The most powerful, influential and numerous of all the main ones that exist today, ahead of Buddhism and Islam, is Christianity. The essence of religion, which breaks up into the so-called churches (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and others), as well as many sects, is the veneration and worship of one divine being, in other words, the God-man, whose name is Jesus Christ. Christians believe that he is the true son of God, is the Messiah, that he was sent down to Earth for the salvation of the world and all mankind.

The religion of Christianity was born in distant Palestine in the first century AD. e. Already in the first years of its existence, it had many adherents. The main reason for the emergence of Christianity, according to the clergy, was the preaching activity of a certain Jesus Christ, who, being essentially a demigod-half-man, came to us in human form in order to bring the truth to people, and even scientists do not actually deny his existence. Four sacred books, called the Gospels, are written about the first coming of Christ (the second Christendom is only awaiting). the glorious city of Bethlehem, about how he grew up, how he began to preach.

The main ideas of his new religious teaching were the following: the belief that he, Jesus, is indeed the Messiah, that he is the son of God, that there will be his second coming, there will be the end of the world and the resurrection from the dead. With his sermons, he called to love neighbors and help those in need. His divine origin was proved by the miracles with which he accompanied his teachings. Many sick people were healed by his word or touch, three times he raised the dead, walked on water, turned it into wine and fed about five thousand people with just two fish and five cakes.

He expelled all merchants from the Jerusalem temple, thus showing that dishonorable people have no place in holy and noble deeds. Then there was the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, the accusation of deliberate blasphemy and brazen encroachment on the royal throne and the death sentence. He died, being crucified on the cross, taking upon himself the torment for all human sins. Three days later, Jesus Christ resurrected and then ascended to heaven. Christianity says the following about religion: there are two places, two special spaces that are inaccessible to people during earthly life. and paradise. Hell is a place of terrible torment, located somewhere in the bowels of the earth, and paradise is a place of universal bliss, and only God himself will decide who to send where.

The religion of Christianity is based on several dogmas. The first is what the Second is - it is trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). The birth of Jesus happened at the instigation of the Holy Spirit, God incarnated in the Virgin Mary. Jesus was crucified and then died, atoning for people's sins, after which he was resurrected. At the end of time, Christ will come to judge the world, and the dead will rise. Divine and human nature are inextricably linked in the image of Jesus Christ.

All religions of the world have certain canons and commandments, but Christianity preaches to love God with all your heart, and also to love your neighbor as yourself. If you don't love your neighbor, you won't be able to love God.

The religion of Christianity has its adherents in almost every country, half of all Christians are concentrated in Europe, including Russia, one quarter - in North America, one sixth - in South, and significantly fewer believers in Africa, Australia and

Since man became intelligent, he began to look for answers to questions about who created everything that exists, about the meaning of his life, and whether he is alone in the Universe. Unable to find an answer, the people of antiquity invented gods, each of which was in charge of his own part of life. Someone was responsible for the creation of the Earth and Sky, the seas were subordinate to someone, someone was the main one in the underworld.

With the knowledge of the surrounding world, the gods became more and more, but people did not find an answer to the question about the meaning of life. Therefore, many old gods were replaced by one God the Father.

Concept of God

Before Christianity appeared, people lived for several thousand years with faith in the Creator, who created everything that surrounds them. It was not a single god, since the consciousness of the people of antiquity could not accept that everything that exists is the creation of one creator. Therefore, in every civilization, regardless of when and on what continent it was born, there was God the Father, who had assistants - his children and grandchildren.

In those days, it was customary to humanize the gods, "rewarding" them with character traits characteristic of people. So it was easier to explain natural phenomena and events that took place in the world. A significant difference and a clear advantage of the ancient pagan faith was that God manifests himself in the surrounding nature, in connection with which she was worshiped. At that time, man considered himself one of the many creations created by the gods. In many religions, there was a principle of assigning the earthly incarnations of the gods of the form of animals or birds.

For example, in ancient Egypt, Anubis was depicted as a man with a jackal's head, and Ra as a falcon's head. In India, the gods were given images of animals living in this country, for example, Ganesha was depicted as an elephant. All religions of antiquity had one feature: regardless of the number of gods and the difference in their names, they were created by the Creator, standing above all, being the beginning of everything and having no end.

The concept of one God

The fact that there is one God the Father was known long before the birth of Christ. For example, in the Indian "Upanishads", created in 1500 BC. e., it is said that in the beginning there was nothing but the Great Brahman.

The Yoruba people living in West Africa say that in the beginning everything was water Chaos, which Olorun turned into Earth and Heaven, and on the 5th day he created people, fashioning them from the earth.

If we turn to the origins of all ancient cultures, then in each of them there is an image of God the Father, who created everything that exists together with man. So in this concept, Christianity would not give anything to the new world, if it were not for one significant difference - God is one, and there are no other gods besides him.

To strengthen this knowledge in the minds of people who professed faith in many gods from generation to generation was a difficult matter, perhaps that is why in Christianity the Creator has a triune hypostasis: God the Father, and God the Son (his Word), and his Mouth).

“The Father is the original cause of everything that exists” and “The heavens were created by the Word of the Lord, and all their strength is by the Spirit of His mouth” (Ps. 32:6), - this is what the Christian religion claims.

Religion

Religion is a form of thinking based on belief in the supernatural, having a set of rules that determine the norm of human behavior and rituals inherent in it, helping to comprehend the world.

Regardless of the historical period and its inherent religion, there are organizations that unite people of the same faith. In ancient times, these were temples with priests, in our time - churches with priests.

Religion implies the existence of a subjective-personal perception of the world, that is, a personal faith and an objectively common one, uniting people of one faith in a confession. Christianity is a religion consisting of three denominations: Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism.

God the Father in Christianity, regardless of denomination, is the only creator of all things, Light and Love, who created people in his own image and likeness. The Christian religion reveals to believers the knowledge of one God, recorded in holy texts. Each denomination is represented by its clergy, and the unifying organizations are churches and temples.

before Christmas

The history of this religion is closely connected with the Jewish people, the founder of which is the chosen one of God - Abraham. The choice fell on this Aramean for a reason, since he independently came to the knowledge that the idols worshiped by his entourage had nothing to do with holiness.

Through reflection and observation, Abraham realized that there is a true and only God the Father, who created everything both on earth and in heaven. He found like-minded people who followed him from Babylon and became the chosen people, called Israel. Thus, an eternal contract was concluded between the Creator and people, the violation of which entailed punishment for the Jews in the form of persecution and wandering.

One by the 1st century AD was an exception, since most of the peoples of that time were pagans. The Jewish holy books about the creation of the world spoke of the Word, with the help of which the Creator created everything, and that the Messiah would come and save the chosen people from persecution.

History of Christianity with the advent of the Messiah

Christianity was born in the 1st century AD. e. in Palestine, which at that time was under the rule of the Romans. Another connection with the people of Israel is the upbringing that Jesus Christ received as a child. He lived according to the laws of the Torah and observed all Jewish holidays.

According to Christian scriptures, Jesus is the incarnation of the Word of the Lord in a human body. He was conceived immaculately in order to enter the world of people without sin, and after that God the Father revealed himself through him. Jesus Christ was called the consubstantial son of God, who came to atone for human sins.

The most important dogma of the Christian Church is the posthumous resurrection of Christ and his subsequent ascension to heaven.

This was predicted by numerous Jewish prophets many centuries before the birth of the Messiah. The resurrection of Jesus after death is a confirmation of the promise of eternal life and the incorruptibility of the human soul, which God the Father gave to people. In Christianity, his son has many names in holy texts:

• Alpha and Omega - means that he was the beginning of all things and is his end.
• Light of the world - means that he is the same Light that comes from his Father.
• Resurrection and life, which should be understood as salvation and eternal life for those who profess the true faith.

Many names were given to Jesus both by the prophets and by his disciples and the people around him. All of them corresponded either to his deeds or the mission for which he ended up in a human body.

Development of Christianity after the execution of the Messiah

After Jesus was crucified, his disciples and adherents began to spread the teaching about him, at first in Palestine, but as the number of believers increased, they went far beyond its borders.

The very concept of "Christian" began to be used 20 years after the death of the Messiah and came from the inhabitants of Antioch, who so called the followers of Christ. Jesus played a big role in spreading the teachings. It was his sermons that led numerous adherents to the new faith from the pagan peoples.

If before the 5th century A.D. e. the acts and teachings of the apostles and their disciples spread within the borders of the Roman Empire, then they went further - to the Germanic, Slavic and other peoples.

Prayer

Appealing to the gods with requests is a ritual characteristic of believers at all times and regardless of religion.

One of the significant deeds of Christ during his lifetime was that he taught people how to pray correctly, and revealed the secret that the Creator is triune and represents the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - the essence of God is one and indivisible. Due to the limited consciousness, people, although they talk about one God, still divide it into 3 separate personalities, as their prayers speak about. There are those who are turned only to God the Father, there are those who are turned to God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Prayer to God the Father "Our Father" sounds like a request directed directly to the Creator. By this, people, as it were, singled out its originality and significance in the Trinity. However, even manifesting in three persons, God is one, and this must be recognized and accepted.

Orthodoxy is the only Christian denomination that has preserved the faith and teachings of Christ unchanged. This also applies to turning to the Creator. Prayer to the Lord God the Father in Orthodoxy speaks of the Trinity as its only hypostasis: “I confess to You the Lord my God and Creator, in the One, glorified and worshiped Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all my sins ... ".

Holy Spirit

The concept of the Holy Spirit is not often encountered, but the attitude towards it is completely different. In Judaism, he is considered the "breath" of God, and in Christianity - one of his indivisible three hypostases. Thanks to him, the Creator created everything that exists and communicates with people.

The concept of the nature and origin of the Holy Spirit was considered and adopted at one of the councils in the 4th century, but long before that, Clement of Rome (1st century) combined all 3 hypostases into a single whole: “God lives, and Jesus Christ lives, and the Holy Spirit the faith and hope of the elect." So God the Father in Christianity officially found the trinity.

It is through him that the Creator acts in man and in the Temple, and in the days of creation he actively participated in them, helping to create the worlds visible and invisible: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.

Names of God

As paganism was replaced by a religion that glorified the one God, people began to be interested in the name of the Creator in order to be able to address him in prayer.

Based on the information given in the Bible, God personally gave his name to Moses, who wrote it down in Hebrew. Due to the fact that this language later became dead, and only consonants were written in the names, it is not known exactly how the name of the Creator is pronounced.

