1. Учение о Боге вообще – в Самом Себе

Here we must explain to ourselves how the Holy Scripture depicts the Being of God, His properties and relationships. What plan should one follow when viewing the Being of God, and could there be any plan here? What can we say about the Being of God when we do not know Him? But before we ask the Holy Scriptures about the Being of God, let us engage in the following preliminary reflection. First, let us reflect on the importance of knowledge of God, communicated by the Holy Scriptures, then on the methods or sources of knowledge of God, then, having spoken about the quality of these sources, we will review the nature of God and His properties. a) How does Scripture teach the importance of knowing God? Scripture teaches that it is most important. Jesus Christ honors him with eternal life. “Behold,” He says, “an eternal life, that they may know You alone” (John 17:3). The importance of knowing God cannot be expressed more strongly in human language. “Eternal life” in the language of Holy Scripture is all that is most perfect, all that is most blessed. Judging by this, one can see how important the knowledge of God is; if bliss lives with Him, then without Him there is death and torment. But judging simply, it seems that ignorance of God does not entail great trouble. There are many who do not know God, but spend their lives happily. But that's just how it seems. Firstly, it cannot be said that they are completely ignorant of God; secondly, it must be said that this truth - that the knowledge of God is “eternal life” - is not completely expressed in this life; the importance of this knowledge will be visible in eternity. And it is not surprising that the wicked live without the knowledge of God and do not feel their loss. In all eternity it can only be revealed how important God is to man. But isn’t knowledge of God necessary in this life? Doesn't the temporary life also depend in some way on the knowledge of God? Depends, and a lot. Even those who do not have this knowledge use it. The morality of peoples, tranquility and civil life in general, without which it is impossible to live safely, are maintained by religion. Thus, the knowledge of God benefits them, often without their awareness. In general, knowing God is very important and necessary for a person. A person feels that he is a derivative being and is held together by someone else’s life; feels at the same time that he has freedom, that there are laws for him and a goal is assigned that is achieved by these laws. Therefore, how important it is for him to know the One who holds him, who gave him laws and assigned a goal for his action! Without knowing God, man does not know himself; all knowledge is ennobled by the knowledge of God; and the purer the concept of God, the better the concept of oneself. On the other hand, the entire person, at least from the outside, is subject to the forces of visible nature. These invisible forces have their basis in God. Therefore, without knowing God, we cannot know the world. Briefly: without knowing God we cannot have knowledge of either the inner world or the outer world. All laws and goals are connected in God: in the essence of God lies the cause of all phenomena, in the will of God are all laws, in the domain of God are all goals. This is the need of knowing God. If we look at the mind, then again there is a new need for knowledge of God. We have already seen that all sciences without the doctrine of God are, as it were, without a head. To see this more clearly, let’s take some outline of philosophy and throw out the doctrine of God from it, what remains? Confusion and disorder. The same thing generally happens in our system of thoughts when the thought of God is expelled from it. That is why the human mind cannot do without the knowledge of God. This need is not so great in a mind occupied with trifles or everyday concerns. But those with a developed mind often, unable to satisfy this need, went so far as to take their own lives. If in this life the knowledge of God is so important and necessary, then what should be said about its importance in the future life? But the concept of God is even more necessary for man as a moral being. Pure morality depends in everything on the doctrine of God. True, the correct concept of God does not always produce good morality, this is a flaw in human nature, but, on the other hand, pure morality cannot exist without a true concept of God, and here it is expressed that ignorance of God is death for the soul. The correct concept of God, purely theoretical and practical, constitutes eternal life, for he who has it will live forever with God. Temporary death, as a consequence of ignorance of God, was expressed in the French Revolution, at the very moments when the Convention rejected all religion. The most private life of wicked people, who do not know God, without their consciousness (understanding by them - ed.), is maintained by faith in God. People live mostly by imitation; those who do not know God imitate their ancestors who knew Him in their way of life, and therefore, despite their ignorance of God, their forms of activity remain the same - the same as their ancestors were guided by. Therefore, if they live, then they live in these forms, and thus, without consciousness, enjoy the benefits of faith. For example, what do such people do in raising children? They are not left to their own devices, as Rousseau advises in his “Emile,” but are formed by imitation of others. Also, in order to see the truth that the knowledge of God is associated with the eternal life, one must look at the extremes in which this truth is revealed; you need to look at good people, as the eternal belly is visible in them. Who wouldn't want to be in their place, even in a dream? Reading about their lives, you immediately feel that there is some breath of Divine life here. On the contrary, in the life of monsters, atheists, eternal death and destruction are clearly visible. But I also repeat that the knowledge of God, this most important truth, is not yet fully revealed in this life, because this life in relation to eternal existence is nothing. It should also be noted that when we say about a person that he does not know God, then these are just words, but in reality this cannot be. For man knows things, and things are the thoughts of God, and therefore all his knowledge, judging strictly, is a form of one knowledge of God. Cognizing things in which the thoughts of God are expressed is like reading a book by some author: you can forget about God, just as we often forget about the author of a famous book, but we cannot forget about His thoughts, properties and deeds. Judging by the importance of knowing God, one would have expected that revelation would portray Him completely completely and clearly, and indeed, it depicts Him that way. b) What paths does Holy Scripture use to lead to the knowledge of God? It uses the same ways of reason, and two new ones. It says, firstly, that a person can know God from his conscience and from external nature. The Apostle Paul speaks about this path of knowledge in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Consequently, he approves of the ways of reason and the previous sound way of thinking about God. Secondly, it itself communicates many true concepts about God. For from beginning to end it mainly contains only the teaching about God, about His properties and actions. Thirdly, in addition to everything he said, it also points to a special teacher - the Holy Spirit, and turns to Him with such conviction that He will reveal even more than what the two previous paths open - Scripture itself and reason. Thus, the Holy Scripture, in relation to the teaching about God, provided, so to speak, a double service: it replenished the knowledge of God drawn from a natural source - from the mind, and opened a new source - the inner illumination of the Holy Spirit. c) How much do these three sources report? What does Holy Scripture say about the limits of knowledge of God? What judgment does it give about the concepts conveyed by it and other sources? About all these three paths, the Holy Scripture says that not one of them, even the last, achieves complete knowledge of God, and that all knowledge of God in this life will remain incomplete and imperfect. Thus, the Apostle Paul says about real knowledge: “For now we see as with a mirror in fortune telling... now I understand in part” (1 Cor. 13:12); I see as if through a dark glass. He promises complete knowledge beyond the grave, in eternity: “Then I will know as I was also known” (1 Cor. 13:12), that is, I will know in the most sufficient way, the way He knows me. Of course, even then we will not know Him as He knows us, if we take this in the strict sense, but the apostle wanted to express by this that we know God in eternity in the most sufficient way. Doesn't the Holy Scripture present why it is impossible to achieve complete knowledge of God here and in eternity? It presents the following reasons for this: 1) The incomprehensibility of the Being. In many places it says that to express the Being of God we have neither thoughts nor words, and therefore God is above all knowledge; Such passages are often found in the prophets, and especially in Isaiah. 