We believe the Orthodox Church is the Church that Jesus Christ founded. Not a version of it or a branch of it, but the actual continuation of what began at Pentecost.
That sounds arrogant. I know. When I first heard Orthodox Christians say this, I thought they were either incredibly proud or incredibly naïve. But here’s what we actually mean, and why it’s not what you might think.
What We’re Actually Claiming
The Orthodox Church traces an unbroken line back to the apostles themselves. In Antioch (yes, the same Antioch our archdiocese is named for), believers were first called Christians around 33 AD. The apostles Peter and Paul established the church there. They ordained bishops. Those bishops ordained other bishops. That chain has never broken. You can trace the line of bishops in Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople straight back through two thousand years of history.
This isn’t just about paperwork or who ordained whom. It’s about what’s been preserved. The Orthodox Church has kept the same faith, the same worship, the same understanding of salvation that the apostles taught. We haven’t added new doctrines or subtracted old ones. The Divine Liturgy we celebrate at St. Michael looks remarkably similar to what Christians were doing in the fourth century. Our understanding of the Trinity, of Christ’s two natures, of how we’re saved, these haven’t changed.
When we say we’re the Church Christ founded, we mean we’re the same organism. Not a restoration of it. Not a reformation of it. The same living body.
But What About Other Christians?
Here’s where it gets complicated, and where Orthodox teaching is more humble than you’d expect.
We don’t claim that everyone outside Orthodoxy is damned. We can’t. God’s mercy is bigger than our categories. There’s an old saying attributed to various Orthodox teachers: “We know where the Church is, but we don’t know where it isn’t.” We know that in the Orthodox Church, the fullness of the faith exists. The sacraments work. Grace flows. But we can’t put limits on how God might work beyond those visible boundaries.
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, whose book The Orthodox Church sits on half the bookshelves in this parish, puts it carefully. The Orthodox Church is where we know with certainty that Christ is present in His fullness. That doesn’t mean He’s absent everywhere else. It means we can’t make definitive statements about what happens outside.
Can Protestants be saved? Can Catholics? We’d say that anyone seeking Christ with a sincere heart, anyone baptized in the name of the Trinity, is responding to God’s grace. God can save whom He wills. But we also believe that the fullest medicine for the soul, the complete healing that leads to theosis (union with God), is found in Orthodox worship and sacraments.
Think of it this way. If you’re sick and someone offers you aspirin, that’s good. It helps. But if someone else offers you the full treatment, antibiotics, proper diagnosis, follow-up care, you’d be foolish not to take it. We’re not saying the aspirin does nothing. We’re saying there’s something more complete available.
Why This Matters for You
If you’re reading this as an inquirer, you’re probably from a Baptist background or maybe you grew up Catholic. You might be thinking, “My church loves Jesus. We read the Bible. We pray. Why isn’t that enough?”
It’s not that it isn’t enough for God to work with. It’s that there’s more. The early Christians didn’t just read about the Eucharist, they received Christ’s actual Body and Blood. They didn’t just remember the saints, they asked for their prayers. They didn’t just have pastors, they had bishops in apostolic succession who could trace their ordination back to the Twelve.
When Orthodoxy claims to be the true Church, we’re inviting you to something ancient and whole. We’re saying, “This is what Christianity looked like before the splits, before the Reformation, before the Great Schism of 1054. Come and see.”
The Humility in the Claim
Here’s what we’re not saying: We’re not saying Orthodox Christians are better people. Walk into any Orthodox parish and you’ll find sinners. Gossips. People who cut you off in the Walmart parking lot. The Church is a hospital for sick people, not a museum for saints.
We’re not saying we have all the answers or that we’ve never made mistakes. Orthodox history includes shameful moments, persecution of others, ethnic divisions, failures to live up to what we believe.
What we are saying is that the faith itself has been preserved. The deposit of truth handed down from the apostles remains intact. That’s not our accomplishment. It’s the Holy Spirit’s work, keeping the Church from falling into error on essential matters.
Fr. Thomas Hopko, whose voice you can still hear on Ancient Faith Radio, used to emphasize that Orthodoxy’s uniqueness isn’t about externals. It’s about the call to holiness, to actual transformation into the likeness of God. That’s what makes the Church the Church, not our buildings or our beards or our ethnic food at coffee hour, but the reality of Christ present in the mysteries, changing us from the inside out.
Living With This Belief
So how do we hold this belief without being insufferable about it? How do we say “we’re the true Church” without sounding like we think we’re better than everyone else?
By remembering that being in the true Church doesn’t make us true Christians automatically. We still have to repent. We still have to fast and pray and struggle against sin. We still fail constantly. The Church gives us the tools for salvation, but we have to use them.
And by treating other Christians with genuine respect. Your Baptist grandmother who prayed for you every day of your life? God heard those prayers. Your Catholic uncle who serves at the soup kitchen? Christ is present in that service. We can acknowledge the grace of God working in other Christians’ lives while still believing that the fullness of the faith is found in Orthodoxy.
When you visit St. Michael for the first time, you won’t hear us bashing other churches. You’ll hear us inviting you to experience something ancient and beautiful. You’ll see us venerating icons, receiving communion, chanting prayers that Christians have chanted for centuries. You’ll be welcomed whether you’re just curious or seriously considering conversion.
The claim that we’re the true Church isn’t meant to push people away. It’s meant to say: this is real, this is whole, this is what the apostles handed down. Come and taste it for yourself.
