Father Peter, your translation of Johann Arndt's book On True Christianity has recently been published. What is this book about and why is its appearance in Russian translation so important for modern people?
This book fully lives up to its title: its main theme is the inner life in Christ. Its appearance - in 1605 - was due to the context: the so-called "crisis of piety" in the Lutheran Church, when it was considered sufficient for Christians only to maintain the right teaching, and the spiritual life itself faded into the background. Arndt, as it were, restored her rights. As time went on, the context faded into the past, and the book remained unusually popular and in demand by subsequent generations.
Yes, he advised reading the Bible, after it Arndt, "and in other books as a visitor to walk." Of course, for the modern reader, the book can be a little heavy. It is not "systemic", it is rather a huge poem about spiritual life. Arndt keeps returning to the same themes: repentance, prayer, love, humility before God, inner life in Christ.
Does the book give any practical skill to a person who takes the first steps on the path to God? Or is it a higher ideal to which every Christian should aspire?
Rather, the second option. Practical advice is given by the author of the next, 18th century, whose translations I am currently translating, Gerhard Terstegen. Arndt's reasoning is more general. Although at the end of the second book he touches, for example, on the topic of high spiritual temptations. He considers it from a practical point of view and gives a lot of valuable advice.
Although Arndt can be very useful for the beginning of the Christian life, because he talks a lot about repentance - how through repentance one enters into true Christianity and gradually reaches the heights of spiritual life.
As a clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church, what can you say about the state of the Christian life of today's Orthodox?
In my opinion, the current state of spiritual life in today's Orthodoxy leaves much to be desired.
- What is the reason for this in the first place?
First of all, with the fact that what was the core of the thoughts of the same Arndt - the inner life in Christ - as it seems to me, is not today the center of attention of our general church community.
- Why? Today a person does not understand why he came to the Church? Looking for Christ or something else?
You can come to church for a variety of reasons. Let's consider only the option when a person comes to the Church really in search of Christ. In this case, it will be difficult for him. You will have to fight your way to Christ through many historical, traditional, pseudo-traditional, cultural, subcultural, ideological and other things. Not everyone succeeds. It takes both courage and knowing which way to go.
And mainly this is hindered by the lack of appropriate preaching and pastoral edification, because a person, coming to the temple, hears a lot of things from the pulpit, but one can rarely hear exactly how to live with Christ. It is the same in personal spiritual guidance: a person will be told how to fast, how to read morning and evening prayers, what to read before Holy Communion, and so on, but I am afraid few people will share with him the experience of inner life in Christ. But he came to the Church for this...
- How to deal with such numerous obstacles? Whom to contact for advice?
I have been talking and writing about this for many years. We do not have church pedagogy, a methodology for pastoral treatment of people who have been in the Church for many years. We have, let's say, the pedagogy of external churching, when a person is taught how to behave correctly in church, how to correctly build their ritual life. Of course, he is taught important tips regarding repentance, correction of life, but this concerns the new beginning stage.
Many priests, not only me, see that people, having been in the Church for 10-15 years, want to develop - after all, according to the Gospel, we are supposed to develop - but do not receive such development, because no one can say what, in fact , such people do. Read even more canons? Even stricter to observe fasts? Listen even more carefully to liturgical texts? Give more bows? To live in a marriage without carnal fellowship? Get a monk's hair? As a result, it turns out that churching turns into embedding a person into nothing more than a certain subculture, which up to a certain point helps him externally learn something in Christianity, but then in many cases can also become an obstacle to further Christian development.
- What are the reasons for this state of affairs?
Let's try to reason, as they say, "from the stove." Christ tells the apostles: "Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). And, actually, what commanded to observe Christ? Did he command, for example, to fast (I mean disciplinary posts)? No. Did He command to go to services? Also no. Did He command to be built into a certain religious-ethnic subculture? Didn't order either. Did Christ command to light candles and write notes? We do not find a word about this in the Gospel.
Did the apostles say that communion with God, life in Christ is achieved only by locking a person into a sacred church-ritual space, and only by the Byzantine rite? The answer is obvious. And so on.
What then did Christ say? He commanded us, so to speak, "everyday Christianity."
Let us turn to the Sermon on the Mount or to the Apostolic Epistles, which just give us the rules of Christian life - for example, to the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and we will immediately see what the Lord tells us, both Himself and through His apostles. Among these commands, what we now call “churchness” occupies 0.1%. Christ commanded to be baptized. Christ commanded to celebrate the Eucharist in His remembrance. The apostles commanded to pray together. Around Baptism, the Eucharist and common prayer, a certain external church environment was built, but in the Primate Church it was a support and a means for life in Christ, first of all, for individuals, and then for a community consisting of such individuals.
And then, over time, the following thing happened. In the minds of Christians, between life in Christ, life with God, or, as St. Theophan the Recluse says, “communion with God” and external church services, an equal sign was put. This, of course, is a separate conversation, why it happened that the general religious ritualism replaced the specific Christian spirituality; but, in any case, today it has led to the fact that, behold, a person has learned about Christ, learned that He founded the Church, which is the pillar and affirmation of the Truth. A man enters the Church and asks what he should do. And they say to him: "Integrate into our ritual system and then just live in it, constantly increasing the level of penetration into this ritual, and it will give you everything."
But this is not entirely consistent with the gospel. After all, a Christian is required to have a personal, conscious, everyday Christian life, not limited to staying in some allocated sacred space at a certain sacred time. Undoubtedly, everything that the Church contains helps her, but in itself this inner life in Christ is more than a ritual, more important than props, more significant and fuller than all external means, and in a certain sense can exist even without them.
And now let's ask our parishioners after the Sunday service how they understand this personal, conscious, everyday Christian life. It would be extremely interesting to conduct such a survey. I'm afraid most people simply wouldn't understand what they're being asked about.
Here I am talking about the main problem of our church life: there is the very absence of church pedagogy that would contribute to the inner life of a grown-up, no longer novice Christian. And we are talking about methodology, because a private person can find a private shepherd, with whom, if he is lucky, he can solve his problems. But we do not have a common pastoral methodology. And, unfortunately, we have nothing to even rely on.
It was in this connection that I took up the task of translating the early Protestants. One of the impetus for the Reformation was that church reality had ceased to nourish the inner Christian life of people. Therefore, early Protestant mysticism is a very useful thing from which we can learn a lot. In particular, to answer the question: how to be a person who has already received everything from external churchliness, but has not yet found inner life in Christ.
You are talking about the lack of pastoral pedagogy, the lack of methodology. Does this impede the further development of Christians and is it the basis for their departure from the Church?
Like joining the Church, so leaving it can be caused by many reasons and have different degrees. But we are talking about people sincerely seeking Christ. Such people do not really leave the Church of Christ - where should they go? Rather, they are moving away from external churchness precisely because they are convinced that it has exhausted its reserve for them.
- Who should form this methodology?
Such things must be developed by ourselves. It's like frequent communion. For hundreds of years, Orthodox Christians rarely took communion. But now people have realized the need for more frequent communion - and "on a whim", although not without resistance, in today's church life, frequent communion is already the norm.
So it is with our topic: it is obvious that the process is already underway, the problem is beginning to be realized.
- How do you feel it?
Here is the most recent example - the appearance of the sensational "Confessions of a novice." People are gradually beginning to understand the problem of dechurching. Earlier, about eight years ago, for this term, when I wrote about it, I was scolded.
- And what is the way out?
It is difficult to give any direct prescriptions here. But I would draw attention to the apostolic principle, which now seems to be completely abolished in our church life. I mean the variability that the apostle Paul spoke so vividly about in the 14th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Here we are looking for an answer to the question of what pushes people away from the Church, what leads to dechurching. I think that, among other things, is the oblivion of this principle. For centuries, the transformation of the Ecumenical Church of Christ into a kind of subculture took place, that is, narrowing, depriving a person of variability, freedom. The so-called "tradition" - in this case a bad tradition, "the tradition of the elders" (Mark 7:5) - was cemented, and now we rely on it as the "faith of the fathers." But if we open the New Testament, then the principle of variability will turn out to be almost the main one in the Church.
What I mean? Here the apostle Paul writes in this chapter about fasting: if you need to fast, fast; if you don’t see the need for it, don’t fast. “He who eats, do not humiliate the one who does not eat; and whoever does not eat, do not condemn him who eats, for God has accepted him” (Rom. 14:3). And the church authorities must ensure that both fasting and non-fasting Christians are in peace and harmony with each other - so that that ancient wonderful and deeply church maxim, the principle about which Blessed Augustine speaks, is fulfilled: “In the main - unity, in the secondary - freedom, in everything - love.
The ideology, which is characteristic of today's Orthodox, is that everyone would certainly "walk in formation", as one, fast, pray, and the slightest deviation from this is heresy and "treason to Orthodoxy." There should be no place for this in the Church of Christ.
Church history testifies that in the first centuries there was variability in the Church. It is necessary to return to it today. This is very important because people are different. Indeed, many hours of services bring great pleasure to one, while the other “de-churches” them. But because our only variant of cemented Byzantine worship, this verbosity of late antiquity, does not suit a person simply by his arrangement, he should not feel that the Church has “ended” for him, that he is alien to her. This also testifies badly about the Church - it means that she has nothing more to offer people, except for the obligatory one option for everyone to pronounce and sing prayer texts, accompanied by certain ritual actions (I do not mean the Sacrament of the Eucharist). But indeed, Christianity does not come down to this!
And this is exactly where you can practically start, I think. If we talk about worship: in a big city, you can try to arrange it. One parish serves a six-hour service in Slavic, another one - an hour service in Russian, a third in Greek, a fourth according to the pre-Nikon rank, and so on. People go where they like, and the church authorities make sure that no one “bites or eats” each other (Gal. 5:15).
The same is true in personal pastoral practice (and this is already happening if the priest is a real shepherd of Christ, and not a Pharisee): a person can no longer fast - well, let him not fast, only he does not tempt others with this, in full accordance with the words of the Apostle.
It must be said that the Russian Church was moving towards this. In the Russian Empire, the life of the Church was unified, but at the same time quite free. In some parishes they served in this way, in others in a different way. For example, in court cathedrals, the vigil was supposed to last not more than an hour. The monasteries were different, there was no one charter. There were cenobitic and civilian charters in monasteries. In some structures of the Orthodox state (in the army, in the navy), posts, except for the Great (and that weakened), were canceled ... And so on. The Local Council of 1917-1918 was ready to comprehend all this and change a lot in church practice. But, alas, it did not come true.
In Soviet times, the Church had one task - to survive. And after the Soviet period, there was a backlash - an active restoration of external church life. But now this impulse has been exhausted, and today the problems from which the Council of 1917-1918 repelled have begun to come to the fore. and which were crushed under the Soviet regime, and in the first post-Soviet period they had no space for manifestation.
Today, when churches have been restored, external church life has been arranged, people are beginning to turn to the origins of what the Church is, why it is needed, and so on. The process is absolutely natural and, in my opinion, quite optimistic.
What is the situation in modern families? It is not uncommon for children raised by Orthodox parents to be the first to leave the Church.
The Russian Empire had a traditional way of life. In Soviet times, it was replaced by an atheistic, godless way of life. Church families resisted this. And now is the time of searching, "groping", the transition from the imperial-Soviet to a free secular existence. This is an objective process, no matter how strong the "reverse reaction" is.
During the 25 years of our church freedom, the experience of family churching according to the patterns of the past has been realized. And it became obvious that much cannot be restored, that the ritual-subcultural path leads to nothing. Children, becoming adults, tear it away from themselves, become unchurched, depart from the Church.
I don't see this as a tragedy. This, on the contrary, must be realized as God's task for us. This means that in the future church people, pious mothers and fathers, will think about how they should be in such a situation. Answers to these questions must be sought by conciliar reason. It is difficult for a contemporary of these processes to "catch" them; Historians will definitely write about it in the future.
Photo: Irina Konovalova / svjatoynarym.ru
- Hasn't the time come to generalize modern experience?
Not yet, we live, one might say, in the very middle of this time. We can only capture ongoing processes. Many are dissatisfied with modern church life for one reason or another, but in my opinion, our time is wonderful, because today, if a person really wants life with Christ and in Christ, he has the opportunity to find such a measure of external churchness that would be useful to him and would not replace the inner life, because of which, in fact, the dechurching occurs.
And what about those who are in a state of dechurching? Is there a chance to get everything back? After all, a person, disappointed in this external churchliness, can decide for himself that he will live in Christ, but behind the church fence. Is this path correct?
Well, first of all, nothing can be returned back. Secondly, it is absolutely impossible to live in Christ outside the church fence.
Here, in general, we are confronted with the problem that Christ is, as it were, “dissolved” in our churchness. And a person, refusing church life due to certain circumstances, most often also leaves Christ, because from the very beginning all our preaching too much identifies the Church and Christ; but in fact it is not the same thing.
- Please explain what you mean.
I mean that the Church is not an independent spiritual value. I am now speaking not about the mystical Body of Christ, but about the institutional, earthly church, whose task, in the words of a medieval formula, is “purely to preach the Gospel and the right (that is, correctly) to teach the Sacraments.” That is, to give a person communion with God, to protect, support, develop him - but nothing more.
The Church is not valuable in itself, but is a "friend of the Bridegroom", as John the Baptist said, and the Bridegroom - Christ, must grow, and the church must decrease (John 3:29-30). And therefore, if we talk about some general methodology of pastoral pedagogy, the first point here should be that Christ and the soul communicate without intermediaries, and that the Church is, we repeat once again, not some kind of value in itself, but a “friend of the Bridegroom”, a support and fence for life in Christ.
The beginning of any church pedagogy must be based on this idea: the Church is a means.
At the same time, one must have a good understanding of the Christian hierarchy of values. Let's return to what we have already said: if we take the texts of the New Testament and see what it says about the Sacraments, about Baptism and Communion, then these are just a few texts. Everything else is dedicated to something else: life in Christ.
This is how the Church should be. Its task is to teach what Christ commanded, and in precisely this proportion. Churchness itself, as we understand it, outwardly ceremonial, should be less - in any case, after the stage of initial churching. And there should be more inner life. How to do it? I can’t tell you, we need to discuss this collectively.
Are those people who come to a parish with an established community in equal conditions, and those who come to a place where there is no community life as such?
It seems to me that this is a second order problem. Of course, it's good if a person has found a parish with a good community, but still, in my opinion, everything begins with a person's personal relationship with God. And very often the community can replace these relationships. A community can be built only on the basis of individuals who already understand and know by experience what communion with God is, that is, a correct personal relationship with Christ. Only secondarily, such individuals form a community, and not vice versa. The community as such does not give a person communion with God.
In our country, after the Soviet experience, the community can be understood as unknown. For example, a collective of atomized people, united by this or that ideology. Such a tradition of Soviet collectivism, transferred to church soil (like much of Soviet collectivism in our country, has been transferred to church soil), can only do harm.
- Father Peter, when does this very communion with God come? Where does it usually begin?
This is a purely individual thing. Experience says that it is certainly given to everyone who consciously turns to God. Every person receives the beginning of communion with God in Baptism or Repentance - this is indisputable. Another thing - what is done with this firstfruits then? It can be drowned out, wasted on embedding in a subculture, replaced by this same subculture, etc.
Recall the parable of the sower, where all options are considered. And this is precisely the task (and the main task) of the Church and her pastors - to pay attention to this and to cultivate and develop the communion with God that has begun.
Let us return to the translation of Arndt's book "On True Christianity", which testifies to the highest ideal for every Christian, about communion with God and life in Christ. Is the Church ready to provide certain tools today to achieve this goal?
I don't think we'll find church unity here now. Because if we put this question before the general church audience: “Our goal is life in Christ?”, the majority will agree with this (I hope). And the next question - what are the ways? But the paths will be different.
They must be different...
I am leading up to this. Therefore, I say that, perhaps, one of the most important things that is worth thinking about in this regard is the return required by the very course of things, that multiformity that the Apostle Paul spoke about. To give people more freedom.
Now we have one monastic charter, before the revolution there were several. And if we take the experience of Catholic countries, there are not only many orders with their charters, but there are, for example, lay communities who live like monastics. That is, there is a variety of church experience.
And if now we are thinking about some specific steps, it is worth starting, as it seems to me, from this point, and then look at how the Lord will lead His Church. We believe that the Holy Spirit does not leave her, but at the same time, sometimes we ourselves resist Him very strongly ...
And of course, if we really want to change something in the life of our general church community, we will certainly need to determine what is the main thing and what is secondary - so as to clearly articulate what cannot be the main thing, say, the veneration of Ivan the Terrible or something like this.
Therefore, returning to what will be written in our pastoral manuals: we have already determined the first point - the Church is the friend of the Bridegroom. The second point will already go to the definition of what is important and what is secondary.
In general, this is very important and interesting, and this is exactly what the conciliar mind of the Church should deal with. And the fact that church thought, church intuition is alive, I could see more than once, which I am very glad about.
- So, there is a prospect?
Life cannot be stopped, and the Church of Christ will remain on earth until the end of time, and the gates of hell will not prevail against her (Matthew 16:18). And the forms of church life, under the influence of the conditions of the time, will inevitably change - first internally, and then administratively. In this sense, I am an optimist and I am sure that we have a lot of interesting things ahead of us.
The ever-increasing number of churches and all kinds of sects makes it difficult for some to question which of them is the true Church and whether there is even a single true Church in our time. Perhaps, some think, the original apostolic Church was gradually fragmented, and the churches that now exist possess only fragments of its former spiritual wealth - grace and truth. With this view of the Church, some believe that it can be restored from the existing Christian denominations (religious societies, sects) through collusion and mutual concessions. This view underlies the modern ecumenical movement, which does not recognize any church as true. Maybe, others think, the Church has never fundamentally had anything in common with the official churches, but has always consisted of individual believers belonging to different church groups. This latter opinion was expressed in the doctrine of the so-called "invisible church" advanced by contemporary Protestant theologians. Finally, for many Christians it is unclear: is the Church even necessary when a person is saved by his faith?
