The Essence/Energies Distinction

The Essence/Energies distinction is “a means of explaining how God’s being is unknowable,” on the one hand, and yet, on the other, that truly “God does communicate Himself” (George Maloney, A Theology of Uncreated Energies, p. 60). It is the means by which God causes man to genuinely participate in His divine Life, His uncreated energies, given that God is also utterly transcendent and unknowable in His essence. In other words, it answers the questions: What do I receive when I am united with Christ and said to participate in the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4)? Do I participate in some one (or other) Attribute(s) of God, or do I more properly have communion with God in His very Person? How can God truly indwell the heart and remain God?

If this distinction is not made, then participation in the divine nature risks collapsing into man’s actually becoming/disappearing into God. The distinction thus, on the one hand, preserves union with Christ God while, on the other hand, guaranteeing that we retain our personal creaturehood, that our unique personhood is preserved in our union with Him. In short, it is the guard against monism.

The Essence/Energies distinction, it ought to be added, is not merely a rational deduction from abstract philosophical principles or categories, but in its essence is derived directly from the witness of Scripture (and confirmed in the experience of God’s children). In other words, it is a datum, a fact revealed in and gleaned from the Word of God, an item of Special Revelation. For example, as King David sings of God’s transcendence:

“O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain.” (Psalm 104:1-2 KJV)

And yet as Christ speaks of our union with the transcendent God:

“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us ... I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” (John 17:21, 23 KJV)

And as the Apostle Paul writes of God’s transcendence:

“Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:16 KJV)

And yet as he writes of our union with the transcendent God:

“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15 KJV)

“Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” (2 Corinthians 1:22 KJV)

“And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6 KJV)

In conclusion, the Essence/Energies distinction is a theological framework for understanding how God is both transcendent and immanent, how He is unknowable and yet capable of indwelling man Personally. It also explains how God’s union with man in Christ doesn’t destroy human creaturehood, but instead preserves it, raising it to the divine platform in communion (unto theosis) all the while preserving one’s unique, created personhood in an eternal relation to God’s Triune Personhood.

-Rev. Joshua Schooping

The Jesus Prayer and Six Promises of God: The Sixth Promise

Parts I, II, III, IV, and V can be found here, here, here, here, and here, respectively.

The full form of the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” incorporates at least six biblical promises. These are:

1. Romans 10:9 — If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (cf. John 6:40; Romans 10:10-13)

2. 1 Corinthians 12:3 — No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. (cf. John 15:26)

3. 1 John 5:1 — Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (cf. Matthew 16:16-17)

4. 1 John 4:15 — Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (cf. Romans 8:16-17; 1 John 2:23, 5:10)

5. John 14:14 — If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (cf. John 14:13, 15:16, 16:23-24) 

6. 1 John 1:9 — If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (cf. Luke 18:14)

On the Sixth Promise

By confessing our sins to God, we not only offer them up in humility to be forgiven in Christ, but also offer our very souls to be cleansed. This is a twofold reality, and is grounded in the verse in 1 John preceding, which states, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). In other words, the shed blood of Christ cleanses us from both the guilt and the stain of sin. Sin, which is an action, is also and more fundamentally like a progressive disease which inheres to and corrupts our souls unto death. In other words, sin is a spiritual sickness which produces sinful action. Just like how an infectious disease produces fever, so the infection of sin produces sinful action. Thus not only the symptom of sin's fever must be treated, but also the fundamental corruption of the disease of sin must be healed. And so the blood of Christ effects a double action: one which deals with the symptom, which is to say the fever of sin; and another which deals with the more fundamental cleansing, which is to say the underlying disease of sin. Both aspects are found through the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. The spilling of His righteous blood, which we receive in childlike faith as being given on our behalf, acts so as to objectively forgive the sin which we have committed. Not stopping there, it also works to restore us to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. This cleansing is the restoration of fellowship with God in Christ. What a mighty promise! And this is why confession is such a vital subject, and can never be treated flippantly as if it were optional, as if it were some superficial listing of mistakes, or as if it were simply a matter of regret for wrongs done. Confession must go all the way to the heart of the problem, the rupture of fellowship with God due to our hardened hearts and our stiff necks. Sin is such a corruption that God decided that the death of Christ on the Cross was the best way to deal with it. And so the forgiveness of sin and the cleansing of all unrighteousness came together at a great cost, and yet it is freely extended to all. Thus through confession not only does He promise to forgive and cleanse, but also to reestablish communion with Him as you walk in the Light that is Christ.

