By Archbishop
Averky of blessed memory, +1976
The
fundamental task of the servants of the coming Antichrist is to
destroy the old world with all its former concepts and "prejudices"
in order to built in its place a new world suitable for receiving its
approaching "new owner" who will take the place of Christ
for people and give them on earth that which Christ did not give them
....
One
must be completely blind spiritually, completely alien to true
Christianity not to understand all this!
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Zeal
for God, zeal for the Truth is not "phariseeism," just as
"humility" before the enemies of God, the enemies of the
Church, before diabolical Evil, is not the true and saving humility
of the Publican, but just destructive self-deception, leading to the
depths of hell.
In
our times, when there are such strong doubts about even the existence
of Truth, when every "truth" is considered relative and it
is considered proper for each person to hold to "his own truth,"
the struggle for the Truth acquires a particularly important meaning.
And the person who does not sympathize with this struggle, who sees
in it only a manifestation of "phariseeism" and suggests
"humbling oneself" before Falsehood by falling away from
the Truth, should naturally be recognized as a betrayer of the Truth,
whoever he might be, whatever he might call or consider himself.
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Thus
we evidently have lived to see this "terrible and quick collapse
of the structure of the Church!" The enemy of the human race is
employing all his efforts and all his means to pull it down, and he
is widely supported in this by open and secret apostates from the
true faith and Church, including even those who have betrayed their
high vocations and oaths as clergymen and even as hierarchs heading
certain individual churches.
In
truth, we are experiencing a terrible time, a time such as has never
before been seen in the history of Christianity, in the history of
mankind! A time of almost total instability!
And
insofar as we wish to remain faithful to true Orthodoxy, many
obligations are placed upon us. We must, as Bishop Ignatius instructs
us, avoid and protect ourselves from the Apostasy which is growing so
rapidly in the world. We must defend ourselves against the corrupting
spirit of the times to avoid its influence.
And
to this end we must first of all understand and never forget: that at
the present time not everything that bears the most holy and most
dear name of Orthodoxy really is Orthodoxy. There now also exists
pseudo-Orthodoxy, which we must fear and from which we must flee as
from fire; that true Orthodoxy is only that which does not accept and
does not permit in anything, either in teaching or in church
practices, any sort of innovations opposed to the Word of God and the
decrees of the Universal Church; that true Orthodoxy does not bless
and does not indulge modern fashion- the morality and customs of the
modern, corrupt world, which, even more than in Apostolic times, is
lying in evil, for it is a world which has abandoned God; that true
Orthodoxy considers only pleasing God and saving souls, not
arrangements for temporary, earthly happiness, a career, and earthly
advantages and possessions; that true Orthodoxy is spiritual, not
natural and carnal, not attached to the earth-to earthly feelings and
experiences.
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As
salt preserves food from decay and makes it healthful and pleasant to
the taste, so too true Christians preserve the world from moral decay
and facilitate its return to health. But if the salt "loses its
savor," as the Gospel says, i.e. "loses its strength"
(in the East there actually is a kind of salt which can lose its
taste), then it becomes good for nothing except to be "thrown
out to be trodden under foot of men" (cf. the Gospel reading for
the third day of the feast of Pentecost, Matt. 5:313).
How
terrible this is! And we find ourselves living in such times when the
tendency dominating the world is directed toward making all
Christians such "salt which has lost its savor," once it
has abolished the true Church of Christ derived from the Holy
Apostles and thus has deprived Christians of the grace of the Holy
Spirit.
This
is the so very fashionable, so-called "ecumenical movement,"
which is based in the position that supposedly the true Church of
Christ does not presently exist on earth and it is necessary to
create it anew...through the unification of all Christians belonging
to various "churches" and confessional associations and
organizations; this will be done by various mutual concessions in
matters of doctrine and the development of a new, common system of
doctrine acceptable to all and, along with it, of course, a new world
view.
And
the opinion, extremely popular in our times, that "it's all the
same which church you go to; after all, God
is one" is in
agreement with this tendency. Yes!
God is one, but, you know, He also gave us one faith; He created one
Church for us, not many different faiths and "churches."
This is confirmed by the holy Apostle Paul when he says, "One
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all," and so
we Christians should form "one body and one spirit," as we
are called to "in one hope of our calling" (Eph. 4:4-6).
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| The Ark of Salvation |
If
there is only one true faith and only one true Church, then as a
consequence all other faiths and "churches" are false, not
true. How then can anyone say that all faiths and "churches"
are of equal value and that "it is all the same which church you
go to." Therefore
one can and must speak not of the ecumenical unification of everyone
for the creation of some new Church, but only of the restoration of
union between all who have fallen away and the one true Church of
Christ to which Christ the Savior Himself gave the great and sure
promise that "the gates of hell will not prevail against it"
(Matt. 16:18).
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While
struggling resolutely against the most minute manifestations of evil
and sin in our own souls, let us not fear to uncover and point out
evil everywhere where it is to be found in modern life-not from pride
and self-love, but only out of love for the truth. Our chief task in
this evil time of lying shamelessness is to remain totally faithful
and devoted to the genuine truth of the Gospel and to the author of
our salvation, Christ, the Giver of life Who rose on the third day
from the tomb, the Conqueror of hell and death.
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