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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Concerning God the Father
I believe in God the Father, Who is without beginning, indescribable, incomprehensible, Who is beyond every created essence, Whose essence is known only to Himself, to His Son and the Holy Spirit; as it says in the Holy Scriptures, upon Him even the Seraphim dare not gaze. I believe and confess that God the Father never became the likeness of any material form nor was He ever incarnate. In the theophanies (appearances of God) of the Old Testament, as our Holy Fathers bear witness, it was not God the Father Who appeared, but rather it was always our Saviour, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity (i.e., the Word or Logos, the Angel of the Lord, the Lord God of Sabaoth, the Angel of Great Counsel, the Ancient of Days) Who revealed Himself to the prophets and seers of the Old Testament. Likewise, in the New Testament, God the Father never appeared but bore witness to His Son on several occasions solely by a voice that was heard from Heaven. It is for this reason that our Saviour said, "No man hath seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him," (John 1:18) and "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He Who is of God, He hath seen the Father" (John 6:46). In addition, Acts Four, Five and Six of the Seventh Ecumenical Council state that the Holy Trinity cannot be portrayed iconographically since He is without from and invisible. Therefore, God the Father is not depicted in the holy icons. I believe that He is the cause of all things as
well as the end purpose of all things. From Him all visible and invisible
creatures have their beginning and there was a time when they did not exist.
He created the universe out of absolutely nothing. The earth too had a
beginning and man was created by God's love. The creation of man and of
the universe was not out of necessity. Creation is the work of the free
and unconditional will of the Creator. If He had so wished, He need not
have created us; the absence of creation would not have been a privation
for Him. The creature's love is not one which gives Him satisfaction. God
has no need to be satisfied. He needs nothing. God's love cannot be compared
to human love, even as His other attributes such as paternity, justice,
goodness cannot be compared to their human counterparts. God's love is
a love which constitutes a mystery unfathomable to man's reason or intellect.
God has no "emotions" which might create passion, suffering, need or necessity
in Him. Nevertheless, although the nature of divine love remains incomprehensible
and inexplicable to human reason, this love is real and genuine and I confess,
in agreement with Scripture, that God is love.
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Concerning the Holy Trinity
I believe, confess and worship the Holy Trinity.
I worship the One, Holy, Indivisible, Consubstantial, Life-Creating and
Most Holy Trinity. In the Trinity I worship three persons -- three hypostases
-- that of the Father, that of the Son and that of the Holy Spirit. I do
not confuse the persons of the Most Holy Trinity. I do not believe that
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are, as it were, three masks of
a single person. None of the persons is alienated from the others, but
each has the fulness of the Three together.
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Concerning the Incarnation
I believe that from the moment of His conception in the virginal womb, Jesus Christ was one person, yet having two natures. From His conception, He was God and Man before birth, during birth and after birth. I believe and confess that the Most Holy Virgin Mary, after the image of the bush which burned and was not consumed, truly received the fire of the Godhead in Herself without being consumed thereby. I believe and confess that She truly gave of Her own blood and of Her own flesh to the Incarnate Word and that She fed Him with Her own milk. I confess that Jesus Christ was, in His Godhead, begotten of the Father outside of time without assistance of a father. He is without mother in His divinity, and without father in His manhood. I believe that through the Incarnation, the Most
Holy Virgin Mary became truly the Theotokos -- the Mother of God -- in
time. She was a Virgin before, during and after birth. Even as Jesus Christ
arose from the dead despite the fact that the Jews had sealed His tomb
with a stone, and even as He entered into the midst of His disciples while
the doors were shut, so also did He pass through the virginal womb without
destroying the virginity of Mary or causing Her the travail of birth. Even
as the Red Sea remained untrodden after the passage of Israel, so also
did the Virgin remain undefiled after giving birth to Emmanuel. She is
the gate proclaimed by the Prophet Ezekiel through which God entered into
the world "while remaining shut" (Ezekiel 44:2).
