Theodicty

Recently, in reading some posts and reply on the blogs to the idea of theodicty and also the biblical reality of God’s wrath in the Atonement. I came into confrontation with the author of the blog, who would not moderate my reply and posts, at least fully. I guess fine, since it was his Orthodox or theology of Orthodoxy.  However, the idea that God’s wrath is just some metaphor, and both His wrath and justice don’t really apply, are simply false. While the mystery of the full understanding of the Atonement is always real, we do have some understanding from Scripture about the nature of the Death and Atonement of Christ. It is vicarious, and as I have maintained the authentic Anselmian theology of the atonement is ultimately continuous with the Gospels (Evangelists) interpretation of the details they record. Indeed God the Father’s holiness and righteousness  is without qualification! And The Justification of God is always part of the judicial aspect of the Cross & Death of Christ!  Indeed God is both the reconciler and the Reconciled!  (Heb. 1:3 / 9:24 / 1 Tim. 2:5 / Eph. 2:18)

Fr. Robert

Book of God

The very form of creation is a great book: behold it, examine it, read it from the top to the bottom. God did not make it of letters of ink by which you might know him; he set before your eyes the very things he made. Why do you seek greater tesimony? Heaven and earth cry out to you: “God made me!” (Sermon, Matt 11:25-26) ~ St. Augustine

Hugh of St. Victor (12th cent.) writes: This whole visible world is like a book written by the finger of God -  that is, created by divine power; and individual creatures are figures . . . established by the divine will to show forth the wisdom of the invisible things of God.

The main biblical sources for the idea of the Book of Nature are St. Paul’s declaration that “ever since the creation of the world [God's] invisible nature, namely His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made (Rom.1:20) and the grand words of Ps.19, which speak of the whole cosmos as an eloquent, though silent, witness of God’s glory! (Also see Wisd. 13:1-9)

Praise be to God!

Fr. Robert

“Bethel”

This morning I am reminded by the Word of God that God chooses the time and place of His “Bethel” – the “stone” of His House and Presence: “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” (Gen.28:16) And yet, I think of the Mother of my Lord, who gave my Incarnate Lord, the place of her womb for nine months. Saying yes, the “ordinary” is sanctified and history is an event forever! “From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me.” (Luk.1:48-49)
From the ordinary to the sublime – the action of grace. But, the “ordinary” was in reality the extraordinary!

Baptism, theology and formula is Trinitarian.

Baptism is always Trinitarian. The teaching & theology of the NT Letters proves this (1 Pet. 1:2 / Tit. 3:4-6). Both the economic but most important an ontological reality in God’s Triune unity and character. There can be no economy of God without also His own ontology: being & substance!

On Acts 2:38, Calvin wrote: “I maintain that Peter is not speaking in this passage of the form of baptism but simply declaring that the whole efficacy of baptism is contained in Christ; although Christ cannot be grasped by faith without the Father by whom he was given and the Spirit by whom he renews and sancifies us.“

Calvin knew that the Greek prepositions in the Book of Acts as to the doctrine of baptism supports the reality of Christ being the one in authority and sovereign in the command to baptise, rather than the formula, etc. And we need to also note that the Gentiles were not regenerated by the water in baptism, as they were filled (made regenerate) with and by the Holy Spirit even before the act and action of baptism (Acts 10:44..etc.) “And he (Peter) ordered them to be baptised in (by the authority of) the name of Jesus Christ.” (verse 48)

Fr. Robert

Christian Mysticism

Christian Mysticism is perhaps one of the least understood doctrines in the Church today!  The word mysticism itself is often defamed, as it is not defined within the Judeo-Christian sense with many in the Church. It simply must be seen in its reality as biblical, theological, and certainly Pauline and Johannine.  There is a certain mystical reality to the NT revelation, as both St. Paul and St. John can bring testimony ( Gal.2:20 / Rev.1:12-13), not to mention really Moses, and the OT Prophets. The whole Scriptural history and revelation is based upon God’s own self-disclosure, this produces the immediate principle of authority, which is finally the Spirit Himself speaking in the Holy Scripture, but also in the Christian himself. But the NT mysticism is in the revelation of Christ Jesus Himself…”who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6) And certainly all those who have seen and felt this in their heart and soul, can say amen! (See, Rom. 8:14-16 / 1 Peter 1:8)

