Our Orthodox Christian Faith

By Athanasios Frangopoulos

This book systematically, yet concisely and in simple terms, presents the faith of the Orthodox Church. It contains basic elements of Theology, Cosmology, Anthropology, Christology, Soteriology, Ecclesiology, and Eschatology.

It is intended for readers interested in learning about the Orthodox faith, as well as those involved in Catechism (priests, catechists, etc.). It is also useful for theologians, as it includes numerous Patristic passages (in the original and translated, with precise references).
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brotherhood of Theologians "The Savior"
• Release date: May 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9786182120064

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

RELIGION

The billions of people who have lived upon the earth and those who are living now have many differences. Some are white and some are black; others are redskinned. Some are more civilized than others; while yet others are totally barbarous. Some are more intelligent than others. Europeans do not look like the Chinese or the Japanese. The languages spoken by some peoples are more complex than those spoken by others. But while in such things there is a wide spectrum of differences among the various peoples of the earth, all of them, without exception, agree on one thing: religion. All men sense and confess belief in the existence of a Higher Being upon whom they are dependent and whom they try to propitiate with different rites of worship, with prayers, sacrifices, fast, etc., in order to obtain his benevolence and protection. This orientation of man towards the Highest Being, towards God, and communion with God through worship is religion.

But let us now try to examine and define religion.

1. WHAT RELIGION IS

1. The definition of ReIigion. What, then, is Religion? Religion is the close and living relationship, the dependence upon, and communion of man with God. It is a deep respect, a holy fear, which one feels before the Most High and Almighty, a feeling of relationship and a strong attraction to Him. To put it more simply, Religion is the natural and perfect, the whole-hearted turning and dedication of man to God, so that man feels and confesses with this attraction of his towards God, that without God he cannot live, he cannot be happy, he cannot be content or at peace. But let us analyze this further.

Man’s logic, which seeks to discover the reason for the world’s existence, is forced to admit and acknowledge that God is its creator. Man’s inner desire to enjoy eternal happiness and bliss seeks the unending source of blessedness and finds it in God, Who is infinite and perfect. And when man’s conscience creates an inner turmoil within him, he senses that he has violated not only the moral law which innately exists within him, but also the God-given law of the Supreme Law-giver; thus he tries in every way to appease and placate Him. In this way, all men, civilized or not, acknowledge, besides those things which they perceive about them, the existence of God, Who is invisible and yet everywhere present.

This idea of God - regardless how unenlightened or imperfect it may be among idolaters and non-Christians, or how majestic and mysterious it may be among Christians - constitutes the heart which gives life to mankind through belief in Him, just as man’s body is vivified through the heart’s warm and pulsating blood. Just as no living organism can exist without a heart, so no people (or even isolated individuals) can exist without believing in God, without religion. Of course we Christians have a very special and privileged position as far as religion is concerned, because we believe in the one and only true God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Prophet David is a living example of what we mean. He turned his gaze and his soul to God and said: «As the hart earnestly desires the fountains of water, so my soul earnestly longs for thee, 0 God. My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come Ond appear before the face of God?» (Psalm 41,3). These words of the Prophet show that religion is a very deep and strong desire: man’s desire for God. It is the unending and unquenchable thirst of man’s soul for its Maker and Creator. It is man’s inner compelling urge to communicate, for all matters in his life, with God the Heavenly Father, and to seek from Him the solutions to his problems. Blessed Augustine, addressing himself to God, says something quite similar to that of the Prophet David: «O God, you created us for Yourself and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee». With these words blessed Augustine manifested and underlined the deep religiousness of his soul.

2. Where does ReIigion arise and come from? What is the source and root of this religious tendency and phenomenon that we call Religion? This question is a natural one which any one could ask. Here is the answer: Religious emotions and feelings are something innate in man, planted there, in his soul, by a Higher and eternal Power. In other words, it is something natural to him, deeply rooted within him and indelible. No one can root it out of him, destroy it or make man irreligious. In saying this we emphasize that religion is as old as man himself. As soon as man appeared upon the earth he immediately revealed his religiousness. His first turning was towards God, his first search was for Goq.- His first act and expression were religious in nature. He Immediately sought out God in order to satisfy his desires and to find rest in Him. Thus, we can well say -nay, rather we are compelled to say - that man’s religious feeling has been planted in him by God. God, when creating man, placed this religious emotion in him and bestowed upon this emotion the strongest and most compelling of drives. The result is that man appears throughout all the manifestations of his life as a completely religious being. In order to understand this better we point out that in man’s soul the idea, the thought and the name of God are predominant; man expresses this idea of his through prayer, worship and with offerings to God, through vows and sacrifices, through obedience and Submission to Him, and to His will. All these things prove and witness to the fact that man by nature is religious: that he is created to be religious and that without religion he would not be able to live life as he should.

