Archimandrite Sergius Aleksiev: Christianity and Orthodoxy

 

As far back as the earliest Apostolic times, Christ’s disciples were known as those who “call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 1:2; cf. Acts 9:14, 21). From the very beginning, the Holy Apostles were persecuted as those who “teach in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18; cf. 5:28). They rejoiced when they suffered from persecution and violations “for His Name’s sake” (Acts 5:41). In consequence of this, by the end of the first decade after the foundation of Christ’s Church, “the disciples were called Christians” (Acts 11:26). This appellation was given to them first at Antioch, and probably by the local Gentiles, which implies that Christianity was no longer recognized as a Judaic sect, but as a distinct religious teaching. [1] Later, St. Cyril of Jerusalem observes, in his Tenth Catechetical Homily (Chapter XVI): “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, honored us to call ourselves Christians,” [2] whereas St. Athanasios the Great, in his First Homily against the Arians (Chapter II), states that “through Christ we are, and call ourselves, Christians.” [3]

It seems that this name quickly acquired public recognition, since even in the last half of the first century, the Roman historian Tacitus, in his work The Annals (Book XV, Chapter XLIV), when discussing Rome’s destruction by fire under the Emperor Nero, tells us that the Emperor blamed for this those “called by the people Christians [christianos].” Further on, he explains: “...the originator of that name, Christ [Christus], was sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate, the procurator, under the reign of Tiberius.” [4]

Thus, all subsequent persecutions by the pagan authorities against the disciples of Christ were under the banner of the struggle against Christianity as such. Referring to this fact, St. Peter the Apostle writes: “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; ...yet if any man suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf” (I St. Peter 4:14, 16). As we see from the extant testimonies of the Martyrs, Christ’s Martyrs, when summoned to court, were accused specifically as Christians, which they professed themselves to be. The instance of the Holy Martyr Lukian of Antioch is rather typical. He suffered in one of the last persecutions of the early fourth century. Before breathing his last, he cried three times: “I am a Christian.” [5]

However, as is well known, along with the external enemies of Christianity—Jews and pagans—various internal enemies—false teachers and heretics—appeared as early as the Apostolic times. They considered themselves Christians and surreptitiously replaced the Truth of Christ with an heretical fallacy. St. Paul refers to these people as “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (II St. Timothy 3:5), and advises his disciple Timothy to turn away from such people. Likewise, St. John the Theologian writes: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us: for if they had belonged to us, they would no doubt have remained with us” (I St. John 2:19). He explicitly calls these people “antichrists” (2:18) and commands True Christians not to greet them or to receive them in their houses (II St. John 10-11).

During subsequent centuries, we observe the same clear-cut line of demarcation between authentic Christianity and false Christianity. For example, St. Justin the Philosopher (†166), a Christian apologist of the second century, notes in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew that, “there are such men confessing themselves to be Christians, and confessing the crucified Jesus to be the Lord and Christ, yet not teaching His doctrine, but that of the spirits of error.” St. Justin contrasts these false Christians with the “disciples of the true and pure doctrine of Jesus Christ” (Chapter XXXV). [6]

In the third century, the ecclesiastical writer, Clement of Alexandria, states that, unlike beasts of burden, which labor out of fear, “those who call themselves orthodox (ὀρθοδοξασταί) should do good deeds in full consciousness of what they do” (Stromata, I, 9). [7] This is the first occasion in ancient Christian writings that we encounter the term “orthodox,” whereby we specifically denote our Holy Faith today. [Incidentally, let us point out that the Slavonic word for “Orthodoxy,” “Православие,” does not convey precisely the meaning of the Greek word “ὀρθοδοξία.” The Greek word consists of the adjective “ὀρθός” (“right” or “true”), the root “δοξ” and the ending “ία.” The noun with the same root, “δόξα,” derives from the verb “δοκέω” (to “think,” “consider,” or “look upon”). It is for this reason that the primary meaning of δόξα is “thought” or “opinion”; hence, the secondary meaning: “to hold a good or bad opinion of somebody,” “fame,” or “ill will.” (See M. Bailly, Dictionnaire Grec-Français, Paris, 1910, pp. 528, 531-532). Therefore, in view of the primacy and original meaning of the word “δόξα,” “ὀρθοδοξία” is properly translated as “right thinking” or “right opinion,” not “true glory,” as the Slavonic would suggest.]

After the fourth century, the term “Orthodoxy” is most often used in the writings of the Holy Fathers of the Church to signify the true doctrine of Christ, as opposed to heretical teachings. St. Athanasios of Alexandria, who is frequently called the “Father of Orthodoxy,” writes in his History of the Arians (Chapter LXXVIII): “The Arians, usurping the magnificent name of the Saviour, like pagans desecrated the whole of Egypt by forcibly introducing there the heresy of Arios. For Egypt was the only place at that time which had preserved the competency of Orthodox doctrine (τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας).” [8] In another of his writings, On Definitions, St. Athanasios defines the true Christian as one of orthodox or “correct” belief: “The Christian is a true spiritual home of Christ, which is built on good deeds and right doctrines (δογμάτων ὀρθῶν).” [9]

According to the historian Gelasios of Cyzicus (Church History, II, 33), the First Ecumenical Synod in Nicæa, which condemned the heresy of Arios, circulated in 325 A.D. “a Synodal Epistle...to the Holy Churches of God in the whole subcelestial world—to the clergymen and laymen of the Orthodox Faith (τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως).” [10] In reference to the same Synod in Nicæa, St. Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople, observes, in his treatise On the Heresies and the Synods (Chapter XIV), that “...after the detailed dogmatic elucidation and investigations that took place there, the doctrine of the Orthodox (τὸ δόγμα τῶν ὀρθοδόξων) was reconfirmed with even greater power.” [11]

In reference to the Second Ecumenical Synod (381), Blessed Theodoret explicitly cites, in his Church History (V, 9), the title of the Synodal Epistle sent by the “Holy Synod of the Orthodox Bishops (τῶν ὀρθοδόξων ἐπισκόπων) who had assembled in the great city of Constantinople....” [12]

The great defender of Orthodoxy against the Nestorian heresy in the fifth century, St. Cyril of Alexandria, in one of his epistles to Nestorios, exhorts the latter to call the Holy Virgin the “Mother of God” and thus, by the “preservation of right thinking (ὀρθὴν...δόξαν), to serve the common faith in peace and concord.” [13] Likewise, in a letter of defense against his accusers, St. Cyril writes: “I have set forth the doctrine of the true faith (τῆς ὀρθῆς πίστεως) to those who were tempted by the interpretations of Nestorios.” [14] Similarly, in the eighth century, the great Church hymnographer, St. John of Damascus, in his dogmatic Theotokion (in the third tone) against the heresy of Nestorios, beseeches the Most Holy Virgin to intercede before Jesus Christ our Lord and “...to save the souls of those who confess her as Mother of God in an Orthodox way (ὀρθοδόξως).”

St. Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, a great Confessor and a champion against the Eutychian heresy of the Monophysites, writes to St. Leo, Pope of Rome: “...As we witnessed the way that the Orthodox faith was violated and the heresies of Apollinaris and Valentinus were revived by Eutyches, it became necessary to declare this in order to preserve the people.” [15]

At the Fourth Ecumenical Synod in Chalcedon (451), as witnessed by the Acts of the Synod, when the epistle of St. Leo the Pope against the teaching of the Monophysites was read, the honorable Bishops exclaimed: “This is the Faith of the Fathers, this is the Faith of the Apostles.... This is the way the Orthodox (οἱ ὀρθόδοξοι) believe. Anathema to those who do not believe in this way.... We, the Orthodox, think thus....” [16]

The Fathers of the Sixth Ecumenical Synod, convened in Constantinople in 680 against the Monothelite heresy, stated: “For a long period of time, this Synod has investigated the issue of our pure Christian faith..., and the dissension regarding Orthodoxy (περὶ τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας) that had somehow arisen was overcome by relying on the dogmas of truth” [17] (“τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως τὴν ἀλήθειαν...τὴν ὑγιῆ ὀρθότητα τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως”).

