This is to be understood with reference to the mystery of the Holy Trinity; because God is one in substance but trine in persons--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost--a Trinity consubstantial and undivided.
91. How does holy Scripture speak of the Blessed Trinity?
The chief texts on this point in the New Testament are the following: Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Matt. xxviii. 19. There are three that bear record in heaven--the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. 1 John v. 7.
92. Is the Holy Trinity mentioned in the Old Testament also?
Yes; only not so clearly. For instance: By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the Breath of his mouth. Psalm xxxiii. 6. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah vi. 3.
93. How is one God in three Persons?
We can not comprehend this inner mystery of the Godhead; but we believe it on the infallible testimony of the Word of God. The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 1 Cor. ii. 11.
94. What difference is there between the Persons of the Holy Trinity?
God the Father is neither begotten, nor proceeds from any other Person: the Son of God is from all eternity begotten of the Father: the Holy Ghost from all eternity proceeds from the Father.
95. Are the three Hypostases or Persons of the Most Holy Trinity all of equal majesty?
Yes; all of absolutely equal divine majesty. The Father is true God, the Son equally true God, and the Holy Ghost true God; but yet so that in the three Persons there is only one Tri-personal God.
96. Why is God called the Almighty ( Pantokratora )?
Because he upholds all things by his power and his will.
97. What is expressed by the words of the Creed, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible?
This: that all was made by God, and that nothing can be without God.
98. Are not these words taken from holy Scripture?
They are. The book of Genesis begins thus: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The Apostle Paul, speaking of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, says: By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him. Coloss. i. 16.
99. What is meant in the Creed by the word invisible?
The invisible or spiritual world, to which belong the angels.
100. What are the angels?
Incorporeal spirits, having intelligence, will, and power.
101. What means the name angel?
It means a messenger.
102. Why are they so called?
Because God sends them to announce his will. Thus, for instance, Gabriel was sent to announce to the Most Holy Virgin Mary the conception of the Saviour.
103. Which was created first, the visible world or the invisible?
The invisible was created before the visible, and the angels before men. (Orthod. Confess. Pt. I. Q. 18.)
104. Can we find any testimony to this in holy Scripture?
In the book of Job God himself speaks of the earth thus: Who laid the corner-stone thereof? When the stars were CREATED, all my angels praised me with a loud voice. Job xxxviii. 6, 7.
105. Whence is taken the name of guardian angels?
From the following words of holy Scripture: He shall give his angels charge over thee, to guard thee in, all thy ways. Psalm xci. 11.
106. Has each one of us his guardian angels?
Without doubt. Of this we may be assured from the following words of Jesus Christ: Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven. Matt. xviii. 10.
107. Are all angels good and beneficent?
No. There are also evil angels, otherwise called devils.
108. How came they to be evil?
They were created good, but they swerved from their duty of perfect obedience to God, and so fell away from him into self-will, pride, and malice. According to the words of the Apostle Jude, they are the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. Jude 6.
109. What means the name devil?
It means slanderer or deceiver.
110. Why Are the evil angels called devils that is, slanderers or deceivers?
Because they are ever laying snares for men, seeking to deceive them, and inspire them with false notions and evil wishes.
Of this Jesus Christ, speaking to the unbelieving Jews, says: Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. John viii. 44.
111. What has holy Scripture revealed to us of the creation of the world?
In the beginning God created from nothing the heaven and the earth; and the earth was without form and void. Afterwards God successively produced: on the first day of the world, light; on the second, the firmament or visible heaven; on the third, the gathering together of waters on the earth, the dry land, and what grows thereupon; on the fourth, the sun, moon, and stars; on the fifth, fishes and birds; on the sixth, four-footed creatures living on the earth, and lastly, man. With man the creation finished; and on the seventh day God rested from all his works. Hence the seventh day was called the sabbath, which in the Hebrew tongue means rest. Gen. ii. 2.
112. Were the visible creatures created such as we see them now?
No. At the creation every thing was very good, that is, pure, beautiful, and harmless.
