О начале и Отце

Both the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures teach that the beginning of everything is one, the God of all and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, unborn, unperishable, eternal, endless, indescribable, limitless, uncomplicated, incorporeal, invisible, simple, good, truthful, mental light, power, unknowable by any measure, measured by a single divine will; because he can do whatever he wants. And the Prophet taught us this clearly; for he says: “The Lord has created everything that the Lord wills” (Ps. 113:11). The teacher of what was said above about the unity of God is Divine Scripture. For we hear that at the beginning of the law God says: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt... Let you have no gods other than Me” (Ex. 20:2,3); and again: “Hear to Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). In accordance with this, God teaches through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, for he says: “I am God first, and I am hereafter, besides Me there is no God” (Is. 44:6); “before Me there was no other God, and after Me there will not be,... and there is not Me” (Is. 43:10, 11); and again: “I am... God, and there is none yet” (Is. 45:6); and: “I am “God, and there is no other except Me: righteous and savior, there is no other except Me” (Is. 45:21). And this clearly exposes the nonsense of Valentinus, Marcus, Basilides and Marcion. For he says that neither before Him nor after Him there is another God, but He is both the first and the last. In agreement with this is the divine teaching of the Holy Gospel. Our Savior and Lord, fulfilling “all righteousness” for us, for He Himself spoke to John: “Leave it now: for this is fitting for all righteousness to be fulfilled” (Matt. 3:15), as a man, he accepted the need for prayer, and asked the Father to teach it to the Apostles, and in the form of a prayer he outlined the teachings of theology to his disciples. For he says: “This is the eternal life, that they may know Thee the one true God” (John 17:3), and again: “They confess, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid this from the wise and prudent, and revealed it as a child” (Luke 10:21). And the divine Apostle says this: “To the King of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen” (1 Tim. 1:17); and again: “there is one God, and one mediator for God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5); and also: “There is one God the Father, from Him are all things” (1 Cor. 8:6). But you can find quite a lot of other places that prove the agreement of the Old and New Testaments and preach one God. Moreover, both the Old and New Testaments teach that God is invisible. For in the Old Testament God says to Moses: “No man will see My face and live” (Ex. 33:20); and in the Holy Gospel the Lord said: “No one has seen the Father, but He is from God, in the sight of the Father” (John 6:46). The God-wise Evangelist also cries out for this: “No one has seen God anywhere” (John 1:18); shows how he knew this: “The Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, confessed to Him.” Yes, and the Apostle cries out: “To the incorruptible, invisible, only, all-wise God, be glory and honor forever and ever, Amen”; and again: “He who no one has seen eats from man can see below” (1 Tim. 6:16). We also learned the infinity and indescribability of God from both the Old and New Testaments. And in the Old Testament God says: “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth with food? says the Lord” (Jer. 23:24); and again: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool: what house will you build Me, and what place of My resting place?” (Isa. 66:1) And the most divine David cries out: “For in His hand are all the ends of the earth” (Ps. 94:4); and as he called the effectiveness of God’s power by hand, he showed that God Himself cannot be described by anything, but everything depends on His Providence. And in another song, David says to God: “Where will I go from Your Spirit? and will I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend to Heaven, You are there; If I descend into hell, There You are: If I take up my wings early and dwell in the last of the seas, and there Your hand will guide me, and Your right hand will hold me” (Ps. 139:7-10). This shows the indescribability of both the essence and power of God. And the prophet Isaiah calls out: “maintain the circle of the earth, and those who live on it are like pruzi” (Is. 40:22). And yet, denouncing the powerlessness of idols, the Prophet offered us the following teaching about the God of all: “Who, he says, measured water with his handful, and the sky with a span, and the whole earth with a handful? who put the mountains in measure, and the hills in weight? Who understands the mind of the Lord, and who is His adviser, who teaches Him?... Or who shows Him judgment? or who shows Him the way of understanding?” (Is.40, 12-14) Then, as far as is possible for the human mind and for the earthly tongue, it represents the infinity of power; for he says: “Even if you are Gentiles, like a drop of cadi, and like a drop of weight are counted, and like spitting are counted: to whom will you liken the Lord, and to what likeness will you liken Him?” (Is. 40:15, 18) If heaven, earth and waters contain within themselves every created nature and the measure of all this is the measure of the hand of God, then let those who undertake to measure God with their lips realize in their minds the infinity of this Nature, meaning by “hand” not a part of the body, but an independent activity that organizes and governs everything. So, this is what the Old Testament Scripture teaches about the God of all. And others will find other places similar to those cited, revealing to us the indescribable nature, wisdom, and power of God. In the Holy Gospel, the Lord taught the Samaritan woman a similar concept of God. since she assumed that the Divinity is describable by place, and therefore said: “Our fathers bowed down in this mountain: and you say that in Jerusalem... it is fitting to bow down” (John 4:20), then the Lord taught her the opposite teaching and taught her the indescribable nature of God. For he said to her: Amen, I say to you, “Woman... for the hour is coming, when you will worship the Father, neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21). And thus, having taught that worship is not limited to any places, he added: “The Spirit is God: and whoever worships Him is worthy to worship in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Thus he showed at the same time the incorporeality and infinity of the nature of God. And that the God of all is eternal, Blessed David teaches this, either saying: “from everlasting to everlasting you art” (Ps. 89:3), then calling: “God will hear, and I will humble Him before the ages” (Ps. 54:20). The prophet Isaiah also teaches, crying out: “The eternal God, the God who built the ends of the earth, will not hunger, nor will He labor, nor is the invention of His wisdom” (Is. 40:28). And the divine Apostle confesses Him as the Creator of the ages (Heb. 1, 2). And the Lord says that not only the very nature of God exists before creation, but also the Kingdom is prepared for the saints before the “creation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). We learned this about the Beginning of all things from both the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures. We do not recognize either the combinations, mixtures and origins of the eons of the male and female sex, as Valentinus and Basilides fable, or the different and opposing principles, as Cerdon, Marcion and Manes teach; but we know one Principle, one and the same good and truthful, as we will prove later. You might be interested in: