however, do not rejoice that the spirits obey you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Lk.

10, 20).

Again, then, this invisible book and this mysterious recording of names, according to the testimony of Him Who

came down from heaven [

2] and Who knows the mysteries of heaven better than the angels themselves.

Thus it is said of the invisible book in the Holy Scriptures. But in the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church there are many testimonies about this book, revealed to the spirit of grace-filled people. And even in our time there are people - some of whom we know personally - who were dead and have come back to life, and who have seen the book of the names of men in the heavenly light before the Elder (see my book "Immanuel", part one [

3]).

After all the known evidence, it is clear that this book is not something symbolic, but just a real one. We cannot doubt the existence of this book. For if there is a heavenly city, the heavenly Jerusalem, with gates, streets, courts, and thrones, and if there are lamps and censers in heaven, why should there not be a book? The book of life, or the book of fate? This book is not for God: even without any book, the omniscient God knows everything; He knows everything and remembers everything. A book means remembrance in heaven of everything that happens on earth: it is for people who do not have remembrance of God. The existence of this as yet invisible book cannot be doubted, even if it is presented in a highly immaterial, spiritual sense: on this occasion nothing disturbs my soul.

But, O Theodoulos, another question opens up before us in connection with this wonderful book. This is a question that some philosophers and theologians have mistakenly called the question of man's free will. And why not the question of free thought? And the question of free feeling and free willing? Why is only the will taken into account? I think it's best to say:

the question of human freedom in general. In the West, this issue was much more debated than in the East. Fate and the free will of man in the East do not fight one against the other, but are peacefully united. The invisible book of the living is not some kind of fate that prevails over angels and men - and over the gods, as the polytheistic Greeks and Indians fabulously said - but God's providential plan for the salvation of people, for it is said that God

хочет, чтобы все люди спаслись и достигли познания истины [

4]. О том же говорит и Христова притча о пропавшей сотой овце, которую хозяин заботливо ищет, чтобы спасти. И еще сказано о Слове Божием, о Логосе: