THE ORTHODOX ESSENTIALS:

I believe in one God, omnipotent, who is three, indivisible, coexisting persons sharing one substance: Father, and, from the Father comes the Son and the Spirit. The Father created all things - spiritual and physical - in the beginning and they were good. The Son is Jesus: He was born of the Father before any age, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. He has always been fully God and became fully man though His divinity and humanity never mixed to become one nature. He lived, preached, did signs, suffered and died under Pontius Pilate, and rose from the grave with an incorruptible body, defeating death by death, and ascending into the skies to sit at the Father’s right hand and to send His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person who was sent by the Son to dwell in each believer individually and the catholic Church - He is the holiness in the Church, sanctifying and setting her apart from the world, while also working through her to do signs and to bring about God’s Kingdom. The Church is catholic in space in time, holy not only in name but all actuality, Apostolic in tradition, undefeated by Hades, and founded on faith that Jesus is the Resurrected Ruler of all things. The Church is all the new humans who have not done anything of their own to earn salvation but who have received the generous grace of God by faith in Him and repentance. She looks forward to the return of King Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, and the righteous judgment of the wicked and righteous.

SCRIPTURE

Inspiration

The rule of faith is the Scriptures [Bible]: Hebrew and Apostolic. The Sacred Scriptures were written by people of faith who were inspired and empowered, not overridden, by the Holy Spirit of God so that they wrote infallible texts regarding faith and practice, theology and religion. The Holy Spirit did not care to carry the ancient authors to write without any unintended error in science and similar fields since such fields were insignificant in God’s mission for humanity. However, the Holy Writings were written about real history in accordance with ancient, not Enlightened, expectations and were redacted throughout the ages until the Holy Spirit so decided. These Scriptures are the sole and ultimate authority by which the catholic Church is bound and to which it bows yet the Scriptures serve the church so that she might live by faith and not fail.

The Hebrew Scriptures

The Hebrew Scriptures [Old Testament] that precede the Incarnation were first 24 scrolls (22 according to some ancient countings that combined some scrolls even more than their contemporaries) that are now 39 books. They are now known to Western Christians by later Latin names: the Teaching (or Torah or Law) is the first major section entirely authored by Moses and it is five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; the Prophets is the next section written by various authors and split into two smaller sections (former and latter) of which the final has one scroll that is really 12: Joshua, Judges, Samuel (now split in two), and Kings (now split in two) are the Early Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the 12 (which are 12 separate texts so small that they were originally one scroll: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) are the Later Prophets; the final section has been known by various names even since antiquity but is not without order as even early scribes and contemporary scholars claim but has been intentionally organized with a subsection in its center: its continents are the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Megilloth - Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther - Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah (originally one), and Chronicles (now split in two). All these were written to instruct believers in every age before and after the Incarnation and so that they might labor in their faith fearfully. Their only end is the Anointed [Messiah, Christ]: His life, works, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Spirit to empower His followers to witness to such things.

The Apostolic Writings

The second collection of writings are the Apostolic Writings [New Testament]. The Apostolic Writings are testimonies authored by the Apostles who had witnessed the Resurrected Jesus and His fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Apostolic Writings are also writings written with style and sophistication yet they have no exact order or internal design as a collection. The Apostolic Writings are John, Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts (which succeed one another and are written by the same author) - these first five works are known as gospels and history; James, One and Two Thessalonians, Galatians, One Corinthians and Two Corinthians, Romans, Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, One Timothy, Titus, One Peter, Two Peter, Two Timothy, Hebrews, Jude, and One John, Two John, and Three John - these are the epistles and didactic letters (though some are actually sermons), not doctrinal treatises, for instructing specific churches according to their own issues or exalting them for their own good. Some of three original disciples [Matthew, Peter, John], some of Jesus’ half-brothers [James, Jude], one anonymous [Hebrews], but most of Paul - A few being doubted by the even earliest orthodox Christians who imagined they were pseudepigraphy [2 Peter]. Whether or not they are, the Christian consensus is that they are canonical and the Spirit has made it clear that they are on equal standing as the others by being written in the tradition of the Apostle. Paul, the miscarried Apostle, though not an original follower of Jesus and even a persecutor of Him, nonetheless was verified by the first Apostles and brothers of Jesus (who also wrote their epistles, one of which affirms him) and is included in the canonical church history as an authentic Apostle commissioned in an apocalyptic encounter with the Anointed. The other Apostles and half-brothers of Jesus were witnesses to His life, work, death, resurrection, ascension, and everything written in the gospel accounts. Similar to pseudepigraphy, the anonymity of Hebrews and various hypotheses of its authorship do not deny its canonicity. There is also a final Apostolic text of its own type very similar to early literature and even some of the Hebrew Scriptures: this is the Apocalypse [Revelation]. It is not plural but singular, not a revelation but the revelation, and it tells not of one series of events at the end (or the beginning which should be understood as the end) but a cycle of events in which every era of Christians lives. These texts are no less about the Anointed than the former and, in fact, give wisdom with the awareness of His completion of the earlier so that they can live life in His image. Though they complete the former, they by no means make them irrelevant - they shall both continue until the end of the earth and sky [Heavens].

The Other Texts

Besides these two collections is another not nearly as important or even authoritative but edifying nonetheless: the apocryphal and pseudepigraphal texts. These extra-biblical texts have not been understood as a part of the said Scriptures but have been unanimously understood to accompany the readers of the Holy Scriptures more than the actual Scriptures themselves. These are not closed collections of texts as the two former texts were always understood but all stand on their own and often even oppose one another - for this reason and others, they should also be approached with caution. These texts also vary in weight and importance: the principal of these texts being: One and Two Enoch, Jubilees, The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Wisdom of Solomon, The Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirah [Ecclesiasticus, Sirah], One and Two Maccabees, Tobit, The Odes of Solomon, and the Prayer of Manasseh. Besides these texts, the Apostolic and Nicene Creed bind immersed Christians to the original orthodoxy of the church of Acts.

Illumination

Though the Scriptures are complex and can be hard to understand, they are clear enough on the important matters so that even the man alone on an island with them could come to a knowledge of the Anointed and commit Himself unto Him. This much is clear enough in the gospel accounts alone and is often also referenced in the epistles: that Jesus lived and worked among humans, died as their sins, resurrected from the grave, and ascended into the skies to send the Spirit. While no person needs anything outside the Scriptures to come to a full understanding of them and while they are perspicuous just as Jesus was human, no one can come to a full understanding of them any better than He can come to a full understanding of the Transcendent God. Just as God prophesied even by pagans in the Holy Scriptures, so He also uses even secular scholars to uncover information about them that aids the Saints. Nevertheless, by His Spirit, in a process similar to inspiration, God illuminates His followers not only with information but wisdom so they might know how to live by His Spirit.

GOD

The Father

Yahweh [The LORD, Jehovah] God is one essence and three coexisting persons; He is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. God is good and all good things come from Him. God is also divinely simple and, though He has accidents, He has no attributes separate from Himself so that He is His own love, power, wisdom, and grace. The Father is the unoriginate Creator of all things and from Him comes the whole Godhead.

The Son

Jesus is the one and only Son of the Father who shares His essence but is also personally distinct from the Father. Jesus is known before His incarnation as the Divine Word by which the Father created all things and which appeared to the Patriarchs and the Prophets but in His embodiment, this Word became the ultimate prophet. Jesus is also the Messenger of Yahweh [Angel of the LORD] and the Eternal Priest Melchizedek who offered Himself up as the ultimate atonement. Jesus is also the Son of Man, the Seed of David, or Son of Adam and is the Lord and King of the Cosmos to which no other power or principality can compare; He was crowned especially in His crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus is God become human, not human become God, and has since shared both full divinity and humanity though not mixed nor mingled. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary (the God-bearer [Theotokos]) to live among humanity, take their sin, suffering, and sickness upon Himself, die with it, resurrect from the dead to give humanity new life and freedom from all evil, and ascended into the skies. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for all saints and will come again to consummate creation.

The Spirit

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father by the Son and shares in their essence but is personally distinct from them; the Spirit is not an impersonal force but a person just the same as the Father and Son. Just as Jesus is the Father’s Son, so the Spirit is Jesus’ Spirit sent to be in all the saints after His ascension and He now continues to carry out the same works that Jesus did through His people: primarily the proclamation of the gospel but also miraculous acts such as healing the sick, exorcizing unclean spirits, speaking in and interpreting foreign human and spiritual [Angelic] languages, and using other gifts for the edification of the church. The Spirit inspired the Prophets to preach to the people and write the Holy Scriptures. Just as Jesus saved the saints, it is the Spirit who sanctifies them and builds them into the one, holy, catholic Church through these gifts and uses them to do signs and speak with the Wisdom of God to the unsaved so that they might pledge themselves to Jesus.

CREATION

The Principal Creation

God created all things - including the world - with His Word, Jesus, and by the power of His Spirit: all things were intelligently designed and good for humans to flourish and to reign and rule as His representatives. God created humans with a good nature as well as a will which the humans corrupted themselves. Creation continues to depend on God as He sustains the whole world. Seven-day creation has no scientific significance but is important for followers of Jesus in marking the sacred season in accordance with the lamps in the skies.

The New Creation

While God is present in all places and even Hades [Hell] is open before Him, He has chosen to be especially present in various places at various times: first in the garden in Eden, then various places, the Tabernacle, Solomon’s Temple - not so much the Second Temple. Just before the Jewish War that led to the destruction of the Temple, God became human to be especially present in His Son, Jesus, who, upon ascending into the skies and being seated at God’s right hand, sent the Spirit to be especially present in all believers. The resurrection of God’s Word [Jesus] recapitulated humanity so that everyone who commits themself to the Word is part of a new creation that will be consummated upon His return.

SIN

Extent

Sin is any offense against God: not only in action and speech but even in thought and desire. Sin includes not only commission (doing what is wrong) but also omission (failing to do what is right) as evil is not anything itself except an absence of God’s Goodness. In Adam, all humans have made themselves slaves to sin: they cannot free themselves from their servitude without God’s grace and, in fact, do not desire to turn to God on their own at all. In fact, the human heart enjoys sin and is so deceived by its desires that humans often unconsciously redefine good as bad and bad as good and do bad with their mind made up that it is actually good for themselves and others. Even in the good that humans do, they often do it with some level of selfish desire that pollutes their good actions and makes them no better than unclean undergarments. However, humans desire evil anyway - especially in secret; they have not only failed to heed God’s Wisdom but follow Lady Foolishness to her house to sleep with her according to their desires, conceive, and give birth to death. Sin is an unleashing of death upon the world and so it is only appropriate that those that sin should be barred from the land of life in the resurrection even though in that age, every sinner will stay in Gehenna for themselves as if they are locked from the inside the whole time. Humans do not pay an infinite punishment for finite failures but continue to sin even in Gehenna making their misery all the worse. Though they are sinners in Adam already, in each and every sin they become less and less human and, by the time of the Final Judgement, can hardly be thought of as human, a son of God, or one made in His Image, but as someone who has so selfishly attempted to exist on His own as an image only of His evil inner desires.

Class

There are many classes of sins, including personal, inherited, and social sins. Personal sins are not seen in the parents of the person that commits such a sin but are done by that person alone on their own account. And just as all humans have inherited the sins of Adam to an extent, they also inherit the struggles and sins of their fathers and mothers - seen or unseen. Just as Jesus is the only savior from Adam’s sin, so Jesus can also break inherited sins and inspire such men and women to overcome those sins that held their parents captive. There are also sins of entire societies which one may not have directly done but which they will be held accountable for as long as they know of it, do not preach against it beforehand, and do not repent of it afterwards. Humans can only exist in communities and so it is entirely fair for God to judge people groups of any kind - gender, ethnicity, or interest-group - for the failing of the majority or even, at times, the minority. Indeed, empires have fallen on the account of the majority’s failure even when there were a few righteous and kingdoms strong and mighty have failed in fights over the failure of a few - even so few as one. Every person is held all the more accountable when they see sin and do not call it out - though these people may very well enter into the resurrection, they will be but barely a citizen of the city of God. As for the distinction of venial and carnal sins, the Scripture does not expound and the type is not so much one or the other as it is a spectrum of responsibility for failure or ignorance on what to have done rightly. Among the infinite amounts of sins, there are many levels: the first is treason against God: blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This sin is unforgivable even by God Himself and anyone who does such a sin is already so set on themself being righteous that they would not even desire God’s forgiveness anyway. Just below this is any other blasphemy against God in thought, word, or deed: this includes calling Jesus accursed and intentional false prophecy or teaching; then there is heresy, teaching against the Apostles’ received tradition from Jesus; then rejection of God’s existence and idolatry is next; after that, anything coming from schismatic spirit either in doctrine or deed: any attack against the Bride of Jesus and one's own brothers and sisters is also an attack against her husband and the Holy Spirit inside her which sanctifies her and anyone who does not fear and tremble at such statements is in an especial danger of the fires of Gehenna. Despising or denying fathers and mothers their due respect and not submitting oneself to them - whether they are physical or spiritual fathers and mothers - is equally dangerous and is an offense against the very God that instituted them and every other authority as they are. After such sins against God Himself are sins against others: gluttony, lust, fornication, homosexuality, transgenderism, bitterness, assault, abortion, murder, war, jealousy, greed, theft, acedia, and, the sin that is only underneath sin against God Himself, the prince of sins, is pride.

SALVATION

Grace

The saving work of the Anointed is this: The Father, having created the whole world by His Word (who is the Anointed before His Incarnation), after humans sinned against Him time and time again, by His Word, continuously called them, came to dwell with them in the Tabernacle and Temple, and desired them so that He sent His Word to become one of them. His Word, the Anointed, is Jesus. Jesus first gave Himself over to the death that humans were to die for their disobedience as an atonement and resurrected from the dead, recapitulating humans who would receive Him. Second, suffering death and entering into it, He arose, holding Hades captive and having put death to death so that humans might be freed from Hades and join in on the victory that He gave them as their Anointed. Third, He suffered the penalty of the wrath of the Father under the Roman Empire and religious leaders of the Jews, died as a substitution for humans, and rose from the grave having paid for their debt in full. Finally, He gave Himself over to the foolish powers of darkness that were unaware He would rise so that He might buy back the nations and give them all power over the principalities. In this, God so generously gave prevenient grace through His Son to all and those who receive it in faith will be saved.

Faith

Salvation and freedom from sin comes only from people receiving the prevenient grace of God in faith and making a covenant-commitment to Him. Not by the works of any person but by the work the Anointed is anyone saved and they are sanctified by His Spirit. The grace of God is received principally in the pledging of the sacraments: that is immersion [baptism] and communion. The first sacrament of immersion is done once only and is an oath that one will not leave God but will enter into the Anointed as a part of His body. The communion is a regular renewing of this covenant community in which the body of the Anointed better becomes His body by consuming His body. In these both are also the remission of sins and sanctification. In participating in these sacraments, the recipient is not doing anything of their own but Jesus is applying His ultimate atonement to them - The sacraments are graces themselves. The sacraments do save those who take them only when they take them in faith. Apart from faith, the sacraments do nothing of their own except bring judgment and curse on whoever takes them unworthily.

SPIRITS

The Good Spirits

God is one and there is no really no other God but Him. Yet He also has sons different from the one unique Son of God that was born of Him in eternity past and these sons are not actually born but are created and do not share in the essence of God. Nevertheless the sons of god have always had an access to the light and life of God which humans forfeited when they chose to disobey God rather than to obey Him. These gods (or spirits) have various ranks and duties - Their ranks include watchers or princes, wheels [Ophanim], sphinxes of different types [Cherubim], burning ones [Seraphim], arch-messengers [Archangels] (especially Michael the Archistrag), and messengers [Angels]; they perform a variety of duties such as administering God’s justice and doing His work, battling and binding demons, guarding the humans to whom they are assigned, giving messages of God, sometimes even encouraging or testing humans while disguised, and revealing deep mysteries to a few. Among the messengers and spirits, the Messenger of Yahweh is not to be understood as among their type or rank but is Yahweh’s unique Son and Yahweh Himself.

The Evil Spirits

Though God made all spirits clean and good, just as humans, He gave them a will which some watchers corrupted themselves. These watchers, having been in the glory of God and having had an access to the source of life, chose death for themselves and so will not receive any mercy like humans have but are not only denied intercession but were condemned to death by Jesus even as He harrowed Hades and brought Adam out of the grave. All spirits have the capacity for procreation with women though they are everlasting eunuchs before God as humans who have been saved will one day be even though they also have that capacity. In fact, these wicked watchers, or sons of god, though the highest of all spirits, came down to the land to impregnate women who were not their own and produced giants or fallen ones [Nephilim] in the days of Noah and shadows [Rephaim] even after - especially with the sons of Anak [Anakim]. The dead spirits of these shadows continue to roam the earth today as demons. Many of these evil spirits that impregnated these women were bound in Abaddon [Tarturus] (the depths of Hades) since the days of Noah and are in fact those beings which the Anointed preached to. Some, however, were granted permission by God to continue roaming the earth because God is merciful in allowing their existence on the earth now - though He will one day punish these all the more for the evil they continue to do. Until then, these demons often possess people and take control of them or oppress them - Sometimes even saved people. Demons can be cast out only by those who are saved and some only be cast out by the power of prayer and fasting.

The Worthless One

Among the evil spirits, there is a principal evil spirit often referred to as the opponent [The satan] - he is also sometimes called Azazel, the evil one, the tempter, the lord of the flies [Beelzebub], the accuser [The devil], wormwood, or the worthless one [Belial, beliar]. He had fallen before any of the other impure spirits because he exalted himself against God in pride; in the form of a serpent, he then tempted humans to fail and to disobey God so that they might share in his death and destruction. He is no equal to God but only has the power that God has allowed him to have on behalf of humans who give him power. Because humans desired to build a bridge between the skies and earth to have the evil spiritual beings come rule them, God gave them up to the principalities to rule over all the nations. The evil one attempted to defeat God, especially in tempting Jesus as He fasted in the wilderness and by leading the principalities to execute Jesus on the cross. Jesus, however, willingly sold Himself as a ransom to the principalities on the cross to buy back the humans who had exalted them and given them power and then came back to life.

HUMANS

Existence in Adam

Adam is the first human created by God from whom came the two genders: male and female. Adam is an archetypal and historical character in which all humans exist: everything true of Adam is also actually true of all humans: principally, his status and failure. Adam is not a naturally immortal being nor perfect - He would have only become so through obedience to God in the beginning. However, Adam failed to have faith in God, was deceived by his wife Eve, the serpent, and his own self, and became a failed person. He was then flung from the presence of God to live in an evil and corrupted world where he would have no access to immortality in the Tree of Life. All humans are born in Adam as sinners who defy God’s authority by living in foolishness, selfishness, and pride. In fact, the human heart is foreskin and full of deceit so that humans often believe they are doing what is right when they are really doing wrong. Humans are incapable of turning to God without responding to the prevenient grace that God has granted all humans. As humans continue to walk further and further away from God, they become less and less human. In fact, humans who die rebellious and unrepentant can hardly be considered human anymore - They are non-beings that are dead and are being destroyed in all eternity.

Image of God

Humans are all made in the image of God: this is the royal priestly vocation of working for God in creation with the creativity that comes with the rationality that God has placed in humanity. With this rationality also comes free-will and the capacity of humans to be more than just effects in a line of causation. In being special sons of God with the Spirit of Yahweh in them, and being made in His Image, humans have two parts: physical and spiritual. All humans are sons of God as Adam is their ancestor who was made by the Father, however all have rejected Him as Father and only the regenerate really live as His true sons through faith. All humans are made in the image of God, however all have rejected His reign and rule and only the regenerate really live as images and ambassadors of God in the Anointed. All humans have their bodies into which God has put His Spirit, however all have rejected and suppressed His Spirit and only the regenerate really live in subjection to the Spirit. Both the physical and spiritual parts of the human are good as God made them and, though all human spirits go to their respective places at mortem, they will one day all be resurrected together as in the beginning.

The Virgin Mary

Mary is the most blessed woman and mother not only of the human nature of Jesus but of God Himself since Jesus was fully God. Denial of Mary being the Mother of God is a denial not so much of her status as of Jesus’ and of the Trinity’s. Mary did not conceive Jesus while she herself was sinless and she even went on to bear Jesus’ half brothers by Joseph though Jesus was not conceived by any man but by the Spirit. Mary is not to be offered up any prayers nor are any of the other saints though they are to be honored as spiritual fathers by those that wish to live long lives.

The New Adam

Though all humans have disobeyed God and turned away from Him, God sent His Son, Jesus, to become a human (though He was still fully God throughout). Jesus was the perfect, obedient Adam that the original Adam never was or could have been. Jesus died with the failure of all Adam on Himself and, in resurrecting from the grave, made a new type of humanity available to all who have faith and are found in Him. These then receive His Spirit rightly, are again in His image, and are true sons of God: they are holy and will even out-rank the angels in the resurrection. In fact, even in this purgatory of life, humans can be so influenced by the Spirit of God that they can be completed in love and only commit a venial or subconscious sin. Those so perfected in love, however, are extremely rare and never claim it for themselves.

CHURCH

Holiness

The church is the community of those who have made a covenant commitment to Him in immersion. The foundation of the church, as announced in immersion and communion, is the proclamation that Jesus is the Anointed and Son of the living God. The church has been recapitulated in the Anointed to be a new humanity and are holy not by declaration but in actuality because they are being sanctified by the Spirit - For this reason all in the church can be considered saints to some degree or another. The church is the body and beloved bride of Jesus that prays for His return and the consummation of all things but works up until that moment and proclaims His inauguration.

Catholicity

The church is catholic [Global] just as Jesus is catholic and bought all peoples from the principalities with His blood. However, Jesus also defeated the principalities in His resurrection and, even now, offers His resurrection life freely to people of all places at all times. This is clear since the principally Jewish movement of Christianity quickly became made up mostly of Greeks and Romans, and Barbarians even after that. Unlike any other religion, Christianity continues to thrive in every region despite persecution and oppression and indeed the seed of the church is watered by the blood of martyrs. The church is not only catholic in space, however, but also in time: it continues unhindered by hell’s gates because of the Power of God and His victory in the resurrection. In fact, even before the Incarnation, there was a Proto-church of those who proclaimed that the Anointed would come and save humanity just as Jesus is believed to return by those post-Incarnation. While the catholicity of the church in space is celebrated in global missions, the catholicity of the church in time is celebrated in its calendar.

