Pedigree of the Patriarchs of Antioch

Antioch is where the disciples of Christ were first called Christians.

Acts 11:26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

There is an unbroken list of the Patriarchs of the Church of Antioch down to the present day (OrthodoxWiki: List of Patriarchs of Antioch).

This is one element of Apostolic Succession. Christ left a Church and it is still here today.

His Beatitude Patriarch John X (Yazigi) of Antioch and All the East is the primate of the Church of Antioch.

Hidden History of Early Christian Art

 

Thoughts on Authorship of the Pauline Corpus

Modern scholarship sees some of the letters of Paul as being genuinely written by Paul and others as written later by others.

There is strong consensus in modern New Testament scholarship on a core group of authentic Pauline epistles whose authorship is rarely contested: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon.

Several additional letters bearing Paul's name are disputed among scholars, namely Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. Scholarly opinion is sharply divided on whether or not Colossians and 2 Thessalonians are genuine letters of Paul.

 The remaining four contested epistles – Ephesians, as well as the three known as the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus) – have been labeled pseudepigraphical works by most critical scholars

Wikipedia

I am skeptical about this approach. It has flaws that come with the modern historical method.

The letters in question all have Paul's name on them

These are not anonymous letters. Like the other letters, they all have Paul's name on them.

Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

1 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

2 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,

Titus 1:1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;

The assumption of the modern critical scholars is that the writers of these letters forged Paul's name on them in order to get them accepted. The burden of proof is on the critics and in my view, they have failed to meet that burden.

The Circulation of the Epistles

The Epistles themselves show that they were copied and shared with other churches but this was on an ad hoc basis (Sufficiency of Scripture?). Saint Peter knew of at least some of the Letters of Saint Paul (Saint Peter on Saint Paul - Scripture and Tradition).

The Letters were quoted by the Church Fathers

Some of the early Church Fathers quoted fewer of the Epistles than others. They quoted what they needed.

Polycarp quoted most of the questioned Epistles and he was very early. Titus is very brief so the lack of quotations from there is not a significant piece of evidence.

Polycarp of Smyrna (69–156 AD) not only quoted from 2 Thessalonians but also the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke, Acts of the Apostles, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Epistle to the Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John, 3 John. (The Development of the Canon of the New Testament)

An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It seems that a better explanation of the lack of quotes from some the earliest Church Fathers that some of the letters were not in circulation as much as others.

The Letters were accepted by the Church as Canonical

All of these matters were adjudicated by the Church. They were much closer in time to the events and had a motive to ensure the corpus was authentic. The tradition of the Church knew the authentic from the inauthentic epistles.

Writings attributed to the apostles circulated among the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating, perhaps in collected forms, by the end of the 1st century AD. Justin Martyr, in the mid 2nd century, mentions "memoirs of the apostles" as being read on "the day called that of the sun" (Sunday) alongside the "writings of the prophets. A defined set of four gospels (the Tetramorph) was asserted by Irenaeus, c. 180, who refers to it directly.

Wikipedia

Motives of the Scholars

These scholars have a motive that is so ancient that it is found in the words of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Nazarite Vows

Josephus briefly recounts an episode where, in the 12th year of the reign of Nero, during the outbreak of the First Jewish-Roman War, Bernice (the sister of King Agrippa II) had put herself under a Nazirite vow and had come to Jerusalem thirty days before she was to offer her sacrifices, Wikipedia

Did Mary take such an oath?

Church Fathers 2024-11-25

Catherine the Great Martyr of Alexandria

Catherine of Alexandria, also spelled Katherine[a] (Greek: Αίκατερίνη) is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the emperor Maxentius. According to her hagiography, she was both a princess and a noted scholar who became a Christian around age 14, converted hundreds of people to Christianity, and was martyred around age 18. More than 1,100 years after Catherine's martyrdom, Joan of Arc identified her as one of the saints who appeared to and counselled her.

Catherine as a Model for our Lives

Mercurius the Great Martyr of Caesarea in Cappadocia

Orthodox Christianity Then and Now

The Seven Great Ecumenical Councils

It's really the beauty of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. They took the Fathers and the Scriptures and reached the conclusions we have today in the Church. The Trinity, the Deity of Christ, the selection of the canon, rejection of iconoclasts, and many others. It was all based on the pattern from the first council in Acts 15 where the church gathered and considered the matter of how Gentils should be received and how they should behave. The leaders of the church decided the matter and the laity agreed. The Church kept that pattern believing it was God's way of determining truth between varying Fathers.

Jesus promised the Spirit to guide His Church into all truth.

The Protestants pick and choose from among these councils the things they agree with and the things they disagree with. 

Epistle Reading 2024-11-22

ST. PAUL'S LETTER TO PHILEMON 1:1-25

PAUL, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker, and Apphia our sister and Archippos our fellow soldier, and the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may promote the knowledge of all the good that is ours in Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you - I, Paul, an ambassador and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus - I appeal to you for my child, Onesimos, whose father I have become in my imprisonment. (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own free will. Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand, I will repay it - to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be granted to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchos, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

It's not often we get an entire book as the reading of the day. The Epistle reading for today is about two of the saints for today.

Archippus the Apostle, Philemon the Apostle & his wife, Apphia, Onesimos the Disciple of Paul, Holy Martyr Cecilia and those with her, Afterfeast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple, Kallistos Xanthopoulos, Patriarch of Constantinople, Anthimos, President of Crete, Righteous Jacob of Evia

It tells the story of a slave who escaped his master and ended up with Paul. He was helpful to Paul since Paul was imprisoned at the time and needed food, etc.

Paul sends him back to his master with this letter and entreats his master to receive him back as a fellow servant of Christ and no longer as a slave.

This book was influential in the movement to abolish slavery (Christian abolitionism).

In the fourth century, the bishop Gregory of Nyssa articulated a fundamentally Christian conception of the world that embedded a thorough rejection of the notion that one human could be owned by another and a condemnation of the institution of slavery.

 

Web Resources on the Church Fathers and the Bible

Helpful Study Resources

This list should grow with time but here's a start with the tools I'm using presently.

• Saints of the Day - Detailed accounts of the lives of the Saints of the Day
• CatenaBible - Click on a verse and see commentary from the Church Fathers on the verse
• BlueLetterBible - Useful for looking up verses and some helpful language tools but heterodox commentaries (Evangelical Christian bias) warrant caution
• Orthodox-Reformed Bridge - Excellent resource for addressing Protestant, Evangelical, and Reformed theology from an Orthodox Perspective
• Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America - Excellent resource on Orthodoxy
• Daily Scripture Readings
• Ancient Faith Ministries - Excellent resource with a lot of great podcasts
• The Lord of Spirits podcast - Highly recommend this podcast series for deep Bible dives into the seen and unseen world
• Christian Classic Ethereal Library - Great resource for reading the Church Fathers but clunky search
• Ancient Church Fathers - Full text of the ANF and NPNF
• New Advent - Fathers of the Church
• Orthodox Wiki - Topical view of Orthodox teaching and practice. Almost 5000 pages. Somewhat curated since "anyone can edit" it but generally pretty good

Orthodox Apologetics Calvinism V. Arminianism

 

The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians - Early Church Structure

In Ignatius Chapter 8:

He that is within the altar is pure, but he that is without is not pure; that is, he who does anything apart from the bishop, and presbytery, and deacons, such a man is not pure in his conscience.

 The Letters of Ignatius are very early. Hisg seven epistles preserved under the name of Ignatius are generally considered authentic, since they were mentioned by the historian Eusebius in the first half of the fourth century. 

We see the same structure in the early church that we see today.

Some Protestants have tended to deny the authenticity of all the epistles because they attest to a monarchical episcopate in the second century. 

Orthodoxy on Calvin and Calvinism

The Orthodox Church produced the following document: The Confession of Patriarch Dositheos of Jerusalem (1672). 

This Confession of Faith has been ratified by all of the autocephalous Churches (Jerusalem, Russia, and Georgia in 1672; Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and the Bulgarians under the EP at the Council of Constantinople in 1723. St. Justin Popovich and St. Nikodim Milas speak of it as having already been accepted by the Serbian Church in their publications published by the Serbian Church). and is therefore dogmatically binding upon the faithful.

It lays out more than a dozen decrees against Calvinism. 