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Concerning Creation
I believe that matter is not co-eternal with the
Creator, and there was a time when it did not exist, and that it was created
out of nothing and in time by the will and the Word of God. I believe that
matter was created good but drawn into sin and corruption because of man,
who was established initially as the ruler of the material world. Even
though the creation "lieth in evil" and corruption, yet it is God's creation
and therefore good; only through man's will in using creation evilly can
sin be joined to creation. I believe that creation will be purified by
the fire of the Last Judgment at the moment of the glorious Advent of our
Saviour Jesus Christ and that it will be restored and regenerated and that
it will constitute a New Creation, according to the promise of the Lord:
"Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. 21.5). "New heavens and a new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness" (II Peter 3:13).
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Concerning the Spiritual Hosts
I believe that the angels are not mythical but
noetic beings created by God, that they had a beginning in time and that
they are not eternal or immortal by nature, but only by Divine Grace. Although
they possess a different nature than ours, their spiritual and incorporeal
nature is nonetheless real and is subject to other laws and other dimensions
foreign to human nature. They are conscious persons. In the beginning they
were created perfectly good, perfectly free, having the faculty of will
and choice. Some angels made a good choice by remaining faithful to their
Creator, whereas others used their liberty in an evil manner and estranged
themselves from their Creator and rose up against Him and, becoming darkened
and wicked, fell from God and turned into demons. The demons are envious
of man because of the glory of the eternal destiny for which he was created,
and they seek his ruin and utter destruction. They have no real power over
those who have received Baptism, yet they tempt us so that we ourselves
might make ill use of our freedom. But the angels, because of their loyalty
and their communion with God, know no envy and are not jealous of man's
destiny. Rather, they have been endowed with a nature superior to man's
so that they might help man realize his purpose through the aid of Divine
Grace; they rejoice when a man succeeds in realizing the aim of his existence.
The angles are humble, they are instructed by the Church, they belong to
the Church and celebrate with us in glorifying the Creator; they pray for
us and attend to our prayers. All beings created by God's wisdom, will,
and love are fashioned on a hierarchical principle and not on an egalitarian
principle. Even as men on earth differ according to what gift each has
received, so also do the angels have distinctions among themselves in accordance
with their rank and their ministry.
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Concerning Immortality
I believe that only God is eternal and immortal by nature and in essence. The angels and the souls of men are immortal only because God bestows this immortality upon them by grace. If if were not for the immortality which God bestows by His divine will, neither the angels nor the souls of men would be immortal of themselves. Men's souls have no pre-existence. The how of
the soul's birth, as well as separation from the body at the moment of
the latter's biological death that it might be reunited to the body when
the dead are raised at the Second and glorious Coming of our Saviour is
a mystery which has not been revealed to us.
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Concerning the Mystery of Evil
I believe that God created neither death nor suffering
nor evil. Evil has no hypostasis or existence as such. Evil is the absence
of good; death is the absence of life. Evil is the alienation of the created
being who has estranged himself from God; it is the degeneration of an
essence which was created good. The sinner dies, not because God slays
him in punishment so that He might revenge Himself on him -- for man cannot
offend God, nor does God experience any satisfaction at the death of a
man -- the sinner dies because he has alienated himself from the Source
of Life. God is not responsible for evil, nor is He its cause. Neither
is God blameworthy because He created man's nature with the possibility
of alienating itself. If He had created human nature without free will,
by this imposed condition He would have rendered the created intelligent
being purely passive in nature; the creature would simply submit, not having
the possibility of doing otherwise, since it would not be free. However,
God wished that, after a fashion, we too should be His co-workers in His
creation and be responsible for our own eternal destiny. God knows in His
infinite wisdom how to transform the causes of evil into that which is
profitable for man's salvation. Thus God uses the consequences of evil
so as to make roses bloom forth from the thorns; although He never desired
the thorns, nor did He create them in order to use them as instruments.
He permitted these things to exist out of respect for our freedom. Thus
God permits trials and sufferings without having created them. When suffering
comes upon me, I must receive this as an unfathomable proof of His love,
as a blessing in disguise and without feeling indignant, I must seek out
its significance. As for temptations, I must avoid them, and for the sake
of humility, beseech God to spare me from them, even as our Saviour teaches
us in the Lord's Prayer: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from the evil one." Yet, in all trials, temptations, and sufferings,
we conclude our prayer as did the Saviour in the garden of Gethsemane:
"Not My will, but Thine be done" (Luke 22:42).