The four consonants YHVH stand for the name of God the Father and are the verb form ha-vah, meaning "become." In different translations of the Bible, different vowels are substituted for these consonants, which gives completely different meanings.

In some sources, he is mentioned as the Almighty, in others - Yahweh, in the third - Hosts, and in the fourth - Jehovah. All names denote the Creator who created all the worlds, but at the same time they have different meanings. For example, Sabaoth means "Lord of Hosts", although he is not a god of war.

Disputes about the name of the Heavenly Father are still ongoing, but most theologians and linguists are inclined to believe that the correct pronunciation sounds like Yahweh.

Yahweh

This name literally means "Lord" and also "to be". In some sources, Yahweh is associated with the concept of "God Almighty."

In Christianity, either this name is used, or it is replaced by the word "Lord."

God in Christianity today

Christ and God the Father, as well as the Holy Spirit in the modern Christian religion are the basis of the trinity of the indivisible Creator. More than 2 billion people are adherents of this faith, which makes it the most widespread in the world.

God— Creator of the universe, our Heavenly Father. God is the purest and most perfect, higher and more perfect than whom there is and cannot be anyone and nothing.

Holiness

The holiness of God () is expressed in the fact that God is absolutely alien to any evil, always remains in moral purity, acts on the basis of perfect motives for Good, approves in rational creatures that which corresponds to His commandments and law and condemns that which is contrary to Good .

goodness

The goodness of God () is such an essential property, according to which God Himself in Himself is infinite Good, desires and gives to all His creatures as much good as each can perceive in accordance with natural and individual abilities.

In relation to different cases and circumstances, the goodness of God is denoted by special names: generosity, mercy, forgiveness, sanctification, etc.

Righteousness

The righteousness of God () consists in the fact that God Himself always acts within the framework of Good, and requires rational creatures to fulfill the moral law; does not impartially evaluate their thoughts, intentions and actions, rewards each according to their deeds.

Properties of feelings (sensations) of God

Love

Divine love is manifested in the eternal boundless love of the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity for themselves and for each other; in love for all creatures (even sinners). In addition, God, as the God of Love, God-Love (), promotes the manifestation of love in those of His creatures who have the ability to love.

Omnibliss

The all-bliss of God consists in the fact that, being infinite, all-perfect, God does not lack anything, has never experienced and does not experience feelings of inner dissatisfaction; constantly abides in a state of boundless inner joy, happiness, contentment ().

According to the definition given by the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, God is love. But God is love not because He loves the world and humanity, that is, His creation—then God would not be completely Himself outside and apart from the act of creation, would not have perfect being in Himself, and the act of creation would not be free, but compelled by the very "nature" of God. According to the Christian understanding, God is love in Himself, because the existence of the One God is an event of the Divine, who are among themselves in the “eternal movement of love”, according to the theologian of the 7th century venerable.

“In () the Lord reveals His name as “Existing” - in Slavonic “Sy”. Here is how St. (This quote appears in two words St. Gregory, 38 and 45): “He (God) calls Himself by this name, talking with Moses on the mountain, because He concentrates in Himself the whole being, which has not begun and will not stop.” From these words we conclude that God, firstly, is a Person and, secondly, contains in Himself the boundless fullness of being.
(Dogmatic Theology. Course of lectures)

“Remember God so that He always remembers you.”
St.

Our God is incorporeal and immaterial, and therefore the Spirit is the purest. This is how Holy Scripture testifies of Him: “God is a Spirit” (). If Holy Scripture ascribes the members of the body, then it does not ascribe to Him proper, but out of condescension to the weakness and weakness of our understanding, since we cannot otherwise understand His actions, the manifestations of His power. Thus, the hands attributed to Him signify His almighty power, the eyes are His all-seeing, the ears are the hearing of everything, since neither word, nor deed, nor our heart’s thoughts are hidden from Him - both of all people, and of every person: what he did He spoke, thought, and for what purpose he did it, and what he does, says and thinks, and for what purpose, and what he will do, say, think, and for what purpose everything is completely clear to Him. He does not have hands, but he creates everything he wants with a single desire and wave. It does not have eyes, but everything that is created both in secret places and in the depths of the heart observes and sees; has no ears, but hears every word, voice, singing, good and bad.
The Word of God reveals to us God consubstantial, but Trinitarian, incomprehensible, and therefore there is no need to test Him. The Word of God reveals Him to be omnipotent, and therefore one must seek help from Him alone. The Word of God reveals Him to provide for everything, and therefore we must rely on Him. The Word of God reveals Him to be unfalse, and therefore one must unquestionably believe Him. The Word of God reveals Him to be righteous and rewarding each according to his deeds, and therefore we must fear Him. The Word of God makes Him great, and therefore we must humble ourselves before Him. The Word of God reveals Him to be omnipresent and watching all our deeds, words and thoughts, and therefore we must walk before Him with all fear and caution and do, and speak, and think what is pleasing to His will. The Word of God reveals Him to be very good, and therefore one must love Him. The Word of God reveals Him to be merciful to repentant sinners, and therefore one must come to Him with repentance and regret. The Word of God reveals Him to those who are coming to judge the living and the dead, and therefore we must prepare for His judgment.
saint