2) The limitations of the minds of those who know. Here it seems to excuse itself by the limitations of our strength and our earthly life, also by our sensuality and the coarseness of our bodily nature. This idea is often found in both the Old and New Testaments. The Apostle Paul says that while we are in the body, until then removed from God as if by a wall, we wander from Him, while remaining in the body, we depart from God (cf. 2 Cor. 5:4). Solomon says: “And we scarcely understand what is on earth... and who can discern what is in heaven?” (Wis. 9:16). “The perishable body burdens the soul” (Wis. 9:15). Sound philosophy also reached this point, for what did its instructions on mortification and abstinence mean, if not that the body prevents the knowledge of the truth? So, the Holy Scripture gives such judgment about the methods of knowing God that they do not achieve full knowledge of God. What is the measure of this knowledge? This measure is determined by moral feeling. The Holy Scripture presents our present knowledge as imperfect in relation to the future, but it is perfect in relation to the goal - salvation. A person can here know the will of God as much as is necessary in order to conform his own will to it, and he can also know the means by which his moral perfection is achieved. Briefly: can find out everything that is needed in order to be saved. Otherwise, if revelation did not communicate all this, then why would it be needed? Now let's see how Holy Scripture teaches about the Being of God. For we have nothing to say about the path of reason: it is indicated in philosophy. The other path - the illumination of the Holy Spirit - is beyond our concept; we will make a general remark about it at the end of this treatise, and now we will outline the teaching of the Holy Scriptures about God. Let's see how it teaches: A. About the Being of God. B. About the mind of God. V. About the will of God. D. About the way of His existence. What does Holy Scripture say about the Being of God? Nowhere does it actually and, so to speak, with intention, express the Being of God, but concerns Him only accidentally and negatively: it says that He is not God, but does not say that He is; all the positive names of God are not used for the purpose of expressing the Being of God, but are only approximate His names - emblems of the Divine. Let's review the main ones. a) The first - both in time, and in importance, and in approximateness - the name of God is Jehovah. This name is notable simply because it was given on a very important occasion, and given by God Himself; here God defined Himself. For Moses demanded a name from that Being that appeared to him, and It called Himself Jehovah: EHYE ASHER EHYE - “I will be, who will be.” In Slavic it says: “Sy” (Rev. 4:8). This name is good because it consists of one word, but it does not quite correspond to the Hebrew. The concept of God communicated by him is the properties of the metaphysical - the concept of a Being by superiority - an original Being, existing καρ εξοχην. They express a well-known property of God - that He is from HIMSELF. From this place, some (German) philosophers have compiled the following best definition of God: “God is God,” a Being equal only to Himself. b) Holy Scripture also calls God “Light” (see: John 1:9). This name, according to ordinary understanding, expresses the following property of God: His purity. But doesn’t it also express the Being of God? Isn’t God really light, and doesn’t His Being have anything similar to light? This idea, that God by His nature is light, appeared among some Church Fathers and in philosophical schools; her loyalty cannot be judged decisively. Keeping within the limits of revelation, one can only say that this name expresses the purity of God, and that it is sufficient for a moral purpose. It should also be noted that this symbol is a favorite in the New Testament. John calls Jesus Christ "light"; This is what Jesus Christ Himself calls Himself: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). c) Also, according to the teaching of Holy Scripture, God is “fire.” This name is used in the Holy Scriptures in the New Testament by the Apostle Paul: “Our God (is) a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). It is also in the Old Testament. For many ancient peoples, fire was a symbol of deity. In the Old Testament, God loved to appear in fire, although not always, as, for example, He appeared to the prophet Elijah in the form of “fine cold” (1 Kings 19:12). Here the thought is born, is not the Being of God similar to this element? This thought was among theosophists (theologians - ed.), who said that God for the righteous is pure light, and for sinners there is fire. Again, nothing decisive can be said. Holding to the revelation, which uses this name in order to motivate people to correction, one can only say that it expresses the power of God and is sufficient for a moral purpose. That God is fire for sinners - this may or may not be true. However, it is necessary to note the following: many people find it strange how sinners can suffer from fire, but in fact this is almost not the case. Nowadays physicists claim that all forces consist of fire, and that fire is the first force. God, acting on the world, undoubtedly acts on it through the first forces: the nature of God borders on the first forces of nature, and therefore fire, as the first force of nature, is a direct receiver of the power of God. Now, human souls, having renounced the body, must live in the first forces of nature, that is, in fire, which can be pleasant for the pure, but terrible for sinners. This may be the lake of fire that is presented in the Holy Scriptures. d) Holy Scripture also says about God that He “is love” (1 John 4:8). This is the name of a practical sign. It does not express the Being of God, but expresses His moral side. e) Finally, Holy Scripture calls God “Spirit.” This name especially should express the Being of God as much as is necessary for us. Jesus Christ used it for a practical purpose, but he also expressed with it the very Being of God more clearly than all other names. What did Jesus Christ communicate through the concept of the Spirit? Did He communicate through this concept that God is an incorporeal Being? He reported, because even then all nations contrasted the spirit with the body. Did the concept that God is mind communicate? He reported, because even then they understood by the name of the Spirit a being that was intelligent and free. Consequently, under the name of the Spirit, Jesus Christ concluded the following concept about God: God is an incorporeal, intelligent, morally free and powerful Being. What does He conclude from this? The fact that the worship given to Him must consist of truth and virtue: “and those who worship Him are worthy to worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). What kind of word is spirit? The former names of God are metaphors; It is clear that this is also a metaphor. The first meaning of spirit (πνευμα) is: “wind”, “breathing”, “breath of the mouth”; this concept was later transferred to mean life, which is revealed in breathing; further, they began to mean the soul, expressed by life, movement. Jesus Christ took the word “spirit” to mean the human soul. But is God a spirit similar to our soul? Holy Scripture says in many places that God is incomprehensible (Isaiah 40:18), and that there is nothing in the world like Him (Isaiah 46:5) capable of expressing His essence. Yes, and from the mind it is known that God is not like our soul: in God, thought is together with being; with us both are separated from each other; in God, mind and will are not subject to space and time; for us, space and time are necessary conditions, so that if it were possible to take them away from the soul, it would be almost nothing, just an empty substrate. Of all the symbols of the Divine we have given, the last one is the best and most abundant, and at the same time it is not idle. By calling God Spirit, we express something through this. For man is the image of God; and therefore God is somewhat similar to us, to our spirit. This symbol is such that the mind reached it, for it represented God in the form of a Spirit, endowed with mind and will, that is, in the form of a thinking and acting force. We will place this concept as the basis of the doctrine of the Being of God. Now let us put together all the names of God and see whether they are sufficient for the purpose. These names are: God is a Being by superiority, Spirit is a rational and moral Being, fire and light are the purest, and at the same time unbearable for some creatures. It is obvious that these metaphors do not depict the Being of God, and Holy Scripture says the same. But, without depicting the Being of God, Holy Scripture makes it so clear for moral vision that there is no need to desire anything more. For example, God is an original Being; with this one thought the dependence of the whole world on Him is affirmed. Spinoza destroyed God because he took away His originality and called Him a substance whose manifestation is the world. God is Spirit - an incorporeal Being; This destroys all types of polytheism, for if there is nothing corporeal in God, then all these gods are idols, nothing - both in theoretical and practical terms. God is Spirit - a morally free Being; therefore, He must be worshiped “in spirit and in truth.” God is light: by this emblem, borrowed from the outer world, the purity of the Being of God is strongly expressed and, therefore, there is a strong incentive to preserve purity. God is fire: this emblem should terrify sin and sinners. Thus, all these fragmentary images of the Being of God do not fully express what God is; but for practical purposes they are quite sufficient. How does Scripture portray God's relationship to created beings? More approximately, but everything is metaphorical. Here it should be noted that in the Old Testament the Holy Scripture speaks more about God’s relationship to the world, especially from the side of omnipotence: thus, very often He appears to be the Creator. The New Testament primarily talks about God's relationship to the human