Concerning this innate religiousness in man St. John Chrysostom says: «From the very beginning God planted in man the knowledge of Himself», i.e. from the very moment God created man, He placed in him a desire and longing to know and to unite with Him. Man then is rightly called «a religious being» and «a heavenly plant».

3. What is the purpose of Religion? Religion has a lofty, holy and salutary purpose: that man, small, corruptible, weak and sinful, may, through it, achieve full and complete union with God, and through this union attain to personal happiness and blessedness, - indeed, to achieve t h e o sis, to become God by grace, as our Christian faith teaches us. And thus, though man’s soul is already endowed by God’s grace with immortality, he now achieves eternal blessedness. He becomes blessed in and through God. But let us expound this a bit further in order to make it clearer.

Man is neither self-created nor independent. He is neither self-sufficient nor self-sustaining. Rather, man is a creature, part of God’s creation, a dependent being - dependent upon God, the all-perfect Being, Who gave him his existence and life. Furthermore, man has many needs, both material and spiritual. It is impossible for him to live by himself and to progress as he desires and wishes. This is verified daily by his many and great weaknesses and needs. He needs help from without and especially from above, from Heaven. Indeed, keeping in mind that man is not only an infinitesimal and weak creature within this great world and boundless universe, and that he is a sinner as well, full of passions and evil, and hence ever falling, tormented by pangs of conscience, with inner disappointments and frustrations, we can readily understand how great and indispensable a need man has for his Almighty and merciful God. It is in God, then, that we find the benevolent purpose of Religion and in Him alone is Religion’s goal fulfilled. Religion joins man to God and makes him closely dependent upon God. Man derives strength, aid, material and spiritual benefaction, remission of sins, peace, mercy and salvation from God. And then man, even the most evil and most wretched of men, by living near God, derives from Him his happiness and joy. This is the purpose of Religion. It thus becomes apparent that man can not do without Religion.

4. Man’ s ReIigiousness is a universaI phenomenon. What does this mean? It means that all men, of every generation, of every age and race, from the very first man to the very last, all had and possessed Religion. Of course their religions differed Jrom each other. But the important thing is that they all had and have a religion. Man’s religiousness was never an isolated or a passing phenomenon, something that appears for a moment and disappears like a falling star. It was and is a general and universal phenomenon among all men. Regardless of where one finds himself, regardless of what race and generation one may wish to examine, he will discover religious expressions and manifestations even amongst the most uncivilized people. Certain scientists who studied savage tribes living in the heart of Asia and Africa maintain that they came upon people and even entire tribes without religion. Th’ey were mistaken, however, in their observations. How? The aborigines took the Europeans to be impious and Godless; hence they hid their sacred symbols and religious ceremonies and other manifestations lest they be defiled by them. Later these same scientists were forced to admit that this was the case, and that nowhere did they come across, nor does there exist, a man or a race of men without religion, but that all the races of men, civilized or not, have their religion. Religion is thus a general and universal phenomenon, embracing all men. But one may ask: «Aren’t there any unbelievers or atheists at all». Yes, its quite possible that there are such people, but they constitute an exception. Then again these atheists appear for only a sort while; when everything is going well for them. But when they are beset by troubles and afflictions, when trials and set-backs fall upon them, then they become faithful and believers; they fall on their knees to pray and to ask God to help and protect them.