The Perspicuity of Scripture

One of the more curious novelties of the Protestants is the notion of the "The Perspicuity of Scripture".  One definition of this idea is found here:

The doctrine of the clarity of Scripture (often called the "perspicuity of Scripture") teaches that "the meanings of the text can be clear to the ordinary reader, that God uses the text of the Bible to communicate His person and will." 

"The witness of the Church throughout the ages is that ordinary people, who approach it in faith and humility, will be able to understand what the Bible is getting at, even if they meet with particular points of difficulty here and there." Clarity of Scripture

The challenge in maintaining this notion is found in the various descriptions of the Perspicuity of Scripture.

This idea flies in the face of a great many Scriptures

One of many passages which denies this idea is:

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Without the guidance of the Spirit of God, a man cannot understand the Scriptures.

Another passage is:

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

If Scripture is so plain that an average person can understand it, why would a person need to study, work, and divide the Word of Truth?

The Apostle Peter describes the words of the Apostle Paul as "hard to understand".

2 Peter 3:15-16 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

This passage illustrates what happens when unlearned and unstable people try to understand the words of the Apostle Paul.

We All Bring Presuppositions to the Text

All of us sit within some interpretive paradigm when approaching Scripture - most of all the people who don't have any clue that they are operating in a paradigm. They hear something from a preacher on TV, they read something in a book or webpage. The put the pieces together to form their own interpretive lens for Scripture. The result is an incoherent hodgepodge of theology.

The idea that we are a blank slate where we can understand the words of God by reading the Scripture is just fanciful.

Varieties of Interpretations Within Protestant Traditions

I gave an example of a short passage consisting of two verses in my previous BLOG post. Two Protestant writers had two different contradictory views of what the passage means. If something is so obvious that all someone needs to do is read the passage, this case fails that test. There are such examples for nearly every passage in the Bible.

The difficulty of perspicuity is found in this paper:

Westminster Protestants, for instance, admitted the reality of both Scripture's obscurity and clarity, primarily in the distinction between matters necessary for salvation and other matters. In both the Irish Articles of Religion (1615) and the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) the defense of Scripture's clarity was solely concerned with the accessibility of the evangelical message. Others had argued similarly concerning the difficult things in Scripture: "If we never understand we shall be never the worse for the attaining of everlasting salvation."

laritas Scripturae: The Role of Perspicuity in Protestant Hermeneutics James Patrick Callahan

Orthodox Approach to Understanding Faith and Scripture

All of this leads to the obvious question of which teacher is correct, and which is wrong?

The first part of the Orthodox approach to interpreting Scripture is to recognize that God put Apostles and Teachers in the Church. It is reasonable to conclude that looking at people who are smarter than I am and closer to the time of the writing of Scripture are much more likely to read the Scriptures more consistently with the Apostles than Benny Hinn on TBN is, or John Calvin was in the mid 1500's for that matter.

The Orthodox Church has an unbroken continuity through Apostolic Succession of Bishops back to the time of the Apostles. The bishop is charged with guarding the faith. He has a responsibility before God to feed the Flock.

An important element of transmitting truth is continuity with past truth. This same standard was even present in the Old Testament where someone coming along with a new word from God was tested against that was already revealed.

Isaiah 8:19-20 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

When there have been disagreements about important matters of how to understand the faith, the church met together in Church Councils. The first of these councils is found in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 15. There the Church gathered and discussed the matter of how Gentiles should be received into the Church. Should Gentiles be required to follow the Hebrew Laws from the Books of Moses? Or was God doing something different in the Church? Thre preface to the conclusion of the council was:

Acts 15:22 Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:

This set the pattern for the church over the next centuries where they gathered all the Bishops and scholars together to settle matters and the church body gave agreement.

Saint Peter on Saint Paul - Scripture and Tradition

 Saint Peter wrote about the writings of Saint Paul.

2 Peter 3:15-16 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

There are some things worth noting about this passage.

Saint Peter Recognized the Calling of Saint Paul

Peter called the calling on Paul "...the wisdom given unto him..."  This wisdom was from God.

Saint Peter Knew about Saint Paul's Writing

Peter wrote "hath written unto you. As also in all his epistles..."

Saint Peter Knew Saint Paul's Writings Were Difficult to Understand

Peter wrote "...speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood..."

