Revelation

When I tell people that we can know who God is through his revealing of himself to us they generally respond by saying that revelation is not something that happens in the real world. They claim it to be merely the product of religious fantasy. On the contrary revelation occurs every day. In fact, it is the main form of human communication and the beginning of all human knowledge.

When we converse with another human being we do so through revelation. We cannot read each others mind. We must take what is in our mind and reveal it (usually through the spoken word) to someone else. Once they hear what has been said they proceed to think about it, and then in turn, reveal what they are thinking to us. Professors through the use of the spoken word, power point presentations, etc. reveal to their students the knowledge they have of the subject they are teaching. Only after this knowledge has been revealed can students begin to reason about it. When we read a book the author is revealing to us through the written word the ideas he desires to communicate, and then we can think about it. Even science begins with the revelation of the material world, and then they do their experiments and draw their conclusions.

Reason always follows revelation. The same then must be true when it comes to God. First God reveals himself to us and then we can begin to think clearly about him.

The True Church and the Holy Trinity

The Orthodox Church's claim that Rome had a primacy of honor within the Church, but the Church was ruled by consensus, is consistent with the nature of the Holy Trinity. The Catholic Church, which says that the Pope has supreme jurisdictional authority over the entire church, and Protestantism which is hopelessly divided along doctrinal lines, is not consistent with the Trinity.

In the Trinity the Father is the head. The Nicene Creed states that we believe in one God the Father. It goes on to say that the Father has begotten a Son and brought forth the Holy Spirit. All comes forth from the Father, but the Father takes no authority over the Son and the Holy Spirit, nor are the persons of the Trinity divided in any way. The three persons of the Holy Trinity do all by consensus having one mind and one will.

For the Trinity to be in line with the Catholic model the Father would have to exercise authority over the Son and the Holy Spirit. For the Trinity to be in line with the Protestant model the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would have to have three separate minds with three separate ways of thinking.

Only the Orthodox Church maintains consistency with the Holy Trinity. There is a head, which at one point was Rome but is now Constantinople, but all is done by consensus. The Church is of one mind, not because one man is head over all, but because by the grace of the Holy Spirit there is consensus amongst all.

The true Church must be consistent with the Holy Trinity from which it comes, and only the Orthodox Church fulfills that role.