The Jesus Prayer and Six Promises of God: The Fifth Promise

Parts I, II, III, and IV can be found here, here, here, and here, respectively.

The full form of the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” incorporates at least six biblical promises. These are:

1. Romans 10:9 — If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (cf. John 6:40; Romans 10:10-13)

2. 1 Corinthians 12:3 — No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. (cf. John 15:26)

3. 1 John 5:1 — Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (cf. Matthew 16:16-17)

4. 1 John 4:15 — Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (cf. Romans 8:16-17; 1 John 2:23, 5:10)

5. John 14:14 — If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (cf. John 14:13, 15:16, 16:23-24) 

6. 1 John 1:9 — If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (cf. Luke 18:14)

On the Fifth Promise

At its core, asking something in Jesus’ holy Name means being in harmony with His will, which is also to say His greater wisdom, authority, and power. It is founded upon the divine promise given by Christ. This, being a promise, means that it can be relied upon to be upheld by His unwavering faithfulness. This excludes the idea that it is the reduction of Christ to being a genie. The word genie comes from an old Arabic word, jinn, referring to a kind of supernatural being, a term which came into English usage through translations of the Arabian Nights where a jinn was being manipulated to grant selfish wishes. God is not anything like a jinn, for He is the Almighty Creator of all, the thrice Holy One who maintains all things by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). Moreover, as one who Covenants with His People, God does not promise to accomplish anything in His Name that is not also consistent with His holy nature and righteous character. We have to recall that the promise of Christ to do anything asked in His Name extends to those who are in and with Him. This occurs inexorably through the sacrament of holy Baptism, which is first and foremost a dying to self, a putting off of all worldly ways. Many people mistakenly think they can be a Christian and yet also at the same time a self-willed manmukh. An old Punjabi word, a manmukh is a person who follows their own mind and desires, without regard to God’s truth. This kind of person prizes their own thoughts, or the collective thoughts of their family or tribe, placing them above the revealed thoughts of God as given in His holy Word, the Bible, and as consistently maintained in the Church. This kind of person, when they encounter God’s promise to do something for His children when they pray in His Name, start to approach God as if He were simply there to guarantee that their selfish or tribal will is accomplished. When God resists their pride they end up blaming God for not obeying them, and so enter into all sorts of blasphemy. This precious promise of God is thus wholly for those who approach Him in faith as His obedient child. For in approaching God in Christ, it is not enough to simply be a socially “good” person, one must be His the Father's holy child by adoption into Christ Jesus His Son. But, if one approaches in humble faith, seeking God’s will and glory, then they can with all confidence ask in His Name, and He will do it. It may not be answered in an expected way, an obvious way, or an easy way, but it will be answered. For the most fundamental desire of a child of God is to be holy as He is holy, to seek to do His will in all things, and doing all for His glory.

The Jesus Prayer and Six Promises of God: The Fourth Promise

Parts I, II, and III can be found here, here, and here, respectively.

The full form of the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” incorporates at least six biblical promises. These are:

1. Romans 10:9 — If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (cf. John 6:40; Romans 10:10-13)

2. 1 Corinthians 12:3 — No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. (cf. John 15:26)

3. 1 John 5:1 — Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (cf. Matthew 16:16-17)

4. 1 John 4:15 — Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (cf. Romans 8:16-17; 1 John 2:23, 5:10)

5. John 14:14 — If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (cf. John 14:13, 15:16, 16:23-24) 

6. 1 John 1:9 — If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (cf. Luke 18:14)

On the Fourth Promise

He who confesses from the heart that Jesus is the Son of God has God abiding in him. In other words, God abiding in a man makes this confession possible. True confession is the result of God’s holy operation in the soul. And the opposite is also true: “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (1 John 2:22-23). In other words, those who do not confess Jesus as the Son do not have God as their Father, and in fact are opposed to the truth. And for a confession to be an authentic confession, it is not simply a matter of moving the lips, but having the heart moved by the Gospel. The heart moved by the Gospel is the heart moved by the power of God, for "the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth" (Romans 1:16). In this way the Gospel is the way of being in right relationship with divine reality. The Gospel is therefore not merely a religious message, and Christianity is not merely one way among others. There aren’t multiple true religions. One is either with Christ and God, or against Christ and God. For the whole world labors under the condemnation of sin, willingly bound to hell. But into this great spiritual slavery to evil God the Father sent His Only-Begotten Son. Christ is in this way the mercy of God extended. He is not merely a wise teacher, nor merely a miracle worker, nor merely an enlightened being. He is Himself Salvation, and He entered into the world in order to deliver those who believe in His Name. That is why Scripture says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). And so it is not simply that Christianity is a better system of ideas. It is the reality of God’s Personal in-breaking into the world to save man from a very real bondage to sin unto death and from a very real bondage to a very real Satan. Thus it cannot be said that there is no salvation in any other name as if God loves only Christians. That view of religion fails to touch the depth of the reality of the Incarnation. Christ is Himself the love of God, who is God, who came into the world to save sinners via their incorporation into Him through confessed faith, for that confession is a participation, an abiding, in Him. This promise is therefore most wonderful, for “this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life” (1 John 2:25).

