I listened to the first broadcast and much of the second.
The greatest problem I had were in relation to two areas:
1) Icons
2) Original Sin
On icons, the pastor too easily conflates the Old Testament idols that people bowed before as gods, with the icons that Orthodox use in venerating the saints. He implies that in using icons, the Orthodox are exposing themselves to the danger of worshiping the saints as God. Of course, Orthodox do not worship the saints as though they were God. This said, there is a fundamental difference of belief between Orthodoxy and Protestantism that lends to how a person understands icons. Many Protestants have no problem with God become man, but they balk even at the thought of man become God (or like God). Orthodox understand that man, through the Holy Spirit, can become like God, even in this lifetime. A Protestant may see an icon of a saint and think he or she unduly has been raised to the status of a god (i.e. is exaggerated and/or misrepresented in holiness), but an Orthodox sees an icon and recognizes that the saint did in fact live a holy life, and through synergy, has become God-like in humility and love. In venerating the saint, the worshiper glorifies God for raising men to his right side.
The problem I have concerning the section on original sin is the pastor's assumption that the Orthodox too, like the West, once held to \"Original Sin\" as a central belief but have since changed their doctrines. The fact is, while the Eastern Fathers have written of Ancestral Sin, the emphasis is different--the East focusing more on corruption and mortality resulting from Ancestral Sin, than on sins springing from an inherited Original Sin. Even in his own time, St. Augustine was not universally accepted. St. John Cassian, among other saints, was critical of certain elements of St. Augustine's theology.
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