George/Giwargis of Lydda is without doubt one of the most beloved and venerated of all Christian Saints, almost inexplicably so. Much of this may come from his career as a soldier, rising through the ranks of the Roman army at a young age to become a Tribune, one of the six officers who commanded a Roman legion. He was a man of great power, valour and standing, which meant that, when the Emperor Diocletian ordered his armies to clamp down on Christians throughout the Empire, George’s refusal, protest, and public declaration of loyalty to Christ before the Emperor was unprecedented. Diocletian, shocked by this impudence, had George tortured, then decapitated outside the walls of Nicomedia.
Over time, George’s legend grew, and may have spawned, in the spirit of his profession as a soldier, the notion that, in his life and martyrdom, George had done battle with the dragon (ie. the devil) and defeated him. By the 11th Century, this metaphorical narrative had turned into one in which George had somehow saved a princess and defeated a flesh and blood creature with fire-breath and bat wings. But no, the Church does not believe in material dragons, only the dragon of old that deceives the nations, and that is what is depicted in icons of George, who now has a country named after him, many British kings, a State of the United States, and is the patron Saint of England, Palestine, and his eponymous Georgia.
Holy George, help us defeat the dragon! Pray unto God for us!
GREGORY V of CONSTANTINOPLE (22n April, 1741-1821AD) The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is the first Bishop of the Orthodox Church, or at least has been so since the apostasy of the Bishops of Rome (the Popes) in the 11th Century. Gregory V had the dreadful misfortune to be the Patriarch during the Greek uprising which was to result in the formation of an independent Greek state. In retaliation for this, the Sultan decided to execute Gregory, despite the fact that he had, in an effort to protect the Christians in his See, denounced the uprising. He was seized upon immediately after serving the Easter/Pascha liturgy, taken out to Saint Peter’s gate at the Phanar (the Patriarchal compound), and after the age-old enjoinder to save his life by declaring Mohammed the Prophet of God, and the inevitable refusal, he was hanged there for two days.
“Theistic Faith is Optimistic and springs from a Possiblity Thinker, whereas Atheistic doubt is Pessimistic and springs from an Impossiblity thinker”. Robert Schuller Senior.
It is with both sadness and pleasant memories, that I and my wife joy say good bye to a wise old Christian, whose ‘Hour of Power’ brought inspiration and faith into our Non-Churchgoing lives.
Dr Robert H Schuller
For years his ‘Hour of Power’ was our TV church.
Now Dr Schuller was not a 1611 King James Guy.
He was not an exponent of Dispensationalism.
He was even lacking in preaching the Gospel of grace… yet still I say he was a Great Christian man, and one of my Spiritual Fathers.
He reminded me very much of my own Grandfather… John Steel Clark… and that is how millions of people around the world saw him, as a Caring and Wise Christian Elder.
God creates Individuals each with specific contributions to make, so that all knowledge, all truth, all the godliness and virtues of Christ do not reside in any one person/ sect.
We are all single members of the Body of Christ.
I Add Dr Shullers personal contributions to Christian Thought as one of the necessary pillars in my Ideological Fortress.
His is an ideology to help us master our Psychology, and steer us towards bold action and positive outlook.
To his credit Dr Schuller was very Libertarian in his Political Ideals and beliefs about Voluntary action in the pursuit of values.
He taught Pragmatism….
His Ministry brought many Great testimonies of faith from Achievers, and people with amazing stories,
His Sermons were inspirational calls to action… to pursue your God-given visions and dreams.
He wrote about how to rally back from personal loss… ” Tuff times never last, Tuff people do…”
We wrote about the psychology of the ‘Impossibility thinker’… “..trapped in the tiger cage of their own mind.”
For the Bi-centenary of The Birth of America, Schullers Message ‘I am the American Flag’, was an Epic on Freedom and prosperity… as long as the Morals of the people do not themselves ‘flag’.
Freedom is only fit for a people of strong Personal values and Self governing Self reliant ethics.
Unfortunately Later deliveries of that great speech have been trimmed down to the extent that they do not do justice to the Libertarian theology in the original.
Years Before facebook, … Joy and I would share with our Battling Kin… positive insights we had picked up from watching Hour of power on Sunday morning, or comment on what fantastic musicians, Choirs, etc… we enjoyed very much.
Robert Schuller built his ministry from the ground up into a global audience.
I do not know the details of the eventual collapse of his TV ministry, so I wont make any comment on that.
