1. The Purpose of Man.
God created
us in His own likeness and image. He gave us intelligence, free will and an immortal
soul, so that knowing God and becoming like Him, we would all become better, perfect
ourselves, and inherit eternal blessed life with God. Therefore the existence of
man on earth has deep meaning, great purpose and a high goal.
In the universe created by God, there is not, nor can there be,
anything unplanned. If a man lives without faith in God, not abiding by the commandments
of God, not for future eternal life, then the existence of such a man on earth becomes
senseless. For people living without God, life seems incomprehensible and accidental,
and such people are often worse than beasts.
For each man, in order to fulfill his purpose on earth and to
receive eternal salvation, it is necessary, in the first place, to know the true
God and to rightly believe in Him, that is, to have the true faith. Secondly, one
must live according to this faith; that is, to love God and people and to do good
works.
The Apostle Paul says that without faith it is impossible to
please God (Heb. 11:6), and the Apostle James adds that faith without good works
means without love, and such faith is ineffective and dead faith.
Thus, for our salvation, it is necessary to have the correct
faith, and a life in keeping with that faith, the doing of good works.
True teaching about the necessity to rightly believe in God and
how to live with people, is contained in the Orthodox Christian Faith, which is
founded on Divine revelation. Divine revelation is the name given to all that God
Himself reveals to people about Himself and about true faith in Him. God conveys
His revelation to people by two means: natural revelation and supernatural revelation.
Natural Revelation.
Natural revelation is called Divine revelation when God reveals
Himself through normal, natural means to each person, through our visible world
(nature) and through our conscience, that is, the voice of God in us. It tells us
what is good and what is bad. God also reveals Himself through life, through the
history of all mankind. If a nation loses faith in God, then misfortune and unhappiness
overtake it. If it does not repent, then it perishes and vanishes from the earth.
Let us remember the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Hebrew nation
dispersed to all corners of the earth, and so on.
The entire world which surrounds us is a great book of Divine
revelation, testifying to the omnipotence and wisdom of God the Creator. People
who study this world are, with very rare exceptions, believers. In order to study
something, it is necessary to have faith that everything fulfills a given concept
and exists according to a definite plan.
“Even the most simple machine is not able to come into existence
by chance. Even if we see a systematically arranged group of stones, we immediately
conclude from the form of their arrangement, that a human being put them there.
A chance arrangement is always without form, irregular. Long ago Cicero, an ancient
scholar and orator, who lived before the birth of Christ, said that even if one
threw alphabet blocks a million times, a line of poetry would not result from them.
The universe which surrounds us is much more complicated than the most intricate
machine, and it contains much more thought than the most profound poem” (from a
discussion by Archbishop Nathaniel).
The Apostle Paul was a well-educated person for his time. He
says every house is built by some man; but He that built all things is God (Heb
3:4).
The great scientist Newton, who discovered the laws of movement
of the heavenly bodies, thereby disclosing a great mystery of creation, was a religious
man and studied theology. Each time he pronounced the name of God, he reverently
stood up and took off his hat.
The renowned Pascal, a mathematical genius and one of the creators
of modern physics, was not only a believer but one of the greatest religious thinkers
in Europe. Pascal said, “The contradictions which most of all might seem to separate
me from religious knowledge, on the contrary, lead me to it.”
Louis Pasteur, the founder of contemporary bacteriology, and
a thinker more profound than others in penetrating the mystery of organic life,
exclaimed, “The more I occupy myself with the study of nature, the more I stand
in reverent amazement before the works of the Creator.”
The famous biologist Linnaeus concluded his book about plants
with these words, “Truly God exists, great, eternal, without Whom nothing is able
to exist.”
The astronomer Kepler confessed, “O, great is our Lord and great
is His omnipotence, and His wisdom is without boundary. And you, my soul, sing praise
to your Lord for all your life.”
Even Darwin, the scholar who was afterwards exploited by half-learned
men to refute belief in God, was a very religious man all his life. For many years
he was the lay leader of his parish. He never thought that his findings contradicted
belief in God. After Darwin set forth his teaching about the evolutionary development
of life on earth, he was asked, “In the chain of evolution, where was the first
link?”
Darwin answered, “It was riveted to the throne of the Most High.”
The geologist Lyell wrote, “With every geological finding we
discover enlightening demonstrations of the foresight, power and wisdom of the creative
intelligence of God.”
The historian Muller declared, “Only with the recognition of
God and by thorough study of the New Testament did I begin to understand the meaning
of history.”
It is possible to cite an unlimited number of scholarly witnesses
to belief in God, but we think for the present it is enough to relate one more eloquent
argument. The scientist Dennert conducted a survey about belief in God with 432
naturalists. Fifty-six of them did not respond, 349 indicated belief in God, and
only eighteen declared that they either did not believe, or were indifferent to
faith. The result of this survey of scholars concurs with results of other similar
investigations.
“Only half-knowledge brings people to godlessness. No one is
able to deny the existence of God, except those for whom it is profitable to do
so,” says the English scholar Bacon.
The young holy Great-martyr Barbara, seeing the majesty and beauty
of God’s world, came to a knowledge of the true God. Thus God reveals Himself through
the visible world to each person who is intelligent and of good will.
Belief in God is the fundamental essence of a person’s soul.
The soul is given to man from God. It is a spark in man and a reflection of God
in man. Originating in God, having a kindred being in Him, the soul by itself, according
to its own will, turns to God, seeks Him. My soul thirsts for God, for the living
God (Ps. 42:2). As when eyes turn to the light and are constructed in such a way
that they are able to see, thus the soul of man rushes to God, has the need of intimacy
with Him, and only in God finds peace and joy. A flower stretches toward the sun,
from which it receives warmth and light, without which it is not able to live and
grow. As with the flower, the constant, irrepressible inclination of man to God
comes from the fact that only in God is our soul able to find all that it needs
for a righteous and healthy life.
Therefore, people in all times have believed in some deity and
offered their prayers to it, although they often have erred by believing in God
incorrectly. They never lost faith in a deity, always keeping some form of religion.
General belief in a Supreme Being was known even in the time
of Aristotle, the great Greek scholar, philosopher, and naturalist, born in the
year 384 B.C. Scholars confirm that all peoples who have inhabited the earth, without
exception, have had their own religion, faith, prayers, temples, and offerings.
“Ethnography, the science which studies the existence of all people inhabiting the
earth, does not know of a people without religion,” says the German geographer and
traveller Ratzel.
If there exist pockets of atheistic persuasion, they are rare
exceptions, unhealthy deviations from the norm. As the existence of the blind, deaf,
and dumb does not disprove the fact that mankind possesses the gifts of sight, hearing,
and speech; as the existence of idiots does not deny that man is a reasonable being,
so the existence of atheists does not disprove the fact of the existence of religion
in every society.
However, natural revelation alone is not enough, for sin obscures
the intelligence, will, and conscience of a man. Proof of this is revealed in every
possible pagan religion, in which truth is mixed with the falsities of human fabrications.
Therefore, the Lord supplements natural revelation with supernatural
revelation. (Compiled from Frank’s book Religion and Science, and Does God Exist?
by G. Shorets and others.).
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2. Supernatural Divine Revelation.
Holy Tradition and Holy Scripture.
God’s revelations
about Himself to certain people are most often effected by unusual means, or in
a supernatural manner. God reveals Himself directly through Himself or through His
angels. Such revelation is called supernatural divine revelation.
As not all people are able to receive revelation from God Himself,
due to their impurity through sin and weakness of soul and body, the Lord chooses
special righteous people who are able to receive this revelation.
Among the first people who declared the revelations of God were
Adam, Noah, Moses, and other prophets and righteous people. They accepted everything
from God and preached the beginnings of Divine revelation.
In fulfillment of Divine revelation, God Himself came to earth
incarnate in the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and spread the revelation to
the whole earth through His Apostles and disciples.
This Divine revelation and its dissemination among people is
preserved in the true, holy Orthodox Church in two ways: by means of Holy Tradition
and Holy Scripture.
The primary means of dissemination of Divine revelation is Holy
Tradition. From the beginning of the world until Moses there were no holy books.
Teaching about belief in God was handed down by tradition, that is, by word of mouth
and example, from one to another, from ancestor to descendant. Jesus Christ Himself
conveyed His Divine teaching and precepts to His disciples by word of mouth, by
preaching, and by the example of His life, not by books (scriptures). By preaching
and example, the Apostles first spread the faith and maintained the Christian Church.
Holy Tradition always precedes Holy Scriptures. This is obvious
because books are not useful for all people, but tradition is accessible to all
without exception.
Eventually, so that God’s revelation might be kept in complete
faithfulness, by the inspiration of the Lord, several holy people wrote the most
important aspects of tradition in books. The Holy Spirit helped them invisibly,
so that everything in these written books would be correct and true. All these books,
written by the Spirit of God through people sanctified by God, prophets, apostles,
and others, are called Holy Scripture, or the Bible.
The word “Bible” comes from Greek and means “book.” This name
shows that holy books, as coming from God Himself, surpass all other books.
The books of the Holy Scripture, written by various people at
different times, are divided into two parts, the books of the Old Testament, and
those of the New Testament.
The books of the Old Testament were written prior to the birth
of Christ. The books of the New Testament were written after the birth of Christ.
All of these holy books are known by the Biblical word “testament,” because the
word means testimony, and the Divine teaching contained in them is the testimony
of God to mankind. The word “Testament” further suggests the agreement or a covenant
of God with people.
The contents of the Old Testament deal mainly with God’s promise
to give mankind a Saviour and to prepare them to accept Him. This was accomplished
by gradual revelation through holy commandments, prophesies, prefigurations, prayers
and divine services.
The main theme of the New Testament is the fulfillment of God’s
promise to send a Saviour, His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave
mankind the New Testament, the new covenant.
The Old Testament books, if each one is counted separately, number
thirty-eight. Sometimes several books are combined into one, and in this form, they
number twenty-two books, according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
The Old Testament books are divided into four sections, the law,
history, wisdom literature, and the prophets.
I. The books of the law, which constitute
the main foundation of the Old Testament, are as follows:
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy
These five books were written by the
Prophet Moses. They describe the creation of the world and man, the fall into sin,
God’s promise of a Saviour of the world, and the life of people in the first times.
The majority of their contents is an account of the law given by God through Moses.
Jesus Christ Himself calls them the laws of Moses (cf. Luke 24:44).
II. The books of history, which primarily
contain the history of the religion and life of the Hebrew people, preserving faith
in the true God, are the following:
6. Joshua
7. Judges, and as a supplement, the
book of Ruth.
8. First and Second Kings, as two parts
of the same book.
9. Third and Fourth Kings
10. First and Second Chronicles (additional).
11. First and Second Books of Ezra and
Nehemiah
12. Esther
III. The books of wisdom, which are
composed mainly of teachings about faith and spiritual life, are the following:
13. Job
14. The Psalter, composed of 150 psalms
or sacred songs, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. A majority of
the psalms were written by King David. The Psalter is used for almost every Orthodox
service of worship.
15. Proverbs of Solomon
16. Ecclesiastes (Church teachings).
17. Song of Solomon
IV. The books of the Prophets, which
contain prophecies or predictions about the future, and their visions of the Saviour,
Jesus Christ, are the following:
18. Isaiah
19. Jeremiah
20. Ezekiel
21. Daniel
22. Books of the Twelve Prophets, also
known as the lesser Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Zepha-niah,
Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
These are the canonical books of the
Old Testament, meaning that they are undoubtedly true, judging by their origin and
by their content. The word “canonica” comes from Greek and means “model, true, correct.”
Besides the canonical books, a part of the Old Testament is composed
of non-canonical books, sometimes called the Apocrypha among non-Orthodox. These
are the books which the Jews lost and which are not in the contemporary Hebrew text
of the Old Testament. They are found in the Greek translations of the Old Testament,
made by the 70 translators of the Septuagint three centuries before the birth of
Christ (271 B.C.). These books have been included in the Bible from ancient times
and are considered by the Church to be sacred Scripture. The translation of the
Septuagint is accorded special respect in the Orthodox Church. The Slavonic translation
of the Bible was made from it.
To the non-canonical books of the Old Testament belong:
1. Tobit
2. Judith
3. The Wisdom of Solomon
4. Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of
Sirach
5. Baruch
6. Three books of Maccabees
7. The Second and Third book of Esdras
8. The additions to the (Book of Esther,)
II Chronicles (The Prayer of Manasseh) and Daniel (The Song of the Three Youths,
Susanna and Bel and the Dragon).
There are twenty-seven sacred books of the New Testament, and
all of them are canonical. In content, they, like the Old Testament, may be subdivided
into four groups, the law, history, the epistles, and prophecy.
I. Books of the Law which serve as the
foundation of the New Testament are:
1. The Gospel of Matthew
2. The Gospel of Mark
3. The Gospel of Luke
4. The Gospel of John
The word “gospel,” or in Greek, evangelion,
means “good news.” It is the good news about the arrival in the world of the Saviour
of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, promised by God. The Gospels relate the account
of His life on earth, death on the Cross, resurrection from the dead, and ascension
into heaven. They also set forth His Divine teachings and miracles. The Gospels
were written by holy apostles, disciples of Jesus Christ.
II. Books of History.
5. The Acts of the Apostles, written
by the Evangelist Luke, tells of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles
and about the spread of the Christian Church through them.
III. The Epistles.
6-12. Seven general epistles to the
churches, or, letters to all Christians: one of the Apostle James, two of the Apostle
Peter, three of the Apostle and Evangelist John, and one of the Apostle Jude.
13-26. Fourteen epistles of the Apostle
Paul: one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the
Ephesians, one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians,
two to Timothy, the bishop of Ephesus, one to Titus, the bishop of Crete, one to
Philemon, and one to the Hebrews.
IV. Books of Prophecy.
27. The Apocalypse, or Revelation to
John, written by the holy Apostle and Evangelist John, contains a vision of the
future destiny of the Church of Christ and of the whole world.
The sacred books of the New Testament were first written in Greek,
which at that time was in common usage. Only the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistle
of St. Paul to the Hebrews were first written in Hebrew. The Gospel of Matthew,
however, was translated into Greek in the first century, most likely by the Apostle
Matthew himself.
The books of both the New Testament and the Old Testament appeared
by God’s revelation, were written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and are
therefore called divinely inspired. Apostle Paul says, All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
and for instruction in righteousness (II Tim. 3:16).
The loftiness and purity of Christian teaching in these writings,
prophecies, and miracles convince one of the divine origin of Holy Scripture. With
special signs, the divine inspiration of sacred books is revealed in the mighty
acts of the word of God toward mankind. Wherever the Apostles preached, the hearts
of people submitted to the teaching of Christ. The Jews and pagans of the world
armed themselves with every evil power known to man against the Christians. Christian
martyrs died by the thousands, yet the word of God grew and became firmly established.
There are examples in which people started to study the Bible with the hope of disproving
the teachings contained therein, and in the end became sincerely reverent and deeply
believing people. Each one of us, attentively reading Holy Scripture, can experience
in himself the Lord’s almighty power, and be convinced that it is the revelation
of God Himself.
All Divine revelation is preserved in the Holy Church. The books
of Holy Scripture, and Holy Tradition — that is, that which was not originally written
down in these books, but handed down by word of mouth and only afterwards written
down by saints in the early centuries of Christianity (4th and 5th centuries) and
consequently have profound antiquity and authenticity — all this is preserved in
the Holy Church. The Church was founded by the Saviour Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ,
and established as the custodian of His Divine revelation. God the Holy Spirit invisibly
guards Her.
The Holy Orthodox Church, after the death of the Apostles, was
guided by Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. We read there the words of the prophets
and Apostles as if we ourselves lived with them and listened to them.
In special cases, for the accusation of heretics or to resolve
various misunderstandings, on the order of the Saviour Himself (Matt. 18:17) and
by the example of the Apostles (Apostolic Council in 51 A.D., Acts 15:1-35), councils
assembled. Some of these were Ecumenical, at which were gathered from the entire
known world as many pastors and teachers of the Church as was possible. Other councils
were local, where just pastors and teachers of a particular region assembled.
The decision of an Ecumenical Council is the highest earthly
authority of the Holy Church of Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit, as it was stated
in the decision of the first Apostolic Council, “For it seemed good to the Holy
Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28).
There were seven Ecumenical Councils. At the first and second
councils the Orthodox Creed was formulated.
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3. Short Summaries of the Ecumenical Councils.
There have
been seven Ecumenical Councils in the true Orthodox Christian Church: 1. Nicea;
2. Constantinople; 3. Ephesus; 4. Chalcedon; 5. the second at Constantinople; 6.
the third at Constantinople; 7. the second at Nicea.
The First Ecumenical Council.
The First Ecumenical Council was convened in 325 A.D., in the
city of Nicea, under the Emperor Constantine I. This Council was called because
of the false doctrine of the Alexandrian priest Arius, who rejected the Divine nature
and pre-eternal birth of the second person of the Holy Trinity, namely the Divine
Son of God the Father, and taught that the Son of God is only the highest creation.
318 bishops participated in this Council, among whom were St.
Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. James, bishop of Nisibis, St. Spiridon of Tremithus,
and St. Athanasius, who was at that time a deacon.
The Council condemned and repudiated the heresy of Arius and
affirmed the immutable truth, the dogma that the Son of God is true God, born of
God the Father before all ages, and is eternal, as is God the Father; He was begotten,
and not made, and is of one essence with God the Father. In order that all Orthodox
Christians may know exactly the true teaching of the faith, it was clearly and concisely
summarized in the first of seven sections of the Creed, or Symbol of Faith.
At this Council, it was resolved to celebrate Pascha on the first
Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox, after the Jewish
Passover. It also determined that priests should be married, and it established
many other rules or canons.
The Second Ecumenical Council.
The Second Ecumenical Council was convened in the year 381, in
the city of Constantinople, under the Emperor Theodosius I. This Council was convoked
against the false teaching of the Arian bishop of Constantinople, Macedonius, who
rejected the deity of the third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. He
taught that the Holy Spirit is not God, and called Him a creature, or a created
power, and therefore subservient to God the Father and God the Son, like an angel.
There were 150 bishops present at the Council, among whom were
Gregory the Theologian, who presided over the Council, Gregory of Nyssa, Meletius
of Antioch, Amphilochius of Iconium and Cyril of Jerusalem.
At the Council, the Macedonian heresy was condemned and repudiated.
The Council affirmed as a dogma the equality and the single essence of God the Holy
Spirit with God the Father and God the Son.
The Council also supplemented the Nicene Creed, or “Symbol of
Faith,” with five Articles in which is set forth its teaching about the Holy Spirit,
about the Church, about the Mysteries, about the resurrection of the dead, and the
life in the world to come. Thus they composed the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed,
which serves as a guide to the Church for all time.
The Third Ecumenical Council.
The Third Ecumenical Council was convened in the year 431 A.D.,
in the city of Ephesus, under Emperor Theodosius II. The Council was called because
of the false doctrine of Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople, who profanely
taught that the Most-holy Virgin Mary simply gave birth to the man Christ, with
whom then God united morally and dwelled in Him, as in a temple, as previously He
had dwelled in Moses and other prophets. Therefore, Nestorius called the Lord Jesus
Christ, God-bearing, and not God incarnate; and the Holy Virgin was called the Christ-bearer
(Christotokos) and not the God-bearer (Theotokos).
The 200 bishops present at the Council condemned and repudiated
the heresy of Nestorius and decreed that one should recognize that united in Jesus
Christ at the time of the incarnation were two natures, divine and human, and that
one should confess Jesus Christ as true God and true Man, and the Holy Virgin Mary
as the God-bearer (Theotokos).
The Council also affirmed the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed,
and strictly prohibited making any changes or additions to it.
The Fourth Ecumenical Council.
The Fourth Ecumenical Council was convened in 451 A.D., in the
city of Chalcedon, under Emperor Marcian. The Council met to challenge the false
doctrine of an archimandrite of a Constantinople monastery, Eu-tychius, who rejected
the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. Refuting one heresy and defending the
divinity of Jesus Christ, he himself fell into an extreme, and taught that in the
Lord Jesus Christ human nature was completely absorbed in the Divine, and therefore
it followed that one need only recognize the Divine nature. This false doctrine
is called Monophysitism, and followers of it are called Monophysites.
The Council of 650 bishops condemned and repudiated the false
doctrine of Eutychius and defined the true teaching of the Church, namely that our
Lord Jesus Christ is perfect God, and as God He is eternally born from God. As man,
He was born of the Holy Virgin and in every way is like us, except in sin. Through
the incarnation, birth from the Holy Virgin, divinity and humanity are united in
Him as a single Person, infused and immutable, thus reputing Eutychius; indivisible
and inseparable, reputing Nestorius.
The Fifth Ecumenical Council.
The Fifth Ecumenical Council was convened in 553 A.D., in the
city of Constantinople, under the famous Emperor, Justinian I. It was called to
quell a controversy between Nestorians and Eutychians. The major points of contention
were the well-known works of the Antiochian school of the Syrian church, entitled
“The Three Chapters.” Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrus, and Ibas of Edessa,
clearly expressed the Nestorian error, although at the Fourth Ecumenical Council,
nothing had been mentioned of their works.
Nestorians, in argument with Eutychians (Monophysites), referred
to these works, and Eutychians found in them an excuse to reject the Fourth Ecumenical
Council and to slander the universal Orthodox Church, charging that it was deviating
toward Nestorianism.
The Council was attended by 165 bishops, who condemned all three
works and Theodore of Mopsuestia himself, as not having repented. Concerning the
other two, censure was limited only to their Nestorian works. They themselves were
pardoned. They renounced their false opinions and died in peace with the Church.
The Council reiterated its censure of the heresies of Nestorius and Eutychius.
The Sixth Ecumenical Council.
The Sixth Ecumenical Council was convened in the year 680 A.D.,
in the city of Constantinople, under the Emperor Constantine IV, and was composed
of 170 bishops.
The council was convoked against the false doctrine of heretics,
Monothelites, who, although they recognized in Jesus Christ two natures, God and
man, ascribed to Him only a Divine will.
After the Fifth Ecumenical Council, agitation provoked by the
Monothelites continued and threatened the Greek Emperor with great danger. Emperor
Heraclius, wishing reconciliation, decided to incline Orthodoxy to concession to
the Monothelites, and by the power of his office, ordered recognition that in Jesus
Christ is one will and two energies.
Among the defenders and advocates of the true teachings of the
Church, were St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and a monk from
Constantinople, St. Maximus the Confessor, who for his firmness
in the faith had suffered having his tongue cut out and his hand chopped off.
The Sixth Ecumenical Council condemned and repudiated the heresy
of Monothelitism, and formulated the recognition that in Jesus Christ are two natures,
Divine and human, and in these two natures there are two wills, but that the human
will in Christ is not against, but rather is submissive to His Divine will.
It is worthy of attention that at this Council excommunication
was pronounced against a number of other heretics, and also against the Roman Pope
Honorius, as one who acknowledged the teaching of one will. The formulation of the
Council was signed by a Roman delegation, consisting of Presbyters Theodore and
Gregory, and Deacon John. This clearly shows that the highest power in Christendom
belongs to the Ecumenical Council, and not to the Pope of Rome.
After eleven years, the Council again opened a meeting in the
imperial palace, called Cupola Hall (in Greek, Trullos), in order to resolve questions
of primary importance pertaining to the Church hierarchy. In this regard, it supplemented
the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils, and therefore is called the Fifth-Sixth
(Quintsext) Synod.
This Council established canons by which the Church must be guided,
namely, 85 canons of the holy Apostles, canons of the six Ecumenical and seven local
councils, and canons of thirteen Fathers of the Church. These canons afterward were
supplemented by canons of the Seventh Ecumenical Council and another two local councils,
and comprise the so-called “Nomocanon,” in English, “The Rudder,” which is the foundation
of Orthodox Church government.
Here several innovations of the Roman Church were condemned as
not being in agreement with the spiritual decisions of the Ecumenical Church, namely,
the requirement that priests and deacons be celibate, a strict fast on Saturdays
of the Great Fast, and the representation of Christ in the form of a lamb, or in
any way other than He appeared on the earth.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council was convened in 787 A.D., in the
city of Nicea, under the Empress Irene, widow of the Emperor Leo IV, and was composed
of 367 fathers.
The Council was convened against the iconoclastic heresy, which
had been raging for sixty years before the Council, under the Greek Emperor Leo
III, who, wishing to convert the Mohammedans to Christianity, considered it necessary
to do away with the veneration of icons. This heresy continued under his son, Constantine
V Copronymus, and his grandson, Leo IV.
