Jerusalem, Synod of

▪ Eastern Orthodox church council

      (1672), council of the Eastern Orthodox church convened by Dosítheos, patriarch of Jerusalem, in order to reject the Confession of Orthodox Faith (1629), by Cyril Lucaris, which professed most of the major Calvinist doctrines. The synod rejected unconditional predestination (the doctrine that God has eternally chosen those whom he intends to save) and justification by faith alone, while it affirmed the essentially Roman doctrines of transubstantiation (the change of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ in the mass) and of purgatory. Against Rome, however, it continued to affirm that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone. The synod also decreed that the church and Scripture are equally infallible, that there are seven sacraments, and that the books of Tobit, Judith, Ecclesiasticus, and Wisdom of Solomon are canonical books of the Bible.

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