Page:Russian Church and Russian Dissent.djvu/99

84 Christianity is a divine revelation, communicated to mankind through Christ; its saving truths are to be learned from the Bible and tradition, the former having been written and the latter maintained uncorrupted through the influence of the Holy Spirit; the interpretation of the Bible belongs to the Church, which is taught by the Holy Spirit, but every believer may read the Scriptures.

According to the Christian revelation, God is a Trinity; that is, the Divine Essence exists in Three Persons, perfectly equal in nature and dignity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;. Besides the Triune God there is no other object of divine worship, but homage may be paid to the Virgin Mary and reverence  to the saints and to their pictures and relics.

Man is born with a corrupt bias which was not his at creation; the first man, when created, possessed. Through the first sin Adam and his posterity lost. In this natural state man, who, even before he actually sins, is a sinner before God by original or inherited sin, commits manifold actual transgressions; but he is not absolutely without power of will towards good, and is not always doing evil.

Christ, the Son of God, became man in two natures, which, internally and inseparably united, make one Person, and, according to the eternal purpose of God, has obtained for man reconciliation with God and eternal life, inasmuch as He, by His vicarious death, has made satisfaction to God for the world's sins, and this satisfaction.