Concerning the tares, that is, heretics, in the field/body of the Church

Adamantios Tsakiroglou, philologist and historian

 

It has been forewarned by the Fathers and has been confirmed not a few times, that in the times we are living in, confusion and delusion will reign. The pan-heresy of Ecumenism is based upon this confusion and delusion—along with indifference, lack of catechesis and ecclesiastical mindset, secularization, and fear—and extends its tentacles like an octopus, constantly changing color and ejecting dark ink to obscure consciences, while at the same time sowing discord among the Christians who oppose it. One of the views that confuse, mislead, and divide the anti-heretical struggle is the view concerning invalid Mysteries. This view, even if it stems from well-intentioned zeal—that is, the unwillingness to accept that the all-holy and spotless Church may, for a time, have rotten/heretical members within its body—divides the flock and is not based on patristic proofs, but on erroneous interpretations.

As a response to this view, I will present scriptural sources and certain patristic interpretations related to them, through which it is made clear that until Her cleansing by a Council, the Church has tares/heretics in Her field/body. Her spotless and all-holy character is evident in the fact that despite the existence of the tares/heretics, She is not altered, since through Her healthy members who remain—through right faith—in unbroken union with Her spotless Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, She does not accept any false doctrine of the pseudo-shepherds, the heretical ones; on the contrary, through the severance of communion, She condemns their heretical false teachings and, finally, synodally uproots them from the field of the Lord, cuts them off from Her body, and places them outside Herself. Already in the Old Testament, the existence of tares in the field of the Lord is mentioned.

Isaiah writes (5:4): “What shall I yet do to My vineyard that I have not done in it? For I waited for it to bring forth grapes, but it brought forth thorns.” (What remains for Me to do still for this My vineyard, and what have I until now not done for it? I did everything, so that it might bear grapes. But it produced thorns!) This saying, according to the Fathers, does not refer only to the Jews but also to the Christians who stray from the Faith and, instead of bearing fruit, wound—as thorns—the laborers in the vineyard.

But Jeremiah also presents the people of Israel as “a fruitful vine, entirely true,” which, although it was chosen and planted by God Himself, “turned to bitterness, the strange vine”—that is, it became estranged and turned away from God, resulting in its degeneration and its failure to bear fruit (Jer. 2:21; 8:13; 12:10). But God (6:8–9), perceiving the prophet’s disappointment, tells him that He chastens in order to bring Israel to understanding: “Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest My soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolate land, which shall not be inhabited,” and He urges him to go back into the vineyard and patiently seek the fruits that are hidden among the foliage of the barren trunks: “Glean, glean as a vine the remnant of Israel; return as one who gathers grapes into his basket.” And Ezekiel foresees the punishment of Israel, the burning of the “worthless vine” (Ezek. 15:1–8), which nevertheless still has some value on account of its fruit (Ezek. 15:1–3).

The same images continue also in the New Testament. Thus, we encounter the parable of the vine (John 15:1–8), in which every branch that does not bear fruit is cut off, cast out from the vine, and withers; the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that gathered all kinds of fish, both good and useless, but the useless ones are sorted out and thrown away (Matt. 13:49–52); and like a field with wheat, but also with tares, which were not sown by Christ but secretly at night by the enemy, the devil (Matt. 13:24). The parables resemble each other, but the ones concerning the vine and the tares are those that have received particular interpretation by the Fathers and various enlightened commentators. I present first the interpretation of St. John Chrysostom on the parable of the tares:

“In the parable of the Sower, Christ did not speak to us about tares, but here He does. There, He speaks about those who paid no attention to Him at all, but withdrew and rejected the seed. Whereas here, He speaks about the ways of heretics… That parable says they did not receive the teaching, but this one says that they did receive it—and [yet] are deceivers. For this too is a method of the Devil: to always cunningly serve delusion together with truth. He shows that delusion can exist after the truth—something which the very facts themselves confirm.”

