The emergence of Christianity (briefly). History of the emergence of Christianity. Basic provisions of Christian teaching. What is the essence of the Christian faith

The Hebrew Scriptures relate: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: I have remembered what Amalek did to Israel, how he stood against him on the way when he came out of Egypt.”(1 Samuel 15:2). And approximately 480 years after this act of the Amalekites (Acts 13:20), the Most High indicated to the Israeli king Saul: “Now go and smite Amalek, and destroy all that he has; and give him no mercy, but put to death from man to wife, from child to suckling, from ox to sheep, from camel to donkey.”(1 Samuel 15:3)... There are quite a lot of similar examples in the Old Testament writings, and some of these stories can lead us, Christians, to bewilderment.

But here is an example of a conversation between the apostles and Christ, which suggests the opposite:

“And He sent messengers before Him; and they went and entered the village of the Samaritans; to prepare for Him; but [there] they did not receive Him, because He appeared to be traveling to Jerusalem. Seeing this, His disciples, James and John, said: Lord! Do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and destroy them, just as Elijah did? But He, turning to them, rebuked them and said: You do not know what kind of spirit you are; For the Son of Man came not to destroy the souls of men, but to save” (Luke 9:52-56).

In this short and seemingly not very significant story, the whole essence of Christianity is outlined. Perhaps this would be enough for some to understand why our Lord, the High Priest, came. However, the essence of Christianity simply must be reflected in our inner world, as well as in our actions; and for this, it is important for us to clearly understand the essence of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven.

What will help you understand the essence of Christianity?

Before Christ came to earth, the wisest man Solomon was considered on earth. It was he who most clearly expressed the problem of humanity as a whole, writing:

“I spoke in my heart about the sons of men, so that God might test them, and so that they would see that they are animals in themselves. Because the fate of the sons of men and the fate of animals is the same fate: as they die, so these die, and everyone has the same breath, and man has no advantage over cattle, because everything is vanity! Everything goes to one place: everything came from dust and everything will return to dust” (Eccl. 3:18-20).

Man was created “in the image and likeness of God” to have dominion over the earth, and Scripture tells it this way:

“God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Let all the beasts of the earth fear and tremble at you, and all the birds of the air, everything that moves on the earth, and all the fish of the sea: they are given into your hands” (Gen. 9: 1, 2. Also: Psalm 8: 4 -9.).

However, you should pay attention to the fact that man was created on the same day, the sixth, along with the animals. Instincts such as: the instinct of self-preservation, reproduction, dominance over other individuals - are often uncontrollably transformed into greed and betrayal, adultery, envy and war... why?

This is the answer to the fact that the first people succumbed to sin so easily: “God saw everything that He had created, and behold, it was very good. (And there was evening and there was morning: the sixth day)"(Gen.1:31). They were perfect according to the flesh, without defect, but at the same time, Adam was not blessed spiritually - but it was the seventh day that was blessed (Gen. 2:3.). The Apostle Paul wrote:

“we who have believed enter into rest... For nowhere is it said about the seventh [day] like this: and God rested on the seventh day from all His work... Therefore there still remains a Sabbath for the people of God. For whoever has entered into His rest has also rested from his own works, just as God did from His” (Heb. 4:3,4,9,10).

And if we are talking about the essence of Christianity, then we cannot help but remember that it was Christ who was the Lord of the Sabbath, into which each of us has to “enter.” This Leader said:

“I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

“Thus it is written: The first man Adam became a living soul; and the last Adam is a life-giving spirit... The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second person is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, so are the earthy; and as is he that is in heaven, so are those that are in heaven” (1 Cor. 15:45,47,48).

If we carefully examine the Scriptures, it becomes clear that before the coming of Christ, all those who were pleasing to the Most High God Yahweh were all moved by the Holy Spirit.

For example, in the Israeli kingdom of Samaria there was not a single righteous king - however, in the kingdom of Judah, true worship was restored from time to time... why is that? We will find the answer in the words of the prophet Ahijah: “That the lamp of My servant David might remain always before Me in the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen for Myself for My name to dwell there.”(1 Kings 11:36). In the kingdom of Samaria, the Most High also preserved the prophets for Himself by the Spirit, so that spiritual light would remain for people (Rom. 11: 2-6.). Thus, having carefully studied biblical story, we can understand that without the Spirit of God, a person cannot be pleasing to Him; for this, you simply need to be blessed (Rom. 9:10-14.).

We all need to honestly admit that we are flesh, created on the “sixth day” along with the animals, that we are children of the carnal Adam; If he had not sinned, then instead of him, there in paradise, we would have sinned. And for us, it is important to be led into that “rest” by the second “Adam,” the Eternal Father, Christ (see: Isaiah 9:6.).

The first people were created without sin - but it was they who soon left it to us as a heritage. So we come to the fact that in the biblical sense, the number SIX is the number of the flesh, of which the devil is the god:

“For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh: they oppose each other, so that you do not do what you would like. If you are led by the spirit, then you are not under the law. The works of the flesh are known; they are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, envy, anger, strife, disagreements, (temptations), heresies, hatred, murder, drunkenness, disorderly conduct and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. There is no law against them. But those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:17-24).

The law left through Moses was only a “schoolmaster” to the Messiah (Galatians 3:11,24.) - but the Jews took it literally, not understanding the essence; thus, the Law was an educator for them EXTERNAL behavior. Not having the Spirit from God, the Jews were not able to understand the Law; This was their main problem and mistake, the way they thought themselves - and how they judged others.

The scribes and Pharisees were blind guides who did not understand that the Law began not with external education - but with inner world(Matt. 23:26.). The history of Israel, through the Mosaic Law, shows us all: no matter how much the Almighty God admonishes and punishes, without the Holy Spirit there is no full meaning. Scripture says:

“An ox knows his owner, and a donkey his master’s manger; but Israel does not know [Me], My people do not understand... What else should we beat you with, who continue their stubbornness? The whole head is full of ulcers, and the whole heart is withered. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there is no healthy place: sores, spots, festering wounds, not cleansed and not bandaged and not softened with oil” (Isa. 1: 3, 5, 6).

This is why it is important for us all to realize that ourselves, without that “Sabbath” blessing, we cannot truly draw closer to God. “As it is written: no one is righteous; there is no one who understands; no one seeks God; everyone has gone astray, up to one are worthless; there is no one who does good, no, not one.”(Rom. 3:10-12).

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not such a covenant as I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; They broke that covenant of mine, although I remained in covenant with them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law within them, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And they will no longer teach one another, brother to brother, and say, “Know the Lord,” for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, because I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more” (Jer. .31:31-34).

This is confirmed by the prophet Ezekiel:

“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; And I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My commandments, and to keep My statutes and do them” (Ezek. 36:26,27).

This happened on Pentecost, after Christ gave His life for us, thereby demonstrating the greatest love. And only THEN, humanity had the opportunity, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, to understand the essence of Christianity, the essence of the Law. Pavel wrote:

“We preach the wisdom of God, secret, hidden, which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the authorities of this age knew; for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory... God revealed [this] to us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, and the depths of God...we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know what has been given to us by God, which we proclaim not in words learned from human wisdom, but in words learned from the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual with spiritual. The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, because he considers them foolishness; and cannot understand, because this [must] be judged spiritually” (1 Cor. 2:7,8,10,12-14).

The essence of Christianity today

So: through the love of the Lord Christ and grace from God the Father (and only then, through understanding) Christians of the first century acquired a true relationship with the Most High. The Apostle Peter admonished:

“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people taken for his own inheritance, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light... And lead a virtuous life among the Gentiles, so that for the reasons for which they revile you as evildoers, seeing your good works, you glorified God on the day of visitation... For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in His steps (1 Pet. 2:9,12,21).

And the essence of Christianity today is to become a follower of Christ as an intercessor for humanity.

Take for example the story of Joseph, who became engaged to Mary: when the mother of Christ found herself pregnant in Joseph’s absence, before their wedding, what should he have thought?..

