sadness and confusion that leaves me to become silent and somewhat absent in spirit when in their presence.  

I had anticipated interest from these people. I had anticipated a participation with me in discovering Orthodoxy together as people who claim to love Truth. Unfortunately, instead I have encountered the opposite I had expected; disinterest, distrust, aversion, and even manipulation. And furthermore, I have recently encountered an insensitivity that has been projected by one of those certain people that I thought would take the time to understand me, and walk with me in searching the truth about Christianity. In addition to that, the possibility of losing this person has added weight to the discomforts of walking towards Orthodoxy.  

On a personal level, it is to my dismay that up to this point I have no one to share this burning desire in discovering Orthodoxy and her richness without feeling like an apostate. I have no one to talk to and share with excitement, conviction, and awe of the depth of Christian Orthodox mysticism, and the width of her theology.  It seems to me that loneliness is very becoming of me, and I am going to have to be willing to embrace it if I am to continue my walk on the path of the Way.   

In writing this, I am not trying to retrieve pity from readers or invoke an image of a frail person with no true will to persist in their journey to Orthodoxy, which is and will be a journey of hardships. Rather, I write this as an acknowledgment that what I am facing now are just small bumps on the dirt trail that I have barely just begun. And that it is nothing in comparison to what I will come to confront as I continue on. This is only the beginning, and I understand that I must prepare myself for such hardships and even harder ones. I have read the stories of many people who come from a similar Protestant background as I do experience similar tribulations, and many others face even worse of a fate in pursuing Orthodoxy.

May this serve as a reminder that through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of heaven (Acts 14:22).   

30,000+ Church Traditions: Which One is the Right One?

As someone who is trying to make sense of why Orthodoxy is the true faith, I look to aspects in her which I find are in conflict with my own Protestant faith. And the one that stands out the most is that of tradition. In my personal experience as a Protestant, I was taught to see tradition as not necessarily bad, but not something that should be seen of equal importance to the Bible. Like many Protestant Christians, I equated traditions as 'man-made'; now, as someone who is exploring Orthodoxy, I start to see the irrevocable place that tradition has, especially in the context of faith. In this post, I will direct my point towards why we should consider church tradition when considering 'which is the true faith?'

When people look for a church in which to congregate with, they do it on the basis of 'what tradition does this church follow?' It's inevitable to do so, because in the context of faith, church tradition is what defines what one is to believe and how they are to practice their beliefs. If a tradition appeals to you, it's what you're going to want to adopt as your own. This is especially true for the Protestant Christian, despite the claim that many Protestant Christians and groups make that they don't follow any man-made traditions, just the Word-of-God.

For the Protestant, the only tradition that they subscribe to is 'Sola Scriptura'. Yet, here we must point out that in the Protestant Church, while many mainstream groups have similar core beliefs, we have 30,000+ denominations with their distinct traditions and names. Why, one may ask? All of these denominations (including the ones that claim to not be denominations) are subject to the interpretation and traditions of one man or woman, who started a movement; each with their own idea of tradition and interpretation of Scripture. Examples would include Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, Lutheran, Seven Day Adventist, and the list goes on; and within those denominations we would find subset denominations with variances to what its founder(s) originally had in mind; tweaked with as to improve its theology, often times to better suit the understanding of the tradition being propagated. And a lot of times, these tweaks can be and are issues of conflict within congregations, sometimes resulting in even more splits. 

How is it that most claim 'Sola Scriptura' and yet arrive to different doctrinal differences? Many would contend that actually isn't the case, that the majority of those denominations coincide in the essential doctrines. However, aside from this notion of 'coinciding essential doctrines' (that in truth ignores the disagreements and divisions that arise from these essential doctrines) this in turn leads to the important question of whether the essential doctrine that these modern day Christian groups supposedly share are in essence the same essential doctrine that was taught in the early Church during its first centuries before becoming championed by the Emperor Constantine (a point in history to which many Protestant Christians attest that Christianity became infused with diabolical corruption at its union with the State at the hand of Constantine). A quick look at the history of the early Church, the writings of the early Church fathers, and the history of the Bible will lead us to the answer that such assumption that what Protestant Christian groups believe to be the same as the early Christians is actually a false one. And should push us to continue to investigate what the early Church actually believed.  

Of course, one must be aware that many, after taking a look at early Church history and what the early Church fathers wrote about, would contend, "The early Christians were right on some things, but they were also wrong. We may be wrong on some things, but what they had wrong, we know better now know because of logic." Personally, I find such a notion ludicrous. If that is their justification for continuing in what they consider to be the 'right tradition', I would consider it to be a poor one. 

To anyone who makes such a justification, I ask "What makes the founders and leaders of what we have as a 30,000+ denominational Protestant Church more special and more authoritative than the early Church leaders and disciples who, despite their imperfections, fought for unity in the traditions of the Church, and had received their teachings from the disciples of the Apostles, and the Apostles who in turn received their teachings from Jesus Christ himself?" If one considers the importance of the traditions in the Church, one can not ignore that while it's certainly true that the Orthodox Church underwent internal schisms, their traditions (including their theology) are unified. The same cannot be said about the Protestant Church.