It is astounding how Christ explains to us the timing of the heretics’ activity: “while men slept.”

“After the prophets came the false prophets, after the apostles the false apostles, and after Christ the Antichrist.”

But what is the difference between the seed that fell by the wayside and the tares? That the former was immediately snatched away, whereas in this case it took root (i.e., within the Church) and to be uprooted requires attentiveness.

Therefore, Christ tells us all these things so that we may never become complacent, but always remain vigilant.

“Destruction comes through sleep. Therefore, constant vigilance is required. That is why He also said, ‘He who endures to the end, he shall be saved.’ Many of the leaders placed within the churches wicked men who were crypto-heretics… in the beginning, they carefully conceal their delusion… but when they become emboldened and someone allows them to speak, then they pour out their poison.”

What the Saint teaches us is terrifying. Leaders of the Church placed the crypto-heretics on archiepiscopal thrones and in the temples. Now even the most unlearned can understand the method of the Ecumenists. During all the time when the “pious” were sleeping instead of overseeing, and were attending name-day celebrations of colleagues (see: Patras), the Ecumenists were seizing one throne after another with their obedient instruments and were altering the faith of the flock. And because instead of councils and condemnations they had to face only paper wars and conferences, their task became extremely easy. And to those who teach that Christ forbade councils, we respond: But Christ did not forbid councils that condemn heretics and safeguard the wheat, but rather wars and bloodshed. After all, together with the heretics, many Orthodox might have been killed, or perhaps some—who until then were part of the group of tares—might have ultimately been transformed into wheat…

“If then, in anticipating them, you uproot them, you do harm to those who are about to become wheat, removing those who are able to change and become better. Therefore, He does not forbid restraining heretics, silencing them, cutting off their boldness, dissolving their assemblies and their alliances, but [He forbids] putting them to death and slaughtering them.”

(On the Gospel of Matthew 46, 2; P.G. 58, 477, the modern Greek translation is from here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByZQkrKg4yKLNGl0aDRXWHNiUDg/view)

It is clear that St. John Chrysostom speaks of the existence of tares within the body of the Church without questioning Her spotless character, since the true members and not the false ones (here is the proper definition of the pseudo-shepherds from the 15th Canon) are not suffocated by the tares. On the contrary, he teaches us that God tolerates these tares for a certain period—which He alone determines—in case they might repent and be transformed into wheat, but also in order to safeguard, test, and reveal the truly faithful. After that period, however, the Church synodally condemns the heresy and cuts it off from Her all-holy body. This is confirmed also by the Apostle Paul, who says, “For there must also be factions [Gr. haireseis, literally “heresies”] among you, that those who are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Cor. 11:19). Even if this passage uses the word heresy to speak rather of divisions and disturbances, many interpreters understand it literally also as referring to heresies, since every transgression of the commandments of the Lord can be interpreted as heresy (see: adultery [moechianism]).

Incidentally, this passage constitutes yet another proof against the theory of the optional application of the Holy Canons, because if that theory were valid, how would the approved be made manifest? On the contrary, by not applying the Holy Canons—especially those that refer to the treatment of heretics, and in this case the 15th Canon—they oppose the word of Paul, and the approved will not be made manifest.

We continue concerning the tares. Zigabenos writes, agreeing with Chrysostom about them:

“Just as the tares resemble the wheat in the stalk, but differ in the fruit—and they are harmful to the wheat—so also the heretics resemble the Orthodox in outward appearance, but differ in virtue, which is the fruit. And virtue and fruit, above all, is the truth of the dogmas. And just as the tares, until the time of bearing fruit, grow together unnoticed, and only then are discerned, so also the heretics, until they begin to teach, pass their time unnoticed. But when they acquire much boldness, then they pour out their poison and are discerned. That is why He also said beforehand: ‘By their fruits you shall know them.’ And likewise, when Christ was sowing, heretics did not appear; but when the Orthodox grew, then they emerged.”

(Euthymios Zigabenos, Commentary on the Four Gospels, Volume I, Part One, ch. 13, 26)

The tares / heretics at first are not visible (so then, as long as they are not visible, what is the Church? Defiled or spotless? And what happens with the Mysteries they perform? Are they valid or invalid? Do they have Mysteries? And if yes, then are we all without Baptism, etc.?). However, they are harmful to the Christians. That is why, when they become manifest through their preaching, they must necessarily—by God’s command—be cut off.

On this, the late Fr. George Kapsanis writes:

“Indeed, heresies constitute tares sown by the evil one into the field of the Church in order to thwart the salvation of men. In the Church’s struggle against heresies, the contribution of monasticism has been significant.”

The same is said by St. Cyril of Alexandria, in his explanation of “I am the true Shepherd” and the parable of the vine (Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary or Exposition on the Gospel according to John, P.G. 74). And the Encyclical Response of the Synod in Constantinople of 1895 to Pope Leo XIII states, among other things, the following:

“Every pious and Orthodox soul, sincerely zealous for the glory of God, is deeply grieved and seized with great sorrow, seeing that the hater of good and murderer of man from the beginning, driven by envy of human salvation, does not cease at any time to sow various tares in the field of the Lord, in order to obscure the wheat. Hence, from the beginning, heretical tares have sprouted in the Church of God, which in many ways have afflicted and continue to afflict the salvation in Christ of the human race, and which, as evil seeds and decayed members, are justly cut off from the healthy body of the Orthodox Catholic Church of Christ.”

It is important to note that the same teaching is evident in the Lord’s letters to the Churches of Asia Minor in the Apocalypse (chapters 2–3). The Lord calls the bishops of the Churches, even though they do not act entirely according to His commandments (except for those of Smyrna and Philadelphia) and permit within their ranks the growth of tares/heretics—mainly Nicolaitans and false prophets (the last of the seven, the bishop of Laodicea, has entirely deviated from right doctrine)—“angels,” and He nonetheless grants them a time for repentance, on the condition that they will correct themselves and uproot from the field the tares that have sprouted. Therefore, they were still—according to the Lord (!!!)—within the Church. The Lord gave them time to remain within His body, but in the end, He removed their lampstands and they were lost.

St. Ignatius the God-bearer warns:

“Where the shepherd is, there follow as sheep; for many wolves, clothed in sheep’s clothing, with evil pleasure take captive those who are on the way of God; but in your unity they will have no place. Therefore, abstain from the evil herbs, which Jesus Christ does not cultivate, but the man-killing beast does, because they are not the planting of the Father, but the seed of the evil one.”

(Ignatius of Antioch, To the Philippians, TLG, Epistle 6, chapter 2, section 1, line 1)

The tares, that is, “the evil herbs,” are the sowing of the evil one. Until their cutting off from the Church, they may remain as members—yet members from whom good Christians, the wheat, must distance themselves so as not to be corrupted (“evil company corrupt good morals” 1 Cor. 15:33), not to be defiled, not to be choked by their teaching.

And again, Chrysostom shows us the Church’s teaching concerning the tares and the necessity of a council that will judge and cleanse the field of the Lord—the Church, not the world in general (“Discourse concerning false prophets and false teachers and impious heretics…”):

“But let us return to the subject at hand; for the discourse is about the end, and about false prophets, and false teachers, and about impious heretics, who have flooded in everywhere like a torrent and lead many astray. And how has this come about? Clearly from the ignorance and inexperience of those in authority; for where there is inexperience in shepherds, there is the ruin of the sheep. What then shall I say first…

“Nevertheless, for the present it is necessary to present them from the Holy Scriptures as enemies of Christ and as wolves of His flock, driven everywhere and cast out from the sheep of Christ. Therefore, they were rightly called wolves by the prophets, by the very Master Himself, and by the blessed apostles; and not only wolves, but also plagues, impious, adversaries, enemies, conspirators, blasphemers, hypocrites, thieves, robbers, abominable ones, false prophets, false teachers, blind guides, deceivers, evil ones, antichrists, scandals, sons of the evil one, tares, and atheists… Jude, the brother of James, said: 'Certain men have crept in unnoticed, who were long beforehand written about for this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.' And again he says: 'In the last times there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.' These are they who feed themselves without fear, waterless clouds, carried about by every wind, wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. These and more than these are what Jude, the good one, exhorts us concerning...