People Misused the Words of Saint Paul

As Peter wrote "...which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest... unto their own destruction."

Saint Peter called the Writings of Saint Paul Scripture

Peter wrote: "...as they do also the other scriptures..."

Scripture Was Misused in the Earliest Times

Scripture, by itself, is insufficient for salvation. Scripture, uncoupled from the traditions of the church, is destruction to those who use it. This is even more true today than in those days.

Inscription of Abercius

The inscription of Abercius is the Greek epitaph of Abercius who was probably Bishop of Hieropolis in Phrygia. It is an important example of early Christian epigraphy.

The Inscription

The citizen of a chosen city, this [monument] I made [while] living, that there I might have in time a resting-place of my body, [I] being by name Abercius, the disciple of a holy shepherd who feeds flocks of sheep [both] on mountains and on plains, who has great eyes that see everywhere. For this [shepherd] taught me [that the] book [of life] is worthy of belief. And to Rome he sent me to contemplate majesty, and to see a queen golden-robed and golden-sandalled; there also I saw a people bearing a shining mark. And I saw the land of Syria and all [its] cities; Nisibis [I saw] when I passed over Euphrates. But everywhere I had brethren. I had Paul ... Faith everywhere led me forward, and everywhere provided as my food a fish of exceeding great size, and perfect, which a holy virgin drew with her hands from a fountain and this it [faith] ever gives to its friends to eat, it having wine of great virtue, and giving it mingled with bread. These things I, Abercius, having been a witness [of them] told to be written here. Verily I was passing through my seventy-second year. He that discerneth these things, every fellow-believer [namely], let him pray for Abercius. And no one shall put another grave over my grave; but if he do, then shall he pay to the treasury of [the] Romans two thousand pieces of gold and to my good native city of Hieropolis one thousand pieces of gold.

Megiddo Mosaic Circa 230 AD

From "Earliest inscription declaring 'Jesus is God' discovered in Israel". The 581-square-foot mosaic features the ancient Greek writing: “The god-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.”

Also found in the same mosaic:

References

• The Ancient Church at Megiddo: The Discovery and an Assessment of its Significance
• The Megiddo Mosaic

Sola Scriptura is Contrary to Scripture Itself

Defining Sola Scriptura

Sola scriptura (Latin for 'by scripture alone') is a theological doctrine held by most Protestant Christian denominations, in particular the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, that posits the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice.

The Orthodox churches consider Sola scriptura to be contrary to the phronema (Greek for mindset or sense) of the Church. 

Sola scriptura was a foundational doctrinal principle of the Protestant Reformation held by many of the Reformers, who taught that authentication of Scripture is governed by the discernible excellence of the text, as well as the personal witness of the Holy Spirit to the heart of each man.  Wikipedia

Before the New Testament was Written Down

Decades before the New Testament even began to be committed to paper, the Church was already present. Jesus, before His Ascencion to the Right Hand of the Father, entrusted the Gospel to the Apostles and it was passed along verbally. The Gospel spread throughout all of Asia Minor and to the rest of the known world by the Apostles and those who were sent out by them. They didn't go bringing a book, they went bringing the testimony of Jesus and establishing His Church in the places they went.

This stands on stark contrast to the Protestant notion of Sola Scripture which imagines the deposit of the faith to be in the Scripture. For Protestants, the doctrine of Sola Scriptura is a tradition that was received from the Reformers and is now accepted as axiomatic.

Sola Scriptura is a novelty that was new to the Reformation era and the concept was invented to separate the Scripture from the Church that produced the Scriptures.

The New Testament was a Product of the Church

The New Testament didn't produce the Church. The Church gave us the New Testament. The men that spoke the word of God and wrote the New Testament Scriptures did both under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The New Testament is in two basic forms. One is the form of the Gospels which are biographies of the life of Jesus Christ and record His sayings and acts. The other form is letters (called Epistles) that were written by the Apostles to particular Churches which already existed in various places. The Epistles were words of correction to the local Churches to address issues that arose in those Churches.

