According to legends, in time immemorial the Earth was shaken by grandiose battles - the Scandinavian gods overthrew ancient monsters, wielding thunder hammers and sparkling peruns.
Tribes lost in the impenetrable jungle watched aliens descending from spaceships.
And the ancient Greek women had to keep a vigilant eye on men and animals demanding their attention, because lustful Zeus could turn into a mortal.
Many miracles have been preserved in legends. And it is clear why this or that creature was revered: it is powerful and not like us.
But 2000 years ago a man was born on earth who led a bright but modest life. He died, and his memory was preserved in several dozen sources, most of which today are considered fake.
This man's name is Jesus Christ. So why does Christianity consider Him God? And isn’t God the Father the Almighty of our world? What kind of concept is God and man in one person? Let's be clear.
God the Father has many names, He created the world and is one step higher than everyone else in the Universe.
Let's start with God the Father. Orthodoxy calls Him Lord, God, but God seems to have no names. These are the consequences of the Synodal translation. In fact, we know from the Hebrew text what His name was approximately.
“Approximately” - because vowels were not used in those manuscripts, and no one knows how to correctly read the set of letters denoting God. The Old Testament Levites kept this secret too zealously. The original letters look like this:
Tetragrammaton - the secret name of God the Father in Hebrew
This inscription is called the Tetragrammaton. How did it read? There are two popular versions.
Version 1. Yahweh . The most common reading option. In the Orthodox version of the Bible, all places where God is called by name are changed. Instead of the name, “Lord” is written, which distorts the meaning of the original text and causes criticism from opponents of the Synodal translation.
Version 2. Jehovah. Using the same consonant sounds, you can get “Jehovah”. We have all heard this name in connection with the scandalous sect of Jehovah's Witnesses. But it is a mistake to associate him exclusively with her.
The word is ancient and sacred. However, Archbishop Theophan in his master's thesis came to the conclusion that Jehovah is still an erroneous reading. Yahweh's version is closer to how the prophet Moses addressed God.
God the Father is also called:
Adonai is a word that replaces the name of Yahweh, which could not be spoken in vain. Used for prayers. The Russian equivalent is “Lord.”
Hosts is a title, an addition to the name Yahweh. An approximate translation is “troops”, “armies”. That is, when we say “Lord of hosts,” we say “God of armies.” This is how we point to the power of God. The word is present in the Synodal translation.
“For the mouth of the priest shall keep knowledge, and the law shall be sought at his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.”
(Mal. 2:7)
Elohim - means "God", but written in the masculine number (singular - "El"). This is a sign of respect. In much the same way, we address each other as you, although there is only one person in front of us. In the Synodal translation it is replaced by “God” and “Lord”.
Lord - akin to “lord” or “sovereign”, indicates a higher position over others. Mistakenly called by the name of God.
In fact, the Lord is also called, for example, Hindu gods: “Lord Shiva”, “Lord Krishna”, etc. So it's not a name, but rather a status.
In all cases we are talking about God the Father. Who is he? This is the one who throughout the Old Testament (and the New too) is called God. This is the demiurge, that is, the Creator, who created our world in seven days.
He is the source of everything, the supreme personality in the Christian, Judaic and even Muslim worldview. This is omitting other theological differences.
The position of God the Father stands out significantly in the world of ancient deities, since He is the One God, the symbol of a monotheistic religion. It is impossible to imagine another deity next to God the Father in most Christian branches.
God is a role that can only be played by one, the supreme being.
Others are a step lower. Or even more than one. Even God’s opponent is Satan, and he is not strong enough to provide sufficient opposition to the Lord.
It is unknown what God the Father looks like. The Bible says that He created man in His own image and likeness, which is why images of a gray-bearded old man are common. This is how He is in the Trinity icons.
God the Father is depicted as a gray-bearded old man
The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in the mortal world
Now let's talk about the Holy Spirit. The Russian language slightly distorts this concept. In our country, spirits are usually called ethereal entities like ghosts. Here the Spirit is the all-pervading energy. This is how we talk, for example, about the military spirit. But the Holy Spirit also has a personality, so it's not just a mood. This is a manifestation of God, His part.
