[Note: this analysis has been written for the Unz Review]
Warning: the following text was written specifically to help Christians make sense of the “hijacked vocabulary” used in the discussion of the current attempts by the Empire to take control of the Orthodox people of the Ukraine. For atheists/agnostics this discussion will offer just some irrelevant and boring mumbo-jumbo with no relevance to the lofty realms of enlightened modern positivism.
Introduction
The latest move by the Anglo-Zionist Empire in the Ukraine is truly an exceptionally ugly and dangerous one: it appears that the Patriarch of Constantinople will soon grant its full independence to the so-called “Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate”. This move is openly directed against the current biggest ecclesiastical body in the Ukraine the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate” and it will almost certainly lead to bloodshed and massacres similar to what took place in Odessa on May 2nd 2014: the Ukronazis will use force (riot police or even Nazi death squads) to forcibly seize the churches, cathedrals, monasteries and other buildings and properties currently owned by the Moscow Patriarchate.
There are many articles written about this development, but almost all of them are written from a secular point of view, even when written by supposedly Christian or Orthodox authors. The paradoxical element here is that a lot of theological terms are used by authors who have only a very vague idea of what these terms really mean. I have no desire to enter into this conversation and use the pseudo-spiritual reference framework typically used by such commentators and what I propose to do today is much more modest: I want to explain the original, Christian, meaning of the terms which are (mis-)used on a daily basis.
The reader will then decide how to apply them, or not, to the current crisis.
I will begin by the very basics.
The basics
The term “Christian” can mean one of two things: first, it can designate any person or group calling itself Christian. When used in this sense, the word “Christian” includes not only the all main Christian denominations, but also Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, the Mormons or even the 17% of British Christians who do not believe in the resurrection of Christ. Basically, in this context the term has no objective meaning whatsoever and this is how the term is mostly used nowadays.
There is also another use of the word “Christian”. This second definition is based on two very ancient statements. The first by Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (4th century) and the second one by Saint Vincent of Lérins (5th century). The first one says that the Christian faith is the faith “which the Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded; and if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian“. The second one says that this faith only includes that “which has been believed everywhere, always and by all”. By these definitions, “Christianity” is an objective category not a “free for all”. The key words affirming this are “if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian”. These ancient definition preclude not only any form of dogmatic innovation, they also imply that words can be used either in a truly Christian sense or not. There is no middle-ground here. This belief, which was shared by all the Church Fathers and all the members of the ancient, original, Christian Church has tremendous implications, especially for what is called “ecclesiology”.
The term “ecclesiology” refers to the Christian theology concerning the Church. In other words, the teachings of Christianity about what is, or what is not, the Church (and what is, or is not, within the confines of the Church) is an objective corpus of beliefs, of key tenets, of dogmas.
What I will do next is to explain the meaning of a number of concepts when used in this second, original, context and contrast their original meaning with the basically secular and pseudo-Christian meaning which is so often attributed to them nowadays.
One more thing, for the sake of clarity: I will be writing the word church with a lower case “c” when dealing with a building (as in “the church of Saint Paul in the city’s downtown”) and with a capital “C” when dealing with an ecclesiastical jurisdiction/body (as in the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate”); in this latter case the use of the word “Church” with a capital “C” will in no way imply any recognition of legitimacy.
1. Canonical, canonicity and “recognized”
Most authors nowadays speak of a “canonical” Church as being a “recognized” Church. This is a circular definition, by the way: a Church is canonical because it is recognized and it is recognized because it is canonical. This begs the obvious question: recognized by whom?! The answer is also obvious: either recognized by the country’s civil/secular authorities or recognized by other “canonical” Churches.
From a truly Christian point of view, this is utterly absurd. Since when do civil/secular powers have the expertise or, for that matter, the authority to recognize or not recognize Church “A” as “canonical” and Church “B” as “non-canonical”?! And what does “canonical” mean anyway?
“Canonical” simply means “in conformity to the Church canons”. As for the word “canon” it is simply the Greek word for “ruler, measure”. Simply put, something is “canonical” when it is in conformity with the dogmas, rules, decrees, definitions and practices proclaimed and adopted by the Christian Church, primarily by means of decisions by the various recognized Church councils (I won’t go into the issue of what constitutes a recognized council since that will take too much time). You could say that something is canonical if it conforms to the the rules of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria and Saint Vincent of Lérins quoted above. This, again, is an objective category which cannot be twisted and turned into a free for all. So let’s look at one such canons and see what it says. The 31st Apostolic Canon decrees that:
If any bishop makes use of the rulers of this world, and by their means obtains to be a bishop of a church, let him be deprived and suspended, and all that communicate with him.
This ruling of the apostles themselves has later been recognized and confirmed during an Ecumenical Council. The 3rd Canon of the 7th Ecumenical Council says:
“Every appointment of a bishop, or of a presbyter, or of a deacon made by (civil) rulers shall remain void in accordance with the Canon which says: “If any bishop comes into possession of a church by employing secular rulers, let him be deposed from office, and let him be excommunicated. And all those who communicate with him too.”
You see the problem now? How can anybody consider that civil/secular authorities are competent to “recognize” this or that Church as “canonical” when the canons of the Apostles and of a Ecumenical Council (the most authoritative Church Council) specifically state that if a bishop has obtains his “legitimacy” (office, rank, diocese or church properties) from civil/secular authorities he should be deposed, thus making him totally illegitimate? From a canonical point of view, the recognition of civil authorities is not only meaningless, it could, depending on the exact circumstances, constitute grounds for deposition!
The reality is that during much of the 20th century what we have seen is the civil/secular authorities of various countries supporting one Church against another for purely political purposes. This was especially prevalent in the Communist countries. Some bishops were considered “friendly” and others “enemies of the people”. The secular authorities then simply used brute force (usually in the form of riot police) to evict the latter and replace them with the former. The “friendly” bishops then took control of all of the churches, monasteries and other properties and declared themselves to be legitimate and canonical because they were recognized and because they were placed in control of a lot of very visible and historical real estate.
Needless to say, that kind of dependence on the goodwill and support of civil/secular authorities placed the “friendly” Churches into a complete subordination to the state, exactly what the civil/secular authorities wanted in the first place. The fact that, unlike in most similar cases before the 20th century, the civil authorities in the 20th century were not only secular, but openly and militantly atheistic created a qualitatively new phenomenon: the subordination of bishops and Churches to the will of anti-religious secular regimes. Nowadays, of course, most governments in nominally Orthodox countries do not declare themselves as militant atheists, but the subordinate relationship of the official “state Churches” to the secular authorities has remained unchanged (even if their official rhetoric has been adapted to the new realities).
The bottom line is this: all this talk about “canonical” and “recognized” Churches is a self-serving canard used by those Churches who have obtained their official status by completely uncanonical means. In the overwhelming number of cases, when individuals or organizations use the term “canonical” they never mean “in conformity to the Church canons” simply because they are both ignorant and indifferent to what the Christian teachings really says about these matters.
2. Bishops, Patriarchs and wannabe “Eastern Popes”
Who is the biggest Ortho-boss, the bishop, or maybe the Archbishop, or the Metropolitan, or the Patriarch? It must be the “Ecumenical” Patriarch, right? Since he is “Ecumenical” he must be like an “Orthodox Pope”. Check out his official title: “His Most Divine All-Holiness the Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch“. God is, by definition, (only) “divine”. The Third Person of the Trinity is (just) the “Holy” Spirit. But the Patriarch of Constantinople is his “most divine and all-holy”! Wow – he surely must really be some kind of super Ortho-Pope!
Wrong.
There are only four main “ranks” in the Church: faithful, deacon, presbyter and bishop. All the rest are just honorific and/or administrative titles including reader, subdeacon, chanter, acolyte, protodeacon, archdeacon, protopresbyter, archpriest, archimandrite, mitred archpriest, protosyngellos, archbishop, metropolitan and patriarch. The rank of emperor, by the way, was associated with the rank of subdeacon and the emperor would receive the Mysteries (aka “sacraments”, the Eucharist) to the side of the altar with the subdeacons. None of these titles indicate any qualitative difference or mystical superiority.
The Church, while essentially mystical (thus referred to as the “theandric Body of Christ”) also has an administrative/organizational aspect which must exist within the social and political environment of the society in which it operates. For example, while in mystical terms all bishops are equal, it was obvious from the beginning that being the bishop of the imperial city (be it Rome or Constantinople) was a far more important office than being the bishop of some remote and scarcely populated diocese. Furthermore, while all important decisions were made in councils (local or ecumenical) day to day decisions could be made by bishops specially invested with that authority (sometimes assisted by a few more bishops). But except for honorific and administrative reasons, all bishops are fundamentally equals, invested with the same charisma (gift) and authority. The Latin expression primus inter pares, or “first among equals”, expresses this reality.
This also fully applies to the “Most Divine All-Holiness the Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch” who had a honorific primacy simply because he was the ruling bishop of the capital of the Empire, just as the ruling bishop of Rome (the “Pope” in Latin terminology) had before him. I won’t go into the history of how the (tiny) Patriarchate of Constantinople used its former position to claim some kind of universal jurisdiction, this would take too much time, but I will simply note that two events which occurred on the 15th century have irrevocably made void any and all claims of primacy (even of honor) by the Patriarch of Constantinople: the False Union of Florence in 1439 AD and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 AD.
[Sidebar: the Russian Orthodox Church, by the way, could lay claim of being the “Third Rome” as successor to the First and Second Rome since the First Rome fell to the Barbarians in 476 and fell into apostasy in 1054 while the Second Rome fell into apostasy in 1439 and to the Ottomans in 1453. I won’t go into the merits of this argument, but I will just point out that it absolutely infuriates the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The fact that the Russian Orthodox Church is by far the biggest of all and the fact that Moscow and Saint Petersburg were the capitals of the last Orthodox empire only further serves to create tensions, and even outright hostility, between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Moscow Patriarchate. This is all very relevant in the case of the current political struggle over the Ukraine and the role of the Patriarch of Constantinople in it].
For all these historical and political arguments, the reality is that the Christian Church has always been conciliar in nature: that is to say that councils (local or major ones) were both the mode and the sole authority by which important decisions could be taken, never any single individual. The example of the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem (in about 50 AD) was the first one to set such an example and it has always been followed by those faithful to the original Christian ecclesiology ever since.
3. The “right” for each country or nation to have its own Church
This is one of the most outlandish and yet also most frequent assertions made by almost every commentator out there: that there is some kind of “right” for each nation or country to have its own, independent, Church. Nothing could be further from the truth!
The reality is that Christianity (like Islam, by the way) absolutely rejects any categories based on ethnicity, race, tribe or anything similar. Here are just a few quotes from the New Testament proving this:
- There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28)
- For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit (Gal 5:6)
- Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God (1 Cor 7:19)
- For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit (1 Cor; 12 :13)
But the clearest and most definitive statement on this issue is this one:
- Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all (Col 3:9-11).
So national/racial/ethnic/tribal categories are lies (contrast that with the racist interpretation of the Scripture by rabbinical phariseism aka modern “Orthodox Judaism”!), becoming a Christian renews your knowledge (that is make you adopt new categories) and in Christ all are one (no more national/racial/ethnic/tribal for true Christians).
This teaching have always remained at the core of the true Christian dogmatic anthropology (i.e. teachings about the nature of man). In fact, what is nowadays called “phyletism” or “ethno-phyletism” (nationalism or tribalism) has been condemned as a heresy by a pan-Orthodox council as late as in 1872 (this council was held in Constantinople, of all places, what sad irony!) For those interested in the historical context for this council, you can download a PDF about it here: http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/The-Synod-of-Constantinople-1872-The-Oecumenical-Synods-of-the-Orthodox-Church-Fr-James-Thornton.pdf.
[Sidebar: It is ironical – and sad – that so many of those who today engage in “hunting the Jew” by means of putting silly parentheses around (((names))) and who call themselves Orthodox Christians completely fail to realize two thing: first, they are using categories which the Church has denounced as heresies and, second, they are using the exact same categories as many of the (Orthodox) Jews they are denouncing. Frankly, this is rather pathetic and only goes to show the fantastically low level of spiritual education of those who fancy themselves as “defenders of the Christian faith” and who, in reality, have not even the vaguest basic notions about the faith they pretend to defend]
The truth is that modern national/racial/ethnic/tribal categories are just re-hated pagan categories and that those who use them today, including priests and bishops, are simply catering to the pagan, post-Christian Zeitgeist for petty political reasons. Furthermore, it is also true that since the fall of the last Orthodox Empire in 1917, the Orthodox Church has been undergoing an immense crisis brought along primarily by the infiltration of Greek Orthodox Churches by Freemasons (see here for some background information) and the infiltration of the Russian Orthodox Church by agents of the Bolshevik regime in Russia (see here and here for some background information). The combined effects of these three phenomena (1917 Revolution, Masonic and Bolshevik infiltration) has resulted in a deep crisis from which most Orthodox Churches have yet to recover and which often makes them easy pawns in political battles (I discussed this issue in some detail in my article “Why Orthodox Churches Are Still Used as Pawns in Political Games”).
As for rank and file Orthodox Christians, they are sometimes induced to come to the wrong conclusions about this because they believe (correctly) that, unlike the Latin Papacy, the Orthodox Church does not have one single super-boss and one single administration. They also believe (correctly) that, unlike the Latin Papacy of the past, the Orthodox Church did not have a single “official” language of worship and that, in fact, Orthodox ritual practice is rather diverse and often includes local cultural influences. These correct beliefs, however, bring them to the entirely false conclusion that each Orthodox nation has some kind of “right” to have its own independent (“autocephalous”) Orthodox Church.
The fact that much of the clergy of the “official” and “recognized” (that is “state approved” vide supra) Orthodox Churches is more than happy to comfort them in these beliefs does not help.
As for the secular leaders of the state, they are more than happy to have an Orthodox Church which is both 1) totally compliant and 2) nationalistic.
What is lost in all this madness is the Orthodox truth, the wordview of the true, original, Christianity, and the “spirit of the Fathers” (or phronema in Greek) which best expresses it. It is also no wonder that the most corrupt Orthodox hierarchs, like the Patriarch of Constantinople, are more than happy to pretend that Orthodox ecclesiology does somehow grant them the authority of some kind of “Eastern Pope”.
This is truly the “abomination of desolation standing in the holy place” (Matt 24:15 & Daniel 9:27)!
Those Orthodox Christians who nowadays succumb to the heresy of ethno-phyletism would do well to remember that besides the, shall we say, “geographical” meaning of the words of Christ (in reference to Jerusalem, of course, but also Rome, Constantinople, Moscow, Kiev and many other cities), there is also a second, spiritual meaning well explained by Saint Maximos the Confessor:
“From the passions embedded in the soul the demons take their starting base to stir up passionate thought in us. Then, by making war on the mind through them they force it to go along and consent to sin. When it is overcome they lead it on to a sin of thought, and when this is accomplished they finally bring it as a prisoner to the deed. After this, at length, the demons who have devastated the soul through thoughts withdraw with them. In the mind there remains only the idol of sin and which the Lord says, “When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, let him who reads understand.” Man’s mind is a holy place and a temple of God in which the demons have laid waste the soul through passionate thoughts and set up the idol of sin. That these things have already happened in history no one who has read Josephus can, I think, doubt, though some say that these things will also happen when the Antichrist comes.”(2nd Century on Love, #31).
Here we have arguably one of the greatest Christian theologians and philosophers of all times reminding us that the “abomination of desolation” will also happen in the minds of those who, suaded by demons and passions, stray away from that “which has been believed everywhere, always and by all” and, instead, let their minds and souls be polluted by the post-Christian nonsense of modern nationalisms. Nationalism, of course, is not only an modern idol, but it is also a rather crude form of self-worship, yet another truly satanic practice!
Conclusion: what this is all about and we can can do about it
The first sad reality is that none of this is about Christianity, Orthodoxy, ecclesiology or anything else remotely connected to any notion of truth at all.
This is about buildings, real-estate, political power, money, influence, indoctrination and all the other key “values” of our times.
The second sad reality is that innocent and well-intentioned people will suffer and even die as a direct consequence of the immoral actions of a few power-greedy individuals.
The truth is that a religion-fulled civil war appears to have already been set in motion and that there is nothing we, simple rank and file Christians, can do about it, at least not in secular terms. In spiritual terms, we can do two things: we can, of course, pray and we can refuse to become part of a debate in which every single concept dear to us is misused, distorted and perverted. For that, we need to understand that the abomination which is taking place before our eyes did not just pop-up into existence ex nihilo and that there are profound spiritual roots to the almost universal adoption of non-Christian categories by most, albeit not all, Christians. Christ Himself reminded us that “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:9). We also know that the wisdom of this world is “foolishness with God” (1 Cor 3:19) and that it comes “not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (James 3:15). Then how can we then still operate by using worldly categories or worldly interpretations of patristic concepts?
What we can, and must, do is follow Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s famous appeal and “live not by lies” even if most of our contemporaries, including many Christians (even clerics!) have given up on the very notion of “truth”. In Solzhenitsyn’s words “So in our timidity, let each of us make a choice: whether consciously, to remain a servant of falsehood — of course, it is not out of inclination, but to feed one’s family, that one raises his children in the spirit of lies — or to shrug off the lies and become an honest person worthy of respect both by one’s children and contemporaries”.
After all, if we are truly Christians, then we can remember Christ’s promise that “blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matt 5:6) and, hopefully, this will give us courage to “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle” (2 Thess 2:15).
The Saker
Never confuse the American legal system with justice, and never confuse religion with God.
Over my 65 years on this planet, I’ve become quite familiar with many religions/sects. One grandfather was Lutheran and the other Roman Catholic, one grandmother was Methodist and another Moravian Brethren. I was raised Methodist and became a Mormon in my early 20s, and later married a Baptist.
Besides attending the various sacred rites of these various churches (weddings, funerals, baptisms, etc) over the years, I have studied their histories and doctrines and become quite familiar with their various claims of Divine sanction.
After all of the above, I came to the conclusion long ago that all of the modern versions of the so-called Abrahamic religions are shit. Pure, unadulterated, 100% shit.
One look at all the degenerate “shepherds” today will prove the truth of that assertion. Jewish rabbis who gloat over murdering innocent Arab women and children; Roman Catholic priests who rape altar boys; Protestant ministers of all denominations who preach in million dollar church buildings and own fleets of limousines and airplanes; Muslims who claim that Islam is a “religion of peace” and terrorize and behead in the name of Allah.
(Removed language,MOD). Every last one of the despicable wolves in sheep’s clothing that take advantage of the pious people who take them to be true messengers from God.
And don’t accuse me of being a godless atheist. Anyone with two firing synapses can see that this universe is a wonderful Creation that was made by an infinitely superior Intelligence (or collegium of Intelligences) for some purpose – even if only for their own amusement. This amazingly complex organization of matter certainly didn’t arise from some chaotic “big bang.”
The sad reality is that if there ever was an intermediate connection between ordinary men and God, it was corrupted long ago, and the perverted institutions that pretend to rule in his Name today have lost all claim to legitimacy. It is up to each individual now to find his own way to God, because there is no other path.
Refreshingly honest and decent appraisal.
You don’t need a middleman to reach for God. Search and you will find.
Brilliant! Richly substantiated and very well argued!
Love it.
The Saker
Another wise man here!
It always baffles me why a decent human being now days still needs some middlemen and institutions, corrupt or not, to tell him/her what the true God and belief are and how to find them.
Melotte 22, I like your wise words very much!
Christ did give us His Church over which the gates of Hell would not prevail. This Church, established by the apostles has continued to this day. There have been bad apples from the start. This is no surprise. It would not be wise to ignore this Church. I’ve tried the lone wolf approach. It doesn’t work any more than Sola Scriptura and Faith alone mantras of Luther. It is within His Church that true worship is offered, as the apostles taught. Our seeking for and worship of the Lord is deeply personal but His Corporate body will keep us safe and help us in our struggles to become the image of God.
I am with you, Craig. I think The Saker’s reply to Trey/Melotte, above, has sarcasm on at 11.
