Divine Liturgy in New Bern

This Sunday, 3 Aug 2014, Kh. Tamera and I will be attending Holy Apostles Orthodox Church, which meets in New Bern once a month at the following location:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/504+Middle+St,+New+Bern,+NC+28560/@35.111863,-77.00986,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89a8d19678846b2d:0x99a1e8af56575cf?hl=en-US

504 Middle St
New Bern, NC

The Divine Liturgy begins at 1000, and we hope to see you there.

Also if you're attending my retirement ceremony on Monday, 4 Aug 2014, at the Chapel aboard MCAS Cherry Point, NC, it also begins at 1000.  The directions are on this link:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cherry+Point+Base+Chapel/@34.903879,-76.900703,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89a8c171576aa895:0x30a26f30578d932f?hl=en-US

After the ceremony, we will have a short reception at Miller's Landing.  The directions to the reception will be available at the ceremony.

Father Philip resurfaces as a civilian

Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ. You've found the right place. This is an older blog that I'm going to be updating from time to time in order to keep in touch with you now that I'm no longer on active duty, and am no longer providing Orthodox Divine Liturgies on Sunday mornings in the chapel at Cherry Point. As the Lord leads us, I hope to be able to find a place where we may resume our fellowship, and worship the Lord through the ancient Liturgy the Church has provided for us. Please check this site out periodically to see how the Lord is leading us, and so that we might keep in touch. May God bless you. Pray that we might find God's plan for all of us in this area.

Orthodox Ordination

It's official. I was ordained to the Holy Priesthood by His Grace Bishop ANTOUN of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America in a hierarchical service of the Divine Liturgy at St. George's Antiochian Orthodox Church in Jacksonville, Florida. The mystery (sacrament) of ordination is an amazing thing. You could definitely sense the presence of God in this holy gathering, and as the bishop laid his hands upon me and blessed each item of my vestments, two other priests put them on me as the clergy and people all shouted, "Axios!", "Mustahek!," and "He is worthy!;" first in Greek, then in Arabic, and finally in English. Not that I am worthy of my own accord, or that I earned this in some way, but that I was made worthy by God's grace in Christ, and I responded to that impartation of His grace in faith. Now it's up to me to maintain my Christian dignity by remaining "faithful," and to serve in a manner that is "worthy" of this great calling. Again, in keeping with the theme of this blog, our effort works hand in hand with God's grace in this great gift called salvation. "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" Hebrews 2:3.

To read more about my experience and see more pictures, check out our other blog entitled: The Pelikan Brief at: http://tpelikan.blogspot.com/

Orthodox Ordination

"It has begun!" Since being received into the Holy Orthodox Church, life has taken on a different quality for my wife and me, and for the rest of our family as well. There is no way to describe the "charismatic power" of Orthodoxy unless you experience it, just as there was no way to truly explain the experience of what Pentecostals and Charismatics call "the Baptism of the Holy Spirit," which I had experienced way back in 1970. The inexplicable nature of the sacraments of Chrismation by the priest and now "Ordination," when the hands of an Orthodox Bishop are placed on you, is nothing short of miraculous. There's something about the sheer antiquity of it all which verifiably connects the ancient past to the present, that strikes you when you prepare yourself and start to walk through all of the "procedures" of the ordination process. Far from merely "going through the motions" all of the actions have deep meaning and thus take on a freshness and new dimension when you actually submit yourself to them. So this past Sunday the 13th of January, the Sunday after Theophany, commemorating the Martyrs Hermylus & Stratonicus of Belgrade and Saint James of Nisibis, at St. Basil's Antiochian Orthodox Church in Poquoson, VA, I was ordained to the Holy Diaconate in the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Orthodox Church. The charismatic nature of this experience through the laying on of hands by His Grace Bishop THOMAS of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese (West Virginia and Mid-Atlantic Diocese) was nothing short of miraculous. Not in the "showy" sense of the Pentecostal/Charismatic megachurches of America or of the Benny Hinn crusades, but in the quiet, unassuming way that typically characterizes the way of the supernatural within the Orthodox ethos. Every week, miracles occur in the Orthodox Church! Lives are changed, people are sometimes healed, and bread and wine are miraculous changed into the Body and Blood of the Lamb of God slain for all mankind--our Lord, and God, and Savior Jesus Christ. But instead of parading the faithful around on TV and making them "stars" in a Christian cavalcade simply because they either witnessed or experienced a miracle, Orthodox folks simply accept it as normative in the Christian experience and proceed to the coffee hour after the Divine Liturgy. But I can tell you that the miraculous nature of Orthodox worship is as real and fulfilling, if not more, than any chandelier swinging, pew running, holy rolling experience I've ever had.
As the first level of "ordained" clergy in the Church, being a deacon in Holy Orthodoxy has two catagories, permanent and transitional. Many are called to the permanent diaconate and serve humbly and gladly for their entire lives in that capacity. In fact as I look at my duties as a deacon for the few weeks that it will be a reality, I can only rejoice and give thanks for those who commit themselves to this necessary and sacred function in perpetuity. Consistent with the meaning of the word "liturgy," the Divine Liturgy is "hard work" and I rejoice that we have deacons to assist us in this holy experience. But I am what's called a "transitional" deacon. Lord willing, I will soon be made a priest, and enter into the second level of ordained clergy called the Honorable Presbytery. In the Orthodox Church, one does not simply go from laity to priesthood in one step. Like the officer ranks of the military which progress from Ensign to Admiral in a step by step process, once must first become a deacon before becoming a priest. The idea is that all of the "lesser ranks" of ordained clergy are subsumed within the highest clerical rank of bishop. The bishop is the successor to the Apostles and as such is the source of the life and power of Christ in the earth through His Church. The clerical ranks beneath him thus derive their power and authority from the bishop and are therefore simply extensions of his arms, legs, eyes, ears, and mouth through which the grace of life in the church is dispensed. As St. Ignatius of Antioch said "where the bishop is, there is the church."

Read more about this and see more pictures on Tamera's blog: http://tpelikan.blogspot.com

Beginning a New Life

Well the real beginning of our transition to the Orthodox Faith has taken place. Up to this point our lives have consisted of study, mis-steps, preparation, and waiting. But the journey which began 27 years ago while attending Oral Roberts University Seminary where we discovered the existence of the Orthodox Church, finally saw us come aboard the "Ark of Salvation." On the 16th of December 2007, Tamera and I were received into Holy Orthodoxy through the sacrament of "Chrismation." In a short ceremony during the adult "Church School" class at All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Raleigh, NC, we were officially accepted as communicants in the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Orthodox Church. As we stood "barefoot" in front of our priest and confessed the ancient faith of the Apostles and Fathers of the Church through the centuries-old liturgy designated for such an occasion and the recitation of the Nicene-Constantanopolitan Creed, he anointed us each with the "Holy Chrism" on our foreheads, eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth, chest, back of the neck, top and palms of the hands, and our feet. When the sacrament was completed, we had once and for all joined the family of God as brother and sister to Saints Paul, Peter, Ignatius, et al, and of course everyone else surrounding us in our wonderful new church family today.
Now we await the rest of the miracle. In an unprecedented gesture, His Eminence Metropolitan PHILIP, head of the "Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America" has approved my ordination, first to the Diaconate, and then to the Holy Priesthood in the Orthodox Church. The Lord willing, My Diaconate ordination will take place at St. Basil's Orthodox Church in Poquoson, VA on the 13th of January 2008. His grace Bishop THOMAS of the Mid-Atlantic diocese will be presiding. Just a short two weeks later, my ordination to the Priesthood will take place at St. George's Orthodox Church in Jacksonville, FL on January 27th, 2008. His Grace Bishop ANTOUN of the diocese of Miami and the Southeast will be presiding over that service. At that time, Lord willing once again, I will begin my "new life" not only as an Orthodox Priest, but as an Orthodox Chaplain in the United States Navy.
An even greater blessing in all of this for Tamera and me is the fact that our children and grandchildren are coming into the church as well. Lord willing, our son Jesse, his wife Elina and thier two children Misha and Elijah will soon be received into the church. Our other son Capt. John Pelikan, USA, his wife Rondi and thier daughter Karis as well as their best friends Capt. Brad McCoy, USA, his wife Stephanie and thier two sons Gabriel and Michael (our adopted children in the faith), will come into Holy Orthodoxy upon thier return from the war in Afghanistan. We pray for their protection and safe return to their awaiting families every day.
God bless all of you who have read my blog and followed this journey even though my posts have been few and far between. And may God bless you and your families in this wonderful season in which we honor and celebrate the Nativity of our Lord, and God, and Savior Jesus Christ.
I do plan to continue this blog and to hopefully post more often. I am continuing my studies of the Orthodox Faith and will not only use this blog, but hopefully a new website my son Jesse and I will be constructing which will be an outreach to others who might be interested in pursuing a deeper understanding of the Orthodox Faith, and to hopefully assist them to come into the church as well.

