A SHORT ANTHOLOGY

 OF NICHOLAS J. SOTEROPOULOS

(IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION)

CONTENTS TABLE

1. Do You Want To Be Saved?………………………………………………….. 1
2. I Ask for Forgiveness!……………………………………………….. 21
3. Elder Porphyrios Special Interview with Nicholas J. Soteropoulos….……..28
4. The Few…………………………………………………………………………. 34
5. Three Qualities of the All-holy Mary………………………………………….45
6. God Does Not Punish?……………………………..52
7. How Scripture Speaks Concerning Heretics………………………………….55
8. Critical Commentaries (Nafpactou)……………………………………………58
9. Wrong Perceptions Concerining Orthodoxy………………………………….59
10. The Humbling Mystery……………………………………………………….66
11. Proofs of God’s Existence …………………………………………………….68

DO YOU WANT TO BE SAVED?

by
Nicholas J. Soteropoulos
Theologian
(Second Edition)
Athens 1979

DO YOU WANT TO BE SAVED?

CONTENTS

I. Contents……………………………………………………………..1

II. Prologue……………………………………………………………2

III. Eternal Salvation…………………………………………………3

IV. Humility…………………………………………………………….4

V. Faith…………………………………………………………………..5

VI. Love………………………………………………………………….6

VII. Hope………………………………………………………………..6

VIII. The Study of Scripture………………………………………7

IX. Prayer………………………………………………………………..10

X. Regular Church Attendance…………………………………..10

XI. Repentance and Confession………………………………….11

XII. Holy Communion………………………………………………14

XIII. Holy Communion and the Old Testament……………14

XIV. Holy Communion and the New Testament………….15

XV. Struggle……………………………………………………………17

II. Prologue

“Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6, New King James Version). It was a strange question that Jesus asked the paralytic near the pool of Bethesda. We say strange because why would such a question be necessary? What sick person does not want his health? Nevertheless, the question had a purpose. By this Jesus wanted to divert the paralytic’s attention from the pool to His person. It was as if He were saying: “Do you want to be made well? There is a sure way to accomplish this. Behold, I am able to cure you.» Perhaps by this question Jesus also wanted to bring the man who was paralyzed because of his sins to his senses and repentance. In effect, it was as if he were saying: “Do you wish to be healed? Reflect on your sins, repent, and resolve to amend your life from this moment on.”
We can say that Jesus directs a similar question to every sinner: “Do you want to be saved?” This question has the following meaning: “There is a sure way to salvation. But you must reflect and make a solemn resolution. For there are certain things that are absolutely necessary for salvation. These are indispensable conditions. Observe these and you will ensure your eternal welfare.”
In 1976 in the periodical Ho Stavros (“The Cross”), we wrote a series of articles concerning the basic prerequisites for man’s salvation. Since we all wish to be saved, but few, on the one hand, know well what things are indispensable for salvation, and many, on the other hand, deal superficially with this vital issue of their salvation and have devised various forms of religion, we deemed it expedient to publish those articles in this small pamphlet entitled Thelis na Sothis? (“Do You Want to be Saved?”) We hope that this small pamphlet concerning a subject of paramount importance may be well received and disseminated with special concern to help those souls who wish to attain eternal life. We were made for eternity. The idea of eternity is innate in us. If we lose the whole world and win eternity, we will have lost nothing and won everything.

In Athens on the 14th of September 1976
The Feast Day of the Elevation of the Holy Cross
Nicholas John Soteropoulos

III. Eternal Salvation

Salvation is the never‑ending yearning of every believer and elect person, and the pre‑eternal purpose of the birth in time of the only‑begotten Son and Logos of God. Not a lesser, insignificant salvation which is physical and transient, but a greater salvation that is spiritual and eternal. Animals too are saved by the lesser salvation. “O Lord, You preserve man and beast!” (Ps. 35:7, NKJ). Rational beings who exist above the level of beasts have the privilege of enjoying the greater salvation through living faith. “Israel is saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation” (Isa. 45:17, according to the Septuagint translation). Israel in this connection includes every believing and chosen person, regardless of race and nationality.
The yearning and purpose of man is salvation. Savior is the name of the One Who came down from the heavens to fulfill this yearning and purpose. “There is born to you today a Savior,” announced the angel to mankind on the eve of the Nativity (Luke 2:11).
How can we be saved? Temporal salvation, which terminates at the grave, does not fill us with enthusiasm. Every time we enter a new year we come one step closer to the grave, and we do not know if it is our last step in this direction. In spite of the heartfelt wishes, in spite of the innumerable Eti polla (“Many years!”) this earthly life is but a few years. We often say that time is passing. The truth is that we are passing. But we do not pass on in the sense that we are annihilated. The materialists assert without proof that man passes away into non‑existence. The faithful have reasons to believe that we pass on in the sense that we enter into another life. Conscientious Christians believe in the unknown by advancing from the known. They accept the doctrines of Christianity on the basis of facts, and indeed on the basis of miracles as well. A great dogma of Christianity is the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and the eternity of man. Hence, what arouses the keen interest of the conscientious believers is eternal salvation. We leave all the other matters to the undertakers! How then shall we attain eternal salvation? How shall we jump over from the earthly riches, by the leap of our physical death, to the incomparably superior and inexhaustible riches of heaven, and at the same time avoid falling into the abyss of everlasting torment?
Money is necessary for the temporal, earthly salvation. To the worldly‑minded, money is the most difficult thing to obtain. The world struggles night and day for material things, even to the point of shedding blood. Behold, according to the world, material objects and money constitute the essentials for the good and happy life. And according to this tragic antinomy and irony, the end or object of this life is ensured by great pains, hazardous actions, and brutal wars by which life is corrupted, endangered and destroyed. How foolish and wretched is man! Or rather, how foolish and wretched does unbelief and sin render man. And the Devil himself lies hidden behind these things!
The material things acquired with much difficulty and blood‑stained money are not necessary for eternal salvation. If these were required, only the rich would inherit the Kingdom of heaven, whereas now the rich enter with difficulty. For there are certain things that are necessary to gain eternity, things which anyone can acquire, even the poorest and most obscure, especially the latter.
Here now are the basic conditions that must be met for salvation:

IV. Humility

Worldly people do not even know the word, especially those who occupy high offices. Christianity considers humility as one of the greatest virtues. We usually regard faith as basic to our salvation. But if faith is basic, then humility is still more basic! For faith to come and dwell in the soul, humility must already be present. Faith and the Leader of our faith do not enter and dwell in the prideful soul. Unbelief and Satan enter instead. Jesus Christ, God, equal to God the Father, without having any need whatever, for our sake humbled Himself, even to the point of becoming a man, having been born in a stable and dying on a cross. Now if the Most High humbled Himself for our sake, we, too, ought to humble ourselves for our own sake. “Have this mind among yourselves,” the apostle says, “which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5‑ 8, Revised Standard Version).
Man must be humble in mind and behavior, for humility corresponds to his natural and moral measure. Humility reveals our true condition. What is man physically within the vast Universe consisting of hundreds of billions of Galaxies? Not even a speck of dust. And what is man’s power before the unimaginably great, immeasurable, and incalculable forces in the universe? Almost nothing at all. And what is man morally? He is sinful and ungodly, as unclean and disgusting “as a filthy rag,” wretched and most miserable. Why then should man be proud? Pride is foolishness, but humility intelligence and wisdom. Since God humbled Himself, indeed to the point of extreme humility, man’s refusal to humble himself is foolishness to an infinitesimal degree.
Our ancient ancestors would say: “Know thyself.” Scripture adds, “Know the Lord” (Jer. 38:34; Heb. 8:11). When a man knows himself, he is humble. But when he knows the Lord, especially His extreme humility, he is ever more humble. When he acquires thorough knowledge of himself, he considers himself as nothingzero. But when he acquires a thorough knowledge of Christ, he reduces his opinion of himself to even less than zero. Mathematics teaches us the concept of minus zero. But Isaiah, before the mathematicians, taught us this concept: “All nations before him are as nothing, And they are counted by him as less than nothing and worthless” (40:17, according to the Hebrew text).
O sinful, miserable, little man! Do you want to be saved? Above all be humble! This way you will attract the sympathy and grace of God. “The Lord resists the proud; but He gives grace to the humble” (Prov. 3:34, Septuagint). God sees the proud man as a Lucifer; the humble man as His Son Who humbled Himself to the extent of being born in a stable and crucified on a cross.

V. Faith

If humility is the proper soil of the spiritual life, then faith is the root. While the most important part of the tree is the root, the most important element in the spiritual life is faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is” (Heb.11:6, NKJ). A frequently mentioned doctrine in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, is that man is saved by faith, and that without faith it is impossible to be saved. Man must believe that besides him and above him there exists another Being, Who ought not to be understood as material or physical, but as immaterial and supernatural, for Whom the question “Who made Him?» has no force or validity. He is both the Uncreated and the Creator. He is not simply a superior power, as many say, but He is a personal God, the supreme Consciousness, Logic, Goodness and Power.
More precisely, man must believe that God is the God of Christianity, the Unity of essence, and a Trinity of personsthe Father, the Son, and the Holy Spiritco‑essential, co‑eternal, and equal in honor. He must also believe that the Son of God supernaturally took on flesh from the pure blood of a humble virgin and became a human being, like us in all respects except for sin; that He died on a cross for our sins, and rose from the dead for our justification, and was assumed into the heavens and intercedes for us; and that He shall return to the world in order to judge the world.
In addition to this, man must also believe that he differs from the beast; that he has an immortal soul; that there is a heaven and a hell; that all that the Church of Christ teaches is true. On matters of the faith, one cannot be an eclectic. Either one believes or one does not believe. Either God is true and all that He says is right and redeeming, or God is false and all that He says is dispensable. He who rejects certain teachings of Christianity makes God a liar!
But how should one believe? Blindly? Not blindly! Blind faith has no value. If we had to believe blindly, why should we believe in Christ and not in Buddha? The saying, “Believe and search not» is not scriptural. Christianity seeks out faith with reason. And we have many strong reasons for believing in Christianity. Christianity has words, events, deeds, and history that are unique and incomparable. It has words that are humanly incomprehensible and inconceivable. It has astounding prophesies and fulfillments of prophesies. It has unique, unrepeatable events which are of universal and historical significance. It has amazing and astonishing deeds. It has miracles in the true sense of the word. It has lives of saints, marvelous events and wonders. Let those who doubt these things examine and search in a spirit of humility and sincerity, and they will be convinced, as were so many thousands of elect and powerful minds throughout the ages.
Inquisitive man! Even if you solve all problems and accomplish all your deeds, but do not solve the problem and perform the works of faith, you have solved and gained nothing. Before you reach the grave, search and see if there is something which promises a happy and everlasting life beyond the grave. Search and believe, because the saying of the Gospel is faithful, worthy of all acceptance, and the cause of eternal salvation.

VI. Love

If faith is the root of spiritual life, love is the crown. What kind of love? Not immoral love, which the world praises and glorifies, nor the type of love which is expressed with words only, but love rich in thought and feeling, abounding in deeds and accomplishments.
But, first and foremost, we should have love for the first and most beloved of all lovable objects: our Creator and Maker, Father and RedeemerGod. We should love with all our soul the Creator and Redeemer of our soul; with all our heart the Maker of our heart; with all our mind the greatest Mind; with all our strength the supreme Power. We were formed and re-formed by Him and for Him, and we ought to love Him completely. He has loved us first and “unto the end.” We, also, should love Him more than anything and everyone else. Whoever loves, feels and thinks of other things and persons more than he does God, is unworthy of Him.
After God we should love our fellow man. How much? As much as we love ourselves. There is no measure to the amount of love we should have toward God. The measure of love for others is the love we have for our own selves. We may express this love for others by showing an interest in their welfare with words and deeds, and especially in their salvation. Help in order to be helped. Save in order to be saved.
O man! The earth, atmosphere, sun, stars, Bible, Church, history, you yourself as a body and spirit, everything clearly demonstrates the love your Lord has for you. You, too, should broaden your heart in love for God and your fellow man, and you will see those indescribable blessings which God has prepared for those who love Him.

VII. Hope

Faith gives birth to hope. The believer hopes. The unbeliever despairs.
In what should we set our hope? In God’s providence for this life which is full of temptations; in the indescribable blessings of the other life, blessings which “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived” (1 Cor. 2:9, RSV). Above of all, we should hope in these superior and eternal blessings. We should continually call them to mind through faith. We should see and feel them intensely, as a reality more certain than the present blessings. In this earthly life we sometimes receive unexpected blessings. But in the other life, we can only receive the blessings that are hoped for. In Christianity there is abounding hope for everything and everyone. And whoever in spite of this has no hope, is and always will be miserable. The person who hopes will receive what he hopes for and will be saved by a real and complete salvation.
O disheartened and despairing man! Recover hope through faith. Set your course towards an ageless eternity. Throw your anchor there and “take hold of eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:12, NKJ).

VIII. The Study of Scripture

Since man first began to write, millions of books have been written. Believers and unbelievers, Christians and non‑christians alike acknowledge that of all the books that have been written, Holy Scripture is superior. Not just superior, but incomparable, unrivaled. Prominent minds acknowledge that no matter how far the sciences progress we have neither reached nor shall we ever reach the height of Scripture.
While Scripture is essentially free from affectation, it is a most beautiful book to read. It is simple and at the same time comprehensive. It is fundamental, profound and mysterious. It is extraordinary while at the same time most solemn, the most divine and yet the most human of books. No book speaks to the heart of man as Scripture does, and no book leaves the heart with more enduring impressions. Other books leave fleeting impressions; Scripture leaves permanent impressions. Other books were written by men; Scripture was written by God through men. Therefore, it contains truths that are higher than the heavens and clearer than the rays of the sun. The unity of Scripture from beginning to end indisputably demonstrates that it is God‑inspired. For it contains original, sublime ideas, passages which are inconceivable and unimaginable to the human mind. There are a plethora of prophesies that are accurate right down to the last detail. Finally, the pen that wrote these pages of Holy Scripture was for the most part held by unlearned men.
For what purpose was the Scripture written? It was written for us to study it, to acquire knowledge of lofty truths and of the will of God. It was written for us to marvel at the great events contained therein, just as we marvel at the beautiful things of the earth and the starry heaven. It was written to elevate our minds, to warm our feelings, and to strengthen our will for salvation. The study of Scripture is a commandment of God. “This book shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night” (Joshua 1:8, RSV).
Since Scripture is the word of God, each person should have an ardent desireat least the curiosityto see what God is saying. Not only during the day, but even at night a person ought to open Scripture and study the words of eternal life, feeling and saying like the loud‑voiced Isaiah: “My spirit seeks you very early in the morning, O God, for your commandments are a light on the earth” (Isa. 26:9, Septuagint). The study of Scripture enlightens, censures, arouses a sense of sinfulness, warms, sweetens, consoles, strengthens, inspires, elevates, stimulates, motivates, sets the heart afire, and makes the soul drunk with Holy Spirit, Who inspired the divine words and Who mystically acts upon the soul when it carefully reads them.
The person who studies Scripture with faith and piety enters and lives in a spiritual sphere. On the contrary, he who is ignorant of Scripture is ignorant of Christ and himself, is deprived of indescribable spiritual delights, commits many sins out of ignorance, and both lives and moves in a lower sphere. It is impossible for one to be saved without the regular study of Scriptures, said the great lover and interpreter of Scriptures, the venerable Chrysostom. We Greeks have in our language the oldest and most respected translation of the Old Testament and the original text of the New Testament. We also have the interpretations of the most glorious Fathers and teachers of the Church. And yet, with few exceptions, we do not study Scripture. For this reason, we are not a spiritual people. There are, in fact, certain monks who estimate the value of ascetic books over
against the value of the God‑inspired Scriptures. They regard its study, as well as the preaching of the divine word, as inferior spiritual matters, or rather as Protestant practices! If the reading and interpretation of Scripture were introduced in monasteries where there are monks with such views, it would provoke a scandal, perhaps even a revolution! O Satan, how did you succeed in making monks disdain the word of God! Great is the sorrow of the ascetic fathers in heaven for these sicklyor ratherthese heretical monks who place their books above Scripture.
Brethren and fathers! Do we want to see spiritual advancement and salvation? Let us long to hear the voice of God, the messages of heaven, the pronouncements of the King of kings and Lord of lords, Whose majesty the universe declares. We have heard many verbose, foolish, deceptive, and destructive voices. Let us also hear that voice by which the universe was made secure and is held together. Let us seek the bread which comes down from heaven, from which souls that hunger after God are nourished. We have tasted a variety of foods of questionable nutritional value, adulterated, poisonous food, even the very dung of Satan. Let us now try the choice and select food of heaven, the mystical manna, the food that abides unto eternal life. We have swallowed many refreshing drinks and beverages, and they proved to be destructively narcotic. Let us now drink the living water which springs up into everlasting life. We have tried many medicines, and instead of a cure, our condition grew worse. Let us now try the real remedy for the soul. We have given much attention to the radio broadcasts of the earth, and they proved to be shameful and disgraceful. Let us now listen to the broadcasts of heaven. We have spent much time before the man‑made television and it has proven to be even more disgraceful. Let us devote at least ten minutes a day for divine television Scripturewhich presents unimaginably great and magnificent things. It features not only current events, but also those events that are far removed from us in time, future and eternal things which man‑made television is unable to present.
After Scripture, let us also read other spiritual books, old and new, including periodicals, which teach aright, analyze and present the word of Scripture in a more digestible form. And let us hasten to divine sermons, where the living word of God is presented and is more apt to move the heart and stir the soul.
The man who loses his appetite for food is sick and dies. The Christian, also, who lacks a desire for the word of God is, as regards his soul, sick and will die, or rather is already dead spiritually. It is possible, however, for this person to be resurrected and receive food, as in the case of Jairus’ (Mark 5:43) daughter after her resurrection, and live forever.
O Son and Logos of God, Who took on flesh and spoke words of eternal life and was glorified through the Greeks, plant the love of Your word in the hearts of the modern Greeks. Make this blessed nation once again a people of the Scriptures.

IX. Prayer

Through Scripture God speaks to man. Through prayer man speaks to God. As a logical, conversant, social being, man feels the need to refer to other rational beings in order to communicate his thoughts, feelings, desires, etc. Of all the logical beings, man most deeply feels the need to communicate with God, the real Being, upon Whom he feels the greatest dependence. Certain religious scholars once took an infant and raised it in a deserted place far from society. They never spoke to him about God, religion or any other spiritual matter. They brought him up as an animal. And what did they observe? When the child grew up, he would leave his dwelling place and go into a forest, turn towards the sun, kneel and pray. Thus it was shown, even by observation and experiment, that the religious sentiment is innate in man. Without ever hearing a word about religion the man would bend his knee in prayer. And since he did not know who God was concretely, though he felt Him within, he turned to the sun. How appropriate is the etymology of the Greek word anthropos (man). It derives from ano throskein (to look upwards)!
When man was in the Garden of Eden, he would talk with God as one speaks to a friend. And later, despite the fall, he did not lose the desire, neither the possibility, nor the right to speak once again to God through prayer. Great men were rendered worthy to speak with God as in the garden of Eden. They spoke with Him face to face, as one speaks to his own friend. Only the insensible and perverse, in whom the last religious spark has been extinguished, do not feel the need to pray, and regard prayer as meaningless.
Prayer is the most sacred moment in the life of man. When man prays he humbles himself and acknowledges that there is a God above him, that he is dependent on Him, that he worships Him, that he awaits salvation from Him as an affectionate Father and Redeemer. During prayer, when the knees of the believer’s body and heart are bent along with his pride, God’s compassion also bends. And when holy hands are raised in prayer, the heavens bow and God descends and meets man who is then filled with the presence of God. During prayer man feels mystical powers and experiences ineffable joys.
All the saints were men of prayer, of fervent and extended prayer. They were moved even by the thought that they were about to bend their knees in prayer. As man, Christ would spend the night in prayer. And as man in heaven He continues to intercede on our behalf. Now when you see that the God‑man prays extensively, who are you, ordinary and shallow man, that you should consider prayer unimportant? And as many as were saved at the last moment, like the thief, were also saved through prayer.
Brethren! Seeing the power of prayer, Satan puts into the hearts of men a certain disinclination toward prayer. When we are about to pray, we feel as heavy as lead. For this reason, as soon as we begin to pray, we hasten to finish. But is this prayer? Let us come to our senses, my beloved. Let us force our reluctant and lethargic self to pray more intensely to God, Who was nailed to the cross for us, and there continued to pray and to listen to prayer.

