Dr Matthew Raphael Johnson discusses the difference between authority and power and how they were understood differently to now, in ancient times. Today's broadcast deals with the Russian Orthodox conception of power. The famed Bible passages from Mark (Give to Caesar. . . ) and Romans (obey the authorities. . . ) are, like so much else, abused, manipulated, mistranslated and misunderstood. To interpret the bible a man has to understand the culture and politics of the age, what motivated the speakers involved and the ideological context of events. When this is lacking, moderns will just impose whatever postmodern ideas they have absorbed from the world onto the texts. This is what the enemies of the church do all the time: impose their own anger on the texts they don't fully understand. Power and authority are two different things. The words “politics,” or “liberty” are not understood in their true form today. The foundation of Orthodox monarchy and the idea of the Christian state in general remains misunderstood, especially by those in the west. This lecture tries to settle a few of those important conceptual issues. Presented by Matt Johnson The Orthodox Nationalist: The Concept of Power in Orthodoxy – TON 091819