Judeo-Christians

Something which has been on my mind lately is the direct correlation between the Jewish Temple faith and our own Orthodox Christian faith. Orthodox Christianity is ripe with traditions which stem from Judaism.
Many Protestant Christians forget the connection.

Ever heard the term "four walls and a sermon"? Normally this type of expression is found in the Baptist church. No icons of saints or Christ, no incense can be found in the "sanctuary". This minimalist approach to worship reduces the faith to an empty pseudo-symbolic iconoclasm. Each feast enacted as more of a theatrical remembrance than a mystical experience. One can not date the hymns of this church before the 1700's at the very earliest most come from the 20th century.

On the other end of the spectrum lies Evangelical Protestantism with their attempt to reach into their Jewish roots with Passover Seders, invitations to local rabbis to instruct the congregation on the interpretation of Hannukah, and "Messianic Judaism". At best this is the same approach offered in Protestantism over and over again, revisionist interpretations of things from the past with no understanding of the tradition of the early church.

Look no further than the Orthodox Christian Church to find true connections with Judaism, connections which stem from deep within the faith, beyond the modern rabbinical Judaism of the Talmud, all the way back to the time of Christ.

"The church is the earthly heaven where God, Who is above heaven, dwells and abides, and it is more glorious than the [Old Testament] tabernacle of witness. It is foreshadowed in the Patriarchs, is based on the Apostles..., it is foretold by the Prophets, adorned by the Hierarchs, sanctified by the Martyrs, and its high Altar stands firmly founded on their holy remains.... Thus, according to St. Simeon the New Theologian, the [Vestibule] corresponds to earth, the [Nave] to heaven, and the holy [Altar] to what is above heaven."- Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople (7 c.)