THE SICKNESS OF RELIGION AND ITS CURE.
A Medical Key To Church Reunion.
©  John S. Romanides

Preface
The basic difference between the three Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke on the one hand and that of the Gospel of John on the other hand is due to the two stages of the Old and New Testament’s cure of the sickness at the second center of the human personality in the heart which circulates blood, the other center being the brain or the intellect which is part of the spinal cord system which circulates spinal fluid. It is the heart which needs cure by its purification and illumination to be consummated in the glorification of the whole person. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, accompanied by texts of the Old Testaments, especially those of the Psalms, were used as part of the process of the purification and the illumination of the hearts of the catechumens which was consummated by the celebration of the passion and crucification of the Lord of Glory into which they were being baptized  on Holy Saturday. These baptisms were followed by the celebration of the resurrection of Christ followed by the Easter Eucharist at which time the Gospel of John began to be read and interpreted up to Pentecost Sunday within this period of fifty days. During this period of Johannine instruction one was expected to progress from one’s state of the purification of one’s spirit in the heart to it’s illumination by unceasing prayers and psalms as contrasted from prayers and psalms by the intellect at given times. At this point one knew that was becoming a member of the Body of Christ as the prayer in the heart was taking hold and remaining ever present without ceasing. That one had this prayer and lost it and had thus become satisfied that he had had it means that he in danger of permanent loss since “Let us not think that we have become members of the Body once and for all”. 
Pentecost is the event by which the Old and Testament Church became the Body of Christ which now includes also all the forefathers who had been illumined and glorified before Yahweh’s incarnation. As in the Old Testament, those who persevered in the illumination of their heart would go on to their glorification which was their ordination to prophethood. This is why John the Baptist, already glorified and ordained to prophethood, again was glorified and this time experienced the strange reality that he was Baptizing Yaweh Himself Incarnate.  Six days after saying that “…some standing here…will not taste death until they see the reign of God come in power,” Christ again revealed Himself as Yaweh Incarnate to Peter, James and John.”
Such Biblical realities are not open to correct interpretation by those who have been contaminated by Augustine’s distortion of God’s revelation to both the Old and New Testament the prophets. Being thoroughly intimidated by the Arian argument that proof that the Logos is created is the fact that He was visible to those to whom He revealed Himself. In sharp contrast to the tradition of the Old and New Testament and the Church, Augustine concocted the teaching that God appeared to and was heard by the prophets and the apostles by means of creatures which God brings into existence in order to be seen and heard and which he passes back into non existence after being seen and heard. In sharp contrast to these divine  appearances from nothing that God may be seen and heard and disappearances back into nothing, it was only the human nature of the Logos which remained permanently in existence after His incarnation. Such supposed creatures as the dove at the Baptism of Christ, the rule of God (erroneously translated kingdom) at the Transfiguration and the tongues of fire at Pentecost are among those creatures which God brings into existence to be seen and heard and pass out of existence when their mission is accomplished.       
It was expected that during this Johannine time of instruction the newly baptized would have entered into the stage of illumination of the heart with unceasing  prayer and psalms as explained by St. Paul, especially in 1Cor. 12-15.12. This will be the pivotal point of this study since it is here that we have a an esoteric outline of the inner reality of the worshipping primitive Church headed by apostles, prophets and teachers whose authority was their own glorification mutually accepted.
Introduction.
All  fantasies, especially that of religion, are caused by a short circuit at the center of the human personality. It is this short circuit which is cured by the illumination of the heart by unceasing payer, as distinguished from intellectual prayer with the brain at given times. The study of this cure in St. Paul will comprise the heart of this study. We repeat that when illumination results in glorification then both men and women have been ordained prophets. This is what prophets are in both the Old and the New Testaments and this is what make fathers of the Church. What the prophets have seen above seeing in their glorifications is Yaweh Himself both before and after His incarnation. 
This short circuit, which needs curing, exists between the heart, which pumps blood, and the spinal cord, which causes the circulation of spinal fluid. All fantasies are rooted in this short circuit which is nothing more than an electrical short circuit. This malady cuts its victims off from reality at varying degrees. Because of this malady one does not always distinguish between reality and fantasies. Perhaps the most dangerous of these fantasies are religions which claim to have writings dictated by God and understood by a cast of so-called inspired leaders. It is by means of human fantasies that that humans remain captive of demonic power especially manifested in religions. Only the blind do not see the fact that religions are one of main sources of social turmoil.     
However, within the Old and New Testament tradition, such so-called inspired leaders constitutes a distortion of what one accepted in the primitive Church during one’s tenure as a catechumen while going through the stages from the purification and illumination of one’s heart on one’s way to glorification. The very illumination of one’s heart by unceasing prayers and psalms becomes one’s own testimony of being on the right path to glorification. Those who pretend to have reached illumination and glorification cannot fool real prophets. The two basic criteria of phony Prophets are that “it is impossible to express God and even more impossible to conceive Him,” and  that “there is no similarity whatsoever between the created and the uncreated.” Phony prophets are easily detected by their transgressions of these two basic criteria which Augustine repeatedly transgresses.      
In sharp contrast to these criteria, most doctrine  and Bible interpretation belongs to the realm of fantasy, simply because those dealing with these subjects have been brought up to believe that their fantasies themselves belong to the realm of the gift of faith. Their leaders, who have not the slightest knowledge of the very existence of the illumination of the heart and glorification, here and know in this life, convince their faithful that their faith itself is proof that they are on their way to salvation. The very nature of the Ecumenical Movement for Christian Unity has not yet even entertained the possibility that the key to unity is the cure of unceasing prayer in the heart and glorification.  
It is the short circuit in question which minimizes the level of one’s communion with the uncreated glory of God which saturates and governs creation. All created beings participate in the uncreated creative and sustaining energies of God which are collectively called His glory and rule by the Old and New Testaments. This is the reality which underlines the Old and New Testament and primitive Judaism and Christianity and the Nine Ecumenical Councils  convened by the Roman Emperor who ruled from Constantinople New Rome until captured by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Although the Roman Empire then disappeared the practice of the cure of the heart by its purification and illumination leading to glorification has not disappeared, at least yet. We will know that the last one to be gloried has passed away when human society has passed away. And this last one glorified will probably not have been member of any “official” Church.  
1) The Short Circuit
The short circuit which exists between the heart which pumps blood and the spinal cord which circulates spinal fluid is repaired by the ceasless prayer in the heart. It is only when one’s short circuit is thus repaired that one begins to be liberated from the realm of fantisies by which the devil rules human society.    
Human communion with the uncreated energies of God which saturate creation is enhanced by the purifying, illuminating and the glorifying energy of God. In sharp contrast to Biblical glorification, the Platonic and Aristotelian tradition that happiness as one’s highest destiny is in reality hell itself, i.e. the compete satisfaction of one’s ego-centric desires. 
The most important result of glorification is the revelation that “there is no similarity whatsoever between the created and the uncreated”  and that “it is impossible to express God and even more impossible to conceive Him.” In other words the Bible Itself is neither an expression of God nor conceptions of God. Only in the hands of the glorified can it be used to guide others to the cure of purification and illumination of the heart and glorification. In the hands of quack doctors it leads their victims to their destruction. 
To become a member of the Body of Christ one begins with the faith of acceptance during the stage of purification of the heart. This faith must become inner faith as testified to by ceaseless prayer. It is the ceaseless payer in the heart that testifies to the fact that one has begun to become a member of the Body of Christ. However, to arrive at the state of illumination and then at the threshold of glorification means that the Lord of Glory is taking one into His glorification for his own good, but especially for the good of others. Having been glorified one goes back to illumination “a man.”
2) The Angel Yahweh of Glory
The First and Second Ecumenical Councils condemned the Arian and Eunomean position that the Angel Yahweh of Glory and His Spirit are the first creation of God before the ages. These Councils supported instead the position that the Angel of Great Council and the Holy Spirit are consubstantial with the Father.
The Ninth Ecumenical Council of 1341, according to Roman Law,  condemned the Augustinian teaching of Barlaam the Calabrian, without realizing its source, that God reveals Himself by means of creatures which He brings into existence-τά γινόμενα-to be seen and heard and which He passes back into non-existence-τά απογενόμενα- when their missions are accomplished.  What these council Fathers did not know in 1341 was that these teachings were those of Augustine himself clearly stated over and over again in his books II and III of his De Trinitate, as we saw. This means that the Vatican has for centuries been accepting the Roman Ecumenical Councils of New Rome within  Augustinian categories. The question before us is whether the Lutheran and Orthodox members of this dialogue follow either Augustine, the Fathers of these Roman Councils, or positions of their own. 
3) Synods as Associations of Neurological Clinics.
We must have a clear vision of the context within which both Church and State saw the contribution of the Prophets to the cure of the sickness of the human personality and its perfection in order to understand both the mission of Synods and the reason why the Roman Empire incorporated them into its code of law. Neither Church nor State reduced the mission of the Church to salvation by forgiveness of sins for entrance into heaven after death. This would be identical to doctors forgiving their patients for being sick so that they may be cured after death. Both Church and State knew very well that forgiveness of sins was only the beginning of the cure of the happiness-seeking sickness of humanity. This cure passed through the purification and illumination of the heart and culminated in the perfection of glorification. This resulted not only in proper preparation for life after death but also in the transformation of society here and now from that of selfish and self-centered individuals to that of individuals with selfless love which does not seek its own.
a) Heaven  and  Hell.
Everyone will see the glory of God in Christ and reach that degree of perfection one has both chosen and worked for. Following Saint Paul and the Gospel of John, the Fathers support that those who do not see the resurrected Christ in glory in this life, either in a mirror dimly by unceasing prayers and psalms in the heart, or face to face in glorification, will see His glory as eternal and consuming fire and outer darkness in the next life. The uncreated glory that Christ has by nature from the Father is heaven for those whose selfish love has been cured and transformed into selfless love, and hell for those who choose to remain uncured in their selfishness.
Not only are the Bible and the Fathers clear on this, but so are the Orthodox Icons of the last judgment. The same golden light of glory within which Christ and His friends are enveloped becomes red as it flows down to envelope the damned. This is the glory and love of Christ, which purifies the sins of all but does not glorify all. All humans will be led by the Holy Spirit into all the Truth which is to see Christ in glory, but not all will be glorified. "Those whom he justified those he also glorified", according to St. Paul (Rom. 8:30). The parable of Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham and of the rich man in the place of torment is clear. The rich man sees but he does not participate (Luke 16:19-31 ) .
The Church does not send  anyone to heaven or hell, but prepares the faithful for the vision of Christ in glory, which everyone will have. God loves the damned as much as He loves His saints. He wants the cure of all but not all accept His cure. This means that the forgiveness of sins is not sufficient preparation for seeing Christ in glory.
 It goes without saying that the Anselmian tradition whereby the saved are those to whom Christ supposedly reconciled God is not an option within the Orthodox Tradition. Commenting on 2 Cor. 5:19, for example, St. John Chrysostom says that one must "be reconciled to God. Paul did not say, `Reconcile God to yourselves', for it is not He who hates, but we. For God never hates".
 It is within the above context that the State understood the Church's mission of cure within society. Otherwise religions promising happiness after death are not much different from each other.
b) Paul's window on the Church.
1 Cor. 12-15 is a unique window through which one may look at the reality of the Church as the Body of Christ. Membership in the Church has its degrees of cure and perfection within two groupings, the illumined and the glorified. The members of the Body of Christ are clearly listed in 1 Cor. 12:28.  One begins by becoming a private individual believer (idiotes) who says "amen" during corporate audible worship. At this stage one is engaged in the purification of one's heart under the direction of those who are already temples of the Holy Spirit and members of the Body of Christ.
The degrees of illumination begin with the foundation charisma of "kinds of tongues" at the bottom in eighth place and reach up to the "teachers" in third place.
At the head of the local Church are the "Prophets" in second place, who have received the same revelation as the "Apostles" (Eph. 3:5) in first place, and are together with them the foundation of the Church (Eph. 2:20). Apostles and Prophets are the foundation of the Church in a way similar to doctors being the foundation of hospitals.
 "Kinds of tongues" are the foundation on which all the charismata are built and are temporarily suspended only during glorification (1 Cor.13:8). As an Apostle, St. Paul puts himself at the head of the list of members God has placed in the Church. Yet he still has the foundation  charisma of "kinds of tongues".  He writes,  "I thank God in tongues more than all of you" (1 Cor. 14:18). This means that "kinds of tongues" belong to all levels of charismata within the Body of Christ. Paul's question, "do all speak in tongues?" is a reference to the "private individuals" who do not yet have the gift of tongues and are therefore not yet members of the Body of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit.
The illumination and glorification of the members of the Body of Christ are not grades of authority by human appointment or election. They are those whom God prepares and places within the Church for advancement to higher degrees of cure and perfection. That Paul calls on all lower degrees of membership in the Body of Christ to seek advancement to higher spiritual stages means clearly that all are supposed to become Prophets, i.e. to reach glorification. "I indeed want all of you to speak in tongues that you may prophesy" (1 Cor. 14:5).
c) Psychiatric  Clinic.
 This Pauline Church is like a psychiatric clinic. But its understanding of the malady of human personality is much more sophisticated than anything now known in modern medicine. In order to see this reality we must look through Paul into the Biblical understanding of human normality and abnormality. The normal human being is he who has been led into all the Truth by the Spirit of Truth, i. e. into vision of Christ in His Father's glory (John 17). It is because the Apostles and Prophets are glorified in Christ that the people believe that God has sent His Son and that they too can be cured by selfless love (ibid.). Humans who do not see the uncreated glory of God are not normal. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). In other words the only human who was born normal is the Lord of Glory, Who by choice assumed the blameless passions (i. e. hunger, thirst, weariness, sleep, fear of death, etc.), although by nature the source of glory, which abolishes them..
The other side of this coin is that God does not reveal His glory to everyone because He does not wish to harm those not prepared for such a vision. The surprise of the Old Testament Prophets that they have seen God and yet live and the people's request that Moses ask God to cease showing  His  glory,  which  had  become  unbearable,  is clear in this respect.
The concern of the Apostolic Churches was not to reflect and speculate about God in Himself, since He remains a mystery to the intellect even when He reveals His glory in Christ to those who participate in the mystery of His Son's Cross by their glorification. Their only concern was each individual's cure in Christ, which is brought about by the purification and illumination of the heart and glorification in this life (1 Cor. 12:26) for service to society. "... Those whom he has justified, he has also glorified" (Rom. 8:30) means that illumination and glorification are interdependent in this life, yet not identical.
The sickness of human personality consists of the weakening of the heart's communion with the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), by its being swamped by the thoughts of the environment (Rom. 1:, 21,24, 2:5). In such a state one imagines God to be in the image of one's sick self or even of animals (Rom. 1:22). The inner person (eso anthropos) suffers spiritual death "because of which (eph'ho) all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12) by becoming enslaved to the instinct to self-preservation which deforms love by its bondage to the self-centered search for security and happiness.
The cure of this sickness begins by the purification of the heart of all thoughts (Rom. 2:29), both good and bad, and their restriction to the intellect. In order to do this one's spirit dissipated in the brain must spin itself by prayer into a ball of light and return to the heart. It becomes like a repaired  diskette to which prayer texts from the brain may be transferred and back to the brain. One thus  becomes free from slavery to everything in the environment, e. g. to self indulgence, wealth, property and even to one's parents and relatives (Math. 10:37; Luke 14:26). The purpose of this is not to attain to Stoic indifference or lack of love, but to allow the heart to accept the prayers and psalms that the Holy Spirit transfers there from the intellect and energizes unceasingly while the intellect is occupied with daily activities and while asleep. It is thus that sick love begins its cure.
This is the context of  St. Paul's reference to the Holy Spirit praying in the heart.  The  Holy Spirit  as such advocates on behalf of all humans "with sighs not spoken" (Rom.8:26). But He transfers the prayers and psalms of the intellect to the human spirit in the heart when it is purified of all thoughts, both good and bad. At this point one's own spirit empowered by the Holy Spirit does nothing else but pray and recite psalms unceasingly while the intellect engages in its normal daily activities liberated from happiness-seeking self-centeredness. Thus one prays with one's spirit in the heart unceasingly and one prays with the intellect at given times. This is what Paul means when he writes, "I will pray with the spirit, but I will also pray with the intellect. I will recite psalms with the spirit, but I will also recite psalms with the intellect" (1 Cor. 14:15).
 Paul has just told us that praying by means of other tongues than one's own includes Old Testament psalms. He is, therefore, not speaking about  incomprehensible audible prayers since the psalms were familiar to all. Paul is speaking about the prayers of one's spirit in the heart which are audible only to those with this same charisma of "kinds of tongues". Those who did not yet have this gift could not hear the prayers and psalms in the hearts of those who did have this gift.
The Corinthians in the state of illumination had introduced the innovation of conducting corporate worship in the heart in the presence of the "private individuals" who had not yet received this gift of "kinds of tongues". This made it impossible for these "private individuals" to be edified and say their "amen" at the proper times simply because they could not hear.
 Paul states clearly that "no one hears", (1 Cor.14,2). "if I come to you speaking by tongues, what will I benefit you if I do not speak to you?" (ibid. 14:6-7). "For if the trumpet gives an unmanifested sound, who will prepare for battle? Thus also you, if you do not give a well-shaped word by means of the tongue, how will that which is spoken be known?... Thus many may happen to be the kinds of sounds in the world, and none are soundless. For if I do not know the force of the sound, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me". (1 Cor. 14:8-11). Those without the gift of "kinds of tongues" must hear the "force of the sound" of the prayers and psalms to react with their "amen" (ibid. 14:11,16). One must not pray and recite psalms with "unmanifested sound," in the presence of those without this gift of tongues (ibid. 14:10,11).  "For you give thanks well, but the other is not edified" (ibid. 14:17).
When Paul says, "he who prophesies is greater than him who speaks in tongues, except if he interprets that the church may receive edification" (1 Cor. 14:5), he means that he who speaks only in tongues must learn to translate the psalms and prayers in his heart into psalms and prayers of his intellect to be recited audibly. When he thus learns to pray and recite psalms simultaneously with his spirit and his intellect he may then participate in corporate thanksgiving for the benefit of the "private individuals" who will know when to say their  Amen. "Thus let him who speaks in tongues pray that he may translate. For if I pray in tongue, my spirit prays, but my intellect is without fruit. So what is (the situation)? I will pray with the spirit, but I will also pray with the intellect. I will recite psalms with the spirit, but I will also recite psalms with the intellect. For if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the private individual say the Amen to your thanksgiving? Because he does not know what you say. You give thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank God in tongue more than all of you, but in church I prefer to speak five words with my intellect, so that I may instruct others, rather than ten thousand words in tongue" (1 Cor. 14:13-19).
 Paul never says that one interprets what another is saying in tongues. One interprets what he himself is saying in tongues. In each case where Paul relates "speaking in tongues" to "translation" it is always the one who has the gift of tongues who translates himself in order to be heard audibly for the benefit of the "private individuals". It is within this context that Paul directs that "if one speaks in tongues, he should be grouped in twos or the most threes, and let one translate. If there is not a translator, let him keep quiet in church, let him speak to himself and to God" (1 Cor. 14:27-28). The interpreter is clearly he who has the gift of translating his own prayers of his own spirit in his own heart to his own intellect that they may become audible for the edification of others. Otherwise he must keep quiet and restrict himself to praying in tongues which others are also doing but also audibly. Paul thus deprives those with only the gift of kinds of tongues of their majority power to impose their innovation of corporate prayers by only tongues in the presence of the "private individuals".
 Paul is speaking about psalms and prayers not recited by one's own tongue, but heard coming from the heart. This illumination of the heart neutralizes enslavement to the instinct to self-preservation and begins the transformation of possessive love into selfless love. This is the gift of faith to the inner person which is one's justification, reconciliation, adoption, peace, hope and vivification.
 These unceasing prayers and psalms in the heart (Eph. 5:18-20), otherwise called "kinds of tongues" (1 Cor. 12:28), transform the private individual into a temple of the Holy Spirit and member of the Body of Christ. They are the beginning of one's liberation from bondage to the environment, not by retreat from it, but by controlling it, not exploitatively, but by selfless love. It is thus that, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has liberated me from the law of sin and death...If one does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, then the body is dead to sin, whereas the Spirit is life unto justice..." (Rom. 8:2ff).
As love is being cured by perfection one receives the higher charismata listed by Paul in 1 Cor. 12:28 which are consummated in glorification. Paul states that, "if one is glorified, all members rejoice" (1 Cor.12:26) in order to explain why Prophets are second to the Apostles and before all other members of the body of Christ. To be justified by the prayers and psalms of the Holy Spirit in the heart is to see Christ in a mirror dimly (1 Cor. 13:12). Glorification is the coming of "the Perfect" (1 Cor. 13:10) by seeing Christ face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). In saying, "I know now in part" (ibid.) Paul is referring to his current state of illumination or justification. By his next phrase, "but then I will be known as I was known" (ibid.), Paul is saying that he will be glorified as he had been glorified. In the state of illumination one is a child. Once glorified one returns to illumination a man (1 Cor. 13:11).
During glorification, which is revelation, prayer in the heart (tongues), knowledge and prophecy, together with faith and hope, are abolished since replaced by Christ Himself. Only love does not fall away (1 Cor. 13:8-11). During revelation words and concepts about and to God (prayers) are abolished. After glorification one returns to illumination. Knowledge, prophecy, tongues, faith and hope return to join love which had not fallen away. Those words and concepts used in prayer and teaching by  one  glorified  to  lead others to glorification are inspired and to be abolished in glorification.
 It is this vision of the resurrected Christ in glory which Paul had and which puts Apostles and Prophets at the head (1 Cor. 12:28) and foundation (Eph. 2:20) of the Church. This foundation includes women prophets (Acts 2:17, 21:9, 1  Cor. 11:5) and is the context of Paul's statement that in Christ there is neither male nor female (Gal. 3:28).
 Glorification is not a miracle, but the normal final stage of the transformation of selfish love into selfless love. Both Paul and John clearly consider vision of Christ in glory in this life as necessary for the perfection of love and service to society (John 14:21-24, 16:22, 17:24, 1 Cor. 13:10-13, Eph. 3:3-6). The appearances of the resurrected Christ in glory were not and are not miracles to astound observers into believing in His Godhead. The miracle was the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory, not His resurrection. The resurrected Christ appears only for the perfection of love, even in the case of Paul who had reached the threshold of glorification (Gal.1:14ff), not knowing the Lord of Glory he was about to see had been born, crucified and resurrected. 1 Cor. 15:1-11 are the  glorifications  which  complete  Paul's  treatment  of  spiritual gifts begun in 1 Cor. 12:1.
All subsequently glorified in history are equal to the Apostles in their participation in Pentecost because they too have been guided into all the Truth (Acts 10. 47-11:18). All the Truth is the resurrected and ascended Christ Who returned in the uncreated tongues of fire of Pentecost to dwell with His Father in the faithful who have become temples of His Spirit advocating in their hearts. He thus made the Church His body against which the gates of death can no longer prevail.
Glorification is both the soul's and body's participation in immortality and incorruption for the perfection of love. This may be of short or long duration. After an initial loss of orientation one goes about one's daily work seeing everything saturated by the glory of God which is neither light nor darkness, nor similar to anything created. The passions, which had been neutralized and made blameless by illumination, are abolished. During glorification one does not eat, drink, sleep, or fatigue and one is not effected by heat or cold. These phenomena in the lives of saints (prophets) both before and after the incarnation of the Lord of Glory are not miracles but the restoration of humans to normality.  It is within this context that one places such sayings of Christ to the living, but sick, that "I came that they have life (in illumination)  and  that  they  have  it  (in  glorification) abundantly" (John 10:10). The gospel of John, and especially 14-16, is a detailed description of the cure of illumination and John 17 is Christ's prayer for the cure of glorification.
 Gerontologists have concluded that the aging process is a sickness and are looking into  whether  death itself is also a sickness. In this respect both the glorified and their relics should prove of interest since many hundreds of them remain with their bodies intact for centuries in an intermediary state between corruption and incorruption. One of the oldest examples is St. Spyridon on the island of Corfu who was a Father of the First Ecumenical Council in 325. There are 120 in Kiev alone.
This is the context of Paul's statement that  "even this creation will also be liberated from bondage to corruption unto the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21). It is clear from the context that "the freedom of the glory" is here freedom from mortality and corruption. But even those whose inner person has been adopted by illumination and who have tasted of physical immortality and incorruption during and limited to the period of their glorification await "the adoption, the liberation of our body" (Rom. 8:23). "The dead will be raised incorruptible and we will be changed... this corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality..." (1 Cor. 15:53,54). One knows this not by speculation on Biblical texts, but from the experience of glorification, i. e. from “the freedom of the glory of the children of God." The experience of glorification and not only Biblical texts is the basis of the Church's belief in the physical resurrection of the biological part of the person.
d) Not  of  the  world  but  in  the  world.
 The  distinction between active and  contemplative lives does not exist within the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit's gift of unceasing prayers and psalms in the heart makes such a distinction impossible. It can exist only outside the Body of Christ.
 No one can say Lord Jesus in the heart except by the Spirit and no one can say Anathema Jesus in the Spirit (1 Cor.12:3). This is Biblical and Patristic spirituality and the power by which it was impossible to torture a temple of the Holy Spirit into renunciation of Christ. Such renunciation simply proved that one had not been a member of the Church. The primary mission of the temples of the Holy Spirit was to work at whatever profession they were engaged in and to seek to pass on their own cure to others. They literally worked in their societies in a capacity similar to that of psychiatrists. Unlike them, however, they did not seek mental equilibrium by conformity to social standards of normality. Their standard of normality was glorification. Their healing power was not and is not of this world. Yet they are in this world as part of its transformation.
e) Theology  and  dogma.
All who have reached glorification testify to the fact that "it is impossible to express God and even more impossible to conceive Him" because they know by their experience that there  is no similarity whatsoever between the created and the uncreated.  God is "unmoved mover" and "moved" and "neither one. nor oneness nor unity,. nor divinity... nor sonship, nor fatherhood, etc." in the experience of glorification. The  Bible and dogmas  are guides to and  abolished during glorification. They are not ends in themselves and have nothing to do with metaphysics, either with analogia entis or with analogia fidei.
This means that words and concepts which do not contradict the experience of glorification and which lead to purification and illumination of the heart and glorification are Orthodox. Words and concepts which contradict glorification and lead away from cure and perfection in Christ are heretical.
This is the key to the decisions of all Seven Roman Ecumenical Councils as well as that of the Eighth of 879 and especially of the Ninth of 1341.
Most historians of dogma do not see this because they believe the Fathers were, like Augustine, searching by meditation and contemplation to understand the mystery of God behind words and concepts about Him. They induct even such Fathers as Gregory the Theologian into the army of Latin theology by translating him to say that to philosophize about God is permitted only to "past masters of meditation," instead of "to those who have passed into theoria", which is vision of Christ "in a mirror dimly", by "kinds of tongues" and "face to face" in "glorification".
The Fathers never understood the formulation of dogma as part of an effort to intellectually understand the mystery of God and the incarnation. St. Gregory the Theologian ridicules such heretics: "Do tell me, he says, what is the unbegottenness of the Father, and I will explain to you the physiology of the generation of the Son and the procession of the Spirit, and we shall both of us be frenzy-stricken for prying into the mystery of God". 
 Neither did the Fathers ever entertain the Augustinian notion that the Church understands the faith better with the passage of time. Every glorification is a participation in all the Truth of Pentecost, which can neither be added to nor better understood.
This also means that Orthodox doctrine is purely pastoral since it does not exist outside the context of the cure of individual and social ills and perfection.
 Being a theologian is first and foremost to be a specialist in the ways of the Devil. Illumination and especially glorification convey the charisma of the discernment  of spirits for outwitting the Devil, especially when he resorts to teaching theology and spirituality to those slipping from his grip.
f) The  Mysteries.
 The most important result of l8th and l9th century Franco-Latinisation of Orthodox theological education  has  been the disappearance of the context of the very existence of the Church in purification,  illumination  and  glorification  from  Dogmatic  Manuals,  and especially from chapters on the Mysteries.  These manuals were not aware of the biblical and patristic fact that the charisma of the presbyterate presupposed  the state of  prophecy.  "...do not neglect the charisma within you which was  given  to you by means of prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbyterate (1 Tim. 4:14)."
g) Prophets  and  Intellectuals.
Creation is completely dependent on God although there is no similarity whatsoever between them. This means that there is no difference whatsoever between the educated and non-educated when both are passing through the cure of illumination on their way to becoming Prophets by glorification.  Superior knowledge  about created reality does not give one any special claim on knowledge of the uncreated. Nor is ignorance about created reality a disadvantage for reaching the highest knowledge of uncreated reality. 
h) Prophets  and  Popes.
 Of the five Roman Patriarchates the Franks captured that of Rome and replaced the Roman Popes with Teutonic Popes by military force during a struggle which began in 983 and ended in 1046. They thus extended their control of Apostolic succession to the Papacy as part of their plans for world dominion. They transformed the Roman Fathers into Greeks and Latins and attached themselves to the latter and so invented the idea of two Christendoms. For Islam the Papacy is still Latin and Frank, and the Patriarchs of New Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem are still Roman.
 Ignorance of who and what the glorified are and why they are second and successors to the Apostles created the void which was filled by the infallibility of the Latin Pope.
i) Prophets  and  Fathers.
 Gregory of Nyssa informs his readers that heresies appear in those churches which have no Prophets. The reason is that their leaders attempt to commune with God by means of meditation and contemplation about Him instead of by illumination and glorification. To confuse one's concepts about God with God is idolatry, not to mention bad scientific method.
 It is about Apostles and Prophets that St. Paul says, "For the spiritual person examines all, but he is examined by no one" (1 Cor. 3:15). The reason for this is that by their glorification in the uncreated glory of God in Christ they became witnesses to the fact that "the leaders of this age" "crucified the Lord of Glory" (1 Cor. 2:8). This is the very same Lord of Glory (the Angel of Great Council), Who calls Himself "He Who Is, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob", the Almighty, the Wisdom of God, the Rock which followed (1 Cor. 10:1-4), which the Old Testament Prophets saw. St. John the Baptist was the first of the Prophets to see this same Lord of Glory in the Flesh. Of course the Jews also, who formally believed in the Lord of Glory, "had they known, would not have crucified the Lord of Glory" (1 Cor. 2:8).
Paul adapts the sayings, "that which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not arisen in the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him", to the crucifixion of the Old Testament Lord of glory, which "God has revealed to us by His Spirit" (1 Cor.3:9-10). Those thus glorified are the only authorities within the Orthodox Church. They produce the doctrinal formulations which serve as guides to the cure of the center of the human personality and as warning signs to stay away from  quack  doctors  who promise much and have nothing to give in preparation for the experience of God's glory in Christ which everyone will finally have.
j) The  Lord  of  Glory  and  the  Ecumenical Councils. 
By Scriptures both Christ and the Apostles meant the Old Testament to which the New Testament was added. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke were edited to serve as pre-baptismal guides during the stages of the purification and the illumination of the inner person in the heart. That Christ is the same Lord of Glory Who revealed Himself to his O. T. Prophets became manifest at His baptism and transfiguration wherein He showed the glory and rule (βασιλεία) of His Father as His own by nature. The Gospel of John was edited for the purpose of continuing one's advance within illumination (John 13:31-16) and press on to glorification (John 17) by which one fully sees the glorification of the Lord of Glory in His Father and the latter in His Son (John 13:31, 18-21). This was the reason why John was called the "spiritual Gospel". 
Those being thus initiated into the Body of Christ did not learn about  the  incarnation,  baptism,  transfiguration,  crucifixion,  death, burial, resurrection, ascension and Pentecostal return of the Lord of Glory in His Spirit's uncreated tongues of fire to become the head of His Body, the Church, by simply studying texts of the Bible. They studied the Bible as an integral part of the process of having their hearts purified, illumined and readied for glorification, in the same Lord of Glory, Who had glorified His Old Testament Prophets, but now in His human nature born from the Virgin Mary.
 It was within this context that the ancient Church identified Christ with the Lord, Angel and Wisdom by Whom God created the world and glorified His friends, the prophets, and by Whom He delivered Israel from bondage and guided her to the time when He Himself became flesh to put an end to the rule of death over His (O. T.) Church (Matt. 16:18). In spite of their glorification the O. T. Prophets died. But now "if one keeps my word, one will never see death" (John 8:52-53). There is now a first resurrection of the inner person (Rev. 20:5) and a second resurrection of the body (Rev. 20:6) and there is also a second death of the body (Rev. 20:14).
Even such heretics as the Arians and Eunomians, condemned by the First and Second Ecumenical Councils, took this identity of Christ with the Old Testament Lord of Glory for granted. However, they claimed that this Angel of Glory was the first creation of God's will from non-being before both time and the ages and not co-eternal with the Father. They used the visibility of the Angel of Glory to the Prophets as proof of His created nature in a way somewhat similar to those Gnostics who identified this Old Testament Angel with their lesser creator god of this supposed evil world and who duped Israel.
The Arians and Eunomians either ignored or rejected the fact that by glorification one becomes god by grace (theosis) and that one therefore sees the uncreated glory and rule (βασιλεία) of God in Christ by means of God Himself. At stake was the fact that God Himself reveals Himself to His glorified friends and not by means of a creature, with the sole exception of the created nature of His Son. Yet the grace and rule (βασιλεία) of illumination  and glory which Christ communicates to His Body the Church is uncreated. The Franco-Latin doctrine that communicated grace is created has no place in the tradition of the Ecumenical Councils.
The reason why the above aspects of the Ecumenical Councils play no role in the Latin and  Protestant histories of doctrine  is the fact that Augustine deviated sharply from Ambrose and the Fathers in his understanding of the appearances of the Logos to the O. T. prophets. His misunderstandings became the core of the Franco-Latin tradition. The Protestant and Latin histories of doctrine, which are aware of Augustine's deviation from this ancient identification of Christ with this Angel of Glory, assume that it was dropped from the tradition because of its usage by the Arians.  However this tradition was preserved intact within the Churches of the Roman Empire and continues to be the heart of the Orthodox tradition. This is the sole context for the Trinitarian and Christological terms: Three substances, one essence and the homoousion of  the Logos with the Father and us. They were and remain meaningless in the Augustinian context.
 Augustine had mistakenly believed that it was only the Arians who identified the Logos with this O. T. Angel of Glory. He was not aware that both Ambrose, the bishop he claims to have opened his Manichaean mind to the Old Testament and baptized him, and all other Fathers did the same. The Arians and Eunomians had argued that proof that the Logos was created was that He was by nature visible to the Prophets, whereas the Father alone was invisible. Augustine had not understood the Biblical experiences of illumination and glorification, which he had  confounded with Neo-Platonic illumination and ecstasy. He relegated glorification to life after death and identified it with the vision of the divine substance which supposedly satisfies man's desire for absolute happiness.  His utilitarian understanding of love made it impossible for him to understand the selfless love of glorification in this life. In this regard he did not differ from the Arians he was attacking.
Within the above Neo-Platonic presuppositions Augustine solved the problem at hand with the following explanation: the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, being equally invisible, supposedly reveal themselves and their messages to the prophets by means of various creatures which they bring into existence to be seen and heard and which they then cause to pass out of existence, such as the glory, cloud, fire, burning bush, etc. God permanently became visible in the human nature of His Son by Whom He communicates messages and concepts. Yet He supposedly also continues to reveal visions and messages by created means which He passes into and out of existence as needed, such as the bird at the baptism of Christ, the tongues of fire of Pentecost, the glory /light /rule (βασιλεία) of God revealed at the transfiguration, the cloud /glory on which Christ went to heaven, the voice of the Father by which He announced His pleasure in His Son, the fire of hell, etc.