In Christianity, the Holy Spirit is talked about ambiguously. And the Jews generally consider Him to be a quality or manifestation of God. But Orthodoxy believes that the Holy Spirit is the same God, the true one. His task is to enter the hearts of people, illuminate the earthly and make it spiritual, holy, filled with the Divine.
It is noteworthy that in Hebrew the Holy Spirit is feminine. Our translation does not convey this. The Gospel of John describes the appearance of the Holy Spirit:
“And John testified, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and remaining on him.”
(E. 1:32)
We can observe this episode in the images dedicated to the baptism of Jesus.
At the baptism of Jesus, people saw two hypostases of God: Christ and the Holy Spirit
And in the Acts of the Holy Apostles, the Holy Spirit looks like tongues of flame:
“And cloven tongues as of fire appeared to them, and one rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
(DA 2:3)
Actually, it couldn’t be otherwise. The spirit does not have a permanent physical form.
Central dispute
Photo: Flickr.com
This question has concerned believers for many centuries. Modern theologians note that the identification of Jesus Christ with God concerns one of the cornerstone truths of the Orthodox faith.
This issue often occupied a central place in disputes between followers of Christianity and representatives of various heretical movements. One of the most persistent such confrontations occurred in the 4th century, when the struggle against the Arians was waged. Then the foundations of the Orthodox Church were defended, thanks to a number of prominent Christian figures of that time - Nicholas the Wonderworker, Basil the Great, Spyridon of Trimythous, John Chrysostom.
Currently, such doubts mainly come from representatives of sectarian teachings. At the heart of this doubt are fundamental errors regarding the sincerity of a person's faith. Among them, the central place is occupied by the inability to accept and understand the religious teaching of the Holy Trinity. This is where many other popular misconceptions come from.
All this leads to literalism. This is considered especially dangerous, since an initially false and erroneous judgment is covered up by the authority that belongs to the New Testament. The essence of literalism is elementary: a person strives to select only those expressions and words that correspond to his ideas and confirm the arguments he puts forward.
There are many examples of such literalism in the modern world. For example, in Orthodoxy there are many icons, although from the New Testament they quote “do not make images,” priests bless soldiers for battle, although one of the commandments says “Thou shalt not kill.”
Denying the Deity of Jesus is one of the classic examples of literalism. Proponents of this version cite several quotes in support of their words in which Jesus Christ speaks of his Father as God:
“I have not yet ascended to My Father; But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John 29:17)
Jesus Christ is considered a man, prophet, archangel, fiction and God
Jesus Christ is the central figure in the Bible. Even the Old Testament, which tells about events before the birth of the Savior, still focuses on His coming.
Many prophecies and instructions fuel the centuries-old expectation of the Jews. It is felt that the Messiah is about to come, who will change the world forever.
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so many gospels are written about the life of Jesus
The New Testament does not say much about Jesus Christ on earth. Only four Gospels testify to His life. This gives rise to speculation and speculation.
And therefore the assessment of the personality of Christ is quite ambiguous. Orthodoxy sees in him the Son of God - another hypostasis of the Trinity, equal in power and significance to the others. But not everyone agrees with this. There are other interpretations of the events of the Gospel:
Statement one. Jesus was a man . During his earthly life, Jesus never once calls himself God in the text of the Bible. Jesus says
“I and the Father are one.”
(E.I. 10:30)
This, some researchers believe, may simply be a philosophical idea. Although the Apostle Thomas addressed Jesus “My Lord and my God!”, he does not comment on this phrase in any way, leaving it on the conscience of the disciple.
Christ refers to himself as the Son of God, but in a sense we are all children of God.
Statement two. Jesus was a prophet. Islam does not consider Christ as God, but considers Him one of the greatest prophets of Allah.
The Koran also denies the crucifixion of Jesus. In Islam, Jesus Christ is a particularly revered prophet, known as Isa ibn Maryam al-Masih.
Statement three. Jesus was the Archangel Michael. This idea is held by Jehovah's Witnesses, based on the verse
“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a call, with the voice of an archangel and with God’s trumpet.”
(Thess. 4:16)
Statement four. Jesus did not exist. This idea is based on the small number of written sources about the life of Christ. It is important to understand that at one time He was lost among other traveling preachers.
Historians didn't care about them. And yet there is a number of evidence (Josephus, Tacitus, apocrypha).
We will not argue with every statement now. In the next section we will present the Orthodox and most popular point of view in Christianity (and in the world).
Why Jesus is God - Indian Philosophy
The understanding of this world law, Logos, Tao, Word, was revealed not only to the Greeks, Jews and Chinese, but also to the Indians. Everywhere there were wise people who wanted to know the essence of existence. and in their reflections they reached the truth and touched it.
Due to causes , the world exists, due to causes, all things exist and all beings depend on causes and are limited by them. They are stable like a rotating cart wheel - with the core of its axle.
Buddhism. Sutta Nipata 654
There is a people in India called Sikhs. And there they came to understand the reason for things. Divine Law of Sikhism. The Divine Law manifests itself through everything, but cannot be expressed by itself. Everything is created by the Divine Law; the great is exalted by the Law. The Divine Law distinguishes between nobility and dishonor, By the Law all things are brought to bliss or misfortune,
In ancient Indian Vedic philosophy, Rita (the word itself is related to our word, speech, rhetoric, which reflects the understanding of the WORD as in the Bible) is the most important universal cosmic law, thanks to which the “ordering of the disorderly” occurs, the rotation of the Universe and the existence of all things, including Space, man, morality . Rita is the truth in the broadest sense of the word, even the gods and their deeds, the movement of the Sun, the weather on Earth and cosmic laws are nothing more than manifestations of Rita, invisible to mere mortal people (“The law is hidden by the law”). People know the laws of Rita, which speak of chastity and moral behavior. Friends, with these stories I would like to convey to you the feeling of world law, cosmic principle and order, which is huge, great and amazing. So that you think about how it happens that in different corners of the planet, people reach the same understanding.
In Orthodoxy, Jesus Christ is both God and man
So is Jesus a man or God? The IV Ecumenical Council answers this question differently - He is a God-man:
IV Ecumenical Council. Speculations on the Origin of Jesus
“Therefore, following the Holy Fathers, we all unanimously teach that our Lord Jesus Christ is one and the same Son,
one and the same, perfect in Divinity and perfect in humanity, true God and true Man, one and the same,
consisting of a verbal (rational) soul and body, consubstantial with the Father in Divinity and the same consubstantial with us in humanity”
Only in the form of the God-man Jesus, according to Orthodox teaching, could atone for the sin of mankind. Jesus is the Son of God because he is of the same nature with Him.
But why do we say that Jesus is God and the son of God? Where in the bible does it say this is so? And isn't there a contradiction here? Can't there be either God or the Son of God?
From the Orthodox point of view, Jesus is God, Son and man - all at once. The fact that Jesus is the Son of God is an indication of the Divine nature, one nature with God the Father. By the same principle, Judas is called the son of perdition in the Bible.
She did not give birth to him, but he is considered a carrier of this harmful phenomenon. So Holy Scripture provides the foundation for the divinity of Christ.
Jesus is a being of dual nature.
He is not the son of God in the simple sense, for he cannot be created. He complements God the Father as naturally and inextricably as light complements the Sun. As the Bible says, the Word was with God, and this word, as we know, is Christ.
The Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a complex Christian concept. But if we say that the Sun is gas, light and heat, then we can roughly imagine how the Triune God is represented in the Orthodox tradition.
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^ I. Bible texts confirming that Jesus Christ is the true God, equal to God the Father
Holy Scripture calls Christ the Son of God. This means that He was born of God. Born before he became a man, before the world was created, before earthly time began. From this alone we can say that the Son of God is God. Why? Because elementary common sense tells us that from a fish a fish is born, from a bird a bird is born, from a man a man is born, and therefore from God, God is born and no one else. A man cannot give birth to a bird, and a fish cannot give birth to a man. In the same way, God - He gives birth to God, equal to Himself. Similar relationships exist among people: in an ordinary human family, the son has exactly the same nature as the father, he is equal to the father in everything. Even though he is still a baby now, the son is potentially the heir to his father’s estate, he has legal rights to the inheritance, taking possession of which is only a matter of time.
