A Church that finds itself in need of spiritual renewal has truly lost its way!

Much has been written on our blog about the charismatic revival movement Blessed Seraphim Rose talked so much about, but it may appear that it is only starting to happen that his words are becoming truly prophetic. The charismatic revival movement seems to finally be catching up with mainstream Orthodoxy – and in a big way. That is the case at least with Romania and we are bringing it up because we are sure similar movements are sweeping through most official Orthodox Churches.

On a recent trip we took to Romania we came to face a completely new phenomena, and to be honest, of which we have not even heard much even though we do try to keep up with the events happening in the orthodox world. There is a new movement everyone is talking about: The Army of The Lord (or Oastea Domnului in Romanian). Five years ago nobody even heard about it and now it is on everyone’s lips in the Romanian Orthodox Church. While in Romania we did attend a few liturgical services in various Churches and something unfamiliar caught our attention when we heard Oastea Domnului being mentioned during the calling to remembrance of the Holy Gifts. That was something we could not remember hearing before. And then we heard about it in normal conversations with many other people.

The first thing that fascinated us is how everyone sees the members of this movement as some sort of “something special”. “Those people are members of Oastea Domnului” we were being whispered in the Church. We asked to find out more details about it. And we did. We found out that Oastea Domnului is in fact a grass-roots movement (or that is what they are trying to make it look like) inside the official Church with the declared goal of “renewing” it from within (see http://orthodoxwiki.org/Army_of_the_Lord). Where have we heard that before?

Well, why renew the Church? Does this imply that the Romanian Orthodox Church need to be renewed? One should ask why. Is it because its people do not recognize in it the true apostolic Church it was meant to be? Or is it because it is not fulfilling its mission of bringing people closer to God? Is it because it is not confessing the whole truth any more? Is it because this institution has become an abstract entity and been devoid-ed of any ability to answer to any practical, day-to-day needs and questions of its own flock? Or is it all of these? In a Church that is pretending to be confessing the truth unaltered as handed down from the Holy Fathers, why is there a need for such an inner group? Is there more truth to be confessed than in the mainstream Church? These are indeed questions worth asking, because this is exactly the same recipe through which protestantism formed inside the Catholic Church. Once the Catholic Church deviated from the truth it became a breeding ground for unimaginable heresies, and the Orthodox Church is going down the same path to perdition.

What struck us even more is that in order to become part of this movement one needs to take an oath. Oath? What for? Did not Christ say not to swear neither by heaven nor by earth? Here is what we read on Oastea Domnului‘s website (in Romanian):

De aceea, oricine intră în Oastea Domnului trebuie să ia în faţa Domnului şi a fraţilor din Oastea Domnului o hotărâre şi să facă un legământ că se leapădă cu totul de felul păcătos şi rău de viaţă de dinainte – şi că se predă cu totul din acea clipă înainte Domnului Iisus Hristos, ca să trăiască pentru El.

In English, the member-to-be takes an oath that from that moment on he or she will give up sinning and dedicate himself/herself totally to the Lord. Just like in the protestant practices when just by accepting Jesus, one is cured of all sin on the spot and is all of a sudden a “new” person. We also heard some people saying that members of Oastea Domnului often refer to pentecostals and people of other denominations as “brothers”.

What could be farther from Orthodoxy? But this is not all. For example we would like to point out a very strange new practice, linked to the activities of Oastea Domnului, which can be found at Nicula monastery in Transilvania where people get on their knees and elbows and go around the Church multiple times, there in the sight of everybody else – just like Francis of Assisi tied himself up by the neck and got his disciple to drag him around so people could see how sinful he was.

So it may appear that what Father Arsenie Boca depicted in his painted prophecy in the Church at Draganescu is starting to come true. He depicted Francis of Assisi amongst the Orthodox saints and many people ask why, but few understand …

This is why it is so important to read Fr Seraphim’s Orthodox Survival Course (and we urge you to contact us at admin [at] orthodoxaustralia.org to get a copy) – it is because it explains in great detail the dangers hidden behind these “spiritual renewal” movements. The Church was created by God complete and in perfect order and does not require “renewal” or “improvements” but preservation. A Church that finds itself in need of spiritual renewal has truly lost its way. Fr Cleopa Ilie and other recent fathers of the Romanian Orthodox Church did raise the alarm about Oastea Domnului. Are we listening?

Many people today compare Oastea Domnului to the Legion of Archangel Michael that formed at the beginning of the 20th century in Romania and see similarities, where in fact the differences are quite significant: the legion was an external entity to the Church which fought mainly against communism and the political system of that time (communism rightly appeared as the number one enemy of the Church – see, in those times the enemy was external to the Church, today it is within it), where Oastea Domnului is an internal group formed within the Church that fights to change it from inside – so the goal is completely opposite – one fought to defend the Church, the other fights to change it. Also, the “oath” the members of the legion were taking was more a declaration of adherence to a set of principles rather than a firm pledge before God to not sin again – and upon more careful examination other differences may be found.

We will follow up with other articles on this subject.