race: here God is presented as the Father. If in the Old Testament He is presented as the Father, then this is taken more in a moral and political relation with respect to the Jewish people. On the contrary, in the New Testament He always appears to be the good Father of His children - the entire human race. Also, regarding the development of this teaching in the Holy Scriptures, it should be noted that anthropomorphism is more dominant in the Old Testament than in the New. Thus, especially in the first half of the Old Testament, God is presented in worldly terms, even, judging by the present time, rude and low; in the second half of the Old Testament these features began to rise and approach those of the New Testament. In the Old Testament, these features were removed not from the mind, as was done in the New Testament, but from the body, and therefore eyes, hands, ears, legs, etc. are attributed to God there. What are these crude emblems used for? Because of the crude concepts of the common people. However, this anthropomorphism does not in the least criticize revelation; on the contrary, it does it honor, for it shows that it was in conformity with the childish mind of the people. A prudent philosopher would do the same if he needed to instruct a commoner; at that time he would have put aside his metaphysical language, unsuitable for such instruction. Thus, the Holy Scripture presents knowledge of God as the first necessity; shows three ways of knowing God; about the price of knowledge acquired through these paths, he says that they are complete in relation to the goal, but not complete in relation to future knowledge; It does not depict the Being of God anywhere with intention, but accidentally touches this subject and, touching, does not express the actual Being of God, but directs all concepts about Him to a moral goal. There is a gradualness in the revelation of God’s relationship to creatures: in the Old Testament it represented Him as Creator and Judge, and, moreover, in too sensual terms; in the New Testament it settled on the concept of general common sense - on the concept of God as a spiritual Being, as the Father of the human race. All the names of God that we have shown are borrowed from the internal and external world; therefore, they are based on analogy, on the fact that everything created is similar to God the Creator. And indeed, there is this similarity. Man is like God, for he is created in the image and likeness of God, and the world is like man. For why do we believe that our mind knows things truly? By the similarity of things to our mind, or, better, by the similarity of the laws of the external world with the laws of the internal world. And isn’t the outer world itself created in the image of God? God created the world according to a well-known model, but where could He take this model, if not from Himself? The words of the Apostle Paul lead to this: “His invisible being is visible in the world” (Rom. 1:20). How could this invisible thing be visible if that in which it agrees did not resemble Him? Judging by the apostle, one can even think that the world reveals more than our inner nature, for it is said about it that it is a symbol of the power of God and Divinity, that is, it represents in itself all the greatness of God and all the glory, which we do not see in any of the symbols or emblems of the Being of God that we have previously outlined; therefore, the similarity between him and God must be great. How does the world primarily reveal the perfection of God? Mostly revealed in the world: 1) THE LIFE OF GOD. Our immortal poet laid down the movement as a symbol of the life of God appearing in the world: “Alive in the movement of matter” (ode “God” by G. Derzhavin). And in fact, imagine the entire moving system of the world’s bodies, add to this the movement of winds and waters, imagine also the incessant struggle of the elements within the earth and the constant change from one state of things to another; and you will involuntarily come to the thought that continuous movement expresses the boundless life of God. 2) THE INFINITY OF GOD. The space that exists in the world is a shade of the infinite Divinity, which is why in schools they came to the idea that space was called something non-existent, immaterial, existing only in us, but it, meanwhile, exists both in us and outside of us, it is the form of the existence of things and the first expression or, better, reflection of the infinity of the Divine. 3) ETERNITY OF GOD. It is expressed in endless time, as the same poet noted: “By the flow of time, the Eternal One.” 4) GOD’S WISDOM, GOODNESS and other properties are clearly expressed in the structure and governance of the world. Thus, the Holy Scripture, borrowing from the world of the external expression of the Being of God, thereby approves of some natural theologians who follow this path. Only it together asserts that God is above all things. This lesson of the Holy Scriptures was most expressed in the appearance of God to the prophet Elijah, where it was shown that no force of nature: neither spirit, nor fire, etc., is God. This phenomenon can be applied to all philosophical systems. You need to know that the forces of nature, no matter how perfect they are, constitute only the throne of God, and God is above all of them. Speaking about the Being of God, let us touch upon the following question: can it be said about God that He is material? Some writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries - Tertullian, Melito, Augustine - said about God that He is the purest matter. This matter, understood in the highest sense, expressed for them the Being of God. How to judge this? Judging by ordinary concepts, it is impossible to call God material, for we are accustomed to connecting with matter something that is contrary to the spirit and, therefore, impossible in God, as in a spiritual Being. But if you look at this from a higher point of view, you cannot say decisively: Is Spirit God or matter? For we know neither the nature of Spirit and matter, nor their mutual relationship with each other. How does this infinite Spirit, this eternal Light exist? Every being appears to the mind to exist under three conditions in relation to the following three laws: 1) In relation to the law of CAUSATION, where it is asked: where does a known creature come from? If we apply this question to God, then about Him alone the answer will have to be negative; this law suffers an exception here, for God exists in Himself independently, uniquely; everything is from Him, and He is from no one. 2) In relation to SPACE – from where and where? Again the answer is negative: God is not limited to place, He exists everywhere and in no place - nowhere. 3) In relation to TIME – when? And here is denial. God always exists, therefore, in no time, never. So, in relation to the image of God’s existence, one can express it this way: NOT FROM ANYONE, NOWHERE, NEVER; or positively: FROM YOURSELF, EVERYWHERE, ALWAYS. The Holy Scriptures say the same thing. And since these perfections have a great influence on morality, they are revealed in the Old Testament with all clarity, despite the fact that God decided to communicate knowledge about Himself gradually. since they are signs of the metaphysical, then the Holy Scripture, revealing them, deviates from its simplicity, however, it does not go far into metaphysics, but stops at the concepts of common sense. Let's look at some passages of Scripture concerning this subject: 1) Holy Scripture clearly says that God exists from Himself - χαθ εξοχην exists. This thought is expressed by Jesus Christ in relation to Himself and to the Father when He says that He has “life in Himself” (John 5:26), that is, He exists by His omnipotence, not depending on anyone, or, in the language of the school, has the beginning of His existence in Himself. The Apostle Paul expresses the same thing in the Epistle to the Romans when he says that God does not lend anything to anyone, for who has given anything to God? He Himself gives everything to everyone (see: Rom. 11:35). The prophets have the same thing in similar words, and they often contrasted this self-satisfaction of the Being of God with the meager existence of idols created by human hands. This concept is briefly expressed in the word “Jehovah.” With this name, God seems to want to instill the following thought: I have no other name than being - I am I, that is, I do not depend on anyone and am not involved in anything. This property of God, which is the first truth for reason, is, on the one hand, extremely necessary, and on the other, mysterious. Necessary - because something needs to be; You cannot follow the chain of causes and actions into infinity, and you cannot rest on insignificance. It’s mysterious, because although the mind is accustomed to adhering to the laws of winemaking (the search for causes - ed.) in everything, when it comes to God, it stops, as it were, over the abyss and is in awe, despite the fact that the mind would like to ask: where, why? Thus, the first condition of the existence of God, according to the Holy Scriptures, is originality, independence, and since an original being is assumed to be one, then everything else depends on it. This property in God is depicted in great detail in the Holy Scriptures, for example in the prophets, who took it almost to extremes; According to their teaching, God creates good and evil, embraces prosperity and disaster, which, according to the ordinary concept, seems indecent, although this expresses nothing more than the perfect independence of God’s existence. 