During the sacrament of Baptism, in its preliminary part, the person being baptized reads the Creed prayer aloud. It is advisable, in preparation for the sacrament, to memorize the Creed; in extreme cases, sight reading is acceptable. This prayer contains, in the form of brief formulations, the entire Orthodox doctrine - that is, what Christians believe in, what it means, what it is aimed at, or for what purpose they believe in it. Both in the ancient Church and in subsequent times, knowledge of the Creed was a necessary condition in order to come to Baptism. This fundamental Christian prayer should be known to the godparents of infants, adults and children of conscious age who receive . The Creed is divided into 12 members - 12 short statements. The first clause speaks about God the Father, then through the seventh inclusive - about God the Son, in the eighth - about God the Holy Spirit, in the ninth - about the Church, in the tenth - about Baptism, in the eleventh - about the resurrection of the dead, in the twelfth - about eternal life .
In the ancient Church there were several short creeds, but when false teachings about God the Son and God the Holy Spirit appeared in the 4th century, it became necessary to supplement and clarify this prayer.
The modern Creed was compiled by the fathers of the 1st Ecumenical Council, held in 325 in Nicaea (the first seven members of the Creed) and the fathers of the 2nd Ecumenical Council, held in 381 in Constantinople. (the remaining five members) Therefore, the full name of this prayer is the Nicene Tsaregrad Creed.
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Symbol of faith |
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In Church Slavonic |
In Russian |
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1. I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible. |
1. I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible. |
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2. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, who was born of the Father before all ages: Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were. |
2. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only Begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages: Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one being with the Father, by Him all things were created. |
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3. For our sake, man and our salvation came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human. |
3. For the sake of us people and for the sake of our salvation, he came down from heaven and took flesh from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became a man. |
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4. She was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried. |
4. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. |
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5. And he rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures. |
5. And rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures. |
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6. And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. |
6. And ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father. |
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7. And again the coming one will be judged with glory by the living and the dead, His Kingdom will have no end. |
7. And He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; His Kingdom will have no end. |
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8. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giving One, who proceeds from the Father, who is with the Father and the Son, is worshiped and glorified, who spoke the prophets. |
8. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, who spoke through the prophets. |
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9. Into one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. |
9. Into the one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. |
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10. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. |
10. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. |
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11. I hope for the resurrection of the dead. |
11. I look forward to the resurrection of the dead. |
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12. And the life of the next century. Amen |
12. And the life of the next century. Amen (truly so). |
Symbol of faith
1. I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible. 2.And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, who was born of the Father before all ages; Light from Light, true God from true God, born, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, to Whom all things were. 3. For our sake, man and our salvation came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human. 4. Crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried. 5. And he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. 6.And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. 7. And again the coming one will be judged with glory by the living and the dead, His Kingdom will have no end. 8. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giving One, who proceeds from the Father, who is with the Father and the Son, is worshiped and glorified, who spoke the prophets. 9.Into one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. 10. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. 11. I hope for the resurrection of the dead, 12. and the life of the next century. Amen.
Text of the prayer Creed with accents
Print this flyer as a reminder
In order to be as close as possible to the Orthodox faith, there is a special prayer called the Creed. This is perhaps the shortest and most accurate statement of all the fundamentals of Christian doctrine. By the way, this prayer appeared in the 4th century and is considered one of the most ancient and effective. The Church claims that every believer is obliged to know this sacred text in order to get closer to the Lord God.
The Creed contains the real truth of belief. There is only one rule here: read the prayer with emphasis, as it is written in the prayer book.
Prayer Creed for children
No baptism should be complete without this text. It is very important to memorize the text; sight reading is not a good option for baptism. It turns out that the Creed is a prerequisite, a necessary principle that is important to fulfill before coming to church and ordering the rite of the sacrament of baptism.
The prayer is 12 very short statements that literally take 10-15 minutes to read. It is also important for the godmother to know this sacred text in order to pray for her godson, because this is his second mother and the responsible woman before God for the child.
Prayer Creed in Russian
“I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, who was born of the Father before all ages; Light from Light, true God from true God, born, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, to Whom all things were. For our sake, man and our salvation came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human. She was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried. And he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. And again the coming one will be judged with glory by the living and the dead, His Kingdom will have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giving Lord, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who spoke the prophets. Into one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. I hope for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century. Amen".
Structure of Prayer
The text is very often called the sacred article of faith. It says everything in descending order: from God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit to readings about the Church, about baptism and the resurrection of the dead, as well as about the eternal life of the believer, grace and harmony in the soul.
As a rule, it is customary to read the Creed either early in the morning, before the sun has risen, or late in the evening after it has set. Also, the Creed can be heard in the Liturgy when there is a service in the church. According to each temple, it is this part of the service that is basic, important and most divine. This is why the Creed is not even considered a prayer; it is more than just a text. This is something higher than a conversation with the Lord God.
To learn Christianity, become a believer and never doubt that everything will be fine - read the Creed, which absolutely anyone can begin to do. There is no age distinction here, because prayer, which personifies faith, is needed in any case. After this text, as you draw closer to the Lord, you will begin to believe in God even more than before.
Listen to the prayer for the godparents
Prayer Symbol of Faith for the baptism of a child in Russian was last modified: July 7th, 2017 by Bogolub
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Signs and symbols have existed on earth for a long time. They depict an attitude towards a certain culture, religion, country, clan or thing. The symbols of Christian Orthodox culture emphasize belonging to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, through faith in the Holy Trinity.
Orthodox Christians express their faith with Christian signs, but few, even those who are baptized, know their meaning.
Christian symbols in Orthodoxy
History of symbols
After the crucifixion and resurrection of the Savior, persecution began against Christians who believed in the coming of the Messiah. In order to communicate with each other, believers began to create secret codes and signs to help avoid danger.
Cryptogram or secret writing originated in the catacombs where early Christians had to hide. Sometimes they used long-known signs from Jewish culture, giving them new meaning.
The symbolism of the early Church is based on man's vision of the Divine world through the hidden depths of the invisible. The meaning of the emergence of Christian signs is to prepare early Christians to accept the Incarnation of Jesus, who lived according to earthly laws.
Secret writing at that time was more intelligible and acceptable among Christians than sermons or reading books.
Important! The basis of all signs and codes is the Savior, His Death and Ascension, the Eucharist - the Sacrament left by the Mission before His crucifixion. (Mark 14:22)
Cross
The cross symbolizes the crucifixion of Christ; its image can be seen on the domes of churches, in the form of crosses, in Christian books and many other things. In Orthodoxy there are several types of crosses, but the main one is the eight-pointed one, on which the Savior was crucified.
Cross: the main symbol of Christianity
A small horizontal crossbar served for the inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” The hands of Christ are nailed to the large crossbar, and His feet to the lower one. The top of the cross is directed to heaven, and the Eternal Kingdom, and under the feet of the Savior is hell.
About the cross in Orthodoxy:
Fish - ichthys
Jesus called fishermen as his disciples, whom he later made fishers of men for the Kingdom of Heaven.
One of the first signs of the early Church was a fish; later the words “Jesus Christ the Son of God the Savior” were written into it.
Fish is a Christian symbol
Bread and vine
Belonging to a group is expressed through drawings of bread and grapes, and sometimes wine or grape barrels. These signs were applied to sacred vessels and were understandable to everyone who accepted faith in Christ.
Important! The vine is a type of Jesus. All Christians are its branches, and the juice is a prototype of the Blood, which cleanses us during the reception of the Eucharist.
In the Old Testament, the vine is a sign of the promised land; the New Testament presents the vine as a symbol of paradise.
The vine as a symbol of heaven in the New Testament
A bird sitting on a grape vine symbolizes rebirth to new life. Bread is often drawn in the form of ears of corn, which is also a sign of the unity of the Apostles.
Fish and bread
The loaves depicted on the fish refer to one of the first miracles performed by Jesus on earth, when He fed more than five thousand people who came from afar to listen to the preaching of the Mission with five loaves and two fish (Luke 9:13-14).
Jesus Christ - in symbols and codes
The Savior acts as the Good Shepherd for his sheep, Christians. At the same time, He is the Lamb slain for our sins, He is the saving cross and anchor.
The Ecumenical Council of 692 banned all symbols relating to Jesus Christ in order to shift the emphasis not on the image, but on the Living Savior, however, they still exist today.
Lamb
A small lamb, obedient, defenseless, is a prototype of the sacrifice of Christ, who became the final sacrifice, for God became displeased with the sacrifices made by the Jews in the form of slaughtering birds and animals. The Most High Creator wants Him to be worshiped with pure hearts through faith in His Son, the Savior of mankind (John 3:16).
Symbol of Lamb with Banner
Only faith in the saving sacrifice of Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life, opens the way to eternal life.
In the Old Testament, the lamb is a type of the blood of Abel and the sacrifice of Abraham, to whom God sent a lamb to sacrifice instead of his son Isaac.
The Revelation of John the Theologian (14:1) speaks of a lamb standing on a mountain. The mountain is the universal Church, the four streams - the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which nourish the Christian faith.
Early Christians in secret writing depicted Jesus as the Good Shepherd with a lamb on his shoulders. Nowadays priests are called shepherds, Christians are called sheep or flock.
Monograms of the name of Christ
Translated from Greek, the monogram “crisma” means anointing and is translated as a seal.
By the blood of Jesus Christ we are sealed to His love and salvation. Hidden behind the letters X.P is an image of the Crucifixion of Christ, God Incarnate.
The letters "alpha" and "omega" represent the beginning and the end, symbols of God.
Monograms of the name of Jesus Christ
Little-known encoded images
Ship and anchor
The image of Christ is often conveyed by signs in the form of a ship or an anchor. In Christianity, the ship symbolizes human life, the Church. Under the sign of the Savior, believers in a ship called the Church sail towards eternal life, having an anchor - a symbol of hope.
Pigeon
The Holy Spirit is often depicted as a dove. A dove landed on Jesus' shoulder at His baptism (Luke 3:22). It was the dove that brought the green leaf to Noah during the flood. The Holy Spirit is One of the Trinity, Who was from the beginning of the world. The dove is the bird of peace and purity. He flies only where there is peace and quiet.
The symbol of the Holy Spirit is a dove
Eye and triangle
The eye inscribed in the triangle means the all-seeing eye of the Most High God in the unity of the Holy Trinity. The triangle emphasizes that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are equal in Their purpose and are one. It is almost impossible for a simple Christian to understand this. This fact must be accepted by faith.
Mother of God star
At the birth of Jesus, the Star of Bethlehem, which in Christianity is depicted as eight-pointed, lit up in the sky. In the center of the star is the bright face of the Mother of God with the Child, which is why the name Mother of God appeared next to Bethlehem.
The Creed is a prayer that sets out in brief and precise words the basic truths of the Orthodox faith.
"WITH symbol of faith" in Church Slavonic :
I believe into one God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only Begotten, who was born of the Father before all ages: Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were.
For our sake, man and our salvation came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human.
She was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried.
And he rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.
And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And again the coming one will be judged with glory by the living and the dead, His Kingdom will have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giving One, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who spoke the prophets.
Into one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
Tea of the resurrection of the dead.
And the life of the next century. Amen.
“Symbol of Faith” in Russian:
I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only Begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages: Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not created, one being with the Father, by Him all things were created.
For the sake of us people and for the sake of our salvation, he came down from heaven and took flesh from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became a man.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried.
And rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.
And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; His Kingdom will have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, who spoke through the prophets.
Into one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
I recognize one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
I look forward to the resurrection of the dead.
And the life of the next century. Amen.
photo by Andrey Mikhalov
What do we believe according to the Symbol?
M We start the symbol with a word“I believe” because the content of our religious beliefs is based not on external experience, but on our acceptance of God-revealed truth. After all, objects and phenomena of the spiritual world cannot be tested in a laboratory and logically proven - they fall within the sphere of a person’s personal religious experience. However, the more a person succeeds in spiritual life, for example: the more he prays, thinks about God, does good, the more his personal inner spiritual experience develops in him and the clearer and more obvious religious truths become for him. In this way, faith becomes for a believer a subject of his personal experience.
We believe thatGod is completeness perfectiona: He is the all-perfect, beginningless, eternal, omnipotent and wise Spirit. God is everywhere, sees everything and knows everything before anything happens. He is infinitely kind, just and all-holy. He needs nothing and is the root cause of everything that exists.
We believe that God isone in essence and threefold in Persons : The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the Trinity, consubstantial and indivisible. The Father is not born and does not come from another Person, the Son is eternally begotten from the Father, the Holy Spirit is eternally emanating from the Father.
We believe that everythingThe Persons or Hypostases of God are equal to each other according to Divine perfections, greatness, power and glory, namely, we believe that the Father is the true all-perfect God, and the Son is the true all-perfect God, and the Holy Spirit is the true all-perfect God. Therefore, in prayers we simultaneously glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as one God.
We believe that allthe visible and invisible world was created by God . First, God created the invisible, great angelic world or the so-called “heaven” in the Bible, then - our material or physical world (in the Bible - “earth”). God created the physical world out of nothing, but not all at once, but gradually over periods called “days” in the Bible. God created the world not out of necessity or need for it, but according to His all-good desire, so that other creatures He created could enjoy life. Being infinitely good, God created everything good. Evil in the world comes from the abuse of free will, which God gave to angels and people. For example, the devil and demons were once good angels, but they rebelled against God and voluntarily became evil. These rebellious angels, who became demons, were expelled from heaven and formed their own dark kingdom called hell. Since then they have incited people to sin and are enemies of our salvation.
We believe that Godholds everything in His power , that is, He controls everything and leads everything to a good goal. God loves us and cares for us like a mother cares for her child. Therefore, nothing bad can happen to a person who trusts in God.
We believe thatGod's SonOur Lord Jesus Christ, for our salvation, came down from Heaven to earth and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. He, being God from eternity, in the days of King Herod took on our human nature - soul and body, and therefore He isat the same time true God And true man , or God-man. He unites two natures, Divine and human, in one Divine Person. These two natures will forever remain in Him without change, without merging or turning into one another.
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, while living on earth, enlightened the world with His teaching, example and miracles, that is, he taught people what they should believe and how they should live in order to inherit eternal life. With His prayers to the Father, the perfect fulfillment of His will, His suffering and death on the cross, He defeated the devil and redeemed the world from sin and death. By His resurrection from the dead He began our resurrection. Having ascended with the flesh to Heaven, which happened on the 40th day after the resurrection from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ sat “at the right hand (on the right side) of God the Father,” that is, he accepted, as the God-man, the same power with His Father and has been together since then with Him controls the destinies of the world.
We believe thatHoly Spirit, emanating from God the Father, from the beginning of the world, together with the Father and the Son, gives existence, life to creatures and controls everything. He issource of spiritual grace-filled life both for angels and for people, and the Holy Spirit is due glory and worship on a par with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament spoke through the prophets, then, at the beginning of the New Testament, spoke through the apostles, and now acts in the Church of Christ, instructing its shepherds and Orthodox Christians in the truth.
We believe that Jesus Christ created on earth for the salvation of all who believe in HimChurch, sending down the Holy Spirit on the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Since then, the Holy Spirit has been in the Church, in this grace-filled society or union of Christian believers, and preserves it in the purity of Christ’s teaching. In addition, the grace of the Holy Spirit abiding in the Church cleanses those who repent from sins, helps believers to succeed in good deeds and sanctifies them.
We believe that the Church existsone, holy, catholic and apostolic . It is united because all Orthodox Christians, although they belong to different national local churches, form one family together with the angels and the righteous in Heaven. The unity of the Church is based on the unity of faith and grace. The Church is holy because its faithful children are sanctified by the word of God, prayer and the sacred sacraments. The Church is called conciliar because it is intended for people of all times and all nationalities; The Church is called apostolic because it preserves the apostolic teaching and the apostolic priestly succession, which from apostolic times has been continuously transmitted from bishop to bishop in the sacrament of ordination. The Church, according to the promise of the Lord Savior, will remain invincible from its enemies until the end of the world.
We believe that insacrament of baptism I forgive the believer all his sins and that through this sacrament the believer becomes a member of the Church. A member of the Church also has access to its other saving sacraments. Thus, in the sacrament of confirmation the grace of the Holy Spirit is given to the believer; in the sacrament of repentance or confession, sins committed in adulthood after baptism are forgiven; in the sacrament of communion, performed during the Liturgy, believers partake of the true body and blood of Christ; in the sacrament of marriage an indissoluble union is established between husband and wife; in the sacrament of the priesthood, ministers of the Church are ordained: deacons, priests and bishops; and in the sacrament of unction, healing from spiritual and physical illnesses is given.
We believe that before the end of the world, Jesus Christ, accompanied by angels,will come again landin glory. Then everything, according to His word,I will rise againt from the dead, that is, a miracle will happen in which the souls of dead people will return to their bodies that they had before death, and all the dead will come to life. With the general resurrection, the bodies of the righteous, both resurrected and living, will be renewed and become spiritualized in the image of the resurrected body of Christ. After the resurrection, all people will appear onGod's judgmentso that everyone may receive according to what he did while he lived in his body, good or bad. After the judgment, unrepentant sinners will go into eternal torment, and the righteous will go into eternal life. This is how the kingdom of Christ will begin, which will have no end.
With a final word, “Amen“we testify that we wholeheartedly accept and recognize this confession of the Orthodox faith as true.
The Creed is read by the person receiving baptism (“the catechumen”) during the sacrament of baptism. When an infant is baptized, the Symbol is read by the recipients. In addition, the Creed is sung in church during the liturgy and should be read daily during morning prayers. Careful reading of the Symbol has a great influence on our faith. This happens because the Creed is not just a religious formula, but isprayer. By saying the word “I believe” and other words of the Symbol with a prayerful mood, we revive and strengthen our faith in God and in all those truths that are contained in the Symbol. This is why it is so important for Orthodox Christians to read the Creed daily, or at least regularly.
We are called Orthodox Christians, that is right, Right glorifying God. In order to be sure that you are doing something correctly, you need to know a lot, learn a lot. Read books, ask experienced people. If a person doesn’t know anything and doesn’t want to know, but is completely sure that he’s doing everything right, expect trouble. A simple example. A certain person is completely unaware of the rules of the road, but he confidently gets behind the wheel and starts driving the car. Very little time will pass and he will realize that he is doing something wrong: he is driving on the left side of the road, but for some reason all the cars are rushing towards him, honking, and he barely has time to dodge them. He approaches a traffic light, the light turns red, but this eccentric is sure that he can continue driving, because he doesn’t know the rules! I think it’s clear what will happen next. Very soon this unfortunate man will have an accident and, thank God, if he survives. But if in ordinary, material everyday life we understand perfectly well that we must study the laws and rules, observe safety precautions so as not to get into trouble, then even more so in spiritual life. There, too, there are laws established by God, and there are safety rules. And the harm that we can cause to ourselves by not knowing these laws or by neglecting them is much greater than from ignorance of the laws of the physical world. For we can cause irreparable damage not to the body, but to the soul.
How to learn the rules of spiritual life, how to believe correctly? For this there is the Word of God Himself - Holy Bible, you need to read it, study it, you need to build your life according to it. There are commandments that God Himself also gave us, and we, Orthodox people, also have a huge experience of the Church, an experience that is already 2 thousand years old in the world and a thousand years old in Rus'. Many millions of people have passed this way, from the birth of Christ to the present day. We have Church, the Lord Jesus Christ created it and put into it everything that is needed for our salvation. “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” ( Matt. 16:18). The church treasury also contains the experience of the holy fathers and ascetics of 2 millennia of Christianity.
The Orthodox Church is called that way because it has preserved in its entirety and intactness, without distortion, the teaching given to us by God Himself. We know how to correctly believe in God, how to glorify Him correctly, He himself revealed this to us, therefore our faith is right, our faith is Orthodox
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Symbol of faith, or confession of the Christian Orthodox faith, is a prayer book that contains all the basic provisions and dogmas of the Orthodox faith. The teaching of the Church in the “Symbol” is presented in a brief but very precise form.
The Creed was composed in the 4th century by the Fathers The First and Second Ecumenical Councils. In the ancient Church there had previously been symbols of faith, but with the emergence and strengthening of false teachings about God, it was necessary to draw up a more accurate and dogmatically impeccable confession of faith, which could be used by the entire Universal Church.
The First Ecumenical Council was convened in the city of Nicaea regarding the false teaching of the presbyter Arius, who taught that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was created by God the Father and is not the true God, but only the highest creation. The Council condemned this heresy and set forth Orthodox teaching, compiling the first seven members of the Creed. At the second ecumenical council, convened to condemn the heresy of Macedonius, which rejected the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, the following five members of the Creed were given.
It is necessary for every Orthodox Christian to know the Creed by heart in order to have correct knowledge about God and their own faith, and also to always be able to give an answer to everyone who asks us: “how do you believe?”
You need to know the Creed even before baptism, because it is necessary to have correct knowledge about God and the fundamentals of the doctrine even before accepting this sacrament and entering the Church. When infants are baptized, the Creed is read for them by their godparents, and they are also, of course, required to know it by heart and read it without errors. It is not difficult to learn the Creed, because it is part of the morning prayers, and every Orthodox Christian reads it when praying in the morning. Also, the Creed is sung every liturgy, in church by all the people, and a person who regularly prays in the morning and goes to Sunday and holiday liturgies will very soon remember it.
But we should not only know the text of the Creed, but also understand its meaning, for this we need to study it.
Symbol of faith
In Church Slavonic
1. I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible.
2. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, who was born of the Father before all ages: Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were.
3. For our sake, man and our salvation came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human.
4. She was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried.
5. And he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures.
6. And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
7. And again the coming one will be judged with glory by the living and the dead, His Kingdom will have no end.
8. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giving One, who proceeds from the Father, who is with the Father and the Son, is worshiped and glorified, who spoke the prophets.
9. Into one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
10. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
11. I hope for the resurrection of the dead,
12. and the life of the next century. Amen.
Russian translation
1. I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible.
2. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not created, one being with the Father, by Him all things were created.
3. For us, for the sake of people and for the sake of our salvation, he came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human.
4. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried.
5. And rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.
6. And ascended into heaven, and sat on the right side of the Father.
7. And He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, and of His kingdom there will be no end.
8. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who is worshiped and glorified equally with the Father and the Son, who spoke through the prophets.
9. Into the one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
10. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
11. I look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
12. and the life of the next century. Truly so.
ABOUT THE FIRST MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible.
Christianity, as the only true religion, is primarily distinguished by its teaching about God. We perceive God and turn to Him as our Heavenly Parent. God is called Father because He begets the Son from eternity (this will be discussed later), but also because He is the Father to us all. In the prayer that the Lord Savior gave us, we say: “Our Father...” (Our Father). The Holy Apostle Paul says, addressing Christians: “you have not received the spirit of slavery<…>, but received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry: “Abba, Father!” This very Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:15-16). Word " Abba" in Aramaic corresponds to our " dad"- children's confidential appeal to their father.
The Holy Apostle John the Theologian says that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). These words express the most important property of God. This determines the entire structure of a Christian’s spiritual life. Our relationship with God is based on mutual love. Heavenly Father loves us with a perfect and absolute love. We, believers, can perceive the fruits of this love only when we love God with the fullness of our being. Therefore, love for God is the first and main commandment. The Holy Scriptures reveal the basic properties of God in close connection with the Economy of human salvation.
God is the all-perfect Spirit. He is eternal. Has neither beginning nor end. God is Almighty. In the Holy Scriptures He is called Almighty, since He holds everything in His power and authority.
The Holy Fathers teach us not only to believe in God, but to trust Him in everything, because He All-good and Humane. The Lord's mercy extends to every person. If a person always wants to be with God and turns to Him, then He does not leave the person under any circumstances. One ancient Byzantine manuscript contains the comforting admonition of a holy elder: “Someone told me that one man always prayed to God so that He would not leave him on his earthly path, and, as the Lord once descended with His disciples on their way to Emmaus (see. : Lk 24:13-32), so that he would also walk with him along the path of his life. And at the end of his life he had a vision: he saw that he was walking along the sandy shore of the ocean (of course, mean the ocean of eternity, along the shore of which the path of mortals passes). And, looking back, he saw the prints of his feet on the soft sand, going far back: this was the traveled path of his life. And next to the prints of his feet were the prints of a couple more feet; and he realized that it was the Lord who had descended with him in life, just as he had prayed to Him. But in some places along the path he saw the prints of only one pair of feet, which cut deeply into the sand, as if indicating the severity of the path at that time. And this man remembered that it was then when there were particularly difficult moments in his life and when life seemed unbearably difficult and painful. And this man said to the Lord: you see, Lord, in difficult times of my life you did not walk with me; You see that the prints of only one pair of feet in those days indicate that then I walked alone in life, and You see from the fact that the footprints cut deep into the ground that it was very difficult for me to walk then. But the Lord answered him: My son, you are mistaken. Indeed, you see the prints of only one pair of feet in those times of your life that you remember as the most difficult. But these are not the prints of your feet, but of Mine. Because in the difficult times of your life, I took you in My arms and carried you. So, My son, these are not the prints of your feet, but of Mine.”
God has Omniscience. The entire past was imprinted in his endless memory. He knows everything and sees everything in the present. He knows not only every human act, but every word and feeling. Lord knows the future.
God Omnipresent He is in Heaven, on earth. The contemplation of the Divine omnipresence evokes joy and poetic tenderness in the psalmist David:
« If I ascend to heaven - You are there; If I go down to the underworld, you will be there too.
Should I take the wings of the dawn and move to the edge of the sea, and there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will hold me"(Ps. 139:8-10).
God - Creator heaven and earth. He is the Cause and Creator of the entire visible and invisible world. Our world, the universe is incredibly complex and wisely structured, and of course, only the Supreme, Divine Mind could create all this. The entire Divine Trinity participated in the creation of the world. God the Father created everything with His Word, that is, the Only Begotten Son, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
God has Wisdom. Psalm 103 is a majestic hymn to God, who created everything with His wisdom and continues to care not only for man, but also for His other creatures: “You water the mountains from Your heights, the earth is satisfied with the fruits of Your works. You make grass grow for livestock, and greenery for the benefit of man, to bring forth food from the earth” (Ps. 103:13-14).
In addition to the fact that God is the Creator of the visible, material world, He also created the spiritual world, invisible to us. The spiritual, angelic world was created by God even before our material world. All angels were created good, but some of them, led by the supreme angel Lucifer, became proud and fell away from God. Since then, these angels have become dark spirits of malice, wishing all harm to people, as God’s creation. They try in every possible way to seduce people into sin and destroy them. But God has greatly limited their power and influence on people, moreover, every Christian has his own guardian angel who protects and protects him from evil, including from the influence of devilish forces.
ABOUT THE SECOND MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not created, one being with the Father, by Him all things were created.
The second member of the Creed is dedicated to the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and here it is time to talk about the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
Cognizing the Divine properties, a believer gradually prepares to perceive the cornerstone truth of Christianity - the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. God is one in essence, but has three faces(Hypostases), each of which possesses the fullness of Divinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Holy Fathers, revealing and explaining the dogma of the Trinity, define the relationship between the three Persons with the following concepts "consubstantial" And "equal" At the same time, they also point to the personal properties of each Hypostasis. The Father is not created, not created, not begotten; The Son is eternally born from the Father; The Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father. We prayerfully confess the Trinity with the words: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen". What is our faith based on? On the Holy Gospel: Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit(Mt 28:19). The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one.
The earthly human mind cannot rise to this mystery on its own without God. Other monotheistic religions (Judaism, Islam), based on natural reason and not on Revelation, could not rise to this mystery.
Already in the Old Testament there are indications of the mystery of the Divine Trinity. Already at the beginning of the Holy Bible, God speaks of Himself in the plural: “And God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the reptiles that creep on the earth. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:26-27). The words “let us make man” indicate the plurality of persons, while “he created him” indicates the unity of God. There are two more such passages in the book of Genesis:
And the Lord God said: Behold, Adam has become like one of Us (Genesis 3.22).
And the Lord said: Behold, there is one people, and they all have one language... let us go down and confuse their language there (Gen. 11:6-7).
When Patriarch Abraham was sitting under a tree near the oak grove of Mamre, he saw three travelers come. He ran to meet them and, bowing to the ground, said: Master! If I have found favor in Your sight, do not pass Your servant by” (Genesis 18:3. Three men appeared, and Abraham addresses them as one - Master.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not only theological and theoretical. In the New Testament sacred books it is revealed in the closest connection with the great events of the Incarnation and Redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly speaks about His Sonship of God and about the fact that the Father sent Him (John 5:36) so that “the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). The Holy Spirit participates in all matters of the Economy of the salvation of mankind. He quickens and sanctifies. Anyone participating in the Holy Sacraments and prayer life of the Church does not doubt this truth; it is an integral part of his religious consciousness. Anyone who has studied the dogmatic teaching of our Church could not help but be amazed at the internal consistency of its parts. Such a person is convinced that this slender and majestic building is unthinkable without its cornerstone - the dogma of the Holy Trinity.
The human mind cannot fully comprehend the mystery of the Holy Trinity. But we can use certain analogies, which, however, are very simplified and limited, in order to at least partially understand the unity and relationship between the persons of the Holy Trinity.
The Holy Fathers cited the sun as an image of the Trinity. The visible part of the sun is a circle, from which light is born and heat emanates.
The image of the Holy Trinity can be the human soul, created in the image and likeness of God. This example is given by Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov: “Our mind is the image of the Father; our word (we usually call the unspoken word a thought) is the image of the Son; spirit is the image of the Holy Spirit. Just as in the Trinity-God the three Persons unfused and inseparably constitute one Divine Being, so in the Trinity-Man the three Persons constitute one being, without mixing with each other, without merging into one person, without dividing into three beings. Our mind has given birth to and does not cease to give birth to a thought; a thought, having been born, does not cease to be born again and at the same time remains born, hidden in the mind. Mind cannot exist without thought, and thought cannot exist without mind. The beginning of one is certainly the beginning of the other; the existence of the mind is necessarily the existence of thought. In the same way, our spirit comes from the mind and contributes to thought. That is why every thought has its own spirit, every way of thinking has its own separate spirit, every book has its own spirit. Thought cannot exist without spirit; the existence of one is certainly accompanied by the existence of the other. In the existence of both is the existence of the mind.”
So the second member of the Creed tells us that the second hypostasis of the Holy Trinity is the Only Begotten Son of God, who born Father before the creation of all things visible and invisible, even before the creation of time. He was born and not created, this is said to refute the false teaching of Arius, who taught about the creation of the Son of God, as well as all subsequent heretics. The name Jesus means Savior, and Christ means Anointed One. Since ancient times, kings, prophets and high priests have been called anointed. The Savior combined all three of these ministries.
God the Father created the whole world, visible and invisible, by His Son. This is stated in the Gospel of John: “All things came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being that was made” (John 1:3).
ABOUT THE THIRD MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
For us, for the sake of people and for the sake of our salvation, he came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human.
In order to save the human race, the Lord at a certain historical moment “in the days of King Herod” (Matthew 2:1) descends to earth to be incarnate, through influx, assistance Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, take on our human nature and be born in Palestine, in the city of Bethlehem.
He took on all human nature, soul and body, in order to recreate, deify, save it. The divine nature in Christ did not swallow up human nature, as some heretics teach, but the two natures in Him will remain forever unfused, unchangeable, inseparable and inseparable.
The Savior did not have a human father, for his Father was God Himself. His conception in the womb of the Mother of God took place without the seed of a husband, which is why it is called “immaculate”, “seedless”. The Church in its hymns says that the flesh of Christ, by the power of God, is inside the womb of the Virgin Mary exhausted. We know that normal human conception involves a husband's seed, but Christ's conception was supernatural. Even after the Fall, Adam and Eve were given a promise-prophecy from God about wife's seed, which will strike the head of the serpent. (Gen. 3:15). But we know that a wife cannot have a seed, only a husband can have a seed.
Saint Philaret of Moscow (Drozdov), says that this is an indication “of a sacrament that is above nature; - for birth, about which nature asks: what will this be like, where I don’t know a husband? (Luke 1:34), and about which grace answers: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you (35); - for the miraculous birth of the Son from a wife without a husband, for the birth of Christ, the God-man, from the Virgin.” The Church calls the Mother of God the Ever-Virgin, that is, She was a virgin before the birth of Christ, did not lose her virginity at the moment of birth, and remained a Virgin after the birth of the Savior. The Mother of God did not experience pain during the birth of Jesus, for the same reason: because “The Virgin did not break her virginity with her birth,” says St. John Chrysostom.
How could this happen? Nothing is impossible for God. He created this world with His Wisdom and Word. God created the first man Adam from the “fiber of the ground” and breathed into him the breath of life, and the miracle of birth without the participation of a husband is also subject to Him. The 3rd century Christian writer Tertullian writes:
“Just as the earth (at the creation of the first man Ed.) was turned into this flesh without the seed of a man, so the Word of God could pass into the matter of the same flesh without a connecting principle.”
The Savior, having taken upon himself human flesh and soul, appears and at the same time true God and true man, in everything except sin.
He came to our land to completely walk the path of human life. He worked for His food, He experienced cold, heat, hunger and thirst, He was also pursued by temptations and temptations from the devil and human weakness, but He defeated them and the temptations did not touch Him. The Lord worked tirelessly for people: he preached, healed the sick, and raised the dead.
The Lord accepted our nature, lived human life in order to heal, to recreate our nature, corrupted by sin, about O live it and show us the path of salvation, the path of true Christian life. As St. Athanasius of Alexandria said: “God became man so that man could become God.” And now, everyone born of Christ through baptism in His Church becomes a new creation, “who were born neither of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).
ABOUT THE FOURTH MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried.
The sacrifice of Christ the Savior on the cross for us is an act of the highest Divine love. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself speaks about His sacrifice on the cross: “Greater love has no one than this, if someone lays down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) For your friends, this means for you and me, for all the children of God. Death on the cross was the most painful and shameful execution in the Roman Empire; a person experienced incredible suffering for many hours, and life seemed to come out of him drop by drop. Christ was crucified under the governor of the emperor, the rulers of Judea, Pontius Pilate. His name is included in the “Symbol” to confirm the historical reality of the event. Non-Christians often cannot understand why we carry on our chests cross, we depict the sign of the cross on ourselves, we crown the domes of our churches with a cross and, in general, we greatly honor the cross. They say: why do you honor the cross, because your God was crucified on it? But that is why for us the cross of Christ is a shrine. After all, he constantly reminds us: what a huge sacrifice was made for people and how great Divine love for people is. God not only created humanity and takes care of the people he created, but if necessary, He is ready to go to death and crucifixion for His sinful and unworthy children. God ascends to the cross to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of people, and thereby deliver them from sin and eternal death. God created the world with immutable spiritual and physical laws. One of the spiritual laws is that sin and crime must have consequences, punishment. The punishment for the sins of mankind was eternal death. “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7). The sins of people have multiplied so much that humanity on its own could no longer rise from the abyss of sin, therefore the punishment that people should have received is taken by the Lord Himself. “The punishment of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed” (Is. 53:5), says the prophet Isaiah about the Divine sacrifice. You can use an image that is undoubtedly quite conventional and simplified.
Let's say a certain young man, almost still a teenager, committed a crime. He must suffer a very severe punishment for it, for example, spend many years in a maximum security camp, and maybe even die. His father was present when the crime was committed. And so the father, knowing that his son will not be able to bear the punishment, that his whole life will be distorted, spoiled by prison, and maybe he will never leave the camp at all and will perish there forever, decides on a feat. He, being innocent himself, takes upon himself the crime of his son and bears the punishment for it. Thus, he saves his son from suffering and death and gives an example of the highest love and self-sacrifice.
Christ is called the second Adam. Why? We all, according to the flesh, according to human nature, descend from our common forefather, Adam. He once sinned by not preserving his original dignity. After the Fall, both the spiritual and physical nature of man became distorted, and illness and death entered the world. We, as people, as descendants of the first Adam, inherited his nature corrupted by sin. But then the Savior comes into the world. He lived on earth without sin, having overcome temptations and sin, He made a sacrifice for us on the cross and was resurrected. The Lord Jesus Christ renewed our fallen nature, and now everyone who is born of Christ, as from the Second Adam, and follows the path indicated by Him, crucifying “the flesh with its passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24), inherits eternal life with Christ.
ABOUT THE FIFTH MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
And rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.
Resurrection Our Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of our Christian faith. “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and our faith is also in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). Feast of the Resurrection of Christ, Easter- the most important Christian holiday. It is called in the Easter canon “the holiday of holidays and the triumph of celebrations.” Every week we remember the event of the Resurrection of Christ, celebrating Sunday.
Why would our faith be futile and meaningless without the Resurrection? Because Christ came to earth, suffered and died in order to resurrect our human nature and gain victory over the devil, hell and death. And if there had been no resurrection, all this would have been impossible. It would all end with Good Friday and the death and burial of Christ. But Christ has risen and now we have faith and hope to rise with Him.
Before the resurrection of Christ, all people after death went to hell, to the underworld of the earth. In Hebrew this place was called Sheol. Even the souls of the Old Testament righteous were there. After His death, Christ also descended into the underworld. The Lord descends into hell to preach there and bring out of it the souls of all those who waited for Him with faith. The Lord was in the underworld until the day of His Resurrection, as it is sung in the Easter hymn: “In the grave in the flesh, in hell with the soul, like God.” On the third day, Christ rose again and by his resurrection destroyed the power of hell and brought out of it those who were waiting for His coming, as well as those who accepted the news of salvation. From now on, hell has no power over those who are followers of Christ and live according to His commandments.
The Creed says that the Savior rose from the dead on the third day, according to Scripture. What scriptures tell us about the resurrection? Firstly, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself constantly spoke about his future resurrection, predicted it; just remember the Gospel of Matthew: “From that time Jesus began to reveal to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, high priests and scribes , and be killed, and on the third day rise again” (Matthew 16:21). Christ's predictions about his resurrection from the dead are contained in all four Gospels. As for the Old Testament prophecies, here, first of all, we can cite the words of the prophet David spoken about the Messiah: “You will not leave my soul in hell and you will not allow Your holy one to see corruption” (Ps. 15: 10) Also the stay of the prophet Jonah for three days and three nights in the belly of a whale prefigured the resurrection of Christ the Savior. The Savior Himself refers to this prototype of the resurrection: “As Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (Matthew 12: 39-40).
After his resurrection, the Lord repeatedly appeared to his disciples:
1) Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9)
2) Other women (Matthew 28:8-10)
3) Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5)
4) To two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35; Mark 16:12)
5) To the eleven disciples (except for the Apostle Thomas - Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23)
6) Later to the twelve disciples (1 Cor. 15:5; John 20:24-29)
7) To the seven disciples near the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:1-23)
8) Five hundred followers (1 Cor. 15:6)
9) Jacob (1 Cor. 15:6)
10) To the apostles at the time of the ascension (Acts 1:3-12).
The cave where the body of Christ was buried was guarded by a detachment of soldiers of the Roman army, one of the best, trained and disciplined in the world. If Christ’s disciples had come at night to carry away His body, as the Jews later said, at least one of them would have noticed them and grabbed them, besides, the entrance to the cave was blocked by a large, heavy stone that could not be rolled away silently. Even if the abduction had been successful, the apostles would have been captured, and they would have been tortured into revealing the location of the Teacher's body. But we know that they walked around freely, without hiding at all. If Jesus’ body had been taken by His enemies, then, of course, they would not have hidden this fact and very soon would have shown it to the people in order to refute Christ’s lifetime testimony about His resurrection.
ABOUT THE SIXTH MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
And ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father.
After his resurrection, the Lord remained on earth for another forty days with his disciples to assure them of the truth of the resurrection, strengthen their faith and give the necessary instructions.
Ascension happened on the Mount of Olives. It is known that the Savior loved this mountain and often retired there to pray. This is how the evangelist Luke describes this event: “And he led them out of the city as far as Bethany and, lifting up his hands, blessed them. And when he blessed them, he began to move away from them and ascend to heaven. They worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem…” (Luke 24:50-52).
Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Sky, By His humanity, and by His Divinity, he always remained with God the Father. The sky into which the Lord ascended is a place of the special presence of God, a mountain place, that is, an exalted place, the Kingdom of God. Christ walked the entire path of our human life and ascended into heaven, with this He glorified our human nature and showed the way to the Heavenly Fatherland, to the heavenly Jerusalem. He opened it to all his true followers.
The words of the Creed about the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ into heaven have a basis in Holy Scripture: “He who descended, he also ascended above all the heavens, to fill all things” (Eph. 4:10).
The Symbol says that Christ sat down on the right side of the Father. But we know that God is omnipresent, He is everywhere. These words about sitting on the right hand indicate that the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, has the same power and glory with the Father. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), He says about Himself.
ABOUT THE SEVENTH MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
And He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end..
The first coming to earth of the Lord Jesus Christ was humble; He took upon Himself “the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:7). His second coming will be different, He again will come, but already how Judge, in order to judge the affairs of all people, both those who lived to see His second coming and those who had already died.
The second coming will be very formidable. The Lord Himself speaks of him this way: “just as lightning comes from the east and is visible even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man,” and further: “the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of heaven will waver. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven; and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet; and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from the end of the heavens to the end thereof” (Matthew 24:27-31).
When will it happen? The Savior tells us: “But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but only My Father alone” (Matthew 24:36).
Both before and in our time, all sorts of false prophets often appeared who prophesied about the end of the world and even named the exact date of this event. No one who will report the date or exact time of the Last Judgment can be trusted, for it is unknown to anyone except God. In addition, for any of us, every day of our life could be the last, and we will have to answer to the Unflattering Judge. This is what St. Ignatius Brianchaninov says about the end of this world, and about our own end: “The day and hour are unknown when the Son of God will end the life of the world by coming to judgment; the day and hour are unknown when, at the command of the Son of God, the earthly life of each of us will end, and we will be called to separation from the body, to give an account of earthly life, to that private judgment, before the general judgment, that awaits a person after his death. Beloved brothers! Let us stay awake and prepare for the terrible judgment that awaits us on the brink of eternity for the irrevocable decision of our fate forever. Let us prepare ourselves by stocking up on all the virtues, especially mercy, which contains and crowns all the virtues, since love, the motivating cause of mercy, is "totality" Christian “perfections” (Col. 3:14). Mercy makes people filled with it godlike (Matt. 5:44,48; Luke 6:32,36)! “Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy; judgment without mercy to him who showed no mercy” (Matthew 5:7; James 2:13).
Before the end of the world there will be, as predicted in the Holy Scriptures, wars, unrest, earthquakes, famine and national disasters. There will be a decline in faith and morality. The “man of destruction” will appear, the Antichrist, the false messiah - a man who wants to stand in place of Christ, take His place and have power over the whole world. Having achieved supreme earthly power, the Antichrist will demand that he be worshiped as God. The power of the Antichrist will be destroyed by the coming of God.
After His coming, the Lord will judge all people. How will the Last Judgment take place? Saint Philaret of Moscow (Drozdov) writes that God “will judge in such a way that the conscience of every person will open before everyone and not only all the deeds that someone has done throughout his entire life on earth will be revealed, but also all the words spoken, secret desires and thoughts " Another Saint John (Maksimovich), Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco also says:“The Last Judgment does not know witnesses or protocol records. Everything is written in human souls and these records, these “books” are revealed. Everything becomes clear to everyone and to oneself, and the state of a person’s soul determines him to the right or to the left. Some go in joy, others in horror.
When the “books” are opened, it will become clear to everyone that the roots of all vices are in the human soul. Here is a drunkard, a fornicator - when the body has died, someone will think that sin has also died. No, there was an inclination in the soul and sin was sweet in the soul.
And if she did not repent of that sin, did not free herself from it, she will come to the Last Judgment with the same desire for the sweetness of sin and will never satisfy her desire. It will contain the suffering of hatred and malice. This is a hellish state.
“Gehenna of fire” is an internal fire, it is a flame of vice, a flame of weakness and malice, and “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” of impotent malice.
The Lord Jesus Christ will judge the world. “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). Why? Because the Son of God is also the Son of Man. He lived here on earth, among people, experienced sorrow, suffering, temptation and death itself. He knows all the sorrows and infirmities of man.
The last judgment will be terrible, because all human deeds and sins will be revealed to everyone, and also because after this judgment nothing can be changed, and everyone will receive what they deserve according to their deeds.
How a person lived on earth, how he prepared to meet God, and what state he achieved, then he will go with him to eternity. And the worthy, the righteous will go into eternal life with God, and sinners into eternal torment prepared for the devil and his servants. After this, the eternal Kingdom of Christ will come, the Kingdom of goodness, truth and love.
But the Lord is not only a Terrible Judge, He is also a Merciful Father, and of course He, in His mercy, will use every opportunity not to condemn, but to justify a person. Saint Theophan the Recluse writes about this: “The Lord wants everyone to be saved, therefore, you too... The Lord at the Last Judgment will not only demand how to condemn, but how to justify everyone. And he will justify everyone, as long as there is even the slightest opportunity.”
ABOUT THE EIGHTH MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who is equally worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, who spoke through the prophets.
Holy Spirit- the third hypostasis, the face of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit is consubstantial and equal to the Father and the Son, therefore He is also named in the Creed Lord.
Holy Spirit named Life-giving giving life, firstly: because He, together with the Father and the Son, participated in the creation of the world. In the book of Genesis, when describing the creation of the earth, it says: “and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters” (Gen. 1:2). “The Spirit of God created me” (Job 33:4), says the righteous Job. Secondly, the Holy Spirit, together with the Father and the Son, gives spiritual life to people, imparting to them divine energy. “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).
Prophets and heralds of the word of God wrote their books not on their own, but according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which is why the Holy Scriptures are called Inspired.
The Lord Jesus promised to send His disciples, the holy apostles, the Holy Spirit, whom He calls Comforter: “When the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, comes as the Comforter, whom I will send to you from the Father” (John 15:26). And on the fiftieth day after the resurrection of Christ, when the apostles were gathered in one place, in the upper room of Zion, the Holy Spirit descended on them in the form of tongues of flame and imparted to them gifts of grace.
The Holy Spirit acts in the life of the Church, especially communicating his gifts in the holy sacraments. Saint Basil the Great compares the Holy Spirit to sunlight, warming and giving life: He... is like the radiance of the sun - everyone enjoying it is as if alone, meanwhile this radiance illuminates the earth and the sea and dissolves in the air. So the Spirit dwells in each of those who receive Him, as if inherent in Him alone and in all, sufficiently pours out the full grace that those who partake enjoy, according to their own ability to receive, and not to the extent possible for the Spirit.”
ABOUT THE NINTH MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
Into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Church has not human, but divine origin, it was founded and established by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, coming to earth and gathering the first community of His disciples - followers. “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Christ is also the head of the Church, as the Holy Scriptures also testify to. The Apostle Paul says that God the Father “has set Him above all things, to be the head of the Church, which is His Body. (Eph. 1:22-23). It is not by chance that the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, uses the name Body of Christ. The Savior Himself says: “I am the vine, and you are the branches” (John 15:5). Just as branches grow on a tree, come from it, receive life and bear fruit, feeding on the juices of the trunk, and all together form a single tree, so Christians also come from Christ, take origin and life from their Teacher and God, and together form a single A church that bears the fruits of faith. “You are the body of Christ, and individually members” (1 Cor. 12:27).
The Church is made up of all people who unitely profess the Orthodox faith, living all over the world, which is why the Church is called Universal. The Church belongs not only to Orthodox Christians now living on earth, but also to all its children who have now passed on to another world, for “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for with Him all are alive” (Luke 20:38). The Mother of God, all the saints, as well as the heavenly army of archangels, angels and all heavenly disembodied forces, also form one Church with all of us. Thus, the Church is one, but is divided into earthly And heavenly. The Church does not consist only of saints and righteous people, but is called saint, because it was founded by the Lord Himself and preserves intact and holy the teaching given by Him.
The Lord created the Church and put into it everything necessary for our salvation: true, Orthodox teaching, church hierarchy, holy sacraments.
Saint Philaret of Moscow defines the Church as “a society established by God of people united by the Orthodox faith, the Law of God, the hierarchy and the Sacraments.” All this: faith and hierarchy, and the sacraments are of divine origin, therefore those people who say that they believe in God, but do not recognize the church, consider it some kind of later human invention, sin and are deeply mistaken. About such people, Hieromartyr Cyprian of Carthage said: “To whom the Church is not a mother, God is not a Father.” You cannot call yourself an Orthodox Christian and not believe in the Church established by Christ, deny the church hierarchy, which was also given by the Savior and has direct inheritance from the apostles themselves, and not begin the sacraments that have existed since early Christian times, and which all have their basis in the Holy Scriptures . By denying the Church, it is impossible to be saved: "Without the Church there is no salvation"- as Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky) said.
In the Church founded by the Savior, the Holy Spirit operates. He participates in the life of the Church, establishes the church hierarchy and teaches His gifts of grace in the sacraments and sacred rites of the church. The Apostle Paul addresses the elders (priests) of the city of Miletus with the following speech: “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of the Lord and God, which He purchased with His blood” (Acts 20:28).
The Lord acquired and acquired His Church, shedding His Divine blood for it, enduring suffering and death itself. He appointed apostles, giving them the authority to perform the holy sacraments: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive will be forgiven; on whom you leave it, it will remain on him” (John 20: 21-23), this is said about the sacrament of confession, in which the Lord, through the clergyman, absolves a repentant person from sin. The Savior gave the apostles the authority to perform other sacraments: Communion, Baptism, and Priesthood. The holy apostles received episcopal power from Christ; they appointed and ordained successors, other bishops. Since then, apostolic reception in the Church through an uninterrupted chain of ordination has not ceased. Each of the existing Orthodox bishops has succession from the apostles themselves. That is why our Church is called apostolic. Both the apostles and subsequent bishops ordained elders and priests. Elders can also perform all sacraments except ordination. The priesthood is the second level of the church hierarchy after the bishop. Only a bishop can ordain and ordain a person to the priesthood.
The church is called cathedral, because we all, headed by Christ the Savior and the hierarchy, constitute one council, a meeting of believers. The word Church, in Greek ecclesia, translated as a meeting of believers. Also, the Church is conciliar, since the highest power in it belongs to the Ecumenical Councils. They gather to discuss very important church issues and condemn false teachings. Bishops are present at Ecumenical Councils, if possible, from the entire Ecumenical Church. Also, the life of the Church is governed by local councils, which meet regularly in local Orthodox churches. Local Churches are churches located in different countries, each of them has its own primate, the chief bishop of the church, but all are members of the one Ecumenical Orthodox Church.
The Church, as a divine-human organism, is eternal and will remain, according to the Savior’s promise, until the end of time.
ABOUT THE TENTH MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
I confess, which means I believe, I undoubtedly acknowledge. Why "one baptism"? “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:4), teaches the Apostle Paul. This means that there is only one true Church, established by the One true God, and in it there are saving sacraments, since the grace of God operates in the Church. The uniqueness and uniqueness of Baptism was included in the Creed also because during the time of the first Ecumenical Councils there were disputes about how to receive heretics who had fallen away from the Church, whether it was necessary to repeat the sacrament of Baptism over them or not? Therefore, the Second Ecumenical Council supplemented the “Symbol” with the words that there can be only one Baptism. It was decided to accept the fallen through repentance.
The Creed calls it a sacrament Baptism, but no other sacraments are mentioned. Baptism is the sacrament of entry into the Church; without it one cannot become a Christian, a follower of Christ and a member of His Church. By entering the Church through Baptism, as through some kind of gate, a person gains the opportunity to begin other sacraments and sacred rites of the Church. There are seven sacraments in the Church: baptism, confirmation, communion, confession, unction (or unction), wedding and priesthood.
So, the spiritual life of a Christian begins with Baptism; he is born in this sacrament for a new life, life with Christ. The Lord sends the apostles to preach His teaching, the word of God to all people and baptize everyone who believes in Christ and wants to follow him: “Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things.” that I commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). In another Gospel, written by the holy evangelist Mark, the Savior says about Baptism: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; and whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). The prerequisite for baptism is faith and living by faith. Baptism is not only a new birth, but also death for another life, sinful, carnal: “If we died with Christ, then we believe that we will also live with Him” (Rom. 6:8) - we read the words of the Apostle Paul at sacrament of Baptism.
Before immersing in the Holy Font with the invocation of the name of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the one approaching Baptism renounces the devil and “all his deeds,” that is, from a sinful life,” for “he who commits sin is from (). And he is united with Christ, promises to keep faith in the Lord and faithfulness to Him, promises not to resist the will of God and to live according to His commandments.
In the waters of baptism, a person drowns his sins, his fallen nature, emerging from the font cleansed and renewed, and receives grace and strength to fight the devil and sin. Therefore, the Creed says that Baptism is performed “for the remission of sins.” When an adult begins the sacrament of baptism, he is required not only to have faith, but also to repent of his sins.
We baptize infants according to the faith of their parents and godparents, who are sureties for them before God. Both parents and godparents must be believers who know their faith and live according to it. They must raise the child in faith. The prototype of New Testament Baptism was the Old Testament rite of circumcision; it was performed on infants on the eighth day after birth. We also perform baptism on infants, for the Apostle Paul directly calls Baptism “circumcision made without hands” (Col. 2:11-12); Even the holy apostles performed baptisms over entire “houses”, families, in which, of course, there were small children. The Lord Himself commanded not to hinder children from coming to Him: “Let the children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the Kingdom of God” (Luke 18:16). The fact that the grace of God can be communicated through the faith of other people is clear from the Gospel. When people turned to Christ with faith, asking for the healing of their relatives and friends, the Lord performed miracles according to the faith of those asking. For example, when the synagogue leader Jairus asked to heal his daughter, when a Syrophoenician woman prayed to cast out a demon from her daughter, or when four people came to the Lord and brought their paralytic companion. “Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you” (Mark 2:5).
For any Orthodox believer with children, it is unthinkable for our children to remain outside the grace of God, which is taught in the saving Sacraments of the Church. Therefore, the Orthodox Church, with its canonical rules, established the need for infant baptism. For example, in Canon 124 of the Council of Carthage it is said: “whoever rejects the need for the baptism of small children and newborns from the mother’s womb, or says that although they are baptized for the remission of sins, they do not borrow anything from Adam’s ancestral sin that should be washed in the bath of rebirth ( that is, Baptism Ed.), from which it would follow that the image of baptism for the remission of sins is used over them not in its true, but in a false meaning, let him be anathema.” Thus, it becomes clear that infants, although they do not have personal sins, also need purification and the grace of God acting in the sacraments, since they, like all people, inherit the general ancestral depravity, the inclination to sin.
ABOUT THE ELEVENTH MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
I'm waiting for the resurrection of the dead,
Man was created by God as an immortal being. After Adam's fall, the human body began to get sick, grow old, deteriorate, and lost its immortal properties. People are born, live on earth, and then die. The immortal soul is separated from the body; after bodily death, the Lord judges all the affairs of a person’s earthly life and determines the place of residence of the soul until the day of the Last Judgment. At the end of the world, on the day of the Last Judgment, God will resurrect, will restore the bodies of dead people in order to pronounce His final judgment on humanity and separate those worthy of the Eternal Kingdom of Bliss with God from those who, due to their sins, are unworthy of the Kingdom of God. Unrepentant sinners will go into “eternal torment” (Matthew 25:46), “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angel” (Matthew 25:41), that is, to a place devoid of divine light, where they will remain in eternal torment , along with Satan and his servants.
The current state of the deceased, that is, the existence of the soul without a body, is not final and incomplete. Man is not only a soul, but a soul and a body together. And therefore, for the Judgment of all people and further eternal life, the Lord will resurrect the dead in the body. Those people who will be alive at the time of the second coming of Christ will also appear at the judgment of God.
Almost all peoples have the concept of the immortality of the soul, for in man, as an initially immortal being, there is a feeling, a sense of his eternity.
The Lord Jesus Christ, having walked the full path of human life from birth to death, showed us the path that awaits all departed people. He was resurrected and His soul was united with the body. The Apostle Paul speaks about this: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not warn those who have died; because the Lord Himself, with a proclamation, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who remain alive will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so always with the Lord we will" (1 Sol. 4: 14-17).
The Holy Scriptures of both the New and Old Testaments speak many times about the future resurrection of the dead. The Lord gave the prophet Ezekiel a vision that has historical significance (tells about the restoration of the kingdom of Israel), but is also a prototype of the general resurrection of bodies. The prophet saw a field full of dead, dry human bones. And so God says that he will introduce spirit into them, cover them with veins, grow flesh on them and cover them with skin. And everything happens according to the word of the Lord, then “the spirit entered into them and they came to life and stood on their feet - a very, very great army” (Ezek. 37: 1-10).
It is difficult for the human consciousness, accustomed to thinking in earthly, limited categories, to imagine how the resurrection of long-dead people and the restoration of decayed flesh can occur. But we know that the Lord created the first man from “the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7), that is, he gave him an immortal soul. Earth, “dust of the earth,” is a set of chemical elements from which all nature, including humans, consists. When the body dies, it decomposes and returns to the state of dust. After the Fall, God tells Adam that “you ... will return “to the land from which you were taken” (Gen. 3:17-19). Of course, God, Who once created the human body from the nature of the earth, will be able to restore the decayed human body back.
To assure us of the future resurrection of bodies, the Apostle Paul uses the image of grain thrown into the ground: “Someone will say: How will the dead be raised? and in what body will they come? Reckless! what you sow will not come to life unless it dies. And when you sow, you do not sow the future body, but the naked grain that happens, wheat or something else; but God gives him a body as he wishes, and to each seed his own body... So it is at the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15, 35-33, 42).
“If the seeds do not die first, do not rot and do not decay, they will not grow an ear. And just as you, when you notice that a seed is subject to damage and decay, not only do not doubt, but thereby become even more firmly convinced of its resurrection (for if the seed had remained intact without damage and destruction, it would not have been resurrected), so reason and about your body,” he also says Saint John Chrysostom.
ABOUT THE TWELFTH MEMBER OF THE SYMBOL OF FAITH
and the life of the next century. Truly so.
After the general resurrection and the Last Judgment, the earth will be renewed and transformed through fire. On the new earth it will be established Kingdom of God, as the Holy Scripture says, Kingdom of truth: “According to the promise of the Lord, we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness alone will reign” (2 Pet. 3:13). The Holy Apostle John the Theologian, in a revelation about the future destinies of the world, saw “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21: 1). There will be nothing sinful, unclean or unjust on the new earth. Both nature and human nature will also be renewed. The Apostle Paul writes that people’s bodies will be similar to the resurrected body of the Savior: “But our citizenship is in heaven, from where we look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body so that it will be like His glorious body, by the power by which He acts and subdues all things to Himself (Phil. 3:20,21). In the Kingdom of God there will be no illness, no suffering, no sorrow.
What will it be life what it will look like new heaven and earth? It's hard for us to imagine. But one thing is certain, that both the Kingdom of God and life in it will be incomparably, incommensurably more beautiful than all the current earthly beauties and joys. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9), says the Apostle Paul. We can give the following example. There lives a man who suffers from severe eye disease from birth; he is almost deprived of light; he distinguishes surrounding objects and people only as vague silhouettes. And so he undergoes an operation, and after a while all the colors, all the beauties of the surrounding world become available to him for contemplation. Or a person who was deaf from birth was given hearing, and a wonderful world of sounds, words and musical harmonies was opened to him. Yes, it is difficult for us to imagine what “God has prepared for those who love Him,” but we believe that life with the Lord, in constant divine light and love, will be blissful and beautiful. Our present, earthly joys cannot give us an idea of that other joy and happiness. Even spiritual joys, from love, gratitude to God, prayers are only a weak beginning, a thin sprout of what will be there, in the new Kingdom of Truth. For us, the expectation of the life of the next century is a matter of faith, our hope, and one can only feel sorry for people who do not have this hope, that is, do not believe in a future life. There is a parable about this.
Two twins talk in the belly of a pregnant woman. One of them is a believer, and the other is an unbeliever. The unbeliever believes that their whole life is living in this cramped and dark room, where they can only move slightly, and there is no other life. Another baby, on the contrary, believes that their current situation, temporary, is only the beginning of a real, wonderful life, that someday they will see the light, the beauty of the world, they will eat food with their mouths and walk with their own feet. And most importantly, this baby believes they will see their mother. To which the non-believer replies that believing in a mother is simply madness, we don’t see her, which means she doesn’t exist. His believing brother tries to dissuade him, saying that the mother is with them, she takes care of them, gives them life and food, the mother is everywhere, she is around them. But the unbelieving twin stands his ground.
The creed ends with the word "Amen", which means: truly, undoubtedly so. By this we confirm and testify that we accept, as true Orthodox Christians, this confession of faith, left to us by the holy fathers, and approved by the ecumenical councils.