The Holy Spirit

Greetings to all who have visited my blog in the past and have wondered what happened to me. We have recently transferred from Japan to Camp LeJeune, NC where I'm back serving with the Marines. I've been very busy with moving in, setting up the house with my wife, and getting used to my new job so I apologize for taking so long to update this and for not letting you know where I am and what I'm doing.

In case you didn't notice, in my profile I no longer serve as the Archdeacon to the Archbishop of the Armed Forces in the CEC. I have recently resigned from that position and for the moment am still a priest in that communion. I am, however, actively engaged in dialogue with the Antiochian Orthodox Church. That's all I'll say about that for now..., more to come later.

In keeping with the spirit and intent of this blog, however, I thought I would post a little devotional tidbit I found in a book called "Through the Year with the Church Fathers" by Presbytera Emily Harakas. The quote below speaks about what the Holy Spirit does in the earth since He has been "poured out upon all flesh." It therefore speaks of what the Holy Spirit is doing both outside of and within the Church.

"The Holy Spirit is not absent from any created being, especially not from one which in any way participates in intelligence. For being God and God's Spirit, He embraces in unity the spiritual knowledge of all created things providentially permeating all things with His power, and vivifying their inner essences in accordance with their nature. In this way He makes men aware of things done sinfully against the law of nature, and renders them capable of choosing principles which are true and in conformity with nature.
The Holy Spirit is present unconditionally in all things, in that He embraces all things and provides for all, especially for those who by their holy way of life have made themselves fit to receive His indwelling and deifying presence."

St. Maximos the Confessor

Sin is in no way the fault of our nature...

A reading from St. John Chrysostom, 5th century

"I am a victim of violence in my nature", you say. "I love Christ, yet my nature compels me to sin". If you were in fact compelled to sin, if you were the victim of violence, then you would be forgiven for it. On the other hand, if you sin through idleness, do not expect forgiveness.
But let us look at the question a moment to discover if we do commit sins by compulsion, under pressure of violence, rather than through idleness or serious negligence.
It is written: "Thou shalt not kill." But who compels you to kill? Who forces you to do it? On the contrary, you have to do violence to your own nature to kill someone. Which of us would light-heartedly cut a neighbor's throat? Who would gladly stain his hands with blood? No one. So the facts are the exact opposite of your contention. To sin, you have to force yourself.
God has given our nature the gift of mutual love as a result of which every living creature loves its own kind, every human being loves his neighbor. Do you see? Our nature predisposes us to virtue. It is the vices that are contrary to nature. If they win a victory, it is the fault of serious negligence on our part.
And adultery, what shall we say about that? What sort of necessity drives you to that?
You answer: ‘The tyranny of desire.’ Why, I ask you? Can you not have intercourse with your spouse and in this way defeat that tyranny? ‘But I am in love with someone else's spouse.’ In this case there is no compulsion. Love cannot be compelled. You do not love because you are forced to love: you love spontaneously, of your own free will. Sexual intercourse may be an irresistible need, but love is a free choice.
The conclusion is clearly apparent: virtue is consistent with our nature whereas vice is opposed to it.”

In other words, man is (1) basically or "essentially" good, (2) fully able to resist evil, and (3) capable of performing “good works.” Note: “Good Works” is a theological phrase from Scripture and Tradition which denotes works performed in faith by the Christian with the intent to glorify God and which contribute to his salvation.

These wise words of St. John are the consistent teaching of all of the Church “Fathers.” Based on my own personal study of the Fathers, I’ve concluded that for every action on our part as humans there are three motivations or directions in those actions: (1) Neutral goodness, (2) Evil intention (maliciousness), which is premeditated and against nature, and (3) Positive goodness (i.e., good actions performed with faith toward God).

