Protopriest Lev Lebedeff: May 1998 Report to the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

 

1. THE PERIOD WE ARE LIVING THROUGH

The world and humanity, plunging ever deeper and more rapidly into the state of Sodom and Gomorrah, are moving inexorably towards completion of the new Tower of Babel of the "new world order" - in other words, towards Antichrist. After him will follow the Second Glorious Coming of Christ. This is the essence of the point in time through which we are living.

2. THE POSITION OF ORTHODOXY

Against the background of these occurrences and in the context of them it is especially sad to see the majority of the once Orthodox local Churches being actively drawn into this worldwide construction process through the ecumenical and interfaith movement, and drawing their flocks into the Ziggurat of this new Babylon. The only significant island of God's truth still left in the world is the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia ("ROCA"). Some of the Old Calendar groups in Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as individual zealots of Orthodoxy in other countries have become smaller islands standing firm in the truth.

3. THE POSITION OF THE MOSCOW "PATRIARCHATE"

The Moscow Patriarchate ("MP"), which was unlawful (uncanonical) in its very origin, is by its nature an ecclesiastical organization which, since 1927 and in the guise of serving Christ, has been actively serving Antichrist. Therefore, it is far from surprising, in fact it is completely logical, that now the MP is actively taking part in constructing the Babylon of the new world order; this was stated precisely and accurately in the "Appeal" dated 30 October / 12 November 1997 from the Conference of ROCA Bishops in Russia held in Yalta.

The occasional outbursts of anti-ecumenical sentiment within the MP as well as protests by individual members of its clergy against countless other acts of departure from the truth are nothing more than the feeble convulsions of an organism that is dying or already dead.

All this is attributable to the fact that the present Russian speaking population of the Russian Federation, including that part of it which professes the Orthodox faith, is in a state where it completely "believes a lie." This is to be typical of people in the times of Antichrist and is described by St. Paul as God's punishment "because they received not the love of truth" (II Thess. 2: 10-11).

4. THE POSITION OF THE RUSSIAN SPEAKING POPULATION OF RUSSIA

The entire Russian Orthodox people (including some 80 million people in the central part of Russia alone), together with Holy Russia itself, was in large measure physically destroyed during the period from 1917 to 1945 - in just 28 years! Thus, it was that the Lord granted the Russian People, through crucifixion on the Golgotha of history, to attain to a victorious resurrection in the Jerusalem on High of the Kingdom of Heaven, thereby removing this people from the contemporary historical process. At the same time starting in 1917 a new "Soviet people" was artificially cultivated in the USSR - a "new historical community" as the party and government of the USSR expressed it in 1977.

But when put to the test this "new Soviet people" proved to be not even a people, since it has no sense of its own unity, but a conglomerate of Russian speaking population, and it has completely gone to pieces since 1991. Therefore, with the exception of a small remnant of Russians living abroad, at the present time the Russian people no longer exist on this earth.

5. THE STATE OF THE RUSSIAN SPEAKING BELIEVERS

The Russian speaking believers in Russia are characterized by a predominance of earthly interests over spiritual, by an underhand, dishonest psychology, by "believing a lie," and by "the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable" (Rev. 21:8). Magic and sorcery have spread to an extraordinary degree. Nobody seeks Christ and His righteousness: each seeks only "his own." What really proves this is that since 1990-1991, in circumstances of real freedom of conscience in Russia, the Russian speakers have not turned en masse, as an entire people, to the Church and to Christ.

A certain insignificant revival of faith and a trickle of young people into the Church has taken place, but now even this is on the wane. If we go by the statistics, at the present time in the Russian Federation there are no more than 15-20 million Orthodox believers, and only half as many regularly attend church. According to the data of the MP, while as recently as 1993 voluntary donations from individuals made up 43% of all the "patriarchate's revenues, in 1997 they represented only 6%! The "patriarchate" obtains the rest from usurious money-lending, trading in oil, vodka and tobacco and from other forms of "business," as well as from poorly understood foreign sources.

It is sometimes said that in Russia there is no small number of good, fine people. But the same could be said of the Catholics and Protestants in any western country. It is also said that in Russia even now one can find, even in the bosom of the MP, pious people zealously struggling in prayer and fasting. But it is important to understand that these are not the first rays of sunrise, but the last rays of the sunset. On a rubbish dump you might find antiques, icons and even things made of gold, but still, it is not a palace and not a temple, but just a rubbish dump. 100 years ago, in 1899, Vladika Anthony (Khrapovitsky) wrote of the "unchurched" part of Russian society of his time: "It is no longer a people, but a rotting corpse, which takes its rotting as a sign of life, while on it, or in it, live only moles, worms and foul insects... for in a living body they would find no satisfaction for their greed, and there would be nothing for them to live on" (Talberg, History of the Russian Church, Jordanville, 1959, p. 831). At the end of the last century and the beginning of our twentieth century this rotting part of the Russian population made up about 5 - 6% of the total. Now, at the end of the twentieth century, in Russia it constitutes 94 - 95%. The entire Russian Federation, taken as a whole, is a "rotting corpse."

6. THE POSITION OF THE ROCA IN RELATION TO THE MP

One cannot but admit that the apostate, heretical and criminal state of the overwhelming majority of the MP hierarchy corresponds entirely to this state of society as a whole; it is one of the "moles" or "worms" greedily devouring whatever it can still find to devour in the rotting corpse. Under these circumstances what can the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia have in common with the Moscow "Patriarchate"? Nothing! Hence it follows that any kind of "dialogue" or "conference" with the MP with the aim of clarifying "what divides us and what unites us" is either an abysmal failure to understand the essence of things or a betrayal of God's truth and the Church. What divides us is literally everything! And what unites us is nothing, except perhaps the outward forms of church buildings, clerical vestments and the order of services (but not in all respects even here).

Therefore, it is necessary to realize clearly and confirm officially that now the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia is not a part of the Church of Russia, but the only lawful Russian Church in all its fullness!

We must also understand that this is realized by the Moscow "Patriarchate." This is the reason why it is seeking to be recognized just as it is (without rejecting its apostasy and heresies) by the ROCA. Such "recognition" of the MP by the ROCA would provide the MP with the appearance of legitimacy in the eyes of the entire world. But this cannot be allowed to happen.

The ROCA must renounce its dreams and illusions regarding the "rebirth of Russia." Unless there is to be some extraordinary and unpredictable intervention of God in earthly affairs, and assuming that by His permission and providence everything continues in the same direction as at present, then Russia is finished. May God only grant that through excessive attachment to Russia the ROCA will not plunge together with it into the abyss of perdition. Now it is necessary just to "hold fast to that which you have." And if one's soul still suffers pain for the Russian speaking population of Russia, then it is only through constant and firm reproof of the MP, and not through making advances towards it, that it is possible to save those in Russia who still seek salvation and are capable of accepting it.

It is therefore essential to return to the uncompromising attitude towards the MP which was taken by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia from the beginning. And it is quite wrong, under the pretext of "the good of the Church" and "operational efficiency," to undermine the authority of a Primate of the ROCA who is capable of distinguishing truth from falsehood and of "discerning the spirits."

Recently the ROCA has been afflicted by a whole series of disasters one after the other. The murder of the guardian of the miraculous Myrrh-streaming Iveron icon was especially terrible. Remember that the miraculous flow of holy oil from it began in 1982. Just before that the ROCA had glorified the Holy New Martyrs of Russia, led by the Royal Family, among the choir of the saints, and in 1983 the anathema was proclaimed against the heresy of ecumenism. It is clear that the flow of holy oil from the Iveron icon was a sign of God's approval of the ROCA for its firm stand in the truth against all kinds of falsehood, including the falsehood of the MP. But now it is after the very indecisive resolutions of the Bishops' Council of the ROCA in 1993 and 1994 and the subsequent steps taken by some of our hierarchs towards rapprochement with the MP that these disasters began, one after the other - disasters which bear witness to the withdrawal of God's beneficence towards our Church, because of its deviation from the truth. How many more disasters do the supporters of fraternization with the criminal and heretical MP wish to bring down upon us?

 

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Russian original:

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