This short exposition of the Gospel is a summary of a large work which exists in
manuscript and cannot be published in Russia.
That work consists of four parts:
An account (Confession) of the course of my own life and of the thoughts which led me to the conviction that the Christian teaching contains the truth.
An examination of the Christian teaching: first according to its interpretation by the Orthodox Russo-Greek Church, then according to its interpretation by the Church in general-by the Apostles, the Councils, the so-called Fathers of the Church-and an exposure of what is false in those interpretations.
An examination of Christian teaching not according to those interpretations but solely according to what has come down to us ... (From: Wikisource.org.) Jesus Christ's announcement replaced the belief in an
external God by an understanding of life.
THE announcement of welfare by Jesus Christ, the son of God.
The announcement of welfare consists in this, that all men who believe that they
are the sons of God obtain true life. The understanding of life is at the basis
and the beginning of all. The understanding of life is God. And by the
announcement of Jesus it has become the basis and beginning of all things.
All things have come to life by understanding, and without it nothing can live.
Understanding gives true life. Understanding is the light of truth, and the
light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot extinguish it.
The true light has always existed in the world ... (From: Wikisource.org.) Man, the son of God, is weak in the flesh but free in the spirit.
OUR FATHER
The birth of Jesus Christ was thus:
His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph. But before they began to live as man and
wife it appeared that Mary was pregnant. Joseph however was a good man and did
not wish to shame her: he took, her as his wife and had no relations with her
till she had given birth to her first son and had named him Jesus.
And the boy grew and matured and was intelligent beyond his years.
When Jesus was twelve years old Mary went once with Joseph for the holiday at
Jerusalem and took the boy with her. When the holiday was over they started
homeward and forgot about the boy. Then they remembered, but thought he had gone
with other l... (From: Wikisource.org.) Therefore man should work not for the flesh, but for the spirit.
WHICH ART IN HEAVEN
It happened that Jesus was walking across a field with his pupils one Saturday.
The pupils were hungry, and on the way they plucked ears of corn and rubbed them
in their hands and ate the grain. But according to the teaching of the Orthodox,
God had given Moses a law that everyone should observe Saturday and do nothing
that day. According to the teaching of the Orthodox, God had ordered that anyone
who worked on Saturday should be stoned.
The Orthodox noticed that the pupils rubbed ears of corn on a Saturday and said
to them: It is wrong to do that on a Saturday. One must not work on Saturday,
and you are rubbing ears of corn. God made Sa... (From: Wikisource.org.) The life of all men proceeds from the spirit of
the Father.
HALLOWED BE THY NAME
Later on, some of John's pupils came to ask Jesus whether it was he of whom John
spoke: Did he reveal the Kingdom of God and renew men by the spirits
Jesus answered and said: Look for yourselves, and listen to the teaching-and
tell John whether the Kingdom of God has begun and whether people are being
renewed by the spirit. Tell him what Kingdom of God I am preaching. It is said
in the prophecies that when the Kingdom of God comes all men will be blessed.
Tell him that my Kingdom of God is such that the poor are blessed, and so is
everyone who understands the teaching.
And having let John's pupils go, Jesus began to speak to the people about ... (From: Wikisource.org.) Therefore the will of the Father is the life and
we are of all men.
THY KINGDOM COME
JESUS went about in the towns and villages and taught all men the happiness of
doing the Father's will. And he was sorry for people because they perish without
knowing what true life consists of, and trouble and torment themselves without
knowing why, like scattered sheep that have no shepherd.
Once many people came to Jesus to hear his teaching and he went up on a hill and
sat down. His pupils surrounded him. And he began to teach the people what the
Father's will is. He said:
Blessed are the poor and the homeless, for they live in the will of the Father.
If they are hungry they shall be satisfied, and if they sorrow and weep they
shal... (From: Wikisource.org.) The satisfaction of the personal will leads to death;
the satisfaction of the Father's will gives true life.
THY WILL BE DONE
And Jesus rejoiced in the power of the spirit and said:
I acknowledge the spirit of the Father, the source of everything in heaven and
earth, who has revealed what was hidden from the wise and learned to the simple,
because they acknowledge themselves sons of the Father.
All who are concerned for the happiness of the body have put on a yoke not made
for them, and have harnessed themselves to a load they cannot draw.
Understand my teaching and follow it and you shall have peace and joy in life. I
give you another yoke and another load-the spiritual life. Yoke yourselves to
this, and you shall learn f... (From: Wikisource.org.) To obtain true life,
man must on earth resign the false life of the flesh and live by the spirit.
AS IN HEAVEN SO ON EARTH
Once his mother and brothers came to Jesus, and could not get to him because
there were so many around him. A man seeing them went to Jesus and said: Your
family, your mother and brothers, are standing outside wanting to see you.