In like manner, the Fathers of the last, the Seventh, Ecumenical Synod, which was assembled in Nicæa, in 787, against the heresy of the Iconoclasts, after confirming the decisions of the six previous Ecumenical Synods, stated, in the first act of the Synod, that according to ancient tradition, delivered through the Holy Apostles and their successors, the Holy Fathers, “...those who are converted from some heresy to the Orthodox (ὀρθόδοξον) confession and the Tradition of the Ecumenical Church should deny in writing their [former] heresy and confess in writing the Orthodox Faith (τὴν ὀρθόδοξον πίστιν).” [18]

A liturgical service for the recanting of their heresies by those “who come back to the Orthodox (ὀρθόδοξον) and true faith” was composed in the ninth century by St. Methodios, the Patriarch of Constantinople. During his time, a perfect peace settled over the Church of Christ, after the reign of tumultuous heresies, over which Orthodoxy finally triumphed. An anonymous hagiographer, himself St. Methodios’ contemporary, cites the restless labors of the latter, by which he struggled “to abolish heresy from his flock as a plague and to implant a firm and Orthodox faith (ὀρθόδοξον πίστιν) in every soul.” [19] It is thus quite natural that the feast of the triumph of Orthodoxy over heresy, which was introduced into the Church in 842 through the initiative of St. Methodios the Patriarch, was called the “Feast of Orthodoxy,” “ἑορτὴ τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας,” which has been celebrated annually, even to the present day, on the First Sunday of Great Lent: The Sunday of Orthodoxy.

Therefore, the Feast of Orthodoxy is like a stamp that seals and confirms the dogmatic activity of the Church of Christ as Orthodox, in her struggle against heresy. It was, furthermore, during the epoch that led up to this feast that St. John of Damascus wrote a famous treatise, in which he systematically presents the doctrine of the Church, expressed in her struggle against heresy during the age of the Ecumenical Synods and as it was clarified by the Holy Fathers. He has rightly called this major treatise of his “A Precise Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως).” [20]

In this way, the Church of Christ that struggled for the triumph of Orthodoxy against heresy came to be called the Orthodox Church. This accentuates the fact that it is the lawful inheritor and faithful protector—both in letter and in spirit—of the true teachings of Christ and the Apostles; i.e., of the Orthodox faith, elucidated by the Holy Fathers and confirmed by the Seven Ecumenical Synods. Since the truth is only one, just as only one straight line connects two points—man and God—, all other religious communities, which have deviated from the Orthodox Church of Christ, must not be called “Orthodox,” but should be characterized as “heterodox” (“thinking differently”), by virtue of having distorted the Gospel of Christ and joined to it “another gospel” (see Galatians 1:6). Such is the confession of the Roman Catholics, who fell away from Orthodoxy, initially, because of the arbitrary act of adding the expression “and from the Son” (Filioque) to the eighth article of the Nicæan-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith (Creed) and, later, on account of a number of innovations of more or less importance, introduced throughout the centuries and even up to our own time.

By the same token, the Protestant confession, encompassing all of its innumerable denominations, also betrayed Orthodoxy, following still a different path. It denies, in principle, the authority of Holy Tradition, of the Ecumenical Synods, and of the Holy Fathers, acknowledging, instead, the ascendency of the human mind and personal interpretation. [21]

Attempts to minimize the apostasies of the heretics by dismissing them as deviations motivated by human ambition, or “mistakes on both sides,” are entirely irrelevant. In fact, there may well have been some practical and tactical mistakes on both sides, caused by human pride and a craving for power. However, such human weaknesses and acts neither justify false teachings nor obfuscate the objective truth of Orthodoxy. Despite common human fallibilities of all kinds, the whole body of the unorthodox denominations will prove false; while Orthodoxy will shine ever brighter, and will attract, by this, all True Christians. For Orthodoxy has from the very beginning preserved the Divine, soul-saving truths of Christianity and was called by the Divinely inspired Apostle of the Nations, “the pillar and ground of the truth” (I St. Timothy 3:15). St. Isidore the Pelusian (fifth century), a man of wise and keen mind, after having proved that the love of power is the cause of multifarious heresies, observed: “...but if it were removed from men, then there would be good hope that all, unanimously and in an orthodox way (ὀρθοδόξως), would gather around the Divine Gospel” (Book IV, Letter 55). [22]

From our foregoing historical review, it logically follows that Orthodoxy is not just one of the many forms of Christianity, along with the legitimate existence of other, non-Orthodox forms of Christianity; our Orthodox Faith is Christianity itself, in its most pure and one and only authentic form. When juxtaposed to Orthodoxy, all of the rest of the so-called Christian denominations are essentially alien to true Christian—that is, Orthodox—spirituality and the essence of the Faith.

Until this very day, the Orthodox Church has remained the only lawful inheritor, protector, and confessor of the true teachings of Christ, the Apostles, and the Holy Fathers, as they are confirmed by the Seven Ecumenical Synods and sealed by the celebration of the Feast of Orthodoxy. That is why the Patriarchs of the East wrote in 1723, in their “Epistle on the Orthodox Faith,” the following words: “The dogmas and the doctrines of our Eastern Church, examined already in ancient times, were correctly and piously set forth and confirmed by the Holy and Ecumenical Synods; we are not permitted to add or remove anything from them. Thus, those who wish to be in concord with us on the Divine dogmas of the Orthodox Faith need simply follow and humbly obey, without further examination or inquiry, what is set forth and decreed by the ancient tradition of the Fathers and confirmed by the Holy and Ecumenical Synods, since the time of the Apostles and their successors, the Divine Fathers of our Church.” [23]

That great Saint of our Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the venerable Metropolitan Clement (Drumev) of Tirnovo—Confessor, champion, and Martyr for Orthodoxy—, during the time of Stambolov’s dictatorship, said, in a famous sermon delivered on the Sunday of Orthodoxy in 1893: “The true Faith of Christ is not, and cannot be, anything else but our pure, Holy Orthodox Faith.... Our Orthodox Faith is the true word of God, the pure truth of God, the great power of God—power that is both invincible and beneficial to all true believers.” [24]

 

NOTES

1. Bishop Michael, Commentary on the Epistles, Vol. I (Kiev, 1897), p. 279 [in Russian].

2. Migne, Patrologia Graeca [PG], Vol. XXXIII, Col. 681.

3. Ibid., Vol. XXVI, Col. 16.

4. This reference from Tacitus’ The Annals can in no way be considered a subsequent Christian addition, since, as the citation itself confirms, he was a pagan writer who expressed unrestrained hostility towards Christians. He calls them “hateful because of their dishonor (per flagitia invisos)” and characterizes Christianity as “a pernicious superstition (exitiabilis superstitio).” Such expressions are typical of the spirit of a hardened pagan and pessimist like Tacitus.

5. Lives of the Saints, October 15 (Old Style).

6. PG, Vol. VI, Col. 549.

7. Ibid., Vol. VIII, Col. 744.

8. Ibid., Vol. XXV, Col. 788.

9. Ibid., Vol. XXVIII, Col. 549

10. Ibid., Vol. LXXXV, Col. 1340.

11. Ibid., Vol. XCVIII, Col. 52.

12. Ibid., Vol. LXXXII, Col. 1212.

13. Ibid., Vol. LXXII, Col. 41.

14. Ibid., Vol. LXXVII, Col. 59.

15. Migne, Patrologia Latina, Vol. LIV, Col. 744.

16. Mansi, Amplissima Collectio Conciliorum (Paris—Leipzig, 1901), Vol. VI, Col. 957.

17. Ibid., Vol. XI, Cols. 246, 280.

18. Ibid., Vol. XII, Actio prima.

19. PG, Vol. C, Cols. 1257, 1300.

20. “Ἀκριβὴς ἔκθεσις τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως.”

21. Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev), The Distortion of Orthodox Truth in Russian Theological Thought (Sofia, 1943), p. 213 [in Russian].

22. PG, Vol. LXXVIII, Col. 1108.

23. Orthodox Christian Catechism (Sofia, 1930), pp. 210-211 [in Bulgarian].

24. Spiritual Culture, Nos. 20-21 (1924), pp. 155, 163.

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XV (1998), No. 4, pp. 3-8.

 

A Rare Virtue: On Why Many of Us Show No Gratitude

Priest Dimitry Vydumkin

 

 

“Everybody receives abundant blessings from God, but only a few give thanks to Him.”

About two centuries ago, Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) spoke of a very deplorable moral constant which was revealed to him by his spiritual experience, “Gratitude is a rare virtue among people.” It is enough to look closely at the state of morals in the society we live in to understand that it is a constant and not a variable quantity. We can’t look into someone’s inner world and measure with a ruler his ability to thank, and we don’t need to. Some indirect indicators are sufficient to conclude that a considerable part (if not the best part) of our society has been infected with pathological ingratitude. I am first of all speaking of banal callousness in its ever more terrifying manifestations, people’s ever-increasing dissatisfaction with their lives and an ever more intensive desire to “roll themselves up into balls” like prickly hedgehogs. “What has this to do with ingratitude?” you may ask. The fact is that the soul’s ability to be grateful is an effective antidote for such diseases. Someone with a grateful heart, receiving never-ceasing favours from God and his neighbours, naturally shows favour to others; such people are more than happy with their lives and won’t be preoccupied with their own problems. In contrast with this, the ungrateful heart will make someone view everything from a very different perspective.

The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to Timothy warns us: This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be proud…, unthankful… (2 Tim. 3:1-2). Pathological ingratitude, which can be found everywhere and in some cases (careerism) is becoming a norm, is a clear sign of the end times. Perhaps the most hideous manifestation of ingratitude, when someone cruelly pays for a benefaction he has received with evil, was widespread even 200 years ago, as Saint Ignatius wrote: “Those who receive great favours often begin to feel something, frenzied hatred for their benefactors. This unnatural oddity occurs so often that a popular proverb appeared: ‘You will not make an enemy before feeding him and giving him to drink.’” What can we say about our time? What about children who send their parents to old age homes or simply turn them out into the street like lumber? Take frequent cases when others make use of your gullibility and unselfishness to get you into trouble “as a token of their gratitude.” And take the numerous cases when someone who has got used to your benefaction begins to demand favours from you frantically, and if you can’t show him favours anymore, you become an “offender” in his eyes.

Why do such things happen and how can we interpret extreme ingratitude? Ingratitude is a defect of self-understanding, and by the virtue of this defect someone has a distorted view of the world around him. An ungrateful person is like someone who sits in a room that has windows smeared with dirt. This person can’t see or feel the sunshine; he only feels that it’s dark and cold. What can he be grateful for? The reason for this spiritual state when someone’s heart is not even warned up by the generous “sunshine” is explained by his view of himself. Pride, the root of all spiritual diseases, smears the human heart with the dirt of an exaggerated high opinion of themselves. Pride tells him that not only is he worthy of everything he receives from God and other people, he is also worthy of many other and better things; so he feels disappointed and thinks that it is unjust that he hasn’t yet received these “best things.” Hence his inability to give thanks, for he is “worthy” of everything he enjoys; hence his discontent with all he has, for he is “worthy of better”! Indeed, “the share of a madman is small in his eyes.” Meanwhile, life shows that by thinking in this way he deceives himself. Thus, entrapped by self-delusion, the one who is incapable of thanking hides himself from the “sunshine” of Divine grace and loses what is really best. As opposed to this, a grateful person always receives beyond expectation, for a thankful heart is a receptacle of Divine gifts. This is what the Gospel story of the healing of ten lepers by the Lord is about (cf. Lk.17:12–19).

This episode is one of the few places in the Holy Scriptures which speaks about the need for the ability to be grateful. More than that, the Lord shows here that gratitude to God is a demonstration of someone’s true faith in God, the faith that saves and attracts God’s mercy to him.

One day, as Christ was entering a village, ten lepers were near His way. They were standing at a distance and dared not approach Him, since lepers were not allowed to be in contact with other people and were treated as social pariahs. Having heard about Christ’s arrival, they shouted loudly from a distance, “Jesus, Teacher, have mercy on us!” But the Lord didn’t heal the lepers in public: He sent them to their priests so that they could confirm their cure as true. Indeed they were cleansed on their way, but only one of them returned to Christ and, falling at His feet, gave praise to God. This man turned out to be a Samaritan, a member of the “unfaithful” and “alien” ethnic group whom the Jews shunned and weren’t on speaking terms with. The Lord said in reply: Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God... Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole (Lk.17:17-19).

There are no coincidences in this episode, every detail is filled with deep meaning. Let us examine at least some of them.

On the importance of gratitude

Let us start with the action related to our subject. Soon after Christ had sent the ten lepers away, all of them saw they were healed. Did they go to the priests as Jesus had told them? They probably did because they couldn’t re-enter society unless they first went to the priest to be checked. But did they return to Christ to thank Him for this great miracle? Alas, only one of them came. According to the Holy Fathers, thus the Lord showed us the proportion of the grateful to the ungrateful among people. This is what Saint Theophan the Recluse wrote about this: “Ten lepers were healed, but only one came to thank the Lord. Isn’t there generally a similar proportion of people who are grateful after gaining benefactions from the Lord? Who has not received good things; or, rather, what do we have in us, or whatever happens to us that is not good for us? Even so, is everyone grateful to God, and does everyone give thanks for everything?” Agreeing with Saint Theophan that not many of us show gratitude and not for everything, let us ask another question: Why is the ability to show gratitude so important? Who needs our gratitude? God? He certainly doesn’t need it because He is all-good and all-sufficient. People? But people who strive for goodness and sincerely do charitable acts without mercenary motives don’t need gratitude either. Who needs it then? Of course, it is we who need it; for only a grateful heart can respond to the good it receives properly, which guarantees future blessings. Only a grateful heart is the receptacle of multifarious gifts from God, and the Creator awaits our gratitude only in order to give us more blessings. Saint Ignatius writes: “The gratitude of the receiver of gifts encourages the giver to give more gifts which are greater than the previous ones. The gifts are not multiplied only when there is no gratitude for them.” There is a famous saying of Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite, “God does not need your gratitude, but you desperately need His blessings. Your grateful heart receives and preserves these benefactions.” Only a grateful heart can pray for future blessings with boldness, “for how should he ask for future things, who is not thankful for the past?” (St John Chrysostom).

In other words, the ability to show gratitude is a generator of God’s blessings in our lives. Apart from this, this ability can serve as a strong weapon in our spiritual warfare. Specifically, against the sin of envy, as Saint John Chrysostom wrote: “Let us be thankful for the benefactions that have been granted not only to us but also to others; thus we will be able to both destroy envy and strengthen love, making it most sincere. You will no longer be able to envy those for whom you thank the Lord…Such gratitude releases us from earth, resettles us in heaven and makes us angels.”

How should we show gratitude?

True, the overwhelming majority of us understand that we should show gratitude to God and people for the benefactions we receive. But how are we supposed to express gratitude? Are simple words of appreciation and a smile on our faces sufficient? Perhaps a grateful heart won’t be satisfied with this and will try to repay good with good. A believer will at least pray for his benefactor. But any benefactor is just an instrument in the hands of God; so the following question inevitably arises: How can we show gratitude to God Who is Himself the source of all good things and doesn’t need anything?

Sacrifices were the original form of gratitude to God. Beginning from the first human beings and later throughout the history of the Chosen People we see the faithful offer blood sacrifices. Thus, Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock (Gen. 4:4). Noah offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour…(Gen.8:20-21). Sacrifices were performed in the Temple of Solomon and continued in the time of the Saviour. However, the Old Testament sacrifices had a prefigurative meaning. In addition to the expression of gratitude they reflected the faith in the coming of the Saviour, the True Sacrifice for the world. After the coming of the Messiah, blood sacrificial offerings lost their purpose, including that of gratitude. Long before the incarnation of Christ, King David prophetically pointed to the form of gratitude which can replace all blood sacrifices and would always be pleasing to God: A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit: a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise (Ps. 50:19). Repentance for our sins and a remorseful heart are the required form of gratitude, along with praise of God for the benefactions we receive. As Saint John Chrysostom wrote: “Do you want to know how you should show gratitude? To confess your sins means to give thanks to God; he who confesses his sins shows that he is guilty of innumerable sins but has not yet received the punishment he deserves. He thanks God more than everybody else.” Do you want to understand how it works in life? Look how the Patriarch Jacob pours out his gratitude to God in prayer: God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed unto Thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands (Gen. 32:9-10). Consequently, when we happen to taste and see that the Lord is good (cf. Ps. 33:8), then, having glorified the Creator for His countless blessings to us, it wouldn’t be bad to proclaim together with the Patriarch Jacob: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed unto Thy servant.

