Keys to Genesis: Divine Vision vs Human Philosophy - Fr. Seraphim Rose
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- čas přidán 18. 01. 2023
- What are the keys to understanding Genesis and the creation of the world? Where is true knowledge found? Fr. Seraphim Rose points us to the Holy Fathers, to Moses the God-Seer and their means of knowledge about things of the past, things which no man can observe, and the correct relationship between divine revelation and science.
This video contains excerpts from Fr. Seraphim's book "Genesis, Creation, and Early Man". These excerpts are also found in a longer video containing the teachings of over a dozen modern Holy Fathers on the topic: "Creation, Early Man, and Evolution | According to Modern Holy Fathers": • Creation, Early Man, a...
Fr. Seraphim's letter to Dr. Kalomiros, posthumously titled "The Patristic Doctrine of Creation", is arguably the best place to start for deeper understanding of this topic.
Read the letter here (letter 151, Fifth Week of Lent, 1974): thoughtsintrus...
Listen to a reading here: • 20. Fr. Seraphim Rose ...
The scroll in the icon in the thumbnail read "Evolution is the key to the philosophy of Antichrist."
Fr. Seraphim writes:
“Do you now see what is at stake in the argument between the Patristic understanding of Genesis and the doctrine of evolution? The doctrine of evolution attempts to understand the mysteries of God's creation by means of natural knowledge and worldly philosophy, not even allowing the possibility that there is something in these mysteries which places them beyond its capabilities of knowing; while the book of Genesis is an account of God's creation as seen in Divine vision by the God-seer Moses, and this vision is confirmed also by the experience of later Holy Fathers. Now, even though revealed knowledge is higher than natural knowledge, still we know that there can be no conflict between true revelation and true natural knowledge. But there can be conflict between revelation and human philosophy, which is often in error. There is thus no conflict between the knowledge of creation contained in Genesis, as interpreted for us by the Holy Fathers, and the true knowledge of creatures which modern science has acquired by observation; but there most certainly is an irreconcilable conflict between the knowledge contained in Genesis and the vain philosophical speculations of modern scientists, unenlightened by faith, about the state of the world in the Six Days of Creation. Where there is a genuine conflict between Genesis and modern philosophy, if we wish to know the truth we must accept the teaching of the Holy Fathers and reject the false opinions of scientific philosophers. The world has now become so infected by vain modern philosophy posing as science that very few, even among Orthodox Christians, are willing or able to examine this question dispassionately and discover what the Holy Fathers really taught, and then accept the Patristic teaching even if it seems utter foolishness to the vain wisdom of this world.”
-pg 459-460, ”The Patristic Doctrine of Creation”
”…it is clear how much more profound is the true Patristic interpretation than that of the fundamentalists, on the one hand, who have never even heard of Divine vision and whose interpretation sometimes coincides with that of the Holy Fathers only by accident, as it were; and on the other hand, how much more profound is the Patristic interpretation than that of those who uncritically accept the speculations of modern philosophy as if they were true knowledge.”
-pg 460, ”The Patristic Doctrine of Creation”
“Vain are they who say that the Holy Fathers were ’naive in science’ and simply ‘didn't know’ about evolution (as if the Holy Spirit withheld this information from the Divinely inspired Fathers and Scriptures, and revealed it only to eighteenth-century Enlightenment man and his later descendants!). On the contrary, they knew quite well what was being said in Genesis. We know, therefore, that before the fall of Adam some 7,500 years ago, no creature experienced corruption [decay]; but the whole evidence for ‘evolution’ lies precisely in the evidence of corruption which, supposedly, occurred before the ’evolution of man’! Need we hesitate to know where the truth lies?”
-pg 649, “The Incorruption of the First-Created World”
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I sincerely hope everyone here will take the time to read Genesis, Creation & Early Man. It is, along with the rest of Fr. Seraphim Rose's work, genuinely some of the most insightful and life-altering material I have ever read.
Such a great video
We begin to see such things through living it, only through the heart that God gives us. When we are grown enough to receive it.
There is no truth without that heart born of the Holy Spirit which then guides us.
Becoming children of God!
Agreed 100%. It is interesting that Protestant scientists are more orthodox than the Orthodox themselves when it comes to taking Genesis as History, same as the holy fathers did. There are plenty of Protestant scientists that have published scientific evidence for a young earth. Thanks for video!
I really enjoy your videos and I would like to make some audiobooks of some Orthodox literature. I like how your recordings come out. I have plenty of audio gear and I have Logic Pro X. What do you use to make your recordings? I would love to learn from you! Thank you so much for your videos!
Can you message me on telegram and we can talk more? @TimothyHoneycutt
Jonathan Pageau always frustrates me when it comes to this subject with his condemnation of creationism. He always brings up fundamentalist Protestants when he mentions it, as though this hasn't always been the teaching of the Church and Her Saints. I appreciate a lot of what he does, but sometimes it's like he focuses so much on symbolism because he's unwilling or unable to accept much of our Faith as reality. Sad.