But Jesus said: My mother and my brothers are those who have understood the will
of the Father, and do it.
And a woman exclaimed: Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that
you have sucked!
And Jesus replied: Only they are blessed who have understood the spirit of the
Father and keep it.
And a man said to Jesus: I will follow you wherever you may go.
Jesus answe... (From: Wikisource.org.) The true food of everlasting life is the fulfillment Of
the Father's will
GIVE US OUR DAILY BREAD
After that the Jews wished to condemn Jesus to death, and he went away into
Galilee and lived with his relations.
The Jewish feast of tabernacles was come, and the brothers of Jesus prepared to
go to the feast, and called him to go with them. They did not believe in his
teaching and said to him:You say that the Jewish service of God is wrong and
that you know the real way to serve God by deeds. If you really think that no
one but you knows how to serve God come with us to the feast. Many people will
be there and you can declare before them all that the teaching of Moses is
wrong. If they all believe you, then your pupils als... (From: Wikisource.org.) Therefore true life must be lived in the present.
EACH DAY
Jesus said: He who is not prepared to suffer all bodily sufferings and
deprivations has not understood me. He who obtains all that is best for his
bodily life destroys the true life. But he who sacrifices his bodily life in
fulfilling my teaching will receive the true life.
And at those words, Peter said to him: See, we have obeyed you, have thrown off
all ties and property, and have followed you. What reward shall we receive for
this?
Jesus said to him: Everyone who has given up home, sisters, brothers, father,
mother, wife, children, or lands, for my teaching, shall receive a hundredfold
more than sisters, brothers, and fields, and all that is needful in this l... (From: Wikisource.org.) The deceptions of temporal life hide from men the
true life in the present.
AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS
Some children were brought to Jesus and he saw that his pupils were sending them
away. He was grieved at this. and said: It is wrong to send children away. They
are better than anyone, for they live according to the will of the Father: they
are indeed in the kingdom of heaven. Instead of sending them away you should
learn from them, for to live in the Father's will you must live as children do.
They do not abuse people, do not bear ill-will, do not lust, do not bind
themselves by oaths, do not resist evil, do not go to law with anyone,
acknowledge no difference between their own and other nations; ... (From: Wikisource.org.) So, not to fall into temptation, we must at every moment Of
our life be at one with the Father.
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION
After this, the Orthodox chief priests tried to do all they could to ensnare
Jesus, so as in one way or other to destroy him. They assembled in council and
began to consider.
They said: We must somehow finish with this man. He so proves his teaching that
if we let him alone everyone will believe in him and cast off our belief. Now
already half the people believe in him. But if the Jews come to believe his
teaching that all men are sons of one Father and are brothers, and that our
Hebrew people are not different from others, then the Romans will overwhelm us
completely and we shall no longer have... (From: Wikisource.org.) The personal life is an illusion of the flesh, an evil.
The true life is a life common to all men.
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL
And Peter said to Jesus: Where are you going? Jesus replied: You cannot come
where I am going now, but later on you will go there too.
And Peter said: Why do you think I have not the strength now to go where you
are going? I would give my life for you.
Jesus said: You say you would give your life for me: see that you do not deny me
thrice before cock-crow.
And he turned to the pupils and said: Do not be troubled or afraid, but believe
in the true God of life, and in my teaching.
The life of the Father is not only the life here on earth, there is another life
also. If the life of the Father were only ... (From: Wikisource.org.) And so for a man who lives not the personal life but the
common life in the will of the Father, there is no
death. Physical death is union with the Father.
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY
After this Jesus said: Come now, let us go: he who will betray me is near.
Hardly had he said this before Judas, one of the twelve pupils, appeared, and
with him a large throng carrying sticks and swords. Judas said to them: I will
show you where he is with his pupils, and that you may know him among them all,
he whom I shall first kiss, is he. And he at once went up to Jesus and said:
Hall, master! and kissed him.
And Jesus said to him: Why are you here, friend?
Then the guard surrounded Jesus and were about to take him.... (From: Wikisource.org.) Jesus in his childhood spoke of God as his Father, There was in Judaea at that
time a prophet named John, who preached the coming of God on earth. He said that
if people changed their way of life, considered all men equal, and instead of
injuring, helped one another, God would appear and His Kingdom would be
established on earth.
Contents
1 I
2 II
3 III
4 IV
5 V
6 VI
7 VII
8 VIII
9 IX
10 X
11 XI
12 XII
I
HAVING heard this preaching, Jesus withdrew into the desert to consider the
meaning of man's life and his relation to the infinite origin of all, called
God. Jesus recognized as his Father that infinite source of being whom John
called God.
Having stayed in the (From: Wikisource.org.)