Why should I be thankful for sorrows?

Everybody understands why we must be grateful to God for joys, but the fact that we must give thanks for sorrows and diseases is not clear to everyone. We read in one of Saint Paul’s epistles, In everything give thanks (1 Thess. 5:18). But we are seething inside when something happens and we are harmed. At such times, especially if we suffer serious losses, we ask perplexedly: “Why should I be grateful for this if I feel so terrible?”

But even in unenviable situations we shouldn’t forget popular wisdom based on the Holy Scriptures and experience: “Whatever God wills is for the best.” This truth is confirmed by the New Testament teaching concerning God, which is our most authoritative source. God is love (1Jn.4:16), we read in the Holy Scriptures. God treats us with love. However, while some need joy or consolation, others need sorrows or illnesses for their salvation. This can be compared to a situation when a doctor sends one patient to a health resort and sends another patient to the operating room, “to go under the knife.” This surgeon’s knife is often the only possible way of saving someone’s life. God does the same by sending people sorrows and infirmities for the restoration of their spiritual health. Though people often doubt this in moments of trouble, later the good outcomes of trials give them important experience. There is an interesting parable on how this can work in our lives.

One eminent and wealthy dignitary invited a tutor who was famous for his wisdom to educate his child. When his son grew up enough and acquired riding skills, they went horseback riding together. But during the ride the boy fell and the horse accidentally crushed his arm. The tutor hurried to support the adolescent morally with the words: “Don’t worry! Take heart! Glory be to God!” Writhing in pain, the latter replied angrily: “What have you given thanks to God for?! I am now an invalid!” And soon by his father’s orders the tutor was sent to prison.

Some time passed. One day the same young man, accompanied by a new tutor, undertook a faraway voyage during which they were captured by a native tribe that practiced human sacrifice. They quickly lit fires, and the tutor was the first to fall victim to the barbarous rite. Now it was the young man’s turn. Dozens of hands lifted him over their heads and carried him to the fire. But an unforeseen thing happened: at the moment they were about to sacrifice him, the high priest noticed that his arm was injured. Since their pagan gods demanded sacrifices without defects, the tribe with disgust rejected the young man and drove him away. So he trudged back to his native shores.

This parable reflects an important spiritual truth: Divine providence often allows adversity in our lives, foreseeing the greatest good that will result from it, just as a pure baby is born through severe pain.

God doesn’t want us to live in clover our entire lives; He wants to prevent us from ruining our souls for eternity. We should make efforts and realise that it is not possible to reach Paradise by flying there business class, that affliction and maladies are often needed to reach it. Our failure to understand this truth not only removes gratitude from our hearts but also gives rise to the opposite, namely grumbling and indignation. When Saint Theophan the Recluse encountered this attitude towards sorrows, he would exhort: “There are even those who permit themselves to ask, ‘Why did God give us existence? It would be better for us not to exist.’ God gave you existence so that you would be in eternal bliss; He gave you existence as a gift, as a gift He has furnished you with every means for attaining eternal bliss. The job depends on you: you need only to labour a while for this. You say, ‘But I have only sorrows, poverty, diseases, misfortunes.’ Well, these are also some of the ways to attain eternal bliss. Be patient. Your entire life is less than a moment compared with eternity. Even if you had to suffer unceasingly your entire life, compared to eternity it is nothing; and you still have moments of consolation. Do not look at the present, but at what is prepared for you in the future, and concern yourself with making yourself worthy of that; then you will not notice the sorrows. They will all be swallowed up by unquestioning hope in eternal consolations, and your lips will never cease to utter thanks.”

Thus, beyond all doubt, our sorrows and diseases are gifts from God intended to help us attain the heavenly abodes. As with all gifts, they should be followed by thanksgiving. And the Holy Fathers see the proof of our true Christian disposition in gratitude. “If sorrows for Christ are gifts from God made by God to genuine Christians, then they must show their Christianity in practice by gratitude for sorrows, confess and accept the gift of God by showing gratitude for the gift.”

So gratitude to God for sorrows is a duty of Christians and an indicator of their progress in spiritual life. But not only that. The words of thanksgiving and glorification of God contain an effective remedy for sorrow. This is what Saint Ignatius writes about the power of the influence on us of such simple and familiar words as, “Glory to God!” “Glory to God!” These are powerful words! In sorrowful circumstances, when your heart is beset with thoughts of doubt, faint-heartedness, discontent, and murmuring, force yourself to repeat the words ‘Glory to God!’ frequently, unhurriedly and attentively. Those who take this advice with simple hearts and put it into practice when the need arises will experience the wonderful power of glorifying God; they will rejoice at gaining this useful new knowledge and acquiring a weapon against the enemies of souls, such a strong and handy one.”

But that is not all. The Lord said to the thankful Samaritan, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole (Lk. 17:19). Why does the Saviour equate thankfulness with faith? Because there is a direct link between these two virtues, and Saint Ignatius points to it: “Thanksgiving to God has its particular attribute: it gives rise to and strengthens faith and brings us closer to God.” In contrast to this, “ingratitude and disregard of God destroy faith and move us away from God.” The faith of the Samaritan appeared and became stronger in living gratitude to Christ. He saw and felt the things that we so often forget. He learned that this perfect gift, the deliverance from an incurable disease, can come from God alone, and he bowed before God in the person of Christ.

“If something good happens, glorify God, and the good will remain; if something bad happens, glorify God, and the bad will disappear,” Saint John Chrysostom used to say. And for him it was not just a beautiful phrase. He would begin every speech by hitting his index finger to his palm and saying: “Glory to God for all things.” He did it all his life, and before his last sigh he uttered the same words, pointing out the undying value of gratitude to God: “On account of the substantial benefit the soul receives through thanking God, He commanded us to practice showing gratitude to Him diligently and cultivating a sense of gratitude to God.”

We must thank God both for joys and sorrows, for such is the will of God for us, and His will is holy to us. Divine providence and God’s care of human beings boil down to us reaching the haven of the Heavenly Kingdom. It is not bad if we have to face storms and hidden rocks on the way sometimes: the main goal is to reach the haven. However, not many can understand this; alas, the ungrateful are a majority, and they won’t hear these most important words from Christ: Thy faith hath made thee whole.

 

Source: The Shepherd: An Orthodox Christian Pastoral Magazine, Vol. XLV, No. 6, February 2025, pp. 3-12.

The Moral Degradation of Western Christianity and Its Alignment with Modern Apostasy

 Western “churches” ask forgiveness for their opposition until now to homosexuality

Office of Heresies and Religious Cults of the Metropolis of Piraeus [of the Official Greek Church]

Piraeus | June 8, 2026

 

 

We have emphasized many times in our announcements that falling away from the saving faith and the revealed truth of our Church leads at the same time also to a decline in ethos. And this is because the removal from the salvific embrace of the Church, where the uncreated grace of God is diffused, and the adoption of heretical opinions, takes away divine grace, which sanctifies man and makes him authentic, a complete being of soul and body.

This is evident in the heresies, where immorality abounds. The most representative example is Western Christianity, which, after it was cut off from the one and indivisible body of the Church, goes from fall to fall and from moral decline to moral collapse. Its history constitutes an undeniable witness to a tragic course, which clearly reveals its departure from the authenticity of Christianity. In the name of Christ the most heinous crimes against humanity were committed: crusades, holy wars, the Holy Inquisition, genocides, murders; but also incredible moral deviations: fornications, incests, rapes, pederasties, unspeakable sexual perversions, etc., not so much by the simple people as by its “ecclesiastical” leaders, and chiefly by the “Popes,” who, in their overwhelming majority, were among the most corrupt religious leaders in history. It is historically confirmed that many “Popes” died during orgies, in the arms of mistresses and prostitutes, for example John XII, 955–964 A.D., Alexander VI, 1492–1503 A.D., and others, while several of them had illegitimate children, whom they subsequently promoted to higher ecclesiastical offices, for example Pius II, 1458–1464, Innocent VIII, 1484–1492, Julius II, 1503–1513, Paul III, 1534–1549, and others. We refer summarily to the medieval decline of Papism, to the dramatic period, 9th–15th century, in which the moral, spiritual, and political authority of the “Popes” collapsed. It was marked by extreme corruption, the rise of secular power over religious authority, and led directly to the questioning of Papism as a “church.”