Thus, even among people, in the conditions of earthly time, the son is equal in dignity to the father in everything. Moreover, such equality takes place where the Son of God is born from the Father, that is, in eternity. For in eternity there is no time, there is no change in age, and therefore Christ, born of the Father pre-eternally, that is, before earthly time has passed, is always equal to the Father and has equal dignity with Him in everything. And it must be said that this is exactly how the Jews understood Christ’s preaching that He is the Son of the Heavenly Father. In the Gospel of John we read: “And the Jews sought even more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God His Father, making Himself equal with God.”
(John 5:18).
So, from the fact that Christ is the Son of God, it immutably follows that He is true God, equal to the Father. It is in vain that some object that both Angels and people are called sons of God in the Bible many times: “... when all the sons of God shouted for joy...”
(Job.38:7);
“I said: you are gods, and the sons of the Most High -
all
but you will die like men..." (Ps. 81:6),
"...to those who believe in His name He gave power to become children of God"
(John 1:12) and many others.
etc. However, in all these cases we are talking about something completely different - about adoption to God by Grace, and not about natural sonship, not about equality in essence. Yes, Angels and righteous people can be called sons of God, and even gods, but not in the proper sense of the word, but only by communion and closeness to God, by adoption, by Grace. In relation to Christ, the expression “Son of God” is used in the proper sense of the word - that is, He is the Son of God, identical with the Father in terms of a common Divine nature, in a single Divine essence. Where can you see this? This is evident from the fact that Christ is called the Only Begotten in the Bible: “...he who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the Only Begotten Son of God”
(John 3:18)
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.
The word “only begotten son” (Greek ο ο μονογενής υιός) when applied to people means “only son” and is used when the father has only one son and no more children. Therefore, the expression “ Only Begotten Son of God”
means that God the Father has only one Son in the proper sense of the word.
This Son, when the time came, became incarnate and became a Man - Jesus Christ. That is why in the Bible the term “only begotten” is never applied to any Angels or any righteous people - where they are called sons of God. Christ is the Son of God in an essentially and fundamentally different sense of the word than the Angels and the righteous. The Apostle Paul speaks about this: “...to which of the angels did God say: You are My Son, today I have begotten You”?
(Heb. 1:5)
Further, about the pre-eternal birth of Christ, the prophet David says: “... from the womb before the morning star, your birth was like dew.”
(Ps. 109:3). The Bible never speaks like this about any Angels or people. Angels and men were created from nothing, but the Son of God is born “from the womb” of the Father. The expression “from the womb” (Heb. מרחם) means “from the breast,” “from the heart,” “from the inner being,” just as in humans a mother gives birth to a baby. The baby, as already said, is the legal heir of the mother and is equal in essence and dignity to her. In the same way, the Son of God, born from the heart of the Father, has with Him the same Divine nature and equal Divine dignity.
The Bible and in many other places fully confirms the birth of the Son of God from the very essence of the Father and the complete unity and equality of the Son and the Father. Here, for example, are the words of Christ Himself, who says about His relationship with the Father: “I and the Father are one.”
(John 10:30), that is, one being, one nature, one Divinity.
And in another place He says: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”
(John 14:9).
Likewise, the Apostle Paul testifies of Christ that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”
(Col. 2:9). Which of God's creations can say about himself that all the fullness of the Divine dwells in him? Nobody. Even the highest Archangels - Michael, Gabriel and others cannot say this about themselves. They, of course, are involved in God, close to Him, but they cannot contain the fullness of the Divine. Nothing created can contain and bear the fullness of the Divine. All the fullness of the Divine can reside only in the True God and in no one else. If she abides in Christ, then this can only mean one thing: Christ is the True God.
But here is the well-known first verse of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... all things came into being through Him.”
(John 1:1).
It is said quite clearly: the Word (Greek Λόγος - Logos) is God. The same God, the Creator and Creator, who created the heavens and the earth, as the first lines of the Bible tell about it (very, by the way, very consonant with the Gospel words in question): “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
(Gen. 1:1).
The Evangelist John says of the Word that It was “in the beginning”
.
In the books of Holy Scripture, the expression “in the beginning” often indicates the beginning of the world. It is in this sense that it is undoubtedly used here. And from this it follows that in the beginning, when God began to create everything - in this very “beginning”, the Word already existed
.
One Bible interpreter, commenting on this passage, says: “The words of the evangelist have the following meaning: The Word was already when the world began to be built, that is, the Word was before the world was built, but if the Word was before the world, it means that It was before time, for the beginning of the world is at the same time the beginning of time; before the creation of the world there was no time; and what was before time was from eternity, therefore, the existence of the Word is eternal, without beginning. And what does not have a beginning of its existence cannot have an end; therefore, the existence of the Word is eternal in the full sense—beginningless and infinite.” Such an existence, of course, can only be had by God, and it is precisely this kind of Divine existence that Christ Himself testifies to when, for example, He says the following: “ And now Thou glorify Me, Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.”
(John 17:5).
Some, however, argue that the word “God” is used by the Evangelist John (John 1:1) not in the proper sense of the word, that there is only one true God - this is God the Father, while God the Word who became incarnate and became Christ is not God equal to Him. To prove this, they usually refer to those places in the Bible where Christ is spoken of as if as a Being subordinate to God the Father. So, for example, they cite the text of the Gospel, where Christ says: “My Father is greater than I.”
(John 14:28).
They also point to the words of the Apostle Paul: “The head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God”
(1 Cor. 11:3).
However, you should know that these words of Holy Scripture not only do not refute, but, on the contrary, confirm the Divine nature of Christ and His complete equality with God the Father. Indeed, if we think about the above words of the apostle, then from the example of the relationship between husband and wife we will see that although the husband is undoubtedly the head of the wife, this does not mean that the wife, in comparison with the husband, is a being of a lower nature . A wife by her nature, by her dignity, is equal to her husband, and moreover, not just equal, but one with him. After all, the Bible teaches that a husband and wife are one flesh, they are one and together they constitute one nature, as the Lord said about this: “... a man will leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife;
and they will become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).
So, let’s reason: is a husband a person? - Yes. Is the husband the head of the wife? - Yes. But despite this, the wife is also a person? - Yes. Consequently, both husband and wife are both people, they are equal and have the same nature, the same human dignity. But with all this, the husband is the head of the wife. By analogy with this, one should think about the relationship of Christ with the Heavenly Father: Is the Father God? - Yes. Is the Father the head of Christ? - Yes. But, despite this, Christ is also God, He has the same Divine nature and dignity with the Father, They are one
- (
“I and the Father are one”
John 10:30).
Further: just as a wife, recognizing the fact that her husband is the head for her, can (despite her equal human dignity with her husband) in a sense say that my husband is more than I, so Christ does the above words: “ Father Mine is greater than Me"
(John 14:28) - speaks in a similar sense, and His complete equality with the Father is by no means denied by these words.
The Apostle Thomas said to Christ, who appeared after His Resurrection: “My Lord and my God”
(John 20:28).
Everyone knows well to what extent the Jews were scrupulous and what zeal they had in matters of the glory of God - after all, they well remembered that Jehovah God is a jealous God, Who said to His people: “You must not worship any god other than the Lord (
Jehovah – Heb. יהוה);
because His name is Zealot;
He is a jealous God” (Ex. 34:14).
And again: “ I am the Lord (
Jehovah – Heb. יהוה),
this is My
Is. 42:8). Therefore, the Apostle Thomas would never call God someone who is not Him. And most certainly these words would never have been included in the Holy Scriptures if those who wrote the New Testament, that is, the apostles, did not know with the utmost degree of certainty that Christ is the true God, equal in His Divine dignity to Jehovah God.
In the same way, the holy evangelist Matthew would never have put the name of the Son on a par with the name of the Father - (" So go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit"
(Matthew 28:19) - if the Son did not have equal Divine dignity with the Father.
Further: the Apostle Paul, enumerating the Persons of God of the Trinity, sometimes even puts the name of God the Father not in the first place: “ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen"
(2 Cor. 13:13), - would the Apostle Paul, who was, in his own words,
“an immoderate zealot of the traditions of the fathers”
(Gal. 1:14), a zealot for the glory of God, write this way - would he have written this way if Christ and the Holy Spirit would not have the Divine dignity equal to the Father? Of course, I would never write it.
Also, the eldest of the apostles, Saint Peter, would never have said about the name Jesus,
– that
“there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”
(Acts 4:12).
Didn’t Peter know that through the great prophet Moses the terrible and most sacred name of God was given to the Jews - Jehovah (Heb. יהוה)? Didn’t he know the prophetic words that he who calls on the name of Jehovah is saved? For the prophet Joel said: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord (
Heb. יהוה)
will be saved” (
Joel 2:32)?
Didn’t he know that the Lord Himself said that Jehovah is His name forever (Ex. 3:15)
?
Of course, Peter knew all this. How could he replace this great name of God, about which David said: “Holy and awesome is His name”
(Ps. 111:9), - how could he replace it with another name -
Jesus
?
How could he dare, how could he dare to do this? But Saint Peter does this without any hesitation, for he knows that the name Jesus is a name no less holy and no less terrible than the name of Jehovah, because it is the name of the Son of God, equal to Jehovah in one common Divine nature. And the Bible especially emphasizes that Peter speaks his words (that there is no other name by which we must be saved), “filled with the Holy Spirit”
(Acts 4:8), in order to testify to everyone that this was not invented by men, but is a new Revelation from the True God, given to the world for the salvation of the world.
For the same reason - the zeal for the glory of Jehovah of the biblical writers - they would never have called Christ in their writings by the same names as Jehovah, if they had not had perfect knowledge of His true Divine dignity. And there are many such places in the Bible. For example, Jehovah speaks about Himself through the prophet Isaiah: “ I am the first and I am the last
, and besides Me there is no God” (Is. 44:6), and in the Apocalypse of John the Theologian we read about Christ: “...write: thus says the First
who was dead, and behold, is alive...” (Rev. 2: 8).
Jehovah says about Himself: “I, I am the Lord, and there is no Savior besides Me
"(Isa.43:11).
And about Christ, the Apostle Paul says: “...waiting for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God
” (Titus 2:13).
About the Second Coming of Christ it is said that it will be revealed by the Lord Almighty - “... the blessed and only mighty King of kings and Lord of lords
, the only one who has immortality, Who dwells in the unapproachable light, Which no man has seen and cannot see.
Honor and eternal power to him! Amen" (1 Timothy 6:15-16). And about Christ in the Apocalypse it is said: “They will fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb will defeat them; For He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings
, and those who are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful...” (Rev. 17:14).
Jeremiah, in a famous messianic prophecy, even directly calls Christ by the name of Jehovah: “ Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise up a righteous Branch for David, and a King will reign, and will act wisely, and will execute judgment and righteousness on earth. In His days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety; and this is His name by which they will call Him: “Lord
(Heb. יהוה)
our justification!
(Jer.23:6)
In addition, the full Divine dignity of Jesus Christ is clearly visible from a careful comparison of many parallel passages in the Bible, where different sacred writers narrate the same events of Sacred history or the same prophecies. For example, the prophet Isaiah speaks about one of his visions: “...my eyes saw the King, the Lord
(Heb. יהוה)
of hosts"
(Isa. 6:5).
And the holy evangelist John, describing the same vision of the prophet, claims that the eyes of Isaiah saw Jesus: “ Isaiah said this when he saw His glory and spoke about Him”
(John 12:40-41). Let us ask the question: how can it be that the prophet Isaiah, looking at Jehovah, seeing His glory and speaking about Him, saw the glory of Jesus and spoke about Jesus? Answer: This can only be the case if Jesus shares the same common Divine nature with Jehovah.
