THE FIRST ARTICLE
Q. 17. How does the first Article of the Creed read?
A. I believe in ONE God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
Q. 18. Of whom does the first Article of the Creed speak?
A. The first Article of the Creed speaks of God, the Creator of the world.
Q. 19. What is meant by the words “I believe?”
A. By the words “I believe” is meant that all the teaching of the Faith in this Creed is the Truth. With all my heart I receive the Christian Orthodox Faith and I am ready to confess it openly before all, and, should it become necessary, to suffer for it also.
Q. 20. Who is God?
A. God is a Spirit, eternal, all-good, omniscient, all-just, almighty, omnipresent, all-sufficing, unchangeable, and all-blessed. GOD is the HIGHEST, INFINITE and SUPERPERFECT SPIRITUAL BEING, from WHOM everything originated and by WHOM everything is sustained.
Q. 21. What is revealed to us about the HOLY TRINITY?
A. It is revealed to us about the HOLY TRINITY that GOD is ONE, yet He is TRINE in PERSONS: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, — a TRINITY Consubstantial and Undivided.
Q. 22. What difference is there between the Persons of the Holy Trinity?
A. – GOD THE FATHER is neither begotten, nor proceeds from another Person; THE SON OF GOD is from all eternity begotten of the Father; THE HOLY SPIRIT, from all eternity, proceeds from the Father.
Q. 23. Are the Three Persons of the Most HOLY TRINITY all of equal majesty?
A. The three Persons of the Most Holy TRINITY are all of absolutely equal Divine majesty. The Father is true God, the Son is equally true God; and the Holy Spirit is true God, but yet so, that in three Persons is only ONE GOD.
Q. 24. Why is God called Almighty?
A. God is called Almighty because He upholds all things in His power and His will.
Q. 25. Why is God called the Maker?
A. God is called the Maker because He created heaven and the earth, and all things visible and invisible.
Q. 26. What is meant in the Creed by the word “invisible”?
A. By the word “invisible” in the Creed is meant the INVISIBLE, or Spiritual World, to which the Angels belong.
Q. 27. What are the Angles?
A. The Angels are incorporal Spirits, having intelligence, will, and power.
Q. 23. What does the Word “Angel” mean?
A. The word “Angel” means Messenger, because God sends the Angels to announce His will to the people.
Q. 29. What is a Guardian Angel?
A. A Guardian Angel is an Angel that is given, to us from God it the time of our baptism to guard us from evil.
Q. 30. Are Angels good?
A. Not all Angels are good, there are also evi1 angels, otherwise called devils, which do not obey God, and teach evil to the people.
Q. 31. What is known to us of the visible world?
A. Holy Scripture reveals to us that in the beginning God created from nothing heaven, and the earth; and the earth was without form and void. Afterwards God created:
On the first day of the world, the light; on the second day, the firmament or visible heaven; on the third day, the gathering together of waters on the earth, the dry land, and whatever grows there upon; on the fourth day, the sun, moon, and stars; on the fifth day fish and birds; on the sixth day, four-footed creatures living on the earth, and finally MAN.
Q. 32. Were the visible creatures created such as we see them now?
A. The visible creatures were created not such as we see them now; at the creation everything was very good, that is pure, beautiful, and harmless.
“And God saw everything that He made, and, behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31.)
Q. 33. Are we not informed of something particular in the creation of man?
A. God in the Holy Trinity said: Let us make than in OUR image and after OUR likeness. (Genesis 1 :26.) And God made the body of the first man, ADAM, from the earth; breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; brought him into Paradise; gave for food, beside the other fruits of Paradise, the fruit of the Tree of Life; and lastly, having taken, a rib from ADAM while he slept, made from it the first woman, EVE. (Genesis 2 :22.)
Q. 34. What is the breath of Life?
A. The breath of Life is the SOUL, a spiritual and immortal substance.
Q. 35. Why did God create man?
A. God created man to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven.
Q. 36. What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven?
A. To gain the happiness of heaven we must know, love, and serve God in this world.
Q. 37. Does God take care of the world?
A. God takes care of the world. He preserves and directs it.
Q. 38. What is Divine Providence?
A. Divine Providence is the constant energy of the Almighty power, wisdom, and goodness of God, by which He preserves the being and faculties of His creatures, directs them to good ends, and assists all that is good; but the evi1 that springs by departure from the good HE either cuts off, or corrects it and turns it to good results.
Q. 39. What does the first article of the Creed teach?
A. The first article of the Creed teaches us:
- that God is a Spirit the highest and the most perfect;
- that God is one in Substance, but trine in Persons, and that all the THREE PERSONS are of absolutely equal Divine majesty;
- that all the world was created by God; and
- that God holds the world in His power and governs everything.
