THE CHURCH'S ONE FOUNDATION

"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me," writes the Holy Apostle Paul to the Galatians, "is not after man.  For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."  And so it is evident that the truth of our Faith cannot be arrived at through rational thought and logical deduction, but only through a personal encounter with He Who proclaimed Himself to be the Truth--our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.  This is the very revelation of God to the human heart, imparted in and through the Church by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 

This divine revelation is the very basis of the Church's Holy Tradition, which includes but is by no means limited to the written words of Holy Scripture, which can only be rightly understood according to the inspired interpretation of the Holy God-bearing Fathers of the Church.  This sacred Tradition has nothing to do--despite the teachings of the Protestants--with those "traditions of men" the Scriptures warn us against.  The Church's one foundation, as the Protestant hymn rightly proclaims, is indeed Jesus Christ our Lord--Who is the same yesterday, today, and forever--and so the Truth He reveals in His own Person is not subject in any way to ongoing change and development, according to the spirit of the times we live in.  Those sacred doctrines revealed by Christ, taught by the Holy Apostles, and sealed by the blood of the martyrs are immutable, and shall endure unto the very end of time.

This is verily the true Faith taught by the Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, those mystical trumpets of the Holy Spirit, those good shepherds of the flock of Christ who banished from the Church those teachers of false and heretical doctrines which perverted the God-revealed Truth, leading astray from the path of salvation many of the faithful.  These Holy Fathers faithfully proclaimed and defended the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church--the Orthodox  Church--the Faith which hath established the universe!

Now more than ever--as we draw ever closer to that universal apostasy and the revelation of the Antichrist prophesied for these final days preceding the end of time--it is essential that all of us who profess Christ should strive to remain steadfast in the Faith, that through God's grace we might endure and overcome every trial and temptation of the Evil One, that we may prove worthy in the end to inherit true and eternal life in God's heavenly kingdom.