All these contradictory and, in fact, incorrect opinions about the Church stem from a misunderstanding of the central truth of Christ's teaching - about the salvation of man. When you read the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles, it becomes obvious that, according to the Savior, people are called to save their souls not alone and separately, but together, constituting a single, blessed Kingdom of goodness. Indeed, the kingdom of evil, headed by the prince of darkness, in its war against the Church acts as a unit, as the Savior recalled, saying: "If Satan casts out Satan, then he is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?"(Mt. 12:26).
Nevertheless, with all the diversity of modern opinions about the Church, the majority of sane Christians agree that in apostolic times the true Church of Christ existed as a single community of the saved. The book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles tells of the emergence of the Church in Jerusalem, when on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of the Savior, the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles in the form of fiery tongues. Since that day, the Christian faith began to spread rapidly in different parts vast Roman Empire. As it spread, Christian communities - churches - began to appear in cities and villages. In everyday life, due to the vast distances, these communities lived more or less apart from each other. However, they considered themselves organically belonging to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. They were united by a single faith and a single source of sanctification, drawn from the sacraments of grace (baptism, communion and the laying on of hands - ordination). At first, these sacred acts were performed by the apostles themselves. However, soon there was a need for helpers, and the apostles from among the members of the Christian communities chose worthy candidates who were ordained bishops, presbyters and deacons. (Thus, for example, the Apostle Paul ordained Timothy and Titus to the episcopate). The apostles charged the bishops with the obligation to watch over the purity of Christian doctrine, to teach the faithful to live piously and to ordain assistants for themselves in the person of new bishops, priests and deacons. Thus, the Church during the first centuries, like a tree, constantly grew and spread across different countries, enriched with spiritual experience, religious literature, liturgical prayers and hymns, later - with the architecture of temples and church art, but always retaining its essence of the true Church of Christ.
The gospels and the apostolic epistles did not appear all at once and not everywhere at the same time. For many decades after the rise of the Church, the source of instruction was not Scripture, but oral preaching, called Tradition by the apostles themselves (1 Cor. 11:16 and 15:2, 2 Thess. 2:15 and 3:6, 1 Tim. 6:20 ). Tradition is a single doctrinal tradition. In the Church, it has always been decisive in the question of what is right and what is not. Whenever something arose anywhere that did not agree with the apostolic tradition, whether in matters of faith, the performance of the sacraments, or government, it was recognized as false and rejected. Continuing the apostolic tradition, the bishops of the first centuries painstakingly checked all Christian manuscripts and gradually collected the works of the apostles, the Gospels and epistles, into one set of books, which was called the New Testament Scripture and, together with the books of the Old Testament, made up the Bible in its present form. This process of collecting books was completed in the 3rd century. Books that were controversial, not entirely consistent with the apostolic tradition, presented as apostolic, were rejected as forged, apocryphal. Thus, the apostolic Tradition was of decisive importance for the formation of the New Testament Scripture - this written treasure of the Church. Now Christians of all denominations use the New Testament Scripture - often arbitrarily, without reverence, not realizing that it is the property of the true Church - a treasure carefully collected by it. Thanks to other written monuments that have come down to us, written by the disciples of Sts. apostles, we know many valuable details about the life and faith of Christian communities in the first centuries of the Christian era. At that time, faith in the existence of one, holy, apostolic Church was universal. Naturally, the Church then had its own visible side - in the "suppers of love" (liturgies and other divine services, in bishops and priests, in prayers and church songs, in the laws (apostolic canons) that regulate the life and relationships of individual churches, in all manifestations life of Christian communities.Therefore, it must be recognized that the doctrine of the "invisible" church is new and incorrect.
Having agreed with the fact of the existence of a real, united Church in the first centuries of Christianity, is it possible to find such a historical moment when it was fragmented and ceased to exist. The honest answer must be no! The fact is that deviations from the purity of the apostolic teaching, heresies, began to arise even in apostolic times. Especially active then were the Gnostic teachings, which mixed elements of pagan philosophy with the Christian faith. The apostles in their epistles warned Christians against these teachings and directly stated that the adherents of these sects had fallen away from the faith. The apostles treated heretics as if they were dry branches broken off from a church tree. Similarly, the successors of the apostles, the bishops of the first centuries, did not recognize as full-fledged the deviations from the apostolic faith that arose during them, and the stubborn adherents of these teachings were excommunicated from the Church, following the instruction of the Apostle: "Even if we, or an angel from heaven, began to preach to you not what we preached, let (he) be anathema"(i.e. let him be excommunicated, Gal. 1:8-9).
Thus, in the first centuries of Christianity, the question of the unity of the Church was clear: the Church is a single spiritual family, bearing since apostolic times the true teaching, the same sacraments and the uninterrupted succession of grace, passing from bishop to bishop. For the successors of the apostles, there was no doubt that the Church was absolutely necessary for salvation. It preserves and proclaims the pure teaching of Christ, it sanctifies believers and leads them to salvation. Using figurative comparisons of Holy Scripture, in the first centuries of Christianity the Church was thought of as a fenced "sheep yard," in which the good Shepherd - Christ protects His sheep from the "wolf" - the devil. The Church was likened to the Vine, from which believers, like branches, receive the spiritual strength necessary for the Christian life and good deeds. The Church was understood as the Body of Christ, in which each believer, as a member, must carry out the service needed by the whole. The church was depicted as Noah's Ark, in which believers cross the sea of life and reach the pier of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Church was likened to a high mountain, rising above human delusions and leading its travelers to heaven - communion with God, angels and saints.
In the first centuries of Christianity, to believe in Christ meant also to believe that the work that He did on earth, the means that He gave to believers for salvation, cannot be lost or taken away by the efforts of the devil. The Old Testament prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles definitely taught about the persistence of the Church until the very last times of the world: "In the days of those (heathen) kingdoms, the God of Heaven will raise up a Kingdom that will never be destroyed... It will crush and destroy all kingdoms, but itself will stand forever,"- the Angel predicted to the prophet Daniel (Dan. 2:44). The Lord promised St. Peter: "Upon this rock (of faith) I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it"(Mt. 16:18 ).
Likewise, if we believe the promise of the Savior, we must acknowledge the existence of His Church in our day and until the end of the world. So far, we have not indicated where it is, but we are only expressing a fundamental position: it must exist in its holy, integral, real nature. Fragmented, damaged, evaporated, it is not the Church.
So where is she? By what signs can it be found among the many modern Christian branches?
First, the true Church must contain intact the pure Christian doctrine taught by the apostles. In bringing the truth to the people was the purpose of the coming of the Son of God to earth, as He said before His suffering on the Cross: “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth; everyone who is from the truth hears my voice.”(John 18:37 ). The Apostle Paul, instructing his disciple Timothy how he should fulfill his episcopal duties, writes in conclusion: "That you may know, if I tarry, what should be done in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth"(1 Tim. 3:15). With regret, we must admit that in the matter of doctrine we see a great discord among modern Christian branches. It is fundamentally necessary to agree that not everyone can learn correctly. If, for example, one church claims that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ, and another that it is not, then it is impossible for both to be right. Or, if one church believes in the reality of the spiritual power of the sign of the cross, while another denies this power, then, obviously, one of them is mistaken. The true Church must be one that differs in nothing in matters of faith from the Church of the first centuries of Christianity. When a person impartially compares the teachings of modern Christian churches, then, as we will see later, he must come to the conclusion that only the Orthodox Church professes the intact faith of the ancient apostolic Church.
Another sign by which the true Church can be found is the grace or power of God, by which the Church is called to sanctify and strengthen believers. Although grace is an invisible force, there is also an external condition by which one can judge its presence or absence, this is apostolic succession. Since apostolic times, grace has been given to believers in the sacraments of baptism, communion, the laying on of hands (chrismation and ordination) and others. The performers of these sacraments were first the apostles (Acts 8:14-17), then the bishops and presbyters. (Presbyters differed from bishops in that they did not have the right to perform the sacrament of ordination.) The right to perform these sacraments was transmitted exclusively by succession: the apostles ordained bishops and only they were allowed to ordain other bishops, priests and deacons. Apostolic succession is like a sacred fire that kindles others from one candle. If the fire is extinguished or the chain of apostolic succession is interrupted, then there is no longer any priesthood or sacraments, the means of sanctification of the faithful are lost. Therefore, since apostolic times, the preservation of apostolic succession has always been carefully observed: that a bishop is consecrated without fail by a true bishop, whose ordination goes back to the apostles in succession. Bishops who fell into heresy or led an unworthy lifestyle were deposed, and they lost the right to administer the sacraments or ordain successors.
In our time, there are only a few churches whose apostolic succession is not in doubt, these are the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church and some Eastern non-Orthodox churches (which, however, fell away from the purity of the apostolic teaching back in the days of Ecumenical Councils). Christian denominations that fundamentally deny the need for the priesthood and apostolic succession, already on this one basis, differ significantly from the Church of the first centuries and therefore cannot be true.
Of course, a spiritually sensitive person does not need external evidence of the action of the grace of God, when he vividly feels its warm and pacifying spirit, which he receives in the sacraments and divine services of the Orthodox Church. (A Christian must distinguish the grace of God from that cheap and harmful ecstasy with which sectarians, such as Pentecostals, artificially arouse themselves at their prayer meetings. Signs of true grace are peace of mind, love for God and neighbor, modesty, humility, meekness, and similar qualities listed St. Paul in Galatians 5:22-26).
Another sign of the true Church is her suffering. If it is difficult for people to figure out which church is true, then the devil, her enemy, understands this very well. He hates the Church and tries to destroy it. Getting acquainted with the history of the Church, we see that indeed, her history is written with the tears and blood of martyrs for the faith. The beginning of the persecution was laid by the Jewish high priests and scribes back in apostolic times. Then there are three centuries of persecution in the Roman Empire by the Roman emperors and regional rulers. After them, the Muslim Arabs raised their sword against the Church, then the crusaders who came from the West. They undermined the physical strength of Byzantium, this stronghold of Orthodoxy, to such an extent that it could not resist the Turks who flooded it in the 14th-15th centuries. Finally, the theomachists-communists surpassed everyone with their cruelty, having exterminated more Christians than all the previous persecutors combined. But here is a miracle: the blood of the martyrs serves as seed for new Christians, and the gates of hell cannot overcome the Church, as Christ promised.
Finally, a sure and relatively easy way to find the Church of Christ is historical research. The true Church must continually ascend to apostolic times. To apply the principle of historical research, there is no need to delve into all the details of the development and spread of Christianity. It is enough to find out when this or that church arose. If it originated, say, in the 16th or some other century, and not in apostolic times, then it cannot be true. According to this one sign, it is necessary to reject the claims to the title of the Church of Christ of all denominations that originate from Luther and his followers, such as Lutheran, Calvinist, Presbyterian, and later Mormon, Baptist, Adventist, Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostals and others, they similar. These denominations were founded not by Christ or His apostles, but by false prophets - Luthers, Calvins, Heinrichs, Smiths and other innovators.
The purpose of this pamphlet is to acquaint the Orthodox reader with the history of the emergence of the main modern Christian branches and with the essence of their teaching, in order to help to see how they differ from the one holy and apostolic Church founded by Christ. During the "Christological disputes" from the 4th to the 8th century, several heretical movements fell away from the Church - Arians, Macedonians, Nestorians, Monophysites and Monophilites (the modern Copts descended from them), iconoclasts and others. Their teachings were condemned by the Ecumenical Councils (of which there were seven), and these heresies do not pose a danger to an Orthodox person. Therefore, we will not talk about them here.
Let's start by saying a few words about the Orthodox Church. Read more about it in a special brochure.
Orthodox Church
Getting acquainted with the history of Christianity, we are convinced that the emergence of the Orthodox Church continuously goes back to the apostolic time. The Church, being at the beginning small, like a mustard seed, according to the figurative comparison of the Savior, gradually grew into a great tree that filled the whole world with its branches (Mt. 13:31-32). Already at the end of the first century, we find Christian communities in almost all cities of the Roman Empire: in the Holy Land, Syria and Armenia, in Asia Minor, Hellas and Macedonia, in Italy and Gaul, in Egypt and North Africa, in Spain and Britain, and even outside the empire - in distant Arabia, India and Scythia. By the end of the first century, the Christian communities of all more or less significant cities were headed by bishops, who were the bearers of the fullness of apostolic grace. The bishops ruled over the communities of the smaller neighboring towns. Already in the second century, the bishops of the main (regional) cities of the Roman Empire began to be called metropolitans, who united the departments of the nearest bishops in their metropolis. It was the responsibility of the metropolitans to regularly convene episcopal councils to resolve current religious and administrative issues.
In addition to regional cities in the Roman Empire, there were so-called imperial dioceses. In relation to these main centers of the state system, points of broader church administration began to form, which later received the name of patriarchates. At the Fourth Ecumenical Council, which met in Chalcedon in 451, the boundaries of the five patriarchates were fully defined: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem (the area of \u200b\u200bwhich was administratively insignificant, but important in its religious significance).
Over time, due to various historical events, the areas of patriarchates either decreased in their volume, or increased. Great ecclesiastical changes occurred as a result of the invasion of the Germanic peoples into Europe (end of the 4th century), oppression by the Persians and the invasion of the Arabs in the eastern regions of the Byzantine Empire (middle of the 7th century). In the middle of the 9th century, there is a movement towards the adoption of the Christian faith on the part of the Slavic peoples. The brothers of Thessalonica, Saints Cyril and Methodius, especially worked hard to educate the Bulgarians and Moravians. From Bulgaria, the Christian faith spread to Serbia. The great merit of St. Cyril and Methodius is the creation of the Slavic alphabet translation from Greek into Slavonic of selected liturgical books and books of Holy Scripture. Their works paved the way for the spread of Christianity in Rus'.
Although Christian communities existed on the northern coast of the Black Sea already at the end of the first century, the mass conversion to Christianity of the Slavic tribes inhabiting Rus' began from the time of the Baptism of Russia, when in 988, under Grand Duke Vladimir, the people of Kiev were baptized on the banks of the Dnieper. (See the brochure St. Prince Vladimir and the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus'). From Kyiv, the Orthodox faith spread to other parts of Rus'. How great the Russian Orthodox Church was in pre-revolutionary times can be judged from the following data: in Russia there were 1098 monasteries, with a total number of monastics over 90 thousand. In addition to the Moscow Patriarch, there were 6 metropolitans, 136 bishops, 48,000 priests and deacons serving 60,000 churches and chapels. For the training of the clergy, there were 4 theological academies, 57 seminaries, 185 theological schools. A huge number of Bibles and various theological and spiritual literature were published. Unfortunately, we did not value our great spiritual wealth enough, and we began to get carried away with Western ideas. The persecution of the Church by the atheists that arose after 1918 and the merciless destruction of the clergy, believers and churches can only be explained in the light of the Apocalypse, which predicts a great persecution of the faith of Christ before the end of the world.
Beginning in the middle of the 18th century, through the works of St. Herman of Alaska and other Russian missionaries, Orthodoxy was transferred to Alaska, where many Aleuts were baptized and the beginning of the spread of Orthodoxy in North America was laid (Now about 3 million Orthodox Christians live in the USA).
Currently, the Orthodox Church includes the following autocephalous (local) churches: Constantinople (with a large number of parishes in Europe, North and South America and a patriarchal see in Istanbul, Turkey), Alexandria (Egypt), Antioch (with its capital in Damascus, Syria ), Jerusalem, Russian, Georgian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Cypriot, Greek, Albanian, Polish, Czechoslovak, Lithuanian and "Orthodox Church in America." Autonomous churches are Sinai, Finland and Japan. After the first and second world wars, a large number of Orthodox Greek and Russian parishes (of the Russian Church Abroad) were formed in almost all parts of the world. The total number of Orthodox Christians worldwide is about 130 million.
The name Orthodox Church came into use during an era of religious controversy from the 4th to 6th centuries, when it became necessary to distinguish the true Church from heretical groups (Arianism, Nestorianism, etc.) who also called themselves Christians. The word orthodoxy is a translation Greek word ortho-doceo, meaning to think right. Another name for the Church is Catholic, which in Greek means "comprehensive." The meaning of this name is that the Church calls all people to salvation, regardless of their nationality and social status. When translating the Creed from Greek into Slavonic, the word "catholic" was translated as "cathedral."
In the Orthodox Church, local churches, such as Jerusalem, Russian, Serbian and others, are sometimes led by patriarchs, sometimes by archbishops or metropolitans. To resolve issues related to a given church, the head of this church convenes a council of his bishops. Questions concerning the entire Orthodox Church, such as questions of faith (dogmas) and canons (church laws), are discussed at "Ecumenical Councils." Bishops from all local and autonomous Orthodox churches come to the Ecumenical Councils. As needed, representatives from the clergy and laity are invited to participate in the councils. Thus, the form of government in Orthodoxy is neither individual nor democratic, but conciliar.
The teaching of the Orthodox Church in a concise form is formulated in the Creed, which was drawn up by the First and Second Ecumenical Councils in 325 and 381 (in the cities of Nicaea and Constantinople). This creed, in turn, was compiled on the basis of more ancient symbols dating back to the apostolic time. Summarizing the Orthodox teaching, we believe in the One God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - Trinity in essence and inseparable. The Son of God was born of God the Father before all ages. The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from God the Father. We believe that the one God, worshiped in the Trinity, is eternal, omnipotent and omnipresent, that He, by His will, created everything that exists out of nothing - first the angelic world, invisible to us, then our visible, material world. God also created us human beings by breathing an immortal soul into us and inscribed His moral law in our hearts. God created us so that we would be perfected and eternally blissful in fellowship with Him. We believe that God is infinitely just and merciful. He controls the entire universe and the life of every person, and without His will nothing can happen.
