Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Orange canons shoot down prayer as a Means of Grace

I believe it can be seen clearly how far from historic Christianity some are, when they seem to rely on feelings, emotions, and even prayer as a means by which to bring lost souls into the Kingdom of Christ. Note Canons 3 & 4 of the Council of Orange (A.D. 529)

"CANON 3. If anyone says that the grace of God can be conferred as a result of human prayer, but that it is not grace itself which makes us pray to God, he contradicts the prophet Isaiah, or the Apostle who says the same thing, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me" (Rom 10:20, quoting Isa. 65:1).

CANON 4. If anyone maintains that God awaits our will to be cleansed from sin, but does not confess that even our will to be cleansed comes to us through the infusion and working of the Holy Spirit, he resists the Holy Spirit himself who says through Solomon, "The will is prepared by the Lord" (Prov. 8:35, LXX), and the salutary word of the Apostle, "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13)."


Thus, worship services that are intended to "lift spirits," "be exciting and entertaining," and so forth, are simply creating fertile ground for heresy.

Fr. Spence

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments will be accepted or rejected based on the sound Christian judgment of the moderators.

Since anonymous comments are not allowed on this blog, please sign your full name at the bottom of every comment, unless it already appears in your identity profile.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License