4. Orthodox Christians Facing the 1980’s (1979)

Paranormal experiences are what are called by some people miracles. A Christian sense that not all of them are miracles actually. That is such things as moving or bending objects without touching them, that is the power of mind of her matter, traveling to distant places out of the body, for telling future events, speaking in strange tongues, levitating, entering into contact with extraterrestrial intelligences, going for rides and flying saucers, and such things. Such experiences, which were once associated with far out occultism or pentecostalism, have now become so respectable that they are studied in the Parapsychology Laboratories or some of our leading universities. I think Stanford has a large laboratory in this kind. I'm sorry recently, and last year, as you've studied this, it's really young man, Yuri Jeller, who was able to concentrate on rings and the spoons and things, and they simply go limp and funnel him in bend. And as he gets this from those beings up there for giving him power. The cause of this phenomenon is, first of all, the spiritual vacuum, which exists in men who are uncommitted to Christianity. That is the same cause which produces in other people, the spread of communism. This fact is very interesting to see how some types of men are attracted because their heart are empty of Christ. They are attracted to joining an underground group which blows up bridges and destroys capitalists and all kinds of things like that. And others, on the other hand, are attracted to some kind of movement where you can attain meditation and levitate, fly in the air, and have all kinds of strange experiences. But the foundation of both is the same thing, the emptiness of the heart which has not God. The human heart is made for God, and if it is deprived of God or rejects him, it will sooner or later be attracted to false religions. And that's also why communism has the power of a false religion. Because people give to it the enthusiasm they should be given to Christ. This religious interest, by the way, is also present in the USSR. And parapsychologists are even more active there than in the United States. They have many magicians and sorcerers in the Soviet Union now and their examin, which is all kinds of strange people and the Soviets place them in their laboratories and tell them, please start a constant, ready? Make that plant die or make the spoon bend and so forth. And they transport the ones to the particular which make things flow through the air and they examine how heavy the object was and so forth. Has Christianity retreats? And as always, Christianity is retreating. Such phenomena are bound to multiply in the 1980s. They go hand in hand with the advance of communism. Both come from and themselves produce coldness in men who have rejected God. And they produce a callous self-centeredness in those who do not not know the God of love. Because communism has no higher principles to guide it, but is based on the negative emotions of hatred and revenge, various currents of Eastern thought have already tried to set themselves up as the wave of the future, the religion that will take over from Christianity. The Mahadevi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation, said at his goal several years ago to initiate every person in the world. In fact, he set up a goal of establishing, but for a thousand centers or ten thousand centers, and each one has a certain number of thousands to initiate, and then all the four billion people of the world will be initiated. And then a new consciousness comes and the world is entered into a period of harmony. And he set up a worldwide university in Switzerland someplace and educates these people who are able to initiate people into his religion. Other cults have similar aims, but none of these cults by itself is the religion of the future. They are all only signs of the spiritual vacuum in modern men. While many of these paranormal experiences are probably only natural, and others are obviously fraudulent, just as many of the mediums around are quite fraudulent, many of them undoubtedly involve reality, and this reality comes from no place else but demons. The kind of things that happen to people in close encounters with unidentified flying objects, flying saucers, and out of body experiences and such things, clearly indicate the presence of demons. This demonic activity is bound to increase in the 1980s, because once they have gained a foothold, and men are receptive to them, demons do not go away. And we can see how receptive people are to these kind of events. There's almost a fascination among a large segment of society today for these strange experiences which are far from Christianity. But even such activity of demons has for a conscious or a such Christian who is trying to find out what is what, what is life, how can I react? It has a positive side, because the very boldness of the activity of demons can awaken men to the reality of the demonic world. And up until the last few years, most people had no idea that demons are real. Demons are something in the subconscious or some kind of bad impulses in man, anything else but real beings who wish to destroy us. And all of a sudden, all these events occur which cannot be explained by something within man, and he is doing it as books miraculous. And therefore, to become aware of this demonic realm, in the case of Christians, can arouse one to spiritual vigilance and struggle. And if one reads the lives of saints throughout the history of the church, we will see that these lives are filled with incidents of demonic activity and the saints were very much aware of it. That is, those who are more aware of spiritual life and more aware of those who try to destroy us, the demons. And it is even possible, in the case of unbelievers, for them seeing the reality of demonic activity to get so scared that they come to Christ, to come to religion. The coming decade of the 1980s, was undoubtedly beam, one that is less lukewarm and indifferent than past decades, as more people choose either for a further Christianity or to do the work of the devil. We ourselves must be very clear in our choice, and prepared to help others who are confused by occult ideas. And this again is the realm of apologetics, because we know the true doctrine of the religious world, and these occult ideas have false ideas, false doctrines of the religious world. Therefore, we can explain to you what these experiences mean. On the eve of the 1980s, some months ago, late 1978, there was a spectacular religious event which stunned the world. The mass suicides of nearly 1,000 people at Jones down in South America. The secular press, unable to find an explanation for something which was so out of harmony with the century of progress, finally decided that the leader, Jim Jones, was simply a madman, and his followers were sometimes somehow hypnotized. But this is no explanation. Such enormous evil cannot be explained apart from the activity of demons. In fact, as Jim Jones, quite explicitly said, that he was in contact with beings from outer space who told him what to do. Nowadays, it should be noted when demons have become out of fashion, that when they want to act on men, they