The Council condemned and repudiated the iconoclastic heresy
and determined to provide and to put in the holy churches, together with the likeness
of the honored and Life-giving Cross of the Lord, holy icons, to honor and render
homage to them, elevating the soul and heart to the Lord God, the Mother of God
and the Saints, who are represented in these icons. After the Seventh Ecumenical
Council, persecution of the holy icons arose anew under the Emperors Leo V, of Armenian
origin, Michael II, and Theophilus, and for twenty-five years disturbed the Church.
Veneration of the holy icons was finally restored and affirmed
by the local synod of Constantinople in 843 A.D., under the Empress Theodora.
At this council, in thanksgiving to the Lord God for having given
the Church victory over the iconoclasts and all heretics, the celebration of the
Triumph of Orthodoxy was established on the first Sunday of Great Lent, which is
celebrated by the Orthodox Church throughout the world.
Note: The Roman Catholic Church, in addition to these seven Councils,
recognizes more than 20 “ecumenical” councils. Incorrectly included in this number
were councils in the Western Church, held after the separation of the Western Church.
Protestants, in spite of the example of the Apostles and acknowledgment of the entire
Christian Church, do not recognize a single one of the Ecumenical Councils.
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4. The Christian Faith.
The Symbol of Faith or Creed.
The Creed is a concise summary of all the truths of the Christian
Faith, composed and affirmed in the First and Second Ecumenical Councils. Whoever
does not accept these truths is not an Orthodox Christian.
The entire Symbol of Faith is as follows:
I believe in one God, the Father
Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of
Light: true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father;
by Whom all things were made;
Who for us men, and for our salvation,
came down from the Heavens, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin
Mary, and became man;
And was crucified for us under Pontius
Pilate, and suffered, and was buried.
And rose again on the third day according
to the Scriptures.
And ascended into the Heavens, and
sitteth at the right hand of the Father;
And shall come again, with glory,
to judge both the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord,
the Giver of Life; Who pro-ceedeth from the Father; Who with the Father and the
Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the Prophets.
In one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic
Church.
I confess one Baptism for the remission
of sins.
I look for the resurrection of the
dead.
And the life of the age to come.
Amen.
The First Article of the Creed.
1. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven
and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
To believe in God means to be steadfastly sure that God exists,
that He cares for us, and to wholeheartedly accept His Divine revelation; that is,
everything that He revealed about Himself, and about the salvation of people by
the incarnate Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.
But in order that our faith be alive and active, it is necessary
to confess it. To confess faith means to openly express internal faith in God by
words and good works, and that neither danger, persecution, suffering, nor even
death are able to force us to renounce our faith in the true God. Only by such a
firm confession will we be able to save our souls. For man believeth unto righteousness
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. 10:10), says Apostle
Paul.
The holy martyrs serve as examples of steadfast and courageous
confession of faith. They had such faith in God and were so animated by love for
the Lord Jesus Christ that for His name’s sake they renounced all earthly gain,
underwent persecution and such martyric sufferings that could be contrived only
by the most evil imagination of man.
The words of the Symbol of Faith, “In one God,” indicate the
uniqueness of the true God. God is one, and there is no other beside Him (Ex. 44:6,
Ex. 20:2-3, Deut. 6:4; John 17:3; I Cor. 8:4-6). This reminder is given in order
to repudiate pagan teachings about many gods.
God is the highest Being, above all that is mundane or supernatural.
To know the being of God is impossible. It is higher than the knowledge not only
of men, but even of the angels. From the revelation of God, from the clear testimonies
of the Holy Scriptures, we are able to get an understanding of the existence and
the basic nature of God. God is Spirit (John 4:24); living (Jer. 10:10; I Thess.
1:9); self-existent, that is, dependent on no one, and having received life from
Himself — He is (Ex. 3:14; I John 2:13); everlasting (Ps. 90:2; Ex. 40:28); unchanging
(James 1:17; Mala. 3:6; Ps. 102:27); omnipresent (Ps. 139:7-12; Acts 17:27); omniscient
(I John 3:29, Heb. 4:13); omnipotent (Gen. 17:1; Luke 1:37; Ps. 32:9); all good
(Matt. 19:17, Ps. 24:8); wise (Ps. 104:24; Rom. 14:26; I Tim. 1:17); righteous (Ps.
7:12; Ps. 10:7; II Rom. 6:11); self-sufficient (Acts 17:25); all blessed (I Tim.
6:15).
The assertion that God is Spirit does not contradict those places
in the Holy Scriptures in which bodily members are ascribed to God. These expressions
are used symbolically in the spiritual writings when they speak of the nature of
God. For instance, eyes or ears indicate the omniscience of God, and so forth.
God is one, but not solitary. God is one in essence, but triple
in Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Most-holy Trinity, consubstantial
and indivisible. One in three Persons, each Person eternally loving the others.
God is love (I John 4:16).
The inter-relationship between the Persons of the Holy Trinity
is such that God the Father is not born from and does not proceed from the other
persons. The Son of God was born from God the Father before all ages, and the Holy
Spirit always proceeds from God the Father. All three Persons of the Holy Trinity
in being and nature are completely equal within God Himself. As God the Father is
true God, so God the Son is true God, and God the Holy Spirit is true God, but all
three Persons are a single Deity — One God.
How one God exists in three Persons is a mystery, incomprehensible
to our intelligence, but we believe this according to the testimony of Divine revelation.
The mystery of the Holy Trinity was revealed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
when he sent the Apostles to preach. He said, Go therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt.
28:19). The Apostle and Evangelist John also clearly testifies both to the trinitarian
Persons of God and to the single essence of the Persons. There are Three Witnesses
in Heaven (about the Divinity of the Son of God); Father, the Word, and the Holy
Spirit; and these Three are one (I John 5:7).
Apostle Paul, addressing the Corinthian Christians, says, The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the father and the communion
of the Holy Spirit be with you all (II Cor. 13:14).
For clarification of this great mystery we point out the world
which, as a revelation of the creation of God, speaks to us of the incomprehensible
mystery of the trinitarian essence of the Creator. The imprint of this mystery lies
deep in the nature of every created entity. The trinitarian unity, as an underlying
idea, is intrinsic to all the works of the Creator, glorifying the Trinity. For
example, the speech of all persons in the world has three persons: I; you; he, she,
or it. Time is expressed as past, present and future. The states of matter are liquid,
solid and gas. All the various colors in the world are make up of the three primary
colors, red, blue and yellow. Man conducts himself by means of thought, word and
deed. Deeds, in their turn, have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Even man is
a trinitarian unity of body, mind and soul. The salvation of our souls is made up
of three Christian virtues, faith, hope and love.
We are able to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity in
part only with the heart, by love found in the Holy Orthodox Church of Christ, that
is, by living in love.
We call God Almighty because He, as King of Heaven, governs all
and maintains everything by His strength and power.
Furthermore, we call God Maker of heaven and earth because everything
that exists, both in the visible, physical world and in the invisible, spiritual
world, that is, the entire universe, was created by God in Three Persons. God the
Father created with the Word, His Only-begotten Son, and with the cooperation of
the Holy Spirit.
To the invisible or spiritual world belong angels — spirits —
bodiless, immortal beings, endowed with reason, will and power. Also to the spiritual
world belongs the soul of each person.
The word “angel” is a Greek word which means “messenger,” because
God sends angels to announce His will to people. Each Christian has his own Guardian
Angel, who invisibly helps him in matters of salvation, and guards him from the
wicked activity of the evil one. The evil one is called the Devil (slanderer), and
Satan (one who is against God). The evil spirits were also created good and free.
However, they became proud, fell from God, and became deceitful and evil. Since
that time, they have envied everything good and lead men into sin in order to destroy
them. Because of sin, all people die physically. They would die a more terrible
second, spiritual death, when the soul surrenders to sin and perishes in estrangement
from God, if people were not saved from this eternal destruction by the incarnate
Son of God.
In the following six articles of the Symbol of Faith, beginning
with the second Article and ending with the seventh, are set forth teachings about
the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ.
The Second Article of the Creed.
2. (I believe) ...and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light,
true God of true God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, by Whom
all things were made.
In the second article of the Creed, we speak of our Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, and confess that we know that He is the Second Person of the
Holy Trinity, that He is of the Essence of God, and was so before His birth on earth.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God. He is
the only Son of God the Father, begotten of the essence of the Father, as light
from light. From true God the Father is begotten true God the Son, and is begotten
before all ages, before the beginning of time. So the Son is eternally with God
the Father, and also the Holy Spirit, of one essence with the Father. Jesus Christ
Himself said, I and My Father are one (John 10:30). The words of Jesus Christ, My
Father is greater than I (John 14:28) pertain to His manhood.
If angels and saints sometimes are called sons of God, that means
that they are sons of God only by grace, by the mercy of God, through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
To the word “begotten,” in the Symbol of Faith, are added the
words “not made.” These words were added to refute the false heresy of Arius, who
held that the Son of God was not begotten, but made.
The words “by Whom all things were made,” means by Whom, by the
Son of God, all things were made. Everything existing in the visible world and the
invisible, was made by and through the Son, and without Him was not anything made
that was made (John 1:3).
The Son of God, with His incarnation on earth, received the name
Jesus Christ. This name indicates His human nature. The name Jesus is the Greek
rendering of the Hebrew name, Joshua, and means Saviour. This name was twice stated
by God through angels before the birth of Christ, because the eternal Son of God
descended to earth and was incarnate for the salvation of men.
The name, Christ, is a Greek word and means the Anointed One.
It corresponds to the Hebrew, “Messiah.” In the Old Testament, anointment was used
to set apart prophets, high priests, and kings who, at the assumption of their office,
were anointed by oils and thus received the gifts of the Holy Spirit necessary for
worthy fulfillment of their duties.
The Son of God was called the Anointed One, Christ, in accordance
with His physical nature, because He had all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, prophetic
knowledge, sanctity of a high priest and the power of a king.
Note: When the articles of the Creed, beginning with the second
and ending with the seventh, are read separately, it is necessary to prefix each
of them with “I believe.” Example: “I believe in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God ...”
Discussion of the Pre-eternal Birth
of the Son of God.
We live in time, and temporal things change. When the world reaches
the end of its temporal existence, at the second coming of the Saviour, then it
will change and become eternal. There will be “new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah
65:17; 66:22; II Peter 3:13; Rev. 21:1).
Living in temporal conditions, it is difficult for us to imagine
eternity. However, to some degree at least, we are able to imagine it by means of
science or philosophy.
Thus eternity is unchangeable. It is outside time. God, the Holy
Trinity, is eternal and unchanging. Therefore, never was the Father without the
Son, or without the Holy Spirit.
The holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church explain that the
Father was always with the Son, Who was born from Him, for without the Son He would
not be called the Father. If God the Father ever existed without having a son, and
would have made Himself a father, not having been a father before, that would mean
that God was subject to change, from not having begotten to having begotten. But
such an idea is worse that all blasphemy, for God is eternal and unchanging. Thus
the statement in the Symbol of Faith, “begotten of the Father before all ages,”
means before the existence of our time, eternally.
St. John of Damascus explains, “When we say that He (the Son
of God) was begotten before all ages, we show that His birth is not in time, and
is without beginning. For not from nothingness was the Son of God brought into being.
This aureole of glory, the image of the hypostasis of the Father, living wisdom
and strength, hypostatic Word, essential, perfect, and living likeness of the invisible
Father, was always with the Father and in the Father, and was born of Him eternally
and without beginning.”
The concept of “begetting” as being completely independent from
the process of being begotten exists only in the material world, with material time
and limitation. The spirit is not bound or subordinate to laws of matter. Similarly,
the natural material begetting is in no way applicable to the spiritual begetting.
Therefore, the Ecumenical Councils, conveying the main point of the Divine begetting
of the Son from the Father, affirmed the words of the Symbol of Faith, “Light of
Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father...”
The Son of God, in accordance with His essential perfect union with God the Father,
is always, eternally begotten, like “Light of Light,” without passion, not by the
law of the created, material world. We are not able to completely comprehend this
while we live within the intellectual (rational) framework of the material world.
Therefore, the trinitarian nature of God is called the “Mystery of the Holy Trinity.”
A comparison for clarification of the mystery of the Holy Trinity
is given by the Fathers of the Church. John of Damascus says, “As fire and the light
proceeding from it exist together, not fire first and then the light proceeding
from it, and as light being begotten from the fire always abides in it and is not
at all separated from it, thus the Son is begotten of the Father, no way separated
from Him.”
In another comparison, we are able to see that sunbeams, which
are found on earth performing their life-giving activity, are never separated or
broken away from the sun. By these comparisons, the words of the Gospels become
understandable: No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, Which is
in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him (John 1:18).
St. John the Evangelist calls the Only-begotten Son of God, Jesus
Christ, the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). The designation of the
second Person of the Holy Trinity as the Son of God was revealed from on high to
the Apostle John (Rev. 19:11,13), though in part it was known in the Old Testament
in a hidden way (Ps. 32:6; 18:15).
The Fathers of the Church explain, “As the mind giving birth
to a word, begets without pain, does not divide, is not exhausted, and does not
undergo some sort of bodily existence, thus the Divine begetting is passionless,
inexplicable, incomprehensible, without division.”
“As the word,” says Archbishop Innocent, “is an exact expression
of an idea, not separating itself from it and not merging with it, thus the Word
was to God, a true and exact likeness of His existence, indivisible, without confusion,
and always existing with Him. The Word of God was not a phenomenon or an affinity
by the power of God, but is God Himself, the second Person of the Holy Trinity.”
The Third Article of the Creed.
3. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from the
Heavens, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man.
The third article of the Symbol of Faith is the statement of
how the Son of God descended from Heaven to earth, took upon Himself a body, human
in every way but without sin, and was incarnate. He took on not only the body, but
the soul of a man and became perfectly human without ceasing to be God at the same
time. He became God incarnate.
The Son of God descended from Heaven and became a man (God incarnate)
in order to save people from the power of the Devil, sin and eternal death. Sin
is the transgression of the law (I John 3:4). That is, sin is an offense against
the Law of God. Sin arises in people by the action of the Devil, who tempted Eve
in Paradise, and through her, Adam, and persuaded them to break the commandment
of God.
The fall into sin of the first people, Adam and Eve, broke down
the nature of mankind. Sin in people clouded their intelligence and will. To the
body it brought sickness and death. People began to suffer and to die. By their
own power, people were not able to conquer sin in themselves and in their descendants,
or to correct their intelligence, soul and heart, and to destroy death. This can
be accomplished only by God, the Creator of all.
The merciful Lord gave a promise to people that the Saviour of
the world would come to earth to deliver people from the power of the Devil and
eternal death.
When the time of salvation came, the Son of God came to dwell
within the pure Virgin Mary and, through the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Her,
received from Her the nature of man and was born in a supernatural way “of the Holy
Spirit and the Virgin Mary.”
The Most-holy Virgin Mary was a descendant of the family of King
David. She was the daughter of the righteous Joachim and Anna. The
Most-holy Mary is called a Virgin because She, out of love for
God, promised to never marry. She is called Ever-virgin because She always remained
a virgin, before the birth of the Saviour, at the time of the birth, and after the
birth.
The holy Orthodox Church calls the Virgin Mary the God-Bearer
(Theotokos), and holds Her more sacred than all created beings, not only people,
but angels. “More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious
than the Seraphim” we declare of Her because She is the Mother of God Himself. Thus,
according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the righteous Elizabeth addressed
Her, and whence is this to me, that the Mother of My Lord should come to me? (Luke
1:43).
Through His prophets, the Lord God showed many signs of the coming
of the Saviour into the world. For example:
The Prophet Isaiah predicted that the Saviour would be born of
a Virgin (Isaiah 7:14) and with remarkable clarity foretold His suffering (Isaiah
5:7-8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 53).
The Prophet Micah prophesied that the Saviour would be born in
Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:4-6).
The Prophet Malachi predicted that the Saviour would come to
the newly built temple in Jerusalem, and that before Him would be sent the Forerunner,
like the prophet Elias (Mal. 3:1-15).
The Prophet Zechariah predicted the triumphal entry of the Saviour
into Jerusalem on a “colt, the foal of an ass” (Zech. 9:9).
King David in the twenty-first psalm described the Saviour’s
suffering on the cross with such accuracy that it seems as if he had seen the crucifixion
himself.
The Prophet Daniel, 490 years before Christ, prophesied the date
of the appearance of the Saviour, predicted His crucifixion, and after it, the destruction
of the Temple in Jerusalem and the cessation of Old Testament sacrifices (Daniel
9).
When the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to earth, many righteous
people recognized Him as the Saviour of the world. The wise men of the East recognized
Him by the star which shone in the East before the birth of Christ. The shepherds
in Bethlehem recognized Him from the angels’ proclamation. Simeon and Anna recognized
Him by a revelation from the Holy Spirit when he was brought to the Temple. John
the Baptist recognized Him in the Jordan River, at the time of baptism, when the
Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father
testified, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3:17). Many
people recognized Him by the superiority of His teaching and especially by the miracles
that He did.
For our salvation Jesus Christ accomplished His teachings, His
life, His death, and His resurrection. His teachings are for our salvation when
we accept them with all our heart, and behave in accordance with them, when we emulate
in our own lives the life of the Saviour. As the false word of the Devil, accepted
by the first people, became in people the seeds of sin and death, so the true word
of Christ, sincerely accepted by Christians, becomes in them the seeds of holy and
immortal life.
Discussion of the Incarnation of
the Son of God.
St. Sylvester (IV century), in conversation with the Jews about
the faith, said, “God, Who brings everything into being, when He created man and
saw his inclination to every evil, did not despise the perishing work of His hand,
but rather deigned that His Son, existing inseparably from Him (for God is everywhere),
should come to us on earth. Thus He descended and was born of the Holy Virgin and
became subject to the law, to redeem them that were under the law (Gal. 4:4-5).
“That He was born of a Virgin was predicted by the Prophet Isaiah
with these words, Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call
His name Immanuel (Is. 7:14). This name, as you know, designates the advent of God
to people, and in translation from Hebrew means God with us. Thus, the Prophet,
a long time before, predicted that God would be born from a virgin.
“For God, nothing is impossible; but regarding the Devil, it
is necessary to conquer by that which was first conquered. Those first conquered
were men, men not born by the usual order of nature, not from the seed of man, but
from clay, furthermore, from soil clean and pure as the Virgin, for it had never
offended God. It had not been defiled by either the blood of a murdered brother
or killed animals. Therefore it was not infected with decaying bodies, nor was it
defiled by any unclean or indecent acts.
“From such soil flesh was created for our ancestors, which was
brought to life by the breath of God.
“But if the all-evil Devil conquered such a man, then it is necessary
that the Devil be conquered by such a man. Such a man is our Lord Jesus Christ,
born not by the usual laws of nature, but from the pure and holy womb of the Virgin,
as Adam came from the soil uninfected by sin. As Adam was brought to life by the
Spirit of God, so this One (Jesus Christ) was incarnated by the action of the Holy
Spirit, Who descended upon the Most-holy Virgin. He became perfect God and perfect
man, in every way except sin, having two natures, Divine and human, but one Person.
In His human nature He suffered for us, but His Divinity remained without suffering.”
For clarification of this explanation, St. Sylvester gives an
example. “When a tree, illuminated by the rays of the sun, is cut down by a hatchet,
then along with this felled tree, the rays of the sun are not also cut down. Likewise,
when the human nature of Christ, united with God, endures suffering, then this suffering
does not touch the Divinity.”
During the course of the first century of Christianity, Jewish
scribes, known as the Massoretes, preservers of tradition, removed all the manuscripts
of the sacred books from all the synagogues throughout the world, and replaced them
with their own transcriptions, which were rewritten with strict precision and with
repeated verifications from letter to letter by the massoretic scribes themselves.
The degree of invariability and immutability of the massoretic
texts is astounding. However, all this uniformity amounts to absolutely nothing.
Only standardization of the texts was achieved. But those mistakes which already
existed at the moment of the massoretic revision were not corrected. On the contrary,
some distortions were purposely introduced by the Massoretes to obscure the clarity
of the prophecies which foretold Christ the Saviour.
Of these distortions we will point out first of all the famous
alteration by the Massoretes of Isaiah 7:14:Behold, a virgin shall conceive and
bear a son.... Knowing that this passage was a favorite of Christians, and testifies
best of all to the most-blameless birth of our Lord, the Massoretes, while carrying
out their reform, inserted the word al’ma (“young woman”) in place of the word vetula
(“virgin”) in all the Hebrew texts throughout the world. At the time, the ancient
Christian apologists reasonably objected to the interpretation of the Jewish scribes,
“And what kind of a sign, about which the prophet speaks here, would the birth of
a son to a young woman have been, since this is shown to be an everyday occurrence?”
In a manuscript of the Prophet Isaiah written before the birth
of Christ, which was discovered not too many years ago, the word “virgin” is used
in Isaiah 7:14, and not “young woman.”
Therefore, it is clear why the Church prefers the Septuagint
and Peshitta translations for the authoritative text of the Old Testament, and principally
the first, for the Septuagint text was produced under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit by the concerted effort of the Old Testament Church.
Septuagint: The first and most exact translation of the Holy
Scriptures was the translation of all the books of the Old Testament from Hebrew
into Greek, done “according to the Seventy” (actually seventy-two) translators,
or as they are called, interpreters, in the third century before the birth of Christ,
about the year 270 B.C.
The Egyptian King Ptolemy Philadelphus, wishing to have in his
library the sacred books of Hebrew law, ordered his librarian, Demetrius Phalereus,
to acquire those books and to translate them into the language of the most common
usage — Greek.
On the order of the King, an embassy with rich gifts for the
temple was dispatched to the high priest Eleazar in Jerusalem, with the request
to deliver to Alexandria all extant Hebrew sacred books and to send able people
to make a translation of them.
The inspired high priest Eleazar fulfilled the request of the
Egyptian King with extraordinary seriousness. In order that this great undertaking
receive the participation of the entire Old Testament Church, a fast was established
for all of the God-chosen nation, and prayer was intensified by all. The twelve
tribes of Israel were summoned and the order given to choose six men to be translators
from each tribe, in order that they could labor together to translate the Holy Scriptures
into the Greek language. The chosen translators, having arrived at the city of the
King of Egypt, lovingly undertook their holy labor, and with good progress finished
it in a short time. Thus, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, this translation
appeared, the fruit of a concerted, heroic effort of the entire Old Testament Church.
This translation was in general use at the time of the earthly life of our Lord,
Jesus Christ, and was used by the Apostles of Christ, the Fathers of the Church,
and all the leaders of the Church.
Peshitta: In the first and second centuries there appeared a
translation of the Holy Scriptures in the Syriac language known as the Peshitta,
meaning simple or faithful. For the Orthodox Church, these two translations (the
“Septuagint” and the “Peshitta”) are the two translations in general use. But for
the Roman Catholic Church, there is still another translation done by St. Jerome,
known as the Vulgate. It appears undoubtedly more authoritative than the contemporary
Hebrew original. (Compiled from the books [in Russian] Discussions on the Holy Scriptures,
by Bishop Nathaniel, and Summary of Study of the Old Testament of the Bible, by
Archbishop Vitaly, and other sources.).
It is extremely instructive that in close study the facts of
the Gospel narrative, which at first glance seem questionable or hardly probable
or plausible, always turn out to testify in favor of the Gospels, once again confirming
the accuracy of the events reported in them.
Several decades ago, independent critics considered completely
implausible the story in the Gospel of Luke in which Joseph, with the Holy Virgin
betrothed to him, went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea,
unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; because he was of the house and
lineage of David: (Luke 2:4). They went in order to fulfill the command for a census,
a project carried out when Cyrenius Quirinin was governor of Syria (cf. Luke 2:2).
In this undertaking, according to the account of St. Luke, it was necessary to go
to register not at the place of residence, but to the place of family origin. Critics
considered this to be an impossible task, first because the alarm and disorder created
throughout the country if everyone at the same time left his habitual place of residence
in order to go to the city from which his ancestors came would be daunting. Secondly,
the story contradicts the well-established facts which were recorded concerning
the Roman Census. It is well known that the Romans required registration at the
place of habitual residence.
At a superficial glance these objections appear to undermine
the reliability of the narration of St. Luke and seem formidable. However, every
objection fades in the light of the indisputably established facts. Recently a document
was discovered relating to the years 103-104 A.D. and the administration of the
governor of Egypt, Gaius Vibius Maximus. In this document he is directed to report
the census, exactly according to the order which is stated in the Gospel of St.
