The Only Foundation

About Bishop St. Theophane the Recluse

About "old" and "new" calendar

September 23 (October 6)

ICor. 15:39-45, Lk. 4:31-36

“If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” [Jn. 8:24]. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” [Acts 4:12]. We need forgiveness of our sins, and, because “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ' [Un. 2:1], there is no way of doing that other than through the faith in the Son of God Who was crucified for us in the flesh, conditioned upon our resolve to resist sin, sinful habits and actions.

If we renounce sin, we ought to accept the Grace of the Holy Spirit which works together with us; and the Grace, having come to the earth after the Ascension of the Lord, when He seated on the right hand of the Father, is given only to those who have faith in this wondrous edifice of our salvation and with this faith approach the Divine Sacraments established in the Holy Church through the Apostles. No one, therefore, who does not believe in True God as He is, can be clear from his sins; not having cleansed his soul from sins, he will die in them and face the Judgment according to their gravity.

If you want to do good to your neighbor, to do something of an everlasting value, guide him in the faith, true faith in the Lord, free of wavering and trickery. Conversely, those who do damage to the faith of others, directly or indirectly, ought to be considered evil-doers of eternal proportion: for the evil which they cause lasts forever, and there is no means to undo it. Ignorance is no excuse for them: how could one possibly be ignorant of the truth manifest to the entire world? Opposing doctrines are no excuse either, for careful scrutiny quickly overturns all of them, leaving the true faith in God as the only possible foundation.

Who are the apostate from the faith? Those who are not serious about either the foundations, or the faith itself, or the teachings which they embrace instead. Thorough inquiry into the conditions of our salvation invariably shows that it is possible only through God Who was incarnate, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and sent His Holy Spirit to the earth. This is the essence of the Christian faith. He that keeps it as his earnest belief, will never die in his sins, for he carries inside the power of forgiveness. “But he that believeth not is condemned already'” [Jn. 3:18], for he carries his damnation inside him.

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