Orthodoxy

The church is orthodox and no one who denies Jesus His Kingship can be considered Christian or a member of the church. The orthodoxy of the church has been inherited from the Apostles and is most clearly taught in the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed. In fact, those that believe that Jesus is not who He was: either that He was a human who became God or that His godliness mixed with His humanity to make one nature, or that He was not ever God do not truly confess Jesus is King as they do not even know how Jesus is. Likewise, those who confess Jesus is King with their lips but who have hearts far from it and scandalize the church with acts so shameful that the world scoffs at the church are no more Christian because they do not understand what kingship actually is any more than the heterodox understand who Jesus is. And those who confess Jesus is King but do not believe He is the co-eternal and co-existent Son of God but believe He is a mode of existence of a God that has a sort of personality disorder are deceived and worship a god other than the Triune God of the Scriptures. The orthodoxy of the church is protected by spiritual fathers and mothers to which all congregants are to honor and submit themselves to. In Peter, the Anointed has given authority to said spiritual parents to bind and loose the scandalizers and false teachers. These parents are called to pastor the people with care, feeding them milk or meat according to their discernment to raise them up as a people who boldly proclaims the Anointed’s Kingship and who do good works.

SACRAMENTS

Immersion

The first of the two sacraments is the sacrament of immersion. The sacrament of immersion is properly performed when a saint of good stature immerses another who is acquainted with the orthodox faith and who desires to make a covenant-commitment to the Anointed into cold water in the Triune name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They bury the participant into the Anointed and raise Him recapitulated. Though this is the way immersion is assumed to be performed, one who is unable to receive such an immersion should not fear. If cold water cannot be found or there is only warm water, the immersion is just as valid. If the immersed is only sprinkled on, or poured over either once in the unity of the Trinity or three times according to each, the immersion is valid. If the Triune name is not invoked and only Jesus’, as long as both the immerser and immersed hold to the truth of the Trinity, the immersion is valid. If the immerser does not announce the death, burial, and resurrection of the Anointed over the immersed as they immerse them, as long as both believe in it and hold to it, it is valid. Those who have been immersed as babies should not seek re-immersion if their parents' faith was proper and orthodox and those that chose to be immersed on their own at however young an age or ignorance, should not be re-immersed unless they truly had no faith or the immersion was invalid as earlier described - even an apostate who decides to return should not re-immerse if he or she earlier believed and committed themself to the Anointed. Similarly, there is no separate immersion of the Spirit from the immersion in water. On the contrary, there is one rebirth by both water and Spirit that is simultaneous and there is one immersion as much as there is one Anointed. Immersion is by no means a good work but is only the embodiment of faith by which the faithful immersed receives the generous grace of God first found in His establishment of the firmament. Immersion is also in so many more stories of the Scriptures which the immersed then enters and joins such saints as described and becomes their brother or sister and also son and daughter. Immersion is the new circumcision in which the immersed cuts a covenant with God that only God took upon Himself and in immersion they join the covenant community of the catholic Church just as Noah and his family entered into the ark. Immersion is also remission of sins in which the immersed dies with all of the evil that they have done and rises again as an Adam recapitulated and remade in the Immortal Image of God by the Spirit.