Also noteworthy is the contemporary moral degradation of the papal “clergy,” with the thousands of cases of sexual abuse of innocent children by corrupt pederast Frankish priests. It is an ongoing scandal that has afflicted the papal “church” for years, exposes it in the eyes of the contemporary world, and empties its “sacred” coffers because of the compensations paid to the victims.

The papal “church” is followed closely also by the numerous Protestant “churches” and confessions in moral decay. Reports about immorality are continual and reveal the magnitude of the problem also in these papal divisions. And we say “papal divisions,” because in essence wider Protestantism does not differ substantially from Papism either in its false doctrines or in its moral degradation.

It is worth mentioning parenthetically that both Papism and Protestantism constitute an enduring disgrace to Christianity. The enemies of Christianity present the perennial moral deviations of Papo-Protestantism as “weak points” of Christianity.

The present situation in heretical Western Christianity is at the worst point of its decline, because of its alignment with the so-called Woke Agenda, which it regards as “progress” and which promotes the liberation of all human instincts and passions, and along with this the exculpation of every form of sinfulness, culminating in homosexuality.

Western Christianity, in order to appear “synchronized” with the moral downfall of the contemporary apostate world, has to a great extent ceased to regard homosexuality as a sexual perversion and, worse, as a sin, despite the fact that the whole of Divine Revelation, the Old and New Testaments, condemns it as an abomination before the Creator, as an overturning of human physiology and ontology.

The occasion for our present announcement was a publication according to which the “church” of Norway “asked forgiveness” for decades of discrimination against homosexuality. [1]

According to it: “The Church of Norway issued a historic apology to the LGBTQI+ community for decades of discrimination. Bishop Olav Fykse Tveit acknowledged that the Church ‘caused pain and shame’ and committed itself to a new era of acceptance and inclusion.”

In other words, the heretical Norwegian “bishop” clearly considers that it is not only his “church” which, according to him, “caused pain and shame,” but also Divine Revelation, the Holy Scriptures, and God Himself, Who condemns with absolute clarity homosexuality as a deviation from human ontology. And not only this, but he also “proclaimed” a “new era of acceptance and inclusion” of those who persist in this deviation!

And the publication continues: “A moment of historic significance unfolded recently in Oslo, when the Church of Norway officially apologized for decades of discrimination and marginalization of LGBTQI+ persons. The ceremony took place at the London Pub, a symbolic place of the Norwegian LGBTQI+ community, where in 2022 a terrorist attack occurred with two dead and nine wounded.”

The alignment of the “church” of Norway with sodomism is now clear. The heretical Norwegian “bishop,” instead of denouncing the sinful passion of homosexuality and calling homosexuals to repentance, placed his “church” in a position of apology for its until-recently adherence to Christian morality, which regards homosexuality as a mortal sin and a source of many evils, with ramifications both for personal health and for society as a whole. He even reached the point of glorifying this passion and asking forgiveness for the observance of Christian morality up to now.

Behold how the “church” of Norway came to ask forgiveness from the sodomites: “For decades, the Church of Norway regarded homosexuality as a ‘social danger’ and forbade LGBTQI+ persons to be ordained or to perform a marriage within a church. The change began to take place gradually from the 2000s, in parallel with the liberalization of Norwegian society. In 2007, the Church ordained the first homosexual pastor, while in 2017 it performed the first same-sex ‘marriage.’ In 2023, Bishop Tveit himself participated for the first time in the Oslo Pride parade, an event that was regarded as a historic turning point.”

This proves that the heretical “bishop” recognized Christian teaching as a “mistake” and aligned himself with homosexuality. He did not simply “open himself” toward persons who choose to live as homosexuals, but toward the sinful passion itself as such, rewarding it with the “ordination” of a homosexual pastor, the performance of “marriages” of same-sex “couples,” and his participation in public “pride” parades, through which the so-called “rights” of homosexuals are claimed. By his presence at these, he himself also aligns himself with their demands.

And not only this, but his “apology” to the unrepentant sodomites “was accompanied by emotion and applause, while many faithful attended the service that followed in Oslo Cathedral.” His decision to ask forgiveness was sealed by a “service” in Oslo Cathedral. To such a point did his impiety and hubris reach!

His statements can also be considered blasphemous: “The Church in Norway caused shame, great harm, and pain to LGBTQI+ people. This should never have happened. […] Discrimination and unequal treatment caused many to lose faith.” For the heretical “bishop,” the “loss of faith” seems to have greater importance than the purity of the faith.

The “apology” of the heretical “bishop” Olav Fykse Tveit provoked various reactions. “Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a homosexual pastor and head of the network of Christian lesbians, characterized the apology as an ‘important act of reparation,’ which ‘marks the end of a dark chapter.’ Others, however, consider that the apology came too late. ‘For those who died of AIDS feeling that God was punishing them, this apology brings no consolation,’ stated Stephen Antom from the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity.”

The “apology” of the “church” of Norway to the “wronged” sodomites, lesbians, trans people, etc., does not constitute an isolated phenomenon, but one now common in apostate Western Christianity. According to the aforementioned publication, it “is part of a global wave of self-criticism by religious organizations. In 2023, the Church of England and the Methodist Church in Ireland issued public apologies for their stance toward LGBTQI+ persons, while the United Church of Canada spoke of a ‘commitment to full inclusion and radical hospitality.’ The apology in Oslo was not simply a ceremony; it was a symbolic but also substantive act — an acknowledgment that faith and love have no room for discrimination.”

In Finland, the former “archbishop” of the Lutheran “church,” Kari Mäkinen, openly welcomed the enactment of same-sex “marriage” by the State, while the current “archbishop,” Tapio Luoma, also expressed his joy over the development, adding that “as far as I too am concerned, I consider that the Church must reexamine its position on the concept of marriage.” He further stated that “same-sex couples are welcome in all the activities of the church.” Indeed, the “Synod of Bishops” has approved a proposal for the “addition of a parallel model of marriage,” which would allow “priests” to perform “marriages” of homosexual “couples.” [2]

As was natural and expected, neither did the papal “church” remain outside this “climate.” According to another recent publication, [3] “Papal bishops at vigils for the ‘combating of homo-transphobia.’ The downfall of papism seems to have no end. From a weapon against sin, the vigil, which aims at repentance, became a means of propaganda for homosexuality.”

And it points out that: “A significant increase is recorded in 2026 in the participation of Papal bishops in Italy in vigils and prayer events related to issues of homosexuality and gender identity. According to Italian publications, at least twelve bishops are expected to preside over or attend services and vigils organized with the aim, as stated, of ‘overcoming homo-transphobia.’ These events have spread to more than twenty dioceses throughout the country. In several cases, the vigils are held inside Catholic churches, with the support of local bishops or ecclesiastical organizations. Some of these initiatives are part of broader pastoral programs related to the inclusion and support of LGBTQI persons.” “At the same time, these developments are connected with the continuing discussion within the Papal ‘church’ about synodality and the pastoral approach to issues of sexuality and gender identity. The relevant framework has been strengthened after recent synodal texts and discussions at the national and global level. Ecclesiastical circles maintain that these vigils constitute an expression of pastoral care and an effort to overcome discrimination, in the spirit of contemporary ecclesiastical dialogue.”

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, “archbishop” of Munich and Freising in Germany, openly supports the inclusion of homosexual couples in the “Church,” having even permitted the performance of blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples in his “archdiocese.” More specifically, following the instructions of the “German Synod,” “Archbishop” Marx announced that the blessing of couples of every sexual orientation who cannot or do not wish to perform a religious marriage is permitted. He has publicly stated that homosexuality is not a sin and that homosexuals constitute part of God’s creation!

