Ecumenism: The Overturning of the Gospel

Panagiotis Simatis, Professor of Theology

On the occasion of the Gospel of St. John:

“Go ye” compromise with “all nations” “teaching them” to transgress “all things whatsoever I have commanded you”

 

The holy Chrysostom points out that, during the days of the great feasts of the Jews, Christ was systematically found among the Jews who flocked to Jerusalem, in order to celebrate with them and, through His miracles and His teaching, to draw the guileless and simple people. For Christ had a greater concern to heal them and offer them salvation than they themselves had the desire for healing.

“For what reason, then, does Christ continually take up His abode in Jerusalem and during the feasts sojourn among the Jews? In order to lay hold of those who are ailing, that He might draw to Himself the guileless among the multitude. For those who were suffering did not have as great a desire to be freed from their ailments as the Physician displayed zeal to deliver them from their sickness. Therefore, when their gathering was full, He, coming into their midst, would then manifest those things pertaining to the salvation of their souls.” (John Chrysostom, Against the Anomoeans, Homily 12, and Commentary on John)

There are even today people who would like to find the One Truth, who seek to be healed from the paralysis of every sin and false belief. But the unfortunate reality is that the healers are lacking! The majority of today’s shepherds, “in the type and stead of Christ,” have ended up no longer as disciples of Christ, but as mere performers of sacred rites or as a kind of social welfare service with a religious veneer—secularized and indifferent to the essence of what Christ came to offer man. There are, of course, also those spiritual fathers who give all their strength to the guidance of modern man, but they fall into another “temptation from the right”: they appear to be “indifferent” toward the contemporary heretics “within the walls,” toward the combating of heresy and the return of the heretics to the One, Holy, Orthodox Church.

The unfortunate reality, however, is that this apparent “indifference” is not truly indifference, but rather a cowardice to confront the small in number yet well-organized ecumenist faction; and as such, it constitutes acceptance of the conspiracy of silence that has been imposed primarily by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, so that the faithful may not be informed about the heretical policies of the Phanar!!! That is, the spiritual fathers, invoking “discernment,” refuse to approach, to preach, and to heal those who have been afflicted by the paralysis of the heresy of Ecumenism (as well as of Papism and the W.C.C.).

Do they perhaps ignore the patristic teaching that heresy is a contagious and difficult-to-heal disease?

“Do not make friends with heretics, so that you may not partake in their communion; … for each shall reap what he has sown.” (Ephraim the Syrian, On Repentance and Compunction)

“But if there is such great harm concerning those who fall into moral failings, what must one say about those who hold false doctrines about God, whom their heretical opinion does not even allow to be sound in other matters, as they are handed over once and for all, because of it, to the passions of dishonor?” (St. Basil the Great, Shorter Rules, Question 20)

And: “The heretical belief of the heretics always proceeds toward the worse and becomes a greater wound... For this reason, Christians ought to avoid these men and all heretics as plagues and pestilences, lest they too be destroyed along with them...” (Nikodemos the Hagiorite, Commentary on the Fourteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul, vol. 3, pp. 318–319)

How is it, then, possible, by burying their heads in the sand, for the shepherds to overlook the harm suffered by the faithful, who are in communion with local heretical ecumenists (whose very existence and heresy they are unaware of), and also the “blasphemy” that lies in the distortion of the Gospel, of Holy Tradition, and of dogmatic truth, which the Ecumenists commit?

How do they tolerate the invocation of cheap excuses in order not to name the heretics, and how is it possible that they do not realize that these “excuses” express the very essence of the pan-heresy of Ecumenism and have been suggested by the Ecumenists themselves?

1) For example, certain spiritual fathers say that the Patriarch “also” teaches Orthodox things—as if they have never read Church history, as if they do not know that most heretics began as “otherwise” Orthodox, except for the one point in which they taught falsely; as if they do not know (and have themselves taught us) that heresy consists in the transgression of “one jot or one tittle,” according to the teaching of the Lord Himself!

2) They also say (depending on whom they are addressing each time): let us look to ourselves, to the purification from the passions (and this is very correct); matters of Faith and of our relations with heretics belong to the competence of the shepherds (but this, however, is a great error and clearly an unpatristic position).

How is it that the clergy do not realize that in this way they dissolve the unity of Orthodox preaching and Orthodox pastoral care? So then, the Holy Fathers, who inseparably connected Faith and Ethics, who considered progress in the spiritual life unthinkable without the prerequisite of right Faith, without the confession of this Faith and the preservation of the Dogmas inviolate—even unto martyrdom—were all the Saints, then, mistaken? Certainly not.

St. Basil the Great writes: The Lord said:

“‘Go ye therefore and teach all nations, teaching them,’ not to observe some things and neglect others, but ‘to observe all things,’ without overlooking even the smallest of the ‘commanded things,’ since all are necessary for your salvation. But we, thinking that we have fulfilled one of the commandments (for I would not say that we have actually fulfilled it—for all the commandments are interconnected, according to the sound reasoning of the purpose, so that in the breaking of one the rest are inevitably also broken), do not await wrath for the things we have neglected, but expect honor supposedly for the one thing accomplished.” (St. Basil the Great, Ethical Discourses, On Virtue and Vice, Discourse 1)

And here lies the entire responsibility, the personal tragedy, and the fall of contemporary clergy: though they know these things, they silently accept such unpatristic “reasonings” and adopt this stance, thereby manifestly—inasmuch as it depends on them—dividing and dissolving the unity of life in Christ, as a unity of Faith and Ethics, which connects us with the timeless Tradition of the Church, hindering—instead of facilitating—our true union with the Lord.

The holy Chrysostom writes:

“For it is not enough for one single virtue to present us with boldness before the judgment seat of Christ, but there is need of much, and varied, and manifold, and of every kind of virtue. Hear Him, then, saying to His disciples: Go ye therefore and teach all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” (John Chrysostom, Selections from Various Discourses)

The Shepherds officially and—despite repeated warnings—persistently refuse to acknowledge that unity exists where right Faith is found and ecclesiastical Tradition is applied, that is, in the One, Holy Church, thereby allowing the practices of the hundreds of heretical confessions, whose common denominator is Ecumenism, to infiltrate the body of Christians.

This means that they compromise with heresy and surrender without a fight to the leaders of Ecumenism. In this way, the uncatechized faithful become familiarized with heresy, and the healing of the heretics is hindered.

Yet another transgression also takes place: they reject a fundamental Commandment—that of the Evangelization of the heterodox, among whom there are many who thirst for the knowledge of the true Orthodox life and teaching.

They refuse to address and converse with the ignorant people among the heterodox, as the Lord did, and instead—with “joyful feet”—they have for decades engaged in dialogue with the leaders and hardened structures of each heresy, that is, with the “chief priests,” the “Sadducees,” and the “Pharisees” of our time, who are also their table companions.

And they have refused, for decades now, to address and preach Christ to the peoples, because they do not wish to fall out with the powers of this world—the atheist Popes and homosexual priests and priestesses of the heterodox—those who are their feasting dialogue partners, who have introduced a multitude of false doctrines (which should one mention first?), have abolished many of the Commandments of Christ, and show no intention whatsoever of correcting themselves and returning to the One Church.

They have become stricken with amnesia and do not remember the Commandment of Christ: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.”

They have, in other words, entrusted the salvation of the heretics to the leaders of the heresies(!), against whom the Lord pronounced the “woes.” They themselves refuse to imitate Christ, to be present among the places of the simple heretics, to teach that only the Orthodox Church offers true life and salvation, and thus, to confess Christ.

And they refuse, because they have agreed with their heterodox dialogue partners not to teach the truth of the Gospel, not to call the heretics of the West to salvation! That is, they do the exact opposite of what Christ taught, Who gave the Commandment to go forth unto all nations—not compromising in matters of Faith, but preaching “One Faith,” “one Baptism,” “One Church.”

Thus, the Orthodox clergy themselves, through their institutional and authoritative presence, hinder those few Shepherds who persist in an Orthodox manner and strive to fulfill the Commandment of the Word of God for the evangelization of those who do not believe rightly.

But St. Epiphanios writes:

“…(The Lord) taught to proclaim the kingdom of heaven in truth, …and saying ‘make disciples of all nations,’ that is, transform the nations from wickedness to truth, from heresies to one unity, ‘baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,’ into the Lordly appellation of the Trinity, …in order to show by the very name that there is no alteration of the one unity. For where those being baptized are commanded by Him to be ‘sealed’ in the name… of the ‘Holy Spirit,’ the bond is neither divided nor alienated, having the seal of the one divinity.” (Epiphanius of Cyprus, Panarion)

And the ecclesiastical writer Eusebius:

“‘Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations.’ For the Holy Spirit wills them to carry out the evangelical work with fervent and undivided zeal; for by the phrase ‘day unto day,’ He presents this very thing—that they continually proclaim the message of salvation…” (Eusebius, On the Titles of the Psalms, Interpretation of Selected Ones)

I am aware that I am placing responsibility (with what I write—not for the first time) upon respected spiritual fathers. Many times I have asked myself: who am I, that I dare to point out some of their omissions? Yet I feel within me a strong conviction that what I write is not my own position (for then I would not even dare to express it), but the Orthodox Tradition.

And although similar thoughts have been written many times, I have not seen any rebuttal. Which means that our spiritual fathers either have no answer to give to the patristic texts that are cited, or they are indifferent, as teachers, to present and teach the precise and indisputable position of the Church on the matter—and, as shepherds and fathers, to correct even me with the genuine patristic word, and not with personal opinions that differ from elder to elder, so that I may understand (where I err) the correct position.

 

Greek source: https://www.agioskosmas.gr/antiairetika.asp?isue=88&artid=4282