On Orthodox Faith & the Law of Attraction

Introduction

On Faith

Faith is central to our modern world. We put faith in our governments, and our institutions to do what they say they will do. We put faith in our cars, buses, and bicycles to get us where we need to go. We have faith that everyday gravity will continue to work as it has thus far. We have faith that mathematics will stay consistent as we build buildings, bridges, and roads. We place our faith in many things, and what we choose to believe in is determined by how we see the world. I am an Orthodox Christian, and therefore my worldview starts with the presupposition that One God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, created the world out of nothing (ex nihilo) and He has revealed Truth to us through the Holy Spirit by way of our inspired Scriptures and Holy Traditions of the Church.

As one studies our Scriptures, otherwise known as the Bible, they will read about the history of the world, why we’re here and where we’re going. One will learn what faith truly is, how to have it, and how to act in it. We also read stories of prominent figures and promised peoples faltering, and repeating similar faithless acts across time. From the Patriarch Abraham to Isaac, Sarah to Rachel, and generation upon generation of Israelites. 

In the book of Genesis, we read that God told Abraham (still named Abram at this point) He would make a great nation out of him, and that Abraham’s name would be made great. A few verses later, we read that when Abraham went down into Egypt to survive a famine, he lied to the Egyptians about his wife, Sarah. He claimed that Sarah was his sister, fearing someone would kill him to take her for a wife because she was very beautiful. Since Sarah was reportedly unmarried, Pharaoh sent for her to stay in his palace. To protect Sarah’s innocence God intervened by inflicting diseases on Pharaoh and his household. This isn’t the last time Abraham acts faithlessly to God.

Further on in Genesis, we read that God had made a covenant with Abraham (still named Abram at this point) and promised that Sarah would bear him a child. While staying in the land of Gerar, Abraham again feared for his life because of Sarah’s beauty. Again, he claimed Sarah was his sister to the people, as he did in Egypt, and since Sarah was reportedly unmarried, King Abimelek took Sarah for himself. God again intervened to keep Sarah from defilement. We might read this and wonder why Abraham didn’t learn from the first instance in Egypt that God would protect their lives and fulfill His promises, but we’ll answer this later. We read a similar story about Abraham’s son, Isaac.

Scripture reveals to us that God told Isaac He would be with him and that He would multiply his offspring. Later, while staying in the land of Gerar to survive a famine, Isaac feared the people would kill him to take his wife, Rebekah. To save himself Isaac lied to the people and claimed Rebekah was his sister. Rebekah wasn’t taken by King Abimelek, but by the Grace of God, from a window the king witnessed Isaac caressing Rebekah in seclusion, proving them to be husband and wife. It’s interesting that Isaac repeated the exact same faithless act as his father did before him. Isaac should have trusted in God’s ability to protect him just as God protected Abraham twice, but instead, he took it upon himself to protect his life how he saw fit. The Patriarchs of our faith weren’t the only ones committing parallel acts of faithlessness.

By the time of this next example, Abraham and Sarah were given God’s promise to make a great nation out of Abraham and make his name great. Sarah, however, claimed that the Lord had kept her from having children. To solve this issue, she trusted in her own wisdom and decided to give Hagar, her handmaiden, to Abraham to start their family. Despite this faithless act and its consequences, God fulfilled His promise, and Sarah gave birth to Isaac. If Sarah would have been faithful to God, she wouldn’t have substituted her body for another but would have rather waited patiently on Him. Just as Isaac repeated Abraham’s sin, Jacob’s wife, Rachel, repeated Sarah’s sin.

Rachel was jealous of Leah, her sister, for conceiving many children while Rachel couldn’t bear any of her own. Instead of having faith in God’s ability to open her womb, as He did with Sarah, she turned to her own wisdom like Sarah and in the same manner. Rachel gave her servant to Jacob to produce children on her behalf. Leah then followed suit, giving Zilpah, her handmaiden, to Jacob, to bear more children on her behalf to keep up with her sister. Despite this, God allowed Rachel to conceive a child, and she gave birth to Joseph. In all five acts mentioned above, we see that these great figures of the Bible act without faith in God and His promises. Paralleled acts of faithlessness are not only found in individuals of the Bible, but in entire generations.

Throughout the Old Testament, there’s a common theme of generations upon generations of Israelites turning away from God to idolatry. In the book of Exodus, we read that Moses was on Mount Sinai conversing with God for forty days and forty nights when the people of Israel, who were around the mountain, gave up on him and God. In their faithlessness, they asked Aaron to make them gods to go before them. Aaron indeed fashioned a golden calf for the people, and they worshipped it as the god of Israel who brought them out of Egypt even after all God had miraculously done for them.

God in His omniscience knew that the people had turned away from Him towards other gods, and saw them as they bowed down and sacrificed to the idol they made with their hands. God told Moses to leave the mountain so that He may destroy the people, saying that then He will make a great nation out of Moses, but Moses found favor with the Lord and interceded on their behalf. God relented on bringing their disaster. This won’t be the last generation we read losing faith in God and turning to idols.

Before Moses passed away, he passed on his authority over Israel to Joshua. Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land and was a great leader over God’s people. Throughout Joshua’s lifetime and even those of the elders who outlived him, the people served the Lord. However, the generation that followed served Baal and the Ashtoreths, they forsook God, just as the generation under Moses did when they turned to the golden calf. In turn, God delivered the people into the hands of raiders who afflicted them, but when the people cried out for Help, God would raise up a Judge to deliver them. The rest of the Old Testament history follows this same cycle of faithlessness, punishment, repentance, and deliverance throughout the time of the Judges. These many examples between individuals and generations teach us about what faith is not. Now let’s briefly look at what Scripture teaches us faith is.

The entire eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews explains to us what faith is. Faith is the subsistence of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.[1] St. John Chrysostom wrote, “For it is said there is ‘proof’ in the case of things that are very plain. Faith, he means then, is the seeing of things not plain, and brings those things not seen to the same full assurance with what are seen.”[2] On faith in the Scriptures being our proof of God, Clement of Alexandria wrote in his work, Stromateis, “He, then, that believes in the Divine Scriptures with firm judgment, receives, in the voice of God, who gave the Scriptures, an unquestionable proof. Nor by proof does faith become more firm. Blessed, therefore, are those who have not seen and yet have believed [John 20:29].’”[3]

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.[4] By faith, the Elders were approved by testimony.[5] Faith is proven by its fruit of action, and without action is dead.[6] Faith is perfected through good works.[7] Faith and works cannot be separated unto salvation. Lest we boast in these good works as if they are done of our own ability, St. Paul tells the Ephesians that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.[8] Therefore, our good works are wrought through God, and the strength to do them is a gift of the Spirit.[9]

If one believes they have faith in God, even verbally affirms it, confessing it with our mouths, but they act contrarily to God’s commandments and statutes, then they are in error and do not truly have faith. If one says and believes that they have faith in God’s Wisdom, yet act according to their own human reasoning instead, then they are actually faithless to God. If one believes they have faith in God in their heart but sits idly through their life without using their talents, then their faithlessness may cast them into the outer darkness.[10] For Christ Jesus said, “[A]nd why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say,”[11] and another time said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”[12]

To explain faith in another way, imagine your friend is in front of you holding a wooden step-ladder. The ladder appears to be structurally sound, but you really can’t tell without inspecting the ladder yourself, which you haven’t done. He promises you that the ladder is sturdy, and asks you to take a step onto it. You say okay, but you don’t take a step onto the ladder. Your friend accuses you of not having faith in him. You explain to him that you have faith in your heart. Your choice of action, or rather inaction, proved the faithlessness in your heart despite what you claim is there. If you truly had faith, then you would have taken that step, and that action would have perfected your faith. Living faith includes action, as St. James tells us.[13] Likewise, if we say we have faith in God, we must act in faith and step in accordance with His word. As St. Paul says, it’s not the hearers of the law, but the doers who will be declared righteous.[14]

After understanding what faith is, and comparing it to the stories from Scripture above, we may ask, how could such a Patriarch as Abraham, whom God called friend, or Isaac who was the child of promise, or such Matriarchs as Sarah, Rachel, and Leah have acted in such ways? How could a group that God chose to be His Covenant people repeatedly turn away from Him, even after these same peoples witnessed many miracles of God?