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Concerning Man and Sin
I believe and I confess that God created man neither
mortal nor immortal, but capable of choosing between two states, as St.
John of Damascus teaches us (Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II,
chap. 30). Man's bad choice and ill use of his free will caused his nature
to be defiled by sin and become mortal. Human nature's defilement and alienation
from God are caused by sin which entered into the world through a single
man, Adam. Baptism in the true Church liberates us from the effects of
sin and enables us to "work" for our salvation. Yet, even as after the
Lord's Resurrection both the memory of His sufferings and also the marks
of these sufferings were preserved in a material manner, so also after
our Baptism does our nature preserve our weakness, in that it has received
only the betrothal of the Divine adoption which shall be realized only
at the glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, our regeneration
by Baptism is just as real as our Saviour's Resurrection. The Most Holy
Virgin Mary was born with the same nature as ours. She could not of Herself
have maintained the state in which the Archangel found Her on the day of
the Annunciation, because She also, like all of us, had need of God's Grace.
God is the Saviour of the Virgin not only because He purified Her, but
also because by Divine Grace and Her will She was protected from a state
of personal sin.
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Concerning Man and His Free Will
I believe that man "works" for his salvation.
Salvation is not imposed upon him in spite of himself as Augustine of Hippo's
and John Calvin's doctrine of predestination would have it, nor is it obtained
solely by the endeavors of human will, as Pelagius taught. Salvation is
synergetic, that is, man co-operates in the work of his salvation. God
does not take upon Himself the role which belongs to man; likewise, man
can attain to nothing by his own efforts alone, neither by his virtue,
nor by observing the commandments, nor by a good disposition. None of these
things have any value for salvation except in the contest of Divine Grace,
for salvation can not be purchased. Man's labors and the keeping of the
commandments only demonstrate his will and resolve to be with God, his
desire and love for God. Man cannot accomlish his part of co-operation
in his salvation by his own power, however small this part may be, and
he must entreat God to grant him the strength and grace necessary to accomplish
it. If he perceives that he does not even wish his own salvation, he must
ask to receive this desire from God "Who gives to all men and disregards
none." For this reason, without despising man's role, we say that we receive
"grace for grace" (John 1:16) and that to approach and enter the Church
is according to the Fathers, "the grace given before grace," since in reality
all is grace. This is the true meaning of the words of the Holy Fathers,
"although it be a question of grace, yet grace is granted only to those
who are worthy of it" indicating by the word "worthy" the exercise of our
freedom of will to ask all things from God.
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Concerning Faith and Works
I believe that man's natural virtue -- whatever
its degree -- cannot save a man and bring him to eternal life. The Scriptures
teach: "All our righteousness is like unto a menstrual rag" (Isaiah 64:6).
The fulfillment of the works of the Law does not permit us to demand or
to merit something from God. Not only do we have no merits or supererogatory
works, but Jesus Christ enjoins us that when we have fulfilled all the
works of the Law, we should esteem ourselves as nothing but "unprofitable
servants" (Luke 17:10). Without Jesus Christ, a man's personal virtue,
his repute, his personal value, his work, his talents and his faculties
matter but little; they matter only insofar as they test his devotion and
faith in God. Our faith in Jesus Christ is not an abstraction but rather
a communion with Him. This communion fills us with the power of the Holy
Spirit and our faith becomes a fertile reality which engenders good works
in us as the Scriptures attest "which God prepared beforehand that we should
walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). Thus, according to the Apostles, faith engenders
true works; and true works, which are the fruit of the Holy Spirit, bear
witness and prove the existence of a true faith. Since faith is neither
abstract nor sterile, it is impossible to dissociate it from good works.
