p. 2- Time and time again the following question has been asked: "What religion do the Greeks profess?"

People the world over are unaware that the Greek religion is the real Christian religion, for such is the Greek Orthodox Church. History tells us that the Greeks were the first people to accept and adopt Christ's Christianity, which explains the well-known fact that the Apostles chose the Greek language in which to write the Gospel.

The Romans, who always strove to follow or to imitate the wise Greeks, adopted not only the Greek mythology and its Grecian gods but also the theology of the East, which was spread through the universally spoken Greek language and the universally accepted Greek civilization. People of all races, speaking the Greek tongue, became Christians, and since Christianity forbade any combination with pagans, the Christians avoided social intercourse with them.

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Mistrust, antagonism, and hatred were aroused, and cruel persecutions followed. From the days of Nero to the fourth century many persecutions of Christians are recorded. Such was the reception of Christianity in pagan Rome.

In spite of numerous persecutions Christianity made steady progress, and Constantine, the first emperor of the Byzantine Empire, elevated it to the rank of a state religion. From this time on the constitution of the Christian church took on a new form. Whereas before the elders and the bishops had been chosen from the whole church community, and the principle of brotherly equality among all Christians was held in honor, now the clergy separated from the laity and introduced degrees or ranks, so that the bishops of the principal cities were placed over the other bishops as metropolitans, with jurisdiction over the clergy in their immediate domains. The church services also, which theretofore had consisted only of singing, praying, and reading the Bible, were made more solemn and more imposing by the aid of music and other arts. The Byzantine music was then introduced and adopted.

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The doctrine of Christianity did not remain in its original simplicity and purity for long because many learned and enlightened people made it the subject of their meditation and inquiry. The first question which they raised was, "What is the relation of Christ to God?" and they pondered over "the incomprehensible and mysterious combination of His divine and human natures."

On these questions vehement disputes arose between Arius, the Alexandrian ecclesiastic, and the great Athanasius. Arius maintained that Christ, the Son of God, was inferior to the Father and dependent upon the Father, while Athanasius laid down the principle of the Holy Trinity in one entity, composed of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as one indivisible unity, and he asserted that the Son, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, is not inferior to the Father but the same as the Father.

Constantine convoked the first ecumenical synod or general church congress at Nicaea, 323 A.D., to lay down the law in regard to these opposed opinions and doctrines. This first universal synod, after careful study and meditation, declared the opinion of Athanasius to be the true orthodox 4faith of the Church. But the Teutonic races, the Goths, the Vandals, the Longobards and others, to whom Christianity had been brought by Arian missionaries, continued to profess Arianism, the creed of Arius, for a century or more and were therefore excommunicated and driven out as heretics from the Catholic (universal) Church.

Many people, even now, misunderstand the word catholic because of the Catholic denomination. Let it be known and understood now and forever that the name Catholic Church was adopted by the first ecumenical synod to denote the followers of Athanasius in contrast to the Arians, the followers of Arius. The word catholic is purely a Greek word and means ecumenical, that is, universal.

This was the first schism among Christians.

At this time in all Christendom there were five bishops with metropolitan scepters, the Metropolitans of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome, the first four governing the four parts of the Eastern Church and the last one the entire Western Church. Constantinople, 5being the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, automatically became the capital city also of Christianity and of the domain of Christendom.

Rivalry between the Eastern Church and the Western Church ran high for a number of centuries. Constantinople and Rome competed for priority and pre-eminence. Rome called its Bishop Pope, and Constantinople's Bishop was called Patriarch. Pope in Greek is papas, that is, priest; any priest of the Greek Church is papas or pope. Patriarch means an elder, the father of a family or of a race which he rules. Thus the Patriarch of Constantinople was so named because he ruled the entire domain of Christendom.

Leo III., the Bishop or Pope of Rome, rebelled and demanded supremacy over Photios, the Bishop or Patriarch of Constantinople. Photios, the ruler of Christendom according to age-old tradition, convoked the second ecumenical synod in Constantinople in the year 867. At this second ecumenical ecclesiastical council of the Christian churches it was resolved that the Pope of Rome should not be the supreme ruler. The 6Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople still maintained, as he had done from time immemorial, his priority. The congress also denounced as heresy the insertion of the words filioque and the prohibition of priestly marriages.

Thus came the "great schism" of the Eastern and Western Churches. From now on the Bishop or Pope of Rome refused to recognize the decisions of the general councils and named the Western Church the Roman Catholic Church and himself the highest authority of that Church. So the Western Catholic (universal) Church now became the Roman Catholic Church, and the Eastern Church, in order to express the true (orthodox) faith of its followers and not to be confused with the Pope's heresy, took the title of Holy Eastern Apostolic Greek Orthodox Church. In ordinary speech it is called the Greek Orthodox Church, and it has under its scepter more than 150,000,000 Christians.

It is worthy of note that the Greek Church never did revise or alter the gospel and the rest of Christ's holy teachings and sayings. In all Greek churches the gospel is read as it was originally written by the Evangelists and the other Apostles.

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So the Roman Catholic Church is a rebellious daughter of the Greek Church, the true Church of Christ. And this is the religion of Greeks the world over.