According to the Law, Mary should have been stoned, and first of all, Joseph himself had to do this (Deut. 22:14,20-24.). However, Scripture says: “Her husband Joseph, being righteous and not wanting to make Her public, wanted to secretly let Her go.”(Matt. 1:19). What then was his righteousness if he literally did not fulfill the Law? - That: “...mercy prevails over judgment”(James 2:13.). Also, Solomon wrote: “Save those taken to death, and will you really refuse those doomed to be killed?”(Prov.24:11).

This is exactly what Christ did in relation to harlots, publicans and others, without dividing the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, etc. into confessions. But the question was how pure is a person’s internal “vessel” for accepting peace from the Most High (Matt. 23:25,26.).

And what do we have in the Christian world today?

Not many believers in Christ really think about why there is so much error and quackery among them today; why can’t they find five or seven Christian churches (both Protestant and sometimes traditional) in any provincial town? mutual language?.. Often, only the appearance of unity is made, as well as the possession of the gifts of prophecy, healing and speaking in other tongues - but to be honest, in essence, this is an exercise in self-deception, an attempt to prove that nothing has changed since the first century.

The Apostle Paul said: “I know that after I am gone, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among yourselves men will arise who will speak perverse things, so as to draw away the disciples after themselves.”(Acts 20:29,30).

Both during the Middle Ages and during the early 21st century, we see that not only are all Christian denominations in a state of division - but often divisions also occur within churches. Therefore, we can say that today's Christianity is in the state of Babylon the Great. The prophetic effect of this state was an event that is described in the book of Genesis:

“The whole earth had one language and one speech... And they said: Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, with its height reaching to heaven, and make a name for ourselves, before we are scattered over the face of the whole earth... And the Lord said: Behold, there is one people, and one everyone's language; and this is what they began to do, and they will not deviate from what they planned to do; Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other. And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore the name was given to it: Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout all the earth” (Gen. 11:1,4,6-9).

The inability to understand the truth from the Most High in unanimity indicates the absence of the Holy Spirit in Christianity today (1 Cor. 1:10. Eph. 4: 5,6.). Let these words be no offense to you all, friends, because honesty is the basis of humility and understanding of the essence of Christianity. How unpleasant it would be to write about this - but obvious facts indicate disorder in Christian movements. And before proving that some denomination has been purified by the Holy Spirit and the fire of trials (see Dan. 11:35; 12:10. Mark 9:49,50.), one should ask the question: is it really true in this Christian movement? , in strict accordance, the events predicted for the time of the end of the wicked world were fulfilled?.. The Apostle Peter warned:

“Beloved! do not shy away from the fiery temptation sent to you to test you as a strange adventure, but as you participate in Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, and at the revelation of His glory you will rejoice and triumph... For it is time for judgment to begin in the house of God; But if it [begins] with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the Gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:12,13,17).

And such scriptures as for example: Micah.7:6-9. Jer.30:7,12-16,23,24. show that true Christianity last days, will simply have to undergo purification through suffering, as it was in the days of the Lord Christ and His disciples (Zech. 13:6-9. Mal.3:1-5.).

Who will be these true messengers of the Almighty, through whom humanity will find peace and Truth? (Dan.8:23; 11:31-33. Rev.11:2-8. Dan.12:3.)... This is immediately the vast majority of Christendom they won't understand. For this reason, the Apostle Paul warned: “Let brotherly love [among you] remain. Do not forget the love of hospitability, for through it some, unknowingly, showed hospitality to Angels. Remember the prisoners, as if you were in bonds with them, and the suffering, as you yourself are in the body.”(Heb. 13:1-3. See: Matt. 25:31-40.). Just like their Master Christ, they will come without reputable teleconferences, thousands of auditoriums, expensive suits, tailcoats and wristwatch with diamonds. These will be those who, without pompous phrases about the teachings of the trinity, the immortality of the soul and other theological interpretations, will discover the essence of true, pure Christianity.

Someone correctly noted that human history can be compared to a wheel; and Scripture states: “Everything that was written before was written for our instruction...”(Rom. 15:4). In the first century, the denomination in which Jews belonged for whatever reason did not matter. What mattered was how much each individual strove for honesty in order to accept not only the law: “do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal” - but it should be purity, without internal malice and wickedness.

At the end of the wicked world, the followers of the Intercessor-Christ will also gather all those who are sincere in heart to the pure, one Truth - the Lord Christ; and it will still be the same, regardless of belonging to any confession. The Prophet Zephaniah wrote about this : “Wait ye ​​therefore for Me, saith the Lord, until the day when I arise for desolation, for I have appointed to gather the nations, to call together kingdoms, to pour out upon them My indignation, all the fury of My wrath; for the whole earth will be consumed by the fire of My jealousy. Then again I will give clean lips to the nations, so that everyone will call on the name of the Lord and serve Him with one accord.”(Zeph.3:8,9). “That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried away with every wind of doctrine, by the craftiness of men, by the cunning craft of deceit.”(Eph.4:14).

As we have already mentioned, at the beginning of the 21st century, it should be recognized that Christianity as a whole has not yet been cleansed of lies and delusions. If anyone believes that he belongs to the “correct” denomination - and the rest are under the wrath of God - he is greatly mistaken, not understanding the essence of Christianity. No one today can know what the real motives of each of us are. The Apostle Paul warned:

“Therefore, do not judge in any way before the time, until the Lord comes, who will illuminate the hidden things in darkness and reveal the intentions of the heart, and then everyone will have praise from God” (1 Cor. 4:5).

During the sign of the end of the wicked world, that real division that Christ spoke about will begin:

“You will also be betrayed by your parents, and brothers, and relatives, and friends, and some of you will be put to death; and you will be hated by all because of My name” (Luke 21:16,17).

The fact that (except for the first century) this prophecy concerns specifically the last days is confirmed by the prophecy of Micah:

“...a son disgraces his father, a daughter rebels against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man's enemies are his own household. But I will look to the Lord, I will trust in the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. ... Do not rejoice for my sake, my enemy! although I have fallen, I will rise; although I am in darkness, the Lord is light to me. I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He decides my case and brings judgment on me; then He will bring me into the light, and I will see His righteousness. And my enemy will see this and shame will cover her, who said to me: “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will see enough of her, and she will be trampled down like mud in the streets” (Mic. 7:6-10).

From the 8th to the 10th verses imply the emergence of their apostate Christianity, the “harlot,” “Babylon the Great” (Rev. 18:4,5.), which we have already mentioned above. Something similar already happened in apostate Jerusalem of the first century - compare: Acts 2:40. Luke 21:20-23. Rev. 18:20,21,24.

There will be two reasons for the persecution of true Christians, co-priests of Christ, at the end of the wicked world.

The first is that “because iniquity will increase, the love of many (Christians) will grow cold” (Matt. 24:12). By lawlessness, we mean the persecution of Christians by an wicked ruler from the devil. Prophet Daniel wrote: “At the end of their kingdom, when the apostates have fulfilled the measure of their iniquities, a king will arise, impudent and skilled in deceit. And his strength will be strengthened, although not by his own strength, and he will produce amazing devastation and will manage to act and destroy the mighty and the people of the saints.”(Dan.8:23,24).

To understand the second reason, we must return again to the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the wife of Joseph. If you read such scriptures as: Rev. 12:1-5,17. Daniel 2:34,35. , then we should conclude that the mother of the Lord is a prototype Kingdom of Heaven, Mount Zion (Rev. 14:1.). And the main point that I would like to draw attention to is the situation in which Maria found herself during her so-called “guilt” for pregnancy. The sons of the Heavenly Kingdom will find themselves in the same position; they will be judged and slandered, accused of spiritual fornication and apostasy from the “real”, generally accepted Christianity. But their judgment will be unjust, since they will not understand the hidden essence of what is happening - just as the Pharisees of the first century did not understand, condemning Christ for violating the law of the Sabbath, washing hands, communicating with harlots and tax collectors; also, claiming that He is a Galilean impostor (John 7:41,42,52.).

*** He who has ears to hear, let him hear: 1 Cor. 2:14-16. Matthew 18:10,23-35.

So David wrote: “Great peace have those who love Your law, and there is no stumbling block for them.”(Ps. 119:165).