What I will say is that irrespective of that unfortunate end to his ministry, his character, example, and intellectual contribution to the faith building self reliance , tolerance, Christian thinking of his day is secure.
I believe his greatest legacy will be found in his Children and Grand children.
The Schuller family are and have always been Exemplary.
They were a Pillars of strength in America’s darkest hours after 911, and no doubt we can continue expect great things from them.
Robert A Shculler’s Hour of Power message “God’s truth is Marching on” is an Inspirational call to America to Keep Strong in faith, esp in Religious liberty.
I pray God’s grace and providence remains upon them.
**********************************
Dr Scheuller in New Zealand.
A great orator like Dr Schuller must have been used to having a few Zealots in the crowd… and so it would be when he came Down under.
I have my own Robert Schuller story.
🙂
I met Dr Schuller very briefly in about 2002.
Joy and I travelled up to Auckland to see him at a large Central City Church.
Several 1000 people in attendance.
Joy and I are Big fans of the Schuller family, Though we have always thought Dr Schuller needed some ‘encouragement’ regarding The Gospel of Grace, The King James Bible Issue, Dispensationalism, and Libertarianism, and I would not let this opportunity pass….so I had packed a small pile of pamphlets and small ‘tracks’, etc to give to him.
The question remained as to exactly how I was going to achieve ‘the drop’.
This was post 911.
GW Bush era.
War pending in Iraq.
The Schullers had been a source of Moral Spiritual support for the American people directly after 911, and in the War years that have followed.
Back then there were Anti-American terrorists and Jihadists, hiding on every grassy knoll.
Postal Anthrax.
The Program we had been given told everyone to remain seated when Dr Schuller exited.
Well…. the moment was fast arising, and Joy ribbed me saying that if I was going to give him the package that I had better do something fast… and Being a subscriber to ‘Possibility thinking’… I decided I would simply break the rule of remaining seated, and walked up out of the Auditorium over to the exit.
There I met him for a few seconds, and gave him my ‘present.’
I called on God to bless him, and America as he was getting into his car.
Mission accomplished!
Possibility thinking may involve some risk, yet can get spectacular results!
I got to shake Dr Schullers hand.
I Figure he would forgive me for being cheeky enough to ignore the Rules.
I was ‘Optimistic’ and opportunistic.
What he did with my gift, I have no idea.
I had Fulfilled *my Part*… my moral duty to put the goods into his hands.
It was now up to God to inspire him to read it.
Insignificant as this tale is it actually is descriptive of how his teachings have moulded my thinking and motivated me to action and activism.
Dr Schuller is one of my Mentors whom has been helping me get out of my seat for the last 15 years.
*******
Robert Schuller’s legacy will continue through his Children, and Grandchildren whom in many ways exemplify Enlightened Christian character, and through his fans as they continue to share his Humanity, His wisdom, his Possibility thinking.
He will continue to be a source of my own resolve to always be an optimistic chaser of of big ideas and visions.
His Son Robert Jnr says on Facebook “My Father is now in Heaven with Mum”.
Thank you Robert H Schuller.
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Possibility thinker.
New Zealand.
Update: Schuller’s Funeral …
“This is the day the Lord has made. We will be glad and rejoice in it.”
Bobby Schuller lifted up his chest and enunciated those words in a booming voice – exactly as his illustrious grandfather had done for more than half a century opening the “Hour of Power” program every Sunday, beamed across the globe to millions.
The more than 2,000 attendees at Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller’s memorial service Monday morning, who packed the Christ Cathedral plaza in the shadow of the gleaming glass tower and sanctuary, burst into laughter, tears and thunderous applause….
Before Martin Luther King, before Martin Luther, there was Martin, a Saint no less worthy than his progeny in his labour against the zeitgeist. As hard as it is to believe nowadays, once upon a time, Roman Popes were the last and greatest defenders of Christian Orthodoxy, even when other Bishops and Patriarchs would go wobbly. Martin is one of the more famous examples of this. At the time of his accession to the Papal throne in 649AD, much of the Roman Empire, of which he was technically a governor of its Italian territories, had fallen under the rule of an heretical Emperor and Bishops. The heresy du jour was monothelitism – the idea that Christ had only a single, divine will. Martin saw this as a great threat to the Church and its doctrine, and argued vigorously in favour of the traditional Orthodox view – that Christ had two wills – a human and a divine, and that to argue otherwise was to either make Him less than human, or less than God.
