Essence of the doctrine of salvation. The essence of the Orthodox doctrine of salvation. Misunderstanding the Nature of Sin

The rescue(from the Greek "σωτηρία" - deliverance, preservation, healing, salvation, good, happiness) -
1) providential actionaimed at uniting man and God, delivering him from the power of the devil, sin, corruption, mortality, communion with eternal blessed life in ();
2) activity, incarnated for the sake of reuniting man and God, him from sin, liberation from slavery to the devil, corruption, mortality; who created, constantly caring for her as her unchanging Head ();
3) human activity, carried out with the assistance of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, aimed at likening and spiritual unity with Him, communion with eternal blessed life; 4) the actions of the saints, aimed at providing this or that help to sinners.

To what extent are people interconnected and free in salvation?

Obviously, a child brought up in a dysfunctional family, for example, in a family of drug addicts or simply atheists, initially has fewer opportunities to know God than a child from a relatively prosperous Christian family. People influence each other, for example, we see numerous examples in the world around us when one person kills or maims another. Nevertheless, everyone can achieve salvation, because God has given each of us an inner guideline - conscience and calls each person to His Church. “... And from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and to whom much is entrusted, more will be exacted from him ”().

Is it possible that God, by His categoricalness, only pushes people to greater zeal in the matter of salvation, uses severity only as a pedagogical device, but in the end saves everyone and everyone?

No, not everyone will be saved. Moreover, we see that quite often the Lord calls people not in a harsh, threatening form, but in a mild form, but when a person does not hear this exalted call, he allows him to reap the fruits of his disbelief through difficult trials, tragic circumstances. People who have not come to their senses during earthly life will reap the fruits corresponding to their lives. One of the consequences of their going to hell will be their personal inability to live up to the standards of God's Kingdom.

Who is more categorical in the question of the possibility of salvation for all people: the Apostles, the holy fathers of former centuries, or modern theologians?

The apostles and holy fathers are more categorical. With rare exceptions, such as, for example, one can recognize the opinion indicated by the saint, the general view of the holy fathers of the Church was reduced to a literal understanding of the Gospel testimony about the separation of sinners from the righteous on the Last Judgment and about the eternity of hellish torments.

Why exclude the possibility of repentance at the Last Judgment of an atheist or an inveterate sinner who saw God in glory? Wouldn't he instantly prefer to enjoy fellowship with God, to enter the God Realm? Wouldn't God help him?

The shortest answer to this question is simple: if a person, beyond the line of earthly life, even if repentance begins to glow, then the Lord will help him, it is not for nothing that we call Christ the Savior. It remains to be understood how realistic it will be for an atheist in terms of worldview or life to repent and turn to God after death.
After all, atheists do not consider themselves sinners, they do not want and do not have the experience of repentance and communion with God. During earthly life there is a deep inner self-determination of man; without the experience of repentance in this world, how can an atheist manifest it in the next world? If someone does not want to learn how to swim, what is the probability that he will learn it when the boat is wrecked? If a person was hiding from the sun, what will it be like on a sunny beach in the afternoon?
At the Last Judgment, God will appear in the radiance of holiness and the power of grace, for Christians it is desirable and joyful, they have the experience of communion with God and union with God in the Sacraments. Atheists are alienated from God, they have no experience of life in God, for them this energy is painful, because sin and holiness are incompatible. If a person did not seek God, did not know Him, then why can we assume that he will be able to accommodate His grace in eternity?
And will atheists see God as the One they desire? Or will His appearance be unbearable for them, just as it is unbearable for a liar to hear the truth about himself?

There are few people in the world who belong to the Church of Christ, so few people will really find the Kingdom of Heaven?

Christ warned about this: Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go through it; for narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” ().

First, let's not forget that in the Fall potentially all of humanity perished.
Second, some will be saved through the prayers of the Church.
Thirdly, salvation is a voluntary matter, it is impossible to force someone to love God and neighbors, and yet the Kingdom of Heaven can be called the Kingdom of Love.
Let us remember the biblical prototype of salvation given to us by God - Noah's ark, in which only 8 people wished to be saved.

Is it permissible within the framework of theology to use the word "salvation" in relation to particular cases of helping one member of the Church to another?

At the same time, theological practice allows the use of the term "salvation" in a more private sound.

So, in the Book of Judges of Israel, Othniel is called the savior, who delivered (with God's help) the Israelites from the power of Khusarsafem ().

The text of one of the most common prayers to the Most Holy One contains an appeal to Her, as to the Lady, with a request for salvation: Most Holy One, Save us!

In this case, salvation may mean a meaning close to everyday understanding: deliverance from danger, disaster, illness, death, etc. On the other hand, the meaning invested in a request for salvation may be deeper.

Thus, the request to save is appropriate both in conditions of ordinary worldly danger and in conditions of a threat that arises within the framework of religious life. For example, a believer can ask (or other saints) for salvation from the attacks of the unclean, deliverance from their evil influences.

As part of regular prayers to the Mother of God, a petition for salvation can also be used regarding deliverance from eternal

The sage gestured the young man to follow him, led him to the river and led him to a sufficient depth. Grabbing his shoulders, he plunged the young man into the water and held him underwater for some time, ignoring his desperate attempts to free himself. Finally, the sage released the young man and, when he caught his breath, asked:

“My son, when you were underwater, what did you want more than anything in the world?”

- Air! Only air! The young man replied without hesitation.

“But didn’t you want wealth, pleasure, power, or, perhaps, the love of a woman at that moment?”

“No, my lord, I only thirsted for air and thought only of air.

“So,” said the wise man, “to become wise, you must thirst for God as much as you just thirsted for air. If you pursue Him with such zeal, my son, you will certainly become wise.

The main good for a person, according to Orthodox teaching, is unity with God, the beginning of which must be laid here, in the earthly life of a person. But between man and God, since the fall of the first people, there has been a mediastinum, a barrier - sin. Sin blinds a person, closes the way for him to communion with God, just as rain clouds block the sun. That's why main task for a person on the way to the goal is the struggle with sin, deliverance from sin in himself. This process in Orthodox soteriology ( soteriology- the science of salvation) was called "salvation".

The essence of the doctrine of salvation is as follows. From the time of the fall of the first people to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth, people were under the power of sin and were incapable of resisting it. The incarnation on earth of the God-man Jesus Christ, His suffering, death and resurrection opened the way for humanity to overcome sin. Since the ascension of Christ to heaven and the founding of the Church on earth, mankind has regained access to communion with God by fighting sin with the help of the means bestowed by the Church. The advantage of the humanity of the Christian era is that "the Lord Jesus Christ has given us the power by which we overcome the attacks of the Devil attacking us, and we remain free from our former passions." Thus, "from the Orthodox point of view, the essence, meaning and final goal of man's salvation is to deliver him from sin and to give him eternal holy life in communion with God" .

Salvation, according to the teaching of the holy fathers of the Church, based on the teaching Holy Scripture done through faith and works. Faith in Christ, or rather, the initial awareness of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world and a personal attitude towards Him as God is given to man by God. This is the so-called “calling grace”, which plants the seed of faith in the heart of a person and serves as the initial impulse that prompts a person to live according to the Gospel. Life according to the Gospel, just like faith, serves as a means to the salvation of man, the heritage of the Kingdom of Heaven. To understand these spiritual axioms, you must first define the concepts. What is faith in Christ? Just a mental awareness of Him as the Savior of the world, who suffered for us, brought a ransom for us to God and thereby opened us access to the Kingdom of Heaven? Then the Orthodox teaching is no different from the Protestant, life-affirming “I am saved by the merits of Christ,” because Protestantism proclaims the self-sufficiency of just such a faith. And what role do works, gospel commandments, and church life play in salvation? If it's just a means to earn from God eternal life then our understanding is no different from the legal understanding of the relationship between God and man in Catholicism, where a person brings to God the “sum” of faith and deeds, and God becomes “obliged” to reward a person with eternal bliss.

In contrast to rational faith, which can be identified with elementary knowledge and trust in the gospel described in the Gospel, the Holy Fathers contain many statements about living faith, which is necessary for a person's spiritual progress. living faith, according to the Holy Fathers, this is a living awareness and feeling of being a person perishing in sins and the recognition of Christ as the only Savior Who can lead a person out of the sinful abyss and heal sinful wounds with His grace. As long as a person perceives the Gospel and the whole structure of church life superficially, as long as it is only an interesting spiritual tradition for him, he will not see his Savior in Christ, and, in essence, he does not need Christ. Christ is needed only for those who have seen the abyss of sin into which they have fallen and from where they cannot be saved without Christ. The beginning of just such faith in Christ is recognized by the holy fathers as the beginning of conversion to Christ. “The beginning of conversion to Christ lies in the knowledge of one's sinfulness, one's fall; from such a view of oneself, a person recognizes the need for a Redeemer and approaches Christ through humility, faith and repentance ... He who is not aware of his sinfulness, his fall, his death cannot accept Christ, cannot believe in Christ can't be a Christian. What good is Christ to him who is himself both reasonable and virtuous, who is satisfied with himself, who recognizes himself worthy of all earthly and heavenly rewards? .

Faith in Christ, which arises as a person realizes his extreme need for himself in the Savior, is born and maintained in a person by following the gospel commandments. The commandments of Christ for us are a kind of medicine that allows us to take a sober look at ourselves. For some reason, as a rule, we are inclined to compare ourselves with those who are still outside the Church, with those who, not knowing Christ, still live according to the ideas of a secular unbelieving society. And in our eyes they look much worse than us. After all, we live in the Church, receive the sacraments, thank God, and are kept from grave sins. Sometimes we compare ourselves with those who are with us in the same church fence, but take communion a little less often, not as attentively as we do, pray, maybe not fast as strictly. We compare ourselves and ... turn into real Pharisees. Such an incorrect guide does not give us a sober, true assessment of ourselves, to look at ourselves from the outside through the eyes of the Gospel. The gospel offers us a true image to which we must aspire and with which we can compare ourselves. In the very Person of Christ, in those commandments that He left us, we can judge the height to which each of us is called. By forcing himself to constantly fulfill the commandments of the Gospel in the environment and circumstances in which everyone is placed by God, a person gradually begins to learn, on the one hand, how difficult it is for him to overcome those stereotypes of behavior that he has been guided by until now, and on the other hand, how difficult it is and even, as it seems to him, it is unnatural to really follow the standards that the gospel suggests. The man is faced with a difficult dilemma. It would seem that he believed in Christ, who came into the world to teach us the true path to God. But gradually, trying to follow this path, a person suddenly realizes that it is as if he was buried in the sand, leaving only his head free. He sees everything, understands everything, but he cannot move his hand or foot. “The fulfillment of the commandments, or, more correctly, the effort to fulfill the commandments, of necessity exposes the sin that lives in us and arouses a cruel internal struggle» . What to do in the face of such a struggle? It is at this stage that faith is born, about which St. Ignatius speaks: “It (faith) appears in a person from the fulfillment of the gospel commandments, grows as they are fulfilled, fades and is destroyed as they are neglected.”

The commandments of Christ are a means for a person to recognize his weakness, his inability to do anything truly good without the help of God. “Then it is revealed to us how weak we are, how much we have been damaged by the fall, when we begin to force ourselves to fulfill the gospel commandments.” The beginning of the process of self-knowledge is the sincere rejection of sin in all its manifestations. And here a person faces certain problems. Yes, he no longer commits mortal sins, they are already disgusting to him and he is afraid of them, but often this is where development stops. So-called “minor” sins remain in a constant “circulation” with a person, which are often repeated precisely for the reason that they are considered minor and no serious efforts are expended against them. But, as you know, a sandbag can drown just as irresistibly and surely as one heavy stone. As a result, since a person has already moved away from serious sins, and almost does not struggle with “small” ones, spiritual work stops, and a person takes root in the habit of “petty sin”. By the way, one of the so-called petty sins is the condemnation of others. The property of this sin is such that, judging people, a person completely ceases to see his soul full of sin, and this, in turn, deprives a person of the opportunity to repent. Because of the danger of such delusions, the holy fathers recommend at the very beginning of the path to hate sin, great and small, in all its manifestations. “I do not see my sin,” says St. Ignatius, “because I am still working for sin. He who enjoys sin, who allows himself to taste it, cannot see his sin, even if only with thoughts and sympathy of the heart. He can only see his sin, who, by a decisive will, has renounced all friendship with sin, who has stood on good guard at the gates of his house with a naked sword - the word of God, who repels, cuts sin with this sword, in whatever form it approaches him . Whoever does a great deed - establishes enmity with sin, forcibly tearing away his mind, heart and body from it, God will give him a great gift: the sight of his sin.

The process of knowing oneself and one's need for a Savior requires a constant attentive and critical attitude to one's condition. Forcing oneself to fulfill the commandments should become a constant, meticulous feat in the life of a Christian. The Monk Simeon the New Theologian has " Golden Rule”, which is the quintessence of the patristic thought about the attitude of a Christian to the commandments of the Gospel and to himself. This rule sounds like this: "The careful observance of the commandments teaches a person his weakness." Anyone who tries with the utmost responsibility and thoroughness to follow the standards that Christ spoke about to His disciples very soon realizes that he himself cannot fulfill a single commandment without an admixture of some passion. And here it is essential to avoid self-justification. Often it is enough just to honestly admit to ourselves that in some situations we simply do not want to give up our interests or ambitions in favor of the commandment of Christ. Sometimes we even manage to utter words of repentance, still defending our innocence. One seminarian at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra told me an episode that happened to him at the entrance to the Dormition Cathedral of the Lavra. Hurrying on all-night vigil, he was forced to stop at the entrance to the cathedral because of the string of people coming out of it. One grandmother made her way to the cathedral after the student, who, unlike him, did not want to wait for the people leaving and decided to go “against the current”. When the seminarian, with his figure, nevertheless tried to stop her movement, in response he heard a hissing: “I put on the cassock and already a general, God forgive me!”. That is, “I respect Your commandments, Lord, but my situation is special.” Bearing in mind this inclination of man to self-justification, the holy fathers call for the rejection of their own truth, which is always at enmity with the truth of God. “Consider your righteousness sins, consider them not an acquisition, but the greatest damage to yourself. These truths for those who want to keep them for themselves serve as an insurmountable obstacle to receiving the truth of God.

In addition to diligence and constancy, the birth of living faith in Christ is facilitated by the correct fulfillment of the commandments. “Believe the holy, life-giving Gospel commandments,” teaches St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), “ the correct execution of which... constitutes the active faith of a Christian, so called by the holy fathers. Correctness or incorrectness in the fulfillment of the commandments may consist of the following. Due to the modern realities of the existence of our society, we are all accustomed to "market" relations. This, unfortunately, has become an integral feature of our life in many of its manifestations. And the Church is still perceived by many, mostly at a subconscious level, as a kind of social institution, in which the laws of the market also operate. A person has problems in life, he runs to the Church, puts candles, writes notes, asks the priest what he should do to solve problems. He does not want to come to God and change his life, he wants to incline the “heavenly office” to mercy, giving in return a particle of his material well-being. This often happens even when the arrival to the Church has already taken place and the person has begun to live a regular church life. Such a person, often without realizing it, lives in the Church and thinks in terms of law. He understands that he has responsibilities to live the gospel and keep the ordinances of the Church. From this, he concludes that, accordingly, he also has rights. “I will live according to the Gospel,” he argues, “and for this the Lord is for me…”. As a result, a person becomes a kind of “good Catholic”, who counts his good deeds and accumulates “merits”. As a priest, I often come across such a phenomenon when believers, faced in life with ordeal, with bitter bewilderment they say: “Why does God punish me like that? I try to live according to God, I go to church from time to time…”. The Lord taught His disciples to have a different attitude towards the fulfillment of His commandments. When the disciples turned to Him with a request to increase their faith, He answered them: “When you have done everything commanded to you, say: We are worthless servants, because we have done what we had to do” (Luke 17: 10). Thus, according to the teaching of the word of God, the commandments of the Gospel are not a means to "please" God and earn praise and reward, but a real way to experience the impossibility of living righteously without God's help. Moreover, we can say with confidence that if the disciples of the Savior really only “did what they had to do,” then we cannot reach this bar either. The Lord taught to give alms so that right hand I didn’t know what the left was doing, but we carefully calculate all our deeds, endowing them with serious “weight”. And when sorrows happen to us, this "weight" of our "good" deeds prevents us from seeing in these sorrows the merciful right hand of God.

The process of self-knowledge by living the gospel eventually leads a person to humility. “Whoever wants to acquire humility must carefully ... fulfill all the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. The doer of the gospel commandments can come to the knowledge of his own sinfulness," and only on this basis is born in the soul a saving humility that attracts into our soul Divine grace, powerful to overcome any sin in us. For this reason, the holy fathers emphasize that only such deed is salvific for a Christian, which leads him to the knowledge of his weakness, since this gives rise to humility. Moreover, they argue that it is humility, as giving birth to all other virtues, that is crowned by God. “If you work in beautiful virtue and do not feel that you are tasting help from it, then do not be surprised. For until a person humbles himself, he does not receive a reward for his deed. The reward is not given for doing, but for humility. Whoever offends the latter loses the former... Virtue is the mother of sorrow, and humility is born from sorrow, and grace is given to humility. The recompense is no longer for virtue and not for labor for its sake, but for humility born from them. But if it becomes scarce, then the first (virtue and labor for its sake. - holy D.V.) will be in vain.

