by St. Ephraim the Syrians
1. This is the day that gladdened them, the Prophets, Kings, and Priests,
for in it were their words fulfilled, and thus were the whole of them indeed
performed!
2. For the Virgin this day brought forth Immanuel in Bethlehem. The voice
that of old Isaiah spake, today became reality.
3. He was born there who in writing should tell the Gentiles number!
The Psalm that David once sang, by its fulfilment came today!
4. The word that Micah once spake, today was come indeed to pass! For
there came from Ephrata a Shepherd, and His staff swayed over souls.
5. Lo! from Jacob shone the Star, and from Israel rose the Head. The
prophecy that Balaam spake had its interpreting today!
6. Down also came the hidden Light, and from the Body rose His beauty! The
light that spake in Zacharias, today shined in Bethlehem!
7. Risen is the Light of the kingdom, in Ephrata the city of the King. The
blessing wherewith Jacob blessed, to its fulfilment came today!
8. That tree likewise, the tree of life, brings hope to mortal men!
Solomons hidden proverb had today its explanation!
9. Today was born the Child, and His name was called Wonder! For a wonder
it is that God as a Babe should show Himself.
10. By the word Worm did the Spirit foreshow Him in parable, because His
generation was without marriage. The type that the Holy Ghost figured today its
meaning was explained.
11. He came up as a root before Him, as a root of parched ground. Aught
that covertly was said, openly today was done!
12. The King that in Judah was hidden, Thamar stole Him from his thigh.
Today arose His conquering beauty, which in hidden estate she loved.
13. Ruth at Boaz side lay down, because the Medicine of Life hidden in
him she perceived. Today was fulfilled her vow, since from her seed arose the
Quickener of all.
14. Travail Adam on the woman brought, that from him had come forth. She
today her travail ransomed, who to her a Saviour bare!
15. To Eve our mother a man gave birth, who himself had had no birth. How
much more should Eves daughter be believed to have borne a Child without a
man!
16. The virgin earth, she bare that Adam that was head over the earth! The
Virgin bare today the Adam that was Head over the Heavens.
17. The staff of Aaron, it budded, and the dry wood yielded fruit! Its
mystery is cleared up today, for the virgin womb a Child hath borne!
18. Shamed is that people which holds the prophets as true; for unless our
Saviour has come, their words have been falsified!
19. Blessed be the True One Who came from the Father of the Truth and
fulfilled the true seers words, which were accomplished in their truth.
20. From thy treasure-house put forth, Lord, from the coffers of Thy
Scriptures, names of righteous men of old, who looked to see Thy coming!
21. Seth who was in Abels stead shadowed out the Son as slain, by Whose
death was dulled the envy Cain had brought into the world!
22. Noah saw the sons of God, saints that sudden waxed wanton, and the
Holy Son he looked for, by whom lewd men were turned to holiness.
23. The brothers twain, that covered Noah, saw the only Son of God who
should come to hide the nakedness of Adam, who was drunk with pride.
24. Shem and Japhet, being gracious, looked for the gracious Son, Who
should come and set free Canaan from the servitude of sin.
25. Melchizedek expected Him; as His vicegerent, looked that he might see
the Priesthoods Lord whose hyssop purifies the world.
26. Lot beheld the Sodomites how they perverted nature: for natures
Lord he looked who gave a holiness not natural.
27. Him Aaron looked for, for he saw that if his rod ate serpents up, His
cross would eat the Serpent up that had eaten Adam and Eve.
28. Moses saw the uplifted serpent that had cured the bites of asps, and
he looked to see Him who would heal the ancient Serpents wound.
29. Moses saw that he himself alone retained the brightness from God, and
he looked for Him who came and multiplied gods by His teaching.
30. Caleb the spy bore the cluster on the staff, and came and longed to
see the Cluster, Whose wine should comfort the world.
31. Him did Jesus son of Nun long for, that he might conceive the force of
his own surname: for if by His name he waxed so mighty, how much more would He
by His Birth?
