You’re sick. Your nose is stuffy. Your body aches, You’re sweaty, coughing, sneezing and you don’t have enough energy to get out of bed. It’s not the flu according to Dr. Len Horowitz …
http://humansarefree.com/2016/03/chemtrail-flu-have-you-got-it-yet.html?m=0
from Orthodox Life magazine 1990 #5
“We are born to actualize a fairy tale.” (from a song popular (in the U.S.S.R.) in the 1930’s)
In 1946, an extremely interesting book by Vladimir Propp was published: Morphology of the Folktale. Having studied a huge amount of such literature, the author discovered two subjects which consistently appeared in the fairy tales of all peoples, from American Indians to the Western Slavs. These were the following: a journey to a distant mystical kingdom and a battle with a serpent or dragon. Because of their global repetitiveness he concluded that these themes are not simply a figment of someone’s imagination, but a coded description of something which actually happens and plays an important role in people’s lives. The first subject was decoded by Propp. Through fine logical and textological analysis he showed that the distant mystical kingdom is the world beyond the grave, and the hero who visits it is none other than a shaman. His soul, as a result of a rite called kamlanie, leaves his body and enters a realm adjacent to ours. Here he finds the cure to the patient’s illness, and upon his return, brings him the priceless gift of life and health. Shamanism, which is currently preserved in isolated areas of North America, Siberia and black Africa, was once a world religion. This archaic form of the synergistic interaction of man with the realities of the world beyond was preserved in a nation’s memory in the poetic form of a fairy tale.
Propp was unable to completely decode the second subject – the battle with the serpent. It seems that the time was not yet ripe for this. And now, this secret seems to be revealing itself. It is becoming more and more apparent that this mysterious serpent, under whose evil spells our ancestors fell periodically in the past, has been in face to face contact with us for decades. Why is it that we did not notice him before? Probably because he had great power over us and was able to convince us that he does not exist. Now, although he has not weakened sufficiently to let us out of his grip, he no longer possesses that hypnotic power required to distract us and become invisible.
And so, who is this serpent?
It is a certain type of government which, it seems, arose in the course of history in various parts of the world as a result of upheavals in society and caused people a great deal of suffering. The ancient tale illustrated this dragon in very general terms. Now we are able to describe him in much greater detail.
The essence of the fairy tale serpent lies not simply in the fact that he insists on daily tribute. If that were all, then any government could be considered a serpent, for without taxation, no government would be able to exist. What is critical here is WHAT the citizens pay, and TO WHOM. If certain criteria are met, what we have is not a pseudo-government, which is a serpent, but a normal government. In the folklore, it is characteristic for the serpent firstly, to be a lower being than humans; secondly, to feed on them.
Herein lies the key to the deciphering. The essence of it is this: the tax is paid by individuals, but following the payment it takes on an impersonal form. The many-headed monster which grows fat on this tax is so simple in its make-up, that personification does not take place here.
A normal government can function in two opposite variants: a monarchy or a republic. Neither the first, nor the second variant carries the specific characteristics of the serpent. This is also true for cases in between, which possess aspects of both the first and second variant.
In a monarchy, the tribute paid by individuals, since the people loving their monarch give him part of their soul, is paid TO an individual. What is more, it is paid to one sanctified by divine anointment. And this sacred, royal personage is everyone’s property, so each subject can regain from him all that he has given, but on a higher plane. Therefore there is no loss of personal wealth from the nation. On the contrary, there is an increase. In a republic, although the tribute is paid to an impersonal senate or parliament, which constantly changes its membership, it does not hold within itself anything of that individual which is paying the tribute. Its content has not a grain of the human self. A republican chooses leaders of a nation not because he loves them or will love them after the election, but solely for creating order in society. Often he disdains the one he votes for, but presumes that because of his practical talents this person will be valuable in the elected post assigned to him. In this way, the citizen’s inner world remains his private affair, jealously guarded from official institutions. The tribute to these institutions is only rejection of those forms of behavior which are prohibited by law. He sacrifices only external freedoms which do not touch his person, for individuality is a purely internal category. Consequently, here the sum of personal human resources at the very least does not decrease. In reality, it actually grows, since a healthy course set by a good government is conducive to the development of talents and abilities of each individual.
Now, let us imagine that in some country there arises a closed social group with a harsh corporate discipline. This group develops its own lower form of subculture out of the genuine culture created by the people. If the cohesiveness of this group will be based on the collective worship of an idol, and if it can draw the populace into such worship, having convinced them that this is a great individual, this country will undergo the calamity described in the fairy tale: captivity by the serpent. The fairy tale description is symbolic, but very accurate. Similar to the dragon, the caste of priests of the idol is many-headed, and primitive. Similarly, the caste takes tribute from the populace in the forms of SOULS. Having believed that the idol is a living being of royal stature, the people will give to him the best of their soul, just as those subject to a monarch. However, that which is given in this case will never be regained, for the idol is dead and soulless. The only properties of a living being belonging to the serpent are the instincts of grabbing and holding for oneself. Having at first received voluntary tribute, his appetite for it will grow and he will begin to implement any measure for its collection, including treachery and threats. Moral principles are something he cannot understand. In this way, a decrease of personal wealth begins in this society. It results in degradation and movement towards spiritual and material poverty.
“At first the people did not realize what was happening, but later the way back was cut off.” According to folklore, this scenario of the seizure of a nation’s soul occurred in every age and in every country. The most recent of these, and most likely, the most grandiose, occurred to us, and fate itself has made us experts on the serpent. We have much to say about this vermin.
Historical breaks which lead to such usurpations are prefaced by certain conditions. Our variant had also occurred in the past. This is apparent not only in fairy tales, but also in the Bible – in the books of the Prophets Daniel and Jeremiah. The particulars are described there so vividly that you involuntarily ask yourself – am I dealing with a precedent here, or a prophecy?
In the final, fourteenth chapter of Daniel (Septuagint) it is written that the Babylonians had a highly honored idol. It was kept in a heavily guarded place and was locked up at night – in our terms, in a MAUSOLEUM. The name of this idol was VIL – the initials of him who now lies in our mausoleum. There is yet another similarity which corresponds perfectly, casting aside the premise that this is all a coincidence. The sacrificers’ main goal was to convince the king and all his people that this idol was not dead, but alive. It is precisely this which has been drummed into us from childhood: “Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live,”and even now, “Lenin is more alive than anyone living.” In the second epitaph, not only is the mausoleum doll numbered in the ranks of living creatures, to which we belong, but it is declared that his existential level is above ours, that he is a special, royal being, selected from above. However, the god which lies in the tomb is not the dragon. The many-headed creature consists of his sacrificers – that is, the top inner circle of the communist party. So it is in the Bible. VIL is not the dragon, as it may seem at first glance. There is no ambiguity here. Right after the discussion about the idol ends in chapter 14, the real dragon reveals himself, and is called so by name. Here the classic epic of the battle against the dragon begins. We will analyze this later. Apparently, the Babylonian VIL was only a helpful tool used by the serpent, but not the serpent himself. So it can be said of the VIL of the Russian land, since they are totally analogous. Naturally, the latter interests us more than the former, so now let us speak of him.