The law and essence of Christianity consists of purity, righteousness and love, which comes from the inner world of each of us - everything else is vanity. No matter how many sacrifices are made (many millions of whom were killed before the time of the Redeemer) - all is vanity... The temple built in the time of Solomon turned into dust; everything we see will one day disappear - but the essence of Christianity: love for God, His Son and our neighbors, remains forever (1 Cor. 13:8.). Hurry to do good, learning what its truth is - only through this can we become real Christians. And may the Heavenly Father grant us understanding of this. Amen.

Scriptures to Consider: Titus 3:3-6. Galat.6:1,2. James 5:14-20. (John 10:11; 15:12. Luke 11:23. 1 John 4:20,21.).
(S. Iakovlev).

Instructions

Christianity originated in the first century AD (modern chronology is calculated precisely from the Nativity of Christ, that is, the birthday of Jesus Christ). Modern historians, religious scholars and representatives of other religions do not deny the fact that in Palestinian Nazareth, more than two thousand years ago, a great preacher was born. Jesus is one of the prophets of Allah, a reformer rabbi who decided to rethink the religion of his ancestors and make it simpler and more accessible to the people. Christians, that is, followers of Christ, honor Jesus as God's anointed on earth and adhere to the version of the immaculate virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, from the Holy Spirit who descended to earth in the form of. This is the basis of religion.

Initially, Christianity was spread by Jesus (and after his death by his followers, that is, the apostles) among. The new religion was based on Old Testament truths, but more simplified. Thus, the 666 commandments became the main ten. The ban on eating pork and separating meat and dairy dishes was lifted, and the principle “man is not for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man” was proclaimed. But the main thing is that, unlike Judaism, Christianity has become an open religion. Thanks to the activities of missionaries, the first of whom was the Apostle Paul, the Christian faith penetrated far beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, from Jews to pagans.

Christianity is based on the New Testament, which together with the Old Testament makes up the Bible. The New Testament is based on the Gospels - the biography of Christ, starting from the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary and ending with the Last Supper, at which one of the apostles Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, after which he was declared and crucified on the cross along with other offenders. Particular attention is paid to the miracles that Christ performed during his life, and his miraculous resurrection on the third day after death. Easter, or the Resurrection of Christ, along with Christmas, is one of the most revered Christian holidays.

Modern Christianity is considered the most popular religion in the world, has about two billion followers and branches into many movements. The basis of all Christian teachings is the idea of ​​the trinity (God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit). The human soul is considered immortal, depending on the number of lifetime sins and virtues, after death it goes either to hell or to heaven. An important part of Christianity are the Sacraments of God, such as baptism, communion and others. Discrepancies in the list of sacraments, the importance of rituals and methods of prayer are observed among the main Christian branches - Orthodoxy and Protestantism. Catholics, along with Christ, revere the Mother of God, Protestants oppose excessive ritualism, and Orthodox (orthodox) Christians believe in the unity and holiness of the church.

Religion plays a huge role in the life of society and the state. She compensates for the fear of death with faith in eternal life, helps to find moral and sometimes material support for the sufferer. Christianity, if we talk briefly about religion, is one of the world’s religious teachings, which has been relevant for more than two thousand years. In this introductory article I do not pretend to be complete, but I will certainly mention the key points.

Origin of Christianity

Oddly enough, Christianity, like Islam, is rooted in Judaism, or rather in its sacred book - the Old Testament. However, the immediate impetus for its development was given by only one person - Jesus of Nazareth. Hence the name (from Jesus Christ). This religion was originally another monotheistic heresy in the Roman Empire. This is the only way Christians were persecuted. These persecutions played an important role in the sacralization Christian martyrs, and Jesus himself.

Once upon a time, when I was studying history at the university, I asked the teacher of Antiquity during recess, what was Jesus really like or not? The answer I received was that all sources indicate that there was such a person. Well, questions about the miracles that are described in the New Testament, everyone decides for themselves whether to believe them or not.

Speaking abstractly from faith and miracles, the first Christians lived in the form of religious communities on the territory of the Roman Empire. The original symbolism was extremely simple: crosses, fish, etc. Why did this particular religion become a world religion? Most likely, it’s a matter of the sacralization of the martyrs, in the teaching itself, and, of course, in the policy of the Roman authorities. So it received state recognition only 300 years after the death of Jesus - in 325 at the Council of Nicaea. The Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (himself a pagan) called for peace on all Christian movements, of which there were many at that time. Just look at the Arian heresy, according to which God the father is higher than God the son.

Be that as it may, Constantine understood the unifying potential of Christianity and made this religion the state religion. There are also persistent rumors that, before his death, he himself expressed a desire to be baptized... All the same, the rulers were smart: they would do something random while the pagans - and then bam - and before their death they would convert to Christianity. Why not?!

Since then, Christianity has become the religion of all of Europe, and then of a large part of this world. By the way, I recommend a post about that.

Basic provisions of Christian teaching

• The world was created by God. This is the first position of this religion. It doesn’t matter what you think, maybe the Universe and the Earth, and even more so life, appeared in the course of evolution, but any Christian will tell you that God created the world. And if you are particularly knowledgeable, you can even name the year - 5508 BC.
• The second position is that a person has a spark of God - a soul that is eternal and does not die after the death of the body. This soul was originally given to people (Adam and Eve) pure and unclouded. But Eve picked an apple from the tree of knowledge, ate it herself and treated Adam, during which arose original sin person. The question arises, why did this tree of knowledge grow in Eden at all?.. But I ask this, because ultimately from the race of Adam)))
• The third point is that this original sin was atoned for by Jesus Christ. So all the sins that exist now are the result of your sinful life: gluttony, pride, etc.
• Fourth, in order to atone for sins, one must repent, observe church regulations, and lead a righteous life. Then, perhaps, you will earn yourself a place in heaven.
• Fifth, if you lead an unrighteous life, you will perish in hell after death.
• Sixth, God is merciful and forgives all sins if repentance is sincere.
• Seventh - there will be a terrible judgment, the Son of Man will come and arrange Armageddon. And God will separate the righteous from the sinners.

So how? Scary? There is, of course, some truth in this. Need to lead normal life, respect your neighbors and not commit evil acts. But, as we see, many people call themselves Christians, but behave exactly the opposite. For example, according to surveys by the Levada Center, in Russia 80% of the population considers themselves Orthodox.

But how can I not go out: everyone eats shawarma during Lent and does all sorts of sinful things. What can I say? Double standards? Perhaps people who consider themselves Christians are being a little hypocritical. It would be better to say that they are believers, not Christians. Because if you call yourself one, it is assumed that you behave accordingly. How do you think? Write in the comments!

Best regards, Andrey Puchkov

First of all, it should be noted that we are completely powerless to resolve this issue only through rationalism. For rationalism, Christianity will forever remain an insoluble mystery, of course, provided that there is a private approach to this greatest world phenomenon.

Among the rationalistic attempts to clarify the essence of Christianity, two main directions should be noted: 1) the desire to reduce the entire essence of Christianity only to its moral principles; 2) present Christianity as a system of abstract ideas.

Most a shining example The first aspiration is the view of Christianity of the greatest German philosopher Immanuel Kant. According to Kant, Christianity differs from all other religions only in its moral superiority over them. Christ, according to this reasoning, is the ideal type of moral perfection. His covenants are complete and best expression morally ideal requirements of human nature. His Church is a society where moral goodness. The whole being of a Christian is in his ideal system of morality. The dogmatic teaching of Christianity is not particularly important. The universal objective meaning of the Christian religion - the redemption of the human race for the salvation of man and for his eternal bliss - is denied by the Kantian system as transcendental and not essential for human life on earth. Such reasoning is deeply flawed. If you pay close attention to Christianity, it becomes absolutely clear that it is not a morality without dogma (like Buddhism), for the moral teaching of Christ is not only in an external, formal connection with the doctrine. Christianity is not limited, like some moral systems, only to the desire to justify its moral demands with religious sanction and to base the moral duties of man on the will of the Supreme Being. All Christian ethics is based on dogma and without it loses its full meaning.

