Is The OC the True Church?

[xenia]

It's not just that the Orthodox Church is the oldest. It's the oldest church that is still true.

Age isn't enough.
Age + Truth and you have the True Church.

 

[ArmyMatt]

The Orthodox Church is living proof of Christ's guarantee that the gates of Hades would not prevail, with as much persecution as she has lived through in her 2000 years.

Met Isaiah of Denver also points out that we are still One Church, not just after 2000 years of persecution, but also petty squabbles that we keep bringing up. as stupid as we can be, we are still together.

 

[127.0.0.1]

As a kid, I wondered if our Church is the True Church from Christ.

A few years ago, I started to discover the other churches(Protestant, Catholic)and the question popped in my head.

Is it the True Church? And I always answered with the answer Yes. If it wasn't surely God wouldn't have allowed it to continue this long.

Can someone help me out, and my apologies if I sound dumb for asking this.

There's a good argument to be made from history that the OC either is, or is the closest thing to, the original Christianity of the Apostles.

Between the OC and protestant Churches, there should be no contest. Protestantism was born out of a rejection of the Catholic Church, not out of any spiritual revelation (though I'm sure they'd like to believe otherwise). It has also succumb to literalism as a response to the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution. This is why you have Western Christians trying to perform experiments in the 20th century to measure the weight of the soul (supposedly the soul weighs in at 20kg - your mileage may vary based on last your confession). Traditionally the OC has not made such literal claims which has insulated it from scientific discoveries and debate; placing itself within the realm of metaphysics [see Immanuel Kannt].

In the case of the Catholic Church, while the Pope can trace his Apostolic Succession back to the Apostles, the Catholic Church has undergone a series of substantial theological reforms since that time (Nicaean Creed, Atonement, Purgatory, Indulgences, interpretations of Augustine...etc.), more so than the OC & Coptic Churches.

So there's a historical answer to your question.

Although, you gotta admit, there is something kinda funny about asking a particular Church group if their Church is the true one or not...

PS
Truth and age are two different things. If they weren't then every second proposition ever made would, by default, be less truthful than the first, and the third still more wrong after that - which makes no sense. Either the OC is right, or it is wrong... age is irrelevant in that respect.

If it were not the case, then you'd be better off converting to Hinduism, or Judaism, since they are both clearly older in the linear time-line.

 

[127.0.0.1]

The Orthodox Church is living proof of Christ's guarantee that the gates of Hades would not prevail, with as much persecution as she has lived through in her 2000 years.

Just remember... powerful institutions fall from within, not from without. So the fact that there is an OC, even today, doesn't necessarily prove by itself that it hasn't fallen, just that the name has been carried on. It's the content of the beliefs that one should look at. The institution of the OC is run by people not angels (though they may have angels protecting them). Once the hierarchy of a Church decide money and fame is their religion, the Church will fall, and succumb to every popular whim to attract more followers. That's what's happened to many protestant churches (though you can find genuinely seeking people within them).