13. Old Testament religion.

Of all the religions in the world, only the Christian religion possesses all the inner and external indications of divinely revealed dignity and possesses true prophecies and miracles. Christianity is the sole, true, divinely revealed religion. This religion is subdivided into the Old Testament and the New Testament, composing, however, one organic whole, and represents the development of one Divine Plan for the salvation of mankind. The difference between the Old and New Testaments lies not in its nature, but in the degree of its fullness and perfection.

The Old Testament Revelation pertains to the New Testament as a preparation does to a performance; as a promise does to a fulfillment; and as a symbol does to an image. The aim of Old Testament Revelation was the preparation of mankind in its historic life for the acceptance of a higher Christian Revelation. This was spoken of by the Old Testament prophets themselves, for it was they who expressed the thought that the Messiah will come and will Himself announce to the people the New Covenant (see the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-35).

Christianity possesses such a volume of proofs of its truth and of its divine Revelation so numerous and diverse that it can satisfy the inquiries and demands of the most varied moods and the most diverse habits of mind and character, if only these sincerely search for the Truth.

The Hebrew people were the elect of God. To this people the Lord gave His original Revelation. To be selected by God means much is given, but much is also asked for in return. A great deal was given to the Hebrew people, and a great deal was to be answered for by them. However, the Old Testament Revelation was not complete, but only preparatory in the history of the divine structure. It gradually fulfilled its purpose. Revealed truths were opened little by little in preparation for approaching the aim of its purpose: to prepare all mankind to receive the higher and more perfect Christian Revelation. The Old Testament revelations were in such a period of the history of man when neither the Hebrew people nor other peoples of the world were prepared for the reception of the higher truths of Christian Revelation. Therefore, these truths were revealed gradually in a limited measure.

The nature of the religion of the Old Testament.

First of all, Old Testament religion represents in itself pure monotheism. This circumstance sharply distinguishes the unquestionably divinely revealed Old Testament religion from all other natural religions which also contained, to a greater or lesser degree, elements of polytheism, pantheism and even atheism.

In the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament, God is represented as a single (Deuteronomy 4:39, 32:39), original, and personal Being (Exodus 3:14-15). Among all the religious and philosophical definitions of the Divinity, it is impossible to find in content one more complete and profound, and, in form, a more concise, compact and clear formula than the divine self-determination given to Moses in the Revelation: I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you (Exodus 3:14).

From this it is clear that God is eternal and ever-existing, and, at the same time, is a vital Personality, an Intellect, sending His elect to work in service to Truth and good for the welfare of the race of man.

Biblical monotheism differs sharply from abstract monotheism in which the Divinity is separated by an impossible abyss from the world and man and is placed in a purely outward mechanical relation to them (for example: Islamic monotheism). Being a pure theism (i.e. understanding God not only as the Creator of the universe but also as the Intellect), biblical monotheism sharply differs from all deistic presentations of God — where God is understood as the Creator of the world and its laws, but does not interfere any further in the life of beings created by Him.

Biblical monotheism bears a deeply vital and highly ethical character. The sole, vital, personal God, endlessly towering above the whole world, Almighty, the all-knowing Creator of the whole universe, according to the biblical teaching, is also the all-good Intellect, the just Judge, and justly rewarding. To Him are attributed not only abstract metaphysical properties, such as eternal existence, almightiness, omniscience, endless wisdom, omnipresence, etc., but also all the highest perfections which the Old Testament unites in one understanding of holiness. Through this understanding, a conception of God as the cause of evil was eliminated because ethical imperfection was impossible in Him.

Not one of the ancient pagan religions ever rose to a true understanding of the holiness of God; on the contrary, an understanding of holiness was always absent from the enumerated and described properties of divinity! Even in the Persian religion, the most ethical of all, Ormuzd, is bound by an evil origin, did not represent a being possessing a completeness of moral force. There was a complete absence of an understanding of holiness also in the irreligious moral system of Buddhism!

Only in the Old Testament religion was there made apparent an understanding of the holiness of God in all its purity. From whence, therefore, came this purity, depth and lofty teaching of the Old Testament religion about God? All the religious and philosophical representations of God by other peoples were not in a position to break away from the foundation of naturalism or pantheism. Standing among other religions like a lonely mountain in the midst of a valley is the Old Testament religion, with its lofty monotheism speaking of a holy, personal, vital, all-perfect, all-good God — the Creator and the Intellect of the world. Free of mythological fantasies and imbued with vital life, the Old Testament teaching represents an undeniable miracle appearing at the dawn of history, and by this, already witnessing its Divine origin.

It is especially remarkable, however, that the bearer of this unquestionably divinely revealed religion was a small, insignificant tribe; inconspicuous amid other great and civilized peoples of the ancient world. This tribe, surrounded on all sides by paganism, and itself having an inclination to the latter, as all of its history shows, nevertheless advanced to an incomparable position in the profundity, clarity, purity and perfection of its religion. Nothing other than supernatural divine Revelation can explain this historic riddle before which all attempts of rationalistic interpretation have proved powerless.

Biblical teaching about creation finds itself closely dependent on the lofty biblical teaching about the Creator of the world and also represents remarkable features of superiority over all teachings of other ancient religions concerning the origin of the world. The question of creation did not receive a satisfactory solution in any of the known ancient religions. Nature was accepted as either eternally existing, when man was reckoned as only a “flower of nature” (in the religion of China); or it was transformed into a token, when all matter was regarded as evil (in the religion of India); or else, in the outlook on creation, anthropomorphism predominated, ascribing creation and world rule to gods, differing from man only in the degree of perfection (the religion of the classical ancient Mediterranean world).

The biblical solution to the question of creation sharply differs from all these extremes. The world, in the Old Testament religion, is considered as a creation of the one, personal, all-mighty, all-wise, all-good, and holy Creator. Man is defined as an intellectually free creation, created in the image and likeness of God, capable of the development of moral likeness to God and designated immortal in his potential.

The teaching about creation in the Old Testament is developed more fully than the teaching about God. The Holy Scripture of the Old Testament begins with a description, not of the Being of God, but with the affairs of His creation and His intellectual activity. A full Revelation concerning the Being of God does not enter into the problem of Old Testament Revelation since mankind was not then prepared for it. In the fullness of time, it was communicated in the Revelation of the New Testament.

In the Old Testament, according to the Holy Fathers, the teaching about the Holy Trinity was veiled so as not to give the Hebrew people a cause to think that there were many gods. The main task of the Old Testament Revelation consisted of presenting a firm teaching that God is One. And in the Revelation of the New Testament, the very essence of the one, personal God was represented by the Holy Trinity! The veiled teaching about the Holy Trinity can be seen in the mention of the Spirit of God; The Spirit of God went about above the water; and about the Word of the Lord; and by the Word of the Lord the heavens were confirmed.

The teaching of the creation revealed in the Old Testament was accepted also in the New Testament, since it comprised within itself eternal and permanent truths of divine Revelation. The question of the origin of the world is a question exceeding the natural perceptive capabilities of man, and for that reason has not been resolved in any philosophical or scientific teaching. Man lives amid nature and its laws. He can study nature and discover, but not create, the already existing laws of nature. But how nature and its laws were created, man with his perceptional abilities cannot know. This question is either altogether insoluble, or it can be solved solely through Revelation. And such a Revelation about the creation was given in the Old Testament.