Icon of the Resurrection

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The Icon of the Resurrection presents Jesus destroying Hades and building His Church. He stands triumphantly upon a figure lying prone in the darkness – the personification of Death, conquered, bound and defeated. He is building His Church by raising Adam from the dead. Death is defeated and the gates of Hades have not prevailed, but are now shattered by His descent and have fallen in the form of a cross. Trampling down death by His death, Jesus leaves Hades in utter chaos, littering it with broken locks and chains. Jesus pulls the first man, Adam, from the tomb by his wrist, not by his hand, because Adam cannot help pull himself out of this prison of death. Eve, to the left of Adam, holds her hands out in supplication, waiting for Jesus to raise her too. Various kings, prophets and righteous men who immediately recognize the Risen One look on from the right. Here is pictured the restoration of Adam and of all humanity into communion with God. “To earth hast Thou come down, O Master, to save Adam: and not finding him on earth, Thou hast descended into Hades, seeking him there" (from Paschal Matin of the Orthodox Church). Christ’s descent into Hades is the utter extreme end of His kenosis that in turn makes way for our Theosis.

Also see Church Year, Hades, Kenosis and Theosis.

Individual Governance

Individual governance, in contrast to collective governance, is governing authority exercised in an individual or private capacity by men and women created in God’s image as individuals. This is in contrast to the collective role of elders who exercise collective governance.

Also see Collective Governance, Council, and “Governing Roles of Men and Women in Basileia.”

Infant Baptism

Infant baptism is the New Covenant practice rooted in the Church’s Apostolic Rule of Faith, which carries forward and adapts the Old Covenant practice of infant circumcision. Because mankind is created in God’s image as a covenantal being with both an individual and a collective nature (Gen. 1:27), Basileia rejects the false dichotomy between individual and collective expressions of faith. Biblical faith is covenantal faith, which means that it is a faith greater and more holistic than even the sum of its individual and collective expressions. Thus, infant baptism, no less the Liturgy or the Eucharist, if these are all regarded as “collective” expressions of faith, is not a substitute for, in competition with, or a violation of “individual” expressions, professions and confessions of faith. Abraham did not respond in faith to God’s blessing (i.e., God’s gift of salvation) only as an individual, but he at the same time also placed his entire household under the covenant by means of the Old Covenant sign of circumcision (Gen. 17:23; cf. Ex. 12:43-48). Abraham’s faith response to God’s initiative was covenantal, that is, both individual and collective. Thus, Basileia positively affirms that God’s high and loving intension, as witnessed to by the Apostolic Rule of Faith, is for parents today to place their entire household, including their infant children, under the covenant by means of the New Covenant sign of baptism (Acts 10:38; 16:15; 16:30-34; 1 Cor. 1:16; also, consider Acts 18:8 together with 1 Cor. 1:14). God’s blessing is not merely a salvation limited to life in heaven after we die, but is the power of His divine life at work in and through us that makes Word flesh, resulting in us, His Church, becoming totus Christus, the dwelling of God with mankind on earth now and in the ages to come. The greater thing that infant baptism, just like adult believer baptism, brings into visible, actual, cultural form is the Church, the divinely ordained covenantal environment in which salvation in all of its individual and collective expressions is alone possible.

Also see Baptism, “The Capital C Church,” The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism, and Rite of Incorporation.

Interpret the Word

Interpreting the Word according to the Apostolic Rule of Faith is the practice of authoritatively embodying the Word in our individual and collectives lives in such a way that when people see us they see Jesus. Basileians are Pattern-Keepers who, in our primary discipline of listening to the Word, integrate the practice of interpreting the Word according to the Apostolic Rule of Faith with following the Lectionary in rhythm with the Church Year with and observing the Constitution of Basileia.

Also see Listen, One-Source View, and Pattern-Keepers.