Communion

The second and last of the two sacraments is the sacrament of communion. Communion is also commonly called thanksgiving [Eucharist], Passover [Pascha, Pesach], the Lord’s Supper, or the love feast. Communion happens when both unseasoned bread and wine are blessed by a saint and other saints take it together. Communion is meant to conclude the preaching of the Word of God as the elements are the very story of the Scriptures which, when consumed, are to be witnessed by those that eat them. The bread can be unleavened like the principal Passover and the Lord’s Supper afterwards or be leavened to represent the new body of the Resurrected Jesus. Although a saint is to administer the elements, if the saint is secretly scandalous and recipients still sup without knowing, they receive the elements all the same. Either way, the Supper does not merely symbolize but actually is, mysteriously, the very body and blood of Jesus not because of a blessing which transforms the bread but because of the faith in which it is received - though it also ought to be blessed. Though the Supper is substantially the body and blood of the Anointed, it is also substantially and accidentally bread just as Jesus Himself was fully God and fully human. The two elements of communion ought to be taken together at all times and any saint who withholds one or the other condemns himself as much as one who refuses to proclaim the death and resurrection of the Anointed. Any believer who has been immersed and that is still in communion with the catholic Church is not only able but ought to participate in the supper on a semanal basis. Sick believers are to make a request and receive communion from a saint that comes to meet them at their sickbed. Communion is not any more a work than immersion but is also an act of faith in which the consumer receives the generous grace of God first found in the Tree of Life. Because the bread and wine are the true body and blood of Jesus the Anointed, those that take them ought to first very carefully examine themselves to see if they are worthy, reconcile themselves with any that they have offended or been offended by, and then proceed in receiving communion. Believers also ought to confess their sins regularly before communion to both another saint and to God Himself no matter how subconscious or secret the sin. The excommunicated, heretics, scandalizers, un-immersed, and non-believers have no part in communion - If they joined in communion they would only eat the wrath and judgment of Jesus onto themselves and very well might die for even a believer who has not confessed their sins can condemn and curse themself in receiving communion unworthily. Communion is the Bread of Life that protects those that partake in it from the Messenger of Death and gives life and healing if not before the resurrection, after. Communion also contains the blood of the covenant which is re-commitment to the Anointed. Communion is fire like the coal put to Isaiah’s lips which purifies those that partake of it rightfully but which burns those that don’t. Communion also remits those that take it of their sins by applying, though not re-doing, the sacrifice of Jesus the Anointed. Communion is the bread of the skies by which those who partake it enjoy the eschatological meal in their own time while also confessing Jesus’ death until the consummation.

ORDINANCES

Indefinecy

Though there are only two sacraments as the Scriptures themselves teach, there are many other ordinances, which might be thought of as semi-sacramental commandments of God. The ordinances include but are not limited to proclamation, confession, almsgiving, and vows. In fact, the ordinances might be indefinite and are not all equal. Nonetheless, there are a notable number of commands that ought to be expounded upon more than the others.

Proclamation

Proclamation or preaching is an ordinance which church leaders have the special obligation to but which all Christians ought to do. Proclamation is the passionate and truthful exclamation of the gospel. Therefore, it is centered on Jesus being the Resurrected Ruler who the world waits on to return and to consummate the work He has already begun and includes an invitation to those listening to join in on Jesus’ Kingdom. Proclamation is the chief end of all teaching on the Scriptures and the chief end of proclamation is for those that do not know to know and to believe and to commit themselves to Jesus. Pastors and church leaders are ordained to proclaim the person and work of Jesus in every sermon and the church is obligated to preach the same to all that they know and more.

Confession

Confession is an ordinance for all believers which is necessary preparation for all people to partake of communion. Confession is between atleast any two saints who ask forgiveness for their sins and debts, known and unknown, against God, others, and themselves. In confessing their sins to one another, they act as God in forgiving the other of their sins and giving them the grace of God. Confession is to be a regular habit between the same persons and confessors should also confess their sins to God as quickly as they are aware of them. Confession can bring not just spiritual but even physical healing but its chief end is righteousness before God and others.

Almsgiving

Almsgiving, or just alms, is the generous giving of one's possessions to others in need: the poor, vagabond, unemployed, immigrant, orphan, and widow. Believers who hope to be received into the Kingdom of God ought to first receive these and give to them joyfully and without grudge. The chief end of almsgiving is justice, provision, and giving away attachments.

Vows

Vows of one type or another are for committed believers and they can have various levels and types. No one is to swear except in swearing to God for which they should know that they will be severely judged if they lie. However, vows are sacred swears of giving oneself away to God. The most common vow is the vow of matrimony in which two people swear to give themselves over to the other as a symbol of the Son giving Himself over to the church. True sacred vows of matrimony are only taken between an immersed man and an immersed woman by a saint. The second most common vow is the vow of eunuchs. Eunuchs are those that swear themselves to singleness, not those that speak of “seasons of singleness” but those that give away their attraction to any other person to serve God for the rest of their life. Eunuchs do not happen to not find anyone in trying but promise that no matter who they find, they will not marry them. Finally, as much as those that early on did so, eunuchs are no longer to castrate themselves but only vow themself to God. The breaking of the vow of matrimony in divorce or the vow of the eunuch to marry is a very serious step against God. For the former, denunciation may be permitted only in serious cases of abuse or immorality of the other but the latter is in no way permitted. These are high and sacred vows - Above these are vows that give up not only oneself and one's attraction but all that one owns: this is the monastic vow. The chief end of any vow is to give oneself up in search of God and to dedicate and devote all the rest that one has to Him and Him alone.

WORKS

Gifts

Jesus gave gifts to the catholic Church whenever He arose from the grave. These include but are not limited to evangelizing, shepherding [pastoring], apostleship, prophesying, teaching, helping, administrating, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, having mercy, having wise words, having knowledgeable words, having faith, having healing, having miracles, distinguishing spirits, praying in tongues, speaking in tongues, and interpreting tongues. Those with the gift of apostleship do not have the authority of the original Apostles though they have similar work. As long as the Anointed is still ascended and seated on His throne in the skies, all God’s gifts are still in use just as much as in the beginning. The chief end of every gift is to build up the body of the Anointed.

Signs

God has done signs in every age - from Adam to the Anointed and even beyond. In fact, in the age between the end of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Incarnation, the least apocalyptic Jewish historians have noted those who have prophesied truth by the Spirit of God. Even more so, with Jesus on the throne and the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead and that indwelled the oldest Apostles and immersed Christians continues to do the same signs for every age of unbelievers. These signs serve to carry forward God’s Kingdom, build up the catholic Church, and be a sign for those that will accept it and believe and against those that will harden their heart, like Jannes and Jambres, and disbelieve. These supernatural signs only come according to the will of the Anointed and by faith of those performing and receiving the gifts. They can include but are not limited to: healing, resuscitation (though not to a spiritual body), prophecy, miraculous provision, speech, singing, praising, and praying in the languages of spirits, and interpretation of such languages. Tongues refer to tongues of messengers or spirits and is sometimes referred to as praying in the Spirit or spiritual songs. When speaking in tongues of spirits, there ought to be an interpreter for the church. However, prayer in tongues is often personal, and the one praying is always already surrounded by messengers who know their language and speak to the Father with such prayers - These are prayers that are deeper than words and which believers can pray when their mind is absent. Any and all tongues confirm those that use them but are often a warning for the unbelievers and even now some unacquainted with them. However prophecy is to be prayed for and eagerly sought since it encourages those that see its fulfillment.

JUDGMENT

Death

Death is not only a state of a body but the process leading up to such a conclusion and an abode for those that died. Death was the punishment for humans rebelling against the Author of Life. The Author of Life did not create death because death is not really a thing or place but a lack of all order and unexistence itself. This is not to say that anyone’s spirit stops feeling or experiencing anything or that they don’t go anywhere when they die but that they experience the lack of life, and order, and how all things ought to be. Death is also known as Sheol or Hades and its deepest department is referred to as Abadon or Tarturus - This is where some of the fallen ones are chained. Before the Anointed, all people went to the abode of the dead whether they had hope in Him or not.

Paradise

When the Anointed died, He entered into Hades and harrowed it, holding Hades himself captive and carrying out Adam, Eve, and all of the saints. Now, the spirits of the saints go to be with and in the Anointed to enjoy His presence in Paradise without any process for purgation for any of them to enter in. Living saints are wrong in asking the departed saints of anything or of even praying to them but they should only pray to God. The departed saints do enjoy the Anointed but also eagerly await His return to earth and the resurrection - the redemption of all things. They beg God to judge the earth justly and to come again soon.

Resurrection

Jesus will one day come to the earth again and the faithful of the land will ascend to meet Him in the skies and bring Him back down to earth. The faithful who had been in Paradise will have their bodies resurrected and all faithful people will be given bodies ruled by the spirits in them. These will be raised over even the spirits to rule them and they will judge the unjust and condemn them to death. God will also give rewards to everyone according to their works - especially martyrs and monks - except for some who will be fortunate enough to have even entered into the resurrection. The catholic Christians will dwell forever in the new creation, the New Jerusalem, the Kingdom, Empire, or City of God, and will work to do good, innovate, create, and bring about life. There will also be only joy until the end of the age. As for those that never had the opportunity to hear the gospel or were too ignorant to immerse themselves, Jesus will have mercy on many according to His own mysterious will and resurrect them too.

Gehenna

God will also resurrect the unrighteous from Hades (if what He does to them can even be properly called a resurrection) and through them from Hades into Gehenna. They will go from death to death where they will die an undying death for all eternity. Just as they were dead while alive, they will die as they are dead and just as they stained their own image and left God like a prodigal, they will hardly be human in their final form. Even if these were to enter into the New Jerusalem, they would only suffer all the more as the glory of God and perpetual Paradise destroys them more than death itself; even if they were granted the option to repent post-resurrection, they would not want it for themselves for they have chosen themselves over all else in arrogance and ignorance, imaging that their death is true life than connection to Life Himself. These will suffer every misery imaginable and unimaginable - even those that contradict - in Gehenna: burning and freezing, rage and depression, loneliness and molestation, numbness and pain, and sickness and severity of every kind.