Our breaking point was the 1917 revolution. It is organically tied in with the symbol to its leader, formulated in the consciousness of the people. Without him, only the February Revolution could have taken place, and would not have led to the October Revolution. Many authors held this point of view, but allowed a mistake in an important point. They said that the social revolution was victorious thanks to Lenin. In actuality, it was victorious not because of Lenin, but because of the image of Lenin, the legend of Lenin. This image, in its functions and characteristics, had nothing whatsoever to do with its prototype. It is known that following the October uprising Lenin lost control of the ensuing events, and from 1923 to his death he was actually under house arrest in the villa of Gorky near Moscow. Nevertheless, everything that went on was credited to him: the Brestk peace agreement, the defeat of Wrangel and Kolchak, the creation of the USSR, the separation of church and state, NEP, the squelching of the Antonov uprising, the development of diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, even the reform of Russian orthography. As for the personal characteristics of the real Lenin, they were completely opposite from the imagined ones. In real life this was a man of average capabilities. In areas of theoretical thought, where sensitivity to logical categories is crucial, he was most ungifted. His ‘Materialism and Empiriocriticism” reveals amazing metaphysical insensitivity on the part of the author and his complete ignorance of what philosophy is, of its goals and its problems. Once Berdyaev, having nothing to do, began to leaf through this opus and wrote down only the most obvious absurdities. When their number reached two hundred, this pastime grew tiresome for him, and he left it. In legend, Lenin has tremendous mental capacities and freely operates within complicated abstractions inaccessible to the majority of humans. As anyone can become convinced from reading his works which breathe hatred Loloukhin came to this conclusion and shared these findings in the essay “Reading Lenin”, in real life this was an extremely angry man. He showed absolute intolerance towards everyone who did not wish to accept his vulgar conceptions of the world. Such conceptions went no further than those of his favorite authors – Pisarev and Chemishevsky. In legend, however, this is an angel of righteousness, the epitome of humility and intelligence. When even one aspect of the surface truth about a person is so totally disregarded, one can be sure that it spreads to all other aspects. from this point on, no matter what that person says or does, or no matter what new information is revealed about him, it will only increase people’s admiration and worship of him. The law of “he is desirable not because he is good, but he is good because he is desirable” now takes effect. And this is what happened in this case. One can illustrate this in hundreds of examples, but let us cite only one:
When Lenin died, the orphaned Bolsheviks decided to remove his superhuman brain and with the help of this unique instrument finish the work of freeing the proletariat begun by Lenin. How they actually hoped to do this – whether it was to read the program of world revolution in the sinews of his brain, or in some other way, remains unclear. Yet their intentions were completely serious. Two well-known neurosurgeons were invited. In the presence of highly ranking party members they performed the trepanation. And an unexpected sight met their gaze: Lenin’s brain was found to be no larger than a walnut, since it had been progressively destroyed by years of paralysis. And what do you think? Were the revolutionaries horrified? No, quite the opposite: they were enthralled. In Khrushchev’s time one of the witnesses of this scene published a book of memoirs of Lenin. On recalling this incident, he said that everyone just gasped: “What a genius. With a brain like that he was able to overturn Russia and create an immortal school of thought!” There is no need to comment on this. It is clear that here we have a case not of naivete or stupidity, but a dangerous form of collective insanity, difficult to cure.
The insanity consists of the fact that our people created an idol for themselves and with exclamations of joy began to dance around him. Believing that he was immortal, they hoped through their love for him to find the source of creative energy. The idol, even when alive, was undeserving of these strong feelings. He died, and simply became a wax mannequin. It is possible that after his death, a massive sobering could have taken place. However, at this point a many-headed monster appeared on the scene. It pronounced itself as the top guardian of the idol’s altar which exudes his living spirit. It was the only fully powerful receptor of this spirit and the legitimate heir to all the wealth of his teaching. This monster has many names now: “the system”, “the Soviet power”, “partocracy”, “communiacs”, “the ruling bureaucratic apparatus”, yet they are all imprecise. The best name to call it is Gorynych the Dragon. On behalf of the immortal VIL, this serpent continues to suck the juices from our souls, and we lack the determination to protest. The symbolic idol created by us still holds us in its hypnotic trance. Besides, despite the primitiveness of its spiritual make-up, the dragon showed great foresight at the right time. When we experienced post-revolutionary euphoria, he, supposedly for our own good, took away all our property. His monopoly of ownership binds us in this way as well. It is difficult to explain to someone who has not lived under it how disgusting this yoke is. Once Saint Seraphim of Sarov was asked if he had ever seen demons. “They are hideous,” said the righteous one, and left it at that. Apparently, the human tongue has no words to adequately describe demonic hideousness. In exactly the same way it is impossible to describe in words the baseness of Gornych the Dragon, who forces tribute out of us. Many have attempted to do so – immigrant historians, dissident journalists, anonymous writers of anecdotes, novelists such as Orwell and Kessler. But for those who have not experienced the dragon’s claws on themselves, these descriptions bounce off like peas from a wall; here I am not even speaking of those Western liberals who partake of all the benefits of the free world and yet glorify socialism. These hopeless idiots would be set straight only by a newly materialized Lenin, who would begin to free the working class from exploitation in their country. Here I am speaking of people who are more or less reflective and able to empathize to some extent with someone else’s calamity. Even they cannot understand us fully. Nevertheless, though it may be one voice in the desert, we must scream over and over again to the whole world about the hideousness of the serpent and warn people against captivity by him, like it or not, “dripping water can drill a rock.” Maybe sooner or later, they will understand something.
What is hardest to endure is the fact that the serpent is not satisfied with what is rendered to “Caesar”, but demands that which is God’s. It is not enough for him to steal from us in a way that no capitalist would ever dream to steal from his workers. He also wants us to consider him our benefactor, a loving father. He wants us to open our hearts to him, to share with him our most ardent desires, to give to him what is warmest in our souls, to say kind and gentle words to him, to show him our adoration, express delight at his incredible sophistry, regard every word of his as divine revelation, to thank him for the wonderful life he has given us, to dedicate our best poetry and songs to him. In short, he wants our sincere love. But he forces this sincere love out of us. Can anything be more unnatural and degrading? The fate of our nation can be compared to the fate of an unfortunate woman who was deceived into marrying a cunning monster, who after the wedding demanded tender feelings from her through beatings and threats. This is far worse than marriage for profit and even the multitude of so-called marital relations by agreement, i.e., prostitution, in which a woman simply conscientiously fulfills her marital functions, thereby supporting herself financially. Still, she is not forced into something more than this, something which is outside the bounds dictated by the mutual agreement. But here her very soul is manipulated, dirty paws reach for what is most private – usurping her inner world.
One who has not experienced this will ask in disbelief: how can anyone force a person to love him? One who is forced to love only fakes such love. In that case the love is not genuine, for real love arises spontaneously, is born in a mystical and unpredictable way within the innermost depths of our “self”.
This lack of understanding is based on a simplified conception of man. In reality, man is such a complex creature that he fits no theoretical model. It turns out that despite the view of psychologists, he can come to love someone not out of an inner choice, but by external command, provided that this command is supported through corresponding measures, or tools. These are exactly what the serpent employed.
What were they? Oh, there were many. Let us speak only of three. The first and most simple tool was fear. Everyone wants to live. When you know that if you do not develop a great liking towards the serpent, they will come during the night, drag you out from your apartment, torture you in the jails of the secret police, shoot you out like a dog, or send you to work at the mercury mines where all your teeth will crumble to powder, you involuntarily begin to develop that liking. Our organism’s mechanisms of self-preservation have some sort of built-in computer. Unnoticed by us, it sifts through all the variants of behavior, compares their results and seeks the most optimal one, i.e., the safest. After this it begins to create a world view based on that variant. It comes as a surprise to ourselves that suddenly we begin to dislike that which we used to enjoy, and we begin to like that which we hitherto rejected. In the thirties the courts were able to sentence people for crimes such as: “He does not love the Soviet regime,” or “He doesn’t believe in the victory of communism.” In other words, the punishment is not for incorrect actions, but for incorrect feelings, and everyone knew this perfectly well. This is why very deep in the souls of our people this act of self-preservation took place, developing “proper” feelings, i.e., those which increased the chances of remaining alive.
The second tool was falsehood. This is not merely a trait of the serpent, but an attribute which characterizes his very nature. Nideyev, a dissident, found an ingenious name for the USSR: the Empire of Lies. No one has thought of a better name since. Even Reagan’s “Evil Empire” is much weaker, because it is not as concrete. The Bolsheviks began to lie unrepentedly even before the Revolution, for it is precisely through falsehood that they prepared the revolt. But that was child’s play compared to how they lied later. Having gained power, the communists began to attract all the people to the business of perpetuating falsehood. Each adult citizen was required to lie constantly for fear of death: at meetings, at work, in print (if he appeared in print), at lectures, in streetcars, on the street, in the bath house, at the barber’s, in the store, on the beach – in a word – everywhere. There is no exaggeration in the words “for fear of death”. If someone dared to say the whole truth during those years, he would automatically receive the strictest of all punishments. When, as a result of such a lengthy, massive attack on truth, reality and falsehood became confused. The scale of values became deformed. People no longer understood whom they should love, and whom they should hate. And instead of absolute criteria, now relative ones came into play: safety, for example. The third tool was already mentioned. This is the creation of the image of a beloved leader. Although the wax doll lying in the mausoleum was pronounced forever immortal, he could not be used for the arousal of people’s emotions to the same degree as in those years when he was alive. A replacement for him appeared – a reticent Caucasian in a simple field shirt with a pipe between his teeth. Soon his image was fused with the system as securely as the image of VIL. One of the first to note this was Henre Barbusse, by making the famous statement: “Stalin – is Lenin today.” Of course, the second leader was also not a serpent. Like the first, he was merely an idol. But as we know, the existence of an idol is tremendously important for the serpent. People find it easier to bow down before something personified. They began to bow to the system not in abstraction, but in the person of Comrade Stalin.
In this way Gorynych the Dragon achieved the goal which he had set for himself from the very beginning: he created a new man. The novelty of this individual consisted in the following: he was able to love that which was unnatural for the former man to love. He believed that which the former man would have thought to be complete insanity. In our country there appeared not a few, nor a hundred, but millions and tens of millions of people who grew to love the Soviet system which robbed them. They believed that at some point everyone would be able to enter a store and take anything they liked free of charge. Yet, the years went by, and the second idol died one day. At first, they heatedly declared that he was forever immortal and placed him in the same mausoleum. Afterward they realized that if the pair, embalmed Lenin and living Stalin, makes any sense, for the second fulfills that which is lacking in the first, then the pair – embalmed Lenin and embalmed Stalin – is an absurdity. Both corpses simply could not be “more alive than the living”. Having acknowledged this, the serpent threw the second corpse out of the mausoleum and began the long process of its dethronement. It became apparent that it was advantageous to make an anti-idol out of one of the idols. He could then conveniently take on the role of scapegoat. To kick this goat around has become very fashionable now. This is currently appealing, since the dragon has grown old and is not as frightening as before. Many have become brave and feel the subconscious need to escape
from his power. Yet the concepts in their minds are still confused, and they mistakenly see the dragon as Stalin. Condemning Stalin seems an achievement of freedom. Yet this is not freedom at all. One can speak of freedom only when we again have personal access to the tribute which has been paid to the monster for so long. This has not happened as yet. We are still living in a spellbound empire. This can be seen even from the outward signs which correspond, to a surprising degree, to those in the fairy tale. What is most obvious to the fairy-tale hero when he first finds himself in a country cast under the serpent’s spell? Firstly, he sees an extreme form of material poverty; secondly, economic failure, which is evidence of general apathy; thirdly, fear and constraint on the part of its citizens, who answer the questions of the foreigners with programmed phrases. If they do reveal the truth, it is only in whispers, having looked around first. This is exactly what we have! This is especially apparent when one returns home after a trip to the West. There one was surrounded by plenty; life was in full swing, people’s faces were open and well disposed. There one gets a feeling of being in a colorful and resounding tropical forest. Here, one automatically enters the desert. This contrast must be felt even more deeply by the foreigners who visit us. Metropolitan Vitaly, the primate of the Russian Church Abroad, summarizing the accounts of Orthodox Americans who have been to the USSR, writes: “The mass of Russian people are nervous, tense, and often harsh. One seldom sees a simple, kind smile on a face, nor does one hear spontaneous laughter.” One need not speak of the shortage of an assortment of stores, lack of services, filthiness of entrances to buildings, the trash which accumulates in the telephone booths and other such things. This creates a picture of abomination and desolation. This visible desert is but a reflection of the desert in our souls. The emptiness of our silos and storehouses is the result of the shallowness of our inner selves. And it is precisely this which is the greatest tragedy of contemporary Russia.
The human “self” consists of three integral parts: inner freedom, our intimate perception of the world, and independent thought. In short, they are termed the will, feelings, and intellect. If you take away any one part, the individual is destroyed. And our serpent takes these away, if not totally, then at least partially. For this reason we have become second-rate people, damaged beings.
By giving the serpent part of our inner freedom, we become passive, lacking initiative, unable to make responsible decisions and take energetic action. We do not undertake anything on our own, for we depend on the serpent. Having paid him the tribute through our will, we expect him to deal with it in some way. We forget that he is not a personality and therefore cannot utilize this personalized instrument. In the long run, economics begin to slip downwards. Let us say, for example, that in Moscow thousands of railway cars are standing right now with goods destined to be sold, but the stores are empty. In any other normal country the citizens would have rolled up their sleeves, and, singing, would have emptied the railway cars, and everything would be normalized. Yet it doesn’t even enter into our minds to do this. We will complain loudly about the situation which has developed but will do nothing to improve it. And psychologically, this is totally understandable: since we have given part of our will to the serpent, let him use these compiled resources of will for the solution to all our problems, the emptying of railway cars included. Since each concrete problem needs to be solved by someone, we comfortably assign the job to the same person whom the serpent has picked for this job: the minister of transportation, Connorev. But even if he were Sean Connery, in the role of superman James Bond, he still could do nothing. For him, as for all of us, the serpent is but an external entity whom he cannot reach. It is important to understand a simple truth: the serpent also rules over those of whom he consists. He collects tribute from everyone, from the last clerk to Rizhkov and Gorbachev. The country’s leaders are also constantly complaining about objective impediments, inertia, “certain powers that be”, sabotage, “enemies of perestroika”. The urge to personify evil lies in the very nature of man. However, they are unable to give even one concrete surname. The point is this. The starry-eyed creature which all of us have raised together has no name.
By rejecting the intimacy of our perception, we lose the treasured ability for artistic creativity. It is wrong to think that this is a need only for poets and artists. Such creativity is one of the main routes to knowledge for any person. The unique gifts of each one of us are revealed in our creation of a specific image of the world which surrounds us. This manifests the special characteristics of our souls and the uniqueness of our individual natures. This self-revelation of a personality type has great significance for each individual, as well as for all of society. Only it can give a person the feeling of living life to the fullest, of satisfaction from his activity, that is, to achieve what we call happiness. If, however, this is not possible, the person becomes angry, he dislikes everything, and no one can please him. Inside him pessimism and bitterness build, and he becomes the type of man which Metropolitan Vitaly described. Under the serpent such self-expression is impossible, for in sacrificing to him the privacy of his inner world, a man loses the capability of formulating that world according to his own desires and begins to accept that which is being imposed upon him by the serpent. In this sphere the serpent can impose only that level which he himself has reached, i.e., a level slightly higher than that of an amoeba. The claw has caught, and the bird is in peril – and all of us are forced to love that which our reptile captor loves, and hate that which he hates.
This invasion of the scaled appendages into our concealed laboratory of feelings was, it seems, the most frightening of all the scares which our period of captivity has brought us. We were all found to be involved in the petty intrigue of fractional arguments which the Bolsheviks cannot forget about. Some obscure offenders, such as the good-for-nothing Kautsky grew in our eyes to the proportions of grandiose demonic figures such as Lucifer, subject to eternal damnation by our progeny. All the actors in world history were divided by the serpent into the “bad” and the “good”, between whom a great chasm existed. Since there were a lot more in the first category compared to the second, we were trained in the feeling of hatred. However, even the “good” were not all the same and created a clearly delineated hierarchy. In particular, those who lived before the appearance of Marxism, even the smartest ones, were seen only as good manure which prepared the ground for the appearance of people who lay hold of this great teaching. Yet there was one category of people which stood apart throughout the epochs of history and its formation. In the frozen soul of the dragon an endearing feeling was reserved for them. These were the famous historical bandits: Stenka Razin, Ivan Bolotnikov, Emelian Pugachev, Salavat Ulaev, Grishka Kotovksy and others like them. We were supposed to react with awe and wonder to these murderers of souls. And this system of preferences, turned inside out was imposed upon our consciousness not only in our attitudes to historical personalities, but also affecting our moral principles. The commandments of the Gospel were laughed to scorn. Marital faithfulness was considered a bourgeois anachronism, philanthropy – hypocrisy. Jealousy for someone else’s well-being, however, received a theoretical basis in the teaching of the inevitability of class struggle. The slogan, “steal that which has been stolen”, showed the path to its practical realization. The lamentable result of all of this was not only millions of crippled souls, but the demise of our great culture. For a genuine culture can arise only through the artistic interpretations of external impressions by a sovereign individual soul, which strictly preserves the values natural for a human being.
Finally, giving the dragon a part of the independence of our thought, we give birth to a frightening thing, namely, pseudo-science. In the area of the mind we bring into action the same processes as we did in the sphere of the will and feelings. At first we voluntarily nurture one of the serpent’s heads. Later, it forces us to feed it. Pseudo-science represents something akin to a cataclysmic disaster only exponentially greater. The loss suffered in a drought or earthquake is associated only with its results. Society does not spend money to create them. Pseudo-science demands spending on its own creation, and then causes damage through its own activity. This loss is a combination of the creation of harmful elements and the lack of beneficial ones. In the first category are the constant “mistakes” of science – the ones like Chernobyl, air pollution, the destruction of rivers by dams, and many other things that we need not mention, since this is all publicized by the “greens”. It need only be pointed out that in our enchanted nation these “mistakes” are much more numerous and their scale more massive than anywhere else. The second evil, which may be even worse is that this pseudo-science, parading under the banner of genuine science, has convinced us that its methodology of gathering knowledge is universal and therefore it is omnipotent. We have begun to treat it as a panacea for all our trials and woes. We have developed an acute reflex: if difficulties regarding certain questions come up, then we must create a commission to solve the problem, or at least an academic commission to study it. This system often reaches absurdity. For example, when nationalities began to attack each other in the Caucasus, we began to explain it in the following way: our specialist on national relations overlooked something, missed something or did not research or think the question through thoroughly enough. They are immediately called upon to make recommendations in solving the problem. Such complaints were noticed even in government statements. No one noticed the absurdity of such tactics. No one wondered what science has to do with this. Can it be true that Ph. D.’s need to sit down with graduate students to perform some magic and present recommendations, and because of this the Armenians will stop insisting that Karabakh is historically their land and the Azerbaidjanis will decide that they no longer need it? Deliberating in this way can lead one to think that such unfortunate phenomena as Hitler’s rise to power and the development of Stalin’s personality cult happened solely because of an oversight by experts.
If we placed our hopes on science only in special situations, that would be plenty. But we have entrusted our everyday fate to it, for at the very core of our national economy we have placed the principle of scientific planning. Moving across an unfamiliar city with a complicated combination of streets and rapidly changing environs, we program five years in advance at which moment we should move the steering wheel of our car. It is no wonder that it constantly collides with some obstacle, and lately it seems that it has stalled completely.
Having transferred all business needing the involvement of intellect to an external entity, which we call “science”, we completely lost our ability to use our own minds. As a result, the worst possible thing took place: names were separated from their essential meaning and became entities in themselves. This means that we transferred ourselves from a world of comprehension to a world of sounds. Pronouncing a certain word, we take it in as a musical chord, which brings forth a certain set of emotions, but we do not bother with its definition. To illustrate, the very word “science” itself can be used. It evokes positive feelings from us, and is associated with something useful and needed. Yet we do not trouble ourselves to remember the definition of this concept and to check whether contemporary “science” really does fit this definition or not. If we were to do that, we would immediately see that it does not. “Spirituality”, “mercy”, “democracy”, “socialism”, “the potential of socialism”, “economic reform”, “new thinking” are further examples of popular contemporary senseless sounds.
In general, no matter how sad this may be, we must admit that we have become deficient in all three spheres of our soul. We have lost our once lofty, human qualities. And in this lies our greatest calamity. And of course, anathematizing Comrade Stalin will not mend the situation. In this pastime we have found a new form of external self-expression but have remained the same inside. A broken record player will not become a good one if you simply change the record. “Stalinism”, which we now amicably condemn, is just another meaningless sound for us, as is “perestroika”. The only difference is that the sound “stalinism” does not comfort but irritates us. This is not what we need to do. We need to do something totally different. We must free ourselves from the serpent.
But is this possible?
We have no right to answer this question in the negative, or we shall fall into despondency and will resign ourselves to eternal captivity. Other peoples did shake free of this lot. Oral folklore gives evidence of this, as well as written sources, such as the Bible in particular. Are we worse than they? Such evidence should give us hope and activate us. The experience of these peoples is precious for us, and the subject of the struggle against the serpent should become the subject of intense study and contemplation.
Summarizing the available material, it can be determined that historically two variants of emancipation from the yoke of the dragon exist: the quick one and the drawn out one. In the first variant a foreigner comes to the enchanted land. Expressing surprise at the fact that so large a tribe gives this abominable creature the best of everything, even human lives, he fights the serpent one to one and conquers him. Here one must pay attention to two important facts. Firstly, the emancipator is always a newcomer to the land. Secondly, he acts against the serpent in most cases not with power, but with his mind and his knowledge. These factors can be illustrated by three classic examples. Oedipus, although he was born in Phoebes, as an infant ended up in a foreign land and grew up there. Thus, when he came to free the city from the sphinx, neither he nor the citizens knew that he was not a foreigner. He conquered the sphinx by guessing his secret. The afore-mentioned Daniel, after destroying the cult of VIL took on himself the mission of fighting the dragon. He said to the king, ‘’I shall slay the dragon without staff or sword” (Daniel 14:26). He took some tar, fat and hair, cooked this and having made a ball out of this mixture, threw it into the dragon’s jaws, and it burst asunder. And Daniel said, “Here is what you deemed holy.” And, as it was meet, Daniel was not a Babylonian. And now the most famous of the Christian fighters of the dragon: St. George. His conquest of the serpent is quite mystical: having made the sign of the cross, he approaches the monster and does something to him which results in his becoming tame as a lamb. The princess who was to be sacrificed to the serpent takes him into the city tied like a dog. What is the interpretation of these two characteristics of the liberator?
The key is given by St. George. Although he lived in Lebanon, where he conquered the beast, for the emancipated people he was still a foreigner, his “miracle of the dragon” happened long after the year 303, when he suffered a martyr’s death. He was foreign in the sense of being of the next world. For the citizens of Beirut he was a local saint, a martyr. There is the first characteristic of the dragon fighter. The second characteristic flows out of the first. He conquers by the power of the Holy Spirit. One can be certain that in their peril the Beirutians were praying to St. George, asking him to intercede for them before God, to help free them from the serpent. And the prayer was heard, and deliverance took place. God forgave them the sin of idol worship, from which the captivity by the serpent always begins, and sent them help through their own intercessor, giving him invincible power. It was by this power that they were saved. Consequently, we have here the following progression of events: SIN – CAPTIVITY – REPENTANCE – EMANCIPATION.
Although this progression is most evident in the life of St. George, it can be seen as the historical underlying cause in other cases as well. Commentators have pointed out a certain discrepancy in the Biblical account of the dragon-conqueror Daniel. The man who was sincerely faithful to the real God did not live in Babylon at the time that the people worshipped the dragon. He lived much earlier, at the time of the prophet Habakkuk. If so, then Daniel, just as George, destroyed the dragon following his own death, that is, as a guardian angel of his people, sent from heaven. And be destroyed him “without staff and sword”, again, with God’s power. Let us add this, that he was also a martyr: he was thrown into a lion’s den. As for Oedipus, we must take into account that the tale about him came to us reworked by Sophocles, who turned it into a psychological drama with shades of moralizing. Its central subject became not the fight with the sphinx, but a biography of Oedipus, who was unable to walk away from his fate. Naturally, he appears in the tale as a live person. But the character of his conquest of the sphinx remains spiritual in Sophocles’ rendition, as it must have been in earlier folklore. And again he is a martyr, and what a martyr at that. He is tormented by his conscience, blinds himself, etc.
The progression of the second variant reveals itself more fully in the Bible. We know that Daniel threw the ball into the jaws of the dragon, and he burst. However, the affair did not stop at this. The priests grew angry and forced the king to give Daniel as food for the lions. The former cult was reinstated and the people continued to suffer and cry. Its groanings are told by Prophet Jeremiah: “Nebuchadnezzar the king hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicate meats, and he hath cast me out” (Jer. 51:34). The attempt of Daniel to free the captives was unsuccessful, and the reason for this failure was that there was insufficient repentance in the land. Only a minority turned to the living God. The others continued to worship idols, replacing the old ones with new ones. And then God was angered, and the fate of Babylon was decided. Speaking of this decision of the Lord, the prophet says: “And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up. And the nations shall not flow together any more unto him. Yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall” (Jer. 51:44). God allowed Babylon to be subjected to severe punishment, the physical destruction of the city. But was God merciless to the ones who had remained true to Him in Babylon? No, He did have mercy on them and showed them the path to salvation: “My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord” (Jer. 51:45). The instruction is so important, that it is repeated in another place: “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul. Be not cut off in her iniquity: for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance” (Jer. 51:60). Thus, the progression of events here is as follows: “SIN – CAPTIVITY – INSUFFICIENT REPENTANCE – GOD’S WRATH – THE PERDITION OF THE MAJORITY AND SALVATION OF A “SMALL FLOCK”.
This variant is frightening. Here blood is shed, people perish, relatives and close ones are separated, the accumulated wealth is dispersed. This is a plain reminder of the last times, a “minor Apocalypse”. Nevertheless, this is emancipation. The disease has simply gone so far that the ailing society can only be healed through surgery. In this case even God Himself cannot save the entire nation, for the nation does not want to be saved, and therefore this chance is given only to a part of it. A completely different strategy of behavior is demanded from this point, however. In the first variant people had to keep together. Here they need to leave the condemned kingdom one by one, for through the mouth of a great prophet God twice has said, “Each one save your soul.” This should be understood spiritually, not materially. Here we are not speaking of emigration to another country, not having turned to the loving God. Here we mean that on an individual basis, not looking at others for guidance, we should stop paying tribute to the serpent. One need not leave the territory — one must exit from the herd of idol worshippers which is moving towards inevitable perdition.
I eagerly study what goes on around me, listen to conversations of my co-citizens, catch the intonation, attempt to decipher the expressions on their faces. I do all this in order to understand: what is it like today, the spirit of our Russian nation? Do we have repentance on a massive scale, giving us the hope of a bloodless emancipation from the dragon, or must we prepare ourselves for a worse outcome?
I very much want to see signs of such repentance, but I do not see them.
The first sign ought to be a general prayerful supplication to a heavenly patron. Do we have one? This role cannot be fulfilled merely by a deceased countryman, or even by any saint. He must simultaneously fulfill a number of criteria: He ought to have lived a clean, righteous life, been direct and noble in his actions, with unlimited courage, an irreproachable Christian, possess a flaming faith, profoundly understand the misfortune of his country, have a boundless love for his country and people, and witness this love by dying a martyr’s death for it. In addition, he must possess an extra element of grace. And we have such a person who fits this description: our last ruler, the Anointed-of-God, Nicholas Alexandrovich. In him we could have an ideal intercessor before God, which one could hardly find in any other nation. However, this treasure lies wasting. We are not using it. Not only do we not understand what a saint this man was, we do not even feel simple human respect for him. Without thinking, we repeat all the hideous slander which was invented and spread about by the destroyers of Great Russia. They knew very well the in order to destroy, one must first dishonor the “Restrainer”. It is still heard that “Nicholashka” was dumb, and if not dumb, then weak-willed; that he was under the influence of a giddy wife, that he did not discern the charlatan in Rasputin, etc. And this is said not on the basis of learned facts but in spite of material, now readily available to everyone, refuting this point of view. People can’t be bothered to read this material, for, God forbid, it might force them to reassess the stereotypes which they have become accustomed to.
The second sign should be the cessation of idol worship, yet it continues. For almost seventy years now, on the square which was sacred for our ancestors, which they named Krasnaya, or Beautiful, lies the dried-up mummy of a paralytic, who had no talents save his beastly hatred for Russia. At the entrance to his tomb an honor guard, consisting of Russian youth, changes every hour.
In all of our cities the main streets are named after his pseudonym. In countless halls where meetings, dances, and concerts are held, his bust is present or his portrait hangs. Even in our present era of “glasnost” all that the most courageous speakers can do is cast a shadow of doubt on his 100% correctness on all issues. Others confine themselves to finding common ground with him on some question, trying to bring him over to their side through the back door, thereby strengthening their side through the back door, they’re strengthening their own position. This shows that we have not come out from under the hypnotic trance of the idol’s name.
The third indication of general repentance of our people should be the growth of hatred of socialism. But even this is not visible. The maximum which we have here is the condemnation of “bureaucratically controlled methods of governing” that is, not the serpent itself, but his accomplices. This is seen even more clearly given the background of what Drocesses are happening in Eastern Europe and some of our republics. There they are taking down statues of Lenin, renaming streets and enterprises which were named in his honor. They are firing communist parties. People are taking to the squares with anti-socialist slogans, the prohibitions on private ownership are being lifted, land is being returned to the peasants. Everything there is boiling and seething with indignation. The people’s patience has blown up and they no longer want to pay tribute to the slippery reptile. They will no longer fall for the story about “The only true teaching”. Even the Ukraine is beginning to raise its voice, but in poor Russia things are still quiet. And behind that silence one suspects the fear of parting with socialism. The fear is – maybe some sort of exploitation will start once it’s gone? We do not notice when Gorynych the Dragon pulls ten skins off us. Yet if private entrepreneurs, who because of competition will be forced to keep their income on a reasonable level will start to make money on us-—that frightens us. Although it has always been merciless with us and brought our country to complete ruin, “Socialism” continues to be associated in our spell-bound consciousness with something good and humane. An obvious characteristic of the “New Man” raised by the serpent is that he licks the paw that beats him.
This all brings us to the conclusion that we have INSUFFICIENT REPENTANCE. And what comes after that we already know: GOD’S WRATH.
At this point many readers will say that it has already happened. Yes, they say that the Russian people fell into sin. They were hooked on the promise of an easy life, forgot God and the testaments of their ancestors, but they paid for this with a million sacrifices lives. Now, on their blood which was shed, a new Russia must arise. No, these sufferings were not sent by God, but were caused by the serpent to break us and to make us his silent slaves. As seen in folklore, sometimes this terrorizing by the serpent was enough to bring a nation back to its senses. Unfortunately, that is not our case. Which means – and the tongue does not want to move to say these words-—the real punishment still lies ahead of us.
There have already been omens which show that it will be the same as described in the Bible. “Thus saith the Lord: behold, I will raise up a destroying wind against Babylon and them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me. And I will send unto Babylon fanners that shall empty her land for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about” (Jer. 51:12). And what is happening now? Obviously powers are preparing to scatter Russia, as its own worst enemy, in the Caucasus, and in other places.
There is yet another weighty fact. In our society there has suddenly arose unnoticed a brand new category of people: young, newly converted Christians. Usually they have many children, have spiritual fathers, attend church regularly, and the whole family takes Holy Communion. They exchange spiritual literature and icons amongst themselves. It is characteristic that a relatively high percentage of them are highly educated (let us remember that before the revolution the intelligentsia consisted almost totally of atheists). One can recognize them even by their faces: bright, kind, full of spiritual beauty. And one cannot look at the youngsters who open their little mouths for the acceptance of the Eucharist without wonder and joy. There it is, our hope! And this is not only a joyful, but a dreadful phenomenon. In fact, before our very eyes an abrupt polarization of society has begun to take place, in result of which a SMALL FLOCK is beginning to form. That is what is meant to take place before God’s vengeance. As it is said in the Revelation of St. John the Theologian: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still” (Rev. 22:1 1).
They are not many in number, our wise ones, who providentially have come out of the large flock which is heading for the abyss. But now our discussion of the future of Russia should include only them. The others have already been sentenced to removal from the historical scene. And my present article has been written only for them. If someone has read it who does not belong to them, he has only wasted his time. But to my dear wise ones I will say this: hold on to your line of action, do not be put off by anything, fear nothing. Do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, do not be tempted by political passions, do not participate in the battle of the parties, do not believe a single word of the serpent, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Do not give him a single part of your being, protect your sanctified inner freedom, love that which indeed is worthy of your love, believe in your good judgement and do not succumb to the crafty suggestions of pseudo-science. Give Caesar only what is due Caesar, but that which is God’s preserve in your souls. And when God’s wrath descends upon us, pray hard for our much suffering land. And then the Lord will show His miracle and will preserve you in the midst of the flaming country, as He once preserved Ananias, Mishael, and Azarias in the fiery furnace. And when it is all over, you will become the kernel of the Russia that is to come, and that greatly blessed wondrous land will appear on the surface out of your souls as the city of Kitezh to the wonder and admiration of the whole world, even if territorially it will only be the size of the Muscovite kingdom of Dimitri Donskoy. That indeed will be emancipation from the serpent.
Moscow, January 1990, V.N. Trostnikou
Translated by Matushka Naumenho
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/91327.htm
The opposition to the Pan Orthodox Synod scheduled for June 2016 is growing. This is indeed encouraging. Let us pray for those that choose to stand for the Truth, it is not too late now, but it will be too late after June. When the Synod is concluded it will be much clearer to see which path has everyone chosen.
The Church of Christ is not of this world but is founded by the Holy Trinity so that she might serve in the world; that she may be penetrated with the truth of Christ, that she may sanctify and lead one back again to God. In this sense, the Church coexists with all phenomena in different epochs of human history, including also that of the pluralism of opinion, one of the characteristic scars of the time in which we live. This pluralism, however, is not inherent in the Orthodox faith and in its dogmatics, just as diversity of opinion is not intrinsic to God, in Whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning (John 1:17).
Certainly, the Holy Orthodox Church does not deny freedom of human thought, but attempts to direct this freedom in a salvific direction. This way, in connection with confirmed and true Church teaching, many personal theological opinions arise—for example, the teaching of St. Gregory of Nyssa on the “garments of skin,” the interpretation of St. Filaret (Drozdov) on the petition “For the peace of the whole world, the well-being of the Holy Churches of God and the union of all,” the position of Fr. Sergey Bulgakov on the “feminine principle” (“Sofia”) in God. Over time, mass heretical communities are also appearing and are frequently privileged through political protection. But this cannot, in some way, weaken or violate the holiness of the Church and her uniqueness, neither can it deny her creed, her sacred tradition, and her holy scripture.
Today the entire Orthodox world is excited about the upcoming Holy and Great Council, which is planned for June 2016 on the island of Crete. Various expectations and positions, apprehensions and hopes, are being expressed.
Right now the community of the Church is exchanging and discussing a host of letters, petitions, documents, and epistles. Everyone is expressing his view in accord with his internal feelings. But in as much as no person is infallible, and in as much as none of us is more great or wiser than the teachings of the Church that have been confirmed in the Ecumenical Councils throughout the centuries, personal bias should give priority to the true, eternal, ubiquitous, and unanimous confession of the Orthodox faith.
This is essential for all of us in as much as it is not theoretical theology, theological “diplomacy,” or the cultural and social activity in the Church that are the means for the eternal salvation of our souls, but our trueness before God, humility, faithful love, and life in His Spirit and His truth, in Him Himself, Who is absolute Truth. It is not possible for any of our particular, variable, and self-servingly adjustable “truths” to save our lives.
It has always been a gift of grace for the Church when heresies appear and intensify, in as much as she has thereupon formulated and reconfirmed the pure teachings of holy Orthodoxy. Such is the case today—different heresies and sects, including the heresy of ecumenism, allow the Church to express its unchanged and principled position through its archpastors, pastors, theologians, and laity, which is just as beneficial for us, Orthodox, as it is for the non-Orthodox.
At the moment, revived Orthodox discussion is flowing freely about the nature of the Church and about what should be her relationship to other Christians—Roman Catholics and Protestants. The Georgian Orthodox Church under Patriarch Ilia II, metropolitans such as Athanasy of Limassol, Hierotheos (Vlahos) of Nafpaktos, and Seraphim of Piraeus, elders of the Holy Mountain such as Sava (from the Great Lavra) and Gabriel (from Koutloumousiou Monastery), professor and priest Theodore Zisis, professor Dimitrios Tselengidis, as well as many others, have over the past few months shared their position publicly, according to established patristic teaching, that the Church of Christ, that is, the Orthodox Church (ecclesia), is one and only she is holy, ecumenical, and apostolic. The remaining heretical communities are referred to (sometimes in the Orthodox lexicon as well) with the term “church”/”churches,” but for our part, this should be a provisional commemoration, that is, in the sense of an “assembly” (the old meaning of the Greek word ecclesia). The Orthodox Church is required to preach the truth to these communities, that it might be possible for each of them to be saved by turning to Orthodoxy.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is not a member of the ecumenist organization “World Council of Churches,” but in as much as it is a part of universal Orthodoxy and the world in which we live, there is no way to remain on the sidelines in light of all these issues—as much on the level of its hierarchy, the Holy Synod, as on the executive level of the clergy, monastics, and laity.
In light of this, the canonization and celebrations of St. Seraphim of Sofia, the Wonderworker, which took place on February 3 and February 26, 2016 respectively, have symbolic importance for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, in as much as this enlightener of God very accurately has pointed out the shortcomings of ecumenism and the correct relationship that we Orthodox should manifest towards the rest of the Christian world, a relationship namely of active and not sentimental love, a relationship filled with missionary concern and dogmatic integrity.
In this regard, we recommend the following article by the Bulgarian Schema-Hieromonk Dmitry Sografskiy, in which valuable and sincere citations of the Holy Fathers of the Church are proffered. In these quotations breathe the universal voice of Orthodoxy in relation to the nature of the Church and our relationship to non-Orthodox Christians.
The contemporary challenges before our Orthodox conscience are a divine gift—a gift for the clarification of our Orthodox self-awareness, for a kindling of correct confession of the faith, and for living in sacrificial love towards all our neighbors.
Dr. Daniel Panayotova is the general editor of the official site of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
Dr. Daniel Panayotova
Translated by Christopher Criswel
A serios spanner has been thrown into the works of the upcoming heretical synod. Whether this leads to anoyher postponement, or the gathering goes ahead without Georgia remains to be seen. The 83 year old Patriarch Ilia II is holding a strong stance and all our prayers are with him and his clergy. May God give them wisdom and strenght in maintaining their position.
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/90950.htm
The opposition to this synod seems to be growing and more bishops are coming out against it. Bishop Longhin (Mihail Jar) of Banceni has also made his stance clear.
In an open letter to the Synod of Cyprus, Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol points out some of the heresies that are to be adopted at the coming Pan Orthodox Synod of 2016. We hope and pray that others may take his example and come forth in this matter of utmost importance.
Original article:
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/90619.htm
In a letter, of which the Agency of Religious News Romfea.gr has published extracts, the eminent hierarch does not consider there to be any problem of restoring the unity of Christians, since this, in his opinion, was never disrupted. Rather, certain Christians chose a path different to the one we follow, that of the original Orthodox truth.
There are no churches or confessions. Rather, these have cut themselves off from the Church and must be considered heretics and schismatics, notes His Eminence, expressing confusion as to why such an important issue has been ignored.
The stance of His Eminence, who invokes the right of each hierarch to express his opinion regarding such an important event, is sure to cause discussion and debate within Orthodoxy.
“Since, in agreement with regulations sent to us regarding the organisation and operation of the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church, and in particular article 12, paragraphs 2 and 3, indicate that we are entitled first to express our views at our local Synod, I, having examined my conscience, humbly submit to the Holy and Sacred Synod of our holy Church my views and opinions regarding the following matters,” the Reverend Metroplitan Athanasios underlines in his letter.
In his letter, to which Romfea.gr gained exclusive access, His Eminence Athanasios speaks about the text of the 5th Preconciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference held in Chambesy in October entitled “Decision – Relations of the Orthodox Church to the rest of the Christian world,” stating the following:
“I am in total agreement with the first three articles of the text. However, at article 4 onwards, I have made the following observations: “The Orthodox Church has always prayed ‘for the union of all’ – I believe this to mean the return to and union with Her of all those who broke away and distanced themselves from Her, of heretics and schismatics, once they have renounced their heresy and schism and flee from those things with repentance and are integrated and joined – united – with the Orthodox Church in accordance with the teachings of the sacred canons,” remarks His Eminence Athanasios.
His Eminence continues: “The Orthodox Church of Christ never lost the ‘unity of faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit” and does not accept the theory of the restoration of the unity of those ‘who believe in Christ,’ because it believes that the unity of those who believe in Christ already exists in the unity of all of Her baptised children, between themselves and with Christ, in Her correct faith, where no heretics or schismatics are present, for which reason She prays for their return to Orthodoxy in repentance.”
His Eminence completes his letter, of which Romfea.gr has released excerpts, thusly: “I believe that what is stated in article 5 regarding ‘the lost unity of Christians’ is incorrect, because the Church as God’s people, united among themselves and with the Head of the Church which is Christ, never lost this unity and therefore is not in need of rediscovering or seeking it, because it always was, is, and will be just as the Church of Christ has never ceased nor will cease to exist.”
His Eminence Athanasios adds that, “what happened is that groups, peoples or individuals left the body of the Church and the Church prays, and is required to try through mission, that they all return in repentance to the Orthodox Church via the canonical route. In other words, there do not exist other Churches, only heresies and schisms, should we wish to be more precise in our definitions.”
“The expression ‘towards the restoration of Christian unity’ is incorrect because the unity of Christians – the members of the Church of Christ – has never been broken, as long as they remain united to the Church. Separation from the Church and flight from the Church have unfortunately happened numerous times due to heresies and schisms, but there was never a loss of the internal unity of the Church,” His Eminence continues in his letter.
Elsewhere, His Eminence Athanasios states: “I question why the text contains multiple references to ‘Churches’ and ‘Confessions’? What difference and which element allows us to call some Churches and others Confessions? Which is a Church and which a heresy and which a schismatic group or confession? We confess one Church and that all the others are schisms and heresies. I maintain that giving the title ‘Church’ to heretical or schismatic communities is entirely incorrect from a theological, dogmatic and canonical perspective because the Church of Christ is one, as also stated in Article 1, and we cannot refer to a heretical or schismatic community or group outside the Orthodox Church as ‘Church’.”
“At no point does this text state that the only way that leads to union with the Church is solely the repentant return of heretics and schismatics to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, which according to Article 1 is our Orthodox Church. The reference to the ‘understanding of the tradition of the ancient Church’ gives the impression that there is an ontological difference between the ancient Church of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and the genuine continuation of the same until the present day, namely our Orthodox Church. We believe that there is absolutely no difference between the Church of the 21st century and the Church of the 1st century, because one of the attributes of the Church is the fact we also confess in the Symbol of Faith, namely that it is Apostolic,” stressed the Metropolitan of Limmasol.
The Bishop subsequently underlines that in Article 12, the impression is given that the Orthodox are looking to restore the right faith and unity, giving cause for an unacceptable view.
“Article 12 states that the common purpose of the theological dialogues is ‘the final restoration of unity in correct faith and love’. This gives the impression that we Orthodox are seeking our restoration to correct faith and the unity of love, as if we had lost the right faith and are seeking to discover it through the theological dialogues with the heterodox. I maintain that this theory is theologically unacceptable for us all,” underlines Metropolitan Athanasios.
Elsewhere, His Eminence expresses objections to the text, stressing that “the reference of the text to ‘the World Council of Churches’ gives me the opportunity to make a complaint against occasional syncretistic events which took place therein, but also against its title, since it regards the Orthodox Church as ‘one of the Churches’ or a branch of the one Church which seeks and strives for Her realisation at the World Council of Churches. For us, however, the Church of Christ is one and unique, as we confess in the Symbol of Faith, and not many.”
His Eminence further states: “The view that the preservation of the genuine Orthodox faith is guaranteed only through the synodical system as the only ‘competent and final authority on matters of faith’ is exaggerated and ignores the truth that many synods throughout Church history taught and espoused incorrect and heretical doctrines, and it was the faithful people which rejected them and preserved the Orthodox faith and championed the Orthodox Confession. Neither a synod without the faithful people, the fullness of the Church, nor the people without the synod of Bishops, is able to regard themselves as the Body of Christ and Church of Christ and to correctly express the experience and doctrine of the Church.”
Addressing the Archbishop of Cyprus and the members of the Holy Synod, the Metropolitan of Limassol stresses: “Use of hard or insulting language cannot be made in ecclesiastical encyclicals of this kind, nor do I think anyone desires the use of that form of expression. However, the truth must be expressed with precision and clarity, though naturally with pastoral discernment and genuine love towards all. We owe it also to our brothers who find themselves in heresy or schism to be entirely honest with them, and with love and pain to pray and do everything possible to bring about their return to the Church of Christ.”
“I humbly maintain that texts of such importance and prestige as those of the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church must be very carefully formulated with theological and canonical precision in order that these ambiguities or untested theological terms do not also give rise to incorrect expressions which could lead to misconceptions and distortions of the correct attitude of the Orthodox Church. Moreover, in order for a Synod to be valid and canonical, it must not depart in any way from the spirit and teaching of the Holy Synods which preceded it, the teaching of the Holy Fathers and Holy Scriptures, and it must be free from any ambiguity in the precise expression of the correct faith,” adds His Eminence Athanasios.
Elsewhere, invoking the Holy Fathers, His Eminence Athanasios stated: “Never did the holy Fathers nor ever in the holy canons or rulings of the sacred Ecumenical or Local Synods, are heretical or schismatic groups referred to as churches. If the heretics are indeed churches, where is the single One Church of Christ and the Apostles?”
The Metropolitan of Limassol also expressed his strong opposition, stressing that those who do not have the right to vote and participate in the Synod are merely ornamental.
“I humbly express my disagreement with the fact that the practice of all Sacred Synods until the present of allowing each bishop a vote is abolished. There was never before a system of ‘one Church, one vote,’ which renders the members of the Holy and Great Synod, with the exception of the primates, mere decorative items by refusing them the right to vote,” His Eminence Athanasios says in his letter.
In closing, the Hierarch of the Church of Cyprus states that: “I do not want to upset anyone with what I wrote, nor do I want to be seen to be teaching judgement of my brothers and fathers in Christ. I simply feel the need to express what my conscience requires me to.”
To read the Metropolitan’s entire letter, see the site of the Holy Metropolis of Limassol.
“Brothers at last”, it was proclaimed by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, after recently signing the Havana declaration.
This marks the moment when it has become all clear. Patriarch Kirill has shown us what will be widely adopted at the coming “Holy” Pan-Orthodox Synod taking place between 19th and 27th of June 2016 – a few short months away. Heresy shall be consacrated and the hundred years period (that started with the Bolshevik revolution) given for repentance comes to a conclussion.
The unity (with heretics, without repentance) in face of iniquity and Liberation Theology have become the new religion. The coming Synod will consecrate these as the new doctrine. When this is done, one who wishes to remain faithful to Christ will have to cease going to these mainstream churches as they will be the church of antichrist. This Synod will not be gathered to fight any heresy as it was the case with the first 7 Ecumenical Synods, but to proclaim a heresy as Truth. This Synod will be about self-exaltation, the promotion of humanist ideas and human wisdom (reasoning) above Christ’s Truth. The unholy gathering will mark the beginning of the age of worldly glory of World Orthodoxy (as “Global Christianity”) and the start of the exclusive catacomb existence of the few remaining true faithful.
http://tass.ru/en/society/856453
By signing this declaration, the Russian Church has denied the most important aspect of the missionary work each Orthodox Christian is called to do: proselytism. By this they admit Orthodoxy is nothing special, but just another “religion”. That which many holy martyrs and saints died for throughout many centuries has just been denied and trashed today by declaring the Catholic church as “sister church”, confessing the same truth. This is a heresy.
“Orthodox and Catholics are united not only by the shared Tradition of the Church of the first millennium, but also by the mission to preach the Gospel of Christ in the world today. This mission entails mutual respect for members of the Christian communities and excludes any form of proselytism,” it says.
“We are not competitors but brothers, and this concept must guide all our mutual actions as well as those directed to the outside world. We urge Catholics and Orthodox in all countries to learn to live together in peace and love, and to be “in harmony with one another” (Rm15:5),” it says.
“Consequently, it cannot be accepted that disloyal means be used to incite believers to pass from one Church to another, denying them their religious freedom and their traditions. We are called upon to put into practice the precept of the apostle Paul: “Thus I aspire to proclaim the gospel not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on another’s foundation” (Rm15:20),” the declaration says.
Rev 17:11 (KJV) says: “And the beast that was, and is not, even he (the beast) is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.”
This is the 8th Synod, of robbery, that is coming. Is of the seven because is of the same nature as of the previous seven ecumenical councils, but it will be for perdition, as it will mark the victory of spiritual communism. It should be considered that various translations may (or may not as is the case with the KJV version) include the word “king” or “kingdom”, as the eight king or kingdom. That is to be read as “authority”. The English translation of the Bible considered the most accurate by Orthodox scholars is the King James version.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/51206
Here is what Mr Putin has just said, as published on the Kremlin’s website:
“I have always liked communist and socialist ideas. If we consider the Code of the Builder of Communism that was widely published in the Soviet Union, it strongly resembles the Bible. This is not a joke; it was actually an excerpt from the Bible. It spoke of good things: equality, fraternity, happiness. However, the practical implementation of these ideals in this country had little in common with what the utopian socialists Saint-Simon or Owen spoke about. This country had little resemblance to their Sun City.”
Why make such a statement, why stir up so many hard feelings of so many? This was said in a meeting of Russian Popular Front, not under pressure from journalists or anything like that. What would be the reason to continue to link the future of Russia to its past? It makes no sense. There is literally nothing more left to say, nothing more left to add … than perhaps this last statement: if Communism would not had tried to de-spiritualize man, but in fact try to exploit his spirituality, maybe the result would had been different …
Of course, repentance can always occur, but for a public figure the process is that much more complicated. A public figure is not only responsible for himself but for all those who believed and followed him – are all those millions and millions of souls going understand what repentance is? Orthodoxy teaches that if someone manages to help save at least one soul will save himself too. What if one dragged a single soul (not to say many) into the darkness, what happens then?
Other references:
https://www.rt.com/news/331194-putin-meets-friend-kissinger
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/331440-pope-francis-patriarch-kirill-meeting
Remember this?
If the devil asked you to join him in exchange of his promise to help you defeat your enemy, would you do it?
If you have seen the latest Star Wars episode, “The Force Awakens” you would be familiar by now with the new buzz word “The Resistance” and its meaning: the gathering of all forces opposed to “The Empire” and its evil ways. From the big screen to the blogosphere, the message is the same. Take for example the following blog:
Some praise it as “brilliant”, or “awakening”. What does this mean? Browsing through their website would quickly reveal they align themselves with “the resistance”. Here is what they recently stated:
“I do, however, feel that this type of “cross pollination” between very difference voices of the resistance against Empire is very important because it creates a sense of community. Sure, we already have a vibrant Saker Community out there, but I hope that our community can further reach out and participate in the creation of a wider community of very different people united by their opposition to the Empire. I think of this notion as a “resistance network“.”
http://thesaker.is/we-are-creating-a-resistance-network/
The “resistance” has taken different forms in recent times, one that immediately comes to mind being “Occupy Wall Street”. The same idea of “The Resistance” against “The Empire” (the West) reveals itself again. Hmm … is Hollywood playing with your mind again?
The most important danger to Orthodoxy we have been striving to outline is partaking into this common front, uniting with all the heretics against iniquity and calamity, for the “common good (or goal)”, showing this was exactly how the Ecumenist end of World Orthodoxy was going to manifest.
Reading more through the articles on the website mentioned above one can easily notice that one of their main objectives seems to also be defending Moscow from the attacks of the West, who do accuse Russia unjustly. Make no mistake, this is true, Russia is falsely and unjustly being blamed for many of the iniquities done by the West, but most fail to see that this could just be part of whitewashing of an unrepented regime – naturally, seeing so much injustice being done by the West people will inevitably take Moscow’s side.
Yet, this plan may not yield the desired results after all. Let’s look at what has happened recently and understand why: literally a week after Mr Putin officiated the opening of the Grand Mosque in Moscow (in Sept 2015), Russia got dragged into a war with Turkey, who’s president Mr Erdogan had just attended the ceremony. Some invisible force seems to have hooked them (the Russians) by the jaw, dragging them into a war.
Out of this war much will change in Russia, Moscow shall be destroyed in one hour, and little will resemble to what is Russia today. The new Russia shall not be part of any alliance like BRICS as envisioned by “Putin’s Rasputin” (Alexandr Dugin), but it shall go the righteous way, led by a Tsar – that is what our Holy Fathers have prophesied (see the prophecies of Blessed Nicolai Rogozin).
So how do we guard against this false awakening, false unity? First, avoid blogs like those of “the resistance” that seem to be purely political, with no Orthodox context or content. The approach they seems to take is to look at things exclusively from a political rather that spiritual perspective, assuming the political developments were purely driven by political motives – nothing farther from the truth. Overlooking the Ecumenist and Charismatic world-wide efforts and only looking at political developments cannot explain the world events in their true manifestation. Equally, if the blog is “Orthodox”, then look if their message is Ecumenist. If it is, avoid it.
Generally, this is how a false unity works: people are drawn together by a “common goal”, fighting a “common enemy”, against their differences in ideologies or beliefs. In other words, this “common goal” becomes prevalent over the Truth they were entrusted to preserve. Today some invisible power seems to be forcing all to sit down together and find “common ground” through negotiation, a process in which compromise is inevitable.
In Orthodoxy, true unity is achieved in a different way: someone states the truth the way it is, unchanged, unaltered, uncompromised, with authority. Those who hear the truth shall recognize it and join into confessing it. That is how Orthodoxy always survived and how unity was maintained. Take the example of St Maximus the Confessor, or that of St Mark of Ephesus: he was the only bishop who did not sign the treasonous Unity of Florence accord. How did the unity of Orthodoxy manifest? Those who later saw their own error openly confessed it and denounced their mistake in a synod, uniting themselves back with the Orthodox Church in Truth (which only existed through the one person at that time). This is how unity in Orthodoxy works – and there is a big difference between this and how unity is being pushed through today. As long as at least one Orthodox authority still confesses the truth, the Church continues to exists and everyone is called to unite with Her.
To better illustrate this principle, let us give you the following example from your local Church. Many Churches today are organized in a “democratic” way, being ruled by “councils” and “general assemblies”. People in those councils, seeing deception manifest one way or another, should first and foremost remember that they need to serve Christ before anything else. If they see things are being steered away from The Truth, they should not sacrifice their duty to confess The Truth for the sake of getting others to agree – rather, they should state their positions first and then wait for others to join in to their cause. Trying to get the others to sit down and negotiate a compromise will never serve the unity of the Church in Truth.
Understanding of these aspects of our Orthodox Faith is essential for understanding the difference between True Orthodoxy and Spiritual Communism.
This is World Orthodoxy! This is how people like Jonathan Jackson and all those who are seeking an easy, worldy form of Orthodoxy, one that can accommodate both Hollywood and Mount Athos, are helping hijack True Orthodoxy. If Jonathan would have found True Orthodoxy, he would have left the show-biz industry long ago …
How is praising Bob Dylan (directly from the radio station of Vatopedi Monastery – sic!), the one who himself admited he had sold his soul to the Devil who he serves (in his own words), and sell that as Orthodoxy and promote rock music as a form of prayer, is impossible for us to comprehend.
As for elder Ephraim of Vatopedi – well, we are deeply disappointed, but not all that surprised that it happened at Vatopedi – after all they are the most open to modernism … including the adoption of the papist calendar. Mount Athos and Hollywood look like doing business together. It may be that soon those few still true Athonite monks struggling to live a true Orthodox life are going to have to flee …
Luke 18:8
“I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”
The very Charismatic spirit we have strived to show as trying to take over Orthodoxy is so evident, how can’t they see it? Under this new trend prayer is not lamenting about one’s own sins any longer, but about Charismatic experiences. Tragic! Here it is in their words:
Internet radio broadcaster Pemptousia FM of Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, Greece, helped produce the album. “Bob Dylan said that the highest form of song is prayer. And I believe that. And Bob Dylan and Bono and some of those artists also said that the best songs are not written by us. They’re discovered. They’ve already been written and we just discover them. So, we are dependent on God walking in the room, so to speak, in order to make something of real value. And the prayer for me is for the music and lyrics to create an atmosphere, for some kind of healing to take place, some kind of awakening, yearning. So it’s not written just for people that are Christians, it’s for anybody. And I want the music and lyrics to speak to people no matter where they are,” Jackson said to Pemptousia FM.
With all this being said, Jonathan Jackson is very new to Orthodoxy and if his intentions are true, he is about to clash with powers which will test his sincerity and truth soon enough. There seems to be a connection between Fr Herman Podmoshensky’s and Fr Seraphim Rose’s “Death to The World” and what Jonathan Jackson is doing. His current songs seem to be geared to the US youth who are despairing and suicidal, hence even if one can be prevented from this, then he would have done a great thing. It is possible that this may be the reason why Elder Ephraim is letting him into the inner circle to a certain degree … we need to be patient to see how this pans out. The fact that Jackson has a family adds importance to his life, and a new spin on how convert families will develop, as they will have to follow him into the arena as well. “Death to The World” found a good nitche in Orthodox literature and this is what Jackson needs to do to progress the Truth to modern youth, who just will not usually take the traditional path.
Have you ever wondered what Ecumenism really is and what is its true nature?
Let us try to answer the question this way:
Communism means serving the Common Good. Likewise, a Spiritual form of Communism means serving the Common God, since the idea of “Good” and “Goodness” in the material world is perceived by many as “God” in the spiritual sense.
The Red Beast of the Apocalypse is returning, now in a spiritualized form. If the purpose of Communism was to enslave Man, the purpose of Ecumenism is to enslave his Soul. Ecumenism is thus the spiritual form of Communism.
Today’s false spiritual awakening is all based on finding common ground, towards forming a common front for achieving the common goal of defeating a common enemy …
Those opposing Ecumenism today are like those that opposed Communism yesterday. It is the same battle, continued at a higher level – the battle for Man’s soul. This is the reason why most of today’s Orthodox authorities are reluctant to glorify the holy martirs confessors against communism (at least in Romania), as this will make today’s confessors efforts look legitimate and expose themselves for the truth they are trying to cover. Those countries that did glorify their martirs stand a better chance of coming back to their senses than those that did not – let us pray that this may indeed happen.