present themselves as beings from outer space, quite often, in order to gain acceptance and influence men. Actually, as Jim Jones was quite in harmony with the times, both in his communist politics, because his Jones town was actually a Marxist commune, and all the property after the commune was destroyed because everybody died, all the property was willed to the communist party of the USSR. He was therefore in harmony in his communism, and in his occult religious views. And I'm afraid to say that in the 1980s, we should rather expect to see some more events like that, because both communism and occultism are an increase, and the number of souls who are empty, who have either rejected Christ or somehow don't know him, and are want something else, is increasing all the time. Now, before I come towards the end, I talk about the situation of orthodoxy in the next decade. We'll have a little intermission to allow us to breathe a little. Before going to the next half of the lecture, I'd like to mention one point. Those people are going to be here for some time for discourses, or today, tomorrow, whatever. There's also possible between times to make profitable use of the times, between lectures. And for example, we used to discover a new publication, by our local printers across the mountains from us. Eastern Orthodox books have a little publication on metropolitan innocent of Moscow. That's very good reading, because, in fact, the lecture we didn't hear much about is life. So this gives more about is life, a very good collateral reading for the lecture. And then, other books like this, orthodoxy, the vision of the future, goes into much more detail about, but I've talked about occultism, about the UFOs and so forth. And then the latest orthodox word, and many of the orthodox words which are over there have, but I mentioned before, the lives of people like new martyrs. And this one here, new model archbishop's seraphim of Oglich. And we don't know too much about his life, but what we have is a first hand account of how he was living in this prison camp. And that's one little glimpse, which is very valuable. It gives us a first hand account of what is like. So these materials also will be available for people to be studying at various times when they have the chance. Now, going further into the 1980s, we've discussed the first two rather frightening aspects of the increase of World Communism and the increase of Oglichism. And I don't want to make any spooky predictions about what it's all going to end in. So, and we shouldn't necessarily think because these tendencies are going on, that for example, America must definitely fall to communism or we're all going to be taken over by demons from outer space or something like that. Because these things happen according, first of all, according to the emptiness of hearts. And the more a person is struggling in Christianity, the less one is affected by those things. And the more evil one is to face them, if one is affected by them. And secondly, when, in talking about these general tendencies, as I mentioned in the beginning, it's really quite impossible to make some kind of prediction that by 1980s, 80s, 80s, communism will take over the world or some kind of thing like that. And in fact, there are all kinds of things which one cannot calculate. For example, if there were to be a World War or something like a World War, then all calculations would be out. And there's no idea what's going to happen, such as a situation where the World Communism might fall, where there are, well, in other words, there was a total incalculable what's going to happen. So what I'm talking about is simply the tendencies of what is in the air, of which we should be aware without being too concerned about specific predictions of what's going to happen. Now, the next aspect comes a little closer to home because I'd like to speak about the situation of Orthodox Christianity in the 1980s. The first aspect, I'd like to talk about, concerns what I already mentioned in the beginning, the spirit of worldliness, the watering down of Orthodoxy, the loss of the sense of difference between Orthodoxy and heterodoxy. These have produced the ecumenical movement in our times, which is leading to the approaching union, the union, with Rome and the Western Confessions. And such a thing could very well happen in the 1980s. Just in the last year or so, the new Pope of Rome has made overtures to the east and the patriarch of Constantinople has said how much he welcomes them. And it could very well be within a few years that there would be communion between the Pope and Orthodoxy. That is the Orthodox jurisdictions that follow the ecumenical patriarch. For us, of course, we would be outside that and it would not concern us directly, but it's something we have to face. This will probably not be a spectacular event because most Orthodox people and most jurisdictions have become so unaware of their faith. And so indifferent to it that they will only welcome the opportunity to receive, say, communion in a Roman or an Anglican church and would not even know what's wrong with it. This spirit of worldliness is what is in the air and seems natural today. In fact, it might be said to be the religious equivalent of the atheist agnostic atmosphere which is in back of the spread of Communism in the world. What should be our response to this movement towards watering down the faith, igniting it with the Western Confessions? Fortunately, our bishops in the Russian Church outside of Russia have given us a sound policy to follow. We do not participate in the ecumenical movement. Our metropolitan has warned other Orthodox churches of the disastrous results of their ecumenical course if they continue it. But at the same time, our bishops have refused to cut off all contact and communion with Orthodox churches who are involved in the ecumenical movement. Recognizing that the ecumenical movement is still a tendency that is not to come to its conclusion which is the union with Rome. And that at least in the case of the Moscow Patriarchate and other churches behind the Iron Curtain, the ecumenism is a political policy which is enforced upon the church by secular authorities. But thus our Russian Church of Broad suffers attacks both from the left side, from ecumenists who have used us of being uncharitable, behind the times, and all those things which up to date modern people are not supposed to be. And from the right side by groups especially in Greece are the demand that we break communion with all other Orthodox churches and declare them to be without grace. If one looks at the state of the Orthodox Church in Greece, we can see that there the ecumenical movement has produced a reaction which has often become excessive and sometimes is almost as bad as the disease it seeks to cure. The more moderate are the old calendar groups in Greece, those that are broken off from the mainline church, the church in Athens and Constantinople. Has a position, this whole calendars church has a position very similar to that of our Russian Church of Broad. But among these all calendars there have been sism after sism over the question of strictness. I especially like to direct our attention to this question of strictness which seems