So, humility is the foundation on which a Christian must stand on the path to God. Psychologically, the state of a person who comprehends the basics of living faith in Christ can be compared with the state of a person slowly but inexorably sinking into a swamp. Such a person will not wait until he finally drowns, but as soon as he notices his plight, he will begin to scream for help. The sooner a person understands that he is perishing from sins, understands that without Christ he will not be able to overcome any of them and will not be able to do a single good deed, the sooner he will begin to relentlessly ask God for salvation from slavery to sin. It is only on this foundation that such a property as humility is built in the soul. And only the humble God gives grace that heals sinful ailments.

All the saints went to God on the thorny path of the commandments and came to the realization of their weakness, their inability to do anything really good without God. Their virtues, due to their imperfection, they considered very insufficient, even, according to St. Simeon the New Theologian, they mourned them as sins. The Monk Macarius the Great, who because of his amazingly virtuous life was called an “earthly god”, prayed to God with the words: “God, cleanse me a sinner, for I have done no good before Thee…”. The way of knowing one's weakness through forcing oneself to fulfill the gospel commandments is recognized by all the holy fathers as the only true one. And in our time of impoverishment of spiritual gifts and universal cooling towards faith, this path must be recognized as the only possible and necessary one for the salvation of man.

SOTERIOLOGY- this is one of the most important sections of systematic theology, since it studies one of the most important problems of the human race - the problem of sin and its solution. Soteriology is a Greek word that means the doctrine of salvation and it comes from two Greek words — soteria which means salvation, deliverance, healing and logos- word, teaching, etc.

Despite its clarity and apparent intelligibility, the word "salvation" is understood differently not only by different world religions, but even by related Christian denominations, because the question "what is salvation?" immediately acquires a number of other questions: salvation from what, for what, salvation of whom or whose salvation, salvation by whom and by what means. The Christian Church historically gave different answers to all these questions. I will now try to show you the variety of these answers. Let's look at several aspects of salvation.

1. The temporary dimension of salvation. When is salvation done? How does salvation relate to time?

Christians answer this question in different ways:

a) some believe that salvation occurs at the moment when I accept Jesus Christ into my life, i.e. at that particular moment in history when I meet Jesus Christ, when I accept him into my heart - this for me means final salvation. I am accepted by Christ - I am saved. Many representatives of Baptist churches, evangelical churches, charismatic churches understand salvation precisely as a specific moment in their lives when they met Christ and experienced conversion.

b) many Christians believe that salvation was accomplished on the cross, that is, I was saved by Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, when Christ was crucified on Calvary. I only accept the salvation that was brought about by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

c) still others take salvation even further, beyond the limits of human history. In their opinion, salvation was preordained by God from the very beginning. Those. God initially predestined salvation for some, and for others - eternal condemnation, death. And we are powerless to change anything in our destiny. If I am originally predestined by God to salvation, then I will be saved, but if I am predestined to condemnation, then I am destined to perish. This is such a rigid soterological determinism, which is inherent in many Calvinistic Protestants.

d) a significant part of Christians associate salvation with the moment of death, i.e. as long as I live I still cannot consider myself saved. My fate is decided when I die. Those. salvation belongs to the future. The Roman Catholic Church adheres to this point of view: after death, some go to heaven, others to hell, there is a category of those who go to purgatory, but in all cases, salvation is a matter for the future.

In a word, considering only the temporal dimension of the issue of salvation, we already see a spread in understanding the meaning of this word. Those. some see salvation as being accomplished in certain moment of their personal lives, others understand salvation as accomplished 2000 years ago on the cross, still others consider salvation as an eternal decree of God even before the creation of the world, others refer it to the future, and so on.

2. Rescue application points. What is salvation aimed at, i.e. which is salvation in its essence.

A) according to traditional position, the traditional view, the main problem of man is the problem of sin and it is oriented vertically. This is the problem of the relationship between God and man. Sin severed these relationships, and therefore salvation is seen as the restoration of those relationships severed by sin. With this approach, salvation is most often understood and defined in the light of biblical concepts and concepts as turning to God, as repentance, as redemption, adoption, etc.

IN Lately the liberal position is becoming more and more popular.

B) From the point of view liberal theologians, liberal Christian churches, the main problem of man is oriented horizontally. This is a relationship problem between people. It is more of a social problem, a problem of relationships between social groups, between races, classes in society, etc. Salvation in this case is understood more as some kind of social activity, i.e. reconciliation of separate classes, nations, races, etc. When we eliminate the problems of relationships between people, we will build a good life, a society where everyone will be equal and will love each other. Salvation is understood in this way by many liberal theologians today. It's about the millennium here on Earth. Salvation is understood as the "healing" of relationships between people, the solution social problems, the elimination of slavery, racial discrimination, the problems of relations between the sexes, nations, peoples, the elimination of national enmity. Thus, salvation is nothing but the restoration of equality, justice and unity among people.

IN) Existentialist approach- quite popular today in Christianity, due to the influence of existential philosophy on Christian theology. The main problem of a person is internal: feelings of guilt, isolation, fear. Salvation lies in overcoming all these complexes. Salvation comes down to asserting oneself, increasing self-esteem, feeling dignity etc. Many existentialist theologians are developing methods for overcoming these complexes.

3. Means of rescue, means of receiving and transmitting salvation. Christians also differ in their understanding of the means by which salvation is received and given. How and by whom is salvation given? For example,

a) in Roman Catholic, Orthodox churches, salvation is most often understood as some kind of physical process; salvation is transmitted by a kind of physical object: a host - in catholic church, prosvira (prosphora) - in the Orthodox Church. Thus, a person receives particles of the body of the Lord, and with this host or prosphora, he receives into himself the divine saving grace. This is how salvation is received. The transmission of saving grace is understood as a physical process. Since special words are spoken at the moment of blessing, these physical bodies, this bread, turn into the real body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which carries saving grace.

b) among representatives liberal In Christianity, salvation is most often understood as a certain moral action aimed at changing social conditions.

c) among evangelical In Christianity, salvation is understood as being transmitted by faith. A person by faith receives what God has already prepared for him. In a certain sense, the believer is here the passive recipient of the salvation already accomplished for him.

