EASTERN ORTHODOX DOGMA ON SIN, DEATH AND RESURRECTION

We are posting this bird's eye outline of the Eastern Orthodox cosmology, the original religion of the Apostles. It is a far cry from  in-depth, nor is it comprehensive. But we hope it contributes to a better understanding of the original nature of sin, death, redemption and Resurrection.

March 26, 2024 David Patrick Harry: The Cosmic Mystery of Christ: Orthodox Cosmology Explained.

The first chapter of the Book of Genesis tells the story of God's creation of the heavens and the earth. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. He created light and darkness and separated the waters from the earth.

The creation of angels occurred sometime before the creation of the earth. As the crown on creation, God created Adam and Eve as eternal, bodiless creatures on par with the angels and put them in Paradise. 

The First Fall was the rebellion against God of the seraph Lucifer and about a third of the angels who became his demons. Their place in the Divine Council will be filled by 70 or 72 saints.

The Second Fall occurred when Lucifer seduced Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil before their time. (The Third Fall is the Tower of Babel.) Because of this sin, having come to know evil, God expeled Adam and Eve from Paradise and had the gate guarded by a cherub with a flaming sword to prevent man from living in the presence of God in his fallen state.

That was not meant as punishment. When God made first men mortal, God showed mercy. This is crucially important. They had to become mortal to avoid spiritual death, so as not to become like Lucifer and his minions, forever demons and unable to change that status. Change i.e. repentance through free will is only possible in life!

The Hebrews looked upon sin is a violation of God's divine order. They managed sin with the annual Day of Atonement. Two goats were selected. One of them, the scape goat represented all collective sins committed, and was chased out into the wilderness; the other goat was sacrificed to God as atonement (original translation at-one-ment, becoming reunited with God). Its blood was used to purify the Temple and the territory. 

The cycle of sin and death is a debt owed to the devil. Without redress this will ultimately lead to indentured servitude, sometimes of entire families. The devil owns our lives! 

Jesus Christ the Son, the second Hypostasis of God, is a sinless God-man. So Christ is free of the devil's claims. He takes our sins upon Himself, serving the roll of the scape goat as well as the sacrificed goat of Yahweh at the same time. He set man free from the cycle of sin and death, hence the language of emancipation and redemption. 

Adam and Eve were supposed to be the crown on creation. But due to their untimely fall, creation remained unfinished. Jesus Christ, taking on the roll of the second Adam, fulfilled their task.

He conquered death by 'Harrowing Hades' on Holy Saturday, setting free also the righteous men of pagan history, hitherto in Hades until Christ's liberation (poem by Jonathan Jackson). Christ's Resurrection is followed on the seventh day on Easter, thereby completing creation as it was meant to be. 


The story of the Harrowing of Hades is absolutely necessary for the entire story of creation and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to make any sense. Western Christians have felt the need to make up their own logic in order to explain "Christ's sacrifice for our sins" without understanding the root. No wonder they are conflicted. 


See what I mean? The Eastern Orthodox Church does not use the Apostles' Creed, because of its omissions necessary for the definition of the Nicene Creed of 381. That Creed was the standard liturgical text of the Roman Church throughout the 4th to 7th centuries. The Nicene Creed was replaced by the Frankish version, the Apostles' Creed under the imposter emperor, Charlemagne.

The Eastern Orthodox Church does not use the Apostles' Creed for a good reason. But it has been used in the Latin liturgical rites since the 8th century and, by extension, in all various modern branches of Western Christianity. 

On the Last Day all will be raised from death. There are different views when judgement takes place, but according to one reading this will take place only at the Last Day when Jesus Christ as Pantokrator, will rule over the entire creation, dividing the sheep from the goats. There is certainly no universal redemption, as modern theologians believe. 

April 14, 2024 Ralston College: Rethinking the Last Judgment: Cosmic Symbolism & the Metaphor for Self-Discovery.

After Christ fulfilled creation with the Resurrection, the people of God, instead of participating in the reign of Yahweh, are now participating in their own resurrection and eternal life, as was always man's destiny before the second fall.

Christianity did not abolish Mosaic law, it fulfilled it. The process of man towards theosis, to become like God, may take a life time, most of us will never attain such heights. Knowingly or not, we all commit a myriad of sins even before breakfast. That is our fate since the second fall. However, in life there is always repentance and forgiveness even for the worst of sins (except sin against the Holy Spirit). 

Through theosis man has the capacity to surpass the angels in status. Lucifer refuses to pay man reverence and is jealous of his role in creation, always looking for ways to bring man down to his level into the cycle of sin and death. 

There is a saying in Orthodoxy: God became man, so that man could become like God. But even before the Incarnation, Jesus Christ the Son, the Triune God's Second Hypostasis, was with us. All of God's communications in the Old Testament are the Hypostasis of the Son. 

Penal substitution is a hefty subject in modern Western Christianity, but a given since its root in Second Temple Judaism. The legalistic way by which the Roman Catholic Church approached the matter of sin and redemption, led to the idea of penal substitution. 

We must never forget that Christianity is a continuation of Second Temple Judaism. Modern Rabbinic Judaism, a reaction to Christianity, did not exist before AD 500. 

Christ accepted that the price of our sin was the fall, and its result was the creation of death. In order to remedy the situation the price He had to pay, was conquering death. That was the entire reason for his sacrifice on the cross out of love for man.  

 
The view prevailing in the West is a legalistic approach, as if God the Father suffered some injustice that could only be recompensed by God the Son dying a torturous death on the cross. That is not at all what is going on. The answer lies in creation and the second fall of man. 

It is the peculiar view of the Hebrews to see ritual as a means to bring about change in the supplicant, rather than in the god (magic) or for warding off future evil (amulet). Christ's atonement is made real and is participated in through ritual that produces repentance, forgiveness and healing of sin as a disease.

He has removed the threat of death and ended exile in Hades by restoring the possibility for humanity to return to Paradise. His sacrifice purified the entire world. Hence the different ontological state of the world after Christ. 


A final word on dualism. Greece may have been the cradle of Western civilization, but its culture developed separate from Western history. In the early days of Christianity, in the first century Hellenism was still dominant, based on the Aristotelian school. 

In the West meanwhile various strands rooted in the Platonic school were and still remained dominant. It tends to look at the world in terms of analysis, contrasts and adversary powers. It leads to dualisms like heaven versus earth, body versus soul, good versus evil, church and state.

The Aristotelian school tends to emphasize synthesis, experience and ontology, leading to an entirely different world view and way of life. The synthesis leads to heaven and earth, body and soul, good and evil and church and state.

In Orthodoxy heaven and earth are not different and opposing realms. Rather they are both part of one single creation of which the heavenly part. at present happens to be invisible to the eye of fallen man. 


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