True Christianity vs Social Gospel
“What we have here is a change of Christian theology into sociology, sociology baptized into a new theology. This new theology as expressed in this heretical article (which was written by a bishop of the Orthodox Church – G.B.) places the realization of the Kingdom of God within our history here on earth, advocating the liberation of man, not from sin but from poverty, from slavery, from racial discrimination, and in general from all the social systems which are used in various governments and cause people misery and unhappiness. This is the neo-Christian message. This is the new liberation theology (which was invented by the Soviets – G.B.).
But this is horrible because if we attempt to make Christianity cover and heal the social ills … and we are not at all concerned about the matter of sin; and we transfer the Kingdom of God to earth totally ignoring Heaven, then we have secularization in its fullness – a Christianity of this age … The true purpose of Christianity, my friends, is repentance, repentance for sin and the return to God…
So let us not talk about Christianity or a kingdom of this world; it is a great distortion. Christianity is salvation of the soul … when we distort the true meaning of Christianity, and when we teach other new theologies to our Christians, we will surely have a form of Godliness, but we will have denied the power of Christianity or Godliness. Needless to say the Spirit of God does not visit these states…
The world today is running and the church is almost out of breath trying to catch up and save the world. At the same time, here we see how cunning the devil is. The running distances the Church from Her main purpose and Her main mission: to truly save the people. The problem is that the church – in its attempt to run after the problems of contemporary man – falls into countless compromises. These compromises, in the final analysis do not save; they cannot save because they are the product of a desperate, secularized church. This is the work of the devil…
Truthfully speaking, a Church the keeps and maintains the spirit of repentance on the front burner, stressing precisely that spirit to the faithful – only that Church is walking the true path, because by doing so, souls are being earned for the Kingdom of God … a Church that does not stress the need for repentance at all times, is a Church of no help. It does not help people gain their salvation”
– Elder Athanasios Mitilinaios
"What we have here is a change of Christian theology into sociology, sociology baptized into a new theology. This new…
Posted by Gregory Bistrita on Tuesday, 15 May 2018