For daring to defend Orthodoxy, the Emperor attempted to dethrone Martin by charging him with heresy, and when this failed, he had him kidnapped and exiled to the Greek island of Naxos, where he was subject to torture and deprivation. Eventually he died of starvation, the last Papal martyr of the Church to this day.
RAPHAEL, NICHOLAS and IRENE (14th April, d.1463AD)
These three Saints were residents of the Greek island of Lesbos during the Turkish conquest of the Roman Empire – Raphael, the Abbot of a local monastery, Nicholas, one of his Deacons, and Irene, the twelve year old daughter of the Mayor. They were brutally and viciously tortured at the monastery by the Turks – Raphael died after having his jaw sawn off, Nicholas through heart failure after torture, and Irene by being roasted and suffocated in a metal cask.
What makes this story even more interesting, however, is not so much the story of the Saints, but how these three were revealed to the world. They remained unknown for nearly 500 years until 1959, when Raphael’s relics were uncovered by chance, and the three Saints began to appear to the people of Lesbos. Soon, all three sets of relics were uncovered, and miracles of healing were reported at their visitation.
THOMAS (d.72AD)
This Sunday, the Sunday after Easter/Pascha is the Sunday of Thomas, the Apostle. Famed for doubting the resurrection until confronted face to face with Christ, Thomas more than made up for his reluctance in his subsequent preaching of the Gospel. After persecution broke out against the Christians, he made his way east through Mesopotamia, Parthia, and all the way to India, preaching the Gospel, baptising, and founding churches along the way. He is said to have met the Magi who were present at Christ’s birth, and finally baptised them.
Settling in India, the Orthodox churches he founded there remains to this day, and he is considered India’s Patron Saint. It was there where he was martyred by the the local ruler of Melipur, for daring to convert the Prefect’s wife and son.
Orthodox tradition has Thomas being entrusted with Mary’s belt, miraculously offered to him upon her repose, although whether this actually happened or is merely a pious story is debated.
If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord.
If any have laboured long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in no wise be deprived thereof. If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing.
If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honour, will accept the last even as the first; he gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.
And he shows mercy upon the last, and cares for the first; and to the one he gives, and upon the other he bestows gifts. And he both accepts the deeds, and welcomes the intention, and honours the acts and praises the offering.
Wherefore, enter you all into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first, and likewise the second! You rich and poor together, hold high festival! You sober and you heedless, honour the day! Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast! The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously! The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away!
Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Saviour’s death has set us free! He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it! By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive! He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions.
It was embittered! for it was abolished!
It was embittered! for it was mocked!
It was embittered! for it was slain!
It was embittered! for it was overthrown!
It was embittered! for it was fettered in chains!
It took a body, and met God face to face! It took earth, and encountered Heaven! It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen!
O Death, where is your sting?! O Hell, where is your victory?!
Christ is risen! and you are overthrown!
Christ is risen! and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen! and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen! and life reigns!
Christ is risen! and not one dead remains in the grave!
For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen!
LAZARUS (d.33AD & 63AD) Just the one Saint this week. The day before Palm Sunday is the Saturday of Lazarus, when Christ raised His friend from the dead. In doing so, He forshadowed His own resurrection, and showed that He has power over all death, including our own.
After his revival, Lazarus, as living proof of Christ’s works, was forced to flee Jerusalem, and he travelled to Cyprus where he preached Christ and established the Church there. Paul and Barnabas ordained him the first Bishop of Cyprus, where he led the Church and is regarded as their patron Saint.
He is famously reputed never to have smiled in the thirty years after his revival, except for one occasion where he saw a pot being stolen, smirking that “the clay steals the clay”
MARY of EGYPT (445-522AD) This past Sunday in the Orthodox Church is not Palm Sunday (which is next week), but the Sunday of Mary of Egypt. Mary’s life story is fascinating. At the age of 12, she ran away to Alexandria and proceeded to live the life of a sex addict, not even accepting money from the men she slept with so as to sleep with as many men as possible.
Around 475AD, she learned of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of the Holy Cross, and the thought of all those men in one place became all too enticing. Paying for her passage in sexual favours, she sailed to Jerusalem, continued her dissolute behaviour while there. However, on the day of the feast, she was miraculously barred entry to the Church of the Resurrection. After her third attempt to enter, she saw an icon of the Theotokos on the wall and began seeking her intercession to enter and forgiveness from God of her sins. It was only after this that she was able to enter, venerate the Cross, and receive the Eucharist.
