My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

CONCERNING THE ONE TRIUNE GOD

The essence of God, being infinite and inexpressible "arretos," is incomprehensible to the natural man, inasmuch as "God, then, is infinite and incomprehensible; and all that is comprehensible about Him is His infinity and incomprehensibility." Nevertheless, the very God, through His natural and, more especially, His supernatural revelation, disclosed to man, insofar as he was capable of receiving it, knowledge pertaining to Him. This knowledge cannot, of course, be absolute and perfect in essence; rather, whether concerning the Divine Nature according to the Holy Fathers, or "concerning God" such must be "only partial knowledge," based on faith. For this reason, the negative attributes ascribed to God--as also the positive attributes ascribed to Him by the Holy Scripture (goodness, righteousness, wisdom, etc.), although valid and genuine, being objective reality, and not subjectively ascribed to God by us,--nevertheless neither declare nor express the nature of God. They "declare not His nature, but attributes of that nature." Consequently, although we know that God exists, we are in ignorance concerning His essence. "That there is a God, then, is no matter of doubt to those who receive the Holy Scripture...it is plain, then, that there is a God, but what He is in His essence and nature is absolutely incomprehensible, and unknowable." For this reason Saint Gregory Nazianzus characterizes God in accordance with 1 Timothy 6:16; he writes, "God is Light: the highest, the unapproachable, the ineffable, that can neither be conceived in the mind nor uttered with the lips."

Thus, it is only by means of Holy Scripture that we learn and believe: "...in One God, one beginning...one essence, one Divinity, one power, one will...made known in three perfect subsistences...united without confusion and divided without separation." Thus, the One God in essence is Trinitarian in hypostasis (or in Persons); i.e., Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Saint John Damascene)

On the World

"...God is the Creator of the world, not because of some essential need on His part, but due to His sovereign will, energy and goodness. The creation, being a sovereign act of God, is not eternal, but had a beginning in time. The Divine will and plan concerning the world existed eternally, God then realizing, bringing into objective reality the "intelligible world," substantiating it, bringing into time: the creation of the "visible world," as the Holy Fathers understood and taught. But God, freely creating the world out of nothing, by no means was dependent upon appearances, prototypes or ideas; just as He had no need of matter, instruments, labor, pain, etc. "Because God, the Creator of all, is without need, humans are dependent one upon the other...but the Maker of all needs neither instruments not matter, neither time nor labor, neither science nor study; all these could not exist without the will of God." Thus God creates: "He first conceived, and His conception was a work fulfilled by His Logos/Word, and perfected by His Spirit." The Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, creates all things." Thus the Father is "the Creator of all things," (1 Corinthians 8:6; Romans 11:36). The Son is "through Him all things" (John 1:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2). The Holy Spirit is "εν ω τά πάντα"--in Whom are all things (Genesis 1:2). We must add here that "everything that God made was very good." Consequently, the evil which exists in the world does not come from the good God, nor did He implant it into the world, "for nothing evil was made by God."

Providence

The world was not created to be absolutely self-sufficient and independent; rather, it is of only relative independence, insufficient for the preservation and development of its creatures without the "synergia"--the assistance, the cooperation, of the Providence of God. Hence, the good God did not abandon the world which he created to its own fate, but continues, through His providence, to care for it; preserving it, governing it, and directing it to its final purpose. For this reason, we not only "confess God" as Creator, but "we understand that all are governed by His Providence only"; God "not only having brought the universe into being, but preserving and shaping...all visible and invisible creation enjoys His Providence, without which (God's assistance and co-operation) they would cease to exist, would disappear, would be annihilated."

God's preservation and governance extend throughout the entire universe, and to each being separately, so that, together with the co-operation of the Divine power and Providence with the natural and spiritual powers and laws of the universe, the plan of God is completed. Nothing in the entire universe happens by accident, unknown to the providence of God.

"Do not say that anything automatically came into being by itself. Nothing springs out of disorder, out of infinity, just by chance. Nothing brought about the universe accidentally, or out of luck, having been brought about by some evil hour or moment. Such are but the imagination of uncultured peoples. Nothing is without providence; nothing is neglected by God. The sleepless eye of God beholds all, is present everywhere, desiring the salvation of His own." But the Divine Providence, while co-operating when man does good, naturally does not co-operate at all when man, in his free choice, decides to work evil. In such an instance, the Divine Providence becomes a "concession of free will." However, "we believe that all that exists, whether visible or unseen, is governed by the Providence of God. As for evil events which occur, God foresaw them all and allows them to come about, but He does not cause them, for He is not the creator of evil, but had intended all people and events for some good purpose, God being himself absolutely good." (Source: A Synopsis of the Dogmatic Theology of the Orthodox Church by John Karmiris)

___________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George