When the first people violated the commandment of God, God did not reject them completely, but through the prophets began to prepare people for salvation, promising to send people the Messiah - Christ. When the world was ripe for accepting the true faith, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth to save us, sinful people. He taught how to believe and live righteously. For our salvation, He died on the cross and washed away our sins with His blood. On the third day He rose from the dead and initiated our resurrection and eternal blessed life in paradise. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, on the fiftieth day after His resurrection, sent the Holy Spirit to the apostles, who has been in the Church ever since, instructing her in the truth. We believe that the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church will remain invincible by the forces of evil until the very end of the existence of the world. We believe that the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of baptism, chrismation, confession, communion and other liturgical actions purifies and sanctifies believers, gives them the strength to live like a Christian. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will come to earth a second time. Then there will be a general resurrection of the dead, the end of the world and a universal judgment, in which each person will receive according to his deeds. After the judgment, eternal life will begin: for the righteous - eternal bliss in communion with God, for the devil and sinners - eternal torment in fiery hell.
We recognize that abstract faith alone is not enough for salvation, but it is necessary that life be in accordance with faith. Therefore, we recognize the need to fulfill the Ten Commandments given by God to the prophet Moses (Book of Exodus, 20th chapter) and the gospel Beatitudes given by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 5:3-12). The essence of the commandments is love for God and neighbor, and even for enemies (Mt. 5:43-45). These commandments about love put the Christian faith morally higher than other religions, and, from the point of view of the human mind, can be assessed as the only way to establish peace, mutual respect and legality among people. Without sincere love to the neighbor and forgiveness, wars and mutual destruction are inevitable. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us all to forgive in a wonderful prayer "Our Father," when we speak: "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." In His parables, the Lord teaches us the virtues of faith, humility, patience, constancy, justice, and others. Among the parables, the "parable of the talents" stands out, which calls us to develop in ourselves all the abilities and talents given to us by the Lord God. True faith must necessarily reveal itself in inner growth and good deeds, because "Faith without action is dead." A Christian should be non-possessive; calmly treat material goods, use them not for their own whims, but for their own needs and help others. Pride, selfishness, arrogance and selfishness are an abomination in the sight of God.
The Orthodox Church teaches that every person is endowed with free will by the Creator and is therefore responsible for his actions. The Lord loves and pities us. He helps us in all good things, especially if we ask Him for it. After all, He promised us: "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you"(Mt. 7:7). Fervent prayer clarifies the mind, helps to overcome temptations and live according to the Commandments of God. Prayer helps us improve our spiritual abilities, and this is the main goal of our earthly life.
When an Orthodox Christian suffers setbacks or illnesses, he should not grumble at God, but should remember that the Lord allows us to suffer suffering for our own spiritual benefit - to cleanse from sins and strengthen the will in virtue. In difficult moments of life, one must pray to the Heavenly Father: "Let Thy will be done, as in heaven and on earth."
We Orthodox venerate the saints - the Virgin Mary, prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints (monastics) and other saints of God. After their death, the saints did not break their connection with us, but passed into the heavenly realm of the Church, which is called the Triumphant Church. There, at the Throne of God, they pray for us as for their younger brothers and help us reach the Kingdom of Heaven. We Russians cherish the memory of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga and Prince Vladimir, Sts. Boris and Gleb, Sts. St. Sergius of Radonezh, Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves, Seraphim of Sarov, St. John of Kronstadt and others, as well as the new Russian martyrs who have shone forth in our age.
Divine services of the Orthodox Church are conducted according to the order that has developed over the centuries. The main worship service is the Liturgy (public service). An essential part of the Liturgy is the sacrament of Communion, in which the faithful, under the guise of bread and wine, partake of the very Body and Blood of Christ and are mysteriously united with Him, as the Lord said: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day"(John 6:54). Before communion, the believer confesses his sins.
To help a Christian overcome his shortcomings, there are fasting days. Since apostolic times, there has been a custom to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays (in memory of the sufferings of the Savior), as well as before the feast of Easter - Great Lent. On fast days, it is not allowed to eat dairy or meat food and indulge in entertainment, but one should pray more and read religious literature. The Orthodox faith calls for taking care of the family, the elderly, the sick, the poor, and not judging anyone. "Judge not lest ye be judged"(Mt. 7:1). The goal of our life is constant moral improvement: "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect"(Mt. 5:48).
We now turn to the history of the rise and teaching of other churches. The existing Christian denominations in Western countries were born out of the Lutheran movement, which in turn arose as a protest against the abuses of the Catholic Church. Therefore, from the emergence of the Catholic Church, we will continue our further review. (This historical part was compiled by Igor A. Avtamonov based on the book of Archpriest Mitrofan Znosko-Borovsky and other sources).
Roman Catholic Church
After the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 78 of the Christian era, the Jerusalem church temporarily ceased to exist, and the Roman community and the authority of its bishop began to come to the fore. Based on the central position of Rome as an imperial city, and on the origin of the see from the chief apostles, the Bishop of Rome from the third century begins to speak out about his dominant position in the Church, in which the bishops of the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire did not agree with him.
We have already mentioned the ecclesiastical and administrative eminence of a number of cities and regions in the vast Roman Empire, starting from the second and third centuries. So Irenaeus of Lyon was recognized as the head of all Gaul, Cyprian of Carthage considered the Bishops of Mauritania and Numidia to be subordinate, the Bishops of Alexandria ruled the churches of Egypt, the Ephesians - the churches of Asia Minor, and the Roman Church headed the Roman region. Subsequently, by the decision of the Ecumenical Councils, a number of churches were recognized as leading in their religious and civil status. This did not violate equality between them, and issues relating to the entire Church were decided by the entire Church - its Ecumenical Councils.
The 34th Apostolic Canon says It is fitting for the bishops of every nation to know the first of them and recognize him as the head, and not to do anything exceeding their power without his consent: each to do only what concerns his diocese and the places belonging to it. But the first does not do anything without the consent of all . Thus there will be unanimity, and God will be glorified in the Lord in the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This rule clearly expresses the principle of catholicity.
In general, the Apostolic Canons and the Canons of the ancient Councils do not allow either autocracy of the pre-eminent bishop, much less absolutism in the Church. The highest authority for resolving religious and canonical issues belongs to the Council of Bishops - Local or, if circumstances so require, - Ecumenical.
Nevertheless, political circumstances developed in such a way that the influence of the Bishop of Rome continued to grow. This was facilitated by the invasion of the barbarians at the end of the 4th century and the migration of the peoples of Europe. Waves of barbarians moved through the ancient Roman provinces, washing away all traces of Christianity. Among the newly formed states, Rome acts as the bearer of the apostolic faith and tradition. The rise of the authority of the Bishop of Rome was also facilitated by religious unrest from the 4th to the 8th centuries in the Byzantine Empire, when the Bishops of Rome acted as defenders of Orthodoxy. Thus, gradually, the conviction began to grow among the bishops of Rome that they were called to lead the life of the entire Christian world. A new impetus to strengthen the despotic claims of the Roman bishops was in the 4th century the decree of Emperor Gratian, recognizing in the person of the Pope ("Pope" - the father, this title was worn by the Roman and Alexandrian bishops) "the judge of all bishops." As early as the 5th century, Pope Innocent declared that "nothing can be decided without intercourse with the See of Rome and, especially in matters of faith, all bishops must turn to the Apostle Peter," i.e. to the Bishop of Rome. In the 7th century, Pope Agathon demanded that all the decrees of the Roman Church be accepted by the whole Church, as rules approved by the words of St. Peter. In the 8th century, Pope Stephen wrote: "I am Peter the Apostle, by the will of Divine mercy, called Christ, the Son of the living God, appointed by His authority to be the enlightener of the whole world."
These increasing pretensions of the popes were at first not taken seriously by the Eastern bishops and did not divide the Church. All were bound by the unity of faith, the sacraments and the consciousness of belonging to the one apostolic Church. But, unfortunately for the Christian world, this unity was broken by the Roman bishops in the 11th and subsequent centuries by distortions and innovations in the field of doctrinal (dogmatic) and canonical (church laws). The alienation of the Roman Church began to deepen by their introduction of new dogmas, first about the procession of the Holy Spirit "and from the Son," with the inclusion of these words in the Creed, then - about the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, about purgatory, about supernatural merits, about the pope, as vicar of Christ, head of the entire Church and secular states, about the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome in matters of faith. In a word, the very doctrine of the nature of the Church began to be distorted. (As a justification for the doctrine of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, Catholic theologians refer to the words of the Savior spoken to the Apostle Peter: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church"(Mt. 16:18). The Holy Fathers of the Church have always understood these words in the sense that the Church is based on the faith of Christ, which St. Peter, not on his personality. The apostles did not see their head in the Apostle Peter, and at the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem in the year 51, Ap. Jacob. As for the succession of power, dating back to St. Peter, then app. Peter ordained bishops in many cities, not only in Rome, but also in Alexandria, Antioch and others. Why are the bishops of those cities deprived of the emergency powers of ap. Peter? A deeper study of this issue leads to one honest conclusion: the doctrine of the headship of Peter was artificially created by the Roman bishops out of ambitious motives. This doctrine was unknown to the early Church).
Increasing claims to the primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the introduction of the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit led to the division of the churches into Eastern Greek and Western Roman (or Catholic). The official date of separation is 1054, when Cardinal Humbert placed St. Sophia in Constantinople, a papal message that cursed all those who disagreed with the Roman Church.
In the religious life of Europe, the 11th century is marked by the victory of the papacy over secular power. Rome becomes the ruler of the world. The desire for secular power and participation in the political struggle was not the work of individual popes, but flowed from the entire papal system. Pope Pius 9 declared it obligatory for a believing Catholic to recognize secular authority as the Bishop of Rome. At the behest of the pope, entire nations, taking up the sword and the cross, go to fight against anyone whom the pope calls his enemy. In the 13th century, the pope not only distributes royal crowns, settles the disputes of princes, but with one word starts or stops wars, appoints or deposes kings and emperors, resolves their sworn ones, etc.
In their struggle for power, the popes did not let up, but used every opportunity to remind them of their "primacy" and "infallibility." Thus, Pope Boniface the 8th in 1302 writes in his bull: "We also declare that the Holy Apostolic See and the Roman High Priest have supremacy over the whole world and that this Roman High Priest is the successor of the Apostle Peter, Prince of the Apostles, Vicar of Christ on earth, head of the whole Church, and father and teacher of all Christians." Similar words can be found in the decrees of the Vatican Council in 1870. In the "Code of Canon Law," published in 1917 by Pope Benedict the 15th, it is said: full legal authority over the entire church." These ever-increasing claims by the Bishops of Rome gradually widened the gap between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Starting from the 11th century, the Orthodox Church was forced to rebuff the ambitious harassment of the Roman bishops, protecting the principle of canonical independence of local churches, established by the apostles.
In the struggle for secular power over the world, the bishop of Rome comes into conflict with Christian teaching, for the sword is not to the face in the hands of the "viceroy" meek Jesus and deeply distorts the essence of episcopal ministry. Many representatives of the Church and individual peoples began to realize this. From the 14th century began the religious and moral decline of the papacy. His power is becoming more and more secular, with its intrigues, pomp and greed for earthly riches. The majority of the population began to groan under the oppressive yoke of the representatives of the papal court. The German historian says: “The clergy treats the study of theology with contempt, neglects the Gospel and the writings of the Holy Fathers, it is silent about faith, piety and other virtues, it does not speak about the merits of the Savior and His miracles ... And such people are entrusted with the highest posts in Churches, calling them shepherds of souls!"
The results soon showed. At the beginning of the 16th century, Protestantism was born in Germany - a protest against the abuses of the Bishop of Rome, and, in particular, the criminal inquisition and the sale of indulgences (absolution for monetary bribes). Over the centuries, Protestantism broke up into many sects.
Rome and Russia
For us Russians, it is important to consider what the relationship between Russia and Rome was like throughout history. Already at the dawn of the baptism of Rus' (at the end of the 10th century), the Pope sent an embassy to Korsun to reject Prince Vladimir from an alliance with Orthodox Byzantium. For the same purpose, embassies were sent to Kyiv. The pope tried to influence through the kings of Poland and the Czech Republic, and also tried to use princely civil strife. When the Tatars invaded Russia, the popes send the weapons of the Swedes, swordsmen and Hungarians to her. Having failed on the battlefield under Prince. Alexandra Nevsky, the pope offers his help against the Tatars. Having received the answer: "God is not in power, but in truth," - the pope responds with armed offensives in the 13th century, and again - in the Time of Troubles in 1605-1612.
The offensive position of Rome towards Orthodoxy has not been interrupted throughout the history of Russia. Poland was declared a "missionary territory" by the pope, where violence was the main method of missionary work. In our century, from 1919 to 1929, Roman Catholics took 43 percent of the churches from the Orthodox. Since the first quarter of our century, the "Eastern Rite" has been a new organ for converting Orthodox to Catholicism.
How many times have Catholic prelates vehemently asserted that “the Lord is sweeping the Orthodox East with an iron broom in order for a single Catholic Church to reign. In 1926 and 1928, the Eastern Catholic representative traveled to Moscow to establish union with the Renovationist Church and ties with the Marxist International. The Jesuit Schweigel argued that the Bolsheviks perfectly prepared the ground for Catholic missionaries, and the piety and suffering of the Russian people are the key to the success of the preaching of the Union.The facts show that the aggressive attitude of the Vatican towards Orthodoxy has not been abandoned to this day.
Main Differences Between Orthodoxy and Catholicism
1. Catholicism has introduced a number of new dogmas that do not agree with the apostolic teaching and the decisions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. The most serious deviations from the truth are the Catholic dogmas about the descent of the Holy Spirit and "from the Son" and about the primacy and infallibility of the Pope.
2. Contrary to the apostolic tradition, the clergy of the Catholic Church are committed to celibacy (celibacy).
3. The sacrament of communion is not performed according to the apostolic tradition, since instead of bread and wine, wafers are used (laity are deprived of communion of the Blood of Christ). The sacrament of baptism is performed through dousing (instead of immersion in water).
4. The Orthodox Church does not recognize "purgatory" (the middle place between heaven and hell, where souls are allegedly cleansed of sins), does not recognize indulgences, condemns the cruelty of the Inquisition and the seduction of the Orthodox population into Catholicism.
Protestantism
A learned Catholic monk and a man of living conscience, Martin Luther, already in his youth, in 1510, saw the extreme licentiousness of the papal court and the Roman clergy. This greatly influenced the change in his theological convictions and shook his former view of the holiness of the ministers of the Roman Church.
In 1516, he observed how, in order to raise funds for the construction of the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome, "indulgences," i.e., were widely sold. remission of sins, not only present, but also future (!). Luther spoke out against such blasphemous trade. He explained to his spiritual children that deliverance from the punishment for sins can only be asked for by inner contrition and remorse for what has been done. A verbal duel ensued between Luther and Tetzel, a learned Dominican friar, who threatened Luther with excommunication and his right to burn heretics. In response, in 1517 Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors of the Wittenberg Church, in which he outlined his views on repentance, justification through faith, and the harm of selling indulgences. The dispute continued for several years, during which Luther rejected the authority of the pope, who excommunicated Luther from the church. Only the intercession of secular power saved Luther from death. He was supported in Germany by many priests, professors, students, knights and princes. A split with Rome began and Luther and his followers separated from the Roman Catholic Church.
The movement in favor of purging the Church of papal fabrications and abuses was not limited to Germany. Zwinglius and Calvin, continuing their church reforms, went further than Luther in their doctrine of morality and sacraments. The main feature of the teachings of Calvin was the doctrine of predestination, according to which God from eternity predestined some people to salvation, and others to death. This teaching essentially denies the need for Christian exploits and good deeds.
Lutheranism and its evolution
At the beginning of the preaching of Luther and Calvin, they concentrated on the person of Jesus Christ: "There is no other way - Christ alone is the Way and the Truth. Outside of Him one cannot find God ... Only in the flesh of Christ can one know God ... for through the sending of the Son He revealed to us His will and your heart." The Lutheran Small Catechism states that "Luther is a dear and blessed teacher of the Holy Scriptures, who transformed the church of God by restoring in Christianity the purity of doctrine and the correct administration of the sacraments."
But a non-ecclesiastical element has joined this struggle for the purity of the Church, namely, enmity with the papacy for political, economic and personal reasons. This had its negative impact on the development of the Reformation and its teachings. Having set themselves the task of restoring church teaching in its apostolic purity, Luther and his associates could not cope with this task, because many centuries separated them from the first centuries of Christianity, they did not have a living spiritual experience and there was no knowledge of the creations of the Fathers and Teachers of the ancient Church. Medieval scholastic education presented Christianity in a distorted light. Their only source of interpretation was their own conjecture, personal opinion.
The Orthodox Church rejected the abuses of Tradition and the documents and facts invented by Rome, which are alien to the Word of God. The Protestants, on the other hand, completely departed from the Apostolic Tradition, renounced the spiritual experience of the holy teachers of the Church, from the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, leaving the Holy Scripture, which they arbitrarily interpret, as the only guide in the faith.
Ignorance and fundamental rejection of Church Tradition was the main source of all the errors of the Protestants, because. the word of God is the Bible, the Gospel and Tradition. "Therefore, brethren, stand firm and hold fast to the Tradition which you have been taught either by word or by our epistle,"- proclaims ap. Paul (2 Thess. 2:15). St. app. John says: "Jesus created many other things, but if you write about them in detail, then I think that the world itself cannot contain the books written"(John 21:25). "The apostles did not convey everything through epistles, but much without Scripture; but both are equally worthy of faith. Therefore, we consider them worthy of faith and Tradition,"- says St. John Chrysostom. The Fathers of the Church also teach about Tradition: Basil the Great, Irenaeus of Lyon, Blessed. Augustine and other saints of the first centuries.
While fundamentally rejecting the Apostolic Tradition, the Protestants are not consistent. On the basis of Tradition, they accepted the "canon of sacred books," the confession of the main Christian dogmas: about the trinity of Persons in God, about the incarnation of the Son of God, and recognize 3 ancient creeds in which these dogmas are revealed. Rejecting the authority of the ancient Fathers of the Church, they approved the authority of the new German theologians: Luther, Calvin, and others.
Lutherans assert that the salvation of man and deliverance from sins is accomplished by God himself, and not by the works of man, only by faith alone, the receipt of which depends entirely on God, according to His will. The grace of God, acting on a person, inspires him with faith in Christ, and this is the only condition for salvation - it makes a person righteous. The peculiarity of this faith is that a person has no doubts about receiving the grace of God. Through his faith, a person becomes a holy, pious and justified child of God. This is how the doctrine of justification by faith sounds briefly, being the main and starting point of all Protestant dogma. Holy Scripture does not give us grounds for accepting the teachings of the Lutherans; this teaching is fraught with elements that lead to the destruction of Christian morality. This dogma contradicts the Word of God and follows from the misunderstood words of Sts. Apostles. Luther accepted certain words of St. Paul literally, out of touch with the text and with the general thought of the Apostle: "A man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law," (Romans 3:28) ). Ap. With these words, Paul did not speak out against good deeds, but against the false self-confidence of the Jewish teachers, who believed that salvation was earned by the outward deeds of the law of Moses: circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, washing hands, etc. The same ap. Paul in his letter to the Romans says that the Lord, on the day of His righteous judgment, will reward each according to his deeds (Rom. 2:6). Ap. Peter: "You call the Father the One Who impartially judges everyone according to their deeds." Ap. John: "My children, let us love one another, not in word and tongue, but in deed"(1 John 3:18). Ap. Jacob : "What good is it if someone says that he has faith, but does not have works? How can faith save him? ... As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead." The Lord Himself says that vicious people can also have faith in the sense of recognizing existing religious truths, but this faith is not sufficient for salvation: "Not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven."
Rejecting the extremes of Roman Catholic teaching, Luther himself fell into extremes: he rejected not only the God-affirmed priesthood and sacraments, but also the apostolic understanding of the Church. Luther says that the true church is where the word of God is preserved intact and the sacraments are correctly administered. But where is the criterion for the integrity and purity of the word of God and the correct celebration of the sacraments, if Luther himself rejected the spiritual experience of the ancient Church, rejected Tradition and the conciliar church mind, replacing them with an arbitrary understanding?
"The spiritual priesthood," says Luther, "is the property of all Christians. We are all priests, that is, we are all children of Christ, the High Priest. Therefore, we do not need any other priest but Christ, since each of us has received appointment from God Himself... We all become priests through baptism." Everyone in the church can preach the word of God and perform the sacraments. Pastors and superintendents exist for the sake of order. They are elected by the society from people who are able to teach the members of the community. When they are chosen, the elders lay their hands on them. Here there is no place for apostolic succession and the grace of the priesthood, but only an administrative appointment to the office of a preacher.
This statement is completely at odds with the method and understanding of the role of the priesthood by the early Christian Church, and it is not true that Jesus Christ and the apostles did not give any definite organization to the Church. In fact, for 40 days after His resurrection, the Lord talked with the disciples "about the Kingdom of God" (Acts of the Apostles), i.e. about the structure of the Church - a society of believers. The Lord gave only one Apostle the right to perform the sacraments and teach people the faith: "And Jesus drew near and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold I with you all the days until the end of the age"(Mt. 28:18-20). So is the right to lead people, leading them to salvation: "As the Father sent me, and I am sending you. And having said this, he breathed and said to them: receive the Holy Spirit"(John 20:21-23). The Apostles themselves testify that it was not the community of believers, but the Lord Himself who called them to the work of apostolic service to Him. "not by men and not through man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father"(Gal. 1:1 ).
The apostles preserved and successively transmitted the order and structure of the life of the Church, which was established by the Lord Himself; they themselves ordained bishops and presbyters.
Luther's teaching about justification by faith alone led to a change in the view of the sacraments, which for Lutherans have only a symbolic meaning and their entire power lies in the personal confidence of the praying person that he is justified. The Lutherans have only two sacraments left, or rather their external form - baptism and communion, as commanded by the Savior Himself. However, their teaching is peculiar and alien to the ancient tradition. False spirituality is found among Protestants in mysticism, in the claim to communion with God in addition to the established sacraments and divine services.
The Protestants came to a denial of communion between the living and departed brothers to God, to the denial of the need for prayers for the departed and the intercession of the saints for us. The justification for this denial is purely rationalistic: why pray if you cannot change the fate of God, and since Christ has already fully brought satisfaction to God for all of us. Such teaching leads to moral passivity.
Protestantism, in its widespread liberal form, transferred the value of church experience to its personal experiences and pious sentiments. If so, then, one asks, what is the grace-filled power of God for? "Salvation is accomplished and imputed to me." Are miracles, and even the miracle of the resurrection, necessary? In the early 1940s, Protestants withdrew from Luther's teaching the doctrine of the Son of God and our salvation through Him. At the beginning of our century, 80 percent of the pastors of the city of Hamburg denied the deity of Jesus Christ. Recently, the Lutherans have begun to elect women as pastors as well. Justice demands to be noted that various currents have always coexisted in Lutheranism, and now, no, no, voices are heard: "We do not have a Church!" Among some Lutherans, interest in Orthodoxy is noticeable.
So, the Lutheran movement since the time of Luther refuses the value of living church experience - St. Traditions, from the veneration of the Virgin Mary and the saints, from prayers for the dead, from the administrative structure of the Church, from the holy sacraments, icons, from the sign of the cross, and consider faith alone sufficient to merit the Kingdom of Heaven. This Lutheran distorted Christianity creates a gulf between it and the faith of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
Calvinism, Reformation, Presbyterianism
Calvin reformed in Switzerland, and his teachings spread to southwestern Germany and Holland (Reformation), France (Huguenotism), and Scotland, England and the North. America under the name of Presbyterianism. Calvin supplemented Lutheranism with the doctrine of unconditional "predestination." Luther nevertheless retained the foundations of Christianity, and Judaism hardly slips through in him, while in Calvin the elements of Judaism and paganism are so clear that Calvinism can hardly be considered a Christian confession. "Unconditional predestination" according to Calvin says that God eternally chose some people to salvation, and others - to destruction, regardless of their will. Those destined for eternal salvation constitute a small group of God's chosen people, by virtue of His inconceivable decision, beyond all their merit. On the other hand, no effort can save those who are predestined to eternal death. Good and evil deeds serve to fulfill God's purposes.
Why did Jesus Christ teach us in such detail how to live, to bear the feat, to walk the narrow path? What is the meaning of prayers, repentance, correction of life?
Calvinists refer to certain sayings of St. Paul (Rom. 9th chapter), taken without the content of the whole speech, fragmentarily, and from them they derive confirmation of Calvin's doctrine of predestination. These passages can be correctly understood only in connection with the entire content of this chapter, in which the Apostle says that justification is not the lot of the Jewish people only: "Not all those Israelites who are from Israel, and not all those children of Abraham who are from his seed"(Rom. 9:6-7). Here the Apostle opposes the Jews, who considered the Gentiles rejected by God, and only themselves - the sons of the Kingdom of God (according to the origin and fulfillment of the law of Moses). The apostle proves that the saving grace of God extends to all people, and God calls to salvation not only Jews, but also Gentiles. Calvin's teaching is influenced by Judaism when it teaches that only the chosen people are destined for salvation, and the rest are doomed to perish. The Word of God teaches that "God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth"(1 Tim. 2:4); "The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance"(2 Pet. 3:9).
Calvin's teaching is contrary to the concept of the Holiness of God. Incompatible with this concept is the teaching that God Himself is the culprit and cause of evil, from eternity choosing some to salvation, and others to destruction. This was influenced by paganism, which recognized the existence of an impersonal fatal force called fate (fate). Calvin's teaching leads to moral disinterest and indifference to good and bad deeds.
So, Calvinism denies free will in man; recognizes sin as a natural and inevitable phenomenon, which cannot be fought, because even prayer with repentance is helpless against it; denies the foundations of Christianity and regards the sacraments as mere symbols; believes that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist is not real.
In Scotland, Calvinism (Presbyterianism) was recognized by Parliament as a state confession in 1592. The Presbyterians, under the name "Puritans", demanded that the English king simplify liturgical rites and eliminate symbols, such as images of the cross, the banner of the cross at baptism, etc. The basis of the structure of the Presbyterians is the church community with a presbyter at the head, elected by the community. The bishopric has been abolished. Divine services are reduced to listening to prayers composed by the presbyter, to preaching and singing psalms. Communion while sitting long table; marriages are blessed at home; prayers for the dead are also read at home. There are no icons. The Liturgy has been canceled, as has the Creed (the Lord's Prayer is optional).
Anglican Confession
The Anglican Confession is a mixture of Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism. In England, several centuries before the Reformation, opposition to the ecclesiastical despotism of Rome had formed. The opposition matured on national, economic and religious grounds. The British were outraged by the constant interference of the Bishop of Rome in the internal life of the country, the excessive claims of a secular and political nature, the large incomes of Rome from England, the licentiousness of the clergy, etc.
The reason for the break with Rome in 1532 was for the English king Henry the 8th the refusal of the pope to give him a church divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Initially, there were no church reforms, but Henry proclaimed himself the head of the church, closed many monasteries, canceled "tithes" in favor of Rome. Later, under the influence of the Protestants who flooded England, the king instructed to revise all the teachings of the church, inherited from Rome. In 1536, the "Ten Articles of the Creed" came out on behalf of Parliament, which turned out to be a mixture of Protestantism and Catholicism. In 1552, a new confession of faith was published in 42 parts, and then the "Small Catechism." In it, many rituals, the consecration of water, the use of bells are called superstitions and canceled.
Under Edward the 7th, in 1551, these clauses were revised and 42 clauses of the English creed were issued. It turned out to be a mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism. This is how the English Episcopal Church was born.
The faithful began to fight religious parties, and in 1559 the queen issued a new confession of 39 members, binding on the clergy and laity. In these "foundations" there are dogmas consistent with Orthodoxy: about one God in three Persons, about the Son of God, etc., the denial of purgatory, indulgences and the primacy of the pope. Divine services are performed in their native language. But the error of the Latins regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit and "from the Son" has been inherited. Borrowed from Lutheranism are the fallacy of justification by faith alone, the non-recognition of the Ecumenical Councils, the disrespect of icons and St. relics. The Anglican Confession emphasizes the ecclesiastical headship of the king. The 25th member of this creed does not recognize repentance, chrismation, marriage, anointing and priesthood as sacraments. The Orthodox Church cannot agree with this, but there is no hope for a change in the position of the Anglican Church, since. it is dependent on a parliament which has members of the Freemasons, people of the Jewish faith, and even unbelievers. The English Parliament has the decisive word in matters of doctrine. The king - the head of the English Church - takes an oath at the coronation: "I declare and sincerely swear before God that I believe that in the sacrament of communion there is no transubstantiation of bread and wine into the true Body and Blood of Christ before and after the consecration of the Holy Gifts, whoever it is And I believe that the invocation and worship of the Ever-Virgin Mary and the saints, as well as the sacrificial meaning of the Liturgy, is contrary to the Protestant doctrine." In 1927 and 1928, the parliament twice rejected a new theological book approved by the assembly of the clergy and the House of Lords, because. there, the calling of the Holy Spirit was included in the order of the Liturgy, as well as the preservation of the Holy Gifts for the communion of the sick.
**** **** ****So, in this first part, we have shown that there can be only one true Church. It must continuously ascend to the apostolic Church, preserving the purity of her faith and the apostolic succession of the grace of the priesthood; believers receive sanctification in the sacraments of the Church, especially in Communion, which is the real Body and Blood of Christ. The Orthodox Church meets these conditions. The history and teaching of the Orthodox Church were briefly outlined.
Then we introduced the reader to the history of the emergence of the Roman Catholic Church, which at first was the western branch of the one Church of Christ. The ever-increasing love of power of the Roman bishops in the 11th century led to the separation of the Roman Catholic Church from the Orthodox. Confident in their infallibility, the Bishops of Rome gradually introduced a number of innovations in Christian doctrine and in the manner of administering the sacraments. The retreat of the Roman Catholic Church from the purity of the apostolic faith gave birth in turn to the Protestant movement, out of which the sects that exist today have arisen. We briefly talked about some of them: Lutheranism, Reformationism, Calvinism and Anglicanism.
In the next, part 2, we will talk about Baptists, Quakers, Pentecostals, the modern "gift of tongues," Methodists, Mennonites, Mormons, 7th-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, the sects "Christian Science," Modern Humanism, "about pseudo-religious societies and cults, about heresies and sects in Russia, about the Uniates and the "Eastern rite," about Judaism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism and atheism.
Baptists
The Baptist sect came from among the English "Puritans." Its peculiarity is that Baptists reject infant baptism. The first community arose in England in 1633, and in 1639 it was transferred to North America, where Rhode Island became its center. At first, this sect was not successful, but at the end of the 18th century a "preacher's union" was created with the aim of preaching among African Americans a Christianity free from dogmas, rituals and obligatory symbolic signs. This met with sympathy and material support among wealthy Americans. There were houses for orphans and the elderly, schools, courses, hospitals, and volunteer missionaries in large numbers. Since that time, Baptism has found new followers in England, Germany, penetrated into China, Japan, India, Poland and later into Russia. The "Baptist Union" founded in the USA in 1814 began to dispose of enormous funds and covered the whole world with its propaganda. This sect was brought to Russia from Germany, where Hamburg became the center of the movement.
Over time, Baptism broke up into many sects. The division began as early as the end of the 17th century, when Baptists were divided into "private" (who adopted Calvin's doctrine of unconditional predestination) and into "general" (or "free will Baptists," recognizing the universality of the saving grace of God, attracted by the free will of man). In pre-revolutionary times in Russia, "private" Baptists rejected oaths, military service, and courts, but today they do not have such an open rejection of the state and civic obligations.
There are Baptists with Jewish leanings: "Seventh-day Baptists," celebrating the Sabbath. "Christian Baptists" reject the dogma of the Trinity, the doctrine of hell and the devil, and Christian holidays (allegedly contrary to Holy Scripture). There are Baptists who, on the basis of Jewish apocryphal books, teach about two offspring of Eve, one of which is from the devil. There are other divisions of Baptists, for example: "Evangelical Christians," "Stundists," "Evangelists" and others. Baptism is characterized by hostility to Orthodoxy. All branches of Baptism are united by a common denial of the reality of infant baptism. Objecting to the baptism of children, the Baptists argue that babies (children of Christians) have already been washed and cleansed by the blood of Christ, and therefore there is no need for their baptism. In addition, they refer to Christ's commandment given to His disciples: "Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 28:19; Mk. 16:16). In these words they find that the apostles are commanded to baptize adult believers, not infants.
Such a teaching is contrary to Holy Scripture and the practice of the early Church. Holy Scripture requires everyone to be baptized, including children. Christ Himself says that only "born of water and the Spirit" will be able to enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:5), but concerning children he commanded: "Let the Children Come to Me"(Mt. 19:14). "Infant baptism has its origin in the time of the apostles," testifies Origen, a famous writer of the middle of the 3rd century. In addition, in the New Testament, the sacrament of Baptism replaced the Old Testament rite of circumcision, which was a type of baptism and was performed shortly after the birth of a child. In the Acts of St. The apostles mention that the apostles baptized entire families, in which, undoubtedly, there were children. Since all those who are baptized become members of the Church of Christ, the sooner a person receives baptism, the sooner he joins her grace-filled life. His spiritual growth goes hand in hand with the physical.
Baptists, like Protestants, do not have a clear, concise doctrine about the Church. Moreover, they simply deny the apostolic teaching about the Church. "I am unable to formulate our doctrine of the Church," said H. Philips, one of the leaders of the Baptists, at a conference in Edinburgh in 1937. There are similar statements by other Baptist leaders.
A distinctive feature of all sectarian preachers, ch. arr. Baptists and their ramifications, is the assurance of one's salvation. This follows from the conviction inherent in all Protestant teaching that salvation is automatically acquired by faith in Christ. In this certainty, they rely on separate phrases read from Holy Scripture: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me has eternal life"(John 6:47). "I have written this to you, that you may know that by believing in the Son of God, you have eternal life." These phrases cannot be considered separately from the preceding and following words. Holy Scripture makes a distinction between a dead and a living faith, a saving faith and a faith that cannot save. "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith, but does not have works? Can faith save him? Faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself"(James 2:14-17). "And the demons believe and tremble." This is an example of dead faith that cannot save.
So, it is not enough to believe in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, one must also bear one's cross and follow Christ (Luke 14:27), for only "he who endures to the end will be saved."
Quakers
Simultaneously with the Baptists in England and Scotland, a sect of "Quakers" arose, founded by G. Fox. Brought by his religious reflections to a state of spiritual "charm" (self-delusion), he imagined himself called from above to restore true Christianity, and in 1647 delivered a sermon.
A simple craftsman, committed to reading the Bible, he drew attention to the diversity of interpretations in the Anglican Church on the basic issues of faith. Having received no answer to his questions, he came to a complete denial of Holy Tradition and to a denial of the need for teachers of the faith, theologians, official confessions, and the Creed. Going further, he came to the following conclusions: 1. The only true interpreter of Holy Scripture is the Holy Spirit, who was not with any of the founders of various religious societies, and therefore there is no true Christianity in them. 2. Only he (G. Fox) receives revelation directly from the Holy Spirit. 3. True Christianity does not consist in dogmas and theological systems, but in the direct illumination of man from the Holy Spirit, Who enlightens him and guides him to perfection. Moreover, Quakers put personal direct "illumination" above the Holy Scriptures and interpret Scripture itself, as their personal "illumination" tells them. With such an attitude to the word of God, arbitrariness and distortion are inevitable.
Based on this, the Quakers rejected the apostolic teaching about the Church, they have no hierarchy, they reject the sacraments, even Baptism and the Eucharist (Communion). At their meetings, after reading the Holy Scriptures, they give place to the so-called. "creative silence," i.e. in silence and concentration, everyone awaits the influx of the Holy Spirit, and if anyone feels in himself "illumination" from the Holy Spirit, whether he be a man or a woman, educated or illiterate, he begins to teach the congregation and prophesy, and these instructions are accepted by the rest, as revelation from above, which should be guided in faith and life.
Pentecostals
In the middle of this century arose in the United States the so-called. "charismatic" movement, ("charis" in Greek - "grace"), which set out to revive in modern society the grace-filled gifts received by the apostles on the day of Pentecost and, in particular, the "gift of tongues" - the suddenly acquired ability to speak another language. A number of Baptist and Methodist churches joined this movement. A "charismatic" movement could be expected in a Protestant milieu, since Protestantism, having no apostolic succession of grace, is deprived of the regenerating power of the holy sacraments and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Graceless sectarian prayer meetings cannot bring genuine spiritual satisfaction to a Christian.
The charismatic movement, promising to inject a fresh spirit into the life of the Protestant churches, became popular, and "Pentecostal" associations soon began to spring up in various parts of the United States. This movement also affected some churches of a more traditional Christian direction. Occasionally, Pentecostals gather in large numbers for their conventions, where people come from all over the United States and even from other countries. Due to their lack of a specific administrative structure, it is difficult to determine the total number of Pentecostal sects. Relatively recently, Pentecostal communities began to appear in Europe and in Russia.
What Pentecostals have in common is the desire for grace-filled illumination and the manifestation of the "gift of tongues." Most Pentecostals recognize the Most Holy Trinity, the presence of original sin in man, the deity of the Savior and His atoning sacrifice. They recognize baptism by immersion in water and communion - the "Last Supper," with which they combine the rite of "washing the feet." But they reject apostolic succession, the priesthood, and the rest of the sacraments, by virtue of their Protestant origin.
The very name "Pentecostals" arose from their understanding of the event of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles on the day of Pentecost (that is, on the 50th day after the resurrection of Christ). Pentecostals teach that, like the apostles, they receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the miraculous ability to speak in unknown tongues at the time of their baptism and public prayer. In order to receive gifts of grace, Pentecostals resort to various artificial means: in their meetings, they inspire themselves by singing prayers in unison, while tapping their feet in time, clapping their hands and at times proclaiming the words “hallelujah” and “amen” in unison. The main thing for them is to evoke a good mood and even ecstasy. Some more sensitive natures fall into hysterics, begin to laugh uncontrollably, gesticulate and mutter something.
Modern "gift of tongues"
Although the Pentecostals and similar modern "charismatics" seek by artificial means to evoke in themselves the "gift of tongues," however, they get something completely different from the miracle that happened to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. The beginning chapters of the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles narrate about the miraculous and genuine gift of tongues received by the apostles on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them. On the essence and purpose of the gift of tongues, St. app. Paul in chapters 12-14 of his epistle to the Corinthians. The gift of tongues was necessary for the apostles to successfully spread the gospel among different peoples. Having received the gift of tongues, the apostles were able to preach to people of various nationalities in their own language, and thanks to this, the Church began to spread rapidly. However, as we know from later church history, this gift was not to last long. As local Christian preachers began to appear in different countries, fluent in their own language, the need for the supernatural gift of tongues also began to decrease. So, at the time of St. Irenaeus of Lyon, in the middle of the 3rd century, the gift of tongues is mentioned as a rare occurrence.
From the message of App. Paul to the Corinthians, we can conclude that it was in this church that the gift of tongues was more widespread than in other churches. Then the gift of tongues was one of the spiritual gifts that some Christians received after baptism and the laying of apostolic hands on their head. However, not everyone knew how to properly handle the gift of tongues. The Apostle Paul warns the Corinthian Christians against misusing the gift of tongues. The fact is that at prayer meetings, Corinthian Christians began to speak in different languages when there was no need for this. Obviously, they did this to show themselves in front of each other. Ap. Paul explains that the gift of tongues is "not for believers, but for unbelievers." In other words, the gift of tongues is needed for preaching, for converting pagans to Christianity, and not for the baptized. Moreover, the gift of tongues also had a negative effect on prayer meetings when it was used inappropriately. When, for example, during a divine service, several people simultaneously began to speak in different dialects, which were incomprehensible to the majority of those present, then noise was produced and the prayerful mood was lost. In order to correct this untimely use of the miraculously obtained ability to speak new languages, St. Paul explains to the Corinthians that the gift of tongues is the least gift of all, more necessary to a person spiritual gifts. Corinthian Christians would do better if, instead of the gift of tongues, they would ask God to enrich them with faith, temperance, patience, love, wisdom, and other such gifts.
Comparing the gift of the tongues of the apostolic time with the modern "linguistics," one must recognize an essential difference between them. In apostolic times, Christians acquired the ability to speak some real human language. It was the articulate human speech needed by the preacher for missionary purposes. In contrast to the true gift of tongues of apostolic times, modern Pentecostal "speaking in tongues" is simply a collection of incoherent and meaningless sounds, taking the form of either mumbling or frantic shouting. The Pentecostals themselves admit this fact, explaining, however, that they speak the language of "paradise dwellers." However, it is impossible to recognize spoken or meaningless sounds as God's miracle. They are the result of nervous excitement, falling into a trance and hallucinations, sometimes bordering on madness. Therefore, sectarians blaspheme when they attribute their artificially induced exaltation and inarticulate sounds to God's inspiration.
In general, the desire for all sorts of thrills is characteristic of a modern society that is fond of violent music, evoking malicious or erotic feelings in listeners, encouraging sexual promiscuity, abusing exciting chemicals and drugs, addicted to crime films and horror films. All these perversions are symptoms of a diseased human soul.
Similarly, the search for rapture and ecstasy by people in prayer is a sign of a passionate and proud state. Here there is a substitution of genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit by artificially evoked spiritual experiences. Ignoring the spiritual experience of the holy saints of God, rejecting the priesthood and sacraments established by God, modern sectarians try to receive grace in various dubious and dangerous ways. It turns out self-deception or "charm," against which the holy ascetics of the Orthodox Church warn.
An Orthodox Christian should in every possible way eschew such perversions of religious feeling. He has access to genuine blessed treasures in the sacraments of the Church, in her divine services and in his private sincere prayer. In communion with God, one must seek not delight and acute experiences, but the renewal of one's sinful soul. Renewal comes through humility, repentance and self-correction. As the soul of a person is renewed, the true grace of God will instill in him, and with it - heavenly peace and pure joy, in comparison with which earthly delight is a cheap and miserable fake.
Methodists
The Methodist movement arose in the 18th century from the depths of Anglicanism, as a desire to reform the established Anglican Church without touching its doctrine. The main task was the realization in life of the principles of Christian morality. 200 years of rupture with Rome and incessant religious struggle had a negative impact on the religious and moral image of society, the customs and customs of which by the beginning of the 18th century were at a very low level. In the 30s of the 18th century, the Archbishop of Canterbury said with pain that the Church was openly mocked by secular circles, scientists and the nobility, and the ministers were laughed at without any hesitation.
During this difficult period of the Anglican Church, the ardent young theologian of Oxford University, John Wesley, with a group of his comrades, formed a circle of zealots of pious life - the "Sacred Club," which aimed to live according to the instructions of the Gospel in fasting, prayer and good works, strictly observing the established "method" ( hence the Methodists). Wesley lectured at Oxford for 6 years and presided over public debates. He declared himself a follower of Luther in the "justifying faith" and became an itinerant preacher of piety. Wesley was soon excommunicated from the church. Then he creates his own "united society," in which all the laity were allowed to preach without distinction of sex and social status. In 1741, as a result of disagreements in the doctrine of predestination (that is, the fact that some people from eternity are determined by God to salvation, and others to perdition), the Methodists split into two currents. In England, they recognize participation in the salvation of human will and freedom, while in America they adhere to the doctrine of unconditional predestination.
Dogmatically, Methodism is close to Anglicanism and recognizes the necessity of good deeds, but does not require either uniformity of opinion or a form of worship of God, but only the fear of God and righteous deeds. The Methodist Church retained the degrees of bishop, presbyter, and deacon. Presbyters independently perform the sacrament of Communion, and deacons have the right to "bless" marriages, perform Baptism and help during the sacrament of Communion.
Methodists take seriously the commandments of Christ, they have a skillful organization of believers and developed missionary activity. Their communities are divided into "circles" and "classes." Classes meet every week where the spiritual state of each member is discussed and people exchange spiritual experiences. Methodists do not disdain any work, pay much attention to children, struggle with the violation of Sunday rest; they are against frivolous entertainment, extravagance and drunkenness. There are about 12 million members in America. Like all Protestants, they do not venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints. Children are given the most bizarre names. Icons are not revered, symbols and church architecture are alien to them.
Mennonites
In 1520, a sect of "Anabaptists" arose in Saxony, which got its name from the custom of re-baptizing all who entered its society. She began to put into practice the principle of freedom, understanding it not only as religious freedom, but also as social and political freedom, without stopping before measures of arbitrariness and violence. Based on the principle of freedom, they began to overthrow the existing authorities, social relations and established complete equality in the use of property, and even in the community of wives. This sect is a revolutionary, socio-political organization operating under the guise of religion.
The activities of this sect and the calls of its preachers led to armed uprisings, murders and robberies. In the city of Münster, a certain baker proclaimed himself king, and that city came to be called "New Jerusalem," and the kingdom, "New Zion." 28 "apostles" were sent to subdue all nations under his authority. For general equality (in terms of education), he ordered the burning of libraries and the destruction of works of art. Christian churches were destroyed, the clergy and wealthy citizens were killed. It ended in 1535 with the armed capture of the city and executions. Annabaptism declined, but was partially revived by the former Catholic priest Mennon, who became an Anabaptist. He introduced strict discipline, kept rebaptism, evasion of the oath, civil and military service, and recourse to the courts. Mennonites exist in Holland, Russia, England and America, they are distinguished by strict morality, decency and efficiency.
Mormons, "Latter Day Saints"
The American sect, founded in 1830, now has about 2.5 million members, most live in Utah (USA), the rest - in Canada, England, Switzerland and New Zealand.
The founder of the sect, Joseph Smith, wrote the "Book of Mormons," which they consider "holy scripture," an addition to the Bible. There is a fantastic account of how a large group of Jews 600 B.C. emigrated to America. Subsequently, the less cultured part of the Jews turned into savages, becoming the ancestors of the Indians. The second, more cultured part of the Jews built cities, contributed to the development of knowledge and was visited by Jesus Christ. His teachings are allegedly written on golden tablets by the "prophet" Mormon. His son Moroni copied the tables and buried them in the ground. In 400 A.D. the first group destroyed the second, and after 1400 years, Moroni resurrected and handed over these tables to Smith (which then supposedly disappeared!). Smith wrote his book with the rules of life for Mormons on the tables. The teachings of this sect have very little in common with Christianity and even Protestantism. Mormons have strict discipline, the use of alcoholic beverages, coffee, tobacco, and the precise organization of family and social life are prohibited. They live in excellent material conditions, helping each other financially. Mormons are required to contribute a tenth of their income to their church. In the beginning, they allowed polygamy, but now it is prohibited in the United States. Missionary activity is highly developed. They revere their Mormon book along with the Bible, and they revere the founder of their sect, Joseph Smith, on an equal footing with the prophet Moses and even with the Lord Jesus Christ. (See more about this sect in booklet no. 66).
7th Day Adventists
This sect is of American origin, close to the Baptists and gives priority to the Old Testament Scriptures. It was founded in the 30s of the 9th century by a simple farmer William Miller. The study of the Holy Scriptures led him to the conviction of the imminent end of the world and the opening of the millennium kingdom of Christ. He was embarrassed by the words of the Savior that no one knows the day and hour, nor the angels in heaven, but only My Father (Mt. 24:36). He decided that it was only about the day and hour, but not about the year, and he calculated the coming of Christ for the year 1844. He indicated the month and day, as well as the mountain in the state of New York, where Jesus Christ was to descend. Adventists gathered in huge numbers in white robes at the "mountain of judgment." After the failure, some still remained loyal to Miller. Non-Christian elements exploited the gullibility of the movement's followers. One of Miller's followers, Georg Sperr, published his sermons, in which the immortality of the soul is denied and it is stated that eternal torment is the complete annihilation of sinners. The date of the advent was moved to 1914, then to 1933, and finally to 1995. This last date coincides with the predictions of some rabbis awaiting the arrival of their "messiah."
Adventists believe that the doctrine of the second coming is the main thing in Holy Scripture, and all other dogmas are of secondary importance. They understand the 20th chapter of the Apocalypse (or the book of "Revelation" literally and, allegedly based on it, claim that the 1000-year kingdom of Christ will come, when only the righteous will be resurrected. After 1000 years, Christ will come the third time, when the wicked will be resurrected and the heavenly fire will soon destroy them.The earth will become "new," inhabited by the righteous, and then eternal bliss will begin.
The Orthodox Church understands the 1000-year period of the 20th chapter of the Apocalypse in an allegorical sense, namely: that after His death on the cross and resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ took away the power over people from Satan. The number 1000 is symbolic and means a long period, the exact duration of which is known only to God. Before the end of the world, due to the mass apostasy from Christianity, the devil will have some power over unbelieving people, but for a short time. Then the Lord Jesus Christ will come to earth for the second time to judge the world, after which the eternal Kingdom of Christ will begin. Thus, the "first resurrection" is the spiritual rebirth of believers, which began in the time of the Savior and continues to this day. The "second resurrection" is the return of human souls to their renewed bodies; it will take place before the end of the world. Then all people will rise from the dead, and not only the righteous. But the appearance of the resurrected will correspond to their spiritual state of righteousness or sinfulness. (We must remember that the book of the Apocalypse is full of symbolism, and it must be understood in the context of the entire Christian teaching about the end of the world).
The Savior's teaching about His second coming is set forth in the Gospel and in the Apostolic Epistles (Gospel of Matthew 24th chapter, Epistles of the Apostle Paul: 1 Thess. 4:13-18 - 5:1-3 and 2 Thess. 2nd chapter) and has nothing to do with the teachings of the Adventists. The Gospel speaks only of the two comings of Jesus Christ and of one common Last Judgment. (The first when He was born in Bethlehem, the second before the end of the world). Adventist teachings are taken from rabbinic books and are akin to the Jewish expectation of the coming of the Messiah. The doctrine of the third coming of Christ is an invention of the Adventists.
Jehovah witnesses
This sect is hostile to Christianity and Christian statehood. It was founded at the end of the 19th century, expanded widely in the 1930s in America and immediately began to operate with huge material resources. Its magazine, Watchtower, is published in 27 languages and has representatives in 150 countries. "Jehovah's Witnesses" use New Testament terminology, relying on Holy Scripture, but their teaching has nothing to do with Christianity, it is a kind of mixture of religious and political elements. They call the Church of Christ "an organization of Satan," and they call themselves witnesses of the wrath and vengeance of God on the Church of Christ. They announce the imminent death of the Church of Christ and the Christian peoples. In the political part of the doctrine of the "witnesses" Marxist demagogy openly comes out. They irresponsibly and unfoundedly promise equalization of the rich and the poor, work for all, lack of exploitation, abundance of food, an end to wars, etc. They seek to seize power. While blaming the system of America and other countries, they do not censure the modern atheistic states in a single word. Their teaching looks like a conscious plan to destroy Christian culture and statehood. (See more about this sect in book number 65).
"Christian Science". Christian Science
The book "Science and Health with the Key to Holy Scripture" is the "gospel" of the followers of this sect. It was written by Eddie Becker at the beginning of this century in Massachusetts, USA. Although the founder denounces the Calvinists, she comes to deny God. A detailed analysis of the teachings of this sect leads to the conviction that it has nothing to do with the Gospel and the Bible. There is nothing scientific in this doctrine either. It denies medicine and calls for self-hypnosis to be treated.
Society of Scientology
Creator - Lafayette Ron Hubbard (1911-1986). After the war, Hubbard took an active part in the activities of one of the satanic sects, the founder of which was the famous Satanist Aleister Crowley, from whom Hubbard largely adopted the ideas of building his pseudo-religious system. Hubbard's son testified that his father did most of the "scientific revelations" while under the influence of drugs. Declaring his loyalty to all religions, Hubbard in last years life revealed the "secret secret" that his "mission" on Earth - the mission of the Antichrist to prevent the Second Coming.
The idea that arose to make money on the creation of their religion turned out to be fruitful. From a not-so-wealthy veterans pension petitioner, the Scientology founder turned into a $640 million multimillionaire by the end of his life. Hubbard was recognized as a criminal by the courts of many countries, and in a number of countries he was declared persona non grata. Hubbard died in 1986.
The Society of Scientology is currently led by David Miscavige and is based in Los Angeles; spiritual leadership - in Clearwater (Florida), the main European base - in Capenhagen. The head of the Scientology sect in Russia is Richard Fear. The official representative in Russia for public relations is Birta Heldt. The positions of Scientology are especially strong in Perm, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Usolye, and Obvinsk.
The Society of Scientology in general is not a church in the Christian sense of the word, since the place of God is practically occupied by Hubbard, and each adept contributes to the cult of his personality, which was confirmed by the Federal Labor Court of Germany in a judgment dated March 22, 1995.
Hubbard's book "Dianetics - The Modern Science of Mental Health" contains information from the field of psychology, mixed with information from books on the occult and magic, and "engrams", the main concept in Scientology, are in fact a pseudoscientific version of ancient ideas about karma.
Adepts decipher the term "Scientology" itself as "the study of knowledge" (in English, the term "Scientology" is used as "scientific imagery"). At first, Hubbard tried to present his Dianetics as a science, but having met with complete rejection from scientists, he was forced to give it a religious "cover." Scientologists are trying in every possible way to give their teaching a tinge of scientificity: their literature is saturated with self-made special scientific terms and abbreviations, computer methods, tests, and graphs are used. However, there is no true science in teaching. It all comes down to studying the dogmas set out in Hubbard's books. Any spoken or written word of the founder is considered "sacred scripture." In reality, Scientology is a mixture of information from psychology, black magic, occultism and science fiction, multiplied by an unquestioning belief in the infallibility and genius of the founding father, Hubbard, and the organization he created.
The Scientology organization claims to be a religious society and considers itself a "church." Nevertheless, there are numerous examples of instructions written by Hubbard, which convincingly show that the basis of the organization is not religious considerations, but direct commercial interest. The relentless pursuit of profit is expressed in Hubbard's own words: "Give money - make more money - put other people to work - to make money.
In the definition of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church "On pseudo-Christian sects, neo-paganism and the occult" (December 1994), Scientology is called a pseudo-religion.
L. R. Hubbard was once a student of the famous 20th century Satanist Aleister Crowley and was involved in the most repulsive forms of the occult. According to official materials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Scientology is one of the varieties of satanic sects that have a clearly criminogenic orientation and actively use psychotropic substances in order to obtain a controlled personality type from their adherents. This sect has specially created cover structures engaged in outwardly charitable activities, which include the Hubbard Humanitarian Center.
Scientologists claim to be out of politics and that church and state should be separated. At the same time, one of the global missions of the sect is declared as allegedly the creation of a civilization without madness, crime, wars, drugs, etc. To create such a civilization, it is necessary to introduce Scientology into all spheres of life, including, first of all, government bodies. Hubbard himself, before his death, announced his second coming, but already in the role of a politician. He also argued that "Scientology ... must carry both the establishment of total power and authority in order to achieve total discipline." Therefore, Scientologists are actively recruiting high-level executives and businessmen through the Hubbard College system (administrative technology training). One of the goals of Scientology is to supplant traditional psychiatry in order to take its place in the state. Attacks on psychiatry run like a red thread in their books, its pathological rejection is instilled in sectarians.
Representative of Germany at the OSCE Seminar on Freedom of Religion (Warsaw, April 16-19, 1996). report was made. Since the appearance of this sect in the territory of Germany (1970 r). local authorities are pursuing a policy of counteracting it along all lines. Not coincidentally, in 1973 Germany was declared by L. R. Hubbard "one of the main enemies of Scientologists." The latter have repeatedly appealed to the UN Commission on Human Rights and the OSCE with complaints about the "policy of state infringement" of their interests in Germany, and periodically launched propaganda campaigns against official German authorities.
Taking into account this and the continuing growth of the activity of the sect on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, measures to counteract it have recently been noticeably strengthened. Work is underway to give it a systemic and legally flawless character. On March 22, 1995, the Federal Labor Court ruled that the Scientology cult is not a religious or ideological community, but a commercial structure operating with methods of psychological terror and economic crime. On May 9, 1996, the German Bundestag established a special Study Commission "So-called sects and psycho-groups." Until the spring of 1998, she will form an official assessment of the degree of danger to society of Scientology and will make her recommendations to the Federal Government. Since 1995, the Ministries of the Interior of the states of Germany have been preparing a report on the Scientology sect, which is planned to be discussed at a permanent conference of the federal and state ministers of the interior of Germany in Hamburg. Without waiting for an all-German settlement, individual Länder have already taken additional tough measures within their own competence. Thus, on October 17, 1995, the government of Bavaria put into effect a special program to oust the sect from its territory. On November 1, 1996, this country introduced a ban on Scientologists from holding positions in the public service. The Land Office for the Protection of the Constitution (counterintelligence and internal security service) is actually connected to the monitoring of the sect.
Since 1991, belonging to the Scientology sect has been incompatible with membership in the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), the leading party in the current ruling coalition. In May 1995, a similar decision was made by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the main force of the opposition.
Almost all countries in which there are branches of this sect are investigating its criminal activities.
Scientology is fighting for world domination. The purpose of the Scientology organization is what can be called the creation of a new man and a new world in which everything functions according to Scientology rules. This signifies a great danger to society, since in a society governed by the principles of Scientology there will be no place for civil rules and freedoms. According to the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, any democracy is useless.
"Modern Humanism" (Secular Humanism)
(To avoid confusion, here are some explanations borrowed from the Encyclopedic Dictionaries.)
Humanity: philanthropy, caring for a person.
Humanitarianism is the desire to develop the highest human qualities, to ennoble thought, to develop the mind and heart.
Humanism is a direction of European thought that arose and developed in the 15th and 16th centuries, in the so-called. the "Renaissance" era. The desire to turn the work of thought to the solution of pressing, vital issues of a material and practical nature, to improve the conditions of human life).
MODERN humanism is a godless sect that puts the cornerstone of all life and the "highest being" of the universe of a person who does not need God and who himself must create laws, rules and his own morality for a given place and time. "Modern humanism" considers all church organizations and beliefs harmful for education, psychology and human life.
"Modern humanism" arose in the United States in the mid-thirties of our century. It was created by a group of unbelieving scientists and philosophers who have united in the American Humanist Association. In 1933 they issued "The Humanist Manifesto 1," signed by 34 educators and writers, explaining the aims and aspirations of "Modern Humanism." In 1973, the second manifesto was issued, signed by many dozens of very influential people from all over the world (including the USSR).
This sect considers man the master of the world, the highest creation of nature; there is no God, prayers cannot help him in anything, and he must rely only on his own strength. Ethics, morality and the Commandments are the creations of man himself and are subject to change depending on the place, time and circumstances. A person must be independent of the highest authorities and can manage his life according to his own understanding, meaning personal benefit. He is not obliged to take care of the sick and the poor. Abortion is his right. Family life should not be constrained by church and civil laws; to change a life partner and receive any bodily pleasures is his right.
Unbridled freedom brings this sect closer to atheism, and it is no less dangerous, because. seeks to corrupt the whole society with its propaganda and Ch. arr. growing generation. "Modern Humanism" is trying to attract authoritative and influential people, writers, artists, owners of film studios, and so on. Hollywood produces a number of anti-religious and immoral films for youth and children. Stories and novels of the same content are written. The corrupting influence of this sect is already visible in society and among the youth, and it is capable of ruining the country.
Pseudo-religious societies and cults
In view of the fact that the US constitution provides for the right of every citizen to have their own political and religious beliefs, as well as to disseminate them, nothing is easier in this country than to found a new religious society or political party. Enlisting the support of a few adherents is enough to get the right to legally register such a society. The legalization of a religious society, in turn, frees it from income taxes. For this reason, religious societies and cults often arise in the United States, which cover themselves with religious ideas for commercial purposes.
Such societies include, for example, the Moon sect (calling itself the "Unification Church"), the Church of Scientology, and many televangelical (television evangelical) organizations led by preachers with prophetic and miraculous claims.
It is difficult in a brief note to cover the doctrinal and organizational range of these pseudo-religious societies. Some of them, such as the television society PTL (from "Praise The Lord" - Praise God) preach Christian principles (in the spirit of the Pentecostal sect), but clearly pursue commercial goals (from 12 to 45 percent of television time is devoted to fundraising). Fundraising is very successful, so that some leaders of such television groups live in fabulous luxury and from time to time become participants in noisy scandals, fraud and immorality.
The Unification Church was founded in the USA in 1972 by the Korean preacher Sun Moon. The teachings of this sect, expressed in the book "The Divine Principle," (Diviné Principle) is an amalgam of Eastern religious ideas, Moon's own fantasy, and a small amount of Christian elements. Moon's associates consider him a messiah who came to save the world. People who join the Unification Church are subjected to intense psychological conditioning to make them loyal to Moon and active spreaders of his ideas. His organization has a complex administrative semi-secret structure and conducts large-scale commercial operations under various aliases. Cunningly lured youth, which the leaders of this sect are torn away from their families and forced to raise funds for the church of unification. This pseudo-religious organization has mentally crippled many young people.
The Society of Saintology has nothing to do with religion. Founded in 1954 by L. Ron Hubbart, it only covers itself with the sign of the cross and some Christian slogans. The real goal of this society is very frankly expressed by its founder: "Money, money! Bring more money, force others to get money." The financial side of this society is the envy of the most successful commercial firm. Saintology distributes books like "Dianetics," "The Way to Happiness," and others that aim to get people into expensive "mental and mental health" courses. Courses bring in millions of dollars in income. They promise the purification of the soul, the enlightenment of the mind, the development of well-being and self-confidence, the discovery of the secrets of happiness. People with weak faith and mental problems are seduced by the opportunity to find peace of mind and some meaning in their lives. Some people spend hundreds, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars attending endless lectures and treatments. Self-hypnosis is the main method of "treatment" of Scientologists.
Ultimately, the leaders of such pseudo-religious societies do a disservice to modern society, because they uproot faith in God for the sake of personal gain.
Since the 1970s, there have been a growing number of cults of all kinds in the United States, with an admixture of pagan, Hindu, theosophical, pseudoscientific, astrological and even satanic ideas. Observing the modern violent flowering of the wildest religious ideas and all kinds of cults in the United States, one recalls the prediction of St. Paul about the end times:
"The (Holy) Spirit clearly says that in the last times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of false talkers, burned in their consciences ... They will prosper in wickedness, and their word, like cancer, will spread ... Then they will not accept sound doctrine, but according to their own whims they will choose for themselves teachers who would flatter their ears; they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn to fables "(1 Tim. 4:1-2; 2 Tim. 2:16- 19:4:3-4).
Long years of struggle with the Church and Christianity in Russia led to the emergence of aggressive sects in it and to the rapid growth of new cults. Beginning in 1989, information began to appear in the press about the penetration of Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, televangelists, followers of Moon and others into the countries of Eastern Europe and Russia. All of them are trying to take advantage of the spiritual vacuum created in Russia. It will not be easy to oppose them, since they have huge material resources and great experience in propagating their pseudo-religious ideas.
Heresies and sects in Russia
On its historical path, Orthodox Russia did not escape heretical currents, sometimes arising within the country, but more often coming from the West.
One of the first to break into Rus' from Bulgaria was the Bogomil sect, named after the monk Bogomil (10th century). She taught that God gave birth to two sons: Satanael and the Logos, that Christ is the Logos, born of the Virgin Mary from Her ear. This sect rejected the sacraments, demanded an ascetic life, and so on. By the 13th century, this sect had spread throughout southern Europe and Spain. Despite the persecution, the sect retained its secret teaching in Russia until the 18th century, when it turned into the Khlysty and eunuch sects.
Another secret society was the "Jewish" sect. This sect appeared in the 15th century, first in Novgorod, and then in Moscow. She is a mixture of Jewishness with rationalism. The Judaizing sect rejected the divine nature of Jesus Christ, icons and rituals. The sect was founded by the Jew Skhariya, who in 1470 arrived in Novgorod in the retinue of Prince Alexander Olelkovich, as his life physician. The sermon of Skhariya captivated many high-ranking people in the state. So, one of the leaders of the secret alliance was the clerk of the embassy order Fyodor Kuritsyn (foreign minister of that time), and some relatives of the Grand Duke also got into the secret alliance. But in 1504 the sect was outlawed, and the followers were exiled to prison. Yet from the remaining roots of this sect arose the sect of "subbotniks."
"Subbotniks" - originated in the 18th century, celebrate the Sabbath and adhere to the Old Testament. Some even performed circumcision according to the Jewish custom. The imps were exiled. Nicholas I to the Caucasus.
Old Believers, or Old Believers, is the common name for religious groups that separated from the Russian Church in the 17th century. A schism began due to the disagreement of some clergy with the correction of errors in the liturgical books and the change in the rites begun by Patriarch Nikon around 1655. This disagreement soon grew into an open schism, which attracted a large number of adherents of antiquity. At first, the Old Believer movement set itself the goal of following the ancient Russian rituals and customs. There was no heresy here, but only disobedience to church authority. Rebelling against "innovations," the Old Believers began to rebel against state life. They began to move to the sparsely populated areas of the North, the Volga region, Siberia, and also to Poland, Prussia, Romania, Turkey and China.
Over time, the Old Believers broke up into many "talks" (groups). Some of them continue to insist on the use of ancient books and icons in their services. Some Old Believer groups are distinguished by strict moral rules in life, and differ from the Orthodox population by church rites and disobedience to the spiritual hierarchy. Old Believers are divided into two large groups: priests and bespopovtsy, depending on whether they received priests who converted from Orthodoxy to schism or not. Both of these groups broke up into many rumors, the names of which are derived from the names of their founders. Some branches of the Old Believers, having abandoned priests, degenerated into sectarian societies.
At the end of the 18th century, when passions for the correction of liturgical books subsided somewhat, some branches of the Old Believers began to seek rapprochement with the Russian Church. The Synod of the Russian Church in 1783 allowed its bishops to appoint priests for friendly Old Believer parishes. The Old Believers, who recognized the Russian Church, began to be called "consenters." A few years later, new groups of Old Believers entered into an alliance with the Russian Church and began to accept its priests. These groups were called "co-religious." At the episcopal meeting in the city of Kazan in 1885, it was determined that "Orthodoxy and common faith are one Church." Some Old Believer parishes in the United States merged with the Russian Church Abroad in the 1970s.
Here are the features of some of the sects that were in Russia:
"Doukhobors" - a sect of Quaker origin appeared at the beginning of the 18th century in the Kharkov province. Due to the illiteracy of the Doukhobors, their teaching was difficult to formulate. They do not believe in the Divinity of Christ, they recognize the transmigration of the soul, they understand heaven and hell allegorically, they reject the church hierarchy and rituals; reject the oath and performance of military service.
"Molokans" - do not recognize the sacraments and rituals of the Orthodox Church, reject the veneration of saints and recognize divine services only in the form of reading Holy Scripture and singing psalms. Forbid entertainment, drunkenness, smoking, foul language. Previously, Molokans lived in the Caucasus, then they were evacuated to the United States.
"Eunuchs" - believe salvation in the physical suppression of the flesh through castration. The sect appeared in Russia in the 18th century. Skoptsy for some reason consider their ancestor ap. Matthew.
"Whips" - make up communities, or "ships," headed by "prophets, Christs, virgins and prophetesses." They reject the priesthood, the Church, and the sacraments. They believe in Christ "invented," i.e. admit the possibility of becoming each person, through asceticism, "Christ." Their worship, or "joy," consists of reading and explaining the Holy Scriptures, with singing, jumping, running and whirling, driving them into insensibility and delirium, which they take for prophetic inspiration. The Khlyst sect is a savage and dangerous sect.
"Pentateuchists" - they believe that God in the strict sense is one. The Pentateuch of Moses is a pillar book. Jesus Christ is not God. The Church is only a community of believers. Everything external in it is a human invention and is subject to rejection. The temple is a idol, icons are idols, the hierarchy is false teachers, idol priests. No sacraments. The sacrament is simple bread and wine. Repentance is self-deception. Icons and crosses must be crushed, like idols, fasting and monasticism must be discarded. All people with their different faiths are the same children of God. There should be no governments, no wars.
Uniates in Russia
In 1386, the "personal union of Lithuania and Poland" took place, when the Lithuanian prince Jagiello married the Polish queen Jadwiga. The "Polishization" and "Catholicization" of the Lithuanian and Lithuanian-Russian nobility began. Until the middle of the 16th century, this issue was not acute. But in 1569, both of these states merged into the "Rzeczpospolita," where the Poles gained the upper hand. Kyiv and Volyn were transferred to Poland. By 1596, the Polish kings managed to replenish the episcopate of the Kyiv Orthodox Church with bishops they liked. Then the "Brest Union" took place, which officially transferred the Little Russian population to the union, i.e. union with the Catholic Church under such conditions: Christians of the Greek religion joined the Roman Church, submitting to the primacy of the pope, but retaining their internal church structure and order of worship.
The Orthodox could not agree with the decision of the unworthy part of their episcopate, and a struggle began for the faith and their nationality. In this fight important role Dnieper Cossacks and Cossacks played. With the beginning of Polish attempts to subdue the Cossacks to the Polish landlords and with the beginning of the persecution of Orthodox Church Cossack uprisings also began. They were accompanied by terrible cruelties.
In 1648, a huge uprising against Poland, raised by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky, was supported by the entire mass of the Orthodox population of Southwestern Rus'. The war turned out to be difficult, and the hetman offered the Cossacks to surrender under the authority of the Moscow Tsar. The general Rada (people's assembly) in the city of Pereyaslavl at the beginning of 1654 unanimously declared: "Let's go under the Tsar of Moscow Orthodox." Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich "took Little Rus' under his high hand," giving her complete self-government and her own Cossack army.
Later, with the subordination of Poland to Russia (partitions of Poland - the first in 1773, the second in 1793 and the third and 1795). most of the Uniate population returned to the bosom of the Orthodox Church.
To attract Orthodox people to Catholicism after the revolution in Russia, the Catholic Church created the "Eastern Rite." Divine services are held according to the Russian Orthodox rite, but the teaching is Catholic. After World War II, many Russian emigrants were lured into the "Oriental Rite" by rations and financial aid. They, not delving into the essence of the teachings of the "Eastern rite," were cunningly lured into Catholicism by services that were quite similar to their Russian, Orthodox ones. At present, the "Eastern Rite" is publishing many religious books in Russian and is training clergy in Rome to convert the Russian people to Catholicism.
Briefly about other religions
Judaism originated from the Old Testament religion of the Jewish people. Its main feature is the non-recognition of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Judaism is imbued with ritual to the smallest detail, full of written and unwritten rules that fetter human activity: what can and cannot be eaten, drunk, whom to marry, when to work, with whom to be friends and whom to hate. Performing all these rituals, they consider themselves righteous and "chosen people." They do not engage in missionary work and are not willing to accept into their religion people who were not born of a Jewish mother. Revenge, "an eye for an eye," is an acceptable action against those whom they consider guilty before them. Some Jews continue to wait for the coming of their "messiah," who will bring glory to the Jewish people. Christians identify this coming false messiah with the "antichrist," who, according to the predictions of the Bible, should come before the end of the world and lead the mass apostasy of people from Christianity.
Islam. The founder of the Muslim religion is Mahomet, who lived in the first half of the 7th century in Arabia. The main thing in this religion is faith in the One God (Allah) and the prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam. Something Muslim borrowed from the Bible. They revere Christ as one of the prophets, but below Mohammed. According to the teachings of Muslims, everything is predetermined for each person already at his birth. Restraining beginnings fall away, everyone can do whatever he wants; there is no repentance for the sins committed, tk. everything is predetermined. Everyone whose destiny is written will go to heaven. Killing "infidels" (people of other religions) is commendable and rewarded with paradise. In Islam, there are many inviolable rules regarding abstinence from wine, other alcoholic beverages, pork meat, clothing and five daily prayers. Revenge is approved and becomes a tradition.
Buddhism. The founder of this religion is Siddart-Gautama, who lived in India (Nepal) in the 7th century BC. and called "buddha," which means "enlightened one." After its emergence, Buddhism spread to many countries of the East: in India, Burma, Siam, Tibet, China and Japan. Buddhism does not recognize the Creator, but believes in the eternity of matter, in the circular motion and change of phenomena. Buddhism teaches that peace, suffering, and pleasure are "appearances," seeming beings. Renunciation of the will - from egoism and all its consequences - a person plunges into nirvana, i.e. a state of complete peace of mind, the absence of desires, thoughts, in a word - into mental non-existence. According to the Buddha, life is evil. A person should strive for nirvana (non-existence). Bliss is achieved by self-denial of the will, asceticism, renunciation of malice and bad impulses, love for all and readiness to sacrifice oneself for others. High morality, with the resulting social teaching, contributed to the spread of Buddhism. Buddhism also teaches that there is no complete death, but after death the souls of people move from person to person, and even to animals. The Buddhist teaching about the transmigration of the soul runs counter to the Christian teaching. (Christianity teaches that the soul, together with the body, constitutes a single human nature. At the moment of death, the soul is temporarily separated from its body, so that at the moment of resurrection it will again unite with it for eternity). Here are a few rules of Buddhism: don't destroy life, don't cheat, don't steal, don't exploit, don't rape, and don't drink intoxicating drinks. Sacrifice everything for the good of the people. To be calm and kind, to live modestly, not to be carried away by luxury, not to be angry with anyone, not to offend anyone, try to create peace everywhere, prevent wars and everything that destroys life. The teaching of Buddhism is not the same in all countries, but each country has its own specific features. It should be pointed out that the doctrine of nirvana does not contribute to the development of abilities in a person. Buddhism is a religion of pessimism, calling for the abolition of one's personality. Denying the existence of a personal God, Buddhism is essentially a kind of atheism.
Atheism- denies the existence of God and any higher rational force. It appeared in the Middle Ages in Western Europe, but only by the 19th century did it become a philosophical doctrine that does not recognize anything but matter. (Atheists, while fundamentally denying what they cannot comprehend with their minds, forget that the human mind develops and grows over the centuries. Indeed, people of the 13th and 14th centuries did not know that the earth is a ball, that it revolves around the sun, not the sun around the earth. Just two centuries ago, people did not know about the existence of electricity, could not imagine the possibility of telephone, television and other modern devices. The laws of quantum mechanics are very recent discoveries. Similarly, what today seems incomprehensible, impossible, may turn out to be understandable and undoubted in the future.In fact, scientists are gradually discovering those laws of chemistry, physics, biology, cosmology, which the wise Creator laid in nature when it was created.Modern science, discovering all the new secrets of nature, becomes more modest and in some fundamental issues begins to approach to religion (for example, in the issue of recognizing the temporality and limitations of the universe, in the issue of the gradual development of the physical and animal world, etc.).
In the 20th century, atheism embraced a number of large states and, based on pseudo-philosophy, began to teach that man is the pinnacle of all living things, that there is neither a higher mind nor a higher will to which one must account for one's actions. The man himself, without outside help, allegedly creates the surrounding life and his happiness. Atheism teaches you to live for yourself, love only yourself and achieve your goals. In principle, good is what is beneficial to a person. For atheism, religion is a fiction; the interests of the family and society - fade into the background. A person can kill, rob, be heartless, treacherous, a traitor and a swindler, as long as these actions are for the good of the state. There are no eternal moral norms here, and there is no concept of sin.
An atheistic state tries to make itself the goal of everything, and its citizens - soulless executors.
All religions recognize the existence of a Supreme Being - the eternal, wise, kind, just Creator of the visible and invisible world. Religious ideas about God are born in a person very early and are actually inherent in him, like instincts, conscience and other mental properties. With proper development, religious feeling develops and grows stronger, because all nature, with its beauty and marvelous structure, testifies to a wise and kind Creator. At some moments of his life, a person is honored even to feel God in his soul, sees His wondrous light. The deeper a person gets acquainted with Christian teaching, the more he becomes convinced of its beneficial effect on a person, family, state and the whole society.
Atheism is unnatural; he is the product of a wrong upbringing and a sinful lifestyle associated with city life. People are not born atheists, but made them. Big cities with their noise, bustle and depravity often kill everything holy and good in a person. Having lost God, an atheist, however, cannot do without some kind of faith and begins to believe in matter, attributing to it divine properties, for example: eternity, immutability, and even wisdom. Not recognizing God, atheism in practice becomes the most intolerant and repressive religion. While religion calms and pleases a person, unbelief embitters him, deprives him of inner balance. That's why atheists often have to hate, persecute someone. You don't have to look far for examples. Even the repressions against "heretics" in the Middle Ages, in comparison with the persecution of believers and dissidents in communist countries, seem humane.
That is why ancient philosophers took up arms against atheism. Plato believed that atheism is fatal and destroys morality. St. Augustine said that atheism actually undermines every state: "A state organized not on the commandments of God is nothing but a temporary hell on earth." For many years the power of atheism in our homeland confirms these words.
Conclusion
In this summary, we have tried to give basic information about the existing Christian denominations and several other religions. Of course, the most exalted and ennobling religion is Christianity with its teaching about the one God, worshiped in the Trinity, who created the world and takes care of people; about the incarnated Son of God, who came into the world to save us sinners; about eternal life; about love for everyone, even enemies.
Unfortunately, in the middle of the 11th century, the Roman Catholic Church fell away from the unity of the Church of Christ. The reason for the falling away was the claim of the Roman bishops to the primacy in the Church and their infallibility. Over time, the Roman Catholic Church with the introduction of new dogmas (about the procession of the Holy Spirit and from the Son, about purgatory and others) moved away from the purity of Christian teaching. The abuse of indulgences and the lust for power of the Bishops of Rome gave birth in Europe to the Protestant movement, from which modern sects originate: Lutherans, Baptists, Quakers, Mormons, Pentecostals, Adventists and others. The religious chaos created by these sects has paved the way for the emergence in our time of a large number of all kinds of cults, clearly non-Christian in nature. The appearance before the end of the world of a large number of false prophets and strange religions was predicted by the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles (see our brochure "The Teaching of Holy Scripture on the Church").
An unprejudiced person, acquainting himself with the history of Christianity, cannot but come to the conclusion that only the Orthodox Church continuously ascends to the Church of the first centuries. She preserved the purity of her teaching and the grace-filled apostolic succession. The Lord instructed His Church not to invent new teachings, not to adapt to the customs of the world, but to save people by the grace and truth given to her. Passing on these treasures to future generations is an important task for the Church.
Before the revolution in Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church, being part of the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church, was populous and powerful. But the monolithic unity of the Russian people and the Russian Church was dealt heavy blows by sectarianism, nihilism, Western revolutionary ideas, and, finally, militant atheism. Now is the time to rebuild what has been destroyed and heal the wounds. Orthodoxy teaches that life must be built on the principle of Christ's love. "Then all will know that you are My disciples," Christ said, "when you have love for one another." In private life, Orthodoxy calls on a person to refrain from sins, to live according to the Commandments of God, and to improve morally.
Our faith in God should not be abstract, theoretical, because "Faith without works is dead." We recognize the great power of prayer, and prayer has an important place in our lives. We must fervently pray to the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints as our helpers and intercessors before God. The Church calls us to take care of the welfare of the family and the state, to strive to improve the abilities given to us by God, to cultivate humility, non-possession and compassion in ourselves. Forgive everyone, don't judge anyone. Strive for eternal life.
On its historical path, the Church of Christ on earth sometimes grew in numbers, sometimes decreased. There were times when her enemies triumphed, hoping that her last days had arrived. But by the power of Christ the Church rose up, as if from dust, while her enemies perished. Christ promised the Church invincibility until the end of the world. We must remember that as children of the Orthodox Church, we are members of a great universal organization. In fact, there is no society and state greater than the Church, because not only Orthodox believers living on earth belong to it, but also all righteous people who have gone to that world. Indeed, the Church in her heavenly-earthly existence is eternally growing and strengthening. Being in the Church, we, as passengers of the great ship, will not drown in the waves of the sea of life.
We are strong in our faith in God the Creator, the omnipresent, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise and merciful Heavenly Father. His will is our law, indicating how to live, how to develop our talents. Our goal is an eternal blissful life in the Kingdom of unstoppable Light.
True church.
It is very important for every believer to understand what Scripture says about the true church. Christ said: "If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit." (Mat. 15:14). So, in order not to fall in the spiritual sense, one must accept into one's heart and follow the truths of the Word of God. The Word of God is a lamp to the human foot. It illuminates the path for every believer and sincerely striving for the truth.
What is the true church? The one that corresponds to God's word - the Bible. At the beginning of creation there was only one church - the Church of Christ. (Rom. 16:16). This is the church of which Christ says, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). The true church belongs to Christ and is the one and only. Its head is Christ. If the Head is One, then there is only one church - the Church of Christ, all the rest, created thanks to Satan and the human desire for power - these are deviations from the truth, these are denominations with a layering of false additions to the truth.
The true biblical church, God's creation, has no shortage. People are always imperfect and may not act according to biblical truth. But the truth does not change from this.
Let's try to figure it out together, what are the features of the true church?
1. There is only one true church - the Church of Christ. She belongs to Him. He is her head. "One Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph. 4:4-6).
2. Service in the Church is conducted by men - ministers of the Church. Women are not allowed to participate in the ministry. (1 Timothy 2:11-12). Women can carry the Word outside of serving unbelievers, children, sisters in Christ.
3. In the true Church, the living word resounds, understandable to people. Thus, Christians fulfill the great commission of Christ - the bringing of biblical truth to people. Ritual worship (liturgy) does not give an understanding of the truth of God, as God wants it to be.
4. The Church is not a building, it is a living structure, consisting of living "stones" - Christians (1 Corinth. 3:16-17; Matt. 18:20; 1 Pet. 2:5).
5. Worship is given only to the living God, who is the Spirit and "He must be worshiped in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).
6. Baptism for the forgiveness of sins is carried out only by adults who can believe that there is a God, there is His Son - Christ, and realizing their sinfulness, they want to be saved thanks to Christ. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). Only a believer, and not an unthinking baby, can make the most important decision in life. “But without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6).
7. Baptism is carried out only by complete immersion in water. Water is the grave for the sins of man. Epistle to the Romans ch. Verse 6 3 in the literal translation from the Greek reads as follows: “Either you do not know that how much we were immersed in Christ Jesus, in His death we were immersed.”
8. The Lord Himself adds the saved to the Church (Acts 2:47). Not people voting, not intermediaries in the form of different priests - only the Lord. None of the people can excommunicate us from the Church, but only we ourselves by our unbelief and non-fulfillment of God's commandments. We can fall away from the Body of Christ and lose our salvation.
9. Christ was crucified for us at Calvary. He took our sins upon Himself.
10. Each church is self-governing. Churches of Christ do not have any superstructures at the levels of district, region, country, Vatican. All existing add-ons are unscriptural. The leadership of local communities is pastors (guardians, bishops). They are God's servants to do the main thing - shepherd God's flock. “Christ is the head of every man” (1 Corinthians 11:3).
11. Guide in spiritual growth - only the Bible. All other supplementary books must be consistent with the Word of God - the Bible.
12. Every person has free will to choose and decide to accept Christ into their heart. No one can use violence in making a decision. Freedom to choose and follow the Bible is inviolable (Galatians 5:1).
13. The law for those who believe in God in the New Testament time is the New Testament, approved by the blood of Christ, shed on Calvary. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching (2 Timothy 3:16). Christ nailed to the cross the Old Testament teaching, which only condemned man, but did not give the way of salvation (Colossians 2:14).
14. Now we live by faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13).
15. The period of miracles, which was in the first century, when it was necessary to establish the truth of carrying the word of God by miracles, ended when the New Testament was completed. Today, miracles have disappeared as unnecessary. They are not pleasing to God. We live by faith, in hope and love. God is alive and can answer any of our prayers if it is in accordance with His will. That is why in Christ's prayer it sounds: "Thy will be done."
16. We should not rely on a person in our life, even the best, in our opinion. We must hope and trust only in God and have only Christ as an example in service.
17. We believe in the triune God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, spiritually equal to the Divine Holy Trinity (Matt. 28:19).
18. We are looking forward to the second coming of Christ, who will come to judge people. Heavenly abodes are prepared for the faithful, for unbelievers and those who did not accept Christ - eternal torment.
19. It is necessary to understand that there is a triune God, a God-man who once came into the world and there are all other people who lived, live and will live until the second coming. To all these people apply the words from the epistle to the Romans “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
20. The most important thing for a Christian, a disciple of Christ, is to grow up to the measure of the full age of Christ and to fulfill the great commission of Christ - bringing the truth to those who do not know it.
21. The study of the Word of God is a necessity for everyone in order to bring the truth to people.
22. Love for God inspires us to carry His word and put Him first in our lives. Love for people, regardless of their religion and position in society, encourages us to bring them the truth.
Branches of Christianity. The Church adheres to the doctrine of the Trinity of God. The goal of the members of the True Church of Jesus is to preach the gospel to all nations until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It is one of three local Chinese churches that existed before the establishment of communist rule in China in 1949.
The church has approximately 2.5 million members worldwide. . The largest number of members of the True Jesus Church is in China, India, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Their international assembly is currently located in Los Angeles, USA. .
Five Core Principles
Baptism with the Holy Spirit Water Baptism Foot Washing Holy Communion Sabbath DayThe Sabbath, the seventh day of the week (Saturday), is a sacred day blessed and sanctified by God. This day is to be observed in commemoration of God's creation of the world and salvation, with the hope of eternal rest in life.
Ten Articles of Faith
BibleThe Pentecostal Movement in China and the Founding of the "True Jesus Church"
After the Boxer Rebellion and persecution at the beginning of the 20th century, many Chinese Christians supported the Three Self Movement, which promoted a strategy of self-government, self-support, and self-propagation in order to reduce foreign influence and interference in Chinese churches. Many local churches were impoverished.
The three founders of the "True Jesus Church" also supported this idea and decided to break with the existing Pentecostal church. They were Paul Wei, Ling-Sheng Zhang and Barnabas Zhang. The founders of the True Jesus Church argued that all teaching in sermons must refer to the Bible to avoid misinterpretation or false teaching.
Father Jeff Harvey, a priest of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in Australia, has been serving at the Orthodox Mission of the Good Shepherd Church in Clayton (Melbourne) for 17 years. The Good Shepherd Parish has become a spiritual home for many Australians and people of diverse ethnic backgrounds. English is used in worship, so that all parishioners have the opportunity to unite with Christ through the sacraments of His Church, open to all.
Preaching the Gospel
My stay in the British Army lasted over 10 years. Now I could follow my calling.
The first thing I did was to join the missionary department of the Officers' Christian Union. One of my best friends retired from the military and joined the Association of Christian Teaching and Ministry Conferences. He worked in Africa, Europe, united Christian officers of various armies and military branches, inspired them. It was a wonderful ministry and I traveled around Europe with him for a while.
I lived the dream of becoming a missionary. But, despite the dream, I somehow realized that what we are doing is still not what God wants from me in the long run. For some reason, this wandering ministry was not enough.
Australia and Theological College
After my father retired from the army, he moved to live in Australia. I decided to join him along with our entire family. Janet, a nurse I met in London, agreed to become my wife and move to Australia with me. We settled in Adelaide.
I was surprised to see the rites of the "high" Anglican Church in Adelaide. I had never attended the High Anglican Church before and this was a revelation to me.
I soon began working with the Navigators in South Australia. This was a good experience for me, because I realized that I was very weak in theology. I literally walked thin ice. There was no depth in my theological knowledge, I needed to get an education.
I wanted to apply for ordination in the Anglican Church of Australia. To do this, I had to complete a three-year study at a theological school, which was exactly what I needed. The Archbishop of Adelaide wanted me to study at St. Barnabas in South Australia.
After an interview with the rector, I realized how liberal this college is. I was concerned about this interview and felt that it would not be easy for me to study there. I found out that many who studied at this college lost their faith, it was tragic.
Fortunately, my vicar was well connected and expected to persuade Dr. Leon Morris, then head of Ridley College, Melbourne, to admit me there. So I studied theology for three years at Ridley College.
The Diocese of Adelaide was willing to sponsor my studies at St. Barnabas, but she was unable to pay for her education at Ridley College. I would have to pay the tuition myself. Somehow we hoped to scrape together for training. To our surprise, when I finished my studies, we had more money in the bank account than at the beginning. Nobody could explain how it happened. God gave!
I learned that being a member of the Church means being a Christian
Studying at Ridley College has become one of the fundamental stages in my life. The study was much more interesting than at the engineering academy. I had the good fortune to study with Dr. Peter Thun, who was on a six-month leave from Oxford University. He was an excellent lecturer. Dr. Tong divided the lecture into two parts. In the first part he gave a lecture, in the second part there was a seminar. He gave information, then there was a discussion, so he taught us to think. He was the first teacher in my entire time of study who sought to instill in me the skill of systematic thinking. When I first arrived at Ridley, I was a kind of rabid evangelist. I had the gospel and wanted to preach it to the whole world. If I thought about the Church, I imagined it as a place where people gather and pray on Sundays. But as I sat at the feet of the late Dr. Thun, I learned that the Church was physically present on earth, and the Anglican Communion was part of it. I learned that we must be part of the Church of Christ, and that being a member of the Church means being a Christian.
As an evangelical, I would say that the highest priority of my life belongs to Christ, not to the Church. Under Dr. Thun's guidance, I came to realize how Christ-averse this position is. It's like someone comes up to me and says, "Jeff, I like you, it's true - but I don't feel like hanging out with Janet."
I would be very upset. I would convey to this person that Janet and I are one. Anyone who wants to communicate with me should know that Janet is the most important person in my life, the one I love the most after God. And the Church is the bride of Christ. They are one. There cannot be One without the Other.
So I saw that if I aspire to communion with God, I must remain in the Church.
While studying the historic Christian Church, I also learned about the importance of the liturgy and the sacraments. The training changed me from just a person who met God to an active member of His Church. It made me a true Anglican and a real Christian. I went to college as an evangelical - with the gospel, and came out as a true Anglican - with the gospel and the Church. And I am grateful to Dr. Peter Thun for helping me more than anyone to understand the importance of this.
A week before my final exams at Ridley, Janet and I adopted a child, Jonathan.
parish ministry
After college, I was assigned to serve at St. Mark in Camberuel. I was told that if I served with an English accent, I would lose the entire flock very quickly. But I didn't have any problems with it. When I got there, I found a wonderful traditional Anglican parish, with a wonderful Anglican vicar named Canon Holt (these were the last years of his ministry).
Since he was retiring, I served as second priest until the vicar was replaced. I am very glad that I served in this community and learned from two outstanding priests.
They were very pleasant people. Canon Holt treated me very well. Gerald Wall, who succeeded him, was also an excellent priest. Janet and I spent blessed days there. It was a surprise and joy for us when we found out that Janet was pregnant. Our second son, James, was born there, in the parish of St. Brand.
Serving in the Australian Army
My military experience interested the Anglican military bishop. He invited me to serve in the Australian Army as a chaplain. I agreed - on the condition that I serve near Melbourne. Janet's mother, whose health was failing, moved to Australia with us, she wanted to be with us. My terms were accepted and I signed the contract.
And so we were sent to Townsville, 2600 km north of Melbourne!
Where the soldiers went, I went there. If they walked to the mountains, and I walked to the mountains. When they parachuted from planes and helicopters, and I jumped. I was in training for six weeks in a row. I still do not know how Janet managed at this time with two small children. The Lord is good, He helped.
Serving in the Australian Army has exposed Australian culture to me like nothing else has. All this helped me to turn from an Englishman into an Australian.
There is a lot of booze in the Australian Army. Many employees struggle with addiction to alcohol. Young people are struggling, and it was very important to me that I could be near them and serve them. Training was the best time. I was in the trenches with the soldiers, and they opened up, they had a desire to talk.
The officers represented a different audience, but mostly treated me with respect. They knew that the priest had his own, special role in the war. In the First World War, among the chaplains there were the greatest losses of all branches of the armed forces, because they were always on the front line, with soldiers.
In total, I served in the Australian Army for 7 years. I was now ready to return to parish ministry with a greater understanding of Australia and Australians than before.
A crisis
I was sent to serve in the parish of St. Bows in Melbourne in the suburb of North Springvale. After serving with young people for 7 years, I felt called to work with youth.
We served the Anglican liturgy and I donned robes during the service. We also had a number of programs for young people. We had a musical group. Our parish was the first in Australia to introduce the Alpha Evangelism program. This is an amazing program, it helped people come to faith. We have also introduced the Call to Service, an excellent training course for parishioners. We were growing. Things went very well for almost 10 years.
And then, quite unexpectedly, the obsessive propaganda of the ordination of women began.
And here is what Dr. Peter Toon taught me that made me stop and think: “What is going on? Church history is 2,000 years old, and all of a sudden we're going to change that. important thing? If that's right, then why didn't Jesus tell us about it, and why didn't the Holy Spirit tell us about it in the last 200 years?"
I am in a quandary trying to figure out which side to take on this matter. At that stage I had two Anglican authorities: John Stott and GI Packer. I decided that I would stick to their position. It puzzled me that John Stott was in favor of the ordination of women and Parker was strongly opposed. I couldn't hide behind their authority!
When Michael Harper began his research for the book, he himself did not have a definite opinion on the subject. By the end of his work, he came to the conclusion that, according to the church tradition of two thousand years, a man and a woman represent two different aspects of the Divine Person and we have different, complementary, equally important ways of serving in the Church.
Through this book, I learned that the ordination of women is not a new invention. There have been several heretical groups in history that introduced a female priesthood, but the One, Holy Catholic Church has never had female priests.
The decision came during a vote in my archdiocese. I was present at the diocesan council where the voting took place. The votes were almost equal. Each side screamed with all their might. They were asked to split into groups. Supporters of the ordination of women moved to one side of the room, opponents to the other. The number of votes from each side was counted. It turned out that supporters of the female priesthood were winning by a margin of one vote. The winners cheered. After a minute they turned to us and began to mock. I thought, “Is this decision of the Holy Spirit? Where is peace, joy, love, patience, kindness and generosity, why do they turn around and mock Christian brothers of other views? Where is the kiss of the world? What kind of spirit drives such a decision?
Anglicanism adheres to democratic principles, and I tried to come to terms with this decision, but I experienced an internal conflict more and more acutely. One day I was preparing a young man for confirmation. His mother spoke to me about this issue of the female priesthood. She did not trust this decision. She wondered how this could be and how it could be confirmed the correctness of this view. I tried very hard to explain to her how they got to this point. But all my arguments deepened the disagreement in my soul.
I thought, “What am I doing? I consider this a mistake. Why do I try to convince others?
And I realized that I can't stand it.
The book "Equal or Different" pointed out to me other serious problems of violation of the Tradition of the Church. And now my archdiocese is doing the same. But the book didn't offer advice on what to do now.
Opening
Janet and I were on a weekend in Philip Island, 90 minutes from Melbourne. I took with me new book Michael Harper, it was called The True Light: An Evangelical Journey into Orthodoxy.
In this book, Michael gave an assessment of the Anglican Church according to Holy Tradition. He came to the conclusion that a church that ordains women and openly homosexuals, that ordains bishops who do not believe in the Incarnation or the Virgin Birth, is not the Church. After serving as an Anglican priest for 40 years, Harper decided that any church that departed from these Christian tenets was not the Church of Christ.
G.K. Chesterton once said that Tradition is when we give voice to our ancestors. If our ancestors had voted with us at this meeting, of course, no ordination of women would have taken place. The introduction of a female priesthood is a clear and undeniable violation of tradition.
It is clear that the Church of England is not part of the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Luckily, Harper now provided a solution. The True Light describes his discovery of Orthodox Christianity and tells of his journey from Anglicanism to Orthodoxy. I got to the point in the book where he describes how he was received into the Orthodox Church. He was presented with a cake with the inscription "Welcome home!"
Reading this passage brought tears to my eyes.
It was at this moment that Janet entered the room: “What's wrong? What's the matter?"
I replied, "I know what we should do, but I don't know how yet."
Finding the Orthodox Faith
I knew that we should join the Church. Earlier, I learned from Dr. Toon that the Church of Christ exists as a physical reality on Earth. I know Christ said that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church (cf. Matt. 16:18), and I was sure that She existed. And I learned from Michael Harper that the Anglican Church is not a Church.
For Westerners, Roman Catholicism was the obvious solution. However, my dear mother told me, when I spoke about my doubts, that she would support any decision I made, but not the decision to become a Catholic! Frankly, I was shocked by this statement. She was apparently influenced by the vicissitudes of the history of England. I thought that I might have to go against her wishes if I wanted to fulfill my calling to the priesthood.
Soon, during a retreat with other Anglican priests, I had an extraordinary dream. I dreamed that I was among a group of people trying to protect an ancient building. We were attacked by people with modern weapons, they attacked us. Nothing we did could stop them, and they were victorious. Somehow, Queen Elizabeth I went into battle in all her glory.
In a dream, I ran away from this building, trying to get away from everything that was happening. I saw the last car leaving. It was an open-top car with four passengers in these big round black Catholic hats.
They were all driving, and I was trying to get into this car. I yelled for them to help me, but the passengers didn't even look at me. They showed no interest. In desperation, I tried to jump into this car to drive away from there, but they just disappeared from view and left me.
I woke up, my heart was jumping out of my chest. I thought, "God, what was that?"
Gradually, I began to understand - it was God who enlightened me that I should not think about Catholicism.
And I didn't want to go to one of the many Anglican splinter factions, despite the fact that there was such an opportunity. The only alternative was the Orthodox Church.
Ascending
It is not abstract truth that is the center of attention, but God the Personality
Joining the Church was only the beginning of a wonderful journey and discovery.
Archbishop Pavel blessed me to study Orthodox theology for three years. I studied remotely, at the Antioch City Center in America, where they issued an Orthodox diploma from St. Stephen. It was wonderful. I have discovered that there are still a number of subtle theological aspects that I need to grasp. And I had no difficulty in learning them.
In the process of learning, I realized for myself a truly fundamental change in my Christian worldview. As an Anglican, I strove to know the answer to the question, "What is truth?"
Anglicanism proposes to take as a basis rational truth as central to Christian spiritual experience. Becoming Orthodox, I learned that the center of the universe is the call to love. It is not abstract truth that is the center of attention, but God the Personality.
One thing struck me strongly about Orthodoxy: in whose name do we pray. In Anglicanism, all prayers ended with “In the name of Jesus. Amen". In the Orthodox Church, prayers end: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."
I came to the conclusion that this point represents a major difference. In Anglicanism, some focus on Jesus, some on the Holy Spirit, and some on God the Father. Those who prefer Jesus are evangelicals. Those who prefer the Holy Spirit are charismatics. And those who prefer God the Father are closest to nature as a creation of God and environmental issues. As a result, the Church of England is divided along these lines. The focus on the different Faces of God is what causes such divisions. The Anglican Communion is largely divided into Evangelicals, Charismatics and Liberals, and there is also a division into High and Low Churches.
In Orthodoxy, we see nothing of the sort. The Orthodox do not have such divisions, since every prayer is offered in the name of the Trinity. Orthodox worship is addressed to the indivisible Divinity in the unity of faith, and this brings everyone together.
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church
I received a seniority allowance in the Church of England, and together with Janet we went to England to see our relatives. During our visit, we met with Michael Harper in Cambridge. He also invited us to London's Antioch Cathedral, where we prayed together at the liturgy. Then we went to his apartment in Cambridge. He then put me in touch with the Antioch Church in Melbourne.
Upon my return to Melbourne, the first service I attended was at St. Nicholas Church in East Melbourne. Sister Virginia, Father Demetrius and Bishop Gibran were present at this liturgy. There was no one else!
You might expect me to think, "This is no good." At the same time, there was something that attracted me. Reminds me of when God called me to Sandhurst. I can't explain what it was, but something about this service attracted me.
Soon after, Bishop Gibran organized a meeting for Anglican priests who were dissatisfied with the state of affairs. 50 priests gathered in the parish hall of St. Nicholas. Bishop Gibran spoke to us. He spoke very eloquently, warmly and kindly. But he warned us that he did not have the resources. And if we convert to Orthodoxy, we will be forced to exist at our own expense.
According to the present order, Anglican priests have a salary, a good pension, and their own house. Bishop Gibran wanted to receive us, but was unable to pay us. I would say that they had a serious interest in Orthodoxy, but as soon as the priests realized that there would be no income, many of them lost their resolve.
The same was with me. I did not see how I would support my wife and two sons. But I was sure that I needed to enter the true Church of Christ.
I still had questions. For example, why do Orthodox people use incense? How important is it? Also, why is the Virgin Mary so revered? I needed to think about all this.
While reading the book of Revelation, I saw that incense is present in heavenly worship (Rev. 4:5). It was also in the Old Testament. I realized that burning incense is a normal part of serving in the Church. Why not celebrate it in the current worship?
The last difficult moment for me was the veneration of the Virgin Mary by the Orthodox Church. I soon realized that if the Orthodox Church is the true Church, I must trust Her in the way she teaches to honor the Mother of God.
I've come to the conclusion that all these questions boil down to one thing:
“Orthodoxy is the Church of Christ?”
Orthodoxy attracted me more than Anglicanism repelled
Through reading books, studying and praying, I eventually realized that yes! And all my evangelical doubts about the place of the Theotokos Mary in the Orthodox Church evaporated. The glorification of Mary in the Gospel has become a prophecy that all generations will please Her. The Evangelicals do not honor Mary, but the Orthodox do. So over time, all my comments disappeared.
At the same time, I was struck by the unearthly liturgy. The Orthodox liturgy is deep and rich, the service is very beautiful, the icons attune you to the heavenly presence, and the reality of the concelebration of the saints with us surpasses everything.
After all, I didn't leave the Anglican Church for the ordination of women. Rather, I left because I was attracted to the Orthodox Church. Orthodoxy attracted me more than Anglicanism repelled me. I didn't just run - God drew me into His Church. And I know that I have found the True Church.
The time has come for me to explain everything to the community of St. Luke. Some reacted in a peculiar way: "He cannot become Orthodox because he is an Englishman."
Welcome home!
And now it was my turn to hear: "Welcome home!"
I was received into the Orthodox Church in the early 2000s. Archbishop Pavel (Saliba) of blessed memory made it a condition that before my ordination to the priesthood I would be a deacon for three years.
It was too small a price to pay for the opportunity to acquire such a treasure!
On the day of my ordination to the diaconate, Archbishop Pavel, standing in front of the flock, suddenly said that he would ordain me as a priest in three weeks!
This came as a surprise to me.
Only Scripture
I found a great hospital in Orthodoxy
Another one I have been taught is Sola Scriptura, Scripture only. For an evangelical Anglican, everything must be confirmed by Scripture. I think all this confusion about women's ordination has undermined my faith in the "Scripture Only" principle, because I have seen people arguing on the basis of Scripture and drawing completely opposite conclusions. They argued bitterly, citing arguments from the same Scripture. So I was convinced that the principle of "Scripture Only" does not work.
I learned with admiration that while Protestants trust only Scripture, Catholics are guided by Scripture and Tradition, and Orthodox contain Tradition. Exactly. Scripture is at the center of Orthodox Tradition. It is the diamond of Tradition, but it is only a part of Tradition. Many others - the Creed, Councils, Church Fathers, liturgy, icons - all these things the Church honors on a par with Scripture. The discovery of the power of Tradition, which binds everything in the Church, gave me great hope for the future.
Orthodoxy has a full range of healing for the suffering soul. I found a great hospital in Orthodoxy. One example is the Jesus Prayer. I strive for what the apostle Paul bequeathed to us: “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Praying the Jesus Prayer has helped me overcome many of life's sorrows.
In supermarkets near the cash registers there is confusion, and often people try to skip the line. I used to get irritated and angry. Now I just say, “Okay, thank God. I have time to pray. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." Prayer always helps me in situations where I used to get upset or angry. My understanding of people has deepened a lot. I was amazed at the wisdom of the Orthodox confessors. They skillfully use penance as one of the tools for healing the human soul.
"Good Shepherd"
Some Orthodox with Russian roots have created an English-speaking parish community with Russian-style choir singing. When Janet and I heard it, we were struck by its beauty. The parishioners turned to the Antioch Church to give them a priest and appointed me.
Thus, a small "Mission of the Good Shepherd" was founded. Our mission is to bring the light of Orthodoxy to Australians and seek to make the Church once again an important part of Australian secular society. To succeed, we must be part of its culture, participate in cultural life, speak the language of culture.
Being able to read the Bible in a familiar language gave me a lot when I was young. And now our mission is to bring the Bible, the liturgy and all Holy Tradition to Australians as God's answer to heal their crippled souls and to make their lives permeated with His presence.