It was by this same faith in the same Jesus Christ that the righteous of
the Old Testament (who are venerated to the same degree as the other saints
in the Orthodox Church) were saved, and not because of their legalistic
or disciplinary observance of the Law. Faith is also a gift of God, and
a man relying on his own efforts, his own piety, or his own spirituality,
cannot of himself possess this faith. Yet faith is not imposed: to those
who desire it, God grants it, not because of a fatalistic predestination,
but because of His Divine foreknowledge and His disposition to co-operate
with man's free will. If God has given us faith, we must not think ourselves
better than others, nor superior or more worthy than them, nor should we
think that we have received it because of our own merits, but we should
attribute this favor to the goodness of God Whose reasons escape us. We
must thank Him by bowing down before the mystery of this privilege and
be conscious that one of the attributes of faith is the "lack of curiousity."
It is neither works nor faith, but only the Living God Who saves us.
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Concerning the Theotokos
I believe that the nature of the Most Holy Virgin
Mary is identical to our own. After Her free and conscious acceptance of
the plan of salvation offered to man by God, the Holy Spirit overshadowed
Her and the power of the Most High covered Her, and "at the voice of the
Archangel, the Master of all became incarnate in Her." Thus our Lord Jesus
Christ, the New Adam, partook of our nature in all things save sin, through
the Theotokos, the New Eve. The nature of fallen man, the nature of Adam,
which bore the wounds of sin, of degeneration, and of corruption, was restored
to its former beauty, and now it partakes of the Divine nature. Man's nature,
restored and regenerated by grace, surpasses Adam's state of innocence
previous to the fall, since as the Fathers say, "God became man so that
man could become God." Thus St. Gregory the Theologian writes: "O marvelous
fall that brought about such a salvation for us!" man, created " a little
lower than the angels" (Ps. 8:5), can, by God's grace, surpass even the
angelic state, and so we praise the Most Holy Virgin Mary, as: "More honourable
than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim."
I reject all the doctrines, which are alien to the teachings of the Fathers,
concerning original sin and the "immaculate conception of Mary." Likewise,
I reject every doctrine which endeavors to distort the position of the
Theotokos, Who, with a nature identical to ours, represented all humanity
when she accepted the salvation offered Her by God. Thus, God is the Saviour
of the Most Holy Virgin as well and She is saved by the same grace whereby
all those who are redeemed are saved. She is not the "Mother of the Church,"
as though She were dissociated from the Church or superior to It., but
rather She is the Mother of all the faithful of the Church, of Which She
also is a part.
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Concerning the Saints
I believe that God "glorified those who glorify
Him" (I Kings 2:30), that He is "wondrous in His saints" (Ps. 67:35), and
that He is the "Saviour of the body" of the Church (Eph. 5:23). I believe
that we are saved insofar as we are members of the Body, but that we cannot
be saved by any individual relation with God outside of the Church. For
the Lord said, "I am the true vine... As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in
Me. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
(John 15:1, 4, 6). The saints are those members of the Church, the Body
of Christ, who have achieved great sanctity and perfection. I believe that
our God is the "God of our Fathers" and that He has mercy upon us because
we are the children of our Fathers, who were and are His saints and His
servants, as the Holy Scripture attests in many places. I believe that,
even as St. James the Apostle says, "the prayer of a righteous man availeth
much" (James 5:16), even as the Three Youths who prayed in the fiery furnace
attest: "Cause not Thy mercy to depart from us for Abraham's sake, Thy
beloved, for Isaac's sake, Thy servant, and for Israel's, Thy holy one"
(Dan 3:34). Those whom God has glorified, I also glorify. Because of Him
Who glorifies them, I entrust myself to their prayers and intercessions,
even as the Scriptures require, for the angel of the Lord appeared to Abimelich
and counseled him to seek Abrahams's prayers, saying: "He shall pray for
thee and thou shalt live" (Gen. 20:7). I believe that my worship and veneration
of the saints is a well-pleasing worship offered of God since it is because
of Him and for His sake that I worship them. I give adoration to no created
thing, no other being, be it visible or invisible. I venerate no man for
his own virtue's sake but "for the grace of God which is given" him (I
Cor.1:4). In celebrating the feast of a saint, it is God Who is always
worshipped, the saint's contest and victory being the occasion for God
to be worshipped. Indeed, He is worshipped and glorified in His saints;
He "is wondrous in His saints" (Ps 67:35). As He said, "I will dwell in
them" (II Cor. 6:16) and, by grace and adoption, they shall be called gods
(John 10:34-35). God Himself has granted His saints their ministry of interceding
on our behalf. I supplicate them and I am in communion with them, even
after their death in the flesh, since this death, according to the Apostle,
cannot separate us from the love of Christ which unites us. According to
the Lord's promise, they who believe in Him "shall never die... but are
passed from death into life" (John 11:26, 5:24).
