Faithfulness to justice, to righteousness, is what it means to be Christian and what is required to stay within the kingdom of God, both in this life and into the age to come.
To be the sons of God, we do the works of the Father in heaven. If we instead do the works of the devil—which are sin—then he is our father instead. And if we do the works of the Father, then we become equal to the angels, the original “sons of God” who do His works.
Horrors are happening everywhere, all over the world. So many say: Sin is increasing. Sexual immorality is increasing. Oppression is increasing. Persecution is increasing. Heresy is increasing. Public violence is increasing. Poverty is increasing. In response is a refrain we see over and over: Why is no one speaking out?
I recently asked in a couple of Orthodox clergy groups on Facebook about whether they have seen what I have seen and heard about anecdotally -- an unusual number of inquirers and catechumens showing up to the parish within the past year.
Having been given this outpost of Paradise, this place where God’s holiness may be encountered with preparation, where the cherubim with the flaming sword welcome us in instead of turning us away, we are commanded to expand this Paradise into the world.
Greetings, all. As you may know, I am the Chief Content Officer for Ancient Faith Ministries. A number of folks have written to us regarding AFM’s decision to remove Abbot Tryphon’s blog from our site and offer to help him move it elsewhere. (UPDATE: You can find his new site here.) So I wanted to say something about that, speaking now in my official…
My new book, "Arise, O God: The Gospel of Christ's Defeat of Demons, Sin, and Death," has just released from Ancient Faith Publications. I hope that you will check it out. Although this is now my fourth and shortest book, I regard this as the most important one so far.
If we had stood at Golgotha on the day of the Crucifixion, our material eyes would have seen Roman soldiers nailing Jesus to the Cross. But our eyes of faithfulness would have seen the young Warrior, ready to do battle, about to use this Weapon of Peace, the Trophy Invincible, as His means to enter into Hades, smash down its doors, and to defeat the devil and death.