These verbal symbols by which the Old and New Testament writers expressed experiences of illumination  and glorification were thus reduced to temporary objects and unbelievable miracles. This became the Franco-Latin tradition to which both Latins and Protestants still basically adhere to.
One of the most remarkable side effects of such misunderstandings is the use of the word “kingdom” which saturates translations of the New Testament and which never once appears in the Greek original. The Greek term "βασιλεία of God" designates  the uncreated rule of God and not the created Kingdom ruled by God.
k) "...do  not  quench  the  Spirit",  (1 Thes. 5:19).
The Holy Spirit advocating in one's heart "with sighs unspoken", (Rom. 8:26) is not in itself membership in the Body of Christ. One must respond with one's own unceasing prayer of one's spirit so that the Spirit of God may testify to our spirit "that we are children of God and co-heirs of Christ, that since we co-suffer that we may also be co-glorified", (Rom. 8:16-17). Although this response is our own, it is also a gift of God. This is exactly what St. Paul presupposes when he commands, "Pray unceasingly... Quench not the Spirit. Do not disregard prophecies". (1 Thes. 5:17-19). Paul is here telling us to take care to remain temples of the Holy Spirit by preserving our spirit's unceasing prayer in the heart that we may become prophets by glorification. This is also why such Fathers as St. John Chrysostom says, "Let us not think that we have become members of the Body once and for all". 
Baptism by water unto forgiveness of sins is an indelible mystery because God's forgiveness for being sick is the given fact for the beginning of cure. However, baptism by the Spirit is not an indelible mystery since one either does have, or does not have, or may lose, unceasing prayer in the heart. Whether one responds or not the Holy Spirit advocates in the heart of every single human being whether he believes in Christ or not. In other words the love of God calls everyone equally but not all respond.
Those who do not respond should not imagine themselves to be temples of the Holy Spirit and members of the Body of Christ and thereby impede others from responding. Those in the state of illumination pray together in their liturgies as temples of the Holy Spirit and members . of the Body of Christ that non-members become members and former members become again members since this was not guaranteed to them by their baptism of water unto forgiveness of sins.
l) The  charisma  of  translation.
At some point in the history of the early Church the charisma of simultaneously translating the psalms and prayers from the heart to the intellect for the corporate worship benefit of the private individuals was replaced by fixed written liturgical texts with fixed points at which laypersons (idiotes) responded with their amen, Kyrie eleison, etc. Also the prayer in the heart was reduced to either a short prayer (e. g. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me the sinner) or a sentence from a psalm (a form found in the desert Fathers of Egypt brought to the West by St.  John Cassian). Otherwise the charismata remained intact.
 Gregory of Tours described  the phenomena of both unceasing prayer and glorification. But having not understood what they are, he described them as miracles and in a confused way. The Franks continued this confusion and  finally  confounded illumination and glorification with Augustine's  Neo-Platonic mysticism,  rightly rejected by most of the Reformation.
SELECTION OF STUDIES ON THE SUBJECTS HEREIN DEALT WITH.
Collection of Patristic Sources on Prayer in the Heart entitled ΦΙΛΟΚΑΛΙΑ (Philokalia),  edited by the Metropolitan of  Corinth, Panteleimon Karanikolas, vol. 1-5, Athens, 1957-1963.
"The Way of a Pilgrim", translated from Russian by R. M. French SPCK London 1942. Translated into Greek by the Metropolitan of Corinth, Panteleimon Karanikolas. The ΦΙΛΟΚΑΛΙA in popular practice.
John S. Romanides, "Original Sin According to St. Paul" in St. Vladimir’s  Quarterly  (in the  original  Georges  Florovsky numbering discontinued by new editors), New York, 1955, vol. IV, nos. 1-2. Paper delivered in 1954 to the faculty of St. Sergius Orthodox Theological School in Paris.
The Ancestral  (original)  Sin,  1st ed.,  Athens  1957;  2nd  ed. Athens 1989, Domos.
"Ecclesiology of St. Ignatius of Antioch", Atlanta 1956: reprinted in The Greek Orthodox Theological Review, Brookline 1961-62, vol. VII, nos. 1-2, pp. 53-77.
“Justin Martyr and the Fourth Gospel,” Greek Orthodox Theological Review  4 (1958): 115-134.
 "Dogmatics", Thessaloniki 1973.
 "Romanity, Romania, Roumeli", Thessaloniki 1975.
 "Critical Examination of the Applications of Theology", in Procθs Verbaux du Deuxiθme Congrθs de Thιologie Orthodoxe tenu ΰ Athθnes 1976, ed. S. C. Agourides, Athens 1978.
"Franks, Romans, Feudalism and Doctrine", Holy Cross Orthodox Press, Brookline 1982.
"Jesus Christ-The Life of the  World",  in Xenia Oecumenica, Helsinki 1983, no. 39, pp. 232-275.
"Justice and Peace in Ecclesiological Context", edited by Gennadios Limouris, in "Come Holy Spirit Renew the Whole Creation", Holy Cross Press, Boston 1990, pp. 234-249.
"Saint Augustin", Les Dossiers H-L' Age d' Homme, editor Patric Ranson, 1988. Of interest on points herein touched upon see studies by Patric Ranson, Emile Zum Brunn, John Romanides, Laurent Motte, Anne Pannier and Alain de Libera.
                                                    END