Luke: in view of the census, each person must go to that place where his family
originated. If this is so, then the objection to the account of St. Luke, that it
is in contradiction to the usual Roman procedure, fails. From the statement of Vibius
Maximus we learn that the Romans accommodated themselves to the customs and manners
of the subjugated country. The narration of the census procedure in St. Luke is
shown to be an irreproachable and exact account. (From the preface to Four Gospels
published in Truth Paris, 1943.).
Discussion of the Miracles of God.
Materialists categorically reject the possibility of miracles
of God in the world. They maintain that miracles contradict the laws of nature.
Miracles, they say, are incompatible with the scientific truth of strict conformity
of all natural phenomenon. Is that so? We will attempt to answer.
Prof. S.L. Frank says, “The mechanical engineer Galileo teaches
that all bodies, irrespective of their specific weight, fall to earth with the same
speed and acceleration. Is the generally known fact that a bit of fluff falls to
the ground much more slowly than an iron weight a contradiction to this law? Or
that in water, wood does not fall at all? Is this law broken by the fact that an
airplane does not fall, but is capable of rising higher and flies over the earth?
Obviously not.
“For the law of Galileo, like all the laws of nature, contains
a silent reservation: ‘subject to various other conditions,’ or ‘if all outside
influences are held constant.’”
Stated abstractly, the establishment of the attraction between
the earth and a body of matter by its gravitational pull is not broken in the least.
Only the concrete total sum appears altered or becomes complicated from the interference
of new outside variables, as yet unaccounted for in the original law. In the first
case — the power of the resistance of the air or water; in the second — the power
of the motor, forcing the propeller to rotate and cut into the air. In the same
manner, those events which are called miraculous can also be attributed to the effect
of supplementary variables, not another variable of nature, but a supernatural power.
If Christ, as it is said in the Gospels, walked on water as on
dry land, then this fact no more breaks the law of gravity than the fact of the
flight of an airplane over the earth, or the flotation of a body lighter than water.
In the latter instances, the action of the law of gravity is not broken, but is
overcome by the power of the motor, or the resistance of the water. In the first
instance, the law is utterly overcome by the power of God Incarnate, Christ.
If a man recovers from fatal illness after fervent prayers to
God (his own or someone else’s), then this miracle also hardly breaks medicine’s
established natural course of the illness, any more than successful surgical intervention
of a doctor breaks it. In the latter case, the illness ends through mechanical alteration
of circumstances conditional to it, and in the former, through influence on these
conditions by the supreme power of God.
“If a man,” says Archpriest Gerasim Shorets, “due to his free
will, has the ability to influence nature, then is it possible that God does not
have this ability? He, the Creator of the laws of nature?
“It is possible to make interesting observations about people
who negate miracles,” he continues. “Many of them who mock Biblical miracles, and
regard believers in their veracity as backward men, themselves believe in commonplace
and absurd things. They believe in ill-fated meetings, in the number thirteen, in
a hare running across a road, like fools.
“Many of them, who with pride point to science to demonstrate
the impossibility of miracles, themselves believe in what should really be classified
as miracles, but which are twenty times less worthy of faith or confidence than
the Biblical miracles attested to by many respectable people, a large part of whom
would joyfully lay down their lives in affirmation of the truth.
“Those who deny miracles themselves believe only in those miracles
which happened, according to their explanation, millions of years ago, and which
were observed by no one.
“They do not believe in the creation of the world by God, but
they do believe in its arbitrary origin, or that an embryo of organic life fell
to earth from an unknown planet.
“They do not believe that Christ is able to resurrect a man,
that is, bring back to life a previously living organism, but they believe that
in former times, organic life sprang from lifeless matter.
“They do not believe that God, Creator of fire and people, could
make three children fireproof, but they believe that embryonic organisms were sustained
over the course of millions of years in the midst of the scorching heat of the world’s
haze and melted granite...”
No, serious scientific truth raises no objections to the miracles
to which materialists refer. The objections are based only on their assumptions,
hypotheses, and natural-philosophical theory, or their own materialistic faith.
Thus, while supposedly refuting the miracles of God on the basis
of science, the scoffers reveal themselves as being ignorant regarding the questions
of science, insufficiently educated in philosophy, or conscious opponents of belief
in God.
(Compiled from a pamphlet: Religion and Science by Prof. S. Frank;
and a pamphlet Did Jesus Christ Live? by Archpriest G. Shorets; and others.).
The Fourth Article of the Creed.
4. And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered,
and was buried.
In the fourth article of the Creed, it is stated that the Lord
Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross for us during the reign of Pontius Pilate,
the Roman governor over Judea; He was crucified for our sins and for our salvation,
because He Himself was without sin. At that time, He really suffered, died, and
was buried.
Of course the Saviour suffered not as God, Who cannot suffer,
but as man. He suffered not for His sin, of which He had none, but for the sins
of the whole human race. After His death, His body was buried in the tomb of Joseph
of Arimathea. But from the time of the burial until His Resurrection, He descended
in soul into hades and liberated all those who believed in Him, beginning with Adam
and Eve.
Hades is the name of the place of estrangement from God, devoid
of light or bliss. There Satan reigns. In regard to the soul the word “hades” signifies
a condition of great affliction and torment.
The Lord Jesus Christ, as perfect man and Son of God, because
He by one word is able to annihilate all enemies, voluntarily offered Himself as
a sacrifice for the sins of people through crucifixion on a cross. Execution by
hanging on a cross was the most infamous, cruel, and terrible form of capital punishment.
It was the symbol of every human evil, and the most striking display of the power
of the Devil. This terrible execution, devised by men according to the suggestion
of the Devil, subjected people to hate, malice, embitterment and death. The Saviour,
having endured disgraceful execution on the Cross, died, but rose from the dead.
Through the Cross, life shone forth! Christ destroyed the main support of the Devil,
and turned the Cross into an instrument of eternal victory over evil and death.
The Lord sanctified the Cross with His pure blood and by His sacrificial heroic
feat of love. The most terrible criminal, if he be repentant, is not rejected by
the Saviour. From this moment, neither suffering nor death are able to deprive us
of eternal bliss if we are with Christ the Saviour. On the contrary, the way of
the Cross has become the path to eternal glory in the Kingdom of God.
The words in the Creed “suffered and was buried” were directed
against some heretics who falsely taught that the Lord did not suffer torment on
the Cross, but that His suffering only appeared to be suffering and death.
The words “under Pontius Pilate” point out the true historical
event of the suffering of Christ, which occurred at this specific time. During the
hours of Christ’s suffering on the Cross, there was darkness over all the earth
(Luke 23:44), states the Evangelist. Early historical writings of the Roman astronomer
Phlegontus, Thaddeus, and Julius Africanus note this darkness.
One of these exclaimed, “One of the gods has died!” A well-known
philosopher from Athens, Dionysius the Areopagite, was at that time in the city
of Heliopolis, in Egypt. Observing the sudden darkness, he said,..”.either the Creator
is suffering, or the world is coming to an end.” Afterwards, after the preaching
of the Apostle Paul, Dionysius accepted Christianity and became the first bishop
of Athens.
Glory to Thy long-suffering, O Lord! Before Thy Cross we bow
down, O Master, and Thy holy
Resurrection we glorify.
The Resurrection of Christ is discussed in the following, fifth
article of the Creed
Discussion of the Cross of Christ.
Christ revealed the name of God. The name is Love.
From his first deep breath, man began to sense God’s everlasting
love toward him. Here, too, originated the divine tragedy between God and His first-created,
intelligent creature. This creature was not able to comprehend the complete perfection
of the love that was offered. Man had to experience the agony of severed relations
with God, and having tasted of and learned the horror of this estrangement, was
then able to experience His love once again.
Adam had no fear. It is true that perfect love casts out fear.
However, as attested to by the Fathers of the Church, fear always precedes love.
This fear does not consist of apprehension of violence, but is born from a feeling
of the loftiness of God. By fear, man measures the distance between himself and
God.
Even when considering the lives of the saints, we experience
fear, breathing the air of the mountain heights, in which we ourselves could not
survive.
The approach of God tramples down fear by His presence and gives
us bliss. However, having fear at the depth of our existence, we treat the love
of God with reverence.
It was necessary for man during his life to learn what he was
in comparison with his Creator. Having broken off from God and having gone away
from Him, he glances back, and from afar sees and feels his omnipotent Creator.
How did Adam tear himself away from God? Everything that Adam
did conformed to the love of God for him. His life was fervent love, but this was
not by his own merit. Everything he did was done by the grace of his Creator, as
a result of His love.
We, born in sin and not having this love, but having to acquire
it, which is the goal of our life, are not able to understand the condition of Adam.
Everything that we do by our own will for our own sake is sin, and only in subduing
our own will, sacrificing ourselves out of love for another, do we join the Light,
do we find interior orderliness according to God.
Adam was entirely of God. Everything in him was light. Only in
one respect did he not reach perfection: in him was the possibility to eat the fruit
of knowledge of good and evil. In this he should have constrained his will out of
obedience and love; through this he fell away from God and sank into darkness.
Without sacrifice, there is no love. All the love of Adam towards
God was dependent, if one may say, only upon his rejection of the fruit. Adam did
not feel the slightest compulsion, because true love does not tolerate constraint.
Having tasted the fruit, Adam at once extinguished the light
in himself and was filled with darkness. There was nothing for him to love. The
darkness manifested itself in him by the sensation of nakedness. He hid from the
Father. He lost God, and God lost His friend. For in order to love Adam as in former
times, since Adam was now refusing love, it was necessary to create him again. Man
was left to himself. In the bitter experience of separation from Love, he had to
know the full depth of this misery, that when the Light was again revealed to him,
he would voluntarily prefer this Light to the light he had chosen, thanks to the
knowledge of good and evil. Again, he would voluntarily return to the world of Love
from his own world which he created over the course of a thousand-year period of
isolation from the Truth, from a world of his own, created by himself, with delights,
with his own buildings, with his own ideals.
Suffused with darkness and the ability to understand good and
evil, man acquired the capability of killing people like himself. But developing
within himself this quality, man ceased to be content with murder alone. This became
nothing to him. He began to kill his brother with torment. But even this appeared
to be nothing. He began to kill his brother with taunting. But even this was not
enough.
Then he invented something that, while not killing, put his brother
in a helpless position, so that by his own helplessness he provoked the laughter
of passersby, in order that his brother might die from humiliation and terrible
pangs of pain.
At this point in the development of the quality of evil, God
clearly revealed to people Who He is, the Creator of everything visible and invisible.
If He were a vengeful Deity, He probably would have had to destroy the whole human
race because that creature so maliciously laughed at the idea of his Creator. But
Love acted completely to the contrary.
Our Heavenly Father gave His Only-begotten Son, that He should
hang on the evil tree of hate and extreme bitterness created by man. The Son, having
been crucified and having satisfied as far as was necessary the malice of His enemies,
died. After three days, the Father resurrected the Son and engraved this new event
on the hearts of people.
From this point in history, notions of people in the world and
their understanding underwent a full revolution. The Cross, formerly only an instrument
of terrible torture and cruel execution, became the single eternal support of man.
The way, truth and life begins with the Cross, without which it is impossible to
be saved.
There followed a new history of man, in which it is impossible
for anyone to excuse himself through ignorance or lack of understanding. God was
crucified on the cross. There need be no blindness!
If the world before Christ was a savage world, and inhabitants
were dwelling in the jungle of their ignorance, then after Christ the world without
the Cross becomes a world of apostates and damned people to whom will be said in
time: get thee hence from Me, into the fire which has been prepared for the devil
and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Those who follow Christ are openly called friends
of the Lord.
I call you not servants, says the Saviour, for the servant knoweth
not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have
heard of My Father, I have made known unto you. “Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever
1 command you (John 15:15,14).
God’s love to us is beyond measure, radiating from the Cross
of Christ! Great and unbounded is the Cross of Christ. It is impossible to comprehend
the width and length of it, the depth and the height. But as far as possible, let
us at least try to understand.
“How wide is the Cross of Christ?” asks one bishop, and answers,
“It is as wide as the world, just as Christ died for the whole world, as it is written:
He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins
of the whole world (I John 2:2).
That is how wide the Cross is.
How long is the Cross of Christ? It is long enough to last throughout
all ages, as long as there remains on earth but one sinner who might be saved; until
there disappear sorrow, suffering and everything that is against the Lord in God’s
world.
That is how long the Cross is.
How high is the Cross of Christ? It is as high as Heaven, as
the Throne of the Lord. Indeed, it is as high as the highest Heaven; for when Christ
was crucified on the Cross, Heaven descended to earth, and earth ascended to Heaven.
That is how high the Cross is.
How deep is the Cross of Christ? That is a great mystery, which
is not given to us to understand and about which we can only reverently conjecture.
If the height of the Cross extends to Heaven, then by its depth it reaches down
to hell, to the most inveterate sinner in the deepest depths into which he might
fall — as Christ descended into hell and preached unto the spirits in prison (I
Peter 3:19).
That, we dare to hope, is how deep the Cross of the Lord is.
The Cross of Christ is the beginning and ending of our salvation
(Cf. John 3:16-17, 36).
Without the Cross we are not Christians, we are not members of
the Church of Christ, we are not sons of God. For the Cross we were born, with the
Cross we live, and with the Cross we die (Matt. 10:38; 16:24; 28:19. Luke 14:27;
Mark 10:21; 16:6).
The Cross of Christ is a piece of armor, or a garment which we
put on (Matt. 20:22-23; Mark 10:38-39; Luke 12:50) at the time of our earthly toils
and labors in order that by it we be distinguished from all heterodox or unbelievers
(Rev. 7:3; Ezekiel 9:4).
The Cross of Christ is laudation for Christians and formidable
punishment for those who loathe and shun it, for those who fall away from the Church
of Christ because of it, and for the enemies of God (Gal 6:14; I Cor 1:18; Heb.
13:13; 6:6; Philip. 3:18).
The Cross of Christ is a spiritual sword by which visible and
invisible enemies are vanquished.
The Cross of Christ is a divine weapon to drive away every enemy
and adversary (I Cor. 1:18:Luke 1:71-74; Matt. 22:44).
Finally, the Cross of Christ will be an awful sign on the day
of Tribulation and Last Judgement of God for all adversaries of the name of Christ,
antichrists (Matt. 24:30).
(Compiled from Humility in Christ, P. Ivanovna; the Journal Eternal,
and Lessons and Examples in Christian Faith by the V. Rev. Gregory Di-achenko.).
Discussion of Two Providential Acts
of God.
In our day the rational world is increasingly indifferent to
the Christian faith. Unbelief, godlessness, and atheism are becoming firmly established
everywhere.
But for the edification of the faithful, to strengthen us who
vacillate in the face of the convictions of atheists, we will describe two historical
events which are striking even to the materialistic world.
The first of them occurred on the day of the suffering of our
Saviour on the cross, and the other in our time.
I. When the Saviour suffered on the cross all nature trembled,
the light of the sun was hidden, and darkness was on all the earth, as the Evangelist
relates. This extraordinary event had been predicted many centuries before by the
Prophet Amos: The end is come upon my people of Israel: I will not again pass by
them any more (Amos 8:2). And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord
God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in
the clear day (Amos 8:9)...and I will make it as the mourning of an only Son...
(Amos 8:10).
The eclipse of the sun at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ, in spite of the singularity of the event against all the laws of nature,
as, for instance, there was a full moon — the moon did not stand between the earth
and the sun — is an historical fact, fully described in pagan accounts:
1. The Roman historian and astronomer Phlegontus reports that
the eclipse was so severe that it was possible to see stars in the sky.
2. The eclipse is reported by the scholar Julius Africanus and
the Greek historian Thaddeus.
3. A noted philosopher from Athens, Dionysius the Areopagite,
who was at that time in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, observing the sudden darkness,
said “Either the Creator is suffering or the world is coming to an end.”
II. The second event is the miraculous appearance of the Holy
Fire on Great Saturday in the Tomb of the Saviour in Jerusalem. The appearance of
the Holy Fire has occurred annually for centuries, and continues to do so in our
times. The exact date of the first appearance of the Holy Fire is difficult to determine.
Historians of the Church refer to the writings of the Holy Fathers St. Gregory of
Nyssa and St. John the Damascene, who both mention its occurrence. The Crusaders
spoke about the Holy Fire, and pilgrims have consistently verified its presence
throughout the centuries down to the present day.
The reception of the Holy Fire belongs exclusively to the Orthodox
Patriarch. Heterodox (non-Orthodox) representatives have tried to receive it, without
success. The Catholics ostentatiously withdrew from participation in this triumph
of grace, despite the observation of the Roman Pope Urban II at the Council of the
Cross at Clermont. He witnessed the Holy Fire in the Tomb of the Saviour, and concluded
with the words, “Whose heart, no matter how petrified, would not be softened by
such a phenomenon?”
The following account serves to show that the appearance of the
Holy Fire in the Tomb of the Saviour occurs under the strict and thorough surveillance
of the civil authorities. All flames in the church are extinguished the day before,
on Good Friday, under police control. The premises of the Tomb of the Saviour are
thoroughly inspected by the civil authorities, and then upon leaving the Tomb is
sealed by them. The Patriarch unvests and stands clad only in a cassock. He is examined
from head to toe to see if there is not some sort of incendiary device on him. Only
after this is the seal removed from the entrance to the Tomb of the Saviour and
the Patriarch enters it to receive the Holy Fire. After some time, and after fervent
prayer, the Patriarch receives the Holy Fire, lights a bundle of candles (thirty-three
in all, one for each year of the earthly life of the Saviour), passes them to those
present in the church, and the whole church lights up in a sea of fire. The Holy
Fire, during the course of ten to fifteen minutes, does not scorch.
Peoples of many nations, Greeks, Russians, Armenians, Arabs,
Englishmen, Americans, Frenchmen, Turks, Jews, and others, gather to observe this
glorious event.
The appearance of the Holy Fire is the greatest visible manifestation
of the Paradise of God in our sinful world, serving for the enlightenment and salvation
of us sinners.
On the Holy Fire at the Tomb of the
Lord.
In our time of spiritual barrenness, people’s lives are limited
to earthly preoccupations; great interest and curiosity attend every novelty. Man
is totally disinterested in spiritual matters, or in the manifestation of God’s
benevolence to our sinful world.
Thus, very few are aware of the miraculous appearance of the
Holy Fire, which has appeared over the centuries from year to year on Great Saturday
in the Tomb of the Lord in Jerusalem, in the place of the burial and glorious resurrection
of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
As a reminder of this extraordinary miraculous appearance we
bring true evidence, revealed in the letter of a Russian pilgrim and eyewitness
of the appearance of the Holy Fire two years in succession, Maria Pavlonvna Chreshchatetskaya.
This letter was written to Fr. Nicholas Samoukov, a hieromonk at Holy Trinity Monastery
in Jordanville, New York, in answer to questions given her about it.
Furke, France April 30,
1958
“Esteemed and dear in the Lord Fr. Nicholas, Christ is risen!...if
the Lord wills, I will go to Novo Diveyevo, and then will not delay to come to Jordanville,
and personally tell you everything that interests you. Until then I will attempt
to answer all your questions.
“My companion was the nun, Maria Torskaya.
“We travelled from the Mount of Olives monastery to the Holy
Sepulchre by bus. The weather was beautiful. The crowds were beyond measure, in
the thousands. The mood of the people was enthusiastic. Of the nationalities present
there were Greeks, Russians, Armenians, Arabs, English, Americans, French, Turks,
and even Hebrews, who illegally got on the Arab side. Greeks and Arabs prevailed,
I think. In the church the people behaved themselves outrageously from our point
of view, with shouting and leaping and in general, making a lot of noise. But from
their point of view, if they do not carry on this way (it is the way they pray),
then the Holy Fire will not descend.
“I have already said that the people were beyond number, not
only in the church, but around the church. When the Patriarch appears before the
Tomb enclosure all the people quiet down, and there is complete silence until the
appearance of the Holy Fire.
“First there is a procession around the church with many banners,
three times around, with the Patriarch in full vestments. Then it stops in front
of the Tomb enclosure. They take all the robes and the miter from the Patriarch.
He remains in only a cassock, and the Turkish authorities examine him from head
to foot to see if there is any incendiary device on him. This process takes until
about 1:00 P.M.
“I think that the Patriarch waited for the fire for not more
than five to seven minutes.
“Last year another Russian pilgrim and I, coming from America,
clearly saw (we were very lucky to have a good vantage point) a thin zigzag of light
like lightning flash from above and strike downwards; and momentarily there appeared
the fire in the Tomb of the Saviour, where it spread on cotton wads which were lit
from the fire.
“The Patriarch lit a bundle of candles (thirty-three in the bundle)
and passed them immediately through a special window-like opening made in the wall,
and in a twinkling, from one to another, the fire spread throughout the enormous
church, below and above. At this moment, the whole church reverberated from the
wildly enthusiastic cries of the rejoicing crowds.
“For fifteen minutes or so, the Holy Fire does not scorch. I
personally put all the diseased places of my body in the flame and did not feel
it at all. A monk from the Mt. of Olives monastery, Fr. Savva, washed himself in
it, immersed his whole face in it though he has a moustache and a beard, and not
one hair caught fire, not even singed.
“In such a throng of people and with such a sea of fire, if it
had been our usual fire, there would have been an inevitable conflagration. But
from year to year, the same event happens, and there is never the slightest hint
of fire.
“Women not only entered the altar, but even passed through the
Royal Doors, but at this time the Grace was so powerful that it cleansed and protected
everything.
“After receiving the Holy Fire, attendants carry the Patriarch,
as he does not have the strength to walk. Evidently from the great exertion, he
is left covered with beads of perspiration and totally drained of strength. Furthermore,
they say that in their ecstasy, the people could tear off all his clothes. As I
said before, last year I had a very good vantage point, above, next to the Tomb
enclosure itself, so I was able to see things that others could not. This year,
with the nun Torskaya, I entered the altar, and here I saw clearly how they carried
the Patriarch straight into the vestry, since it was right next to me.
“There can be no doubt that this is unusual fire.
“Probably you have heard about the wondrous occurrence in the
1800’s when the heterodox did not wish to allow Orthodox Christians into the church
or the Patriarch into the Tomb enclosure. They themselves wanted to take possession
of the holy flame. They closed the church and posted guards so that no one could
enter the church. The Patriarch stood with the people on the outside, praying and
lamenting.
“At the moment when the heterodox awaited the fire in the Tomb
of the Saviour, and while the Orthodox Christians stood outside, there was a loud
bang, the stone column cracked, and from it came the blessed flame which they all
caught instantly.
“A Turk, an employee of the government, shouted “All-powerful
is the Christian God, and I am a Christian!” The Turks killed him.
“From that time not one of the heterodox has attempted to encroach
upon the holy flame again.
“Thus the column stands, cracked and blackened from the fire,
in edification to all. Everyone who passes by kisses it.
“Perhaps in my haste my writing is not completely clear, but
when I come, I will personally finish telling you about it.
“With love in Christ,
Maria Chreshchatetskaya
“The Holy Fire of Great Saturday,”
from a letter by Schema-monk Nicodemus.
The Russian schemamonk, Fr. Nicodemus of Mount Athos, visiting
Jerusalem in 1958, describes wonderfully in a letter the unusual triumph which he
observed at the time of the reception of the holy flame.
“On Great Saturday, about 12:00 noon, I, sinful Schemamonk Nicodemus,
had the good fortune to follow the Patriarch from the altar of the Church of the
Resurrection of Christ in the procession of the Cross, going around the Tomb enclosure
three times, and thus I was able to see that which is rarely observed at the life-giving
Tomb.
“After the third time around, the Patriarch (Greek Orthodox of
Jerusalem) stopped before the locked and sealed door to the Tomb of the Saviour.
I stood at the right side of a candlestick before the Tomb enclosure, a few steps
away from the Patriarch.
“The Patriarch disrobed to his cassock. They took from him his
miter, sakkos, and omophorion.
Police and state officials searched the Patriarch. Then they
tore the tape from the seal off the door of the Tomb enclosure and permitted the
Patriarch to go inside the chapel. Along with the Greek Orthodox
Patriarch, they admitted the Armenian Patriarch. The Armenian Patriarch did not
take part in the procession of the Cross, but stood with his people on the left
side of the tomb enclosure.
“Several others were permitted inside the chapel. Clergymen,
upon a signal from the Patriarch, extinguished the Holy Fire from the previous year
on the berth of the life-bearing Tomb and picked up everything in order to prepare
for the reception of the Holy Fire.
