Transcript Ancestral Sin (“Original sin”) and Orthodox Concept of

ANCESTRAL SIN
(“ORIGINAL SIN”) AND
ORTHODOX CONCEPT OF
SALVATION
Servants Prep
Class
2014 Winter
semester
GENESIS1:26-27
“ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our
image, according to Our likeness; let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea,
over the birds of the air, and over the
cattle, over all [a] the earth and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the
earth.” 27 So God created man in
His own image; in the image of God He
created him; male and female He created
them.”
SO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LIKENESS
PART?
“ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our
image, according to Our likeness; let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea, over
the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over
all [a] the earth and over every creeping thing
that creeps on the earth .”
27 So God created man in His own image; in the
image of God He created him; male and female He
created them.”
THE LIKENESS IS YOUR POTENTIAL
Potential for what?
To be the icon of
Christ by His grace
working in us- to
grow to be like God
ST BASIL THE GREAT
“We possess one by
creation (image) and
the other one
(likeness) by freewill
(working in
cooperation with God)
SO WHAT HAPPENED TO ADAM?
ON THE INCARNATION
 (4) You may be wondering why we are discussing
the origin of men when we set out to talk about the
Word's becoming Man. The former subject is
relevant to the latter for this reason: it was our
sorry case that caused the Word to come down, our
transgression that called out His love for us, so
that He made haste to help us and to appear
among us. It is we who were the cause of His
taking human form, and for our salvation that in
His great love He was both born and manifested in
a human body. For God had made man thus (that
is, as an embodied spirit), and had willed that he
should remain in incorruption.
 But men, having turned from the contemplation of God
to evil of their own devising, had come inevitably under
the law of death. Instead of remaining in the state in
which God had created them, they were in process of
becoming corrupted entirely, and death had them
completely under its dominion. For the transgression of
the commandment was making them turn back again
according to their nature; and as they had at the
beginning come into being out of non -existence, so
were they now on the way to returning, through
corruption, to non-existence again. The presence and
love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably,
therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they
lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists,
evil is non-being, the negation and antithesis of good.
The ability to be like God was
lost in the Fall of Adam and Eve
CONSEQUENCES OF ADAM’S SIN
1. Sin separated man from God
(separated themselves from life)
2. Destroyed human relationships
3. Alters our perception of the world
THERE ARE 2 VIEWS OF 'ORIGINAL SIN"
Man inherited 2 things:
1. We inherited the consequence of Adam's
sin which is a fallen sinful nature and
mortality
2. we are guilty of Adam's sin because we
were in the loins of Adam when he sinned
and
this is an Augustinian view (not accepted in
Orthodoxy)
ORTHODOX VIEW HOLDS:
We inherited the consequence of
Adam's sin which is a fallen, sinful
nature and mortality (death)
The Church Fathers say that each
person bears the guilt of their own
sin and no one else!
EZEKIEL 18:19-20
“Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not bear the
guilt of the father?’ Because the son has done
what is lawful and right, and has kept all My
statutes and observed them, he shall surely
live. 20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall
not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear
the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon himself, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
19
ROMANS 5:21
“ so
that as sin reigned in death, even
so grace might reign through
righteousness to eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.”
ROMANS 5:12
Therefore, just as through one man sin
entered the world, and death through sin,
and thus death spread to all men,
because all sinned—
12
The dif ference stems from Augustine's interpretation of a Latin
translation of Romans 5:12 to mean that through Adam all men
sinned, whereas the Orthodox reading in Greek interpret it as
meaning that all of humanity sins as part of the inheritance of
flawed nature from Adam.
The difference stems from Augustine's
interpretation of a Latin translation of
Romans 5:12 to mean that through
Adam all men sinned, whereas the
Orthodox reading in Greek interpret it as
meaning that all of humanity sins as part
of the inheritance of flawed nature from
Adam.
ST CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
Our nature became "diseased...through the sin
of one" .
 It is not guilt that is passed on, for
the Orthodox fathers; it is a
condition, a disease
FOR ADAM AND EVE
 To embrace their God-given vocation would bring life, to reject
it would bring death, but not at God's hands.
 St Theophilus continues, "...should he keep the commandment
of God he would be rewarded with immor tality...if, however, he
should turn to things of death by disobeying God, he would be
the cause of death to himself" (Romanides, 2002, p. 32)
SALVATION AND THE CHURCH
There is only one Church, the Orthodox
Church.
-The Church is the Body of Christ, a divinehuman organism, of which
-Christ is the chief member and the only
Head.
Salvation is within and through the Church .
THEOSIS (DEIFICATION)
 Salvation consists of theosis, becoming
divinized/deified, which means attaining union with
God and becoming ever more like Him, becoming by
grace what Christ is by nature.
It is participation in the energies of God,
becoming “ partakers of the divine nature” (2
Pet. 1:4), but not participation in His essence.
 This process extends through all eternity,
because God is infinite
THE WORK OF SALVATION
Salvation rescues us not only from the
guilt of sin, but from the very power of sin
and death.
It is not merely a change in legal status,
but a change in actual being.
HOW DOES ONE BECOME SAVED?
 Salvation is possible only by the power of God, with the
cooperation of man
 — "by grace, through faith” (Eph. 2:8). This cooperation is
termed synergy.
 God will always honor man' s free will, so if man ceases his
cooperation, then God‘s grace does not operate.
 Cooperation consists in repentance of sins, prayer, and
participation in the sacraments.
SALVATION THROUGH THE CHURCH
 ■ The Holy Mysteries (sacraments) truly communicate grace
by the action of God Himself through the clergy (priesthood),
who are the servants of the mysteries
 The clergy are, through the episcopacy, in the succession of
the Apostles, who were ordained by Christ.