5. The various Types of Religions. As we all know, all men do not have the same religion. There are many and varied religions. Indeed, there should by right exist but one religion, since there is but one true God, Who created all men and implanted within them the same religious tendency. But from the time man disobeyed God’s commandment and fell into sin, his mind was darkened and his heart corrupted, and, worst of all, he was deceived by the prince of evil, the Devil, and was led away from the one true God, Who had fashioned him and had bestowed upon him His blessings. This God he denied: he turned towards God’s creatures and His creation, and worshipped them and not their Creator. Thus he fell away from Monotheism into polytheism and idolatry. Instead of worshipping the one true God, he worshipped many false gods. One may ask, «Where did he discover these gods?» Quite simply: man, now corrupted and darkened by the fall, imagined them: he created them with his darkened mind; he created them to conform with his opinions and bestowed upon them all his weaknesses, all his passions and all his short-comings. Thus he deified and worshipped the stars in the sky and many of the animals on earth. He conjured up and concocted gods and godesses, he made idols of them and worshipped and even sacrificed his children to them. And man lived in polytheism and idolatry for thousands of years.

But within this world-wide idolatry just described, there were individuals and people who held on to their faith in the one true God, like Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; like Job and the people descended from these God-fearing men. Such a people was Israel: the Jewish people, who besides the traditional religious legacy handed down by its fathers, also received revelation from God Himself. The Jewish people were the only people in antiquity who believed and worshipped the one true God, even though they did not worship Him as they should have, since the revelation imparted to them was only partial and not complete. Thus it is, then, that we have monotheistic religions like Judaism and Islam, and polytheistic or pagan religions, natural religions which have their roots in man’s innate religious instinct.

We also have revealed or Apocalyptic religions, such as Judaism and Christianity, the latter being the only true religion, since only it possesses God’s perfect and complete revelation.

2. DIVINE REVELATION

1. What do we mean by Revelation? Revelation means a manifestation, a showing forth, a revealing of that which was hidden and unknown. Divine Revelation is God’s revealing Himself to man. We have two types of Revelation, natural and supernatural Revelation. We can say that all the old, false religions based themselves in part on natural revelation. From supernatural Revelation first came Judaism, with its incomplete revelation, and then Christianity, with its complete and perfect Revelation.

2. Natural Divine Revelation. What is natural Divine revelation? It is God manifested’ by the material world, which exists outside of man and surrounds him. Natural revelation is also that witnessing to God that takes place within us in the form of a strong religious instinct and of an inner moral law, both of which are innate in man. This natural revelation, like a voice within the deepest recesses of our soul, proclaims God’s presence. Both the Prophet-King David and the Apostle St. Paul assure us of this. The Prophet David says, «The Heavens proclaim the glory of God and the firmanent announces the works of His hands» (Psalm 18, 1); while the Apostle states, «For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead» (Romans 1, 20). In other words, we are told to gaze at the heavens and the stars of heaven, and from the existence of the universe we shall be led to accept the existence of a Creator who fashioned the world. From the order and harmony which dominates the natural world we shall comprehend the divine wisdom, power and majesty of the Creator. In order to confirm God’s revelation through and in the created world and His providence and care for man, St. Paul says that God,’ during the years of idolatry, «did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness» (Acts 14, 17).

But even then, when man wandered within the shadows of polytheism, God did not keep Himself hidden. He revealed Himself, and this revelation is witnessed to and confirmed by many things. The existence of the world is such a witness. Another is God’s benevolent Providence which gave man rain and seasonable weather and the abundance of the earth, so that he might sustain himself from, and rejoice in, the earth’s bounties. With all these divine acts, God says to man, «Here I am. Here I am, 0 man; I care for you and I provide for you. Pay attention and study a bit that which you enjoy. Ponder a little, and you will discover me». For this reason St. Paul says that the religious instinct within us is «written in our hearts», deep in our hearts, that it might unerringly guide us to God. Thus if man were to turn deeply inward and listen carefully to the voice of the moral law within himself, he would readily understand Who God is, recognizing Him as the wise Creator of man and the world, to Whom he must turn.

Thus, were man to base himself on this, and on this alone, he could ascend with his thought to the concept and knowledge of the one true God and discover Him. Yet man failed to discover God. The wise of those times, or rather those who thought themselves to be wise, could not find God because they «became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools» (Romans 1, 21-22). Foolishness and darkness in seeing God? Yes. If man were clean of sin and free from passions and wickedness, he would have both seen and heard the one true God, according to the words of Christ, «Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God» (Matth. 5, 8) and he would have glorified Him. But man, blinded by his passions, dispite all the witnesses and testimony provided by nature . and by his own conscience, and despite the assurance give by Divine Providence, could not find Him.

