Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov One of the great Church Fathers of the19th century, Bishop Ignaty played the v ery important role of spokesman for uncompromising Orthodox Christianity to the Russian intelligentsia, who had departed so far from Christian truth a s to be incapable of distinguishing it from error, The following letter, slightly abridged, offers a refreshing antidote to some of the confusion in our own day as well as in his. Here is the true teaching on this subject, the teaching of the Holy Ecumenical Church. Salvation consists in the recovery of communion with God. This communion was lost by the whole human race when our ancestors fell into sin. The whole human race belongs too category of doomed creatures.
Damnation is the lot of all people, whether virtuous or evil-doers.
We are conceived in iniquity and born in sin. It is not only sinners who descended into hell at the end of their earthly pilgrimage, but the righteous men of the Old Testament as well. In order to restore man s communion with God, in other words, for salvation, redemption was necessary. You must realize that you do not know Him, that you deny Him if you acknowledge salvation possible without Him for any kind of good works. He who acknowledges salvation to be possible without Chris t denies Christ and, perhaps without knowing it, falls into the grave sin of blasphemy.