“When the Arab police, who were to carry out both the Patriarch
and the Holy Fire, entered the chapel, the door was closed after them.
“As is known to everyone, the chapel has two compartments, the
altar of the Angel, and the life-bearing Tomb of the Saviour itself, the grotto
or cave.
“Only the Greek Orthodox Patriarch enters the inner grotto of
the Tomb. The others, with the police and the Armenian Patriarch, stand in the adjoining
chapel of the Angel and wait silently.
“The door of the chapel is closed. Everyone is quiet, and silence
reigns throughout the whole church of the Resurrection of Christ. All the devout
await the Holy Fire in silence.
“It is necessary to explain about the preparation of the Tomb
of the Saviour. On the evening of Great Friday, the flames in the whole church and
in the chapel are extinguished under the control of the police.
“In the middle of the berth of the life-giving Tomb is placed
a lamp on a pedestal, filled with oil and with a floating wick set, but unlit.
“Around the edge of the berth a ribbon is placed, and all over
the berth they unpack pieces of cotton wadding. Thus prepared under the surveillance
of the police, the Tomb enclosure is locked and sealed. The locked Tomb of the Saviour
remains undisturbed until Great Saturday, when the Patriarch enters the cave of
the Tomb of the Saviour to receive the Holy Fire.
“Then on Great Saturday, they admit the Patriarch into the cave
of the life-giving Tomb, and the door is shut behind them. There is absolute silence...
“In the cave itself, it is dark. The Patriarch, alone there,
silently prays to the Saviour... sometimes for ten minutes, sometimes more. At the
time of my visit, fifteen minutes passed. Then suddenly in the darkness, on the
berth of the life-giving Tomb, beads of bright blue began to spill about, multiplying,
and turning into dark blue fire. From them, the prepared balls of cotton caught
fire, then the ribbon, and the lamp. Everything became enveloped in the flame from
the Holy Fire...
“The Patriarch quickly ignited his two bundles of candles. Upon
entering the chapel of the Angel, he gave a light to the Armenian pilgrims through
the oval window.
“During the appearance of the Holy Fire an uproar of joy and
rapture like a clap of thunder resounds from the vast expanse of the church of the
Resurrection of Christ.
“Then, to put out the fire on the berth of the Tomb of the Saviour
(it does not burn here), they take away the burning lamp and the cotton wads with
the ribbon.
“Two Arab policemen carry the Patriarch from the Tomb enclosure
on their shoulders, with the support of assisting clergymen, and quickly carry him
into the altar of the church of the Resurrection of Christ.
“One priest with the burning lamp goes before the Patriarch.
All this is so fast that not many in the chapel are able to light their candles.
Nor was I able to. Instead, I endeavored to join the throng of people following
the Patriarch as he entered the altar, where I lit my bundle of candles with the
Holy Fire from the hand of the Patriarch himself.
Schemamonk Nicodemus,
Mt. Athos
Note: The church of the Resurrection of Christ is commonly
known in English literature as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Lifebearing Tomb of the Lord.
(An excerpt from a letter from the Greek archimandrite, Fr. Kiriakos,
curator of the Tomb of the Saviour in Jerusalem, about the appearance of the Holy
Fire.).
“…and regarding the Holy Fire, neither I nor anyone else has
the right to be with the blessed Patriarch inside the cave of the Tomb of the Saviour
at this time, except the Armenian bishop and those admitted only as far as the chapel
of the Angel.
“The Patriarch of Jerusalem alone enters the inner grotto, in
which is found the lifegiving Tomb.
“Several centuries ago, the Armenians tried to dispute the right
of the Orthodox to receive the holy fire in the grotto of the Tomb. Then the Orthodox
were denied access to the church of the Resurrection of Christ, and they were forced
to stand in the courtyard. After the lapse of some time, while the Patriarch and
the people prayed in the court of the cathedral, the Fire erupted from a column
which was near the entrance. The Armenians received nothing.
“From this time we have never again been driven away from the
Lifebearing Tomb. The column, to this day, stands cracked and charred.”
Archimandrite Kiriakos,
curator of the Lifebearing Tomb of the Saviour,
Jerusalem, October 2,1960.
The Fifth Article of the Creed.
5. And He arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures.
The fifth article of the Creed speaks about the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ on the third day after His death.
Since in the writings of the prophets of the Old Testament there
were clear predictions about the suffering, death, burial of the Saviour, and His
Resurrection, it is stated “according to the Scriptures.” The words, “according
to the Scriptures,” pertain not only to the fifth, but also to the fourth article
of the Creed.
Jesus Christ died on Great Friday about three o’clock in the
afternoon and rose after midnight of the following Saturday, on the first day of
the week, called from that time the Christian Sabbath, the day of the Resurrection
of Christ. But in those days, a part of a day belonged to the whole day, so it is
said that He was in the tomb three days.
The circumstances of Jesus Christ from the time of His death
until the Resurrection are expressed in the Orthodox Christian Church by the following
words,” In the grave bodily, but in hades with Thy soul as God; in paradise with
the thief, and on the throne with the Father and the Spirit wast thou Who fillest
all things, O Christ the Inexpressible.”
We know that in the Old and New Testaments several people rose
from the dead, but there the dead were raised by someone else, and the resurrected
rose in their former earthly corruptible bodies, and therefore, had to die again.
Jesus Christ rose from the dead by Himself, by the power of His own Divinity; He
rose and was changed in His body, which became immortal and eternal. He came forth
from the tomb, not disturbing the Sanhedrin’s seal, not rolling away the stone,
and invisible to the guards.
The Lord revealed His Resurrection to people first through an
angel, who rolled the stone away from the entrance to the tomb. The Resurrection
was witnessed by soldiers guarding the tomb, who dispersed in fright. Then the angel
announced the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to the Myrrhbearing women. Finally, Jesus
Christ Himself, over the course of forty days, repeatedly appeared to His disciples,
with many tangible demonstrations of His Resurrection. He allowed the disciples
to touch His wounds from the nails and the lance, He ate before them, and spoke
with them about the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.
On the day of the Resurrection of Christ we sing: “Christ is
risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tomb bestowing
life.”
By death, the Lord conquered death, and to all in the graves,
that is, all the dead, He gave life. Now the Lord abides in this new, resurrected
body forever. Also in the new body of the resurrection lives the Mother of God,
Whom the Lord resurrected after Her death. All people will receive a new, changed
body at the second coming of the Saviour, when there will be a general resurrection,
which the eleventh article of the Creed speaks about.
Thus is fulfilled the prophecy spoken through the Prophet Hosea:
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death (Hosea
13:14). O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (I Cor. 15:55).
Discussion of the Resurrection of
Christ.
The Resurrection of Christ is the greatest event in the history
of the world, and therefore Christians replaced the Old Testament Sabbath with this
commemoration. The feast of the Resurrection of Christ is the “one king and lord
of sabbaths, the feast of feasts, and the triumph of triumphs.” The triumph of the
Resurrection is the meaning and foundation of our Christian faith, And if Christ
be not risen, then is our preaching in vain, and your faith is also vain (I Cor.
15:14), says the Apostle of Christ.
If there had been no Resurrection of Christ, then not only would
there be no Christianity, but even the faith in God, in the power of good and truth,
would have been undermined. The meaning of life would have been lost. If the dead
Christ had not been resurrected, then not only would there be no salvation for anyone
through Him, for to whom can death and helplessness show help, but there would have
been the greatest triumph of evil in history. The days of Golgotha, and in general,
the entire earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ, would have been the most wicked
mockery of evil over good, of the Devil over the entire world of light and idealism.
No more powerful or inevitable motive for dark despair could exist, for if this
Righteous One were shown to be powerless, if such a Great Personality vanished into
the abyss of nonexistence, then what are we to expect for ourselves, and what are
we preparing ourselves for? There would be no righteous life for mankind. Life would
be only “an empty and stupid joke” (Lermontov), or, in the apt words of the great
Christian author, Dostoevsky, life would be “devilish vaudeville,” mere play-acting.
But Christ is risen, and the father of lies, a murderer from
the beginning — the devil (John 8:44) is rendered profane and powerless. Life is
victorious, death and evil are brought to emptiness and pettiness, Christ is risen,
and in full brilliance His majestic, regal Divinity begins to shine.
“It is astonishing that serious people can believe in such foolishness,
and this in the twentieth century ... the age of science and experimentation...
Reason does not permit belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ,” says the non-believer.
“The historic fact of the Resurrection of Christ, as well as
all His teachings, has undergone criticism from many scholarly people and rationalists.
Several of them have devoted their entire lives to proving that the Gospel narrative
about the Resurrection is a fraud, a mistake, or a delusion. From the earliest times
a malicious fable has appeared stating that His disciples came by night and stole
Him away, while we slept (Matt. 28:13). Though they first spoke fearfully about
the earthquake at the tomb, the rolling away of the stone, and the appearance of
the angel as lightning, the guards, bribed by the Jewish priests, then spread the
lie that Christ was stolen from the tomb. The absurdity of this fabrication is immediately
apparent to anyone.
It is completely inadmissible that the guard, composed of several
men, could have fallen asleep. Where was their the military discipline? It was in
fact a Roman guard, and the Roman army, by its iron discipline and courage, was
one of the best armies in the world. If the soldiers slept, then they would not
have been able to see, and if they saw, it means they did not sleep. In that case,
they would not have given the Apostles the opportunity to perform the “theft;” on
the contrary, they would have arrested the thieves and would have presented the
dead body together with the thieves to the authorities.
But if there had been a theft, is it possible that the executioners
of Christ would have left the “thieves” at large to preach His Resurrection? By
the power of their authority, they would have forced the Apostles to produce the
stolen body for them, in order to expose their lies and deception, and to suppress
their preaching about Christ at its inception. Yes indeed, if the disciples had
stolen the body of the Saviour, then it would have been necessary to bring them
into court immediately, to convict them with the evidence of guilt, and thereby
prevent their teaching. But the murderers of Christ did not do it, because they
did not believe the soldiers would be able to support their own slander in court.
It is not possible that the enemies of Christ failed to verify
the testimony of the soldiers. They, of course, did not fail to thoroughly, albeit
secretly, verify the words of the soldiers, the first witnesses of the miracle of
the Resurrection. Undoubtedly, they personally, although not in the full body of
the Sanhedrin, went to the tomb of Christ and saw that it was empty. After analysis,
they were unable not to acknowledge that Christ really rose from the dead. But why
were they so shamefully silent about it? Why did they not as a body confess their
grave sin and in this way guard their people against a threatening disaster?
For these corrupt people earthly goods were closer and more dear
than the blessings of Heaven. They did not trust repentance as a means to gain forgiveness.
At the same time, they understood very well that their repentance for slaying the
Messiah would entail for them swift, unmerciful stoning by those people whom they
drew into participation in this evil deed. In fear for their lives they kept quiet.
Thus they proved to be powerless in a confrontation with truth. They were forced
to confine themselves to issuing a mere order to the Apostles not to speak at all
or teach in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:18). Prohibiting preaching about Jesus Christ,
they avoided the question of where was the body of Jesus. For we cannot but speak
the things which we have seen and heard (Acts 4:20), said the Apostles, who continued
to conquer the world with their preaching about the Resurrection of Christ.
Furthermore, could the Apostles, who were peaceful, timid people,
who remained at home under lock and key for fear of the Jews (John 20:19), and who
were unarmed,... could they decide on such an insolent, daring, and purposeless
undertaking as the theft of a body from under the nose of the guards? How would
they be able to do battle with such formidable Roman guards? Besides, the details
do not resemble a theft.
The idea of theft was first thought of by the Apostles themselves
when they, after the announcement from Mary Magdalene, dispersed in fear and thought
that the theft of the body was a new outrage of the enemy against Him. Going into
the grotto of the tomb, the Apostles saw that the grave, although it was empty,
did not appear to have been robbed. For if thieves had taken the body of Jesus Christ,
they would have taken Him in the shroud. But the linen lay rolled up and the sudarium,
a long, narrow linen napkin wound about the head, was not lying with the linen but
folded together in a place by itself (John 20:7).
Therefore, this absurd Jewish fabrication was discarded long
ago. In its place, skeptics advance a hypothesis of lethargic sleep and pleurisy
with effusion to explain the water which flowed from the side. According to this
theory, Jesus Christ fell into a deep faint and perhaps lethargy, and therefore
was taken for dead. He was taken down from the cross and buried. Due to the approaching
holy day of Passover they had to hurry with the burial, and in their haste, neither
friends nor enemies had the chance to examine Him and ascertain that He was really
dead. The action of the aromatics and the influence of the cold air of the cave
brought Him back to consciousness. He got up, and although still weak, attempted
to get out of the tomb. His cries and pounding frightened the guards, and they ran
away. Availing himself of the flight of the guards, the gardener, or one of the
disciples, rolled away the stone and liberated Him from the grave. His appearance
in a white shroud gave Him the appearance of an angel, the herald of the Resurrection.
Jesus Christ spent forty days in the company of the disciples, and then, from his
pleurisy, really died.
The story is totally improbable and does not stand up under the
slightest criticism. The Gospels say that from the pierced side of the Lord issued
blood and water. From a medical point of view, this appearance showed paralysis
of the heart, certain death. But even if Jesus Christ had remained alive, then due
to a lack of breath from the tightly tied shroud, saturated with aromatics, that
life would have ceased under the adverse conditions in the tomb. Weak and exhausted,
He would hardly have been in a condition to move the stone and produce cries and
pounding loud enough to terrify the guards. The Gospels speak in sufficient detail
about conversations with Jesus Christ, about the joy with which He filled the hearts
of His disciples, about the walk with His disciples on the long road, and so on.
Does all this resemble someone just regaining consciousness from a faint or mortally
ill lethargy? In fact, such a person would be a pitiful and exhausted sick man.
In the opinion of specialists, He would not have been able to take two steps with
perforated feet, nor take hold of anything with His hands. Even such opponents of
Christ as Strauss (David Frederick Strauss, 1808-1847, German theologian and philosopher,
famous for “demythologizing” the Bible) correctly noted that this half dead man
would surely have been a disappointment to His followers. For Him to inspire such
mighty faith that it spread throughout the world, subjugated a powerful empire to
Him, awakened in all of those who saw Him the enthusiasm for martyrdom — is psychologically
inconceivable and impossible. The Apostles remained persuaded of the Resurrection
of Christ for their entire lives. If the Resurrection was imaginary, then sooner
or later the real death of Jesus Christ would have followed, and that would have
ended all the activities and accounts of the Apostles. Quite to the contrary, they
began to preach with a certainty which they had never demonstrated during the earthly
life of Christ.
The more common theory in our day is the apparition theory, that
Christ did not actually rise from the dead, but that the disciples reported that
they saw the Lord living and speaking with them. The disciples were so taken with
the identity of Jesus Christ and hence become so intimately linked with the idea
of His approaching Kingdom that they could not be reconciled with the fact of His
death. Under the strain of anticipation they allowed themselves such massive hallucinations
that they, giving way to self-deception, gave the accounts recorded in the Gospels.
It is true that in history and in present day reality hallucinations,
however occur, both with individuals and with crowds, although the latter case is
very rare. Hallucinations, however, are found among people who wish to see and hear
something, who are mentally prepared for it. Their cerebral condition is ready to
perceive that which they intensely await. But let us return to the Gospel story.
In order to be deceived, to see something which did not exist, it would have been
necessary to wait for the Resurrection, to believe that His Resurrection was near
and would come to pass. Who among the Apostles had such faith? When Mary Magdalene
and the other women went to the tomb, they thought, Who shall roll us away the stone...?
(Mark 16:3) When Mary Magdalene saw that the tomb was empty, the idea of the Resurrection
did not occur to her. Even when she saw the Lord she did not recognize Him. Why?
She believed that dead people do not arise. The Apostles reacted in a similar manner
when the news was brought to them He is not here, but He is risen (Luke 24:6). Their
words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not (Luke 24:11). Thomas
not only did not believe when he saw, but for him it was even necessary to feel.
Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands... (John 20:27). It was the most sober,
most convincing verification of the fact.
Jesus appeared to the Myrrhbearing women, to Peter, Luke and
Cleopas (Luke 24:18), to the ten disciples, to the eleven, even to five hundred
believers, and finally, to the Apostle Paul... How could all of them be deceived?
Is it possible that among this group there was not one single person with a sober,
clear mind, with healthy senses and critical faculties? As professionals affirm,
hallucinations are more often visual or auditory sensations. Rarely do they occur
in combination with others, and extremely seldom do hallucinations occur in the
realm of sensation by touch. Where all three senses are involved together in a hallucination
appearing to at least the ten and then eleven men, and even to the five hundred,
and where broiled fish and honeycomb are eaten by it and disappear, as is stated
in the Gospel (Luke 24:42),... such a hallucination has never been known in history,
and never will be.
Thus the Apostles indeed saw the Resurrected One: the Resurrection
is an indubitable historical fact. Skeptics are not able to undermine the Gospel
story; they only refute each other, and some of them openly acknowledge their helplessness
in struggling against Christ. The German scholar DeWette (Wilhelm Martin Lebrecht
DeWette, 1780-1849, German Protestant theologian and Biblical scholar), who over
the course of ten years led the skeptics, on his deathbed confessed that “the event
of the Resurrection, although the means by which it happened is completely obscured
by impenetrable darkness, nevertheless appears to be as indisputable as the death
of Caesar.”
Discussing the trustworthiness of the miracles of the Resurrection
and the Ascension, physicist Balfour Stewart said, “Was the well-known power of
nature preserved according to the immutable laws in these cases, or was it somehow
overcome by a higher force? Undoubtedly it was overcome during the Resurrection
as during the Ascension. We are obliged to analyze the evidence of these great events,
which is accomplished in a most credible manner. History, in narrating these events,
has borne this test so well that every suggestion that this did not really happen
leads to the greatest moral and spiritual confusion.”
Why did not Jesus Christ appear among the Jews after the Resurrection?
St. John Chrysostom explains that the appearance of the risen Lord would have been
useless for the Jews, and that if there had been the slightest possibility that
by it they could be converted, then without doubt the Lord would not have denied
the Jews. But after He resurrected Lazarus, they were completely antagonistic. The
Jews started to seek opportunities to kill not only Jesus Christ but Lazarus as
well. If Christ had appeared to the Jews after the Resurrection, in one way or another
they would have decided to kill God again.
Thus, Christ is risen from the dead. The most convincing evidence
of the fact of the Resurrection of Christ is that mighty change which it produced
in the Apostles, and through them, in the whole universe. On it rests all the culture
of the last two thousand years. Could the fantasy of thirteen dreamers support it?
They changed all history. Without the Resurrection of Christ we would not have Christianity
or Christian culture. World history would have taken a completely different direction.
Without the living power of the Christian faith, the ancient world would have decomposed
and perished. It is impossible to believe that imagination alone could have produced
such greatness and so much good.
By this demonstration all opposition to the miracle of the Resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ falls away. Even the briefest critical analysis of the
objections elucidates their total groundlessness. But malicious criticism does not
weaken. “The Devil fights with God, and the field of battle is in the hearts of
people,” writes Dostoevsky.
In our time, new but lame arguments are advanced: God does not
exist; Christ as a historical figure never existed, and therefore there was no Resurrection;
the Gospels are pure mythology, fiction not supported by actual historical events.
They are a compilation of ancient pagan myths about legendary gods. These “critics”
have to realize that in the various myths, only gods such as Osiris and Dionysius
died and rose again, but never God Incarnate. That lesus Christ was God Incarnate
is indisputable by evidence from the Gospels. Along with the Gospels we have the
testimony of pagans, opponents of Christianity. For example, Pliny the Younger,
the Roman consul and governor of Bithynia and Pontica in Asia Minor, in his letter
to Emperor Trajan (about 112 A.D). wrote, “They (Christians) gather and sing hymns
to Christ, as God. They do not swear, do not tell lies, do not steal, do not commit
adultery.” Pliny did not write, “they sing to their God, to Christ,” but he wrote,
“to Christ, as God.” Therefore he knew that Christ for the Christians was not only
God, but man.
A contemporary of Pliny, Tacitus, one of the most accurate historians,
reports, about 115 A.D., “Christ, during the reign of Tiberius, under Procurator
Pontius Pilate, was sentenced to death.”
Many pieces of evidence about Jesus Christ as a historical figure
are in the Hebrew Talmud. It is true that these references are written with malice
and hatred, calling the Saviour “apostate,” “Nazarene,” etc. Very little is said
in the Talmud about the miracles of the Nazarene.
Especially striking is evidence of the former persecutor of Christians,
Saul, later the first among the Apostles, Paul. The authenticity of his testimony
is beyond dispute. This is understood by the most furious enemies of Christianity.
“The strength of Paul’s testimony,” says one of our prominent authors and thinkers,
“is such that even if there were none other, we would still know with greater exactitude
than about many other historical figures, not only that Christ did exist, but how
He lived, what He said and did, how He died, and how He rose from the dead.”
The truth of the Resurrection of Christ the Saviour consists
of the fact that it was the Resurrection of God Incarnate. He resurrected the human
body, and by this transformed the human being into a spiritual, divine body for
eternal life with God. In this lies the victory of the Saviour over death for all
generations.
“The bodily Resurrection of the Saviour from the dead is an historical,
true fact,” says one of our well-known Orthodox missionaries, and he enumerates
this in the following points:
1. Christ predicted His
Resurrection (Mt. 16:21; 20:19; Mark 9:9).
2. After the Resurrection He
testified about the event (Luke 24:46).
3. He appeared in visible form:
a. On the morning of the
Resurrection to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9).
b. To the women going away from the
tomb (Matt. 28:9).
c. To Peter near Jerusalem (Luke
24:34; I Cor 15:5).
d. To two disciples on the road to
Emmaus (Luke 24:13).
e. On the evening of the
Resurrection, to the Apostles, except Thomas (John f. 20:19).
g. A week later in the evening to
all the Apostles (John 20:26).
h. After several days at the Sea of
Tiberias to seven disciples (John 21:1-3).
i. Not long after, on the mountain
near Galilee, to eleven Apostles (Matt. 28:17).
j. To five hundred of the faithful
(I Cor. 15:6).
k. To his brother “according to the
flesh,” James, and all the Apostles (I Cor. l. 15:7).
m. At the time of the Ascension on
the Mount of Olives, to all the Apostles (Luke 24:50). To the Apostle Paul (I
Cor. 9:1; 15:8).
n. To the first archdeacon, Stephen
(Acts 7:55).
o. Until the Ascension, over the
course of forty days, explaining the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).
4. He ate and drank with the
disciples (Luke 24:42).
5. He showed His hands and feet
with the wounds, which He received from being 6. nailed to the cross (Luke
24:40).
7. He gave admonitions (Matt.
28:18; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:17; John 21:15; 20:21; 8. Acts 1:7).
9. He travelled with the Apostles (Luke
21:15).
10. The Myrrhbearing women and the
eleven disciples worshipped Him (Matt. 28:9,17).
11. Angels proclaimed the
Resurrection of Christ (Matt. 28:6; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:6).
12. The event was reported by Roman
soldiers keeping watch at the tomb (Matt. 28:11).
13. The Apostles identified
themselves as witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:32; 10:39), and
they relied on this actual historical fact for the foundation of all their
preaching (Acts 2:22; 3:26; 4:10; 10:39). At the same time, it is especially
significant that the Apostles do not give an account of the precise moment of
the Resurrection of Christ. They only say that...which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes...and our hands have handled... declare we unto you...
(I John 1:1-3). The exact moment of the Resurrection of Christ no one was able
to witness. Even the soldiers, keeping watch at the tomb, did not observe the
exact moment of the Resurrection. The risen Christ was invisible to them. In
fact, the Apostles were not able to witness it, as they had hid and locked
themselves in their houses for fear of the Jews (John 2:19). That is why not
one of the four Gospels contains a description of the exact moment of the
Resurrection, although there are detailed accounts of all events preceding the
Resurrection and detailed accounts after the Resurrection.
We know that if the Resurrection of Christ were fiction, then
no matter how much of a genius the author is, he would not omit the center and theme
of his composition. He would, without fail, touch upon the moment of the Resurrection
in his account, because man’s innate curiosity demands it.
But the Apostles did not do this. This constitutes the highest
proof of the authenticity of their witness. For they were not writers, but guileless
and simple men, influenced by the Holy Spirit, actual witnesses of the true event
of the Resurrection of Christ and the whole Gospel story.
The Apostles themselves said, And if Christ be not risen, then
is our preaching in vain, and your faith is also in vain. But now is Christ risen
from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept (I Cor. 15:14,20).
