joypeacehope: October 2014

Monday, October 13, 2014

The Origins Of Nature And Evil

In the beginning of time, God created heaven and earth. Time proceeds from this world, not before the world.

The earth is not suspended in the middle of the universe like a balance hung in equilibrium: the majesty of God holds it together by the law of His own will.

Evil arose from us, and was not made by the Creator God. It is produced by the created thing; it does not have the dignity of a natural substance. It is a fault due to our mutability and is an error due to our fall.

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters; .. and it was so,” Genesis 1:6. Listen to the words of God, “Let there be,” He said. This is the word of a commander, not of an adviser. He gives orders to nature and does not comply with its power. He does not regard its measurements, nor does He examine its weight. His will is the measure of things and His word is the completion of the work.

But since His word is nature’s birth, justly therefore does He who gave nature its origin presume to give nature its law.

“Let the earth bring forth,” God said, and immediately the whole earth was filled with growing vegetation. And to humanity it was said, “Love the Lord your God”; yet the love of God is not instilled in the hearts of all. Deafer are human hearts than the hardest rock.

The bramble preceded in time the light of the sun; the blade of grass is older than the moon. Therefore, do not believe that object to be a god to which the gifts of God are seen to be preferred. Three days [of creation] have passed. No one, meanwhile, has looked for the sun, yet the brilliance of light has been in evidence everywhere.

“Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures,” Genesis 1:20, said the Lord—a brief statement, but a significant one and one widely effective in endowing with their nature the smallest and the largest animals without distinction. The whale as well as the frog came into existence at the same time by the same creative power.

Fish follow a divine law, whereas human beings contravene it. Fish daily comply with the celestial mandates, but humans make void the precepts of God.

Moses saw that there was no place in the words of the Holy Spirit for the vanity of this perishable knowledge which deceives and deludes us in our attempt to explain the unexplainable. He believed that only those things should be recorded which tend to our salvation.

The Word of God permeates every creature in the constitution of the world.

The divine wisdom penetrates and fills all things. Far more conviction is gained from the observation of irrational creatures than from the arguments of rational beings. Of more value is the testimony given by nature than the proof presented by teaching.

From the writings of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan +397AD

A Patristic Treasury, Early Church Wisdom for Today, Ancient Faith Publishing, pp 339-342 (excerpts from among those pages)

Sunday, October 12, 2014

All Is Not Right

Our ancestors are heretics and thieves. All of Western Europe is in heresy having been cast out of the Church in 1054. Pride and thievery were bred and birthed by Satan who in turn led the entire Western Orthodox Church into heresy. A man is known by his deeds and the works of Western heretics have always been acts of thievery and arrogance. In arrogance the leaders of the Western Church sought dominance over their brethren of the East and when they couldn’t dominate and control, they stole to satisfy their greed and carnal desires and the Crusades confirmed their allegiance to the evil one. All this, they did in the name of Jesus Christ and in doing so, they committed blasphemy, justifying their thievery and wiping their lips as dripping with arrogance as though their acts were somehow righteous.

The arrogance and thievery of Western Christians heretics continues to this day both in Europe and in America. They send out missionary wolves cloaked in sheep’s clothing to open the way for their thievery to continue, stealing the resources of nations while enslaving and impoverishing the peoples to whom they proclaim a false and polluted gospel.

America is a classic example of how the practices of Western Christian heretics are manifest. Heretics breed heretics and they are known by their works which are done in the name of Jesus Christ while at the same time smelling of dark sulphur which emanates only from demons. These Western Christian heretics speak righteously while committing acts of wickedness. A grievous example of this was the treatment of the indigenous tribes that were evangelized in the name of Jesus Christ and supposedly for the glory of God. Yet, proclaiming to bring to Christ, these indigenous peoples, instead, they were sacrificed to the demons whom Western Christian heretics serve. Those not killed, were impoverished and their land was stolen by trickery, deceit and violence.

Western Christian heretics have committed similar acts throughout South America, Africa, and the Middle East, while making it their goal to evangelize the entire world with their false gospel, a gospel not of hope but of despair, not of love but of hate, note of charity but of theft. The Western Christian heretics have always and will continue to sow confusion and chaos wherever they set foot and at the Day of Judgement, the Lord almighty will proclaim to them, “I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of iniquity.”

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"Anathema To Him Who Divides And To Him Who Confounds"

This statement was made by the most reverend bishops of the
Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. As the mind of God was, so the seven holy councils of the first 800 years of the church spoke, establishing and confirming the great doctrines of the Christian church universal which stand firm and solid to this day and will for all eternity. In ignorance most Protestants and Romanists today aren't even aware of Byzantine history and the glorious reign of the church during the first thousand years of history after the coming of the Blessed One. If you knew that to not embrace the decrees and canons of these councils put you in an anathematized condition, would you not repent and return to the 'true faith' of your fathers? "Do not move the ancient boundary stone", so it states in the Proverbs and what happens when we do? We will be prosecuted and thus shall it be for us who violate these ancient decrees and canons of the Holy Ecumenical Councils.

Icon Of The Descent Into Hades

Jesus Christ stands on the doors of Hades and breaks them open. The doors are in the form of a Cross to remind us that Jesus shattered these doors through the power of the Cross. Christ is pulling Adam and Eve out of Hades or Sheol, the place of death. Notice the limp hand of both Adam and Eve. The limp hand symbolizes that it is through Jesus' power that they are taken to heaven out of this place of death. It is Jesus' death and that alone that has conquered death. Left of Jesus we see John the Baptist preaching about the one who is to come to Hades to save them. John the Baptist is Jesus' forerunner even in Hades. Next to John the Baptist is King David and King Solomon. Right of Jesus we find Abel, the first saint of the Old Testament. This icon is also called the Icon of the Resurrection.