Holy Tradition is Biblical

There is no single passage or group of passages in Scripture that says that Scripture is the sole repository of the faith. There are many passages in Scripture which teach that the repository of the faith was found within the Church itself. This is called Holy Tradition and Scripture is an important part of this repository. The Church was led by Apostles who received the faith from Christ Himself, and that faith was faithfully guarded by the Bishops in the Churches. This tradition continues down in time to the present day where those who remained in the tradition continue to preserve the faith both by word and practice.

2 Thes 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

In that passage, we see the two sources of Christian faith. One is the epistle [letter(s) from Paul to the Church(es)]. The other is what the people were taught by the Apostles themselves. The people in the Churches are instructed to hold fast to both. This is repeated in the following chapter:

2 Thes 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.

 In the end Sola Scriptura fails as a tradition since it's not found in the traditions of the Church.

The Fruit of Sola Scriptura

Sola Scriptura may or may not have some good fruit but there's no denying that it has a great amount of very bad fruit. The Center for Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, which is evangelical Protestant, estimates that there are currently 47,000 denominations (Just How Many Protestant Denominations Are There?).  Certainly, the principle of Sola Scriptura has not brought unity to the church. Rather, it has produced much division and promises to produce more division in the future.

Resources

• Contra Sola Scriptura (Part 2 of 4)
• Timeline of the Books of the New Testament

Review of Father Josiah Trenham's "Rock and Sand" book

This is a great review of "Rock and Sand". I'm only three chapters through the book (due to some vision problems). I took Reformation History at Fuller as well as a class on John Calvin at a secular university. I also did quite a bit of reading of Reformation History along the way so I feel like I should have known much of this. So far, I found about a third of the book to be completely new material and quite damning on the Reformation.

There seems to be a pattern of sexual immorality related to much of the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church had strict rules on divorce and remarriage and the Protestant Reformers gained power because they allowed divorce in cases that the Church would not have allowed.

Additionally, there was obviously a large part of the Reformation that was political in nature. 

In the end, one is left to wonder if the world would not have been better had the Reformation not happened at all.

I will likely add more commentary from the book as I read it but am less likely to do as good of a job as this reviewer did with the book.

Theophan the Recluse

I asked a friend for help finding a Saint name for when I get received into the Orthodox Church. My birth name, Douglas, isn't a Saint's name. I was stuck.

He suggested I look at the meaning of Douglas but it came back as something like "dark waters". I couldn't find anything redemptive in that either. He suggested the Theophany where Jesus came up from the waters of baptism.

That led me to Theophan the Recluse. I like it but it will take special permission from the Church since Theophan is recognized by the Russian Church but not the Antiochian Church (yet).

Another Old Testament Prophecy of Christ and the Church

Here is another prophecy of Christ and the Church

Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Partly fulfilled here:

Luke 23:44-46 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

And here:

Luke 2:27-32 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

Old Testament Prophecy of the Church

There's a prophesy of the church found in the Old Testament

Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.

There are a few things worth pulling out of the text.

The Church is Worldwide

From the "rising of the sun even unto the going down" - the sun rises and goes down all across the world and the church is spread throughout the entire world.

The Gospel goes to the Gentiles

"my name shall be great among the Gentiles" - The good news went into the entire world. It is no longer just for the Hebrew people.

Churches Everywhere

"in every place" - There are churches in all the places the gospel would go and the good news is proclaimed there.

Smells are found there

"incense shall be offered" - Some might spiritualize this. Particularly if their church does not burn incense. But where's the cause in the text to do this? Strong's emphasizes this:

kaw-tar'; a primitive root (identical with through the idea of fumigation in a close place and perhaps thus driving out the occupants); to smoke, i.e. turn into fragrance by fire (especially as an act of worship):—burn (incense, sacrifice) (upon), (altar for) incense, kindle, offer (incense, a sacrifice).

Incense is offered with prayer as described in Rev:

Rev 8:3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

The Eucharist is Offered there

"pure offering" - not an animal sacrifice, since Christ did away with all of those things.

 The Eucharist is a pure offering to be sure. It is no re-sacrificing Jesus. It is embodying Him.

The Church Glorifies God

"my name shall be great among the heathen" - this was missing from the Hebrew religion. There were converts to that religion, but not at all to the depth that the church had. And those converts to the Hebrew religion came to Jesus.

It was a prophecy

The phrase "saith the LORD of hosts" marks this is a prophecy.