Tag Archives: Baptism

If Christ Has Not Been Raised

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Christ tramples down Death, pulling the human race–personified by Adam and Eve–up with himself from darkness and alienation from the Father into the glorious light of the glory of God. Even the icons of the Nativity of Christ anticipate the proclamation that “Christ is risen!”


If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless since you are still in your sins. Then even those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we only hope in Christ during this life, we are the most pitiful of all people. (1 Cor. 15:17-19)

The Christians in Corinth who thought they were the spiritual “elite,” the super-deluxe Christians who were extra spiritual and could speak tongues etc., apparently said there was no physical resurrection from the dead. They claimed to be the proof that all the benefits of the General Resurrection were already available and that nothing more could be added to what they had already received and demonstrated by their spiritual gifts. They seem to have thought that they would live to see the Second Coming and that others who died before that had totally perished.

The apostle disagreed with them. He taught that if there was no physical resurrection coming at the end of time, then the Christians were the most pitiful of all people because they spent their lives preparing for/expecting something that was not going to ever happen. If there is no General Resurrection coming at the end of time, that also means that St. Paul and the other apostles are liars and have offended God by preaching something that was not true. It also means that the Christians who have already died will never rise again. As St. John Chrysostom and others preached, the Christian faith is meaningless without the resurrection.

Therefore Christ is not to be hoped for in this life only, in which the bad can do more than the good and those who can do more evil are happier and those who lead a more criminal life live more prosperously.

Maximus of Turin, Sermon 96

If the dead will not be raised at the end of time, that means that Christ was not raised and if Christ was not raised, then then “new life” that the Corinthian elite claimed to be demonstrating is impossible. The elite in Corinth can’t have it both ways–either there is no resurrection coming and therefore their experiences are delusions or their experiences are legitimate and there will be a General Resurrection at the end of time.

Christ’s Resurrection and the General Resurrection of the dead go hand in hand. Neither exists without the other. Christ’s Resurrection is not complete until the entire human race is raised from the dead. The human race cannot be raised if Christ was not raised. Resurrection is the single most important proclamation of the Church; everything else is simply trying to make sense of the Resurrection. All theology is simply a struggle to understand the Resurrection and its implications.

Even the proclamation of the Incarnation is a result of attempting to understand the Resurrection. How could Christ be raised? Only God could overcome death. How could God die and enter Hades? Only if God had become human. Everything the Church says and does is built on the Resurrection.

Read previous posts about how celebrations of the Nativity anticipate the Resurrection here and here.

Charismatic Gifts? Healing and Prophecy

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In this manuscript illumination, Miriam leads the women singing in joy on the shore of the Red Sea after God’s victory over the Egyptians. There are seven women prophets of Israel — Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Esther, and Huldah. These women were inspired by God to tell the Truth, especially when no one wanted to hear it.


There are allotments of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are allotments of services, but the same Lord; and there are allotments of activities, but the same God who works all things in all…. to [some], gifts of healings in the one Spirit… to another prophecy…. One and the same Spirit activates all of these, allotting to each one, as he wills, his or her own gifts. (1 Cor. 12:4-11)

The Apostle Paul is concerned with divisions among the members of the parish in Corinth, especially those who said that certain roles in the community or certain spiritual gifts were more important or more valuable than others. He stresses that all spiritual gifts are given by the same Spirit. All are equally valuable, equally important.

Gifts of healing were a major focus of the residents of Corinth. There was an important sanctuary of Asklepios, the Greek god of healing, in Corinth; he was one of the most popular gods in the ancient world and his shrine at Corinth brought many visitors, hoping to be healed, to the city. People hoping to be healed would usually sleep in the god’s shrine, hoping for a miracle or a dream that would tell them how to be healed. Ritual baths were important at the shrine as well. St. Paul tells the Corinthian Christians that all healing is given by the one Spirit of God and the ritual bath of baptism is the true source of authentic spiritual health-salvation. He wants them to realize that Christ and the Spirit of God–not Asklepios–were the true healers.

Prophets and prophecy are often misunderstood as simply being able to foretell the future. Real prophets were keen observers of people and the world. They were skilled preachers and poets. They were focused on God. Because a prophet was all of these–a skilled preacher, a keen observer, focused on God–they were able to speak the Truth when no one wanted to hear it and to describe what would happen if they continued to deny the Truth and the Reality that they were trying to escape. Prophets were also able to describe what God would do because God was faithful and had made certain promises to his people. A prophet might not always realize how True everything they said was–just as a poet says more than they realize in a poem. The prophets in the Corinthian parish were preachers and teachers who were supposed to build up the community, not tear it down and create divisions.

St. Paul and early Christian preachers were eager to remind people that these gifts were given to both men and women, the old and the young. The record of the Acts of the Apostles described how these gifts were manifest among the early Christians in various places. The most important gift, given to all Christians, is the Holy Spirit himself.

Not everyone has all of these gifts –some have one, and others have another. But we all have the the Gift who is himself the one who gives these other gifts; that is to say, the Holy Spirit.

St. Agustine of Hippo, On the Trinity 15.

Who Can Say “Jesus is Anathema”?

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St. Basil the Great (died AD 379) offers the prayers of the Eucharist at the altar. The Church at prayer was thought to be the clearest revelation of the Holy Spirit. Typically, the scroll in his hands indicates the first few words of the prayer the priest says quietly for himself at the offertory of the Eucharist.


You know that as Gentiles you were marched away to mute idols, however you were led. For this reason I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says “Jesus is anathema!” and that no one can say “Jesus is Lord!” except by the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 12:1-3)

“Anathema” was sometimes used by pagans to mean an offering was no longer available for human use but it was used in the Old Testament to mean a thing was cursed (Deut. 7:26) and therefore should not be touched. In Christian use, the word “anathema” came to mean an idea or opinion or person was outside the broad range of acceptable theological ideas or ethical behavior considered appropriate for Christians. “Arius is anathema” was common after the first ecumenical council at Nicea in AD 325.

Each slogan–Jesus is anathema/Jesus is Lord–is only two words long in Greek: anathema Iesous and kyrios Iesous. Evidently differing factions of the Corinthian parish used these slogans to identify themselves. Why would a Corinthian Christian say, “Jesus is anathema?” Presumably, this was what the Roman authorities wanted the Christians to say when they were arrested and asked to deny Christ. Perhaps some in the Corinthian parish who had gnostic tendencies used the phrase to denigrate the earthly Jesus because they thought “spiritual” experiences were more important; this might explain the hostility between those with certain “spiritual gifts” or “spiritual experiences” and the rest of the parish that St. Paul deals with in other portions of his epistle.

“Jesus is Lord!” was probably a quote from the baptism service in which a new believer affirmed their faith in Christ and was immersed in the water to die and rise with Christ. This affirmation-confession of faith was impossible without the prompting of the Holy Spirit. It has become a quick summary of classic teaching about the Holy Trinity to say that the Father is revealed by the Son and the Son is revealed by the Holy Spirit while the Holy Spirit is revealed by the Church. (Readers might be interested to read Vladimir Lossky’s thoughts on this here or here.)

Shameless self-promotion: However, the Holy Spirit was not always recognized as a distinct person apart from Christ or the Father. For an easy-to-read description of how the Holy Spirit was recognized and the Holy Trinity proclaimed, see Chapter 3 in my introduction to church history, which is also available here.