Greek Predestination

Greek thought concerning predestination perhaps culminates in the teaching of St. John of Damascus, who perfected the earlier doctrine especially by his insistence on the distinction between God’s antecedent and consequent salvific will. If God is infinitely good, he asks, how is it that some men are lost? He replies by pointing out that many sin and persevere in their evil ways. God punishes them only in consequence of their sin. Prior to His prevision of sin He wills the salvation of all, because He is supremely good; if He punishes subsequently to sin, it is only because He is also supremely just. Hence God’s antecedent will to save is not absolute, but conditional; His foreknowledge of the good or evil will of man. Thus predestination, is an act of God, is in accordance with the divine prevision of man’s co-operation with grace. This distinction was to prove of paramount importance in all later speculations on predestination.

This is the basic thought of the Greek fathers, who did treat the subject more so in the first four centuries, the Patristic period.  The ideas were fully based upon the co-operation of man with the grace of God. Later of course the western Father St. Augustine set the whole discussion in relation to God’s sovereign independence of divine grace against all systems of nature by itself. Of course later the Pelagians held that grace is not necessary, but the will of man. And this was later condemed at Council of Ephesus, 431. 

Thus for the Greeks, predestination, as an act of God, is in accordance with the prevision of man’s co-operation with grace. Against this is of course Augustine’s position, that the mystery of predestination does not lie in the co-operation alone between God and man, but in the unfathomable secret of the divine decree.

I respect the Greek position, but left to itself and without the doctrine that God alone, is the complete person (triune) at work, in the salvation of the sinner (1 Peter 1:2), it is not complete. Thus we must have a real balance, but God must have the top or first place.

The Conflict Of The Word

“The struggles that the militant Church is engaged in are rarely clear-cut in their issues; they do not often appear as a battle between Christ and anti-Christ. Standing outside them or viewing them over a distance of the years, we can see what was at stake and can simplify them into one of the battles in the war of the Word of God.” ~ Quoted by T.H.L. Parker in his book: Portrait Of Calvin

Father Robert

Take Up Your Cross..

The Cross in the Christian life is very real! If we are going to be true disciples of Christ, we can be sure this reality will come. And all of our problems in this life are really theological ones. They come back to our relationship to our God. So God and His nature are ever the center round which all things tend. But we can never capture this great mystery of God, it is more than definition also, though God is the definitive in Himself. But the cross cuts across our human nature, and it always brings us to the place of Christ, and His place of “death”. As St. Paul tells us: “For you are dead (for you died), and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col.3:3) It from only this place and position, that we can deny ourselves, and take up “our” cross, and follow Him! (St. Luke 9:23) But HE has already gone this way before us, and we have the surety that the way can be possible, and even filled with His presence and power “in weakness”. As He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect (perfected/Gk.) in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Cor.12:9)

Oh let us in faith, take up..and follow Him!

 

The Divine Sophia in the Holy Trinity

It was Fr. Bulgakov’s observation that in the Church there is a very well-developed theology of the Divine Persons, but there was hardly any development of the Divine Essence. Convinced that Tradition is a creative rather than a restrictive force, Fr. Bulgakov devoted his philosophers and writers talent as well as his mystical sensitivity to developing this aspect of Orthodox Trintarianism.

“The dogma of the Holy Trinity consists in two basic postulates. The first affirms the triune character of the Deity, Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are three distinct Divine Persons together constitute one God. The second postulate is concerned with the consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity, which has but one Substance or Nature.” (Fr. Sergius Bulgakov ‘ Sophia the Wisdom of God’ p. 23).” 

Dogmatic Theology, the expression & charm of Truth

Christianity can really only be expressed by and in dogmatic theology. “The dogma of consubstantiality, which safeguards the unity of the Holy Trinity, thus remains a sealed book so far as we are concerned — for in a religious sense it has neither assimilated nor unfolded.” ~ “Sophia the Wisdom of God” p. 25, Fr. Serguis Bulgakov

“Orthodoxy does not persuade or try to compel;it charms and it attracts.” ~ S. Bulgakov

“And I, when I am lifted-up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (St. John 12:32)