The dogmatic teaching about the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity, about the incarnation of the Son of God, about the redemption of the human race and its salvation is not of secondary, but primary importance in Christianity. It does not appear in Christianity only to give the highest authority to its moral teaching. On the contrary, it is the center of the entire Christian religion and the morality that flows from it.

Christian morality, deprived of its dogmatic root, undoubtedly still represents such a charming, attractive and charming phenomenon that it cannot be compared with any other system of morality, surpassing them all in its completeness, simplicity and persuasiveness. And this circumstance alone suggests the Divine origin of such ethical teaching. With in-depth penetration into the roots of this moral system, that is, with penetration into the dogmatic meaning, which illuminates, like the sun, the entire harmony of the whole and the infinite variety of parts, the moral teaching of Christianity completely transforms the human soul and opens up for it the opportunity here on earth to see the beginnings of that blessed eternal state that God has prepared for man in another, better, eternal world.

Only with this eternal dogmatic root is it possible to explain the undying attractiveness of the Christian ideal of morality, which has passed the test of time, acquiring with each success the spiritual culture of mankind new beauty and strength, contributing beneficial influence in all areas of life, without any assistance from external coercion. Only Christianity is capable of kindling a love for truth for the sake of truth itself, without which no truly spiritual progress of a person is possible.

The undoubted moral and beneficial influence of the moral Christian ideal on all humanity is one of the most convincing proofs of its Divine dignity.

From the Gnostics of the first centuries of Christianity to Hegelianism in its modern movements, the essence of Christianity is interpreted as an abstract system of higher knowledge, as an abstract philosophy that theoretically solves the problems of cosmogony and theogony. But the most important aspect of Christianity is the fact of the incarnation of the Son of God and His redemption of sinful humanity, that is, that extraordinary miraculous phenomenon in history, endlessly going beyond the series of ordinary historical phenomena - this most essential aspect of Christianity, without which it is nothing, rationalistic schools from antiquity to the present day they have been classified as myths.

Pastor, Professor Arthur Drews ended up writing the book “The Myth of Christ.” The left Hegelian Feuerbach wrote a great study, “On the Essence of Christianity.” Contrasting the essence of Christianity with the essence of paganism, Feuerbach came to the conclusion that in Christianity subjectivity prevails over objectivity, the heart and imagination prevail over the mind. He sees in Christianity a worldview system for which external world with all the laws of nature has no meaning. As a result, Feuerbach finds in Christianity hostility to reason, to knowledge, to science, to public life and all progress: social, scientific, political, economic and so on. Feuerbach's teachings penetrated into Marxism, and through it into Bolshevik communism, becoming the state religion in Soviet Russia.

For honest critical thought, Feuerbach's gross mistakes are completely clear. Firstly, Christianity, as we pointed out at the beginning of our course, has never been hostile to honest reason, honest knowledge and honest science. But Christianity, of course, never overestimated the human mind in comparison with general spiritual development. Without humiliating reason, it only put it in a harmonious relationship with other forces of the human spirit. Christianity does not idolize the human mind, but looks at it as a talent given from God, which must be applied to life, and encourages knowledge that serves as a weapon for seeking and serving truth, goodness and beauty.

Christianity does not at all sever the connection between man and the world and does not oppose the progress of honest science, but only points to the infinite superiority of the Creator over the world He created, to the immortal purpose of man and to the transitory significance of the material world, and to temporary life as only a preparatory step to eternal life. With this teaching, Christianity only contributes to the spiritual development of man and his moral growth in the present temporary life. History shows how much Christianity contributed to the progress of natural science, that is, that science that was specifically concerned with the study of nature.

Of all the existing religions, Christianity alone does not contain in its fundamental truths anything hostile to true progress. And it treats nature warmly and joyfully, as if it were God’s creation. In contrast to pagan culture, which idolized the sun, moon and stars, the Christian religion places them at the feet of the Creator. It was Christianity that freed humanity from humiliating slavery to the elements of the world and taught man to dominate nature to a much greater extent than rationalistic science dreams of (walking on water and resurrecting the dead).

The idea of ​​unity and solidarity of peoples is a purely Christian idea. The great edifice of international law rests on this Christian idea. IN socially the beneficial influence of Christianity is undeniable. It created Christian marriage and Christian family. It extremely raised the moral dignity of women: virgins, mothers, spouses. Christianity contrasted the pagan neglect of children with the precepts of Christ, who doomed every seducer and corrupter of children's innocence to the bitter fate of drowning with a millstone around the neck.

Paganism, even in the person of the most best representatives, justified and supported slavery; Christianity, systematically destroying piece by piece the foundations by which it was justified in ancient times, finally led to its destruction. Christianity softened cruelty towards criminals.

Let us recall that the Lord Himself chose on earth the degraded title of artisan and thereby removed the stigma of contempt from all honest work. “Work and Pray” became the motto Christian life. All monasticism spent its time in work and prayer.

In order to correctly understand and define the essence of Christianity, it is necessary to keep in mind that it owes its origin entirely to the Divine Person of its Founder and bears the living imprint of this Person in everything.

The Christian religion, like its Founder, is, firstly, holistic, harmonious and comprehensive. It has no flaws and cannot be improved. She's perfect. Only a Christian is subject to improvement, and unlimited improvement at that. The ideal of his perfection is infinite. “Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

Only the Christian religion has every right to be called a religion in the proper sense of the word, that is, a union with God. Christianity embraces our entire existence – spiritual and physical. It sanctifies all our family, social and political relationships. It satisfies all the needs of a person’s spiritual, mental and physical life.

To understand the essence of Christianity, one should consider the basic truths of the Christian religion. Christianity, first of all, is not so much new system creeds and moral teachings, as much as a new beginning of human life and activity.

Although not everything in the New Testament Christian religion is new in comparison with the Old Testament religion, nevertheless, even what Christianity adopted from the religion of Israel shines with a new light of deepened and perfected meaning.

Although in both the Old and New Testaments there are dogmatic truths common to both Testaments about the unity of the Divine Being, about the properties of God, about the origin of man, about his original state, about the fall and others, nevertheless, these truths are presented more clearly in the New Testament, purer, deeper, more spiritual, freer from elements of anthropomorphism, which in the Old Testament obscures the idea of ​​the spirituality of the Divine Being.

The word of Christ that “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24) would be impossible to find in Old Testament.

Some revealed truths in the Old Testament were expressed so covertly that they made the most spiritually developed people of the Old Testament think. Such truths should include indications of the mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of the Word and Spirit of God and others. These secrets, hidden from the Old Testament prophets, were clearly revealed only by the Savior Himself.

New Jewish scholars unfairly claim that in the entire Old Testament there is no indication of the mystery of the trinity. But one cannot help but see in the Old Testament undisclosed concepts about the special powers of God: the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Also unrevealed in the Old Testament was the appearance of God to Abraham in the form of three Angels.

In all its completeness accessible to human understanding, the mystery of the Holy Trinity was revealed, of course, only in the New Testament. The Mystery of the Holy Trinity - the Heart Christian dogmatics. This secret has enormous, inexhaustible significance, both purely speculative and moral.

The speculative significance of the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity consists primarily in the purification, elevation and clarification of the idea of ​​​​monotheism. The Christian teaching about the Holy Trinity is not trebism, thirdism, which is directly and decisively condemned Christian Church. The doctrine of the Trinity is special kind monotheism, but so deep, sublime and pure, which we do not encounter in any other monotheistic system.

The essential thing in the Christian teaching about the Trinity is that, while preserving in all its integrity the Old Testament teaching about the unity of the Divine, through the disclosure of the dogma about the Holy Trinity, it gives the teaching about the unity of God a special, new, extremely significant, highly moral character, which was not and could not be be in no other system of monotheism.

It is not for nothing that Origen, Blessed Augustine and St. Gregory of Nyssa, analyzing the mystery of the Holy Trinity, proved the truth and Divinity of Christianity.

Pure monotheism says very little about height, purity and moral value religion that preaches it. For one can imagine the religion of one idol.