It’s easy to sit back today and coldly examine the actions of these Holy men and women. We must not forget that they were real people who fail just as we do. The Fathers of the Church teach us that we are to see ourselves in the Scriptures as we read them. Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia wrote, “We are to say to ourselves, ‘These are not just distant places, events in the remote past. They belong to my own encounter with the Lord. The stories include me.’”[15]

When we see the sins of the people in Scripture, we see a reflection of our own sins. We also forget God’s intervention in our times of trouble and act faithlessly. We also act with our own understanding, and just as the Israelites in the desert, tempt God by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”[16] On this idea, St. Justin Popovich wrote, “The biography of every man – everyone without exception – is found in the Bible. In it each of us can find himself portrayed and thoroughly described in detail: all those virtues and vices which you have and can have and cannot have.”[17]

When we read about Abraham and Isaac in the above situations, we see ourselves lying to others out of fear, lacking faith in God’s ability to protect us. When we read about Sarah and Rachel, we see ourselves faithlessly attempting to fulfill God’s promises in ways our clouded minds find reasonable. When we read about the Israelites turning away from God towards idols in times of peace, we see ourselves ignoring our prayer lives, disregarding Church for other activities, and placing material things above God as idols in peaceful times of our lives. God is faithful to us through our failures; we must be faithful to Him.

Circa the 1^st century A.D., St. Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, “Why was our father Abraham blessed? Was it not because of his deeds of justice and truth, wrought in faith? … We, therefore, who have been called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, neither by our wisdom or understanding or piety, nor by the works we have wrought in holiness of heart, but by the faith by which almighty God has justified all men from the beginning: To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. What, then shall we do, brethren? Shall we cease from good works, and shall we put an end to love? May the Master forbid that such should ever happen among us; rather, let us be eager to perform every good work earnestly and willingly.”[18]

As we continue to study the Scriptures, let us read with love for those who came before us, seeing our failures reflected in theirs. St. Paul wrote, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”[19] Just as we see the vices we may have when reading Scriptures, as St. Justin said above, we also read of the virtues we may attain, such as faith in God. Let us now look to three different people who we can look to for imitating perfect faith.

Returning to the life of Father Abraham, we see one of the greatest tests of faith in the Old Testament. After all the events we’ve already mentioned, God delivered on His promise to Abraham, giving him a son by Sarah; Isaac, the child of promise. In a surprising sequence of events (surprising only to us, not to God), God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, as a burnt offering. Abraham could have protested, tried to convince God otherwise, or ignored God’s request, but he did none of these things. He had faith that God could raise the dead.[20]

He loaded his donkey early the next morning and set out to obey the Lord. Just as good works are necessary for faith, the right intention of the heart is necessary for the work to be good. If Abraham’s actions aren’t enough to prove his faithfulness in God to the reader, then his words will prove his heart’s intent. Isaac asked where the offertory lamb was for their sacrifice, and Abraham prophetically responded, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” [21] Abraham lifted the knife, yet just before plunging it into his son, God stopped Abraham from slaying Isaac. God provided a ram caught in a thicket as the offering that day. God responded to Abraham’s faithfulness with blessings:

“And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, by Myself have I sworn saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou has obeyed my voice.”[22]

According to the line of that seed of Abraham, in the vein of that promise through Isaac, we turn next to the faith of the Theotokos (Gk. Mother of God), and ever-Virgin Mary. From a very young age, she was filled with grace and granted Divine Gifts, and entered the temple after being weaned from milk. She even entered the Holy of Holies, not just once, growing in years and purity so that she may contain the uncontainable in her womb, that is, the Son of God.[23] She gave herself over to God and faithfully bent her will to His, receiving what she never thought to desire, and giving birth to the Author of our Salvation. In a homily on the Annunciation, St. Nicholas Cabasilas said:

“The incarnation was not only the work of the Father, by His power and by His spirit, but it was also the work of the will and faith of the Virgin. Without the consent of the Immaculate, without the agreement of her faith, the plan was as unrealizable as it would have been without the intervention of the three divine Persons Themselves. It was only after having instructed her and persuaded her that God took her for His Mother and borrowed from her the flesh, that She so greatly wished to lend Him. Just as He became incarnate voluntarily, so He wished that His Mother should bear Him freely and with her full consent.”[24]

We can look to the Virgin Mary for a human example of emblematic faith that we may ourselves aspire to. Vladimir Lossky wrote, “She was not holy in virtue of a privilege, of an exemption from the destiny common to all humanity, but because she has been kept from all taint of sin though without any impairment of her liberty. On the contrary, it was above all an expression of her liberty, and of the human response to the will of God.”[25]

Our final example of faith is found in the Person who is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, in that by his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed, namely our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was fully God and fully Man, being one Person with two natures, and two wills. In the garden of Gethsemane, our Lord knew that the time had come for Him to offer Himself up for us on the Cross. The Gospels tell us that Jesus felt sadness in His soul, even unto death,[26] He felt sorrow,[27] and agony, even unto sweating like drops of blood.[28] His human Will reacted in this way, but His divine Will remained impassible.

With His human will he yearned for self-preservation, and so He asked the Father that if it were according to His Will, that that cup be taken from Him. Yet, in condescension to our understanding, Jesus denied His own human will, and subjected it to His Divine Will, saying, “nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done.”[29] In this faithful act of subjecting His human will to that of His Divine Will, He teaches us to put our faith in God’s Providential care even against our self-preservation. In return for this faithful act in His human will to that of His Divinity, an angel came to Him from heaven and strengthened Him.

To this point, St. John Chrysostom wrote, “For this cause also was this prayer. By saying, ‘If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me [Matt. 26:39],’ He showed His humanity; but by saying, ‘However, not as I will, but as Thou wilt [Ib.],’ He showed His virtue and self-possession, instructing us even when nature pulls us back to follow God. Words alone did not suffice. Deeds are joined with words, that it might be believed that He both became Man and died. See by how many things He shows the reality of the Incarnation.”[30]

Vladimir Lossky wrote, “The two natural wills in the person of the God-Man could not enter into conflict. The prayer of Gethsemane was an expression of horror in the face of death, a reaction proper to all human nature, especially to an incorrupt nature which should not submit to death, and for whom death could only be a voluntary rending contrary to nature.”[31]

Commenting on this, St. Gregory the Theologian said, “For in His character of the Logos He was neither obedient nor disobedient. For such expressions belong to servants, and inferiors …. But, in the character of the form of a servant, He condescends to His fellow servants, nay, to His servants, and takes upon Him a strange form, bearing all me and mine in Himself, that in Himself He may exhaust the bad, as fire does wax, or as the sun does the mists of earth …. Thus He honors obedience by His action, and proves it experimentally by His Passion. For to possess the disposition is not enough, just as it would not be enough for us, unless we also proved it by our acts; for action is the proof of disposition.”[32]

Lastly, St. Nicholas Cabasilas wrote, “Just as Christ subjected His human will to His divine will in order that He might leave us an example of the right life, so He did not refuse death on behalf of the world when it was necessary to die. But before the time came He prayed that it might not happen, showing that He did not please Himself by the things which He suffered, but as Paul says, ‘He became obedient’ (Phil. 2:8) and went to the cross, not as though He had one will, or one compounded of two, but rather the agreement of two wills.”[33]

We now have plenty of examples as to what it means to act with and without faith in God. As Orthodox Christians, we can choose to act in faith such as Abraham, the Theotokos, and our Lord Jesus did, putting the Divine Will above our own human will and relying on His providence. We can also choose to act faithlessly, as the Israelites did, and turn towards outward idols, or make an idol out of ourselves; following our own will and reasoning as Abraham, Isaac, Sarah, and Rachel did. In the modern world, there are many philosophies that we could faithlessly turn to and fall into material idolatry and self-worship, placing our will above God’s. The Law of Attraction is one such philosophy.

