Terminology - John 1:1-17

WISDOM (OF GOD) -1) A name for God’s Son and Word; Christ is the Wisdom of God.  (an appellation or Title of Jesus) “I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.” Prov 8:12 “But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom… Read More

WORD OF GOD (Gr. Logos) (an appellation or Title of Jesus) The Son of God, who from the mystery of His eternal birth is called the Word of the Father. The “Word became flesh” (John 1:14) for the salvation of the world. The Holy Scriptures are also called the Word of God, for they reveal… Read More

The Feast of Palms

Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday

Visible triumphs are few in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. He preached a kingdom “not of this world.” At His nativity in the flesh there was “no room at the inn.” For nearly thirty years, while He grew “in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man” ^{(Luke 2:52)}, He lived in obscurity as “the son of Mary.” When He appeared from Nazareth to begin His public ministry, one of the first to hear of Him asked: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” ^{(John 1:46)}. In the end He was crucified between two thieves and laid to rest in the tomb of another man.

Two brief days stand out as sharp exceptions to the above – days of clearly observable triumph. These days are known in the Church today as Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. Together they form a unified liturgical cycle which serves as the passage from the forty days of Great Lent to Holy Week.

Gospel Reading: John 1:1-17 (Sunday of Holy Pascha) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life… Read More

The Filioque: a Church-Dividing Issue? An Agreed statement of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation Saint Paul’s College, Washington, D.C.

^{The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, Georgetown University, Washington, DC}

^{October, 2003}

From 1999 until 2003, the North American Orthodox-Catholic Consultation has focused its discussions on an issue that has been identified, for more than twelve centuries, as one of the root causes of division between our Churches: our divergent ways of conceiving and speaking about the origin of the Holy Spirit within the inner life of the triune God. Although both of our traditions profess “the faith of Nicaea” as the normative expression of our understanding of God and God’s involvement in his creation, and take as the classical statement of that faith the revised version of the Nicene creed associated with the First Council of Constantinople of 381, most Catholics and other Western Christians have used, since at least the late sixth century, a Latin version of that Creed, which adds to its confession that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father” the word Filioque: “and from the Son”. For most Western Christians, this term continues to be a part of the central formulation of their faith, a formulation proclaimed in the liturgy and used as the basis of catechesis and theological reflection. It is, for Catholics and most Protestants, simply a part of the ordinary teaching of the Church, and as such, integral to their understanding of the dogma of the Holy Trinity. Yet since at least the late eighth century, the presence of this term in the Western version of the Creed has been a source of scandal for Eastern Christians, both because of the Trinitarian theology it expresses, and because it had been adopted by a growing number of Churches in the West into the canonical formulation of a received ecumenical council without corresponding ecumenical agreement. As the medieval rift between Eastern and Western Christians grew more serious, the theology associated with the term Filioque, and the issues of Church structure and authority raised by its adoption, grew into a symbol of difference, a classic token of what each side of divided Christendom has found lacking or distorted in the other.

Passover The central event of the entire Old Testament history is the passover and exodus. Abraham’s son Isaac was the father of Jacob whom God named Israel which means “he who strives with God.“ (Genesis 32:28) God renewed His promise to Isaac and Jacob, and continued the covenant with them that He had made with… Read More

Prophecy The Old Testament is filled with prophecy. Prophecy means the direct inspiration of God to speak His words to the world. There were many prophets in the Old Testament, not only those whose names are given to the prophetic books of the Bible, but many others, including Moses, Elijah, Samuel and Nathan. In the… Read More

Holiness The God of the Old Testament was the Holy God. The word holy means separate, different, unlike anything else that exists. The Holy God of the Old Testament revealed Himself to His chosen people who were able to behold His glory. The glory of the Lord was a special divine manifestation of the Person… Read More

The Final Judgment Every man will stand judgment before God for his life in this world. Each person will be judged according to his words and his works. I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every idle word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and… Read More

Baptism – The Sacraments

^{V. Rev. Thomas Hopko}

The practice of baptism as a religious symbol did not begin with Jesus. Baptism, which means literally the immersion in water, was practiced among the people of the Old Testament as well as the people who belonged to pagan religions. The universal meaning of baptism is that of “starting anew,” of dying to an old, way of life and being born again into a new way of life. Thus, baptism was always connected with repentance which means a moral conversion, a “change of mind,” a change in living from something old and bad to something new and good.