32. This Jesus that gathered and carried, and brought with him of the
fruit, was longing for the Tree of Life to taste the Fruit that quickens all.
33. For Him Rahab too was looking; for when the scarlet thread in type
redeemed her from wrath, in type she tasted of the Truth.
34. For Him Elijah longed, and when Him on earth he saw not, he, through
faith most throughly cleansed, mounted up in heaven to see Him.
35. Moses saw Him and Elijah; the meek man from the depth ascended, the
zealous from on high descended, and in the midst beheld the Son.
36. They figured the mystery of His Advent: Moses was a type of the dead,
and Elijah a type of the living, that fly to meet Him at His coming.
37. For the dead that have tasted death, them He makes to be first: and
the rest that are not buried, are last caught up to meet Him.
38. Who is there that can count me up the just that looked for the Son,
whose number cannot be determined by the mouth of us weak creatures?
39. Pray ye for me, O beloved, that another time with strength endued, I
in another legend may so set forth their foretaste, as I am able.
40. Who is adequate to the praising of the Son of the Truth that has risen
to us? For it was for Him the righteous longed, that in their generation they
might see Him.
41. Adam looked for Him, for He is the Cherubs Lord, and could minister
an entrance and a residence hard by the branches of the Tree of life.
42. Abel longed after Him, that in his days He might come; that instead of
that lamb that he offered, the Lamb of God he might behold.
43. For Him Eve also looked; for womans nakedness was sore, and He
capable to clothe them; not with leaves, but with that same glory that they had
exchanged away.
44. The tower that the many builded, in mystery looked for One, who coming
down would build on earth a tower that lifts up to Heaven.
45. Yea the ark of living creatures looked in a type for our Lord; for He
should build the Holy Church, wherein souls find a refuge.
46. In Pelegs days earth was divided into tongues, threescore and ten.
For Him Who by the tongues, to His Apostles divided earth.
47. Earth which the flood had swallowed up, in silence cried to her Lord.
He came down and opened Baptism, and men were drawn by it to Heaven.
48. Seth and Enos, Cainan too, were surnamed sons of God; for the Son of
God they looked, that they by grace might be His brethren.
49. But little short of a thousand years did Methuselah live: He looked
for the Son Who makes heirs of life that never ends!
50. Grace itself in hidden mystery was beseeching on their behalf that
their Lord might come in their age and fill up their shortcomings.
51. For the Holy Spirit in them, in their stead, besought with meditation:
He stirred them up, and in Him did they look on that Redeemer, after whom they
longed.
52. The soul of just men perceive in the Son a Medicine of life; and so it
felt desires that He might come in its own days, and then would it taste His
sweetness.
53. Enoch was longing for Him, and since on earth the Son he saw not, he
was justified by great faith, and mounted up in Heaven to see Him.
54. Who is there that will spurn at grace, when the Gift that they of old
gained not by much labour, freely comes to men now?
55. For Him Lamech also looked who might come and lovingly give Him quiet
from his labour and the toiling of his hands, and from the earth the Just One
had cursed.
56. Lamech then beheld his son, Noah,him, in whom were figured types
relating to the Son. In the stead of the Lord afar off, the type at hand
afforded quiet.
57. Yea Noah also longed to see Him, the taste of whose assisting graces
he had tasted. For if the type of Him preserved living things, Himself how sure
to bestow life upon souls!
58. Noah longed for Him, by trial knowing Him, for through Him had the ark
been established. For if the type of Him thus saved life, assuredly much more
would He in person.
59. Abraham perceived in Spirit that the Sons Birth was far off;
instead of Him in person he rejoiced to see even His day.
60. To see Him Isaac longed, as having tasted the taste of His redemption;
for if the sign of Him so gave life, much more would He by the reality.
61. Joyous were today the Watchers, that the Wakeful came to wake us! Who
would pass this night in slumber, in which all the world was watching?
62. Since Adam brought into the world the sleep of death by sins, the
Wakeful came down that He might awake us from the deep sleep of sin.
63. Watch not we as usurers, who thinking on money put to interest, watch
at night so oft, to reckon up their capital, and interest.
64. Wakeful and cautious is the thief, who in the earth hath buried and
concealed his sleep. His wakefulness all comes to this, that he may cause much
wakefulness to them that be asleep.
65. Wakeful likewise is the glutton, who hath eaten much and is restless;
his watching is to him his torment, because he was impatient of stint.
66. Wakeful likewise is the merchant; of a night he works his fingers
telling over what pounds are coming, and if his wealth doubles or trebles.
67. Wakeful likewise is the rich man, whose sleep his riches chase away:
his dogs sleep; he guards his treasures from the thieves.
68. Wakeful also is the careful, by his care his sleep is swallowed:
though his end stands by his pillow, yet he wakes with cares for years to come.
69. Satan teaches, O my brethren, one watching instead of another; to good
deeds to be sleepy, and to ill awake and watchful.
70. Even Judas Iscariot, for the whole night through was wakeful; and he
sold the righteous Blood, that purchased the whole world.
71. The son of the dark one put on darkness, having stripped the Light
from off him: and Him who created silver, for silver the thief sold.
72. Yea, Pharisees, the dark ones sons, all the night through kept
awake: the dark ones watched that they might veil the Light which is unlimited.
73. Ye then watch as heavens lights in this night of starry light. For
though so dark be its colour yet in virtue it is clear.
74. For whoever is like this clear One, wakeful and prayerful in darkness,
him in this darkness visible a light unseen surrounds!
75. The bad man that in daylight stands, yet as a son of darkness deals;
though with light clad outwardly, inly is with darkness girt.
76. Be we not deceived, beloved, by the fact that we are watching! For
whoso does not rightly watch, his watch is an unrighteous watch.
77. Whoso watches not cheerfully, his watching is but a sleeping: whoso
also watches not innocently, even his waking is his foe.
78. This is the waking of the envious one! a solid mass, compact with
harm. That watch is but a trafficking, with scorn and mockery compact.
79. The wrathful man if he wakes, fretful with wrath his wake will be, and
his watching proves to him full of rage and of cursings.
80. If the babbler be waking, then his mouth becomes a passage which for
sins is ready but for prayers shows hindrance.
81. The wise man, if so be he that watches, one of two things chooseth
him; either takes sweet, moderate, sleep, or a holy vigil keeps.
82. That night is fair, wherein He Who is Fair rose to come and make us
fair. Let not aught that may disturb it enter into our watch!
83. Fair be kept the ears approach, chaste the seeing of the eye!
hallowed the musing of the heart! the speaking of the mouth be cleared.
84. Mary hid in us today leaven that came from Abraham. Let us then so
pity beggars as did Abraham the needy. Today the rennet fell on us from the
gentle Davids house.
85. Let a man show mercy to his persecutors, as did Jesses son to Saul.
The prophets sweet salt is today sprinkled among the Gentiles.
86. Let us gain a new savour by that whereby the ancient people lost their
savour. Let us speak the speech of wisdom; speak we not of things outside it,
lest we ourselves be outside it!
87. In this night of reconcilement let no man be wroth or gloomy! in this
night that stills all, none that threatens or disturbs!
88. This night belongs to the sweet One; bitter or harsh be in it none! In
this night that is the meek Ones, high or haughty be in it none!
89. In this day of pardoning let us not exact trespasses! In this day of
gladnesses let us not spread sadnesses!
90. In this day so sweet, let us not be harsh! In this day of peaceful
rest, let us not be wrathful in it!
91. In this day when God came to sinners, let not the righteous be in his
mind uplifted over sinner!
92. In this day in which there came the Lord of all unto the servants, let
masters too condescend to their servants lovingly!
93. In this day in which the Rich became poor for our sakes, let the rich
man make the poor man share with him at his table.
94. On this day to us came forth the Gift, although we asked it not! Let
us therefore bestow alms on them that cry and beg of us.
95. This is the day that opened for us a gate on high to our prayers. Let
us open also gates to supplicants that have transgressed, and of us have asked
forgiveness.
96. Today the Lord of nature was against His nature changed; let it not to
us be irksome to turn our evil wills.
97. Fixed in nature is the body; great or less it cannot become: but the
will has such dominion, it can grow to any measure.
98. This is the day that gladdened them, the Prophets, Kings, and Priests,
for in it were their words fulfilled, and thus were the whole of them indeed
performed!
99. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Today
Godhead sealed itself upon Manhood, that so with the Godheads stamp Manhood
might be adorned.
100. Both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. The voice that of
old Isaiah spake, today became reality. For the Virgin this day brought forth
Immanuel in Bethlehem.
of “mainline Orthodoxy” is the opposite of martyrdom: it is a compromise with the world for the sake of money and mainline prestige. The pseudo-bishops under the millionaire Philip Saliba meekly saw their sees taken away from them solely because Saliba controls millions of dollars who support their organizations and chancelleries, not to mention their medical benefits. The OCA has received millions in grants from the WCC and Archer Daniels Midland to finance their seminaries and “scholars.” But these same bishops, to acquiesce to all sorts of non-canonical outrages and sit on personal fortunes and tenured chairs, spit in the faces of the TOC and say we are “un-canonical.”
who would rather suffer a violent and horrific death than abandon Orthodoxy and the love of the nation. In the west, on the other hand, mainline Orthodoxy seeks to compromise with Pharoah and his soldiers in exchange for a small place in the religious mainstream. 
turned into power, mortality into eternity, contumely into glory, which the Lord Jesus Christ showed by many clear proofs in the sight of many, until He carried even into heaven the triumphant victory which He had won over the dead. As therefore at the Paschal commemoration, the Lord’s Resurrection was the cause of our rejoicing; so the subject of our present gladness is His Ascension, as we commemorate and duly venerate that day on which the Nature of our humility in Christ was raised above all the host of heaven, over all the ranks of angels, beyond the height of all powers, to sit with God the Father. On which Providential order of events we are founded and built up, that God’s Grace might become more wondrous, when, notwithstanding the removal from men’s sight of what was rightly felt to command their awe, faith did not fail, hope did not waver, love did not grow cold. For it is the strength of great minds and the light of firmly-faithful souls, unhesitatingly to believe what is not seen with the bodily sight, and there to fix one’s affections whither you cannot direct your gaze. And whence should this Godliness spring up in our hearts, or how should a man be justified by faith, if our salvation rested on those things only which lie beneath our eyes? Hence our Lord said to him who seemed to doubt of Christ’s Resurrection, until he had tested by sight and touch the traces of His Passion in His very Flesh, “because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are, they who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Let God’s people then recognize that they are a new creation in Christ, and with all vigilance understand by Whom they have been adopted and Whom they have adopted, i.e. Christ has taken on Him human nature, and we by virtue thereof are partakers of the Divine.. Let not the things, which have been made new, return to their ancient instability; and let not him who has “put his hand to the plough 
Is There Salvation Outside of Orthodoxy?
October 31, 2009 in Commentary, Orthodox Way | Leave a comment
by Rev. Fr. Dr. (Matthew) Raphael Johnson, Ph.D.
Protection of the Teotokos Mission (Milan Synod)
Fayetteville, Pa.
Orthodoxy, throughout its 2,000 year history, has claimed, without interruption, that it is the repository of the Apostolic faith, that is, it is the place where the ancient doctrines of Christianity can be found. Therefore, the claim is made that truth has as its fundamental value salvation, that is, salvation cannot derive from falsity, error, schism.
Modernist Orthodox have, above all things, rejected this fundamental dogma of the faith, that salvation is a function of truth, that is, of true belief. Therefore, they have, to one degree or another, become apostates from Orthodoxy. From its central idea that truth, happiness and salvation are one and the same thing.
The purpose of this brief paper is to outline, for non-Orthodox who wish to know, the basic ancient writings on the question of truth, Orthodoxy and salvation. First, though, here is a quote from the infamous meeting of the World Council of Churches in Barr, Switzerland, in 1990; it is significant because it lays out the groundwork for the ecumenical agenda:
This pseudo-intellectual obfuscation and mystification of the WCC (financed by the Rockefeller family), was signed by nearly all the world’s Orthodox churches. However, the Orthodox church rejects these ideas, as evidenced by the citations below. Most New Calendar Orthodox believe the heresy that salvation is possible outside the canonical boundaries of Orthodoxy, however, this is an error, and one that destroys the specific mission of the church in the world. For recent converts, it is rather difficult for these Americans, whose spirituality was formed by the secularized, neo-Protestants whose teachings change with the seasons, cannot stand the rather “strong milk” of Orthodox teaching on this most important of matters. The purpose of me compiling these sources is to let the converts know that Orthodoxy has always spoken with a clear voice on these issues, and new calendarist bishops do not have the power to change this. The Antiochean, Greek and OCA branches of Orthodoxy hold to the heresy of universal salvation (except, so I hear, for people like me) so as to be accepted within the Protestant ecumenical bodies whose grant money keeps the new calendar seminaries going. The reality is, however, that Orthodox teaching is clear and uncompromising, as these citations show.
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Now, one might indignantly ask, what of those who have never heard of Christ, or of Orthodoxy specifically? Though as this is becoming more and more an irrelevant question, it is a legitimate one, and a few ideas might be required here:
First, there is an old Russian custom that St. John the Baptist approaches very human soul at the hour of death and preaches to them about Christ. To reject him is to reject missionary labors on your behalf.
Second, there is also the question of the acceptance or rejection of the religious system one is raised under. The honest seeker, one who rejects the paganism, for example, one has been brought up with is truly a struggle, and may well earn a place in heaven after being suitably preached to at the point of death. If however, one finds his religion satisfactory, one has a problem.
Thirdly, there is the continuous prayers for the dead performed by the Orthodox church on a daily basis. The time between the particular and the final or general judgement is a time where the church, which is the mind of Christ and His manifestation, intercedes for those who have departed in the faith, and for all departed souls. For example, an elderly Japanese woman, a neighbor fo mine, passed away. While she was in a coma, I prayed in her stead that I had accepted Orthodoxy in its fullness, and begged the saints to accept this prayer as if it were from her. I guess I’ll find out later if it worked or not, and I urge Orthodox people do perform this practice for all heretics and pagans who are dying.
Fourthly, those who are mentally retarded or otherwise incapacitated are incapable of committing sin and therefore salvation is automatic for them. The same goes for aborted babies, etc. The heretical Church of Rome struggled with this issue because they believe that the sin of Adam is hereditary, while Christianity has always understood this sin to manifest in the endless propensity for human beings to do the wrong thing. Therefore, the “unbaptized baby” question is irrelevant for the True Faith.
Fifthly, there is a question about the nature of Hades, or what the papists might call “Limbo.” Archbishop +IOANN of the Synod of Milan, a theologian of extraordinary abilities and the spiritual son of the Valaam/Pskov elder and Schema-bishop +THEODORE (Irtel), is of the opinion that hades was not destroyed at the Resurrection, but remains, in some form, to provide a place of natural happiness (though not the presence of God, and therefore this happiness is not unmixed with sorrow) for those who have departed outside the faith for faults not of their own. This is a highly controversial stance, and I hold a position of neutrality on it. Some church fathers have held that the “Bosom of Abraham” is just this place (whether one wants to call it Hades or not), a place that papists forgot about, and then reinvented it as “Limbo” centuries later.
However one cuts it, the principle remains, only Orthodox people exist in heaven, and no other. Whether or not such people have been evangelized at the hour of death is of no concern to Orthodox people currently alive, but is a position of ancient lineage in the Christian confession.
“If Salvation is difficult while Orthodox, imagine how difficult it is when one is not Orthodox.” –Blessed Fr. Seraphim Rose.
(Hattip: Fr Raphael for a standing permittion to utilize his available writings.)
Source: The Orthodox Medievalist Journal