Leaving her former life behind, Mary took three loaves of bread and wandered out into the Jordanian desert away from other human beings and all external temptation. By her own account, it took her seventeen years of struggle before she was able to overcome her lusts and desires, after which she continued to remain in the desert another thirty years. When she was finally discovered – by Zosima of Palestine not long before her repose – she had reached levels of holiness such that she had the spiritual gift of foreknowledge and was able to levitate and walk on water. She had gone from being the basest of whores, to a virginal and holy being – an example of what great humility, prayer and struggle can accomplish by God’s grace.
TIKHON of MOSCOW (1865-1925AD, 25th March) Tikhon, born Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin, is remembered as a great Bishop and martyr of the Church. Consecrated at a young age, he was quickly appointed Archbishop of Alaska, and by extension, all North America. Becoming an American citizen, he oversaw a period of great growth in the Orthodox Church in the United States, and translated many of the Church’s services into English for the first time. He also approved what is now known as the Liturgy of Saint Tikhon, an Orthodox adaption of the Anglican Mass used to this day in many Western Rite Orthodox churches and former Anglican parishes.
Recalled to Russia in 1907, he continued to impress as Archbishop of Yaroslav and of Vilnius, such that, following the abdication of the Czar, the Russian Church revived the position of Patriarch of Moscow (which Peter the Great had abolished) and elected Tikhon to serve. He wasted no time in being a vocal critic of the new Bolshevik regime, for which he was placed under arrest and officially “deposed” by the Soviets (though this is not recognised by the Church). He is widely regarded to have been poisoned by them as the cause of his death in 1925.
Several things today have stimulated me to write this post, the second being that Meme above which was posted to my Facebook page by an Atheist friend.
She commented that she actually likes ‘this Pope’, and from this meme it is easy to see why he has impressed unbelievers, and Heretics/Protestants.
On face value…. in the ordinary sense as a Protestant Libertarian I’m impressed too by the simple fact that it is a far cry from the sort of Tyrannical dogma the world has come to expect from Pontiffs, and thus it appears such moderation is a good thing for peace and harmony between The Catholic church, and the rest of us.
Yet on another very important level these Liberal sentiments which appeal to my atheist friend betray some of the most important spiritual truths which are fundamental to understanding The Lord, which leads onto the central topic of my post… The seriousness of Sin.
This Meme is true…. using a yardstick of ‘comparative goodness’.
There are/have been…. comparatively speaking…. many Good atheists, and many Evil doers whom have called themselves followers of Christ.
Eg Dawkins may say with confidence to me “I’m holier than thou!”… and indeed this may be completely true.
I have done many wicked deeds to which Dawkins may have not even come close… I know not his secrets.
Yet ultimately this rationale is a deadly trap!
Why?
Because it is using *the wrong measure*.
The true measure of Goodness in this Universe is not out shining our peers… but is Absolute Holiness… of which we all fall short.
This True measure means *We all* need the Salvation of God which is in Christ.
By God’s perfect standard… “There is none righteous… no not one…”
“For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God”.
Thankfully God is Rich in mercy and has made away for us to be saved from the righteous judgement of our wicked deeds, yet which still satisfies the demands of Justice, and allows us ourselves the liberty to choose redemption or reject it.
“For God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
“…whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved…”
I have written on this train of thought before and you can read a more expanded veiw here>>> Hell is for the Self Righteous, Heaven is for Sinners.<<<
Of course it is a very peculiar thing for atheists to claim to be 'Good' given their world view denies the veracity of ethics!
This is a testament to the fact that many many atheists have not the Steel to countenance the depressing 'reality' of their own Amoral Cosmology.
The hardest, most real of them look at the chaos and misery which befalls humanity and say it is a testament to the truth of their assertions... "there can be no God in such a world"... there is no right or wrong... either in Earthquakes, or Rape, or genocide.... any such feelings of injustice have no objective reality... they are merely the pathetic wimpers of Soul-less machines who have no more intrinsic value... or rights... than the stardust of which they are composed.
Many simply believe you may as well Kill yourself... return to the painless meaningless nothing that you are.
These ideas are the subject of my first blog post in this series ‘How can a Good God exist when there is so much evil in the world? (part1) Atheist Nihilism.’… Click >>>Here<<< to read more.
Yet it is the less consistent portion of the Atheists whom I seek to call out tonight.