such a good thing to be strict and zealous, but it has a very negative side if we do not approach it the right way. For example I know one monk of Maat Athos, in fact he has been in this very monastery, who is in communion with only ten other monks in the whole world. I am of nobody else in the whole Orthodox Church and he is a moderate. He has one priest, that is a very good man for the Hermann Metin and if this priest, if this priest were to die, he would have nowhere to receive Holy Communion. I asked him and I saw him a few years ago, what he would do in that case and he said, "I just don't know, I'm stuck." And the reason he is a moderate is that he recognizes that there is grace in all the other Orthodox churches. But he is so strict in this policy that because the patriarch of Constantinople is already speaking about being so in union with Rome and is already going away from the faith, therefore he is fallen. And anyone who is in communion with him or is in communion with someone who is in communion with him is out. And therefore being strict he finds that this network is established out of strictness includes the whole Orthodox Churches every place in the world except in this one little corner of Maat Athos. And not even all, just his self, but even a sacrifice. Well, there are 10 others who think like him, maybe it's pure now. And this is a very good man, very sincere, very zealous, so to simple and he has no answers for other people who are stuck with having to live in the world and things like that. So there is very sort of an impact, some respects very childlike, but the strictness of his has placed him in such a position that he like like painting himself into a corner. And he has sort of no opportunity to be in fellowship and contact with other people who are actually the same mind he is but just having got this particular point about not being in communion with those or in communion and so forth. The other groups in Greece have a more spirit which is something close to what Mike Monmai called fanatical. A few years ago one of these groups I communicated our Russian church abroad because our bishops refused to declare that all other Orthodox churches are without grace. This group now declares that since 1924 only it has had grace and only it is Orthodox. And this group has recently attracted a few converts from our Russian church abroad. So we should be aware that this attitude is a danger to some of us, America and European converts. With our calculating rationalistic western minds it is very easy to think we are being zealous and strict when actually we are chiefly indulging our passions for self-righteousness. One old calendar bishop in Greece has written us that in Calculable Harm has been done to the Orthodox church in Greece by what he calls the correctness disease. When people quote the cannons the fathers the typical in order to prove that they are correct. This correctness disease occurs when people quote the cannons the fathers and the typical the church services in order to prove that they are correct and everyone else is wrong. Correctness can truly become a disease when it is administered without love and tolerance and awareness of one's own imperfect understanding. Such a correctness only produces continual sysms and in the end it only helps the ecumenical movement by reducing the witness of sound orthodoxy. Because now in Greece the new calendar church laughs at the old calendars because there are so many different groups or at least five different jurisdictions. Therefore the first fact about orthodoxy today and into the 1980s is the worldly spirit by which orthodoxy is losing its saver. Orthodox Christians are ceasing to be the salt of the world. This is expressed in the ecumenical movement. together with the excessive reaction against it, which becomes excessive because it has the same worldly spirit which is present in the ecumenical movement. But there is a second fact about orthodoxy today, which will become even more important in the 1980s. This is a positive sign of the world ahead of us. That is that converts are coming to orthodoxy and increasing numbers. Some of them are fleeing from the modernism of Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism and the Protestant sects. Some of them are running away from contact with the demonic world of occultism. Some of them are running away from communism, from unbelief, and there are many converts in Russia, by the way, from common from atheism. We must be aware that one of the cheap things by which these new converts to the orthodox faith will absorb the teaching and above all the spirit of orthodoxy will be their living contact with us who are now orthodox Christians. Therefore, the way we live our orthodoxy itself has a missionary function. The orthodox missionary movement in the West is and will probably remain a rather small one. But there is one area today where the orthodox mission is a major movement. This is East Africa. Especially in the last 20 years or so, this mission has gained many thousands of converts. In Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, the Congo, and other African states. I don't have it here. We have an issue of an orthodox word, half of an issue several years ago, devoted to these missions in Africa. We send our orthodox word into these places, especially into Uganda, and especially from Uganda, we receive replies from orthodox people. Usually young people who are looking for pen pals or scholarships or all kinds of things from us. And lately we've become like known throughout East Africa, the fact that West Africa also has Ghana and Nigeria. If you want to get some free picture books, you're right to the orthodox word. They send you picture books and Bibles. We've been sending Bibles now to Nigeria and Ghana and various places like that. These letters we receive are very touching because they're extremely simple. They show how deeply and how simply the people in East Africa are accepting the orthodox faith. I'd like to read here one letter which we received just two weeks ago, which is an appeal to our orthodox brothers in one town in Uganda. And this is very moving text which we'll print in the next issue of orthodox word. It shows, well you'll see what it shows. It's handwritten. They have no typewriters there, and they never get a typewritten letter in East Africa. And the reads as follows. From the transfiguration, also misspelled, they all speak a little English, but the English is such that you often have to translate it back into American English because in the transfiguration orthodox church in De Gea, Uganda, P.O. Box 238 Bumble, it's written to the directors of the orthodox word, Latina, dear fathers. On behalf of the De Gea parish council, the Reverend Father Malunga, our parish leader, and the congregation. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that all letters from Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya always begin. Very pious way. In fact, some of them sound like epistles of St Paul. We send our peaceful and joyful greetings to all of you, brothers, and say our thanks to God who loves us and unites us into one brotherhood. Although you live far away from Africa, yet by the guidance of the Holy Ghost, the love of the Father, and the unity of our Lord Jesus, that heavenly form has put us into one room. Whatever that means, one area. One church and one Father. We feel for one another. We pray as one person. In this element, we communicate our human living with far people, that is distant people. So through this relation, we ask you to join us to praise God and glorify his name, Aliluia, for his most wonderful deed and his miracles around his nations. Fellow Churchmen, we want you to know the wonderful miracles which God has done in Uganda in this year, that ought to be known by all churches and be written for future history. Brother, this post-acall message may be sent to all churches in your country. In short, the story is this. Uganda has been in the bad political situation since about eight years ago. Under the leadership of a sedanian minority president, Idi Amin, a man who has been on the radio spot around the world, that is mentioned in radios around the world, for his rudeness and as the worst murder in the world. Trust people here know about Idi Amin. It's frightful, dictator, it's recently, he was over the dawn, and pictures of his torture chamber just like communism. And he does it in his own name in order to make Islam the religion of Uganda. He legislated hard laws upon the people. He interfered with the churches by changing Sunday services to Friday, that is the Muslim holiday. He appointed Muslims to be chairman of synods. Bishops were to be appointed by a state body. Some churches were forbidden. All churches were at the last point to be closed. We know that in Uganda all churches were forbidden except the Roman Catholic Anglican and Orthodox. All sects were wiped out. And Orthodox and Anglican and the list to be abolished. And the Anglican Archbishop was simply shot down in cold blood. So, so that this government, there was anti-church, put all the Christians in hot soup, which means grave danger obviously there. It was a very difficult problem. He soon declared that Uganda is only a Muslim state. Many priests and Christians were killed. Some went into exile. A few of us poor men who had nowhere to go, no help of receiving help, were left in Uganda. We lifted up our hands and called on our Lord to save his poor, and to allow the work of the churches to survive. We sent so many messages over the world to pray for us and for his work in Africa. Through the prayers of the nations, God destined, God listened and heard the voices from his creature. And he answers them. In a wonderful manner like the story we read in the Holy Bible by Moses in Egypt. God saved us. This miracle was done before us. We got peace, freedom, and worship, and prayer. Please nations, join and coordinate your prayers with us. God brought the force of President Nayeri from another state, Tanzania. He gave him the strongest armies to come down in Uganda and dismiss the anti-church president. This was done. A mean was cast out from Uganda. We are now free to have so peace and freedom of worship. We ask all the churches to praise him and send this message everywhere. Their brothers, through the liberation war, many churches, schools, and houses were boomed, meaning bombed. Many people were killed. There are so many widows. Without schools and helpless, our people are in need of food, milk, blankets, shirts, coats, shoes, plates, books, icons, and so forth. We then call all good Christians to open their hands and give support to the poor, and also the Degea Parish Council is applying for your church magazines. Thank you. Peace and love may peace and love survive among all the Orthodox churches. Yours, Azaraya, Guanja, the chairman, F. Morsi, Naqil of the Secretary, Reverend Father Emanuel Mugunga, Parish Priest. That we have a photograph of this Father Emanuel Mugunga, an Orthodox word. 10 years ago with his daughter, he was a deacon then. He's been receiving Orthodox for all these years. Well, at a very moving weather, very simple people, and they've gone to this tremendous experience in Uganda, which is very much like the Soviet experience. And now they're giving thanks to God and their images from the Old Testament, Moses and Egypt, and they want people to share to help them a very touching thing. Now some who wish to be correct will remind us that the Orthodox Church in Africa is under the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The Patriarchate of Alexandria is under the New Commando. And they might even think that we should have no contact with them. About this I'd like to say a word. To preserve the ancient traditions and canons of the Church is a good thing, and those who willfully and needlessly depart from them will be judged by God. Those who introduce the New Calendar into the Orthodox Church in the 1920s and later, and thereby brought division and modernism into the church will have much to answer for. In fact, only a few years ago the patriarch of Alexandria before this patriarch was thinking of going back to the old calendar, but he died before he could do it. But the simple people of Africa understand nothing of all this, and to preach the correct old calendar to them could produce nothing more than a squabble over the radical points that would only interfere with their simple reception of Orthodox faith. Western converts are often skilled in debating such theoretical points, even to the extent of writing whole tomes and creeduses on the canons and their interpretation. But this is an orthodoxy of the head, full of the spirit of calculation and self-justification. And what is most of all needed, especially in the perilous days ahead, is the much deeper orthodoxy of the heart, which this simple letter from Uganda reveals. And in fact, almost without exception, the letters we receive from Africa have the same spirit of simplicity. In fact, even when they're trying to trick us to give them money for something that's not quite right, you can sort of see it, but it's done so simply that it's actually very touching. They have the same faults as people in the West, but the simplicity, if God will surely forgive them much for them. But that's simplicity. Whereas letters from Western Congress very seldom have anything like this simplicity. I believe we can learn much in this respect from our African brothers. In accepting orthodoxy, they have accepted Christ first of all, and with their whole heart, and this is also what we must do. There will undoubtedly be an increasing number of orthodox converts in America and Europe also in the coming decade. And we must strive that our missionary witness to them will help to produce not cold, calculating correct experts in the letter of the law, but warm, loving, simple Christians. He leads to as far as our calculating Western temperament will allow us. And if we truly believe in Christ and truly accept His Church, then this cold rationalistic temperament we have should gradually begin to soften and change. So this is something of the situation of orthodox Church today, how we should strive for more simplicity. And how in fact many thousands of people are being converted in places like Africa and coming with the utmost simplicity. Just a few years ago, there was a mass baptism in Kenya, where 5,000 people in one day were baptized. So it's obvious this is a very big thing. For the doctrine now is the third religion in these countries. The final event of the 1980s, which I would like to point to, is instructive for us, is one that has a few more questions in the other ones. And it's more difficult to predict what's going to happen. And that is the religious awakening of Russia. No one can deny that there is a religious revival going on in Russia today. Adult converts are being baptized by the thousands in the orthodox Church, now to mention Protestants, Pentecostals, and in some parts of Russia Roman Catholics. The Sama's dot underground press is filled with discussions of religion. In fact, even the official government press begins to talk about religion, although of course from its atheist point of view. But even the press allows interest in old churches, icons, and things like that. But so far there is very little indication of the depths and orthodoxy of this religious revival. And doubly much of it is more psychological than spiritual, a natural reaction against decades of enforced atheism and materialism. And much of the material that feeds this revival is not very orthodox at all. For example, the writings of Beryc Gia, Bulgakov, and the various orthodox modernists who have been in the West in the past 60 years. Therefore, we cannot say for certain that this is the beginning of the restoration of orthodoxy in Russia, which some prophetic voices in 19th century Russia have foreseen as occurring just before the end of the world. That, if by God's will, it occurs, will be something quite different from today's revival, which is still very much from the human level. Though of course it's obvious that many places God's grace is operating and converting people. But there was one voice in Russia today, that was very authentically orthodox and had much to say to us. This is Father Dmitry Dudkov. Several of his books, which are collections of his sermons and talks, have been published in the past few years, and they speak directly to the heart of orthodox believers in the free world. What he has to say is very simple. Atheism has ruined Russia. We must return to our orthodox Christian roots. We must stand together against the common four of atheism, but we must love everyone and know the resurrection of Christ in our hearts. It cannot be that the blood and suffering of Russia's new martyrs will not bear fruit in a resurrected Russia. God is with us. All this, of course, very sound, very deeply orthodox. When my will disagree with some of Father Dudkov's various opinions on subjects, but just as in the case of our African brothers, for the sake of his warm loving Christian heart, when we overlook March when it comes to theoretical points, it is obvious that the very fact of suffering in the Soviet Union and Father Dmitry himself spent eight years of relief in concentration camps and his under constant threat of arrest. Three or four years ago, there was a special accident prepared for him. He was going to Damascus, and the bridge was suddenly closed before his car got there. He noticed the secret police car. It looked like a secret police car in front of him. The bridge was suddenly closed and a detour arranged, a detour of 150 kilometers around, non-dirt roads. In the middle of this detour, a car suddenly came out from the side road and crashed into him. Both his legs were broken, and instantly from nowhere an ambulance appeared. It was prepared to take him to hospital in Moscow. It so happened that his doctor was with him in the car. The doctor said, "If you go to Moscow, you're a dead man. Don't do an alte care of you." Somehow they managed to not take the ambulance, and the doctor took care, although he had two broken legs. Obviously, there was in pain. The doctor took care of him, brought him to his own place, and he was gradually nursed back to help. There's the kind of things that one has to go through. One is going to speak bold in the Soviet union. Since that time, they transferred him out of the parish where he was, but they're not trying to kill him and not put him into a prison camp yet. Although he's been declared enemy of the people in several Soviet newspapers. This is a kind of condition under which a person has to live, if he's going to speak the truth in the Soviet Union. This suffering, which people like him go through, gives a strength to his words that is not present in the words of most Orthodox speakers in the free world. Once for the demetry in this book, which I don't see here, we should have somewhere, as called as an English, translated from his talks, called "Our Hope." These are simply talks which he gave after the all-night vigil on Saturday nights in his parish near Moscow. He would give little talks, he would ask questions, all kinds of questions. It's a difference between atheism and communism and orthodoxy. Should we be Catholic? It was wrong with Baptist. Why should I believe in the Trinity and all kinds of questions like that? A very ABC level. He gave various answers, very heartfelt answers, very good to these people. Once he was asked by one of these questioners that they began by saying how much better off religion was in the free world, because there they are free, they have churches which are open, they're many priests, and they have no problems like we have in Russia. He gave an answer which is something like the following. He said that it is true that in the West there's freedom, there are many churches, but he said the religion of the West is a spirituality with comfort. And we in Russia have a different path, a path of suffering that can produce real fruit, and emphasize that the blood of our martyrs must be the seed of Christianity in Russia. We should remember this phrase, spirituality with comfort, when we look at our own feeble orthodoxy in the free world. Are we content to have beautiful churches and chanting? Do we perhaps boast that we keep the fasts in the church calendar, that we have good icons and congregational singing, that we give to the poor and perhaps ties to the church? Do we delight and exalted patristic teachings and theological conferences without having the simplicity of Christ in our hearts? Then in this case ours is a spirituality with comfort, and we will not have the spiritual fruits that will be exhibited by those without all these comforts who deeply suffer and struggle for Christ. It is very important for a convert to their mind, that when you come to orthodoxy, the important thing is not the icons that they be in the good style, that the church be in a replica of an ancient church, that the singing is all proper. So far, the important thing is we are converted to Christ and all these external aspects help. They can help if we use them right, the worship Christ. But if we are captivated or fascinated by them, we will be totally superficial. And when we come across someone like Father Demetri, we will just dismiss him, not understand him, think that we are better than he is. So in this sense we should take our tone for our orthodoxy from the suffering church in Russia and place the externals of the church's worship in their proper place. To do this, you must learn more of the life of the church and of Christians in Russia, as I mentioned above. Here again, someone who wishes to be correct might object. Father Denechri is in the Moscow Patriarchate. How can we take our tone from him? We have no communion with the Moscow Patriarchate. In fact, one convert wrote to us not long ago, after leaving our church and going to one of the Greek overvalued churches because we were not strict enough, he said that, "Father Denechri, we should be told to quit the Moscow Patriarchate and join the Catacombe Church or else he will lose his soul." And if you don't tell him that, you are just fooling him. But this again is the answer of the orthodoxy of the head, of calculation and correctness. The answer of the heart is very different. If you ask any bishop or priest, a Russian priest, especially a priest of a Russian church abroad, but he thinks about Father Denechri, probably almost without exception you will hear nothing but warn praise of him. Even the strictest of our bishops with regard to the Moscow Patriarchate has written an article in appreciation of him, recognizing that he speaks for orthodoxy in the way that in the west we don't. Of course, it is understood by everyone that there are differences between us, that at the present time we could not have communion with him, because whether he wills or not he is part of a church organization which is bound up with the Soviet government. But his warm heartfelt Christianity is so real that it cannot but be felt by any true son of the orthodox church, and it can be of immense benefit to us who live in the cold, rationalistic west. We know from members of the Catacombe Church themselves that they do not judge orthodox people who receive Holy Communion from Patriarchate priests like Father Denechri, given the fact that the Catacombe Church has so few bishops and priests, and in many places simply is not to be found at all. Like recently Father Denechri, like the last issue of this particular magazine, Pasev, which is not a religious magazine, but it has with the religious, like that's Father Denechri, the goal. It has with the religious news, often has letters of Father Denechri. In the last issue there was a letter from Father Denechri or an article in which he talks about the Catacombe Church a little bit. And he mentions something about what can we do? What kind of orthodoxy do we have? He mentions the two kinds in the Moscow Patriarchate. One is the Patriarchatemen and the people who want to keep the externals going at any cost. And he says they do good work because they're conservative, they keep the rituals of the Church. Of course they have to lie to do it because they have to say there's no persecution in the Soviet Union, they have to go abroad to these conferences and speak of a communism, praise it. They say there's done much more for Russia than capitalism does for the West. So they have to lie. And so that's one kind of thing we're faced with. Another thing is the movement of reform, which apparently is very strong in the Russian Church now, that they wish to do away with the living Church spirit of the 1920s, wish to do away with all kinds of rituals, reform the Church renovated, make it up to date. And he says these people don't care who they lie to or how much of the secret police they have to use. They just concern the blow up the Church and that's all they care about. And make it new. And he says what can we do? Well, he says some people say there's the catacombs Church. And he says, well, yes, there is a catacombs Church and he greatly respects it. But he says there's so few of them. And you can hardly many people cannot possibly get into contact with them because they hide themselves. And therefore it cannot be an answer for us at the present time in Russia. And he says he knows several people. Some places just as the spirit is not too good because they get very narrow. There's some places where nuns run the services because they're no priests and they're convinced everybody's a heretic but themselves. The same spirit that there are some places in Greece. Of course, other places is a very different feeling because we have letters rather whole articles from people in the catacombs Church, which have a very moderate tone to them. But he says he even talked to one person in the catacombs Church. And this person is totally cut off from the sacraments because there's no more church. And his area of the catacombs Church is totally absent. And he's sort of surviving, keeping up the faith, being loyal. And he had a spiritual talk with Father Dimitri. And he has been a very finished talking to me. He received communion from me. And if you look at the strict point of view of the one must be for the catacombs Church at all costs, you can say he shouldn't have done that. But from the pastoral spiritual point of view, you can see that in this particular circumstance, that's probably the best for him to be at least received the sacraments because in the catacombs they don't deny that there's sacraments in the Moscow Patriarchate. At least receive the sacraments, receive God's grace and you have strength to keep struggling. And Father Dimitri said at once he came alive before he was just sort of struggling, just his own will. And he has no access to the sacraments. And now he had the sacraments and suddenly came alive. He felt that he knew life went into him because the grace of God acts. So in this case, that was the best thing for him. He could even, if he could continue without communion, who knows he might have gotten found discouraged and fallen away from Christ altogether. So in this case, we cannot judge by the letter of the law. We have to judge according to, but that's what Father Dimitri is constantly doing, judging by the spiritual needs of the present moment. In the future, when we're going to have a situation much worse, probably, regard to Orthodox churches than today, when there'll be some communion with the Patriarch of Rome. That is the Pope of Rome, that's fallen away from Orthodoxy. And others, you won't even know who the priest is, you might be very confused situation. We will not be able to have some kind of a memorise, some kind of a rule that will save us. We have to be spiritually prepared and spiritually open to understand what's going on, or else we won't be able to know where to receive communion or anything of the sort. What will happen to the Russian religious revival, and what Father Dimitri's final word, or the way concerning this, after he describes these two people in the Patriarchate who have to lie to survive, and the catacombs church, which is almost invisible. And he says, "What can we do? Well, let's just keep going forward the best we can and trust in God." First, that's the best we can do in this situation. What will happen to the Russian religious revival in the 1980s, and beyond, we do not know. Much will also depend on the political situation. The fall of the communist government during a war or similar catastrophe would produce, of course, results which we cannot possibly calculate. And it's obvious the thing which was the Russian people expect, thinking Russian people expect more than anything else, that is, the invasion from China. If that occurs, well, of course, awaken some tremendous thing in Russia. It can't possibly calculate what it might be. Something totally new 30 years later, who knows what might happen if there is this invasion or a world war. It's at times like that that tremendous events happen. And we know from people who have come out of Russia that nobody in Russia believes in communism. But there's no possible way to overthrow communism, because the dictatorship is so strong and the police are so entrenched, and you never know who's spying on you. It is simply impossible to get a group of more than three people going without having the communist pros it down. Whatever big change will occur in Russia will be as a result of some kind of events like an invasion or war. And this we cannot predict. That's when God's providence and according to conditions which we can't calculate from. But we should be discerning and aware regarding voices which come from Russia, because many of them are very liberal and do not have right orthodox ideas at all. But also we should be open and tolerant. Bearing less reject spiritual truth in the name of theoretical correctness. That is whenever we read anything that comes from Russia we should read it not according to the letter of the law, but according to the orthodoxy which comes from Jesus Christ. The true Christianity on that basis. Are they do they have a lot for Christ? Are they doing the best they can? And there is circumstances that's the way we should look at it. The recovery of faith in Russia is perhaps the most alive thing in the orthodox world today. And it can inspire us to treasure our own faith all the more. And inspire us also to increase the talent which God has given us to speak the truth of orthodoxy in the conditions of freedom. Now to our conclusions. Up to now I've discussed some of the religious tendencies which we should be seeing in the 1980s. But I've not mentioned what particular importance these years may have. And they should mention the word about this. Why the 1980s are important. I think it is no exaggeration to call the 1980s a pre-apocalyptic period. Most of the tendencies I've mentioned above are those ones should expect to see completed near to the end of the world. The worldwide triumph of communism which surely make the reign of a single world ruler, Antichrist, that much closer. The increase of occult phenomenon and demonic activity is a preparation for the age of demonic miracles which will come with Antichrist. The restoration of orthodox Russia, if it occurs, will be only shortly before the end of the world. I've not mentioned many of the disasters which many are not predicting for the 1980s. You read any religious, especially fundamental publications. And in fact many secular newsletters also. You will see predictions of widespread famines, world depression, world war. These are specific evidences. which may also occur in these years. But we cannot foresee them with great accuracy. In any case, our primary concern must be not with the external side of what lies before us, but with the spiritual side. Some religious groups, even now, are stirring up food for the disaster they feel lies just ahead for America. We, on the other hand, should be stirring up Christian love and knowledge, without which we will not survive spiritually, even if we do have enough food. In fact, if we have that Christian love and knowledge, God is going to give us the food. In conclusion, I would like to repeat a few of the qualities which I think are essential for our spiritual survival and fruitfulness in the dangerous days ahead. A most important task, perhaps, is the Christian enlightenment of ourselves and others. We must go deeper into our faith, not by studying the canons of a canonical counsels or the typical con, although they also have their place. But first of all, by knowing how God acts in our lives. We must read more of the lives of those who have pleased God in the Old and New Testament, for example. And it's a fact that we read the scriptures much too little. In the Old Testament, as many inspected accounts, we see that the Africans do read the Old Testament. They know about Moses, they know about Egypt, they're often giving examples from the Old Testament. We should be reading the lives of saints, the writings of the Holy Fathers on practical spiritual life according to our level, beginning of the ABCs, like Saint John of Grange that, the unseen warfare. We should be learning about the sufferings of Christians today and in recent years, in places like Uganda, in places like Russia. In all this, learning our eyes must be, first of all, not on the suffering aspect, not on the terrible things that happen. Our eyes must be, first of all, on the kingdom of heaven, which makes all these things tolerable. Because if we have in our heart the fact that we are made for another world, and this life is short and soon we'll be facing that other world, that all the things in this life will be, as the Echonectariate told us today, this Father Nikun said, all these tortures were to him, great joy. Because he sees that through this, he's getting the kingdom of heaven. Secondly, after the importance of enlightening ourselves, we must not close ourselves in and preserve our talent without multiplying it for others. If we do this, our orthodoxy will become a sect, and not the true Christianity. We must be open and prepared to help and enlighten others. And we will find opportunities for doing this in every hand. Because there are people today who are looking for orthodoxy. In terms of numbers, you look at America with this 240 million people, the numbers of those who are looking for orthodoxy may be very few. But it's enough. Every place you look, in fact every person here will have opportunity to be in contact with someone who is looking for the true Church of Christ. And they come from surprising places. We know about the mission in Uganda, for example, that for many years they struggled. After finding out through their beating these two Anglican seminarians finding out that orthodoxy must be the Church. And they went through such difficulties. They found a false orthodox priest with some kind of sectarian. They went to the Patriarch of Alexandria, who was an acumenist. And he said, "Go back to the Anglicans. We don't have anything you want." And they still didn't give up. They still kept knocking on the doors. And only after 20 years they found their way to the orthodox Church. That kind of struggling, God sees. And He sees that they know that there is a truth, which is true, no matter how many bad people there are in the Church. No matter how many people are going against the tradition of the Church. The Church itself is the truth. And they want to find the way to get to the true Church. And they're coming from all different directions from the various Western confessions, from unbelief, from occultism. And we should be prepared when we see a person who is involved with some kind of wrong belief. Our first editor to them must be not to say, "Oh, you're a heretic, you're no good." Look how bad he is. Our first editor must be to see that there is a person who needs enlightenment. And in whatever way we can give it, we should give it. Often we don't need to say anything. Often the person himself will open up, will begin to ask. I was myself coming back and I had to hitch a ride because one of our trucks broke down in one early morning. And ordinary persons would live someplace, reading a platoon or someplace. After putting the radio out and not wanting to talk about anything, all of a sudden closed the radio. And the last five minutes before I got to Plutina, it turned to me and said, "Can you explain the Russian Orthodox faith in five minutes or less?" And I had a chance, right then, unexpectedly to say some word about the truth. And this kind of thing is going to happen to many of us. In fact, everyone here will have these opportunities. So as you can spot people like that that they're interested and you can begin to offer something, we should not throw our pearls before swine, that is begin to preach Orthodoxy in the streets where people are not going to use the windows of the temple on it and not appreciate it. Unless there we should be open to find opportunities to give the word to other people. Because we have the truth, we do not possess it as our own. We have it as like a loan. And we have it in order to save our own souls and to give to others. If our hearts are warm and loving God will show us the way to do this, even if we do not know how to do it intellectually. Therefore, if we don't know how we ask God. Next, our Christian enlightenment, binding out of our faith, now people are suffering today. Should blossom in a conscious Orthodox philosophy of life. A conscious Orthodox philosophy of life. Our Christian enlightenment should blossom in a conscious Orthodox philosophy of life. This means that we should know what we believe and what it means for our life. Our Orthodox Christian tradition contains the answers to all the searchings and all the legitimate questions of man's mind and all the questions that are being asked today. If we consciously steep ourselves in it and keep ourselves reading in Orthodox sources, we can communicate these answers to give only one small example. There are today many evangelistic fundamental Protestants who are becoming aware of these things that I'm talking about. For example, the activity of demons. They write books about unidentified flying objects and how they're demons in the back of them. And if you read these books, they write, knowing Orthodox Christian literature on this subject. You will be astonished at how naive they are, that they don't have the faintest idea what demons are, how they act, they guess. They read the New Testament and they sort of guess from that. If I read one of them recently said, "The New Testament doesn't really have a doctrine of demons, so we have to sort of make it up." And that means they haven't read the life of Anthony the Great. Because anybody who reads the life of Anthony the Great will have people know what's going on in the world today. They're the demons of the Puritim and all kinds of shapes. And one of the big problems which Protestants have in Western investigators is for example how demons can appear in solid form. How come they appear in a flying saucer which is real? Sometimes it disappears, it's true. But while it's there, it's real. Sometimes it goes on radar. It leaves marks on the ground and the beings they can touch you sometimes. How can a demon or an invisible being become visible and solid? It's an impossible question to answer. From their point of view. If you're the life of an Anthony the Great you find this is the way demons always appear. If you read the life of any Christian is static or saint, they do fantastic things. They throw people in the air and knock them down if a God gives them power to do that. The reason we don't see it is because we're so weak and God doesn't allow such things to happen to us. But the real struggles about whom we read, these things happen all the time. The demons are appearing in solid shapes and leading visible things behind. Like this one, this cape which was left, the disciple of Saint Martin who had a demon appeared to him. And he left a cape to prove that he was actually an angel. And as they were dragging him to Saint Martin to see whether it was really an angel or a demon, the cape went puff and disappeared. But while it was there, it was real. And they examined it. It felt like silk, but they couldn't find the fabric, the threads. It wasn't what it quite but it was, but it was real. They touched it and all of a sudden puff had vanished. The demons are constantly doing things like that. The same thing with flying saucers. So if we have these orthodox sources, we know we have the orthodox doctrine of, for example, the demons. And those who do not have these sources have no idea how to explain it. And therefore they can go into fantastic errors. Like one fundamentalist group, the Karl McIntyre group, who thinks that flying saucers are some kind of non-human beings from outer space who are going to come to help us out. Not even angels, they think there's some kind of non-human beings who live on other planets who are actually coming to help us out. And they heal you and do all kinds of good things to you. And of course, if you believe that, you're in deep trouble. But this very concept of the conscious orthodox philosophy of life is one which will be developed more in the courses which are going to be given, beginning the next few days and throughout next week. Because it's a very big thing. You don't have to develop this conscious orthodox philosophy of night from one lecture or overnight. It's a lifetime task. And finally, our Christian life and learning must be such that it will enable us, because this is the test of it. The test is not with a- we are faithful to some kind of the Sixth Documentary for Council. The test is whether this learning and our life will enable us to know the true Christ and therefore to recognize the false Christ, Antichrist, when he comes. It is not theoretical knowledge or correctness that will give this knowledge to us. The demissal of Yorf and his variable of Antichrist has a valuable insight when he notes that in his fictitious account, which is very, however, true to life, that Antichrist will build a museum for the Orthodox of all possible Byzantine antiquities. That is, all ancient icons, all ancient chants, all ancient church architecture, ancient vestments, everything will be according to the ancient traditions, Byzantium. If only they will accept him, bow down to him. And so also, mirror correctness in Orthodoxy, without a loving Christian heart will not be able to resist Antichrist. And in fact, even those who recognize intellectually Antichrist will bow down to him if their hearts are cold. We will recognize him and be affirmed to stand against him, chiefly through the heart and not the head. We must develop in ourselves the right Christian feelings and instincts and put off all our fascination with spiritual comforts, the spiritual comforts of the Orthodox way of life, these external things which are good in themselves, but are secondary. Or else, we will be as one discerning observer of present-day converts has observed, who will be Orthodox but not Christian. We are called to be true and fervent Christians in these terrible times. And thereby to show the world that Orthodoxy is the true Christianity, but even in these terrible days, is still exists for the salvation of mankind. Amen.