Neutral goodness or neutrally good actions are the actions that all humans were designed to perform, and which reflect the image of God that exists in all human beings. They are the actions that Paul speaks about when he says, “Even when Gentiles, who do not have God's written law, instinctively follow what the law says, they show that in their hearts they know right from wrong.” Romans 2:14. These are not the “good works” that believers perform, but are nevertheless truly right and good actions. They possess merely a neutral goodness, however, which does not lead to eternal life, but nevertheless confirms the image of God in all men.

Actions that have an evil intention (maliciousness), are premeditated and against nature. They are clearly sinful, because they are done with full knowledge of God’s law, and are performed with willfulness in opposition to human nature, which is created in the image of God. “The” original sin committed by Adam was done with full knowledge of God’s restriction, fueled by the deception of Satan, and which mislead Adam into believing that if he acted contrary to his nature, he would be able to “make himself” into the fullness of God’s likeness. According to the Church Fathers, man is fully capable of resisting these impulses, and maintaining his “truly human” instincts, which are in essence “good.”

Maintaining our truly and essentially good human instincts (i.e., sinlessness) does not, however, equal salvation. This was the error of Pelagius who argued against Augustine in the early 5th century. Pelagius did not believe in the “necessity” of the Grace of God in salvation. That is why the third aspect of this triad of action motivations is absolutely necessary: Positive Goodness.

Positive goodness is that which is exhibited by a human being that is in accordance with his created image, but also has the positive intention of “faith toward God through Jesus Christ,” and which thus brings salvation. Positive goodness is when a human being recognizes that good actions are not intended to be performed for their own sake, but for the purpose of glorifying God, who is the origin and cause of true life. These actions (called Christian “good works”) reflect the person’s faith in God and toward God, and his acceptance of God’s uncreated grace* through Jesus Christ, which alone can “sanctify” those actions and thus “deify” the person performing them. They constitute the “living sacrifice” or “offering” that man is called to bring before God, and reflect the intended harmony between God and man, which was the original purpose for man’s existence in the first place. This “synergy” of activity between God and man is the essence of how God and man are intended to work together to bring about man’s “salvation” in Christ which was expressed by St. Athanasius and many of the other Church Fathers in the phrase: “God became man, so that man might become divine.”

So when asked the question, “Is man basically good?” One can answer “yes,” man is basically good, but “Without ‘faith’ it is impossible to please Him.” Hebrews 11:6. These short paragraphs are in no way intended as an exhaustive commentary on this subject, but are intended to provide a basic framework from which you may launch into further study of this topic.

* Refer to my previous paper on God’s Essence and Energies.

God's Essence and Energies

Prolegomena

In the historic theology of the Church, there is often reference to distinctions vice separations. This is part of a constant effort to enumerate differences when that is necessary, while maintaining unity. It is how the Divine Trinity is capable of being discussed, when virtually all rational understanding or definition of the Trinity is impossible. Nevertheless, we are able to discuss it if we’re careful to describe the distinctions of the Godhead, while maintaining the unity. Often the distinctions are spoken of as being “real,” as opposed to merely “theoretical.” This is to emphasize the fact that there are true and absolute realities in existence, which are real, actual, and can be known, even though they are unknowable by experimental or rational means. They may be known, however, by “experiential” knowledge through the worship and sacraments of the Church. This suggests a potential bridge between some of the Protestant/Evangelical theologians and true historical theology. Some, like Wesley, and Finney in particular placed a significant emphasis on “experience” rather than mere intellectualization or rational knowledge of God as revealed in the Scriptures. Finney in particular showed a remarkable understanding of the writings of the early Eastern Church Fathers, with a particular distain for the Augustinian/Calvinist concept of “original sin,” which, in his opinion, made God the author of sin, and resulted in an abdication of individual responsibility for one’s sins. More will be discussed about this later, from the perspective of the Eastern Fathers.

I. The Divine Oiconomia (Economy) and the distinction between Essence and Energies

The manner in which God reveals Himself in His creation is not through revealing His essence, but by making Himself known through the Divine oiconomia: i.e., His work in the creation. His work in His creation is accomplished through what the Fathers describe as His “energies.” This work and manifestation of God’s energies began through a progressive revelation of Himself first through the Prophets and the giving of the Law, and is culminated in the miraculous incarnation of Jesus Christ, and subsequent formation the Church, which is His body. “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:1-3)
An important aspect of this work of God is that these energies are actually God Himself, i.e., His presence and grace, but are distinct from His essence. If, however, the Divine energies are not indeed God Himself, then the energies are something separate and different from God (i.e., created) and then true communion with God cannot occur. Augustine did not make the clear differentiation between the Energies being God Himself but not His essence, and in fact was the first Christian writer to set forth the idea that grace was thus “created” for man. The problem here is that then grace becomes disconnected from God and therefore part of the “finite” creation along with all other created things. The true Apostolic Fathers of both East and West understood clearly that grace was the “uncreated” energy of God, distinct from His essence, but nevertheless God Himself. Among those who specifically articulated this was St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), considered to be “the last Father of Church” and the greatest articulator of the doctrine of “deification,” which is the doctrine of salvation in the Eastern Church. He asked, “How shall we be deified if the grace and glory of God are finite? How do we participate in the divine Nature if grace is not somehow an extension of it?” For Augustine, however, grace is a divine but “created” force, whereby God compels the will of man from evil to do good and negates the consequences of “original sin” in those who are baptized. Original sin for Augustine meant that not only do we suffer from the effects of Adams sin, we are corporately guilty of it as well—a concept totally foreign to the Eastern Patristic consensus. To him, the grace of the Sacrament of Baptism is given to “many” while on the “few” (…those who had been predestined) is imposed irresistibly “the grace of perseverance,” which denies apostasy to the elect. For him also saving grace is compulsory, because, if freely given, the wicked nature of man would reject it. This doctrine of grace would eventually be adopted by all of the Reformers as “their own.” The resultant experience of the believer, therefore, with this type of grace becomes merely communion with a created thing. No doubt St. Gregory Palamas was referring to St. Peter who declared that we are to be “partakers of the Divine Nature,” through the worship of the Church (1 Peter 1:4). This means that through the mysteries of the Church (Grk: musterion, and Latin: sacramentum), we are brought into communion with God Himself through the “energies” wrought by the real presence of Holy Spirit. Thus we are “touched” and, therefore, changed by God’s “real and actual presence” in that process known as “theosis” or deification, which as previously stated is salvation as defined by the historic theology of the Church. In stark contrast to the scheme mentioned above posited by Augustine, St. Gregory Nazianzus (also known as “the Theologian”), states: “Grace is divine energy (theos energeias), a power by which our mortal nature is transformed; it is not compulsory. It will flee the soul that does not want salvation. Grace acts with the human will in its “struggle” for perfection. Predestination is the result of God’s foreknowledge of human effort.”
We as believers, therefore, come together for worship in an atmosphere that is filled with the glory of God (through His Divine Energies), and move daily through a growth process in which we are gradually transformed into God’s likeness in Christ—our “theosis.” This is our destiny, our goal, and reward for entering into God’s plan of salvation by faith and “holding fast the profession of [our] faith without wavering…” (Hebrews 10:23). By continuing in this process, by faith, we are shaped into Christ’s likeness, i.e., God’s likeness, and become all that God is “naturally.” St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Irenaeus, and then later St. Athanasius all reiterated the teaching that “God become man, so that man might become god.” What they and the other Fathers meant by this was that our salvation (that is our deification), is thus: “…we become by grace, all that God is by nature.” This is oneness with God and union with Him though Christ, so that in the end the only distinction between us and God will be that we remain “the created,” while He is ever “the uncreated.”

