In our time, when truth is commodified and novelty is prized above faithfulness, the affliction of historical amnesia has become one of the greatest spiritual maladies of the Christian world, particularly among many of those who identify as Baptists, Evangelicals, and members of various “non-denominational” churches. This amnesia—the forgetting or even denial of the Church’s own history is a theological disease that severs believers from the very Body of Christ they claim to follow.

The Apostle Paul wrote with clarity and urgency: “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us” (2 Thessalonians 3:6).

It is evident that, from the very beginning, the Church was a tradition-bearing body. It did not spring forth as a random collection of autonomous believers holding only a personal Bible under their arms. It was formed, sanctified, and guided by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, their successors, and the living memory of the Church—a memory preserved in its worship, its doctrine, and its conciliar decisions. This is precisely what we call Holy Tradition.

Yet for many today, Church history begins—and ends—with their local congregation or founding pastor. They read scriptures disconnected from the Church that canonised them. They claim to preach the Gospel while rejecting the very liturgy and doctrine through which the Gospel was preserved. The tragedy of this historical amnesia is that it fosters not only forgetfulness, but arrogance—the kind that boasts in its ignorance.

The modern evangelical and Baptist impulse arose from Reformation soil and later bloomed in the populist and individualist atmosphere of North America. In such an environment, anything “old,” “ritualistic,” or “hierarchical” came to be viewed as inherently suspect. Pastors were elevated above bishops. Private interpretation displaced the conciliar mind of the Church. And the Fathers—those holy men who shaped and protected early Christian doctrine—were largely forgotten or dismissed.

This amnesia is not benign. It has made room for a multitude of false teachings. The Apostle Paul warned Timothy with words that ring more truly today than ever. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
(2 Timothy 4:3–4)

Modern Protestantism is plagued by these very “itching ears”—an appetite for sermons that entertain, messages that flatter, and doctrines that affirm worldly ideologies rather than call souls to repentance and communion with the Holy. The lack of historical grounding allows for any novelty to be clothed in biblical language and presented as authentic Christianity.

Historical amnesia is not only a forgetting of the past; it is a rejection of our spiritual inheritance. The Christian faith is incarnational, rooted in time, space, and the continuity of sacred memory. The Church Fathers warned that the faith must be safeguarded and passed down whole and undefiled. St. Irenaeus, writing in the second century, said, “It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the Apostles manifested throughout the whole world.” (Against Heresies, III.3.1) St. Irenaeus did not speak of private interpretation or personal inspiration, but of visible, continuous tradition.

Evangelicalism’s lack of rootedness has rendered it vulnerable to fads, emotionalism, and political co-optation. When historical theology is cast aside, churches are built on shifting sand. Every pastor becomes his own pope, every congregation its own magisterium. This fragmentation is the inevitable result of disconnection from the historic Church.

Another feature of this amnesia is the irony of the modern Christian who, when invited to visit the Orthodox Church—the ancient and unchanged Body of Christ—responds, “No thanks,” as though declining a social event. This attitude betrays both arrogance and ignorance. The Orthodox Church is not an exotic religious curiosity. It is the very Church that preserved the Gospel, canonised the Scriptures, defined Christological dogma, and nourished the martyrs, monastics, and confessors of the ages.

To reject Orthodoxy out of hand, without investigation, is not only intellectually dishonest but spiritually negligent. The faith of the Apostles is not something to be rediscovered in a 20th-century store front church. It has been here all along, living and active, chanting the Psalms, keeping the fasts, praying the Divine Liturgy, and proclaiming the unaltered Creed.

As the Prophet Jeremiah lamented, “Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” (Jeremiah 6:16) This refusal to seek the “old paths” is precisely the mark of those who dwell in spiritual amnesia. They believe themselves rich in knowledge while forsaking the wisdom of the saints. They claim to be “New Testament Christians” while knowing nothing of the Church that gave them the New Testament.

The remedy for this affliction is not scorn or polemics, but a call to repentance, humility, and learning. One must approach the Church with the heart of a disciple, not the swagger of a critic. The Church’s history is not a museum of dead traditions, but the living memory of Christ’s Bride.

The Apostle Jude exhorts us… “It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 1:3)

This “once-delivered faith” is not up for reinvention. It is not reinvented every generation by charismatic leaders or conferences. It is preserved in the Orthodox Church, through her liturgy, sacraments, hierarchy, and doctrine. That faith is not hidden, but accessible to all who seek it with reverence.

My dear friends, historical amnesia is more than a lack of information—it is a spiritual rupture. It cuts believers off from the Church of the Fathers, the martyrs, the apostles, and ultimately from Christ Himself, who is the Head of a visible Body. To reclaim the fullness of the Christian life, one must recover memory—not of events alone, but of belonging.

Let those with ears to hear receive this word. Return to the Church that remembers. Return to the faith that shaped the world. Return to the path that leads to the Kingdom. Forgetfulness is not humility; it is outright rebellion. And the cure for amnesia is remembrance.

As our Lord Himself warned, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” (Matthew 24:4–5)

And again He said, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.” (Revelation 2:7)

Let us remember, so that we may truly belong to Christ.

Fr. Charles
1 August 2025