A Voice from Heaven

Rejoice, O Theodoulos! Rejoice and be glad, for Immanuel has appeared, God from God, the true Messiah and Savior of men. Not an angel, not a man, not of the perishable seed of man, but seedlessly born of God and the Most-Pure Virgin Mary in the underground cave of Bethlehem. The only seed at His birth was the pure and holy word of God, and the only power at His conception was the power of the Holy Spirit.

He said He had come down from heaven. And people only from heaven expected help and salvation.

He also said that He was the door. And for centuries, people have been groping their way through the labyrinth of life in search of the door to a better life.

He also said that He was the resurrection; that He will raise Himself up when sinners kill Him, and raise up all who believe in Him and love Him.

He also said that He had conquered the world, that He had seen Satan fall from heaven like lightning into hell. And the world needed a Conqueror of evil, falsehood and violence, which came from Satan and acted through people.

He also said that at the end of time, at the end of the drama of human history, He would come again, in power and glory, to gather the living and the dead, to separate them from each other, and to proclaim the final, righteous Judgment upon all. And the righteous will go to eternal bliss, and the unrepentant sinners will be thrown into eternal torment.

He also said that all power in heaven and on earth was given to Him by the Father, so that no one can do any good without Him and apart from Him, much less in spite of Him, either to himself or to others; and that only one name under the sun is given to people for salvation, and this is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour.

O Theodoulos, here is the mighty Helmsman, at the helm of the ship of human life that has gone astray! Here is the Captain, Who knows well the whole abyss of time and space and knows where the ship and the weary travelers lead. Rejoice and be glad!

Unbelievers ask themselves, "Who will bear witness to us about Him?" Such are the questions of those who walk the path of perdition and seek their salvation on this path.

Indeed, His works bear witness to Him. And even the murderers of Jerusalem themselves could not keep silent about this, but said: "What shall we do? This Man works many miracles. And they confirmed His words: I have done works among them that no one else has done.

But, in addition to His terrible and unprecedented miracles, He also turned to the testimony of His Heavenly Father. And the Father did not leave Him alone. He bore witness of Him with His voice from heaven.

Three times the voice of the Heavenly Father was heard. The first time was at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This was the case at the beginning of Christ's ministry.

The second time was on Tabor, when the Lord was transfigured, and when His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as snow. Then again the Father testified with His voice about His Son: "This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; Listen to him.