The following, from “the History of the Holy Apostolic Church of Armenia,” by Vartabed M. Muradian, of St. James’ Monastery, at Jerusalem, may show the orthodoxy of the Armenian Church:
“It is sweet and comforting to discourse on the revealed truths of the Bible which is the only foundation of undefiled doctrine, to which always have the holy church-fathers trusted for the defense of faith.
“The Bible teaches concerning God two things: first that God is one and there is no other God beside Him; second, that divine nature is common to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, and these three persons have one Godhead. This is the faith of the Christians in harmony with the manifest words of the Bible. This Trinity is the foundation of the Christian faith, and the three persons have one influence for our salvation, but in different ways of manifesting it; that is, the Father calls and causes us to approach His Son, whom He begat from eternity and prepared His coming. The Son came from heaven and was united with human nature that He might save us from sin and give us eternal life. The Holy Spirit is our regenerator, Who re-establishes in us the likeness of God, making us receptive of the Salvation offered by God.
“The Bible teaches that Christ, on account of His eternal generation from the Father, is called the Son of God, but for His incarnation in time, the Son of Man, brother of men, through whom we obtain the right to call God our Father, and for this reason the Church confesses in the personality of Christ two natures, the divine and the human, distinct and inseparable in their union. This mystery of incarnation is the great mystery of God’s love for the world; and as much of this is incomprehensible and inconceivable by human intelligence, so much is it natural with divine love and omnipotent nature. In this great mystery was the salvation of mankind, for this the entire humanity waited, and, therefore, the law and the prophets in this mystery of incarnation were fulfilled. Because Christ, as the true Messiah, performed prophetic, priestly, and kingly offices, and became for us the true Prophet, true Priest, and true King; teaching the doctrine of redemption, elucidating the past, the present, and the future of mankind, forgiving and redeeming us through the sacrifice of Himself and reigning over us with a heavenly and spiritual kingdom.
“The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit proceeds and flows from the Father, not as a common influence of God, but as a person of the Holy Trinity, infinite, eternal, a true God. But with respect to us the Holy Spirit is the Fountain of God’s union with man, and the seal by which we are known as Christians; because without the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in us, His help and guidance we are alive only (carnally), for the Holy Spirit is co-worker with the Father and the Son for our salvation; and as the manifestation of God through (or in) Christ to the world is called REDEMPTION, so also the revelation of God through the Holy Spirit is denominated REGENERATION and SANCTIFICATION.
“At this present day there is not a book like the Bible from which the intellectual world has been able to derive so much good for the real well-being and progress of human society. There is not a book, and cannot be, that is translated into so many languages and is distributed so extensively as the Bible. Our immortal translators felt this great want and they began the first step of the nation’s enlightenment and progress by the translation and study of the Holy Scriptures, and this translation is so choice, that with various praises bestowed upon it by the European scholars of the present century, who know the Armenian language, it is called the ‘Queen of Versions.’ But we will be giving a still greater praise to our forefathers if we generalize the study of the Holy Scriptures among our people and rear the edifice of education upon that solid foundation of the Word of God.”[61]
By no means should the reader think that the writer is partial in not telling something of the superstitions, formalism, and ignorance still in existence and practice among the Armenians and in their church. These have often been written and spoken of, even with a great deal of lack of knowledge and charity. Had those writers on these aspects of the Armenian Church and people remembered that for almost sixteen centuries this Church has been in constant conflict with paganism, Zoroastrianism, Mohammedanism, and the evil influences of the so-called other Christian Churches, they would not have been so severe in their denunciations of that old relic of the ancient Christian Church. Often were the bishops and priests in the battlefield with their flocks against the enemy of the Church. Often were they in chains, in imprisonment, in hostage at the pagan, Mohammedan and so-called Christian Courts; often were they carried away into captivity and massacred by their captors because they would not denounce their faith in Christ. In the massacre of 1895-6 not one out of one hundred and seventy Armenian priests and twenty-one Protestant Armenian ministers, who were cruelly butchered by a slow torture for their faith, was willing to exchange his Christian faith for his life. The same was true for centuries. How could they give more attention than they did to the education and enlightenment of their people and to the purity of the Church? Even to-day the best intellects of the Armenian church, the educators and lovers of reform and the purity of the Church and the people have been butchered by the unspeakable Turks with the consent of their allies or have chosen voluntary exile. Certainly these circumstances will not justify the condition of the church, but they ought to modify the severity of our judgment and fill us with a deeper sympathy, with a truer Christian love and activity for its reform, purity, and spiritual prosperity. (See Chapter XV.)
FOOTNOTES:
[53] Ubicini, “Letters on Turkey,” Vol. II, pp. 256-7.
[54] Muradian, “The History of the Apostolic Church of Armenia,” p. 35. (This work is in the Armenian language.)