Some of the thinkers of pre-Christian antiquity reached the concept of the unity of the Supreme Being, but the idea of ​​the internal nature of such a Being, outside of His relationship to the world (i.e., the life of God in Himself), was incomprehensible. As a result, monotheism turned either into pantheism, recognizing the eternal revelation Divine life and essences in the world, or in dry deism.

Only Christianity, through the revelation of the dogma of the Holy Trinity, gave a solution to the question of the nature of the one God in Himself. Only Christianity discovered through this dogma the truth that God, the one infinite Spirit in His essence, has certain images of His existence, outside of His relations to the world, in His Trinitarian Being, in Which infinite fullness is manifested inner life, unknown to us.

Without explaining the very essence of the mystery of the Trinity, this dogma clarifies for our mind something about the Being of God, namely, that in the Being of God there is an independent life activity independent of the world and there are conditions for its manifestation. Although the concept of the trinity of God is extremely difficult, the concept of His naked unity is even more difficult. " Christian God alone, but not alone” (Peter Chrysologus “60th Word”).

But in addition to its speculative significance, the dogma of the Holy Trinity also has moral significance [see. Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) “The moral idea of ​​the dogma of the Church”].

Through the mystery of the Trinity, Christianity taught humanity not only to reverently honor God, but also to love Him. Through the mystery of the Holy Trinity was revealed new idea that God is love, the highest, ideal love and an inexhaustible source of love. St. Augustine asserted with deep justification: “The mystery of the Christian trinity is the mystery of Divine love. You see the Trinity if you see love."

The mystery of the Trinity teaches us that God’s love was manifested not only in creation and providence for the world, but that it appears in its most perfect, boundless fullness in the very bosom of the Divine, where from eternity there was a life of love, an eternal communion of the holy love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Thus, it can be argued that the dry monotheism of ancient religions, not fertilized by the revealed truth of the Trinity, did not and could not have a true concept of Divine love.

The main difference between the strictly monotheistic New Jewish religion and the Christian religion lies in the latter’s understanding of the basic Divine essence. Only Christianity, through the revelation of Christ Himself, knows and understands the truth that God is love and what love is.

Christ, in the words of the Christian poet A. Tolstoy, “subordinated all the laws of Moses to the law of love.” It is impossible to understand this idea of ​​God-Love with dry monotheism, for who could God love except Himself? After all, the world is temporary, and when it did not yet exist, who could God love except Himself? Only the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which does not initiate us into the full depth of the Divine Being, immeasurable for the human mind, allows us to understand that the love of God was never inactive, never remained without manifestation, was never selfish, pointing to the eternal Divine communion of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

The whole depth of God's love for the human race will become clear to us to the end in the light of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. This mystery is also the basis of the entire Christian doctrine of atonement.

The highest example of love in the sacrifice of God the Father by His only begotten Son for the salvation of the human race, in the voluntary suffering on the cross of the Son of God for our redemption and in the descent of the Holy Spirit for our sanctification, shaking the human soul, gives rise to a reciprocal grateful, selfless love for God, whom a Christian begins to understand as the loving Father of all mankind.

If we also think deeply about the Christian teaching about the incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, we will see that it has not only deep speculative, but also comprehensive moral significance. It raised man’s moral consciousness to such a height that it was impossible to rise to without God’s help.

Some of the ancient teachers of the Church formulated this truth as follows: “in the sacrament of the incarnation, God descended to man in order to raise man to God.”

The miracle of Christ's resurrection completes all other miracles and constitutes, in the vivid words of Professor N.P. Rozhdestvensky, “the main stone of Christian apologetics.” The proof of the truth of the resurrection of Christ is extremely simple and extremely convincing. This proof boils down to the fact that without the actual fact of the resurrection, neither the beginning of the apostolic preaching, nor the appearance in the world of historical Christianity with its martyrs, apologists, teachers of the Church and holy ascetics, nor the existence on earth to this day of millions of Christian believers, ready to give your life for Christ.

25 / 08 / 2006

God and the laws of nature.

Everywhere in the structure of the universe, man discovers rationality, i.e. pattern. Otherwise, knowledge of the world would be impossible. But where is the source of these patterns found in the Universe? For a religious worldview, the answer to this question is this. God, infinite in His mind, created the world along with its laws. If we do not recognize an intelligent Creator, then the cause of order in the Universe should be attributed to chance. But how could such a complex world order have formed by chance? Observing that various forces operate in the Universe and that it develops according to certain laws, a person can decide that self-development is inherent in the universe. But that's not true. The forces and laws operating in nature do not make plans, projects, drawings, do not make calculations, do not engage in analyzes, etc. And although they act blindly, nevertheless, we know a colossal number of examples where the result of their action is highest degree reasonable, meaningful and appropriate. This can only be if God, the Creator of the world, communicated certain laws to the forces of nature. The laws by which nature develops can be compared by analogy with the mathematical program for controlling an automatic machine. It was not the program itself that set itself, and it was not the gears themselves that began to move. Seeing some kind of automatic machine working without human intervention, no one thinks that this most complex mechanism appeared without highly educated specialists.

Speaking about the laws of nature, it should be said that since these laws exist, there must also be their Lawgiver - God.

If you take some text, for example, the first verse of the Holy Bible, consisting of 28 letters: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1), and give these letters in a split alphabet to a child who does not yet know them names, then can we assume that he will accidentally put together this biblical text from these letters? Here the child is taken as an example, since he acts as thoughtlessly as the forces acting in nature. Would such a child be able to accidentally put together the contents of an entire book from many letters? And if you take a large group of children, it’s also not knowledgeable names letters, and give them any length of time, is it possible to assume that from a huge mountain of letters they will be able to compile the contents of all the books in the world? But the structure of the universe and the processes occurring in it are an infinite number of times wiser and more complex than the content of all the books on earth! So could the unreasonable forces of nature (appearing from nowhere) meaningfully arrange the universe and establish the laws of nature? And where and what kind of “ready-made building material” did they get?

Since time immemorial, man has been interested in the question: how did the Universe arise? The rational structure of the world suggests that the Universe could not arise on its own, without a reason, but was created by an infinitely high MIND.

While admiring some majestic palace, we will not explain its appearance in such a way that, they say, walls, a roof, and windows somehow appeared in this place by themselves; doors and by chance they came together to form a magnificent structure. No one doubts that the palace has its own builders. The graceful shape of the building allows us to conclude that the building was erected by remarkable craftsmen according to a design drawn up by a talented architect. We also know that a car cannot appear without a designer and other highly qualified specialists, a watch without a master, a book without a writer, a painting without an artist. And the Universe, which is an infinite number of times more complex and amazing than all buildings, machines, books, also could not appear without the great Creator, whose name is GOD.

Despite the high level of modern knowledge about the universe, there is no reliable data to support the statement that material world has no beginning. Beginninglessness is infinity in time directed into the past. Infinity is essentially a dimension that does not fit into the narrow framework of the finite human mind, and it is not subject to any limited experience. Based on the definition of "beginninglessness", it is impossible empirically prove that the world always exists.

Every living being or any inanimate body has a beginning, and the cause that caused its existence exists outside of itself and precedes it. Likewise, the universe has a beginning. It was created by God. The Holy Scripture reveals this truth already on the very first pages.

The world was created by God out of nothing. Before the creation of the world there was no finished material, which God could have used to create the world. The creation of the world out of nothing is a miracle that was accomplished by the omnipotence of God.

It is difficult for the human mind to accept the truth about the creation of the world from nothing, since it is guided only by what is available to it in everyday experience, in which the origin of something from complete non-existence is not observed. In addition, the ancient axiom is widespread: “out of nothing comes nothing.” Here it should be said that Christian thought clarifies this aphorism and paraphrases it as follows: “out of nothing, by itself (i.e., without a reason) nothing comes.” If the Holy Bible claimed that the world arose out of nothing by itself, then it would, of course, be absurd. But Holy Scripture teaches that the universe was brought from non-existence into existence by God's Omnipotence. And for the almighty God, nothing is impossible. How God created the world out of nothing is the greatest mystery for the human mind. And you should not try to penetrate with your thought into what is incomprehensible to it. Christian revelation communicates; that creation was not caused to God by any external or internal necessity, but was predestined by God from eternity.