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Concerning the Holy Icons
I venerate holy icons in perfect accord with the
second commandment of the Decalogue [Ten Commandments] and not in contradiction
to it. For, before the Incarnation of God, before the Nativity of Jesus
Christ, any representation of Him would have been the fruit of man's imagination,
a conception of man's reasoning concerning God Who is by nature and in
His essence incomprehensible, indescribable, immaterial, inexpressible
and unfathomable. Every conception or imagination concerning God will,
by necessity, be alien to His nature; it will be false, unreal, an idol.
But when the time was fulfilled, the Indepictable One became depictable
for my salvation. As theApostle says, "we have heard Him, we have seen
Him with our eyes, we have looked upon Him and have handled Him with our
hands" (I John 1:1). When I venerate the holy icons I do not worship matter,
but I confess that God Who is immaterial by nature has become material
for our sakes so that He might dwell among us, die for us, be raised from
the dead in His flesh and cause our human nature, which He took upon Himself,
to sit at the right hand of the Father in the Heavens. When I kiss His
venerable icon, I confess the relatively describable and absolutely historical
reality of His Incarnation, His Death, His Resurrection, His Ascension
into the Heavens, and His Second and Glorious Coming.
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Concerning the Veneration and Worship of the Holy Icons
I venerate the holy icons by prostrating myself
before them, by kissing them, by showing them a "relative worship" (as
the definition of the Seventh Ecumenical Council says) while confessing
that only the Most Holy Trinity is to be offered adoration. By the words
"relative worship" I do not mean a second rate worship, but that they are
worshipped because of their relation to God. God alone, Who is the cause
and the final goal of all things, deserves our worship; Him alone must
we worship. We worship the saints, their holy relics and their icons only
because He dwells in them. Thus, the creatures which are sanctified by
God are venerated and worshipped because of their relation to Him and on
account of Him. This has always been the teaching of the Church: "The worship
of the icon is directed to the prototype." Not to venerate the saints is
to deny the reality of their communion with God, the effects of Divine
sanctification and the grace which works in them; it is to deny the words
of the Apostle who said, "I no longer live, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal.
2:20). I believe that icons are a consequence of and a witness to the Incarnation
of Our Saviour and an integral part of Christianity; thus there is no question
of a human custom or doctrine having been superimposed upon the Tradition
of the Church, as though it were an afterthought. I believe and I confess
that the holy icons are not only decorative and didactic objects which
are found in Church, but also holy and sanctifying, being the shadows of
heavenly realities; and even as the shadow of the Apostle Peter once cured
the sick -- as it is related in the Acts of the Apostles -- so in like
manner do the holy icons, being shadows of celestial realities, sanctify
us.
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Concerning the Holy Relics of the Saints
I believe and I confess that when we venerate
and kiss the holy relics, the grace of God acts upon our total being, that
is, body and soul, and that the bodies of the saints, since they are the
temples of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:9), participate in and are endued
with this totally sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. Thus, God can act
through the holy relics of His saints, as the Old Testament bears witness;
for there we see that a man was resurrected by touching the bones of the
Prophet Elisseus (II Kings 13:21). Therefore, I neither venerate holy relics
for some sentimental reason, nor do I honour them as merely historical
remains but acknowledge them as being, by the grace of God, endowed with
intrinsic holiness, as being vessels of grace. Indeed, in the Acts of the
Apostles we see that the faithful were healed by touching the Apostles'
"handkerchiefs" and "aprons" (Acts 19:12).
