THE ORTHODOX CHURCH AND ISRAEL

Rev. Archimandrite Fr. Eusebius A. Stephanou, Th.D.
Brotherhood of St. Symeon the New Theologian
Miramar Beach, Florida

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The purpose of this teaching is to help awaken the Orthodox reader to an awareness of the prophetic significance of the restoration of Israel as a sovereign nation in May 1948. Regrettably, the Orthodox Church, following the lead of the Roman and Reformation Churches, dismisses the reconstituting of Israel as merely an accident of history. This is the result of “replacement theology” that presumes that the Gentile Church is New Israel, since supposedly it has replaced Old Israel. It presumes that God is finished with the Jews. The Two Problem Children of God Did you know, dear reader, that the Jews and the Greeks have one thing in common: both have been problem children for God? It is all the stranger when you consider that both Jews and Greeks have been divinely favored. Both were specially gifted by God. Both peoples were endowed with distinct qualities serving to fulfill God’s redemptive plan for all the nations of the earth. The Jews received God’s Law in a special covenant relationship in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. The Greeks, on the other hand, were equipped with a language and philosophy best suited for expressing ultimate, metaphysical reality. The New Testament was written in their language. Greek was the language of the Early Church. The Greek Christians in that age played a major role in establishing the Creed of the Universal Church in the Ecumenical Councils. “Philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily 'til the Lord should call the Greeks,” teaches Clement of Alexandria (second century), “for this was a tutor to bring the Greek mind, as the Law, the Jews, to Christ. Philosophy, therefore, was a preparation, paving the way for him who is perfected in Christ” (Stromata 1, 5). Yet, the Greeks followed the pattern of the Jews in their national rebellion and apostasy. The Jews began with grace (in Abraham) because of God’s sovereign election of Israel, but ended up in the bondage of the Law. The Greeks, also, began with grace, with the promises of the Gospel, with a covenant relationship in the blood of the Lamb of God. But, like the Jews, they, too, ultimately fell into the bondage of religious legalism, dead forms and self-righteousness. We Greeks (and for that matter all Orthodox Greeks by spiritual heritage) are indefensible before God. We have the Jewish experience of rebellion and divine judgment to teach us about the pitfalls of barren formalism and pharisaism. But alas! It appears we have not learned anything from the lesson of Old Israel. Instead, we have followed in their footsteps. We have copied their ominous example. They were incapable of recognizing the Messiah when He came. The Greeks and most Orthodox today are incapable of recognizing the Holy Spirit, as He manifests Himself in the current end-time worldwide outpouring in preparation for the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory. The Jews resisted God’s Son. The Greeks and other Orthodox resist God’s Spirit. Very often through the forty years of the Renewal Ministry that has consumed me I have felt that a number of hardcore legalist Orthodox have wanted to stone me in the manner that St. Stephen found his crown of martyrdom. I could justly direct his words at my contemporary adversaries: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?” (Acts 7:51f.) Has Satan Blinded the Orthodox Church? Though we Orthodox have followed the way of Old Israel, we have proved ourselves notoriously anti-Semitic down the centuries, both Greeks and Slavs. One result of this has been our failure to see the restoration of Israel in 1948 as a “sign of the times.” It is evidence generally of our lack of interest in the last things (eschata). We have become indifferent over prophetic and apocalyptic questions. The Greeks have every reason to be eternally grateful to the Jews. Were it not for that one Jew, Saul of Tarsus, they possibly would still be praying to stones. I trust that this teaching will minister to you. God has called me to sound the alarm. The time of grace and mercy is drawing to a close. The age in which Jesus rules as the Lamb is coming to an end. Jesus is about to appear as the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5). God is ready to pour out the vials of His wrath upon His rebellious house and generally upon this sinful and adulterous generation. The Hour of Judgment is at Hand “Be Zealous and repent” (Revelation 3:19) is the message that the Lord wants the world to hear in this last hour. It is urgent that we get God’s message out. All the signs of the time are converging to indicate that Jesus is coming soon, and we must warn our fellow-Orthodox Christians. I appeal to my fellow-priests and to the church hierarchy to preach what is at the core of Orthodoxy: repentance and reconversion to the Living Christ in preparation for the appearance of Christ in glory. Religious professionalism must give way to prophetic and evangelical enthusiasm. Unless we recognize the restoration of Israel as God’s “super-sign” of the end times, we Orthodox are destined for divine judgment in the hour of the predicted great tribulation. Satan is trying to blind the Orthodox Church and make it feel as if it’s just another day. The time has come when we need to understand that we are living in days of prophetic fulfillment. God is building up Zion. He is regathering His covenant people back to Jerusalem. Those who refuse to recognize God’s sovereign intervention in the reconstituting of Israel as a nation will suffer judgment. God is setting the stage for the return of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and for His universal reign when He is enthroned in Jerusalem. But the kingdom age is already here. Which Is God’s Eternal City? There might still be time to snap out of our historical illusion that the eternal city is imperial Rome or New Rome (Constantinople). Our eyes must turn to Jerusalem which now has been specifically restored. The occupation of the holy city by Israeli Jews in 1967 is a notable stage-setting sign of the times. Too long have we Orthodox trained our sights on the wrong city. The fact that the patriarchate of Jerusalem was reduced to the fourth in seniority of the four ancient patriarchates, after Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch, dramatizes the tragic deception into which Roman imperialism (including Byzantium) plunged the Early church. Both Old Rome and New Rome replaced the true Mother Church of Jerusalem. The real city of God is not Rome (Old or New). Jerusalem is God’s favorite city on planet earth. The Psalmist David cries out: “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness”(Psalm 48:1). Both Romes have usurped the title of the “Eternal City.” “As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever” (Psalm 48:8). In addition to this blatant disregard for scriptural teaching that caused Jerusalem “the city of our God,” to be replaced by the imperial city, the holy mountain of Zion has been replaced by Mt. Athos in Greece. The monks who occupy that special peninsula in northern Greece, considered the most sacred and most highly venerated sanctuary in the entire Orthodox world, would rend their garments in holy indignation when reading my statements here. It is time to free ourselves from religious deception, however time-honored it is. Zion is God’s own holy mountain! We can find countless references in the Old Testament that speak of Zion as a select location for God’s permanent residence. But the book of Revelation in the New Testament has much to tell us about Jerusalem where Jesus, upon His return in glory, will be enthroned. Subsequently, the Jerusalem which is from above will descend from heaven and be superimposed upon Jerusalem which is below. Obviously, the New Testament declares the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy concerning the restoration of Israel, Zion and Jerusalem. Indeed, we now live in the age of fulfillment. God has a word of warning for those who refuse to accept His sovereign counsel and program for the close of the age. He will deal with those who persist in “replacement theology”: “Thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain” (Zephaniah 3:11).

President Putin Venerates Shrines in Jerusalem and Bethlehem

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President Vladimir Putin in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

During the night of June 26, 2012, while on a working visit to Israel, President Vladimir Putin visited the Church of the Lord’s Sepulchre. At the church entrance, the head of the Russian State was welcomed by His Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine, together with members of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre. Among the welcoming party were also Archbishop Mark of Yegoryevsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s office for institutions abroad, Archimandrite Isidore (Minaev), head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, as well as his deputy, Hegumen Feofan (Lukyanov) and secretary of the Mission, Hieromonk Anthony (Gutnik).

Entering the church, Vladimir Putting kneeled at the Stone of the Anointing. It was at this place that Righteous Joseph and Nicodim laid the lifeless body of Jesus after taking Him down from the Cross and anointed Him with incense and wrapped Him in the Shroud.

After that the president was taken to the Kuviklia, the chapel erected at the place of the three days-long burial of the Saviour.

Then Mr. Putin ascended Golgotha, the place where the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was crucified and after that descended to the cave in which St. Helen Equal-to-the-Apostles found Christ’s Life-Giving Cross.

President Putin presented Patriarch Theophilos with an icon of the Saviour.

In the morning of June 26, Mr. Putin came to the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem, a Byzantine basilica with the 5th century mosaics built over the cave in which Jesus Christ was born.

In the church the head of the Russian State was welcomed by Archbishop Theophylactos of Jordan (Patriarchate of Jerusalem), who told him the story of the basilica.

Then Mr. Putin was presented with a token, a copy of the Star of Bethlehem executed by Palestinian masters.

The president lighted a candle at the place where Christ was born.

Original Author: Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church -

Patriarch: Church will never agree to surrender of Kosovo

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Patriarch Irinej (Source: Tanjug)

BELGRADE -- Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Irinej called for unity among Serbs, adding that the Church (SPC) would never agree or come to terms with Kosovo "being given away".  

Irinej called on the people to be united in politics and everything else, because the Serbs are a small people and the only way to survive was through unity and some values the world would understand and support.

"It is unrealistic to us, and I think the Serbs and the SPC, which has always been with the people, will never agree to what can be read in the press nowadays - 'a civilized surrender of Kosovo'," he told Tanjug in an interview on Wednesday.

No one in the world has ever done something like that and called it civilized, Irinej noted, adding that it was well known how territories were taken and conquered - through war and force.

The Serbs do not see Kosovo as a geographical area, but as holy ground, he stressed, adding that it was also the view of the SPC Holy Assembly of Bishops.

The holy sites in Kosovo are not from yesterday, but have been there for centuries, he noted.

"And finally, the patriarchal residence is in the Peć Patriarchate (in western Kosovo), which means the residence would, according to that logic, be in another country," he remarked.

He fears that some day, when there is no military force in Kosovo, Serbs will not be able to survive.

"Everything has been done to make survival impossible for what few Serbs have returned. The murders (of Serbs) that are happening were conceived to intimidate them into leaving their homes," the patriarch believes. 

Greek Orthodox Church in the Israel (Holy Land)

Languages: English, Hebrew The Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem is considered the “Mother Church” of the Holy Land. The biggest single group of Holy Land Christians belongs to this Church and many Christians who belong today to other Churches have their origins in the Greek Orthodox Church. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem sees itself as a direct descendant of the chair of St James the Apostle, venerated as first bishop of Jerusalem. The Church celebrates its liturgy in the Byzantine rite, whose original language is Greek, and follows its own calendar of feasts, preserving the Julian calendar (that is thirteen days behind the Western (Gregorian) calendar. Although most Greek Orthodox Christians in the Holy Land are Arabs and Greek refers to the original language of the liturgy of the Church, ethnic Greek priests administer the Church. The Patriarch, the vast majority of bishops and many of the monks are thus ethnic Greeks whilst the lower clergy are mostly Arabs. In the course of its history, the Church began to celebrate the liturgy in Arabic for the numerous parishes of Arab faithful where Greek is neither spoken nor understood. The Greek Orthodox Church is also a custodian of the Holy Places in the Holy Land, maintaining an unbroken presence at the two most important churches: the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem (in Greek and Arabic, the Church of the Resurrection) and the Nativity in Bethlehem. The seat of the Patriarchate is in Jerusalem, where the Patriarch is assisted by numerous bishops and administers parishes, monasteries and other institutions in Israel, the Palestinian territories and in Jordan, also directing a network of schools and centers of social service. One of the best schools in the Arab sector in Israel is the Orthodox School in Haifa. The Church has a seminary for training the clergy on Mount Zion. The Church owns extensive properties throughout the Holy Land, making it one the most important landowners in the area. The supreme authority in the Church is the Fraternity of the Holy Sepulcher that elects the Patriarch. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, because of Jerusalem’s historic and symbolic importance, is looked upon with particular esteem by the other Orthodox Patriarchs. Greek Orthodox churches can be found throughout the Holy Land. At the Holy Places, Greek Orthodox churches often exist alongside Roman Catholic and/or Armenian churches that commemorate the same event (eg. Bethlehem, Nazareth, Mount Tabor, Capharnaum, etc). The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is shared by numerous denominations, most importantly by the Greek Orthodox, Armenians and Roman Catholics with smaller chapels belonging to the Syrian Orthodox, the Copts and the Ethiopians. Greek Orthodox parishes are to be found in most towns and many villages throughout Israel and Palestine.

The Law of Moses in Eastern Orthodox

The Law of Moses can refer to either the Pentateuch or the first five books of the Bible. These books contain the story of the creation of the world, the stories of the Jewish patriarchs, Israel's enslavement in and its liberation from Egypt under the leadership of Moses, and Israel's journey to Sinai towards the Promised Land. These books contain a great deal of legal material that makes up much of the covenantal agreement between God and Israel, hence the name The Law of Moses. The term can also refer to the covenant itself, the agreement between God and Israel, transmitted by Moses. . The Eastern Orthodox church preserves the text of the Law of Moses.

Orthodox Chant of Psalm 102 (103) Mt Athos, Byzantine style.

Holy Fire on Eastern Orthodox Easter at Old Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre