St.Theophan the Recluse. WHY ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY SHOULD NOT CHANGE WITH THE TIMES.

 St.Theophan the Recluse

It reached my ears that, as it seems, you consider my sermons very strict and believe that today no one should think this way, no one should be living this way and therefore, no one should be teaching this way. “Times have changed!”


How glad I was to hear this. This means that you listen carefully to what I say, and not only do you listen, but you are also willing to abide by it. What more could we hope for, we who preach as we were ordered and as much we were ordered?


Despite all this, in no way can I agree with your opinion. I even consider it my duty to comment on it and to correct it, since – even though it perhaps goes against your desire and conviction – it comes from something sinful, as though Christianity could alter its doctrines, its canons, its sanctifying ceremonies to answer to the spirit of each age and adjust itself to the changing tastes of the sons of this century, as though it could add or subtract something.

Yet, it is not so. Christianity must remain eternally unchanging, in no way being dependent on or guided by the spirit of each age. Instead, Christianity is meant to govern and direct the spirit of the age for anyone who obeys its teachings. To convince you of this, I will put forward some thoughts for you to consider.
 
Some said that my teaching is strict. First of all, my teaching is not my own, nor it should be. In this sacred office nobody should, nor even can, preach his own teaching. If I or someone else ever dare to do so, you can put us outside the Church.

We preach the teachings of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of the holy Apostles, and the Holy Church, which is guided by the Holy Spirit. At the same time, we make sure to do everything possible to keep these teachings whole and inviolate in your minds and hearts. Every thought we present and every word we use, we do so very carefully, so as not to overshadow this brilliant and divine teaching in any way. Nobody can act differently.


...a single raising of your mind to God, and a single humble genuflexion to His glory and in His honor has infinitely more value than all the treasures of the world... --St Nicodemos and Theophan the Recluse (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 20)

Metropolitan Augoustinos (Kantiotes) of Florina-On New Heresies

New Heresies by +Metropolitan Augoustinos (Kantiotes) of Florina[1]

“We will not deny you, beloved Orthodoxy” – Joseph Vryennios (St. Mark of Ephesus’ spiritual father)

Of late, certain theologians, under the influence of contemporary, world-wide currents, have begun to savour the words “ecumenicity”, “ecumenical spirit”, and “ecumenical movement”, as if they were hard-candy.  Ecumenicity; what a beautiful word!  And yet, behind these words, lay hidden a most fearful danger for Orthodoxy.  What is this danger?  We will show you by means of an example.

Imagine a woman, a woman faithful to her husband, a woman who will allow no third party to enter into their relationship, ever mindful of the promises which she had made before God and before men.  She is a woman of exceptional beauty, drawing the eye of many a man.  On account of her uprightness, however, anyone who dares to touch, or to proposition her, immediately meets with her anger.  Should such a one persist, this honourable woman will deliver a strong slap to his face in order bring him to his senses.

Those men who are learned in this vile business, however, will try another method.  These will try to uncover what it is that this woman likes; does she perhaps love poetry, or philosophy, or art?  By means of these things the secret admirer will trap her.  With great deftness he will begin having innocent conversations with her on those subjects that are beloved to her.  “What a wonderful poem!”; “What a beautiful painting!”; “What a wonderful play!”; “How sweet a piece of music!”  And thus begins the dialogue.  Gradually the unsuspecting woman is lured into longer conversations with the deceiver who, while his tongue speaks of philosophy and art, his heart leaps at the hope of taking the woman for himself.  Finally, after an air of great familiarity and mutual understanding has been achieved through these conversations, the door is opened to the foul deed, the shameful union.  Just as the most-evil serpent succeeded in beguiling Eve by means of a simple conversation, in like manner the seed of shameful union was sown.

Did you catch what we are trying to say, beloved?  We have spoken in a parable.

The woman concerning which we have spoken is our Orthodox Church.  She is this beauty.  She is the woman who, according to the Book of Revelation is “clothed in the Sun”, who wears “upon her head a crown of twelve stars”, and who has “the moon under her feet”.[2]  It is the Orthodox Church which has remained faithful to the Lord, to the eternal bridegroom.  It is she who has kept pure the tradition of the Lord and of the Apostles – both written and unwritten – in accordance with the God-inspired call to, “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”[3]  It is she, the Orthodox Church, which for nineteen centuries has fought the hard and bloody battle against various deceptions, against the various heresies which have sought to pollute and corrupt her holiness.  One of the worst of these heresies is Papism, which, on account of its delusions, its authoritarian spirit, and its atrocities, caused the rise of Protestantism and the fracturing of all of Christendom.  Yes, the Papists are heretics.  The enemies of the Orthodox Church, including Papism to be sure, know well that she has persevered in the faith of her Fathers.  Yet, having been persuaded through many examples that they cannot conquer that fortress which is Orthodoxy by means of a frontal attack, these enemies have recently begun trying by other means.  They have begun a new war, a war of peace, a war worse than the Crusades.  Do you not hear the voice of the serpent, seeking to corrupt the minds of Orthodoxy, leading us away from our simplicity?[4]

Here is what the serpent says:  O, Orthodox Church!  Why do you keep your distance?  Why are you afraid of me?  I am no dragon; I am a sweet angel bearing the message of love.  I am not going to hurt you.  Keep your dogmas and your traditions. Leave these things to the theologians…I invite you into my room to discuss other matters.  Let us make a common stand against hunger, against poverty, against atheism, against communism, against war.  Do these matters not move you?  Does this proposition not excite you?  Come then, let us begin our conversation on high, on the level of ecumenicity, on the level of mutual understanding.  You will see just how beautiful our coming together can be!