4. Direction of movement in salvation. The question is this: does God first save a person and through him the whole society, which changes only because some of its representatives are reborn, or vice versa, God will first change social conditions, the social environment, public structures and thus ennobles the members of society. Where is salvation headed?

A) traditional Christianity believes that, first of all, a person must change. The change takes place in the individual. Due to the fact that many change for the better, society also changes for the better.

b) liberal Christians are radically changing direction in salvation. In their opinion, it is first necessary to change the social environment, social conditions, and only after that can we talk about changing a person. Otherwise, if we do not change the environment, no matter how a person changes under the influence of God's grace, falling back into the same environment, he returns to hell.

5. Degree of salvation. Who will be saved? How many will be saved? And in this matter in the Christian denominations of understanding are different. There are 2 main historically formed positions:

A) particularistic position, which means partial (pariticular). Representatives of this trend believe that those who accepted God's salvation will be saved, and those who rejected it will perish. Those. salvation is defined here:

or the choice of the individual. In Orthodoxy, for example, a lot of attention is paid to the free will of a person - a person is free to choose his salvation. He, too, participates in his salvation.

- or God predestines some to salvation, and others to perdition.

b) universalist position. Representatives of this direction believe that no one will die. Ultimately, God will save everyone. Even Origen, one of the early church fathers of the 2nd century, taught about universal salvation. According to this teaching, God will bring about the salvation of even the most notorious sinners. An adherent of this position was also one of the representatives of the Protestants, the modern Swiss theologian of the Reformed trend, Karl Barth.

6. The Ultimate Purpose of Salvation. Will only man be saved or all of God's creation? Some Christians believe that when we talk about salvation, we are talking only about a person, only a person fell into sin, and we are talking about the return of a person to that initial state of paradise that he lost. Others understand salvation more broadly and speak of the cosmic or universal aspect (measurement) of salvation, i.e. salvation is the return of the entire universe to God, because the world, nature and animals suffer along with man. In addition, speaking of the cosmic, universal aspect of salvation, we are talking about sinning angels. Are they returning? According to the universalist position of the concept, even Satan, the devil himself, will be saved.

What is the official position of the SDA church in understanding salvation?

Salvation is understood in the context of the great controversy.

Salvation is understood as a process, not as a specific moment in history. Salvation is linear. We talk about the history of salvation, understanding history in a linear way, as an unfolding process, not cyclically, as in Plato, Nietzsche or modern representatives ideas of similarity of cultural-historical cycles (Danilevsky, Spengler, Toynbee, etc.). The process of salvation has a past, a present, and a future.

Salvation, both at the individual and at the universal level, is understood as the restoration of the proper relationship of a person with God, with each other, with the outside world, broken due to sin.

Salvation is the activity of all three persons of the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Salvation includes all aspects of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, from His incarnation to His intercessory ministry in the heavenly Sanctuary and the Second Coming.

Salvation implies an element of man's free participation in it.

Salvation is a continuing act of grace, out of love for sinful humanity, whereby Heavenly Father, through the atoning death of the Son, His intercessory ministry, and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, offers forgiveness of sins and transformation of character to those who respond to the call of the eternal gospel in faith, repentance and submission to God, and whereby the redeemed reflect the perfect image of God in the service of love; an action that will ultimately lead to the eradication of evil and sin from the universe and the restoration of perfect peace and harmony.

This question is very deeply developed in Orthodox theology, but it is the depth and abundance of literature that makes it difficult to perceive its main points. We aspire to the heights reached by the saints, and people do not understand the simplest things.

The main thing that every Christian should know and understand is earthly life he must transform himself in such a way that, upon leaving this world, God would honor him with holiness, at least in the slightest degree (L. 11, pp. 112 - 122). The germ of righteousness and holiness in the soul of man makes him capable of communion with God. If this germ does not exist, then communion with God in the Kingdom of Heaven will be impossible.

Based on this, you should work on yourself, build your life:

• q “As obedient children, do not conform to the former lusts that were in your ignorance, but, following the example of the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your actions; for it is written, "be holy, for I am holy." (1 Peter 1 ch. 14-16);
• q “...your fruit is holiness, and the end is eternal life” (Rom. VI ch. 22);
• q “Strive to have peace with all and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” (Heb. XII ch. 14);

Salvation is not only a gift from God, but also the result of a person's own work, transforming his character and changing his own way of life.

Personal salvation must be accomplished by fulfilling the teaching of Jesus Christ and changing oneself to achieve the ideal of holiness, making oneself capable in the future age of fellowship with God.

The height of the calling should not embarrass anyone: not everyone is given the strength to rise to the heights reached by the saints, but at least a small segment of the path to holiness can be passed by everyone. After the resurrection, some will shine like the suns in the spiritual firmament, others like the stars, which, in turn, will be different in glory. Everyone has enough strength to shine even with the smallest star (see 1 Cor. XV ch. 35-44).

Achieving holiness, even to the smallest degree, is the goal, and this word says it all, however, our parishioners do not always know this, and some only guess. The whole life of a Christian is devoted to being worthy of the glorification of holiness.

But it is impossible to achieve holiness without God sanctifying a person. This question has been elaborated in the section of dogmatics on the sanctification of man. Sanctification has two sides - sanctification from God and moral self-perfection. God sanctifies a person through the Sacraments of the Church, in which He gives people the grace (Gifts) of the Holy Spirit. (L.12 v.2 pp. 224 - 243)

The doctrine of sanctification has been developed in depth and detail, but along with the striving for heights, which characterizes our literature on salvation, there are certain aspects of the spiritual life without which salvation is impossible. They are so clear to us that we do not even try to talk about it with the heterodox, and after all, without fulfilling a number of requirements of Jesus Christ, salvation is impossible even with the highest moral life.

Salvation has a lower limit beyond which it is impossible to go. We will call the definition of this boundary an externally - formal approach and consider, without observing what requirements, salvation is out of the question and why.

First, we list the necessary points, then we will reveal their content and substantiate them with excerpts from the Holy Scriptures.

To save a soul, you need:

• q believe in Jesus Christ;
• q love Jesus Christ and be obedient to Him and the Church;
• q be baptized;
• q receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Sacraments;
• q be a member of the Church of Christ;
• q receive forgiveness of sins;
• q take communion;
• q do good deeds and improve yourself morally;
• q love your neighbor.

The components of salvation (making it) can be conditionally divided into two groups:

• q Christian morality(including belief in True God, faith in the Son of God Jesus Christ, love for God, obedience to Jesus Christ and the Church, good deeds and moral self-improvement, love for God and neighbor);
• q sanctification of the soul received from God(through Baptism, receiving the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, Communion - this is received in the Church).

The need for love for one's neighbor does not cause any doubts, so we will not dwell on it.

You need to know that salvation is not only a gift of God, everyone must work: -

• q “From the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom Heavenly power is taken, and those who use force delight Him.” (Matt. XI ch. 12);
• q “The law and the prophets before John; From now on, the Kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone enters into it by force.” (Luke XVI ch. 16)

Your salvation must be done:

q “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always been obedient, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, “... (Phil. II ch. 12)

The strongest distortion of the doctrine of salvation is the doctrine of unconditional predestination.

The question of salvation, by its very formulation, is obviously the main question of human life. Therefore, differences in attitude to one's salvation are not something secondary, but the main point on which there can be no ambiguity.

And it is precisely on this occasion that Orthodox and Protestant dogma diverges most of all. Not on questions of rituals, attitudes towards icons, infant baptism - these are already consequences of the main thing - a different position in the field of soteriology.

Protestant churches, in spite of their variegation and diversity, are for the most part united in some of the main points first proclaimed by Luther. “The doctrine of Luther contains three main parts: 1) the doctrine of the radical justification of man by faith, 2) the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture as the only source of truth, 3) the doctrine of universal worship and the resulting freedom of independent interpretation of Scripture. All Luther's theological judgments are derived from these principles.”/1, p.294/.

Martin Luther first formulated the doctrine of salvation in this, or almost this way, in the early 16th century. This is a kind of creed of Protestantism, on which all further Protestant innovations are built: “Thus, in Protestantism, the dogmatic distinction between the priest and the laity is removed, the church hierarchy is abolished. The priest is deprived of the right to confess and forgive sins. Many sacraments have been abolished, the doctrine of grace has been rejected. Prayer for the dead, worship of saints, veneration of relics and icons were rejected, and monasticism was abandoned. Divine services are extremely simplified and reduced to preaching and singing psalms.”/2, p.375/.

The main external cause of the Reformation was the long-standing dissatisfaction with the order in the Catholic Church. Historically, the prevailing mentality of the era has contributed to the emergence of ideas expressing this discontent. Those years witnessed the peak of the Renaissance in Italy, the Cinquecento, the time of the triumph of humanistic ideals and, at the same time, according to the immutable laws of spiritual life, the extreme impoverishment of truly Christian ideals in the Catholic Church. Fascination with man, which is the pathos of humanism, resulted in licentiousness and the pursuit of earthly goods among the ministers of the church. The apparent betrayal of the ideals of the gospel by Rome was intolerable to all Christians, and Luther became a brilliant spokesman for this discontent. The most egregious thing for the simple honest Christian was the spread of the practice of selling indulgences, and it was against this that Luther unleashed the full power of his critical word.

But in order to criticize indulgences, Luther, as a conscientious thinker, had to crush the theological theses of Catholicism, on which the very idea of ​​indulgences was based. And, first of all, this is the opinion of the Western Church about the possibility of a purely legal write-off of man's crimes against God (sins) for his good deeds. Such a formal approach to the matter of saving the soul of a person, in its development in a scholastic direction, led to the idea that if one’s good deeds are not enough, then they can be redeemed from the huge number of good deeds that are performed by the saints. Of their so-called. "excessive merit". The church has the right to these merits, and they can also be redeemed from the church. Purely scholastic scheme. Where everything seems to be correct and logical, but the conclusion is surprising in its absurdity.

Luther, speaking as a spokesman for public criticism of this situation, in order to undermine the doctrinal basis for indulgences, decided to reconsider the very doctrine of the significance of good works in our salvation. In the sense that we do not need any of our own affairs. They, deeds, due to the complete sinfulness of human nature, cannot save us, the sacrifice of the Son of God saves us, and saves everyone who believes in him. That. it is enough for us only to have faith in Christ and to believe that we have already been saved by him. A. Kuraev has a good wording about this: “Luther protested against the purchase of salvation by ritual piety. But in the end, Protestantism only appointed more low price in this trade - "just faith". / 9, p. 109 /.

The proof of his basic proposition about salvation by faith alone, Luther built on the basis of biblical history creation and the fall of man. First, people are created from nothing and therefore in the eyes of God we are nothing. Secondly, after the fall of Adam, man became so impoverished that he is not only nothing, but he can do nothing. Therefore, the salvation of man depends entirely not on himself, but on God. We can only believe that we are saved.

Luther, rejecting the doctrine of indulgences, built his theory on opposition to Catholicism in its own field - a legal view of sin and salvation. Thus, the relationship of a person to God remains the same as in the Catholicism he criticizes - the relationship of an amnestied criminal to a judge, and not the relationship of a prodigal son to a loving father. Those. we do not go beyond a formal relationship with God.

The Orthodox view is completely different. “ Orthodox Church teaches: salvation is accomplished by God, but not without a person who is required to have a right faith and a virtuous life according to the will of God, which is salvation. Salvation consists in the fact that a person, through personal faith, gains access to the saving grace given in the sacraments, with the help of which, with the constant compulsion of oneself, it becomes possible to do truly good deeds.”/7, p.79/.