There are many other similar passages in the Bible. Let's list some of them. The book of Acts says that Christ was raised from the dead by the Lord God: “ God raised him up on the third day.”
and gave Him to appear...” (Acts 10:40).
And Jesus says about His Resurrection that it was He who resurrected Himself: “Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up
” (John 2:19).
Narrating about the crucifixion of Christ, the Evangelist John refers to the prophet Zechariah: “...they will look at Him whom they have pierced.”
(John 19:37).
However, in Zechariah, in the original Hebrew (as well as in the Greek translation of the Seventy, and in the Latin Vulgate), we read the following words of Jehovah: “ והביטו אלי את אשר־דקרו
”, which literally means “...and they will look on
” (Zechariah 12:10). That is, we are talking here about Jehovah Himself being betrayed to death. And this can only be explained by the fact that the Divine nature of Christ and the Divine nature of Jehovah are one and the same common Divine nature.
The Holy Prophet David says in the psalm: “ In the beginning You founded the earth, and the heavens
are the work of Your hands; they will perish, but You will remain; and they will all wear out like a robe, and like a garment You will change them, and they will be changed; but You are the same, and Your years will not end”
(Ps. 102:26-27). There is no doubt that these words were spoken about Jehovah, the Creator of the universe. However, the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 1:8-12) states that David is speaking here about Christ. And from this it follows that Christ is the same Creator of the universe as Jehovah God is.
Another example: in the Gospel of John, Christ says about His followers that He gives them eternal life and that “...no one will snatch them out of My hand.”
(John 10:28).
And further he says: “My Father, who gave them to Me, is greater than all;
and no one can snatch them out of the hand of My Father” (John 10:29).
From this it is clear that snatching sheep from the hand of Christ is the same as snatching them from the hand of the Father. Consequently, the hand of Christ and the hand of the Father are one and the same hand - the hand of the One God, which is owned equally by both the Father and the Son. This is exactly how Christ Himself explains it, continuing his speech: “I and the Father are one”
(John 10:30).
By “hand”, according to the interpretation of the holy fathers of the Orthodox Church, here we should understand the power and authority of the Divine. Why and in what sense it is said about the Father that He is “greater than all”
has already been discussed above - in the interpretation of John 14:28 and 1 Cor.11:3.
So, the above texts of the Bible clearly testify to the true Divinity of Christ and His complete natural unity and equality with God the Father. However, it should also be said that in the Holy Scriptures there are many other texts that speak not about the Divinity, but about the humanity of Christ, that Christ is a true Man, that He has a common human nature with us. And, of course, deniers of the equality of Christ with God the Father are very fond of referring to these texts. Therefore, let’s say a few words about the problem of correctly understanding all such passages, of which there are indeed a lot in the Bible. Let's point out some of them. First of all, Christ Himself repeatedly called Himself “Son of Man” or even simply “Man.” “You seek to kill Me, the Man who told you the truth”
(John 8:40), He says to the Jews.
The apostles often called Christ Man. “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”
(1 Tim. 2:5), - the words of the Apostle Paul. The human nature of Christ is also indirectly evidenced by those numerous texts of Scripture, from which it is clear that Christ had all the qualities of earthly human nature. For example, He was tired from the journey and the heat (John 4:6), needed sleep, food and drink (Mark 4:38; John 4:7; Matt. 21:18), experienced emotions typical of people, for example, joy and love (John 11:15; Mark 10:21), anger and sorrow (Mark 3:5; Mark 14:34). All this, of course, irrefutably testifies that Christ is a real, real, earthly Man.