Thus, in the Gospel we find John the Baptist baptizing the people as a sign of repentance in preparation for the Kingdom of God which was coming to men with Christ the Messiah. Christ himself was baptized by John not because he was sinful and needed to repent, but because in allowing himself to be baptized he showed that indeed he was God’s “Beloved Son,” the Saviour and Messiah, the “Lamb of God who takes upon himself the sins of the world” ^{(See Mt 3, Mk 1, Lk 3, Jn 1-3).}

In the Christian Church the practice of baptism takes on a new and particular significance. It no longer remains merely a sign of moral change and spiritual rebirth. It becomes very specifically the act of a person’s death and resurrection in and with Jesus. Christian baptism is man’s participation in the event of Easter. It is a “new birth by water and the Holy Spirit” into the Kingdom of God ^{(Jn 3:5)}.

Salvation and Justification  (A brief introduction to Orthodox subjective soteriology)

^{Archbishop Mikhail (Mudyugin)}

The quest for salvation in the life beyond the grave is a phenomenon which is characteristic of the spiritual life of many if not most, conscious Christians. The concept of salvation can vary. For some, it is a personal delight, joy, peace or to say, a state of blessedness. For others it is an eternal presence before God and communion with Him, with the saints, that is with others who were saved and primarily with people who were close and dear here on earth. For others it is something positive but void of any kind of a concrete concept. The shared conceptualization for everyone is that there is something positive to be anticipated in the future.

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity

^{by Fr. Thomas Hopko}

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not merely an “article of faith” which men are called to “believe.” It is not simply a dogma which the Church requires its good members to “accept on faith.” Neither is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity the invention of scholars and academicians, the result of intellectual speculation and philosophical thinking.

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity arises from man’s deepest experiences with God. It comes from the genuine living knowledge of those who have come to know God in faith.

Sources of Christian Doctrine

^{By Fr. Thomas Hopko}

Revelation

Every morning at its Matins Service the Orthodox Church proclaims: “God is the Lord and has revealed Himself unto us; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” ^{(Ps 117[118]:26-27)}. The first foundation of Christian doctrine is found in this biblical line: God has revealed Himself to us.

God has shown Himself to His creatures. He has not disclosed His very innermost being, for this innermost essence of God cannot be grasped by creatures. But God has truly shown what men can see and understand of His divine nature and will.

The fullness and perfection of God’s self-revelation is found in His Son Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the gradual and partial revelation of God in the Old Testament. Jesus is the one truly “blessed… who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Orthodox Spirituality

^{by Fr. Thomas Hopko}

Spirituality in the Orthodox Church means the everyday activity of life in communion with God. The term spirituality refers not merely to the activity of man’s spirit alone, his mind, heart and soul, but it refers as well to the whole of man’s life as inspired and guided by the Spirit of God. Every act of a Christian must be a spiritual act. Every thought must be spiritual, every word, every deed, every activity of the body, every action of the person. This means that all that a person thinks, says and does must be inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit so that the will of God the Father might be accomplished as revealed and taught by Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Icons

In the Orthodox Church the icons bear witness to the reality of God’s presence with us in the mystery of faith. The icons are not just human pictures or visual aids to contemplation and prayer. They are the witnesses of the presence of the Kingdom of God to us, and so of our own presence to the Kingdom of God in the Church. It is the Orthodox faith that icons are not only permissible, but are spiritually necessary because “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” ^{(Jn 1:14)}. Christ is truly man and, as man, truly the “icon of the invisible God” ^{(Col 1:15; 1 Cor 11:7; 2 Cor 4:4)}.