113. Are we not informed of something particular in the creation of man?
God in the Holy Trinity said: Let us make man in our own image, and after our likeness. Gen. i. 26. And God made the body of the first man, Adam, from the earth; breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; brought him into Paradise; gave him for food, beside the other fruits of Paradise, the fruit of the tree of life; and lastly, having taken a rib from Adam while he slept, made from it the first woman, Eve. Gen. ii. 22.
114. In what consists the image of God?
It consists, as explained by the Apostle Paul, In righteousness and holiness of truth. Eph. iv. 24.
115. What is the breath of life?
The soul, a substance spiritual and immortal.
116. What is Paradise?
The word Paradise means a garden. It is the name given to the fair and blissful abode of the first man, described in the book of Genesis as like a garden.
117. Was the Paradise in which man first lived material or spiritual?
For the body it was material, a visible and blissful abode; but for the soul it was spiritual, a state of communion by grace with God, and spiritual contemplation of the creatures. (Greg. Theol. Serm, xxxviii. 42; J. Damasc. Theol. lib. ii. cap. 12, § 3.)
118. What was the tree of life?
A tree, by feeding on whose fruit man would have been, even in the body, free from disease and death.
119. Why was Eve made from a rib of Adam?
To the intent that all mankind might be by origin naturally disposed to love and defend one another.
120. With what design did God create man?
With this, that he should know God, love, and glorify him, and so be happy forever.
121. Has not that will of God, by which man is designed for eternal happiness, its own proper name in theology?
It is called the predestination of God.
122. Does God's predestination of man to happiness remain unchanged, seeing that now man is not happy?
It remains unchanged; inasmuch as God, of his foreknowledge and infinite mercy, hath predestined to open for man, even after his departure from the way of happiness, a new way to happiness, through his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ.
He hath chosen us, in him, before the foundation of the world, are the words of the Apostle Paul. Eph. i. 4.
123. How are we to understand the predestination of God, with respect to men in general, and to each man severally?
God has predestined to give to all men, and has actually given them preparatory grace, and means sufficient for the attainment of happiness. [312]
124. What is said of this by the Word of God?
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Rom. viii. 29.
125. How does the orthodox Church speak on this point?
In the exposition of the faith by the Eastern Patriarchs it is said: As he foresaw that some would use well their free will, but others ill, he accordingly predestined the former to glory, while the latter he condemned. (Art. iii.)
126. What divine energy with respect to the world, and especially to man, follows immediately upon their creation?
Divine providence.
127. What is divine providence?
Divine providence is the constant energy of the almighty power, wisdom, and goodness of God, by which he preserves the being and faculties of his creatures, directs them to good ends, and assists all that is good; but the evil that springs by departure from good he either cuts off, or corrects it, and turns it to good results.
128. How does holy Scripture speak of God's providence?
Jesus Christ himself says: Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Matt. vi. 26. From these words is shown at once God's general providence over the creatures, and his special providence over man.
The whole of the ninety-first Psalm is a description of God's special and manifold providence over man.
On the Second Article.
129. How are we to understand the names Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
Son of God is the name of the second Person of the Holy Trinity in respect of his Godhead: This same Son of God was called Jesus, when he was conceived and born on earth as man; Christ is the name given him by the Prophets, while they were as yet expecting his advent upon earth.
130. What means the name Jesus?
Saviour.
131. By whom was the name Jesus first given?
By the Angel Gabriel.
132. Why was this name given to the Son of God at his conception and birth on earth?
Because he was conceived and born to save men.
133. What means the name Christ?
Anointed.
134. Whence came the name Anointed?
From the anointing with holy ointment, through which are bestowed the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
135. Is it only Jesus, the Son of God, who is called Anointed?
No. Anointed was in old time a title of kings, high-priests, and prophets.
136. Why, then, is Jesus, the Son of God, called The Anointed?
Because to his manhood were imparted without measure all the gifts of the Holy Ghost; and so he possesses in the highest degree the knowledge of a prophet, the holiness of a high-priest, and the power of a king.
137. In what sense is Jesus Christ called Lord?
In this sense: that he is very God; for the name Lord is one of the names of God.
138. What says holy Scripture of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God?