Faith –
1) voluntary union between God and man;
2) Christian, a person’s inner conviction in the existence of God, coupled with the highest degree of trust in Him as the Good and Wise Almighty, with the desire and readiness to follow His good will;
3) dry agreement of reason with the fact of the existence of God; knowledge about God and His will, not accompanied by a desire to fulfill it (demonic faith) ();
4) religious cult, belief (false).

In Hebrew, the word “faith” sounds like “emuna” - from the word “haman”, faithfulness. “Faith” is a concept very close to the concept of “loyalty, devotion.”

Faith is the realization of what is expected and the certainty of what is unseen (). “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (). - “faith working through love” ().

Exist three levels of faith, three stages of spiritual ascent, based on the three forces of the soul (mind, feelings and will): faith as rational confidence, faith as trust and faith as devotion, fidelity.

1 . Faith as confidence is a rational recognition of some truth. Such faith does not affect a person's life. Suppose someone believes that we exist. So what does that matter to us? The inner world of a person changes little from such faith. For him, God is, as it were, one of the objects of the universe: there is the planet Mars, and there is God. Therefore, such a person does not always correlate faith with his actions, does not try to carefully build his life according to faith, but acts according to the principle “ I am on my own, and God is on His own" That is, it is simply recognition with your mind of the fact of the existence of God. Moreover, such faith is usually illusory; ask such a believer, “Who is God?” and you will hear naive fantasies that have nothing to do with.

2 . Second stage - faith as trust. At this level of faith, a person not only rationally agrees with the existence of God, but feels the presence of God, and in case of sorrow or difficulties in life, he will certainly remember God and begin to pray to Him. Trust presupposes hope in God, and a person is already trying to conform his life to faith in God.
However, if a child trusts his parents, this does not mean that he will always obey them. Sometimes children use their parents' trust to justify their misdeeds. A person trusts God, but he himself is not always faithful to Him, justifying his passions by the sinfulness of others. And although such a person prays from time to time, he rarely tries to overcome his vices, and is not always ready to sacrifice something for God.

3 . The highest level is faith as fidelity. True faith is not only knowledge about God (which even demons possess ()), but knowledge that influences a person’s life. This is not only recognizing God with your mind, and not only trusting Him with your heart, but also coordinating your will with the will of God. Only such faith can express, because true love is unthinkable without fidelity. Such faith becomes the basis for all thoughts and actions of a person, and only it is saving. But this also presupposes internal work on oneself, victory over one’s own and the acquisition of the gospel.
So, the human soul consists of three forces -, and; true faith involves them all.

1. Faith in relation to other virtues

“At the head of the holy virtues is faith - the root and essence of all holy virtues. All holy virtues flow from it: prayer, love, repentance, humility, fasting, meekness, mercy, etc.
Reverend

2. Source of faith

Faith is given by God to those who seek it. The saint said that faith, like a spark lit by the Holy Spirit in the human heart, flares up with the warmth of love. He calls faith the lamp of the heart. When this lamp burns, a person sees spiritual things, can correctly judge spiritual things, and even sees the invisible God; when it doesn’t burn, there is darkness in the heart, there is darkness of ignorance, there errors and vices are elevated to the dignity of virtues.

3. Components of faith

Faith is composed of human volition (desire, will) and Divine action. It is a holy sacrament in which human will and Divine grace are coordinated (see).

saint

4. Expression of Faith

Faith can be divided into speculative () and active, living, expressed in the fulfillment of the Gospel. These types of faith complement each other in human salvation.

“Faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself. But someone will say: “You have faith, but I have works”: show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith without my works. You believe that God is one: you do well; and the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, unfounded person, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith contributed to his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the word of Scripture was fulfilled: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.” Do you see that a person is justified by works, and not by faith alone? Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, receiving the spies and sending them away another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.”
()

“Without faith it is impossible to be saved, because everything, both human and spiritual, is based on faith. But faith comes to perfection in no other way than through the fulfillment of everything indicated by Christ. , as well as deeds without faith. True faith is shown in deeds."
Reverend

“The image of worship of God consists in these two things: in an accurate knowledge of the dogmas of piety (1) and in good deeds (2). Dogmas without good deeds are not favorable to God, and He does not accept good deeds if they are not based on the dogmas of piety.”
saint

“Faith in the Gospel must be living, you must believe with your mind and heart, confess your faith with your lips, express it, prove it with your life. Constancy in the Orthodox confession of the dogmas of faith is nourished and preserved by works of faith and integrity of conscience... My Savior. Plant in me a living faith, proven by works... so that I become capable of resurrection in my spirit.”
saint

That we truly believe in God... let it be revealed on the basis of our deeds and observance of God's commandments.
saint

5. Contents of dogmatic faith

Faith consists in accepting the truths of Divine Revelation contained in Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, formulated in the dogmatic teaching of the Church. These truths are supersensible, immaterial, invisible, immaterial, mysterious. They surpass the visible material world, surpass human senses and reason, and therefore require faith.

Through faith one acquires knowledge of God, but without faith it is impossible to know Him... For what kind of reasoning will convince us, for example, of the Resurrection?.. By what kind of reasoning can the birth of God the Word be comprehended?
saint

6. What strengthens faith?

Listen to the Word of God, sermons and teachings, read [the works of] the holy fathers and elder books, search and inquire, talk and communicate with believers, rich in faith; pray, cry out to God for faith, live by faith, confess more often and partake of the Holy Mysteries.
St.

Is it possible to be a true believer without knowing the basics of the doctrine?

Unfortunately, today, even among parishioners, there are a considerable number of those whose personal religious position regarding the study of dogmas is not only neutral, but even negative.

Why burden yourself with unnecessary knowledge? - they are surprised; after all, the main thing is to visit God’s temple, participate in divine services, obey the priest, and try not to sin. Meanwhile, such a point of view is not only not welcomed by the Church, but also contradicts the very concept of faith.

And this is understandable. The very entry of a person into Christ implies a certain knowledge of the conditions, tasks and goals of life.

For example, without knowledge of why and for what purpose one must perform obedience, conscious, voluntary service to God, humble, sacrificial self-giving is unthinkable. But this is exactly what the Head of the Church, the Lord, expects from us ().

Without detailed knowledge of what exactly one should believe in in order to be saved, to inherit, faith cannot be the axis of human life, the subject of the conviction of reason; cannot rise to the level of high Christianity.

“Faith,” not supported by knowledge, leads to delusions, the emergence and development of false ideas about God, and the formation of an imaginary idol in the mind. Idolatry serves as an obstacle to the path to the Kingdom of God.

Faith based on the simple recognition of the fact of the existence of God and His Providence, on the blind and inarticulate confession of Christ as the Son of God, is akin to demonic. After all, the demons also screamed and shouted to Christ: “What do you have to do with us, Jesus, Son of God? You came here ahead of time to torment us” (); after all, even demons believe and tremble ()

Is faith possible outside the Church?

In order to answer this question, it is necessary to clearly understand what form of faith (what exact semantic meaning of this concept) is meant.

Faith in the One God was manifested in people even before creation. Adam, Abraham, and Israel had such faith.

A certain belief in the One Principle, manifested at the level of reason, was characteristic of a number of pre-Christian philosophers. Even representatives of the pagan world possessed some rudiments of faith in the Unknown God ().

Individual Old Testament righteous people (and, for example, during the conclusion of the Sinai Covenant - all of them) became partakers. All this contributed to the formation and strengthening of people’s faith in the True and Only God.

However, through the Old Testament faith, man was not freed from slavery and did not reach the Highest Heavenly Abodes. This became possible only with the Coming of the Son of God, the conclusion between God and man, and the formation of the Church.

Communion with the faith of Christ is carried out through the assimilation of the Gospel teachings, communion with the True Church, and observance of the commandments.

The True Church is the Ecumenical Orthodox Church. After all, only she is the pillar and affirmation of the truth (), only she is entrusted with the fullness of salvation, only in her is true faith observed, the one that the Lord had in mind when he said about Himself that “he who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is already condemned” ( ).

Since to be a believer, in the most sublime sense of the word, means not only to believe in the existence of God and everything that constitutes the subject of Christian doctrine, but also to live a full Christian life, we understand that faith is achievable only within the framework of general church life (implying participation in temple divine services, sacraments, etc.), within the framework of life in Christ.

The Lord Himself, speaking about the need for such an attitude towards faith, asserted: “Without Me you cannot do anything” ().

“Faith” is a concept very close to the concept of “loyalty, devotion.” It becomes obvious that faith is not a passive trust in external authority, but a dynamic force that transforms a person, sets before him a goal in life, and provides an opportunity to achieve this goal.

“Don’t mistake satiety for happiness. The truth is that we have nothing permanent on this earth. Everything passes in an instant, and nothing belongs to us, everything is on loan. Borrow health, strength and beauty . »
saint

“There are only believers and non-believers here. All believers are there.”
M. Tsvetaeva

“Faith is not just expectation; this is already reality itself.”
Ep.