Biography of Saint Basil, Fool for Christ

Saint Basil the Blessed, was born in December 1468 on the portico of the Elokhov church outside Moscow. His parents were commoners and sent their son to be trained as a cobbler. During Basil's apprenticeship, the master cobbler happened to witness an occurrence, which showed him that his apprentice was not an ordinary young man. A merchant had brought grain to Moscow on a barge and came in to order boots, specifying that they be made in a particular way, since he would not pick them up for a year. After taking the order, Saint Basil began to weep and said, "I wish you would cancel the order, since you will never wear them." Confused, the master cobbler questioned his apprentice, and he explained that the man would not wear the boots, for he would soon die. After several days the prediction came true.

When he was sixteen, the saint arrived in Moscow and began to display what is called "Yurodivy" or foolishness for Christ. In the burning summer heat and in the freezing Russian winters, he walked barefoot through the streets of Moscow. His actions were strange, for instance, he would topple kalachi and kvas stands in the marketplace. Angry merchants would throttle and beat Saint Basil, but he welcomed the abuse with joy and he thanked God for it. Soon after it would be discovered that the kalachi was poorly cooked, and the kvas was badly prepared. The reputation of St Basil quickly grew. People saw him as a holy fool, a man of God, and a denouncer of wrong.

Another story tells of a merchant who wanted to build a stone church in Moscow, but its arches collapsed three times. The merchant turned to the saint for advice, and he pointed him toward Kiev. "Find John the Cripple," he said. "He will advise you how to construct the church." Traveling to Kiev, the merchant sought out John, who sat in a poor hut and rocked an empty cradle. "Whom do you rock?" asked the merchant. "I weep for my mother, who was made poor by my birth and upbringing." Only then did the merchant remember his own mother, whom he had thrown out of the house. Then it became clear to him why he was not able to build the church. Returning to Moscow, he brought his mother home, begged her forgiveness, and built the church.

Preaching mercy, Saint Basil helped those who were ashamed to ask for alms, but who were more in need of help than others. Once, he gave away a rich imperial present to a foreign merchant who had been left destitute. Although the man had eaten nothing for three days, he was not able to beg for food, since he wore fine clothing. The saint harshly condemned those who gave to the poor for selfish reasons, not out of compassion, but hoping for an easy way to attract God's blessings. St Basil also visited the taverns, where he tried to see goodness, even in people who others had given up as lost, and to strengthen and encourage them by kindness.
Once Saint Basil even reproached Tsar Ivan the Terrible, saying that during the divine services the Tsar was preoccupied with thoughts of building a palace in the Vorobiev hills.

St Basil died on August 2, 1557. His body was buried in the cemetery of Trinity church, where in 1554, In an early icon, St Basil is portrayed as old, with white hair curling at his ears, and a short, curly white beard. He is completely naked, and holds a handkerchief in his hand. The veneration of St Basil the Blessed was always so strong that the Trinity temple and the attached Protection church were renamed for him as the famous St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. The saint's chains, his relics, are preserved at the Moscow Spiritual Academy.

RUSSIAN ICON "GUARDIAN ANGEL"

"Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven." Matt. 18:10 " Although we can not see them with our bodily eyes, we can see them clearly with the eyes of faith. Are we really so poverty stricken in sensitivity and spiritual awareness that we do not wish to believe anything except the easily visible world? Are our hearts so occupied with worldly vainglory that they love nothing which does not pertain to wealth and temporary pleasure?" The Guardian Angel pg. 10

Icon of the Holy Archangel Michael, Captain Of The Angelic Host.

Saint John Chrysostom The Golden Mouthed

St. Gregory The Theologian

St. Gregory the Theologian, when barely thirty years old, won acclaim throughout the region as a mighty warrior in the fight against paganism and heresy. He headed the reorganisation of the Orthodox Church which had been torn asunder by the heresy of Arianism from within and by the harassment of pagans without. In the course of this holy work, he achieved distinction as an orator, traditionalist, and a crusader that earned him the title of "Theologian" despite the opposition of Maximos the Cynic, who had been set up against him by the bishop of Alexandria. He was the instrument of God in unifying the Church into a cohesive unit that could withstand any internal or external pressure.

St. Basil the Great

St. Basil set Christian perfectionism as the goal of monastic life. The monks were to practice Christian virtues together, especially love; to practice obedience to a spiritual father; to practice chastity and poverty, and share the common goods of the monastery. After they achieved Christian perfection, they were allowed to come back to the world and help others to achieve Christian perfection. Thus, the monks had the mission of "social workers" as well. St. Basil's institutions, especially his Basileias, which was at the same time an orphanage, a "kitchen for the poor," and a school for the illiterate was in practice run by monks. This was St. Basil's way of utilizing the monastic movement to benefit the mission of the Church in the world.

Prayer of St. Ephram The Syrian 306-373

O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, lust of power, meddling and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chasity, humility, patience and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and to judge not my brother; For thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen. (The church historian, Sozomen credits Ephrem with having written over three million lines of hymns, poems, homilies and biblical commentary). His works are known only within Orthodoxy. "The greatest poet of the patristic age and, perhaps, the only theologian-poet to rank beside Dante." — Robert Murray.