An Electrifying Miracle

 

Elder Nikolai (Guryanov)

A Russian professor of mathematics came to visit Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) with his English friend, also a professor of mathematics, who was an unbeliever. The Russian friend prayed very much that he would believe. The Englishman said: "If this old man shows me a miracle, then I will believe."

They arrived and met with the elder who led them into his cell and immediately said: "My son, what a miracle for you, to be here." He went to the switch and started clicking: "Here is light, but there is no light. Here is light, but there is no light. Ha-ha-ha!" They laughed, and Father Nikolai sent them home: "Go, my sons, with God, go in peace." The Englishman also laughed saying, "What miracles can there be?" After all, he was a man of science. 

They arrived back to the mainland from the island, and there was a crowd of people gathered, the police, and workers who were dragging some wires. "What happened?" they asked. "For three days now there has been no electricity on the islands." Amazed the scientists immediately turned the boat back to see Elder Nikolai. 

 

The Creation of the World: The Crossroads Between Theology and Science (5 of 5)

...continued from part four.

The matter of the creation of the world is, in itself, a field where the religious and scientific views of the world meet. Any investigation of this ‘world-shattering event’ would certainly involve pausing to remark on the dynamic which is evolving in the ranks of the scientific community. Ideas come and go, arriving and departing, and all the time constantly being tested against observable data[24]. This dimension is of importance when the scientific view is contrasted with the religious concept of creation. The religious concept appears to be static and well-established in sacred texts, which were written when an entirely different world-view prevailed, and in social environments with a completely different educational composition from our own.

Fr. John Romanides on the Creation of the World and Man (2 of 6)

...continued from part one.

E) Recording the Experience of Revelation

- "Revelational experience is formulated in created words and concepts. The God-seeing Prophets, Apostles and Fathers use the perceptions of the people of their era in order to put their experience into words. Their basic teaching is that God created the world and He directs it, but the formulation of the experience in words comes from the knowledge of the period. The teaching is a matter of theology, the wording is a matter of communication. The cosmology of the Old Testament, as regards expression and formulation, is influenced by the Babylonian cosmology of that age. We stress this to avoid any confusion between the theology of the God-seeing saints and the scientific language of each era." (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)