“The Christian faith has two sides: faith in God and faith in God. There is dogmatic faith - adherence to certain religious statements and certain religious practices, and there is personal faith - adherence to a specific person, our Lord Jesus Christ. Personal trust in Christ, repentance and faith cannot exist without dogmas. Here are dogmas without hope, repentance and faith - as much as you like.”
Sergey Khudiev

“A person is never a stranger to faith... God is encoded in the soul of everyone: in the feeling of Eternity, the feeling of the Supreme Principle. And therefore, in order to come to faith, you need to come to yourself. We live as if far from ourselves. We are in a hurry to work, fussing about household chores. But we don’t remember ourselves at all. I am often reminded of the words of Meister Eckhart: “In silence God speaks his word.” Silence! Where is our silence? Everything is rattling around here all the time. But in order to come to some spiritual values, it is necessary to create islands of silence, islands of spiritual concentration. Stop for a minute. We run all the time as if we have a very long distance ahead. And our distance is short. It costs nothing to run through it. So, in order to know, deepen, and realize the faith that lives within us, we must return to ourselves...”
archpriestAlexander Men

Faith is confidence in things unseen. We use this word in relation to God and spiritual things; but it also applies to many things in ordinary life. We talk about love, we talk about beauty. When we say that we love a person, we thereby say that in an incomprehensible, inexpressible way we have seen something in him that others did not see. And when we, overwhelmed with delight, exclaim: “How wonderful it is!”, we are talking about something that has reached us, but which we cannot simply interpret. We can only say: come and see, as the apostles said to their friends: come, look at Christ, and you will know what I saw in Him ().
And so our faith in things invisible, on the one hand, is our personal faith, that is, what we ourselves have come to know, how we once, at least once in our lives, touched the hem of Christ’s robe () - and sensed Him Divine power, at least once looked into His eyes - and saw His endless mercy, compassion, love. This can happen directly, mysteriously, through the meeting of a living soul with the Living God, but it also happens through other people. My spiritual father once told me: no one can renounce the earth and turn all his gaze to heaven unless he sees the radiance of eternal life in the eyes of at least one person, on the face of at least one person... In this regard, we are all responsible for each other, everyone are responsible for the faith that we have or for which we yearn, and which can be given to us not only by the miracle of a direct meeting face to face with God, but also through the mediation of man.
Faith therefore consists of many elements. On the one hand, this is our personal experience: here, I saw in these eyes, on this face the radiance of eternity, God shone through this face... But it happens: I somehow sense that there is something - but I can’t catch it! I only catch a little bit. And then I can turn my gaze, my hearing, the communication of my soul to other people who have also known something - and that pitiful, perhaps, but precious, holy knowledge of faith that was given to me is expanded by experience, faith, that is, confidence, knowledge of others of people. And then my faith becomes wider and wider, deeper and deeper, and then I can proclaim the truths that I possess not personally, but collectively, together with other people. This is how we proclaim the Creed, which was given to us from ancient times by the experience of other people, but which we gradually learn by participating in this experience.
And finally, there is another faith, which the Gospel of John speaks of: no one has seen God except His Only Begotten Son, who came into the world to save the world (). There are truths of faith that we accept from Christ, because He knows all the depths of the Divine and all the depths of man and can introduce us to both the human depth and the Divine depths.
metropolitan