2) The second condition for the existence of God is infinity, immeasurability or omnipresence. There is no end to God's existence. God is present everywhere and fills all creation. This truth, since it is very necessary for morality, was fully depicted in the Old Testament; The New Testament barely touches on it. For example, David, looking at nature - at creation, and imagining God, says: “I will walk from Your Spirit; and I will flee from Your presence” (Ps. 139:7). I will not hide from You if I fly as fast as the rays of the sun (see: Ps. 139:8–9). It is impossible to express the omnipresence of God more majestic than this. But how is God present everywhere? Is it a being or a force? Is it in space or in a spiritual way? All these views exist in schools, but the Holy Scripture does not concern them, it only says with firm confidence that where God is, there He is with all perfections; and since He is everywhere, He is everywhere, He is everywhere, His omnipresence is not weak, but complete. What is the difficulty of the mind here? And why? Because the mind looks at space, at places in parts; imagining that God is everywhere, he does not understand how His Being is not fragmented in fragmented space, how God, being all there, is at the same time all here. But if we look at space as a whole, boundless, then these contradictions disappear. For at this glance, space appears, as we noted above, as a reflection of God’s infinity. Another difficulty regarding the omnipresence of God arises from the fact that we imagine space as material. How, we ask ourselves, can we include God in him? But this is a logical fallacy. Space is material, but not in the way we imagine it, dividing it into parts that are not in it. Consequently, all objections borrowed from such concepts are void. That the omnipresence of God, as a truth necessary for morality, warned other truths by its appearance, this is evident from the fact that we find the most sufficient concept of this in the religion of the patriarchs. For example, Laban swears to Jacob and says: God “for a witness between me and you” (Gen. 31:44). Such a view of the oath is a clear sign of a sufficient concept of the omnipresence of God. This concept of the omnipresence of God then received a moral direction. This can be seen from the example of Joseph, who, rejecting the temptation of Pentephri’s wife, said: “How can I create this evil verb and sin before God?” (Gen. 39:9). Reason often releases this truth. For example, Jacob, guided by reason, said: God is here, “but I did not know” Him (Gen. 28:16). This shows doubt... Then this truth is depicted clearly and completely in the psalms and prophecies. There is also a mystery here. God is everywhere, but how does He, being infinite, manifest itself within every thing? The mind still knows nothing about this; The transition of the infinite into the finite is also a mystery for pantheists. 3) The third property of God’s existence is elevation above time - eternity, and at the same time constancy does not change. This truth is a metaphysical sign, but since it has a great influence on morality, it is expressed in the Holy Scriptures clearly and in accordance with the prevailing method of revealed teaching, sensually, in comparison with the temporal. Thus, David, looking at the world, dwells on the most durable things, but ascending to God compares them with a shadow: “In the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth” (Ps. 102:26), and in another place: “from everlasting to everlasting you are” (Psalm 89:3). This same concept of eternity and immutability is contained in the name “Jehovah” (Ex. 3:14, 33:19, Hos. 12:5). The prophets depicted the eternity of God in various expressions in comparison with creatures and directly call God eternal, living forever. In the New Testament this property is not particularly expressed, for it is well expressed in the Old Testament. However, the writers of the New Testament often touch upon it. For example, the Revelation of John (Apocalypse) says: “The Almighty, who is both and who is to come” (Rev. 4:8). The Apostle Paul writes about Jesus Christ that He is not only eternal, but “to whom are the worlds” (Heb. 1:2). This condition gives rise to the third incomprehensibility for reason: how does the eternal manifest itself in time? (and that it manifests itself, there is no doubt.) In order to bring this closer to reason and destroy all contradictions, it is necessary to distract thought from fragmentation and imagine time as a whole, then if it does not equal eternity, it will be a shade of it, since it is a fluctuating reflection of resting eternity. Therefore, it is not surprising that eternity manifests itself in time. A property similar to this is the property of immutability, which is even more difficult to explain. The Holy Scriptures clearly depict that God is unchangeable and steadfast. The Old Testament portrays this too sensually and crudely. Here are the passages: “God does not repent like man” (cf.: Numbers 23:19). Balaam expressed this when Balak forced him to pronounce a curse instead of a blessing. “God ...,” he says, “is not ... the son of man, that He should change.” This thought is often found in the prophets. The Israelites grumbled at God for not fulfilling the promise, and the prophets convinced them to expect fulfillment on the basis of the unchangeability of the will of God. Thus, God in Isaiah in one place says: what I have spoken will be; “all my counsel will be, and all the things that I have counseled will I create” (Is. 46:10) In the New Testament, this truth is found accidentally; however, the Apostle James expresses immutability even from the physical side: “every gift is good” (James 1:17). This is the last condition of God’s existence. It is an addition to His infinity and eternity, for all changes occur in space and time. This gives rise to the following difficulty: how is God unchangeable, but everything that exists, despite existing in Him, changes? Likewise, the world came from God; How come there was no change in God? Holy Scripture does not deal with this issue. And therefore this rather important question: how to reconcile the changeability of the physical and moral world with the immutability of God will be a mystery to us. How did the creation of the world not bring about a change in the Being of God? The mind cannot answer this. So philosophers attack the mysteries of revelation; while in philosophy there are even more of them. The first stages of the mind are clear, but the higher you go, the darker it becomes, so that finally the light is completely lost. The mind in this case can be compared to a balloon, on which the higher one rises, the more the light decreases and the darkness increases. There are many other similar questions that the mind is not able to solve. From there, some of the newest philosophers began to say that philosophy must end in faith; that there is a line beyond which she cannot go; that metaphysics in the proper sense of the word is impossible. Thus, God, according to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the mind, is a Being opposite to all other created beings: they exist from Him, He from Himself; those fill space and are limited by it, He fills everything and space in Him; they revolve in time, He stands above time, and time only expresses His being; those change physically and morally, begin and grow old, He remains the same; This is His way of existence, this is the general outline of the Being of God. These properties of God are expressed in His works, for the Apostle Paul says that all things are through Him, from Him and for Him in moral and physical beings. But is all activity expressed? Is there not an inexpressible activity that is only in Himself? The natural mind would like to embrace Him more and more, for this is a delight for it, and the Holy Scripture encourages one to improve in the knowledge of God. But if somewhere, then especially here we need to remember that the mind is limited, and especially while it lives here on earth, otherwise we will not know anything, instead of what is essential, deception will remain in our hands. Pure morality, sober thought will not encroach on embracing God; rather, it will revere Him; This was expressed by the unforgettable G. Derzhavin: “Only the thought of ascending to You dares to disappear in Your greatness.” A daring thought, instead of being great, becomes small, insignificant, as happened with some philosophers. Dionysius the Areopagite stood tall; but since he had a good thought, his views were good and good. On the contrary, Fichte, since he did not have good thoughts, reached almost the point of godlessness. For what is his God? The moral order that exists in his mind: it is clear that God has become a phantom in him. We should rejoice in the fact that God is incomprehensible, for He will be the subject of knowledge through all eternity. If the mind understood Him, it would remain without action, and this is torment for it. These truths, although of an abstract nature, can nevertheless have a great influence on morality. And therefore they should be used especially in sermons. They are not spoken of, and yet these properties are extremely comforting and instructive, even the very incomprehensibility of God, which, on the one hand, is incomprehensible, and on the other, comprehensible. As for our own private use, these aspects of the Being of God seem to represent nothing for imitation, for they are beyond our strength: we cannot be original, limitless. So, we physically cannot, but morally we can and must. Then a person is kind when he wants to be kind out of pure love, and for this he needs to have freedom - originality. On the moral side it must be above space and time; People become small because they contain their souls in these forms. The friend of humanity is above all in his