O, Orthodox Church!  Our suffering mother!  Will you accept this proposition?  Will you enter into dialogue with Papism?  Can you not see the danger inherent in this proposition?  That those who ineptly and unworthily represent you are creating conditions favorable to your enemies to such a fearful degree that you, without even taking notice, will fall into the arms of Papism.  And what will follow then?  A union, a pseudo-union, spiritual adultery, a most vile act; something which ought never to have occurred, and which will require centuries of repentance from those Orthodox who played the role of pimp for the Orthodox Church.  The hour will come when these will sigh and say:  “Let the language which we spouted concerning ‘ecumenicity’ and ‘mutual understanding’ cease; let these feet which ran to bring together Orthodoxy and wolves in sheep’s clothing become leprous; let these hands which signed ecumenical epistles and documents fall off!”

This, my beloved, is the famous ‘theory of ecumenicity’ which our leaders savour!

 

We repeat: the Ecumenical Movement, under whose umbrella gather all manner of heresies, represents a danger to the Orthodox Church.  It deprecates the importance of the dogmas which, having been miraculously articulated in the brief definitions of the Ecumenical Councils, and which are the skeleton, the backbone without which the body becomes a limp and formless lump.  It deprecates the Holy Canons, which the ecumenists call obsolete, rusty weapons.  To put it concisely, the ecumenists deprecate the Orthodox Church as a whole, saying that it is self-centered, that it is a blasphemy for us to consider her to be the one true Church, possessing the genuine truth of Divine Revelation.  Within this context the dogmas and the moral life, inseparably joined in the Orthodox Church, tend to evaporate, leaving behind nothing but a fraudulent version of love.  The theory of ecumenicity, the theory which calls all different peoples to live together in the name of some tenuous peace, a theory supported within worldly and political circles in our century and which has already been applied to the spiritual sphere where compromise is unacceptable, will ultimately lead to conflict and turmoil, truly, to Babel.

Leaven, if it becomes contaminated, loses its ability to make things rise; Orthodoxy, the most excellent leaven, the leaven of truth, is capable of leavening the whole lump, but only so long as it remains unpolluted by foreign ingredients, so long as it remains pure.  For this reason the followers of this theory of ecumenicity are the enemies of Orthodoxy.  For this reason we do not hesitate to call this movement – the Ecumenical movement – a new heresy, from which the Orthodox Church must be protected.

In conclusion, during these critical moments when the Orthodox Church stands in danger, we call out to the faithful from our own watchtower:  “Orthodox faithful!  Remember that Church, of which you are children.  Remember the rivers of blood our Fathers spilt to keep our Faith unadulterated; not one iota did they permit to be subtracted or added to our Faith.  Remember the rallying cry of the heroes of the Revolution of 1821.  These men – may their memory be eternal – struggled first for the faith, and then for their homeland.  All of these heroes and martyrs – known and unknown – call to us from their graves:  “Stand firm upon the bulwark of Orthodoxy!”

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[1]      This article may be found under the title, “Νέα Άιρεσις” in the book, “Πνευματικά Σαλπίσματα Ορθοδόξου Ζωής και  Ομολογίας” (Thessalonki:  2008), 109-114.
[2]      Revelation 12:1-2.
[3]      2 Thessalonians 2:15.
[4]     See 2 Corinthians 11:3.  “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

True Christianity Is a Struggle..

By Archbishop Averky.


Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (Mk 8:34). 

 

The Great Fast is a season of repentance; and repentance is that struggle to contend against sinful passions and lusts which is so difficult for man that the Lord, the Judge of the contest Himself, likened it to the bearing of a cross. We are vividly reminded of this at the very midpoint of the Great Fast, on the Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross. Just as the Lord bore the Cross for the sake of our salvation, so each of us must bear “his cross” in order to attain the salvation prepared for us by the Lord.

Without the cross, without struggle, there can be no salvation! This is what true Christianity teaches. The teaching on struggle, on the bearing of the cross, runs like a scarlet thread through all the Sacred Scriptures and all of the history of the Church; and the lives of those holy ones who were pleasing unto God, the spiritual athletes of Christian piety, clearly bear witness to this. The Great Fast is merely an annually repeated exercise in the bearing of one’s cross in this life, an exercise in spiritual struggle inseparably bound up with the entire life of the true Christian.

But now, in the twentieth century of the Christian era, “wise men” have appeared—“neo-Christians,” as some of them refer to themselves—who do not wish to hear of this. They preach a new sort of saccharine, sentimental, rosy-hued neo-Christian love and the unrestricted enjoyment of all the delights of this transitory earthly life. They totally ignore the innumerable passages in Holy Writ which forcefully and eloquently speak of spiritual struggles, of emulating Christ the Savior in crucifying oneself, of the many sorrows which await the Christian in this life, beginning with the words which Christ the Savior Himself addressed to His disciples at the Mystical Supper: In the world ye shall have tribulation. (Jn 16:33). And this is because, as the Lord Himself explained, true Christians are not of the world (Jn 15:19), since the whole world lieth in wickedness (I Jn 5:19). This is why Christians must not love this world and the things that are in the world (I Jn 2:15); the friendship of the world is enmity with God, and whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (Jas 4:4).

These modern “wise men” somehow fail to see that the Word of God nowhere promises Christians full spiritual satisfaction and paradisical blessedness in this earthly life. Quite the contrary; it emphasizes that life on earth will move further and further away from the Law of God; that, in respect to morality, men will fall lower and lower (II Tim 3:1-5); that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived (II Tim 3:12-13); and that, finally, the earth also and the works therein shall be burned up. (II Pet 3:10). But there will appear new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (II Pet 3:13)—a wondrous New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven (Rev 21:2), which was shown to John, the beholder of mysteries, during the revelation accorded him.

All of this is not to the liking of the “neo-Christians.” They want blessedness here in this world, burdened with its multitude of sins and iniquities; and they await this blessedness with impatience. They consider one of the surest ways of attaining it to be the “ecumenical movement,” the union and unification of all peoples in one new “church” which will comprise not only Roman Catholics and Protestants, but also Jews, Moslems and pagans, each retaining his own convictions and errors. This imaginary “Christian” love, in the name of the future blessedness of men on earth, cannot but trample upon the Truth.

The destruction of this earth with everything on it, although clearly foretold by the Word of God, is considered by them to be something indescribably horrible, as though it were not consistent with the omnipotence of God and, apparently, quite undesirable. They reluctantly admit the destruction of earth (for how can one not accept something prophesied in the Word of God?), but with the condition that it will take place in the far, far distant, mist-enshrouded future, not centuries, but millions of years from now.

What is the reason for this? One might say, because they are weak of faith, or lacking entirely in faith in the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come. For them everything is in this earthly life, and when it ends for them, everything does.

In a few of its points—especially in the expectation of the blessed life in this world—such a frame of mind closely resembles the widespread heresy of the first centuries of Christianity called “chiliasm.” This is the expectation of a thousand-year reign of Christ on earth; therefore the modern manifestation of this heresy may be termed “neo-chiliasm.”

One should be aware and keep in mind that chiliasm was condemned by the Second Ecumenical Council in the year 381; and therefore to believe in it now in the twentieth century, even in part, is quite unforgivable. Besides which, this contemporary “neo-chiliasm” is far worse than the ancient chiliastic heresy in that at its basis indubitably lies a disbelief in the life of the age to come and the passionate desire to attain blessedness here on earth, using all the improvements and achievements of the material progress of our times.

This false teaching wreaks terrible harm, lulling to sleep the spiritual vigilance of the faithful and suggesting to them that the end of the world is far away (if in fact there will be an end?), and therefore there is no particular need to watch and pray, to which Christ the Savior constantly called His followers (cf. Mt 26:41), since everything in the world is gradually getting better and better, spiritual progress keeping step with materialism. And the terrible phenomena which we observe at the present time are all temporary; all has happened before, and all will ultimately pass away, and an extraordinary flourishing of Christianity will replace it, in which, of course, the ecumenists will occupy the principal and honored places.

Thus, everything is fine! It is not necessary to labor over oneself, and no spiritual struggle is required; the fasts may be abolished. Everything will get better all by itself, until the Kingdom of God is finally established on earth with universal earthly satisfaction and blessedness.

Brethren! Is it not clear where the ultimate source of this alluring false teaching is found? Who suggests all these thoughts to contemporary Christians with the purpose of overthrowing all of Christianity? As an infectious plague, as fire, must we fear this “neo-chiliasm” which is so profoundly contrary to the teaching of the Word of God, the teaching of the Holy Fathers and all of the centuries-old teachings of our Holy Church, by which many, many thousands of the righteous have been saved.

Without spiritual struggle there is not, and cannot be true Christianity! Therefore, our path does not lie with all the modern movements, nor with ecumenists, nor with the new-chiliasts.

Our faith is the faith of the holy ascetics, the apostolic faith, the faith of the Fathers, the Orthodox Faith which, hath made the whole world steadfast (from the service for the Sunday of Orthodoxy). This faith and only this faith will we firmly adhere to in these evil days in which we now live. Amen.