Born of the Father Before All Ages

The Monthly Message to the Fathers, the Priests January, 2014 Born of the Father Before All Ages It was necessary for the books of the New Testament to hardly call Jesus Christ directly as the Theo meaning God; although Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son cannot be God except with God the Father. + In order for Jesus Christ to introduce and reveal Himself as God Theo, He openly said I and My Father are one (John 10:30), and Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works (John 14:10). This means that the Son cannot be found alone without the Father nor the Father alone without the Son. Wherever the Son is mentioned, the Father will, by necessity, always be with Him. Thus it has become implicationally understood that the Son, Jesus Christ, is God by virtue of His perpetual being in the Father; because it is impossible for Jesus Christ to be alone. Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me (John 16:32). 1. When Jesus Christ declared Himself Son of God, His opponents, the Old Testament theologians realized that He had directly considered Himself God, And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father s hand. I and My Father are one (John 10:28-30). The Jews response was a demand to have Him stoned because of His proclamation of His oneness with the Father. The Jews answered Him, saying, 'For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.' (John 10:33). Jesus Christ is indeed so. He did not make Himself God; He is God Who made Himself man in order for God to be able to reveal Himself to them visually and vocally. Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, Show us the Father?'" (John 14:9). This fact was totally overlooked by the Jews. Although Jesus Christ avoided to openly say that He is God, yet He affirmatively confirmed it in His words I and My Father are one (John 10:30). So if the Father is truly God, then Jesus Christ is by necessity truly God. However, to avoid dualism in the deity, we say that the one God is the Father and Son; and that it is impossible for the Father alone to be God and for the Son alone to be God. Rather, the Son and Father is the One God. The term one is not numerical at a statistical level, but one in spirit. For God is one spirit, Father and Son clarified in the statement Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other words, God is Holy Spirit, Father and Son. 1

2. The Father and Son are not two entities but one embodying both Fatherhood and Sonship whereby from the divine fatherhood sprang forth fatherhood in its totality. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named (Ephesians 3:14-15) and from the divine sonship sprang forth sonship. Thus fatherhood and sonship in their totality extend their being, duration and efficacy from God because life and existence depend on the existence of Fatherhood and Sonship to the extent that if both ceased to be, life would also cease to be. Therefore, the continuity and constancy of Fatherhood and Sonship in God ensures their continuity on earth because God is the source, initiator and perpetuator of Fatherhood and Sonship. Consequently, it is impossible for Fatherhood alone and Sonship alone to be found in God or for God to be without fatherhood or shonship because that would entail the absence of existence. 3. Concerning the divine entity, according to the counsel of Nicea, it is wrong to speculate precedence because the Divine Deity is an existence and absolute entity above time with no before or after time. The Father and Son are the essence of the one Divine Entity that is everlasting. The Father is everlasting and so is the Son. + The Father is equal to the Son and the Son is equal to the Father because they are one essence and one entity. The Father complements the Son with His Fatherhood and so does the Son. Therefore, equality is inevitable as it is the product of the oneness in entity. Therefore, God s absolute oneness is manifest without any deviation between the Father and Son except in the distinctive characteristics of Fatherhood and Sonship. The Father loves the Son and gives Him all that is His and the Son does the same; and in this divine, absolute love, God s entity is united. God is one in the totality and absoluteness of love which captures the mind and heart. For, God s oneness is demonstrated in the action of His compassionate love with which He created and excelled permeating and pervading all His creatures with His love. It is to this conquering love that His creation bows down and worship. In answering the question how can Fatherhood and Sonship coexist? we ought to examine the nature of the human self. Every person has the potential presence of both fatherhood and sonship. However, in mankind, sonship is implemented through marriage. On the other hand, the Divine self is above marriage; for the Son of God, Who is hidden in the essence of the Divine self, came forth into the human existence through the incarnation taking a human body from the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit appearing as the Son of man by virtue of being born of a woman but in reality being Son of God coming forth into the human existence while retaining the essence of His Divine Deity. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (John 1:18). It is the will of the Father that His Son comes forth in order to proclaim in Himself the true nature of God, Father, and Son for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God (John 16:27). Without the incarnation we would not come to know the Divine Deity Father, Son and Holy Spirit. + However, the son of God, though born of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit was not born of the Father in the normal understanding of things; because God the Father is spirit above birth, time and incidents. Birth as a time-bound act occurs on the physical and time levels. A time-defined and place-confined birth is impossible to the nature of God. 2

+ This important truth was expressed by St. Athanasius words, The Son is born before all ages implying the meaning of timelessness ; that is to say before the existence of time in eternity. Thus he wanted to avoid adhering to God the time-bound act of birth; because in eternity, before the ages and time, there was no act nor incident and consequently no birth. St. Athanasius says clearly that he is born as an existing state but not as an act or incident liable to become a past act was born complying with time boundaries. The Son in eternity existed born but not to time definitions. The Son in eternity existed born not of an act but in an existing state; in other words, without birth the Son is born in the Father in eternity. St. Athanasius reiterates explaining further that there is no before nor after, no preceding nor following in the Father and Son i.e. the Father s existence did not precede the Son s nor was the Son s existence following the Father s. For, it would be impossible for time to invade God s nature since the existence of the Father and Son is an eternal coexisting one. Thus, St. Athanasius professed his theological saying that the son is born before all ages which was appreciated by the Council of Nicea and became a creed for the Christian faith. The son is in the Father before time i.e. since eternity. This in itself excludes the possibility of the act of birth which perplexed the Christians as well as the non-christians. + For this reason, the Son is described as the only One born and existing in the bosom of the Father and the only one recommended by the Father And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' (Matthew 3:17). From this we understand the undivided nature of the Father that cannot undergo suffering. For, if the word coming forth from man is born without pain or division, how much more is the Word of God. + The Holy Spirit and eternity are above time, incidents and acts. This is the absolute nature of God not targeted by actions or time-bound incidents. Jesus Christ is the Son of God perpetually existing in the divine deity as Son with Father being in Him from the beginning, from eternity. He came into the human time frame by the will of the Father taking for Himself a human body of a virgin and remaining holy even after His birth And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.' (Luke 1:35), and uniting with humanity willfully by taking a human body representing God the Father in the human body in order to proclaim the Father and reveal His unseen reality. Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, Show us the Father?' (John 14:9). He fulfilled the Father s entire plan concerning the salvation of man from the snares of sin and death that befell humanity as a result of disobedience. So, He carried the sin of man upon His human body and died to redeem the human body i.e. mankind from sin and the punishment of death. Then He rose from the dead in order to raise the human nature spiritually so that man might live a new life void of sin and death; a life with God just like it was before the fall of Adam without the potential of sinning again or dying again; living an everlasting life with God united with the body of Jesus Christ so that the new man might appear before God the Father as a son with Jesus Christ the Son. 3

4 Lectures on the Christian History - The Fourth Century The Sixth Article Before delving deep into the details of the fourth century, it behooves us to stop and behold a vine that has budded and blossomed with fruit, the sweet smell of which diffused from upper Egypt to the ends of the earth. This vine is Orthodox monasticism. It includes a legacy of writings and sayings lived and beheld by the fathers; and an inheritance left to us by those who walked down this road throughout the centuries and arrived in heaven through this royal ritual of monastic life. Today we see this legacy manifest in the monasteries populated with those who have chosen to follow this manner of life. Legacy is history made alive through its past and present experiences and added to its future. No one can deny that monasticism is a perennial fruitful vine offered by the Coptic Orthodox church to the Christian world in the early centuries of Christianity. Coptic monasticism formation began on an ordinary Sunday of the year 271 AD in a church in upper Egypt when the young man, Anthony, was attending the Holy Eucharist service. The verse in that Sunday s Gospel on the rich young man captured St. Anthony s heart with a divine light and he felt the verse was read specifically for him to start a new journey of life. Jesus said to him, 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.' (Matthew 19:21). The verse recalled the scene of his father lying motionless on his death bed and became the seed planted by the sewer on the good ground of his heart. For, Anthony was among those with ears to hear. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty (Matthew 13:23), and those who hear the word and accept it. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred (Mark 4:20). After that he was listed among those who after hearing the word, guard it in a good heart bringing forth fruit with patience. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience (Luke 8:15). St. Anthony decided to follow Jesus knowing certainly that Christ is what He said about Himself I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). Safeguarding his sister in a convent, St. Anthony started his life of solitude firstly under the guidance of a hermit from whom he had learned the spiritual principles of a solitary life. One day a voice from heaven spoke to him directing him to move to the desert away from the bustling country life. So, he lived in a small cave in a mountain and had his food provided by a friend. However, the battle with evil spirits was hard and once he was beaten by them and left with a deep cut in his head. Another time he saw them around him with their atrocious looks. But he was well equipped with the undefeated power of his Master. St. Anthony moved from the west bank of the river Nile to the mountainous East where he lived for twenty years in total solitude. Gradually, he became widely known and many of those living

a solitary life were attracted to him to learn the principles of this heavenly, kingly ritual of monasticism and live a sanctified life. Thus the first monastic group was recorded in the history of monasticism. Five years later, St. Anthony chose life of total solitude which made of him the first spiritual father of Monasticism. He fled from the earthly desires but not from the love of his brethren. He came out of his solitude twice and travelled to Alexandria once to support the Christians during Emperor Maximian s persecutions and another time to support Pope Athanasius the Apostolic before Arius's heresy. Monastic life developed with the increase in the number of those influenced by St. Anthony s life. First it followed the pattern of St. Anthony s solitude, then it changed to group solitude named after St. Macarius the Great. Lastly, it developed into communal life within the monasteries. The Western world exemplified in France, Spain, and Italy did not know any monastic order except what they had imported from the Coptic monasteries. St. John Cassian was the one who, after having lived long periods on the monastic sights in Palestine and Egypt, carried their wisdom and style of living to the west and recorded his experiences in his voluminous book called The Conferences There are lots of details in St. Anthony s life. A man full of godly wisdom and knowledge, he reposed in 356 AD at the age of 105 years as the father of monasticism and of all the monks in the world throughout the ages. The grace of God was with him in spite of his illiteracy for he never learned to read or write Greek. His biography was written by St Athanasius. 5