II. God’s “uncreated” Grace and how it works

The grace of God begins its work in our lives at our baptism. Truly the Holy Spirit Himself calls men to repentance, but when man responds by his own free will, the grace of God begins its deifying work of redemption; first with regeneration, and then in a steady flow of strengthening power through the Eucharist and the other sacraments, the person moves forward in theosis toward conformity to Christ. In this great mystery (sacramentum) of Baptism, the very life of God is communicated to the individual through his becoming a part of the Church. A person does not “get saved” and then decides which church he’s going to attend; the person is saved only by coming into the Church and becoming a part of it through the waters of baptism. This may be accomplished either by the faith of one’s parents or of the individual himself. In either case it is still faith and obedience which brings the person into the saving arms of the Body of Christ. It is by this act of free will that a person comes to a place of receptiveness of God’s grace. The grace is freely given, by virtue of God’s love and mercy, and not on the basis of the righteousness of the individual. Titus 3:5 states clearly that: “…He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
Although grace may begin its work in our lives when we are young and even in infancy, we are under no compulsion, however, to accept this grace. Although we cannot be saved without the grace which purifies our faith and strengthens our resolve to live for God, grace is not irresistible. We are under no compulsion to do good or evil. As a child is baptized and begins to grow in the decision making process, the decision to continue to believe must be made. This then is where personal faith comes into play. Man’s free will has remained in tact despite the fall, according to Saints Jerome and Hilary of Poitiers. “The willing and the running belong to us,” St. Jerome said, “but the success of that willing and running pertains to the mercy of God; thus, as far as the willing and running are concerned, human freedom is preserved whole, while the success of the willing and the running is left to the power of God.” This view of how the grace of God works in concert and in cooperation with the human will was universal among the Fathers of the Church with the exception of Augustine of Hippo and a few other “early Christian writers,” who contributed to the literary corpus, but were not considered true Church “Fathers.” It is called “synergism” because it recognizes more than one force at work in human salvation—God’s grace and human free will. St. Gregory the Theologian said, “Salvation depends on ourselves as well as God.” “Monergism,” on the other hand suggests that the only power at work in salvation is God, who predestines those who are to be saved and those who are to be damned; calls and converts the elect through irresistible “prevenient” grace, and then provides “persevering” grace to the elect so that they “cannot” be lost. This view was introduced “seminally” by Augustine and espoused by most of the subsequent Reformers in the later Protestant movements, especially John Calvin.
This is not the view, however, of the true “Fathers” of the historic Church. They were synergistic in their understanding of salvation. Like St. Jerome above, St. Hilary of Poitiers taught that, “No person is excluded by the human condition from participating in the work of his own salvation. More precisely, the human race has inherited a ‘condition’ from Adam—that of mortality—which only the grace of God eradicates.” Note that he does not say that man inherits the sin of Adam, but the “condition” of Adam. Like St. Ambrose of Milan who said, “Each person shares in the ‘fate’ of Adam by virtue of his kinship to the first man. We are guilty of the sins we commit, because, like him and on account of him, we violate God’s will.” “In Adam I fell,” says St. Ambrose, “and in Adam I was cast out of Paradise. In Adam I died. How shall God call me back, except he find me in the second Adam—justified in Christ.” In light of this we see that human beings do not inherit the “sin” and the “guilt” of Adam (as Augustine and the Reformers mistakenly theorized). Human beings are victims of Adam’s sin, not the bearers of it. The condition we have inherited from Adam is one of death, and from that condition or “state” comes forth all manner of lifeless sinning. In effect, therefore, Adam sinned, which brought forth death. All born of Adam have inherited that death, which thus brings forth sinning. St. Cyril of Alexandria said, “Although Adam died because he sinned, we sin because we die. Human sin is the manifestation and the ratification of our mortal nature.” In other words, our sins are not proof that we are all guilty of Adam’s sin, but that we inherited “mortality” or “death” through him.
Now in addition to the deifying power of the grace given in baptism, as the Creed states, it is also for the remission of “sins.” Here’s how St. Cyprian of Carthage puts it: “…if even to the greatest sinners and those who had sinned much against God, when they subsequently believed, remission of sins is granted—and nobody is hindered from Baptism and grace—how much more then ought we to shrink from hindering an infant who, being born after the flesh according to Adam, has contracted the contagion of the ancient death, who approaches the more easily on this very account to the reception of the forgiveness of sins—that to him are remitted not only his own sins, but the sins of another.” This equating of baptism with “the forgiveness or remission of sins” is peculiar in this context on the surface, but is common in Scripture and Tradition. When we analyze Cyprian’s statement, however, we can clearly see what he means: First of all, he uses the expression “forgiveness of sins” (plural) which ordinarily refers to adult baptism. Why then would infants need to be baptized? Clearly to make them members of Christ, but Cyprian refers to the “sins” of the infant. What sins could an infant have committed? How old an infant? He does not tell us; but nevertheless, acknowledges the possibility of sins being committed, even at a very young age. Yet there is something else to which he eludes, and that is to “remit” the sins of “another.” Who is this “other?” Adam? But as we’ve already seen in the Fathers, the sins of Adam are his own; and the use of the plural (“sins”) excludes the idea of an inherited “sin” (singular). Does he mean the “sins” of the infant’s parents, then? But the letter states “of another.” Was it just one of the parents? Which one and why? We may never know, but perhaps then the term “another” is the human race itself, the substance of Adam, that is to say, the infant, necessarily affected by the sins of mankind (“another”) of which he is part, remits when he is baptized, to some degree, those “sins” through his own regeneration. This idea emphasizes the fact that we are all inexplicably linked together as human beings, and that righteous and good acts of faith and obedience impact the rest of mankind in a positive way by liberating yet another being who had formerly been in bondage. It’s like that commercial for the Morgan Stanley stock brokerage firm that says, “We measure success, one investor at a time.”
The power of this transformation through the grace (energies) of God is immeasurable. In Christ, St. Hilary says, “the mortal gains eternity.” St. Hilary, therefore, recognized the possibility of a sinless life in this world through grace. “Grace is freely given, but the soul increases grace by overcoming sin. God grants perseverant grace to him who, with grace, conquers sin. Although we cannot be saved without the grace which purifies our faith and strengthens our resolve, grace is not irresistible. We are under no compulsion to do good or evil. Thus, the sin God saw in Esau was not foreordained, anymore than the good of Isaac. The “elect” are those who, by faith and obedience, are worthy of election. No person is excluded by the human condition from participating in the work of his own salvation. More precisely, the human race has inherited a “condition” from Adam—the vitium (Latin: vicious, full of vice, corrupt way of life) of mortality—which only the grace of God eradicates.” St. Hilary clearly has a synergistic view of salvation here. God and man work together and in concert to accomplish the fullness of salvation (i.e., deification) in Christ.
The antithesis of this concept of synergism is embodied in the theology of the Reformers, and as stated previously, may be found seminally in Augustine as well. It is extreme “monergism,” which in the Reformed theological scheme is called, sola gratia (Latin for “grace alone.”) And is the cornerstone of Reformed Evangelical soteriology. The Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms; Richard A. Muller, states thus: “sola gratia: grace alone; by grace alone; viz., the teaching of the Reformers and of their scholastic successors (i.e., Augustine, Aquinas, et al.—emphasis mine) that grace alone is the ground of salvation and that individuals are justified by grace alone through faith. The term allows only grace to be the active power in justification and leaves nothing to the human will or to human works. Synergism (Grk - synergismus), cooperation between man and God, is therefore effectively ruled out of the initial work of salvation. Even faith (fides, q.v.) is a result of grace and cannot be considered as the result of human effort.” This idea is so pervasive in Western thought that to even mention a notion of “synergism” in the way it has been presented here is tantamount to espousing heresy of the worst order. Such is the distance between what the Church “has always believed and taught” (…definition of “catholic”), and what is commonly believed and understood as “orthodox Christian thought” to most Protestants of the last two centuries.