What this article describes – and as a Catholic I lament along with the Russians for their church – is precisely the sequence of events that the Catholic Church suffered during the ‘reformation’. The reformation was not about religion, as this act in Ukraine is not about religion. It was about removing a critical and subversive institution so that unbridled avarice, theft and centralisation of power to the few could proceed without counterpoint.
Those who argue that the ‘Reformation’ was a cleansing operation and who buy all the propaganda about the medieval church, wondrous Luther etc are beneath contempt to anyone who reads or thinks. Sorry, dear protestant friends, but for all your good hearts, love of the divine, bible study, honesty, etc. your faction was born in rape and pillage of the poor by the rich and powerful. The same trajectory and arguments used since 1536 against Catholics will now be used against Russian Orthodoxy in Ukraine. As in the 16thC, fools rush in to support a religious ideology whereas in fact they are supporting a political maneuver by ruthless men extending their personal wealth and influence. Reformation is better described as ‘redistribution’.
Patriach Bartholomew is a strong argument against priests marrying: he has taken a bribe from the deep state, as every actor in the US regime change play who changes alliances mid scene does. Money talks when you have kids to set up well. Money talks less when you have no-one to leave anything to. He is Russia’s re-incarnation of Cardinal Wolsey.
Great books for every Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant about the social and political basis of the 1600’s grand theft:
A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland; William Cobbett 1824 (by a protestant)
‘Shadowplay’; Claire Asquith (by a protestant and wife of the UK’s Russian ambassador during the cold war).
(I accept however that the Catholic Church has a major problem with homosexuals and kids/seminarians. We are dealing with it.)
Welcome to your personal ‘reformation’, Russia. Want to know how to counter it – read about the 1530’s in England. Same people, same script, same objective to the letter.
proper grander, I admire your wisdom in this debate. You spoke well and you know your history. What is your name again? Ciao amigos
Of course the universe is designed, nothing so unbelievably complex could be accidental.
Helena Blavatsky, a person recently denigrated on this site by a religious guest, has a rather interesting alternate view based on much older ideas, her philosophy in fact addresses all aspects of “life, the universe and everything”‘ from where we came from to what we are. Her writings were later hijacked by a Christian group and altered to appease Christianity, so if interested, get the original version.
As to the Orthodox, I hope you find a peaceful solution.
I thought Miss Blavatsky was a spook?
She definitely was a spook, a multiple agent if you want, mostly American in the late years of her life. She was a fraud all along. Her followers are even bigger frauds than her, and rancid at that. Her place is in the dustbin of the history of ‘sprituality’ (Anglo-Saxon at that). She had nothing, but nothing at all, with any ‘Christianity of the Russian kind’ or ‘Slavic Mystic teachings’ (whatever that means,’Rodnoverism’ I suppose).
Blavatsky, Guenon and some others like that actually have a huge influence on Eurasian thought, which is currently taking its place as the dominant power system in this multi polar world . This is a hybrid and natural shared descendant of Orthodox Christianity of the Russian kind (not Byzantine) and Slavic Mystic teachings (belarus still has much pagan music, water spells etc) , Spirtual Islam (not the western-created Wahabi kind) and millenia-old Siberian & Turkic/Evenki Shamanism.
In his interview with Lauren Southern I remember Alexsandr Dugin expaining how the current practise of holding photos of desceased relatives at the Patriotic War marches is a tradition which shows simultanteously Russian Orthodoxy in its use of Icons and saints, Pagan veneration of ancestry and descends from the mass movements of Stalinist-National Patriotism. This is a return to Truth, after the epidemic of spirtitual sickness caused by the Protestant revolutions and 1960s degeneration and 1990s NeoLiberalism. Anglo pursue in all things the deification of the individual- a sure recipe for decline. Collective, collaberative Eurasia will naturally overwhelm the ‘society of individuals’ formed by Neo Liberalism.
Of course all this goes straight over the heads of Anglo Saxons, brainwashed into seeing the world in simplistic good/evil, including Judeo-Christian Zionist Ms Southern, who sat there like a little girl at a magic show.
@”Blavatsky, Guenon and some others like that actually have a huge influence on Eurasian thought, which is currently taking its place as the dominant power system in this multi polar world . This is a hybrid and natural shared descendant of Orthodox Christianity of the Russian kind (not Byzantine) and Slavic Mystic teachings (belarus still has much pagan music, water spells etc) , Spirtual Islam (not the western-created Wahabi kind) and millenia-old Siberian & Turkic/Evenki Shamanism”.
I beg to differ on that point. It was the ‘Eurasianism’ inherent in the Russian Empire policy that had an ‘influence’ on Blavatsky or Guenon thoughts. Russia is not the “Third Rome’. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 (sadly on my birthday), Russia (Moscow, at that) became, by default, Rome (Byzance, although improperly called that). The policy of tolerance for Mahomedanism, Buddhism, Judaism, Shamanism, has its roots not in a vapid interreligious ‘ecumenism’ a la Dugin, but in the Roman Law. Let’s face it, the Tsars never fell for the “Slavic onanism”. Neither the Orthodox Church of Russia. What people take as “Russian Orthodoxy” is rather a sequel of the heresy of the ‘Judaizers’ of the 15-16th centuries.
blavatsky – like a crowley? And what did himmler etc think of her, hmm?
‘This amazingly complex organization of matter certainly didn’t arise from some chaotic “big bang.”’ This statement is self-contradictory. The statement implies that the existence of this complexity requires pre-existence of a Creator. Since the Creator is more complex than its creation, the same logic must be applied to the Creator, pre-pre-existence of a Creator2 is required,… then pre-pre-pre-existence of a Creator3,…
The concept is called “infinity.”
Don’t bother trying to understand it. No mere human can — and remain sane….
The concept is called ‘regressus ad infinitum’ (infinite regress) and was explained by Aristotle some few (I let to your latitude to establish how many) centuries ago:
“Some hold that, owing to the necessity of knowing the primary premises, there is no scientific knowledge. Others think there is, but that all truths are demonstrable. Neither doctrine is either true or a necessary deduction from the premises. The first school, assuming that there is no way of knowing other than by demonstration, maintain that an infinite regress is involved, on the ground that if behind the prior stands no primary, we could not know the posterior through the prior (wherein they are right, for one cannot traverse an infinite series): if on the other hand – they say – the series terminates and there are primary premises, yet these are unknowable because incapable of demonstration, which according to them is the only form of knowledge. And since thus one cannot know the primary premises, knowledge of the conclusions which follow from them is not pure scientific knowledge nor properly knowing at all, but rests on the mere supposition that the premises are true. The other party agree with them as regards knowing, holding that it is only possible by demonstration, but they see no difficulty in holding that all truths are demonstrated, on the ground that demonstration may be circular and reciprocal. Our own doctrine is that not all knowledge is demonstrative: on the contrary, knowledge of the immediate premises is independent of demonstration. (The necessity of this is obvious; for since we must know the prior premises from which the demonstration is drawn, and since the regress must end in immediate truths, those truths must be indemonstrable.) Such, then, is our doctrine, and in addition we maintain that besides scientific knowledge there is its original source which enables us to recognize the definitions”.
— Aristotle, Posterior Analytics I.3 72b1–15
Aristotle said that demonstrability is not possible without an indemonstrable principle: Arche, ἀρχή, “beginning”, “origin” or “source of action, “ultimate underlying substance” and “ultimate undemonstrable principle”, the principle of a thing, which although undemonstrable and intangible in itself, provides the conditions of the possibility of that thing. God, ho Theos, the Prime Unmoved Mover. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. The Word, Logos: a word, speech, divine utterance. That is what ‘Logic’ means (for those who went through some school).
Sadly (but not unexpectedly) many comments here are made by utterly ignorant people (which made them utterly confident in excreting their utterly confident innanities). Normally you should ignore them, but sadly they belong to that wad of humanity that are given the ‘right’ to vote according to the ideas inculcated in their brains, but thinking that there are their own ideas. They are in fact the most dangerous people, the breeding ground of the self-righteous terrorists.
I didn’t realize how special you were until the very end…
You missed the part by Maximos the Confessor? He’s talking about your anger, bud.
“From the passions embedded in the soul the demons take their starting base to stir up passionate thought in us. Then, by making war on the mind through them they force it to go along and consent to sin. When it is overcome they lead it on to a sin of thought, and when this is accomplished they finally bring it as a prisoner to the deed. After this, at length, the demons who have devastated the soul through thoughts withdraw with them. In the mind there remains only the idol of sin and which the Lord says, “When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, let him who reads understand.” Man’s mind is a holy place and a temple of God in which the demons have laid waste the soul through passionate thoughts and set up the idol of sin. That these things have already happened in history no one who has read Josephus can, I think, doubt, though some say that these things will also happen when the Antichrist comes.”(2nd Century on Love, #31).
You are assuming that logic is greater than God.
Besides, human minds can only comprehend so much, the most important being a person’s necessary and eternal relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ, and this is why Christ came to Earth – not man trying to reach God, but the other way round; if there were other ways for a person to be saved and have a spiritual relationship with God, then Jesus would not have needed to come here, but there was/is no other way, except through accepting Christ as your Saviour.
Also then, Christianity is not really a religion (including as a philosophy etc), but a direct relationship with God made possible only by Jesus, spiritually. This has to come first. It is also not an intellectual or mind agreement with the New Testament, but a spiritual birth as in being born again, and only God is able to do this, nobody in the Church, or anywhere else, can do this:
John 3:3 ‘Jesus answered and said unto him,Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’
John 3:7 ‘Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.’
1 Peter 1:23 ‘Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.’
The complete words of the Christ about the second birth are:
“Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” 4“How can a man be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit”.
“Of water” means through Baptism jn the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, administered by the successors of the Apostles, the bishops and priests who have been given the power to transmit the Spirit, given to them by the Christ:
“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:19-23).
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20).
When Jesus’ teachings were written down in Greek there was a well-established place to get re-born, the Elusinian Mysteries. Aristotle, Plato, all Athenian leaders and some Romans were initiates of the mysteries. This was about experiencing, not blind faith.
Thank you for pointing this out. You said what I am thinking.
“if there were other ways for a person to be saved and have a spiritual relationship with God, then Jesus would not have needed to come here, but there was/is no other way, except through accepting Christ as your Saviour.”
This God deity is allegedly, omniscient and omnipotent. With these characteristics this deity, allegedly, designed a creation not only with the propensity to sin but with the foreknowledge that this inclinitation would become a reality.
We are told that in heaven there is no more sin for all eternity, that is the deity has the ability to create beings with neither the propensity for sin nor (if that propensity is still provided) to ever put it into force.
Therefore, there was no requirement for the deity to ever provide the propensity for humanity to sin nor (if it had been provided) to permit humanity to actualise it.
If the deity had made creation perfect and not provided humanity the characteristic of permission to deviate from perfection then “saving” it would never have been required. The decision to permit deviation from perfection was the deity’s and the, alleged, contingent death of Christ was only required because of that decision.
In summary – there were “other ways”.
As I said in the beginning: ‘assuming that logic is greater than God.
…human minds can only comprehend so much’ – we don’t know why lucifier sinned in heaven, that is a mystery to us, even though we have been given partial knowledge, it doesn’t make sense as to what caused him to do so, we can only understand so much, the rest has to wait.
The function of the human mind from God’s point of view is not to understand everything, but to be able to live on earth in a limited set up, given enough ability and information for that.
The rest will have to wait until spiritual minds can comprehend a whole lot more – in heaven.
“we don’t know why lucifier sinned in heaven, that is a mystery to us”
It is only a partial mystery.
We do know that, on creation, God had provided Lucifer with the innate ability to sin and also knew that Satan would sin.
God neither had to provide Satan with this ability to sin nor (having provided that ability) proceed with that creatures creation knowing that Satan would sin.
What doesn’t make sense is that God, allegedly, created Satan with this innate sinful capability and still proceeded to create the demon with full foreknowledge of the carnage the demon would subsequently create.
God had no requirement (other than for the good pleasure of his will) to design a creation in which such carnage was foreknown to ensue but did anyway. The most important question seems to be why an, allegedly, omnibenevolent deity would do so.
Do you have such an answer, or any answer for that ? don’t misjudge my questioning though, this question is – as you very well know – very important. I read a lot, I learned a lot, experienced (and still experiencing) a lot in this life but this question comes over and over again. Surely, man can give a lot a of explanations, I can give a lot of explanations but am I right ? Those whom endeavored themselves on this path, have reached to the same questions.An answer, whatever logical it is or seems to be, will never satisfy the human reasoning, this is a real and sad fact, here lies the human tragedy, we are not capable (or allowed) to know more than we can have (or bear) in this earthly life. What remains for us ? the faith, the hope. We can scream, we can bark, we can pray, whatever we may do, there is silence. If the evil wouldn’t be, how should we know what is good ? I know, it is very hard to accept this idea, not just for you, for me as well and for many of us. Can we change and interfere in a process which is far beyond our understanding ? That Man, Jesus, came to show us our fate, a long, long struggle, with the world and with ourselves ( cause the struggle is not only external, it is also much more internal). The whole “thing” is such a complex task, beyond space and time, there’s no wonder only few people take the risks to question, cause questioning begins first in singularity (for various and obvious reasons for that particular person) and then this question arise in the collective mind. That means, we are connected in some way, arriving to the same questions. Why did Lucifer what he did ? somewhere, maybe in the Koran, I read that he wanted to demonstrate God, that the humans are not capable to be sons of God and he is doing everything possible to prove his case, by committing all kind of “ambushes” against the humans. This reasoning might be good but can we be satisfied, as twisted humans ?
“An answer, whatever logical it is or seems to be, will never satisfy the human reasoning, this is a real and sad fact, here lies the human tragedy, we are not capable (or allowed) to know more than we can have (or bear) in this earthly life.”
ioan,
it seems reasonable, to me, to assume that if God is the deity, that it’s character is not as described here
Psalms 18:30: “As for God, his way is perfect”
If God is not omnibenevolent then having faith in a liar is not only sad – it is beyond reason.
As I inferred, man doesn’t have the intellect to understand things like that.
Nobody really understands infinity or eternity.
At our level of IQ, how can we? How can we understand what God thinks etc?
Just consider mathematics; go and ask any mathematician about understanding complexity found in it, and s/he will tell you it is impossible for a human to do so, except at the very rudimentary level (compared to all the possibilities).
That is also why, I think, we have to accept things by faith, rather than having proof.
“As I inferred, man doesn’t have the intellect to understand things like that.”
This is an excuse, not an argument.
‘The decision to permit deviation from perfection’ is what gives rise to free will.
“The sad reality is that if there ever was an intermediate connection between ordinary men and God, it was corrupted long ago, and the perverted institutions that pretend to rule in his Name today have lost all claim to legitimacy. It is up to each individual now to find his own way to God, because there is no other path.”
Just so Trey N
“It is up to each individual now to find his own way to God, because there is no other path”
so Trey, do you think you will find the path? Is it like hiking a mountain?
I did a hike with a group of friends a while back. I could see the top of the mountain from my starting point. Being in good shape, I thought, it will be fun and easy. We started on a path, which quickly disappeared under our feet. We kept going up, but the vegetation was so thick, we became disoriented. The vegetation started to cut into the skin of our arms and legs. We lost sight of members of our group. The path was very steep. Some of us fell and injured ourselves. Several hours later, rattled, injured, arguing, thirsty and hungry we found ourselves at the bottom of the mountain without ever making it to the top. There is a reason why guides exists, maps, traditions, customs..religion does have a purpose.
People think they are very self sufficient, but we are very weak, physically and spiritually. Precious knowledge has been forgotten. This slicing and dicing of our communities is isolating us, and those who have been assigned to lead us, have descended into in-fighting…
I am not at all sure I will find the way.
“There is a reason why guides exist…religion does have a purpose.”
And what happens when the guide you trust to lead you to the mountaintop instead leads you in circles through the weeds and brush for hours/days/months on end, conveniently taking you by his numerous lemonade and burger stands?
Are you any better off than just trusting to your own instincts/”inner guide”/the Holy Spirit/whatever-you-want-to-call-it that all men and women (psychopaths possibly excepted…) are born with?
I’ve been on the lemonade circuit. It ultimately leads nowhere, and the only one profiting from the experience is the guide.
I’m quite content to try and find my own way now. I may never get to the mountaintop on my own before getting planted on the wrong side of the grass here — but then again, I may yet. And I certainly won’t be any worse off by following my own path….
I tend to agree with your explanation – following the example written above by Serbian girl and expanded by you – expanding this thought : the personal life experience is probably the best Master, no teachings are better than those felt by yourself on your skin and in your soul – spirit. So, the guidance is good to be there in your life but the probe will come by experiencing it, or as the scripture say, “following the narrow path” , accompanied by traps and offerings of all kind from the neighboring wide path. The decision to go and find your way is that of a researcher for the Truth – that Truth has a universal value but also a very particular for each one of us cause we are in fact Singularities (we don’t have duplicates, cannot be replaced). Of course, all religious teachings have traps in which man falls, gets wounded (sometimes very painful ones), then we go further and search. In fact our life is a journey, being told the opposite by the “world” who creates the stages one after the other (in this Theater) – and we like that. If not, that means you have opted for the narrow path of learning. Is that wrong ? Not at all, following that path alone is the heaviest one. At some point we all are alone, think at that, who shall make your work, who shall take your pain, who shall take your burden, who shall solve your problems ? some will say : the relatives, friends, etc. (but don’t tell anyone) there are many circumstances where you have to deal with a lot of issues and take a decision just you alone. Thanks for your thoughts !
“The decision to go and find your way is that of a researcher for the Truth”
If your search for the truth leads you to the opposite of it then your search has, presumably, been futile.
This approach is pessimistic. Although I’m not in the best condition, having many, many difficulties in my everyday, I can’t give up (still) to such negative outcome. Maybe it is because I have such a character or maybe because I don’t want to spread hopelessness among the readers here. If I want to do the latter, I would say :” hand yourselves, all those who lost hope” I can’t lose my confidence in a better world (if not here, then elsewhere, beyond the physical) And I don’t think that that world is a religious one !
“This approach is pessimistic”</i.
The flat earthers continue to be disappointed that the world is round.
@serbian girl,
That’s a beautiful post of you, and for a large part I agree with you.
You are right that some guidance may get people further, my esotheric question is what’s awaiting on the top of the mountain?
I think that for a Christian the first step is faith.
This I say for a reason. My parents were both catholic. They raised us children without it, and left us with a free will to choose for ourselves, if wanted.
I’m still stupified about this wisdom.
At a certain moment in my life I didn’t need to find or bar a way to Christ anymore, because He found a way to me. It was the most special moment in my life.
Your analogy of climbing a mountain resembled me of a hallucinating experience I once met. Standing on a gletscher in the Alps, snow on our feet, and such a thick fog that you could barely see 2 meters ahead. The ultimate whiteness at 360 degrees, and total disorientation. We came out with using charts, compass and altitude meter, but boy it was a special time.
Well, after faith comes *morality*, living like Christ teached us, and the church is more about rituals. I think.
@Trey N, you are very honest. I do not completely agree with you, because in the very hart of Christianity is choice. But I think eventually you will make the right choice.
@serbian girl, don’t worry. When the time is nigh, He will make a path for you.
Cheers, Rob
I agree with you, Rob, though not a Christian.
One of the stumbling blocks is the way our language is structured, (subject, verb, object) conning us to insist, if we are unaware, on a goal or an answer to everything, when in reality there are no written-in-stone goals or answers but simply ongoing processes–like life in all its diversity and wonder.
People with languages that have a different structure to the subject-verb-object pattern find this easier to accept and work with (and still accomplish goals and find answers) than westerners rooted in this language structure.
In my observations, human thinking is rooted primarily in metaphor in the first place, Language and grammar is useful for an approximate structuring those first metaphorical impressions/insights but cannot ever fully capture and pin them down, to then make a saleable (transferable) commodity of them, thank the gods.
