The paragraphs below have been excerpted from a document I recently came across. Entitled “I Believe…A Short Exposition of Orthodox Doctrine”, it is a quite comprehensive statement of the Orthodox faith, written in the first person. Although I am unsure of its source, I am sure that much of what follows will resonate in the heart of every true believer…
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 of the Old Testament, it was not God the Father Who appeared, but rather it was always our Saviour, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity (aka 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 has seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him,” (John1:18) and “Not that any man has seen the Father, save He Who is of God, He has seen the Father” (John6:46).
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. In one sense, the creature’s love does not give God satisfaction, for 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. As the Scripture says, God is love.
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 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.
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 virgin Mary became truly the Theotokos — the Mother of God — in time.
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 “lies in evil” and corruption, yet it is God’s creation and therefore good; only through man’s will in using creation in an evil way can sin be joined to creation. I believe creation will be purified by the fire of the Last Judgment at the moment of the glorious advent of our Saviour Jesus Christ. I believe it will be restored and regenerated and 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 dwells righteousness” (II Peter3:13).
Concerning the Spiritual Hosts
I believe 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 and 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. Rising up against Him, they became darkened and wicked, falling from God and turning 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 been baptized, yet they tempt us so that we ourselves might make ill use of our freedom. But the holy angels, because of their loyalty and 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 and they celebrate with the Church in glorifying the Creator. All beings created by God’s wisdom, will, and love are fashioned on an 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 ministry.
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, its separation from the body at the moment of biological death, and its reunion with 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.
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 creation and bear some responsibility 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. 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 thegarden of Gethsemane: “Not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke22:42).
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, Chapter 30). Man’s bad choice and ill use of his free will caused his nature to be defiled by sin and to become mortal. The defilement of human nature and its alienation from God are caused by sin which entered into the world through a single man, Adam. When we are baptized into Christ, we are liberated from sin’s effects and enabled by grace to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”. 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.
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 those holding a narrow 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 context of divine grace, for salvation cannot 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 accomplish 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” (John1:16) and that to approach God through Christ is, according to the Fathers, “the grace given before grace,” since in reality all is grace. This is what is meant when we hear the holy Fathers say that 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.
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” (Luke17:10). 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 disassociate 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. 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 curiosity.” In the final analysis, it is neither works nor faith, but only the Living God who saves us.
Concerning the Theotokos
I believe that the nature of the 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 theArchangel, 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 Nazianzus 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. I reject all the doctrines—alien to the teachings of the Fathers—concerning 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 holy Virgin as well and she is saved by the same grace whereby all those who are redeemed are saved.
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 disassociated from thechurchofJesus Christ. 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. I believe and confess that the Scriptures came out of the sacred 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 “faith once delivered to the saints.” According to the 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 teachings of the Old Testament as well as the New Testament were transmitted orally to God’s people before they were written down. 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. Moreover, I confess that the “foolishness of preaching” (I Cor.1:21) is superior to the wisdom of man or his rationalistic systems.
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. 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 Gospel 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.
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. A Christian’s moral life can not be disassociated from his piety and his doctrinal confession of faith. I reject any attempt to revise or “purge,” “renovate,” or “make relevant” Orthodoxy’s canonical rules or liturgical texts.
Concerning the Life That Is To Come
I believe in eternal life. I believe in the Second Coming, that is, the glorious return of the Lord, when He shall 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 establishment of the Kingdom of His righteousness. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and I believe we will be resurrected in the body. I believe that both the Kingdom of God and Hell shall be everlasting. 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 Judgment. 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 epistle did not say “the effectual prayer of a righteous man shall avail much,” but rather, “avails 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 everlasting. In that day, Christ shall say to 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 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.