III. The Distinction Between Person and Nature

The distinction between God’s essence and energies guarantees the reality of man’s deification. Because the energies of God (i.e., His divine “uncreated” grace) are truly God’s presence, we are able to truly participate in the Divine Nature through the sacraments as the Scriptures teach us in 1 Peter 1:4. The distinction between person and nature helps us to understand how the salvation of mankind is accomplished. Man was created in the image of God. This means that each person shares a common human nature with all other men. At the same time, however, each person is unique and unrepeatable. Moreover, each and every person sums up the one human nature within himself. Like the word “catholicos” in the Greek, which means: “according to the whole,” every person is, therefore, “catholic” –a unique individual summation of the whole of human nature. Just as each local church which professes the one true faith according to the symbol of Nicea is also “catholic”—a unique individual summation of the whole of the church, which is called “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.” There is a real distinction, therefore, between a person’s nature, which is commonly human, and his person, which is unique to himself.
Here’s how this plays out with regard to our condition from which we must be saved. In the garden, the devil tempted Eve by promising that he fruit of the earth (the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) would deify her. Adam and Eve’s earthbound and matter-focused attempt to become like God (in eating the fruit)—apart from and in direct contradiction to the command of God—is the essence of the fall of man. Archimandrite George states in his book The Deification as the Purpose of Man’s Life, Mt. Athos, Greece: Holy Monastery of St. Gregorios, 1997, “We know that Adam and Eve were misled by the devil and desired to become gods, not in cooperation with God, though, not with humbleness, obedience and love, but relying on their own powers, their own will, egotistically and autonomously. That is to say, the essence of the fall is egotism. By adopting egotism and self-sufficiency, they separated themselves from God and instead of attaining deification, they attained exactly the opposite: spiritual death.”
Because human nature is one, the sin of Adam and Eve has affected all of humanity. Human nature has become corrupt, and every person born inherits a corrupt nature, enslaved to the passions and to death. This is why in historical theology from the Eastern perspective the sin of Adam and Eve is often called the Ancestral Sin (a singular disobedience, but universal in its effect). It is important to note here, that what we have inherited from Adam and Eve are the consequences of their sin—the enslavement to the passions and death—not the guilt for their sin. In other words because of the Ancestral Sin of Adam, we have all been made mortal—subject to death and the sinfulness which issues forth from that state, but not sinful in the essence of our nature. Another way to look at it is that a man does not sin because it’s natural for him to do so, but because he in his individual personhood gives in (by his own free choice) to the drives of his mortal nature, which he shares in common with all other human beings. Thus it is imperative that we maintain this distinction between person and nature in order to properly understand our condition.
To counteract this condition, the eternal Son and Word of God—the Second Person of the Trinity—became man so that human nature (…again which is common to all) might be restored and mankind attain the deification for which it was originally created. Christ assumed human nature in its entirety, taking a human body and soul with all of its natural faculties. Thus, the Word of God lived a truly human life, but in a divine way. Christ’s human will (distinctly unique to himself but not separate from the common will of our common human nature) was united inseparably but distinctly to His divine will. His human nature (distinctly unique to himself but not separate from the common human nature of all mankind) was united inseparably but distinctly to His divine nature. Two wills and two natures united, living in complete obedience to the Father as a man; Christ restored all of human nature and reversed its learned willingness toward corruption.
This is why St. Paul calls Christ the last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15:45. He further states in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” This emphasizes the fact that in Christ the general resurrection of all mankind, not just believers, is assured. This also testifies to the reality of Christ’s assumption of our common human nature. Because of this reality, all will rise from the dead. All have immortal life, but not all will live in everlasting blessedness. Some will rise to experience the fullness of the blessing of God’s complete and full presence, the rest will rise into the flames of His consuming presence, and experience the “hell” that presence brings for them for all eternity.
Since Christ assumed our human nature completely and in its entirety, and the true source of life was reinstated into the creation, there was yet one thing that needed to take place. Death had to be conquered. Christ had to meet mankind where is was and assume not only human nature, but all of the consequences of the fall. Thus St. Paul insists that Christ was not only obedient to the Father, but “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). Christ, the immortal Son of God, died a human death and descended into Hades, that He might destroy the power of death. After His resurrection, Christ ascended to His Father, placing the human nature that He had assumed and healed at the right hand of the throne of glory. In Christ, therefore, human nature has not only been healed but deified—united eternally with God in Heaven. (Ephesians 2:5-6). There is a clear distinction here between person and nature, therefore. Christ has restored human nature. Yet we remain free persons. Christ’s resurrection causes all mankind to rise from the dead, but Christ cannot make us love Him. Love must be the free response of the human heart. For those who love Him, the resurrection will be unto eternal blessedness. For those who hate Him, His appearing will be eternal death. Matthew 5:45 is the key to understanding this concept here. It states, “He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” According to the Scriptures as in St. John’s epistle, “God is love.” God does not change. God loves both the just and the unjust equally. God does not get angry. God does not get offended. These images from the Scriptures are anthropomorphisms. They are human characteristics that are attributed to God for a specific didactic purpose, much the same way we speak of the hand of God or the heart of God. It is inconceivable, however, that human actions should cause God to change—to be offended or to become angry. The difference between the blessed and the damned, therefore, is not in how God treats them, but in how they each experience the presence and love of God. The blessed respond to God in love and experience His love and providential care precisely as that. The unrighteous, however, do not respond to God’s love and therefore experience it as wrath and judgement. The objective reality is one and the same—God is love—but the individual subjective apprehension of that reality (i.e., one’s free choice) determines the state of one’s blessedness or damnation.

In Conclusion:

We don’t have to ask God to “grant” us the ability to be holy or to be consistent. He has already granted us the ability to live for Him by virtue of the fact that we’re created in His image. What we need is His “help,” His “strength,” His “guidance,” and His “leadership” to help us to fulfill what we ought to do and “be” for him as we walk in faith.