But there is no dispute about this; Christian theology has never rejected the full earthly humanity of Christ. It was rejected by heretics (Docetes, Apollinarians, etc.). True Orthodox theology has always categorically insisted that Christ is a true Man. However, at the same time, it equally categorically asserted that He is at the same time the true God. Christ has two natures - Divinity and humanity, He is the God-man, that is, at the same time both God and Man. Not a demigod-half-man, but a complete perfect God and a complete perfect Man, united in one Person. Therefore, to the question whether it is true that Christ is a true and real Man, one should answer that yes, it is true, but this is not the whole truth, but only half the truth. The second half of the truth is that Christ is at the same time the True God. In the single personality of Christ, two natures were united - Divinity and humanity, and each of these natures manifested itself in its own way during the earthly life of Christ. “In every action of Christ,” says V. Lossky, “one can see two different actions, since Christ acts in accordance with His two natures, through both of His natures, just as a red-hot sword cuts and burns at the same time : He cuts because he is iron, and he burns because he is fire. Each nature acts in accordance with its properties: the hand of Man raises a maiden from her bed, the Divinity resurrects her; Man's feet step on the surface of the waters, the Deity strengthens the water surface. “It was not human nature that raised Lazarus, but it was not the Divine that shed tears at his tomb,” says Saint John of Damascus.” So, this is precisely what should explain the well-known fact that Holy Scripture sometimes speaks of Christ as God, and sometimes as Man. This biblical teaching about the God-man, about the union of two natures in the single person of Christ, is the unshakable cornerstone of Christian theology, without which Christianity does not and cannot exist.
Now that we have examined the biblical evidence about Christ, the Son of God, let us turn again to the Holy Scriptures and try to determine what it tells us about the third Person of the one God of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit.
Testimony with reference to Abraham
After the Lord Jesus showed mercy to the woman caught in adultery and rebuked those who sought to stone her, but did not feel the guilt of their own many sins, He spoke to them and called on them to believe in Him. They opposed it with many arguments that made no sense. In the end:
Jesus answered: If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing. My Father glorifies me, of whom you say that He is your God. And you did not know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, then I will be a liar like you. But I know Him and keep His word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see My day; and he saw and rejoiced. (John 8:54-56)
This is what followed after the Savior’s statement:
To this the Jews said to Him: You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? (John 8:57)
Be attentive to the answer of the Lord Jesus:
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am . (John 8:58)
Christ said that before Abraham was, He is. Here, He uses the expression “I am,” by which He represented Himself as the God of Moses when the question was asked about His name (Exodus 3:14). And to be sure that the Jews understood exactly this, I would like to draw your attention to how they reacted:
Then they took stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid himself and left the temple, passing through the midst of them, and went on. (John 8:59)
Do you recognize that their reaction is the concept that Jesus declared Himself equal with God? Remember the incident at the pool of Bethesda.
For me personally, evidence that Christ is the true God is His feat on the Cross
But for me personally, His feat on the Cross is not so much proof as evidence that Christ is the true God. Because an ordinary person would not be able to endure this kind of greatest service that Christ performed in the name of the human race. A service that was expressed in amazing words addressed to the Father: “If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; however, not as I want, but as You want.” Through the sacrifice of the cross, the fate of the human race changed, history took a different path.
All this was unthinkable for the ancient consciousness. How is it: God dies, God sacrifices Himself, God suffers?
There were few joyful days in the earthly life of the Lord, but it all ended with the bright Resurrection
— Dear friends, on these joyful days, happy days of the Christmas holiday, I would like to wish you and all of us, first of all, strength in faith. Because it is this fortress that helps us overcome any adversity, helps us to rejoice in our earthly joys and helps us not to fall into any despondency or sorrow during all kinds of troubles that are inevitable on our way. The Nativity of Christ reminds us of the earthly life of the Lord Himself, in which there were quite a few joyful days, there were many injustices, there was a lot of grief, there was betrayal - probably the worst thing that can befall a person. But it all ended not with terrible torture and execution on the Cross, but with the bright Resurrection. So for us, Christmas is a memory not only of the beginning, but also of how the life of a Christian ends. It ends with the resurrection from the dead, the life of the next century, the new birth. And earthly Christmas entails heavenly Christmas. I would like to wish all of us to always remember this.
Dmitry Dementyev talked with Pavel Kuzenkov
