Orthodox Church of the Mother of God

Salvation History - The Covenant, God's Promise

God's call and promise of salvation to Abraham, and the story of Isaac and Jacob, whom God named Israel, ending with the settlement of the twelve tribes of Israel -- the families of the twelve sons of Jacob -- in Egypt, during the time of Joseph's favor with the Egyptian Pharaoh. In traditional Church language, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are called the patriarchs. 

Salvation History - The Law and the Prophets, Preparation

The deliverance of the people of Israel by Moses from the slavery in Egypt. The revelation of God to Moses of His divine name of Yahweh -- I AM WHO I AM. The passover and the exodus, and the journey of the Israelites, led by God, through the desert. Also, the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, and the other laws which God gave to Moses concerning the moral and ritual conduct of His People.

History of Israel from the settlement in the promised land of Canaan to the first centuries before Christ.  The major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. And the so-called minor prophets.

Salvation History - The Son of God, the Incarnation

Before His personal birth of the Virgin Mary as the man Jesus, the divine Son and Word of God was in the world by His presence and action in creation, particularly in man. He was present and active; also in the theophanies to the Old Testament saints; and in the words of the law and the prophets, both oral and scriptural.  Because of his perfect love, God sent forth his Son into the world. God knew in the very act of creation that to have a world at all would require the incarnation of his Son in human flesh.

Salvation History - Death and Resurrection, Redemption

Jesus did not sin and did not have to suffer and die, he voluntarily took upon himself the sins of the world and voluntarily gave himself up to suffering and death for the sake of salvation. Christ is risen from the dead! This is the main proclamation of the Christian faith. It forms the heart of the Church's preaching, worship and spiritual life. "... if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain" ^{(1 Cor 15:14)}. It' the first fruits of the resurrection of all humanity,  the fulfillment of the Old Testament, "according to the Scriptures" where it is written, "For Thou doest not give me up unto Sheol [that is, the realm of death], or let Thy Godly one see corruption" ^{(Ps 16:10; Acts 2:25-36)}. In Christ all expectations and hopes are filled: O Death, where is your sting? O Sheol, where is your victory? ^{(Hos 13:34)}.

Salvation History - New Life, Church History.

The Church's history records the progress of Christ's work throughout the course of the human experience. History in Orthodoxy has a theological importance because of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, that just as God chose to become a physical, living, breathing human being, he also chooses to work in and through human history to bring about salvation. Thus, the Church's history becomes a sacred history, not in the same sense as the Biblical history which forms the salvation story itself, but rather as a record of the continued effects of the salvation story in the experience of man.

In the Scriptures the Church is called the Body of Christ ^{(Rom 12; 1 Cor 10, 12; Col 1)} and the Bride of Christ ^{(Eph 5; Rev 21)}. It is likened as well to God's living Temple ^{(Eph 2; 1 Pet 2)} and is called "the pillar and bulwark of Truth" ^{(1 Tim 3:15)}.