If in apostolic times there was one true Church of Christ, then today the ever-increasing number of denominations makes it difficult for many people to ask, which Church is true?

The first and most important sign is the continuity of the teachings of the Church. The Apostle Paul writes of believers that they are “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20). Does the Church teach as the prophets, Christ and the Apostles taught? If the answer is yes, then you are on the right track.

The second sign is described in Matt. 28:19 – “Go therefore and teach all nations.” The true Church of God on earth is not a national, but a worldwide Church, which brings the message of salvation by God's grace in Jesus Christ, “preaching the gospel to those who dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people” (Rev. 14:6).

The third sign is belief in one eternal God in three separate persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The failure to accept Jesus Christ as the eternal God (John 1:1-3,14) and the Holy Spirit as a divine person (Acts 13:2) indicates the absence of a biblical foundation for a religious community.

The fourth sign is the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the only mediator between God and people in the matter of salvation. “For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). If the Church does not recognize Christ as the only mediator (1 Tim. 2:5), then we should think about its truth.

The fifth sign is that the true Church awaits the return of the Lord. Hebrews 9:28 says that “Christ will appear a second time to those who wait for Him for salvation.” Having at least a basic knowledge of Latin, one can easily identify the Church awaiting the second coming of Christ.

The sixth sign is keeping the commandments of God. This sign is so important that it is mentioned in Rev. 14:12 along with faith in Jesus Christ. And in Rev. 12:17 it is written that not all who call themselves Christians, but only those who keep the commandments of God, arouse the special rage of the enemy of human souls. The True Church recognizes all the commandments of the Decalogue, by which sin is known (Rom. 3:20, 7:7).

And, lastly, the true Church of God is at all times in opposition to the world, for which it is persecuted and persecuted by worldly people. Jesus said, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19). It is impossible to please the world and at the same time remain faithful to God.

There is a true visible Church of God. And define it using Holy Scripture, which is a compass in spiritual matters, is not that difficult.

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 one true Church in our time. Perhaps, some think, the original apostolic Church 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 existing Christian denominations (religious societies, sects) through collusion and mutual concessions. This view underlies the modern ecumenical movement, which does not recognize any one church as true. Perhaps, others think, the Church, in principle, has never had anything in common with the official churches, but has always consisted of individual believers belonging to different church groups. This latter opinion is expressed in the doctrine of the so-called "invisible church" put forward by modern Protestant theologians. Finally, for many Christians it is unclear: is the Church needed at all when a person is saved by his faith?

All these contradictory and, in essence, incorrect opinions about the Church stem from a misunderstanding of the central truth of the teaching of Christ - about the salvation of man. When you read the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles, it becomes obvious that, according to the Savior’s thought, people are called to save their souls not alone and separately, but together, constituting a single, grace-filled Kingdom of goodness. After all, the kingdom of evil, headed by the prince of darkness, acts united in its war against the Church, as the Savior recalled when he said: “If Satan casts out Satan, then he is divided with himself, how can his kingdom stand?”(Matt. 12:26).

Nevertheless, with all the diversity of modern opinions about the Church, the majority of sensible Christians agree that in apostolic times the true Church of Christ existed as a single society of those being saved. The Book of Acts of the Holy Apostles tells about 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 tongues of fire. From that day on, the Christian faith began to quickly spread in different parts of the vast Roman Empire. As it spread, Christian communities - churches - began to emerge in cities and villages. In everyday life, due to the vast distances, these communities lived more or less separately 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, gleaned from the grace-filled sacraments (baptism, communion and laying on of hands - ordination). At first, these sacred actions were performed by the apostles themselves. However, soon there was a need for helpers, and the apostles selected worthy candidates from members of Christian communities, who were ordained bishops, presbyters and deacons. (For example, Apostle Paul ordained Timothy and Titus to the episcopal degree). The apostles charged the bishops with the responsibility of monitoring the purity of Christian teaching, teaching believers to live piously and ordaining assistants in the person of new bishops, priests and deacons. Thus, during the first centuries, the Church, like a tree, constantly grew and spread throughout different countries, enriched by spiritual experience, religious literature, liturgical prayers and chants, later by the architecture of churches and church art, but always preserving its essence of the true Church of Christ.

The Gospels and Apostolic Epistles did not appear immediately and not everywhere at the same time. For many decades after the emergence 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 wrong. Whenever anything arose that was not in agreement with the apostolic tradition, whether in matters of faith, sacramental administration, 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 Scriptures and, together with the books of the Old Testament, constituted the Bible in its present form. This process of collecting books was completed in the 3rd century. Controversial books, not in all agreement with the apostolic tradition, presented as apostolic, were rejected as forged and 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 Scriptures - often arbitrarily, without reverence, without 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, belief in the existence of one, holy, apostolic Church was universal. Naturally, the Church then had its own visible side- in “love suppers” (liturgies and other services, in bishops and priests, in prayers and church songs, in laws (apostolic rules) regulating the life and relationships of individual churches, in all manifestations of the life of Christian communities. Therefore, we must admit that the teaching about the “invisible” church is new and incorrect.

Having agreed with the fact of the existence of a real, unified Church in the first centuries of Christianity, is it possible to find a historical moment when it fragmented and ceased to exist? The honest answer should be - no! The fact is that deviations from the purity of the apostolic teaching - heresies - began to arise even in apostolic times. Gnostic teachings, which mixed elements of pagan philosophy with the Christian faith, were especially active at that time. 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 dry branches broken off from a church tree. In a similar way, the successors of the apostles, the bishops of the first centuries, did not recognize as legitimate the deviations from the apostolic faith that arose under them, and stubborn adherents of these teachings were excommunicated from the Church, following the instructions of the Apostle: “even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel other than what we preached, let him be accursed.”(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 continuous 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. She preserves and proclaims the pure teaching of Christ, she sanctifies believers and leads them to salvation. Using figurative comparisons from the Holy Scriptures, in the first centuries of Christianity the Church was thought of as a fenced “sheepyard,” in which the Good Shepherd, Christ, protects His sheep from the “wolf,” the devil. The Church was likened to a Vine, from which believers, like branches, receive the spiritual strength necessary for 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 necessary for 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, towering above human errors and leading its travelers to heaven - communication with God, angels and saints.

In the first centuries of Christianity, believing in Christ also meant believing that the work He accomplished on earth, the means that He gave believers for salvation, could not be lost or taken away through the efforts of the devil. The Old Testament prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles definitely taught about the existence of the Church until the very last times of the world: “In the days of those (pagan) kingdoms, the God of Heaven will erect a Kingdom that will never be destroyed... It will crush and destroy all kingdoms, and it itself will stand forever,”- the Angel predicted to the prophet Daniel (Dan. 2:44). The Lord promised St. Petru: “On this rock (of faith) I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”(Matt. 16:18 ).

In the same way, if we believe the promise of the Savior, we must recognize the existence of His Church in our days and until the end of the world. We have not yet 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 one find it among the many modern Christian branches?

First, the real Church must contain intact the pure Christian teaching preached by the apostles. Bringing truth to 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 purpose I was born and for this purpose I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth; everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”(John 18:37 ). The Apostle Paul, instructing his disciple Timothy on how he should fulfill his episcopal duties, writes in conclusion: “That you may know, if I delay, how you ought to act in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”(1 Tim. 3:15). It is with regret that we must admit that in the matter of doctrine we see great discord among modern Christian branches. In principle, it is necessary to agree that not everyone can teach correctly. If, for example, one church claims that Communion 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, and another denies this power, then, obviously, one of them is mistaken. The true Church must be one that in no way differs in matters of faith from the Church of the first centuries of Christianity. When a person impartially compares the teachings of modern Christian churches, he, as we will see later, 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, with which the Church is called to sanctify and strengthen the 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, laying on of hands (confirmation and ordination) and others. The performers of these sacraments were first the apostles (Acts 8:14-17), then the bishops and elders. (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, which from one candle lights others. If the fire goes out or the chain of apostolic succession is broken, there is no longer any priesthood or sacraments, the means of sanctifying the believers are lost. Therefore, since apostolic times, they have always carefully monitored the preservation of apostolic succession: so that a bishop must be ordained by a true bishop, whose ordination goes back successively to the apostles. Bishops who fell into heresy or led an unworthy lifestyle were deposed, and they lost the right to perform the sacraments or ordain successors for themselves.

In our time, there are only a few churches whose apostolic succession is beyond 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 the Ecumenical Councils). Christian denominations, which fundamentally deny the need for priesthood and apostolic succession, already by this one sign 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 God’s grace when he vividly feels its warm and pacifying spirit, which he receives in the sacraments and 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 excite themselves at their prayer meetings. Signs of true grace are peace of mind, love for God and neighbors, modesty, humility, meekness and similar properties listed St. Paul in Galatians 5:22-26).

Another sign of the true Church is its suffering. If it is difficult for people to figure out which church is true, then the devil, its enemy, understands this very well. He hates the Church and is trying to destroy it. Getting acquainted with the history of the Church, we see that, indeed, its history was written with the tears and blood of martyrs for the faith. The persecution began with the Jewish high priests and scribes back in apostolic times. Then there are three centuries of persecution in the Roman Empire by Roman emperors and regional rulers. After them, the Muslim Arabs raised the sword against the Church, then the crusaders who came from the West. They so undermined the physical strength of Byzantium, this stronghold of Orthodoxy, that it could not resist the Turks who flooded it in the 14th and 15th centuries. Finally, the atheist communists surpassed everyone in their cruelty, exterminating more Christians than all previous persecutors combined. But here is a miracle: the blood of the martyrs serves as a seed for new Christians, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church, as Christ promised.

Finally, true and comparatively the easy way To find the Church of Christ is historical research. The True Church must continually go back to apostolic times. To apply the principle of historical research there is no need to go 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 arose, say, in the 16th century or some other century, and not in the apostolic time, then it cannot be true. On this one basis, it is necessary to reject the claims to the title of the Church of Christ of all denominations originating 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 not founded by Christ or His apostles, but by false prophets - Luthers, Calvins, Henrys, Smiths and other innovators.

The purpose of this brochure 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 them see how they differ from the one holy and apostolic Church founded by Christ. During the “Christological disputes” from the 4th to the 8th centuries, several heretical movements fell away from the Church - Arians, Macedonians, Nestorians, Monophysites and Monophilites (from whom modern Copts originated), 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. More details about it are described 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, filling the whole world with its branches (Matt. 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 bearers of the fullness of apostolic grace. Bishops ruled the communities of less significant neighboring cities. 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 closest bishops in their metropolis. The metropolitans had the responsibility 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 government, points of broader church administration began to be formed, which later received the name 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 ​​​​which was administratively insignificant, but important in its religious significance).

Over time, due to various historical events, the areas of patriarchates either decreased in size or increased. Great church changes occurred as a result of the invasion of the Germanic peoples into Europe (late 4th century), oppression by the Persians and the invasion of the Arabs into the eastern regions of the Byzantine Empire (mid-7th century). In the middle of the 9th century, there was a movement towards the adoption of the Christian faith on the part of the Slavic peoples. The Thessalonian brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius especially worked in the matter of enlightening the Bulgarians and Moravians. From Bulgaria the Christian faith spread to Serbia. Great merit to St. Cyril and Methodius is the creation of the Slavic alphabet, translation from Greek into the Slavic language of selected liturgical books and books of the Holy Scriptures. Their works paved the way for the spread of Christianity in Rus'.

Although Christian communities existed on the northern shore of the Black Sea already at the end of the first century, the mass conversion to Christianity of the Slavic tribes inhabiting Rus' began with the Baptism of Rus', when in 988, under Grand Duke Vladimir, the baptism of the Kievites was performed 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 by the following data: in Russia there were 1098 monasteries, with a total number of monastics of more than 90 thousand. In addition to the Moscow Patriarchate, 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 enormous spiritual wealth enough and began to get carried away by Western ideas. The persecution of the Church by atheists and the merciless destruction of the clergy, believers and churches that arose after 1918 can only be explained in the light of the Apocalypse, which predicts the great persecution of the faith of Christ before the end of the world.

Beginning in the mid-18th century, through the works of Rev. Herman of Alaska and other Russian missionaries, Orthodoxy spread to Alaska, where many Aleuts were baptized and the spread of Orthodoxy in North America began (there are now about 3 million Orthodox Christians living 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, Czechoslovakian, Lithuanian and "Orthodox Church in America." The autonomous churches are Sinai, Finland and Japan. After the First and Second World Wars, a large number of Orthodox Greek and Russian parishes (Russian Church Abroad) were formed in almost all parts of the world. The total number of Orthodox Christians around the world is about 130 million.

The name Orthodox Church came into use during the era of religious disputes from the 4th to the 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 of the Greek word ortho-dokeo, meaning to think correctly. Another name for the Church is Catholic, which in Greek means “all-embracing.” 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 Slavic, the word “catholic” was translated as “conciliar.”

In the Orthodox Church, local churches, such as Jerusalem, Russian, Serbian and others, are sometimes headed by patriarchs, sometimes by archbishops or metropolitans. To resolve issues related to a given church, the head of that church convenes a council of its bishops. Issues 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 necessary, representatives from the clergy and laity are invited to participate in councils. Thus, the form of government in Orthodoxy is not individual and not democratic, but conciliar.

The teaching of the Orthodox Church is formulated in a condensed form in the Creed, which was compiled 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 apostolic times. To summarize the Orthodox teaching, we believe in the One God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - Trinity, consubstantial and indivisible. The Son of God was born of God the Father before all ages. The Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from God the Father. We believe that the one God, worshiped in the Trinity, is eternal, omnipotent and omnipresent, that He, of His own will, created everything that exists out of nothing - first the invisible angelic world to us, then our visible, material world. God also created us - people, breathing into us an immortal soul and inscribing His moral law in our hearts. God created us so that we could improve ourselves and be eternally blissful in communion 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 God's commandment, God did not completely reject them, but through the prophets began to prepare people for salvation, promising to send people the Messiah - Christ. When the world was ripe to accept 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 marked the beginning of our resurrection and eternal blissful 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, teaching it in the truth. We believe that the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church will remain invincible against the forces of evil until the very end of the world. We believe that the Holy Spirit, in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, confession, communion and other liturgical actions, cleanses and sanctifies believers, giving them strength to live as Christians. 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 general 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 correspond to faith. Therefore, we recognize the need to fulfill the Ten Commandments given by God to the prophet Moses (book of Exodus, chapter 20) and the Gospel Beatitudes given by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 5:3-12). The essence of the commandments is love for God and neighbors, and even for enemies (Matt. 5:43-45). These commandments of love place the Christian faith morally superior to other religions, and, from the point of view of human reason, can be assessed as the only way to establish peace, mutual respect and legitimacy among people. Without sincere love to one's neighbor and forgiveness, war and mutual destruction are inevitable. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to forgive everyone 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 certainly reveal itself in inner growth and good deeds, because "Faith without work is dead." A Christian should be non-covetous, i.e. treat material wealth calmly, use them not for your own whims, but for your own needs and to help others. Pride, selfishness, arrogance and selfishness are an abomination in the sight of God.

The Orthodox Church teaches that every person is endowed by the Creator with free will and is therefore responsible for his actions. The Lord loves and takes pity on us. He helps us in every good way, 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.”(Matt. 7:7). Fervent prayer clears the mind, helps to overcome temptations and live according to God’s Commandments. Prayer helps us improve our spiritual abilities, and this is the main goal of our earthly life.

When an Orthodox Christian suffers from failure or illness, he should not grumble at God, but must remember that the Lord allows suffering to befall us for our own spiritual benefit - to cleanse ourselves from sins and strengthen our will in virtue. In difficult moments of life, we must pray to Heavenly Father: "Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth."

We Orthodox Christians venerate the saints - the Virgin Mary, prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints (monastics) and other holy saints of God. After their death, the saints did not break their connection with us, but moved to the heavenly region of the Church, called the Church Triumphant. There, at the Throne of God, they pray for us as their younger brothers and help us achieve 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, St. Saints Sergius of Radonezh, Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk, Seraphim of Sarov, St. John of Kronstadt and others, as well as new Russian martyrs who have shone in our century.

The services of the Orthodox Church are conducted according to the order that has developed over centuries. The main worship service is the Liturgy (public service). An essential part of the Liturgy is the sacrament of Communion, in which believers, 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 fast days. Since apostolic times, there has been a custom of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays (in memory of the suffering of the Savior), as well as before the Easter holiday - Great Lent. On fasting days, you are not allowed to eat dairy or meat foods or indulge in entertainment, but you should pray more and read religious literature. The Orthodox faith calls to take care of the family, the elderly, the sick, the poor and not judge anyone. "Judge not lest ye be judged"(Matt. 7:1). The goal of our life is constant moral improvement: "Be ye perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect"(Matt. 5:48).

We now move on to consider the history and teachings of other churches. The Christian denominations existing in Western countries were born from the Lutheran movement, which in turn arose as a protest against the abuses of the Catholic Church. Therefore, we will continue our further review with the emergence of the Catholic Church. (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 78 of the Christian era, the Jerusalem Church temporarily ceased to exist and the Roman community and the authority of its bishop began to take first place. Based on the central position of Rome as an imperial city, and on the origin of the see from the supreme apostles, the Bishop of Rome already from the third century began to speak out about his dominant position in the Church, in which the bishops of the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire disagreed with him.

We have already mentioned the ecclesiastical and administrative rise of a number of cities and regions in the vast Roman Empire, beginning in the second and third centuries. So Irenaeus of Lyons was recognized as the head of all Gaul, Cyprian of Carthage considered the bishops of Moorish and Numidian subordinates, the bishops of Alexandria ruled the churches of Egypt, the bishops of Ephesus ruled the churches of Asia Minor, and the Roman Church headed the Roman region. Subsequently, by resolution of the Ecumenical Councils, a number of churches were recognized as superior in their religious and civil status. This did not violate the equality between them, and issues concerning the entire Church were resolved 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 beyond their authority without his consent: everyone should do only what concerns his diocese and the places belonging to it. But even the first one does not create anything without the consent of everyone. . Thus there will be one mind, and God will be glorified in the Lord in the Holy Spirit, Father and Son and Holy Spirit." This rule clearly expresses the principle of conciliarity.

In general, the Apostolic canons and the canons of the ancient Councils do not allow either the autocracy of the leading bishop, much less absolutism in the Church. The highest authority for resolving religious and canonical issues belongs to the Council of Bishops - the Local or, if circumstances so require, the Ecumenical.

Nevertheless, political circumstances were such that the influence of the Bishop of Rome continued to grow. This was facilitated by the invasion of barbarians at the end of the 4th century and the resettlement 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. So gradually the conviction began to grow among the Roman bishops that they were called to lead the life of the entire Christian world. A new impetus for strengthening the despotic claims of the Roman bishops came in the 4th century by the decree of Emperor Gratian, recognizing in the person of the Pope of Rome (“Pope” - father, this title was borne by the Roman and Alexandrian bishops) “the judge of all bishops.” Already in the 5th century, Pope Innocent declared that “nothing can be decided without communication with the Roman see and, especially in matters of faith, all bishops must turn to Apostle Peter,” i.e. to the Bishop of Rome. In the 7th century, Pope Agathon demanded that all decrees of the Roman Church be accepted by the entire Church, as rules approved by the words of St. Petra. In the 8th century, Pope Stephen wrote: “I am Peter the Apostle, by the will of Divine mercy called by Christ, the Son of the living God, appointed by His authority to be the enlightener of the whole world.”

These ever-increasing claims of the popes were not at first taken seriously by the Eastern bishops and did not divide the Church. Everyone was bound by the unity of faith, sacraments and the consciousness of belonging to a single 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 with the 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 supererogatory merits, about the pope, how Vicar of Christ, head of the entire Church and secular states, on the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome in matters of faith. In a word, the very teaching about the nature of the Church began to be distorted. (To justify 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"(Matt. 16:18). The Holy Fathers of the Church always understood these words in the sense that the Church is based on the faith of Christ, which was confessed by St. Peter, and not on his personality. The apostles did not see their head in the Apostle Peter, and at the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem in 51 the apostle presided. Jacob. As for the succession of power, dating back to the ap. Peter, then ap. 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 extraordinary powers of St. Petra? A deeper study of this issue leads to one honest conclusion: the doctrine of the primacy of Peter was created artificially by the Roman bishops for ambitious reasons. This teaching 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 division is considered to be 1054, when Cardinal Humbert enthroned St. Sophia in Constantinople, a papal message condemning all those who disagree with the Roman Church.

In the religious life of Europe, the 11th century was 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 political struggle was not the work of individual popes, but flowed from the entire papal system. Pope Pius the 9th declared it obligatory for a Catholic believer to recognize the temporal authority of the Bishop of Rome. At the behest of the pope, entire nations, taking up the sword and the cross, go to fight against everyone whom the pope calls his enemy. In the 13th century, the pope not only distributes royal crowns, resolves disputes between princes, but with one word initiates or stops wars, appoints or deposes kings and emperors, dissolves their swearing in, etc.

In their struggle for power, the popes did not let up, but took every opportunity to remind them of their “primacy” and “infallibility.” Thus, Pope Boniface 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, the prince of the apostles, the vicar of Christ on earth, the head of the entire Church, and the 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: “The Roman Pontiff, successor to the primacy of blessed Peter, and not only has the primacy of honor, but the highest and full legal authority over the entire church." These ever-increasing claims of the Roman bishops gradually widened the gap between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Since the 11th century, the Orthodox Church has been forced to repel the ambitious advances of the Roman bishops, preserving 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 unbecoming in the hands of the “vicar” of the meek Jesus and deeply distorts the essence of the episcopal ministry. Many representatives of the Church and individual peoples began to realize this. The religious and moral decline of the papacy began in the 14th century. His power becomes 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. A 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 positions 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 of sins for a monetary bribe). Over the centuries, Protestantism split 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. Embassies were sent to Kyiv for the same purpose. The Pope tried to influence through the kings of Poland and the Czech Republic, and also tried to take advantage of princely feuds. When the Tatars invade Russia, the popes send the weapons of the Swedes, Swordsmen and Hungarians against it. Having suffered failures on the battlefield under Prince. Alexander Nevsky, the pope offers his help against the Tatars. Having received the answer: “God does not have power, but truth,” the pope responded with armed attacks in the 13th century, and again during the Time of Troubles in 1605-1612.

Rome's offensive position towards Orthodoxy has not been interrupted throughout the history of Russia. Poland was declared by the pope to be a "missionary territory," where the main method of missionary work was violence. In our century, from 1919 to 1929, the Roman Catholics took 43 percent of the churches from the Orthodox. Since the first quarter of our century, the new body for converting Orthodox Christians to Catholicism has been the “Eastern Rite.”

How many times have Catholic prelates bitterly asserted that “the Lord is sweeping out the Orthodox East with an iron broom so that a united Catholic Church can reign.” In 1926 and 1928, an Eastern Catholic representative traveled to Moscow to establish a union with the Renovationist Church and connections with the Marxist International. 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 preaching union.Facts indicate that the aggressive attitude of the Vatican towards Orthodoxy has not abandoned them to this day.

Main differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism

1. Catholicism introduced a number of new dogmas that do not agree with the apostolic teaching and the decrees of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. The most serious deviations from the truth are the Catholic dogmas about the procession of the Holy Spirit and “from the Son” and about the primacy and infallibility of the Pope.

2. Contrary to the apostolic tradition, clergy of the Catholic Church are committed to celibacy (celibacy).

3. The sacrament of communion is not performed according to the apostolic tradition, since wafers are used instead of bread and wine (the laity are deprived of communion of the Blood of Christ). The sacrament of baptism is performed through pouring (instead of immersion in water).

4. The Orthodox Church does not recognize “purgatory,” (the middle place between heaven and hell, where souls are supposedly 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 previous 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 St. Peter's in Rome, "indulgences," i.e., were widely sold. remission of sins not only of present, but also of future(!). Luther denounced such blasphemous trade. He explained to his spiritual children that deliverance from punishment for sins can only be sought through inner contrition and repentance for what they have 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, Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors of the Wittenberg Temple in 1517, 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 authorities saved Luther from death. He was supported in Germany by many priests, professors, students, knights and princes. A schism with Rome began and the separation of Luther and his followers from the Roman Catholic Church.

The movement in favor of cleansing the Church from papal fabrications and abuses was not limited to Germany. Zwinglius and Calvin, continuing church reforms, went further than Luther in their teaching on morality and the sacraments. The main feature of Calvin's teaching was the doctrine of predestination, according to which God from eternity predestined some people to salvation and others to destruction. This teaching essentially denies the need for Christian exploits and good deeds.

Lutheranism and its evolution

At the beginning, the sermons of Luther and Calvin concentrated on the personality of Jesus Christ: “There is no other way - Christ alone is the Way and the Truth. Outside of Him, God cannot be found... Only in the flesh of Christ can one know God... for through the sending of the Son He revealed His will and your heart." The Small Lutheran Catechism states that "Luther is a dear and blessed teacher of the Holy Scriptures, who transformed the church of God through the restoration in Christianity of purity of doctrine and the correct administration of the sacraments."

But this struggle for the purity of the Church was joined by a non-church element, namely, enmity with the papacy for political, economic and personal reasons. This had a 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 were unable to cope with this task, because many centuries separated them from the first centuries of Christianity, they had no living spiritual experience and 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 fabricated by Rome that were alien to the Word of God. Protestants, on the other hand, completely departed from the Apostolic Tradition, abandoned the spiritual experience of the holy teachers of the Church, and the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, leaving the only guide in faith to be the Holy Scripture, which they interpreted arbitrarily.

Ignorance and fundamental rejection of Church Tradition were the main source of all the errors of Protestants, because the word of God is the Bible, Gospel and Tradition. “Therefore, brethren, stand steadfast and hold fast to the tradition which you were taught either by our word or by our message,”- announces the apostle. Paul (2 Thess. 2:15). St. ap. John says: “Jesus did many other things, but if we were to write about them in detail, then I think the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”(John 21:25). “The apostles did not convey everything through the 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 Lyons, Blessed. Augustine and other saints of the first centuries.

By fundamentally rejecting the Apostolic Tradition, Protestants are not consistent. They accepted, on the basis of Tradition, the “canon of holy books,” the confession of the main Christian dogmas: the trinity of Persons in God, the incarnation of the Son of God, and recognize 3 ancient creeds in which these dogmas are revealed. Rejecting the authority of the ancient Church Fathers, they asserted the authority of the new German theologians: Luther, Calvin, etc.

Lutherans claim 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, instills in him 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 does not doubt the receipt of God’s grace. Through faith a person becomes holy, godly and a justified child of God. This is the doctrine of justification by faith, which is 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 contains elements that lead to the destruction of Christian morality. This dogma contradicts the Word of God and follows from the misunderstood words of St. Apostles. Luther accepted certain words of St. Paul literally, without connection with the text and with the general thought of the Apostle: “A man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law,” (Romans 3:28) “a man is not justified by the works of the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians) ). Ap. Paul did not speak with these words against good works, but against the false self-confidence of the Jewish teachers, who believed that salvation was earned by the external works of the Law of Moses: circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, washing hands, etc. The same apostle. Paul in his letter to the Romans says that the Lord will reward everyone according to his deeds on the day of His righteous judgment (Rom. 2:6). Ap. Peter: “You call Him Father who impartially judges everyone according to their works.” 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?... Just as a body without a spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.” The Lord himself says that vicious people can 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 who is in heaven.”

Rejecting the extremes of Roman Catholic teaching, Luther himself fell into extremes: he rejected not only the divinely established 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 performance of the sacraments, if Luther himself rejected the spiritual experience of the ancient Church, rejected Tradition and the conciliar church reason, 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 highest Priest. We therefore do not need any other priest except Christ, since each of us has received appointment from God Himself... We all become priests through baptism." Anyone 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 society from people who are able to teach members of the community. When elected, the elders lay their hands on them. There is no place for apostolic succession and the grace of the priesthood, but only for the administrative appointment to the office of preacher.

This statement is completely at odds with the method and understanding of the role of the priesthood of the early Christian Church, and it is not true that Jesus Christ and the apostles did not give any specific structure to the Church. In fact, during 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 - the society of believers. The Lord gave only one Apostle the right to perform the sacraments and teach people the faith: "And Jesus came near and said to them: All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and behold, I with you always, even to the end of the age"(Matt. 28:18-20). The same is true for the right to lead people, leading them to salvation: “As the Father sent Me, I send 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 society of believers, but the Lord Himself who called them to the work of apostolic service to Him "not by men, nor through man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father"(Gal. 1:1 ).

The Apostles preserved and successively passed on the order and structure of the life of the Church that was established by the Lord Himself; They themselves ordained bishops and presbyters.

Luther's teaching about justification by faith alone led to changes in the view of the sacraments, which for Lutherans have only symbolic meaning and their entire power lies in the personal confidence of the person praying that he is justified. 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 communicate with God beyond the established sacraments and services.

Protestants came to deny communication between brothers living and those who have gone to God, to deny the need for prayers for the dead and the intercession of saints for us. The justification for this denial is purely rationalistic: why pray if you cannot change the destinies of God and since Christ has already brought complete 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 personal experiences and pious sentiments. If so, then, one wonders, what is the gracious power of God for? "Salvation is accomplished and is imputed to me." Are miracles and even the miracle of resurrection necessary? In the early 40s, Protestants removed from Luther's teaching the doctrine of the Son of God and our salvation through Him. At the beginning of this century, 80 percent of the pastors in Hamburg denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ. IN Lately Lutherans began to choose women for the position of pastor. Justice requires noting that different movements have always coexisted in Lutheranism, and now voices are being heard: “We don’t have a Church!” Among some Lutherans there is a noticeable interest in Orthodoxy.

So, the Lutheran movement since the time of Luther has abandoned 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 to be sufficient to deserve the Kingdom of Heaven. This Lutheran distortion of Christianity creates a gap between it and the faith of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Calvinism, Reformation, Presbyterianism

Calvin carried out the Reformation in Switzerland, and his teaching spread to southwestern Germany and Holland (Reformation), in France (Huguenotism), and in Scotland, England and the North. America under the name of Presbyterianism. Calvin supplemented Lutheranism with the doctrine of unconditional "predestination." Luther nevertheless preserved the foundations of Christianity, and Judaism barely slips through him; in Calvin, the elements of Judaism and paganism are so clear that Calvinism can, with great stretch, be considered a Christian confession. “Unconditional predestination” according to Calvin says that God pre-elected 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 incomprehensible decision, apart from all their merit. On the other hand, no amount of effort can save those who are destined for eternal destruction. Good and evil deeds serve to fulfill God's purposes.

Why did Jesus Christ teach us in such detail how to live, carry out the feat, and walk the narrow path? What is the meaning of prayers, repentance, and correction of life?

Calvinists refer to certain sayings of St. Paul (Rom. 9th chapter), taken without the content of the entire speech, fragmentarily, and from them a confirmation of Calvin's doctrine of predestination is derived. These passages can only be correctly understood in connection with the entire content of this chapter, in which the Apostle says that justification is not the lot of the Jewish people alone: “Not all those who are of Israel are Israelites, nor are all those children of Abraham who are of his seed.”(Rom. 9:6-7). Here the Apostle speaks against the Jews, who considered the pagans rejected by God, and exclusively themselves - the sons of the Kingdom of God (by 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 pagans. Calvin's teaching is influenced by Judaism when it teaches that only elect people are destined for salvation, while the rest are doomed to destruction. The Word of God teaches that "God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth"(1 Tim. 2:4); “The Lord does not desire that anyone should perish, but that everyone should come to repentance.”(2 Peter 3:9).

Calvin's teaching contradicts the concept of the Holiness of God. Incompatible with this concept is the teaching that God Himself is the author and cause of evil, having from eternity chosen 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 actions.

So, Calvinism denies free will in man; recognizes sin as a natural and inevitable phenomenon, which cannot be fought, because even prayer and repentance are helpless against it; denies the foundations of Christianity and considers the sacraments to be mere symbols; believes that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist is not real.

In Scotland, Calvinism (Presbyterianism) was recognized by Parliament as the state confession in 1592. Presbyterians, under the name “Puritans,” demanded that the English king simplify liturgical rites and eliminate symbols such as the image of the cross, the banner of the cross at baptism, etc. The basis of the Presbyterian structure is the church community, headed by an elder elected by the community. The dignity of bishop was abolished. Divine services consist of listening to prayers composed by the presbyter, preaching and singing psalms. They receive communion while sitting at a long table; marriages are blessed at home; prayers over the dead are also read at home. There are no icons. The Liturgy has been cancelled, 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 church despotism of Rome arose. The opposition matured on national, economic and religious grounds. The English were indignant at the constant interference of the Bishop of Rome in the internal life of the country, at the excessive claims of a secular and political nature, at the large incomes of Rome from England, at the licentiousness of the clergy, etc.

The reason for the break with Rome in 1532 was the refusal of the pope to give him a church divorce from Catherine of Aragon for the English king Henry the 8th. Initially, church reforms did not occur, but Henry proclaimed himself the head of the church, closed many monasteries, and abolished “tithes” in favor of Rome. Subsequently, under the influence of the Protestants who flooded England, the king ordered a review of all the teachings of the church inherited from Rome. In 1536, the “Ten Members of the Creed,” which turned out to be a mixture of Protestantism and Catholicism, came out on behalf of parliament. In 1552, a new confession of faith was published in 42 members, and then the “Small Catechism.” In it, many rituals, the blessing of water, and the use of bells are called superstitions and abolished.

Under Edward 7th, in 1551, these clauses were revised and 42 clauses of the English Confession were issued. It turned out to be a mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism. This is how the English Episcopal Church came into being.

Believers began to fight religious parties, and in 1559 the queen issued a new confession of 39 members, mandatory for clergy and laity. These “foundations” contain dogmas that agree with Orthodoxy: about the 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 the native language. But the error of Latin has been inherited regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit and “from the Son.” From Lutheranism they borrowed the delusion of justification by faith alone, non-recognition of Ecumenical Councils, disrespect for icons and St. relics. The Anglican Confession emphasizes the ecclesiastical primacy of the king. The 25th member of this creed does not recognize repentance, confirmation, marriage, unction 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, because... it is dependent on parliament, which has members of Freemasons, people of the Jewish faith and even non-believers. The English Parliament has the final say in matters of doctrine. The King, the head of the English Church, takes the 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, by whomever it may be.” was performed. 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 Protestant doctrine." In 1927 and 1928, Parliament twice rejected a new theological book approved by the Assembly of the Clergy and the House of Lords, because there the invocation of the Holy Spirit was introduced into the rite of the Liturgy, as well as the preservation of the Holy Gifts for the communion of the sick.

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So, in this first part we have shown that there can be only one true Church. She must continually 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 teachings 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 united Church of Christ. The increasing lust for power of the Roman bishops in the 11th century led to the separation of the Roman Catholic Church from the Orthodox Church. Confident in their infallibility, the Roman bishops gradually introduced a number of innovations in Christian teaching and in the method of performing the sacraments. The departure of the Roman Catholic Church from the purity of the apostolic faith gave birth in turn to the Protestant movement, from which arose the sects existing in our time. We briefly talked about some of them: Lutheranism, Reformation, Calvinism and Anglicanism.

In the next, 2nd part, 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,” and pseudo-religious societies and cults, about heresies and sects in Russia, about Uniates and the "Eastern Rite," about Judaism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism and atheism. In conclusion, let us summarize this study about churches.

Baptists

The Baptist sect emerged 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 moved 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 “preaching union” was created with the goal of preaching Christianity among African Americans, free from dogmas, rituals and obligatory symbolic signs. This met with sympathy and material support among wealthy Americans. Homes for orphans and the elderly, schools, courses, hospitals and a large number of voluntary missionaries appeared. From that time on, Baptists 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 have 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, Baptistism split into many denominations. The division began at the end of the 17th century, when Baptists were divided into “particular” Baptists (who adopted Calvin’s doctrine of unconditional predestination) and “general” Baptists (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 the oath, military service and courts, but at present they do not have such an open denial of the state and civic duties.

There are Baptists with an affinity for Judaism: "Seventh Day Baptists" who celebrate 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, based on the 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. Baptistism is characterized by hostility towards Orthodoxy. All branches of Baptistism are united by a common denial of the validity of infant baptism. Objecting to the baptism of children, Baptists argue that infants (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 the commandment of Christ given to His disciples: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:16). In these words they find that the apostles are commanded to baptize adult believers, and not infants.

Such a teaching contradicts Holy Scripture and the practice of the primitive Church. Holy Scripture requires the baptism of everyone, not excluding 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 regarding children he commanded: "Let the children come to Me"(Matt. 19:14). “Infant baptism dates back to the time of the apostles,” testifies Origen, a famous writer of the mid-3rd century. In addition, in the New Testament, the sacrament of Baptism replaced the Old Testament rite of circumcision, which was a prototype of baptism and was performed shortly after the birth of a child. In the book of Acts of St. The Apostles it is mentioned that the apostles baptized entire families, which undoubtedly included children. Since all those who are baptized become members of the Church of Christ, the sooner a person is baptized, the sooner he joins its grace-filled life. His spiritual growth goes along with his physical growth.

Baptists, like Protestants, do not have a clear, precise teaching 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. Phillips, one of the Baptist leaders at the Edinburgh conference in 1937. There are similar statements by other Baptist leaders.

A distinctive feature of all sectarian preachers, ch. arr. Baptists and their branches, is confidence in their salvation. This follows from the conviction inherent in all Protestant teaching that salvation is automatically acquired by faith in Christ. In this confidence they rely on individual phrases read from Holy Scripture: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me has eternal life.”(John 6:47). “I have written these things to you so 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 dead and living faith, faith that saves and 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 a 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, a sect of “Quakers” arose in England and Scotland, founded by G. Fox. Brought by his religious thoughts to a state of spiritual “delusion” (self-delusion), he imagined himself called from above to restore true Christianity and in 1647 he preached.

A simple craftsman committed to reading the Bible, he drew attention to the diversity of interpretations in the Anglican Church on basic issues of faith. Having not received an answer to his questions, he came to a complete denial of Holy Tradition and to deny the need for teachers of the faith, theologians, official confessions and the Creed. Going further, he came to the following conclusions: 1. The true interpreter of Holy Scripture is only 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 revelations directly from the Holy Spirit. 3. True Christianity does not lie in dogmas and theological systems, but in the direct illumination of a person from the Holy Spirit, which enlightens him and guides him to perfection. Moreover, Quakers place personal direct “illumination” above Holy Scripture and interpret Scripture itself as personal “illumination” tells them. With such an attitude towards the word of God, arbitrariness and distortion are inevitable.

Based on this, 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 space to the so-called. "creative silence," i.e. in silence and concentration, everyone waits for the influx of the Holy Spirit, and if anyone feels “illumination” from the Holy Spirit, be it 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 that should guide one's faith and life.

Pentecostals

In the middle of this century, the so-called arose in the USA. “charismatic” movement (“charis” in Greek - “grace”), which set out to revive in modern society the gifts of grace 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. The “charismatic” movement could be expected in the Protestant environment, since Protestantism, not having apostolic grace-filled succession, is deprived of the regenerating power of the holy sacraments and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Graceless sectarian prayer meetings cannot bring true spiritual satisfaction to a Christian.

The charismatic movement, promising to infuse a fresh spiritual current into the life of Protestant churches, became popular, and soon “Pentecostal” associations began to emerge in different 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 emerge in Europe and 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 Holy Trinity, the presence of original sin in man, the deity of the Savior and His atoning sacrifice. They recognize baptism by immersion and communion - the "last supper," with which they connect the rite of "washing the feet." But they, due to their Protestant origin, reject apostolic succession, priesthood and other sacraments.

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 (i.e. on the 50th day after the resurrection of Christ). Pentecostals teach that they, like the apostles, at the time of their baptism and public prayer receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the miraculous ability to speak in unknown tongues. To receive gifts of grace, Pentecostals resort to various artificial means: at their meetings they inspire themselves by singing prayers in unison, while stamping their feet in time, clapping their hands and at times shouting the words “Hallelujah” and “Amen” in chorus. The main thing for them is to evoke a good mood and even ecstasy. Some more sensitive natures become hysterical, begin to laugh uncontrollably, gesticulate and mutter something.

Modern "gift of tongues"

Although Pentecostals and similar modern “charismatics” strive to evoke in themselves the “gift of tongues” by artificial means, they achieve something completely different from the miracle that happened to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. The initial chapters of the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles tell about the miraculous and genuine gift of tongues, which the apostles received on the day the Holy Spirit descended on them. St. writes about the essence and purpose of the gift of tongues. ap. Paul in chapters 12-14 of his letter to the Corinthians. The gift of tongues was necessary for the apostles to successfully spread the Gospel among different nations. Having received the gift of tongues, the apostles were able to preach to people of different nationalities in their native language, and thanks to this, the Church began to spread rapidly. However, as we know from subsequent church history, this gift was not destined to last long. As local Christian preachers with excellent command of their own languages ​​began to appear in different countries, the need for the supernatural gift of tongues also began to decrease. So, in the time of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, in the mid-3rd century, mentioned the gift of tongues as a rare phenomenon.

From the message of St. 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 use 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 appear in front of each other. Ap. Paul explains that the gift of tongues "is not for those who believe, but for those who do not believe." 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 impact on prayer meetings when it was not used at the right time. When, for example, during a service, several people simultaneously began to speak in different dialects, which the majority of those present did not understand, the result was noise and the prayerful mood was lost. In order to correct such untimely use of the miraculously acquired ability to speak new languages, ap. Paul explains to the Corinthians that the gift of tongues is the least gift among others, more needed by a person spiritual gifts. The Corinthian Christians would do better if, instead of the gift of tongues, they asked God to enrich them with faith, self-control, patience, love, wisdom and other similar gifts.

Comparing the gift of tongues of the apostolic times with modern “verbalism,” we must recognize a significant difference between them. In apostolic times, Christians received the ability to speak some real human language. It was articulate human speech, needed by the preacher for missionary purposes. In contrast to the genuine 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 muttering or frantic shouting. Pentecostals themselves admit this fact, explaining, however, that they have the language of “paradise inhabitants.” However, it is impossible to recognize pronounced or meaningless sounds as God's miracle. They are the result of nervous excitement, falling into a trance and hallucination, sometimes bordering on demonic possession. Therefore, sectarians blaspheme when they attribute their artificially caused exaltation and inarticulate sounds to God's inspiration.

In general, the desire for all sorts of thrills is characteristic of modern society, which is addicted to violent music that evokes evil or erotic feelings in listeners, encourages sexual promiscuity in society, abuses stimulating chemicals and drugs, and is addicted to crime films and horror films. All these perversions are symptoms of a sick human soul.

Likewise, people’s search for delight and ecstasy in prayer is a sign of a passionate and proud state. Here there is a substitution of the genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit with artificially caused emotional experiences. Ignoring the spiritual experience of the holy saints of God, rejecting the priesthood and sacraments established by God, modern sectarians try to obtain grace in various dubious and dangerous ways. The result is self-deception or “delusion,” which the holy ascetics of the Orthodox Church warn against.

An Orthodox Christian must in every possible way avoid such perversions of religious feeling. He has access to genuine treasures of grace in the sacraments of the Church, in her divine services and in his private, sincere prayer. In communication with God, one must look not for delight and acute experiences, but for the renewal of one’s sinful soul. Renewal comes through humility, repentance and self-correction. As a person’s soul is renewed, the true grace of God will be infused into him, and with it, heavenly peace and pure joy, in comparison with which earthly delight is a cheap and pitiful counterfeit.

Methodists

The Methodist movement arose in the 18th century from the depths of Anglicanism, as a desire to reform the state Anglican Church without affecting its teachings. The main task was to implement the principles of Christian morality in life. 200 years of rupture with Rome and constant religious struggle had a negative impact on the religious and moral character of society, the morals 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 they laughed at ministers without any embarrassment.

During this difficult period of the Church of England, 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 "justifying faith" and became a traveling preacher of piety. Wesley was soon excommunicated from the church. Then he creates his own “united society,” in which all laymen were allowed to preach without distinction of gender or social status. In 1741, due to disagreements in the doctrine of predestination (i.e., the fact that some people from eternity are determined by God to salvation, and others to destruction), the Methodists split into two movements. In England they recognize participation in the salvation of human will and freedom, and in America they adhere to the doctrine of unconditional predestination.

Dogmatically, Methodism is close to Anglicanism and recognizes the need for good deeds, but does not require uniformity of opinions, nor a form of worship of God, but requires only the fear of God and righteous deeds. The Methodist Church retained the degrees of bishop, elder and deacon. Presbyters independently perform the sacrament of Communion, and deacons have the right to “bless” marriages, perform Baptism and assist during the sacrament of Communion.

Methodists take Christ's commandments seriously; 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 spiritual experiences are shared. Methodists do not disdain any kind of work, pay a lot of attention to children, and fight against the violation of Sunday rest; they are against frivolous entertainment, wastefulness and drunkenness. There are about 12 million members in America. Like all Protestants, they do not revere the Blessed Virgin Mary or the saints. Children are given the most bizarre names. They do not venerate icons; symbolism and church architecture are alien to them.

Mennonites

In 1520, a sect of “Anabaptists” arose in Saxony, which received its name from the custom of rebaptizing all those who joined its society. She began to implement the principle of freedom, understanding it not only as religious freedom, but also social and political freedom, without stopping at measures of arbitrariness and violence. Based on the principle of freedom, they began to overthrow 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 Munster, a certain baker proclaimed himself king, and this city began to be called “New Jerusalem,” and the kingdom - “New Zion.” 28 “apostles” were sent to bring all nations under his rule. For general equality (in 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. This 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, preserved rebaptism, evasion of the oath, civil and military service, and appeal 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 numbers about 2.5 million people, the majority 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 story about how a large group of Jews 600 years BC. 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 were visited by Jesus Christ. His teachings were allegedly written down 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 1400 years later Moroni resurrected and gave Smith these tables (which then allegedly disappeared!). Smith wrote his book with the rules of life for Mormons using tables. The teachings of this sect have very little in common with Christianity or even Protestantism. Mormons have strict discipline, prohibiting the consumption of alcoholic beverages, coffee, tobacco, and precise organization of family and social life. 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 honor their Mormon book on a par with the Bible, and the founder of their sect, Joseph Smith, is revered on a par with the Prophet Moses and even with the Lord Jesus Christ. (see more about this sect in book no. 66).

7th Day Adventists

This sect is of American origin, close to the Baptists and gives preference to the Old Testament Scripture. It was founded in the 30s of the 9th century by a simple farmer, William Miller. The study of Holy Scripture led him to the conviction of the imminent end of the world and the opening of the thousand-year kingdom of Christ. He was embarrassed by the Savior’s words that no one knows the day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but only My Father (Matt. 24:36). He decided that we were talking only about the day and hour, but not about the year, and calculated the coming of Christ for the year 1844. He indicated the month and day, as well as the mountain in New York state 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 followers of this movement. One of Miller's followers, Georg Spurr, published his sermons in which he rejected the immortality of the soul and argued that eternal torment is the complete destruction 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 one 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, supposedly based on it, they claim that the 1000-year reign of Christ will come, when only the righteous will be resurrected. After 1000 years, Christ will come for the third time, when the wicked will be resurrected and 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 Satan’s power over people. 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 gain some power over unbelievers, 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 at 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 happen before the end of the world. Then all people will rise from the dead, and not just the righteous. But appearance 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 epistles of the apostles (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, epistles of the Apostle Paul: 1 Thess. 4:13-18 - 5:1-3 and 2 Thess. 2nd chapter) and has nothing to do with Adventist teachings. The Gospel speaks only of two comings of Jesus Christ and one general Last Judgment. (The first was when He was born in Bethlehem, the second was 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 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 enormous material resources. Its magazine, Tower of Watch, 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 in common with Christianity, it is a peculiar mixture of religious and political elements. They call the Church of Christ “the organization of Satan,” and they call themselves witnesses of the wrath and vengeance of God on the Church of Christ. They herald the imminent destruction of the Church of Christ and Christian peoples. In the political part of the teachings of the “witnesses,” Marxist demagoguery openly appears. They irresponsibly and unfoundedly promise an equation between rich and poor, work for everyone, absence of exploitation, abundance of food, an end to wars, etc. They strive to seize power. While they condemn the system of America and other countries, they do not say a word about modern atheistic states. Their teaching looks like conscious planning for the destruction of 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 the Holy Scriptures" 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 Calvinists, she comes to deny God. A detailed analysis of the teachings of this sect leads to the conviction that it has nothing in common with the Gospel and the Bible. There is also nothing scientific in this teaching. It denies medicine and calls for treatment by self-hypnosis.

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 made most of his "scientific revelations" while under the influence of drugs. Declaring his loyalty to all religions, Hubbard last years life revealed the “hidden secret” that his “mission” on Earth is the mission of the Antichrist to prevent the Second Coming.

The idea that arose to make money by creating his own religion turned out to be fruitful. From a not-so-wealthy writer applying for a veteran's pension, the founder of Scientology became a multimillionaire by the end of his life, worth $640 million. By the courts of many countries, Hubbard was recognized as a criminal, and in a number of countries he was declared persona non grata. Hubbard died in 1986.

Currently, the Scientology society is headed by David Miscavage, the center is in Los Angeles; spiritual leadership is in Clearwater (Florida), the main European base is in Capenhagen. The head of the Scientology sect in Russia is Richard Fir. 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 adherent contributes to the cult of his personality, which was confirmed by the Federal Labor Court of the Federal Republic of Germany in a verdict 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.

The term “Scientology” itself is deciphered by adherents as “the study of knowledge” (in English the term “Scientology” is used as “science”). At first, Hubbard tried to present his Dianetics as a science, but having encountered 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 touch of science: their literature is full of homemade special scientific terms and abbreviations, they use computer methods, tests, and graphs. However, there is no real 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 "holy 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 views itself as a "church." However, there are numerous examples of instructions written by Hubbard that convincingly show that the basis of the organization was 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 - so as to make money.

In the definition of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church “On pseudo-Christian sects, neo-paganism and occultism” (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 Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Scientology is one of the varieties of satanic sects that have a clearly criminal orientation and actively use psychotropic substances in order to obtain a controlled personality type in their adherents. This sect has specially created cover structures engaged in outwardly charitable activities, which include the Hubbard Humanitarian Center.

Scientologists claim that they stand outside politics and that church and state should be separated. At the same time, one of the global missions of the sect is declared as the supposed creation of a civilization without madness, crime, wars, drugs, etc. To create such a civilization, it is necessary to completely introduce Scientology into all spheres of life, including, first of all, governing bodies. Before his death, Hubbard himself announced his second coming, but in the role of a politician. He also asserted that "Scientology... must entail the establishment of total power and authority in order to achieve total discipline." Therefore, Scientologists actively recruit high-level managers and businessmen through the Hubbard College system (administrative technology training). One of the goals of Scientology is to displace traditional psychiatry in order to take its place in the state. Attacks on psychiatry are a common thread in their books, and a pathological rejection of it is instilled in sectarians.

Representative of Germany at the OSCE seminar on freedom of religion (Warsaw, April 16-19, 1996). a report was made. Since the appearance of this sect on the territory of Germany (1970). local authorities are pursuing a policy of countering it on all fronts. It is no coincidence that in 1973 Germany was declared by L. R. Hubbard "one of the main enemies of Scientologists." The latter 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 the official German authorities.

Taking into account this and the continuing growth of the sect’s activity in Germany, measures to counter it have recently been noticeably strengthened. Work is underway to make it systematic and legally impeccable. On March 22, 1995, the Federal Labor Court ruled that the Scientology sect is not a religious or ideological community, but a commercial structure that operates using methods of psychological terror and economic crime. On May 9, 1996, the German Bundestag established a special Study Commission "So-called sects and psychogroups." By the spring of 1998, it will formulate an official assessment of the degree of danger of Scientology to society and make its recommendations to the Federal Government. Since 1995, the German state interior ministries have been preparing a report on the Scientology sect, which is planned to be discussed at the permanent conference of the federal and state interior ministers of Germany in Hamburg. Without waiting for an all-German settlement, individual states have already taken additional tough measures independently within their competence. Thus, on October 17, 1995, the Bavarian government introduced a special program to oust the sect from its territory. On November 1, 1996, this country introduced a ban on Scientologists holding positions in the public service. The Land Office for the Protection of the Constitution (counterintelligence and internal security service) is actually involved in monitoring the sect.

Since 1991, membership in 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 opposition force.

Almost all countries in which there are branches of this sect are investigating its criminal activities.

Scientology is fighting for world domination. The goal of the Scientology organization is what can be called the creation of a new person and a new world in which everything functions according to Scientology rules. This means a huge 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, all democracy is useless.

"Modern Humanism" (Secular Humanism)

(To avoid confusion, here are some explanations borrowed from Encyclopedic Dictionaries.)

Humanity: philanthropy, caring for people.

Humanitarianism is the desire to develop higher 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 era of the "Renaissance." The desire to turn the work of thought to solving pressing, vital issues of a material and practical nature, to improve the conditions of human life).

MODERN humanism is a godless sect that places man as the cornerstone of all life and the “supreme being” of the universe, 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 to education, psychology and human life.

"Modern humanism" arose in the USA in the mid-thirties of this century. It was created by a group of non-religious scientists and philosophers united in the American Humanist Association. In 1933, they released "The Humanist Manifesto 1," signed by 34 educators and writers, explaining the goals and aspirations of "Modern Humanism." In 1973, a second manifesto was released, signed by many dozens of very influential people around 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, morals and Commandments are the creations of man himself and are subject to change depending on place, time and circumstances. A person must be independent of higher authorities and can manage his life according to his own understanding, with personal benefit in mind. He is not obliged to take care of the sick and poor. Abortion is his right. Family life should not be constrained by church and civil laws; It is his right to change his life partner and receive any bodily pleasures.

Unbridled freedom brings this sect closer to atheism, and it is no less dangerous, because... seeks to corrupt the entire society with its propaganda and ch. arr. growing generation. "Modern Humanism" tries to attract authoritative and influential persons, writers, artists, film studio owners, etc. 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 noticeable in society and among young people, and it is capable of destroying the country.

Pseudo-religious societies and cults

In view of the fact that the US Constitution provides the right to every citizen to have his own political and religious beliefs, as well as to disseminate them, there is nothing easier in this country than to found a new religious society or political party. It is enough to enlist the support of several adherents to obtain the right to legally register such a society. Legalization of a religious society, in turn, exempts it from income taxes. For this reason, religious societies and cults often arise in the United States, hiding behind religious ideas for commercial purposes.

Such societies include, for example, the Moon sect (which calls itself the “church of unification”), the Church of Science and many televangelical (television evangelical) organizations headed by preachers with prophetic and miraculous claims.

It is difficult to cover in a short note the doctrinal and organizational range of these pseudo-religious societies. Some of them, such as the television society PTL (from “Prаise Те 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 United States in 1972 by Korean preacher Sun Moon. The teaching of this sect, expressed in the book “Divine Principle,” is an amalgam of Eastern religious ideas, the imagination of Moon himself and a small proportion of Christian elements. Those close to Moon consider him a messiah who came to save the world. People who join the Unification Church are subjected to intense psychological indoctrination to make them loyal to Moon and active disseminators of his ideas. His organization has a complex administrative semi-secret structure and conducts large commercial transactions under various false names. Young people are cunningly lured, and the leaders of this sect tear them away from their families and force them to raise funds for the Unification Church. This pseudo-religious organization has mentally crippled many young people.

The Science Society has nothing to do with religion. Founded in 1954 by L. Ron Hubbart, it only hides behind the sign of the cross and some Christian slogans. The real goal of this society is very openly expressed by its founder: “Money, money! Bring more money, force others to get money.” The financial side of this society can be the envy of the most successful commercial company. Scienceology distributes books like "Dianetics," "The Path to Happiness" and others, the purpose of which is to attract people to expensive courses of "mental and mental health." Courses generate millions in revenue. They promise to cleanse the soul, enlighten the mind, develop well-being and self-confidence, and discover 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” for Scientologists.

Ultimately, the leaders of such pseudo-religious societies do a disservice to modern society because they uproot faith in God for personal gain.

Since the 1970s, more and more cults of all kinds have appeared in the United States with an admixture of pagan, Hindu, theosophical, pseudoscientific, astrological and even satanic ideas. Observing the modern wild flowering of the wildest religious ideas and all kinds of cults in the United States, I recall the prediction of St. Paul on the end times:

“The (Holy) Spirit clearly says that in the last times some will depart from the faith, listening to seducing spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of false talkers, seared in their consciences... They will prosper in wickedness, and their word will spread like cancer ... Then they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires they will heap up for themselves teachers, having itching ears; they will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to fables" (1 Tim. 4:1-2; 2 Tim. 2:16- 19, 4:3-4).

Long years of struggle against the Church and Christianity in Russia led to the emergence of aggressive sects and 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, Moon followers and others into the countries of Eastern Europe and Russia. They are all trying to take advantage of the spiritual vacuum created in Russia. It will not be easy to counteract them, since they have enormous material resources and extensive experience in promoting their pseudo-religious ideas.

Heresies and sects in Russia

On its historical path, Orthodox Russia did not avoid heretical movements, which sometimes arose within the country, and more often came 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 Logos, that Christ is the Logos, born of the Virgin Mary from Her ear. This sect rejected the sacraments, demanded an ascetic life, etc. By the 13th century, this sect had spread throughout southern Europe and Spain. Despite persecution, the sect retained its secret teaching in Russia until the 18th century, when it turned into the sects of the Khlysty and Skoptsy.

Another secret society was the “Judaizers” sect. This sect appeared in the 15th century, first in Novgorod, and then in Moscow. She is a mixture of Jewishness and 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 personal physician. Shariya's preaching captivated many high-ranking people in the state. Thus, one of the leaders of the secret union was the clerk of the embassy department, Fyodor Kuritsyn (the Minister of Foreign Affairs of that time), and some relatives of the Grand Duke also became part of the secret union. 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 the “Subbotniks.”

"Subbotniks" - originated in the 18th century, celebrate the Sabbath and adhere to the Old Testament. Some even performed circumcision according to Jewish custom. The imps were exiled. Nicholas I to the Caucasus.

Old Believers, or Old Believers, is the general 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 liturgical books and changes in rituals begun by Patriarch Nikon around 1655. This disagreement soon grew into an open schism, which carried away a large number of adherents of antiquity. At first, the Old Believer movement aimed to follow ancient Russian rites and customs. There was no heresy here, but only disobedience to church authority. Revolting 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, as well as to Poland, Prussia, Romania, Turkey and China.

Over time, the Old Believers split 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 their strict moral rules in life, and they differ from the Orthodox population in their church rituals and disobedience to the spiritual hierarchy. Old Believers are divided into two large groups: priests and non-priests, depending on whether they accepted priests who converted from Orthodoxy to the schism or not. Both of these groups split into many sects, the names of which came from the names of their founders. Some Old Believer branches, having abandoned priests, degenerated into sectarian societies.

At the end of the 18th century, when passions regarding the correction of liturgical books subsided somewhat, some Old Believer branches 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 “Consentants.” 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-religionists." At a bishop's 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:

"Dukhobors" - a sect of Quaker origin appeared at the beginning of the 18th century in the Kharkov province. Due to the Doukhobors' illiteracy, their doctrine 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 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. Amusement, drunkenness, smoking, and foul language are prohibited. Molokans used to live in the Caucasus, then evacuated to the USA.

“Skoptsy” believe that salvation lies in the physical suppression of the flesh through castration. The sect appeared in Russia in the 18th century. For some reason the Skoptsy consider the ap. to be their ancestor. Matthew.

“Khlysty” constitute 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. allow every person, through asceticism, to become a “Christ.” Their worship, or “zeal,” consists of reading and explaining the Holy Scriptures, with singing, jumping, running and whirling, leading them to an insensible state and delirium, which they take for prophetic inspiration. The Khlyst sect is a savage and dangerous sect.

"Pentateuchs" - they believe that God is strictly one. The Pentateuch of Moses is the pillar books. 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 an idol, the icons are idols, the hierarchy is false teachers, idol priests. No sacraments. Communion is simply bread and wine. Repentance is self-deception. Icons and crosses must be crushed like idols, fasts and monasticism must be discarded. All people with their different faiths are the same children of God. There should be no authorities, 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 “Polanization” and “Catholicization” of the Lithuanian and Lithuanian-Russian nobility began. Until the mid-16th century, this issue was not pressing. But in 1569, both of these states united into the “Rzeczpospolita,” where the Poles gained an advantage. Kyiv and Volyn were transferred to Poland. By 1596, the Polish kings managed to fill the episcopate of the Kyiv Orthodox Church with bishops they liked. Then the “Union of Brest” took place, officially transferring the Little Russian population to the union, i.e. union with the Catholic Church on the following conditions: Christians of the Greek faith joined the Roman Church, submitting to the supremacy of the pope, but maintaining their internal church system and order of worship.

The Orthodox could not agree with the decision of the unworthy part of their episcopate and the struggle for the faith and their people began. In this struggle, the Dnieper Cossacks and Cossacks played an important role. With the beginning of Polish attempts to subjugate the Cossacks to Polish landowners and with the beginning of persecution of Orthodox Church Cossack uprisings also began. They were accompanied by terrible cruelties.

In 1648, the huge uprising against Poland raised by Hetman Bogdan Khmelnytsky was supported by the entire mass of the Orthodox population of Southwestern Rus'. The war turned out to be difficult, and the hetman suggested that the Cossacks surrender to the rule of the Moscow Tsar. The General Rada (people's assembly) in the city of Pereyaslavl at the beginning of 1654 unanimously declared: “We are willing to serve the Moscow Orthodox Tsar.” Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich “took Little Rus' under his high hand,” giving it full self-government and his 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 in 1795). the majority of the Uniate population returned to the fold of the Orthodox Church.

To attract Orthodox people to Catholicism after the Russian Revolution, the Catholic Church created the "Eastern Rite." Divine services are conducted according to the Russian Orthodox rite, but the teaching is Catholic. After World War II, many Russian emigrants were lured into the "Eastern Rite" by rations and financial assistance. They, without delving into the essence of the teachings of the “Eastern Rite,” were cunningly lured into Catholicism by services quite similar to their Russian Orthodox ones. Currently, the “Eastern Rite” publishes many religious books in Russian and trains clergy in Rome to convert the Russian people to Catholicism.

Briefly about other religions

Judaism arose 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 down to the smallest detail, full of written and unwritten rules that constrain human activity: what can and cannot be eaten, drunk, whom to marry, when to work, with whom to be friends and whom to hate. By performing all these rituals, they consider themselves righteous and the “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 towards those whom they consider guilty of themselves. 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 a mass retreat of people from Christianity.

Islam. The founder of the Muslim religion is Mohammed, who lived in Arabia in the first half of the 7th century. The main thing in this religion is faith in the One God (Allah) and the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam. Islam borrows some things from the Bible. They venerate Christ as one of the prophets, but lower than Mohammed. According to Muslim teachings, everything is predetermined for every person at birth. Restraints fall away, everyone can do whatever they want; there is no repentance for the sins committed, because everything is predetermined. Everyone who is destined to go to heaven. Killing “infidels” (people of other religions) is commendable and rewarded with heaven. In Islam, there are many inviolable rules regarding abstinence from wine, other alcoholic beverages, pork meat, clothing and five times daily prayers. Revenge is approved and part of the tradition.

Buddhism. The founder of this religion is Siddartha-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: India, Burma, Siam, Tibet, China and Japan. Buddhism does not recognize the Creator, but believes in the eternity of matter, in circular motion and the change of phenomena. Buddhism teaches that the world, suffering and pleasure are “appearances,” apparent beings. By renouncing the will - from egoism and all its consequences - a person is immersed in nirvana, i.e. a state of complete peace of mind, absence of desires, thoughts, in a word - into mental oblivion. According to the teachings of Buddha, life is evil. Man must strive for nirvana (non-existence). Bliss is achieved through self-denial of will, asceticism, renunciation of anger and bad impulses, love for everyone and the willingness to sacrifice oneself for others. High morality with the resulting social teaching contributed to the spread of Buddhism. Buddhism, in addition, teaches that there is no complete death, but after death the souls of people move from person to person, and even into animals. The Buddhist teaching about the transmigration of the soul is contrary to 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 in order to be united with it again for eternity at the moment of resurrection). Here are some rules of Buddhism: do not destroy life, do not cheat, do not steal, do not exploit, do not rape and do not drink intoxicating drinks. Sacrifice everything for the good of people. Be calm and kind, live modestly, do not get carried away by luxury, do not be angry with anyone, do not offend anyone, try to create peace everywhere, prevent wars and everything that destroys life. The teachings of Buddhism are not the same in all countries, but each country has its own specific characteristics. 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 that calls for the abolition of one's personality. By denying the existence of a personal God, Buddhism is essentially a kind of atheism.

Atheism- denies the existence of God and any higher intelligent power. It appeared in the Middle Ages in Western Europe, but only by the 19th century did it become a philosophical doctrine that recognizes nothing but matter. (Atheists, in principle denying what they cannot comprehend with their minds, forget that the human mind develops and grows over centuries. Indeed, people of the 13th and 14th centuries did not know that the earth is a ball, that it revolves around the sun, and 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. Likewise, what seems incomprehensible and impossible today may turn out to be understandable and undoubted in the future. In fact, scientists are gradually discovering those laws of chemistry, physics, biology, cosmology that the all-wise Creator laid into nature during its creation. Modern science, discovering more and more new secrets of nature, becomes more modest and in some fundamental issues begins to approach 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 person himself, without outside help, supposedly creates the life around him and his own happiness. Atheism teaches you to live for yourself, love only yourself and achieve your goals. In principle, what is good for a person is good. For atheism, religion is a fiction; the interests of 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 benefit of the state. There are no eternal moral standards here, and there is no concept of sin.

An atheistic state tries to make itself the goal of everything, and its citizens - soulless performers.

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 arise in a person very early and are actually inherent in him, like instincts, conscience and other spiritual properties. With proper development, religious feeling develops and strengthens, because all nature, with its beauty and wondrous structure, testifies to an all-wise and kind Creator. At some moments in his life, a person is even rewarded with feeling God in his soul and seeing His wondrous light. The deeper a person becomes acquainted with Christian teaching, the more convinced he is of its beneficial influence on the individual, family, state and the entire society.

Atheism is unnatural; it is a product of improper upbringing and sinful lifestyle associated with city life. People are not born atheists, but are made one. Big cities with their noise, bustle and debauchery often kill everything holy and good in a person. Having lost God, the 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. By not recognizing God, atheism in practice becomes the most intolerant and repressive religion. While religion calms and pleases a person, unbelief embitters him and deprives him of his inner balance. This is why atheists often have to hate and 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 were up in 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 more than a temporary hell on earth.” Many years of the power of atheism in our homeland confirm these words.

Conclusion

In this summary we have tried to provide basic information about existing Christian denominations and several other religions. Of course, the most sublime and ennobling religion is Christianity with its teaching about one God, worshiped in the Trinity, who created the world and cares for people; about the incarnate 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 fall was the claim of the Roman bishops to supremacy in the Church and their infallibility. Over time, the Roman Catholic Church, by introducing 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 Roman bishops gave rise to the Protestant movement in Europe, from which they originate modern sects: Lutherans, Baptists, Quakers, Mormons, Pentecostals, Adventists and others. The religious chaos created by these sects paved the way for the emergence in our time of a large number of all kinds of cults, clearly of a non-Christian nature. The appearance of a large number of false prophets and strange religions before the end of the world was predicted by the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles (see our brochure “The Teaching of the Holy Scriptures about the Church”).

An unprejudiced person, getting acquainted with the history of Christianity, cannot help but come to the conclusion that only the Orthodox Church continuously goes back 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 with the grace and truth given to it. Passing on these treasures to future generations is an important task of 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 restore what was destroyed and heal wounds. Orthodoxy teaches that life must be built on the principle of Christ's love. “Then everyone will know that you are My disciples,” said Christ, “when you have love for each other.” In private life, Orthodoxy calls on a person to abstain from sins, live according to the Commandments of God and 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 on us to take care of the good of the family and the state, to strive to improve the abilities given to us by God, to cultivate humility, non-covetousness and compassion. Forgive everyone, condemn no one. 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 come. But by the power of Christ the Church rose, as if from dust, and 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 into the next world. Indeed, the Church in her heavenly-earthly existence is eternally growing and strengthening. While we are in the Church, we, like passengers on a 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, omnipotent, all-knowing, wise and merciful Heavenly Father. His will is our law, indicating how to live, how to develop our talents. Our goal is eternal blissful life in the Kingdom of Unfading Light.

Chapters from the bishop's introductory brochure. Alexandra (Mileanta) "Where is the True Church? Information about churches and sects."

1. Signs of the true Church.

2. Orthodox Church.

3. Roman Catholic Church. Rome and Russia. Main differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism.

4. Protestantism. Lutheranism and its evolution. Calvinism, Reformation, Presbyterianism. Anglican Confession.

5. Conclusion.

Signs of the true Church.

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 one true Church in our time. Perhaps, some think, the original apostolic Church 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 existing Christian denominations (religious societies, sects) through collusion and mutual concessions. This view underlies the modern ecumenical movement, which does not recognize any one church as true. Perhaps, others think, the Church, in principle, has never had anything in common with the official churches, but has always consisted of individual believers belonging to different church groups. This latter opinion is expressed in the doctrine of the so-called "invisible church" put forward by modern Protestant theologians. Finally, for many Christians it is unclear: is the Church needed at all when a person is saved by his faith?

All these contradictory and, in essence, incorrect opinions about the Church stem from a misunderstanding of the central truth of the teaching of Christ - about the salvation of man. When you read the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles, it becomes obvious that, according to the Savior’s thought, people are called to save their souls not alone and separately, but together, constituting a single, grace-filled Kingdom of goodness. After all, the kingdom of evil, headed by the prince of darkness, acts united in its war against the Church, as the Savior recalled when he said: “If Satan drives out Satan, then he is divided with himself, how can his kingdom stand?” (Matt. 12:26).

Nevertheless, with all the diversity of modern opinions about the Church, the majority of sensible Christians agree that in apostolic times the true Church of Christ existed as a single society of those being saved. The Book of Acts of the Holy Apostles tells about 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 tongues of fire. From that day on, the Christian faith began to quickly spread in different parts of the vast Roman Empire. As it spread, Christian communities - churches - began to emerge in cities and villages. In everyday life, due to the vast distances, these communities lived more or less separately from each other. However, they considered themselves to organically belong to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. They were united by a single faith and a single source of sanctification, drawn from the grace-filled sacraments (baptism, communion and laying on of hands - ordination). At first, these sacred actions were performed by the apostles themselves. However, soon there was a need for helpers, and the apostles selected worthy candidates from members of Christian communities, who were ordained bishops, presbyters and deacons. (For example, Apostle Paul ordained Timothy and Titus to the episcopal degree). The apostles charged bishops with the duty of monitoring the purity of Christian teaching, teaching believers to live piously and ordaining assistants for themselves in the person of new bishops, priests and deacons. Thus, during the first centuries, the Church, like a tree, constantly grew and spread across different countries, enriching itself with spiritual experience, religious literature, liturgical prayers and chants, and later with the architecture of churches and church art, but always maintaining its essence as the true Church of Christ.

The Gospels and Apostolic Epistles did not appear immediately and not everywhere at the same time. For many decades after the emergence 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 wrong. Whenever anything arose that was not in agreement with the apostolic tradition, whether in matters of faith, sacramental administration, 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 Scriptures and, together with the books of the Old Testament, constituted the Bible in its present form. This process of collecting books was completed in the 3rd century. Controversial books, not in all agreement with the apostolic tradition, presented as apostolic, were rejected as forged and 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 Scriptures - often arbitrarily, without reverence, without realizing that they are 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, belief in the existence of one, holy, apostolic Church was universal. Naturally, the Church then had its visible side - in “love suppers” (liturgies) and other services, in bishops and priests, in prayers and church songs, in laws (apostolic canons) regulating the life and relationships of individual churches, in all manifestations of the life of Christian communities. Therefore, it must be admitted that the doctrine of the “invisible” church is new and incorrect.

Having agreed with the fact of the existence of a real, unified Church in the first centuries of Christianity, is it possible to find a historical moment when it 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. Gnostic teachings, which mixed elements of pagan philosophy with the Christian faith, were especially active at that time. The apostles in their letters 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 dry branches broken off from a church tree. Likewise, the successors of the apostles, the bishops of the first centuries, did not recognize as legitimate the deviations from the apostolic faith that arose during their time, and stubborn adherents of these teachings were excommunicated from the Church, following the instruction of the Apostle: “even if we, or an angel from heaven, preached to you the wrong thing, that we have preached the gospel, let him be accursed" (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 continuous 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. She preserves and proclaims the pure teaching of Christ, she sanctifies believers and leads them to salvation. Using figurative comparisons from the Holy Scriptures, in the first centuries of Christianity the Church was thought of as a fenced “sheepyard,” in which the Good Shepherd, Christ, protects His sheep from the “wolf,” the devil. The Church was likened to a Vine, from which believers, like branches, receive the spiritual strength necessary for 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 necessary for 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, towering above human errors and leading its travelers to heaven - communication with God, angels and saints.

In the first centuries of Christianity, believing in Christ also meant believing that the work He accomplished on earth, the means that He gave believers for salvation, could not be lost or taken away through the efforts of the devil. The Old Testament prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles definitely taught about the presence of the Church until the very last times of the world’s existence: “In the days of those (pagan) kingdoms, the God of Heaven will erect a Kingdom that will never be destroyed... It will crush and destroy all kingdoms, and itself will stand forever,” the Angel predicted to the prophet Daniel (Dan. 2:44). The Lord promised St. Peter: “On this rock (of faith) I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).

In the same way, if we believe the promise of the Savior, we must recognize the existence of His Church in our days and until the end of the world. We have not yet 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 one find it among the many modern Christian branches?

First, the real Church must contain intact the pure Christian teaching preached by the apostles. Bringing truth to 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 purpose I was born, and for this purpose I came into the world, to testify to the truth; everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (John. 18:37). The Apostle Paul, instructing his disciple Timothy on how he should fulfill his episcopal duties, writes in conclusion: “That you may know, if I hesitate, how I ought to conduct myself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). It is with regret that we must admit that in the matter of doctrine we see great discord among modern Christian branches. In principle, it is necessary to agree that not everyone can teach correctly. If, for example, one church claims that Communion 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, and another denies this power, then, obviously, one of them is mistaken. The true Church must be one that in no way differs in matters of faith from the Church of the first centuries of Christianity. When a person impartially compares the teachings of modern Christian churches, he, as we will see later, 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 the 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, laying on of hands (confirmation and ordination) and others. The performers of these sacraments were first the apostles (Acts 8:14-17), then the bishops and elders. (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, which from one candle lights others. If the fire goes out or the chain of apostolic succession is broken, there is no longer any priesthood or sacraments, the means of sanctifying the believers are lost. Therefore, since apostolic times, they have always carefully monitored the preservation of apostolic succession: so that a bishop must be ordained by a true bishop, whose ordination goes back successively to the apostles. Bishops who fell into heresy or led an unworthy lifestyle were deposed, and they lost the right to perform the sacraments or ordain successors for themselves.

In our time, there are only a few churches whose apostolic succession is beyond 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 the Ecumenical Councils). Christian denominations, which fundamentally deny the need for priesthood and apostolic succession, already by this one sign 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 God’s grace when he vividly feels its warm and pacifying spirit, which he receives in the sacraments and 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 excite themselves at their prayer meetings. Signs of true grace are peace of mind, love for God and neighbors, modesty, humility, meekness and similar properties listed St. Paul in Galatians 5:22-26).

Another sign of the true Church is its suffering. If it is difficult for people to figure out which church is true, then the devil, its enemy, understands this very well. He hates the Church and is trying to destroy it. Getting acquainted with the history of the Church, we see that, indeed, its history was written with the tears and blood of martyrs for the faith. The persecution began with the Jewish high priests and scribes back in apostolic times. Then there are three centuries of persecution in the Roman Empire by Roman emperors and regional rulers. After them, the Muslim Arabs raised the sword against the Church, then the crusaders who came from the West. They so undermined the physical strength of Byzantium, this stronghold of Orthodoxy, that it could not resist the Turks who flooded it in the 14th and 15th centuries. Finally, the atheist communists surpassed everyone in their cruelty, exterminating more Christians than all previous persecutors combined. But here is a miracle: the blood of the martyrs serves as a seed for new Christians, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church, as Christ promised.

Finally, a true and relatively easy way to find the Church of Christ is historical research. The True Church must continually go back to apostolic times. To apply the principle of historical research there is no need to go 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 arose, say, in the 16th century or some other century, and not in the apostolic time, then it cannot be true. On this one basis, it is necessary to reject the claims to the title of the Church of Christ of all denominations originating 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 not founded by Christ or His apostles, but by false prophets - Luthers, Calvins, Henrys, Smiths and other innovators.

The purpose of this brochure 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 them see how they differ from the one holy and apostolic Church founded by Christ. During the “Christological disputes” from the 4th to the 8th centuries, several heretical movements fell away from the Church - Arians, Macedonians, Nestorians, Monophysites and Monophilites (from whom modern Copts originated), 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. More details about it are described 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, filling the whole world with its branches (Matt. 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 bearers of the fullness of apostolic grace. Bishops ruled the communities of less significant neighboring cities. 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 closest bishops in their metropolis. The metropolitans had the responsibility 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 government, points of broader church administration began to be formed, which later received the name 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 ​​​​which was administratively insignificant, but important in its religious significance).

Over time, due to various historical events, the areas of patriarchates either decreased in size or increased. Great church changes occurred as a result of the invasion of the Germanic peoples into Europe (late 4th century), oppression by the Persians and the invasion of the Arabs into the eastern regions of the Byzantine Empire (mid-7th century). In the middle of the 9th century, there was a movement towards the adoption of the Christian faith on the part of the Slavic peoples. The Thessalonian brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius especially worked in the matter of enlightening the Bulgarians and Moravians. From Bulgaria the Christian faith spread to Serbia. Great merit to St. Cyril and Methodius is the creation of the Slavic alphabet and the translation from Greek into the Slavic language of selected liturgical books and books of the Holy Scriptures. Their works paved the way for the spread of Christianity in Rus'.

Although Christian communities existed on the northern shore of the Black Sea already at the end of the first century, the mass conversion to Christianity of the Slavic tribes inhabiting Rus' began with the Baptism of Rus', when in 988, under Grand Duke Vladimir, the baptism of the Kievites was performed 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 by the following data: in Russia there were 1098 monasteries, with a total number of monastics of more than 90 thousand. In addition to the Moscow Patriarchate, 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 enormous spiritual wealth enough and began to get carried away by Western ideas. The persecution of the Church by atheists and the merciless destruction of the clergy, believers and churches that arose after 1918 can only be explained in the light of the Apocalypse, which predicts the great persecution of the faith of Christ before the end of the world.

Beginning in the mid-18th century, through the works of Rev. Herman of Alaska and other Russian missionaries, Orthodoxy spread to Alaska, where many Aleuts were baptized and the spread of Orthodoxy in North America began (there are now about 3 million Orthodox Christians living 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, Czechoslovakian, Lithuanian and "Orthodox Church in America." The autonomous churches are Sinai, Finland and Japan. After the First and Second World Wars, a large number of Orthodox Greek and Russian parishes (Russian Church Abroad) were formed in almost all parts of the world. The total number of Orthodox Christians around the world is about 130 million.

The name Orthodox Church came into use during the era of religious controversy from the 4th to the 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 of the Greek word ortho-dokeo, meaning to think correctly. Another name for the Church is Catholic, which in Greek means “all-embracing.” 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 Slavic, the word “catholic” was translated as “conciliar.”

In the Orthodox Church, local churches, such as Jerusalem, Russian, Serbian and others, are sometimes headed by patriarchs, sometimes by archbishops or metropolitans. To resolve issues related to a given church, the head of that church convenes a council of its bishops. Issues 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 necessary, representatives from the clergy and laity are invited to participate in councils. Thus, the form of government in Orthodoxy is not individual and not democratic, but conciliar.

The teaching of the Orthodox Church is formulated in a condensed form in the Creed, which was compiled 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 apostolic times. To summarize the Orthodox teaching, we believe in One God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity, consubstantial and indivisible. The Son of God was born of God the Father before all ages. The Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from God the Father. We believe that the one God, worshiped in the Trinity, is eternal, omnipotent and omnipresent, that He, of His own will, created everything that exists out of nothing - first the invisible angelic world to us, then our visible, material world. God also created us - people, breathing into us an immortal soul and inscribing His moral law in our hearts. God created us so that we could improve ourselves and be eternally blissful in communion 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 God's commandment, God did not completely reject them, but through the prophets began to prepare people for salvation, promising to send people the Messiah - Christ. When the world was ripe to accept 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 marked the beginning of our resurrection and eternal blissful 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, teaching it in the truth. We believe that the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church will remain invincible against the forces of evil until the very end of the world. We believe that the Holy Spirit, in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, confession, communion and other liturgical actions, cleanses and sanctifies believers, giving them strength to live as Christians. 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 general 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 correspond to faith. Therefore, we recognize the need to fulfill the Ten Commandments given by God to the prophet Moses (book of Exodus, chapter 20) and the Gospel Beatitudes given by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 5:3-12). The essence of the commandments is love for God and neighbors, and even for enemies (Matt. 5:43-45). These commandments of love place the Christian faith morally superior to other religions, and, from the point of view of human reason, can be assessed as the only way to establish peace, mutual respect and legitimacy among people. Without sincere love for one's neighbor and forgiveness, war and mutual destruction are inevitable. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to forgive everyone in the wonderful prayer “Our Father,” when we say: “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 certainly reveal itself in inner growth and good deeds, because “faith without deeds is dead.” A Christian should be non-covetous, i.e. treat material wealth calmly, use them not for your own whims, but for your own needs and to help others. Pride, selfishness, arrogance and selfishness are an abomination in the sight of God.

The Orthodox Church teaches that every person is endowed by the Creator with free will and is therefore responsible for his actions. The Lord loves and takes pity on us. He helps us in every good way, 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” (Matt. 7:7). Fervent prayer clears the mind, helps to overcome temptations and live according to God’s Commandments. Prayer helps us improve our spiritual abilities, and this is the main goal of our earthly life.

When an Orthodox Christian suffers from failure or illness, he should not grumble at God, but must remember that the Lord allows suffering to befall us for our own spiritual benefit - to cleanse ourselves from sins and strengthen our will in virtue. In difficult moments of life, you need to pray to Heavenly Father: “Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth.”

We Orthodox Christians venerate the saints - the Virgin Mary, prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints (monastics) and other holy saints of God. After their death, the saints did not break their connection with us, but moved to the heavenly region of the Church, called the Church Triumphant. There, at the Throne of God, they pray for us as their younger brothers and help us achieve 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, St. Saints Sergius of Radonezh, Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk, Seraphim of Sarov, St. John of Kronstadt and others, as well as new Russian martyrs who have shone in our century.

The services of the Orthodox Church are conducted according to the order that has developed over centuries. The main service of worship is the Liturgy (public service). An essential part of the Liturgy is the sacrament of Communion, in which believers, 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 on the last day "(John 6:54). Before communion, the believer confesses his sins.

To help a Christian overcome his shortcomings, there are fast days. Since apostolic times, there has been a custom of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays (in memory of the suffering of the Savior), as well as before the Easter holiday - Great Lent. On fasting days, you are not allowed to eat dairy or meat foods or indulge in entertainment, but you should pray more and read religious literature. The Orthodox faith calls to take care of the family, the elderly, the sick, the poor and not judge anyone. “Judge not, lest ye be judged” (Matt. 7:1). The goal of our life is constant moral improvement: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).

We now move on to consider the history and teachings of other churches. The Christian denominations existing in Western countries were born from the Lutheran movement, which in turn arose as a protest against the abuses of the Catholic Church. Therefore, we will continue our further review with the emergence of the Catholic Church. (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 78 of the Christian era, the Jerusalem Church temporarily ceased to exist and the Roman community and the authority of its bishop began to take first place. Based on the central position of Rome as an imperial city, and on the origin of the see from the supreme apostles, the Bishop of Rome already from the third century began to speak out about his dominant position in the Church, in which the bishops of the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire disagreed with him.

We have already mentioned the ecclesiastical and administrative rise of a number of cities and regions in the vast Roman Empire, beginning in the second and third centuries. So Irenaeus of Lyons was recognized as the head of all Gaul, Cyprian of Carthage considered the bishops of Moorish and Numidian subordinates, the bishops of Alexandria ruled the churches of Egypt, the bishops of Ephesus ruled the churches of Asia Minor, and the Roman Church headed the Roman region. Subsequently, by resolution of the Ecumenical Councils, a number of churches were recognized as superior in their religious and civil status. This did not violate the equality between them, and issues concerning the entire Church were resolved 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 beyond their authority without his consent: everyone should do only what concerns his diocese and the places belonging to it. But and the first does nothing 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 conciliarity.

In general, the Apostolic canons and the canons of the ancient Councils do not allow either the autocracy of the leading bishop, much less absolutism in the Church. The highest authority for resolving religious and canonical issues belongs to the council of bishops - the Local or, if circumstances so require, the Ecumenical.

Nevertheless, political circumstances were such that the influence of the Bishop of Rome continued to grow. This was facilitated by the invasion of barbarians at the end of the 4th century and the resettlement 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. So gradually the conviction began to grow among the Roman bishops that they were called to lead the life of the entire Christian world. A new impetus for strengthening the despotic claims of the Roman bishops came in the 4th century by the decree of Emperor Gratian, recognizing in the person of the Pope of Rome (“Pope” - father, this title was borne by the Roman and Alexandrian bishops) “the judge of all bishops.” Already in the 5th century, Pope Innocent declared that “nothing can be decided without communication with the Roman see and, especially in matters of faith, all bishops must turn to Apostle Peter,” i.e. to the Bishop of Rome. In the 7th century, Pope Agathon demanded that all decrees of the Roman Church be accepted by the entire Church, as rules approved by the words of St. Petra. 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 ever-increasing claims of the popes were not at first taken seriously by the Eastern bishops and did not divide the Church. All were united by the unity of faith, sacraments and the consciousness of belonging to a single 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 with the 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 supererogatory merits, about the pope, how Vicar of Christ, head of the entire Church and secular states, on the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome in matters of faith. In a word, the very teaching about the nature of the Church began to be distorted. (To justify 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” (Matt. 16:18). The Holy Fathers of the Church have always understood these words in the sense that the Church is based on faith in Christ, which Apostle Peter confessed, and not on his personality. The apostles did not see their head in Apostle Peter, and Apostle James presided at the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem in 51. As for succession authority going back to the Apostle Peter, then the Apostle Peter ordained bishops in many cities, not only in Rome, but also in Alexandria, Antioch, etc. Why were the bishops of those cities deprived of the extraordinary powers of the Apostle Peter? A more in-depth study of this issue leads to one honest conclusion: the doctrine of the primacy of Peter was created artificially 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 division is considered to be 1054, when Cardinal Humbert enthroned St. Sophia in Constantinople, a papal message condemning all those who disagree with the Roman Church.

In the religious life of Europe, the 11th century was 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 political struggle was not the work of individual popes, but flowed from the entire papal system. Pope Pius the 9th declared it obligatory for a Catholic believer to recognize the temporal authority of the Bishop of Rome. At the behest of the pope, entire nations, taking up the sword and the cross, go to fight against everyone whom the pope calls his enemy. In the 13th century, the pope not only distributes royal crowns, resolves disputes between princes, but with one word initiates or stops wars, appoints or deposes kings and emperors, dissolves their swearing in, etc.

In their struggle for power, the popes did not let up, but took every opportunity to remind them of their “primacy” and “infallibility.” Thus, Pope Boniface 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, the prince of the apostles, the vicar of Christ on earth, the head of the entire Church, and the 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: “The Roman Pontiff, successor to the primacy of blessed Peter, and not only has the primacy of honor, but the highest and full legal authority over the entire church." These ever-increasing claims of the Roman bishops gradually widened the gap between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Since the 11th century, the Orthodox Church has been forced to repel the ambitious advances of the Roman bishops, preserving 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 unbecoming in the hands of the “vicar” of the meek Jesus and deeply distorts the essence of the episcopal ministry. Many representatives of the Church and individual nations began to realize this. The religious and moral decline of the papacy began in the 14th century. His power becomes 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. A 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 positions 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 of sins for a monetary bribe). Over the centuries, Protestantism split 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. Embassies were sent to Kyiv for the same purpose. The Pope tried to influence through the kings of Poland and the Czech Republic, and also tried to take advantage of princely feuds. When the Tatars invade Russia, the popes send the weapons of the Swedes, Swordsmen and Hungarians against it. Having suffered failures on the battlefield under Prince. Alexander Nevsky, the pope offers his help against the Tatars. Having received the answer: “God does not have power, but truth,” the pope responded with armed attacks in the 13th century, and again during the Time of Troubles in 1605-1612.

Rome's offensive position towards Orthodoxy has not been interrupted throughout the history of Russia. Poland was declared by the pope to be a "missionary territory," where the main method of missionary work was violence. In our century, from 1919 to 1929, the Roman Catholics took 43 percent of the churches from the Orthodox. Since the first quarter of our century, the new body for converting Orthodox Christians to Catholicism has been the “Eastern Rite.”

How many times have Catholic prelates bitterly asserted that “the Lord is sweeping out the Orthodox East with an iron broom so that a united Catholic Church can reign.” In 1926 and 1928, an Eastern Catholic representative traveled to Moscow to establish a union with the Renovationist Church and connections with the Marxist International. 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 preaching union.Facts indicate that the aggressive attitude of the Vatican towards Orthodoxy has not abandoned them to this day.

Main differences between

Orthodoxy and Catholicism.

1. Catholicism introduced a number of new dogmas that do not agree with the apostolic teaching and the decrees of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. The most serious deviations from the truth are the Catholic dogmas about the procession of the Holy Spirit and “from the Son” and about the primacy and infallibility of the Pope.

2. Contrary to the apostolic tradition, clergy of the Catholic Church are committed to celibacy (celibacy).

3. The sacrament of communion is not performed according to the apostolic tradition, since wafers are used instead of bread and wine (the laity are deprived of communion of the Blood of Christ). The sacrament of baptism is performed through pouring (instead of immersion in water).

4. The Orthodox Church does not recognize “purgatory,” (the middle place between heaven and hell, where souls are supposedly 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 previous 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 St. Peter's in Rome, "indulgences," i.e., were widely sold. remission of sins not only of present, but also of future(!). Luther denounced such blasphemous trade. He explained to his spiritual children that deliverance from punishment for sins can only be sought through inner contrition and repentance for what they have 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, Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors of the Wittenberg Temple in 1517, 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 authorities saved Luther from death. He was supported in Germany by many priests, professors, students, knights and princes. A schism with Rome began and the separation of Luther and his followers from the Roman Catholic Church.

The movement in favor of cleansing the Church from papal fabrications and abuses was not limited to Germany. Zwinglius and Calvin, continuing church reforms, went further than Luther in their teaching on morality and the sacraments. The main feature of Calvin's teaching was the doctrine of predestination, according to which God from eternity predestined some people to salvation and others to destruction. This teaching essentially denies the need for Christian exploits and good deeds.

Lutheranism and its evolution.

At the beginning, the sermons of Luther and Calvin concentrated on the personality of Jesus Christ: “There is no other way - Christ alone is the Way and the Truth. Outside of Him, God cannot be found... Only in the flesh of Christ can one know God... for through the sending of the Son He revealed His will and your heart." The Small Lutheran Catechism states that "Luther is a dear and blessed teacher of the Holy Scriptures, who transformed the church of God through the restoration in Christianity of purity of doctrine and the correct administration of the sacraments."

But this struggle for the purity of the Church was joined by a non-church element, namely, enmity with the papacy for political, economic and personal reasons. This had a 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 were unable to cope with this task, because many centuries separated them from the first centuries of Christianity, they had no living spiritual experience and 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 fabricated by Rome that were alien to the Word of God. Protestants, on the other hand, completely departed from the Apostolic Tradition, abandoned the spiritual experience of the holy teachers of the Church, and the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, leaving the only guide in faith to be the Holy Scripture, which they interpreted arbitrarily.

Ignorance and fundamental rejection of Church Tradition were the main source of all the errors of Protestants, because the word of God is the Bible, Gospel and Tradition. “So, brethren, stand and hold fast to the Tradition, which you have been taught either by word or by our message,” proclaims the apostle. Paul (2 Thess. 2:15). St. ap. John says: “There are many other things that Jesus did, but if they were written in detail, I think that the world itself could not contain the books that could be written” (John 21:25). “The apostles did not convey everything through the 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 Lyons, Blessed. Augustine and other saints of the first centuries.

By fundamentally rejecting the Apostolic Tradition, Protestants are not consistent. They accepted, on the basis of Tradition, the “canon of holy books,” the confession of the main Christian dogmas: the trinity of Persons in God, the incarnation of the Son of God, and recognize 3 ancient creeds in which these dogmas are revealed. Rejecting the authority of the ancient Church Fathers, they asserted the authority of the new German theologians: Luther, Calvin, etc.

Lutherans claim 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, instills in him 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 does not doubt the receipt of God’s grace. Through faith a person becomes holy, godly and a justified child of God. This is the doctrine of justification by faith, which is 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 contains elements that lead to the destruction of Christian morality. This dogma contradicts the Word of God and follows from the misunderstood words of St. Apostles. Luther accepted certain words of St. Paul literally, without connection with the text and with the general thought of the Apostle: “A man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law,” (Romans 3:28) “a man is not justified by the works of the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians) ). Ap. Paul did not speak with these words against good works, but against the false self-confidence of the Jewish teachers, who believed that salvation was earned by the external works of the Law of Moses: circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, washing hands, etc. The same apostle. Paul in his letter to the Romans says that the Lord will reward everyone according to his deeds on the day of His righteous judgment (Rom. 2:6). Ap. Peter: “You call Him Father, who impartially judges everyone according to their works.” 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 he has faith but does not have works? How can faith save him?... Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.” The Lord Himself says that even vicious people can 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 divinely established 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 performance of the sacraments, if Luther himself rejected the spiritual experience of the ancient Church, rejected Tradition and the conciliar church reason, 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 highest Priest. We therefore do not need any other priest except Christ, since each of us has received appointment from God Himself... We all become priests through baptism." Anyone 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 society from people who are able to teach members of the community. When elected, the elders lay their hands on them. There is no place for apostolic succession and the grace of the priesthood, but only for the administrative appointment to the office of preacher.

This statement is completely at odds with the method and understanding of the role of the priesthood of the early Christian Church, and it is not true that Jesus Christ and the apostles did not give any specific structure to the Church. In fact, during 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 - the society of believers. Only to one of the Apostles did the Lord give the right to perform the sacraments and teach people the faith: “And Jesus approached and said to them: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:18-20). The same is the right to lead people, leading them to salvation: “As the Father has sent me, 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 or through man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father” (Gal. 1:1).

The Apostles preserved and successively passed on the order and structure of the life of the Church that was established by the Lord Himself; They themselves ordained bishops and presbyters.

Luther's teaching about justification by faith alone led to changes in the view of the sacraments, which for Lutherans have only symbolic meaning and their entire power lies in the personal confidence of the person praying that he is justified. 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 communicate with God beyond the established sacraments and services.

Protestants came to deny communication between brothers living and those who have gone to God, to deny the need for prayers for the dead and the intercession of saints for us. The justification for this denial is purely rationalistic: why pray if you cannot change the destinies of God and since Christ has already brought complete 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 personal experiences and pious sentiments. If so, then, one wonders, what is the gracious power of God for? "Salvation is accomplished and is imputed to me." Are miracles and even the miracle of resurrection necessary? In the early 40s, Protestants removed from Luther's teaching the doctrine of the Son of God and our salvation through Him. At the beginning of this century, 80 percent of the pastors in Hamburg denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Recently, Lutherans have begun to choose women as pastors. Justice requires noting that different movements have always coexisted in Lutheranism, and now voices are being heard: “We don’t have a Church!” Among some Lutherans there is a noticeable interest in Orthodoxy.

So, the Lutheran movement since the time of Luther has abandoned 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 to be sufficient to deserve the Kingdom of Heaven. This Lutheran distortion of Christianity creates a gap between it and the faith of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Calvinism, Reformation, Presbyterianism.

Calvin carried out the Reformation in Switzerland, and his teaching spread to southwestern Germany and Holland (Reformation), in France (Huguenotism), and in Scotland, England and the North. America under the name of Presbyterianism. Calvin supplemented Lutheranism with the doctrine of unconditional "predestination." Luther nevertheless preserved the foundations of Christianity, and Judaism barely slips through him; in Calvin, the elements of Judaism and paganism are so clear that Calvinism can, with great stretch, be considered a Christian confession. “Unconditional predestination” according to Calvin says that God pre-elected 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 incomprehensible decision, apart from all their merit. On the other hand, no amount of effort can save those who are destined for eternal destruction. Good and evil deeds serve to fulfill God's purposes.

Why did Jesus Christ teach us in such detail how to live, carry out the feat, and walk the narrow path? What is the meaning of prayers, repentance, and correction of life?

Calvinists refer to certain sayings of St. Paul (Rom. 9th chapter), taken without the content of the entire speech, fragmentarily, and from them a confirmation of Calvin's doctrine of predestination is derived. These passages can only be correctly understood 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 speaks against the Jews, who considered the pagans rejected by God, and exclusively themselves - the sons of the Kingdom of God (by 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 pagans. Calvin's teaching is influenced by Judaism when it teaches that only elect people are destined for salvation, while the rest are doomed to destruction. The Word of God teaches that “God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4); “The Lord does not desire that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Calvin's teaching contradicts the concept of the Holiness of God. Incompatible with this concept is the teaching that God Himself is the author and cause of evil, having from eternity chosen 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 actions.

So, Calvinism denies free will in man; recognizes sin as a natural and inevitable phenomenon, which cannot be fought, because even prayer and repentance are helpless against it; denies the foundations of Christianity and considers the sacraments to be mere symbols; believes that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist is not real.

In Scotland, Calvinism (Presbyterianism) was recognized by Parliament as the state confession in 1592. Presbyterians, under the name “Puritans,” demanded that the English king simplify liturgical rites and eliminate symbols such as the image of the cross, the banner of the cross at baptism, etc. The basis of the Presbyterian structure is the church community, headed by an elder elected by the community. The dignity of bishop was abolished. Divine services consist of listening to prayers composed by the presbyter, preaching and singing psalms. They receive communion while sitting at a long table; marriages are blessed at home; prayers over the dead are also read at home. There are no icons. The Liturgy has been cancelled, 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 church despotism of Rome arose. The opposition matured on national, economic and religious grounds. The English were indignant at the constant interference of the Bishop of Rome in the internal life of the country, at the excessive claims of a secular and political nature, at the large incomes of Rome from England, at the licentiousness of the clergy, etc.

The reason for the break with Rome in 1532 was the refusal of the pope to give him a church divorce from Catherine of Aragon for the English king Henry the 8th. Initially, church reforms did not occur, but Henry proclaimed himself the head of the church, closed many monasteries, and abolished “tithes” in favor of Rome. Subsequently, under the influence of the Protestants who flooded England, the king ordered a review of all the teachings of the church inherited from Rome. In 1536, the “Ten Members of the Creed,” which turned out to be a mixture of Protestantism and Catholicism, came out on behalf of parliament. In 1552, a new confession of faith was published in 42 members, and then the “Small Catechism.” In it, many rituals, the blessing of water, and the use of bells are called superstitions and abolished.

Under Edward 7th, in 1551, these clauses were revised and 42 clauses of the English Confession were issued. It turned out to be a mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism. This is how the English Episcopal Church came into being.

Believers began to fight religious parties, and in 1559 the queen issued a new confession of 39 members, mandatory for clergy and laity. These “foundations” contain dogmas that agree with Orthodoxy: about the 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 the native language. But the error of Latin has been inherited regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit and “from the Son.” From Lutheranism they borrowed the delusion of justification by faith alone, non-recognition of Ecumenical Councils, disrespect for icons and St. relics. The Anglican Confession emphasizes the ecclesiastical primacy of the king. The 25th member of this creed does not recognize repentance, confirmation, marriage, unction 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, because... it is dependent on parliament, which has members of Freemasons, people of the Jewish faith and even non-believers. The English Parliament has the final say in matters of doctrine. The King, the head of the English Church, takes the 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, by whomever it may be.” was performed. 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 Protestant doctrine." In 1927 and 1928, Parliament twice rejected a new theological book approved by the Assembly of the Clergy and the House of Lords, because there the invocation of the Holy Spirit was introduced into the rite of the Liturgy, as well as the preservation of the Holy Gifts for the communion of the sick.

Conclusion.

In this summary we have tried to give basic information about existing Christian denominations and several other religions. Of course, the most sublime and ennobling religion is Christianity with its teaching about one God, worshiped in the Trinity, who created the world and cares for people; about the incarnate 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 fall was the claim of the Roman bishops to supremacy in the Church and their infallibility. Over time, the Roman Catholic Church, by introducing 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 Roman bishops gave rise to the Protestant movement in Europe, from which modern sects originate: Lutherans, Baptists, Quakers, Mormons, Pentecostals, Adventists and others. The religious chaos created by these sects paved the way for the emergence in our time of a large number of all kinds of cults, clearly of a non-Christian nature. The appearance of a large number of false prophets and strange religions before the end of the world was predicted by the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles (see our brochure “The Teaching of the Holy Scriptures about the Church”).

An unprejudiced person, getting acquainted with the history of Christianity, cannot help but come to the conclusion that only the Orthodox Church continuously goes back 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 with the grace and truth given to it. Passing on these treasures to future generations is an important task of 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 restore what was destroyed and heal wounds. Orthodoxy teaches that life must be built on the principle of Christ's love. “Then everyone will know that you are My disciples,” said Christ, “when you have love for each other.” In private life, Orthodoxy calls on a person to abstain from sins, live according to the Commandments of God and 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 on us to take care of the good of the family and the state, to strive to improve the abilities given to us by God, to cultivate humility, non-covetousness and compassion. Forgive everyone, condemn no one. 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 come. But by the power of Christ the Church rose, as if from dust, and 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 into the next world. Indeed, the Church in her heavenly-earthly existence is eternally growing and strengthening. While we are in the Church, we, like passengers on a 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, omnipotent, all-knowing, wise and merciful Heavenly Father. His will is our law, indicating how to live, how to develop our talents. Our goal is eternal blissful life in the Kingdom of Unfading Light.

Where is the true church?

QUESTION FROM OLGA
Christians of many churches are friendly, friendly people, but different denominations have different opinions regarding specific verses. I think so, our pride does not allow us to come to oneness, but the Lord Jesus Christ unites us all. I have one wish - to be united in Christ! Why delve into the intricacies of biblical interpretation? The main thing is to get to know God, find your path and follow it.

I can't agree with you. Jesus clearly said that there will be many people who will know the Lord, but will not inherit salvation because they do not comply the will of God in your life:

“Not everyone who says to Me: 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but doing the will of the Father My Heavenly. Many will say to Me on that day: Lord! God! Have we not prophesied in Your name? and was it not in Your name that they cast out demons? and did they not perform many miracles in Your name? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; depart from Me, you who do iniquity. So everyone who listens these words of mine and fulfills them, I will liken him to a prudent man... And everyone who listens to these words of Mine and doesn't fulfill them, will be like a foolish man” (Matt. 7:21-26).

Which “these words”, did Jesus mean here? With this warning, Christ concludes the Sermon on the Mount, in which He called people to return to the correct fulfillment of God's law(see the book “Returning to the Origins of Christian Doctrine”, chapter “Mission and Teaching of Jesus Christ”). That's why He uses the word "iniquity". What other law could Jesus be talking about breaking here? Of course, not the Roman one, and not the articles of legislation of different states, among which there are many controversial, illogical and downright unfair laws. The Sermon on the Mount speaks specifically only about God's law. Look at the dire consequences lawlessness(that is, failure to fulfill God's law) Christ said later: “As the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of this age: the Son of Man will send His angels, and from His kingdom they will gather all who offend and those who do iniquity, and they will throw them into the fiery furnace; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:40-43).

And in the book of Revelation, the characteristics of those people who will enter Heavenly Jerusalem for eternal life are clearly given:

“Blessed are those who keep His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life, and to enter into the city by the gate” (Rev. 22:14, see also Rev. 12:17, Rev. 14:12).

That is, a person should not simply be content with the fact that he has become a believer - he has “found” the Lord. Faith alone is not enough. The Apostle James proclaimed: “Faith without works is dead... and demons believe and tremble” (James 2:19,20). It must be taken into account that there may be more true church and look for it in your life and do what is “the will of the Heavenly Father.” Think about it, the Jews are also sure that they are doing the will of God (with these thoughts they crucified Jesus), and the Catholics are sure that they live according to the will of God, and the Orthodox, and Jehovah's Witnesses and Baptists, etc. But it is absolutely clear that some of them are mistaken... And everyone is sure that they have the true church, and it is certainly not he who is mistaken, but others... But there is only one truth - it is stated simply and simply in the Word of God accessible - just delve into it, take time to study “the will of God,” and do not be content with the fact that you “found your way.” After all, this road may not be ideal. Jesus said:

“Enter at the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in through it; For strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it” (Matt. 7:13)

And Christ said to the lawyers (popularly respected spiritual teachers of that time) that they themselves did not enter the Kingdom of Heaven and did not give to their disciples:

“Woe to you lawyers, because you took the key of understanding; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering” (Luke 11:52).

As for unification in Christ, unfortunately, in the current situation this is unlikely to happen. It is difficult to imagine that the leaders of confessions will allow their flock and the authority “earned” over the years to be “taken away” from them. In my opinion, the maximum that is possible is the unification of churches under some common idea, without losing their independence. Therefore, we must be realistic and, without waiting for unification, look today for that “true church” that is more similar to the chief apostolic one, that is, it is closer to the rest of the teachings of the Bible - the prophets and apostles who spoke from the Lord. Jesus taught to judge a person by his fruits. Likewise, a church can be judged by the lives of its parishioners. So you can at least roughly compare churches - how close they are to God. As you know, the Lord gave Christians the Holy Spirit after ascending to heaven. Therefore, by the fruits one can understand the results of the action of the Spirit on the hearts of the believers of each church. Where there is more fruit, there is more Spirit - there is a truer church. Of course, this is a relative concept; Jesus Himself taught to distinguish false teachers by their fruits (not ostentatious, but internal, realized through their daily life). In our church, almost all members who regularly attend services for several years and study the Bible gradually stop drinking alcohol, smoking, swearing and begin to lead a highly moral lifestyle (for example, no sex outside of marriage, no divorce, etc.). I myself used to be a supporter of all of the above, but now it disgusts my spirit. I consider all this to be serious evidence of our church’s closeness to God and His law. It is worth noting that according to worldwide statistics, members of our church on average live 5 to 10 years longer than other people. Does this mean anything to you? I deliberately do not mention the name of my denomination, so as not to give it any advertising or anti-advertising. But people who read the book “Returning to the Origins of Christian Doctrine” will find in it those criteria of the true church that I consider important, in particular, the true church must strive to keep all the current, unrepealed commandments of God set out in the Bible.

Father Jeff Harvey, a priest of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in Australia, has served at the Orthodox Mission of the Good Shepherd Church in Clayton (Melbourne) for 17 years. The Parish of the Good Shepherd has become a spiritual home for many Australians and people of different ethnic backgrounds. The English language is used in worship, so that all parishioners have the opportunity to unite with Christ through the sacraments of His Church, which is 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 join the missionary department of the Christian Union of Officers. One of my best friends left the military and joined the Association of Christian Training and Service Conferences. He worked in Africa and Europe, united Christian officers of various armies and branches of the military, and inspired them. It was a wonderful ministry and I traveled with him throughout Europe for some time.

I lived the dream of becoming a missionary. But despite the dream, I somehow realized that what we were doing was still not what God wanted me to do in the long run. For some reason this itinerant ministry was not enough.

Australia and Theological College

After my father retired from the army, he moved to 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 a 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 have very little understanding of theology. I was literally walking on 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, it was necessary to undergo three years of study at a theological educational institution, this was exactly what I needed. The Archbishop of Adelaide wanted me to study at St. Theological College. Barnabas in South Australia.

After an interview with the rector, I realized how liberal this college is. I was worried about this interview and felt that I would have a hard time studying there. I learned that many who attended this college lost their faith, it was tragic.

Fortunately, my vicar had connections and hoped to persuade Dr Leon Morris, then head of Ridley College in Melbourne, to admit me there. So I studied theology for three years at Ridley College.

The Diocese of Adelaide was willing to sponsor my education at St. Barnabas, but she was unable to afford tuition at Ridley College. I would have to pay the tuition myself. Somehow we hoped to scrape together some money for training. To our surprise, when I graduated, we had more money in our bank account than when we started. No one could explain how this happened. God gave!

I learned that being a member of the Church is what it means to be a Christian.

Studying at Ridley College became one of the fundamental stages in my life. Studying was much more interesting than at the engineering academy. I had the good fortune to study with Dr. Peter Toon, who was on six months leave from Oxford University. He was an excellent lecturer. Dr. Toon divided the lecture time 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, that’s how he taught us to think. He was the first teacher during my entire study who sought to instill in me the skill of systematic thinking. When I first arrived at Ridley, I was a bit of a "raging evangelist." I had the Gospel and I 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, sitting at the feet of the late Dr. Toon, I learned that the Church was physically present on earth, and the Union of Anglican Churches 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 in my life is Christ, not the Church. Under Dr. Toon's guidance, I came to realize how contrary this attitude is to Christ. It's as if someone came to me and said, "Jeff, I like you, that'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 most after God. And the Church is Christ’s bride. They are one. There cannot be One without the Other.

So I saw that if I strive for communion with God, I must remain in the Church.

While studying the historical Christian Church, I also learned about the importance of liturgy and the sacraments. The training transformed me from just a person who had encountered God into an active member of His Church. It made me a true Anglican and a true Christian. I went to college as an evangelical - with the Gospel, and came out a real Anglican - with the Gospel and the Church. And I am grateful to Dr. Peter Toon 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 Camberwell. I was told that if I served with an English accent, I would very quickly lose my entire flock. But I didn't have any problems with it. When I arrived there I found a wonderful traditional Anglican parish, with a wonderful Anglican vicar called Canon Holt (these were the last years of his ministry).

As he was retiring, I served as second priest until the vicar changed. I am very glad to have served in this community and learned from two outstanding priests.

They were very nice people. Canon Holt treated me very well. His successor, Gerald Wall, was also an excellent priest. Janet and I spent blessed days there. It was a surprise and a 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 Australian Army

My military experience interested the Anglican military bishop. He invited me to serve as a chaplain in the Australian Army. I agreed - on the condition that I would serve near Melbourne. Janet's mother, whose health had failed, came to live with us in Australia, she wanted to be near us. My terms were accepted and I signed the contract.

And so we were sent to Townsville, 2600 km north of Melbourne!

Wherever the soldiers were going, I went there too. If they were walking into the mountains, and I was walking into the mountains. When they parachuted from airplanes and helicopters, I jumped too. I was in training for six weeks straight. I still don’t know how Janet managed with two small children at that time. The Lord is good, He helped.

Serving in the Australian Army exposed me to Australian culture like nothing else. All this helped transform me from an Englishman to an Australian.

There's a lot of booze in the Australian Army. Many employees struggle with alcohol addiction. Young people are struggling and it was very important to me that I could be there for 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 generally treated me with respect. They knew that the priest had his own special role in the war. In World War I, chaplains suffered the highest casualties of any branch of the military because they were always on the front line with the soldiers.

I served in the Australian Army for a total of 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. Luke's in Melbourne's North Springvale suburb. Having worked with young people for 7 years, I felt called to work with young people.

We celebrated the Anglican liturgy and I wore my vestments during the service. We also had a number of programs for young people. We had a music 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 a Call to Service, a wonderful training course for members. We grew up. Things went very well for almost 10 years.

And then, completely unexpectedly, obsessive propaganda for the ordination of women began.

And this is where what Dr. Peter Toon taught me made me stop and think, “What’s going on? Church history goes back 2,000 years, and suddenly we're going to change that important thing? If this is correct, then why didn't Jesus tell us about it, and why hasn't the Holy Spirit told us about it in the last 200 years?"

I found myself in a quandary trying to figure out which side to take on this issue. At that stage I had two Anglican authorities: John Stott and G.I. Packer. I decided that I would stick to their position. What confused me was that John Stott was in favor of women's ordination and Parker was strongly against it. I couldn't hide behind their authority!

When Michael Harper began his research for the book, he himself had no definite opinion on the matter. By the end of his work, he came to the conviction that, according to the two-thousand-year-old church tradition, man and woman represent two different aspects of the Divine Person and we have different, complementary, equally important images of service 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 the female priesthood, but the One, Holy Cathedral Church never had women priests.

The decision came during a vote in my archdiocese. I was present at the diocesan council where the vote took place. The votes were almost equal. Each side screamed with all their might. It was proposed to divide into groups. Supporters of women's ordination moved to one side of the room, opponents to the other. The number of votes on each side was counted. It turned out that supporters of the female priesthood were winning by one vote. The winners rejoiced. A minute later they turned to us and began to mock us. I thought: “Is this decision from the Holy Spirit? Where is the peace, joy, love, patience, kindness and generosity, why do they turn and mock fellow Christians of other views? Where is the kiss of peace? What kind of spirit moves you to such a decision?

Anglicanism adheres to democratic principles, and I tried to come to terms with this decision, but I was increasingly experiencing an internal conflict. One day I was preparing a young man for confirmation. His mother spoke to me about this issue of the female priesthood. She didn't trust this decision. She wondered how this could be and how she could confirm the correctness of this view. I tried very hard to explain to her how they got to this point. But all my arguments aggravated the disagreement in my soul.

I thought: “What am I doing? I think this is a mistake. Why do I try to convince others?

And I realized that I couldn'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 any advice on what to do now.

Opening

Janet and I were in Philip Island, 90 minutes from Melbourne, for the weekend. I took with me a new book by Michael Harper, it was called “The True Light: An Evangelical's Journey into Orthodoxy.”

In this book, Michael assessed the Church of England according to Holy Tradition. He concluded that a church that ordains women and openly gay people, or that produces bishops who do not believe in the Incarnation or the Virgin Birth, is not a Church. After serving as an Anglican priest for 40 years, Harper decided that any church that departed from these Christian tenets was not Christ's Church.

G.K. Chesterton once said that Tradition is when we give a voice to our ancestors. If our ancestors had voted with us at this meeting, of course, no ordination of women would have passed. The introduction of a female priesthood is an obvious and undoubted violation of tradition.

It is clear that the Church of England is not part of the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Fortunately, Harper now had a solution. "The True Light" describes his discovery of Orthodox Christianity and tells the story 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 given a cake with the words “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 have to do, but I don’t know how yet.”

Finding Orthodox faith

I knew we had to join the Church. I had previously learned from Dr. Toon that the Church of Christ exists as a physical reality on Earth. I know that Christ said that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church (cf. Matt. 16:18), and I was sure that She exists. And from Michael Harper I learned that the Church of England is not a Church.

For Westerners, Roman Catholicism was the obvious solution. Nevertheless, my dear mother told me when I spoke about my doubts that she would support any decision I made, just not the decision to become a Catholic! To be honest, I was shocked by this statement. She was apparently influenced by the vicissitudes of English history. 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. People with modern weapons were advancing on us, attacking us. Nothing we did could stop them, and they were victorious. Somehow, Queen Elizabeth I participated in the battle in all her glory.

In the 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 wearing these big, round black Catholic hats.

They were all driving, and I was trying to get into this car. I screamed 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 that car to get away from there, but they simply 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 that it was God who taught me that I should not think about Catholicism.

And I didn't want to join one of the many splinter factions of Anglicanism, even though that was a possibility. The only alternative was the Orthodox Church.

Increasing

It is not abstract truth that is the focus, but God the Personality

Joining the Church was only the beginning of a wonderful journey and discovery.

Archbishop Paul blessed me to study Orthodox theology for three years. I studied remotely, at the Antioch Town center in America, where they issued the Orthodox diploma of St. Stephen. It was wonderful. I discovered that there were still a number of subtle theological aspects that I needed to grasp. And I had no difficulty in learning them.

In the process of studying, I realized a truly fundamental change in my Christian worldview. As an Anglican, I sought to know the answer to the question: “What is truth?”

Anglicanism proposes to take rational truth as a basis as central to Christian spiritual experience. Having become 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 greatly 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 have come 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 God’s creation and environmental issues. As a result, the Church of England is divided along these lines. Focusing on the different Faces of God is what causes such divisions. The Anglican Communion is largely divided between Evangelicals, Charismatics and Liberals, and there is also a division between High and Low Churches.

In Orthodoxy we see nothing like this. The Orthodox have no 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 long service allowance from the Church of England and Janet and I went to England to see our family. During our visit we met Michael Harper in Cambridge. He also invited us to the London Antioch Cathedral, where we prayed together at the liturgy. Then we went to his apartment in Cambridge. He then connected me with the Antiochian Church in Melbourne.

Upon returning to Melbourne, the first service I went to was at St Nicholas Church in East Melbourne. At this liturgy were Sister Virginia, Father Dimitri and Bishop Gibran. 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. Reminded me of how God called me at Sandhurst. I can't explain what it was, but something about this service attracted me.

Soon after, Bishop Ghibran 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 home. Bishop Gibran wanted to receive us, but was unable to pay us. I would say that they had a serious interest in Orthodoxy, but once the priests realized that there would be no income, many of them lost their resolve.

It was the same with me. I didn't see a way to 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 Christians 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 censing is a normal part of the service in the Church. Why not perform it in the current service?

The last difficult moment for me was the Orthodox Church’s veneration of the Mother of God Mary. I soon realized that if the Orthodox Church is the true Church, I must trust Her in the way she teaches us to honor the Mother of God.

I came to the conclusion that all these questions boil down to one thing:

“Orthodoxy is the Church of Christ?”

I was attracted to Orthodoxy more than I was repulsed by Anglicanism

Through reading books, studying and praying, I eventually realized that yes! And all my evangelical doubts about the place of the Mother of God Mary in the Orthodox Church evaporated. The magnification of Mary in the Gospel became a prophecy that all generations would bless Her. Evangelicals do not honor Mary, but Orthodox Christians do. So over time, all my comments disappeared.

At the same time, I was amazed 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 saints serving with us surpasses everything.

Ultimately, I did not leave the Church of England because of the ordination of women. Rather, I left because I was drawn to the Orthodox Church. I was attracted to Orthodoxy more than I was repulsed by Anglicanism. I didn’t just run away—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 the parish of St. Luke. Some reacted in a peculiar way: “He cannot become Orthodox because he is English.”

Welcome home!

And then it was my turn to hear: “Welcome home!”

I was received into the Orthodox Church in the early 2000s. Archbishop Paul (Saliba), of blessed memory, set the condition that before I was ordained a priest, 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 as a deacon, Archbishop Paul, 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 thing I was taught was Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone. For an evangelical Anglican, everything must be supported by Scripture. I think this whole women's ordination turmoil has undermined my faith in the "Scripture Alone" principle because I have seen people arguing from Scripture and coming to completely opposite conclusions. They argued bitterly, citing arguments from the same Scripture. This is how I became convinced that the “Scripture alone” principle does not work.

I learned with admiration that while Protestants trust only Scripture, Catholics are guided by Scripture and Tradition, and Orthodox are guided by Tradition. Exactly. Scripture is at the center of Orthodox Tradition. This is the diamond of Tradition, but it is only part of Tradition. Many others - the Creed, Councils, church fathers, liturgy, icons - the Church honors all these things along 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 options 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 sorrows in life.

In supermarkets, there can be confusion near the checkout counters, and people often 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 greatly. I was amazed at the wisdom of Orthodox confessors. They skillfully use penance as one of the tools for healing the human soul.

"Good Shepherd"

Some Orthodox Christians 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 be given a priest, and they appointed me.

Thus the small “Mission of the Good Shepherd” was founded. Our mission is to bring the light of Orthodoxy to Australians and strive to once again make the Church a significant part of secular Australian 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, liturgy and all Sacred Tradition to Australians as God's answer to heal their crippled souls and to make their lives permeated with His presence.