Thus Jesus was baptized, silently, without explaining His baptism, but setting an example for all His followers, so that they too might be baptized and become partakers of the merits of His baptism. The Lord was silent then, but at the end of His earthly ministry He gave a commandment to His disciples: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit... Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.

Get baptized, India, what are you waiting for? God will not help you, who only thunders and commands, but does not set a personal example. Neither Krishna nor Shiva will save - it is Christ who saves, Who Himself began with purification and gave us an example of purification. The Creator, although pure, enters the water as a parent, and in this way sets an example for soiled children, so that they may first be cleansed of their former defilement and then be able to begin a new life in purity. A person, even the greatest sage and philosopher, cannot save the world. After all, the world is not saved until the sins of the world are taken upon themselves by someone. But even the greatest man is too young to take upon himself the sins of the whole world. This can only be done by the Heavenly Hostage and Guarantor. Only the Son of God – God from God, eternal and immortal – can take upon His shoulders millions of millions of human sins worthy of death, all the terrible and heavy burden of mankind.

Perfume

Do you believe in bodiless spirits, Theodoulos, servant of God?

In shallow water, the river murmurs loudly, and over deep pools it falls silent. Look into your soul and tell me if you are shallow or deep. Shallow water is language without a mind, depth is a mind without a tongue. Verily I say unto thee, the talkative godless are the shallow waters of life, and the silent sages and saints are its depths.

In the boastful shallow water you can neither bathe nor find food, unless you like frogs. You must seek purity and food only in the depths.

God is Spirit and truth. Unbelievers stubbornly deny the existence of all spirits, including God Himself. This is their thoughtless murmur in the shallow waters of life.

And are they better than many so-called Christian philosophers and heretical theologians, who admit the existence of only one bodiless spirit, God, and deny the existence of all other spirits, both good and evil, like the wretched Stoics of old? Ah, this lonely and desperate God of theirs! And the ancient Stoics bubbled in their shallow waters, as if there was only one spirit, that is, God, and that the spirits of all people after death spread out and merged into this spirit. Only up to such an idea could they rise to Christ and without Christ. Therefore, we are not at all surprised by their bubbling in shallow water.

Another thing is striking: how can Christian philosophers and heretical theologians agree with them and pull their strings on their pagan lyre? Truly, the judgment has long been ready for them. For by denying the spirits of good and evil, they are in reality denying the gospel of Christ; and they deny Christ Himself, from Whom they are fed, they and their children.

Look, the Gospel of Christ is filled with the spirits of good and evil, angels and demons, and they deny the existence of the world of spirits! They consider it an honor to be like-minded with the Stoic Marcus Aurelius, king of Rome and murderer of Christians.

Ah, Theodoulos, where on earth have you seen a king without courtiers and servants, even one of them? Even if God were such a king, you and I would not desire His dignity and His throne. Who would He command? Who would he be surrounded by? Who would listen to Him? Yes, even the smallest prince on earth would be in a happier position. And everything earthly is a symbol of the heavenly. Know, Theodoulos, that the stumbling block for all these Christian Stoics and heretics lies precisely in the fact that they did not understand from the Gospel and could not understand that everything earthly is an image or symbol of the heavenly.

If God is Spirit (as He really is), then He, as King, is surrounded by created spirits, innumerable and inconceivable. The spirits of darkness dwell far from the throne of the Godhead, but the spirits of light stand at the throne of glory of God their Creator, day and night. Thus testified one of the chief archangels of God, the Archangel Gabriel, when he said to Zachariah the priest: "I am Gabriel, standing before God, and I have been sent to speak with thee." This means that he is the courtier of the King of kings and the commander of the angelic hosts.

When the Son of God appeared on earth as the Messiah, the whole heaven appeared with Him and with Him. The Father gave His voice on the Jordan, and the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove. The Archangel Gabriel proclaimed to the Virgin Mary in Nazareth the will of the Most High God. The angels proclaimed the Nativity of Christ to the shepherds of Bethlehem and sang to Him a significant doxology: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!" An angel of God appeared to the righteous Joseph three times: the first time - so that he would not let Mary go, the second time - so that he would take the Divine Infant and flee to Egypt, and the third time - so that he would return from Egypt to his native places. An angel appeared to the wise astrologers from the East and advised them not to return by the same road (that is, through Jerusalem), but to go another way to their home in view of Herod's malice against the newborn King Jesus.

Immediately after His baptism in the Jordan, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. For forty days and forty nights Satan tempted Him. And during this time He did not eat anything, but He did not interrupt prayer - the thread connecting with His Heavenly Father. And when He had conquered all the three greatest temptations of the devil – the love of pleasure, the love of glory and the love of power, then Satan departed from Him, and behold, the Angels came and served Him.