concepts, desires and laws, above all worlds and times, lives forever and has one eternity in mind. From these sides we imitate the image of God’s existence; Just thinking about these truths can make our mind broader, purer and more spiritual. Therefore, we should talk about them more often. For these properties, sooner or later, must be expressed in us. In the objects of eternity we will approach the infinite and will be free from everything temporary and transitory. It is most correct to represent the image of God’s existence through the representation of the opposite image of the existence of creation. It's easy to do. Here it is necessary to deny only everything about God that is said about creatures. But again, the disadvantage is that through this we remove from God only that which He is not, and do not say that He is. We say: God is original from Himself, above space and time, above all changes, but what is He? We don't know this. This is a mystery to us. Now let us examine the Being of God in its most particular manifestations. We said that God is Spirit, according to the teaching of Holy Scripture. The being of the Spirit consists of mind, will and actions. The same can be assumed about God: there is something similar in Him. Let's start with the mind, or with that side that is similar to our mind, and of which our mind serves as an expression. How does Holy Scripture speak about this? It calls God the mind and the source of minds. It describes the mind of God from different sides, taking away from it the limitations of our mind. It ascribes to God the knowledge of everything, but our mind does not know everything. since the true concept of the mind of God has a great influence on morality, the Holy Scripture describes it in all detail: it attributes to the mind of God the knowledge of heaven and earth, the kingdom of plants and animals, what is in the mountains and what is in the rivers; in the moral world ascribes to him knowledge of thoughts, desires, actions, and everything that is hidden in our hearts; it says briefly: before Him “everything is naked” (Heb. 4:13, Ps. 139:1–24. Matt. 6:8); and He sees right through a person. “Thou hast known,” says the Psalmist, “my sitting and my rising” (Ps. 139:1). Since our knowledge is divided into three types: knowledge of the past, present and future, then on this basis the Holy Scripture ascribes to God knowledge of the past, present and future, and with the last type of knowledge, that is, knowledge of the future, it contrasts God with pagan idols. In addition, it also attributes to God a fourth type of knowledge - knowledge of the future conditional, or that which could be, but which will never be. In the Old Testament there are experiences of knowledge of this kind. For example, David, upon entering Keilah, receives an answer from God about what did not come true, but what could have come true if certain conditions had come true. In a similar way, Jesus Christ speaks of cities that could repent if they heard Him (see: Matt. 11:20–24). So, Holy Scripture assimilates omniscience to God and extends it to everything great and small, physical and moral. What is the knowledge of God? God knows everything perfectly; there is not the slightest lack of knowledge of Him. From there, the Holy Scripture says about our knowledge that it is imperfect, but about the Divine, that we must strive for it through all eternity. When the Apostle Paul says that beyond the grave I will know God “as I was known” (1 Cor. 13:12), this expresses that our knowledge in eternity will approach the knowledge of the Divine. This is what Holy Scripture teaches about the omniscience of God. since our mind, from which these images are taken, lies in space and time, and God is above these forms, then all these images are only symbols of the knowledge of God, which express one following truth: God has neither a past nor a future, for Him there is only one present. What is the mind of God? Is it possible to determine its relationship to our mind? Is it possible to find in our mind even one trait worthy of the mind of God? Holy Scripture leaves us with the solution to this question. For its purpose is to give rules for morality, but it does not reveal the nature of God or even man. If anything can be said about this, it is only on the basis of the judgment of our mind. We know that the human mind, or man in general, is the image of God; What is the similarity between this copy and the original? It is obvious that in our mind there is much that cannot be attributed to God: for example, memory, imagination, and in general the abilities to judge, imagine, and conclude (logical reason) do not go to God, but belong to a temporary, transient, weak, dull creature. Apart from this, what remains in our mind? The main laws remain: the law of winemaking, identity, and so on. But these laws, for the most part, cannot pass into the Divine mind, because in actions they are conditioned (conditioned - ed.) by space and time, and without this they cannot exist. What kind of thing remains in our mind that at least partially expresses the Divine mind? The last feature is that our mind represents things outside itself, its ideas are lists, shades of things. Is this dualism in the mind of God? Does the mind of God consist, let us even say, of an immeasurable number of ideas? The philosophers stopped at this; but this anthropomorphism, this duality in God cannot exist (however, this must be understood sensibly, so that, having admitted the true thought: God sees everything in Himself, one does not allow the false one: everything is God; this would be pantheism). How, finally, can the human mind express the Divine mind? Consciousness, they say, is the highest feature expressing the Divine mind. But our consciousness is also dual. Our mind, conscious of itself, goes out of itself and, looking at itself, doubles, and even triples. Is this in God? This is not the case; but there is something similar to our consciousness: for then nothing remains in our mind; but it cannot be said that this consciousness is the same in God as in man. Isn’t the trinity of our knowledge in God expressed by a triple being, that is, the three Persons in God are not the same as what is expressed in the consciousness of our spirit: I by the conscious, I by the conscious and not I? Blessed Augustine came to this thought; he explains it in detail. Thus, the Divine mind must be different from our mind. It does not consist of idle ideas. Things, in relation to the ideas of the Divine mind, are lists and shadows. And according to the way our ideas relate to things, so things relate to the Divine mind; our ideas are empty in relation to things, and things are empty in relation to God's ideas. In God, the idea and the thing are one and the same: “That was what he said” (Ps. 33:9). With Him, thinking and creating are one and the same. But, on the other hand, if in God thought and being are one and the same, then how can the freedom of beings be combined with this? Is it so: the mind of God is creative, thinking and creation are one and the same, excluding only its relationship to free creatures. But could this be an exception? Perhaps, but not otherwise than through God’s self-limitation, and this self-limitation exists, for every limited freedom is nothing more than an exclusion from unlimited freedom; It cannot be otherwise. Through this withdrawal, something formal seems to be lost in boundless freedom, but in reality this loss does not exist. From the description of Moses it is clear that God wanted to see His image, His friend. A friend of God is possible only with perfections similar to the perfections of God. Therefore, God, having created a friend for Himself, created, so to speak, a small Himself, in a limited form, that is, He created a being that in some respect is no longer subordinate to Him; in relation to this creation, God forever renounced one of His rights, and therefore in this respect His thinking is not a creation. The Holy Scripture speaks of human freedom and God’s foreknowledge as if freedom does not exist in itself without God’s foreknowledge, and God’s foreknowledge seems to exist without our freedom. Of the ancients, Cicero, and of the newest, the Socinians and others, could not reconcile the foreknowledge of God with human freedom. Cicero (in the book “De divinit.” Lih. I, 2. 5–7) says: “si Deus res futuras ac contingentes certo scit, nulla est fortuna. Est avtem fortuna rerum, itaque futurorum contingentum nulla est praescientia.” Socinus (prael. Theol. cap. 8–11) writes: “Deus omnia scit, quae scibilia sunt, sed sunt quaedam, quae nullo modo potest scire...”