According to Christian doctrine, everything that exists, apart from God Himself, is God’s creation. All that exists has its cause in God and is therefore intimately connected with Him. Unfortunately, rational beings do not always understand this; yet, even if creation does not acknowledge it, it was, is, and will always remain a manifestation of…
To address this, we must first ask: Why did God create humanity? God had no need to create humans. God is the Holy Trinity, and He does not experience loneliness or lack. He created humanity out of the abundance of His love. Like a loving parent, God desires love in return from the beings He created. However,…
Bishop Mikhail (Semyonov) We have spoken about the Person of Christ, about the radiance of His countenance. But it is well known that, for Christians, the center of Christ’s life is found in His death. The center of Christianity is the Cross and Redemption. It is not merely the God-Man with the purest teaching whom…
By Kiril Mikhailov In the 17th century, Francis Bacon developed the concept of “pure knowledge,” free from prejudice and superstition—a concept of tremendous importance to world science, and one that, with only minor modifications, still reigns today. With the exception of anti- and irrationalist philosophical schools, which did not significantly influence the development of science,…
By Roman Atorin The past thirty years in Russia have been marked by a growing interest in faith, religion, and spirituality. Old Belief, as one of our traditional and culturally formative confessions, has not remained apart from these developments and is now the subject of extensive study by many researchers. Indeed, the true causes of…
God has revealed to humanity that He is one yet triune in persons. How can we understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity within our limited comprehension? What do the terms person/hypostasis/essence/nature mean? What are the shared and individual properties of the Holy Trinity? Before delving into the mystery of the Holy Trinity, it is…
Before engaging in a polemic against sectarian views on various issues, it is necessary to say at least a few words about the sources of doctrine that they accept and that we accept. As is well known, almost all sectarians regard Holy Scripture as the sole source of faith and reject any references to the…
St. Hilarion. Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia On the Law given through Moses, and on Grace and Truth revealed through Jesus Christ, and how the Law has passed away, while Grace and Truth have filled the whole earth, and the faith has spread to all nations, and has reached even our Russian people. And…
The legacy of early Christian thinkers had a primary influence on the formation of the Christian worldview paradigm. Under the influence of the spiritual experience of ancient Christian writers, the foundations were laid, and the platform for the cultural existence of civilization was formulated. Grace—a concept repeatedly encountered in the Old Testament—is, in its essence,…
The Apostle James wrote these words when explaining in his epistle how a person is justified before God. At that time, an idea had already appeared in Christianity that simply believing in Christ was sufficient for the salvation of the soul, allowing one to live however they pleased, without observing commandments or following any restrictions….