The most basic explanation of the Law of Attraction is that whatever our mind focuses on, it attracts. High-frequency thoughts attract positive things like success, and low-frequency thoughts bring negativity, such as sickness, into our life. This is possible because the mind is a powerhouse that naturally co-creates our reality with the universe.

Methods that help in using the Law of Attraction for a good life is practicing gratefulness to the universe, or source. One could practice visualizing what we want with excitement. A vision board would help, which is you cut out pictures of things you want and paste them to a board and place it somewhere in your house where you’ll see it daily to train the subconscious on the items. Making a list of positive ‘I Am’ affirmations, and reading them daily. Practicing mindfulness by focusing on the flow of your conscious thoughts, and eliminating the negative thoughts that come. It’s also imperative to cut out negative items and people from your life.

Some claim the LOA is a natural law given to us by the God of the Abrahamic religions. Some believe it’s a blind law that emanates from the impersonal, universal source. Others believe that it’s a scientific law, like gravity. In all cases, taking advantage of this law is how one may purportedly develop a life of health, wealth, joy, and abundance. If one ignores the law, or uses affirmations incorrectly by mixing positive and negative words, saying for instance, “I am not poor,” then they will lead a life of sickness, poverty, sadness, and scarcity.

In the following chapters, we’ll go through the major claims of the Law of Attraction, the worldview it comes from, and its presuppositions. We will compare them to the Orthodox Christian worldview, and by the end of this book, the reader will understand how and why the Law of Attraction is incompatible with Orthodox Christianity.

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[1] Hebrews 11:1 LXX

[2] St. John Chrysostom as quoted in Holy Apostles Convent, The Orthodox New Testament. Ninth Edition. Vol. 2. (Buena Vista, Colorado: Holy Apostles Convent, 2016), p. 426.

[3] Clement of Alexandria as quoted in William A. Jurgens, “Stromateis or Miscellanies,” Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 1, § 417 (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1970), pp. 181-182.

[4] Hebrews 11:6

[5] Ibid. 11:2

[6] James 2:26

[7] Ibid. 2:22

[8] Ephesians 2:9-10

[9] Ibid. 2:8

[10] Matthew 25:14-30

[11] Luke 6:46

[12] John 14:15

[13] James 2:22

[14] Romans 2:13

[15] Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, “How to Read the Bible,” Orthodox Church in America, accessed December 19, 2020, Https://www.oca.org/scripture/how-to-read-the-bible.

[16] Genesis 17:7 LXX

[17] Archimandrite Justin Popovich of Chelije, “How to Read the Bible and Why,” Orthodox Christian Information Center, accessed December 19, 2020, http://orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/bible_how.aspx.

[18] St. Clement of Rome as quoted in William A. Jurgens, “Letter to the Corinthians,” Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 1, §§ 15, 16 (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1970), p. 9.

[19] Romans 15:4

[20] Hebrews 11:19

[21] Genesis 22:8

[22] Ibid. 22:15-18

[23] St. Gregory Palamas, “Sermon on the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple,” Orthodox Church in America, accessed July 24, 2021, https://www.oca.org/fs/sermons/sermon-on-the-entry-of-the-theotokos.

[24] St. Nicholas Cabasilas in Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church,  (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1976), p. 141.

[25] Ibid., 141

[26] Matthew 26:37-38

[27] Mark 14:34

[28] Luke 22:44

[29] Luke 22:42

[30] St. John Chrysostom as quoted in Holy Apostles Convent, The Orthodox New Testament. Ninth Edition. Vol. 2. (Buena Vista, Colorado: Holy Apostles Convent, 2016), p. 415.

[31] Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church,  (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1976), p. 147.

[32] St. Gregory the Theologian as quoted in Holy Apostles Convent, The Orthodox New Testament. Ninth Edition. Vol. 2. (Buena Vista, Colorado: Holy Apostles Convent, 2016), p. 416.

[33] Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ, trans. Carmino J. DeCatanzaro, (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press), § 15, p. 226.

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