Lord, our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! You, who do not have an image, but the most beautiful for contemplation, Darkening every vision with Your inexplicable beauty! You are more beautiful than sight can perceive, for You transcend everything, immeasurable in properties, visible to those whom You allow to see, the Essence of the eternal, unknown even to the Angels, for they know Your being from You. After all, You called Yourself the Existing One (), this is what we call the Essence, the hypostasis, out-of-place calling Him Whom no one has ever seen, the Trinitarian God, the one beginningless Beginning. Otherwise, how dare we call You the Essence or glorify in You three separate hypostases? And what is the connection, who will completely comprehend it? For if the Father is in You, and You are in Your Father, and from Him proceed Your Holy Spirit, and You Yourself, O Lord, and Your Spirit, and the Spirit is called the Lord and my God, and Your Father is a Spirit and is called Spirit, then no one I have never seen angels, nor have I contemplated this, nor have I known it. And how do you say it? How to express? How dare you call it a division or a union, a fusion or a mixture, or a dissolution? How can one (call) three and triune? Therefore, Master, on the basis of what You have said and what You have taught, every faithful believer and glorify Your power, since everything in You is perfect, incomprehensible, unknown and inexpressible for Your creatures. For Your existence is already incomprehensible, since You exist uncreated, just as You gave birth (uncreated). And how will the creature understand your image of being, or the birth of your Son, God and Word, or the procession of your Divine Spirit? So that he may know your union and understand and study your division? No one has yet seen any of what I said...
But You Yourself in Yourself exist as one God the Trinity. One, knowing Yourself, Your Son, and the Spirit, and known by Them alone, as co-natural. Others see, as it were, the rays of the sun penetrating into the house, and then, if they have good eyesight, they do not see this sun at all. Thus, with a purified mind, the light of Your Glory and Your illuminations are seen by those who seek You with all their hearts. What are you in essence, and how did you give birth once or forever give birth and do not separate from the One who is born from you, but He is all in You, filling everything with Divinity? But you, Father, abide entirely in the Son Himself and have the Divine Spirit proceeding from You, omniscient and fulfilling everything, as God in essence and He does not separate from You, for He flows from You. You are the source of good things, and every good thing is Your Son, through the Spirit giving to both Angels and people worthy, merciful and philanthropic. No one, neither of the angels, nor of the people has ever seen or known Your existence, for You are uncreated. You created everything, and how can what You created know how You bring forth Your Son and how You always exude? And how does Your Divine Spirit proceed from You? And You do not ever give birth, having given birth, of course, once. But exuding - You did not suffer impoverishment or diminution, for You remain full, not depleted, above all, filling the world, visible and conceivable, and at the same time you are outside of vision and thinking. My God, completely allowing no increase or decrease, always remaining immovable, with Your manifestations - You are in eternal motion. For you too, Father, are unceasingly active, and your Son contributes to the salvation of all and by His providence perfects, sustains, nourishes, gives life and regenerates by the Holy Spirit. For just as the Son sees the Father working, so He Himself creates, as He said (

Religion can only be called a worldview in which there is the thought of God, the idea of ​​God, the recognition of God, faith in God. Without this, there is no religion. We can call such a faith whatever we like: shamanism, fetishism, astrology, magic... But this is no longer a religion, this is a pseudo-religion, a degeneration of religion. Today I would like to talk with you on a fundamental issue for any religion, of course, for Christianity as well - the doctrine of God.

The question of God is not simple. You will have to hear more than once: “Here you are, Christians, talking to us about God, proving that He exists. And Who is He? Who are you talking about when you say the word "God"? This is what we'll talk about today.

I will start from afar, do not be surprised and be patient for a minute. Plato, a student of Socrates, has this idea: the first principles (simple things that do not have any complexity) cannot be defined. They are impossible to describe. Indeed, we can define complex things through simple ones. And simple through what? If a person has never seen green, how do we explain to him what it is? There is only one thing left - to offer: "Look." It is impossible to tell what the green color is. Father Pavel Florensky once asked his cook, the most simple, uneducated woman: "What is the sun?" Tempted her. She looked at him in bewilderment: "The sun? Well, look what the sun is." He was very pleased with this answer. Indeed, there are things that cannot be explained, they can only be seen.

To the question "Who is God?" have to answer like this. Christianity says that God is about standing Being, the simplest of all that is. It is easier than the sun. He is not a reality that we can reason about and through this understand and know it. It can only be "seen". Only by "looking" at Him, to know Who He is. You do not know what the sun is - look; you don't know what God is, look. How? - "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matt. 5; 8). I repeat, not all things lend themselves to verbal description, definition. We cannot explain to the blind what light is, and to the deaf what sound is Up to the third octave or Re of the first. Of course, there are any number of things that we talk about and explain them clearly enough. But there are quite a few that go beyond the boundaries of conceptual expression. They can only be known through direct and denie.

Do you know what was called theology in pre-Christian Greco-Roman literature and who was called a theologian? Under theology meant stories about the gods, their adventures, deeds. And the authors of these stories were called theologians: Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus. (What we find from them, I will not say.) Here you have theology and theologians. Of course, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and other ancient philosophers have interesting ideas about God, but these ideas were not popular.

What is called theology in Christianity? The term "theology" is the Russian translation of the Greek word "theology". In my opinion, a very unsuccessful translation, because the second part of the word "theology" - "logos" has about 100 meanings (the first - Theos, or Theos, everyone understands - God). The ancient Greek-Russian dictionary by I. Dvoretsky contains 34 nests of meanings for the word "logos". Each nest has several more values. But if we talk about the basic religious and philosophical meaning of this concept, then most likely, I believe, it corresponds to "knowledge", "knowledge", "in and The translators took the most commonly used meaning - "word", and translated theology with such an indefinite concept as theology. But in essence, theology should be translated as theology, the knowledge of God, the knowledge of God. what the pagans thought about - not words and reasoning about God, but a special, spiritual experience of direct experience, comprehension of God by a pure, holy person.

The Monk John of the Ladder very accurately and succinctly formulated this idea: "The perfection of purity is the beginning of theology." Other fathers called it feoriya, i.e. contemplation, which takes place in a state of special silence - hesychia (hence hesychasm). St. Barsanuphius the Great said beautifully about this silence: "Silence is better and more amazing than all the stories. Our fathers kissed it and worshiped it, and they were glorified by it." You see how ancient, patristic Christianity speaks, or rather, spoke about theology. It is the comprehension of God, which is realized only through a correct Christian life. In theological science, this is called the method of spiritually-experiential knowledge of God, it gives the Christian the opportunity to truly comprehend Him and through this - to understand the true meaning of His Revelation given in Holy Scripture.

There are two other methods in theological science, and although they are purely rational, they also have a certain value for the correct understanding of God. These are apophatic (negative) and cataphatic (positive) methods.

You must have heard of them. The apophatic method proceeds from the unconditional truth about the fundamental difference between God and everything created and, therefore, His incomprehensibility and inexpressibility by human concepts. This method essentially forbids saying anything about God, since any human word about Him would be false. To understand why this is so, pay attention to where all our concepts and words come from, how are they formed? That's how. We see something, hear, touch, etc. and name it accordingly. They saw and called. They discovered a planet and named it Pluto, they discovered a particle and gave it the name neutron. There are specific concepts, there are general ones, there are abstract ones, there are categories. Let's not talk about it now. This is how the language grows and develops. And since we communicate with each other and convey these names and concepts, we understand each other. We say: a table, and we all understand what is at stake, since all these concepts are formed on the basis of our collective earthly experience. But all of them very, very incompletely, imperfectly describe real things, give only the most general idea of ​​the subject. Heisenberg, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, rightly wrote: "The meanings of all concepts and words, formed through the interaction between the world and ourselves, cannot be precisely determined ... Therefore, by means of only rational thinking one can never come to absolute truth" ( Heisenberg W. Physics and Philosophy. - M., 1963. - S. 67).

It is interesting to compare this thought of a modern scientist and thinker with the statement of a Christian ascetic, who lived a millennium before Heisenberg and did not know any quantum mechanics, the Reverend Simeon the New Theologian. Here is what he says: “I ... mourned the human race, because looking for extraordinary evidence, people bring human concepts, and things, and words, and think that they depict the Divine nature, that nature, which none of the angels, nor of people could neither see nor name" (St. Simeon the New Theologian. Divine Hymns. Sergiev Posad, 1917, p. 272). See what all our words mean. If they are imperfect even in relation to earthly things, then they are all the more conditional when they relate to the realities of the spiritual world, to God.

Now you understand why the apophatic method is right - because, I repeat, no matter what words we use to define God, all these definitions will be wrong. They are limited, they are earthly, they are taken from our earthly experience. And God is above all creation. Therefore, if we tried to be absolutely precise and settled on the apophatic method of cognition, we would simply have to shut up. But what would faith, religion then turn into? How could we preach and generally talk about true religion or false. After all, the essence of every religion is the doctrine of God. And if we could not say anything about Him, we would cross out not only religion, but also the very possibility of understanding the meaning of human life.

However, there is another approach to the doctrine of God. It is, although formally incorrect, in reality just as correct, if not more so, than apophatic. We are talking about the so-called. cataphatic method. This method states: we must talk about God. And they must because this or that understanding of God fundamentally determines human thought, human life and activity. Think, there is a difference between the following statements: I can't say anything about God; I say that God is Love; I say that He is hatred? Of course, there is a great difference, because every indication of the properties of God is a guide, a direction, a norm of our human life.

Even the apostle Paul writes about the pagans that everything that can be known about God, they could know through the examination of the surrounding world. We are talking about some of the properties of God, about how you perceive some of the actions of God, this simple Being. And we call it the attributes of God. His wisdom, His goodness, His mercy, and so on. These are only individual manifestations of the Divine, which we can observe on ourselves and on the world around us. God is a simple being.

Therefore, although all our words are inaccurate, incomplete and imperfect, nevertheless, Divine Revelation for our teaching says quite definitely that God is Love, and not hatred, Good, and not evil, Beauty, and not ugliness ... Christianity says : "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). It turns out that the doctrine of God-Love is not some kind of uncertainty, an abstraction, no, it is the very essence of human life, He is a really existing Ideal. Therefore, "he who does not love his brother abides in death"; therefore "everyone who hates his brother is a murderer"; therefore "no murderer has eternal life abiding in him" (1 John 3:14,15). In other words, know, man, if you have hostility towards at least one person, you are deluded and bring yourself evil, suffering. Think about what a great criterion is given to a person by a positive teaching about God, His properties. According to him, I can evaluate myself, my behavior, my actions. I know the great truth: what is good and what is evil, and, consequently, what will bring me joy, happiness, and what will insidiously destroy me. Is there anything greater and greater for man?! This is the strength and significance of the cataphatic method.