Sincere help from more knowledgeable types of all stripes, if you can recognise it as such, is always of use.
For myself, I just don’t bother with conclusions, the answer is always “maybe” as that is what makes me happy.
@Serbian girl
“It is up to each individual now to find his own way to God, because there is no other path”
In 1977 an Irish journalist and writer named Brian Cleeve underwent a series of mystical experiences which resulted in two extraordinary books. They are The House on the Rock, and The Seven Mansions. They can be found here: http://sevenmansions.org
The books claim to be the an account of his conversations with God in which God answers many of the questions which have always troubled the minds of ordinary people. The author invites you to decide for yourself if the answers he received satisfy you.
At worst, you will have wasted a little time reading. At best, you may have found the start of that path that you claim to seek.
Trey N,
Just save this pearl of wisdom! May I ask your permission to freely quote/use it in future? Thanks!
From a different angle the translstor Mauro Biglino came to a similar conclusion. He argues that jehova and elohim do not translate into god; accoding to him there is no hebrew dictionary that translates jehova int god. Look him up on youtube and come to yor own conclusion.
He translated few books of the old testament for the vatican until he got fired for pointing out that jehova does not translate into god. So this guy knows what he is talking about.
Creation is inseparable from Creator – something universally understood except by the human ego (individually and/or collectively). What “sad reality”? What lost “intermediate connection”? What lost claim to legitimacy? Who is speaking these questions? Who is lost?
Saker.
Hey, man, don’t be so hard on us, atheists/agnostics!
I, for instance, learned a lot from this piece.
don’t be so hard on us, atheists/agnostics!
Okay, next time around I will reserve my ire for those who think that being ignorant about a topic somehow qualifies them to make sanguine comments about it (as shown in, alas, by some of the comments posted in here).
:-)
Thanks for your kind admonition!
Cheers,
The Saker
Me too here!
Now I have a real question for you after reading through all your article with all these unfamiliar vocabulary:
This teaching have always remained at the core of the true Christian dogmatic anthropology (i.e. teachings about the nature of man) . In fact, what is nowadays called “phyletism” or “ethno-phyletism” (nationalism or tribalism) has been condemned as a heresy by a pan-Orthodox council as late as in 1872…
If this is the true interpretation of Christianity, then you (Western Christian and Orthordox countries) should NOT complain about the loss of sovereignty, disappearance of national identity and the mass immigration, because Christianity laid the foundation for transnational unification aka universal/world belief and government.
In fact, what you get now is what you have sowed since thousands of years when you had adopted Christianity.
Am I right here with this logic extrapolation basing on my understanding of your article?
I can tell you, you are wrong about the immigration issue. If you read this blog for the past years, you may know what and who is behind this issue, it is not and has nothing to do with Christianity. Those who made this, have only one faith: Power. In fact, they are against Christ in all what they represent and do, whatever they may preach. If you are referring to the Pope (Vatican), well, that institution has lost her real meaning far away, back in history. To put the blame for the immigration on the Christianity is a mistake, a gross error, even if the Empire of Evil has indeed exploited those good willing Christians.
A strange amalgumoftruth and error. You need to return to the faith once delivered which implies repentance. The abomination is ministers who have apostasised failing to surrender their posts.
Well, I liked it… made perfect, fundamental sense to this agnostic.
The Russian Orthodox Church is the true descendent of the Greek shaggy goat of Daniel 8. Trump is being set up to play out the role of the King of the South in Daniel 8. To whit: He has ‘placed his tents between the holy mountain and the sea’ NB: 2017 US built its first ‘base’ in what is called Israel. Not a full base. Just accommodation facilities…his tents.
Did you intend this shaggy goat statement as a joke? As the saker has clearly shown, Christ’s Church is not national or political. Rome went into apostasy and thus also chases worldly power, of which our Lord said “my kingdom is not of this world”. The Russian Orthodox Church is in communion with all none heretical, true Apostolic Churches around the world. It is not a political or militaristic body. We live our lives under the rule of our eternal king in His kingdom, awaiting His return. This world is temporary and we are just passing through. Forget the shaggy goat.
I seriously doubt that today’s Church, no matter what form it might take (Protestant, Roman, Orthodox, etc) does in any way resemble that which Jesus intended. The Church in this world with its greediness, its bureaucratic richly-robed self-serving hierarchy demanding to be ‘first at the table’, its proud and worldly ministers (priests, bishops, pastors, preachers, whatever they wish to call themselves), its high and gleaming cathedrals (monuments to men, not God), and its onerous rules by which men are judged “Christian” and “faithful” and “obedient” but which in fact are used to control their congregations. Wars. Inquisitions. Witch hunts. Oppressive dogma. Greed. These are the fruits of the Church hierarchy in this world, and a tree is known by its fruits. That which exemplifies acts of charity and love have for the most part come out of individuals acting on the nudging of the Holy Spirit – unfortunately, the credit for these acts are not given to Christ but to the worldly Church, since in most cases these charitable Christians were members of that Church (which more often than not fought them for their efforts).
Of course many might say that the Christian faith would have died out long ago with the Apostles had there been no establishment of a formal Church in the world. I would say that the Church Universal, the real Church, the spiritual Church, the True Church of Jesus the Savior has survived in spite of the Worldly Church, not because of it. It was the specific mission of the Holy Spirit to call out the faithful of all ages and keep them safe and secure in the faith until Jesus returns to judge the world and set up His Kingdom.
Jesus knew what would happen when He left the scene. As did Paul the Apostle – “Wolves among the sheep”, as I recall. Christianity was never meant to be turned into a ‘religion’, but was always at its core a ‘faith’ – faith in Jesus, God’s Way to Atonement and Salvation. There is a huge difference between a religion with its ruling hierarchy, its gleaming temples, its canons and its orders, its traditions as preserved by its Church fathers, as against a simple faith in the atoning work and divine nature of Jesus.
There is a huge difference between the salvation freely and forever given to the believer by his faith in Jesus, than the salvation that must be earned by faithful duty to the worldly Church in following its rules and supporting its ruling hierarchy and traditions. There is but one Savior – Jesus the Christ. There is but one Priest – Jesus the Christ. There is but one Way to salvation – belief in Jesus and His saving work and His Resurrection – He is THE Way, THE Truth, THE Life. All else is vanity.
So let these churches and their priests and their bishops fight it out, as they have always done. Those of true faith among them will continue on unperturbed, resting in the knowledge that the True faith belongs to Christ and Christ alone – dogs will bark but the caravan of faith will move on until the True High Priest returns, Judgement of this world is rendered to all and the Kingdom established forever.
“Man’s mind is a holy place and a temple of God in which the demons have laid waste the soul through passionate thoughts and set up the idol of sin. ” that is. The real Church is within us and the candle is our soul. The earthly churches are in fact symbols of that. A story about king David comes to mind : after becoming king, he wanted to thank God for His help and wanted to build a temple for Him, at which God responded : “you want me to stay in a temple build from rocks ? don’t you know that I created everything ?”
(if somebody has time and knows the passage from Bible, it would be very helpful !)
The essence is, that God is Spirit and cannot be found in a building but, as I said, a temple is a symbol, an earthly one, a weak mirror of that of Heaven. As far as many people need such a palpable symbol in this mortal life, I don’t think is bad. If a given church, temple, gives someone the necessary symbolic energy and is good for his/her faith, why should be bad ?
Seen from your perspective, you’re right and I even agree with that, though many need them and from their perspective it’s OK.
Tell us what was the Church which Jesus intended, since you imply that you only know what His intentions were. This is the Protestant delusion, that they are the only true interpreters of God’s intentions, above (and in spite of) the Church instituted by the Lord, because the Christ has given ‘salvation free of charge’ to all and sundry. No, the Kingdom of God is not given freely, it has to be conquered: “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (violent: βιαστής biastés: a forceful, violent man; one who is eager in pursuit).
No, don’t delude yourself, you are not saved because you ‘accept Jesus as your Saviour’. The Church of Christ was not established in America, the country of the worshipers of the Antichrist (its ‘Founding Fathers’), the real country of the ‘abomination of desolation’. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness”.
Wake up, it’s the last hour! “Outside the Church there is no salvation”. Listen to what the appointed by the Christ interpreters of ‘Faith’ (the bishops) have to say about the Faith, the Way, the Truth, the Life. Not to Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Hagee. Salvation does not come through the “Bible of Jefferson”. NO WAY! Be aware of that.
““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness”.”
You have answered your own question. But it in turn begs the question – What is the “will of my Father in Heaven”? The will of the Father is that you believe in His Son Jesus, that He IS the Way – not throwing out demons, not prophesying in His name, not following certain Church rules and traditions – only believe in His saving power. So so simple. Yet so so hard for the many.
This is precisely why Paul said that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple, indeed so simple that a person can be considered a fool for believing it. And Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees, so he knew exactly what he was saying. You do not have to work your way to heaven. You do not have to follow a set of rules to get to heaven. You do not have to rely on a so-called priest to get to heaven, since through Christ the believer is himself a priest, and Christ is the High Priest – and if that be true, and it is because the Bible explicitly says it is, what is the need for a ‘priest’? Our human nature tells us that we must follow rules to get what we want. And that is esp true with man’s tendency towards religion – set up a ‘divinely appointed’ set of rules and require all to follow them, and those who do will be saved.
I am not a Protestant. I am actually a member of the Russian Orthodox, strange as it may sound. But I view my Church not as a means to the Kingdom, but as a place of refuge from the world and a place of fellowship with believers. So many of us have, however over the years, lost the perspective that only the Bible can give us and thus have fallen into the trap of relying on Church rules and traditions of the Church Fathers for our ultimate salvation. This is simply a heresy, a perverted turn from the life of faith to that of the Law instead.
As for Jesus’ intentions, I have stated my understanding of those intentions quite clearly, I believe. Am I alone correct? Do I have a monopoly on truth? Hardly, but I believe I stand with the great men of faith when I say that we can obtain salvation only through God’s Son, Jesus. I believe this is what the Bible clearly teaches, what Jesus himself taught, and what Paul proclaimed above all else.
Can you be a member of the Church when you deny it? When actually fight against it? The Church was founded by Jesus to lead man to salvation and there is no salvation outside the Church. The man cannot save himself, but he can freely jeopardize it. Denying the Church is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which will not be forgiven: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, people will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy. But the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” Beware what you are wishing for.
Victor, you clearly have been shown, and accepted the Gospel. It is only through faith in the redeeming work of Christ, not any works of man, that makes us acceptable to God. Too simple for so many people. Good works will follow faith, not the other way around. The true church is a gathering of born again people. Where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there. No need for the sombre or the glitzy that is passed off as worship in most “churches”. That is man’s creation, to fill a void that only Christ can fill. And it is the simplicity of the gospel that confounds the “wise”, and leads to religious edifices that need to add works to simple faith. I was brought up Russian Orthodox, but since I came to Christ, outside any church,, I do wonder what God thinks of the overwrought structure. But I can understand your take on it, I think.
How do you know that this big bureaucracy called curch was intended by Jesus? So far I did not find or hear of any statement of Jesus calling for an institution. To the contrary, Jesus said that his followers will do bigger works then him. For starters try turning water into wine. I gladly provide a big, clean bucket with water and wine glasses. If the transformation does not happen, how credible are the other claims of the institution failing at this task?
Very well worded summary of the situation. Thank you. Please see below what some good Greek bishops (thank God for them and the likes of them!) also have to say on the matter, in line with Saker’s point:
http://orthochristian.com/115803.html
http://orthochristian.com/115808.html
All this talk of categories reminds me of a quote:
“I am devoting my lecture in this seminar to a discussion of the possibility that we are now entering a Jewish century, a time when the spirit of the community, the non-ideological blend of the emotional and rational and the resistance to categories and forms will emerge through the forces of anti-nationalism to provide us with a new kind of society. I call this process the Judaization of Christianity because Christianity will be the vehicle through which this society becomes Jewish.”
(Rabbi Martin Siegel, New York Magazine, p. 32, January 18, 1971)
https://www.rt.com/news/439806-ukraine-church-attack-right-sector/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome
More to come?
Dear Saker, thank you so much for this profound and truth-seeking analysis. It really warms the heart and clears the mind to ponder your deep reflections. And the supreme goal for every Christian striving person: “Not I, but Christ in me”. That is the reality where we are all one in Him. So we continue to pray and strive and work and watch how the continuing drama unfolds.
Are you simply saying nations should not have national churches? Or are you saying there should be no nations? It certainly sounded like you were saying the latter as well. I hope not.
I think it’s clear from the Orthodox church’s teaching and scripture that we do still have tongue, tribe, nation, etc. Of course, the things of the Spirit rise above those other things, just like male and female still exist and are important, but not as important as the love of Christ.
Also, I was sorely disappointed by this comment: “I won’t go into the issue of what constitutes a recognized council since that will take too much time.” I do think that is the crux of Orthodoxy and would love to hear your thoughts on this! Perhaps you can recommend an article?
Why do you hope not, do you think like this?
“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer
Interesting the question of nationalism. It appeared as a natural reaction of defense when a nation was in danger of being conquered from foreign nations or foreign influence which could lead to the weakening and/or to disintegration of that defending nation. Though the Christ teachings are above any nation or race, this very real danger has occurred many times in history, thus leading to the creation of national churches as a form of self defense, embedding national traditions into the churches. When the faith of the people will increase in seeing Jesus Christ the sole Savior, the nationalistic tendencies will slowly disappear. But today, as we witness, we’re very far from that time…probably more sufferings will come first.
Are you simply saying nations should not have national churches? Or are you saying there should be no nations?
Well, if I had intended to say that, I would have said it, would I not?
Google “strawman argument”
The Saker
I like your conclusion. You are spot on.
Jesus said that there would be wheat and weeds in the kingdom until harvest. It is not our place to attempt to pull weeds. We may, however, inspect fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The sheep of His pasture are those who are producing these fruits, not squabbling over stuff, or power, or notoriety.
A friend of the family during my youth (a cleric in the Roman Catholic Church) referred to such people as “brick and mortar men”.
I wouldn’t be surprised if all the wealth of the Orthodox church in the Ukraine
disappears into Petro the fat f’tard’s, oligarchic pocket.
It always amazes me that these loser f’tards come up with these “winner” strategies that require doing the “moral/correct” thing.
and so it begins:
https://www.rt.com/news/439806-ukraine-church-attack-right-sector/
“Radical nationalists have reportedly seized a church in western Ukraine, beating the faithful in the process. The violence comes amid expectations of a schism-threatening acknowledgement of an independent church in Ukraine.”
“The radicals overpowered local residents, who tried to stop their raid, beating some of the defenders before throwing them out of the church. One man had his arm broken while another receive a skull fracture.”
“The nationalists then replaced the locks on the doors of the church with new ones, it added.”
Add some more names to the list that are going to have some explaining to do when Jesus asks them why they stormed one of his churches and beat the faithful. -sigh-
It is obvious that this has nothing to do with Christianity or even religion.
There are political puppet masters in the background, just read this analysis on Voltairenet: http://www.voltairenet.org/article203161.html , aiming at further isolating Russia.
This is a shame, will become a mess, and this will not end well.
Cheers, Rob
Always fun to see the protestants come out in force in the comments section on these articles to share their “wisdom.” Sorry guys, but I trust 2000 years of historical experience more than your rationalizations, speculations, and philosophizing.
On a more serious note, God has a way of bringing good out of the actions of evil men. For instance, if all these horrible events lead to us finally anathematizing Bartholomew and his merry band of Masons, we may be able to finally ditch the non-Canonical calendar their predecessors invented and heal a significant rift in Western (and Greek) Orthodoxy. The Polish Church returned to the Canonical calendar years ago, so there’s hope! And I know some will disagree but I think the Russian Church has made a lot of positive progress from the Bolshevik infiltration that Saker mentioned, especially with the reunification with ROCOR in 2007. More reason to be hopeful.
The Lord was resurrected, but how? The congregation is His body and man his temple. Tell me what you think, I am not an expert. He will come back and perhaps in us. He may already be here. Coming closer as the situation worsens. Maranata, come Lord.
As I see it, only as I see it, we will get a new revelation in Northamerica. The Sun will rise in the West.
I wrote that. The cancer is eating me and taking my muscles. The young, as in every generation, will take over. No problem.
Andrea Bocelli I Sarah Brightman – Time to say goobye,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPrf-svWUAQ
For those who know french.
Quand je ne serai plus là
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=15&v=a4Ik2biHWCs
Maybe I know what you feel and I know it’s not easy to face it. I cannot influence you probably but let me tell you few things : Jesus has not resurrected in his usual body but in a heavenly body. No body which is to be rotten can enter the Heaven, this body of ours must die but will be replaced by another body which will not rot. We committed a lot of sins with this body, those sins have condemned the body to death, but not the soul and our spirit, they will live because they are part of God and as parts of God, they will go that way. You can change the word “God” with the Spirit. Thanks for the beautiful music !
L’esprit ne mourra jamais !
Thank you, Joan, your answer is good. The Lord has a heavenly body, but the congregation is also supposed to be a sort of body. Like feet of Heaven, actors in the material world, like when we teach, pray or obediently do good deeds. I am still in service in a small way though I am not young.
Yes, the French song is excellent and successful on youtube. We need to talk about these things, they are very important. We go, but how should we go? In obedience, in love and with hope. Death should not be tabu.
Some must have prayed for me. I feel a little better. Thanks all.
You know my friend, I’m not in the best shape but I still have hope. You can find me usually in the Café, please come there and we can talk each week twice. I was a teacher (among others) and now I have time to think on many things, about death also, why should it be a Tabu ? As the rates, so the kings shall die, at least there is equality, no ? Death is by the way the reverse of birth, cause when we die, we are born on the other side, in fact (according to my belief) we did that many times but we don’t remember. there, we shall remember and will be happy to find our real home again, to meet those whom we loved. No, I’m not afraid, I’ll go home, as you. So, please come in the café and write to me whenever you find me there, I would be happy to talk with you !
It would be wonderful if some of the old religions could be dusted off and somewhat refurbished, in order to make a really significant contribution to our possible deliverance from the human madness about to destroy everything. But this is not the case. Quite the contrary. Those same ancient faiths have done more than their share to get us into the mess we are in, and continue to do so to this very day. God save us from religion!
The spiritual awakening we desperately need will not come from these watered down and corrupted vessels. The breaking of many of these icons will in fact be necessary for a new access to Truth to take place. As these memes currently exist, they only serve to block the simple universal Truth that needs to replace them. People’s attachment to these outworn myths, ceremonies, and hierarchies are simply one more form of blindness leading them over the precipice.
“Never confuse the American legal system with justice, and never confuse religion with God.”
Very well said.
a slogan followed by an unsubstantiated endorsement.
How depressing…
The Saker
Thank you for writing this and for bringing up the truth that few want to hear.
I found a few books for anyone interested in learning more.
https://www.st-philip.net/files/Fitzgerald%20Patristic%20series/Athanasius-Incarnation_redemptive_plan.pdf
Saint Athanasius the Great
The Redemptive Plan in On the Incarnation
http://www.orthodoxebooks.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Life%20of%20Saint%20Anthony%20-%20Saint%20Athanasius.pdf
LIFE OF ST ANTONY
BY ST ATHANASIUS
https://basilica.ca/documents/2016/10/F%20A%20Forbes-Saint%20Athanasius.pdf
Saint Athanasius
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/incarnation.pdf
On the Incarnation of the Word
that few want to hear
yes, that is rather depressing (as are most comments posted here)
thanks for the links to the books!!
Cheers,
The Saker
“yes, that is rather depressing”
Look on the bright side, if at some point you have an agnostic enlightenment you could look back with fondness at some of those same comments and say “that is where the rot stopped”.
no problem, im glad you wrote the article:)
Thanks Peer for the links !
my pleasure:)
Reply to Objection 1. It is lawful to fight, provided it be for the common good, as stated above (II-II:40:1). But sedition runs counter to the common good of the multitude, so that it is always a mortal sin.
Reply to Objection 2. Discord from what is not evidently good, may be without sin, but discord from what is evidently good, cannot be without sin: and sedition is discord of this kind, for it is contrary to the unity of the multitude, which is a manifest good.
Reply to Objection 3. A tyrannical government is not just, because it is directed, not to the common good, but to the private good of the ruler, as the Philosopher states (Polit. iii, 5; Ethic. viii, 10). Consequently there is no sedition in disturbing a government of this kind, unless indeed the tyrant’s rule be disturbed so inordinately, that his subjects suffer greater harm from the consequent disturbance than from the tyrant’s government. Indeed it is the tyrant rather that is guilty of sedition, since he encourages discord and sedition among his subjects, that he may lord over them more securely; for this is tyranny, being conducive to the private good of the ruler, and to the injury of the multitude.
To complement the Saker’s article above please see this:
http://www.events.orthodoxengland.org.uk/
Father Andrew from Orthodox England has some amazing articles about the situation in Ukraine, and how the U.S. leaders are holding the Patriarch of Constantinople “hostage” with $$$
I must admit, I reacted too strongly to The Saker’s article “Why Orthodox Churches Are Still Used as Pawns in Political Games”).”
Dear Saker, if I offended you by my comment please forgive me and pray for me. Regarding your article above I have to read it and re-read it several times to truly understand the implications.
As an Orthodox Christian in America we are taught to almost worship our Bishops, and they can do no wrong. We are to strictly obey them unless they ask us to break the law, or hurt someone. However, what happens when they err? What is one to do?
As a struggling Orthodox Christian in America I would appreciate advice from other Orthodox Christians.
Last, thank you Saker for writing and keeping us aware as we all fight the Empire from within. I often talk to my Dad about these topics, and we are hopeful the best thing that can occur is a collapse of Empire and we go back to just being a Country.
Most Americans I know are just honest, hard-working people trying to survive and provide for our families. May God have mercy and help us!
Love to all.
Dear Iconodule,
Also an Orthodox Christian, from Maryland. Would love to correspond with you about living as an Orthodox Christian in these times.
In my experience, no bishop or priest has demanded obedience, (besides in spiritual advice which I asked for): the closest thing to such a demand was advice that I finish college. Not too shabby.
My ruling bishop gave a talk at the most recent clergy synaxis of our diocese about the “temptation from the right.” Among the numerous groups trying to preserve orthodoxy, he attributed the present bickering to the temptation from the right, and a “zeal not according to knowledge.”
Not to say of course that we shouldn’t be careful to preserve purity of life, right faith, and apostolic succession: one analogy he often uses is a single drop of vinegar which would taint the whole cup of wine.
Our Savior promised that He would not abandon the Church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it! In the glorious feast of Pascha we hear:
“O Thy divine and beloved, and most sweet voice: Thou didst truly promise that Thou wouldst be with us until the end of the world O Christ! And we faithful rejoice, having this as an anchor of hope!”
Nicholas
Dear brother Iconodule,
Let me tell you a short story regarding your question “what happens when they err?” Happened in Belgrade,when a priest came to the house of my godfather`s home to perform a slava ritual. The priest was very indecent and rude (doesnt matter here what he was doing) so the priest was shown the door. Later, my friend went to his church, complained, and he never saw that priest again.
Basicly, it is the perisheners who watch over the beheivior of their perish priests. We speak out in the church, if needed. After all, a priest (or a bishop) is a human, just like us, and suffer the same doubts like all of us do. So, just like a priest can tell us, or help us with our problems, we must tell him about his, too. The bottom line is, speak up, even in the church (thats the best place IMO), make sure to help him when you see him falling, just like he helps his perisheners. In the church, we are all one.
Dear Iconodule
This is a most important question and I will answer it by means of a separate article.
Please give me 24 hours and stay tuned!
Kind regards,
The Saker
I must admit, I reacted too strongly to The Saker’s article “Why Orthodox Churches Are Still Used as Pawns in Political Games”).” Dear Saker, if I offended you by my comment please forgive me and pray for me. Regarding your article above I have to read it and re-read it several times to truly understand the implications.
No worries my friend, these are painful issues and I much prefer hot or cold reactions to any lukewarm ones :-)
Stay tuned!
The Saker
I like that Saker draws attention to the Ecumencial Patriach’s (EP) title.
Reason being, it is complete rubbish. “His All-Holiness”. In Orthodoxy THE ONLY person we call All-Holy is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.
We call God the Holy Spirit the “All-Holy, Good and Life-Creating Spirit” in the prayer before reading the Gospel. It is one of my favorite prayers.
I have come to the point in my life where a difficult decision must be made. I am already choosing, as a humble American Orthodox, to denounce the EP and refuse to commemorate him.
At the same time, I will pray that the EP comes to his senses, before he creates great upheaval in the Orthodox world…..
Nothing like an article on relgion to bring out the Tower of Babel condition that mankind is in in these “last times.”
The “Masonic and Bolshevik infiltration” of Orthodoxy has not overlooked the Latin Church. Vatican II is the salient example, as is “liberation theology.”
By the way, in the US, at least, “Christian” mostly refers to Protestants. They have largely appropriated the word.
Also, Guenon’s writings have nothing in common with Blavatasky’s. In fact, Guenon wrote a book on the errors of theosophy.
—————————–
The phrase “begs the question,” refers to a logical error, a false argument in which one assumes as proved the very point that is being argued. The phrase which ought to be used instead is “raises the question.”
The phrase which ought to be used instead is “raises the question.”
Sorry, not too clear. The phrase “this begs the question” is frequently misused; its correct use is to point out a logical fallacy. Most often the phrase which should be used is “this raises the question.”
Saker: “…it will almost certainly lead to bloodshed and massacres similar to what took place in Odessa on May 2nd 2014: the Ukronazis will use force (riot police or even Nazi death squads) to forcibly seize the churches, cathedrals, monasteries and other buildings and properties currently owned by the Moscow Patriarchate.”
If I may go ‘secular’ for a moment, I could see the whole “full independence to the so-called ‘Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate'” move as a cynical way to indeed produce bloodshed and massacres, and thus to force Russia’s hand in invading The Ukraine (to protect the faithful). This way, the western mainstream-media can trumpet Russia’s “aggression” while minimizing why the decision was taken. It is an unholy but masterful stroke, if this is indeed the plan…
These events are an assault by ‘the rulers of the darkness of this world’ against Christianity. In Bogorodchany the desecration concluded with the perpetrators changing the locks. This would be laughable if it were not so tragic, because all that they have really sealed is their own fate.
My question. Why is the Candy Man still in power? Where are the real Ukrainians? Do they really like this guy or we have not heard from the real people?
What a long strange trip its been?
Started reading this piece, and of course one of the things that flashes through my mind ( a vision, perhaps?) was Jerry Garcia Band playing “My Sisters and Brothers”. Further down the comments you can find a link if any are interested in my intuitive leaps. Which of course, in Google/Youtube world leads to more JGB playing in the background as I continue reading.
In the theme of that all questions can be answered by listening to The Jerry Garcia Band, this played as I was reading your comment. :)
The Harder They Come, performed by Jerry Garcia Band (Aug 5, 1990, Berkeley CA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0yd7km0fx0
The original written by the great Jamaican singer, Jimmy Cliff, of course. There was a film of the same name based on it.
Thanks. :)
Saker,
Thank you for this analysis and for the warning that us outsiders might not get all of it. I will pray for the safety of the Ukrainian people. How sad to see religion weaponized again.
From Off-G site: Capt. Paul Barril: “We know who killed Alexander Zakharchenko.”
https://off-guardian.org/2018/09/29/capt-paul-barril-we-know-who-killed-alexander-zakharchenko/
Please, not Solzhenitsin! That man lived by lies, literally. What kind of authority is he? Just look into his evil eyes. Ten look in the eyes of Leo Tolstoy. See the difference?
Who hates the Christian Solzhenitsyn but loves the heretic Tolstoy?
In a recent travel through Armenia and Georgia, I got astonished by each one of the nationals´ claims on being the first Christians out there….
For the antiquity of the churches/remains ( of which we visit more than hairs we have in our heads…btw….), as well as the culture, one would say that it was in Armenia where Christian doctrine started spreading all over the Eurasian land….Although I got astonished as well by the statement that almost 90% of Georgian population are practizing Christians who use to fast and pray….and this is a very ancient culture too….Then our Georgian guide, a young woman apparently rised russophobe from the craddle, claimed that the Georgian Orthodox Church is not the same as the Russian Orthodox Church, at my question about seemingly both venerating the same saints….since there they were, all over the churches and monasteries, the ubiquitous Saint George, Mary of the Desert, and all those obvioulsy fasting Founding Fathers….
All in all, I got to appreciate these two peoples, the warm Armenians and the proud, and hardened by climate and landscape, Georgians…. with all their biases ( may be with origin in foreign interest ), seemd to me honest and good people, only thrown against their neighbours by spurious interests…..And so, feeling as to wishing them all the best, and may well being under influence of so many monasteries and icons viewed, Saint Nino and Saint Gayané, and that magnifient semicircular mural of Soviet Art on the Georgian/Russian friendship/brotherhood at the Jvari Pass ( Pass of the Cross ), in the top of the Military Road crossing the Great Caucasus, this agnostic of me felt so as to put a candle to the burnt faced Virgin at Trinity Church of Gergeti, while asking her, in case she could help in any way, for world peace and soon conciliation of former soviet brothers….
But, then, what am I, only an “evil” European communist, admirer of the good Stalin did for the weakest and poorest amongst humanity, who, of course, do not reach the soil of the shoe to any of all those self-proclaimed “true Christians”, of every branch, living in the US, and no worthy of entering the “Kingdom of Heavens”, if not at miles behind them…..But who is in a hurry?…..since, after all, I sleep quite well at night….
I am greatfull because it was a great travel….I enjoyed a lot…..climbing the mountains….and eating the delicious Georgian and Armenian cuisine…..I felt definitely in love with Tbilisi and its street musicians….and got really interested in Mr. Griboyedov´s life and fate….
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Khevi%2C_Georgia_%E2%80%94_View_of_Gergeti_Trinity_Church.jpg
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/DYJ9DJ/interior-of-14th-century-gergeti-trinity-church-also-tsminda-sameba-DYJ9DJ.jpg
http://www.caucasus-trekking.com/Images/Regions/kazbegi_friendship.JPG
Glorious images, Time Traveller, thanks.
Blessed lands, no doubt…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdmLmWY2cK4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIoMZykUtTw
“The Church, while essentially mystical (thus referred to as the “theandric Body of Christ”) also has an administrative/organizational aspect which must exist within the social and political environment of the society in which it operates.”
3. “The “right” for each country or nation to have its own Church.”
I was just a young Christian when the Spirit of God moved me or gave me rather a full sermon on a topic of huge significance. The Spirit actually forced me to memorize a portion of scripture in but a few minutes the text of which reads:
If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!
The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. {1 Corinthians 6:1-11}
Now at the time I was at a loss to fully understand why the Holy Spirit did this to me and after prayer and seeking God for an answer I visited a Prayer conference in Alabama and was given the chance of a TV appearance. At that time there was a tremendous amount of talk about the scandals involving the Swaggart and Bakker PTL ministries. What caught my attention however was the news that these people were suing each other in the courts of the state? Upon further reflection and prayer I then fully realized why God gave me this sermon and I gave a full disclosure on national TV about the teachings from the above passage and how wrong it is for Christians to sue each other and this before the unbelievers.
Laughingly, upon returning home and turning on the Television and what did I come across but Tammy Faye wanting the lawsuits removed from the courts of the state and into the courts of the church? The State of course balked at this given the enormous amount of money involved and anyway the ignorance of the PTL leadership and how in the world would that even have occurred?
I am deeply afraid that what St. Paul said in Hebrews has come to fruition:
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. (Hebrews 6:4–6)
Is this not fully on display now? What a disgrace.
and you know given all that has and is occurring and the sad history of Christian nations going to war against Christian nations in the 20 Century I’m left with but only one prayer:
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I beg of you, truly beg of you to just return and kick out of leadership every human being whether political or in the Church. It is the only answer left. I am deeply afraid what St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:5-6 has fully come to fruition faith is largely based upon the gaining of knowledge and wisdom and little on a demonstration of the spirits power. Men’s Pride has taken over from your Spirit.
“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”
Just return please just return in Christ Jesus name, I/we pray.
“This is about buildings, real-estate, political power, money, influence, indoctrination and all the other key “values” of our times.”
————
“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” — Gospel of Mathew, 19:24 King James Bible
———–
“This world is not our home, we are only passing through.
Our trail is all made up, way beyond the blue.
Let us do the very best that we can,
While we’re travelin’ through this land.
We will all be together, shakin’ a hand,
When we make it to the promised land.”
— “My Sisters and Brothers”, Charles Johnson, The Sensational Nightingales
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl66dGvWTBs
This interesting article was placed in the News RSS feed here, in case someone missed it, evenly well it could have been posted here:
http://katehon.com/article/how-us-prepared-split-orthodox-churches-horsemen-apocalypse-ukraine
It contains ugly details, and all points at a long preparation by the usual suspects….
Cheers, Rob
First of all, I send love and respect to each individual sincerely identifying and following in the beliefs of an affiliation devoted to supporting values which are consistent with the survival of all things in this world, in a benevolent intent.
I share this orientation.
And I can observe, cognitively, the angst and strife, angled to inflict trauma, primarily via emotional channels, to weaken resolve, and undermine an affiliation’s capability to continue to influence the acceptance of benevolent values.
But this seems likely to be of functional geopolitical significance, and exposure of these facts are relevant to a much wider audience than as the article describes as the target audience.
So condolences to you, individuals of the target group.
We can see this highly emotive attack approach, and see that the trend is very strong, in even a superficial survey of such information warfare, over the past 100-200 hundred years.
The good news is, the trend is strong and reliable, thus it should be possible to sift through the static, which is made to seem so relevant, as it always has been, and identify the source, and comparatively reliably create mitigations. Note, shedding the cognitively-limiting effects of the emotive attack is important.
The bad news is, the trend show remarkable successfulness of the approach.
And I don’t think that this battle can, nor should be, dismissed as a special interest.
This actually creates one of the most difficult challenges to the Russian leadership, and all of short-, medium-, and longer-term outlooks are compromised by this attack.
Furthermore, one wrong move could be a land-mine in the overall geo-political landscape.
This is a tricky one!
I don’t have the answers, but I would appreciate and I believe a wider audience would benefit from these events being recast in the context of the wider geopolitical implications, in such a way as to ultimately benefit the stated target audience of this particular article.
Thank you, Saker.
Best sermon I have ever read and never heard. Hence my never setting foot in any “church (ekklesia, kirk”, “Circa”) for ten years and opting instead for: “A gathering of people ready to shoulder each other, come Hell or high water, willing to further life together when need be and have a great time together in the meantime.”
“Church” starts in one’s home. Parents teaching children what they need to learn to remain alive without hurting anything and anyone around them. Church was the clan made of likeminded humans, the village, the community, gathering fruits and vegetables and learning and teaching others to plant and harvest them closer to home so that looking for food was not the primary preoccupation.
“Church” was realizing that by doing so, humans had free time to create, invent, make life easier for everyone. “Church” became infiltrated by a parasite (laziness) and, funny thing, if one parasite invades one body, it weakens it and opens the door t6o many other parasites who will infiltrate I as wellt: the body became weak to one, it is weak to all of them.
Once one parasite invaded, the potential for war among them in that one body had been set. “As it is above, so it is below”. The eternal battle between energy and matter. Only the Western world sees it as a battle (and enacts it as such). Many cultures before the West understood Yin-yang and their dependence on each other.
Western science wants to reduce everything to “matter”. Eastern science thinks of everything in terms of “energy”.
Agafia got it right: “It’s all about life.”
“For that, we need to understand that the abomination which is taking place before our eyes did not just pop-up into existence ex nihilo and that there are profound spiritual roots to the almost universal adoption of non-Christian categories by most, albeit not all, Christians.”
Be thankful it hasn’t reached the point of what is occurring within the Lutheran Church and their endorsing homosexuality.
https://youtu.be/ALk1z5euBxI
and yes no question that the tornado that struck Minnesota was an act of God literally.
“Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.” Jeremiah 23:19
As a fairly recent convert to the Orthodox Church, less than a year, I can see that what this man, Bartholomew is doing is wrong. I’m not stumbled by it. Such things have happened before. Christ’s Church remains even when Bishops fall.
There are many things I don’t understand yet. One of them is the lofty titles ascribed to such ones as Bartholomew. I’ve read scripture. I’ve read and will read again a wonderful book my priest gave me, “The Lives of the Holy Apostles” which gives a detailed account of their lives as they spread the gospel to far off lands. In all of this they never took unto themselves such lofty titles. They were humble, suffering servants of Christ, faithful to the end, happy to surrender their earthly lives to their Lord. The Patriarch, Pope of Alexandria has given his support to the true Church in Ukraine, standing against this political intrigue Bartholomew is involved with, and has confessed that he is and always will be a humble priest, Theodore!
I seem to recall reading once that Moses (from the book of Exodus) married a Cushite woman (interracial dating?) Miriam started complaining about the woman’s race, and God struck Miriam with leprosy.
It would be interesting to consider to which extent the Darwinian theory of evolution influences the viewpoint of the phyletists, let alone how it’s possible (if at all) for them to reconcile idolatrous racial ideology with the Word of God. Then again, such views existed long before Darwin.
It is important to note that the current Archbishop of Constantinople, Bartholemew is a radical environmentalist who helped Pope Francis to write Francis’s Lautus Dei, the green encyclical that attacks the industrial revolution and economic development in general. Also it is a Muslim, the President of Turkey, that confirms the appointment of the leading cleric of the Orthodox world. So for the Archbishop of Constantinople to recognize or grant the Ukrainian Orthodox Church a national autocephalous status is geopolitical in its opposition to the Eurasian economic development that is coming with the Belt and Road, and is part of the anti-development, go back to feudalism, Utopian view of the European oligarchy that is opposing Russia.
Another thing:
Sadly, your sober, well-written arguments will likely be lost on the likes of Faith & Heritage, who will stubbornly adhere to their Social Darwinist (?) arguments against interracial dating and adoption. Take one of their articles for instance:
http://faithandheritage.com/2013/01/christian-russia-rising/
The big turn-off for me is how they cited an article from the New York Times as part of their evidence. (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/world/europe/russian-lawmakers-move-to-purge-foreign-influences.html?_r=0)
Three things:
1. The NYT is notorious for its left-wing politics, so it (like the rest of the Western MSM) is bound to get many things wrong about Russia.
2. Leftist bias notwithstanding, the NYT article’s sole mention of interracial marriage talks about government officials. It’s as if F&H took it out of context and cherry-picked it so as to make a connection that doesn’t exist.
3. Didn’t Putin and the ROC denounce racial bigotry at least once? Especially when the Orthodox Church has a history of interracial marriage and adoption?
What turned me off of much of the alt-right was its fixation on race and IQ, especially their aversion to interracial marriage. Some even hold an aversion to Christianity. I don’t know about you, but as a creationist who believes that God created us Homo sapiens as equals, until I heard of the alt-right, I never had the idea that a loving God would play racial favorites, let alone make interracial dating/adoption a sin.
The combination of Christianity with racial ideology goes on to show the decline of Christianity in the USA.
Saker! this is incredible….I shall have to read & reread, cannot say much right now except that what you have written shakes me to the core, you gave me an answer that I sought elsewhere, thank you, thank you so much, variya, gleb says hello too
“There is no political power without control of the archive, if not of memory.” — Jacques Derrida
I have to disagree with your conclusion. After all, if the Orthodox Church in Russia (as opposed to the Russian Orthodox Church) is subject to the civil authorities in Moscow, then it stands to reason that the Ukraine is actually correct in trying to separate itself from that entity; their stated reasons are that they want to be able to teach and practice true Christianity, rather than what the state tells them to teach. By separating themselves from the Church in Russia, they are correctly denying the civil authorities in Moscow any right or even opportunity to control them.