Light and Dark Images of Apocalypse - Regelson Lev - Страница 3

Again the Church retorted:

”There are not one, but two distinct wills in Christ, divine and human, in such a way that the human will freely and docile follows His divine will”.

However the deal had not ended upon that. Yet another heresy had born: Monoenergism, which asserted:

"Let in Christ are two natures and two wills but is only one action (energy), divine-human."

And again the Church replied in the spirit of the Chalcedon: There is not one, but there are two distinct actions in Christ – divine and human.

Does the great controversy already completed?

Apparently, it does not.

As before the significance of this controversy is immensely great.

Many of the believers have today a confused, incoherent pagan notion of the gospel's Jesus as some kind of half man – half god. Thus one may hear it alleged, even written, that

"as man He was thirsting and hungering, but as God working wonders”.

Nothing could be more alien to the spirit of the Chalcedon dogma than such allegation. It is the belittling of Christ as the man and, at the same time, mixing up of the Divine and the human.

As the God, Jesus Christ is eternally resided оn  the throne of Divine Glory, while in the events described in the Gospel “the man Christ Jesus”(1 Tim. 2:5) operates, i.e. Jesus Christ in His human nature.

Jesus Christ the man not only performed miracles, but resurrected and ascended to heaven. He, of course, is not merely a man, but God who has become also a man and, hence, may speak of Himself as of God:

"Before Abraham was born, I am" (John. 8:58),

however these words coming from human lips.

In the Revelation of St. John, Jesus Christ the man is presented not only in the meek appearance of Lamb. We see Him there also in regal glory and all conquering might. Thus He appeared to St. John who saw:

"One like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire. And His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength” (1:13-16).

Daniel saw "The Son of Man” in a prophetic vision, but the One now manifested to St. John was Jesus Christ as a very real man, who had become indeed such by the moment of this vision.

The Revelation of St. John moves us to admit that Jesus Christ, in full accordance with His two natures, likewise possesses two, divine and human, bodies. To say that One Person (Personality) has two bodies is no more and no less wondrous than to say that One Person has two natures, two wills, two actions.

If we shall accept, that the One Who sits on the throne and the Lamb – is accordingly Jesus Christ as God and as man, we shall hence be cognizant of the religious meaning of the apocalyptic epoch.

Biblical history from Adam to Jesus, was the time when Jesus Christ revealed himself as God, as Creator, as One Who Is Being (Yahweh).

Over the period from the Nativity to the beginning of the apocalyptic events Jesus is revealed as a man Who preaches, is crucified, resurrects, ascends of heavens and is always increasing in the rays of Divine glory.

As the man, or Lamb, He is leading His Church, feeding Her on His Body and Blood, revealing Her the Divine mysteries, which He gradually is comprehending Himself.

Meanwhile the gist of the coming apocalyptic epoch – is the revelation of Jesus Christ simultaneously as God and as man, in the joint action of His two natures. What it will mean, we just should get to know.

Archangel Michael and his angels

In events of the Apocalypse it is mentioned of about hundred angels, who are carrying out concrete functions. Others places in the New Testament notes “many thousands” (Jud.14), “myriads” of angels (Heb. 12:22). Who are angels? They are beings whose

main feature is that unlike man, they are not endowed with any earthly flesh.

The icon: Archangel Michael and his angels. Russia, 19th century

They were created long before man and were designated to assist God at the different phases of natural evolution and human history. Possessed of an individual self-awareness and free volition, some angels have got into dispute with God and even have come to counteraction Him in diverse ways and extent. The Archangel Michael is the head of the angels who did not swerve from their devoted fidelity to their Creator.

Who ranks first on his nature, angel or man? In other words, is possession of an earthly body an advantage or drawback?

On the one hand the human body bears within its incredibly complex and rich structures the seal of Divine Wisdom, along with the fullness of natural life and an inexhaustible potential for development. Even after death the human soul differs in principle from an angel's namely in that it retains the full memory of the life of that body which it temporarily, prior to resurrection, has part with. Though some angels possess of ability to settle themselves in the bodies of animals or human beings and feed on their energies, no one of angels will ever have such full knowledge in respect of the human body, not one can have so intimate and profound a bond and unity with every single cell and molecule, which by the nature are peculiar to the human soul.

Yet, on the other hand, how great the misfortunes and limitations are that the body imposes upon man! Hunger, disease, the possibility of being subjected to every conceivable violence, rooting to the spot, ageing and the inevitably of death, all these woes and frailties to which human flesh is subject are unknown to the angel.

Still biblical tradition unreservedly places man above angel. The Holy Scriptures qualify only man as created in God's "image" and "likeness" (Gen. 1:26-27).

Hence it is stated that “we are to judge angels" (1 Cor. 6:3), "for it is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come" (Hebr. 2:5).

Archangel Michael. Mon. of  St. Catherin, XIII

Man's distinguishing feature from angel, to wit, his natural body, comprises part and parcel of God's image within man and symbolizes the supreme human worth.