God created the world with His mind, wisdom, will, and word. In confirmation of this, the Holy Scripture says the following: “The Lord founded the earth with wisdom, He established the heavens with understanding” (Proverbs 3:19). “The Lord does whatever he wants in heaven and on earth” (Psalm 134:6). The first chapter of the book of Genesis contains the expression: “And God said: Let there be light. And there was light” (Genesis 1, 3) and similar ones. By the expression “and God said, let there be...” we should not understand that God uttered any articulate sounds similar to human words, but this saying expresses the omnipotent creative power of the Creator, Who brought everything from non-existence into existence.

[To better assimilate the creative wisdom of God, let us turn to an example. To launch a man-made spacecraft a gigantic work of thought of thousands and thousands of scientists, designers, engineers, who are called geniuses, is required: the most precise Computer Engineering, complex electronic and other devices. What then can we call the mind of God, which set billions of billions of heavenly bodies in motion? The movement of artificial cosmic bodies is calculated by people according to the laws of celestial mechanics, which man himself does not establish, but only discovers in nature. God not only calculated the motion of a multitude of celestial bodies unknown to us, but also with His mind established the very laws of motion of the stellar world.
If we take into account the movement of microparticles, described by the laws of mechanics, how much more majestic is the Divine Mind revealed to us. Such a simple example convincingly speaks of the complexity of the microworld structure. One gram of water contains a twenty-two-digit number of molecules. Approximately the same number expresses the number of molecules in one gram of any other substance (air, iron, brick, etc.). Each water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. In each hydrogen atom, one electron moves around the nucleus, in the oxygen atom there are eight electrons, which are located in two orbits: in the first (closest to the nucleus) there are two electrons, in the second orbit there are six electrons. For other types of atoms, the number of electrons and the orbits in which they are located may be much greater. So, for example, in each gold atom, 79 electrons rotate around the nucleus, located in six orbits. All bodies in the world consist of an unimaginable number of molecules and atoms. In every atom, electrons move around the nucleus. Not to mention other particles of the microworld and all the physical processes associated with them, it is not difficult to understand that the universe from the microworld to the world of galaxies is organized by the Creator, infinite in His Mind.]

God first created the world of disembodied spirits - Angelic world, and then created the real, or material world. The completion of God's creation was man, who was created from an immaterial and rational soul and a material body.

Holy Scripture, narrating the creation of the world, repeatedly reports God’s definition of His creation: “And God saw that it was good.”

St. Apostle Paul testifies: “Every creation of God is good” (1 Tim. 4:4).

At different times, human thought has built various cosmological and cosmogonic systems. By the end of the twentieth century, man became even more convinced that the universe is extremely complex in its structure and origin.

Among all cosmogonic systems, the biblical narrative in which Moses depicts the origin of the world attracts special attention. To understand how sublime in spirit and profound in content the truths about peacemaking set forth by Moses are, it is necessary for comparison to remember how primitive and crude the cosmogonic ideas of all the peoples of the earth were at that time. Where else, if not through Revelation from God, did Moses get information about the origin of life on Earth in the following sequence: the structure of land and water bodies initially, then the appearance of plants, animals and, finally, man? After all, science only discovered in the centuries before last that first plants appeared on Earth, then animals and, finally, humans. The physicist of the last century, Bio, said: “Either Moses was as knowledgeable in science as our century, or he was enlightened by God, writing under inspiration from Him.”

About three thousand years ago St. The prophet Moses revealed the secret of the creation of the world by God. Over these past millennia, the idea of ​​creation has received thorough philosophical confirmation. Her authority is very high even today among many of the greatest minds. How could a man of that distant era, when the philosophical thought of mankind was extremely meager, on his own, rise to the concept of God as the Supreme Spiritual Being and Creator?

Moses, the seer of God, describes the creation of the world in such a way that it would be understandable to all people and at all times. Why didn't he use modern cosmological concepts in his narrative? The cosmological picture of the world is constantly becoming more complex. And the knowledge about the world that cosmology has today is very, very simplified (if not infinitely simplified) compared to what the universe actually is. Therefore, if the Holy Bible described the origin of the world even at the level of modern cosmological concepts, such information would also be far from absolute truth. We should not forget that the language of cosmology, physics, mathematics, etc. is a language of limited human concepts for describing individual parts of the Universe using numbers, formulas, graphs, and diagrams. God, with His omniscience, knows everything about the Universe, and He does not need formulas, graphs, or any other similar means. However, the minds of people are not able to accommodate what belongs to the Divine Mind. Since man's mind is limited, his knowledge of the Universe is also limited. No matter how much new things people learn about the universe, there will always be an ocean in front of them that has not yet been discovered.

The entire material world, with all its complexity and diversity, is zero before the greatness, beauty and holiness of God. Therefore, Holy Scripture does not seek to tell us much about the visible universe. The most important thing about the Universe: how it came into being and why it exists is revealed in the Holy Bible, for the human mind on its own cannot resolve these questions. Man is able to learn other truths about the universe with the help of his mind. Why then demand that the answers to them be contained in the Holy Scriptures? If the Holy Bible set out to satisfy human curiosity about the structure of the Universe, how should it do this? Use mathematical formulas, express physical quantities in meters, seconds, kilograms, etc.? But when the Holy Bible was written, human practice did not have these units for measuring distance, time, mass, etc. Knowledge was extremely scarce in the field of mathematics. Only thousands of years after the writing of the Holy Bible appeared mathematical analysis, analytical geometry, non-Euclidean geometry and other areas in mathematics. Physics as a science was just emerging at that time. If, for example, Moses wrote in the Holy Scriptures that the distance from the Earth to the Sun is 150 million kilometers, would this be understandable to the people of that era, and for many subsequent centuries, since such concepts as “million” and “ kilometer", introduced into human practice thousands of years after the writing of the Holy Bible?

Well, if the inspired Moses had expounded cosmological questions using the equations of general relativity, how many even twentieth-century readers would have understood them? And how would nineteenth-century readers of the Bible... a thousand years ago... in the days of its writing, have viewed such a narrative? Knowledge about the world expands as a person’s mental abilities develop, in particular, his abstract thinking. In creative research, a person finds passion for himself and is always looking for something new and unexpected. And if all the knowledge about the universe were revealed to people in a ready-made form, would it really be interesting? scientific activity? And who would then decipher the language of scientific symbols used in the biblical description of the universe? And in what kind of mathematical language should the Almighty reveal cosmology to Saint Moses, if a person at his own discretion chooses the language of mathematical notations, conventionally establishes units for measuring all physical quantities, etc.

If the Holy Bible described the structure of the universe, who can say how many millions or billions of books would then be included in its composition? But what is better: to strive to cognize the material world (which you cannot fully understand, and you cannot nourish your soul for eternity with this knowledge) or to cognize the One who perfectly knows both this world and ourselves, Who created everything. Who alone can nourish the immortal human soul? To know God, to have communication with Him, to be His sons is infinitely higher and more valuable than to know all the deep secrets of the universe! And it is precisely to such knowledge of God and communion with God that the Holy Scripture leads us.

People are unable to understand how God created the world, because this is an incomprehensible miracle for the human mind. Holy Scripture reveals that the process of creation was accomplished through supernatural means. Knowledge of the laws of nature will not answer the question of how God created the world. The omnipotence of God acted in the process of creation, and it has no limitations. If, for example, the Holy Bible says that light appeared before the sun, one must firmly believe in this. Moreover, from the point of view modern physics light is a special type of matter, special case electromagnetic waves, and for its occurrence it is not necessary to have a source such as the Sun. Light has many amazing properties. [ “Light” is emitted, absorbed and propagated in the form of quantum particles called photons. In vacuum, a photon travels at approximately 300,000 km/sec. It cannot be at rest and cannot change its speed. Light has a dual nature - both wave and corpuscular.] Wonderful is his origin during the creation of the world. Visible light helps people to the smallest extent to imagine that ineffable Light that is God.