. These doubts arose because the knowledge of God was confined to space and time. Augustine agreed this way: “Knowledge of the future changes the state of future things just as little as knowledge of the present. The messenger foresees war, but does not impose any force. The mentor foresees that the child, having gone to the flower garden, will pick flowers, but this does not force him to do anything.” This decision is a good one; but it is based on time. Augustine saw this and, reasoning, gave himself an objection: human foreknowledge is accidental: it may or may not be; but in God this chance is impossible. Consequently, does not God's foreknowledge impose necessity on actions, being itself necessary? The difficulty in this case is eliminated in this way: our foreknowledge precedes action; in God there is no such precedence, for in God there is no actual future, in Him there is only the present; and it is known that awareness of the present does not impose any necessity on actions. How is it that with God everything is real, but we have almost nothing real? How is our temporality combined with timelessness? How do people, the devil, hell and creatures in general exist in the Creator? This is a secret. The ancient mystics said that you need to die to see God, and not only God, but also nature in itself. We have one subjective knowledge, and objective knowledge is in God. The second perplexity in relation to the mind of God is how to combine knowledge of future free actions with human freedom? If God knows the future, then it must be necessary: ​​how will there be freedom where there is necessity? All solutions to this issue do not resolve the matter. The main decision is that God’s knowledge is higher than space and time, therefore, our future is not the future for Him; but how to combine the free actions of limited beings with this is a mystery! To see that God’s Conception does not destroy our freedom, for this we need to leave the circle of time and move into eternity; but we cannot even reach the boundary of our time. God sees both our time and His eternity, but we see only our time. And therefore it is impossible for us to understand how the temporal is connected with the eternal. Let us listen to the ancients, who talked about the mind of God and, mainly, about foreknowledge. Augustine says: “Quid est proscientia, nisi scientia futurorum? Quid autem futurum coram Deo?” The same can be seen in systems. This solution is very good, but it does not remove the knowledge of God from space and time. This is also explained by a comparison or example of two people, one of whom prescribes to the other that he will perform a certain act; this one does it as he predicted to him. Origen writes against Celsus: “Non quia pronotum est fit, sed quia futurum erat, pronotum est.” Saint Ambrose of Milan, Hilary and other Church Fathers say the same. The Holy Scripture depicts God's omniscience under the guise of wisdom. Omniscience, according to his teaching, is theory, and wisdom is practice; that one rests, and this one acts. From this side, Holy Scripture very clearly depicts the omniscience of God, especially in relation to the human race and the mystery of salvation. It often says that God uses sufficient and wise means; chooses holy, lofty, unchangeable goals. This wisdom in relation to the mystery of redemption is praised by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians: “in the hidden mystery which God hath presented before the ages” (1 Cor. 2:7). Finally, in order to further demonstrate the greatness of the mind and wisdom of God, Holy Scripture presents God as the source of all wisdom (1 Samuel 2:3, Jude 1:25, 1 Tim. 1:17), the Creator of the mind, and makes us ask Him for wisdom (James 1:5). This property of God is described very well in Daniel (Dan. 2:20–21; Proverbs 2:6). The Apostle Paul, comparing the wisdom of God with the wisdom of man, calls the latter “riot” with God (fn.: 1 Cor. 1:19–21). But in what mind is this wisdom called violence? This earthly wisdom has many truths; how can these truths be a riot? They must have some price. In order to save this side of human wisdom, it must be limited as follows: human wisdom, concerning religion, human salvation and moral correction in general, is violence. Take everything in complexity that the mind has come up with for the restoration of the human race: all sacrifices, all types of theurgy, all pagan sacraments - all this is riot. It’s even strange to believe their nonsense; It seems impossible to think that smart people could reach such stupidity. However, as regards natural and other non-religious truths, in this respect earthly wisdom is no longer violence. But, on the other hand, all our wisdom is violence. We say that our way of existence is opposite to the way of God’s existence. What is our wisdom? Or is she a shadow of a shadow and throughout eternity can only come somewhat closer to the wisdom of God? What is she now? Riotousness, or at least close to it. And therefore all philosophy is violence. What moral truths follow from the doctrine of God's omniscience? Holy Scripture itself brings them out. It says that if God is truth, then only one should ask Him for truth; that in God there is only independent truth, and in all other beings it is derivative. These are not just words, but the real truth. We, for example, Christians, know God, according to the teachings of Jesus Christ we believe in revelation; don't philosophers do the same thing? Isn’t it the same faith, isn’t it the same person’s authority that underlies them? Everything is the same. The truth is in God alone. We know the truth, for we know the mind of God in Jesus Christ. Non-Christians say that they know the truth and also admit that the truth is in God alone. Why do they know her? Without a doubt, by faith that the truth was conveyed by God to their mind: if philosophers did not have faith in the fact that the Divine mind was reflected in man through his mind, then the human mind would fall. At the basis of all wisdom lies faith in the Divine mind - in the fact that God was revealed in man and, so to speak, embodied in his soul. Indeed, earthly wisdom believes in the Son of God and Man. For example, every philosopher, giving out a known truth, says what the human mind told him. Where is this mind? Everywhere and nowhere. Therefore, he is ideal; in parts it is expressed in people, but in its entirety it is in one God - there is the Firstborn, the Son of God, as Kant thought. If God knows everything in the most perfect way, then human knowledge in comparison with Divine knowledge is nothing: all our judgments, all systems are childish babbling. And therefore, how foolish it is to think that if the human mind does not know something, then the Divine mind does not know it either. We would laugh at a child if he began to judge everything like a philosopher; but philosophers are less and lower before God than a child is before us. A truly intelligent person is always aware of his weakness, and judging everything, objecting and rejecting is characteristic of childhood - immature age. Will also belongs to the essence of the spirit. Therefore, Holy Scripture ascribes will to God as the Spirit. God creates everything according to the advice of His will (Ps. 134:6, 1 Cor. 1:1, Gal. 1:15). The word “will” in the Holy Scriptures is replaced by “desire”, “volition”, “love”. Thus, the basis of the grace-filled arrangement for the salvation of the human race (John 6:39–40) is called the name θελημα (Luke 7:20), βουλη. (John 3:16), αγαπηθεου the basis on which the Apostle Paul was chosen to evangelize is called θελημα (1 Cor. 1:1, Gal. 1:5; and Gal. 1:13 – χαρις); in John - “God is love” - αγαπη, which expresses the entire being of God (1 John 4:8). All these names express the idea that in God there is something similar to our will. What is will in God? We have it as a desire for something - a desire to realize our thought. God does not have this, because our desire is a consequence of limitation. In God, the will is nothing more than an active force - it is reason in action, just as will in contemplation is reason. With us, reason and will cannot exist without knowledge and desire, and knowledge differs from reason, and desire from will; in God there is no such distinction. And therefore, if the Holy Scripture ascribes knowledge of God to the mind, and desire to the will, then it only wants to say that the contemplation of God is not idle, but is always accompanied by action - will. Does Holy Scripture distinguish between the types of God's will? The division of God's will alone has a basis in Holy Scripture and is important for morality. Scripture presents God with a will that is either active or suffering, acting in good - producing, and suffering in evil - allowing. Consequently, according to the teaching of Scripture, the will of God seems, on the one hand, unlimited - in relation to good, and on the other, self-limiting - in relation to evil. How this can be is a mystery to us, just as it is mysterious in our mind that it thinks and does not create, that the will desires good and does not fulfill it. We must agree only that there is such self-limitation of the will of God; that where there are free creatures, there is no God's omnipotence; and this is the greatest gift for a person, that God gave up something for his sake. What are the qualities of God's will? The Holy Scripture says that the will of God is free, that God does not depend on anyone - both in essence and in actions. We have free will in that we can choose one of two. In God there is no such freedom; for Him the realm of the possible and the realm of evil do not exist at all. With us, freedom is based on arbitrariness, this arbitrariness turns into freedom, and this does not exist in God, for there is no human hesitation. He has one path - the same laws of good, and therefore His freedom consists in the unity of will with mind, in their perfect agreement. And in man, arbitrariness is not freedom, but only its basis. It would be bad for a person without arbitrariness; but in comparison with the highest freedom, this freedom of ours, based on arbitrariness, is not freedom, is not good, but imperfection. For a person is free not when he chooses good, but when he is strengthened in it and follows it. Therefore, in God freedom is both moral necessity. He always acts in the best way, and this is the only way of acting possible. All creatures strive for this necessity and, although they achieve it in this life, they do not, however, cease to be free. What does Holy Scripture say about the power of God's will? For God, it says, “all things are possible”: His will can accomplish everything (Matt. 19:26, Luke 18:27, Luke 1:37; Ps. 113:11, 32:9, Is. 46:10). “With God every word fails,” everything is possible. How to understand this - everything? God can do whatever is in His most holy mind. Therefore, not everything that is possible for us is possible for God: God would cease to be omnipotent if he did something physically bad, as we often do. We cannot regret that an adult cannot rock in a cradle, because this is an imperfection. Thus, some types of our possibilities do not go to God, because they are weaknesses for Him. On the other hand, “the impossible... with us is possible with God.” Holy Scripture speaks directly about this (Luke 18:27). The Apostle Paul says that God “is able to do more for us than we ask and understand” (Eph. 3:20). The union of the soul with the body would be impossible for us if we did not actually see it; since the resurrection of bodies turned to dust seems impossible for us. Tertullian writes: “What God wills, he can do, but he does not want everything that he can”; Saints Gregory the Great, John of Damascus, and Theophylact of Antioch say the same. The Holy Scripture also represents the will of God as holy, by which holiness God subordinates His freedom and omnipotence to reasonable goals. In man, holiness is the desire for the best; there cannot be such holiness in God; in Him holiness is nothing other than the perfect agreement of the omnipotent will with the holiest mind; there is identity of mind with will; the mind represents one truth, and the will wants one good, and this constitutes the holiness of the will of God. Holy Scripture often reminds us of the holiness of God’s will and demands that we also must certainly be holy. (Here are some Scriptures in the Old Testament: Deut. 23:14, 30:6, 16, Ps. 5:5, 14:1-2, 1 Sam. 2:10, Lev. 11:44) Moses often demanded holiness from the Israelites on the grounds that God is holy. In the New Testament, the holiness of God is reminded less often, but with no less force. “Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Here perfection is the same as holiness. The Apostle Peter also speaks about the holiness of God in his epistle. (1 Pet. 1:16) In God holiness is not like our holiness; it is not, like ours, a temporary desire for good combined with struggle. “God is not tempted by evil” (James 1:13). There is no motive for evil in Him. “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). “Virtue,” attributed to God in Scripture (1 Pet. 2:9), means the moral strength of perfection. This holiness of God, or sinlessness - freedom from vice - was called in schools internal truth, which ad extra is called divine truth. Holiness is internal truth, and divine truth is external holiness; It is with this latter aspect that God especially addresses us. Therefore, after wisdom, the justice of God is depicted in the Holy Scriptures in all its fullness (Eccl. 12:14, Matt. 11:22), and especially in the psalms (Ps. 18:10, 119:7, 145:3, 5-7, and others). How to briefly depict the truth of God? Judging by the limitations of our mind, it can be depicted in this way: it is a property of the being of God, according to which God prescribes laws to the entire rational world and, depending on the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of them, rewards or punishes. Therefore, it is divided into legislative and executive; according to the first, God is the giver of moral laws in the conscience of rational beings; on the second - Judge and Punisher. How does God give laws and express His truth through them? Initially He gave laws in the creation of intelligent beings. Man brings with him the divine light. This light is the moral law, there is conscience, which can be recognized as the will of God. These laws, given through creation and providence, are called natural laws. In addition, laws are given in a positive way, through revelation. Is this secondary declaration of the will of God necessary? We saw that revelation was needed; consequently, they also saw that positive laws are needed. In particular, we can say that God can give these laws for the following purposes: a) natural laws can be darkened; So, their repetition is clearly necessary; b) by fulfilling positive laws, he is given the opportunity to further demonstrate submission to the will of God. And the natural laws express the will of God, but since they are dictated by the mind itself, the mind, fulfilling them, obeys itself more. A positive law appears - the mind does not see the internal basis of this law (for positive laws differ from natural ones in that their causes and goals are hidden from us), but, despite this, it follows it; It is clear that in this case the mind denies its humanity, renounces its natural right and waits only in eternity. For example, God gives Abraham the law of circumcision, combined with illness, with trouble. What is the purpose of this law? To sanctify the Israelites and appropriate them to Himself. The mind does not see this. It is possible, he thinks, to use another sign for this, one that is not painful. Christians are given Baptism; again, the Christian does not see the internal necessity of it, but fulfills it. They will say: don’t positive laws impose a new yoke on a person? don't they open the way to crimes? For, they say, where there are many laws, there are many vices. This can come from the legislator - man, and not from the lawgiver - God. All these laws, or most of them, in the Old Testament are given not as a burden, but as a relief. This is how the ritual law was given. The Jews did not know how to please God. God took upon Himself the work of giving them laws for this. Moreover, many crimes do not always arise from many laws, but mostly from their imperfection. Morality is limited not by the number of actions, but by the spirit of actions. And therefore the multitude of the laws of Moses gave the best direction to religion; for even if they sinned more often, they wanted to sin less. Thus, God gives laws to people through creation, providence, and direct revelation. Apparently, those peoples have an advantage which have both natural and positive laws. But the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans reconciles this in this way: to whom as much is given, so much is required (see Rom. 12:6–8). The second side of God's truth consists in monitoring the fulfillment of the laws; God's truth rewards and punishes. What is a reward? A series of good consequences that follow good behavior. What is punishment? A series of bad consequences following bad behavior. Therefore, it is required that a person sees the connection between good and reward, between evil and punishment. This connection may not be obvious to a person, but if not here, in time, then there, in eternity, he will see it. However, in real life there are many goods and evils that have no connection with virtue and vice; they are called happiness and unhappiness. Why does God reward good and punish evil? It is usually assumed that the motive and purpose of rewards and punishments is the improvement of moral beings. But this cannot be limited, for this means forcing God to act not for Himself, but for something external. The prices of rewards and punishments must be in God Himself. He punishes and rewards because it cannot be otherwise, for His being is holy and righteous. And therefore, by His very essence He turns to good and turns away from evil. since He is life, then this turning to good and turning away from evil cannot but be expressed in actions, in rewards and punishments. From this, even if the goal was not supposed to be the improvement of moral beings, there would be rewards and punishments: this is required by the being of God and the property of truth. But along with this goal, God also has another - the improvement of moral beings. The first goal is more visible in the Old Testament: there God seeks more of His glory and places His will as the basis for His determinations. The second purpose is revealed more clearly in the New Testament; here God is the Father, as if forgetting Himself and trying for the good of the children. The improvement of moral beings can be considered separately. The moral Kingdom of God consists not only of people, but also of Angels. So, when God rewards or punishes, does he have a universal purpose in mind or not? It must be assumed that this goal in relation to the human race extends to the Angels, and vice versa, from the Angels to people. That's how it should be; for the whole Kingdom of God has one pattern, one motive, one purpose; therefore, there must be instructions alone. This can be seen from several passages of Holy Scripture. The Angels fell, and from their fall instruction was given to men (Jude 1:6). Likewise, events with the human race are related to Angels. The Apostle Paul desires that the angels should know the good things given to men; Angels peer (peer) into the mystery of redemption; they serve us (Heb. 1:14). We see all this in this life, much more so will we see it in eternity. You need to know this to explain some dogmas. For example, why was the death of Jesus Christ so painful? Not so much for man, but, perhaps, for other creatures, whom moral improvement did not allow the human race to forgive, because temptation could occur there, or something else. In particular, moral improvement in the human race takes different forms. God has in mind the improvement of everyone: this includes the most important events, for example, expulsion from paradise, the flood, the extermination of nations, their origin, transformations, and the like. How does God carry out his judgments? Firstly, in a natural way, that is, the truth of God, during the very creation of the moral and physical world, arranged it in such a way that virtue is accompanied by good, and evil by evil. This kind of feeling is an internal sensation that a person more or less experiences. If it is sometimes weak, it is because the inner feeling is weak and not revealed; but in people with an open heart it can be very strong, and we cannot help but believe those who say that they will not exchange inner peace for anything. Likewise, remorse is unimportant in those in which it sleeps; but in people who are engaged in correcting themselves, it is very strong, even in terrible villains, if conscience awakens in them, for example, in Judas. From this example it is clear how quickly the voice of God’s truth follows virtue and vice—internal reward and punishment. Seneca, reflecting on this, involuntarily exclaimed: est Deus in nobis. Secondly, in addition to internal good and evil, combined with virtue and vice, there are also external good and evil, such as longevity, or disorder of health. This proportionality would be the most accurate if vice, which passes through generations and centuries, did not interfere with the long series of virtues. And therefore now health, as well as illness, is often undeserved. Jesus Christ drew the attention of the Jews to this when he said about the blind man: “Sin neither this one nor his father” (John 9:3). Thus, the truth of God carries out its judgments in a natural way: it combines good with virtue, and evil with evil. But it is enough to look at the human race once to see that this path alone is not enough. Man himself emerged from the natural state; Therefore, positive rewards and punishments became necessary for him. What are they? Also in happiness and misfortune, only in such happiness that is delivered to the righteous directly by the will of God - miraculously, and in the same misfortune. When does both happen? It begins in this life and ends in eternity. We see both in the people of Israel. How many events, how many adventures were turned either as a reward or as a punishment for him! The field for discovering the fullness of God's truth is eternity: there, according to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, the righteous will receive a perfect reward, and sinners will receive punishment. There may be an objection here: the all-wise God only needs one way to manifest rewards and punishments. It had to be arranged in such a way that both the perfect reward and the complete punishment were communicated in one natural way. The new appendage is, as it were, a consequence of lack of foresight and incompleteness. This objection can be resolved as follows: from the properties of positive rewards and punishments. We contrast them with the natural, while they are not opposed to them, for they must be in the order of the world, although they are inconspicuous to us, because they are deeply hidden in it. For example, the future heaven is new and the earth is new - positive benefits will come from this nature, therefore, their foundation was laid in the creation of the world; Likewise, the basis for punishment lies in nature; that eternal fire must now be in nature, although we do not see it. Thus, there is nothing positive - arbitrary, but everything is natural. The positive exists only for us, who cannot embrace the entire structure of the world building. Touched upon (accessible) to this objection is the question of the suffering of the righteous. The main reasons for such suffering, according to the Holy Scriptures, are the following: a) This life is not life at all, but a time of improvement. It was necessary to give a field to the struggle, otherwise virtue would be unclean. Therefore, the Apostle Paul encourages believers that the goal of rest is in heaven, and not on earth (Heb. 12:1-3, 22-29). b) The righteous have their uncleanness, and sinners have something good. Therefore, these are rewarded here, and those are punished. c) Many righteous people, either by nature or by upbringing, did not receive the ability to enjoy real blessings and acquire them; just as many sinners have every way to be happy. And therefore, it is possible to bring happiness to the former and deprive the latter of it only through a miracle; but God does not perform miracles in vain. The Holy Scripture presents the righteous will of God as still good and loving. There is no expression in human language that has not been, so to speak, exhausted in Holy Scripture for the expression of this property of God. And this is because the goodness of God is very necessary for fallen man; she is his property. Therefore, Jesus Christ is primarily called the Teacher of goodness. Here are the places of Scripture where this property is mentioned: Ps. 144:9, 135:25, Matt. 7:24, 23:9, 7:9–10, 1 Tim. 6:17. In. 9:16, Rom. 5:8, 1 Tim. 2:4, Luke. 1:72, 78, 2 Cor. 1:3, Rom. 2:4, 3:25, 11:23, 15:14, Heb. 1:7. How to define the goodness of God? A person is called good when he wishes others as much good as they can accommodate. The same goodness is in God, only in the highest sense. We see this truth in the physical world; every creature is supplied with everything it needs. Natural history now finds new creatures, but it will not find a single one that lacks anything necessary for life. There is relative ugliness; but upon careful observation, the ugliness of creatures should be such in its image in the body. Let's turn to ourselves: let's distract what is especially appropriate to call the image of God's goodness, from all the shortcomings with which man has burdened himself and burdens himself; let us leave man the way God created him; how good he will seem and how many incentives to thank God! And first, God gave us existence; God saw that many of the people would become His enemies; that there will be freethinkers, wicked people, atheists, and yet he created them all. A particularly great miracle of God’s love, which we will not see in eternity (for this is the limit of possible love), is the sending of the Son of God into the world. It means a lot not to be offended by a crime, more to forgive, and even more to give thanks after forgiveness; but incomparably much more is to take human form to God, to suffer and die. This is a true miracle in the moral world (John 9:16, Rom. 5:8). For in this the heart of God was revealed in such a way that if the teaching about the perfections of God were forgotten, then all theology would consist in this alone. The Holy Scripture presents this goodness of God as universal: in His church everyone speaks glory (Ps. 144:7, 36:3). Especially in relation to people in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul destroyed the difference in the goodness of God against the prejudices of the Jews. This very idea is revealed in the parable of the prodigal son. This universality extends to the point that both sinners and the wicked are rewarded with the goodness of God (Ps. 102:3–13; Luke 6:25–36). This universal goodness of God is immeasurable in terms of goals and actions: in this life it is only visible in promises, but in the future it will be revealed in fulfillment; here truth is more visible, there more, and even only, goodness will be visible. We know here about the goodness of God only as children know about the wealth of their father, by the sweets that he gives them; We will fully recognize it when we enter into our eternal inheritance. Further, the goodness of God appears to be eternal in the Holy Scriptures (Ps. 102:17) - is it the same for sinners, or only for the righteous? The vague expression of Holy Scripture in this case does not give anything decisive. Together with these properties, the goodness of God is presented in the Holy Scriptures as wisdom (in God the perfections are all the same, only we share them). The wisdom of goodness in God is that He gives as much as is needed and as much as His most perfect mind requires. This measure is determined by God Himself in the structure of the being of each creature. The completeness of bliss is measured by inner sensation, and it varies. But mainly the measure of the gifts communicated is determined by the property of the acceptability of beings. We see this in the actions of Jesus Christ. He was goodness incarnate, but he could not give everything to everyone. That the goodness of God is wise, every rational being should rejoice in this. For if the goodness of God were not tempered by truth, then the whole order of the world would be perverted. There is also the perfection of God - truth or fidelity, which consists in the fact that every announcement of God to rational creatures about Himself, whether His will or about the creatures themselves, is always in accordance with His most perfect mind and will. The Holy Scripture repeatedly puts it into perspective (Ps. 30:6, Rom. 3:4–5, 2 Cor. 1:20, Heb. 10:23, 2 Tim. 2:1–2, 2 Tim. 2:12–13, Heb. 6:18, Ps. 32:4, John 17:17, Isa. 40:8). These are the main perfections of God, since our mind can understand them partly in the light of Holy Scripture. All these perfections of God, known and unknown to us, are contained in the life of God. The necessary consequence of the fullness of God's perfections and actions is self-satisfaction and the glory of God. 1) There is self-satisfaction in God - bliss. Holy Scripture directly calls God blessed, with whom are all delights (1 Tim. 1:11, 6:15, Ps. 15:11, 1 Chron. 29:11, Acts 17:25, Ps. 36:10). Can this bliss exist without self-awareness? No! And therefore, in addition to mind and will, we must attribute to God something similar to our feeling; only here everything imperfect should be especially distracting, for this side belongs to the earth for us. 2) The external glory of God is resting, visible in the enormity, structure and fullness of the world, diminishing and increasing, belonging to free creatures. The Holy Scripture demands that rational creatures give glory to God: this constitutes their bliss. You might be interested in: