IT IS DEEPLY INDICATIVE of the spiritual state of contemporary mankind that
the "charismatic" and "meditation" experiences are taking
root among "Christians." An Eastern religious influence is undeniably
at work in such "Christians," but it is only as a result of something
much more fundamental: the loss of the very feeling and savor of Christianity,
due to which something so alien to Christianity as Eastern "meditation"
can take hold of "Christian" souls.
The life of self-centeredness and self-satisfaction lived by most of today's
"Christians" is so all-pervading that it effectively seals them off
from any understanding at all of spiritual life; and when such people do
undertake "spiritual life," it is only as another form of
self-satisfaction. This can be seen quite clearly in the totally false
religious ideal both of the "charismatic" movement and the various
forms of "Christian meditation": all of them promise (and give very
quickly) an experience of "contentment" and "peace." But
this is not the Christian ideal at all, which if anything may be summed up as a
fierce battle and struggle. The "contentment" and "peace"
described in these contemporary "spiritual" movements are quite
manifestly the product of spiritual deception, of spiritual self-satisfaction -
which is the absolute death of the God-oriented spiritual life. All these forms
of "Christian meditation" operate solely on the psychic level and
have nothing whatever in common with Christian spirituality. Christian
spirituality is formed in the arduous struggle to acquire the eternal Kingdom
of Heaven, which fully begins only with the dissolution of this temporal world,
and the true Christian struggler never finds repose even in the foretastes of
eternal blessedness which might be vouchsafed to him in this life; but the
Eastern religions, to which the Kingdom of Heaven has not been revealed, strive
only to acquire psychic states which begin and end in this life.
In our age of apostasy preceding the manifestation of antichrist, the devil
has been loosed for a time (Apoc. 20:7) to work the false miracles which he
could not work during the "thousand years" of Grace in the Church of
Christ (Apoc. 20:3), and to gather in his hellish harvest of those souls who
"received not the love of the truth" (2 Thess. 2:10). We can tell
that the time of antichrist is truly near by the very fact that this satanic
harvest is now being reaped not merely among the pagan peoples, who have not
heard of Christ, but even more among "Christians" who have lost the
savor of Christianity. It is of the very nature of antichrist to present the
kingdom of the devil as if it were of Christ. The present-day
"charismatic" movement and "Christian meditation," and the
"new religious consciousness" of which they are part, are forerunners
of the religion of the future, the religion of the last humanity, the
religion of antichrist, and their chief "spiritual"
function is to make available to Christians the demonic initiation hitherto
restricted to the pagan world. Let it be that these "religious
experiments" are still often of a tentative and groping nature, that there
is in them at least as much psychic self-deception as there is a genuinely
demonic initiation rite; doubtless not everyone who has successfully
"meditated" or thinks he has received the "Baptism of the
Spirit" has actually received initiation into the kingdom of satan. But
this is the aim of these "experiments," and doubtless the techniques
of initiation will become ever more efficient as mankind becomes prepared for
them by the attitudes or passivity and openness to new "religious
experiences" which are inculcated by these movements.
What has brought humanity - and indeed "Christendom" - to this
desperate state? Certainly it is not any overt worship of the devil, which is
limited always to a few people; rather, it is something much more subtle, and
something fearful for a conscious Orthodox Christian to reflect on: it is the
loss of the grace of God, which follows on the loss of the savor of
Christianity.
Roman Catholics and Protestants today have not fully tasted of God's grace,
and so it is not surprising that they should be unable to discern its demonic
counterfeit. But alas! The success of counterfeit spirituality even among
Orthodox Christians today reveals how much they also have lost the savor of
Christianity and so can no longer distinguish between true Christianity and
pseudo-Christianity. For too long have Orthodox Christians taken for granted
the precious treasure of their Faith and neglected to put into use the pure
gold of its teachings. How many Orthodox Christians even know of the existence
of the basic texts of Orthodox spiritual life, which teach precisely how to
distinguish between genuine and counterfeit spirituality, texts which give the
life and teaching of holy men and women who attained an abundant measure of
Godıs grace in this life? How many have made their own the teaching of the
Lausiac History, the Ladder of St. John, the Homilies of St. Macarius,
the Lives of the God-bearing Fathers of the desert, Unseen Warfare, St.
John of Kronstadt's My Life in Christ?
In the Life of the great Father of the Egyptian desert, St. Paisius the
Great (June 19), we may see a shocking example of how easy it is to lose the
grace of God. Once a disciple of his was walking to a city in Egypt
to sell his handiwork. On the way he met a Jew who, seeing his simplicity,
began to deceive him, saying: "O beloved, why do you believe in a simple,
crucified Man, when He was not at all the awaited Messiah? Another is to come,
but not He." The disciple, being weak in mind and simple in heart, began
to listen to these words and allowed himself to say: "Perhaps what you say
is correct." When he returned to the desert, St. Paisius turned away from
him and would not speak a single word to him. Finally, after the discipleıs
long entreaty, the Saint said to him: "Who are you? I do not know you.
This disciple of mine was a Christian and had upon him the grace of Baptism,
but you are not such a one; if you are actually my disciple, then the grace of
Baptism has left you and the image of a Christian has been removed." The
disciple with tears related his conversation with the Jew, to which the Saint
replied: "O wretched one! What could be worse and more foul than such
words, by which you renounced Christ and His divine Baptism? Now go and weep
over yourself as you wish, for you have no place with me; your name is written
with those who have renounced Christ, and together with them you will receive
judgment and torments." On hearing this judgment the disciple was filled
with repentance, and at his entreaty the Saint shut himself up and prayed to
the Lord to forgive his disciple this sin. The Lord heard the Saintıs prayer
and granted him to behold a sign of His forgiveness of the disciple. The Saint
then warned the disciple: "O child, give glory and thanksgiving to Christ
God together with me, for the unclean, blasphemous spirit has departed from
you, and in his place the Holy Spirit has descended upon you, restoring to you
the grace of Baptism. And so, guard yourself now, lest out of sloth and
carelessness the nets of the enemy should fall upon you again and, having
sinned, you should inherit the fire of gehenna."
Significantly, it is among "ecumenical Christians" that the
"charismatic" and "meditation" movements have taken root.
The characteristic belief of the heresy of ecumenism is this: that the Orthodox
Church is not the one true Church of Christ; that the grace of God is present
also in other "Christian" denominations, and even in non-Christian
religions; that the narrow path of salvation according to the teaching of the
Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church is only "one path among many" to
salvation; and that the details of one's belief in Christ are of little
importance, as is one's membership in any particular church. Not all the
Orthodox participants in the ecumenical movement believe this entirely
(although Protestants and Roman Catholics most certainly do); but by their very
participation in this movement, including invariably common prayer with those
who believe wrongly about Christ and His Church, they tell the heretics who
behold them: "Perhaps what you say is correct," even as the
wretched disciple of St. Paisius did. No more than this is required for an
Orthodox Christian to lose the grace of God; and what labor it will
cost for him to gain it back!
How much, then, must Orthodox Christians walk in the fear of God, trembling
lest they lose His grace, which by no means is given to everyone, but only to
those who hold the true Faith, lead a life of Christian struggle, and treasure
the grace of God which leads them heavenward. And how much more cautiously must
Orthodox Christians walk today above all, when they are surrounded by a
counterfeit Christianity that gives its own experiences of "grace"
and the "Holy Spirit" and can abundantly quote the Scriptures and the
Holy Fathers to "prove" it! Surely the last times are near, when
there will come spiritual deception so persuasive as to "deceive, if it
were possible, even the very elect" (Matt. 24:24).
Orthodox Christians! Hold fast to the grace which you have; never let it
become a matter of habit; never measure it by merely human standards or expect
it to be logical or comprehensible to those who understand nothing higher than
what is human or who think to obtain the grace of the Holy Spirit in some other
way than that which the one Church of Christ has handed down to us. True
Orthodoxy by its very nature must seem totally out of place in these demonic
times, a dwindling minority of the despised and "foolish," in the
midst of a religious "revival" inspired by another kind of spirit.
But let us take comfort from the certain words of our Lord Jesus Christ:
"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you
the Kingdom" (Luke 12:32).
Let all true Orthodox Christians strengthen themselves for the battle ahead,
never forgetting that in Christ the victory is already ours. He has promised
that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church (Matt. 16:18), and
that for the sake of the elect He will cut short the days of the last great
tribulation (Matt. 24:22). And in truth, "If God be for us, who can be
against us?" (Rom. 8:31). Even in the midst of the cruelest
temptations, we are commanded to be of good cheer; I have overcome the world
(John 16:33). Let us live, even as true Christians of all times have lived,
in expectation of the end of all things and the coming of our dear Saviour; for
"He that giveth testimony of these things saith: Surely I come quickly.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus" (Apoc. 22:20).
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