Newsletter August 18, 2023

The God of the Bible

There are certain erroneous or distorted beliefs that are widespread among the faithful. In this brief note, I am concerned with the one that starts out from the basis of the Bible to erroneously state that the image of God in the Old Testament is not the same as in the New Testament. Some believe that God in the Old Testament is only a god of war, cruelty, violence and racism, while in the New Testament, He is only a god of love, forgiveness, mercy and kindness.

This erroneous belief is the result either of ignorance of the Old Testament, its interpretation, and its structure or of the influence of misconceptions similar to the approach of those critics of the Bible who attack it for reasons too numerous to refute here. In each case, the approach to the Bible is wrong because it is not a theological approach to a religious book. Many also arrive at erroneous conclusions because they do not understand the essence of inspiration in Christianity, or because they take a merely historical approach to the Bible.

In Christianity, divine inspiration has taken place over the course of a long pedagogical relationship of about eighteen and a half centuries. God inspired humankind with what He wanted to say through the historical events they experienced, speaking to them in their language and according to their understanding, gradually bringing them toward Him. The Bible is not a book of history, even though it uses history to speak theology.

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May he who realizes his sins, is pained by them and sincerely walks in the way of repentance understand the meaning of the Bible and the essence of God’s word, and may he have constant nourishment.

Read the entire article:
https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/1716

Please remember that our full calendar continues to be available at our parish web site. Here is a link:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Calendar/calendar.php

Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Prosphora/Docs/prosphora sched 2023 web.pdf

Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2023.pdf

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 9:2-12

Brethren, you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to our food and drink? Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of a share in the crop. If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits? If others share this rightful claim upon you, do not we still more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

Gospel: MATTHEW 18:23-35

The Lord said this parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; and as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and besought him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison till he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord delivered him to the torturers, till he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Let Us Sacredly Follow the Testament of St. John of Rila

St. Seraphim (Sobolev)

The holy Church is celebrating the memory of St. John of Rila the Wonderworker today. This great God-pleaser is one of the most precious spiritual treasures of Bulgaria. St. John is the glory and beauty of the Bulgarian Church.

His grace-filled light shines far beyond the borders of Bulgaria. Besides the Bulgarian Church, he is venerated by all Orthodox Churches, and in particular the Russian Church. Russia has the city of Rilsk, founded in honor of St. John of Rila. After the War of Independence, the ecclesiastical and civil authorities of Bulgaria gave the Russian Church the right hand of their great Rila Wonderworker, which is still in Russia.

But St. John began to be especially venerated in our Russian land with the appearance of the great luminary of the Church, Fr. John of Kronstadt, who bore his name. The grace-filled glory of our great pastor is in large measure due to his Heavenly patron, St. John of Rila. Fr. John of Kronstadt loved him very much, imitated his angelic life, and as a sign of his deep reverence for him, he built churches and altars in honor of St. John.

It’s impossible not to take note, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, of that striking similarity that we see in the lives of these great righteous ones. When the demons inflicted beatings upon St. John and people abused him, he endured all of it with meekness and humility. When St. John was already endowed by God with great gifts of the Holy Spirit, a demoniac was once brought to him and he was asked to pray for the man’s healing. But St. John said: “Who am I to dare to do such a thing beyond my strength? I’m such a sinner that I’m not even worthy to look up to Heaven.” But they kept asking him to pray. The saint agreed, but only so that others would pray with him. And no sooner had St. John raised his hands to God than the evil spirit came out of the demoniac.

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Therefore, let us, my beloved children in Christ, however we can, reject our pride—the main source of all our vices and all our troubles. Let us strive with all our might to ever emulate the humility of St. John, the great Rila Wonderworker, as we commemorate a thousand years since his repose this year.

For the sake of humility, the Lord grants us His grace as a conquering power over all evil, in fulfillment of the words of Sacred Scripture: God … giveth grace to the humble (Prov. 3:34, 1 Pt. 5:5, Jas. 4:6). Then the Lord will not only remove all of our misfortunes from us, but will also glorify and exalt us by His strength and great power, that the words of the Apostle Peter might be fulfilled with us: Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time (1 Pt. 5:6). The Lord also grants us salvation both here and in the future life for the sake of humility, and He will fully apply to us the words that He spoke through the divine Psalmist: The Lord … saveth such as be of a contrite spirit (Ps. 33:19).

Read the entire article:
https://orthochristian.com/149196.html