GOD; FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT IN THE WORLD Salvation and the Second Coming THE ATTRIBUTES OF ALMIGHTY GOD The power and virtues which make God who He truly is: Almighty - Omnipotent, His power is infinite - Gen. 17:1, Ps. 91:1, Rev. 19:6 I am the Almighty God, walk before Me and be blameless. ... He who dwells in the shadow of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. ..., Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns. Eternal - without beginning or end - Deuteronomy 33:27, Titus 1:2 the eternal God is your refuge .. . In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. Omniscient - All-knowing - 1 Samuel 2:3, Job 21:22 For the Lord is a God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed. Omnipresent - everywhere present - Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. All - Merciful - Ephesians 2:4, Luke 1:50 God, who is rich in mercy; because of His great love with which He loved us. And His great mercy is on those who fear Him. All- Just - Isaiah 30:18, Malachi 2:17, Acts 3:14 For the Lord is a God of Justice, blessed are all those who wait for Him. Where is the God of justice? Immutable - never changing - Malachi 3:6 For I am the Lord, I do not change. All - Wise - Job 9:4, 1 Timothy 1:17 God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. All - Holy - Revelations 4:8, 1 Peter 1:15, Isaiah 41:14 All - Good - Exodus 33:19, Psalm 16:2, Psalm 52:1, Romans 2:4 The goodness of God endures continually. All - faithful and True - Psalm 14:1, Psalm 89:1, Psalm 89:9 O God, in your faithfulness answer me and in your righteousness do not enter into judgement with your servant. WHO IS GOD? There is no God except God the Father, nor was there ever in times past, nor will there ever be in the future. God is the beginning of all things, and has no beginning. God possesses all things, but is possessed by none. Gods Son, Jesus Christ has been with the Father before the beginning; through Christ all things were created, both material and spiritual. Christ became human, and conquered death, and was taken back into heaven and on earth and under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. God has poured the Spirit upon us so that our spirits are overflowing. Through Gods Spirit we receive the promise of eternal life. And in the Spirit we are taught to trust and obey the Father, and with Christ, become Gods sons and daughters. - The confession of Faith of St. Patrick of Ireland. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT JESUS CHRIST? Jesus is the power of God and the wisdom of God. The Creed tells us the following about Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. 1. He is the Son of God, Only-begotten, of the same essence, co-eternal with the Father, begotten, not made. 2. He came to us for our salvation. 3. Christ was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. 4. Christ was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins. 5. Christ arose from the dead on the third day according to the Holy Scriptures. 6. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, and- 7. He shall come again to judge the living and the dead. Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. -Ephesians 2:19-22 Note: After reading this verse we should ask ourselves then how can there be 2,000,000 different churches? Hint: The apostle Paul jus said theres only one. HOW DOES CHRIST SAVE US? (Atonement) We can find the answer to this question in the fourth article of the Creed. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, Suffered and was buried, He arose on the third day. Christs whole life was a redemption especially when He voluntarily accepted suffering and death for us so that we might be saved. When we should have been on the Cross, Christ took our place. The Savior atoned for all humans and made us one again with Almighty God. This, we were made whole through Christs suffering, death, and resurrection. He gave us full-life once more, a privilege that was lost because the sin of Adam and Eve carried the stings of death throughout all creation. This Ancestral Curse, imparted to the human family by disobedience to Almighty God, is called by some Original Sin, and is passed on to succeeding generations of mankind. Thus, atonement was necessary because mans communion with Almighty God had been fractured by the transgressions of our first parents. We were separated from God through sin. Yet, in His infinite goodness and love, God opened a pathway whereby we might once more gain our salvation. Christ paid the price for us, as a brother would lay down his life for his friend, and we were united again with the Father. Christ, however, did not save us from an angry or vengeful God, or to satisfy His Fathers sense of justice. From the Orthodox viewpoint, salvation is more than Christ simply having paid some penalty to satisfy the Fathers wounded honor. Salvation is the will of the Father, that we return to Him so He can love us with an everlasting love. Regardless, this idea of a hateful, spiteful God is just what contemporary Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians are teaching today, deluding thousands of good people into believing salvation is a payback to a petty, spiteful God and His imagined hurts. Orthodox Christians believe that we are redeemed to a loving, compassionate God by Christ, rather than being released from an angry, vengeful God. Redemption, to an Orthodox Christian means that Christ restored the fallen human nature of mankind, making right, once again, our debilitating bondage to sin. To introduce a wounded, or hateful God into the picture is to demean His great and lasting love for us. The Church, therefore, continues the work of Christs loving redemption and we are transformed into fellow-citizens with the saints by our membership in the Orthodox Church. Scriptural references: St. John 12-47, St. Luke 10-19 If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty (1 Cor. 15:14). AN ORTHODOX VIEW OF SALVATION Christ is the head of the body; the Church. Col. 1:18 SALVATION to Orthodox Christians involves the following: 1. Accept The redeeming work that Christ accomplished on our behalf. Christ died for our sins so we must respond to this greatest of gifts wholeheartedly and with the utmost gratitude. 2. Show our gratitude, accept this gift, and retain it, by living a life of devotion in faith to our Savior, Jesus Christ. 3. Receive this gift of redemption, which made Christ mount the Cross for our sake, to give His life for us. This gift of life should excite and move us to live in total devotion to the Savior, keeping us from moral degradation and iniquity. 4. Understand that Christ paid the price for our sins. We should remind ourselves that we were sentenced to alienation from Almighty God, yet Christ took our place upon the Cross to regain the gift of eternal life for us. 5.Know that Christ gave everything for us, His spotless life, His obedience, His blood. As stated in 2 Peter 1:3-4, All that pertain to life and godliness has been given to us. 6. Believe that God offers this redemption to all men and women. However, we must understand that it is impossible to appropriate the work of Christs redemption unless we respond in faith to Gods reaching-out and offering salvation to us! without me you can do nothing, says the Lord in St. John 15:5. 7. Realize that everyone is offered the gift of redemption. Yet, we are not forced or coerced by Almighty God to accept it. We are free to refuse the gift. That is why some are saved with ardent faith, while others reject the gift and condemn themselves to eternal separation from a loving Father. 8. Understand that sinful mankind needs Divine enlightenment, and help, to accept the redemption offered us. This is what is meant by Divine grace, which rests within Christs Church and is transmitted through the Holy Mysteries or Sacraments. 9. Believe that Christ is in the Church and His grace abides in her. That is why the Church became necessary for salvation and outside the Church there is no remission of sins, no redemption, no justification (being made right with God), and no hope for eternal life. 10. Live in faith that we are called to Divine enlightenment which, as St. Nicodemos the hagiorite, tells us is the equivalent of Theosis, or union with God. Since Christ became man so that man might become God-like by grace, the Mysteries of the Church serve to deify us and to unite us with Christ Himself. Scriptural references: St. John 3, Rom. 5:1-5, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 4:16, 5:17, 1 Peter 2:4-10, Ephesians 2:8-9, Philippians 2:12-13, James 2:14-26. Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her... That He might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. -Ephesians 5:25-27 (At the Second Coming the good and the evil will be raised from the dead and judged by Christ) ...this who have done good to a resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to a resurrection of judgement. -John 5:29 Part 4 will be posted tomorrow.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 07:27:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015