Do you understand now why there is a Revelation of God, which is given in human concepts, images, parables, why Does He, inexplicable and indescribable, speak to us about Himself in our harsh words? If He had spoken to us in angelic language, we would not have understood anything. It's the same as if someone would come in and speak to us in Sanskrit. We would open our mouths in bewilderment, although it is very possible that he would tell the greatest truths - we would still remain in complete ignorance.

So how does Christianity teach about God? On the one hand, it says that God is a Spirit and, as a simple Being, cannot be expressed by any human words and concepts, for any word is, if you like, a distortion. On the other hand, we are facing the fact of the Revelation of God given to us in Holy Scripture and the experience of many saints. That is, God speaks about Himself to a person in his language, and although these words are imperfect and incomplete in themselves, they are necessary for a person, since they indicate to him what he must do in order to come, at least in part, to saving knowledge. , in and deniya of God. And that the knowledge of God is partly possible, the Apostle writes about this: “Now we see, as it were, through a dim glass, guessingly, then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know, just as I am known” (1 Cor. 13: 12). And the Lord Himself says: "And this is eternal life, know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3). Earthly life is the beginning of this eternal life.

God the Lord condescends to our limited understanding and expresses the truth to us in our words. I think when we die and free ourselves from this "conceptual" language, we will look with a smile at our ideas about God, the spiritual world, angels, eternity... that we had, even when reading Revelation. Then, on the one hand, we will understand all the squalor of our ideas, on the other hand, we will see how good this hidden Revelation of God about Himself, about man, about the world was for us, for it showed us the path, means and direction of a saving life. That is, all this is directly related to the spiritual life of a Christian. We are all filled with passions, we are all proud, we are all proud, but there is a huge difference between people. Which? One sees it in himself and fights with himself, while the other does not see and does not want to see. It turns out that the positive (kataphatic) teaching about God gives a person the right criteria, a measure by which he can correctly evaluate himself if he really wants to be a believer. Of course, he can also hate his brother, calling himself a believer, but then, if his conscience is not yet completely burned and his mind is not completely darkened, he can understand what a demonic state he is in.

You know, there are natural and supernatural religions. Natural religions are nothing but the expression in images and concepts, myths and legends of the direct, natural human feeling of God. Therefore, such representations are always either primitively anthropomorphic or intellectually abstract. Here are all kinds of images of the gods, filled with all human passions and virtues, here is the divine Nothing, here is the idea of ​​the Platonic Demiurge and the Aristotelian Prime Mover, etc. But all the truths of these religions and religious-philosophical ideas have a pronounced human origin. Supernatural religions are different in that God Himself makes Himself known who He is. And we see what an amazing difference there is between the Christian understanding of God and that which is outside of it. At first glance, both here and there are the same or similar words, but the content of these religions is essentially different from each other. How strikingly this difference was beautifully expressed by the apostle Paul when he said: "But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, but folly to the Greeks" (1 Cor. 1:23). Really, all specifically Christian truths are fundamentally different from all former analogues before them. This is not only Christ crucified, but also the doctrine of the Triune God, the Logos and His Incarnation, the Resurrection, Salvation, etc. But this should be discussed separately. Let's talk about one of these truths now. There is another unique truth in the Christian doctrine of God, which decisively distinguishes Christianity from all other religions, including even the religion of the Old Testament. We will not find anywhere except Christianity that God is Love and only Love.

Outside of Christianity, we will meet any ideas about God. At the same time, His highest understanding, to which certain religions and some ancient philosophers came, was reduced to the doctrine of a just Judge, the highest Truth, the most perfect Reason. The fact that God is Love, no one knew before Christ. Here is an example. Our Church has a commission for dialogue with the Muslims of Iran. At the meeting last summer, the question of the highest virtue and the highest attribute of God was raised. And it was interesting to hear when Muslim theologians, one after another, said that such a property is justice. We answered: “If so, then the computer is the fairest. And don’t you turn to Allah: “Oh, all-merciful and merciful!” They say: “Yes, merciful, but the Judge. He judges fairly, and his mercy is manifested in this. "Why did the non-Christian consciousness (even though it even called itself Christian) not know and does not know that God is precisely Love and nothing more? Because we, people, have distorted the very concept of love. In human language, love means: forgiveness, the absence of punishment, that is, freedom to arbitrariness. Do what you want, that's what humanly means "love". We forgive everything to a friend, but to someone who is unpleasant to us, we cling to We have perverted the concept of love, while Christianity returns us to its true understanding.

What is Christian love? "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Love is sacrifice. But sacrifice is not blind. See how Christ reacted to evil: "Snakes, offspring of vipers." He takes a whip and drives him out of the temple, overturns the benches of those selling in it. I remember one episode from the book of Archbishop Alexander Tien Shan when he was 14-15 years old. He wrote: I took some book and began to examine in it a picture in which horses mated. And suddenly my mother saw it. I have never seen her so angry. She was always very gentle and kind, but here she indignantly snatched this book out of my hands. It was the wrath of love, which I remember with gratitude all my life."

People do not know what the wrath of love is, and by love they understand only concessions. Therefore, if God is Love, then, therefore, do what you want. From this it becomes clear why justice has always been considered and is considered the highest virtue. We see how even in the history of Christianity this highest teaching was gradually belittled and distorted.