3. SupernaturaI Divine ReveIation. Supernatural Divine Revelation is God’s direct revealing of Himself. God comes into direct contact with man and reveals Himself to him. Thus, in Paradise God revealed Himself to Adam before and after the fall in order to lead him upon the path of truth. God revealed Himself to Abraham and led him also in matters pertaining to his faith and his life. God also reveals Himself to many righteous and faithful men. The first principal revelation however was given 1500 years before Christ to Moses on Mt. Sinai. There God gave to His prophet the plaques containing the Divine Law and all the ordinances for the Jewish people: the Old Testament, which is the precursor of the New Testament and the Paedagogue to Christ. The Law and the Prophets. Because after the Law which was given through Moses, there followed a long line of holy prophets, who in turn revealed to the Hebrew People the will and commandments of God.

As we have already stated, however, this revelation was incomplete. For this reason, God thereafter made a full and complete revelation of Himself and of His truth. How did this happen? Through whom was this complete revelation given? It was given through his only begotten Son, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This the Evangelist St. ’John verifies when he says: «the law (of the Old Testament) was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ» (John 1, 17). And St. Paul writes: «God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His son» (Hebrews 1, 1). In both these passages we find both revelations: the first given to the Hebrews through the prophets, and the second given to us Christians through the Son of God, our Saviour, Christ. The first is incomplete, the second complete and perfect. The first revelation prepares men to receive the second. The second revelation fully reveals God and offers with certainty salvation. Thus both religions are revealed religions. First the Jewish and then the Christian. Christianity is the only true religion, since only she possesses full and complete supernatural Divine Revelation. The first, the Jewish religion, is only a part; Christianity contains the fulness, the totality of Divine Revelation, after which there is nothing more to be revealed by God².

3. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

The Founder of the Christian religion is our Lord Jesus Christ. Its characteristic trait is that it teaches and demands of its followers faith in the one true God, the Holy Trinity. All Christians believe in and confess «Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Trinity consubstantial and undivided». With the passage of time, however, there appeared some who distorted and changed the teachings of the Christian .faith. Today the Christian world is thus divided chiefly into three large groups. First there is the Orthodox Christian religion which preserves intact all that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Apostles, the Seven Ecumenical Councils and the great Fathers of the Church (Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom and others) taught. The second group is Roman Catholicism or Papism, and the third, Protestantism.

The Roman Catholics and the Protestants adulterated the ancient faith and either added or subtracted from that which our Lord and the Apostles taught. We who, by God’s grace, are Orthodox are most thankful to Him for preserving us in the True Faith, and for this reason we shall proceed to especially examine what our Holy Orthodox Faith teaches.

4. THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Two are the sources from which the Orthodox Christian religion derives its teachings: Holy Scripture and Holy or Sacred Tradition.

1. Holy Scripture. When we say «Holy Scripture» we mean the sum total of those books which were written by· pious men under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is why they are called, and are, in fact, Divinely inspired. Holy Scripture is mankind’s Religious Book par excellence, for it contains the truth revealed by God to man. Of course, in the writing and formulation of the meanings and the words of Holy Scripture, the human factor collaborated with the Divine. And the Divine factor,, i.e. the Holy Spirit, ensures for Holy Writ its infallibility. Since Holy Scripture is Divinely inspired, it is also infallible. That is, everything written in it is entirely true and real, even though it may be difficult for us, to a lesser or greater degree, to understand it. The manner, however, in which the Divine truths are expounded and stated, the linguistic idiom and style, belong to the human factor and are dependent upon the literary abilities of the authors of the books of Holy Scripture.

Holy Scripture expresses this truth with the following words: «Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit» (II Peter 1, 21). That is to say, the Holy Spirit enlightened the human authors who placed at its disposal their rational and linguistic capabilities. The Holy Spirit illumined them and protected them from all error so as to write only that which God revealed to them and guided them to write.

All the books of, Holy Scripture written before Christ make up the Old Testament. These are’ forty-nine in number. They contain the truths revealed by God and the events, described under Divine guidance and inspiration, that occurred before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. All the books of Holy Scripture written after Christ compose the New Testament. These are twenty-seven in number and contain those truths which our Lord revealed to the world. The books of the Old and New Testaments are divided, according to their contents, into the following categories: historical, didactic and prophetical and are the following:

HOLYSCRIPTURE

A. THE OLD TESTAMENT

B. THE NEW TESTAMENT