(a) Thus, first of all, in the words of Moses to the people of Israel: "Behold, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil" (Deut. XXX, 15). From these words it is clear that the choice between life and good, on the one hand, and death and evil, on the other, depends on the person himself, therefore, if he chooses evil, he does it voluntarily, and not forcedly.

      Such appeals of Moses to the people of Israel, such as: If you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, carefully fulfill all His commandments (Deut. XXVIII, 1; cf. XXX, 10, 16), or: "If you do not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do not strive to keep all His commandments and His statutes" (Deut. XXVIII, 15; cf. XXX, 17) can also serve as an indication of the origin of sin in human freedom. Such appeals show that whether or not to fulfill the commandments and decrees of God depends on the person himself, namely on his freedom. All the punishments that God inflicted on individuals and nations for their sins, and in particular the people of Israel, can also serve as evidence of the origin of sin from the freedom of man. In fact, if sins were not free, if they occurred necessarily, under the influence of an evil creature or some other cause, then God would not accuse them of sinners and would not subject them to punishment for these sins. If God imputs sins to sinful persons, it means that they have their main cause in these persons themselves, in their freedom, as a result of which they deserve guilt and punishment.

      b) In the New Testament, Jesus Christ Himself very clearly acknowledges that the internal cause of the origin of sin lies in man himself, namely in his freedom, when He calls the heart of man, this center of his inner life, the source of sinful actions. "Out of the heart," says the Saviour, "proceed evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, blasphemy" (Matt. XV, 19). This means that the inner root of sin lies in man himself, in his inner being, in his inner desire, which is not necessarily conditioned by any external influence. Up. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans says: "The night is past, and the day is at hand, and so let us put on the works of darkness and put on the armor of light." As in the daytime, let us behave decently, not giving ourselves up to feasting and drunkenness, nor to voluptuousness and debauchery, nor to quarrels and envy (XIII, 12-13). If it were not in the power of man, not on his freedom, to lead a virtuous or vicious life, then the Apostle would not have made such an exhortation as he did in the passage quoted, would not have invited Christians to reject the works of darkness, to remove the indicated vices from themselves, and to live a virtuous and pious life. Therefore, the above passage can serve as a confirmation that the vicious, sinful life of a person depends on himself, on his freedom.

      Thus, in both the Old and New Testaments, there are fairly clear indications of the origin of sin from the freedom of man.

      c) In accordance with the Holy Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church believed that the main, internal cause of the origin of sin was in man himself, namely in his freedom. Thus, St. Basil the Great, in refutation of the teaching of the Gnostics and Manichaeans about the origin of evil, says: "Do not seek evil outwardly, do not imagine that there is some original evil nature, but let each one recognize himself as the culprit of his own wickedness" (Works of St. Basil the Great in Russian translation, part I, p. 30). In another place, in refutation of the fact that God is the author of evil, he says: "It is not God who is the cause of evil, but ourselves; for the beginning and root of sin is that which depends on us, our freedom" (ibid., part IV, p. 145). St. Basil the Great also expresses this idea very clearly in the following words: "In the proper sense, evil, that is, sin, is the evil most worthy of this name, depends on our will, because it is in our will either to refrain from vice, or to be vicious" (ibid., p. 150).

      In the same way, St. Gregory the Theologian clearly acknowledges evil as proceeding from ourselves and at the same time from the devil, when he says: "Evil has neither a special essence nor a kingdom, it is neither beginningless nor original, it was created by God below, but is our work and the work of the evil one, and it has come into us from our negligence, and not from the Creator" (The Works of St. Gregory the Theologian in Russian translation, Part III, p. 320). St. Gregory the Theologian clearly expresses this idea in the following words: "Ruse is the destruction of hard iron, and I, a suicide, have planted destruction in myself - sin, by my own design, following the insidious suggestions of the envious" (ibid., part IV, p. 228).

      In the same way, Blessed Theodoret acknowledges that sin arises from our freedom, when he says: "Since the choice of good and contrary depends on volition, then justly some receive victorious crowns, while others are punished for arbitrary sins" (The Works of Blessed Theodoret in Russian translation, part I, p. 39).

      The passages quoted are quite sufficient to show that both the Fathers and teachers of the Church believed, in accordance with the Word of God, that the main cause of the origin of sin was in man himself, precisely in his freedom (from Book 1:1). "Sin, Its Origin, Essence and Consequences", is sacred. V. Veltistova. Moscow, 1885, pp. 183-190).

 5. The History of the Fall of the First Men

      (According to the teaching of Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow)

      I. The Origin of Sin. The beginning of sin is in the devil. - Man's sin was preceded by sin in the spiritual world (1 John 1:10). III, 8). "Before the visible and rational creature, that is, man, God created the invisible rational creature of spirits, which are called angels. One of these bright spirits, with some spirits subordinate to him, had the audacity to go out of obedience to the all-good will of God, His Creator, and through this he was deprived of the light and bliss granted to him and became an evil spirit (The Beginnings, p. 10).

      The fact of the fall of good spirits "is confirmed by the Word of God when it speaks of angels who did not preserve their beginning, but left their habitation" (Jude VI.). Evil spirits, "made such through falling away from God" after their sin, "fell into self-love, pride, and malice"; they have become "unclean spirits, provoking the wrath of God, condemned, although the sentence of this judgment has not yet been promulgated in the whole Kingdom of God, nor has it been fulfilled in all its power" (Homilies and Speeches, 1848, II 290; Cat. XXIV); they "became so rooted in evil that they became utterly incapable of loving the good and repenting of sin" (Zap. on Gen." I, 61).