Christ is the Savior of the whole world, of the entire human race, not only of all present and future generations, but also of the past. Therefore, all those who believe and believe in Him are members of His Church, both those who lived and are living after His coming, and those who lived before His coming. In this sense, the Church includes not only Orthodox Christians living on earth, but also all those who have died in the true faith and holiness.

The Church, consisting of angels and saints, is called Heavenly, or triumphant. The Church, which includes those who live on earth, is called the visible Church, the earthly Church. It is called wandering or militant [207, p. 50].

The Heavenly Church helps the earthly Church in achieving the salvation of its members. This help is realized in the prayerful intercession of the Heavenly Church before the throne of God. "It alone," writes Bishop Theophan "combines the most powerful and effective intercessors and helpers. In heaven, the Lord Himself intercedes for us, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, the assembly of Angels and Saints prays for us, and especially the protection of the Most Holy Lady Theotokos, the Guardian Angel and the saint of the same name, overshadows each of us" [118: p. 407].

In a narrower sense, but also the most universally demanding and widespread, the Church of Christ "includes all Orthodox Christians living on earth" [192: p. 43].

The word "Church" (translated from Greek (ή εκκλησία), from (εκκαλέω) – I summon to a meeting) generally means a meeting or society of those who are called. In the Christian sense, it is a community of people who have heard the Lord's call to salvation and have followed this call. "What is the Holy Church? Bishop Theophan asks and answers: "This is a community of believers united by the unity of the confession of divinely revealed truths, the unity of sanctification by the divinely instituted sacraments, and the unity of the administration and leadership of the God-given pastorate" [32: p. 250].

The earthly Church "embraces all and everywhere, whoever they may be, believers in Christ, who now, being in an earthly pilgrimage, have not yet settled in the Heavenly Fatherland" [225: p. 32].

From the outside, the Church is a visible society of people, existing and developing in earthly conditions and relationships. From the inside, the Church is a treasury of truth and grace given by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Holy Church in its inner essence cannot be precisely defined, because it is not a human, but a Divine institution, and everything Divine is inexhaustible and indefinable. But even on the visible side, the Church is a Divine institution, established by the Lord Himself.

The Church of Christ, according to the teaching of the Savior and the Apostles, has not an earthly, but a heavenly origin [214: p. 15]. The beginning of the Church of Christ was laid in Paradise [205: p. 188], when God pronounced to our forefathers the promise that "the seed of the woman shall blot out the head of the serpent," and when after that the expectation of the future Deliverer began.

The open appearance of the Church to the world took place after the redemptive feat of Christ the Savior on Golgotha, His Resurrection and Ascension into heaven. Jesus Christ became the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20) for the entire Universal Church in its structure and life, opened the way for the Holy Spirit to descend to us with grace-filled powers, revealing to us the source of eternal life. Without these forces, without God's grace-filled help, our salvation would be impossible [96: p. 238].

On earth, the continuation of the work of Jesus Christ is brought in through the Church, which is the giver of the gifts of redemption, cleansing of sins and spiritual regeneration. The Lord left on earth and entrusted to His Church "the two most essential blessings of the incarnate economy for our salvation: justification and sanctification" [Ibid.]. A justifying and intercessory veil is spread over the Holy Church, attracting and transmitting to us all the mercies of God.

Jesus Christ is the Founder of the Church on earth, but His co-workers in this matter were the preachers of His teaching, the holy apostles. "The Church of Christ," teaches St. Theophanes, "was built by the holy apostles according to the outline and plan of the Lord Himself, clarified and confirmed by the Holy Spirit" [96: p. 231].

The Apostles were special, extraordinary builders of the Church of Christ and were, in the words of Bishop Theophanes, "rich in the Spirit and possessed all spiritual blessings in such abundance that they would suffice for the whole universe, for they bore the Almighty Spirit" [84: p. 228].

Through the apostolic preaching, the Church was planted and spread in the world. "The Apostles," writes Bishop Theophanes, "invested everything in the Church. They gave her all the truth which the Spirit of God had revealed to them; the sacraments for the sanctification of the faithful were given to her, and pastoral care was established in her, the direct succession of the apostleship, whose duty is to preserve what the apostles put into the Church, to keep it in action, over everyone and everything in the Christian community" [85: p. 288]. The Church lives by "apostolic treasures and grace pouring out from them and constantly pouring from generation to generation" [Ibid.].