Christianity – Faith Unto Ages

The Kingdom is at Hand: Finding Hope in Christ through the Holy Eucharist

In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. This line from St. John the Baptist has been weighing heavily on my heart lately. I’m writing this on March 11th, 2026. The world right now is consumed by division, not just in the United States but in the entirety of the world. This division began in the garden. It has been rampant. I never understood until the veil was recently lifted for me. Satan’s grip on the world is much tighter than I anticipated. Our church has been fighting heresy for so long, but the true heresy that we have lost sight of is within our hearts.

My journey only had one goal, and that was to understand God with my brain. I thought that if I understood God in my head, it would lead me to Him. But Saint Cyril of Alexandria recently spoke to me through his writings and humbled me. As I was preparing my notes and breakdown of the Gospel of John, I was humbled.

“For it is not the part of a mind that loves truth to indulge in restless curiosity and to busy itself about words beyond what is fitting, but rather to receive with simplicity the things that are spoken by God.”
— St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book I

He warns that those who seek answers instead of truth will not only fail to find the answers but will not receive the truth, which is Christ Jesus.

It troubles me, all this death surrounding us, from the passing of the leader of Iran to a recent preacher, Mhir Mhir Zelalem. I thought I understood death. I thought it was something that just comes and goes. Luckily, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ broke down the door of eternal emptiness. But now something was not right.

The Heresy of Macro-Evolution: A Response from the Fathers

The Apostle Peter warned: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

By what did the sacred writer mean to be sober and vigilant; save being alert and on guard against enticement that comes from so great a deceiver? An ancient enemy which only seeks the ruin and destruction of souls, as evident in his initial trickery with our first parents Adam and Eve? As divine inspiration tells us, the devil had deceived Eve into believing that she would not disobey God by breaking the first law given to man, and that she would obtain knowledge that would make her ‘god-like’ (Genesis 3:4-5), despite already having the virtue of being made in God’s image and likeness. Therefore, the race of mankind was gifted with immortality, incorruptability, and rationality which all of the other visible creatures lacked.

Yet, as we know, the consequence of sin and death came into the world as a result. Seeing that he was successful in this ancient trick, he likewise continues in his ancient attempt to destroy man by attacking the faith of Christians through a series of vain philosophies and sciences; a device which was successful in capturing the belief of those that we now call atheists, rationalists, modernists, naturalists, and the like.

The Dormition & Assumption of the Holy Theotokos: Is It Biblical?

Today is the 21st day of the month of Tir. In the Tewahedo and Coptic Orthodox Churches, we celebrate the feast of St. Mary’s Dormition (Latin: dormitio; viz., a falling asleep).

The Orthodox Church teaches that at the very end of St. Mary’s life, and after many years of praying before the empty tomb of her beloved Son and God Jesus Christ, she was promised a glorious death. This eventually took place in the presence of Our Lord, His Angels, and the Apostles in her 60th year with the exception of St. Thomas who was preaching in India. The apostles who were present buried her body in Gethsemane, per the command of what they heard from the Holy Spirit. By the Divine intervention, St. Thomas was transported on a cloud before her deceased body in Gethsemane. He later saw the angels of God carrying St. Mary’s Body into heaven; placing her under the Tree of Life in the Eternal Garden of Paradise (c.f. Rev 22:1-5) that it may be united with her soul that was clothed in a veil of light by her Son. When he revealed what he saw to the rest of the apostles, they opened her tomb to not find her body; but to only smell a sweet fragrance. They rejoiced in this as this confirmed their faith in the Christ’s Resurrection by which we will all share in per the promise of our Lord. This is what the Apostles prayed for, hoped in, and preached to the world; despite the persecutions which came with it as they took comfort in what is to come.

But where is this event of the Assumption in the Holy Bible? Some hold to the opinion that perhaps the four gospels and the epistles were completed prior to this event. I happen to agree with this theory, especially given the Church’s Tradition which references the deaths of certain apostles — who were resurrected following their martyrdoms just to be present with the Theotokos for this moment.