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Concerning the Holy Scriptures
I believe that all the Scriptures are inspired
by God and that, as St. John Chrysostom says, "It is impossible for a man
to be saved if he does not read the Scriptures." However, the Holy Scriptures
cannot be dissociated from the Church, for She wrote them. The Scriptures
were written in the Church, by the Church and for the Church. Outside the
Church, the Scriptures cannot be understood. One trying to comprehend the
Scriptures though outside the Church is like a stranger trying to comprehend
the correspondence between two members of the same family. The Holy Scriptures
lose their meaning, the sense of their expression and their content for
the man who is a stranger to the Church, to Her life, to Her Mysteries
and to Her Traditions, since they were not written for him. I believe and
I confess that there is no contradiction whatsoever between the Sacred
Scriptures and the Tradition of the Church. By the word "Tradition," I
do not mean an accumulation of human customs and practices which have been
added to the Church. According to the holy Apostle Paul, the written and
oral Traditions are of equal value; for it is not the means of transmission
that saves us, but the authenticity of the content of what has been transmitted
to us. Furthermore, the teaching of the Old Testament as well as that of
the New Testament were transmitted orally to God's people before they were
written down. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures themselves are a part of Holy
Tradition which is a unified whole and we must accept it as a whole, and
not choose bits and parts according to our private opinions or interpretations.
The official versions and texts of the Orthodox Church are the Septuagint
version of the Old Testament (which was used by the Apostles when they
recorded the New Testament) and the Greek text of the New Testament. Translations
into the various languages have also been approved by the Church and are
extensively used. I acknowledge that there are a plurality of meanings
for each verse of the Bible, provided that each interpretation be justified
by the teachings of the Holy Fathers who are glorified by God. I reject
all human systems of interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, whether they
be allegorical, literalistic, or otherwise. I confess that the Holy Scripture
was written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it is
solely through the Holy Spirit that we can read and understand It. I acknowledge
that I cannot read or understand the Scriptures without the assistance
of the Holy Spirit and the illumination of the Tradition of the Church,
even as the eunuch of Candice could not understand the prophets without
the aid of St. Philip, who was sent to him by the Holy Spirit (Acts 8).
I denounce as blasphemous every attempt to correct, re-adapt or "de-mythologize"
the sacred texts of the Bible. I confess that Tradition alone is competent
to extablish the Canon of the Holy Scriptures since only Tradition can
declare what belongs to it and what is foreign to it. Moveover, I confess
that the "foolishness of preaching" (I Cor. 1:21) is superior to the wisdom
of man or his rationalistic systems.
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Concerning the Church
I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ is One,
Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, and that It was instituted by God through
the power of the Holy Spirit and by revelation. I reject the idea that
the Church is a form of piety which is the fruit of a philosophical or
historical evolution, or the fruit of human reason and ingenuity. The Church
is instituted by God and is a tree which is rooted in the Heavens. We receive
nourishment of its fruits, although the planting remains supernatural.
I believe that no other Name under heaven has been given us by which we
can be saved, besides that of Jesus Christ. I believe that one can not
dissociate Jesus Christ from His Church, which is His Body. I believe with
St. Cyprian of Carthage that the man who does not have the Church for his
Mother cannot have God as his Father, and that outside the Church there
is no salvation. I believe that neither ignorance, nor lack of awareness,
or even the best intentions, can excuse one and justify him or her for
salvation; for if even in the true Church, "the righteous will scarcely
be saved" (I Peter 4:18) as the Scriptures say, how can one conclude that
ignorance or error -- even if it be inherited -- can excuse one or that
good intentions can lead us with certainty into the Kingdom of Heaven?
According to His boundless mercy and righteousness God deals with those
who are outside the Church, and the Apostle forbids us to concern ourselves
with the judgements of God concerning such people. God did not institute
schismatic and heretical assemblies that they might work in parallel with
the Church for the salvation of men. For this reason, schismatic and heretical
assemblies ("churches") are not workshops of salvation; rather, they are
obstacles created by the devil, wherein error and truth are mingled in
different proportions so that the true Church may not be recognized. Therefore,
with the Holy Fathers I confess that: "The martyrdom of heretics is suicide
and the virginity of heretics is fornication." Outside of the Church there
is no true Baptism, nor any other Mystery. Hence, the Apostolic Canons
and the canons of the Ecumenical Councils forbid us to pray with schismatics
and heretics, be it in private or in Church, as they forbid us, under the
penalty of defrockment and excommunication, to permit them to function
as clergymen.