X. Regular Church Attendance

Our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Trinity, did not come into the world simply to teach. Neither did He come only to suffer. He came to establish a Church. He came to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. We the faithful, who truly and rightly believe, are the Church. The congregation of the believers is also called the Church, as well as the Temple where we faithful gather for the worship of God. God is pleased with private prayer and personal worship. But He also takes pleasure in corporate worship, and seeks it out as necessary for the salvation of man. “In the churches I will bless the Lord,” (Ps. 26:12) says the Psalmist. Elsewhere, he exhorts: “Praise God in the congregations» (Ps. 67:27, Septuagint). And he Apostle advises the believers not to neglect the sacred congregations, as some were in the bad habit of doing: “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some” (Heb. 10:25, RSV).
From apostolic times the Church set apart “the first day of the week» as the day on which the Lord rose from the dead (Matt. 28:1). Thus it has come to be called Kyriaki (The Lord’s day; Sunday in English Rev. 1:10). The Church dedicated this extraordinary day for the worship of the risen Lord, setting aside the honor of the Hebrew Sabbath, and established Sunday as a fundamental and primary holiday. We celebrate the feast day of the Resurrection, the greatest holiday of the Church, each Pascha (Easter) and every Sunday. St. Paul exhorts each Christian to set aside something for the “collections” on the Lord’s day, indicating by this the sanctity of this day (1 Cor. 16:2). And St. Luke testifies that on the Lord’s day the Christians gathered together for the Lord’s supper (Acts 29:7).
The importance of attending Church is manifold. In the congregation of people of all ages, social classes, and spiritual conditions, we are moved in a special way and feel like brethren, as the mystical body of Christ. We unite our prayers, and in this manner they become more powerful. In unity there is strength. Christ is present and blesses us in a more special way. “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20, RSV). How much more so where there are tens, hundreds, or thousands gathered together!
Several years ago in a temple in Pireus there was a zealous monk‑priest celebrating the Divine Liturgy before a fervent congregation. Whenever the celebrant exited the altar and faced the people, a little child would turn to his mother and shout, “Mommy! Christ, Christ, there’s Christ! He’s looking at us. He’s smiling. He’s blessing us. How nice Christ is, mommy!” These outbursts troubled his mother. She feared that something bad had happened to the child. She kept trying to pacify him, saying: “My dear, Christ is there in the icon. Don’t shout.” But the child continued to shout even more: “Not in the icon, mommy. Christ is alive. He’s above the priest’s head. He comes out with him and looks at us sweetly, smiles and blesses us. There is Christ! How beautiful Christ is!”
The little boy, with his childish, innocent eyes saw what really happens in every sacred temple during the service. The eternal high priest, Christ, is present. He conducts the liturgy and invisibly blesses His people. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated in the temple. This ceremony is a spiritual sun shining down on and warming the faithful. The bloodless sacrifice is performed in the temple. This is the most extraordinary, fearsome, sanctifying and redeeming mystery of the Church. In the temple Christ Himself is present, physically and permanently in the sanctified bread contained in the paten. This fact renders the Christian temple incomparably superior to the Judaic.
For these reasons and for many others, if we really want to be Christians, not just in name, and wish to achieve sanctification and salvation, we ought to go to church every Sundaynot only on Pascha, as most people do. Whoever does not attend church regularly falls into sin. And whoever says that church attendance is not necessary falls into heresy.
The older generations had more grace and joy because they were to a greater extent a people of the Church. Let us forget our various excuses and let us also become a people of the Church. We do not abandon our worldly home and family, even though we see serious shortcomings. How do we desert the House of God “which is the Church of the living God?” (1 Tim. 3:15, RSV). Let us become imitators of our fathers and grandparents who, though materially poorer, were really happier due to their lively relationship with the Church. Or rather, let us become imitators of Christ Himself, Who said: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49, RSV). He who loves the earthly house of the Father will also inherit the heavenly house of the Father. Finally, Christianity without sacrifice is not Christianity, but just a word. And with words, nobody gains the kingdom of heaven. Dear reader! There is nothing more sweet, more penitential, and restful for the soul than the Church. “How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longs, yea, faints for the courts of the Lord” (Ps. 84:1‑2, RSV).
Lord! Grant us that we may feel for Your house what the Psalmist felt, and even more, for You gave us a house that is incomparably superior. Others love worldly centers, theaters, and synagogues of Satan which lead to destruction. Give us the love for Your Church which leads to salvation. Today Your Church has the appearance of disorder and impropriety, providing the occasion for Her to be despised and insulted. Give us the strength to strive to make Your Church once again seemly and glorious, as She was during the first centuries of Christianity: a magnet, a sweetness, a comfort, a support, a refuge, a joy and a delight for our souls.

XI. Repentance and Confession

We are sinners. All of us are sinners without exception. “What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? If God puts no trust in His saints (the angels), and the heavens are not pure in His sight, how much less man, who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water!” (Job 15:14‑16, NKJ). There is no man who will live and not sin. We are born with the impulse to sin; this impulse shakes the foundations of our soul, and we continually fall into greater or lesser sins.
We sin inwardly and outwardly. We sin through evil desires, thoughts, words, actions and deeds. We sin through all of our members and the senses of our psychosomatic existence. We sin at every age and at all times, even as small children, and during Holy Week. We sin in every place, even in the temple during that moment when we receive the Holy Communion. We sin by neglecting many of our duties. For, as the Apostle said, and as we know from ourselves, “to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17, NKJ). We sin because whatever good we do, we do it inadequately. Our virtue is mixed with the corrosion of sin, and our good deeds are shining crimes, according to the expression of St. Augustine. We sin
knowingly. We also sin in unpardonable ignorance. We sin willingly. And we sin unwillingly, but even then with some degree of intending to sin. Moreover, we the people of this twentieth century, which is replete with deceit, sin in various ways through the many means of this technological society. The progress of the technological sciences has greatly increased our leisure as well as the occasions, the opportunities and the facility to sin, so that our age is the most sinful period after Christ.
Each one of us sins hundreds and thousands of times daily! And “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8, RSV). That is, if we say that we do not have sin, we “fool” ourselves, not others. Others know that we have sins. “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar” (1 John 1:10, NKJ). That is, if we say we have not sinned, we add yet another sin, a most serious one, because we make God a liar. For God said that we are sinners, but we…contradict Him!
Sin is the greatest calamity and the source of all calamities. Sin is the greatest misfortune and the cause of all misfortune and every adversity. Toil, hardship, guilt feelings, sorrow, worry, weariness, boredom, neurosis, physical illnesses, pains, sufferings, sighs, death, and wars with their extended, innumerable, horrible, terrifying and indescribable calamitiesinfinitely worse eternal hell, a token and foretaste of which we see in the thousands of earthly tormentsare all the result of sin. Let us be honest! Deep down we sigh because we are guilty. We are talking about various calamities and misfortunes. It would be more correct to say that there is but one calamity and misfortune: sin. We say this, but we do not feel it. And the reason we do not feel it is precisely because we are sinful. The more holy the repentant sinner becomes, the more he feels the enormity and vileness of sin. For this reason, the chief apostle Paul says that he is the first among sinners.
Sin exists. But glory to God, for there is the possibility for the remission of sin. In one moment, the ungodly can become righteous; the filthy clean; the prostitute holy; the thief a citizen of Paradise. Any sinner can become a friend of God and inherit heaven. How? Who forgives? Who erases sin? Who instantly transforms the ungodly and sinful person into a righteous and holy person? God. Only God. No one else. All our sins are accountable to Him, as Creator and Lawmaker, and He has the power to forgive them. In His omnipotence is the power to forgive sins.
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He is the unique person with this mission. For Jesus Christ is God Himself in the flesh. This is the great message of the Gospel. There never was nor will there ever be another message greater or equal to this. Blessed are those who hear the message of the Gospel. Someone was once asked: “Do you have any news to tell us?” And he answered: “Yes, there is something new: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am first.”
Jesus Christ created the universehundreds of billions of galaxiessome of which we see. He created thousands upon thousands and tens of thousands of archangels and angels whom we do not see, but believe in their existence on the basis of what we do see. We acquire knowledge of the unknown through the known, as in mathematics. We learn of the invisible through the visible. While the universe came into being easily, through one word, the forgiveness of sins was not secured without cost. The creation of the universe did not cost anything; the remission of sins cost the blood of the Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Even for the smallest sin to be erased, it was necessary for God to become man. It was necessary for Him to experience the adversities of human life. He had to walk to Golgotha and endure the horrible and disgraceful cross. We were purchased for a price! The price was God Himself! “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33, NKJ).
Through the supreme sacrifice, the Lord Jesus obtained the remission of sins objectively. For the remission of sins to be obtained subjectively, so that the sacrifice of Christ can act on each sinful person and save him, something on the part of the sinner is required. God offered His blood. What must the sinner offer? Money? Property? Valuable goods? Alas for the poor if such costs were necessary for the forgiveness of sins. The chief requirement for the forgiveness of sins does not consist in such costs. Religion is free! Salvation is free, so that even the most indigent person is able to be saved. Indeed, it is easier for the poor to be saved, as it is also more just.
In order to receive the forgiveness of sins, we are not required to pay with valuable and expensive things. But what can we offer? Permit us to express ourselves in this manner: we are required to offer the most worthless of thingsour very own sins! Yes, our sins! “Jerome, I want your sins,” said Christ, when Jerome wondered what gift he should offer to the Lord. Christ wants us to offer Him our sins, so that He can abolish and erase them, so as not to remember them any more.
How does the sinner offer his sins to Christ in order to erase them? First, the sinner acknowledges his sins. It does not cost anything to do this. It is only costly to our egoism. Egotism, however, is the most destructive of evils and must be struck down severely. Whoever does not acknowledge his sins and does not strike down his egoism, is a satan. Do we want to be satans? Never!
Secondly, the sinner grieves over his sins. He is deeply concerned. He is contrite. He sighs, cries and mourns, without, however, reaching despair or despondency. Our Faith is full of hope. The Lord’s mercy is great. “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7, RSV). Even if you committed the most abominable crime and the most shameful deed for which you now feel disgust (and you would want the earth to open up and swallow you), one drop, one electron of the blood of Christ cleanses these sins instantaneously.
Not only this, but even if you have committed thousands and tens of thousands more and worse sins, the blood of Christ would cleanse them. Your sins are small compared to the mercy of God. Take courage, child! For this reason Christ endured all the reproach and awful pain of the cross, so that He can “save to the uttermost” (Heb. 7:25, NKJ) and His grace may abound and superabound.
Thirdly, the sinner confesses his sins. The confession of sins is a great act of humility; it is heroism of the soul and deals a severe blow to egoism. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, NKJ).
To whom should we confess our sins? To God in our prayers? Yes. To our fellow men, and especially to those whom we have wronged? Yes. But this is not enough. For the forgiveness of sins, the Lord established a mystery, the noble mystery of repentance and confession. He gave to the Apostles, and through the Apostles to the priests, the authority to remit and retain sins, to bind and to loose. And just as the mystery of Holy Communion cannot be celebrated without a priest, so also the mystery of confession cannot be performed without a priest. In order for the sinner to receive forgiveness, he does the following.
He humbles himself, hastens to a priest, and confesses his shameful deeds and crimes in contrition and sincerity. The penitent exposes to the priest, as to a doctor, his loathsome hidden sores. Then he kneels and hears the prayer of forgiveness (absolution). In this manner, he lays down the burden and the filth of his sins. During holy Confession, before the representative of God, divine grace descends mystically and cleanses the sinner, rendering him righteous and holy. And as a result, the soul leaping from joy soars heavenward.
Brethren! Our tragedy lies in our sin. And the solution to the tragedy consists of repentance and confession. “Repent, confess,” the Scriptures cry out. We will not be punished because we sin. We will be punished because we do not repent, exclaims St. Chrysostom. The mystery of the remission of our sins required Christ to ascend the Cross. It is free, and yet most people do not approach the mystery of confession. Why? A special demon hinders them. And they lose all of eternity, when they could have gained it without any cost.
Brethren! Let us put aside our egoism. Let us overcome the demon and knock on the door of mercy before we reach the gates of death. Now is the time for repentance. Now is the time for salvation.

XII. Holy Communion

The salvation of man depends on his relationship or communion with God. He who has a relationship or communion with God is in the realm of salvation. The stranger to God is in the realm of perdition. And just as he who is in communion with the sun is in the light, so he who is not is in the dark. In the Scriptures God is called both Savior and Salvation. Therefore, he who has God has the Savior and automatically attains salvation itself.
The Gospel wants men to be “partakers of divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). More concretely, it speaks about “communion with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3 See also 1 Cor. 1:9) and for “communion of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:13. See also Phil. 2:1). That is to say, the Scripture wants man in communion with the Holy Trinity.
There are various ways in which man achieves communion with God, but the best way is through Divine Communion or Holy Communion. Holy Communion is a mystery, a most supernatural and awesome mystery. It is a mystery in a general and in a particular sense. In the general sense, it is the greatest mystery after that of the Holy Trinity and that of the incarnation of the Logos. In the particular sense, it is the greatest of the seven mysteries (sacraments). In the other mysteries of the Church, God provides us with His grace, but in the mystery of Divine Communion, He gives us His very Self. Yes, his very Self! For God so loved the world that, even after supplying us with all good things, both material and spiritual, He gave us His very Self.

XIII. Holy Communion and the Old Testament

There are numerous places in the Old Testament where the mystery of Holy Communion is prefigured and prophesied. We cite only the astounding prophesy of Malachi: “For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty” (1:11, Septuagint).
The sacrifices offered by men to God are not pure. But the sacrifice in this prophesy is characterized as “pure”, for in this sacrifice the pure and unsullied Lord Himself is offered. And in distinction to the bloody sacrifice accomplished on Golgotha, this sacrifice is bloodless, and is celebrated “in every place,” from one end of the world to the other, in the midst of the returning nations everywhere; wherever the Holy Table of the Church is set up.

XIV. Holy Communion and the New Testament

In the New Testament the mystery is taught clearly and explicitly. Jesus declares: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh….Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life…For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:51‑56, RSV). The flesh of Christ “is food indeed,” that is, it is truly eaten, not symbolically. The blood of Christ “is drink indeed,” that is, it is truly drunk and swallowed, not symbolically. The body and blood of Christ is really eaten and drunk, but in a mysterious manner. He who partakes of the body and blood of Christ has Christ within him and eternal life. But he who does not partake of the mystery loses his share in both the spiritual life and eternal blessedness. If it were not a matter concerning a mystery, but simply a symbolic act, this act would not impart eternal life.
Having consummated His sacrifice by anticipation during the Mystical Supper and having delivered this supernatural mystery, the Lord said: “Take, eat; this is my body…Drink of it all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:26‑28, NKJ; see also Mark 14:22‑24 and Luke 22:19‑20). He did not say “this symbolizes my body” and “this symbolizes my blood”, but He did say “this is my body” and “this is my blood.” At that moment, Christ mysteriously changed the bread and the wine into His body and blood.

***

Likewise in the Church, through the consecration of the precious gifts, the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ. For this reason the Apostle says: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16, NKJ). What is expressed in the form of a question is most emphatic. The answer is understood as follows: “Of course, the consecrated cup is communion of the blood of Christ and the consecrated bread is communion of the body of Christ. Of course, when we partake of the bread and the cup, we receive the very body and blood of the Lord.”
For this reason the Apostle again emphasizes: “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” and “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Cor. 11:27 and 29, NKJ). After the consecration of the precious gifts, one should not think that there is common food on the Holy Table. In the form of bread and wine is the very body and the very blood of the Lord and Christ. And woe to the person who does not discern the body of the Lord.

***
The sheep eats grass and transforms it into milk. Man drinks milk and transforms it into blood. These changes, and so many other changes in nature, are incomprehensible, but real. So is the changes of the bread and wine. It surpasses all human understanding, but it is a fact, a fact due to a supernatural power.
At the moment of consecration, the fire of Divinity descends upon the Sacrificial Altar, while a host of angels and archangels encircle the Altar Table, and the miracle of miracles is consummated. Of course, they continue to appear as bread and wine on the Holy Altar. But appearance is one thing, underlying reality is another. The burning bush appeared as fire, but it was God. And at the Jordan river it appeared as a dove, but it was the Holy Spirit. So it is here. It appears as bread and wine, but it is the body and blood of Christ. If we had the eyes of St. Spyridon and other saints, during the Divine Liturgy and the awesome sacrifice we would see extraordinary and dreadful things. The demons as spirits are not hampered by the flesh. When they see the body and blood of Christ they are terrified and tremble. They suffer the most terrible fits before the Holy Cup. When the possessed are brought before the Holy Communion, they are like the possessed in the Bible who were brought before Jesus Christ. They go into convulsions and shout: “I know you, Christ! What do I want with you, Christ? Don’t torment me, don’t burn me!”
***

In the Holy Chalice not only the body and blood of Christ are present, but mysteriously united with them are both the soul and the Divinity of Christ. If the flesh were only present, it would not save. It saves, however, because it is united with the eternal Spirit, the Divinity. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (John 6:63, NKJ). The entire Christ is present in the Holy Chalice, as He was in Palestine, and as He is at the right hand of the Father. Moreover, the entire Christ is present in each individual crumb and in each individual drop of Holy Communion as well as in each faithful communicant. There are not many Christs, but one and the same Christ is present everywhere, just as one and the same image appears on all the fragments of a shattered mirror, or on all the television screens, and just as one and the same voice is heard over the short wave radio from one end of the earth to the other. Wherever Christ is, the Father and the Holy Spirit are present. The pious Christian, therefore, through Holy Communion becomes the habitation of the Holy Trinity. This mystery is as great as God. It is as great as God’s love for man. “What an awesome mystery! What divine compassion!” Our minds cannot contain this mystery. But our hearts can contain the Trinity. My God, how much have You honored humble man!

***

In order for man to acquire spiritual and eternal life, and to achieve incorruptibility and glory, it is imperative for him to receive with faith, after repentance and confession, the Immaculate Mysteries. Woe to the unbelievers and heretics. Woe to those who deny the mystery of Holy Communion! Woe to those who disdain the Mystery, who receive Communion insensitively and without preparation! Joy and gladness, glory and incorruptibility to those who approach the Cup of life and salvation, and commune with a contrite heart!
Indigent man, who hungers and thirsts after happiness, salvation and glory: Believe in the Lord Jesus with all your heart. Repent and confess your sins to a compassionate spiritual father. Study the immortal words of the Gospel concerning the flesh and blood and the life‑giving Spirit of the Lord Jesus. Read the prayers for Holy Communion which warm the heart. Approach the supersensible mystery with longing and trembling. Receive the Lord into your heart and you will feel a marvelous change within you, a mystical attraction, paradise, and Divine enrichment.

XV. Struggle

God created man rational and free, because He wanted him to have moral value, something that man also desires. Who would want to be a being without volition and moral value? Who would want to be a stone or a tree or an animal? No one. We all want freedom and personal moral value. But how is moral value acquired? There is no other way except by effort and struggle.
Rest is in the other life which has no end. The present, transient life is an arena of trials. “Is not the life of man upon earth a state of trial? and his existence as that of a hireling by the day?” (Job 7:1, Septuagint). Is not the life of man on earth a testing ground? Does it not resemble the arduous, toilsome life of a hired laborer? This life which terminates at the grave is not a path strewn with flowers made for a pleasant stroll; it is rather a path that is narrow and full of obstructions, made for an arduous struggle.
“Strive (struggle) to enter by the narrow door,” said Christ (Luke 13:24, RSV). “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us” says the Apostle (Heb. 12:1, RSV). And again: “Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:12, RSV). The athlete struggles and exercises self control to obtain a perishable crown. The believer, also, disciplines and brings into subjection his body for an imperishable crown (1 Cor. 9:24‑27). The soldier struggles and suffers hardship for an earthly nation. The believer, also, struggles and suffers hardship for a heavenly nation (2 Tim. 2:3).
What does this struggle, the good fight of the believer consist of? It is multi‑faceted and takes many forms. It is a struggle for the material life and a struggle for the spiritual life. It is an external and an internal struggle. It is a struggle against the world, a struggle against oneself, a struggle against the Devil and Satan. It is an individual struggle, a family struggle, a social struggle, an ecclesiastical struggle.
The believer struggles to earn his daily bread. This is not a small struggle, especially when the person is poor and toils for his living and is the head of a large family working under adverse and deplorable conditions. It is a struggle for him to earn his bread with the sweat of his brow and at the same time not to murmur against God, attributing these injustices and cruelties of the world to God Himself. It is a struggle, moreover, to avoid greed and enrichment, or, if he does amass a fortune, to overcome selfishness, luxuries, and dissipation, and to use his riches for charity and other good works.
More vital and more important is man’s struggle to establish himself on a firm spiritual basis and to work for his spiritual upbuilding.
Faith, the root of spiritual life, is not something easy and inexpensive. For one to arrive at faith, especially amid diverse world views, ideological currents and prejudices which create terrible confusion in the mind of man, an intellectual effort is required: thought, study, research, a thorough examination of persons, things, ideas, or rather mental exertion for the discovery of truth. For neither does God desire blind faith, nor is such faith authentic, nor does blind faith have any value. As a rational being, man is obliged to examine certain basic things which persuade him concerning the truth of Scriptures and Christianity. And on that basis to accept the unsearchable mysteries through faith. After this mental effort, which is often toilsome, certain things become known; and on the basis of the known we also accept the unknown. Faith is founded on human effort and is perfected by grace.

***

Furthermore, a struggle, a titanic struggle is needed to repress and eradicate inner evil. We are born with a terrible impulse towards evil and an unwillingness for the good. Our minds from childhood are intently bent towards evil. We reveal many imperfections and faults. Since we commit innumerable mistakes and sins, we must conduct a lifelong struggle, sometimes even to the point of shedding blood, in order to improve ourselves.
Truly, what a great struggle this is! The slothful person has to struggle to overcome his indolence and become active; the egoist and proud person to humble himself, to acknowledge his faults and sins, and to ask for forgiveness; the evil and malicious person to acquire genuine love; the envious person to do away with envy, to rejoice in the progress and superiority of others, and to praise them; the short‑tempered and wrathful person to restrain unreasonable anger and wrath; the person who bears a grudge, to forgive his enemy and to return good for evil; the cunning and crafty person to curb and repel evil thoughts, which rush in like wasps and thieves; the complainer to adopt a grateful disposition; the gossiper, murmurer and slanderer to conquer the impetuous evil of his tongue and become a man of few words, righteous in his judgments, and edifying; the foul‑mouthed person to avoid obscenities; the liar to stop lying; the blasphemer to stop blaspheming; the glutton to limit his food consumption and learn to love fasting; the alcoholic to abstain from alcohol; the person who is fond of lewd spectacles to avoid the obscene; the vainglorious and man‑pleasing person to ignore the opinion of a corrupt world and go against the prevailing world currents and even his own family members, that is, if they are worldly people and inimical to the Gospel; the chaste person to preserve his chastity; the person who falls into carnal sins to overcome that monster of the flesh, the bestial and abysmal passions, to cease from his perverse habit and become sober and temperate; the selfish and heartless person to overcome his egocentrism and heartlessness and to extend his love, both his material and spiritual interest, to his fellow man; the timid person to overcome his cowardliness and become courageous and militant, a confessor and martyr; the sinner in general to become a real human being, a Christian and saint.

***

What must especially be emphasized is that man, along with the struggle for his personal growth, is obligated to struggle for the good of others, indeed of the Church. The person who is concerned only with the salvation of his own soul is spiritually selfish and will perish. You must make some contribution for the salvation of others so that you, too, may be saved. Above all, you must contribute to the propriety of the Church. The Church of Christ is called militant on earth. You are therefore a soldier, a life‑long soldier, of Christ’s Church. You have a sacred dutythe most sacred duty of allto strive for the propriety and glory of the Church. Woe to those ungrateful and unworthy children who are not concerned for their natural mothers! Thrice woe to those ungrateful and unworthy children who are not concerned for their spiritual mother, the Church! But honor and glory to everyoneclergy and laitywho struggles on behalf of the Church.
***
Man! You are not perfect, but destined for perfection. You are a sinner, but destined for sanctification. You are a prodigal, but destined for salvation. Fight the good fight! Force yourself to perform the good and avoid evil. Do you often fall into sin? Do not be discouraged! The Lord knows that human nature is fragile and unstable and has sympathy for our weaknesses. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger for ever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor requite us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust and knows that “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Psalms 102 8‑14,Genesis 8:21, RSV).
Great is the mercy of God, according to His grandeur. God’s mercy pursues you, O man, all the days of your life. For this reason, whenever you fall, get up, and you will be saved. The Christian is a warrior. And he who struggles and agonizes over his salvation and the salvation of his brethren, by God’s favor, will not be found in a fallen position, but will die standing upright, like the trees. And in exchange for this brief struggle he will enjoy everlasting comfort and glory.

I ASK FORGIVENESS!… by Nicholas J. Soteropoulos Theologian – Philologian

Published by the Newspaper Ecclesiasticos Agon («Ecclesiastical Struggle»)
Copyright Brotherhood O Stavros («The Cross»), Zood. Peg. 44, 10681 Athens, tel. 01-3805539

A Brief Chronicle Regarding the Excommunication

I, the undersigned, am the theologian, Nicholas John Soteropoulos, whom the so-called Greater and Superperfect Synod of the Phanar, in December of 1993, after the instigation and persistent petition of the archbishop of Australia, Stylianos, excommunicated me. This means, that this synod, as much as it depends on it, cut me off from the body of the Church and sent me to the depths of eternal Hell, something which it did not do to any antichrist of our day, not even to Kazantzakis himself, who represented Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, as a fornicator, as demon-possessed etc… Now let this also be noted, that the «Greater and Superperfect Synod» excommunicated me without calling me to defend myself, without announcing its decision and without sending me the requested official statement in order that I may know for what specific reasons I was condemned to the most extreme spiritual penalty.
Conscientious Orthodox Christians, and even worldly people with a sense of justice, remained dumbfounded, when they were informed from the news media, that the «Greater and Superperfect Synod» excommunicated the theologian, Nicholas John Soteropoulos, the selfless preacher of the Gospel and of Orthodoxy, and formidable contender against heresies and atheism from America to Australia. Many said: «Have the despotades (bishops) gone mad? Signs of the times». And countless believers from around the world in various ways expressed their indignation and protested and continue and will continue to protest the schizophrenic decision of the robber Synod of the friends of the archbishop of Australia.

What Do a Few Recommend?

But certain highpriests, priests, monks and laity accuse me of being an egotist, and they recommend that I humble myself and ask for forgiveness from the Church, which excommunicated me, in order that my excommunication be lifted.

The Church Did Not Excommunicate Me

With regard to the what my accusers say, that the Church excommunicated me, what they say, that the Church excommunicated me, is wrong, or rather is a heresy. For the Church is not certain highpriests, but all the faithful, clergy, monks and laity. The main body of the Church are the faithful, while the clergy are the few. And the people do not exist for the clergy, but the clergy for the people. The Church does not excommunicate faithful people, and indeed her selfless workers. The Church excommunicates heretics and other impious ones, and indeed after first calling them to offer their defense and remain unrepentant. But glory to God, I am neither a heretic, but a contender against heresies, nor did I commit some act of irreverence worthy of excommunication, but I fight irreverence. The Church therefore did not excommunicate me, but certain unjust and man-pleasing representatives of the Church excommunicated me, friends of the heresiarch and secularly all-powerful archbishop of Australia, whom I rebuked for his terrible heresies and blasphemies. Friend of the archbishop of Australia is unfortunately the patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, the president of the «Greater and Superperfect Synod». I, on the basis of Scripture, named the archbishop of Australia antichrist (I John 2:18-22; II John 7). Now patriarch Bartholomew, in an interview with the chancellor of the Metropolis of Pereos, archimandrite Ignatious Georgakopoulos, called him a chosen one! The way things are going and as it appears, in these difficult days, chosen ones are the heretics, while antichrists and those worthy of excommunication and anathemas are the faithful and the adversaries of heretics…. Chosen ones are the masons, despot Bartholomew, and the wealthy businessmen, and the shipowners, and the immoral and perverted artists, and others. All these are chosen ones and worthy of honors and conferring decorations….

An Analysis of the Requested Forgiveness

As regards the recommendation of my accusers to humble myself and ask for forgiveness in order to lift my excommunication, I would like to analyze this forgiveness.
Behold then what in the present instance forgiveness signifies:
I ask forgiveness, because I the adolescent dared to rebuke the chosen one of the patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, the archbishop of Australia, Stylianos, this great man among the heirarchy and theologians, because he preached, that man is bestial with regard to his origin, that he has his descent from the ape (and consequently we can not make a moral assessment of his actions…).
I ask forgiveness, because I dared to rebuke the archbishop of Australia, Stylianos, because he preached, that the resurrection of Christ has the meaning, that biologically man has surpassed the other animals, and from the horizontal position of the body he reached the vertical position, and became homo erectus according to the … scientific term.
I ask forgiveness, because I dared to rebuke the archbishop of Australia Stylianos, because he preached, that Christ initially was imperfect and sinful, and indeed as Kazantzakis and Scortseze represented him in the work «The Last Temptation», Christ that is (forgive me Lord!) was a fornicator, demon-possessed etc.
I ask forgiveness, because I rebuked the archbishop of Australia, Stylianos, because he declared, that Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, that is, Papism, is one Church.
I ask forgiveness, because I rebuked the archbishop of Australia Stylianos, because he, as president of the Committee of Orthodox in Dialogue with the Papists and as representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch signed the disgraceful Balamand Agreement of Lebanon, according to which Orthodoxy does not have the uniqueness as the Church, but is placed on an equal level with Papism, and indeed Papism is given precedence. A second Ferrara-Florence.
I ask forgiveness, because I rebuked the archbishop of Australia, Stylianos, because he preached, that Holy Scripture is a great myth, something which I ingenuously considered to be a complete toppling of Christianity, while according to Stylianos, and those who justified him and excommunicated me, this is nothing.
I ask forgiveness, because I supported the clergy of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, because the “Greater and Superperfect Synod” condemned them outside of their jurisdiction and without calling them to defense. I ask forgiveness, because I supported honorable heirarchs of the Church of Greece, because archbishop Seraphim dethroned them without cause, without a trial and without a defense. And let it be noted, that archbishop Seraphim also participated in the “Greater and Superperfect Synod”, which excommunicated me. And the notorious Didonis accompanied him, who also incited the archbishop to excommunicate me, and after my excommunication he expressed his maliciousness from the news media of Athens for my condemnation. Now let this also be noted, that Didonis, the second instigator after Stylianos, proceeded to the declaration, that fornication is not a sin, as long as it is not done in a vulgar manner…. Apparently, there is also modest fornication!
I ask forgiveness, because even after my excommunication I remained uncorrected and dared again to rebuke Stylianos of Australia, because he interpreted Philipians 2:6 like the pseudo-witnesses of Jehova and other impious and ungodly ones, and thus represented the Son and Logos of God, Jesus Christ, as inferior to the Father. Lucifer, wrote Stylianos, attempted to make himself equal to God, while the Son and Logos of God did not dare to aspire to grasp equality with the Father!
Despot Bartholomew! From you also, and from your “Greater and Superperfect Synod”, and from your chosen Stylianos Charkianakin, and from Seraphim’s chosen one, Didonis Chrysostom, and from all, who collaborated in my excommunication and regarded it as a just and an appropriate and an holy and an historical act, I ask a thousand times for “forgiveness”. For I the miserable one acted out of ignorance and deception. I did not know that the despots are superior to Christ, and above reproach. I did not know, that their apprehensions are broader and superior to the ideas of Scripture and of Orthodoxy, apprehensions that are contemporary and progressive, while the ideas of Scripture and of Orthodoxy are old-fashioned, narrow and backward. I did not know, moreover, that for one to blaspheme Christ, the Faith, and Morality in reality is not blasphemy, but is a keen, impressive and proven manner for people to pay attention and espouse the new, broad and progressive apprehensions, abandoning the «rusted ideas» of the past.
Now, when from the things themselves I apprehended my gross ignorance and pitiful error with regard to Religion, now I repent, and I bend the knee of my soul and body and fall before you, most holy highpriests, in extreme humility. And sighing and crying and lamenting and in anguish and cut up I ask and beseech and beg and entreat your Reverences, your Blessednesses, and your All-holinesses, that you may show me compassion and forgive me for the effrontery, impudence, insolence, brazenness and rudeness, which I demonstrated through the exercise of censuring on behalf of the faith and of righteousness, on behalf of insignificant things and obstacles for progress, and against most holy highpriests, supragodly and ideal beings, worthy of blind obedience and worshipful honor.

What is the Meaning of True Humility?

And now the word is directed to you clerics, monks and laity, who criticize me as an egotist, and recommend that I humble myself and ask forgiveness for the lifting up of the excommunication. I analyzed the meaning of the forgiveness that you recommend. You saw what this petition means: Are you satisfied from this forgiveness?
O you unlettered in the sacred letters, O a-theologically minded ones, who identify the Church with certain megaloschemous (great-habit) robe-bearers, and indeed unjust and unrighteous and unworthy ones. O unwholesome and sickly types, “godly giddy-heads”, according to the ever-memorable Paisios, who see the despots and certain pseudo-saint elders as taboo, and you give account to them more than to Jesus Christ, and the holy Prophets, Apostles, Fathers and Doctors of the Church, those robust and eternal prototypes of faith and life. O opportunists, who for selfish reasons take the side of the powerful, even if they carry out appalling injustices, and criticize and dishonor the weak. O cowards and unmanly ones, who have not the stamina to support the just cause, the crystal clear just cause, and for the justification of your cowardliness and your unmanliness hold, that the Church has order (taxis), and you are doing obedience to the Church. Is it order of the Church for the Christian, and indeed the cleric and monk, not to support the just cause? And is subjecting ourselves to the unjust and lawless demands of unworthy despots doing obedience to the Church? Where does this apostolic injunction apply: “We ought to obey God rather than men”? Have you not read what the apostle says about cowardliness and manliness? “For God has not given us a cowardly Spirit, but [a Spirit] of power (2 Tim. 1:7). Where is the Spirit of “power”, i.e. of “manliness”, in you? When do you live? after Pentecost or before Pentecost? Have you not seen, moreover, that the fearful book of the Apocalypse (Rev. 21:8), throws the cowards first in the burning river, and characterizes them as unfaithful and abominable, because they do not remain faithful to the duty, but become deserters and betrayers of the struggle and end up disgusting? The Church on Earth is called militant. And from the soldiers and officials of the Church is demanded bravery, heroism, sacrifice and self-sacrifice. Great is the judgment on the cowards. For, because of the cowards, great battles of the Church are lost, and the depraved (morally, psychologically, spiritually, and physically) govern and triumph to the sorrow of the Holy Spirit and the few conscientious christians. O distorters of the precepts of the Church, of humility, of obedience and of forgiveness! The Lord, in whom you say that you believe, is straightfoward, loves straightfowardnesses and hates perversions. And if you would like to be truly of God, stop distorting things, turn towards the guilty ranks of the Church, protest against their crimes and their scandals, and say to them clearly and intrepidly: You are not the Church; we are all the faithful. Humility must not be confused with humble-talk. Humility must be true, not pseudo, humility.
Obedience belongs to God. If you are in accord with the divine will, then we too obey you. But, if you seek things that are opposite to the divine will, these things we deny to obey. Obedience to the right and just [principle], disobedience to the mistaken and unjust [principle].

Let the Guilty Ones, Especially the Greatest, Ask Forgiveness

Now the forgiveness must not be formal, but essential. If a certain one is guitly before another, let him ask forgiveness. But if he is not guilty, why ask for forgiveness? To reinforce the egoism of the other? If indeed the first is not only innocent, but is also the deponent of injustice to a horrible degree, is it not insane and schizophrenic the demand of the innocent one and the deponent of injustice to ask forgiveness from the guilty and unjust [one]? Is not that demand perverted, as the perverted Devil? All of us, when we do faults or mistakes against others, we should humble ourselves and ask forgiveness. But more than all others who must humble themselves, and indeed more enthusiastically than others, let the great and powerful ask forgiveness, the ranks and guides, in order to give the good example to the small and obscure. Is that not what Christ taught the Apostles?

Let Those Who Caused My Excommunication Ask for Forgiveness

Dear readers! No matter how much they demand, and no matter how much they pressure that I ask for forgiveness in order to lift the excommunication, I declare clearly and unequivocally, that under no circumstances am I to ask for forgiveness. For I was not excommunicated for some dishonorable deed; I was excommunicated because I defended the honor of the Lord, I defended the faith and justice, and I censured and rebuked the blasphemy, the heresy and the injustice. In case in point, the petition to ask for forgiveness would be the greatest indignity and betrayal of Christian Faith and Christian principles. Let the heresiarch and instigator of my excommunication, archbishop Stylianos, ask for forgiveness, as well as the second suggestor of my excommunication, Didonis Chrysostom, and the president of the “Greater and Superperfect Synod” patriarch Bartholomew and the members of the said Synod, which agreed upon my excommunication. Now let them ask for forgiveness first from Christ, whom they insulted, second from the people, whom they scandalized, and third from the undersigned, whom they unjustly and without defense condemned to the uttermost of spiritual penalties. Yes, and from the undersigned the magistrates of the Church ought to ask for forgiveness! And so what if these are great officials, and I am small and insignificant; Scripture teaches, that, the greater one is, that much more humble he should be. Humility is the most basic virtue of Christianity. But, because I know how much the worldly spirit has infiltrated into the mentality, the psychology and the life of many so-called christians, and above all the highpriests, ( metropolitans, archpriests and patriarchs – and on this account, my presumptuousness in asking them appears most impudent and supra-massive – my presumptuousness, I say, for these to ask me forgiveness is considered great and hyperbolic and most impudent: for this reason I quit this presumptuousness and demand only to ask for forgiveness from the insulted Christ and the scandalized people.

My Excommunication: A Glory and Honor

Most Reverend ones, Most great ones, and All-holinesses, those who co-operated in my excommunication, and those who tolerate the crime! On account of my excommunication, many envious and wicked people maliciously rejoiced, out of calculated self-interest and private interest of the rotten, putrefied and deplorable ecclesiastical establishment, degenerate and degenerate-ruling elements, corrupt and perverted, homosexuals (“kinaidoi”), heretics, indeed false witnesses of Jehovah, Masons, and Ecumenists. Is this to your honor or to my honor? All the real Christians regard my excommunication as glory and honor. Innumerable and most moving are the demonstrations of the pious and godly Christians for my humble person. Now a spiritual father, some days before the recent death of my carnal father heard him say: “I leave from this world satisfied, because a child of mine was made worthy to be excommunicated on account of Christ”.

My Excommunication a Cause for Christians to be Judged

The unjust excommunication on account of the Lord of course shuts me not out of the Kingdom of God, but rather it assists me in entering the Kingdom. For this reason I sense a mystical joy for myself according to the word of the Lord (Luke 6:22-23), but also sorrow for those who co-operated and decided together on my excommunication, and for all those who re-cognize on the one hand, that I am in the right, but because of self-calculated interest and cowardliness support not the just cause. The unjust excommunication of a worker of the Gospel became the cause for Christians to be judged. It is not a small sin to know the just cause and not to support it. St Nicodemos the hagiorite, also excommunicated by unworthy highpriests, used to say: Whoever supports not the just cause, has no right to open his mouth and commune. I know scientists, journalists and other religious persons, who travel and deliver homilies on contemporary Elders, whom I also respect and invoke in my prayers. But these babblers, for the crime of the excommunication of a faithful worker of the Gospel, melting his life away in the diakonia (i.e., service; work) of the written and spoken kyregma (preaching; sermon), proceed not even to protest. Why? Because, for one to speak about ever-memorable Elders, ( this is without danger, ( whereas to support publicly a humble worker of the Gospel, excommunicated by the powerful according to the world rulers of the Church ( this, perhaps, may be dangerous… But what Christianity is a Christianity without danger? a Christianity without sacrifices? A Christianity, that costs us nothing, is not Christianity; it is words, it is idle talk, unbearable idle talk and disgust. Babbling gentlemen! From love towards man the Logos (Word) “became flesh” (John 1:14). Why does your word not take on flesh and bones? Where is your love; but also, where is your justice?…

“The word of God is not bound”

Most reverences, most Blessed ones, and all-holinesses! My excommunication shuts me not out of the Kingdom of God; it shuts me out, however, from preaching in the sacred temples, because the Church is governed dictatorially, as a ranch, and on this account your subordinate clerics are afraid to receive me in the temples to preach; and many even to commune me. As you see, with the dictatorial method of governance, but also with the by and large unexamined ordinations, you have filled the clergy with beings that are afraid, of slaves and servile clerics. Now there is a good number of clerics, who, as real men and worthy operators of the sacrificial alter, take into consideration God and not the unjust decision of men; and they invite me to preach and to commune. But if most clerics shut me out of the temples as a preacher of the Gospel and of Orthodoxy and contender against the heresies and atheism, IT DOESN’T MATTER! I am not harmed and am not responsible. Nor do I cease to do my work as preacher. “The word of God is not bound” (2 Tim. 2:9). There are homes of godly people, halls, outdoor places, radio and television, where I am invited, and I speak and hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of people hear my preaching. Further, with books, periodicals and cassettes the sermons are transmitted to the world from America to Australia. Now after the excommunication my sermons have increased, as well as the enthusiasm of my audiences and my readers. I say these things, Fathers, not to boast, but to demonstrate that the excommunication did not defame or malign me, but rather it super-added sacred passion to me, to the deep dismay of the demons and the demonic people. Inform yourselves, if you wish, about what the demons are shouting concerning my excommunication and the sermon: “We, Soteropoulos, we the demons put Stylianos and the other priests to excommunicate you, so that you may preach no more. But you continue to preach and to say truths that burn us. When will you stop the sermons? The word of God burns us, it burns us! Stop! We hate you, we have rage and mania towards you. We want to eat you, to take you out. But ho Megalos (the Great One, masc.) and he Megale (the Great One, fem.) are protecting you…”. The demons have their own dialect. By Megalon they name Christ. And by Megale they name the All-holy Mary.
I thank my Christ, and I thank my Virgin Mary, because, despite my sinfulness and my unworthiness, they protect me from the evil and evil-dealing spirits, those in the air and those on earth, because I betrayed not their love and I supported the Faith. You know, Lord, that I love thee. You know, Virgin Mary, that I reverence thee.
Fathers! The spiritual world is not nonexistent. It is not a myth with respect to us. Those of you who doubt, search the proofs of Christianity in order to believe. We searched and search and have indefatigable proofs to believe. And for this reason we don’t hesitate to come into conflict with the powers that be of the earth, and to undergo a ceaseless struggle, and not to retreat on issues of the Faith even in the least, whatever this fierce struggle might cost us.

Lift the Unjust Excommunication. Otherwise, it Will Return on Your Heads.

Fathers, with the excommunication, you did not accomplish anything, except to gladden the demons and the demonic people, to give weapons to the enemies of the Church, to scandalize the pious and godly, to make the undersigned a more resolved fighter, with sacred passion, to provoke against yourselves the protests of the world and to endanger your eternal salvation. For, if you do not repent, the unjust excommunication will return on your heads. That is the language of Scripture. Prudence, then, as well as your interest, both the temporary and eternal, demand to lift the excommunication, which essentially has no force. If you do this, abandon also the worldly and ecumenical apprehensions and deeds, that is, of course, those of you who are responsible for such beliefs and deeds, ( then we will avoid and you will avoid the vicissitudes for the Faith, then the protest against you will be changed to a complement, then the danger of losing the boundless eternity will change to the certainty in winning it. “For what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 7:36-37).
(Nicholas John Soteropoulos, Theologian-Philologian – In Kantza Attica, May 1996)

Nicholas John Soteropoulos
Theologian, Philologian, Author

Mr. Ioannides: “The desert ascetics’ life, being taken up by the wings of divine eros, is blessed”. Elder Porphyrios’ life was taken up by the wings of divine eros. We beg you, Mr. Soteropoulos, to give us your testimony.
Mr. S.: Truly, Mr. I., Elder Porphyrios had the divine eros in him.
I had the great blessing to have met him twelve years prior to his death. Before I met him I had heard many amazing things about him, but I considered them exaggerated. One day a colleague called me, a theologian and philologian, who was always a man of unbelief in respect to these issues, very inquisitive, very scholastic and very rationalistic.
So I hear him on the phone telling me, very moved and enthusiastic: “I discovered a marvelous and super-marvelous elder, with a plethora of charismata (gifts) of the holy Spirit and with amazing signs-wonders. I personally confirmed this myself as well as a group of colleague professors who visited him. You must surely get to know him. He’ll help us a great deal in our spiritual life”.
“Since you say it, I believe it”, I told him, “because you’re such a disbelieving and rationalistic person. I too had reservations and regarded what they were telling me
exaggerated; but now that you say it I believe it”.
Right on that same day we went to Elder Porphyrios, who, after we arrived, took us and we went to Chalkida. It was there that I saw the first miracle.
A huge tank of gas caught fire in a mobile home, in which were living tourists from France. Elder Porphyrios saw the event with the charisma (gift) of supernatural knowledge, for, naturally, the tank was not visible, since it was inside the mobile home. “The tank of gas caught fire”, we suddenly hear him say. And immediately he began to pray that the tank not explode.
We then saw fire in the mobile home, out of which came flames. We remained dumbfounded looking at the tank and our minds couldn’t understand how it didn’t explode and kill the people who were in the mobile home, and us, too, who stood nearby.
Mr. I.: That must have been a truly thrilling experience for all of you.
Mr. S.: Mr. I., let not what I shall say appear to be an exaggeration. The miracles that Fr. Porphyrios has done are innumerable.
I shall narrate certain instances of which I have personal experience and perception, as well as a few others, narrated to me by relatives or friends of mine, whom I sent to Elder Porphyrios, because they had various problems.
Mr. I.: It is precisely in hearing such facts that cultivates and edifies in Christ the people of God.
Mr.S.: Why does our Church praise the saints as miracle-workers? Because the miracles are proofs of our faith. God does his miracles through his saints, precisely in order to create faith and to support the faith.
Elder Porphyrios had gifts of the holy Spirit from a young age.
With his gift of vision he saw bodies and souls, he saw illnesses, he saw sins, virtues, problems, psychological conditions. You couldn’t hide anything from him.
I had once fallen ill and experienced terrible pains. During the course of my vicissitude I spoke with Elder Porphyrios by phone. And when I got well, I went and visited him in order to thank him.
He asked whether I still had pain. I had a little, but, in comparison with the terrible pains I had previously suffered, I thought nothing of the small pain I had. And so I answered that I had no pain.
“You have no pain?” he asked me a second time. “I don’t have pain”, I repeated. “At this spot”, he then said to me, pointing to a particular point on my body, “don’t you have a little pain?” “Yes, I have pain”, I answered him. Then, smiling, he said to me: “Then why don’t you say so?”
Another time, when I again had another pain, he asked me: “Don’t you have a pain at this spot?” And when I answered affirmatively, he told me what I had to do, in order to relieve the pain; as it also happened. He saw, as I told you, the bodies, the souls, the thoughts – everything.
Mr. I.: “I declare what I have seen”.
Mr. S.: One day, when I went to the Elder, I met there certain girls, who had also gone to see him. They were, however, immodestly dressed. So, Elder Porphyrios conversed with them about different spiritual subjects, but didn’t object at their appearance. I, admittedly, was angered internally with these girls, who went to such a saintly Elder dressed in that manner, but was scandalized by the fact that Elder Porphyrios didn’t object.
When the girls left, he said to me smiling: “Mr. Nick, I’m not strict, as you are”. Of course, I immediately realized that this time he had apprehended my thought and that I was scandalized. But, I asked him: “Why do you say that, Elder?” He then said: “Those girls came here with their immodest appearance and I didn’t object. I follow another tactic: for, even if I would have spoken to them about their appearance, since they don’t believe in Christ, they would not comply. I first try to bring them to the faith of Christ and, then, they alone will understand their mistake and correct themselves”.
Mr. I.: Mr. Soteropoulos, you told us a very beautiful and edifying story.
Mr. S.: One day I brought to Elder Porphyrios my brother, who has a degree in
law. The Elder kept him for a half hour and told him very many things. When my brother
came out, amazed and astonished, he said: “What [kind of a] man is that Father
Porphyrios. He told me everything, even my secrets, which only God and I know”. At
another time I led to Elder Porphyrios a nephew of mine, a student of law at the time. He
was a rebellious fellow, very rebellious. As soon as Elder Porphyrios saw him – for he
saw him with the eyes of his soul, because he had already lost his physical sight – he said
to him: “Are you Kostakis the antartis?” (i.e., rebel). And he made a full psychological
analysis of him.
That, however, which made the greatest impression on me, was when he asked him whether he would get melancholy. “Yes, pappou”, answered Kostakis: Melancholy feelings take hold of you, because you have mix-ups in your soul, for you have not solved the problem of faith. And when you get melancholy, you say: “Should one live or not live”. And, truly, the young fellow would say this phrase. Often he would sigh and say: “Should one live or not live”.
Once I accompanied a bank manager to the blessed Elder. The Elder spoke to him about him and his family and, when he came out, said characteristically: “The old man analyzed me, demolished me, pulverized me. Nothing remains hidden from the eyes of his soul”.
Mr. I.: This is what it means for a person to have the grace of the holy Spirit.
Mr. S.: With the grace of the holy Spirit one sees far, while we see close.
The Old Testament calls the prophets “seers”. All who have this gift have a “spiritual television” and see all things, as many things as we and others can not see with the technological television.
Elder Porphyrios had the gift of supernatural knowledge about unbelievable things. While traveling in the car, he would say passing through different places: “Here is buried an ancient city”; or: “Here, where we now pass, a saint is buried”, to take only two examples.
Although he had only attended the first classes of elementary school, about half way through elementary school, he spoke to scientists – very many scientists would visit him – in the particular terminology ordinarily used in each science. To doctors he spoke in medical terminology, to biologists with the terminology of biology, to astronomers with the tongue of astronomy, to chemists he spoke of chemical unions, and so on. Unbelievable things, I tell you, unbelievable.
Mr. I.: He had wisdom poured down from above.
Mr. S.: One of those scientists, whose specialty is nuclear physics, when he spoke to Father Porphyrios for the first time, could not believe he had not even completed elementary school.
As Elder Porphyrios had once explained to me, he knew all these things with the illumination of the holy Spirit.
Mr. I.: He was God-inspired.
Mr. S.: Exactly, God-inspired.
A Greek woman, a faithful girl, one day brought a French friend of hers, who didn’t believe in God. And even though neither Elder Porphyrios knew french nor the French woman knew Greek, they communicated marvelously. And when the French woman came out of the Elder’s cell, deeply moved and shaken up, she shouted: “God exists, God exists”. She entered as an unbeliever and exited a believer.
Mr. I.: That was amazing, Mr. S.
Mr. S.: I shall now tell you about certain instances dealing with the prophetic gift of Elder Porphyrios, by virtue of which he saw future [things].
One day, an acquaintance and I were talking enthusiastically about a student of theology, whom we admired for her spiritual progress, her zeal, her enthusiasm, her diligence. And we said that she would develop into a significant missionary person. Elder Porphyrios shook his head, sighed and said to us: “So you say, but I don’t share your opinion. I, deep, see other things. Fearful workings are going on in the soul of that woman and in a short time she is going to abandon everything, both theology and religiosity, and will become more worldly than worldy women”.
We, it is true, had difficulty believing such a thing, Unfortunately, however, in a short time, that girl changed so much, that truly she became unrecognizable and in no respect did she remind one of her old self.
Another time again, two young parents brought their baby to see Elder Porphyrios, who, with his prophetic gift, saw that the little baby would soon die. Without telling it to the parents, he asked them if they had baptized it. And when they told him that it was still unbaptized, he asked them what name they had decided to give it. They told him the name and Elder Porphyrios took the infant in his hands and raised it three times into the air; he performed an air baptism. He gave the child back to its parents and said to them: “I wish you good patience. You are young. You’ll have more children”.
The couple did not understand then the meaning of those words of Elder Porphyrios. In a few days, unfortunately, the baby died. And [it was] then [that] they understood both the baptism by air and the words of Father Porphyrios.
Mr. I.: It was truly unbelievable, the many things Elder Porphyrios saw with his spiritual eyes.
Mr. S: Mr. Ioannidis, he saw the war in the Persian Gulf. He told me too: “My child, war is unavoidable, I see it. I see great bloodshed, I cry and lament”. And tears flowed from his eyes.
When the war was at its peak, he said: “Now they are preparing to make peace”. And, when the next day the campaign with the ground forces began, one of us, who had heard that the Elder had spoken about peace, said that Father Porphyrios “has missed the mark” this time. And another answered him: “Elder Porphyrios doesn’t miss the mark. What he said will happen”. And shortly thereafter, truly, there was peace.
Mr. I.: That is the great lesson, which we should take from Elder Porphyrios. The more we love God, the more we put our trust in Him, that much more does God give us His grace and we are healed of our iniquities and mistakes.
Mr. Soteropoulos, at the beginning of our conversation you also spoke to us about Elder Porphyrios’gift of healing. Could you tell us about some specific cases?
Mr. S: I’ll speak to you first about a co-worker of mine. We went together to see the Elder.
“I see here, at this spot on your head”, he told him. “I don’t feel absolutely nothing, Elder”, he said to him. “Fine, fine, I, however, see something”, insisted father Porphyrios.
Four years later a malignant tumor appeared in that same area. And we went again to Elder Porphyrios in order to take advice about whether he should undergo surgery in Greece or abroad. He crossed him and said to him: “You can have the surgery in Greece, too, if you wish, and you will become well.
The man had surgery, and he passed into a coma, for a whole seventeen days. His children, keep in mind, were no longer able to go and see him. “We can’t be seeing our father dead”, they said. For, indeed, he in no way differed from a dead man.
We were shaken up after this, because our doctors said they were no longer able to do anything for him and that, in truth, he died. And we would say to Elder Porphyrios: “You said he would become well; and he is an unburied dead man”. Elder Porphyrios was smiling, and would tell us, with his own characteristic manner: “Fine, fine. You pray too, pray”.
And, in truth, that man became well and now is just fine.
Mr. I.: Yet another resurrection from the dead, to the glory of God.
Mr. S.: Another friend of ours had cancer in an advanced stage. We took her to Elder Porphyrios, he crossed her, they prayed for a little while together and told her she would become well.
In a few days she had new examinations done at the hospital and the doctors were amazed: “What’s going on with you?” they asked over and over again. “The machines were in error all this time, and we too in our diagnoses? Where did the cancer you had go? You have absolutely nothing wrong with you now. You are completely healthy”.
That friend of ours then explained to them there was no mistake, but that she had gone to Elder Porphyrios and a miracle happened. The doctors themselves in the hospital were greatly moved and marveled.
Mr. I.: “Lord, our Lord, wondrous is your name over all the earth”.
Mr. S.: An acquaintance of mine called me from Canada. A brain tumor had appeared in the brain of her child. “You, she tells me, know a holy ascetic. Please go, I beg you, find him and beg him to pray that my child become well”.
I went to Elder Porphyrios, I spoke to him about the child and he crossed it from a distance: he in Greece and the child in Canada. And the child was healed.
What shall we mention and what shall we not mention, Mr. Ioannidis?
Mr. I.: Truly, there are so many wondrous things in the life and work of Elder Porphyrios, about which even we who knew him are continually astonished.
Mr. S.: Elder Porphyrios had a broad intellect, very broad. These men, as apostle Paul and holy Chrysostom say, are perfect exponents of Christianity.
Mr. I.: God glorifies His athletes in our time too.
Mr. S.: He loved the Gospel a great deal. As he himself had told me, when he was young on Mount Athos, he learned entire passages of the Gospel by heart and, running in the mountains and the small valleys, he spoke them aloud and was enraptured.
“Within the Church; salvation is found there”, he would always tell us. “Whoever is a member of the Church does not fear the second death; there is no death for whoever is within the Church of Christ. Our Orthodoxy is perfect; she has no imperfection”.
One time I asked him: “Elder, if in our days an Antichrist comes, will God give us the strength to withstand the martyrdoms?” His response was: “If we go to confession, He will give us that strength”. So much he believed in the mystery (sacrament) of divine Confession.
Elder Porphyrios loved God very much. He spoke about God, I would say, in erotic language; so affectionately he loved God.
When at one time certain foreigners visited him – because his fame was very great abroad, too – they wanted to hear a spiritual word from his mouth, but he would not speak. Much time went by, but Elder Porphyrios continued not to speak.
They then explained that they had come from afar in order to see him and for him to utter a spiritual word for their benefit. “Then he ended his silence and told them: “I worry and sigh, because I haven’t loved God as much as I should”. He loved God so much that he was never satisfied with the degree he loved Him.
Elder Porphyrios even loved Saddam Hussein of Iraq. One day he said to me: “I also love that miserable one, perhaps he, too, might repent and be saved.
Besides the virtue of love, Elder Porphyrios had great humility.
One day he said to me: “I want to hit you”. “Why, Elder?” I asked him. Because you talk about my person, and about my gifts. I don’t want you to talk. God gave me all these things so that perhaps I may be moved and become good. I, my child, fear the day of Judgment, when I shall say: “Lord, Lord, did I not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name expelled demons, and in Your name wrought great signs?” Perhaps then the Lord tells me: “Go away, I know you not”.
Mr.I.: What a magnitude of humility.
Mr. S.: His great humility was visible with even the way in which he ended his life here.
Having sensed beforehand his earthly departure, he went to Mount Athos to fall asleep, far from the crowd, in order that the crowd would not honor him. He lived humbly – despite the fact that he had such great gifts – and died humbly. Bishop Augustinos of Florina Greece said that the humble manner with which Elder Porphyrios fell asleep, is another proof of his holiness.
Elder Porphyrios proves that Christ lives and rules. And only Elder Porphyrios would suffice and super-suffice in proving that Christianity is true, that it is a live and true religion. And that Christ is true God, who gave all the marvelous gifts to the blessed Elder.
Mr. I.: It is exactly just as the apostle of the nations [Paul] handed down to us: “To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit unto edification. For unto one through the Spirit is given wisdom, and to another is given speech which explains knowledge; to another faith by the same spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another different kinds of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues; but all these work that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will”.

– Taken and translated from the first original Greek edition of Elder Porphyrios (1992) but ommitted from subsequent editions including the English.

The Few

I.

The people of God, the godly, were always few. And there were times when they were very few. At the time of Noah, when the flood occurred, being confirmed today by means of various scientific methods, the ones who were godly and were saved from the flood were only eight, Noah and his familiar family. At the time of Lot, when by “eternal fire” (Jude 7), with fire from heaven, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities were destroyed, in those cities the godly were only Lot’s family. At the time of Elias, in all of the faithful Israeli people, who did not worship Baal, there was only Elias and another 7,000 men. And at the time of Daniel, when the Judaic people were taken captive in Babylon and Nabuchednosor set up his golden icon, idol, and commanded the peoples to fall down and worship it, only four Judeans were proved to be truly faithful and did not worship the idol – Daniel and the three children.
And today the Christians are few. And they are few also in the other countries, but even in Greece, which is the heart of Orthodoxy, of Christianity in its genuine and authoritative form. Certain ones of course will object. They will say: How do you say that the Christians in Greece are few? Here in Greece 98% of us Greeks are Christian.
We repeat emphatically that even in Greece Christians are few. Surely in 100 Greeks the 98, when they were infants, were baptized and called Christians, indeed orthodox Christians. But in growing up did they remain Christian? To be sure, they maintained the name of Christian, and indeed Orthodox Christian. But does their mentality and their way of life correspond to this good name that was given them? They are called Christian, but are they also Christian? Unfortunately the many, the majority, are not in reality Christian; they are worldly people.
How can one be a Christian when he or she doesn’t believe in Christ as Lord and God, but generally and abstractly says that a superior power exists? That isn’t faith, but unbelief. How can one be an orthodox Christian, when he or she equates the truth with heresy, when he says that all of us orthodox and papists and protestants are all the same? How can anyone be a Christian, when he equalizes all religions, when he says that all the peoples and all the religions worship the same God in a different way? Unfortunately, he could be a Patriarch, but he isn’t a Christian. How could someone be a Christian when he or she passes the day without having God pass by in his mind, his creator and benefactor and savior? How can he be a Christian, when he doesn’t pray, when he doesn’t address himself to God, when he doesn’t invoke the Lord? How could someone be a Christian, who doesn’t sacrifice anything for the Lord, not even an hour a week to church himself, but churches himself in cafeterias, in arenas, in cinemas, in night centers, in worldly and sinful dances?
How could someone be a Christian, when he doesn’t have eternal perspective, when he doesn’t believe or doubts, that there exists a soul or spirit, resurrection and eternal life? How can someone be a Christian, when he says on the one hand that he believes, but is indifferent in respect to spiritual things and does not have anxiety about his salvation and the salvation of his fellow human beings and brethren? How can one be a Christian, when for hours he is riveted on the television and observes shameful and satanic things, while in respect to Holy Scripture, the television of God, he has neither the appetite nor even the curiosity to open it? How can he be Christian when he lacks mercy, is merciless, harsh and uncompassionate, a materialist like Giezi and Judas? How can he be a Christian, when he doesn’t take Christ’s commandments into account, but instead has made shameful sins a way of life? How can anyone be a Christian when he places the opinion of the world above the judgment and commandments of God? How can anyone be a Christian, when he follows nude and crazy and shameful styles, and he ridicules and mocks godly and modest persons? How could women be Christians, when they reach the extreme peak of impudence and shamelessness, when they publicly appear practically half naked and practically completely naked; when they exhibit to the common vision both their stomachs and their belly buttons? How could one be a Christian when he performs his own carnal will, but doesn’t do the will of God and kills children with abortions?
How could someone be a Christian when he doesn’t feel and sense his own sinfulness, wretchedness and misery, and doesn’t humble his pride and doesn’t come forth to the mystery of divine Confession? How could someone be a Christian, if he doesn’t come forth to share in the supernatural mystery of divine Communion and does not unite with Christ, or rarely draws near and without spiritual preparation, considering the blood of Christ to be something common?
To sum up, how can someone be a Christian if he is not moved or touched by the name of Christ, if he doesn’t love Christ, the Beloved of the beloved; if he doesn’t love Him more than all things and all persons, if he doesn’t make sacrifices for the love of Christ? A man who doesn’t love Christ thusly, is a-Christian, is a miserable existence, is accursed. “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Maran atha” (1 Cor. 16:22).
Some will say: The way you write makes people fall into despair.
No! I don’t write thusly in order to make people despair. I write thusly in order to demonstrate that Christians, godly people are one thing, and the world, worldy people are another thing. I write thusly in order to goad well disposed worldly people and for them to take an interest in God and in their salvation. Christ is the hope of the world. The Church of Christ is full of hope. And if worldly people who are Christians by name want to become Christians in reality, conscientious Christians, they have the possibility to do it. How? With repentance. With a change of mind-sets and life. With effort and struggle. “Struggle” shouts the Leader of Christianity, the Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ (Luke 13:24). Whoever struggles the good struggle of faith, whoever strives to surpass his impassioned self and to become a spiritual person, he or she is a Christian, even if he (or she) doesn’t reach the desired height; even if he isn’t completely released from the evilness of corrupt human nature. Christians are imperfect persons, who, however, yearn perfection, believe in Christ, love Christ, hate evil and strive and struggle for the good, and for their imperfections and weaknesses they repent and make their confession and continually ask for the mercy and grace of Christ.
O worldly people! You were baptized as infants and received the blessed name of Christians, for which rivers of blood have been shed by the martyrs of Chirstianity! Christ doesn’t antipathize you, but sympathizes you and thirsts for your salvation. And He was sacrificed in the most painful manner for all people, consequently for you, too. And the people of Christ, the few Christians – they too don’t antipathize you, but sympathize you, and they pain for you, and are in anxiety over your salvation. And they pray, even if you don’t understand them, speak sarcastically to them, and deride them. The Christian faith isn’t blind, it has proofs, many and marvelous and supermarvelous proofs. We beg you, examine the proofs of faith, abandon the worldly mind-sets and the worldly way of life, embrace Christ, take on the spiritual struggle and then you shall be able to not only to be called Christian by virtue of baptism, but you will also be able to be Christians on account of your faith and Christian life.
But God willing we shall continue in the following article.

II.

In the previous issue we wrote, in part one of the present article, that conscientious Christians are few. And now we say that, as we advance toward the end of the world, real Christians will become fewer. Now this unpleasant truth is not only proved by harsh reality, but is also confirmed by Holy Scripture.
Perhaps someone will object, that Holy Scripture in Revelation 7:9 reveals that the saved are “a great multitude, which no one was able to enumerate”. This is to say that those who are saved will be a great, not a small, multitude. How are these passages reconciled with the saying that the real Christians are few?
Truly conscientious Christians are few, if we look separately in every epoch and every place. But they become many, an innumerable number, when they are calculated collectively, as the faithful believers of all places and of all epochs together.
In directing Himself to His followers, Christ addresses them “small flock”. He said: “Fear not the small flock; for your father is pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Fear not, my small flock, for your Father was well decided in giving you the kingdom. Unfortunately the many don’t believe, they don’t follow the good Shepherd Christ, Who sacrificed His life for the sheep, they are not His sheep and they don’t belong to His select flock. “Many are called, but few are chosen”, Jesus said repeatedly (Matt. 20:16, 22:14). The Lord calls all to salvation, but few respond to the call and are saved – the elect. Someone asked Christ: “Lord, are those who are saved few?” And Christ answered: “Struggle to enter through the narrow gate; for I tell you, many shall seek to enter and shall not be able” (Luke 13:23-24). “Broad is the gate and wide is the path leading toward destruction, and few are those who find it!” Do not these words of the Lord mean that the saved are few, because few are those who struggle and prefer hardship, while those who are journeying towards destruction are many, because many are those who prefer the easy, comfortable life? Fearful words, most fearful, since the godly and the saved are few, and the many, our fellow human beings and our people, beloved persons, journey towards eternal misfortune. Really, how fearful is it to think that your man or woman, your father or mother or your brother or your child is going to hell, to eternal torture!
Already at the beginning of Christianity, during apostolic times, at a local church, the Church of Sardus, Christ finds the bishop spiritually “dead” and “a few names which have not defiled their garments”, that is a few real Christians (Rev. 3:4).
Regarding the end times Christ prophesied the increase of lawlessness, and on this account the freezing over of love, the chief Christian virtue and the one consisting of all the virtues. “On account of the increase of lawlessness”, the Lord said, “the love of many shall grow cold” (Matt. 24:12). Most Christians will end up becoming lawless and their hearts will become freezers. Few Christians will keep their heart hot. According again to the word of Christ mankind is going toward the same state as that of the days of Noah and Lot, during which godlessness and sin had become super-abundant, and godliness and virtue had been limited to a few persons (Luke 17:26 ff).
Christ, moreover, prophesied the fearful decrease of faith, the basic virtue of Christianity, without which one can not be counted a Christian. The Lord said: “When the Son of man comes, do you suppose He will find faith upon the earth?” (Luke 18:8). When the Son of man comes, in His Second Coming, do you suppose he will find faith upon the earth? The way the Lord speaks here, He sets the existence of faith during the end times as problematic. This means that the faith then will eclipse, then few, very few, shall maintain the faith. The atheistic propagandas, the heresies and amoralism will have dissolved the faith of the many.
Just as Christ spoke in the case of the faithful believers, the real Christians, so also spoke Paul, the mouth of Christ. Christ spoke about the “small flock”. And Paul spoke about a “remnant”. Just as during the time of the prophet Elias there were “seven thousand men who bent no knee to Baal, thus also at the present time a remnant according to the selection of grace has occurred”, says Paul (Rom. 11:4-5). The greatest part of Israel did not believe. The “remnant”, a small percentage – this believed. And from mankind generally, how many believed? the majority or the minority? The minority. And even of those, who were baptized Christians there came forth heretics and others of no consequence as regards Christian quality, unworthy of the Christian name.
In 1 Cor. 9:22 divine Paul says: “I became all things to all people, so that I may save certain ones”. And in 2 Tim. 2:10 he says: “For this reason I patiently endure on account of the elect, so that they too may be saved”. The Apostle was interested in the salvation of all, and for its sake he did and endured everything, but he knew that he would only save “certain ones”, who, according to the word of the Lord, which we have already mentioned, are few (Matt. 20:16; 22:14).
In 2 Tim. 3:1-5 the Apostle, in referring to the bad change of Christians, prophesied fearful conditions and wretched characters during the last years: “For people shall become selfish, money-lovers, arrogant, prideful, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, undevout, unaffectionate, merciless, cold, bitter, slanderers, unchaste, agitated, non-lovers of good, traders, impudent, blinded, pleasure-lovers rather than God-lovers, having the form of piety but denying the power thereof”. The last phrase, “having the form of piety, but denying the power thereof”, has the sense that Christians will hold to the form of Religion, while in its essence, which is revealed in works, they will have denied religion.
In 1 Tim. 4:1 and in 2 Thes. 2:3 the apostasy or “falling away” is prophesied. And at the height of the apostasy antichrist will appear.
According to these passages the Christians will be few, and during the last years they become fewer, much fewer, very few. Already many Christians have ended up becoming a-Christian, and many have ended up becoming antichrists, adversaries of the Faith and of the faithful, and forerunners of great antichrist.
In his time the apostle John wrote: “And now there are many antichrists” (1 John 2:18). Antichrists, who came forth from the Christian world! And if during apostolic times there were many antichrists, today we must say that the antichrists are a great many. The Christian sphere has become full of antichrists! And the worst and most dangerous antichrists of all are high-priests, who wear the pectoral cross with Christ. On the outside is Christ and within them is the Satan of pride, of cunningness, of betrayal, of amoralism, and of evil, malice, and hatred…
For why Scripture has foretold that the godly are few and that they will become fewer? In order to demonstrate that it’s God-inspired and thereby support Christians in the faith, and not to fear on account of their small number, not to “fall from the clouds” seeing the apostasy (falling away) and the scandals, not to despair, because their faith is supported in truth, and because to them, the small flock, the heavenly Father was pleased to give the kingdom.

III.

We wrote, on the basis of harsh reality and of God-inspired Scripture, that Christians, conscientious Christians, are few, and as we advance toward the end of the world they become fewer, and finally they will become even fewer, very few. This surely is unpleasant for the many, indeed the most unpleasurable thing, because it means the failure of their destiny. And this failure provokes sorrow and pain to the few, the conscientious Christians, because conscientious Christians love all people, they, like God, want all people to be saved, and, when they see the many not caring seriously and not being anxious for their salvation, they pain, their heart shudders.
But if conscientious Christians are few, and the others are many; if, in other words, the world is the majority and the real Christians are the minority, this is not minimalizing for the few and this shouldn’t provoke a sense of inferiority, but quite the opposite. Christianity doesn’t go with the majority! The more sparse and rare a good is, that much more value it has. Thus even the few good people, the conscientious Christians, have great value. And as the journey goes on towards the end of the world, a very hard journey, their number is lessened, and their value is increased.
The many, the a-Christs, the people without Christ, are also useless, they have no value, since they remain in a state of spiritual indifference and in the life without Christ, the sinful and prodigal life. The few, the conscientious Christians, regardless of their societal status have value and super-value for many reasons. We mention a few reasons in continuation.
The few are faithful believers. Now the faith is not for all, but for those who have good prerequisites. “The faith is not for all”, says apostle Paul (2 Thes. 3:2). The faith is for people who have an awareness and a sense of their limits, who have humble-mindedness and a good disposition. The faith is for elect souls “elect of God according to faith”, says also the apostle (Titus 1:1). Those who believe, believe because they are elect, and they are elect according to the judgment of God, and not according to the judgment of the world, who is capable of considering useless and egotistical people as being chosen ones. The faithful, even though they might be in a lower social status, poor and beggars and rag-men, on account of their faith they are wealthy, with wealth that is incomparably superior to the material and temporary riches. “Has not God”, says James the brother of Christ, “chosen the poor of the world rich in faith and inheritors of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” (James 2:5). That is, did not God choose the poor from the world to be wealthy in faith and inheritors of the kingdom, which he promised to them who love him?
The few are purified of their sins. And sins are the greatest of all evils, and indeed of eternal misfortune. Not only the many, the worldly people, but even the few, the conscientious Christians, are sinful. But through faith, however, and the mysteries of the Church the few are discharged of their sins and are rendered blessed, happy. “Blessed are those whose sins were forgiven and whose sins were covered”, says the Psalmodist (Psalm 31:1).
The few are “regenerated, reborn” (1 Peter 1:23), a “new creature” (Ephesians 2:15, 4:24), “new men” (Col. 3:9-10). That is to say, they became a new creation, new people, people with superior mind-sets, with superior feelings, and a superior life. An old and raggy piece of clothing, what value does it have? But a new piece of clothing has value. Thus the few, too, after the “washing of regeneration and renewal” (Titus 3:5), the rebirth and renewal, the old became new people and obtained value. Thus for them the “according to the icon” (usually translated “image”), which had become useless, was cleansed and saved, as we sing in hymns to saints. An old icon of an eminent painter, whose imaged form has been darkened and practically annihilated, when it is cleansed with chemicals, and when the almost invisible form is revealed brilliant, all-shining, it acquires significant value. How much greater value does the animated and living icon man have which God skillfully fashioned, sin blackened, but was cleansed with His blood and which Christ restored!
The few are the children of God. When men were created by God, they were children of God. But they demonstrated bad behavior and became disinherited, neglected children. But God compassionated them and gave them the possibility through His incarnated Son to become His children again. What do we hear on the night of Christmas from the apostolic reading? “When the fulness of time came, God sent His Son, coming to be in His human nature from a woman, born under the law, so that he may redeem those under the law, so that we may obtain sonship” (Gal. 4:45). That is, “so that we obtain sonship again, so that we again become children of God”. And on the night of Pascha what do we hear from the gospel reading of the Divine Liturgy? “Those who received Him (the incarnated God Logos), to these He gave authority to become children of God, those believing on His name, those who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God” (John 1:12-13). There is sexual birth and there is spiritual birth. Christ became man and sacrificed Himself so that all people can have the possibility to become children of God. But unfortunately the many showed themselves to be unworthy of the divine love and compassionate condenscention. Only a few responded to the divine calling. Few believed in Christ with their heart and embraced Christ. And to them He gave “authority”, the right, the privilege, to become children of God. Is it considered a great thing for one to be a child of a minister or a prime minister or of a president of a democracy or of a king or of an emperor? What are these officials before God? Zero! And less than zero! A great thing, an imaginably great thing it is to be a child of God, of the all-powerful and all-wise and all-good and all-super-perfect Being.
The few have the grace of God, the superpower of heaven. They are grace-filled people. With the grace of God they are rendered powerful, they become strugglers toward what is within and toward what is without, and they distinguish themselves as victors in the most noble and important struggle. With the grace of God charismatic Christians are able to do signs, surpassing the physical laws, proving themselves more powerful, incomparably more powerful than the powerful of the earth.
The few become “communicants of divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). How? With spiritual struggle and the mysteries of the Church, especially the most supernatural mystery of divine Communion. In them, because they believe and love Christ and struggle to keep His word, there come and dwell in them Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit, the whole Holy Trinity. “If someone loves me”, Christ said, “he shall keep my word, and my Father shall love him, and we shall come unto him and we shall dwell in him (John 14:23). And concerning the Holy Spirit Christ said to His own: “It remains near you and shall be in you” (John 14:17). It remains near you and shall come in you. From Pentecost and later in the conscientious members of the Church dwells the Holy Trinity. The faithful believers are God-bearers, Christ-bearers and Spirit-bearers.
The few have eternal perspective. In departing from this temporary and trying world they don’t go down; they go up, to the super-cosmic cosmos of God. And at the Second Coming they shall have a glorious resurrection. He, who resurrected men from non-existence, at the common resurrection of the dead shall resurrect His own with glorious bodies, like His own resurrected body. Then the few shall shine like the sun, more than the sun.
The few have been declared kings. “Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood”, says Peter to the faithful believers (1 Peter 2:9). And the apostle John says: “To the one loving us and washing us of our sins in His blood and made us a kingdom (kings)” (Rev. 1:5-6). The Son of God did not become man and did not undergo a multitude of humiliations and crucifixional death for small things, but for great things, so that the humble and humble-minded ones of the earth may be raised to a heavenly and eternal royal office. We remind this most honor-bestowing word to the small but elect flock: “Small flock, fear not; for your father was well-pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). We bring to mind yet another most honor-bestowing word, according to which the faithful believers “are in receipt of an unshakable kingdom” (Hebrews 12:28).
If we are of the few, the conscientious Christians, departing from this world we shall receive – yes, we shall receive an unshakable kingdom, a kingdom that is unending, indescribable, thrice-glorious, and we shall co-reign with our God unto the vast ages, and our kingdom shall have no end.
This much value, this much importance does God give to the few, the conscientious Christians!
But let us continue.
IV.

The few: these according to the Apocalypse (17:14) are choice and elect and faithful,” choice elect and chosen and devoted. They are together with the Lamb. And the Lamb, the Lord of lords and King of kings, together with them against the times of the beast, of Antichrist, will combat the adversaries, the powers of Antichrist, and will conquer. The Antichrist won’t conquer with the many; Christ will conquer with the few, the chosen.
The few, the chosen – these in each epoch battle against the evil one and the evil ones, and these are worthy of the greatest honor, which is given to men. If the heroes of the Fatherland are worthy of honor, much more worthy of honor are the heroes of the spiritual war, the internal and external war, the war against the passions, against the invisible and visible dark powers, against demons and demonic people.
God honors the few, the warriors, His chosen ones. With the creation of men, with the creation of the world for the sake of men, with the wealth of material goods for men, with the multitude of benefactions towards men, material and spiritual benefactions, and especially with the incarnation and crucifixional sacrifice, God honors all men. And through the Apostle he orders that we do the same. “Honor all” (I Peter 2:17). But the few, the warriors, His chosen ones, God especially honors, much more than what he honors other people. To the few, to those through the mystery of Divine Communion he offers Himself, he deifies, he declares them kings, to them he offers the kingdom of the heavens unshakable and indescribable. And even if a single well disposed person existed on earth, for that one person God would have become man and would have been crucified. God honors the chosen person that much! And He wants people too, and especially the shepherds of His Church, to particularly honor the few, the faithful people.
But do others honor the faithful ones? Worldly people, who, comparatively speaking are better than other worldly people, recognize somewhat the superiority of pious people and express themselves with a certain admiration for their persons. Other worldly people, however, especially those who live a depraved life and are censured by the virtuous life of pious Christians, react against them and condemn them. They ridicule, mock, deride, defame them, slander them, characterize them as being regressed, fanatics, of the extremes, medievalists, hypocrites and other things. And they inflict injustice upon them not only by making accusations and by words, but also by deeds, when they can. A-christian Christians and antichrists with worldly power are appointed in public positions and they advance, and they appoint and advance those who are like them, while honorable religious people remain without appointment. And, if they are appointed, they remain in the lowest positions. The world, the corrupt and perverted world, doesn’t like and doesn’t honor the pious, but hates them and persecutes them. And in the time of Antichrist, towards which we are quickly going, the world will hate and persecute the people of God more viciously. And when the Antichrist will apprehend the two prophet-witnesses, the world will follow the event with joy and will celebrate it with banquets and exchanges of gifts! (Rev. 11:7-10). The world didn’t respect and didn’t honor God Himself, but called him Beelzebul and raised Him up onto a cross. And how will it respect and honor the people of God? “If the they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,” said Christ, the incarnated God, “how much more will they malign those of his household?” (Matt. 10:25). “If they persecuted me,” Christ has also said, “they will persecute you, too” (John 15:20).
This is the stance and the behavior of worldly people before the pious. And of course one doesn’t expect a better stance and behavior from worldly people. But it expects a better stance and behavior from the shepherds towards those who constitute the small and chosen flock. And we ask: Do the shepherds honor the small and chosen flock? The answer is both positive and negative. Some shepherds honor, others don’t honor, others look down upon and disdain the pious.
How many and which shepherds honor the flock? Few and chosen ones. Those who have live faith, fear of God, love and anxiety over their salvation and the salvation of their flock. These did not become shepherds in order to satisfy their wrong ambitions and to possess material enjoyments, but to serve the rational flock. And truly they serve it, and they are consumed in the care of the flock. Glory to God, because there are still in our materialistic and flesh-worshipping times good shepherds, imitators of the Good Shepherd, Christ.
Most shepherds don’t possess live faith, don’t have fear of God, don’t have love, and anxiety for their own salvation, or for that matter, for the salvation of the flock. They don’t honor the flock and are not consumed for its sake, but they look askance upon and disdain the rational sheep of Christ. They have the flock in order take over positions and for people to bow before them and to embrace them and to worship them in order for their egotism to be satisfied. They have the flock so that they can milk it and for their selfishness and greediness to be satisfied. They have the flock in order to be honored and not to honor.
This accusation holds true particularly for the higher shepherds, Bishops, Metropolitans, Archbishops, and Patriarchs. Most high-priests, because of their higher office, and the many venerations on the part of people, and the rendering of honors on the part of worldly leaders, and their rather unsupervised authority, possess an overweaning egoism and disdain the small and elect flock more than other bad shepherds. Christ said: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10). The faithful, as insignificant as they might appear to the world, in God’s eyes are great. And as guards they have the very powerful angels, who stand before the throne of God and constantly see the face of God, just as those of the court see the face of the king. God holds the faithful in a place of high honor. But the representatives of Christ despise the faithful. And they honor whom? In antithesis with God Who honored “the foolish of the world,” “the weak ones of the world,” “the innoble of the world and outcasts”: “and the non beings” (I Cor. 1:27-28), these, the bad representatives of Christ, being possessed by insatiable megalomania, honor the very rich, the big businessmen, the great industrialists, the ship owners, the officers, generals, judges, the professors of the university, the academics, the mayors, governors, parliamentarians, and ministers, the prime ministers, the presidents of democratic states, the great and powerful according to the world, who usually don’t have a relationship with God and the Church, but with Mammon, with Masonry, with haughtiness, with unbelief, with atheism, with crime, with corruption, with depravity. With such persons, standing high and usually living low, the despots with all eagerness and pleasure communicate, hold converse, eat and drink together and feel joy and gladness, as if they were experiencing the happiness of Paradise! They don’t have the desire to communicate with the poor and obscure. They eagerly go and receive hospitality at the homes of the rich and powerful of the day, but they have no desire to sometime go and eat at a home of a poor Christian family. And poor and obscure persons only with difficulty can visit despots and converse with them for a little while. Bishops are bothered by visits of poor and simple Christians, and they can’t wait to be rid of their presence, while Christ, for an hour, with all his eagerness and love, conversed with a simple woman, the Samaritan woman, and spoke the most spiritual dialogue. Saint James, the cousin of Christ, the first Bishop of the Church of Jerusalem, the mother Church, strictly censures the behavior of Bishops who showed partiality, who pay attention to the rich and despise the poor. He calls to them and to each person who shows partiality and who despises the poor: “You have dishonored the poor” (James 2:6). Athanasius the Great says that God became man so that men might become gods, gods by grace. And the Apostles say, that the faithful are kings and receive an “unshakable kingdom” (I Peter 2:9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10, Heb. 12:28). Consequently, the despisers of the faithful are despisers of gods and kings with an eternal kingdom!

V.
God wants faithful believers to be honored, and especially the workers of the Church and preachers of His Gospel; and all the persons who contribute to the work of the Church. For this reason the Apostle of God charges: “The presbyters in good standing have been made worthy of double honor, indeed those toiling in word and teaching” (1 Tim. 5:17). Through the Apostle God also charges in respect to precious people, who contribute to the work of God: “Know such men well”, “have such in honor” (1 Cor. 16:18; Phil. 2:29 respectively). That is to say, such precious men for the Church, recognize and honor. But few Bishops honor the presbyters in good standing, those preachers of the word of God, and the other valuable persons who contribute to the work of Christ. The other bishops remain indifferent in respect to them; they do not so much as think of them, or they have them in disfavor and persecute them, so the word spoken by the Apostle, “All who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12) might be fulfilled. A theologian, a good preacher of the Gospel and a good catechist, an unpaid worker offering his services to the service of the Metropolis complains that the Metropolitan never called him, not even on his nameday, though he has frequent and polite communications with rich people and officials. A good priest, sacrificing himself for the work of the Church, complains because his Bishop not only never said a good word of being well-pleased with him, but even in various ways is persecuting him, and from his sorrow he has lost his health. Good archimandrites, capable and active, with a great and most admirable ecclesiastical work, are not promoted to the Episcopal office, but those inferior to them, who are even defiled and scandel-makers. Thus do the despots behave themselves before honorable and worthy workers and co-workers of the divine Vineyard. Paul honored his co-workers and “all who worked together and toiled” (1 Cor. 16:16). He remembered them, he praised them, he recommended them, and asked of the faithful believers to honor them and to care for them. The bad successors of Paul enforced the example of the Apostle “from the reverse”.
The despots don’t honor, but disdain the faithful people in the issue of the commonwealth of the Church. The government of the Church is democratic. The faithful people have the right from God to choose its shepherds. In apostolic times and in the first centuries of Christianity the people chose its shepherds, and for this reason the Church was at great spiritual heights. But later the despots circumvented the people’s right. God gave the right; they took away the right, and they kept it for themselves. They respected neither people nor God. And thus, instead of democracy they established a dictatorship in the Church, despotocracy. Clicks of High-priests after exchanges choose the shepherds, and usually choose those who are like them and they force them upon the faithful believers’ neck, so that the misfortune is continued for ages in the Church of Christ. Voices of conscientious Christians with full awareness of ecclesiastical rights of the faithful rise up from time to time against the choosing of defiled persons, on behalf of the cleansing of the clergy from scandalizers, against despotocracy and on behalf of the return of the God-given ancient right of the faithful people to choose its shepherds, but these voices were not heard; they fall in the void, because those to whom these voices are directed, in their majority, are empty and vain-glorious.
The despocrat Bishops over-value and over-elevate the Episcopal office to the depreciation and disdainment of the faithful people. Even though the main body of the Church is the multitude of the faithful people; even though Bishops are for people and not people for the Bishops, yet, the despocrat Bishops identify themselves with the Church, they say, “We are the Church”! And many superficial Christians, even educated ones, scientists, think, the foolish ones, that the Hierarchy – this is the Church! Despocrat Bishops reached the point of saying that the Divine Liturgy is performed in the name of the Bishop! A Despocrat Bishop, a most despocratic Bishop, wrote in a book of his that the Bishop is the criterion of truth and the leader of salvation!

Three Qualities of the All-holy Mary

On September 8 the Church celebrates the birth (“genesion”), that is the birth of the All-holy Mary or Theotokos (God-birther). The church celebrates the birthday of only two persons, that of the Theotokos and of saint John the Forerunner, because these two persons are exceptional, are the most important persons of our Faith. The Theotokos is more honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious, beyond compare than the Seraphim. And John the Forerunner is “the greatest [man ever to be] born of woman” (Matt. 11:11), the greatest of the holy men of our Faith. And because the Church celebrates [the birthdays of] only two persons, [and this] by exception, for this reason we Orthodox Christians should not [strictly speaking] celebrate our birthdays, but [we should celebrate] our nameday together with the feast-day of our protector saint, whose name we received at our baptism. The Protestants, who do not celebrate the feast-days of saints, celebrate their birthdays. Let us not protestantize also with regard to the customs of the Protestants, since we Orthodox have religious customs superior to the protestants.
On the occasion of the celebration of the birthday of the Panaghia (the All-holy one), the Theotokos, we shall speak about three great qualities, which were united in the person of the Panagia, which were neither found, nor can they possibly be found in another person.
Is it possible ever for a woman to be the daughter, the bride-spouse, and the mother of the same man? But this, which is impossible in the physical sphere, is possible in the spiritual [metaphysical] sphere. Panaghia is also the daughter of God; and bride-spouse of God in the spiritual and unique sense, because she did not birth from the seed of man, but with the power of God; and mother of God!
In a Psalm we find also these great attributes of Panaghia. It is the 44th, a Psalm with unsurpassable poetic greatness and full of mystery. It begins with these majestic words: “My heart was seeking out a good word, I myself will tell my deeds to the king; my tongue is the pen of a sharp writer. You are beautiful, more beautiful than the beauties to be found among the sons of men; grace abundantly poured out from your lips” (verses 2-3).
In verses 10, 11, 14 the Psalmist says: “The Queen stood at thy right hand, arrayed and abundantly adorned in apparel of solid gold. Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; and forget thy people and thy father’s house: So shall the King desire your beauty…the glory of the king’s daughter is from within, though she is arrayed and bedecked with close-woven gold, variegated.” In accordance with these words God is “the king” and the Panaghia is “the queen”, the bride-spouse of the King of God in the spiritual and unique sense. And the queen is portrayed in honorable fashion on the right hand of the King. She is dressed in gold apparel and in variegated colors, symbols of esoteric, internal virtue and glory, her majesty. But “the Queen”, the bride of the King, is simultaneously also “the daughter of the king”!
The King God has countless daughters. All the godly, pious and holy women are daughters of God. But the Panaghia is more elect (choice) and the most important daughter of God. Elect and important are Sarah, Rebecca, Mariam the sister of Moses and Aaron, the mother of Samuel, Deborah, Ruth, Esther, Judith, Solomoni, the mother of the Maccabees, Anna the mother of Panaghia, Elisabeth the mother of John the Forerunner, Maria the sister of Lazarus, Maria Magdalene the chief amongst the chorus of Myrrh-bearing women and the first person who saw the resurrected Lord, Thekla, Paraskevi, Kyriaki, Effemea, Irene, Barbara, Catherine, Marina, Makrina, Matrona, Markella, Synkletiki, Philothei, and so many other marvelous and super-marvelous women, But the Panaghia is superior to all the daughters of God. She is the elect of the elect. Her super-value is shown also by the encomium that heaven wove for her. She is “full of grace” or “all-graced”, full of the grace of God, full of the charismata of the Holy Spirit. She is “blessed among women”, the most blessed of all women (Luke 1:28). She is the woman “adorned with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev. 12:1) “There are sixty queens/And eighty maidens without number./ My dove, my perfect one is the only one; and she is the only one of her mother,/ The choice (elect) of the one who bore her/ and considered her blessed./ The queens and the concubines will also praise her./ Who is she who looks forth as the early morning,/ Beautiful as the moon,/ Choice as the sun,/ Awesome as armies set in array?” (Song of Songs or “Asma Asmaton” 6:8-10). The Panaghia, a dove, perfect, unique.
***
[Commentary from Orthodox Study Bible, Song 6: 8-10, is cited herein: “There is little patristic commentary on this passage. The queens appear to represent the souls of those who reign with Christ through their watchfulness and their evangelical way of life. The concubines may give praise to the bride (v.9) but expend their energy on worldly attachments. Both the queens and concubines approach the King’s throne, but only the queens rule with Him. Seeing the [Orthodox Catholic] Church as mother (v. 9), St. Cyprian of Carthage [former master-sorcerer turned Saint] writes, if one “resists and withstands the Church, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?” Despite the multiplication of religious sects [e.g., Popery and its offspring Protestantism], each offering its own brand of revelation, salvation, or enlightenment, there is but one Bride of Christ. The Bride, the Church, is beautiful as the moon because she is illumined by the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 3:20) and reflects the light of His glory.]

[Commentary, especially translated for logos888 readers, is herein also included from the interpretation of Solomon’s Song of Songs by Apostolos Makrakis, taken and written down from dictation by his students.
These [60] queens were in the palace of Solomon: for, according to the system of polygamy Solomon received many women. And in the first place he had sixty queens, each of which had her own class according to her [specific] superior qualities. In the second place, he received eighty concubines, comprising the second series after the queens. But the queens and concubines each had many supporting young women, who constituted the third line of women in the palaces. Now all of these women were superior according to both their bodily and moral beauties. But among the women there exists also the one [supreme] woman surpassing all the others according to beauty and merits, or superior qualities, attributes or properties. All these [considerations] are understood reductively as follows: king Solomon images the heavenly king God, and his women according to their classes and levels image the holy souls, set within the house of God analogous to their ethical beauty, above all of whom is the most beautiful woman, the queen of heaven, the God-bearing All-holy Mary, whom he praises in the greatest ways as follows.
“One is my dove, my perfect one, she is one to her mother, she is elect to the one who bore her.”
This same woman has the purity [integrity; lack of guile, sincere single-mindedness] of the dove, and is unique in beauty and merits. She is also only-begotten to her mother, (because Anna did not give birth to another daughter,) and she is also the portal toward the East, closed, from which no other entered and came forth, except for the Lord of Glory through birth.
“Daughters saw her and they bless her, both queens and concubines, and they praise her.”
The queens and concubines of the heavenly King are the holy souls, who bless the unique queen, who is the first woman of the Song, which praises in the beginning the Holy Virgin, and then the bride, the Church which initially is blotted with black stain, which, being purified and cleansed, was praised for having become perfect. And until this point, on the one hand, we saw the mutual loves and beauties and praises of Christ and the Church. And now the praise it turned to the Theotokos, God-bearing Mary, from whom Christian society received [its] existence through her giving birth to the Bridegroom of the Church.
“Who is she who appears as the all-clear morning, beautiful like the moon, choice like the sun, marvelous, just as are the military powers set in array before battle?”
Through this figure speech the Holy Spirit asks, who is this woman that is so beautiful? Just as previously He (the Holy Spirit) asked concerning the bride Church: ‘Who is she rising up from the desert (Canticle 3:6) like a windless pillar of incense of myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of the perfumer?’ This same woman, then, is she, concerning whom the hymnography says: ‘Rejoice, morning brilliance, the dwelling place of light, the only woman alone who bore the [metaphysical] Sun, the Christ.’ This same woman rises like the morning, because her generation, her birth is analogous to the morning, which foretelling the rising of the Sun, which is the birth of Christ from her. Now these words announce the work of this unique woman, which is likened unto the Moon, as accepting the light from the Divinity, which extremely amazes the Angelic orders, as well, also, as unto the choice Sun, and is a huge lighting-bolt of heaven’s diamond.]
***
Not only is she superior to all daughters of God, but is also “queen”, bride of the king God in the unique sense. All the faithful souls are brides of God. But Panaghia is the bride of God also in another sense, which does not hold true for any other person. She is the bride of God, God-bride, bride unwedded, unwedded with man and wedded with God, because she did not give birth from man’s seed, but with the power of God. Just as a beautiful day the earth generated without seeds, blossomed without spores, with the power of God, countless plants, thus also Panaghia, an incomparably more beautiful day without the seed of man, with power of the All-Powerful One, gave birth to Christ. “Wherever God wills, the order of nature is defeated, as it is written”. Where is it “written”? in Luke 1:37 and in other similar Scriptural passages. In Psalm 2, most clearly Christological, God, directing Himself to Christ as man, says: “You are my son, I have birthed you today” (verse 7). This word of God means: You are my son; not the son of any other man. You are not the son of Joseph – as the Jews thought. I, God, today, formed you in the bloods of the Virgin, and I brought you as man into the world.
Panaghia is Daughter of God, bride of God in the unique sense, but also mother of God! In verses 7-8 of Psalm 44 the Psalmist says a most paradoxical word: “Your throne, O God, is unto the age of ages, i.e., for ever; the scepter of your kingdom is equity. You have loved righteousness and have hated iniquity (lawlessness). Therefore God, your God has anointed you [with the] oil of gladness above your fellows”. This word of the Psalmist means: You, who are God, have an eternal throne. You are eternal King. Your royal scepter is the scepter of righteousness. You love righteousness and hate iniquity (lawlessness). For this reason, God anointed you, who are God, with oil of gladness according to a manner superior to the manner you anoint your own, your fellows. This word of the Psalmist is most paradoxical, because according to this word God has a God, who anointed him. But how is it possible for God to have a God, since there is no one above God? This word of the Psalmist is not only most paradoxical, but appears to be also most daring and most blasphemous. Nevertheless, the Jews have not dared to expunge it from the sacred text of the Old Testament. They left it in its place as a god-inspired word, just as they did with many other paradoxical words of the Old Testament. This word of the Psalmist was an enigma before Christ. And the solution of the enigma is the blessed person of Christ. God became man and as man has a God.
God became man and God anointed (“echrise”) him as man, that is, he rendered him Christ (“Christos”, “Anointed [One]” or “The Anointed”). The anointed one, then, Christ, the son of the Virgin, he is the God of the most paradoxical word of the Psalmist, who has a God as man, [in his human nature].
In other words, the Virgin, conceived, carried [the embryo], and gave birth and weaned with her breasts, God himself! A woman became the mother of God himself, a Theometor (“God-Mother”), Theotokos! The mind of man goes crazy, gets dizzy when it thinks of this fact and this honor, which occurred to the humble daughter of Nazareth, our Panaghia. Now the passages of Scripture, which testify, and the miracles, which verify, that Christ is God, all the divine essence or divinity and sovereignty, just as is the Father and the Holy Spirit, are numerous. Now besides Psalm 44:7-8, we mention yet another most paradoxical passage, Luke 1:43, “And whence cometh this unto me, that the mother of my Lord comes towards me?” Where comes this honor, for the mother of my Lord to come to me? An embryo of a few days, with which the Virgin was pregnant, Elizabeth most paradoxically called her Lord, her God. Such a word (“logos”; idea; thought) would never go to the brain of a human being. Such a word Elizabeth spoke, for “she was filled with Holy Spirit” (Like 1:41). Such words, most paradoxical, Scripture contains, because it is god-inspired.
As the choicest daughter of God, and bride of God in the unique sense, and mother of God – do we honor her worthily? As many of us who are faithful, of course honor the Panaghia more than all the Saints, and we too fulfill her prophecy, “Behold, all generations shall call me blessed, for the Powerful One has done great things to me” (Luke 1:48-49). But there exist also impious ones who attack the Panaghia. In the following article we shall mention three attacks made against the Panaghia by the ungodly.

Three Attacks Against the Panaghia or All-holy Mary

In the previous issue we wrote about three qualities of Panaghia, of All-holy Mary, just as they are mentioned in the majestic Psalm 44. The Psalmist presents Panaghia as daughter of God, as bride-spouse of God in the unique sense, because she birthed with the power of God, without the seed of man; and as mother of God, because Christ, her son, is proclaimed God. Now just as we pre-announced, in the present issue we write about the three attacks against Panaghia by the impious. There exist not only pious, godly people, who honor the All-holy Mary and fulfill the prophecy, that she shall be glorified and hymned by all the generations, during all the centuries (Luke 1:48). There exist unfortunately also the ungodly, who attack the All-holy Mary and fulfill the will of the Devil.
We do not refer to the insults against the All-holy Mary on the part of heretics. We mention the insults against Panaghia on the part of baptized Christians, who by their impieties spit in their baptismal fonts.
Of the three insults against the Panaghia on the part of impious, ungodly ones the one offends her modesty, the other her purity and the other her maternity or motherhood.
One of the names of All-holy Mary is Modest [one]. The Panaghia was modest par excellence, an example of modesty especially for women, the supreme example of modesty for women. Orthodox hagiography artistically worked out countless icons of Panaghia, which are masterpieces of art, marvelous and super-marvelous. One sees the icons of Panaghia and his or her soul floods with respect and amazement. For, among other things, the hagiographers with their icons image Panaghia’s modesty.
The modesty of Panaghia is insulted by the impious with their nudity. Men, entering the holy churches and the sacred places with shorts and embracing the icon of the Panaghia, do they honor or insult the Panaghia? They do not honor, but insult.
Primarily though, with their nudity, women insult Panaghia. Few women today are modest. And instead of these women being praised, they are rather reviled, railed against and abused as being modest-conceited and godlyings! The majority of women today have an immodest appearance, and the younger ones have an even more immodest appearance. So that they might show that they are emancipated, contemporary and beautiful, they enforce the insanity and the ugliness of nudity, which the goddess “style” dictates. They expose their fleshes to common vision. Minis, super-minis, open backs, [uncovered] breasts outside, and now recently also stomachs and belly buttons! Now with such an appearance women even enter into the churches, and go even to Holy Communion! [This is] extreme impudence and shamelessness. [It is] the fulfillment of the prophecy of saint Cosmas the Aeotolean: “The time will come, when the cursed Devil will come out of his shell”. The Devil became shameless. He no longer keeps facades, [false appearances] “proschemata”. With the mouths of demoniacs at the time of exorcisms he was heard yelling: “I [am the one who] strip[s] nude the women, and they fall into sin and go to hell, both the women and the men. Yes, these are the things that the arch-nudist, the Devil, shouts out!
But women offend the modesty of Panaghia not with their nudism, but also with their becoming manly, shamefully appearing with pants. For a man to wear woman’s clothing and for a woman to wear man’s clothing is “an abomination to the Lord God”, says Scripture (Deut. 22:5), a disgusting phenomenon in the eyes of God, very disgusting as being a phenomenon against nature. Nevertheless this disgusting phenomenon has become generalized. The majority of women appear with pants, and thus-ly enter into the churches, and even draw forth to Holy Communion.
Woe unto the priests and thrice woe to the high priests , who do not enlighten the souls and tolerate such conditions in the churches, and what is much worse, they condone such a condition.
The word to woman: Our good women! If in the icon of Panaghia, whom you love and venerate, there was a different form, a half-naked woman or with pants, with one foot placed over the other, with a worldly and pornographic periodical in her hands; and a cigarette in her mouth, which man or which woman would respect her and would venerate her as All-holy Mary? Imitate, my good women, the Panaghia, whom you reverence and venerate. No woman with immodest appearance enters into Paradise. Become modest, so that you may be respected, – that is what the word modest means – , and so that you may have entrance into the kingdom of God, and co-reign unto the everlasting ages with the queen of the Heavens, our Panaghia.
Just as the Panaghia is named Modest, so, too, in like manner is she named Pure. For, she was pure par excellence, the purest creature of God, with virginal purity: “higher than the heavens and purer than the rays of the sun”, according to the ecclesiastical hymnology. According to ecclesiastical hymnology also, Gabriel remained amazed by “the beauty of the virginity and the super-brilliance of the purity” of the humble daughter of Nazareth.
The earth and the heaven stand amazed before the purity of the All-holy Mary. But many, instead of marveling, insult the purity of the Panaghia. How? Directly and indirectly, with works and with words. Works, which insult the purity of the Panaghia indirectly, are fornication, adultery, uncleanliness and homosexuality, which today are committed in the world to a huge degree. Human beings have ended up becoming fleshes, as in the time of Noah and of Lot. The ideal of purity, which the Panaghia incarnated, the flesh-worshippers do not honor, but sneer, mock and jeer at and consider it to be stupidity and imbecility! Words that insult the purity of the Panaghia directly, are the shameful blasphemies of her name. The impious open their mouths, mouths of cess-pools, mouths of hell, and insult the Panaghia, as if she were not All-holy Mary, but as if she were the most sinful woman of the world. But what are we saying? No woman is insulted, as Panaghia is insulted. The sin of blasphemy is hideous, terrible. And we Greeks are the blasphemous Nation par excellence. And if we do not cut out blasphemy, God will cut us out…
The motherhood of Panaghia is insulted by many with the crime, the greatest crime after Christocide, the murder of Christ, the crime of child-homicide, abortions. Men and women, once having fulfilled their sinful appetites, go to clinics/slaughter-houses and doctors – slaughterers with a scientific knives cut to pieces the innocent children in the bellies of women and throw them into the sewers of the clinics. Lions, bears, tigers and the other beasts do not cut to pieces their children. Human beings, more bestial than the beasts, cut their children to pieces. This too was prophesied. “In the last days hard and dangerous times shall come; for people shall be …without affection”, wrote the Apostle [Paul] (II Tim. 3: 1-5).

300,000, 400,000, 500,000 children a year are killed by abortions in Orthodox Christian Greece, and indeed by law of the State! The aliens are increasing in our region, the Hellenes are decreasing and Hellas is dying, because her children are dying. We are struggling not to lose the name Macedonia, and, if we continue murdering our children, in a few decades the aliens in our land will obtain the majority and we will lose the name Hellas. “Finis Graeciae”, the end of Greece!
The All-holy Mary cries for where our Ethnos has ended up, our Ethnos which glorified her Son and her as much as no other Ethnos. She weeps and begs her Son to have mercy upon our Nation. Let us cry, too, people and leaders. Let us repent on account of our impieties and our crimes, and let us beg God to intervene and save our Nation. Spare, O Lord, Jacob, for he is extremely few, the Israelite would say. And we Greeks should say: Spare, O Lord, Greece, for she is extremely few, and is going towards extinction on account of the plots and intrigues of enemies and “friends”, and on account of our sins and crimes. You, O Lord, are the only hope of salvation of Greece [as You were the only hope of salvation of Greece, also, at the time of Your first coming]. Show Your mercy. Speed up the release process of a people not having excuse or defense.
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Articles taken from THE CROSS, Zood. Peg. 44, Athens, Greece
by
the honorable Mr. Nicholas John Soteropoulos, one of Greece’s most genuine leading Theologians and Philologians

(Mr. Soteropoulos was excommunicated by Patriarch Bartholomew and the Super-perfect Synod back in 1995 for defending Christ The King’s honor, His sinlessness, as well and the Biblical Truth that the first man originated from God and not from the ape, the latter two errors propounded by the Archbishop of Australia until 1995. See Orthodox Observer (Disturber?), December 1995. Also compare Luke 6:22: “Blessed are you when they excommunicate you…” (J. Christ); ‘You shall be blessed, when people hate you and when they excommunicate you and cut off every religious and social relationship with you; and when they insult you and take your name out as being evil and mockingly hold you up to public ridicule: for they shall do all these things, because you are disciples and faithful followers of the son of man.” Compare also John 16:02; Matt. 23:34; Mark 13:09)]
Year 54 – Athens – September 2006 – October 2006 – Issue Number 515-6 (Cod. 1631)

God Does Not Punish?

The many, particularly journalists, but also theologians and clerics, especially depraved, degenerate ones, support [the notion], that God does not punish. And why does he not punish? Because, they say, God is love.
Yes, God is love. And indeed crucified love. For us God out of boundless love became as we are, like us, a man, and underwent and suffered the most dreadful martyrdom, the crucifixion.
But since God is love, and indeed incomparably greater than our own love, why [then] with his omnipotence (all-powerfulness) did he not prevent so many evils, which occur in the world? Why volcanoes? Why Vesuvians? Why typhoons and cyclones? Why floods and mud-slides? Why storms and shipwrecks? Why tsounames and sinkings? Why savage monsters and the tearing of people to pieces? Why famines and plagues, starvations and epidemics? Why sicknesses and indeed painful and polychronic ones? Why fires? Why wars, tortures, slaughters and indescribable cruelties and atrocities? I, even though I have love incomparably to a lesser degree than the love of God, if I had the power, I would disallow, prevent all the evils, all the destructions, all the disasters that happen in the world. Why does God, I ask again, who has incomparably greater love than me, but also omnipotence, all-powerfulness, not prevent these so many evils?
God certainly is love. But he is also justice. “God is just and just acts, (justices) he came to love; His countenance looked upon righteous paths” (Psalm 10:7). Now when we people make bad use of the love of God, then the justice of God has the say and punishes impiety and ungodliness. As many of those who hold the view that God does not punish have superficial judgment and ignorance of the Scripture. Scripture is full of words and examples, which show, that God punishes sins and impieties. Of the innumerable ones we mention here a certain few only.
Did God not threaten to punish by death, if the first-formed [pair] were to violate his commandment? And did he not execute his threat, when the transgression occurred? On the day of the transgression, did he not expel them from paradise and from beside him, something that signifies spiritual death? And afterwards did he not bring on bodily death also? Why is death unpleasant? It is not also for other reasons too, but also because it is a punishment, which was enforced upon man on account of sin?
After sin, did not God subject creation to corruption? Does not the Apostle say, “For even creation became enslaved to death and to corruption, not by its will, but by God, who subjected it to corruption with some [kind of] hope”? [“Which hope? That it (creation) too, will be liberated from the subjection to corruption, so that it may take part in the freedom of the glorious state of the children of God.” (Romans 8:20). Did not God order the snakes in the desert to bite and kill the Israelites? Did not God order bears and they tore apart some very seriously delinquent children that were ridiculing the prophet Elisha? Does not God turn his face away and the universes are shaken up? From the height of his greatness, does not God throw a glance upon the earth and make it tremble? Does he not touch the mountains and volcanoes erupt?
Did not God open the waterfalls of heaven and the flood happened and the flesh-worshippers were drowned? Did not God rain fire and brimstone from the sky and Sodom and Gomorrah were burned? Did not God give the ten plagues to Pharoh? Did not God divide the Red Sea and did he not unite it and did he not drown in it Pharoh and his army? Did not God punish even the Israelites in that he made worthy to reach the land of promise only two individuals from the great multitude which had set out from Egypt?
Did not God give the command to Moses, to Joshua, to Saul, to David and to others to wage war, to kill and exterminate ungodly, impious nations? Did not God give the command to an angel to kill 185,000 Assyrians? Did not God send fire from heaven and kill those sent by Ahab to apprehend Elias? Did not God order Elias to slaughter the prophets of Baal? Did not God give the command for the transgressors of the law to be killed?
Does not God say both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, “Revenge is Mine, I shall pay back”? (Deut. 32:35; Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30. See also 31).
Did not Christ, the inhominated God (God incarnated, enfleshed, or God-made-man) say parabolically, by way of a parable, “those enemies of mine, who do not want Me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before Me”? (Luke 19:27). Did not Christ speak parabolically, concerning the destruction of the Jews and of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, that “that king (allegorically God) has become wrathful, and having sent his armies killed those murderers and burned down their city”? (Math. 22:7). Did not Christ say concerning the days of the destruction of Jerusalem that they are days of “revenge”, divine revenge? (Luke 21:22). On the occasion of the Galileans, whom Pilate had slaughtered, and those, who were killed by the fall of a tower, did not Christ say, “If you do not repent, all shall likewise perish”? (Luke 13:3 and 5). Did not Christ say, “Fear not those who kill the body, but are incapable of killing the soul; fear rather the One capable of sending both soul and body to perdition in Gehenna”? (Math. 10:28). Did not Christ say in regard to another person, Jezabel, and those accompanying her, “Behold I make her bed-ridden and those having committed adultery with her I put into great sorrow, if they do not repent of their works, and I shall kill her children, and all the churches shall come to know that I am the One who searches sinews and hearts, and I shall give you [all] each according to your works”? (Apocalypse/Revelation 2: 22-23).
Did not God put to death Ananias and Saphera, who lied and insulted the Holy Spirit? Did not God blind elima, the magus, who was perverting the straight paths of the Lord?
Does not the Apostle say, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon every ungodliness/impiety and unrighteousness of men possessing the truth in unrighteousness”? (Romans 1:18). Does not the Apsotle, directing himself to the misuser of the love of God, say, “According to your hardness of heart and unrepentant heart you treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation and righteous judgment of God, who shall render back to each according to his works”? (Romans 2:5-6). Is not the saying Apostolic: “A fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God”? (Hebrews 10:31).
Finally, does not God say, “I who manufacture evils”? (Isaiah 45:7). And are not the prophetic, apostolic, lordly words of Scripture words concerning the judgment and righteous judgment of God, concerning the remuneration from the Lord according to the works of each, concerning being put to shame for eternity, concerning eternal hell, concerning eternal torture, concerning the everlasting misery of the ungodly, the evil-doers, and the unrepentant?
God has love towards man. But man too must have love towards God and his fellow-men. And if he does not have love, but vices and evil works, God punishes him pedagogically, so that he might repent and be corrected, or [he punishes him] in exemplary fashion, so that others see and are guarded from sin, or that they might repent and be corrected themselves. God punishes on earth, but he also punishes in eternity. And on the one hand on earth he punishes out of love and justice, but in eternity he punishes out of justice. And consequently, as many as do not accept God as punisher of sin and of ungodliness/impiety, these people hold to their own personal heretical opinion, because they misinterpret an attribute of God, love, and annul another attribute of God, justice.

“Cross” Year 54 – Athens – July-August 2006 – Issue no. 514 (Codex 1631) by N.J.S.

How Holy Scripture Express Itself Concerning Heretics

Holy Scripture, that sacred text of Christianity, is god-inspired. It does not contain a single, not the least mistake. That is why we the faithful must give the primary importance to Holy Scripture.
In our time, a time of great apostasy, of great falling away from the Faith, the cosmos has become filled with heresies and heretics, almost two billion heretics, papists and protestants and others. Now besides the heresies there exists in our days super-additionally the pan-heresy, the pan-heresy of ecumenism. And not only is it a pan-heresy, but even a pan-religion. It is the worse and most dangerous phenomena in the religious area. Satan has become rabid and dissolves however much depends on him the Faith for the annulment of the salvation of men.
Many, and not only simple folk, but also cultivated people, do not apprehend how fearful a thing heresy is; and how impious, ungodly, and tragic people heretics are, heretics who create and teach heresies; but also those, who being found in a heretical place, and yet they come out of this place, and they do not abandon the error/deception and do not come to the truth.
Because many do not apprehend how bad a thing are the heresies and the creators and teachers and the followers of heresies: for this reason we shall mention here only words of Scripture related to the heresies and the heretics. From these words it shall become apparent, that Scripture, as regards heresies and heretics, expresses itself with the most fearful manner, with the worst characterizations.
In His Sermon on the Mount, the Leader of our Faith, our Lord Jesus Christ, said, “Guard yourselves from the pseudo-prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inside are ravenous wolves” (Mat. 7:15). The Lord focuses our attention on “the false-prophets, the false-teachers that is. The heretical teachers teach falsehoods. The heresies are falsehoods, the biggest falsehoods. Now false is not only their teaching; false also is there appearance. They appear in sheep’s clothing, as being good that is, meek, calm, peaceful, while under the covering, internally, they are wolves, ready to grab and to devour the sheep of the flock of Christ.
In like manner with Christ, the apostle Paul, the mouth of Christ, expresses himself. When speaking at a gathering of shepherds of the Church of Ephesus, he said: “I know this: that after my departure there shall come powerful wolves unto you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 29:29). With his prophetic gift the apostle knew of the penetration of the heretics into the Church and he pre-announced: I know this, that after my coming they shall attack entering upon you fearful wolves, who do not feel sorry for the flock. Paul calls heretics wolves. Fearful wolves, who do not feel sorry for the flock of Christ, but attack to devour it. The heretic persuaded you to become a heretic too? He devoured you, just like the wolf the sheep; he sent you to hell.
How did the apostle Paul speak to one sorcerer and “pseudo-prophet”, Bariesou who “perverted the straight paths of the Lord”: “Being filled with Holy Spirit and looking upon him, he said: “O you, filled with every form of guile and every intrigue, son of the Devil, enemy of all righteousness! When will you stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord?” (Acts 13:9-10). A most fearful saying, which for many would be considered an insult. But it was not an insult. It was censure in Holy Spirit. There followed miraculously also blindness of the perverter of truth, censure in action, a paedagogical punishment.
And the apostle Peter with his charism foresees the appearance of heretics in the Church and foretells: “And there came to be also pseudo-prophets among the people, so that even among you there shall be false-teachers, who with all-cunningness shall introduce erroneous/deceptive teachings that are destructive. These false-teachers shall deny the despot Christ Himself, who bought them with his blood, and they shall thus bring on their own swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1). That is to say, there have appeared false teachers among the people, the people of Israel, just as among you too, the Christians, there shall appear false-prophets. These with a sneaky manner shall introduce heresies that lead to perdition, the despot, Christ, who bought them, they shall deny, bringing thusly quick perdition to their own selves.
The heretics the apostle calls “pseudo-teachers”, and the pseudo-teachings he characterizes as “heresies of perdition”! A fearful, most fearful characterization. The truth saves, the heresies lead to perdition, to hell, to eternal misery. The heretics, says the apostle moreover, are deniers of the Despot, of Christ, who bought them. Deniers of Christ! Another fearful fearful, most fearful saying. And let us not consider deniers of Christ only those heretics who deny the divinity of Christ. Deniers of Christ are all the heretics, because they do not accept the truth of Christ, but the lies of the Devil.
The same apostle, in 2 Peter 2:14, those heretics who combine the distortion of the truth with the carnal and other sins he calls “children of curse”! Children of curse, cursed people. The pious, godly people are blessed and inherit blessing; the heretics are cursed and inherit curse.
`According to the brother [cousin] of the Lord, Jude, the heretics are “waterless clouds, which are pushed with violence by the winds of erroneous/deceptive teaching and their unreigned passions; fall trees, fruitless and incapable of bearing fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea foaming, thus manifesting their own shameful sins; they are stars which have deviated from their orbit and wander about here and there, deceiving the travelers who look to be led by them. Unto them has been prepared unto the age their punishment in the dense darkness of Hades” (Jude 12-13). That is, the heretics are waterless clouds, which are dragged about by the winds; fall trees, fruitless, twice dried up, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, which foam and bring to the surface their ugliness; dark stars, in which the dense darkness is preserved permanently.
The apostle John, the disciple of love, concerning heretics, he too speaks with a strict tongue, extremely powerful. How shall the worst man, which shall appear on the scene of History, the man will all of Satan’s energy inside him, and all his criminality inside him and outside him? He is called the Antichrist. The most disgusting and abominable name of man. But even the heretics are called with this name by the apostle John. The apostle writes: “Children, it is the last hour, and, as you have heard, Antichrist is coming; and now many have come to be antichrists” (1 John 2:18). My little children, it is the end (or critical) time. And as you have heard, that Antichrist is coming, and now many antichrists have come. Already during the apostolic time there had appeared many antichrists, heretics. And what shall we say about today’s time? Then there were many, now very many, countless Antichrists.
We have mentioned a few passages, samples of the manner with which the god-inspired text of Christianity, the Holy Scripture, expresses itself concerning heretics. Concerning those distorters of the truth and perverted persons Holy Scripture does not express itself with nobility; it does not use a tongue of leniency, but extreme strictness, because heresy is extreme impiety, ungodliness. The word of Scripture is a pulverizer against the heretics!
And now we ask: Our bishops, professors of the University and others: do they express themselves concerning heretics as Holy Scripture does? Do they say concerning them and to them the plain truth? Do they say the truth during their conventions, and during their renowned Dialogues? Do they say, that the heretics with their teachings introduce “heresies of perdition”? Do they say that heretics are “grabbing wolves in sheep’s clothing”, “vicious wolves not sparing the flock”, “full of every sneakiness and every intrigue” etc.? Do they express themselves concerning heretics, as Christ and the apostles did? Or have they become more noble and polite than the Apostles and Christ himself and remain mute or do they caress the heretics who have reached the point of accepting homosexuality and performing homosexual marriages and ordinations of homosexuals? Unfortunately, most unfortunately, our bishops and professors of University and others are not moved by the Holy Scripture and do not express themselves concerning heretics like the Holy Scripture does; but others remain silent, others exhaust every form of politeness and petting towards the heretics, and others declare, that papists, protestants, Anglicans and others, are not heretics! There remain only the heretics of the false-witnesses of Jehovah or Milleniarists!…
What can we say about our own, kwho are not touched by the words of Christ and the Apostles, and conduct themselves towards the heretics like they are not heretics? Let us say this, they are not ours, but those of the other side. And they torture the souls of the conscientious Orthodox. And it is expected for them to create harrowing adventures to the faithful on account of the faith. Let us prepare then for dealing with the persecution…~N.J.S.

Timely Critical Commentaries
Unacceptable Sermon of a Metropolitan
(From the Greek Religious Periodical The Cross Oct. 2007)
By Nicholas J. Soteropoulos

On September 23, in the apostolic city of Patra, there was celebrated the anniversary of the transference from Italy to the said city of the head bearing the name of the saint apostle Andrew. The previous evening, during the vespers service at the huge and beautifully adorned church of the apostle Andrew, where the feast day was celebrated, spoke the Metropolitan of New Zealand, Mr. Joseph. His sermon was very down to earth and beautiful. And on the day of the feast spoke the Metropolitan of Nafpactos Mr. Ierotheos. Some points of his sermon did not appear to be correct.
The word of God, said the Meteropolitan of Nafpactos, is neither religious, nor formative of morality, nor social, nor anything else, but is “words of eternal life”. Wrong, Your Most Reverend! The word of God is also religious, since it refers to religious matters, and especially to dogmas of the faith; and it is also formative of morality (ethos), since it creates ethos, character, a wholesome man of God; and it is also social, since it refers to social issues and solves social problems, reaching even to the details of every day life; and it covers the whole fabric of subjects and interests of life. It is not only “words of eternal life”, but all the good things that we must take special care for, in order to be made worthy of “life eternal”.
Christ did not come to establish Religion, but the Church, the Metropolitan of Nafpactos also said. But why Most Reverend, do you antipathize the word “Religion”? Holy Scripture uses this word, as well as the word “religious”. We ask you to open the Holy Scripture, and not only the books of the heretic Giannaras. Even in Patristic literature the word “Religion” is used. You are superior to the Holy Scripture and the Fathers of the Church?
The Meteropolitan of Nafpactos said this too, that the secularized church is not the real Church. Did the Metropolitan think well about what he said? The church truly is secularized for many reasons. And first of all the Episcopal office is secularized. And the first who are responsible for the secularization of the Church are the Bishops, who in the fearful places of worship allow the introduction of the nudity of women…But besides its secularization the Church doesn’t cease being the Church, holy as regards its divine side, just as we confess in the Symbol of Faith, but worldly and sinful according to her human side.
Be careful, Most Reverend, with regard to what you say, and with respect to what you say, too.

Wrong Apprehensions Regarding Orthodoxy
By
Nicholas J. Soteropoulos, Theologian-Philologian

In the September 2002 issue of the periodical of the sacred Metropolis of Nafpactos “Church Intervention”, the Metropolitan of Nafpactos Mr. Ierotheos republishes an article of his entitled “Ideologized Christianity and Terrorism”. The article had first been published in “The Free Press” (“Eleutherotypia”) on August 8, 2002.
The Metropolitan of Nafpactos is an educated and most prolific cleric. And we read his article with particular interest, repeatedly, and with much care and attention, because we don’t want to commit an injustice in our criticism, indeed of a hierarch, who is considered among the best of the Church of Greece.
Because no one is a criterion of truth and infallible, let it be allowed us to perform a critique of the article of the Most Reverend and indicate certain unacceptable positions of his. And if the Most Reverend thinks we are wrong in our judgment, let him set forth his argumentation in opposition.
*
The Metropolitan of Nafpactos took as an occasion for his article the sorrowful event, “that certain ‘good’ children, with a good past life; children which come from Christian regions, have become ‘entangled’ in the nets of the terrorist organization ‘November 17’ with its extreme criminal activity”. Obviously this is a reference to the three children of the former priest of the Metropolis of Florina, Fr. Triantafyllou Xerou, who had become members of “November 17”. Now according to the Metropolitan of Nafpactos such phenomena are due to the view of certain ones who transform the Church into Christianity, into an ideology, wherein God ceases to be a personal being and becomes an idea.
The Most Reverend writes: “There are certain people who transform the Church into Christianity, which has in it the element of an ideology. When God from a person becomes an idea, when the relation to God becomes sentimental, then the Church is taken to be an ideological group and a place for the satisfaction of religious sentiments; when people feel like followers and not disciples, then we speak about the existence of the ideologization of the Church. This has frightful consequences”.
Moreover, the Most Reverent writes: “Unfortunately from the previous century various members of the Orthodox Church have been influenced from the ideology of western Christianity. God is not considered as being personal, but as being a higher power…their relationship with God is rational, moralistic, sentimental and utilitarian”.
The saint of Nafpactos also writes: “The spiritual father is considered to be an intellectual and moralistic guide, whose job is to direct his “spiritual” children according to his volitions, and also – woe unto him – he exploits the sensitivity of Christians and he controls them in voting matters…The aim of guidance is unfortunately enclosed within a good life, within a good character, so that we may become good people, to help in the transformation of society, to combat social evil, and to assist in the betterment of society”.
***
The saint of Nafpactos considers the student of religious instruction as being ideologized and he criticizes the spiritual father, the Christian youth (of catechism class or spiritual group), because, according to bishop Vlachos, aims of an ideologized Christianity, a bad Christianity, are set up for the young Christian. For example, when he says: “The young Christian belongs to a group, he is a good student, he seeks out the truth, he strives for the prevalence of justice, is concerned about the betterment of society, combats social evil, serves his fellow man, etc.”
And to reinforce his views the Most Reverend invokes the opinion – of whom? of Chrestos Giannaras, who is known for his impious views! He writes: “Professor Chrestos Giannaras and others for years have stressed that the secularization of the Church consists in the fact that Orthodoxy, from being the communion of society with God, is rather transformed into an ideologism.”
Such things from the article of the Metropolitan of Nafpactos we mention for the present here and judge, and soon with God’s help we will mention and judge other points of his article as well.
***
And now we ask: Whom does the Most Reverend refer to as being Christians who transform Christianity or the Church into an ideology or ideologism, in which God is not considered a personal being, but an idea and an impersonal power?
That the saint of Nafpactos takes as an occasion for his article the fact of the terrible deviation of the three children of a former priest of the Metropolis of Florina; that he doesn’t like the directions that are given to young students of spiritual instruction (of a catechism class or of a spiritual group); that he invokes Mr. Giannaras, who suffers incurably from Religious Organizations Syndrome, which he maniacally combats as being pietist, pietistic, not pious, protestant, not orthodox and ecclesiastical; that at one point in his article he speaks of “theouses”, “godlyings”, just as modestly dressed women especially those of Religious Organizations are called sarcastically by worldly Christians; and that at another point in his article he writes, “Certain Christians are separated into groups, which are discerned as being imperviable to others” – these considerations demonstrate that the Most Reverend one condemns, first and foremost, those people of Religious Organizations as transformers of Christianity into an ideology, and especially the former Metropolitan of Florina and the followers of his sermons.
A Metropolitan, anonymously and in unmanly fashion in an interview with a daily newspaper of Athens, on the occasion of the terrorist organization November 17, portrayed the former metropolitan of Florina Augustinos as a creator of terrorists, as a big terrorist! Do you too, holy one of Nafpactos, mean that Fr. Augustinos Kantiotes in some way is a cause of the phenomenon of terrorism? Do you mean that Fr. Augustine did not teach genuine Christianity, but an ideologism and ideolepsia? Learn that Fr. Augustine preached in words and deeds the most perfect form of Orthodoxy, and created the most exemplary Metropolis in Greece. Learn that in the conscience of the most conscientious Orthodox Christians from America to Australia, first in line is Fr. Augustine. Even enemies recognize and marvel at the faith, life and struggles of Fr. Augustine.

Directions, aims and deeds of the Christians whom you condemn in parts of your article which we cited, as well as elsewhere, you, Most Reverend portray them as being moralistic, as incorrect things. Why? Is it not truly right “to become good people, to help in the transformation of society, to combat social evil etc.”? Is it not right, moreover, for a spiritual father to recommend to his spiritual children not to vote for adversaries of the church and of Christ? Is it not right for “the little Christian to be a good student, to search for the truth, to struggle for the prevalence of justice etc.”?
And who told you, holy one of Nafpactos, that the Christians whom you find fault with limit Christianity to only moral aims and don’t extend themselves into eternity? Who told you the Christians against whom you strike, don’t believe God to be a personal being, but an idea and an impersonal power? They believe in God not simply as a person, but as a tri-personal or tri-hypostatic, as Father, Son and Paraclete or Holy Spirit. And they commune the immaculate mysteries and are personally united with their God. And their perspective is eternal: to receive the unshakable kingdom and to co-reign eternally with their Lord.
Why, Most Reverend, do you criticize Christians, “when their relationship God is sentimental, is involved with their feelings”? Is not the first commandment complete love for God? Now is not love a sentiment? Moreover, why do you condemn Christians, when their relationship with God is rational”? Does not the Lord want us to love him “with all our mind” (Matt. 22:37), “with all our intellect (nous)”? And does not the apostle ask that we offer “rational worship” to God (Romans 12:1)? Your article offers us occasions to submit other questions too, be here we suffice ourselves to these and to one more:
Why, saint of Nafpactos, do you invoke on behalf of your views Mr. Giannaras? Do you identify your theology with Giannaras’s theology? Do you not know that Giannaras is impious and a heretic? Don’t you know, for example, that he affirmed that one cannot taste divine eros, unless one first tastes carnal eros, even if so illicitly. Don’t you know that he maintained that the Fathers of the Church made strict Canons because they had sexual complexes? The ever-memorable father Porphyrios, that great charismatic of our day, would say to me about Giannaras: “He deviated, he became a heretic; hit him, hit him hard”. And only Giannaras’s column in the “Daily” (“Kathemerini”) of Sunday September 8, 2002 entitled “Meteori Metaphysiki” (“Suspended Metaphysics”) is enough to demonstrate that Giannaras sets wisdom within vagueness, writes by and large incomprehensible things, nurtures an abysmal passion in his soul against people of the faith and of sacrifice, babbles impetuously about the debasement of the Church by real Orthodox Christians, and thinks in a heretical fashion.
Unfortunately, Most Reverend one, your apprehensions coincide in large part with the sickly Giannarasian apprehensions, which appear as being…true Orthodoxy!
But we shall continue.
*** Part II ***
We continue our commentary of certain points of the article of the Most Reverend Metropolitan of Nafpactos Mr. Ierotheos entitled “Ideologized Christianity and Terrorism.”
The Most Reverend, together with many others, doesn’t have a sympathy for the term “religion”. He writes: “The Church functions not as a religion, even in the sense of being of a more perfect and more complete nature, but, as a therapeutic society, which has at its disposition the perfect therapeutic method in order to cure the fallen, sickened condition of man…”
Those who nurture an antipathy for the term “religion” don’t think correctly in this regard. For even this term finds its justification in god-inspired Scripture. The apostle Paul refers to Judaism as a “religion”. He says to king Agrippa: “According to the most exact sect of our religion I lived as a Pharisee” (Acts 26:5). And just as he calls Judaism a “religion”, so also he does in the case of Christianity. The brother of the Lord James writes: “He who thinks he is religious among you and who doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, for such a person religion is vain. Pure and immaculate religion in the sight of God is this: to visit widows and orphans in their sorrow, and keeping oneself spotless from the world.” (James 1: 26-27). And the Fathers of the Church call Christianity a religion. St. Isidore the Plousiotess in his Epistles many times speaks about our most divine religion.
Christianity is a religion, not “more perfect and more complete” in relation to the religions of the world, but perfect, the only perfect and complete religion.
No Christian denies that the Church is a therapeutic society with a perfect therapeutic method for the curing of fallen and sickened human nature. But of course this meaning is not to be found in opposition to the meaning and destiny of the Christian Religion.
Let’s not play with words!
The saint of Nafpactos, again along with others, doesn’t sympathize with the term “Christianity”. He writes: “Certain people transform the Church into Christianity, which has the element of ideology in it”. An Idea, that is to say, an impersonal power. And on behalf of his view the saint of Nafpactos invokes the ever-memorable Metropolitan of Kozani Dionysios, who used to say that we must not speak about Christianity, but about the Church.
The Metropolitan of Nafpactos is well educated and the ever-memorable Metropolitan of Kozani Dionysios was well educated too, but no one is infallible.
Mistaken is the affirmation that Christianity is an ideology, in which God is abolished as a personal being and becomes an impersonal power. Christianity preaches a personal God, and indeed trihypostatic. And we can speak also about a Church and about Christianity. And logically Christianity, the Christian teaching, the Christian Religion, precedes and there follows the establishment of the Church, which occurred with the ascension of Christ on the day of Pentecost.
When the Apostle Paul says “Before faith came…until the faith should be revealed…but now that faith has come” (Gal. 3:23-25), with the word “faith” what does he mean? Does he not mean the New Testament, the teaching from revelation, the new Religion, Christianity, in contrast to Judaism?
The Fathers of the Church use the term “Christianity”. “Christianity is greatness”, says Saint Ignatius the God-bearer. If we discard the term “Christianity”, then let’s also discard the term “Christian”, a New Testament term (Acts 11:26, 26:28, Peter 4:16). For the attribute “Christian” millions of faithful shed their blood.
We repeat: Let’s not play with words!
The Most Reverend speaks about “so-called atheists”. Moreover he speaks of “so-called enemies” of the Church and sets himself against apologetics. He writes that the Church “has as work the confession of the faith and of the exercise of pastoral care, even to so-called atheists, and not to engage in apologetics, not to deal with current events, and not to advance against her so-called enemies, since the true Church never has enemies, or at least, she doesn’t consider those who are found to be within her sphere, or outside of it, enemies. Rather, she deals with them as creatures of God that must acquire existent and existential knowledge of God”.
Why, Most Reverend, do you speak of “so-called enemies”? Why do you express yourself in this manner? Are those not really atheists who don’t believe in God and don’t have God, the true God? Doesn’t the Apostle Paul say concerning Christians of the nations, that previously they were “atheists in the world”? (Ephes. 2:12) Why do you express yourself differently from Scripture, indeed today, when the impious does not say “in his heart: there is no God” (Psalm. 13:1; 52:1), but publicly and with boasting and with provocativeness preaches and declares that he is an atheist, and when political systems have atheism in their worldview? Unfortunately, there are atheists and adversaries of God. Besides, you yourself, Most Reverend, contradict, however, only yourself, in speaking about “godlyings of atheism”. You accept and you don’t accept the existence of atheists!
Moreover, saint of Nafpactos, why do you speak about “so-called enemies” of the Church? Why do you express yourself in this way? Do not enemies of God and of His Church really exist, and many times also cruel persecutors of God and the faithful? During Pascha do we not sing: “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered” (Psalm 67:2)? Does not Paul speak about “enemies of the cross of Christ” (Philip. 3:18)? With the frightful saying of Luke 19:27 are not those who do not recognize Christ as their king characterized as “enemies” worthy of slaughter? Is not the Church persecuted through the centuries? And by what is it persecuted? By friends? Not by enemies? To be sure, Christ gave us the commandment to love even those who hate us and persecute us. But He didn’t call them our friends: “Love your enemies” (Matt. 5:44). Why, Most Reverend, do you speak a different language than the language of Scripture, the language of the prophets, of the apostles, and of Christ Himself?
Why, finally, saint of Nafpactos, do you think that it is not the work of the Church to engage in apologetics, to deal with current events and with her enemies? Why do you want the Church to be inactive as regards current events? Is the Church outside of time and space? Why do you set yourself against apologetics, which offers proofs in behalf of the faith and against unbelief? Does not the Apostle Peter say, “We are always ready to offer an apology, a defense, to everyone who asks us to give an account concerning the hope that is within us” (I Peter 3:15)? Did not Christ invoke His works, did He not invoke His miracles as demonstrative elements in order for people to believe in His words and in His person (John 10:25; 37-38)? Did He not show Himself alive after His death “with many proofs” (Acts 1:3)? Does not the evangelist Mark say that the Lord affirmed His word “through signs that followed?” (Mark 16:20)? Also, does not the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 2:3-4) also say that the salvific truth was attested to by ear-witnesses, the apostles, and that God bore witness with amazing signs and gifts of the Holy Spirit? Don’t these things all constitute apologetics in behalf of the faith? And does not the apostle Paul offer apologetics, a defense, when in Romans 1:19-20, in censuring the impious for their unbelief, he says, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse”? Moreover, the saying in Hebrews 3:4, “Every house is built by someone, and He who created everything is God” – does this not offer apologetic proof, a defense in behalf of the faith?
And after the apostles, are not many ecclesiastical authors and saints apologists? Did they not write apologies, defenses of the faith to the persecutors of the Church both Jews and gentiles? And until today, are not apologetic writings written on behalf of Christianity?
What? Does not God want the proofs of Christianity to be examined? Does He not want proofs offered in behalf of the faith and against unbelief? What? God wants us to believe without proofs, to believe blindly? But blind faith doesn’t have value; it’s groundless, toppled, and becomes dissolved.
After these considerations, saint of Nafpactos, how is it that you are not for Apologetics? In the end of your critiqued article you write about the unbelievers, that the Church “deals with them as creatures of God who must acquire existent and existential knowledge of God”. But how will unbelievers acquire knowledge of God, if the Church doesn’t help them with apologetics?
Most Reverend one! You’re going to drive us crazy with your newly appearing apprehensions! We entreat you to abandon these apprehensions and speak the language of Scripture and the Saints of our Church, particularly of the great Fathers, and fear not that perhaps various Giannarasians consider you an anachronistic and retarded theologian. If one wants to be pioneering, let him be pioneering with serious views and not with “godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith” (1 Tim. 6:20-21).

