A Vigil Light Upon the Hill

The Eastern Orthodox Church is not a denomination, a sect, a branch, or a reimagining of early Christianity. She is the original Church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). She is not a renovation, nor a restoration, for she has never collapsed. She is not a movement toward some ideal Church; she is the Church.

From Pentecost until the present hour, the Orthodox Church has preserved without alteration the fullness of the Apostolic Faith. She has neither added to the deposit once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3), nor subtracted from it. Her councils are ecumenical, her doctrine is patristic, her worship is the unbroken continuation of the heavenly Liturgy. Her bishops stand in direct, physical, and spiritual succession from the Holy Apostles, and her sacraments are grace-filled mysteries, not symbolic gestures or human inventions.
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Though the trials you face may feel overwhelming, they are but passing storms—not permanent walls. Steadfast in faith, walk forward assured that the calm and reward prepared for you will arrive.

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in infirmity.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

“Take courage … The storms will pass, and calm will return. God’s providence watches over us, and He never allows us to suffer more than we can bear … Our trials here are temporary; the reward is eternal.” (St. John Chrysostom)
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You are not defeated by falling—you are only defeated by refusing to rise. Let today be your answer to despair. Get up, and walk on.

“The just man shall fall seven times, and shall rise again.” (Proverbs 24:16)

“If you fall, rise up. If you fall again, rise up again. Only do not abandon your Physician, lest you be condemned … Wait on Him, and He will be merciful, either reforming you, or sending you trials.” (St. Peter of Damascus)
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In the unfolding drama of Christian history, few ironies are as striking, and as spiritually tragic, as the Protestant invention of sola scriptura—the doctrine that the Bible alone is the supreme authority in matters of faith—while simultaneously rejecting the very Church through whom the Scriptures were received, preserved, canonised, and interpreted for centuries. Indeed, among many Protestants, especially within Evangelical and “non-denominational” circles, there exists a deep-seated ignorance, whether innocent or wilful, regarding the actual origin of the Holy Scriptures and the ecclesial context in which they were discerned and safeguarded.
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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).
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Even when you feel pressed on every side, remember that you are not crushed. The strength within you is not your own, but God’s, and He does not fail.

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are straitened, but are not destitute; we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken; we are cast down, but we perish not.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
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Question: Do you think the Jehovah’s Witnesses are a valid Christian denomination? I think they deny the Nicene Creed, but even some Baptists do too.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses, under the leadership of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, are not recognised as a valid Christian body within the Orthodox Church for several critical and doctrinal reasons.

First and foremost, Jehovah’s Witnesses explicitly reject all the Ecumenical Creeds—namely, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, the Apostles’ Creed (insofar as the Western tradition affirms it), and the Athanasian Creed. The Orthodox Church regards the Nicene Creed, finalised at the First and Second Ecumenical Councils (325 and 381 A.D.), as the authoritative summary of the apostolic Christian faith. The rejection of this Creed is tantamount to a denial of essential Christian dogma, particularly the doctrines of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ.
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