The entire materialistic philosophy is built on the assertion that the Universe had no beginning. However, 20th century science came to the conclusion that the Universe had a beginning in time.

In 1929, the American astronomer Hubble made such a discovery. The light from distant galaxies is somewhat redder than expected, and the further a galaxy is from us, the more the light it emits shifts to the red side of the spectrum. Based on the Doppler effect [ The change in wavelength (or frequency) observed when a source of light or sound waves moves relative to its receiver. As you move away from the receiver, the wavelength increases, and as you get closer, it decreases.] this can be explained by nothing other than the distance of galaxies from us. This means the Universe is expanding. Calculations have shown that in the past the Universe was concentrated at one point, much smaller than the size of an atom. Science does not undertake to answer the question of what the Universe was like, contained at one point. Almost all major cosmologists and astrophysicists of our century share the belief that God first created the Universe in the form of a primary atom, and only then set the entire cosmos in motion from it.

A true Christian, of course, does not need such proof of the creation of the world. It is quite enough for him to know about the creation of the world what the Holy Bible reports about it. Many scientists did not even try to delve into this mystery. So, one day Isaac Newton was asked to explain how the world came into being. To this, the greatest natural scientist replied that he does not create hypotheses and his task as a scientist is to explain not how the world came into being, but what it is like from the first minute of its existence.

Although such an explanation of God's creation of the Universe, which is offered by modern cosmology, based on the idea of ​​​​an expanding Universe, the Christian worldview cannot take into account due to the powerlessness of science to unravel the mystery of the creation of the world, nevertheless, one cannot help but pay tribute to the fact that the science of the 20th century, owning such by the most powerful means knowledge of the universe, such as the general theory of relativity, spectral analysis, radio astronomy, etc., came to an unshakable confidence in the very thing that the Christian religion has been teaching for many centuries, namely:
- the universe has a beginning in time;
- before the appearance of the Universe there was neither space nor time;
- the light about which God said “let there be light. And there was light” (Gen. 1, 3), really arose before the Sun: astrophysicists say that this primordial light in the Universe has survived to this day in the form of the discovery in 1965 by American scientists of relict (i.e., residual) radiation that permeates the entire Universe.

Modern astrophysics studies cosmic objects such as neutron stars, radio galaxies, quasars, pulsars, black holes, etc. How interesting all this is! What great, wondrous works the Lord shows us!

For example, black holes. Perhaps this is one of the most mysterious objects in space.

A black hole is a very compressed celestial body. She absorbs everything inside herself, but nothing can ever fly out of her. Time stops inside a black hole. A black hole is like a reminder to a person of hell. After all, hell is impenetrable darkness, time stops there, anyone who ends up in hell will never be able to get out of it.

The idea of ​​evolution has penetrated not only biology, but also astronomy. Materialism explains the appearance of planets. Suns, stars, galaxies as a result of evolutionary processes in the Universe. They say that the starry sky, as we see it today, became that way over billions of years. It seems to them that if the process of the formation of the Universe is stretched out over many billions of years, it will look convincing. What can be said in this regard?

First of all, attention is drawn to the fact that modern cosmology, explaining the very process of the emergence or creation of the world, speaks not about billions, not about millions, not about thousands, and not even about years, months, days, hours, minutes, but about such unimaginably small fractions of a second, such as 10 -34 sec. -43 (the so-called age of the Universe when the Friedmann expansion began - the recession of galaxies discovered by Hubble) or a billion times smaller value: 10

sec. (Planck time, the age of the Universe, from which classical ideas about the gravitational field began to work). Modern scientists say that already in such an incomprehensibly small time compared to one second that has passed since the moment the Universe began its existence, all the physical laws of the universe act in such a direction that they can be favorable conditions

for the life of the human race. Thus, the prominent American physicist Steven Weinberg in his book “The First Three Minutes” substantiates the assertion that from the very beginning of the world in the Universe, the life of humanity on Earth was predetermined. Attempt the origin of the Universe as a single whole and its constituent parts is approximately the same as looking at reality in the mirror behind the back of an observer who has never in his life not only moved in space, but has never seen anything around him with his own eyes, and therefore has no ideas about the real size of objects and the distances between them. Can such a person, seeing a mirror image of the world behind him, establish the sizes of the reflected bodies and the distance between them? Of course not. This is exactly the kind of person scientists resemble in relation to the past of the Universe. They did not travel back in time, not thousands, not millions, not billions of years. Before their scientific gaze a panorama of the evolutionary formation of the cosmos cannot “scroll”, as on a movie screen, even if evolution actually took place in the formation of cosmic bodies. The observer we mentioned earlier sees with the help of a mirror behind him the actual picture of the universe, but material scientists who are trying to explain the origin of the celestial bodies in a natural way have before them not reality, which reflects the process of formation of cosmic bodies, but their own theoretical hypotheses and models in this regard and they are operated on.

IN mirror image In the reality around us, some objects appear in the foreground, others in the background, although the surface of the mirror is one plane. Scientists observe the reflection of the past of the Universe in one time plane - in the present time. However, observing star clusters in some areas of space and interstellar dust and gas in others, science comes to the conclusion that stars are formed gradually and a cycle of matter occurs in the Universe: some stars are destroyed, others are created. The appearance of such clearly evolutionary-materialistic views confused some natural scientists at one time and pushed them towards materialism. Well, even if it were so: some star worlds are destroyed, while others arise, why should God be denied through this? In our body, too, some cells die, others are created again, but this in no way speaks against God. On the contrary, in this example we are convinced of how wise the Lord is in creating such a marvelous human organism.

Scientists are trying to comprehend the universe, but at the same time they do not take into account the fact that as a result of the Fall of mankind, firstly, man himself changed for the worse: he found himself at a very significant distance from God - the source of wisdom and knowledge - and for this reason alone is not able to know many of God’s great plans for the Universe; secondly, the consequences of the Fall penetrated into the material world around us, and it became involved in corruption and destruction.

On the day of the Second Coming of the Lord there will be a renewal of heaven and earth. “Then the heavens will pass away with a noise, and the elements will be destroyed with burning fire, and the earth and all the works on it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). “However, according to His promise we look forward to new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).

Immeasurable bliss awaits everyone who, all the days of his earthly life, prepares for himself a dwelling in the new heaven and new earth.

Why and for what purpose did the Almighty create the world? The answer to this question is contained in the Holy Scripture, which reveals to man that the only reason that prompted God to create the world was His infinite goodness and love, the desire to have participants in His glory outside His inner life, and the purpose of creating the Universe was the glory of the Creator and the bliss of rational and moral creatures. Being Himself all-good, God wants other moral beings to be blessed, which they can achieve only through glorifying their Creator. “God does not need anything; but He, being an abyss of goodness, deigned to grant existence to those who do not exist (those who did not have existence," writes Blessed Theodoret. And according to the Monk John of Damascus, “the good and all-merciful God was not content with contemplating Himself, but out of His (excessive) goodness He pleased that beings should come into being who would benefit from His benefits and participate in His goodness.”

The Universe is, as it were, a majestic temple in which all inanimate, animate, rational and moral creatures constantly praise and glorify their Creator.

The glory of God has no resemblance to human glory. God does not need the kind of glory that people seek for themselves. The glorification of God by man is our assimilation to the Creator through growth in spiritual perfection, through which we, people, become familiar with the source of true bliss and, as we grow spiritually, we are already blissful on earth.

God had no need to create the world and is not at all dependent on matter. He acts in matter, but these His actions do not in any way affect His own state.

Just as the artist is outside the canvas and the potter is outside the clay, so God is not connected with matter. Reverend Simeon New Theologian writes: “Having created the world, the Lord did not change place and did not unite with creatures. If He is unlimited, then where do you say He is. I answer you: look for Him not physically, find Him mentally. Searching spiritually, you will find Him unlimited, and therefore again - nowhere, neither inside nor outside, although everywhere, in everything, dispassionately, unmerged, and therefore outside of everything, since He is first of all."

The Creator has placed the stamp of His omnipotence, greatness, and wisdom on all His creation. Saint Gregory the Theologian said: “Heaven, earth, sea, in a word - the whole world is the great and glorious book of God, eloquently testifying to the existence of God.”

If a person looks at the Universe with the eyes of the spirit, he will definitely see the hidden God in creation. “Once,” says the greatest Christian ascetic and world-famous philosopher Blessed Augustine, “I wanted to know where and in what place my God is. I asked the earth, where is my God? Or are you my God? - She answered and said: “Not I am your God." And everything that is on it said the same thing to me. Then I asked the sea and all the depths and its animals: "Where is my God?" And they answered me: "We are not your God: look for him. above us." I asked the blowing wind: "Where is my God?" And the air space with all its inhabitants said: "We are not your God." I asked the sky, the sun, the moon and the stars, but their speech was: "We are not your God, whom you seek." Then he turned to all the objects that I had contemplated and said to them: "You answered me that you are not my God. What can you tell me about Him?” And they all shouted loudly: “He created us!”

By style work of art you can easily determine who its author is. Several books written in the same style testify to their common author. The Book of the Universe was also written by a Single Author. Studying, for example, a grain of sand lying on the seashore and a meteorite flying to Earth from the depths of the Universe, we will find common elements in their composition chemical elements. But an even more striking similarity is found in their internal structure. They consist of the same electrons, protons, neutrons, etc. Cosmic radiation that comes to us on Earth from distant stars consists of the same elementary particles that can be observed on Earth. How, if not through the creation of God, can one explain that the Universe in all its parts is built according to a single plan and from the same “bricks”?

Saint Athanasius the Great writes: “The undoubted proof that the cause of everything that exists is one is that there is one world, and not many... The very order of the world and the perfect correspondence of all its parts clearly show that there is one ruler and manager in the Universe, and not many. For if there were many rulers, this order could not be preserved; on the contrary, everything would be confused and distorted, because each would rule according to his own will and oppose the other. And as we said that polytheism is atheism, so it is. multi-government must be called anarchy: if one overthrew the power of the other, without a doubt, there would not be a single boss left, but there would be one general anarchy. Where there is no boss, there is no order, on the contrary, only disorder. many, this would expose the powerlessness of the creators, since one task required the participation of many; and at the same time it would show the insufficiency of the knowledge of each of them for creation. After all, if one were sufficient for this, then there would be no need for many to make up for each other’s insufficiency. But to say that something is lacking in God is not only impious, but also exceeds all impiety: because even among people one would not be called a perfect artist (on the contrary, they would be called weak) who created not alone, but with the assistance of many some kind of work."

The existence of all visible and invisible creations, the laws of the Universe and their wise consistency testify that God preserves the existence and powers of His creatures and directs them to good goals. God's care for the world is called Divine Providence. The providence of God is the constant action of the omnipotence, wisdom and goodness of God, with which God preserves the existence of both the entire Universe as a whole, and individually all creatures and bodies in the world, with their inherent powers and laws; moral beings are helped (when they freely choose and do good) without violating their free will; directs their life and activities towards their intended goals, correcting and turning, if possible, the evil they commit into good consequences.

God, as the most perfect spiritual Being, cannot be indifferent to the fate of the world He created. The infinite love of God is continuously manifested in the living and active connection of the Creator with His creations. In turn, the world needs God's providence over it, since it was brought into existence from nothing and does not have self-existent existence within itself.

Holy Scripture clearly depicts the providential activity of God. The Old Testament righteous man Job writes about God: “He despises the ends of the earth and sees under the whole heaven” (Job 28:24). “In His hand is the soul of every living thing and the spirit of all human flesh” (Job 12:10). In the book of the prophet Isaiah, the Lord says: “And until your old age I will be the same, and until your gray hair I will bear you; I created and will carry, support and protect you” (Is. 46:4). In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ the Savior speaks of God’s compassionate love for every person and for all creatures with these words: “Look at the lilies, how they grow: they do not toil, they do not spin; but I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like that.” like any of them. If God clothes the grass in the field today, and tomorrow it is thrown into the oven, then how much more than you, you of little faith! (Luke 12:27-28).

The Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount also depicts God’s providence for people, saying: “That you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). The psalmist David in Psalm 103 very expressively portrays God as the Provider of life: “All of them (animals on Earth) expect You to give them their food in due time. You give it to them, they accept it; you open Your hand, they are satisfied with good; Thy face - they are troubled, you take away their spirit - they die and you send your spirit - they are created, and you renew the face of the earth" (Psalm 103: 27-30).

God's providence constantly works miracles. Does a miracle contradict the laws of nature? There can be no contradictions here. Laws of nature established almighty god. He can and does change these laws according to His will. If a person has the ability to influence nature with his limited powers, then even more so does the omnipotent God have this ability. Having created the world and established His own laws in it, God did not bind Himself to these laws. With His omnipotence He can perform actions in nature beyond its laws.

A miracle is a phenomenon or action that has no cause in the forces and laws of nature. It occurs in nature, but is not produced through nature. A miracle is not unnatural, but supernatural and is proof of God's sovereignty over nature. The amazing action of God is visible in every blade of grass, in every flower, in every seed, in every insect, in a word, everywhere. The divine works of the Lord are so widespread around that a person, getting used to them, may not notice God’s wonder in them. That’s why God works miracles, so that people, seeing something unusual, recognize the One who does it.

Every miracle is an undeniable fact. With reason, a person cannot explain a single miracle. But the entire Christian faith is based on the possibility of a miracle. By praying, a Christian believes and hopes that through his prayer and faith, almighty God can perform such actions that go beyond the ordinary course of life. And although everything in the world happens according to unchanging laws, a believer sees many miracles at every step. Are not the life of man and the entire Universe miracles? Isn’t it a miracle that the Church of Christ exists on earth, which is not of this world? Every believer in Christ who sincerely confesses his sins in the sacrament of Repentance is familiar with the greatest miracle of inner spiritual renewal. After a sincere and deep confession, the soul feels the weight of the sinful burden being lifted from it; an ocean of goodness, joy, spiritual purity flows into her, the whole heart is illuminated with an unusual light, filled with peace and love. This miracle can be available to every person who wishes to experience it. Throughout the history of the Church of God, such an internal miracle has been contemplated by billions of people. There are also vivid images of this spiritual experience in brilliant works of poetry and prose - evidence that many great masters of words had this religious experience in their personal lives.

It is not given to man to know how God works miracles, how He controls the Universe. But it is possible for people to contemplate the wondrous order in the affairs of God. It is found everywhere: in the world of numbers and geometric shapes, in the laws of physics, chemistry, biology..., in great and small, in distant and near... Man studies the laws of the universe. But the more people discover them, the more mysterious and mysterious the Universe is perceived if its origin is explained without an intelligent Creator. After all, how else can we explain a reasonable pattern in nature? We derive the laws of mathematics from our thinking, our mind. Therefore, mathematics is a product of the mind. But why do planets that do not have intelligence move according to the most precise mathematical laws? Why is it that in the structure of crystals and minerals, plants and animals, human bodies symmetry and regular geometric shapes, strict mathematical laws? There is only one answer to these questions: the universe is structured by the infinite Mind of God.

It takes great minds to discover the laws of nature. So, are these reasonable laws really established in the Universe without reason, or more precisely, without the Supreme Reason - God? If in an ancient abandoned cave some images are found carved on the wall, or during archaeological excavations certain tools are found, no one has any doubt that someone worked on it man of sense, although we never saw him himself. Is it possible to count everything that reliably testifies to the Supreme Intelligence that created the world?

With this, we will conclude on the pages of this brochure our consideration of the starry sky, discussions about the vast expanses of the Universe and the innumerable secrets of the universe. After all this, we will make the following main conclusion: the Universe could not have appeared and existed without the Higher Mind. This means that it owes its origin to God. So. the order found everywhere in the Universe leads us to the recognition of the Almighty.

Let us learn, like a child, with simple faith and humility of mind, to look into the heavenly heights, so that every time we do so, our spiritual gaze, emanating from pure heart, God was revealed.