In other words, Orthodox dogmatics does not recognize such Western formalism in relation to God and man, i.e. a purely legal view of our salvation. “Western Christianity tends to describe the drama of the fall and redemption in legal terms, Eastern Christianity in organic terms. For Orthodoxy, sin is not so much guilt as illness. "Sin makes us more unhappy than guilty," says Reverend John Cassian. In legal theory, God, accepting the sacrifice of Christ, forgives people for it. But forgiveness is not enough for Orthodox mysticism. Having harshly told the Protestant theologians that instead of God they are looking for impunity, Patriarch Sergius drew attention to the fact that the amnesty proclaims the righteous, but does not make the righteous. Man is notified of his salvation, but does not participate in it. The merit of Christ is an extraneous event, having no connection with my inner being among the Protestants. Therefore, the consequence of this act can only be a change in the relationship between God and man, but man himself does not change. Western theologians seek to oblige God to give me eternal life. But the human soul wants not only to be included in the Kingdom of God, but also to really live in it.”/9, p.100/.

Thus, Orthodoxy is characterized not by a legal, but by an organic view of man's relationship with God. And the conflict between the Catholic and Protestant points of view remains on the legal plane, above which true theology rises. Salvation as the return of godlikeness, as liberation from the power of sin, death. “Jesus Christ atoned for the sins of the whole world, freed man from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:12) But does this mean that the atoning sacrifice of Christ justified man once and for all? No, faith in Christ is only a necessary condition for salvation, for it gives access to the grace of God to human soul, under its influence, a renewal, a spiritual rebirth of a person can and must take place.”/4, p.50/.

A simplified view of a person's relationship with God is obviously false; one cannot directly transfer the rules of relations between people, relations that take place purely in this world, to relations with God transcendent to the world. This is a qualitatively different level, and often at this level everything is completely different. The earthly laws of the earthly world are not applicable to the spiritual life of the heavenly world. “Luther rightly pointed out the inconsistency of the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification: if the blood of Christ is sufficient to satisfy the sins of the whole world, it is illogical to demand any additional satisfaction from people. But Luther did not notice the main shortcoming of this teaching, which consists in soteriology's too loose use of analogies with such human concepts as the anger of the offended, the need for satisfaction, etc. The justice of God is not at all the same as our human justice, which ensures human interests. It proceeds from other criteria - moral ones. It is not the father who moves away from the son, it is the son who goes to a country far away. It is not God who is at enmity with the sinner; it is the sinner who is at enmity with God. “Here I am standing at the door and knocking…” The person himself must open the door. The change must take place in the individual, not in the abstract realm of legal relationships. Christ came to us to unite with us. We are not aloof from His Cross, we are not passive observers of our salvation. The Cross of Christ enters the life of a Christian and with it the leaven of another life.”/11, p.140/.

That. Faith is the key to salvation necessary condition. But a person has a choice. God protects our freedom, which is the image of God in us. And we must turn this freedom to God, and not vice versa, as our progenitor did. Therefore, salvation requires a personal feat. Grace is given to us as a gift, but we accomplish the feat of will ourselves. Without this feat, our faith is lifeless, it does not transform the inner man.

Therefore, the question is directly related to the doctrine of salvation: did a person retain his free will after the fall; image of God? No, Luther answers, he lost it with the fall. “The fall, teaches Lutheranism, led to the deepest perversion of the whole nature of man, to the complete destruction of all the powers of the soul: the human mind became blind in the knowledge of God and the world he created, the heart became evil and corrupt, hating good and avoiding God, lost freedom and will, enslaved to sin. In other words, the fall of the ancestors led not only to the loss of likeness (as the Roman Catholic Church teaches), but also to the loss of the image of God.”/5, p.62/.

The Orthodox Church, on the other hand, teaches that a person has retained his freedom, i.e. the image of God, and the purpose of human life is to regain the lost likeness of God. That. Protestantism's view of man is pessimistic. Man passively accepts his salvation by God. And the result is a logical inextricable link between the doctrine of salvation by faith alone and Luther's determinism. The absence of human freedom is one of the main conditions for salvation by faith alone, otherwise, if we consider that we still have freedom, then we immediately have to admit that all our deeds, all life are of paramount importance, for all this is the realization of our freedom. . This makes it clear why Luther protested with such vehemence against his former friend Erasmus of Rotterdam, specifically about free will, because. the recognition of this freedom for a person nullifies all his constructions, and Luther's teaching loses all its logical harmony, becoming not a doctrine, but simply a set of moralizing phrases. IN open letter Luther writes to Erasmus about his work “on free will”: “My Paul, the destroyer of free will, stands irresistibly and smashes both armies with a single word. Because if we are justified without deeds, then all deeds are cursed - small or great, because he excludes nothing, but equally incinerates both. And look how all our yawns! What will change here if someone will rely on the ancient fathers, whose statements have been approved for centuries? After all, they were all equally blind and neglected the clearest and most clearest words Paul! I conjure you, is it possible to say in defense of grace and against free will more clearly and understandably, if the words of Paul are unclear and incomprehensible?” / 3, p. 363 /. Luther categorically and very boldly rejects the thousand-year-old wisdom of the Church, the teaching of the Holy Fathers. But if he had been better acquainted with Orthodox patristics, he would hardly have dared to make such reckless statements.

Let's see what Orthodox dogma says about salvation. Let us take such a dogmatically important document as the district epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs of 1723. “The believer is saved by faith and his works, and at the same time presents God as the only author of our salvation, since, that is, He first gives enlightening grace, which brings to man the knowledge of Divine truth and teaches him to conform to it, (if he does not resist it) and do good, pleasing to God, in order to receive salvation, not destroying the free will of man, but leaving it to obey or disobey its action.”/10, p.150/.

So, one digression—the affirmation of salvation by faith alone—necessarily requires confirmation by determinism, and the acceptance of determinism is so far from the teaching of the Church that it itself requires the rejection of the entire patristic heritage. That. Protestantism is bound by its own delusions, which confirm each other, but taken together only move the dogma away from the traditional.