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Concerning How the Church's Organization is Superior to Ethnic Considerations
I believe and I confess that the Church makes
no distinction in the race of Her believers or their nationality or their
language. The sister and autocephalous Orthodox Churches have been historically
delimited by national, geographic, and jurisdictional boundaries, but not
as if these had any scriptural or messianic significance. Thus, according
to Canon Law, there can not be two bishops named for the same area. The
Church's brotherhood and unity is enacted by God and permeates the very
essence and nature of God. This unity is not subject to racial, familial,
national, political, economic, cultural or social considerations, which
are of this world ("The things which are Caesar's," Matt. 22:21). The brotherhood
of the Church is one of "the things which are of God," and the "world has
no part in it." (In 1872, the Ecumenical Patriarchate condemned as heresy
the concept of "phyletism" which places a particular nationality and its
interest, goals and aspirations above the Church.)
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Concerning the Head of the Church
I believe that the only Head of the Orthodox Church
is our Lord Jesus Christ. The Orthodox Church has never had, nor shall
ever have a "universal" bishop. A "primate" or an "Ecumenical Patriarch"
is not a prelate with universal jurisidiction over the Church, nor was
the Pope of Rome, nor the Pope of Alexandria, for that matter, ever so
considered in the early centuries before the rise of Papal pretensions,
expecially from the ninth century on. The titles "patriarch," "archbishop,"
"metropolitan," and so forth, do not denote a difference of episcopal grace.
The unity of the Orthodox Church is expressed by the harmony of Her bishops,
by Her common Faith, common Law, and common spiritual life. Every bishop
(the visible head) and his flock (the visible body) constitute the fulness
of the Body of Christ. There can be no Church without a bishop, even as
a body cannot exist without a head. Since He is God, our Lord Jesus Christ,
despite His Ascension into the Heavens, remains with us until the end of
time in accordance with His promise (Matt. 28:20); therefore, since He
is not absent, He does not require a "vicar," in the Papal sense, to rule
over His Body. The Holy Spirit directs the Church and accomplishes that
incomprehensible identification in which our incarnate Lord Jesus, and
the Holy Eucharist, and the assembly of the Church are one and the same
and are called the Body of Christ. The Ecumenical and Local Councils do
not invent symbols of faith, but, guided by the Holy Spirit, bear witness
to what has been delivered by the Church at every time, in every place,
and by every one; and they promulgate the canons necessary to put the Faith
into practice as it has been lived and professed from the beginning. Infallibility
is an attribute of the Catholicity of the Church of Christ, and not an
attribute of a single person or, de facto, of an hierarchical assembly.
A council is not "ecumenical" because of the exterior legality of its composition
(since this factor does not oblige the Holy Spirit to speak through a council),
but because of the purity of the Faith of the Gospels which it professes.
"Truth (i.e. conformity to the Apostolic Tradition) judges the Councils,"
says St. Maximus the Confessor. There is no "pope," superior to the Councils
who must ratify them, but rather it is the conscience of the Church, which,
being infallible, does or does not recognize the authenticity of a Council,
and which does or does not acknowledge that the voice of the Holy Spirit
has spoken. Hence, there have been councils which, though fulfilling the
exterior conditions of ecumenicity, were nonethless rejected by the Church.
The Church's criterion, according to St. Vincent of Lerins, is the Church.