He is the first to partake of our future resurrection.
Only then did the Apostles and the first Christians go to death,
when they had made certain of the actual Resurrection of the Saviour, of His victory
over hell and death. Only in this case were they able, as the poet said, “To go
to execution singing hymns and looking into the jaws of unfed beasts with unflinching
gaze.” Thus, the miracle of the Resurrection is accomplished in deed. Christ is
risen indeed!
Compiled chiefly from an article by Archpriest Gerasim Shorets,
Christ is Risen, from his brochure, Did Christ Live? Additions from a book by D.M.
Merezhkovsky, Jesus the Unknown; an article by Archpriest I. Chernavin, Did Christ
Rise from the Dead?; and other sources.
The Sixth Article of the Creed.
6. And ascended into the Heavens, and sitteth at the right
hand of the Father.
In the sixth article of the Creed, it is stated that Jesus Christ
ascended into Heaven with His pure body, and sits at the right hand of God the Father.
The Ascension of the Lord occurred forty days after His Resurrection.
The Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven in body and soul, and in His Divinity He
always abides with the Father.
“Sitteth at the right hand of the Father” means on the right
side, in the place of honor and glory. These words mean that the human body and
soul of Christ was received with the glory that Christ has by His Divinity.
By His Ascension, our Lord Jesus Christ united earth and Heaven
and glorified our human nature, raising it to the throne of God. He showed us that
our fatherland is in Heaven, in the Kingdom of God, which is now open to all who
truly believe in Him.
To him that overcometh will 1 grant to sit with Me in My throne,
even as I also overcame, and am set down with My father in His throne (Rev. 3:21).
The Seventh Article of the Creed.
7. And He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the
living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end.
In the seventh article of the Creed it is stated that Jesus Christ
will come to earth again to judge all people, living and dead, who will all rise
at that time, and that after the terrible Last Judgment the Kingdom of Christ will
begin, of which there will be no end.
The second coming of the Saviour is clearly discussed in Holy
Scripture. For example, when Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, angels appeared
and said to the Apostles, “This Jesus, Who is taken up from you into Heaven, will
come again to earth in the same form, in the body of a man, as you saw Him going
up to Heaven.”
The second coming of Christ will not be at all like the first.
The first time He came in the humble form of a man to suffer for us and by this
to save us from sin. He was born in a stable for cattle, lived, not having a place
to lay His head, and died between criminals on the cross. In the second coming He
will appear suddenly as a King, with majesty. For as the lightning cometh out of
the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of
man be (Matt.24:27). The second coming of Christ the Saviour will be extraordinary:
The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars
shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then
shall appear the sign of the Son of man, (a cross) in heaven; and then shall all
the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds
of heaven with power and great glory (Matt. 24:29-30), ...and all the holy angels
with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: And before Him shall be
gathered all nations (Matt. 25:31-46), and He will judge all people, all of us,
the righteous and the sinful.
This judgment is called terrible, because the conscience of every
man will be revealed before all. Not only the good and evil deeds will be disclosed,
but also the manner in which each man conducted his earthly life; every spoken word,
secret wish, and thought will be laid bare.
According to this judgment, the righteous will enter into eternal
life, and the sinners into eternal torment — for doing evil deeds and failing to
repent of them, or to make amends through good deeds and a righteous life.
For the hour is coming, says the Lord Himself, in which all that
are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done
good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection
of damnation (John 5:28-29).
The exact hour of the second coming of the Lord to earth is known
to no man. It is a secret which, by the word of the Lord Himself, no one knows,
not even the angels of God, only the Heavenly Father alone. Therefore, we must always
be ready to appear before the judgment of God.
Although the exact time is not known to us, God’s word reveals
several signs of the approach of the coming of the Lord. Before this time the Gospels
will be preached to all people. The Jews will return in great numbers to Christ.
At the same time there will be more corruption, lack of faith,
less love toward one’s neighbor, and increased wickedness and calamity among people.
False prophets will appear. Discord and war will grow stronger among the people;
famine and starvation, epidemics and earthquakes will occur in various places. Finally,
when evil reaches its highest manifestation on earth, Antichrist will appear.
Antichrist, the antagonist of Christ, will appear before the
end of the world, and will seek to exterminate Christian faith on the earth with
all his power. But with the coming of Christ, the dominion of the Antichrist will
end in terrible ruin, as will he, since he is a disciple of the Devil himself.
After all these things have come to pass the eternal Kingdom
of Christ will begin.
The Eighth Article of the Creed.
8. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who
proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped
and glorified, Who spake by the Prophets.
The eighth Article of the Creed speaks about the third Person
of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also true God, as is the
Father and the Son. This we confess, calling Him Lord.
The Holy Spirit is also called the Giver of Life because He,
together with God the Father and God the Son, gives life to all, especially spiritual
life. It follows that He is likewise the Creator of the world, equal to the Father
and the Son. It is said about the creation of the world: And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2). Jesus Christ Himself said about the blessed
regeneration by the Spirit, ...Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God (John 3:5).
Thus the Holy Spirit is true God, the third Person of the Triune
God. To Him we must render the same worship and glory as to the Father and the Son.
The words, “Who proceedeth from the Father,” define the personal
hypostatic nature of the Holy Spirit, by which He is distinguished from God the
Father, and from the Son, begotten of the Father. His nature is such that the Holy
Spirit continually proceeds from the Father. Jesus Christ Himself spoke on this
point to His disciples: But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you
from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, Which proceedeth from the Father, He
shall testify of Me (John 15:26).
The words, “Who spake by the Prophets,” means who spoke through
the prophets. The prophets predicted the future and wrote Holy Scriptures under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and therefore their books are called divinely
inspired. The words, “spake by the Prophets,” are stated so that no one need doubt
that the Holy Scriptures were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
not by the authors themselves, as ordinary books are written. They therefore contain
the highest God-given truth, the Word of God, or Divine revelation.
The fact that the Holy Spirit spoke through the Apostles is not
mentioned in the Symbol of Faith because at the time of its composition no one doubted
it.
The Holy Spirit now conveys His gifts to true Christians through
the Church of Christ, in prayer and the Holy Mysteries. In the Holy Mysteries the
Holy Spirit enlightens the faithful with the light of Christ’s teaching, warms their
hearts by love for God and neighbor, and purifies them of every stain of sin.
Jesus Christ called the Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth (John 14:17;
15:26; 16:13) and warned us, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men (Matt.
12:31).
“Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” is conscious and hardened
opposition to the truth, because the Spirit is truth (I John 5:6). Conscious and
hardened resistance to the truth leads man away from humility and repentance, and
without repentance there can be no forgiveness. That is why the sin of blasphemy
against the Spirit cannot be forgiven, since one who does not acknowledge his sin
does not seek to have it forgiven.
The Holy Spirit was revealed to people in visible form at the
Baptism of the Lord in the form of a dove, and on the day of Pentecost when He descended
to the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire. He appeared also as a cloud of light
in the Old Testament and at the Transfiguration of Christ.
The Ninth Article of the Creed.
9. In one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The ninth article of the Creed speaks about the Church of Christ,
which Jesus Christ founded on earth for the sanctification of sinful people and
for their reconciliation with God.
The Church is called a union of all Orthodox Christians, living
and dead, for He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto
Him (Luke 20:38), united among themselves in faith and Christian love, by its hierarchy
and by its sacraments.
Each individual Orthodox Christian is a member or a part of the
Church. When we say that we believe in one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church,
the Church is understood to include all people who confess one and the same Orthodox
Faith. It does not only mean the building where we go to pray to God and which is
also called the church of God. Jesus Christ entrusted the visible construction and
government of the Church to the Apostles, and then to their successors, the bishops,
and through them He invisibly rules the Church. The Lord Jesus Christ alone is the
true Head of the Church, and no other head of the Christian Church exists or ever
will. Jesus Christ is Head, and the Church is the spiritual body of Christ (Eph.
1:22-23; 5:23).
The holy Apostle Paul says, For as the body is one, and hath
many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so
also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink
into one Spirit (I Cor. 12:12-13). Thus, ye are the body of Christ, and members
in particular (I Cor. 12:27). He (Jesus Christ) gave some, apostles; and some, prophets;
and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (the
Church) (Eph. 4:11-12).
Jesus Christ said that His Church is invincible and will endure
forever. I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it (Matt. 16:18). I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen (Matt.
28:20).
The truth of God, His teaching, is preserved in the one Church
of Christ, ...the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth (I
Tim. 3:15). Jesus Christ said, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, Whom
the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (John 14:26) that the Holy
Spirit may abide with you forever (John 14:16).
He who obeys the Church, obeys Christ Himself, and he who does
not obey, but rejects her, rejects also the Lord Himself. If one does not obey the
Church, let him be to you like as a heathen man, and a publican, said the Lord Himself
(Matt. 18:17).
The Church of Christ is one, because it is one spiritual body,
has one head, Christ, and is inspired by one Spirit (cf. Eph. 4:4-6). It has one
goal, the sanctification of people, and everywhere the same teachings of God, and
the same sacraments. Therefore, the Church cannot fall into ruin or become divided.
Heretics may fall from Her or become separated from Her; they then cease to be members
of the Church. The Church by their action does not cease to be united. The Church
obliges all of us to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:5).
The existence of geographical divisions of the Orthodox Church,
such as Jerusalem, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, Russia and others, does
not violate the unity of the Church of Christ at all. For they all are revealed
to be members of one body, One Universal Church of Christ. They all confess the
same faith, and have prayers and sacraments in common.
The Church of Christ is Holy, because it is sanctified by the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself, through His suffering, with His divine teachings and
with the Holy Sacraments established by Him, in which the Grace of the Holy Spirit
is given to the faithful. Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it;
that He might sanctify it... (Eph. 5:25-26).
The sanctity of the Church is not violated by Christians when
they sin because they can always cleanse themselves through the Mystery of Repentance.
If someone remains unrepentant, then he visibly or invisibly withdraws from the
Church.
The Church of Christ is Catholic. Catholicity is the unity of
all believing Orthodox Christians, united in truth by the love of Christ and the
grace of the Holy Spirit. The Catholic Church is bound neither by natural boundaries
nor time nor by people, and it consists of all true believers everywhere. Therefore
it is also called universal.
The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ is furthermore
called Apostolic, because the Lord spread it and strengthened it through the holy
Apostles. The word Apostolic is essential because the Church uninterruptedly and
without change has preserved the Apostolic teaching and the succession of the gift
of the Holy Spirit through holy ordination.
The highest visible authority in the Church belongs to the Ecumenical
Council. Primacy in the Ecumenical Church is composed of the patriarchs, then of
lesser prelates — metropolitans, archbishops and bishops. Local councils, if their
decisions are in agreement with the spirit of Orthodoxy as revealed in the past,
also have authority.
The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is furthermore
called Orthodox (from the Greek, ortho, correct, straight, true, and doxa, glory,
worship, in the sense also of dogma, piety, teaching), because, under the guidance
of the Holy Spirit, It unchanging, correctly and gloriously keeps the teachings
of Jesus Christ — so that we may glorify God in a way that pleases Him.
The Tenth Article of the Creed.
10. I confess one Baptism for the remission of sins.
The tenth article of the Creed speaks about the Mystery of Baptism
and about the remaining Mysteries.
Jesus Christ, sending His disciples out to preach, said, Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and added, Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you (Matt. 28:19-20). By this the Lord clearly stated
that other mysteries had been established by Him.
By sacraments, or mysteries, are meant those holy acts through
which the Holy Spirit mysteriously and invisibly confers Grace (the saving power
of God) upon man.
The holy Orthodox Church has seven Mysteries: Baptism, Chrismation,
Confession, Holy Communion, Marriage, Ordination, and Holy Unction.
The Symbol of Faith mentions only Baptism because that Mystery
is the door into the Church of Christ. Only those who have been baptized can avail
themselves of the other sacraments.
Moreover, at the time of the composition of the Creed, there
were quarrels and doubts. For example, some thought that heretics who returned to
the Church should be baptized a second time. The Ecumenical Council said that Baptism
could be performed only one time for any given person. Therefore it is said — “I
confess one Baptism.” It is understood that this one Baptism must be performed in
the true Church for it to be valid. This is true of all the Mysteries.
The Mystery of Baptism.
The Mystery of Baptism is the sacred act in which the believer
in Christ, through threefold bodily immersion in water, while calling upon the name
of the Holy Trinity — the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit — is washed of
all sin committed by him prior to Baptism and given the grace to fight against the
inclination to sin which has become habitual in man since the sin of Adam and Eve.
The believer is reborn by the grace of the Holy Spirit into new spiritual life and
becomes a member of the Church.
The Mystery of Baptism was established by our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. He sanctified Baptism by His own example, being baptized by St. John the
Baptist. Then, after His Resurrection, He gave the Apostles the commandment: Go
ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).
Baptism is necessary for anyone who wishes to be a member of
the Church of Christ. “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the Kingdom of God,” said the Lord Himself (John 3:5). To receive Baptism
it is necessary to have faith and repentance.
The Orthodox Church baptizes infants on the faith of their parents
and godparents. Present at the Baptism are godparents, to whom the faith of the
baptized child is entrusted before the Church. When the child grows older, the godparents
are obliged to teach him the faith and to endeavor to help the baptized become a
true Christian. This is the sacred responsibility of the godparents, and they sin
grievously if they neglect their duty. That the gifts of the Spirit are given on
the faith of others, we are given proof of in the Gospels, concerning the healing
of the cripple: When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy,
Son, thy sins be forgiven thee (Mark 2:5).
Sectarians contend that babies should not be baptized and criticize
the Orthodox for performing the sacrament for infants. The foundation for the baptism
of infants is that Baptism has replaced the Old Testament circumcision, which was
done when an infant was eight days old. Christian Baptism is called circumcision
made without hands (Col. 2:11-12). The Apostles baptized whole families in which
without doubt there were children. Babies as well as adults are participants in
the sinful inclination inherited from Adam and have need to be cleansed and strengthened
against it.
The Lord Himself said, Suffer (let) the little children to come
unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God (Luke 18:16).
Thus, Baptism is spiritual birth, and as a person is born once,
so also the Sacrament of Baptism is done once, One Lord, one faith, one baptism
(Eph. 4:5).
The Mystery of Chrismation.
Chrismation is the Mystery which bestows the gifts of the Holy
Spirit on the believer in order to strengthen him in the Christian spiritual life.
Jesus Christ spoke about the gifts of Grace of the Holy Spirit
when He said, He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that
believe on Him should receive: For the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that
Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:38-39).
The Apostle Paul says, Now He which establisheth us with you
in Christ, and hath anointed us is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest
(i.e., pledge or token) of the Spirit in our hearts (II Cor. 1:21-22).
The gifts of Grace of the Holy Spirit are necessary for every
believer in Christ. There are furthermore extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit
which are conveyed only to certain people, such as prophets, apostles and kings.
The first Apostles accomplished the Mystery of Chrismation through
the laying on of hands (Acts 8:14-17; 19:2-6). Then at the end of the first century,
the Mystery of Chrismation came to be performed by anointment with holy oil, after
the example of the Old Testament Church, as the Apostles themselves were not always
able to perform the Mystery through the laying on of hands.
Holy Chrism is special oil that is prepared in a prescribed manner
from fragrant substances and is then consecrated.
The first chrism was sanctified by the Apostles themselves and
their successors, the bishops. Only bishops may consecrate this chrism. By anointing
with the chrism sanctified by the bishops, priests are able to perform the Mystery
of Chrismation.
During the performance of the Mystery with the holy chrism, they
anoint the following parts of the body with the sign of the Cross, the forehead,
eyes, ears, mouth, chest, hands and feet, while pronouncing the words, “The seal
of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
The Mystery of Confession.
Confession is the Mystery in which the believer admits his sins
before God in the presence of a priest and receives through the priest forgiveness
of sins as if from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Jesus Christ gave to the Apostles, and through them to all priests,
the power to forgive sins. Receive ye the Holy Spirit: whosesoever sins ye remit,
they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained (John
20:22-23).
Even John the Baptist, preparing people to receive the Saviour,
preached the Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ... And were all baptized
of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins (Mark 1:4-5).
Having received this power from the Lord, the Apostles performed
the Mystery of Confession: And many that believed came, and confessed, and showed
their deeds (Acts 19:18).
Forgiveness of sins (absolution) by means of confession requires
peace with all one’s neighbors, sincere contrition for sins committed, confession,
firm determination to correct one’s life, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and hope
in His mercy.
In certain cases an “epitimia” (a Greek word meaning “prohibition”
or “restriction”) is laid on the repenting believer, consisting of some pious act
or some deprivation directed at overcoming a sinful habit.
The Mystery of Holy Communion.
Holy Communion is the Mystery in which the faithful Orthodox
Christian receives, in the form of bread and wine, the Body and Blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and through this Mystery is united with Christ and becomes a participant
in eternal life.
The Mystery of Holy Communion was established by our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself at the time of the Mystical Supper, on the evening before His suffering
and death. He Himself celebrated the Mystery first. “Jesus took bread, and gave
thanks (to God the Father for all His mercy toward mankind), and brake it, and gave
it to His disciples, saying, Take, eat; this is My body.’
“And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
‘Drink ye all of it; For this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for
many for the remission of sins’ “ (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-24;
I Cor. 11:23-25).
Then, after establishing the Mystery of Holy Communion, Jesus
Christ commanded the disciples to perform it at all times: “This do in remembrance
of Me.”
In instructing the people, Jesus Christ said, Except ye eat the
flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whosoever
eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up
at the last day. For My Flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that
eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him (John 6:53-56).
In obedience to the commandments of Christ, the Mystery of Holy
Communion is continually celebrated in the Church of Christ and will be continued
until the end of the age, during the service known as the Divine Liturgy, when the
bread and wine, by the power and the action of the Holy Spirit, is changed into
the true body and true blood of Christ.
The bread used for Holy Communion is a single loaf, as all the
believers in Christ constitute His one body, the head of which is Christ Himself.
For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that
one bread, said the Apostle Paul (I Cor. 10:17).
The first Christians received Holy Communion every Sunday. The
Church commands us to receive Holy Communion at least once during every fast, and
as often as possible.
Preparation for receiving the Mystery of Holy Communion consists
of fasting, prayer, reconciliation with all, and then, Confession, that is, cleansing
of the conscience in the Mystery of Confession.
The Mystery of Holy Communion, in Greek, is called the Eucharist,
which means “thanksgiving.”
The Mystery of Marriage.
Marriage is the Mystery during which public vows are made before
the priest and the Church by the groom and the bride to be faithful to each other.
Their conjugal union is blessed as an image of the spiritual union of Christ with
the Church. The Grace of God is requested and given for their mutual assistance,
unanimity, and for the blessed procreation and Christian upbringing of children.
Marriage was established by God in Paradise. At the time of the
creation of Adam and Eve, God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it (Gen. 1:28).
Jesus Christ sanctified Marriage by His own presence at the wedding
in Cana of Galilee and confirmed it as a divine institution by saying, Have ye not
read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female (Gen. 1:27).
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to
his wife: and the twain shall be one flesh (Gen. 2:24). Wherefore they are no more
twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder
(Matt. 19:4-6).
The Apostle Paul compares the union of marriage with the union
of Christ and the Church (cf. Ephes. 5:22-32).
The union of Jesus Christ with the Church is founded upon the
love of Christ for the Church, and on the complete devotion of the Church to the
will of Christ. Hence the husband is obliged to love his wife selflessly, and the
wife is obliged to voluntarily, lovingly obey her husband.
Husbands, says the Apostle Paul, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, and gave Himself for it... he that loveth his wife loveth
himself (Eph. 5:25,48). Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto
the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of
the church: and He is the Saviour of the body (Eph. 5:22-23). Therefore each spouse,
husband or wife, is obliged to preserve mutual love and respect, mutual sacrifice
and fidelity. Like all Sacraments, Marriage is given to man in order to help him
save his soul. If the husband and wife do not live in a Christian manner the Sacrament
of Marriage will not save them. Good Christian family life is the source of personal
and public good. The family is the foundation of the Church of Christ.
The Mystery of Marriage is not obligatory for all, but individuals
who willingly remain unmarried are obliged to lead clean, pure and virgin lives,
which, by the teaching of the Word of God, is higher than married life and is one
of the greatest spiritual feats (Matt. 19:11-12; I Cor. 7:8,9,26,32,35,37,40).
The Mystery of Ordination.
Ordination is the Mystery in which a duly appointed man, through
the laying on of hands by the bishop, receives the Grace of the Holy Spirit, strengthening
him for divine service in the Church of Christ as bishop, presbyter (priest), or
deacon. This Mystery is performed only for people selected and consecrated to become
clergy. The degrees of the clergy are three: deacon, priest, and bishop.
A man ordained deacon receives Grace to assist during the performance
of Mysteries. A man ordained priest receives Grace to celebrate the Mysteries. A
man ordained bishop receives Grace not only to celebrate the Mysteries, but also
to ordain others to celebrate the Mysteries.
The Mystery of Ordination is divinely established. The Apostle
Paul testified that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave some, apostles; and some,
prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
The Apostles, performing this Mystery under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, raised up deacons, presbyters, and bishops, through the laying on of
hands.
The selection and ordination of the first deacons by the Apostles
is described in the book of Acts: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they
had prayed, they laid hands on them (Acts 6:6).
With regard to the ordination of presbyters it is written, And
when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting,
they commended them to the Lord, on Whom they believed (Acts 14:23).
In the epistles of the Apostle Paul to the bishops Timothy and
Titus it is said, Wherefore I put thee (Bishop Timothy) in remembrance that thou
stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands (II Tim
1:6). For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the
things that are wanting, and ordain presbyters in every city, as I had appointed
thee (Titus 1:5). Appealing to Timothy, the Apostle Paul says, Lay hands suddenly
on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure (I Tim 5:22).
Against a presbyter receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses
(I Tim 5:19).
The Mystery of Holy Unction.
Holy Unction is the Mystery for the sick in which by anointing
with Holy Oil, the Grace of God is invoked for physical and spiritual healing.
From these letters we see that the Apostles reserved to the bishops
the power to ordain presbyters through the laying on of hands, and to have jurisdiction
over presbyters, deacons, and servers.
The Mystery of Holy Unction is still called in Russian soborovaniye,
“the gathering,” because several clergymen are called to perform it, although if
necessary, it can be done by one priest.
The Mystery comes from the Apostles. Having received from the
Lord Jesus Christ power in the time of preaching to heal all the sick and infirm,
they anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them (Mark 6:13).
Especially detailed is the account of this Mystery by the Apostle
James. 7s any sick among you? Let him call for the presbyters of the church; and
let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the
prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he
have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him (James 5:14-15).
The Apostles did not preach anything of their own but taught
only that which was commanded them by the Lord and that which was inspired by the
Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul says, But I certify you brethren, that the Gospel
which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither
was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal 1:11-12).
Holy Unction is not given to infants because infants cannot knowingly
commit sins.
The Eleventh Article of the Creed.
11. I look for the resurrection of the dead.
The eleventh article of the Creed speaks about the general resurrection
of the dead, which will come at the end of the world.
The resurrection of the dead that we look for will occur at the
same time as the second and glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. At that time
all the bodies of the dead will be united with their souls, and they will come to
life.
Faith in the resurrection of the dead was expressed as early
as Abraham, at the time of the sacrifice of his son Isaac (cf. Heb. 11:17); by Job
in the midst of his extreme suffering, For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that
He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin has been
thus destroyed, yet in my flesh shall I see God (Job 19:25-26); the Prophet Isaiah,
Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and
sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth
shall cast out the dead (Isaiah 26:19).
The Prophet Ezekiel contemplated the resurrection of the dead
in a vision of a field strewn with dry bones. By the will of the Holy Spirit the
bones came together, bone to bone, became covered with flesh, and the breath of
the Spirit came into them (Ezekiel 37).
Jesus Christ speaks about the resurrection of the dead more than
once, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead
shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live (John 5:25).
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves
shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection
of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (John
5:28-29). Whosoever eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life: and
I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:54).
In answering the questions of the unbelieving Sadducees about
the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ said, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures,
nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither many, nor are given in
marriage, but are as the angels of God in Heaven. But as touching the resurrection
of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God
of the dead, but of the living (Matt. 22:29-32).
The Apostle Paul says, But now is Christ risen from the dead,
and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by Man
came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive (I Cor. 15:20-22).
At the moment of the general resurrection the bodies of dead
people shall be changed. In essence, the bodies will be the same as we now have,
but in quality they will excel our present bodies. They will be spiritual, incorruptible
and immortal. Changed also will be the bodies of those people who are alive at the
time of the second coming of the Saviour. The Apostle Paul says: It is sown a natural
body; it is raised a spiritual body ... we shall not all sleep, but we shall all
be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed (I Cor. 15:44, 51-52).
Corresponding to the change in man himself, all the visible world
will change. From the corruptible it will turn into the incorruptible.
The souls of people who died before the general resurrection
exist under differing conditions. The souls of the righteous will experience a foretaste
of eternal blessedness, and the souls of sinners a foretaste of eternal torment.
The state of the souls of the dead is determined at the particular judgment, which
takes place after the death of each person. This is clearly evident from the teaching
of the Lord Jesus Christ about the rich man and Lazarus (cf. Luke 16:19-31). The
Apostle Paul also points this out when he says, Having a desire to depart, and to
be with Christ; which is far better (Philip. 1:23,24).
Death has great significance in the life of every man. It is
the demarcation point by which the time of preparation is ended and the time of
reward is begun. But as this particular judgment is not final, the souls of sinful
people who died with faith in Christ and repentance are able, to receive relief
from suffering beyond the grave and even be completely delivered from it by the
prayers of the Church, augmented by works of charity done for them by the living,
and especially by commemorating them in the bloodless sacrifice of the Body and
Blood of Christ. For this purpose the Orthodox Church established commemoration
of the dead, which has been performed regularly since Apostolic times. Commemoration
of the dead comprises one of the main parts of the Divine Liturgy. This is evident
from the first Christian Liturgy of the Apostle James.
The Apostle John says, If any man see his brother sin a sin which
is not unto death, he shall ask, and He (God) shall give him life (I John 5:16).
The Apostle Paul in his epistle to Bishop Timothy writes, I exhort
therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving
of thanks, be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority; that
we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is
good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be
saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth (I Tim. 2:1-4).
The Apostle James says, Confess your faults one to another and
pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much (James 5:16).
If we should pray for the living, then we should also pray for
the dead, because to God there are no dead. To God all are living. The Lord Jesus
Christ Himself said, For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all
live unto Him (Luke 20:38).
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians, For whether we live,
we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live
therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s (Rom. 14:8).
Even in the Old Testament it was the custom to pray for the dead.
Thus, for example, the Prophet Baruch prayed for the dead saying, Lord Almighty,
God of Israel! Hear the prayer of the dead of Israel and of their sons who sinned
before Thee... Do not bring to remembrance the unrighteousness of our fathers (Baruch
3:4-5). Judas Maccabaeus prayed and brought offerings for dead soldiers (II Mace.
12:39-45). Thus, teachings about prayer for the dead are founded upon Holy Scriptures
as well as Holy Tradition.
Discussion of the General Resurrection
of the Dead.
The truth of the general resurrection of the dead is clearly
and definitively revealed in the Holy Scriptures. It also flows from the fundamental
powers of our immortal souls, and from our understanding of an Eternal, Omnipresent
and All-righteous God.
As early as the Old Testament, the righteous had faith in the
general resurrection of the dead on the basis of Divine Revelation (Job 19:25-26;
Isaiah 26:19; Ezekiel 37; Daniel 12:2; Mace. 7:9 and others).
In general, all of the righteous people in the Old testament
considered themselves strangers and pilgrims on this earth and sought the Heavenly
Fatherland (Heb. 11:13-20).
Through the Prophet Hosea the Lord said, I will ransom them from
the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, Where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory? repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes (Hosea 13:14).
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ preaches about the
resurrection of the dead clearly and definitely: Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God: and they that hear shall live... they that have done good, unto the resurrection
of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (John
5:25,29).
The Saviour affirms the teaching of the resurrection by the Mystery
of Holy Communion. Whosoever eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal
life; and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:54).
When the Saviour speaks about the purpose of His advent on earth,
He points out eternal life specifically. For God so loved the world, that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life (John 3:15-16).
During His stay on earth the Saviour raised the dead, and He
Himself rose from the dead, becoming, according to the words of the Apostle Paul,
the firstfruits of them that slept (I Cor. 15:20).
The Apostle placed the truth of the resurrection of the dead
above all doubt and contended that it is intimately connected with the resurrection
of Christ and with all the teaching in the Gospels. Now if Christ be preached that
He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the
dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And
if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain, and your faith is also in
vain... If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept
(I Cor. 15:12-20).
Besides that, the Apostle Paul points out the natural phenomenon
in nature which convinces us of the truth of the resurrection. But some man will
say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? Thou fool, that
which thou sowest is not quickened except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou
sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain; it may of chance be wheat, or
of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every
seed his own body... So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption;
it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it
is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised
a spiritual body (I Cor. 15:35-44).
The Lord Himself said, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit (John 12:24).
Nature itself shows us this marvelous, authentic phenomenon. A kernel, thrown on
the ground decomposes, decays, rots — and then what? Is that all that occurs? No,
not at all! From it begins growth. It grows into ears with new grains, despite the
fact that it appeared to be reduced to dust. Is not this marvel worthy of our attention?
Is it not obvious that this witnesses to the fact that the Omniscient Creator through
death lays the beginning of life, and out of ruin creates new being?
Thus, the mystery of the resurrection of the dead is always before
our eyes. It is evident to us in nature, and strengthens our faith, and denounces
our skepticism.
But, in spite of this, the question may occur in our soul, “How
can the dead be raised, when the body of the dead turns into dust and is destroyed?”
If Almighty God gave us existence once from a handful of earth, then obviously He
can take the handful of earth a second time and reanimate it. If God brought forth
the whole world from chaos; if He created it from nothing, then is it possible that
He is unable to form our bodies anew from a handful of earth, and give us the same
bodies as before, only in a renewed form?
Figuratively, the Lord already showed the Prophet the mystery
of our resurrection from the dead. He was shown a vision of a field strewn with
the dry bones of men. From these bones, by the word of God uttered by the Son of
man, the figures of men were formed and, perhaps by the same capability as existed
at the primeval creation of man, the Spirit reanimated them. By the word of the
Lord, as dictated to the Prophet, first movement occurred in the bones, bone became
joined to bone, each according to its place; then the bones became bound with tendons,
clothed with flesh, and covered with skin. Finally, upon the second sound of the
voice of God, pronounced by the Son of man, the spirit of life came forth in them.
They all began to live, stood on their feet, and they constituted a great multitude
of people (Ezek. 37:1-10). Will not the future resurrection of the dead follow likewise?
Wonderful indeed are the works of God! Marvelous is the holy faith that we profess!
Thus, by the righteous determination of God, our frail body,
like a seed, is condemned to die at first. It decays to dust, and then rises again.
The place where the dead are interred is in essence a cornfield, in which our bodies
are sown by the hand of death, like seeds. The earth, our mother, is a stronghold,
where in the midst of decay, our immortality is kept. It is sown a natural body;
it is raised a spiritual body (I Cor. 15:44).
God did not condemn us to death in order to obliterate His creation,
but in order to recreate it, to make it capable of future imperishable life.
It remains for us people to reverently submit to the wise judgment
of God, to accept with faith Divine Revelation about our fate, and to look with
Christian hope for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come.
(Taken from the book Lessons and Examples of Christian Faith, and other books by
Archpriest Gregory Diachenko.).
The Twelfth Article of the Creed.
12. And (look for) the life of the age to come. Amen.
The twelfth article of the Creed mentions the life of the future
age; that is, the eternal life which will begin after the general resurrection of
the dead, the renewal of the whole world, and Christ’s judgment over all.
For righteous people, eternal life will be so joyful and blessed
that in our present state we are not even able to describe it. The Apostle Paul
says, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him (I Cor. 2:9).
This understanding of the blessedness of the righteous arises
from visions of God in light and glory, and from union with Him. In Paradise, the
souls of the righteous will be united with bodies which will be illumined with the
light of God as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ was at the time of His Transfiguration
on Mount Tabor.
The Apostle Paul writes, It is sown in dishonour; it is raised
in glory (I Cor. 15:43).
The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13:43).
The states of the righteous will be in various degrees of blessedness,
corresponding to the virtue of each. The Apostle Paul said, There is one glory of
the sun, and another of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth
from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead (I Cor. 15:41-42).
For unbelievers and unrepentant sinners life in the future age
will be one of eternal torment. The Lord says to them, Depart from Me ye cursed,
into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels ... and these shall
go away into everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:41,46).
This torment of sinners will proceed from their estrangement
from God, from the clear realization of their sins, from severe pangs of conscience,
from having to stay among evil spirits where the eternal, unquenchable fire burns.
What is this unquenchable fire? The Word of God does not define
it, but uses the term to portray the inexplicable, inexpressible torment of hell.
Thus punishment of sinners will not be because God wants them
destroyed, but they themselves perish because they did not accept the love of truth
for their salvation (II Thess. 2:10).
The Creed is concluded with the word “Amen,” which means “truly”
or “so be it.” By saying this word after the Creed, we attest to the fact that all
that is stated therein we acknowledge to be undoubtedly and invariably true.
Return to Index
5. Christian Life.
Genuine good
Christian life may be led only by those who have faith in Christ and who strive
to live by this faith; that is, those who by their good works fulfill the will of
God. Good works are an expression of our love, and love is the foundation of all
Christian life. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God
in him (John 4:16). For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John
3:16). Thus God by this act revealed His love to mankind.
Love which is not accompanied by good works is not true love,
but is merely lip service. That is why the Word of God says, Faith without works
is dead (James 2:20). The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, Not every one that saith
unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 7:21). For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10).
Furthermore we have received from God special means for discerning
good deeds from evil. The means are the internal law of God, or conscience, and
the external law of God, or the His commandments of God.
The word conscience denotes the internal, spiritual strength
of a man, or the manifestation of the soul of a man. The conscience, as the internal
law of God (“voice of God”), is present in every person.
The conscience is the internal voice which tells us what is good
and what is evil, what is proper and what is improper, what is righteous and what
is not. The voice of the conscience obligates us to do good and to shun evil. For
every thing good the conscience rewards us with internal peace and calm. For everything
wrong, incorrect, improper, or evil, the conscience judges and punishes so that
a person acting against the conscience feels himself in moral discord, tormented
by pangs of conscience.
But the conscience, as the spiritual strength of a man, requires
development and improvement along with the other spiritual faculties of a man, namely,
with his mind, heart, and will. The mind, heart, and will of man have become darkened
from the time of Adam and Eve. From that time the voice of conscience has been shown
to be weak and insufficient as a manifestation of spiritual strength. If man does
not develop spiritual strength in himself, then the internal voice of conscience
in man falls asleep by degrees and dies, as in a “man without conscience.”
From this it is clear that the internal law of conscience alone
is not enough for man. Even in Paradise God revealed His will to the first people.
It follows that in order to exist in an innocent, righteous state, it is necessary
for a man to have the external law from God. Even more so is it needed as a result
of the fall from Grace.
In order that man would always remain in “fear of his conscience,”
the Lord God gave us the external law, the commandments of God.
This law was given in its simplest form in Old Testament times,
when Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai. The most important Ten Commandments
were written on two stone tablets. These commandments were made more profound and
lofty in the Saviour’s Sermon on the Mount, in His nine points known as the Beatitudes.
But the Lord also confirmed that the Old Testament Ten Commandments were to be known
and fulfilled.
The Saviour said, Think not that I am come to destroy the Law,
or the prophets: lam not come to destroy but to fulfill (Matt. 5:17).
When a young man asked, Good Master, what good thing shall I
do, that I may have eternal life? — the Lord answered right away, // thou wilt enter
into life, keep the commandments (Matt. 19:16-17).
However, the Lord taught that these commandments, according to
His interpretation, must be kept to a high degree of perfection. Thus, the Lord
Jesus Christ suggests that believers should not only shun transgression of the Law,
but should not even think about it or desire it, thus requiring from them a more
clean heart.
Return to Index
6. The Ten Commandments of God’s Law.
1. I am the Lord thy God. Thou
shall have no other gods beside Me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above, nor
that is in the earth beneath, nor that is in the waters under the earth: thou
shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them.
3. Thou shalt not take the Name
of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to
keep it holy; Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh
day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
5. Honor thy father and thy
mother that it may be well with thee and that thy days may 7. be long on the
earth.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit
adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor’s wife; thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house, nor his land, nor
his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any of his
cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.
The Ten Commandments of the Law were arranged on two tablets
because they legislate two aspects of love: love for God and love for neighbor.
Indicating these two aspects of love, the Lord Jesus Christ in
answering the question, Which is the greatest commandment in the Law? said, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto
it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all
the Law and the prophets (Matt. 22:37-40).
To love God is our first and most important obligation, because
He is our Creator, Provider, and Saviour. For in Him we live, and move, and have
our being (Acts 17:28).
Then follows the obligation to love our neighbor, which serves
as an expression of our love for God. Whoever does not love his neighbor does not
love God. The Apostle John the Theologian explains, If a man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (I John 4:20).
By loving God and neighbor we discover true love for ourself,
because true love for ourself consists in fulfilling our obligations towards God
and neighbor. It is expressed in care for one’s soul, in cleansing oneself of sin,
in subordinating the body to the spirit, in limiting our personal necessities. We
must guard our health and care for the development of our spiritual strength and
capacities in order to manifest our love to God and neighbor.
By this concept, love of ourself is shown not to be a detriment
to our neighbor. On the contrary, we owe love to ourselves in order to bring sacrificial
love to our neighbor. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends (his neighbors) (John 15:13). Love toward ourself and love
toward our neighbor must be offered as a sacrifice of love to God. The Lord Jesus
Christ speaks about this thus: He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not
worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
And he that taketh not his cross (i.e., who, from all his superfluous burdens of
life, refuses the suffering and trials which the Lord sends, but instead goes the
easy path of wickedness) and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me (Matt. 10:37-38).
If a man first of all loves God, then naturally he cannot fail
to love father and mother and children and all his neighbors; and this love is sanctified
by Divine Grace. If a man loves anyone of these without loving God, then such love
may even be criminal, as, for example, when a man for the happiness of a beloved
friend might deprive others of their happiness, treat them unjustly, cruelly, etc.
Thus, although all the commandments and the Law of God are contained
in two commandments of love, in order to more clearly show us our obligations to
God and neighbor, they are further broken down into the Ten Commandments. Our obligations
to God are described in the first four commandments, and our obligations to our
neighbor — in the last six commandments.
The First Commandment of the Law
of God.
I. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods beside
Me.
The first commandment of the Lord God asserts His existence and
admonishes us to honor Him, the One true God. We must not render divine homage to
anyone but Him. That is, we must study what is written by God and about Him, or
theology.
Theology is the highest branch of knowledge. It is our first
and most important obligation. All scholarly human knowledge loses its true meaning,
its underlying idea and purpose, if it is not illumined by the light of theology.
Instead of good, such knowledge leads to a life of much evil.
In order to acquire knowledge of the true God, we must:
1. Read and thoroughly study the Holy
Scriptures, which convey to us true and most perfect knowledge of God.
2. Read the works of the Holy Fathers
and teachers of the Church, which is necessary in order to understand the Holy Scriptures
rightly and to guard oneself from incorrect interpretations and thinking.
3. Frequently attend church, because
in the church services are contained lessons about God and His works.
4. Listen to the sermons of the priest
and read books of religious and moral content.
5. Study the works of God — nature,
as well as the story of the race of man, which reveal to us God’s marvelous plan.
This commandment imposes on us definite obligations of worship.
We must:
1. Believe in God, that is, have the
most sincere and firm conviction of His existence.
2. Walk before the Lord, that is, always
be conscious of God and do everything as before the eyes of God (behave carefully),
and always remember that God sees not only our deeds but also our thoughts.
3. Place our hope in God, love God,
and obey God. Always be ready to do what He commands and not grumble when He does
not do for us as we ourselves would like. In fact, only God knows when and what
to give to us, and what is profitable and what is harmful to us.
The highest form of love of God is respect,
or fear of God — fear to become estranged from God because of our sins.
4. Do homage to God, glorify and give
thanks to the Lord God, our Creator, Provider and Saviour, remembering all His gifts
and mercy to us.
5. Fearlessly confess God before all.
Acknowledge that He is our God, and do not abandon the faith even though this confession
might bring suffering and even death.
Sins against the first commandment are:
1. Atheism — when people completely
reject the existence of God. Such people the Prophet David calls fools. The fool
hath said in his heart, There is no God (Ps.l3:l).
2. Polytheism — when instead of the
One true God, people acknowledge many imaginary gods.
3. Unbelief — when people, while acknowledging
the existence of God, do not believe in His Divine Providence and Revelation. This
unbelief often comes from incorrect education and upbringing, from pride and conceit,
from enthusiasm for evil examples, from careless regard for the guidance of the
Church, and from a sinful life.
4. Heresy — when people imagine or invent
teachings contrary to God’s truth, or stubbornly and intentionally distort the truth
of God.
5. Schism — self-willed deviation from
the union of Divine worship, from union with the Orthodox Church.
6. Apostasy — when people disavow the
true faith, fearing such things as persecution and mockery; or from enthusiasm for
false teachings.
7. Despair — when people, forgetting
the endless mercy of God, do not hope to receive from God help and salvation. Horrible
examples of despair occur in cases of suicide.
8. Sorcery (witchery) — when people,
abandoning faith in the power of God, turn to various occult and evil powers.
9. Superstition — when people believe
in some ordinary thing or occurrence, attributing supernatural powers to it.
10. Laziness in prayer and in all pious
deeds.
11. Love for creatures, including people,
more than for God.
12. Flattery — when people care more
about pleasing other people than pleasing God.
13. Self-sufficiency — when people hope
more in themselves or in other people than in the mercy and help of God.
The commandment of God does not contradict our obligation to
venerate angels and saints of God and to pray to them. We honor them not as God
Himself, but as faithful servants of God, who are obedient and who lead God-pleasing
lives. The angels and saints of God are close to God and are able to intercede on
our behalf. We must ask their help and defense in firm trust that the Lord, for
their sake, quickly hears our sinful prayers. The Word of God says, Pray for one
another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much (James 5:16). For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living:
for all live unto Him (Luke 20:38).
The Second Commandment of the Law
of God.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the waters under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them,
nor serve them.
The second commandment of the Lord God prohibits idolatry, that
is, forbids making any idols for worship, or rendering homage to likenesses of anything
that we see in heaven (sun, moon, stars), or that is found on earth (plants, animals,
people), or found in the waters (fish). The Lord forbids worshipping and serving
these idols instead of the true God, as pagans do.
In forbidding worship of idols, one must never be confused about
the Orthodox veneration of holy icons and relics. Protestants and various sectarians
criticize us for “worshipping them.” But in venerating holy icons we do not consider
them gods or idols. They are only likenesses, representations of God, or of the
angels or of the saints. The word icon comes from the Greek and means likeness.
In venerating icons and praying before icons, we do not pray to the material icons
(the paint, wood or metal), but to the saint who is represented thereon.
Everyone knows how much easier it is to turn one’s thoughts to
the Saviour when he sees His Most-pure Image or His Cross, than when he sees only
empty walls, or a bookcase.
Holy icons are given to us for venerating the memory of the acts
of God and His saints and for devoted elevation of our thoughts to God and His saints.
Veneration of icons warms our hearts with love for our Creator and Saviour. Holy
icons are similar to the Holy Scriptures, except that they are written with faces
and objects instead of letters.
Even in the Old Testament icons were used. At the same time that
Moses received the commandment forbidding idols, he received from God instructions
to place in the Tabernacle, the mobile Hebrew temple, holy gold icons of Cherubim
on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. The Lord said to Moses, Make them in the
two ends of the mercy seat... and there I will meet with thee, and I will commune
with thee from above the mercy seat from between the two Cherubim which are upon
the Ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto
the children of Israel (Exod. 25:18,22). The Lord also ordered Moses to make likenesses
of cherubim on the veil separating the Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies; and on
the interior side of the veil covering, a fine cloth of ancient times, thought to
have been made of linen, fine wool, cotton or silk, which covered not only the top
but the sides of the Tabernacle (cf. Exod. 26:1-37).
In Solomon’s Temple there were sculptured and embroidered icons
of Cherubim on all the walls and on the Temple veil (cf. I Kings 6:27-29; II Chron.
3:7-14). The Cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant were consecrated (cf. II Chron.
3:10). When the Temple was ready, the glory of the Lord (in the form of a cloud)
filled the temple (I Kings 8:11). The likenesses of the Cherubim were pleasing to
the Lord, and the people, looking at them, prayed and worshipped.
There were no icons of the Lord God in the Tabernacle or in the
Temple of Solomon, because He had not yet revealed Himself in the flesh as God incarnate.
There were no likenesses of the Old Testament righteous men, because the people
had not yet been redeemed and justified (Rom. 3:9,25; Matt. 11:11).
The Lord Jesus Christ sent a miraculous icon of His Face to King
Abgar of Edessa. It was known as the Icon-Not-Made-By-Hands. Praying before the
Icon-Not-Made-By-Hands of Christ, Abgar was healed of an incurable illness. The
Evangelist Luke was a physician and an artist. He painted and left for posterity
icons of the Mother of God. Several of them are found in Russia and in Greece.
Many holy icons have been glorified by miracles.
Likenesses of animals or even of the Devil do not defile a holy
icon if they are necessary to depict an event necessary for visual instruction.
As is known, mention of them in writing does not defile the Holy Scriptures.
Nor does veneration of holy relics contradict the second commandment.
In the holy relics we honor the Grace of God, which acts through the remains of
the saints.
For Christians, idolatry in the form handed down to us from pagans
is impossible. However, instead of uncivilized idolatry, there exist among us much
more subtle forms of idolatry, such idolatry as worship of sinful passions like
greed, gluttony, pride, vanity, lust and so on.
Covetousness (greed) is the desire to acquire wealth. The Apostle
Paul says that covetousness... is idolatry (Col. 3:5). For the rich man love of
gain is an idol which he serves and worships more than God.
Gluttony consists of love of dainty dishes and drunkenness. The
Apostle Paul says about people who put the feeling of satisfaction for food and
drink as the highest thing in life, that their god is their belly (Philip. 3:19).
Pride and Vanity. The proud and vain man has an excessively high
opinion of his worth, his intelligence, beauty, and wealth. The vain man considers
only himself. He considers his ideas and wishes higher than the will of God. He
regards the opinions and advice of other people with contempt and derision, but
his own ideas he does not reject, no matter how false they may be. The greedy and
vain person makes an idol of himself, both for himself and for others.
By prohibiting these lesser idols, the second commandment inspires
the following virtues in their place: unacquisitiveness, generosity, self-denial,
fasting, and humility.
The Third Commandment of the Law
of God.
3. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.
The third commandment forbids us to pronounce the name of God
in vain, without due reverence. One uses the name of God in vain when one pronounces
it in empty conversation, in jest and in sport.
Forbidding the use of God’s name thoughtlessly or disrespectfully,
this commandment forbids the sins which come from thoughtlessness and irreverence
in regard to God. Among such sins are:
Swearing — thoughtless, habitual oaths
in casual conversation;
Blasphemy — audacious words against
God;
Sacrilege — when people scoff or jest
at sacred things;
Breaking promises given to God;
Perjury (oath breaking);
Making false oaths by the name of God.
The name of God must be pronounced with awe and reverence, in
prayer, in studies about God, and in lawful vows and oaths.
Reverent, lawful vows are not forbidden by this commandment.
God Himself used an oath about which the Apostle Paul reminisces in his epistle
to the Hebrews: For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation
is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto
the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath (Heb.
6:16-17).
The Fourth Commandment of the Law
of God.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt
thou labor, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord
thy God.
The fourth commandment of the Lord God directs that six days
be spent in labor and devoted to duties such as one’s vocation, but that the seventh
day be devoted to the service of God, for holy work and acts pleasing to God.
Holy works and acts pleasing to God are understood to be: work
for the salvation of one’s soul, prayer both in church and at home, study of the
commandments of God, enlightenment of the mind and heart by wholesome learning,
reading of the Holy Scriptures and other spiritually helpful books, pious conversation,
helping the poor, visiting the sick and prisoners, comforting the grieving, and
other good deeds.
In the Old Testament, the Sabbath (which in Hebrew means rest,
peace) is celebrated on the seventh day of the week, Saturday, in remembrance of
God’s creation of the world (on the seventh day God rested from acts of creation).
In the New Testament, at the time of the Apostles, it began to be celebrated on
the first day of the week, Sunday, in remembrance of the resurrection of Christ.
In the category of the seventh day it is necessary to include
not only the day of the Resurrection, but also other feast days and fasts established
by the Church. In the Old Testament the Sabbath also included other feasts: Passover,
Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles, etc.
The most important Christian feast day is called “The Feast of
Feasts” and “The Triumph of Triumphs,” the Bright Resurrection of Christ, called
Holy Pascha (Easter), which occurs on the first Sunday after the spring full moon,
after the Jewish Passover, in the period between the 22nd of March (April 4th new
style) and the 25th of April (May 8th, new style).
Then follow the twelve great feasts established to honor our
Lord Jesus Christ and His Mother, the Holy Virgin Mary:
1. The Nativity of the Theotokos
September 8 (21, n.s.).
2. The Entry into the Temple of the
Theotokos, November 21 (December 4, n.s.).
3. The Annunciation of the
Most-holy Virgin Mary, March 25 (April 7, n.s.).
4. The Nativity of Christ, December
25 (January 7, n.s.).
5. The Entry of the Lord, February
2 (15, n.s.).
6. The Theophany (or Epiphany),
January 6 (19, n.s.).
7. The Transfiguration of our Lord
Jesus Christ, August 6 (19, n.s.).
8. The Entrance of the Lord into
Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), the last Sunday before Pascha.
9. The Ascension of our Lord Jesus
Christ, on the fortieth day after Pascha.
10. Pentecost, or Trinity Sunday,
on the fiftieth day after Pascha. ~
11. The Elevation of the Precious
and Life-giving Cross, September 14 (27, n.s.).
12. The Dormition of the Mother of
God, August 15 (28, n.s.).
Of the remaining feast days, some of the most important are:
The Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ,
January 1 (14, n.s.).
The Protection of the Mother of God,
October 1 (14, n.s.).
The Kazan Icon of the Mother of God,
October 22 (November 4, n.s.).
The Nativity of St. John the Baptist,
June 24 (July 7, n.s.).
The Beheading of St. John the Baptist,
August 29 (September 11, n.s.).
The feast of the Apostles, St. Peter
and St. Paul, June 29 (July 12, n.s.).
The Apostle John the Theologian, May
8 (May 21 n.s). and September 26 (October 9, n.s.).
The feasts of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker,
May 9 (May 22, n.s). and December 6 (19, n.s.).
Fasts established by the Church are:
1. The Great Fast, before Pascha.
The Fast lasts for seven weeks: six
weeks are the fast itself and the seventh week is Holy Week — in remembrance of
the suffering of Christ the Saviour.
2. Nativity Fast, before the feast day
of Nativity, the birth of Christ.
It begins on the 14th of November (27,
n.s.), the day after commemorating the Apostle Philip and is therefore sometimes
called the fast of St. Philip. The fast lasts for forty days.
3. Dormition Fast, before the feast
day of the Dormition of the Mother of God.
It lasts for two weeks, from the 1st
of August (August 14, n.s). until August 14 (27, n.s.).
4. The Apostles’ or Peter’s Fast, before
the feast day of the Apostles Peter and Paul.
It begins one week after Trinity Sunday
(Pentecost) and continues until the 29th of June (July 12, n.s.). Its length is
determined by whether Pascha is early or late. The longest it can be is six weeks,
and the shortest is a week and one day.
One day fasts:
1. Nativity Eve — the day before the
Birth of Christ, 24th of December (January 6, n.s.). An especially strict fast during
the Nativity Fast. Customarily, one does not eat until the appearance of the first
star, and then only strict lenten food, no meat, fish or dairy products.
2. The Eve of the Theophany — the day
before the Baptism of the Lord, the 6th of January (January 19, n.s.).
3. The day of the Beheading of St. John
the Baptist, 29th of August (September 11, n.s.).
4. The day of the Elevation of the Cross
of the Lord, in commemoration of the finding of the Cross of the Lord, 14th of September
(September 27, n.s.).
5. Wednesdays and Fridays of every week.
Wednesday — in remembrance of the betrayal of the Saviour by Judas. Friday — in
remembrance of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross.
There is no fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays in the following
weeks: in Bright Week, the week of Pascha; in the interval between Christmas and
Theophany; in the week of the Holy Trinity (from Pentecost until the beginning of
Peter’s fast), in the week of the Publican and the Pharisee (before the Great Fast);
and in Cheese-fare week immediately preceding the Great Fast, when dairy products,
but not meat, are allowed.
At the time of the fasts it is especially necessary to resolve
to cleanse oneself of all bad habits and passions such as anger, envy, lust and
enmity. One must refrain from a dissipating, carefree life, from games, from shows
and spectacles, from dancing. One must not read books which give rise to impure
thoughts and desires in the soul. One must not eat meat or dairy products, since
according to the experience of the Saints these foods strengthen our passions and
make it more difficult to pray, but only permitted fasting foods such as vegetables,
and when permitted, fish, and only making use of these foods in moderation. During
a fast of many days one should have confession and receive Holy Communion.
Those who break the fourth commandment are those who are lazy
on the first six days, doing no work, as well as those who work on a holy day.
No less guilty are those who may cease worldly pursuits and work,
but who spend the time in amusements and games, who indulge in pleasure and drunkenness,
not thinking about serving God. Especially sinful is indulging in distractions the
evening before a feast day, when we should be at the Vigil, and in the morning,
after the Liturgy. For Orthodox Christians a feast day begins in the evening when
the All-night Vigil is served. To devote this time to dancing, movies, or other
diversions instead of prayer, is to make a mockery of the feast day.
The Fifth Commandment of the Law
of God.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother that it may be well with
thee and that thy days may be long on the earth.
The fifth commandment of the Lord God orders us to honor our
parents and for this promises a happy and long life. To honor parents means to love
them, to be respectful toward them, to refrain from offending them by either word
or act, to obey them, to help them in labor, to care for them when they are in need,
especially when they are sick and old, and also to pray for them to God both during
this life and when they die. Disrespect toward a parent is a great sin. In the Old
Testament, anyone who slandered his father or his mother was punished by death (Mark
7:10; Exod. 21:17).
We must also give equal honor to those persons who have authority
over us as parents to us. Among such people are pastors and spiritual fathers, laboring
for our salvation, instructing us in the faith and praying for us; government officials,
who work for our domestic tranquility and defend us against oppression and plundering;
teachers and benefactors, who try to teach us and provide everything that is good
and useful to us; and in general, our elders, having much experience in life and
who therefore can give us good advice. It is a sin not to respect our elders, especially
those in old age. It is a sin to regard their experience with distrust, indifference,
and sometimes to refer to their remarks and instruction with derision, to consider
them “backward” people, and to consider that their view is outmoded, has served
its time. Even in the Old Testament the Lord said through Moses, Thou shalt rise
up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God (Lev.
19:32).
But if it happens that parents or superiors require of one something
that goes against our faith and the Law of God, then one must say to them, as the
Apostles said to the leaders of the Jews: Whether it be right in the sight of God
to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye (Acts 4:19). Then one must suffer
for the faith and the Law of God no matter what happens.
The Sixth Commandment of the Law
of God.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
The sixth commandment of the Lord God forbids murder, taking
the lives of other people, or taking one’s own life (suicide).
Life is the greatest gift of God. Therefore, to deprive oneself
or someone else of life is a most terrible, grave, and enormous sin. Suicide is
the most terrible of all sins committed against the sixth commandment, because in
suicide, besides the sin of killing, there is also the grave sin of despair, grumbling
against God, and insolent uprising against the
Providence of God. Furthermore, suicide precludes the possibility
of repentance.
A person is guilty of murder even if he kills another person
accidentally, without thinking. Such a murder is a grievous sin, because in this
case the murderer is guilty due to his carelessness.
A person is guilty of murder even when he does not commit the
murder himself, but promotes the murder or allows someone else to do it. For example:
• A judge, condemning the accused to
death when his innocence is known.
• Anyone who does not save a neighbor
from death, when he is fully capable of doing it.
• Anyone who helps another commit murder
by his decree, advice, collaboration, or rationalization; or who condones and justifies
a death and by that gives opportunity for more killing.
• Anyone who by hard labor or cruel
punishment exhausts victims into a weakened state and thus hastens their death.
• Anyone who through self-indulgence
in various vices curtails one’s own life.
Other sins against the sixth commandment are: wishing that someone
were dead, not rendering help to the indigent and sick, not living with other people
in peace and concord, but on the contrary, maintaining hatred, envy, and malice
towards others, instigating quarrels, brawls, and distress among others. Sin against
the sixth commandment is doing anything which injures the weak, children in particular.
The Gospel of Christ says, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer (I John 3:15).
Besides physical killing, there is yet a more terrible and accountable
murder: spiritual killing. Among the sins of spiritual murder is seduction. That
is, when one leads astray or seduces his neighbor into unbelief or into a life of
vice, and by this renders the soul of his neighbor liable to spiritual death.
The Saviour said, But whosoever shall offend one of these little
ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about
his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea... woe to that man by
whom the offense comethl (Matt. 18:6-7).
In order to avoid sin against the sixth commandment, Christians
must help the poor, serve the sick, comfort the sorrowful, lighten the conditions
of the unfortunate, with everyone be kind and loving, reconcile themselves with
anyone who has grown angry, forgive offenses, do good to enemies, and refrain from
harmful examples, either by word or deed, especially before children.
It is impossible to equate criminal murder with the killing that
occurs in battle. War is a great social evil, but at the same time war is an enormous
catastrophe permitted by the Lord for a lesson and correction of people, just as
He permits epidemics, starvation, fires, and other misfortunes. Therefore, killing
in a war is not viewed by the Church as a particular sin of man. Furthermore, every
soldier should be ready, according to the commandment of Christ, to “lay down his
life for his friends,” for the defense of his faith and his homeland.
Among the military there are many saints glorified by miracles.
However, even in war it is possible to be guilty of murder, when,
for example, a soldier kills someone who has surrendered, or when a soldier allows
brutality, etc.
Capital punishment of a criminal applies also to social ills
and is a great evil. But it is allowed in exceptional cases when according to justice,
it appears that it alone can stop a multitude of murders and crimes. But in terms
of justice, the administrators carrying out the execution answer before God. Capital
punishment of hardened criminals is often the only means by which they will be brought
to repentance. Note that without the will of God, not a hair would fall from anyone’s
head.
The Seventh Commandment of the Law
of God.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
The seventh commandment forbids adultery, that is, unfaithfulness
to one’s spouse and all unlawful lust.
God forbids a husband and a wife to break the bonds of mutual
faith and love. Of the unmarried, God requires pure thoughts and desires, to be
chaste in word and deed, in thought and desire.
In order to do this it is necessary to avoid everything that
could give rise to unclean feelings in the heart: obscenity, immodest and shameless
songs and dances, suggestive plays, movies, and pictures, immoral books, drunkenness,
etc.
God’s word commands us to maintain our bodies in purity, because
our body is a member of the body of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. Fornicators,
and all who indulge in lustful acts or imagination sin against their own bodies,
they weaken the health of their body, inflict illness upon it and impair its spiritual
capability, especially imagination and memory.
The Eighth Commandment of the Law
of God.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
There are many forms of stealing:
• Theft, to steal someone else’s property.
• Robbery, taking someone else’s property
by force.
• Sacrilege, to misuse that which belongs
to the Church.
• Extortion, or bribery, to unlawfully
accept gifts from people for goods or services which are supposed to be rendered
free of charge.
• Parasitism, to accept renumeration
or payment for services which are supposed to be rendered and then fail to do the
work.
• Usury, to charge an exorbitant rate
of interest on a loan.
• Fraud, to appropriate someone else’s
property by cunning. For example, to avoid paying debts, to embezzle funds without
regard for the proprietor’s things or money, to cheat in measuring or deceive in
weighing for a sale; to hold back the wages of a hired worker; to take a sum of
money for some needy person, and then keep it for something else, and so on. Also,
children deceive when they are lazy students, while at the same time their parents
and society pay for their education, and teachers expend labor on their behalf.
Forbidding every form of taking property of a neighbor, this
commandment instructs us to be unmercenary, honest, industrious, merciful and truthful.
In order to avoid sin against this commandment, one must love one’s neighbor as
much as oneself, and not do anything to him that he would not like to have done
to himself.
The highest virtue inspired by the eighth commandment is complete
poverty, renunciation of all property. But God does not obligate everyone to this
virtue. He proposes it only to those who wish to attain high moral perfection. If
thou wilt be perfect, go and sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shall have treasure in heaven (Matt. 19:21).
Many spiritual heroes have followed the advice of this Gospel
passage: St. Anthony the Great, St. Paul of Thebes, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker,
and many others.
The Ninth Commandment of the Law
of God.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
The ninth commandment of the Lord God forbids us to speak falsehoods
about our neighbor, and in general forbids all lies. For example:
• Perjury in court.
• False complaints.
• Gossip, slander, and defamation, which are diabolical acts
since the word “devil” means libeler, slanderer, defamer.
Repugnant to Christians are even those little white lies which
are not intended to cause harm to a neighbor. Lying is not becoming to the calling
of a Christian and not in harmony with love and consideration for one’s neighbor.
The Apostle Paul says, Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with
his neighbor: for we are members one of another (Eph. 4:25).
It is never appropriate to blame or judge others, if we have
not been specifically required to do so because of the responsibility of our position
or duty. Judge not that ye be not judged, says the Saviour.
It is necessary to keep in mind that judging, reproach, and mockery
will not reform a neighbor; only love, tolerance, and good harmony will. It is also
necessary to always bear in mind that each of us has many weaknesses and faults.
One must always keep a restraint on his tongue. One must speak
only the truth and curb oneself from disparaging remarks and idle chatter. Speech
is a gift of God. Jesus Christ said, But I say unto you, that every idle word that
men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by
thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned (Matt.
12:36-37).
The Tenth Commandment of the Law
of God.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, thou shalt not
covet thy neighbor’s house, nor his land, nor his manservant, nor his ox, nor his
ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.
The tenth commandment of the Lord God forbids not only doing
something bad to someone near us, but also forbids even bad desires and thoughts
in connection with them.
The sin against this commandment is called envy. A person who
is envious, who entertains the idea of wanting something that belongs to someone
else, can pass from the desire to the evil deed.
But beyond this, envy in itself can defile the soul, rendering
it impure before God, as it is stated in the Word of God, The thoughts of the wicked
are an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 15:26, Wis. of Sol. 2:25).
One of the main tasks of true Christianity is to cleanse one’s
soul of all impurity, in accordance with the admonition of the Apostle, Let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the
fear of God (II Cor. 7:1).
In order to avoid sin against the tenth commandment, it is necessary
to maintain a pure heart, free of any earthly attachment, free of all wicked thoughts
and desires, and to be satisfied with that which one has, to thank God for it, never
to desire anything that is anyone else’s, but to rejoice for others in what they
have.
Return to Index
7. The Nine Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes,
or the commandments of blessedness, given us by the Saviour, do not in anyway annul
the commandments of the Law. On the contrary, these commandments complement each
other.
The Ten Commandments of the Law are restricted to prohibiting
those acts which would be sinful. The Beatitudes explain to us how we may attain
Christian perfection or grace.
The Ten Commandments were given in Old Testament times to restrain
wild, primitive people from evil. The Beatitudes are given to Christians to show
them what disposition to have in order to draw closer and closer to God, to acquire
holiness, and together with that, blessedness, which is the highest degree of happiness.
Holiness, arising from proximity to God, is the loftiest blessedness,
the greatest happiness that anyone could possibly desire.
The Old Testament Law is a strict code of righteousness, but
the New Testament law of Christ is the law of Divine love and grace, the only means
by which people are given the strength to live in full observance of the Law of
God and to approach perfection.
Jesus Christ, calling us to the eternal Kingdom of God, shows
us the way to it through fulfillment of His commandments. For their fulfillment
He, the King of Heaven and earth, promises eternal blessedness in the future eternal
life.
Our Saviour teaches:
1. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
2. Blessed are they that mourn, for
they shall be comforted.
3. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth.
4. Blessed are they that do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called the children of God.
8. Blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
9. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you
falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; In each of these teachings
of the Lord, one should observe the commandments on the one hand and promises of
reward on the other.
For the fulfillment of the commandments of the Beatitudes it
is necessary to have contact with God through prayer, both internal and external.
One must struggle against sinful inclinations through fasting, abstinence, and so
on.
The First Beatitude.
1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom
of Heaven.
Blessed — joyful in the highest degree and pleasing to God; poor
in spirit — humble, those who are conscious of their imperfections and unworthiness
before God, and never think that they are better or more holy than others.
Spiritual lowliness is the conviction that our entire life and
all our spiritual and physical blessings, such as life, health, strength, spiritual
capability, knowledge, riches, and every good thing of life, all this is the gift
of our Creator God. Without help from Heaven, it is impossible to acquire either
material well-being or spiritual riches. All this is the gift of God.
Spiritual lowliness is called humility. Humility is the foundation
of all Christian virtue, because it is the opposite of pride, and pride introduced
all evil into the world. Due to pride the first among the angles became the Devil;
the first people sinned, their descendants quarrelled and went to war among themselves
from pride. The first sin was pride (Ecclus. 10:15).
Without humility it is impossible to return to God. Nor are any
of the other Christian virtues possible. Humility permits us to know ourselves,
to correctly assess our worth and deficiencies. It acts beneficially in the fulfillment
of our obligations to our neighbor, arouses arid strengthens in us faith in God,
hope and love for Him. It attracts the mercy of God to us and also disposes people
to us.
The Word of God says, A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit;
a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise (Ps. 50:17). Surely he scorneth
the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly (Prov. 3:34). Learn of me, instructs
the Saviour, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your
souls (Matt. 11:29).
Physical misery or privation can result in the acquisition of
much spiritual humility if this privation or need is accepted with good will, without
a murmur. But physical privation does not always result in spiritual humility, it
can lead to bitterness.
Even the wealthy can be spiritually humble if they understand
that visible, material wealth is decadent and transitory, fleeting, and that it
is no substitute for spiritual riches. They must understand the word of the Lord,
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
(Matt. 16:26).
But Christian humility must be strictly distinguished from self-seeking
self-abasement, such as fawning and flattery, which discredit human dignity.
It is necessary to strictly reject so-called “noble self-love”
or “defense against affronts to one’s honor,” which reflect prejudices, pernicious
superstitions which were inherited from Roman paganism hostile to Christianity.
The true Christian must decisively renounce these superstitions which resulted in
the anti-Christian and shameful custom of the duel and revenge.
In reward for meekness of spirit, humility, the Lord Jesus Christ
promises the Kingdom of Heaven, a life of eternal blessedness. Participation in
the Kingdom of God for the humble begins here and now — by means of faith and hope
in God; but the ultimate reward in all of its fullness will be seen in the future
life.
The Second Beatitude.
2. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
The weeping about which the second beatitude speaks is first
of all true tribulation of heart, and repentant tears for our sins, over our guilt
before the merciful God (for example, the tears of the Apostle Peter after his renunciation).
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented
of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death, said the Apostle Paul (II Cor. 7:10).
Tribulation and tears coming from misfortunes which befall us
can be spiritually beneficial. For example, the death of one of our close ones can
result in beneficial tears, if the sorrow is permeated by faith and hope, patience
and devotion to the will of God. Jesus Christ Himself wept over the death of Lazarus.
Even more so can tears and tribulation lead to blessedness when
they are shed over the suffering of our unfortunate neighbor, if these sincere tears
are accompanied by Christian deeds of love and mercy.
Worldly grief is grief without hope in God. It proceeds not from
acknowledgment of one’s sins before God, but rather from disappointment in ambition,
aspiration to power, desire for gain. Such sadness, characterized by despondency
and despair, leads to spiritual death, which can also result in physical death,
by suicide or simply weakness due to lack of will to live. An example of such grief
is that of Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ the Saviour.
As a reward for mourning the Lord promises that they that mourn
will be comforted. They will receive forgiveness of sins, and through this, internal
peace. The mourners will receive eternal joy, eternal blessedness.
The Third Beatitude.
3. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Meekness is peaceful, fully developed Christian love, free from
all malice. It is manifested in the spirit of a man who never becomes angry, and
never permits himself to grumble against God or people.
Meek people do not become irritated and they do not vex or aggravate
other people. Christian meekness expresses itself mainly in patient endurance of
insults inflicted by others and is the opposite of anger, malice, self-exaltation
and vengeance.
A meek person always regrets the hardness of heart of the offending
party. He desires his correction, prays to God for forgiveness of his deeds, remembering
the precept of the Apostle: // it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably
with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto
wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord (Romans
12:18-19).
The best example of meekness given to us is that of our Lord
Jesus Christ praying on the cross for His enemies. He taught us to not take vengeance
on our enemies but to do good to them. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for
I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls (Matt. 11:29).
Meekness tames even the hardest hearts. We can be convinced of this by observing
the lives of people, and we find confirmation of it throughout the history of Christian
persecutions.
A Christian may become angry only with himself, at his own fall
into sin, and at the tempter — the Devil.
The Lord promises the meek that they will inherit the earth.
This promise indicates that meek people in the present life will be preserved on
earth by the power of God, in spite of all the intrigues of men and the most cruel
persecution. But in the future life, they will be heirs of the heavenly homeland,
the new earth (II Peter 3:13) with its eternal blessings.
The Fourth Beatitude.
4. Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled.
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are those people
who deeply acknowledge their sinfulness, their guilt before God, and have a burning
desire for righteousness. They try to serve God by a righteous life according to
the commandments of Christ, which requires from Christians the most holy righteousness
in all their relations with their neighbors.
The expression “hunger and thirst” indicates that our yearning
for righteousness must be very strong, as strong as our desire to appease our appetite
and thirst. King David beautifully expressed such yearning, As the hart panteth
after the fountains of water, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsted
for God, the mighty the living (Ps. 4:1-2).
God promised that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
will be filled. By this is meant spiritual satisfaction, comprised of internal spiritual
peace, a calm conscience, justification, and forgiveness. Such satisfaction in the
present, earthly life occurs only in part. The Lord reveals the mysteries of His
kingdom to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, more than to others.
Their hearts in this world are delighted with knowledge revealed in the divine truths
of the Gospel, in Orthodox teachings.
Full satiety, full satisfaction of the holy yearnings of the
human soul, and from this highest joy and blessedness, will be granted them in the
future, blessed life with God. As the psalmist King David says, I shall be filled
when Thy glory is made manifest to me (Ps. 16:16).
The Fifth Beatitude.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
The merciful are those who have compassion on others, who with
all their hearts pity those who have fallen into misfortune or unhappiness, and
who try to help them with good works.
Works of mercy are both physical and spiritual.
Bodily works of mercy:
• Feeding the hungry.
• Giving drink to the thirsty.
• Clothing the naked.
• Visiting those in prison.
• Visiting the sick and helping them
recover or preparing them for a Christian death.
• Inviting strangers and foreigners
and travellers into one’s home and giving them rest.
• Burying the dead.
Spiritual works of mercy:
• By word and example to convert the
sinner from the error of his way (James 5:20).
• Teaching the ignorant truth and goodness.
• Dispensing good and timely advice
to neighbors who are in distress or danger.
• Comforting the grieving.
• Refraining from returning evil for
evil.
• Forgiving offenses with all one’s
heart.
• Praying to God for everyone.
To the merciful, God promises in return that they will receive
mercy. In the future judgment of Christ they will be shown the special mercy for
the righteous. They will be delivered from eternal punishment for their sins to
the degree to which they showed mercy to others on earth (See Matt: 25:31-46).
The Sixth Beatitude.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
The pure in heart are those people who not only do not sin openly,
but’who do not conceal unclean thoughts, desires and feelings in their hearts. The
hearts of such people are free from attachment and infatuation with physical, earthly
things. In general they are free from sinful passions caused by self-centeredness,
egotism and pride. People with pure hearts unceasingly think about God.
In order to acquire a pure heart, it is necessary to observe
the fasts proclaimed by the Church, and to guard oneself against gluttony, drunkenness,
depraved spectacles and amusements, improper teachings and indecent books.
Purity of heart is far superior to simple sincerity. Sincerity
requires only that a person be candid and single hearted in relation to his neighbor.
But purity of heart requires complete suppression of depraved thoughts and constant
remembrance of God and His holy commandments.
To the pure in heart God promises that they will see God. Here
on earth they will see Him through Grace, mysteriously, with the spiritual eyes
of their hearts. They can see God in His revelations, images and likenesses. In
the future, eternal life, they will see God as He is (I John 3:2). Furthermore,
since contemplation of God is a source of the highest blessing, the promise to see
God is a promise of the highest degree of blessedness.
The Seventh Beatitude.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the
children of God.
Peacemakers are people living with everyone in peace and harmony
and fostering peace among people. When other people are at enmity among themselves
they try to reconcile them, or at least pray to God for their reconciliation.
Peacemakers remember the words of the Saviour, Peace I leave
with you, My peace I give unto you (John 14:27). It be possible, as much as
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men, said the Apostle Paul (Romans 12:18).
To the peacemakers the Lord promises that they will be called
sons of God. They will be the closest to God, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ.
The peacemakers by their spiritual feat resemble the Only-begotten Son of God, Jesus
Christ, Who came to earth to reconcile sinful people with Divine judgment and establish
peace among people in place of the animosity reigning among them. Therefore to the
peacemakers is promised the epithet, “sons of God,” and inexpressible blessedness.
The Eighth Beatitude.
8. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’
sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
For righteousness’ sake, is meant to live righteously according
to the commandments of God, and resolutely fulfilling Christian obligations. Persecuted
— for their righteous and pious life, they suffer oppression, persecution, privation
and adversity at the hands of the unrighteous enemies of truth and goodness, but
nothing can cause them to waver from the truth.
Persecution is inevitable for Christians living according to
the Gospel’s righteousness, because evil people detest righteousness, as truth exposes
their evil deeds, and always persecute people who stand up for the truth. The Only-begotten
Son of God, Jesus Christ, was Himself crucified by haters of God’s truth. For all
His followers He predicted: // they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute
you (John 15:20). All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,
says the Apostle Paul (II Tim. 3:12).
In order to endure persecution patiently for righteousness’ sake,
a person must have love for the truth, be steadfast and firm in virtuous living,
have courage and patience, and faith and hope in the help and protection of God.
To those persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for their struggles
in confessing the truth, the Lord promises the Kingdom of Heaven, spiritual triumph,
joy and blessedness in the heavenly dwellings of the future eternal life (see Luke
22:28-30).
The Ninth Beatitude.
9. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice,
and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in Heaven.
In the last, the ninth commandment, our Lord Jesus Christ calls
especially blessed those who for the sake of Christ and for the true Orthodox faith
in Him, patiently bear disgrace, persecution, malice, defamation, mockery, privation
and even death. Such a spiritual feat is known as martyrdom. There is no higher
spiritual feat than martyrdom.
The courage of Christian martyrs must be distinguished from fanaticism,
which is irrational zeal not according to reason. Christian courage must also be
distinguished from the lack of feeling brought on by despair or pretended indifference,
with which some criminals because of their incorrigible hardness and pride, serve
out their sentences and go to execution.
Christian courage is based on the highest of Christian virtues,
on faith in God, on hope in God, on love for God and neighbor, on complete obedience
and unshaken faith in the Lord God.
The highest form of martyrdom was suffered by Jesus Christ Himself,
and in like manner, the Apostles and an innumerable multitude of Christians, who
with joy went to martyrdom for the name of Christ.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a
cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, and looking
unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of
the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
Himself, lest ye be weaned and faint in your minds (Heb. 12:1-3).
For the spiritual feat of martyrdom, the Lord promises a reward
in Heaven. But here on earth the Lord glorifies many martyrs for their firm confession
of faith with incorruptible bodies and miracles.
If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for
the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part He is evil spoken
of, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer,
or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. “Yet
if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God
on this behalf (I Pet. 4:14-16).
Numberless Christians martyrs rejoiced during unspeakable torture,
accounts of which are preserved in factual accounts of lives of the Saints. Note:
In Roman courts, special scribes were obligated to write protocols (official records)
of judicial procedures and legal decisions. Such protocols of interrogations, made
in Roman courts during the legal process of Christian martyrs, after the period
of persecutions were carefully preserved by the Church. The protocols came to be
trustworthy accounts of the feats of martyrdom of the Christians.
Discussion on the Meaning of Evil.
The concept of evil in the world imposes a grave burden of doubt
in the hearts of many faithful people. It seems inconceivable that God would permit
evil. In fact, God in His Omnipotence could easily eliminate evil. How could a merciful
God allow the evil deed of a single offender doom thousands, sometimes millions,
or even half of humanity to poverty, grief or disaster? What then is the meaning
of evil? With God nothing is without reason. In order to answer this question, it
is necessary to recall what evil is.
By the term evil we do not mean suffering, need and deprivation,
but sin and moral guilt. God does not desire evil. Almighty God cannot approve of
evil. More than that, God forbids evil. God punishes evil. Evil or sin is in contradiction
to the will of God.
Sin began, as we know, when the highest angel, created by God,
insolently rejected obedience to the blessed will of God and became the Devil. Evil
is caused by the Devil. He inspires or influences the occurrence of sin in man.
It is not the body which is the source of sin as many believe.
The body becomes an instrument of sin or of good not of itself but through the will
of a person. True faith in Christ elucidates the following two causes of sin in
the world:
1. The first cause lies in the free
will of man. Our free will is the mark of our likeness to God. This gift of God
elevates mankind to the highest of all earthly creatures. By freely choosing good
and rejecting evil man exalts God, glorifies Him and perfects himself.
In the book of the Wisdom of Sirach
(Ecclesiasticus 15:14), it says, He (God) in the beginning made man and left him
in the hand of his own free will.
By this God gives to people of good
will the possibility to attain Heaven, and to people of evil will, the other wo^ld.
However it happens, the result is only by means of a person’s free will.
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says, “If nature
were fused together and it were not possible to do good by free will, then for whom
would God prepare the inexplicable crown? Sheep are gentle, but they will never
be crowned for their gentleness, because their gentleness comes not from their own
free will but their very nature.”
Saint Basil the Great says, “Why is
not sinlessness incorporated into our nature, so that it would be impossible to
sin, even if we wanted to? You do not recognize good and faithful servants when
you keep them restricted, but only when you see that they voluntarily fulfill their
responsibilities before you. Virtue comes on the condition of free will, not of
necessity; and free will depends on the condition that we be free. Therefore, whoever
reproaches the Creator for not creating us sinless prefers the irrational, immovable
nature, not having any yearnings, to the nature gifted with judgment and independence.”
In other words, he prefers robots to intelligent creatures.
Thus, the internal cause for the origin
of evil, or sin, consists of the free will of man.
2. The second basis for the existence
of evil consists in the fact that God directs evil to good. But God does not tolerate
evil for the sake of good. For God, it is not necessary to pay such a high price.
God does not wish for evil under any
circumstances. But when evil penetrated into the world through the fault of sinful
people, then God, in His plan for the world, compelled even evil to serve good.
For example, the sons of Jacob sold his brother Joseph into slavery. They committed
an evil deed, but God turned the evil into good. Joseph rose in Egypt and acquired
the capacity to save from starvation the family from which the Messiah would come.
When Joseph saw his brothers several years later, he said to them, “You intended
evil against me, but God turned it into good!”
In the days of the Apostles, the Jews
persecuted Christians in Palestine. The Christians had to flee from Judea, the land
sanctified by the life and blood of the Saviour. But everywhere they went they sowed
the words of the Gospel. The sins of the persecutors were directed into spreading
Christianity.
The pagan emperors of Rome persecuted
the young Christian Church. Tens of thousands of martyrs shed their blood for Christ.
The blood of the martyrs became seeds for millions of new Christians. The fury of
the persecutors, their sins of hatred and murder were directed by God in this instance
into the building up of the Church. They thought and accomplished evil. God turned
all of their deeds to the good. The entire history of mankind, right up to the events
of our day, testifies to the truth of these words. The greatest downfall of man
concurred with the greatest religious triumph, the turning of men to God.
We need only have patience and wait,
one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (II
Peter 3:8).
But this intertwining of evil into the
plan for the management of the world did not appear to be some sort of belated addition
for the correction of creation. The intertwining of evil was provided for in the
act of the eternal will of God, in which was determined the creation of the world.
For God is the eternal today! His foresight extends to eternity. It functions always
and without interruption. (Extracted from a brochure by L. Lusin, “Who is Right?”
with additions.).
Conclusion.
Our lives must always be guided by the knowledge we acquire of
the true faith and Christian piety. In order to make use of our piety and knowledge
of the faith, it is necessary for each Christian to have the virtue of discernment,
Christian good sense. In addressing the Christians, the Apostle Peter said, Giving
all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge (II Peter 1:5).
For whatever is done without discerning knowledge may turn out to be unwise. Even
good can bring harm instead of benefit.
The teachings of the Orthodox Church which we have learned concerning
faith and Christian life must be manifest in deeds, and not hypocritically, but
sincerely fulfilling everything we know from this teaching. If ye know these things,
happy are ye if ye do them (John 13:17).
If we become aware that we sin, that we do not fulfill the teaching
as we must, then we must force ourselves quickly to the most sincere repentance.
We must firmly resolve to shun the sin henceforth, making reparation for it by opposing
it with good works.
When it seems to us that we are doing well in fulfilling one
commandment or another, we must never become complacent or proud of this. With the
deepest humility and thanksgiving we must acknowledge that we have hardly fulfilled
our obligation. As Christ the Saviour said, When ye shall have done all those things
which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which
was our duty to do (Luke 17:10).
Return to Index
8. Contemporary Teaching and Faith in God.
Science acknowledged
long ago that the domain of analysis is almost in no way comparable to the domain
of the unsearchable. More than that, the more that science discovers by scientific
analysis, the broader are the fields that have yet to be investigated. “Every new
discovery expands the realm of the unknown by arithmetic proportions” (A.C. Morrison).
Science will never complete its work as long as the world stands.
Spokesmen of scientific analysis acknowledge that their knowledge
of the world must be complemented by another source. That source is religion.
A great scientist of our time, Max Planck, who was awarded the
Nobel Prize for physics in 1918, says , “Religion and science are not mutually exclusive
as was believed earlier and has been feared by many of our contemporaries; on the
contrary, they are in complete accord and complement each other.”
Prof. M.M. Novikov, Rector of the University of Moscow, who was
awarded a gold doctoral diploma in 1965 from the University of Heidelberg, and who
in 1957 was an active member of the New York Academy of Science, in his article
“The Path of a Naturalist to Religion,” writes, “One of the most striking facts
in the history of science is that physics, the rigorous base of natural science,
became the way of the ideal. It led to the conclusion that physical appearance is
determined by divine, spiritual strength. This view was also expressed by three
prominent scholars.
“The theory of relativity of Albert Einstein is well known in
general social circles. But not every one is aware that it led the scientist to
the formulation of ‘Cosmic religion.’ This religion, as does every other religion,
acknowledges the existence of the supreme Spirit, the creator of earthly harmony.
“The quantum theory of Max Planck had great significance for
the development of natural science. On an occasion that interests us, this author
writes, The only primary data for the natural scientist is gathered by sensual perception
and conclusions are drawn from its measurement/ From here, guided by the method
of inductive reasoning, he attempts to come as close as possible to God and His
natural order as the highest but forever unattainable goal. It follows that if both
religion and natural science require faith in God for their validity, then for the
first (religion) God stands at the beginning, and for the second (science), at the
conclusion of all intellectual activity. For religion, God supplies the foundation;
for science, He is the crown of any elaboration on world-outlook. Man depends on
natural science for knowledge, but on religion, for civilized behavior. But the
basis of our knowledge is nothing more than our sensual perception of the solid,
primary particle.
“The assumption of the existence of some regular world order
is prerequisite to formulation of fruitful scientific hypotheses. But formulating
scientific hypotheses is not a suitable method for directing our behavior. For,
with the display of our will, we are not able to wait for the time when all our
knowledge is found perfect, and we acquire omniscience. In fact, life frequently
requires us to make quick decisions.”
Later Planck shows that if we attribute to God goodness and love
in addition to omnipotence and omniscience, then proximity to Him supplies the seeking
man with consolation in the sensation of happiness in high measure. “Against this
presentation, from the point of view of natural science, it is impossible to advance
the slightest objection.”
A great sensation was caused by the work of August Heisenberg,
Nobel Prize winner in 1932. He formulated the principle of indeterminacy (the uncertainty
principle), which states that it is impossible to determine the existence of elementary
particles except within certain limits — elementary particles being the smallest
undecomposable units of matter. Furthermore, it is impossible to know simultaneously
the exact position of the particle and the velocity of its movement. We maintain
that electrons exist, but we are unable to distinguish them, one from another. Thus
our previous understanding of matter becomes superfluous. The world, according to
Heisenberg, consists of something, the essence of which is unknown. That “something”
appears in the form of a particle, then in the form of a wave. If one seeks a name,
then that “something” must be designated by the word energy, and that in quotation
marks. Thus, so-called laws of natural science are not precisely regular, but are
static in character (i.e., the activity of energy defying calculation).
To this consideration it is appropriate to add that the understanding
of an indeterminate “something” is also applicable to vital phenomena. But in this
case it takes a completely different character. Mathematical equations which describe
elementary physical processes are not applicable to life processes. Life is composed
of an autonomous, self-acting field, as Drish affirmed.
The noted professor I. A. Ilyin says, “In the present state of
knowledge it is eminently well understood that the ‘scientific’ picture of the world
is changing all the time. Everything is becoming more complicated, deepening, absorbed
in detail, and never appearing as part of a full, clear whole... In the present
state of knowledge it is known that science will never be in a condition to explain
its last prerequisite or to define its fundamental understanding. For example, a
scientist will never be able to establish exactly what an ‘atom’ is, or an ‘electron/
a ‘vitamin/ ‘energy’ or ‘psychological function.’ He knows that all his ‘definitions/
‘explanations’ and ‘theories’ are only vague attempts to approximate the vivid mysteries
of the material and spiritual world. Concerning the productivity of science there
can be no dispute; all contemporary technology and medicine testify to it. But as
to what seems to be the theoretical truth of these demonstrations, there science
swims on a problematic, conjectural sea of mystery.”
One of the most noted American scholars, president of the New
York Academy of Science, A. Cressy Morrison, argues for the existence of God in
his brilliant “Seven Reasons Why I Believe in God.”
“We are still only in the dawn of scientific
knowledge,” says Morrison. “The closer we come to daybreak, the more brightly shines
our morning, the more clearly the creation of the omniscient Creator is illumined
before us. Now in the spirit of scientific humility, in the spirit of faith based
on knowledge, we are all the more confirmed in our conviction of the existence of
God.
“I personally number seven circumstances
which determine my belief in God. They are:
“First: Absolutely distinct mathematical
laws demonstrate the universality of the creation by a Supreme Intelligence.
“Suppose you take ten pennies and mark
them from one to ten. Put them in a bag and give them a good shake. Now try to draw
them out in sequence from one to ten putting each coin back in your sack after each
draw. Your chance of drawing number one is one in ten. Your chance of drawing one
and two in succession would be one in one hundred. Your chance of drawing one, two
and three in succession would be one in a thousand. Your chance of drawing from
number one to number ten in succession would reach the unbelievable figure of one
chance in ten billion.
“By these same mathematical arguments
they say that for origin and development of life on earth, such an incredible number
of interrelated and interdependent events would have been required that without
intelligent direction, simply by chance, there is no way it could possibly have
arisen. The velocity of the rotation of the earth is a thousand miles an hour. If
the earth rotated with the speed of one hundred miles an hour, then our days and
nights would be ten times as long as now. The hot sun of summer would then burn
up our vegetation each long day, and every sprout would freeze in such a night.
“The sun has a surface temperature of
12,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and our earth is just far enough away so that this ‘eternal
fire’ warms us just enough and not too much. If the temperature on earth had changed
so-much as fifty degrees on the average for a single year, all vegetation would
be dead and man with it, roasted or frozen.
“The earth is tilted at an angle of
twenty-three degrees. This gives us our seasons of the year. If it had not been
tilted, the water vapor from the ocean would move north and south, piling up continents
of ice. If the moon, instead of being at its present distance, were removed from
us only by 50,000 miles, our high tides and low tides would be so enormous that
twice a day all the lowlands of all the continents would be submerged by a rush
of water so enormous that even the mountains would soon be eroded away. Had the
crust of the earth been ten feet thicker, there would be no oxygen and all life
would be doomed to destruction. If the oceans were comparatively deeper, the carbon
dioxide would absorb all the oxygen, and all life would again perish. If the atmosphere
enveloping our earthly sphere were a little thinner, some of the meteors which are
now burned in the outer atmosphere by the millions every day would strike all parts
of the earth, and would set fire to every burnable object.
“These and innumerable other examples
attest to the fact that for life to arise spontaneously on earth there is not one
chance in a whole multitude of millions.
“Second: The wealth of source material
from which life draws strength for fulfillment of its mission, in itself testifies
to the presence of a self-sufficient and omnipotent Intelligence.
“What life is, no man has yet fathomed.
It has no weight or dimensions. Life has force. A germinating kernel can demolish
a rock. Life conquers water, dry land and air, possesses their elements, cramming
them together, dissolving them, transforming their combinations.
“Life is a sculptor and shapes all living
things, an artist that designs the leaf of every tree, that colors the flowers.
Life is a musician and has taught each bird to sing its love songs, the insects
to call each other in the music of their multitudinous sounds. Life is a chemist
that gives taste to our fruits and perfume to the rose. Life’s chemistry changes
water and carbonic acid into wood and sugar but in doing so, releases oxygen that
animals may have the breath of life.
“Here before us is a drop of protoplasm,
an almost invisible drop, transparent, jellylike, capable of motion, drawing energy
from the sun. This single cell, this transparent, mist-like droplet, holds within
itself the germ of all life, and has the power to distribute this life to every
living thing, great and small. The powers of this droplet of protoplasm are greater
than the powers of our existence, greater than all the animals or people, for all
life came from it and without it no living thing would have been or could be. It
is not nature that created life. Rocks split by fire and fresh water seas would
not have been sufficient to meet the requirements for the origin of life.
“Who puts life into the speck of protoplasm?
“Third: The intelligence of animals
is indisputable evidence of the wisdom of the Creator, who instilled instincts in
His creatures, without which they would be completely helpless.
“The young salmon spends years at sea,
then it returns to its native river and travels up the side of the river into which
flows the tributary in which it was born. What brings them back with such precision?
If a salmon going up a river is transferred to another tributary, it will at once
realize it is not in the right tributary and will fight its way down to the mainstream
and then turn up against the current to finish his destiny.
“Another great mystery is hidden in
the behavior of the eel. These amazing creatures migrate at maturity from all ponds
and rivers everywhere — those from Europe across thousands of miles of ocean — and
go to the ocean depths south of Bermuda. There they breed and die. The little ones,
with no apparent means of knowing anything to prevent their being lost in the ocean
depths, go the way of their fathers, to the same streams, ponds and seas from which
they first began their journey to the Bermuda islands. No American eel has ever
been caught in European waters, and no European eel has ever been caught in American
waters. Nature has also delayed the maturity of the European eel by a year or more
to make up for its much greater journey. What is the source of this sense of direction
and will power?
“A wasp, having overcome a grasshopper,
stings it in exactly the right place. From this blow the grasshopper ‘dies.’ It
loses consciousness but continues to live, as a form of preserved meat. After this,
the wasp lays her eggs exactly in the right place that when they hatch, her children
can eat without killing the insect on which they feed. Dead meat would be poison
for them. Having completed her work, the wasp mother flies away and dies. She never
sees her young. Is it not beyond doubt that the wasp must have done all this right
the first time and every time, for otherwise there would be no wasps. This mysterious
knowledge cannot be explained by the fact that wasps teach one another. It is deposited
in their flesh and blood.
“Fourth: Man functions with more than
animal instinct. He has reason. There has never been an animal which has had the
capacity to count to ten. It is not able to comprehend the meaning of ten numerals.
Instinct is like a single note on a flute, beautiful but limited; whereas the human
brain contains all the notes of all the instruments in the orchestra. It is worth
mentioning one point: thanks to our intelligence, we are able to understand what
we are, we have self-awareness, and this capability is provided only by the spark
of Universal Intelligence implanted in us.
“Fifth: The miracle of genes — the existence
of which was unknown to Darwin — testifies to the fact that for all life there was
manifested care.
“The genes are so infinitesimal that
if all of them which are responsible for all human beings on earth today could be
collected and put in one place, they would all be able to fit in a thimble. And
the thimble still would not be full! These ultramicroscopic genes are the absolute
keys to all human, animal and vegetable characteristics. A thimble is a small place
in which to put all the individual characteristics of four billion human beings.
However, the facts are beyond question. If this is so, does it follow that the gene
contains in itself the key to the psychology of each separate being, containing
all of this in such a tiny space?
“Here is the beginning of evolution!
It begins at the cell, the entity which holds and carries the genes. The fact that
a few million atoms contained in ultramicroscopic genes can be the absolute key
governing life on earth, is evidence proving the manifest care for all life that
someone provided for them beforehand, and that this providence proceeds from a Creative
Intelligence. No other hypothesis in this case is able to help solve this riddle
of existence.
“Sixth: How strange is the system of
checks and balances in nature. We are compelled to acknowledge that only the most
perfect intelligence is able to envisage all the correlations arising from such
a complicated system of checks and balances.
“Many years ago in Australia, several
species of cactus were planted for use as a hedge. The cactus had no insect enemies
in Australia and soon began a prodigious growth. People began to seek the means
to fight against it. The march of the cactus persisted until it had covered an area
as great as England, crowded the inhabitants out of towns and villages and destroyed
their farms, making cultivation impossible. No device the people discovered could
stop its spread. The entomologists scoured the world and finally found an insect
which lived exclusively on cactus, would eat nothing else, would breed freely, and
which had no enemies in Australia. As soon as this insect conquered the cactus,
the cactus pest retreated, and with it all but a protective residue of the insects,
enough to hold the cactus in check forever.
The checks and balances have been provided,
and have been persistently effective. Why indeed did not the insects which multiplied
so incredibly quickly overcome all life? Because the insects have no lungs like
man possesses, but breathe through tubes. When insects grow large, the tubes cannot
grow in ratio to the increasing size of the body of the insect. Because of the mechanism
of their structure and their method of breathing, there could never be an insect
of great size. If this physical check had not been provided, man could not exist.
Imagine a bumblebee as big as a lion.
“Seventh: The fact that man is capable
of grasping the idea of the existence of God, is in itself sufficient evidence.
The conception of God arises from that
mysterious capability of mankind which we call imagination. Only because of this
power and only by means of its help, man, and no other living creature on earth,
is able to find confirmation through abstract things. The expanse of knowledge which
is opened by this capacity is perfectly immense. Indeed, thanks to precisely the
imagination of man, the possibility of spiritual reality arises. Man is able to
define, with obvious purpose, the great truth that Heaven exists everywhere and
in everything, the truth that God lives everywhere and in all, and that He lives
in our hearts.
“Thus, from science as well as from
imagination, we find confirmation of the words of the psalmist, The heavens declare
the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork (Ps. 19:1).”
The famous surgeon and professor in the universities of Cologne,
Bonn and Berlin, August Bier (1861-1949) says, “If it ever happened that science
and religion fell into disagreement, harmony would be restored through discovery
of more precise basic data.”
We will conclude our discussion by coming back to the words of
the scholar, A.C. Morrison:
“Man recognizes the necessity of moral
principles; in them exists the feeling of debt, and from this, faith in God is born.
The richness of religious experience finds the soul of man and lifts him, step by
step, until he feels the Divine presence. The instinctive cry of man, ‘My God,’
is natural, and the crudest prayer lifts one closer to his Creator.
“Respect, sacrifice, strength of character,
moral foundations, ingenuity are not born from negativism or atheism, the amazing
self-deception which replaces God with man. Without faith, culture disappears, order
becomes disorder, and evil prevails.
“Let us then hold fast to our belief
in the Creator, in Divine love and in the brotherhood of man, lifting ourselves
closer to Him by doing His will as we know it and firmly believing we are, as His
creation, worthy of His care.”
To the words of A. Cressy Morrison we add the words of the psychiatrist
and Orthodox theologian I. M. Andreev:
“True knowledge is incompatible with
pride. Humility is a necessary condition for the capacity of grasping the Truth.
Only humble scholars, as well as humble religious thinkers, bearing in mind the
words of the Saviour, Without me ye can do nothing, and I am the way, the truth,
and the life (John 15:5; John 14:6), are able to travel the right path, by the
right method, toward the comprehension of the Truth. For God resisteth the proud,
but giveth grace unto the humble (James 4:6).”
Holy Trinity Monastery 1993
Holy Trinity Orthodox Mission 2003
466 Foothill Blvd, Box 397, La Canada, Ca 91011
Editor: Bishop Alexander (Mileant)
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