Let us now consider the biblical foundations on which Luther built his teaching and whether his view of the Bible is consonant with the true spirit of the gospel of Christ. Luther himself writes: “True faith in Christ is an incomparable wealth, which brings with it complete salvation and delivers a person from all evil, as Christ says in the last chapter of the Gospel of Mark. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, and whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). Isaiah anticipates this treasure and prophesies about it in chapter 10: "The Lord will send a small and all-consuming word upon the earth, and the earth will abound in righteousness." He seems to be saying, "Faith, which is the easy and perfect fulfillment of the law, will fill the hearts of believers with such great righteousness that they will no longer need anything in order to become righteous." As Paul says in Romans: “Because with the heart they believe unto righteousness” (Rom. 10:10). If you want to ask how it can be that faith alone justifies and offers us so many great benefits, without works, and yet so many works, ceremonies and rules are prescribed for us in the Bible, I answer: first of all, remember that it was said, namely, that faith alone, without works, justifies, liberates and saves.”/3, p.28/.

Here, as in most heresies main reason in a misunderstanding of the complexity and ambiguity of Scripture. Search for simple explanations, often running counter to the general meaning of a particular message. The very case when simplicity is worse than theft. “Luther took certain words of the Apostle Paul literally, out of touch with the text and the general thought of the apostle: “A man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law”, “a man is justified not by the works of the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ” (Epistle to the Galatians). The Apostle Paul, with these words, spoke not against good deeds, but against the false presumption of the Jewish teachers, who believed that salvation was deserved. foreign affairs the law of Moses: circumcision, observance of the Sabbath, washing of hands, etc. The same Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans writes that the Lord on the day of His righteous judgment will reward everyone according to his deeds.”/6, p.31/.

Let us cite a number of passages from the Holy Scriptures that speak very clearly about the value of our life and deeds before God. “ Faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself” (James 2:17). “Do you see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only?” (James 2:24). “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”(Matthew 5:16). “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). Can you say it more clearly? And similar examples are scattered throughout the Bible.

It is necessary to mention the reasons that contributed to the success of Protestantism. Here the historical and psychological reasons. Historically, the appearance of Luther on the political scene of that time was in the hands of very many influential forces. First of all, the German Electors, who had long been weary of the power of Rome over a significant part of their possessions. And, of course, they could not miss the opportunity to divide church lands in their favor. Hence the powerful support of Luther by the most powerful German aristocrats, without which he would have shared the fate of many heretics who came before him. So, it is well known that at the most critical moment of his life, when Emperor Charles V outlawed Luther, he was saved by the Elector of Saxony Frederick, who provided Luther with asylum in his castle.

Psychologically, the best explanation for the success of the new doctrine is the story of Luther himself. We know his personal despair in salvation and the relief that came with the decision that he was already saved by his own faith. “Let's point out the complex interweaving of psychological and existential plans, which interest us insofar as doctrinal motives prevail here. Luther himself experienced for a long time the ineffectiveness and the impossibility of earning salvation through his own deeds, which always seemed inadequate to him, and the problem of eternal salvation continually caused him anxiety and torment. And the decision, which affirms that only faith is enough for salvation, brought him a radical deliverance from anxiety” / 1, p. 295 /.

Such a decision is quite suitable for the soul of any person, it gives him complete psychological comfort at any moment of life. “Protestantism came to the heart of human self-love and self-will of all kinds. Self-love and self-will received in Protestantism, as it were, a certain blessing and sanctification, which has affected and is now being revealed in the endless division and crushing, first of all, of Protestantism itself. It was Protestantism that openly proclaimed this greatest lie: one can be a Christian without recognizing any Church. Binding, however, its members with certain obligatory authorities and church rules, Protestantism thereby becomes entangled in an inextricable contradiction: it itself liberated the individual from the Church and itself puts some limits on this freedom.”/8, p.5/.

However, psychology, or soul science translated into Russian, is modern name ascetics are the treasuries of Orthodox thought. And if we speak in terms of a truly spiritual life, then the state of a Protestant can be called briefly: the state of spiritual delusion, i.e. subtle, imperceptible enslavement to one's own vanity and pride. “Sectarians usually call themselves saved with amazing arrogance, for they claim that they do not commit sins unto death. But every sin is vile before God, and isn't pride the biggest sin of the devil? Satan was cast out because of pride. The sectarians are proudly and infinitely sure of their salvation.”/7, p.83/. This state of spiritual delusion is also found “in unhealthy mysticism, exaltation of Protestant meetings, in the claim to free communion with God, especially among such sects as Pentecostals” / 6, p. 33 /. The Protestant does not need constant fear of God, manifestation of humility, patience, remembrance of death. How different this is from how an Orthodox Christian lives. Thus, differences in soteriology inevitably lead to differences in human life itself. “Keep your mind in hell and do not despair,” Orthodox ascetics teach. Luther could not help but despair. This is a heavy cross for any person and I really want to throw it off. And Luther throws him off, and the whole Protestant world follows him. It becomes much easier for everyone to go to God, but is it only the way of the cross?

List of used literature.

1. Giovanni Reale and Dario Antiseri. Western philosophy from origins to the present day. SPb.1995, v.2.

2. Christianity. Dictionary. Ed. L.N. Mitrokhina. M.1994.

4. Archimandrite Ambrose Yurasov. Orthodoxy and Protestantism. Ivanovo, 1994.

5. Archpriest Mitrofan Znosko-Borovsky. Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and sectarianism. M.1991.

6. Orthodox Church, Catholicism, Protestantism, modern heresies and sects in Russia. Under the editorship of Metropolitan John of St. Petersburg and Ladoga. SPb.1994.

7. Priest Igor Efimov. The modern charismatic movement of sectarianism. M.1995.

8. Archimandrite Hilarion Troitsky. There is no Christianity without the Church. M.1995.

9. Deacon Andrei Kuraev. Is it all the same to believe? Klin, 1994.

10. Dogmatic messages of Orthodox hierarchs about Orthodox faith. M.1900.

11. D.P. Ogitsky, priest Maxim Kozlov. Orthodoxy and Western Christianity. M.1995.