Ancient Witness: The Authenticity of the Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel of Mark

Multiple and perhaps even most modern translations of the New Testament, such as the ASV, RSV, NASB (77 and 95), NIV, ESV, NET, and CSB, in some way indicate that Mark 16:9-20 are not original to Mark's Gospel. They do this in different ways, whether by placing these verses within square brackets and adding a footnote explaining their doubtful character, placing them in all italics, or perhaps inserting a note directly between verses 8 and 9 that says they "may" not be original. 

In this way they cast doubt on their trustworthiness, and as a consequence cast doubt on whether these verses are authentically God's Word. They do this further by stating that "some" early manuscripts do not contain them, or that there are no early witnesses to them, or they baldly say they were "added" or "inserted" at some later date. Thankfully, we can know that they are incorrect.

We can know because St. Irenaeus, providentially, referred to this section of Scripture directly and explicitly. A faithful Christian theologian and apologist, St. Irenaeus lived in the Second Century, was born and raised in Asia Minor, and became a bishop of Lyon, in Gaul. Thus he had deep experience in both the Eastern and Western geographical territories of the Roman empire, and so was in an extremely good position to be cognizant of what constituted the authentic ending of the text of Mark's Gospel. He wrote:

[T]owards the conclusion of his Gospel, Mark says: "So then, after the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God;" (Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 10, para. 5; Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, eds. Roberts and Donaldson, Revised by Coxe, (Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1885), pg 426 )

That is a direct quotation of Mark 16:19, which in the Authorized Version is translated:

So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. (Mark 16:19)

Notice that St. Irenaeus does not simply quote this verse, but specifically describes its source as being from the conclusion of Mark's Gospel. For those who are interested in the Latin (the original Greek of St. Irenaeus' text is lost), it reads:

In fine autem Evangelii ait Marcus: "Et quidem Dominus Jesus, postquam locutus est eis, receptus est in cælos , et sedet ad dexteram Dei;" (Patrologia Graeca, vol. 7, Irenaeus, paragraph 188)

Interestingly, the foregoing Latin reads differently than the Vulgate (late 4th Century) rendering of that same Markan verse, indicating that this was not a later insertion into the text of Irenaeus: 

et Dominus quidem postquam locutus est eis adsumptus est in caelum et sedit a dextris Dei (Mark 16:19)

The resulting conclusion is necessary: Providentially, we have a definitive early witness from the Second Century that explicitly identifies Mark's Gospel as ending ("in fine") well beyond verse 8. Not only this, the verse being quoted by St. Irenaeus indicates Jesus' prior speech to the Eleven Disciples, which is also providentially to affirm the intervening verses between 8 and 19. This shows that the place (not the "insertion") of those verses into Mark's Gospel are certain and necessary, and that to cast doubt on their presence is problematic, to say the least. 

As a common logical fallacy is popularly summarized, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and so the fact that "some early manuscripts" may not contain those verses is not conclusive evidence that they were never there. And, as shown above, St. Irenaeus' witness to their positive presence at such an early date defeats the argument that they were a later insertion. 

Moreover, the translation into English of St. Irenaeus given above is from the year 1885, post-dating the doubt cast upon those verses by the famous textual scholars, Westcott and Hort, in their 1881 Revised Text (which is the grandfather of the eclectic Greek texts from which most modern translations are taken). This not only vindicates the Majority and the Received Texts on this point, but also means that the affirmation of the integrity of the last twelve verses of Mark has been available for over a century. And yet still the (false) claim persists that there is not a definite, reliable witness to their presence. 

Therefore, the modern translations which cast doubt on those verses would do well to remove any indication that they may not be original, or at the very least notate that they do indeed have some of the earliest and best Patristic witnesses to their genuineness (since the earliest extant copies of Mark's Gospel are well over a century after St. Irenaeus).

The Jesus Prayer and Six Promises of God: The Third Promise

Parts I and II can be found here and here, respectively.

