Each day we should live and grow in our Orthodox Faith and know more about it. We have a very strong faith, it was handed down from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself to His disciples and has been given to us. The great thing about our faith is that it is protected by the Fathers of our Church and we are able to keep it the same even until this day. By knowing more about our faith we can protect it too! One of the first protectors of our faith were the disciples. They loved each other and after the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven He gave them the Holy Spirit to guide them and help them make decisions to keep the faith. “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5) Many years ago, meetings were held to protect our faith against wrong teachings. They were called Ecumenical Councils. These were meetings between the Bishops around the world to discuss the Christian faith. Three most important Ecumenical Councils were:
What did they discuss in these Ecumenical Councils? 1. Council of Nicaea: It was held in the year 325 AD in Nicaea to discuss the heresy of Arius. Arius claimed that our Lord Jesus Christ was only human like us and not God Incarnate, which is NOT true. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is God. The council was called for by King Constantine and led by Pope Alexander, the 19th Pope of Alexandria. It was attended by 318 bishops. St. Athanasius was the hero of the council. He defended the true Orthodox faith and proved Arius wrong by using verses from the Holy Bible: “I and My Father are one." John 10:30 Saint Athanasius was only a deacon at the time! St. Athanasius fought for our Orthodox belief; we believe that our Lord Jesus is the incarnate Word of God (Logos). He existed from the beginning “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Even our Lord Jesus Himself declared His divinity when He was asked by the Jewish priests and scribes; “Then they all said, “Are You then the Son of God?” So He said to them, “You rightly say that I am.” (Luke 22:70). We call St Athanasius the Defender of the Faith, and Father of Orthodoxy for his fight to defend our Orthodox faith! To protect our faith, the council’s decision was to excommunicate Arius. They established the Nicene Creed. “Truly we believe in One God….” Which we use in our prayers until now.
St. Timothy was the hero of faith at the meeting and he protected the faith by also reminding them what the Holy Bible says “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.” 1 John 5:7 We believe that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, who is one with the Father and the Son! He existed before the creation of the world “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) The Holy Spirit is He who inspired all the authors of the Holy Bile “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. “(2 Peter 1:21) and He directed the Church as mentioned in the book of acts “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 13:2) To protect our faith, the Council decided to excommunicate Macedonius and add this part to the Creed: from “Yes, we believe in the Holy Spirit…” until the end of the Creed. 3. Council of Ephesus: It was held in the year 431 AD in Ephesus to discuss the heresy of Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople. He claimed that Christ was of two separate persons: one is divine the other is human! The divine Christ could neither suffer nor die, and therefore, on the Cross, it was the human Christ alone who suffered and died apart from the divine Christ. Therefore, St. Mary is an ordinary mother and should not be called Theotokos (Mother of God), instead, she should be called the Mother of Jesus! This council was attended by 200 bishops, St. Cyril the great (the Pillar of faith) was the hero of faith at the council; He refused Nestorius’ wrong teachings and declared the Orthodox faith that God has one incarnate nature! and from the Holy Bible he read to them what was said about St. Mary and how the Holy Spirit came upon her and she gave birth to the Son of God (Luke 1:35) Since our Lord Jesus Christ is God, then his mother is the “Mother of God” (Theotokos) who bore him, forever. To protect our faith, the Council decided to excommunicate Nestorius added the introduction to the Creed saying: “We exalt you, O Mother of the True Light…”
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