| Nevertheless, this Church of Jerusalem was the universal Church, as all Nations received their Faith and Doctrine from her. That Jesus Christ is the only Foundation of the Church, according to the Words of the Apostle (1Cor.3:11), Other Foundation can no Man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Although in some Times the Apostles and Prophets are called the Foundations of the Faith and of the Church; as when St. John says (Rev.21:14), That the great City, Jerusalem, was enclosed with a Wall, having twelve Foundations, and in them the Names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb were written. And St. Paul affirms, that we are built upon the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets. This is to be understood, not as if the Apostles and Prophets were these Foundations of themselves, and in the first Instance; for in that Sense Christ only is the Foundation; But secondarily, and with relation, as being themselves laid next upon the Foundation of the Doctrine of Salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as being the First who propagated the Faith of Christ over the whole World. For Christ hath not founded his Church on any Mortal Men, but only upon himself, and on his own divine Doctrine. Moreover, we are taught, in this Article, that Christ is the only Head of his Church; according as we are taught by the Apostle (Eph.5:23), For the Husband is the Head of the Wife, and Christ is the Head of the Church; and he is the Saviour of the Body. And again (Col.1:18), He is the Head of the Body of the Church, who is the Beginning, and the first-born from the Dead; that in all things he might have the Pre-eminence. However, the Rulers of the Church are called Heads, in their several Churches over which they are placed; but this is only as Stewards and Vicars of Christ, in his several Provinces, over which they are said to be Heads. Thus the holy Scripture speaks then (Acts.20:28), Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and unto the whole Flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers, to feed the Churches of God, which he hath purchased with his own Blood. In suchwise, however, that Christ himself is the Head and Chief of the Shepherds; as St. Peter testifies (1Pet.4:4), When the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away. |
| On the contrary, we refuse the term “connection” as being insufficient to express the Union. But this does not mean we call the Word of God the Father, the God or the Lord of Christ, again so that we do not blatantly cut in two the single Christ and Son and Lord; for then we would incur the charge of blasphemy, as making him God and Lord of himself. For the Word of God united (as we already before said) in a personal way to the flesh, is God of all, and rules over all, but is himself neither servant nor lord of himself. It would be both silly and blasphemous to say or think this. For he called the Father his God [ Jn. 20.17 ], even though he is God by nature and of God’s very being. We know, of course, that along with being God, he also became Man (who is under God, according to the Law that befits the nature of the humanity) but how can he be God or Lord of himself? It follows, then, that it is as Man and insofar as relates to the degree of the kenotic “emptying out,” that he says that he stands alongside us under God. In just the same way was he placed under the Law too, even though he himself spoke the Law and, as God, is the Lawgiver. Moreover, we refuse to say of Christ, “For the sake of him that bore, I reverence that which is borne; for the sake of the Invisible I worship that which can be seen.” Apart from this, it is a terrible thing to say: “He that is assumed shares the name of God with him that assumed him.” For whoever speaks like this once again cuts Christ into two, and sets the man apart by himself and a God likewise: and such a person manifestly denies the union, on the basis of which we rule out that one is worshipped alongside another, or one is nominally given divine titles alongside the other thought of as encompassing him. We, however, understand quite simply that there is one Christ Jesus, the Only Begotten Son, worshipped with a single worship, together with his own flesh. And we confess that it is the Son begotten of God the Father, that is the Only-Begotten God himself, even though he is impassible in his own nature, who has suffered for us in the flesh [ 1Pet. 4.1 ] in accordance with the Scriptures. |
| Prov. 11: 31. LXX ; 1Pet. 4: 18 ), what will become of the man who has not attained any principle of devotion and virtue in this present life? 53 . By a single infinitely powerful act of will God in His goodness will gather all together, angels and men, the good and the evil. But, although God pervades all things absolutely, not all will participate in Him equally: they will participate in Him according to what they are. 54 . All, whether angels or men, who in everything have maintained a natural justice in their disposition, and have made themselves actively receptive to the inner principles of nature in a way that accords with the universal principle of well-being, will participate totally in the divine life that irradiates them; for they have submitted their will to God " s will. Those who in all things have failed to maintain a natural justice in their disposition, and have been actively disruptive of the inner principles of nature in a way that conflicts with the universal principle of well-being, will lapse completely from divine life, in accordance with their dedication to what lacks being; for they have opposed their will to God’s will. It is this that separates them from God, for the principle of well-being, vivified by good actions and illumined by divine life, is not operative in their will. 55 . The scales on which the disposition of each being, whether angel or man, will be weighed at the last judgment is the principle of nature, which shows clearly whether that angel or man inclines towards well-being or its opposite. It is in accordance with this inclination that each being participates or fails to participate in divine life. For God will gather together into His presence all angels and men according to their being and their eternal being. But He will gather together in a special way according to their eternal wellbeing only those who are holy, leaving to those who are not holy eternal lack of well-being as the mixed fruit of their disposition. 56 . In the mystery of the divine incarnation the distinction between the two natures, divine and human, in Christ does not imply that He is divided into two persons. |
| Question 20. Into how many Orders are the Angels distributed? Answer. According to the Opinion of St. Dionysius (Hier. Clest., cap. 6., 7.), they are distinguished into nine Choirs, which are again distributed into three Orders. The first Order is of those who are nearest to God, as the Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim. In the second the Powers, Dominions, and Virtues. In the third the Angels, Archangels, Principalities, and those all disposed in such Order, that all the lower Ranks are enlightened, and receive the divine Blessings from the higher. These Angels always continue in the Love of God, having received this Grace that they should be incapable of falling, because they listened not unto Lucifer, when he tempted them to rebel against God, through whose Grace only it is that they are thus established, and not through their own Strength. And thus far we think it sufficient to treat in the small Compass of this Confession, concerning the Knowledge of Angels: Wherefore, since it is well enough known that the Angels do help us with their Guardianship, and also assist us with their Intercession, let us therefore, as we ought, entreat them, that they may pray to God for us. More especially the Angel who is appointed our Guardian and Guide. Question 21. What are we to think concerning evil Angels? Answer. They are all created good by God; for whatsoever God made, it was good; but, through their own Will, they became evil, as our Lord testifies of the Chief of the Devils (John.8:44), He was a Murderer from the Beginning, and abode not in the Truth, because there is no Truth in him. When he speaketh a Lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a Liar, and the Father of it. These are the Authors and Chiefs of all Impiety, and continual Blasphemers of the Divine Majesty. These are the Deceivers of Mankind, both they and their Instruments, according to the Scripture (1Pet.5:8), Be sober, be vigilant, because your Adversary, the Devil, as a roaring Lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Nevertheless, be it known that the Devil cannot exercise any Power, or offer any Violence unto any Man, or any Thing, unless they are so permitted of God, as the Scripture witnesseth (Mat.8:31), The Devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the Herd of Swine; and he said unto them. Go. And let every one be assured, that it is least of all in their Power to compel Man to sin; they can only tempt, and persuade us, by their Instigation and Deceit, to do evil and go astray: For Man is endowed with a free Will, which God himself will not constrain, or lay not under any Necessity. But forasmuch as the Devils are condemned unto everlasting Punishment and Torments, they can never become Partakers of the divine Mercy or Grace; as it is said (Mat.25:41), Depart from me, ye cursed, unto everlasting Fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. |
| Question 28. What is Whoredom or Intemperance? Answer. Whoredom is a foul and detestable Lust of the Flesh, repugnant to the Law of God, which a Man committeth against his own Body: As saith the Apostle (1Cor.6:18), Every Sin that a Man doth is without the Body; but he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own Body. Furthermore, whereas every Christian is a Member of Christ’s Body; whosoever, therefore, lasciviously walloweth with an Harlot defileth himself. Now, that every one of the Faithful is a Member of Christ’s Body the Apostle affirmeth (1Cor.6:15), Know ye not that your Bodies are the Members of Christ? Shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot? God forbid. And a little after (1Cor.6:18), Flee Fornication. The opposite Virtue to this Vice is Temperance. Question 29. What other Sins arise from this? Answer. Blindness of Heart, Hatred of divine Things, Impiety, Envy, Despair, Profuse Luxury, Laziness, Enmity to his Neighbour, and such like. Whosoever would, therefore, flee from this Sin, it behoveth him to set continually before his Mind that the holy God dwelleth not save in the chaste and pure Heart: For which Reason the sacred Prophet beseecheth God that he would bestow on him a clean Heart (Ps.51:12), Make me a clean Heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me. Question 30. What is Envy? Answer. Envy is a Grief and Discontent of Mind conceived at the Good arising to another, and a Joy and Satisfaction when Evil befalleth him. Or, perhaps, it ariseth from our Neighbour’s being something richer than ourselves, or for that he is as much esteemed and as wealthy. The same suppose of Honour, Glory, Learning, and other Qualifications. Of this Vice the Scripture saith thus (1Pet.2:1), Wherefore, laying aside all Malice, and all Guile, and Hypocrisies, and Envies, and all evil Speaking, as new-born Babes, desire the sincere Milk of the Word, that yemay grow thereby. Question 31. What Sins do spring out from this Envy? |
| Question 45. What is the second Thing contained in this Article? Answer. That Christ suffered the Punishment of us Sinners, having no Sin in Himself: as the Apostle St. Peter testifieth (1Pet.1:18), Forasmuch as ye know ye were not redeemed with corruptible Things, as Silver and Gold, from your vain Conversation taught you by your Fathers, but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb, without Blemish and without Spot. In like manner doth John the Baptist bear Witness, that Jesus, who was perfectly innocent, and free from any Stain of Sin, suffered for our Sins; For thus saith he (John.1:29), Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the Sin of the World. And this was voluntarily, and of his own free Will, as himself saith (John.10:18), I have Power to lay down my Life, and I have Power to take it again. Question 46. What is the third Thing taught? Answer. That Christ suffered on the Cross, according to his human Nature, not according to his Divinity. For his divine Nature suffered not: that was not fastened to the Cross, that did not give its Face to be spit upon, nor to the Smiters: that died not. And that Christ was crucified only in the Flesh the Apostle manifesteth, saying (Col.1:21, 22), Now hath he reconciled in the Body of his Flesh through Death, to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreprovable before him. Nevertheless his divine Nature, having taken to it the Humanity, was never again separated from it. Not in the Time of his Passion and Death upon the Cross; not even in Death; although his Soul was separated from his Body, yet did not his Divinity ever depart from his Body or his Soul. So that in Death itself Christ still continued one and the Same Person. Question 47. What is the fourth Part contained in this Article? Answer. That the Death of Christ was abundantly more excelled, and of far greater Benefits, than could be the Death of all other Men: For these especial Reasons. First, Because of the heavy Burden of our Sins, as saith the Prophet (Is.53:4), He hath borne our Griefs and carried our Sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. |
| Raising our voice against further dissemination of evil and hatred among warring peoples of the same tongue, common past and future, we raise also our voice against all divisions and schisms in the Serbian Orthodox nation. Making efforts to establish just peace with our neighbors we should first reconcile with each other. The men of God who for centuries have given an infallible direction for our actions both in peace and war, both in liberty and slavery, expect from us who now represent the Serbian nation and its Church to be worthy of the Orthodox faith and our name; to know how to say and by our own person show what our Orthodox people should always be: light to the world and salt to the earth; Christ’s sheep among wolves; humans even among non-humans. That the doctrine of the Gospel always be the measure by which we shall measure all our actions, and then the actions of other people: “Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them” (Matt. 7:12) and the words of the Apostle: “Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling”; “For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong” ( 1Pet. 3:9, 17 ). (…) Once again, we witness before God, before Orthodox and Christian nations, as well as all people of good will: we as pastors and spiritual leaders do not identify ourselves with the authorities on either side of the Drina; 207 but in the same way we cannot separate ourselves from our own our own nation, sinful but belonging to God, in the ecumenical family of nations, but remain with it on the cross on which it is crucified. (…) Let us be humans, let us be the people of God, so that the Lord, the Man-lover and Peacemaker, the Savior of the world, might bless us and all the people with his peace! – Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, from a message issued by its extraordinary meeting in Banja Luka, November 1–4, 1994. STATEMENTS ON THE SITUATION IN KOSOVO, MARCH 1999 AND MARCH 2004 Vienna Declaration on Kosovo Peace and Tolerance, 1999 |
| Refrain: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me. Troparia: How heavy in character I have become, in soul and body, like Jannes and Jambres in Pharaoh’s bitter service, and my mind has sunk low. But help me, O Lord. ( Ex.7: 11 ; 2 Tim. 3:8 ) I, wretch that I am, have rolled my mind in mud. But wash me, O Lord, in the bath of my tears, I pray Thee, and make the robe of my flesh as white as snow. When I examine my actions, O Savior, I see that I have gone beyond all men in sins; for I have sinned with knowledge consciously, and not in ignorance. Spare, spare, O Lord, Thy works. I have sinned; forgive me, for Thou alone art pure by nature, and apart from Thee there is none without defilement. ( 1Pet.3:21 ) Being God, for my sake Thou didst take my form, and didst work miracles, healing lepers and bracing paralytics; and Thou didst stop the flow of blood of the woman with hemorrhage, O Savior, through the touch of Thy hem. ( Phil. 2:6 ; Mt.4:24 ; Lk.8:43-48 ) Refrain: Holy mother Mary, pray for us. To St. Mary of Egypt: Having crossed Jordan’s stream, thou didst find rest by giving a wide berth to the deadening pleasure of the flesh, from which deliver us also by thy prayers, O saint. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: To The Trinity: Thee, O Trinity, we glorify, the one God: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, Father, Son and Spirit, simple Being, Unity ever adored. Now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Theotokion: From thee, O pure maiden Mother and Virgin, God Who created the worlds and ages was clad in my clay and united to Himself human nature. Song 6 Eirmos: I cried with my whole heart to the merciful God, and He heard me from the lowest hell and raised my life out of corruption. Refrain: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me. Troparia: Rise and make war against the passions of the flesh, as Joshua did against Amalek, and ever conquer the Gibeonites – illusive thoughts. ( Ex.17:8 ; Sir.8:21 ) Pass through the flowing nature of time, like the Ark of old, and take possession of the Land of Promise, my soul: It is God’s command. ( Sir. 3:17 ; Deut.1:8 ) |
| So, the first influence of the word of God onto our life is reflected in our spiritual revival. This way, Apostle James says that God «begat us with the word of truth» (1:18), and Apostle Peter explains that this birth through the word differs from ephemeral birth, for it leads us into eternal, non-ephemeral life. The people, born in the word, must be absolutely strange to any malice, flattery, hypocrisy, envy and slander, as newly-born babies; love only that verbal milk, which gives us the opportunity to taste «that the Lord is gracious» ( 1Pet. 2:3 ). Have you experienced this new birth through the word? Was there a moment in your life when you felt in yourself the beginning of new life, not the one, with which your body, your secular calculations live, but that gracious life, for which you need nothing, but God and the fulfillment of His commandments, for the sake of what man is about to agree for tortures and death, when he is ready to forget his former life and feels himself, on the word of the apostle, as a newly-born baby, free of any cunningness and envy? Can you say that you are revived by the word? – God gave you all, so that you could reach perfection of this birth within you: He cleansed you with water and the Spirit in the Holy baptism, but remember that this holy sacrament will bring its fruit within you only when you yourself will consciously be revived by the word, because the purification and sanctification of the church happens through baptism, but in no other way, than by the means of the word, as it is said in the Scripture: «Cleanse it with the washing of water by the word» ( Eph. 5:26 ). So, if in your life you had not experienced such decisiveness to set aside self-love and sin, and live for God, if you have not accepted the words of Christ, that one has to be born from above, if you have not experienced how new life’s spiritual strength comes onto you, and according to the teaching of the Savior, suddenly overwhelms our hearts ( John 3:8 ) as an unexpected blowing of the wind, then pray and ask God to give you the opportunity to be revived by the word, for you received the principal element for revival in the holy baptism. |
| That the original mankind became so corrupt that the Lord had to destroy it by the waters of the Flood, keeping only the righteous Noah and his family, from whom he restored mankind again; that among the descendants of the righteous Noah were many sinners, but there were the righteous, too; that one of these righteous became the antecedent of the Chosen nation, from among whom proceeded the Savior of the world – Christ. All these things a Christian should know in order to believe correctly and to be prepared to defend the faith. With good reason, Christ Himself referred to these facts from the book of Genesis (Matt. 19:4, 24, 38; Mark 10etc.). The Holy Scripture does not give any anthropological or archeological facts. They are not necessary for the matter of salvation of human souls. That is why to your question, how should one picture the first people according to the Bible: beautiful, as they are drawn in Biblical illustrations, or like those monkey-like beasts as they are depicted in popular anthropology books, we will not find the answer in the Holy Scripture, for the knowledge of all this is not necessary for the soul and the pastoral tasks of the Church. But this does not at all mean that this question is not legitimate and that you have no right to ask it. A Christian has an inalienable right to be interested in all questions. Those who assert that one should believe simply, without asking questions, are wrong. There are often indifference and a cold attitude towards faith hiding behind such affirmations. The Apostle Peter teaches us: «Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear» ( 1Pet.3:15 ). And the Apostle Paul confirms: «Ye may know how ye ought to answer every man» ( Col.4:6 ). So, the question needs to be answered: how to picture the first people in a Christian way? But one should search for the answer to this question in the same way that all questions outside the Church are answered: scientific, economic, municipal – not in the lines of the Bible, but in the free conclusions of the human mind, to which the Lord grants freedom, not prescribing how to conduct scientific research, nor how to trade or to build a state. |
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