We are not alone…

…but in fact, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (cf. Hebrews 12:1-2), the invisible Church, that extends throughout time and space, in the past as well as in the present moment, that bends no knee to Baals (cf. Romans 11:4), no matter what form they take, church, state, class or family, and knowing the one unchanging Truth of the Gospel, Jesus Christ risen from the dead, we can do nothing other than witness to it, against all the proud, man-centered doctrines which have infected the visible church in this final period of history (cf. 2 Timothy 3:1-9, 4:3-4).

As I began to read the reply of the Orthodox patriarchs to the solicitations of Pope Pius IX which they wrote him in 1848 and which is linked in my previous post, I remembered how good it always is to feel their brave words falling on my mind. In case my warning that the letter is long deterred any of you from following the link to its target and reading the letter, I just want to provide an excerpt to whet your appetite and encourage you, especially the Christ-loving evangelical brethren whom the pope say are "not a church," to read what the spokesmen of our ancient faith took upon themselves to patiently but firmly explain to him and to the whole world. Here's how they start their letter…

“The holy, evangelical and divine Gospel of Salvation should be set forth by all in its original simplicity, and should evermore be believed in its unadulterated purity, even the same as it was revealed to His holy Apostles by our Savior, who for this very cause, descending from the bosom of God the Father, made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant (Phil. ii. 7)…”

“But the Prince of Evil, that spiritual enemy of man's salvation, as formerly in Eden, craftily assuming the pretext of profitable counsel, he made man to become a transgressor of the divinely-spoken command. So in the spiritual Eden, the Church of God, he has from time to time beguiled many; and, mixing the deleterious drugs of heresy with the clear streams of orthodox doctrine, gives of the potion to drink to many of the innocent who live unguardedly, not giving earnest heed to the things they have heard (Heb. ii. 10), and to what they have been told by their fathers (Deut. xxxii. 7), in accordance with the Gospel and in agreement with the ancient Doctors; and who, imagining that the preached and written Word of the LORD and the perpetual witness of His Church are not sufficient for their souls' salvation, impiously seek out novelties, as we change the fashion of our garments, embracing a counterfeit of the evangelical doctrine.”

—Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs, 1848 — A Reply to the Epistle of Pope Pius IX, "to the Easterns".