The Christian teaching about God-Love was deeply accepted and revealed by the holy fathers. However, this understanding turns out to be psychologically inaccessible to the old man. The clearest example is the Catholic doctrine of salvation. It comes down, according to the true words of A. S. Khomyakov, to a continuous litigation between God and man. What are these relationships? Relationships of love? No, court. If you have committed a sin, bring the appropriate satisfaction to the justice of God, for by sin you have offended the Divine. They do not even understand that God cannot be offended, because otherwise He turns out not to be all-blessed, but the most suffering Being. If God is continually offended by human sins, continually trembles with anger at sinners, then what an all-blissfulness, what love! This is the judge. Hence, a proud doctrine was invented about the merits and even the overdue merits of a person, which he supposedly can have before God. Hence the doctrine of the Sacrifice of Christ as the satisfaction of God's justice, the doctrine of purgatory, hence indulgences. All Catholic teaching comes down to the Old Testament doctrine: "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." It all stems directly from a deeply distorted understanding of God.

Well, if God is Love, then how can we understand this Love? Are there human sorrows? Yes. Is there no recompense for human sins? It happens, and what else. We can always see this from personal experience and the experience of others. And the Holy Scripture itself speaks of retribution, and the holy fathers. What, then, does all this mean if not that God is Justice? It turns out not. When the facts of human calamities and suffering are assessed as God's punishment, that is, as God's revenge for sins, then they make a big mistake. Who punishes the drug addict, who punishes the one who jumps out from the second, from the third floor and breaks his arms and legs? Who punishes the drunk? Is it the revenge of God that he becomes broken, maimed, sick physically and mentally? Of course not. These sufferings are the natural consequences of violating the laws of the external world. Exactly the same thing happens to a person when he violates spiritual laws, which are primary and even more significant in our life than the laws of physical, biological, mental, etc. And what does God do? All the commandments of God are a revelation of spiritual laws and, in a way, the same warning to man as the laws of the material world. If you want, you can even say this, God implores us, people: do not harm yourself, do not sin, do not jump from the fifth floor, go down the stairs; do not envy, do not steal, do not be cunning, do not ... - you cripple yourself with this, for every sin carries a punishment.

I remember, as a child, one winter, my mother told me that in the cold you can’t touch the iron door handle with your tongue. As soon as my mother turned away, I immediately licked her and there was a great cry. But I remember that incident well, and since then, you can imagine, I have never repeated this “sin” again. So I understood what the commandments of God are and that God is exactly Love, even when it hurts a lot. It was not my mother who punished me, it was not she who stuck my tongue to the iron handle, but I did not want to recognize the laws and was punished. God punishes us the same way. Our sorrows are not the revenge of God. God remains Love and therefore warns us in advance, says, implores: "Do not act like this, for this will certainly be followed by your sufferings, your sorrows."

But the idea that God avenges, punishes, is a widespread and deeply rooted delusion. And a false idea generates corresponding consequences. How many times, I think, you have heard people resent... God. They rebel against God: "What, am I the most sinful? Why did God punish me?" Either children are born bad, or something burned out, or things go wrong. One can only hear: "What, am I the most sinful? Here they are worse than me, and they prosper." They come to blasphemy, to cursing, to the rejection of God. Where does all this come from? From the perverse, pagan-Jewish understanding of God. They cannot understand and accept that He does not take revenge on anyone, that He is the greatest Physician, Who is always ready to help everyone who sincerely recognizes his sins and brings heartfelt repentance. He is above our insults. Remember, there are wonderful words in the Apocalypse: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and I will dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3: 20).

Let us now listen to what the Holy Scriptures say about God-Love:

He commands His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45).

For He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked (Luke 4:39).

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

In temptation no one say: God is tempting me; because God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But everyone is tempted, carried away and deceived by his own lust (James 1: 13-14).

That you...may...understand the love of Christ that transcends understanding, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:18-19).

How do the holy fathers look at this question? We will find in them (as well as in Holy Scripture) many sayings that directly speak of God's punishments for sins. But what do these punishments mean, what is their nature? I will read to you their explanations of this serious matter.

Rev. Anthony the Great: “God is good and passionless and unchanging. If anyone, recognizing as blessed and true that God does not change, is perplexed, however, how He (being such) rejoices in the good, turns away the evil, is angry with sinners, and when they repent , is merciful to them; then it must be said that God does not rejoice and is not angry: for joy and anger are passions. It is absurd to think that the Deity was good or bad because of human deeds. God is good and only good does but when we are good, we enter into communion with God, by our likeness to Him, and when we become evil, we separate ourselves from God, by our dissimilarity with Him. and by becoming evil, we become rejected from Him; but this does not mean that He had wrath against us, but the fact that our sins do not allow God to shine in us, they unite with demons as tormentors. If later, by prayers and good deeds, we gain permission in sins, then this does not mean that we have pleased God and changed Him, but that by means of such actions and our turning to God, having healed the evil that is in us, we again become able to taste God's goodness; so to say: God turns away from the wicked is the same as to say: the sun hides from the blind"(Instructions of St. Anthony the Great. Philokalia. Vol. 1. § 150).