The above data concerning the downfall of heretical Western Christianity are entirely indicative. In reality, the problem is generalized and moral decay is eating away at its innards. For this reason, its decomposition is rapid, as we have often revealed in our announcements. A characteristic example is the departure of thousands of Finns from the Lutheran “church,” after the statements of the former and current “archbishops,” Kari Mäkinen and Tapio Luoma, concerning homosexuality. “From that moment until today, 13,000 people left the Church — therefore they also stopped paying the church tax. Archbishop Kari Mäkinen knew that his words would enrage and alienate a portion of the faithful. But it seems that his principles and his personal code of values compelled him to align himself with the supporters of individual freedoms.” [4]

We conclude our announcement by expressing our sorrow for the wretched state of heretical Western Christianity, which abandoned the principles of genuine Christian faith and life and aligned itself with the fallen world. Undoubtedly, the most striking proof of this identification is the acceptance of the mortal sin of homosexuality as a supposedly “natural choice,” despite the fact that it diverts man into the misuse of his bodily organs, altering human physiology and ontology.

Thus, Christian anthropology concerning male and female is despised in the most impious manner, and a multitude of fictitious “genders” is introduced, according to the sinful passions: sodomism, lesbianism, trans, queer, bisexuality, etc., with incalculable consequences both on a personal and on a social level. Also overlooked is the multitude of biblical references to the issue of homosexuality and God’s categorical aversion toward this passion.

Our sorrow is intensified when we observe that many clergy and theologians on the Orthodox side regard with sympathy the alignment of the western “churches” with the spirit of the world and, in the present case, with homosexuality. To this day we have seen no official protest or position on the matter, so that the Orthodox fullness may be informed that this is a serious deviation and may not be led astray by the propaganda that supposedly there is no opposition between the Christian faith and homosexuality. Those who do not possess sufficient knowledge of the abyssal differences between our Church and the heretical western “churches” are led astray, regarding these anti-Christian choices as supposedly “progress.”

 

 

Even more, we are sorrowful and troubled because many of them develop relations with these “churches,” naming them as supposedly true, overlooking the chaotic dogmatic differences that separate them from the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ, our Holy Orthodoxy, and at the same time they triumphantly refute themselves, because they do not proceed to intercommunion with them, which proves the unity of the Church, since they know that at once they will lose not only their Archpriesthood, but also their Orthodox identity.

By their “warm” relations with them, their compliments, and, worst of all, by such forms of secularization as the exculpation of homosexuality, extremely erroneous messages are being sent both to the heretics — that supposedly “they are acting rightly” — and to the Orthodox fullness, whose Orthodox sensibility is gradually dulled.

 

[1] https://www.lifo.gr/now/world/zitoyme-syggnomi-apo-ta-loatki-atoma-i-ekklisia-tis-norbigias-paradehetai-dekaeties

[2] https://www.efsyn.gr/stiles/triti-matia/6325_o-finlandos-arhiepiskopos-kai-oi-gay/

[3] https://orthodoxostypos.gr/%cf%80%ce%b1%cf%80%ce%b9%ce%ba%ce%bf%e1%bd%b6-%e1%bc%90%cf%80%ce%af%cf%83%ce%ba%ce%bf%cf%80%ce%bf%ce%b9-%ce%b5%e1%bc%b0%cf%82-%e1%bc%80%ce%b3%cf%81%cf%85%cf%80%ce%bd%ce%af%ce%b1%cf%82-%e1%bd%91%cf%80/

[4] https://www.efsyn.gr/stiles/triti-matia/6325_o-finlandos-arhiepiskopos-kai-oi-gay/

 

Greek source:

https://imp.gr/%ce%b7-%ce%b7%ce%b8%ce%b9%ce%ba%ce%b7-%ce%ba%ce%b1%cf%84%ce%b1%cf%80%cf%84%cf%89%cf%83%ce%b7-%cf%84%ce%bf%cf%85-%ce%b4%cf%85%cf%84%ce%b9%ce%ba%ce%bf%cf%85-%cf%87%cf%81%ce%b9%cf%83%cf%84%ce%b9%ce%b1/

Papism and Judaism

by Archimandrite Sergius (Aleksiev)

 

 

One of the most sinister symptoms of our apocalyptic age is the systematic and ever-increasing rapprochement between Papism and Judaism. In essence a monstrous perversion of Christianity, Papism is an anachronistic return from the New Testament to the Old, whereby the meaning of the Old Testament is understood in a perverted way, according to its interpretation by the scribes and Pharisees of the time of Christ (cf. St. Matthew 15:6) and according to the spirit of contemporary Judaism.

The very idea of Papism, with its earthly centralization of the Church and its desire for supremacy over the whole Christian world, brings to mind Judaism, with its globalist tendencies. The establishment in the Old Testament of a single Temple, headed by one High Priest after the order of Aaron (Hebrews 7:11) is to some extent a "personification" of the idea of earthly centralization. During the period of the Old Testament, this personification was merely a foreshadowing of Christ, the only High Priest of the New Testament after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:10; Psalm 109:4), "Who hath passed through the Heavens" (Hebrews 4:14). Through this act, our Lord Jesus Christ, "the Apostle and High Priest of our confession" (Hebrews 3:1), "a High Priest of the good things to come" (Hebrews 9:11), "a High Priest over the house of God" (Hebrews 10:21), that is, over the Church (I Timothy 3:15), by assuming Her together with Himself into the Heavens, abolished forever the earthly centralization of the Church. Thus, the Church of Christ has, here on earth, no abiding city, but seeks the City which is to come (Hebrews 13:14). Thus, it is evident that the idea of some "Vicar" of Christ on earth is unacceptable.

The Christian, that is, Orthodox Bishops here on earth are only multiple reflections, each in his own diocese, of the one and only High Priest and Head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, "Who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things" (Ephesians 4:10). St. Ignatios the God-Bearer writes in precisely this sense in his Epistle to the Trallians (Chapter III): "Let us all reverence the Bishop as Jesus Christ, Who is the Son of God the Father!"

Papism, however, reverts to the earthly centralization of the Old Testament, for it is personified by a single High Priest, who claims to be the "Vicar of Christ," as if he were the sole reflection of Christ here on earth, a deus in terra ("God on earth"), such that the rest of the bishops are regarded as mere vicars or deputies of the Roman Pontiff. Under the pretense of being the "Vicar" of Christ, the Pope aspires to the gradual displacement of the only High Priest of the New Testament, the sole Head of the Church (i.e., Christ). In this way, Papism, as a legacy of Judaism, paves the way for the Antichrist, who will put himself in the place of Christ, since he is incompatible with Christ (I John 4:3).

This gradual process of replacing Christ with one earthly "head" of the Church started as early as the eleventh century, when Papism fell away from the Church of Christ, and has continued without interruption up to the present day, when the anti-Christian essence of Papism is being palpably revealed in its rapprochement with Judaism. Already on September 6,1938, the then Pope Pius XI, himself an Italian Jew, expressed on Vatican Radio the bizarre thought that all Christians are "spiritual Semites"! A rather strange racial assimilation, this assertion, through which the spiritual essence of the Christian Faith is sacrilegiously made materialistic!

A month prior to that event, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, meeting in council in Belgrade, rang the alarm concerning a "Judaeo-Catholic Rapprochement," as is stated in the title of a report about the council made by M. Stepanov.

Subsequently, this rapprochement progressed steadily, until it reached a new phase at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). The latter, through its Declaration "Nostra aetate" (October 28,1965), proclaimed, in Article IV, that "Judaism, despite its non-recognition of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, is still dear to the Lord," and also that "the Church is fed from the root of the olive tree, on which the branches of the wild olive were grafted" (cf. Romans 11:17-24)! In order to refute this absurd interpretation of the Holy Apostle Paul's words, it is sufficient to quote what he says about the Jews: although broken off from the olive tree, "God is able to graft them in again," as long as "they abide not still in unbelief [concerning Jesus Christ]" (Romans 11:23). However, Judaism is opposed precisely to this essential condition!

Renewing this Declaration of the Second Vatican Council eight years later, the French episcopate published in April, 1973, on the occasion of the Jewish Passover, a special Declaration consisting of "Pastoral Directions Concerning the Position of Christians in Relation to Judaism." Affirming "The Permanent Call of the Jewish Nation" (the title of the third article), despite its disbelief in Jesus Christ, this Declaration by the French episcopate asserts that "it is not possible to conclude, on the basis of the New Testament, that the Jewish nation is deprived of its elect status" (Article IV). However, at the end of His parable about the wicked husbandmen, the Lord makes the following inference, directed at the chief priests and the Pharisees: "Therefore I say unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (St. Matthew 21:43).

The French bishops dare to state, as well, that "the first Testament...was not abolished by the New" (Article V), despite St. Paul’s clear interpretation of Jeremiah's prophecy regarding the New Covenant [Testament] (Jeremiah 38:31-34), which he forcefully concludes with these words: "In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13).

Declaration of the French episcopate finishes with a false intimation concerning both Christians and Jews in the form of a rhetorical question: "Does not their common concern relate to the Messianic times?" (Article VII). In other words, the French bishops imply that the "messianic" expectation of the Jews encompasses the true Messianism of the Christians! This calls to mind the sacrilegious innuendo made by Cardinal Etchegaray, at that time Archbishop of Marseilles and one of the authors of the Declaration, as a member of the French episcopal committee for relations with Judaism. In an interview with the magazine La Documentation Catholique, under the heading "The Double Mission of the Church Towards the Jews," Etchegaray posits a rather strange "rivalry" between "one who expects a Messiah who is to come and another who expects his return." Thus, through an absurd mixing of concepts, the true Messiah, Who has come—our Lord Jesus Christ—, is united in His Second Coming with a false messiah, whose advent is being prepared by the Jews.

Meanwhile, in the newly published Catechism of the Catholic Church (French version), in Section 840, under the heading "The Church's Attitude Towards the Jewish Nation," we read that "insofar as the future is concerned, the people of God from the Old Testament and the new People of God aspire towards similar goals: the expectation of the advent (or return) of the Messiah."

The Great Rabbinate of France, however, understood very clearly the treacherous character of the Declaration of the French episcopate. That is why, a laudatory commentary following directly after the Declaration, hastens to stress that "the 'Pastoral Direchons' of the French episcopate coincide with the teaching of the most prominent Jewish theologians, according to whom the religions which came from Judaism have as their mission preparation for the advent of the Messianic age [sic] indicated in the Bible"!

After such a consummate betrayal by the French bishops, which is equivalent to denying Christ in favor of the Antichrist, we should not be amazed that these "bishops" subsequently received a primate worthy of them in the person of the Polish Jew Jean-Marie Lustiger, who was appointed Archbishop of Paris in 1981, and later promoted to Cardinal in 1983. Radio Israel made the following comment on his unexpected appointment: "The new Archbishop of Paris, who does not conceal his Jewish origins, is a Judaizer who will fulfill Judaism in Christianity!" This is why the French believers distrust such a "Cardinal Archbishop" and make a parody of his name: "Lustiger-Lucifer!"

In spite of all this, the Masons have put forth every effort to bend public opinion in favor of their candidate, so as to have him elected Pope. Several years ago, we heard on Radio Paris the following discussion about the ethnicity of the Popes: "If it is not written in stone that the next Pope should be Italian—since the present Pope is a Pole—, what would preclude the next Pope from being...a Jew?" In fact, a eulogizing article, "The Future of Mgr. Lustiger," was printed in the magazine Paris Match. The article contains a photograph of Pope John Paul II exchanging a kiss with Cardinal Lustiger. There follows an enumeration of the political "merits" of Lustiger, who had recently been appointed Minister of European Affairs for the Vatican. The piece ends with a readers' survey: "Do you think that one day Mgr. Lustiger can become Pope?" Such a survey, conducted while the present Pope is still alive, is unheard of! Incidentally, Pope John Paul II, himself, is responsible for Lustiger's appointment!

Indeed, this is not odd, since the present Pope is himself a Mason. In October, 1983, the Italian magazine Oggi published in one of its issues, which was to have been confiscated, a scandalous photograph showing Pope John Paul II clothed in black, in accordance with the strict rule of the Masonic lodges, and participating in a Masonic banquet with his arms folded in the "chain of brothers" made by the guest Masons around the table. A blackboard with a crowned monster depicted on it is visible behind him—obviously the Devil presiding over the meeting! A bit further down in the "chain of brothers," we see the Vicar of Rome, Ugo Cardinal Poletti, a famous Mason from the Vatican.

It is not by accident that Poletti was the one who accompanied the Pope in his official visit to the Chief Synagogue in Rome on April 13, 1986, when the Pope addressed the Jewish rabbis with the friendly words: "You are our elder brothers!" In a recent interview given to the American magazine Parade, the Pope emphatically states that "the attitude of the Church towards the people of God's Old Testament—the Jews—can only be that they are our elder brothers in the Faith." "In what Faith?" we ask.

So the Pope, who claims to be the head of all Christians, suddenly humbles himself in an unusual way; but before whom? Before the rabbis, who do not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah, but await their own “messiah," the “Antichrist," which means "to be in the place of Christ," or rather, "to replace" Christ!

Several months later, on November 6, 1986, the Pope delivered a speech before the participants in the Second International Judaeo-Christian Dialogue on "The Importance of Salvation and Redemption in the Jewish and Christian Traditions." Avoiding the principal issue of "the Messiah," which separates the Jews from the Christians, the Pope speaks about "the mutual connection between our respective heritages of faith" and about "the bonds that connect us in our understanding of salvation." Afterwards, commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Declaration "Nostra aetate," the Pope quotes this phrase from Article IV concerning "the spiritual connection between the people of the New Testament and the seed of Abraham," and continues: "We have here a connection which, despite our differences, makes us brethren." Thus, the profound incompatibility between the true Messiah of Christians, Who has already come, and the false messiah, expected by the Jews to come in the future, is reduced by the Pope to certain "differences," which do not preclude the brotherhood of the former and the latter in Abraham.

St. John the Baptist, however, disdaining the self-conceit of the Jews, who bragged that they had Abraham for their father (cf. St. John 8:39), contrasts such conceit to the power of God, Who "is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (St. Matthew 3:9). The Holy Apostle Paul, as he speaks of "Abraham our father according to the flesh" (Romans 4:1), emphasizes that he has become "the father of us all" (Romans 4:16), namely of Christians, because of his prophetic faith in Christ. This is exactly Abraham's faith, as Christ points out when He tells the Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it and was glad" (St. John 8:56).

In violation of this unbroken link of Abraham to Christ, Pope John Paul II, during his visit to Mainz, Germany, in November, 1980, invited the local chief rabbi to the cathedral and greeted him in Hebrew with the words: "May the Jewish people be blessed by our common father Abraham"—without even the slightest mention of Christ!

During his fourth visit to Poland in June, 1991, the Pope had "a cordial meeting" with the rabbis of Warsaw, as can be seen from the photograph on the front cover of La Documentation Catholique. At the very beginning of his speech before the Jewish rabbis, the Pope himself points out that: "The meetings with representatives of the Jewish communities are a constant element cf my Apostolic journeys. This fact speaks for itself and emphasizes in its own way the unique confession of the faith which unifies the sons of Abraham, who confess the religion of Moses and the Prophets, with those who in an identical way [!] confess Abraham as their 'father in the faith' (St. John 8:39)."

Thus, without explicitly mentioning Christians, and without counting himself among them, the Pope ascribes to them "the same" confession of the faith as the Jews and calls Abraham their "father in the faith." Furthermore, the Pope quotes the Gospel text from St. John (8:39), which, however, as we have demonstrated above, concerns those Jews who boasted, "Abraham is our father." The ascription of these words to Christians is a malicious falsification on the part of the "infallible" Pope in favor of the Jews, especially because the expression cited by the Pope in single quotation marks is not contained in the actual text of the Gospel (St. John 8:39)!

Closing this brief review of the relationship between Papism and Judaism, we should emphasize its apocalyptic significance, as it is expressed by the Greek Orthodox Archimandrite Arsenios Kompougias in his article, "The Relationship of the Pope to the Antichrist." The author comments on the recent book by an American Jew, Benjamin Creme, The New Apparition of Christ and the Teachers of Wisdom. According to this book, published by the clergy of the future "messiah," namely the Antichrist, he will soon appear as head of a world government. Among the plans he is to put into effect, there is the abolition of the Christian religion and the establishment of a new universal religion through the mediation of the Masonic lodges. The author stresses the decisive role to be played by the present Pope's successor in the betrayal of Christianity, whereas the mission of the present Pope himself is to level off the ground among religions by "uniting all Christians."

