My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord and Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

THE DEFINITION OF PROPHECY ACCORDING TO OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH (Part II)

The Coming of Christ

At the Annunciation (Evanggelismos) of the Ever-Virgin Mary, we chant, "Today is the crown of our salvation and the manifestation of the mystery that is from all eternity. The Son of God becomes Son of the Virgin." The Holy Prophets foretold that He was to become a child, taking flesh from the Virgin, being joined to men and seen by those on earth, even as Baruch proclaimed: "This is our God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him. He hath found out all the way of knowledge and hath given it unto Jacob His servant and to Israel His beloved. Afterward, did He show Himself upon the earth, and conversed with men" (Baruch 3:35-37). Jesus is the "expectation of nations" (Genesis 49:10).

"All the Prophets," says Saint Irenaeus, "announced two advents: One, indeed, in which He became man subject to stripes and knowing what it is to bear infirmity (Isaiah 53:3), and when He sat upon the foal of an ass (Zachariah 9:9), and was a stone rejected by the builders (Psalm 117:22), and was led as a sheep to the slaughter (Isaiah53:7), and destroyed Amalek (Exodus 17:11) by the stretching forth of His hands, while He gathered from the ends of the earth into His Father's fold the children who were scattered abroad (Isaiah 11:12), and remembered His own dead ones who had formerly fallen asleep, and came down to them that He might deliver them; but the second time He will come on the clouds (Daniel 7:13), bringing on the day which burns as an over (Malachi 4:1), and smiting the earth with the word of His mouth (Isaiah 11:4), and slaying the impious with the breath of His lips, and having a winnowing fan in His hand, and thoroughly purging His threshing floor, and gathering the wheat indeed into His storehouse, but burning the chaff with fire unquenchable (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17).

The Prophets and the Apostles

The Venerable Prophets proclaimed the way of salvation, and in the sufferings conformed to the Passion which they foretold. They served as mediators of the New Covenant (New Testament) of Christ. The grace of the Holy Spirit shone in the Holy Apostles. For the Hebrew nation, the Prophets were to foretell the Messiah's Coming and to lead them to the knowledge of God. The Holy Apostles proclaimed the Christ's deeds, and enlightened the nations. According to Saint Justin, "Righteousness is not placed in Jewish rites, but in the conversion of the heart given in Baptism in Christ." On the day of Pentecost, the Comforter descended in all fullness upon the Apostles and the faithful with them.

The Sufferings and Rewards of the Holy Prophets

The Divinely-inspired Prophets preached in word and deed, and they received as their reward life without end. They renounced the whole world for the sake of God's Word and His Law. They endured many trials and afflictions and some were martyred. Prophet Amos received a blow to his brain which led to his repose; Prophet Isaiah was sawn asunder; Prophet Ezekiel was bound to the tails of horses and rent asunder; and, Prophet Jeremiah was stoned. Saint Paul makes mention of their sufferings, writing: "They received trial of mockings and of scourgings, and, moreover, of bonds and of imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted; they died by murder of the sword. They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in need, afflicted, ill-treated--of whom the world was not worthy. They were made to wander in deserts, and in mountains, and in caves, and in the holes of the earth" (Hebrews 11:36-38).

As a further encomium to their labor and sufferings, Saint Hyppolytos (+ 170-235 A.D.), Bishop of Rome, lauds the Holy Prophets: "With how many mouths and tongues would I praise you, or rather the Logos/Word Who speaks in you! You died with Christ, and you will live with Christ. Hear and rejoice: behold, the things announced by you have been fulfilled in their time. For you saw these things yourselves first, and then you proclaimed them to all generations. You ministered the oracles of God to all generations. You Prophets were called that you might be able to save all. For then is one a Prophet indeed, when, having announced before time things about to be, he can afterward show that they have actually happened. You were the Disciples of a Good Master. These words I address to you as if alive, and with propriety. For you hold already the crown of life and immortality which is laid up for you in heaven" (cf. 2 Timothy 4:8).

The Synagogue (GK. Synagogy)

Saint John Chrysostom comments, "many have tried to destroy the Church, but they did not have the power to do so. Even though many were eager and tried to raise up the Temple again, they could not do so...How is it, then, that they could not build a single temple, especially since they saw that, with no temple, Jews were shackled and constrained from their worship all over the world? Did they not see that their customary ritual had disappeared? Did they not see that their sacrifices, offerings, and other religious rites in which the Law prescribed had been destroyed and ceased to exist? For the Jews were not permitted to erect an altar, nor offer sacrifice, nor pour libations, nor immolate the sacrificial lamb, nor offer incense, nor read the Law, nor celebrate any festival, nor do any other thing connected with their ritual and worship unless they were within the precincts of the temple." (Source: The Lives of the Holy Prophets)

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

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With sincere agape in His Holy Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George