The ones who think their own moral virtues exonerate them from any possibility that even if they are wrong.... and it turns out that there is a god... that it is morally unthinkable that they might face damnation for their sins.
As mentioned earlier via the Self righteous Rationale that comparatively speaking, they deem themselves to be not morally inferior beings, but in fact far more moral, and enlightened, and tolerant, than the great horde of savages whom have flocked into churches over the millennia.
Having already pointed out the grievous error of such comparisons (first 1/2 doz paragraphs above), I would like to progress further into these disastrous rationalisms, and lay out some more Objective facts about sin, and atheist inconsistency.
Setting aside the fact that Atheism is fundamentally an Amoral world view, and that therefore atheists have no 'higher ground' upon which to stand to pass down condemnation upon God and his followers... we all know that this does not faze the bulk of them from proceeding to do precisely that!
Their hypocrisy goes much deeper.
With one breath they will play down the seriousness of their own moral short comings as 'trivial', yet with the next shake their fists at Heaven decrying the weightiness of the manifold evils of everyone else... and curse God for his inaction!
While they think nothing of their own blotches on creation, They boldly declare that no Good God would allow Hitler to rampage across Europe... as if their own existence could not be an affront to morality... yet Hitler's evils... they are God's fault!
God is a Bastard on Hitler's account... but not on theirs... they are better than God, they have the right to Judge God, they conciser themselves the innocent victims of God's Amoral inaction.
It matters not that all Hitler's actions stemmed from his atheistic world view.
They busy themselves trying to make out Hitler was a Christian!...(a topic for another time and an interesting psychological behaviour in itself).
Having said all that I may now get down to my main points…. Our personal culpability, and the seriousness of sin.
You see the reality of things is quite different from what these atheists assert… esp the idea that God does not give a toss about the evils of humanity.
God takes sin very very very seriously!
Way more seriously than all these self-righteous God hating atheists do!
Just because God has set up the world in such a way that we human beings have moral responsibility for our own actions… which means he has left us free to act with extreme goodness or extreme Evil *does not mean* he does not care, or intends evil doers to escape Scott free.
God has declared that in his time he will balance the scales and reward everyone their due.
Hitler has not escaped judgement by fleeing to Argentina!
So these notions that God does not care, are simply false.
He has good, valid, righteous reasons, for allowing Humanity to ‘act out their own vain imaginations.
That we are freewill moral agents living in a moral universe, means that our deeds have *moral weight*…. both for good, or ill… and when we do evil… innocent people suffer… that is what it means to live in a moral universe… It is in fact impossible to claim any goodness in a reality in which evil is impossible.
That is why Robots are amoral beings… whether they perform surgeries which save lives or slaughter thousands… they have no choice in their deeds.
The moral responsibility for the actions of Robots falls back on their free-will creators who made them, and so too would God be responsible for all Hitler’s evils… if Hitler was a robot… yet he was not a robot.
In all his deeds Hitler exercised his own freewill.
Thus it is absurd to blame God for Hitler’s deeds.
I have written more on this topic… ‘We are not Robots Ayn Rand. We are Moral Agents.’ Click >>Here<<
and another... 'Monism: Evolutionary Psychology and the Death of Morality, Reason and Freewill.' click >>>here<<<
So it is folly to suggest that Human evils are evidence against the existence or goodness of God.
When Adam sinned, God took that with such seriousness that he separated himself from Mankind, and condemned us all to death!
You see Adam's sin... had great moral weight.... affecting countless billions... though many will not be able to appreciate the mechanics of it... how what they see as a small act of disobedience by one man could bring such calamity upon posterity.
Yet that is how serious the consequences of Sin are!
They upset the entire hierarchy of reality... When Adam disobeyed God, not only did he loose faith in God's Good Character, he was dethroning God and establishing himself and his will above Gods!
a little leven leveneth the whole lump!
Humanity has been doing that ever since.
This is part of the reason why... the pragmatic portion... of why The Standard for Goodness is 100% Holiness... not comparative goodness... not a 'statistical mean/ scale of goodness'
The other portion is simply because God himself is Holy.
He sets the *Ideal Goodness*.
Yet God has sworn eternal Judgement upon sin!
Despite what the liberal Bible doubters say... there is a hell!
There is eternal damnation.
Yet everyone who ends up Damned, will be damned by their own Hatred of God, their pride, and rejection of God's mercy.
God has seen every act of evil we all have committed and is reserving his judgement.