Now it is clear why this present Pope appealed to the Jews, the Moslems, and the Christians in March, 1986, to unite under one "god," and why, on October 27 of the same year, he invited one hundred fifty representatives of different religions, including Orthodox, under his Papal aegis in Assisi. This is why the Pope has been accused of creating a new religion, whose head he proclaims himself to be!

In the light of all that we have said, we understand the analogy invoked by the ever-memorable Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, who has already been proclaimed a Saint: "Papism resembles a fruit, whose peel of Christian ecclesiality, inherited from the past, cracks up more and more in order to reveal its anti-Christian core."

Similar to the "small horn" mentioned by the Holy Prophet Daniel (Daniel 7:8), the Vatican plays a predominant role among the European countries, anticipating a Common Europe, the "chief architect" (a Masonic term!) of which is supposedly the Pope! The Vatican also resembles the second apocalyptic beast, with two horns like a lamb, but which speaks like a "dragon" and "makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast" (Revelation 13:11-12).

Without anticipating the course of events, we can nevertheless ask ourselves: "Will not the Pope be the forerunner of the coming Antichrist?"

APPENDIX

The concerns and suppositions expressed above are to some extent confirmed in the Accord signed on December 30, 1993, between the Vatican and the State of Israel. The Preamble to this accord follows:

"The Holy See and the State of Israel, aware of the unique character and the universal significance of the Holy Land, conscious of the unique nature and the improving relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people; of the historical process of increasing reconciliation and understanding; of the growing mutual friendship between the Catholics and the Jews [emphasis ours], as they decided on July 29, 1992, to establish one working bilateral commission in order to examine and to define together the questions of common interest, and in order to normalize their relations, by acknowledging that the fruit of the work of this commission suffices to conclude a primary fundamental accord, by realizing that such an accord will be a solid and durable base for the continuous development of their present and future relations [emphasis ours] and for the progress of the work of the commission, agree to the following...."

The subsequent fifteen Articles of the Accord, by establishing the mutual obligations between the Vatican and Israel, emphasize that “the Church'' and “the State'' will consult one another and cooperate as circumstances dictate (Article V). In Article XIII, the terms utilized by both parties are specified: in section (a) “the Catholic Church'' is identified with “the Church'' in general; and in section (c), “the State of Israel" is identified with “the State" in general. This terminology implies that in the future, the two negotiating parties will turn into two absolute super-powers of a universal character!

 

About the author: The Very Reverend Sergius, a former assistant professor at the Theological Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria, is the spiritual Father of the Russian Convent of the Holy Protection in Sofia, which is under the omophorion of Bishop Photii of Triaditza. He was dismissed from his academic position when he refused to adopt the revised New, or Papal, Calendar, at its introduction into the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and is considered a confessor of the Faith by the Bulgarian traditionalists. His important book, Orthodoxy and Ecumenism, co-authored with the late Archimandrite Dr. Seraphim, his longtime colleague, has recently appeared in Bulgarian and Russian editions.

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XII (1995), No. 3, pp. 11-18.

Faithfulness to Christ Will Save Us From the Mark of the Beast

From an Extemporaneous Sermon by Bishop Photii of Triaditza

 

 

Burdened with cares, immersed in the daily course of monotonous routines, exhausted from the rapid pace of the passing years, we rarely contemplate the Judgment Day of God, which we will all, without exception, face. Even the realization of our impending deaths and appearance before God for His judgment is vague and weak, struggling to find deep expression in our hearts. Living by the rhythm of this frenetic, transient world, we seldom understand that every passing moment shapes our eternal state. At the same time, many Christians are anxiously preoccupied, even to the point of unhealthy feverishness, with these questions: “When will this take place? When will Christ’s words be realized? When will God’s awesome and fearsome Day of Judgment come about? When is the Lord’s Second Coming?” Sadly, these concerns and questions seldom come forth from hearts standing in awe before Christ. So it is that we unfortunately become schizophrenic; we are of two minds. We live our lives according to the beat of the present world, constantly under the sway of its logic, and this even when contemplating things spiritual. We remain half-Christian and half-heathen in our hearts, involved in the world, yet eagerly inquiring and desiring to know when God’s words regarding the end of the world will come to fruition.

Our Lord Jesus Christ responded to this particular question, when it was posed to Him by His Apostles: “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (St. Matthew 24:3). The Lord left the Apostles and us with but a hint and a single sign of His glorious Second Coming: the Cross. All human beings on earth will observe the Cross in the heavens—shining even brighter than the sun—at the Lord Jesus Christ’s Second Coming in all His Divine Glory, together with a countless multitude of bright Angels, so as to carry out His Judgment. Alarmed, we still ask ourselves: “When is its arrival, when will this happen?”

All of us are aware that the Saviour’s Second Coming will also be preceded by that of the Antichrist. Much is said, in this regard, about the Mark of the Beast (Antichrist), and there are countless theories concerning the secret meaning of the number “666.” But few are they who approach these issues with humility, profundity of thought and, indeed, spiritually! One who understands that the mark of the beast is, alas, inscribed on our hearts will not worry and be disquieted, waiting anxiously for its appearance, for example, in some new change in the official documents and passports that a government may issue. Instead, he will concentrate all of his attention on identifying this mark in the heart, where it is evilly inscribed.

Few Orthodox faithful, I suspect, realize that their feverish concerns and questions—“What will the mark look like? Will it not likely be the latest thing in technology, some sort of electronic microchip?”—have their provenance in Protestant texts and Protestant fundamentalistic theology. This kind of speculation cannot be found at the core of the Orthodox Church, and particularly in the theological consensus of the Holy Fathers. Indeed, the truth is that we do not know what form the Mark of the Beast will take. Will it perhaps be a technical process—or perhaps one of the rituals of the false religions of the future world? Perhaps a rite that will blasphemously imitate the Christian rite of Chrismation? We simply do not know. That of which we should be aware is one thing: no outward action and no outward safeguard can guarantee and ensure that we will remain faithful to our Lord. The effectiveness of this mark will be thwarted only by our conscience and by our will. It will be powerless to the extent that we are willing to live in a constant state of spiritual effort of conscience and indefatigable struggle against sin, continuously exercising our willpower in standing up for and maintaining our uninterrupted fidelity to Christ—even after falling over and over, or by betraying Him through our feelings, thoughts, words, and deeds.

No amount of protestation, no organizations and earthly resources directed against passports and the symbol “666”—which is purported, for example, to appear on Russian passports—will save us from the proliferation of this Mark of the Beast. Our sole aim should be the preservation of our fidelity to the Patristic spirit and to Orthodoxy’s Tradition. As I said, not one of the Holy Fathers ever provided a detailed assessment or some rash interpretation of the meaning of the symbol “666.” It is only that disturbed part of humanity, those who have distanced themselves in their hearts from Christ, that has succumbed to hysteria and made such determinations. To some, it is an avocation, while to others it is a burning issue, while to yet others it is a manifestation of their spiritual illness.

The most difficult thing for a person to achieve is the maintenance of spiritual stability. And the Evil One is fully aware of this. That is why he employs innumerable methods in his attempt to separate us from Christ, carefully attacking our inner fidelity to Christ, which fidelity we defile on a daily basis. If we are not able to serve our neighbor quietly and lovingly, if we are incapable of feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, quenching the thirst of those without drink, and comforting the imprisoned, then we are in no condition to serve Christ. If we lack love for our neighbor, we simply do not have Christ in us. It is on such concerns that we must focus our attention. Fidelity is a genuine, profound faithfulness to Orthodox Tradition, in all of its fullness, in word, spirit, life, and actions; in other words, fidelity to, and love for, Christ by fulfilling His commandments and acquiring the Holy Gospel’s appointed virtues in loving our fellow man. One should not have doubt or fear about the Antichrist, for those things that will remain firm on Christ’s Judgment Day are humility, truth, repentance and love. They will save us.

O Lord, rid us of everything that separates us from Thee! Amen.

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XXVII (2010), No. 1, pp. 11-13.