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Concerning the Church and Holy Tradition
I believe that the Church is directed by the Holy
Spirit. I believe that, in the Church, man cannot invent anything to take
the place of revelation, and that the details of the Church's life bear
the imprint of the Holy Spirit. Hence, I refuse human reason the right
to make clear distinctions between what it thinks to be primary and what
secondary. A Christian's moral life can not be dissociated from his piety
and his doctrinal confession of faith. I denounce as being contrary to
Tradition the dissociation of the Church's profession of Faith from Her
administration. By the same token, the Church's disciplinary canons are
a direct reflection of Her Faith and Doctrine. I reject any attempt to
revise or "purge," "renovate," or "make relevant" Orthodoxy's canonical
rules or liturgical texts.
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Concerning the Life That Is To Come
I believe in the existence of eternal life. I
believe in the Second Coming, that is, the glorious return of the Lord,
when He sahll come to judge the living and the dead, and render to each
man according to the works that he did while living in the body. I believe
in the extablishment of the Kingdom of His righteousness. I look for the
resurrection of the dead, and I believe that we will be resurrected in
the body. I believe that both the Kingdom of God and Hell shall be eternal.
I do not transgress the Fourth Commandment when I observe Sunday, the eighth
day, the day which prefigures the "new creation," since formerly, before
the Incarnation, the primordial perfection of the creation of the world
was commemorated by the Sabbath day of rest. By observing Sunday, I confess
the new creation in Jesus Christ, which is of greater import and more real
than the existing creation which yet bears the wounds of sin. I believe
also that both the righteous and the sinners who are departed now enjoy
a foretaste of their final destiny, but that each man shall receive the
entirety of what he deserves only at the Last Judgement. God loves not
only those who dwell in Paradise, but also those who are in Hell; in Hell,
however, the Divine love constitutes a cause of suffering for the wicked.
This is not due to God's love but to their own wickedness, which resents
this love and experiences it as a torment. I believe that, as yet, neither
Paradise nor Hell has commenced in a complete and perfect sense. What the
reposed undergo now is the partial judgment, and partial reward and punishment.
Hence, for the present, there is also no resurrection of the bodies of
the dead. The saints, too, await this eternal and perfect state (even as
a "perfect" and everlasting Hell awaits the sinners), for, in his Epistle
to the Hebrews, St. Paul states, "and these all (i.e., all the saints),
having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise,
since God has provided some better thing for us, so that they without us
should not be made perfect" (Heb. 14:40). Therefore, all the saints await
this resurrection of their bodies and the commencement of Paradise in its
perfect and complete sense, as St. Paul declares in the Acts of the Apostles,
"I believe all things which are written in the law and in the prophets,
and have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there shall
be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust" (Acts 24:14-15).
But even though they do not yet partake of their glory fully, the intercessions
of the saints are nonetheless efficacious even now, for St. James in his
Catholic Epistle, did not say "the effectual prayer of a righteous man
shall avail much," but rather, "availeth much" (James 5:16) even now. I
believe that Paradise and Hell will be twofold in nature, spiritual and
physical. At present, because the body is still in the grave, both the
reward and the punishment are spiritual. Therefore, we speak of Hades (i.e.,
the place of the souls of the dead) because, as such, Hell (i.e., the place
of everlasting spiritual and physical torment) has not yet commenced. Hades
was despoiled by our Saviour by His descent thither and by His Resurrection,
but Hell, on the contrary, shall be eternal. In that day, Christ shall
say unto those on the left, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). This is attested
to in the Gospels by the demons also, in the miracle of the healing of
the demoniac who lived in the district of the Gadarenes. For, at the approach
of our Saviour, the demons cried out, "What have we to do with Thee, Jesus,
Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?" Thus,
they are not yet in Hell, but they do know that a Day has been appointed
when Hell shall commence. I do not believe in "purgatory," but I believe,
as the Scriptures attest, that the prayers and fasts made by the living
for the sake of the dead have a beneficial effect on the souls of the dead
and upon us, and that even the souls that are in darkness are benefited
by our prayers and fasts. The public prayers of the Church, however, are
reserved exclusively for those who have reposed in the Church. Insofar
as it depends upon my own wish, I shall not permit my body to be cremated,
but shall specify in my Will that my body be clothed, if possible, in my
Baptismal tunic and be buried in the earth from which my Creator took me
and to which I must return until the Saviour's glorious Coming and the
Resurrection from the dead.
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