What a lot of people don't understand is how much of what constitutes modern "scientific" thinking has been developed as part of a covert war on the Truth of Christianity. Sometimes consciously, as genuine conspiracy, and sometimes unconsciously, through the work of invisible powers. And often a strange kind of mix, through people who are involved in occult practices - or even through people whose perceptions are distorted by their estrangement from God - which allows demonic plans to be made manifest in our world.
I feel the same way. He gets too far in the weeds.
There are a number of Jewish mystics who have understood Genesis as a metaphysical expose on how the world arises from and abides in Being (YHWH) rather than as a historical treatise. This kind of metaphysical interpretation has been going on for thousands of years. Considering that it was written in Hebrew and that this explanation preserves the religious validity of the text without contradicting objective evidence, the need to interpret the text as historical fact seems misguided.
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Who is Seraphim Rose? Is he a Saint?
He is not a saint yet, but many people expect him to be canonized eventually, because of his writings. Others think his writings are what's keeping him from being canonized 🤷♂Someone more informed could say whether he was instrumental in the canonization of St. John Maximovitch. If he was, it bodes well for his own eventual canonization.
Fr. Seraphim Rose is a saint, though not yet canonized. He will be canonized one day. His life and works exemplify what is possible, even for an American, if they humble themselves fully before Christ. The more one understands Fr. Seraphim, by reading about his life as well as his writings, one sees he is a holy father of these latter times, following the footsteps of his beloved guide, St. John Maximovitch.
He was involved with the counter culture of San Francisco in the 50s. And then he turned to Orthodoxy
Soon to be
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Does Fr. Seraphim ever give an indication that he was aware of the ancient near eastern parallel texts for the creation (and other things), toward which the first few chapters of Genesis were polemical? I'm not sure when the texts were discovered or published.
Please could you give me more information on those? I would be very interested to know more. Thank you.
@@joer9156 Try searching for _enuma elish, epic of gilgamesh, baal cycle._ For a more casual Orthodox source, you might like the _Lord of Spirits_ podcast.
@@joachim847 he was very well read and knew much of other religions, and these ideas were available in English when he was alive. In fact many were in popular culture then due to the popularity of E von Daniken books of his era.
It seems most or all ancient cultures had a global flood story.
Modern genetics seems to support the entire human kind was reduced to "as few as perhaps a handful of individuals" at some point not terribly long ago, and Y chromosome studies tend toward one precursor and three major branches -- as in Noah and his three sons. ??
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Satan aka 666 is man living in their ego. Letting go of your ego and surrendering to God is the new birth. The serpent is cast out the ego is cast out. Adam and Eve was the start of ego we are the end.
So he was a young earth creationist? Are all orthodox young earth creationists? If so I don’t know how I’m gonna be welcomed into the church since evolution is clearly shown to be true. Watch inspiring philosophy’s video on it. He’s a Christian CZcamsr and beloved in old earth creationism like me. To blindly follow what church fathers say and discount a wealth of knowledge discovered by science is incredibly ignorant. God gave us a brain to think rationally. The earth is a lot older than Fr. Seraphim Rose thinks😂
This is also the guy that had such a horrendous take on the yoga vs stretching thing that a majority of the comment section disagreed with him on.
Most Orthodox are not young earth creationists, but their numbers are probably growing because of Fr. Seraphim. Lord have mercy 🙏
@@joachim847 well it’s good to hear the majority is being willfully ignorant in favor of their own person interpretation
If most Orthodox Christians reject a young earth then most are not following the Holy Fathers, both before and after Darwin. Here are teachings of over a dozen modern saints teaching plainly that evolution is false and that the world was created relatively recently: czcams.com/video/Y0sdPLJO3cE/video.html
Fr. Seraphim simply presented the teachings of the Fathers and drew out implications for today from their very clear witness. If you are interested in reading more, see the link in the description for “The Patristic Doctrine of Creation”
@@OrthodoxWisdom Fr. Seraphim represents a fundamentalist variant of Orthodoxy. It is not wrong to compare him to fundamentalist protestants. The fathers do not trump all other sources of truth anymore than the bible does, and they must be allowed the dignity of context.
This gets to the whole point of the video: Divine Revelation vs Human Philosophy. While evolutionists will point to scientific findings, which undoubtedly is more advanced than the Saints for nearly all of Church history, they often conflate evolutionary theory with scientific discovery.
If Fr. Seraphim represents a fundamentalist variant of Orthodoxy, so do the saints. Show me one saint who embraced evolution. We have countless who either explicitly rejected it or taught things incompatible with it.
No one can understand our origins apart from revelation, from noetic perception, because the “laws of nature” were distinctly different before the fall compared to now, after the fall. Moses is a prophet not of the future, but of the past. Therefore, scientific discovery can inform us about the fallen world while God’s revelation alone informs us about the world before the fall. This is all laid out in great detail and in a variety of ways in “Genesis, Creation, and Early Man” and “The Patristic Doctrine of Creation”.