Quintessence of Religious Doctrines - Malankarasyriac Voice

1224Quintessence of Religious DoctrinesTheme No: 1On the Blessed Trinity1. There is a living and true God, as the Creator of all that is visibleand invisible.Ref.: (a) Gen. 1:1. In the beginning, God created the heavensand the earth. (L.B.)(b) Is. 44:24. I am the Lord, the Creator of all things(G.N.B.)(c) Deut. 5:26. Has any human being ever lived afterhearing the living God speak from a fire (G.N.B.)(d) 1 Jn. 5:20. We know that the Son of God has comeand has given us understanding, so that we knowthe true God. We live in union with Son Jesus Christ.This is the true God, and this is eternal life (G.N.B.)(e) Dan. 2:28. But there is a God in heaven, who revealsmysteries (G.N.B.)CommentThe Syrian Orthodox Church affirms that there is a God asthe cause of every creation. This assertion is not based onany objective proof, because God is beyond every logicalcategory. It is rather rooted in subjective faith. So faith is thebedrock of Her theology. The Syrian Orthodox Churchconcedes that faith of course is a gift of God. Throughtheology, faith is analyzed to facilitate reinforcement of it.The affirmation about the creator is further amplified in theNicene-Constantinople Creed professed by the S.O.C.2. There is no other God besides this sole and single God, who isthe prime cause of everything.Ref: (a) Is. 43:11. I alone am the Lord, the only one who cansave you (G.N.B.)(b) Is. 45:5, 6. Only I am the Lord; there are no othergods… I am the Lord and that there is no other God(L. B.)CommentMonotheism is upheld by this profession of faith. Obviouslyit is a legacy to the Semitic Christianity from Judaism.Although the S.O.C. through her Trinitarian formula upholdsTrinity, it in no way contravenes Monotheism, as Her belief inTrinitarianism is not Tritheism or belief in three gods. It israther a belief in the three Persons of the Father, the Sonand the Holy Spirit who are co-equal, co-eval and in perfectcommunion with each other of the Trinity. This may beexpressed through the doctrine of Perichoresis orinterpenetration among the three Persons of the Trinity. Itimplies that what inheres in any of the Persons of Trinity,ipso facto or by the very same fact exists in the other two aswell.3. This God, the One God, is without beginning; but eternal;Ref: (a) Is. 41:4… I was there at the beginning; I will be thereat the end. (L.B.)(b) Is. 43:10… Understand that I am the only God.Besides me there is no other god; there never wasand never will be (G.N.B.)CommentGod has no beginning because He transcends time. Althoughabsolute time is incomprehensible to human intellect, it is tobe deemed as an appertinent of God. God is not bound orruled by time. For human intellect, time becomes a rationalcategory only in the backdrop of other categories of spaceand causation. All these three aspects are uniquely absentin God. Hence God is eternal.4. Without body.Ref: Jn. 4:24. God is a spirit (K.J.V.)CommentGod is incorporeal or has no body. This articulates that Godis not subject to mutation or change or degeneration ordecay.