Why “Genuine”? Is “Orthodox Christians” not enough?

Nikolaos Mannis | October 19, 2014

 

To this question we answer by asking: Why “Orthodox”? Is simply “Christians” not enough?

For the answer to these questions, a brief historical review is required concerning the issue of the designation of the faithful of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The followers of the only true religion were first designated in Antioch in the first century by the name “Christians.” [1]

With the passage of the years, many groups of heretics appeared, who naturally used the same name. Thus, gradually, the designations “Orthodox” and “Catholic”—which were synonymous terms—began to be used in order to indicate differentiation from the heretics, whose glory (faith) was neither orthodox nor catholic. [2]

After the secession of the Local Church of Rome from the Catholic Church, and because of the fact that the Papists usurped the term “Catholics,” in order to avoid confusion, the true Christians henceforth made greater use of the term “Orthodox” (in contrast to the “catho-wolves,” [κατο-λύκους] as they called the Papists), and this term finally prevailed, since the term “Christian” by itself was already no longer sufficient, even though in reality the Orthodox are the true Christians.

After the appearance of Ecumenism within the sphere of Orthodoxy at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the modernistic activity of high-ranking ecumenist clergymen, such as Meletios Metaxakis, Chrysostomos Papadopoulos, Vasileios Georgiadis, Athenagoras Spyrou, and others, and chiefly on the occasion of the change of the calendar (1924), undertaken for ecumenistic purposes, the first strugglers of that era and defenders of the Patristic things additionally used the term “Genuine.” Concerning this term, they stated clearly, in a declaration that admits of no misinterpretations, which became and still become a cause of accusations, that “the term Genuine coincides with the meaning of the unadulterated, that is, of that which does not tolerate adulteration or falsification of the things handed down, and not with that of Genuine taken for the purpose of distinguishing it from the non-Genuine, in which case the non-Genuine would, in the present matter, be identified with the very meaning of the heterodox and heretical.” [3] And this was with reference to the calendar question.

Today, of course, ninety years later, when the insidious heresy of Ecumenism has spread its tentacles into all the so-called official Churches, we Orthodox Christians who do not tolerate adulteration or falsification of the things handed down must be called Genuine, [4] in order to indicate our differentiation from those who are presented as “orthodox,” but are in essence heretical ecumenists.

And our Churches throughout the world (Greece, Bulgaria, etc.) must be called genuine, since they zealously preserve the Faith handed down, namely the Dogmas and Traditions of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Finally, the Great Pan-Orthodox Council which we are striving for must also be a genuine and true Council, that is, one that agrees with the earlier Orthodox Councils, in contrast to the “Pan-Orthodox Council” being prepared by the Ecumenists, whose aim is to abolish Orthodoxy, according to the prophetic saying of Kosmas Flamiatos, of venerable memory, a martyr of the Orthodox Faith.

 

NOTES

1. The Apostle Luke writes: “χρηματίσαι τε πρῶτον ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ τοὺς μαθητὰς Χριστιανούς,” that is, “And there, in Antioch, for the first time, the disciples of Christ were called Christians” (Acts 11:26).

2. According to St. Vincent of Lérins: “Catholicum est, quod semper, quod ubique et quod ab omnibus creditum est,” that is: “Truly catholic is that which has been believed always, everywhere, and by all” (Commonitorium, ch. 2). And Theodosius the Great, in 380, issued an edict according to which those who accept the faith of Nicaea, the First Ecumenical Council, “and only these are to be called catholic Christians” (Ecclesiastical History, Philaretos Vapheides, vol. I, Constantinople 1884, p. 219).

3. Newspaper SKRIP, 20-12-1928.

4. The term “genuine” is a term that concerns the faith and not the person, and as such it must be understood, so that it does not conceal pride, as it was accused of doing. Thus the Apostle Paul writes: “To Timothy, my genuine child in faith” (1 Tim. 1:2), and holy Chrysostom interprets: “For having said child, for this reason he added in faith, so as to show that he was genuine and was from him; he had changed in nothing; he possessed the likeness according to the faith” (P.G. 62, 505). And in the Acts of the Seventh Ecumenical Council we read: “And whoever holds this confession is a genuine son and participant of the Catholic Church.”

 

Greek sources: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2014/10/blog-post_30.html

https://www.imoph.org/pdfs/2015/03/19/20150319aGiatiGnhsioi.pdf