Saint Vasile (Basil the Great)

Tomorrow, Eastern Orthodox Christians will celebrate New Year’s Day according to the Old Julian calendar. It is also the holiday to honor Saint Vasile of Caesarea. Unfortunately, many Orthodox Christians venerate Saint Vasile to the point that he is worshiped. God does not share His glory with anyone and it is unfortunate that people worship Saint Vasile. Instead of worshiping him, we should study his life and seek to live the way that he lived. Saint Vasile was a born again Christian. He shared of his conversion in a letter to a friend:

Why should a Christian attend worship services regularly?

This is a translation of an article written by my mentor, Vasile Filat. There is a link to the original article here. It was originally written in Romanian.

Once, when I was traveling on a mission trip I sat next to a fellow passenger on an airplane and we started a discussion en route to our destination. I shared with the person that I am a pastor. My new friend proudly proclaimed that he was also a Christian. I asked him what denomination his church was and his response was, “I do not attend worship services at the church. My faith is personal and I have my own reason for not attending worship services.” Are you familiar with a response like this? Maybe you have used this line of reasoning. It is not a good idea for Christians to ignore the regular attendance of worship services and here is why:

God’s Sovereignty and Man’s responsibility in salvation

Over the past couple of days, I have been debating with a brother in Christ who follows reformed theology. In common terms, he is a 5 point Calvinist. I have asked him, like I ask anyone with whom I debate, to take off theological glasses and view the Word of God as is, letting the Scriptures speak for themselves. I have written on the subject of “Predestination” and you can read it here.

In this article, I would like to explain, using the Scriptures, that God calls us to be reconciled with Him and in order to be reconciled, we must respond to God’s call by bowing our knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. When this happens, we are born again into the family of God.