Yet still God is loving, compassionate, and merciful.
We may say “It’s not fair that I was born into this cursed world!”… and indeed if we were born without hope… then this may in fact be a legitimate accusation against God’s character… yet he has not utterly abandoned us to Damnation, but instead immediately set in motion his plan to redeem us… and his modus opperandi reflects his absolute justice, The seriousness with which he condemns sin, and his love and mercy…. all displayed in the crucifixion of his sinless son Jesus Christ.
In Christ’s crucifixion we see God himself suffering a grotesque fate at the hands of evil men… he is not, nor has ever been completely insulated from the sufferings of evil himself.
That God deemed such a grotesque means was necessary for the payment for sin shows just how extremely seriously he takes sin to be, and how he will not allow his love to violate the principle of Justice… an eye for an eye… tooth for tooth…. The wages of sin is Death… Jesus took the full penalty of our sins upon himself.
He was not guilty of any sin himself and thus he was not subject to the penalty of death… for his own sins.
When Christ rose from the Dead, this was a testament to his victory over sin and death, and his resurrection altered the course of human history!
To receive Christ a person must appreciate the gravity of their own sins.
By it’s very nature the proud will reject the crucifixion as un-necessarily barbarous.
And the greatest sin anyone can commit is to *reject the sacrifice of Christ!*
For all their fuming against God, they prove they themselves dont take sin seriously… deeming themselves to be not guilty before God.
It is a hypocritical folly of the highest order.
Yes folks it is appointed unto us once to die and after this, the judgement!
At an appointed time the dead will stand before his judgement seat, and all whose names are not found
written in the book of life shall be cast into the lake of fire… with their Father Satan… to spend eternity where they chose to be…. separated from God.
The reality of hell is a clear demonstration of how weighty a matter God considers sin to be.
In the light of these facts we see the tables turned on the atheist… the reality is *they dont consider sin to be anywhere near as serious a matter as God does….for all their accusations… it is they themselves whom are found wanting in ‘the righteous indignation department’.
Yet millions of sinners like myself will enter paradise… not because we are more righteous than our atheist friends and family, but because we simply received the Gift of God… he placed our sin upon Christ, and clothed us in Christ’s holiness.
And we will see God face to face and sing God’s praises for eternity.
Amen.
Ditch your foolish pride my neighbours, my friends… my family!
get a grip that you are a creation of God… a Moral agent.
Choose Christ and join us in the love of our Holy Heavenly Father!
End note: I decided to tag this post onto the end of a series I started several years ago entitled ‘How can a Good God exist when there is so much evil in the world?’
I wrote those in fairly quick succession, so that there is to my mind a progression of thought.
I always meant to carry on with the series as there is no way that they can be considered to have exhausted such an important subject, yet because of procrastination I have fumbled the ball somewhat, and so this post may not fit very tidily.
That being said I think it is a topic worthy of inclusion and hopefully I shall not be so long in adding the next one.
The world’s most famous monastery is the one on Mt Sinai in modern Egypt – Saint Catherine’s. And its most famous resident and Abbot was undoubtedly Saint John Climacus, or John of the Ladder – named as such for his famous book The Ladder of Divine Ascent. This Sunday we celebrated his memory.
Climacus is one of the greatest minds the world has ever known, a sort of mediaeval Tony Robbins. The Ladder is the first, and maybe even the only, book you will ever need on living the Christian life. With it, he practically invented the “self help” book, and it to this day probably still remains the greatest “self help” book ever written. Much Christian thought and dialogue is based on the person of Christ and His acts, which is as it should be, but too little is expended on the human response – how should we live with this knowledge of Christ’s gospel – His nika – His victory? The Ladder, while primarily written for monks, provides us with answers in this regard, of how we unite ourselves to that victory, in a set of thirty “steps”, which Climacus likens to a “ladder” which we ascend to meet Christ. This is not, of course, “works based salvation”, but Orthodox synergia – a daily putting on of Christ and humbling ourselves. It is salvation viewed as a journey, not as a legal status, and it is a book that is realistic about human nature and the deceits that our brains run past us when we are striving to be more like Christ.
You can read, download, or print The Ladder of Divine Ascent here. Of course, the book is written for monastics, and ordinary people should not expect to work on the steps therein with the same vigour, but nonetheless there is plenty that can be applied to ordinary believers “in the world”. As John himself says: “To admire the labours of the saints is good; to emulate them wins salvation; but to wish suddenly to imitate their life in every point is unreasonable and impossible.”
PATRICK of IRELAND (390-461AD, 17th March)
Saint Patrick is probably familiar to most of us. Sold into slavery in Ireland, he managed to escape to France, before returning later on, this time as a Bishop and as a missionary.
Patrick, while not the first Christian missionary to visit Ireland, is definitely the most important. He founded many monastaries and converted many of the pagan Irish to Christ. The legend that he drove the snakes from Ireland probably refers to the pagan druids that many a village made redundant following Patrick’s preaching.
In the Orthodox Church, Patrick is known as the Enlightener of Ireland, and is commemorated as such. Far more than just some mythical man that liked shamrocks and green beer, he is a real Saint of the Church who did great things for Christ in Ireland.
While Christianity had officially been legalized in 313AD, the Eastern Emperor Licinius continued to cause trouble for Christians, most famously in Sebaste (in central modern Turkey) where he had forty of his soldiers stripped naked and frozen to death on a lake. The story goes that, while one of the soldiers acquiesced and renounced his faith, another soldier, on seeing this, confessed Christ, threw off his clothes, and joined the other 39 on the ice. While their bodies were burned the next day and the ashes scattered, Christians gathered as much of their relics as they were able.
The bravery of these forty men soon became renowned, and there are many churches now dedicated to them, including a chapel in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. They are even mentioned in the modern Orthodox wedding service as examples of how a couple must sacrifice for one another!
SYMEON the NEW THEOLOGIAN (949-1022AD, 12th March)
Symeon, a monastic of Constantinople in the Roman Empire, is one of only three Saints to be given the title “Theologian” by the Church (the others being the Apostle John, and Gregory Nazianzus, an Archbishop of Constantinople). A controversial figure whose unconventional ways as a monk and abbot often put him offside with his brethren, his major themes were the direct experience of God through the ascetic life (not academic knowledge or learning), God as Divine Light, and the importance for every Christian of having a spiritual father – a more senior figure to whom one could be accountable in one’s walk and seek guidance from.
Saint Symeon, more than any other Saint, is probably the embodiment of the “mystical East” in terms of what sets Orthodoxy apart. I am hoping to read some of his work and familiarize myself with him more in future.
GREGORY the GREAT (540-604AD, 12th March)
Gregory, along with Leo a century and a half earlier, is probably the most revered of all the canonical Roman Popes, presiding during a period when Rome had been reunited with the empire bearing its name. He is famous for sending the missionary Augustine of Canterbury to re-evangelise Britain after the settlement of English tribes there. He also is famous as a liturgist, having composed the bulk of what is now, in the Orthodox Church, the weekday lenten Eucharistic service (the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts). Gregorian chant is attributed to him. Ironically, given the nature of the modern papacy, he defended the equality of the Bishops against the Bishop of Constantinople, who had recently taken the title “Ecumenical”.
On a personal level, Gregory was renowned for his pious monastic way of life, and his generosity towards the poor. During his reign, the Byzantine holdings on the Italian peninsula began to shift more and more under Papal, rather than imperial command, spurred by necessity from Lombard incursion and a lack of leadership from the East.
George/Giwargis of Lydda is without doubt one of the most beloved and venerated of all Christian Saints, almost inexplicably so. Much of this may come from his career as a soldier, rising through the ranks of the Roman army at a young age to become a Tribune, one of the six officers who commanded a Roman legion. He was a man of great power, valour and standing, which meant that, when the Emperor Diocletian ordered his armies to clamp down on Christians throughout the Empire, George’s refusal, protest, and public declaration of loyalty to Christ before the Emperor was unprecedented. Diocletian, shocked by this impudence, had George tortured, then decapitated outside the walls of Nicomedia.
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is the first Bishop of the Orthodox Church, or at least has been so since the apostasy of the Bishops of Rome (the Popes) in the 11th Century. Gregory V had the dreadful misfortune to be the Patriarch during the Greek uprising which was to result in the formation of an independent Greek state. In retaliation for this, the Sultan decided to execute Gregory, despite the fact that he had, in an effort to protect the Christians in his See, denounced the uprising. He was seized upon immediately after serving the Easter/Pascha liturgy, taken out to Saint Peter’s gate at the Phanar (the Patriarchal compound), and after the age-old enjoinder to save his life by declaring Mohammed the Prophet of God, and the inevitable refusal, he was hanged there for two days.
