1. The Seven Ecumenical Councils & equal Synods of the Church
The canons define doctrine, theology, moral directives, statements and definitions of what is Truth as revealed by the Holy Spirit through the one voice of the fathers sitting in Councils.
2. The entire body of the Orthodox Services
• Quote and explain Scripture and put it into correct context
• Define and explain Christian doctrine and theology (dogma)
• Reveal the apostolic worship and protocols of holy behaviour
• Contain the values and moral directives lived by the saints
• Contain praise, petitions, exaltation (honouring God in worship)
• Define our God as a Trinity; and the two natures in Christ.
3. Scripture
To be read within the context, explanation, an understanding of the Orthodox Church Services, and with the unified agreed statements of the fathers, and not by the single, personal opinion(s) of any individual within the Household of Faith, or those outside the family (the Heterodox).
4. Apostolic Tradition of the Church
These are:
i) the ancient oral traditions of the Apostles revealed in the writings of the Fathers
ii) the feasts and fasts as set out in the Great Typicon (the book of directions)
iii) the hymnody and manner of performance (rituals) of the Church Services.
These Four Criteria are always in harmony and in total
agreement, complementing and supplementing each other.
We may say they are the benchmark, the filter or test if you will, of what is truly Christian.
When our belief/doctrine is confirmed by all Four Criteria, then we can safely accept that the:
• Teaching (doctrine, dogma, theology)
• Worship (format and protocols applied)
• Tradition (behaviour, customs, way of defined lifestyle) offered to us, is the true mind of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
This infallible Truth is protected by: the Giver of Life who is the Spirit of Truth: the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father.
However, we must take the warning of the apostle Paul seriously, that the letter kills, but the Spirit makes (us) alive [2 Corinthians 3:6] for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom [2 Corinthians 3:17].
We must not fall away and regress into a binding life of mindless religiosity of rules and regulations as did the Jews.
By the time the Lawgiver himself came, the one who gave Moses the law, Jesus who appeared to them in the flesh and walked among them, they had transformed the Law into a punishing yoke of regulations which burdened the people with a
punitive weight of rules which could not be followed by anyone.
The Four Criteria listed have life, real meaning and correct application only when they are infused with the active participation and living power of the Holy Spirit.
Appropriating the Holy Spirit can be achieved only by living the Way of Life which is centred in the Sacraments and Services of the Orthodox Church. Paul the Apostle sternly warns:
A material (secular) minded man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because it is foolishness to him, and he is not able to come to know them because they can only be discerned spiritually [1 Corinthians 2:14].