The concept of faith in patristic writing

The circle of church authors who devoted space to this issue in their writings is quite visible. Firstly, these are those ancient writers who composed large texts of apologetic content, such as, for example, (d. c. 215), Blessed (d. c. 460); secondly, these are church catechists - the saint (d. 386); finally, these are systematizers of church knowledge, such as the anonymous author of the “Teaching of the Holy Fathers on the Incarnation of God the Word” (Doctrina Patrum), approximately dating from the 6th - 7th centuries, the venerable (d. about 700) and the venerable (d. before 787 G.).
The main supporting texts of Holy Scripture for the Holy Fathers are two passages from the Apostle Paul. The book of Hebrews gives the classic definition of faith: Faith is the realization of things hoped for and confidence in things unseen... And without faith it is impossible to please God; for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and is a rewarder of those who seek Him(). In this understanding faith reveals for a person a non-obvious, but invaluable bottom that is inaccessible to direct sensory perception and everyday reliability; the object of faith is something intelligible, verifiable only in the mystical experience of communion with God. The second passage from the Apostle Paul does not serve as a definition. It is rather a description of the necessary conditions for the emergence of faith, which are Scripture itself, in other words, divine revelation, and the instruction in it, that is, the tradition instilled in the church community: …for whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can we call upon Him in whom we have not believed? How can one believe in Him of whom one has not heard? How to hear without a preacher? So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God().
For the first time, the concept of faith was subjected to theoretical consideration by , who, on the one hand, refuted the accusation of Greek philosophers that faith is an unreasonable opinion based on prejudice, on the other hand, opposed the opinion of the Gnostics, who left faith to ordinary members of the Church, opposing it to the meaning gnosis, understood as a kind of esoteric knowledge, accessible only to the initiates and closed to the profane. On the third hand, he opposed the conviction of those very simpletons who believed that faith alone without knowledge or gnosis was quite enough.
“Faith,” writes Clement in the Stromata, “is free anticipation and pious consent... Others define faith as an act of mental assumption of an implicit, like a proof, revealing to us the existence of a thing, although unknown, but obvious. So, faith is an act of free choice, since it is a certain desire, and a reasonable desire. But since every action begins with a rational choice, it turns out that faith is the basis of every rational choice... So, he who believes the Scriptures and has the right judgment hears in them the voice of God himself, an indisputable testimony. Such faith no longer needs proof. Blessed That's why those who have not seen but believed.
We encounter an attempt at a complete and systematic theological presentation of the concept of faith in the fourth-century author of the saint in his fifth “Catechetical Teaching.” This is what he writes: “The word faith one by its name ... is divided into two genera. The first type includes teaching faith, when the soul agrees to something. And it is useful for the soul... Another kind of faith is that which is bestowed by grace by Christ. To one is given the word of wisdom by the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; gifts of healings to others by the same Spirit(). So, this faith, given by grace by the Holy Spirit, is not only teaching, but also acting beyond human strength. For whoever has this faith: will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move()... So, for your part, have faith in Him, so that from Him you can receive faith that acts beyond human strength.
The Reverend in “An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith,” in a chapter specifically devoted to revealing the meaning of the word faith, summarizes the previous tradition: “Faith, meanwhile, is twofold: there is faith from hearing(). For by hearing the divine Scriptures we believe the teaching of the Spirit. This faith acquires perfection through everything that is laid down by Christ: believing by deed, living piously and fulfilling the commandments of our Renewer. For whoever does not believe in accordance with the tradition of the Catholic Church, or who through shameful deeds has fellowship with the devil, is unfaithful. There is faith again, the realization of what is expected and the certainty of what is not seen() or undoubted and unreasoning hope for what is promised to us by God, and for the success of our petitions. Therefore the first faith refers to our intention, and the second refers to the gifts of the Spirit.
St. John, like St. Cyril, clearly distinguishes between what is in our own power and what is a divine gift. So, there are three main meanings of the word, three predominant images - dogmatic (the faith of the church), psychological (agreement with the faith of the church) and charismatic (the gift of the Holy Spirit); These are the three entities behind the indicated images - church, man, God. From the Holy Fathers Vera is primarily seen as something external to man, which becomes “internal” through the assent of the soul in an act of personal faith.

Faith, defined from the point of view of knowledge of God, is, first of all, the trust of the human mind in Divine truth, without research about it, on the basis of the testimony of Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition and those miraculous signs that always accompany true faith. Thus we believe that the world was created by God in six days and is kept by the Word of God (2 Pet. 3:7); we believe that the Lord will come to earth again to judge the living and the dead; We believe that there will be reward beyond the grave and eternal life. By faith, further, we mean a person’s heartfelt confidence in a certain religious truth without yet clearly comprehending it with the mind; for example, without comprehending the dogma of the Holy Trinity, we are internally confident that, indeed, God is threefold in Persons, that, indeed, Christ is the Son of God, who came down for our salvation, and the Holy Spirit is the source of our sanctification and adoption to God.

But all such beliefs cannot yet be called perfect faith. Faith at the highest stage of its development is vision - vision in the spirit of God and His saints, contemplation of the secrets of the heavenly world, touching them with a spiritual feeling. The Apostle Paul speaks about such perfect faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “faith,” he defines, “is the conviction of things unseen” (Heb. 11:1). “Revelation” - from the word “appearance”, i.e. in the presence of true faith, a spiritual object clearly appears before our spirit, receives an appearance, becomes tangible and visible through the living contact of our spirit with it.

Consequently, perfect faith is seeing the spiritual world with the eyes of the heart, feeling it with the spiritual sense. In support of his teaching, the Apostle Paul further cites the names of those great righteous men of the Old Testament who had similar faith. Such were the holy patriarchs, kings and prophets, “who by faith conquered kingdoms, did righteousness, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were strengthened from weakness, were strong in war, drove away the armies of strangers; the wives received their dead raised again...the whole world was not worthy of them” (Heb. 11:33-35, 38).

Faith in God

The teaching about God in the Creed begins with the word: “I believe.” God is the first object of Christian faith. Thus, our Christian recognition of the existence of God is based not on rational principles, not on evidence taken from reason or obtained from the experience of our external senses, but on an inner, higher conviction that has a moral basis.

To believe in God means, in the Christian understanding, not only to recognize God with the mind, but also to strive for Him with the heart.

“We believe” in what is inaccessible to external experience, scientific research, and perception by our external senses. In the Slavic and Russian languages, the concept of “I believe” is deeper than the meaning of the Russian “I believe,” which often means simple acceptance without checking the testimony of another person, someone else’s experience. St. Gregory the Theologian also distinguishes in Greek: religious faith - “I believe in whom, in what“; and simple personal faith - “I believe to whom; to what“. He writes: “It does not mean the same thing: “to believe in something” and “to believe in something.” We believe in the Divine, but we believe in relation to every thing” (Works of St. Gregory the Theologian. Part 3, p. 88, “About the Holy Spirit”).

The Christian faith is a mysterious phenomenon in the realm of the human soul. She is broader than thought stronger, more effective than it. It is more complex than an individual feelings, it contains feelings of love, fear, reverence, reverence, humility. She also cannot be named strong-willed phenomenon, for, although it moves mountains, a Christian, believing, renounces his will, completely surrendering himself to the will of God: “Thy will be done on me, a sinner.”

Of course, Christianity is also associated with mental knowledge; it provides a worldview. But if it remained only a worldview, its driving force would disappear; without faith it would not be a living connection between heaven and earth. The Christian faith is something much more than the “convinced assumption” called faith, which is usually found in life.

Christ was created on faith, as on a rock that will not shake under it. By faith the saints overcame kingdoms, did righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, and were strengthened in weakness (Heb. 11:33-38). Christians inspired by faith joyfully went to torture and death. Faith is a stone, but an intangible stone, free from weight and heaviness; pulling upward, not downward.

“Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water“- said the Lord (John 7:38), and the preaching of the apostles, preaching in the power of the word, in the power of the Spirit, in the power of signs and wonders, was a living testimony to the truth of the words of the Lord.

“If you have faith and do not doubt... if you say to this mountain: rise up and cast yourself into the sea, it will be” (Matt. 21:21). The history of the Church of Christ is filled with miracles of saints of all centuries. But miracles are created not by faith in general, but by Christian faith. Faith is effective not by the power of imagination or self-hypnosis, but by the fact that it connects with the source of all life and strength - with God. She is a vessel with which water is scooped up; but you need to be near this water and lower the vessel into it: this water is the grace of God. “Faith is the key to the treasury of God,” writes Fr. John of Kronstadt (“My life in Christ”, vol. 1, p. 242).

Therefore, it is difficult to define what faith is. When the Apostle says: “ Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1), then, without touching here on the nature of faith, it only indicates what it directs its gaze to: - to the expected, to the unseen, namely, that faith is the penetration of the soul into the future ( implementation of the expected) or into the invisible ( confidence in the invisible). This demonstrates the mysterious nature of the Christian faith.

Faith and knowledge in religion and science

The importance of faith in religion is so great that religion itself is often called simply faith. This is true, but no more than in relation to any other area of ​​cognition.

The path to knowledge for a person always opens with faith to parents, teachers, books, etc. And only subsequent personal experience strengthens (or, on the contrary, weakens) faith in the correctness of previously received information, transforming faith into knowledge. Faith and knowledge thus become one. This is how a person grows in science, art, economics, politics...

Faith is just as necessary for a person in religion. It is an expression of a person’s spiritual aspirations, his quests, and often begins with trust in those who already have relevant experience and knowledge in it. Only gradually, with the acquisition of one’s own religious experience, does a person, along with faith, acquire a certain knowledge, which increases with a correct spiritual and moral life, as the heart is cleansed of passions. As one of the great saints said: “he sees the truth of God by the power of life.”

A Christian on this path can achieve such knowledge of God (and the being of the created world) when his faith is dissolved with knowledge, and he becomes “one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17).

Thus, just as in all natural sciences faith precedes knowledge, and experience confirms faith, so in religion, faith, based on a deeply intuitive sense of God, acquires its strength only in the direct personal experience of His knowledge. And only belief in the non-existence of God, in all its ideological variants, remains not only not justified in experience, but also in blatant contradiction with the great religious experience of all times and peoples.

Superstitions

Superstition, that is, a vain faith that does not bring true benefit to a person’s soul, is a kind of spiritual disease, without any exaggeration it can be likened to drug addiction, and it is formed where true knowledge about faith and spiritual life becomes impoverished. Faith without knowledge very quickly turns into superstition, that is, a very strange mixture of different views, where there is a place for both demons and even the Lord, but there are no concepts of repentance, the fight against sin, or changes in lifestyle.
A superstitious person believes that his personal well-being depends on how successfully he is able to defend himself from evil forces. At the same time, the concepts of God’s love, God’s will, and God’s Providence are completely alien to him. Such a person does not know and does not want to know that sorrows and suffering allowed by God are a manifestation of God’s love for us - an educational means, thanks to which a person is able to realize his weakness, feel the need for God’s help, repent and change his life. And it doesn’t matter how these sorrows visit us: through illness or loss of loved ones, or as a result of an accident, or through the slander of sorcerers.

Those who adhere to superstition sin gravely against the first commandment of God. Superstition, or vain faith, faith based on nothing, unworthy of true Christians.
The Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church often warned against prejudices and superstitions, which sometimes deceived ancient Christians. Their warnings can be divided into three types:
1) warnings against so-called signs, when omens about happy circumstances in our life are derived from the most unimportant cases;
2) warnings against fortune telling or divination, or a strong desire, by any means, even by dark means, to find out what our subsequent life will be like, whether these or other of our enterprises will be successful or unsuccessful; and finally
3) warnings against the desire to acquire powers that heal diseases or protect against various troubles and dangers; from the use of objects that do not contain anything medical and, due to their properties, cannot have any influence on our well-being and happiness.

Source of Christian Faith

The source of faith is revelation. The word revelation in a narrow sense means “the manifestation of hidden mysteries” or the supernatural communication to people by God of any new and unknown truths to them.

In contrast to supernatural revelation, the constant detection of the actions of the all-good Providence of God, revealed through the natural forces and laws of nature established by the Creator, is called natural revelation. This last type of revelation is designated in Holy Scripture by a more general name: phenomenon, in contrast to the more specialized word - revelation, which primarily means the revelation of some secret or truth that exceeds the strength of the natural human mind. When. ap. Paul speaks of the revelation of God to the pagan world through visible creations, then he uses the expression: “God showed them” (Rom. I: 19), and when the same apostle speaks of the revelation through the scriptures of the prophetic mysteries of the incarnation (Rom. XIV, 24), about the revelation to him of the secret regarding the calling of the pagans into the church of Christ (Eph. III: 3) and in general about supernatural revelations (cf. 1 Cor. II: 10; 2 Cor. XII, 1, 7; Eph. I: 17; Philip III, 15): then in all these cases revelation is denoted by the word revelation. In this sense, the revelation of St. John is called the Apocalypse.

Faith and Church

External unity is the unity manifested in the communion of the sacraments, while internal unity is the unity of the spirit. Many were saved (for example, some martyrs) without partaking of any of the sacraments of the Church (even Baptism), but no one is saved without partaking of the inner church holiness, its faith, hope and love; for it is not works that save, but faith. Faith is not twofold, but one - true and living. Therefore, those who say that faith alone does not save, but works are also needed, and those who say that faith saves except works are unreasonable: for if there are no works, then faith turns out to be dead; if it is dead, then it is not true, for in true faith there is Christ, truth and life; if not true, then it is false, i.e. external knowledge.

Faith is found in the depths of a person’s heart; it does not depend on any evidence. When non-Christians ask what a Christian believes, he must give a clear answer. I became interested in the symbol of faith in Christianity after a conversation with an atheist. The woman tried to explain her atheism to me from the point of view of philistine opinion. I was unable to convince her of disbelief, and each of us remained with our convictions. Then I read in Orthodox literature what the symbol of faith in Christianity is. This gave me a clear understanding of the essence of Christianity, and now I can answer all the questions of atheists. Let's look at these fundamental concepts of Christianity together.

When talking with atheists and representatives of other religions, it is very important to clearly and reasonably explain what Christians believe. It is this explanation that gives the creed, which was approved at the Third Ecumenical Council by the fathers of the church. The Creed is not a prayer, but expresses the fundamentals of Christian teaching. There is no appeal to the Most Holy Theotokos and the saints, but a confession of faith is proclaimed.

The Creed contains 12 basic dogmas of the Orthodox Church, which are called members:

• the first dogma tells about our Father - God;
• from the second to the seventh it is said about God the Son;
• the eighth talks about the Holy Spirit; the ninth talks about the church (the assembly of believers);
• the tenth talks about receiving baptism;
• The 11th and 12th talk about eternal life and the resurrection of the dead.

Creed in Orthodoxy (in modern Russian)

Prayer Symbol of Faith in Russian with accents

As you can see, this is a short confession of what a person believes. The text can be called a prayer, but in fact there is no appeal to anyone from the spiritual world. The prayer “I believe in one God” is often said at liturgies, when all believers proclaim their faith publicly. This is a necessary and important condition for the spread of Christianity on earth. You cannot believe secretly and furtively; you must declare your faith to the whole world.

It was very difficult for the first Christians to declare their faith, as they were subjected to severe persecution for it. Nevertheless, Christian martyrs did not renounce their faith in Christ even under the threat of martyrdom. Nowadays, no one tortures people for their faith, since more than a third of the world's population professes faith in the Savior of mankind.

Historical reference

The prayer “I Believe in One” is the foundation on which the universal church rests. Every Christian should know and understand these words in order to protect themselves from the temptations of the devil and not lose eternal life. This is the weapon with which you can resist Satan and his army. The Prayer of Faith was compiled by the church fathers in ancient times, when it was necessary to explain to converts the spiritual essence of faith and prepare them to receive the Sacrament of baptism.

The prayer I Believe in One God the Father is said at every church service.

In the old days, it was mainly adults who converted to Christianity, so the text of the prayer I Believe was compiled specifically for them. On the eve of baptism, the convert recited the Creed, expressing his will to become a member of the universal church and devote his life to serving Christ. However, the text of the Creed often did not coincide in different places, so the church fathers met at the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) to approve a single form of the Creed. A few years later, the Symbol was supplemented at the Nekeo-Constantinople Council, and in 431 it was finally approved at the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus.

Since then, the text of the prayer has not changed and cannot be changed. Whatever language the Creed is spoken in, it has the same meaning.

Explanation

Let's look at what the 12 members of the Christian Creed mean.

I believe in one God the Father

The word “believe” is fundamental here. This is the focus of human consciousness on a specific object. Faith does not involve thinking about a topic; it affirms and convinces of the truth. However, this truth is hidden, it cannot be seen or touched - therefore a person needs faith. They believe in what cannot be felt with earthly senses. However, faith gives inner knowledge, which convinces a person of the truth.

Faith is a hidden secret that can only be revealed miraculously. Scientists have never been able to find the key to unlocking the secret of faith, because it is deeply hidden in the human heart and has no material nature. This is a spiritual phenomenon that cannot be explored with material instruments of knowledge. Even the work of the brain has been studied in detail by scientists around the world, but faith has not been found in the brain. Because faith is higher than knowledge.

Faith can penetrate the mysteries of existence, enter other dimensions - spiritual ones. This is the key to the spiritual worlds, where other laws of the universe reign. Only by faith can you feel God, know his truth and touch the incorruptible.

When faith is born in a person, he can feel the one God the Father. It is impossible to do this without faith.

No matter how much you explain to an atheist the miracle of the creation of the world, he will not hear - there is no faith in his heart. The believer feels that the whole world was created by one God. If our pagan ancestors worshiped a whole host of gods, then Christianity claims that there is one God. The pagans felt that the world was created by God, but they attributed this to many gods. They looked for God in nature and found many different forces. All that remained was to find a single source of these forces of nature, which is what Christianity did.

The teaching of Christ gives us not just God, but God the Father. He is filled with love for the world and people, and sends only good. Only a Father can love his children, take care of them and fill them with joy. Only the Father can be loved by children, giving their sincere hearts. The Symbol of Faith establishes a trusting relationship of relatives between God and people, which is based on mutual love and reverence. Also, the status of children obliges them to obey, which is important to understand.

The Creed emphasizes that the Father of Christians is also the Almighty, since he created the entire universe. The world he created is full of perfection, wisdom and beauty. The world is permeated with a higher meaning that can only be comprehended by faith. Many people see evil and ugliness in the world because they do not understand the essence of creation and are not filled with love for the world. When faith settles in a person’s heart, it fills him with love and wisdom.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ

This article of faith is central, for without Jesus Christ there is no Christianity itself. Belief in God is inherent in many world religions, but they do not have the only begotten Son. Christians believe that Christ was a God-man. Jesus is the name of man, and Christ is the title of God's anointed one. This anointing invested man with divine authority and endowed him with the Holy Spirit.

Christ was sent into the world to bring the good news (gospel) of salvation.

To understand what kind of salvation we are talking about, you need to know the Old Testament well. In ancient times, God chose the Jewish people to serve as a source of light for all the peoples of the earth. This was a God-bearing people. But the Jews failed in this mission and fell away from God. They began to live in hatred of each other and strife, they forgot about love. Christ came into the world to show people God's love and grace, to save people from the Fall and to reveal the truth. This was the Messiah sent from heaven for the salvation of all people on earth.

It is with the acceptance of the mystery of the God-man that Christianity begins.

God himself appeared to people in the flesh to grant salvation from evil and hatred, death and decay. This dogma is the most basic in Christianity. This is incomprehensible to the earthly mind, but that is why faith is needed, which is impossible to comprehend with the mind. Is it possible to doubt the power of the one who created the universe with his word? Will he not be able to appear in the flesh through his only begotten son? To doubt this means to deny God power and authority.

For the sake of salvation came down from heaven

Every Christian understands that he is saved by faith. This is the faith of salvation given freely. There are religions that offer improvement in life, and Christianity offers salvation of the soul from eternal torment. You can read about this in the Old Testament, where God gives people 10 commandments of salvation. Jesus fulfilled all the commandments for us, and now through faith in him everyone can find salvation. However, this does not mean that we can now violate God’s commandments; we have simply been granted salvation by the all-loving Lord.

What does Christ save us from? From the corruption of death and hellish torment. Modern people try to forget themselves in the bustle of earthly life, believing that there will be nothing after it. But the gospel says that the soul of man is eternal, and it is she who needs salvation from eternal torment. If a person's heart is disposed to faith, he will hear these words and find salvation. If a person is completely immersed in the material world and sees only the meaning of life in it, he will remain deaf to the words of truth.

Christ, by his death and resurrection, showed the world that there is eternal life, and that our earthly life is not real. When a person looks at the image of the crucified Christ, he begins to think about the meaning of his life. For this reason, the Savior came to our world, so that people would think - what are they living for? He offers us eternal life, which was prepared by God the Father from the foundation of the world. He gives us eternal life, taking all the sins of the world upon himself. This is the good news (gospel) that Christianity preaches.

And made flesh by the Holy Spirit

This is a sacred part of the Christian faith, which directly points to the divine origin of Christ. No man can save people from their sins, only a God-man. Jesus had a dual nature - human and divine. Human nature was necessary for incarnation into matter, divine nature for fulfilling the mission of salvation.

However, it is precisely this dogma that becomes a stumbling block for the adoption of Christianity. People can't believe that something like this is even possible. However, is there anything impossible for the creator of the universe? You just have to think about it to understand that nothing is impossible for him, and the fact of the virgin birth is not something fantastic. This is no more fantastic event than the creation of the universe. Isn't He who created the worlds able to create an embryo with the help of his Spirit?

crucified for us

This dogma of the Christian faith also causes confusion among atheists and representatives of other faiths. Why is this sacrifice needed, to whom? To understand the tragedy of the situation, you need to turn to the Old Testament, which mentions death for committing sins. This is exactly what Jesus saved us from by dying on the cross in our place. It was a substitutionary sacrifice, without which salvation from eternal death is impossible.

Jesus suffered in our place to save us from retribution for breaking God's law. Where is this law located? It is written in the laws of nature, it was established by the creator of the world from the beginning. After his tragic death on the cross, Jesus miraculously resurrects and appears to his disciples in a new body. This suggests that there is no death - it is illusory. But to obtain eternal salvation, you must have a sinless soul. Jesus' soul was sinless, and he gave it for the salvation of mankind.

A man died on the cross, but a god rose again. This reveals the divine nature of Jesus, the God-man.

When Christians celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist, they are miraculously united with Christ. This is what Jesus commanded us at the last supper before his execution. He broke the bread, gave it to the disciples, and said, “This is my body, broken for you.” Then he poured wine and said: This is the blood shed for you. Since then, the Sacrament of Communion has been performed at church services, since without it it is impossible to unite with Christ and receive salvation.

When we unite with Christ through the Sacrament of Communion, we acquire divine nature. After death, we will also be resurrected and acquire new perfect bodies. This sounds ridiculous to atheists, but modern physicists have already proven the duality of quanta. They also proved that all matter is illusory and is subject to human thoughts. This means that any body can be resurrected from non-existence if the spirit so desires. Nowadays, the theme of resurrection no longer sounds as fantastic as in past centuries. Just check out the works of quantum physicists.

Immortality

The human mind refuses to understand immortality, since it constantly sees death around itself. But this death refers to the illusory matter from which our world is woven. Jesus showed by his resurrection that there is another world over which the death of illusory matter has no power. Is it really that the creator who created the worlds is not capable of creating an immortal body? The mind of atheists constantly limits the possibilities of the creator within the framework of earthly criteria. But it is impossible to understand God with an earthly mind, which is why faith is necessary.

And ascended to heaven

What is meant here is not the material heavens, but another world. In the gospel it is called the highest, that is, the highest. Higher means above our world. Heaven - this word allegorically expresses something high and inaccessible to man within the framework of the earthly world. These are other spaces and dimensions that we cannot perceive with our earthly senses. Therefore we need faith.

Bottom line

If a person is able to adequately perceive the purity of the conception, the incarnation of God in human flesh and the resurrection in a new body, he will correctly understand the Creed of Christianity. He will be able to realize the triune essence of God when he (the one) manifests himself in three hypostases - the Father, the only begotten Son and the Holy Spirit. In the trinity there cannot be idolatry, as other religions claim. The trinity can be noticed even in a person when he forms his thoughts in the body with the help of his consciousness.