The full form of the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” incorporates at least six biblical promises. These are:

1. Romans 10:9 — If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (cf. John 6:40; Romans 10:10-13)

2. 1 Corinthians 12:3 — No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. (cf. John 15:26)

3. 1 John 5:1 — Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (cf. Matthew 16:16-17)

4. 1 John 4:15 — Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (cf. Romans 8:16017; 1 John 2:23, 5:10)

5. 1 John 1:9 — If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (cf. Luke 18:14)

6. John 14:14 — If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (cf. John 14:13, 15:16, 16:23-24)

On the Third Promise

Belief in Jesus as the Christ requires a supernatural act of God vivifying the soul to this truth. It is the necessary second birth, without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. As Jesus teaches: “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:7). For, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). This rebirth is so important, but what does it entail? It entails the recognition of Jesus as your life. Not that He is merely important to your life, a central part of your life, or even that He is the purpose of your life, but that He Himself is your life. As He declares: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). Notice three elements in that verse: (1) Jesus is the life, (2) those who believe in Him, (3) will live. In other words, since belief receives Jesus, and Jesus is the life, to receive Jesus is to receive the life. He is and becomes in experience the substance of the Christian’s life. One is thus born again, regenerated by the life that is Jesus Christ; one is born of God, what He also declares is being “born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). This is the context and substance of that most famous of bible verses: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That is why St. John the Forerunner can say: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36). Notice how wrath is said to remain or abide on those who do not believe. It is thus not that God punishes those who do not believe in Christ by depriving them of life; it is that (1) Christ Himself is eternal life, (2) believing in Him is receiving He who is Himself eternal life, (3) not believing in Christ means not having Him, which means (4) those do not believe do not have eternal life. What is rather the case is that divine wrath remains on those who do not believe. Christ is the instrument of deliverance from wrath, as St. Paul teaches: “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:9), “Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). This is why the promise is so especially precious and incomparable, for it is the divine promise of the eternal life we hope for from the bottom of our hearts. This life is Jesus Himself, and is received by faith in such a way that one is a new creation, for “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The Jesus Prayer and Six Promises of God: The Second Promise

(The present article follows upon the previous, which speaks to the first promise listed below.)

The full form of the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” incorporates at least six biblical promises. These are:

1. Romans 10:9 — If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (cf. John 6:40; Romans 10:10-13)

2. 1 Corinthians 12:3 — No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. (cf. John 15:26)

3. 1 John 5:1 — Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (cf. Matthew 16:16-17)

4. 1 John 4:15 — Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (cf. Romans 8:16017; 1 John 2:23, 5:10)

5. John 14:14 — If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (cf. John 14:13, 15:16, 16:23-24)

6. 1 John 1:9 — If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (cf. Luke 18:14)

On the Second Promise

To truly say that Jesus is Lord is to enliven to and recognize the reality of His Lordship. This recognition is a state of soul awakened by the Holy Spirit through the implanted word via the preaching of the Gospel, as St. Peter teaches, "since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God... And this word is the good news that was preached to you" (1 Peter 1:23, 25). For if one is outside of the Holy Spirit they cannot recognize Christ’s Lordship, because it is precisely the action of the Holy Spirit to awaken the soul to Christ, as Christ Himself teaches: “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26). In other words, when a person submissively recognizes the Lordship of Christ, it means that the Holy Spirit is present and active. This is of the essence of salvation, and is why St. Paul can speak so boldly when he declares: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9). What this means is that for you to recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ is for you also to be in the Holy Spirit, and likewise to be in the Holy Spirit is to have the Holy Spirit in you, and to thus have the Holy Spirit is to belong to Christ. This mutual indwelling hearkens to Jesus’ astounding high priestly prayer, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:21-23). Notice how Christ speaks of the Father being in Him, and how He is in the Father. This points to the fundamental holy unity of Father and Son, of God and Word, and yet points further to the nature of our union with God in Christ, for Christ prays that we will be in the Father and in Him, and He in us and therefore the Father in us. This is the breadth and length and height and depth of our salvation! For we are not merely delivered from sin, even though that is a truly awesome deliverance. And we are not merely written into the Book of Life, although that is truly an awesome inscription. We are, rather, made to have complete union with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to share in the eternal bond of their light, their life, and their love. This is the reality pointed to and participated in through our praying of the Jesus Prayer. Therefore, when you call upon Jesus as Lord, submitting to His Lordship, trust in God’s promise and know that through the strength of God’s promise that the Holy Spirit is in you, and you are in Him.

-Fr. Joshua Schooping