A Brief History of the Orthodox Church

The Orthodox faith is about a Christ centered way of life. With faith and knowledge of Christ we begin to see our sinful condition. We learn that we have in our subconscious self many desires the church fathers call passions. We can also think of these as habits. It because of these that we find it so difficult to live all the things Christ has taught us. 

An Orthodox life, therefor, involves a struggle against these passions. To succeed in this struggle we need more than our self effort. We need divine grace. This is why Jesus taught His disciples the sacraments and empowered them with the Holy Spirit to establish Churches, ecclesias. The Church is for our healing

If we are to become Christ like, we need to surrender our will to engage in  the teachings He gave us through the Church. This involves regular participation in the sacraments, daily prayer an fasting and many others. 

To do this we must have confidence that the Orthodox Church is the true church, one that has His teachings undistorted by innovations. This is the role that history plays. By understanding the History of the Eastern Orthodox Church we learn how His truth was kept pure.

This video gives you a basic overview of this history.

Ten points for an Orthodox life.