St. Gregory of Nyssa: "For what it is impious to venerate the nature of God subject to any passion of pleasure, or mercy, or wrath., this no one will deny, even among those who are little attentive to the knowledge of the truth of Existing. But although it is said that God rejoices over His servants and is angry with rage at the fallen people, then that He has mercy, but if He has mercy, He also has mercy (Ex. 33:19), but I think that from such sayings the universally recognized word loudly teaches us, that by means of our properties the providence of God is adapted to our infirmity to lean towards sin for fear of punishment kept themselves from evil, carried away before by sin, did not despair of returning through repentance, looking at mercy ... "(St. Gregory of Nyssa. Against Eunomius. Creations. Part U1. Book. II. M. 1864. S. 428-429 ).

St. John Chrysostom: “When you hear the words: “fury and anger”, in relation to God, then do not understand anything human by them: these are words of condescension. The deity is foreign to all such; it is said so in order to bring the subject closer to the understanding of coarser people "(Conversation on Ps.VI.-2. Creations. T.V.Kn.1. St. Petersburg. 1899. S. 49).

St. John Cassian the Roman: God "can neither be grieved by insults, nor irritated by the iniquities of people..." (Conversation - X1. §6).

All this is very important to understand, because it is of great importance for the spiritual life. We are separated from God by our sins, but God never departs from us, no matter how sinful we are. Therefore for us always the door of saving repentance remains open. Not by chance, but providentially, the first to enter paradise was not a righteous man, but a robber. God is always Love.

Such an understanding of God also stems from the Christian dogma about God being one in essence and three in His hypostases – a dogma, again, new, unknown to the world. There is a paternal expression: whoever saw the Trinity saw Love. The dogma of the Trinity reveals to us the prototype of that love, which is the ideal norm of human life, human relations. Mankind of many hypostases, although one in nature, is not at all united in essence in its present state, for sin separates people. The mystery of God the Trinity is revealed to mankind so that it knows that only God-like love can make each person a child of God.

Lecture by Professor A.I. Osipov on basic theology, was read at the Sretensky Theological Seminary on October 10, 2000 G.

Who is God the Father is still a topic of discussion among theologians around the world. He is considered the Creator of the world and man, the Absolute and at the same time triune in the Holy Trinity. These dogmas, together with an understanding of the essence of the Universe, deserve more detailed attention and analysis.

God the Father - who is he?

People knew about the existence of a single God-Father long before the Nativity of Christ, an example of this is the Indian Upanishads, which were created one and a half thousand years BC. e. It says that in the beginning there was nothing but the Great Brahman. The peoples of Africa mention Olorun, who turned water Chaos into heaven and earth, and on the 5th day created people. In many ancient cultures there is an image “the higher mind is God the Father”, but in Christianity there is a main difference - God is triune. To put this concept into the minds of those who worshiped pagan deities, a trinity appeared: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

God the Father in Christianity is the first hypostasis, He is revered as the Creator of the world and man. The theologians of Greece called God the Father the basis of the integrity of the Trinity, who is known through His Son. Much later, philosophers called Him the original definition of the highest idea, God the Father Absolute - the fundamental principle of the world and the beginning of existence. Among the names of God the Father:

1. Hosts - the Lord of Hosts, is mentioned in the Old Testament and in the psalms.
2. Yahweh. Described in the story of Moses.

What does God the Father look like?

What does God, the Father of Jesus, look like? There is still no answer to this question. The Bible mentions that God spoke to people in the form of a burning bush and a pillar of fire, and no one can ever see Him with their own eyes. He sends angels instead of himself, because a person cannot see Him and stay alive. Philosophers and theologians are sure: God the Father exists outside of time, therefore he cannot change.

Since God the Father was never shown to people, the Stoglavy Cathedral in 1551 imposed a ban on His images. The only acceptable canon was the image of Andrei Rublev "Trinity". But today there is also the "God the Father" icon, created much later, where the Lord is depicted as a gray-haired Elder. It can be seen in many churches: at the very top of the iconostasis and on the domes.

How did God the Father appear?

Another question, to which there is also no clear answer: “Where did God the Father come from?” There was only one option: God has always existed as the Creator of the Universe. Therefore, theologians and philosophers give two explanations for this position:

1. God could not appear, because then there was no concept of time. He created it, along with space.
2. To understand where God came from, you need to think outside the universe, outside of time and space. Man is not yet capable of this.

God the Father in Orthodoxy

In the Old Testament, there is no appeal to God from people "Father", and not because they have not heard about the Holy Trinity. It's just that the position in relation to the Lord was different, after the sin of Adam, people were expelled from paradise, and they went over to the camp of God's enemies. God the Father in the Old Testament is described as a formidable force that punishes people for disobedience. In the New Testament, He is already the Father of all who believe in Him. The unity of the two texts is that in both for the salvation of mankind the same God speaks and performs deeds.

God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ

With the advent of the New Testament, God the Father in Christianity is already mentioned in reconciliation with people through His Son Jesus Christ. This Testament says that the Son of God was the forerunner of the adoption of people by the Lord. And now believers receive a blessing not from the first hypostasis of the Most Holy Trinity, but from God the Father, since Christ atoned for the sins of mankind on the cross. It is written in the sacred books that God is the Father of Jesus Christ, who, during the baptism of Jesus in the waters of the Jordan, appeared in form and commanded people to obey His Son.

Trying to clarify the essence of faith in the Holy Trinity, theologians state the following postulates:

1. All three Persons of God have the same Divine dignity, on an equal footing. Since God in His essence is one, then the properties of God are inherent in all three hypostases.
2. The only difference is that God the Father does not come from anyone, but the Son of the Lord was born from God the Father eternally, the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father.