Europe and Heresy

Nikolaos Savvopoulos, theologian | April 17, 2008

 

Our era is even worse than that of ancient Israel. And this because, precisely when the masculine combative spirit vanished and the cowardice of death descended, a joyful hope arose within it: Deborah, with a manly spirit! Today, no trumpets of prophetic voices are heard, no Deborahs arise to sound the call, no forerunner voices echo. Honor the Kanarises and the Bouboulines, the Constantines of Hydra, so that we may feel that the goatherders and Leonidases, who guard Thermopylae, live and know how to always sacrifice themselves when "God is the one at stake."

The blessed Fr. Justin Popovich, in his book Orthodox Church and Ecumenism (Orthodox Kypseli Publications, Thessaloniki 1974), writes:

"Ecumenism is a common name for pseudo-Christianities, for the pseudo-churches of Western Europe. Within it lies the heart of all European humanisms, with Papism at their head. All these pseudo-Christianities, all these pseudo-churches, are nothing other than one heresy alongside another heresy. Their common Gospel name is pan-heresy. Why? Because throughout history, various heresies denied or distorted certain attributes of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, whereas these European heresies remove the entire God-man and replace Him with European man. Here, there is no essential difference between Papism, Protestantism, Ecumenism, and other heresies whose name is legion."

Ecumenism is the final and most perfect trap set by the devil for humanity and his most dreadful and insidious attack against the Church of Christ. It is the poison that paralyzes the soul, rendering it incapable of believing, incapable of seeing the light, and even incapable of thirsting for the truth. It darkens the mind of the Orthodox, causing him, instead of loving the sick and trying to heal him, to love the very sickness itself; instead of loving the heretic, to love his heresy."

Saint John of Kronstadt states that no other Christian confession, apart from Orthodoxy, can lead man to the perfection of Christian life, to sanctification, to complete purification from sins, and to eternity. This is because other, non-Orthodox confessions "hold the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18), adulterate the truth with sophistry and falsehood, and thus do not possess the means of grace for the renewal of man. These are held only by the Orthodox Church, the only 'holy and blameless' (Eph. 5:27)." The one and true Church is the one that ceaselessly redeems man from the stain of sin, sanctifies him, enlightens him, renews him, and saves him. It is not the one that persecutes, tortures, divides, or burns people at the stake. Nor is it the one that exalts human reasoning to supreme value and undervalues divine revealed truth, abolishes the clergy, the sacraments, fasting, and all those things that the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers, ordained for our salvation. It is not a true church that arbitrarily severed its ties with the company of the departed, those "enrolled in heaven" (Heb. 12:23), and considers our prayers for them to be useless. Any group that has cut itself off from the living and fruitful tree—the Apostolic Church—is not true.

The criteria for the reunion of divided Christians cannot be different from those applicable to the union of associations and organizations of various scientific fields. Astronomers would be shaken at the idea that they should unite with astrologers. The latter must become astronomers in order to be accepted. Similarly, the members of a modern medical association would be equally shaken by the suggestion that they should unite with quacks and impostors of the medical profession. In the same way, the Fathers would be astonished at the idea of uniting their tradition with confessions that have little or no understanding of the Therapy of purification, illumination, and theosis and have institutionalized authority in the hands of false healers. The demand for reunion is a demand for the success of the confessions in producing the results for which it is said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

We believe, therefore, that the difference between Orthodoxy and other confessions and religions lies primarily in the matter of therapy. Orthodoxy has a perfect therapeutic system. It knows health, sincerely perceives the wounds of man, and prescribes a perfect therapeutic method of guidance. Thus, we assert that when faith is altered, the therapy of man is also altered. The Holy Fathers indicate and present this therapeutic method. The struggles for the preservation of the faith were undertaken to safeguard the method of therapy.

 

Original Greek source: https://blogs.sch.gr/savvop-nik/2008/04/17/%ce%b5%cf%85%cf%81%cf%89%cf%80%ce%b7-%ce%ba%ce%b1%ce%b9-%ce%b1%ce%b9%cf%81%ce%b5%cf%83%ce%b7/