“And the philanthropic God … inclined the heavens and came down, and ordered all things for the salvation of our race, and in all things gave example, both doing and teaching. Then, wishing to teach how those who are to preside over the Churches should drive out the heretics, He made a scourge of cords and, entering in, cast them all out of the temple, and He drove them away and expelled them...

“Hear this, you who preside over the Churches. For to you He showed the good example, that you may follow in His footsteps, being vigilant in all things and driving out the wolves and guarding the flock. And after Him … also the holy synods held from time to time, having uprooted those who remained unrepentant, delivered them over to destruction, according to what is written: 'Thou shalt destroy all those who speak falsehood…'”

And elsewhere:

“The diligent among the farmers, when they see a tree that is fruitless and wild, damaging their labor, and through the harshness of its root and the heaviness of its shade ruining the cultivated plants, with great zeal cut it down with haste. And often a wind arising from somewhere assists them in the cutting: striking the top of the tree and shaking it with great force, it breaks it down and casts it to the ground, thus relieving them of most of the toil. So then, since we also are cutting down a wild and untamed tree—the heresy of the Anomoeans—let us beseech God to send us the grace of the Spirit, that a wind more forceful than all may strike it and uproot the heresy entirely, relieving us of the greater part of the labor.

“For already, indeed, land that has been left uncultivated and has not benefited from the hands of farmers has often brought forth from its own bosom evil herbs, a multitude of thorns, and wild trees. In the same way, the soul of the Anomoeans, having been made desolate and not having enjoyed the attentive care of the Scriptures, has from within itself produced this wild and untamed heresy. For this tree was not planted by Paul, nor watered by Apollos, nor made to grow by God; rather, it was planted by untimely curiosity of thoughts, watered by the arrogance of madness, and grew by the passion of vainglory.

“And we need the flame of the Spirit—not only that we may uproot, but also that we may burn up this evil root. Let us then call upon Him—the God who is blasphemed by them, but glorified by us—and let us beseech Him, so that He may stir our tongue to a more vigorous course and open our understanding to a clearer comprehension of what is being said. For all our labor is on His behalf and for His glory—rather, it is for the sake of our own salvation.”

(John Chrysostom, On the Incomprehensible [Against the Anomoeans, Homily 1], TLG, Homily 3, line 160)

Many times, then, according to Chrysostom, tares/heresies have appeared in the Church, and the shepherds were called to “drive out the heretics” and to convene a council: “and the holy synods held from time to time, having uprooted those who remained unrepentant, delivered them over to destruction.” From the moment of their cutting off and afterward, it is understood that these tares, these branches, no longer constitute members of the vineyard, of the field, and they wither. But until their cutting off, they are regarded as rotten, diseased members of the same field.

And St. Theodore the Studite agrees with Chrysostom, both concerning the tares/heresies and the necessity of a synod that will expel them:

“For the phrase ‘having neither spot nor wrinkle,’ to repeat it again, is to be understood in this way: that it does not admit impious dogmas and unlawful undertakings. Moreover, even the forbidden dispositions held by their perpetrators, as the divine Basil somewhere says, are not to be tolerated; and to such people the great Paul does not even permit sharing a meal. For from the time of the Apostles and afterwards, many heresies have been grafted onto her in various ways, and godless and uncanonical defilements have prevailed, just as is the case now. Yet she, in the previously mentioned manner, has remained undivided and spotless, and will remain so unto the ages, with all those who think or act wickedly being removed and cast out from her—just like waves that crash against an immovable and rocky cliff.”

(P.G.  99, 1001/04; Fatres 28, 79, 123)

St. Theodore is known to rely on St. Basil the Great. In the following passages, it is evident that St. Basil considers heretics to be within the Church (who, of course, must be neutralized by the right-believing faithful and eventually cut off from Her), yet as tares. He also appears to make a certain distinction between those who are ignorant—as weaker believers—and the conscious Spirit-fighters (Pneumatomachians).

“The so-called darnel, and all other illegitimate seeds mixed with the nourishing ones—those which Scripture customarily calls tares—do not come from a transformation of the wheat, but have arisen from their own origin, possessing a distinct nature. These fulfill the image of those who corrupt the teachings of the Lord and are not genuinely instructed in the word, but have been corrupted through the teaching of the evil one, mixing themselves into the healthy body of the Church in order to, from concealment, cast their own harm upon the more intact [members].”

(P.G. 29, 114)

The Church does not lose Her spotless character because there are tares within Her ranks. Her teaching remains pure as long as there are (and there will always be) even three faithful who rightly believe and rightly live, since according to His promise, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.” And we do not, of course, know to what extent the apostasy will reach in the time of the last days (nor exactly when the last days will come), but in any case, the faithful will always distance themselves and separate themselves from those inclined toward heresy, they will not have communion with them, and they will convene Synods which will give them the opportunity to repent—and if not, will condemn them and uproot them from the field of God. This constitutes a duty of the faithful and of the shepherds, not an optional possibility.

And in Epistle 114:

“You are to accept the Symbol of Faith,” and “in this confession of Faith you must also add that the Holy Spirit must not be called a creature, and that there must assuredly be no communion with those who call Him a creature, so that the Church of God may remain pure and not have tares* mixed within her.”

“…You are to confess the faith delivered by our Fathers, by those who once gathered in Nicaea… and that the Holy Spirit must not be called a creature, nor indeed must there be communion with those who say so, in order that the Church of God may be pure, having no tares mixed in with her.”

(*) Tares are heretics. Therefore, according to St. Basil the Great, heretics are not “brethren” with a different understanding of the one Gospel, but “the sowing of the Devil” (cf. Matt. 13:24–30).

(Commentary and interpretation by the late [Monk] Nikodemos Bilalis, vol. 4, pp. 24–28.)

But also according to the holy Dositheos of Jerusalem (Dodekabiblos), “heresy, when it arises and spreads, is judged and condemned by the Ecumenical Council,” which is “greater than the Local Synods” and the “final criterion of the entire Church” (Dodekabiblos, Book IV, ch. 10, § 3, pp. 456–457, and Book III, ch. 15, § 19, p. 171).

The Saint states clearly that Synods set forth the Orthodox teaching and called the heretics to repentance. In the case of the heretics’ persistence in their beliefs, the Fathers condemned them and cut them off from the body of the Church, in order that “the Church of God might remain pure, having no tares mixed within her.”

In the Tome of Joy (1705, p. 42) by the same holy Dositheos, we read from the acts of the Council of 879/880 under St. Photios the Great:

“First, we are to admonish them and exhort them, and if they are not willing to obey us, then we are to cut them off as diseased members, so that the healthy body may not also perish because of them.”

A characteristic passage is found in the Acts of the Fourth Session of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. There it is said that the holy Fathers fulfill the word of Christ—that is, to place the lamp of divine knowledge “on the lampstand” so that it may shine for all who are in the house, and not to hide it “under the bushel.” In this way, those who piously confess the Lord are aided to walk the path of salvation without stumbling. The holy Fathers

“cast out every heretical delusion, and if a member is found to be incurably diseased, they cut it off; and holding the winnowing fan, they cleanse the threshing floor, and the wheat—that is, the nourishing word that strengthens the heart of man—they store in the granary of the Catholic Church, while the chaff of heretical false teaching, having been cast out, they burn with unquenchable fire.”

I also cite a libellus addressed to Patriarch Menas. In it, the monks thank the Patriarch (as well as Emperor Justinian) for proceeding with the examination of the case of the heretical patriarch Anthimos, and since he “disobeyed,” they condemned him. They also thank God, they write, because through the Council He was pleased “to cleanse His Church and present it to Himself as always, glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing of heretical tares” (T.L.G., Concilia Oecumenica (ACO): Synodus Constantinopolitana et Hierosolymitana anno 536: Tome 3, p. 38, l. 31). Thus, the Council cleanses the Church of the rotten members—the heretics—without Her ever losing Her spotless character, because some of Her members disobeyed and fell away.

Canon 13 of the First-Second Council writes:

“The utterly evil one, having sown the tares of heretics in the Church of Christ, and seeing these being cut off at the root by the sword of the Spirit, has resorted to another method, attempting through the madness of the schismatics to divide the Body of Christ.”

(Pedalion, 13th of the First-Second Council, ed. V. Rigopoulos, Thessaloniki 2003, p. 357).

The Canon tells us that one method of the evil one is the sowing of tares in the field of the Church, with the aim of thwarting the salvation of the faithful. But when the tares are cut off by the sword of the Spirit—expressed through the councils—then the devil resorts to other methods.

The above—that is, that only the synod has the right to cut off the tares, the branches, the putrefied members, and that until their cutting off they are considered members of the Church—is proven by the prologue of the encyclical, patriarchal and synodal letter of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from 1895. In its prologue, which we cited above but is worth repeating, it states:

“Every pious and Orthodox soul, sincerely zealous for the glory of God, is deeply grieved and seized with great sorrow, seeing that the hater of good and murderer of man from the beginning, driven by envy of human salvation, does not cease at any time to sow various tares in the field of the Lord, in order to obscure the wheat. Hence, from the beginning, heretical tares have sprouted in the Church of God, which in many ways have afflicted and continue to afflict the salvation in Christ of the human race, and which, as putrefied members, are cut off from the healthy body of the Orthodox Catholic Church of Christ.”

I add lastly St. Nektarios, who summarizes the above while at the same time emphasizing the duty of the shepherds—a duty which today has become the subject of lectures, literature, and press releases devoid of substance:

“The shepherd is obliged to guard his sheep from the mouths of wolves; when they stray from the fold, he must laboriously run after them to bring them back; if one is lost, he must enter the forests and the thickets, climb the mountains and hills, tread upon thorns and briars in order to find it; once he has found it, with joy and gladness he must place it upon his shoulders and bring it back to the flock along with the others. He is obliged to lead the whole flock to saving pastures and to keep it far from the poisonous herbs [i.e., tares] of heresy, far from the turbid waters of false doctrine. In this manner he shepherds: urging the sheep on or calling them back, encouraging or warning, moving or resting, threatening or soothing, with the spiritual flute of salvific teaching—which must never be absent from his mouth. It is therefore evident that such pastoral care becomes more difficult and laborious where there abound either foul and stinking waters, or poisonous and diseased herbs, or steep, rugged, and wild ravines, or wolves and other bloodthirsty and ravaging beasts… When even these efforts are of no avail, and nothing proves effective, what remains is the abandonment of the stiff-necked one and despair; and finally, the rejection and separation from him as from something defiled and profane, and the cutting off from the body of the Church as a member already dead and putrefied, in order that he may not transmit his corruption and decay to the remaining healthy members.”

(Vlasia D. Kaskanioti, Church, Schism and Heresy according to St. Nektarios, doctoral dissertation, Thessaloniki, 2015.)

 

Greek source:

https://web.archive.org/web/20231124035729/https://eugenikos.blogspot.com/2020/02/blog-post_43.html