THE HUMBLING MYSTERY

[St. Kosmas says: “You ought to confess every day, if you can, but if you cannot confess every day, let it be once a week or once a month, or at the very least four times a year. And accustom your children from an early age in the good path, to confess.” (Modern Orthodox Saints Series Vol. I. : St. Kosmas Aetolos by Constantine Cavarnos, p. 69)]

***
We have egoism. One has more and another has less. And we sin out of egoism. We do our will, so that we might satisfy our ego. Egoism is the root of sin. Lucifer, the most brilliant archangel, fell out of egoism. For this reason, also, we call egoism luciferian. Out of egoism our first parents, the first-formed, fell. They did not do the will of God, Who had created them. They did the will of the arch-egoist, the Devil, so that they might please themselves, their ego. And all their children, their descendents, though they criticize them for transgressing the divine commandment, imitate them. Do exceptions exist? No, they do not exist. Is there not a single person to be found clean from filth? Does not Scripture say that all without exception, all of us, are sinners? And do we not, all of us, sense this unpleasant truth? Only a completely senseless and foolish person can maintain that he or she doesn’t have sins. Since sin originates from egoism and all of us are sinners, therefore all of us have egoism. Souls with sense say: We made a mess because of our egoism…
All the adamites, all of us people, are sinners and under judgment before God. But initially, no-one is excluded from salvation [theosis]. Satan is excluded from salvation, because he invented sin and became completely perverted. Man did not invent sin, but he sinned by being led astray by Satan and became corrupted to a lesser degree.
Satan, because he became totally perverted, has no capability whatsoever, for which salvation is absolutely indispensable. Man, because he was corrupted to a lesser degree, possesses this capability. And what is this capability? It is repentance. Man is capable of repenting. And if he repents, all-compassionate God accepts his repentance and saves [deifies] him. Indeed, He helps him so that he might repent.
But what is repentance? Because we sin out of egoism, repentance is to fight our egoism and to show the opposite of egoism which is humbleness. Is it easy to humble ourselves? Of course not, on account of our egoism. Humbleness, true humbleness, is difficult. But of important value are those things that are difficult – not the easy things.
Certain ones, in order to absolve themselves from guilt feelings and pangs of conscience, which sin creates, annul the idea of sin. And by annulling the idea of sin, they also annul the need for repentance. These are miserable people, the most miserable people of all. They create false-feelings. In reality “the sin remains” (John 9:41), sin is in force, and the guilt feelings moreover are in force. And if they want to be saved, they must humble their egoism; they must repent. Humbleness and repentance are not diminutive and humiliating things. They are heroisms of the soul worthy of praise both by God and by people. Do we not, for example, praise the grateful thief for his repentance?
And they, who vainly annul the idea of sin, and all sinners, if we do not want to be in a state of temporary and eternal misfortune, but to chance mercy and salvation [theosis] from God, we ought to be obedient to His will. The Lord after His resurrection, appearing to the Apostles “blew and said to them: Whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted them; and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained.” (John 20:23). With this blowing and with these words Christ, by virtue of His crucifixional sacrifice, gave to the Apostles, and through them to their successors, the spiritual authority of remitting sins. Thus the Lord established the mystery of divine Confession, the mystery (sacrament) of psychical heroism, or heroism of soul. In accordance with this mystery, the faithful person goes to the representative of Christ and successor of the Apostles, the spiritual father, decimates his egoism before him, confesses with repentance, and receives the remission. But if the sinner does not go to the mystery, or goes without repentance, his sins are retained, they remain unforgiven.
Beloved readers! We always sin “in words, in deeds, and in thought.” And we must always repent. And during intervals we must go to our spiritual father, just as we go to the doctor for our sicknesses. And let us redeem our judgments, so that we may absolve ourselves from the weight and anxiety and to take on strength in our spiritual struggle. The time for making our confession is always appropriate. But when it is a fast period, like it is now, the forty-day Nativity fast, the time is even more appropriate.
With his birth Christ comes to us. That is what the name “Emmanuel” means. And with repentance and confession we come to Christ. Blessed is Christ, Who comes to us. But blessed are also the people, who come to Christ. – N.S.

(Taken from the monthly religious periodical THE CROSS, Nov. 2006, Issue no. 517. Revelation 22:16)

PROOFS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

(From the Greek religious periodical The Cross, Oct. 2007 – Issue No. 527
by Nicholas John Soteropoulos)

Part I.

Many say, especially scientists, indeed even bishops and professors of Theology, that the existence of God cannot be proved. Recently from a television station of Athens, in a show, two professors of the University, one of them a theologian, it was heard, that neither the existence of God can be proved nor his non-existence. The existence of God, it was said, is a matter of the heart. If the heart feels or senses that God exists, then a person believes in God; otherwise he or she doesn’t believe.
Those who think that the existence of God cannot be proved think without sense and meaning, and they annul Apologetics, a branch of Theology, which offers proofs in behalf of the Faith. In annulling Apologetics, they annul the apologists of Christianity, modern ones, but also older ones, of the first centuries of Christianity, whom the Church honors and rewards. But as we shall see, without being aware of it, they also annul the god-inspired text of Christianity – Holy Scripture.
To be sure, Christianity is called Faith. And it demands that we believe in God. But that doesn’t mean that the faith has no relation to knowledge, with proofs in behalf of the faith. If Christianity demanded faith without proofs, the faith would be blind and would have no value. If Christianity demanded faith without proofs, those who use the saying “believe and don’t search” would be right, while now they are not correct, because such a saying doesn’t exist either in Holy Scripture or in the teaching of the Church. Holy Scripture and the Church are in favor of searching and gaining knowledge. Now attributing the saying “believe and don’t search” to Christianity is a slander against Christianity and a mockery.
God indeed is an object of faith, but also an object of knowledge. “Be still and know that I am God”, says the Lord through the Psalmist (Psalm 45:11). And in the Wisdom of Solomon, 14:22, mention is made concerning “knowledge of God” and the error of the idolaters as regards their “knowledge of God” (theognosia) and their “ignorance” (agnoia). The apostle Paul considers conscientious and progressed Christians to be full of “all knowledge” (Romans 15:34; 1 Corinthians 1:5), and certainly he signifies the knowledge of God to be primary knowledge. Regarding Christians who are of little faith and imperfect he writes: “Some are ignorant of God” (1 Cor. 15:34). Clearly, then, God is an object, or as we more commonly say in English, the subject-matter, not only of faith, but also of knowledge. Indeed the verb “to know” (gignosko in the Greek), when it concerns the position of man before God, means both knowledge and faith, just as, for example, in John 17:3, “that they may know the only true God and him whom he has sent Jesus Christ”. And in 1 John 4:6-8, “He who knows God hears us…Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God”. And today, when someone says, “I have come to know God”, he or she means that previously, for him or her, God was unknown, – “The Unknown God” the Athenians wrote on an altar – , and later obtained knowledge and faith in God; and became conscientious Christians.
According to these considerations knowledge precedes faith in God. It is another issue that even in faith, knowledge follows, that is, the initial knowledge after the faith increases, is enriched, and becomes more perfect. Consequently this saying also holds true “I know in order to believe”, and “I believe in order to understand” of St. Augustine’s. [trans. note:–“If you do not believe, neither will you understand.” (Isaiah 7:9)] The believer understands, knows better, knows more, and knows more deeply. God gives to the faithful person wisdom and knowledge. According to 1 Cor. 12:8, among the gifts of the Holy Spirit are included the gifts of wisdom and the gift of knowledge: “Through the Spirit to one is given the gift of wisdom, and to another the gift of knowledge according to the same Spirit”.
In the sphere of knowledge, which leads to faith, are included proofs for the existence of God. We shall mention such proofs in the subsequent articles. In summing up the present article we say this, that the essence of God is by nature inconceivable and incomprehensible, and, consequently, we cannot prove how the essence of God is. But the existence of God is able to be proved, and indeed with innumerable proofs.

(From the Greek religious periodical The Cross, Nov. 2007 Issue No. 528
by Nicholas John Soteropoulos)

Part II.

In his Epistle to the Romans, the most theological of his Epistles, the apostle Paul speaks about the “known of God” (1:19). What does the “known of God” mean? It means knowledge of God. More specifically, it means whatever is possible to become known concerning God. Concerning God it is not possible to know everything. Knowledge of God with respect to all things is by nature impossible. But knowledge of God in part is possible. As we have already said in our previous article, the essence of God is inconceivable and incomprehensible; that is why the knowledge of the essence of God, that is, how the essence of God is – this is impossible. But the existence of God is an object of knowledge; it can be proved. Moreover, an object of knowledge is also the attributes,[qualities, or properties] of God.
The apostle Paul explains and makes clear his phrase “the known of God.” On the occasion of the impious and ungodly he writes: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful” (1:18-21). The impious “possess the truth”, know the truth, but “in unrighteousness”, in vain. They know the truth, “for the known of God is made manifest to them” because the knowledge of God, according to measure, has not been hidden and precluded from them, as occurs with worldly knowledge, but is made manifest unto them. They don’t even need to study, in order to acquire this knowledge of God. And how is this knowledge of God made manifest? “For God revealed it to them”. This knowledge is clear, because God revealed it to them, to the impious ones, and of course to all people. Just as God makes the sun to rise for all people, so also he revealed the truth, which was able to be revealed for all men.
And how did God reveal the said knowledge? through the creation of the world: “for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead”. From the time the world was created, “the invisible attributes…are clearly seen”. Things that are invisible become most visible, they appear most visible by means of the creatures with the eyes of the intellect. Whoever sees the creatures and creations, [all of] which [together] comprise the natural world, with the common intellect, if sin has not darkened it, this person is led up to the invisible. Invisible is God, but the world clearly indicates and clearly proves His existence. For the world is not uncreated and pre-eternal. If it existed pre-eternally, it would have long ago become corrupted and reached thermic death. The world was created. And of course it wasn’t created by its own self. The universe has order, harmony and beauty. That is why it is called cosmos. And of course the universe was not adorned by [means of] its own self. Moreover the universe is governed. And of course it is not governed by its own self. A supreme being created, adorned and governs the universe.
Now not only the existence of God, Who by nature is invisible, is proved by the universe, but also the attributes of God, things invisible, are also indicated by the universe.
As invisible qualities of God, which are most apparent in the universe and thus become most visible, the apostle Paul mentions by saying “His power and divinity”. Without an eternal and inconceivable power, how could the universe possibly have been created and governed? Without the wisdom of an All-wise being how was it possible for the universe to become adorned? The divinity, the divine essence, is not visible. But the “divinity”, the grandeur of God is very clearly visible. The writer of this present article often says and stresses that the cosmos, this all-huge and all-harmonious and all-beautiful universe, proves four things: the existence, the omnipotence (all-powerful nature), omniscience (all-knowing nature), and love of God. We say also the love of God, because God created the universe, for man to see, to research through science, to discover always more and more, and to fill his soul with amazement, joy and gladness.
Therefore, from the time the world was created, God gave revelation, natural revelation; he gave knowledge, knowledge of God; he gave proof of the existence, the omnipotence, the omniscience and his love towards men. But the impious, “knowing God”, though they knew God from his creations, “did not glorify and thank God”, they did not worship and honor him as God. Sin dominated among them, and especially pride, egotism. And that is why they were darkened and went into error, into deception and instead of worshipping the Creator they worshipped the creatures and themselves. If God had not rendered Himself known, they would be excused. Now though, they are without defense. Now they are “without defense,” unexcused and worthy of condemnation.
But we shall continue.

(From the Greek religious periodical The Cross, Dec. 2007 – Issue No. 529
by Nicholas John Soteropoulos)

Part III.
In his epistles to the Hebrews the apostle Paul says: “For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.”
Here the apostle formulates a syllogism of apologetic character, sets forth an apodictic reason for the existence of God. And for this reason, those who deny the significance of Apologetics, which offers proofs on behalf of the Faith, ought especially to pay attention to this passage, so that they may not become superior to the god-inspired apostles.
“Every house is built by someone”. Every house has some builder, as well as the biggest edifice, the skyscraper, even the humblest house. No house comes to be of its own self, automatically, by chance. If for [even] a little hut one maintains, that it came to be without a builder, automatically, by chance, those hearing this will laugh and say that this person is insane. How much more insane will one be characterized as being, if he were to assert that a beautiful house, a luxurious villa, a skyscraper came to be of their own selves, automatically, and by chance. And of course no one ever risked his seriousness in holding to such a view.
But a nice house, a luxurious villa and a skyscraper is what in comparison to the house, which is called cosmos or universe?
How big is the universe? Ask the scientists in this regard. The universe, they say, has a diameter of billions of light years! For one to reach a most distant star of the universe, one would have to travel at the speed of light (186,000 per second) for billions of years!
And how many stars, suns of different sizes and colors, are included in the universe? Ask the scientists again. There are billions of galaxies, and each galaxy on average has 100 billion stars, suns.
And how big is each sun? Our sun is about 1 and a half million times bigger than the Earth. Most suns of the universe are bigger than our own sun. One sun of our galaxy, Antaris, is 64 million times bigger than our sun.
And how do the all-huge and seemingly innumerable heavenly spheres move? Each one moves with many movements around different centers. And they do so with dazzling speeds. And they don’t collide. The universe functions with order and harmony, which is expressed with mathematical terms. The universe is written, scientists said, in the language of mathematics.
And how beautiful is the universe? It is so beautiful, that it fills the souls with unspeakable amazement. It is so beautiful, that the Greek language has called it “cosmos”, a “cosmetic,” an adornment. There are many adornments. But the greatest adornment is the universe. The most beautiful royal palace is nothing before the palace which is called the universe and cosmos.
And now the question arises: Who built the all-huge, all-harmonious and all-beautiful universe? As we said, no one asserts that a house comes to be of its own self, automatically. If someone maintained such a thing, he would be characterized as being insane. The house surely has a builder. That’s what logic says. How much more reason is there to believe that the universe has been built. Now it is impossible for the builder of the universe not to be incomparably superior to man in respect to power, wisdom, art and fine art. That incomparably superior being is called God. That is why the apostle declares: “He who has built every thing is God”. The universe, then, points to the existence of an All-powerful, All-wise being, of God. The omnipotence of God is seen not only from that he created “everything”, but also that he is governing “everything”. And his omniscience is apparent in that He created everything with wisdom. In Psalm 103, which is the hymn of creation, the Royal Prophet shouts forth: “How great are your works, O Lord! You have created everything in wisdom” (verse 24).
In Psalm 19, verse 1, the prophet-king declares what the heavens declare: “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.” The heavens with their existence, size, harmony and beauty declare the glory of God, the grandeur of God. The firmament, the heavenly dome above us, declares that the hands of God created, made a work, built the universe.
The heavens are speechless. And yet in their own way they shout forth concerning their creator and his grandeur. And “Their voice has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world,” as the prophet-king writes in the same Psalm, verse 4.
The universe is not only one proof for the existence of God. Because the universe contains an infinite amount of purposeful and marvelous things, for this reason the universe has an infinite amount of proofs. There are a multitude of proofs for the existence of God in the universe! And since there are proofs, and indeed an infinite amount [of them], it is rational for one to believe in God, and irrational for one not to believe. And if someone is insane who holds that a house came to be by chance, insane to an infinite degree is he who maintains that the universe came to be, was adorned, and is governed by chance.

(From the Greek religious periodical The Cross, Jan. 2008 – Issue No. 530
by Nicholas John Soteropoulos)

Part IV.

There exist billions and billions of stars, all-massive heavenly spheres. It is the macrocosm. There exist incomparably more atoms of matter. The atom of matter is the microcosm. Amazing and wondrous phenomena exist in the macrocosm. Amazing and wondrous phenomena exist also in the microcosm, the atom of matter. Not even man can perform such a great miracle as the macrocosm, the universe, nor such a great miracle as the microcosm, the atom of matter. Science stands in wonder and amazement when it examines and researches the mysteries of the universe and of the atom of matter.
On earth, the planet, on which we dwell, there exist thousands of kinds of plants. And each kind of plant has countless atoms. Who, for example, can count all the seaweed of the earth, all the grains of wheat, all the poppies, all the branches, all the apple trees, all the orange trees, all the olive trees, all the pine trees, all the fir-trees?… Plants, because they have life, develop, produce blossoms, produce fruits, and are more marvelous than dead matter.
As an example we mention the amazing phenomena of a plant, the orange tree. The orange tree takes from the ground water with constituents that are inorganic, dead, and, contrary to the law of gravity, which pulls things down, it raises the constituents up, to its green part, the chlorophyll. It does not take from the ground all the ingredients, but chooses those, which are needed, in order to make the orange tree. How does the orange tree know what constituents are necessary, in order to make an orange tree, and chooses them? Did the orange tree study chemistry? Or does the orange tree possess a visionary and prophetic gift?
In the green part of the orange tree there occurs a function, photosynthesis. The chlorophyll cooperates with the light, the water with the constituents from the ground, and with the air. The result of this function is, that inorganic constituents become organic, dead matter becomes alive. And how does this leap from dead matter to live matter happen? Our science has reached the stars. But to create the least single monad of life – this it has not achieved. If it created a least monad of life, this achievement would be worth more than all together what our science has achieved until today and more than what it would achieve in the future without including life in that. The orange tree, functioning with the function of photosynthesis, and changing dead matter into live matter, produces its fruit, the orange, a perfect stereo-metrical form, green initially, yellow afterwards and brilliant, like a small sun, a live sun. And the orange is very beautiful, but also very tasty, nourishing and strengthening. One orange tree produces not one, but many oranges, an entire wealth. We eat the oranges, we drink their juice, and we are pleased and gladdened. But do we think of the amazing phenomena, which occur in the orange tree, and do we marvel and do we rise up to Him, who created the orange tree and ordained it to function the way it functions, with wisdom of course not ours, but of its Creator? Do we think, moreover, of the amazing phenomena, which occur in the hundreds of thousands of all kinds of plants and the countless individuals of each kind? In going out to the open air I see and marvel at the green beauty, the grass, the highest of every natural beauty (Wisdom of Sirach 50:22). And many time I thought, that inside a square meter of thick grass there exist countless proofs of the existence of God. How much more in the whole plant kingdom.
“The heavens declare the glory of God”, says the Psalmist (Psalm 18:2). The stars preach the glory of God. And the plants with the life, the development, the blossoms, the fragrances, the beauty and their abundant fruition preach the glory of God. The stars are preachers in far distances, astronomical, distances spanning even billions of light years, but their voices reach the entire earth. The plants are preachers in near distances, even up to the front of our house, and in our very house itself, in the plant vases. But do you suppose we hear the sermons of those preachers, who continually and selflessly and purely and wisely and perfectly preach?

(From the Greek religious periodical The Cross, Feb. 2008 – Issue No. 531
by Nicholas John Soteropoulos)

Part V.

On earth there exists not only the plant kingdom, concerning which we spoke in the previous article. There exists also the animal kingdom. And there exists not only one kind of animal, but many kinds. How many? More than the species of plants. There are hundreds of thousands of species of plants, and millions of species of animals. Animals on dry land, animals of the sea, animals of the air. Animals, small and big. Animals that are tame and animals that are wild. There are animals that are multi-formed, multi-colored, beautiful, amazing. Life on planet Earth, where we live, is pulsating, while on other stars, to which science reaches and performs studies, indications of life are not found. Not even the least form of plant or animal life. Here on Earth, where we people dwell, there exists a wealth of plant and animal life. In a lump of earth, mud, and in a glass of water, how many invisible micro-organisms exist, visible through the microscope! Unimaginable great is the denseness of life on Earth.
The animals preach too in their way the existence, the power, the wisdom and love of God. They preach silently, and yet with loud voices!
And first the animals preach with their existence. For automatically and spontaneously, to the rational and thinking human, the question arises: How were there created and there exist the millions of species of animals? Were they created of their own selves? Of course not. From the one species originated the all the other forms through evolution? That was a theory, not a scientific truth. And that theory was overthrown, after having for a period of time troubled the brains of many. But even if this theory of evolution were to be true, the atheists would not find in it a real prop for their atheism. For, since from the supposed evolution things originated purposefully, a wise design of evolution existed. And since there existed a wise design of evolution, there existed a wise designer. Moreover, since the design was executed, realized, the designer has not only wisdom, omniscience, He has power too, omnipotence, in order to realize His design. And thus is born a new question: Who is the designer, the All-wise and All-powerful One? The existence of the biggest animal to the microbe proves the existence of God.
The animals preach the existence of God with their beauty. A humble sparrow, with its form, its movements, its wing flapping, is enough to prove that God exists. How much more does an all-beautiful, exotic, paradisial bird! The wing of a butterfly with its amazing beauty is enough, as a certain wise man once said, to overthrow atheism. Which painter can make so beautiful a picture, as the wing of a butterfly?
Countless amazing phenomena are observed in the animal kingdom. We mention only one. The eels, when they are about to give birth, leave from the different lands of Europe, they traverse hundreds of thousands of kilometers, and go to the gulf of Mexico, where there is the most suitable place to lay their eggs. And once having given birth, they die. And the new eels begin from their place of birth and return to Europe, growing up along the way. They return to the same lands, where their parents were, to the same lakes, the same rivers, even to the same ditches! The following questions arise: How do the eels know, that the most suitable place, for them to give birth, is the gulf of Mexico? And how do they traverse such huge distances to reach there without a nautical compass? And how do the new eels return exactly to the places, where their parents used to be? Do the eels possess the visionary and prophetic gift? Of course the eels do not know. But He who created the eels knows. He operates and guides them with His wisdom and power.
Animals prove the existence of God, and particularly His love for humankind, by their beneficial nature. The benefits of animals to man are different. Dogs, e.g., protect us with their barks; horses, donkeys and mules serve us with transports; canaries and nightingales charm us with their chirpings; and many land animals, sea animals and air animals make us rejoice with the nourishment which they provide us. The beneficial nature of animals to man, just as in the case of plants, of course is not by chance: it is purposeful, it originates from the love of God. But how many people apprehend the messages of the love of God, which come from the animal kingdom, just as from the plant kingdom? How many, though they enjoy the goods of God, think of God and His goodness? But there exist elect souls, which think. During a meal, it made a special impression to this writer, the manner in which an elect soul expressed itself: This elect soul, upon seeing the choice meal on the table said: “The love of God is edible!”
The atheists, since they do not accept the existence of God, canonically should not even taste of the various goods that they enjoy, since they are not self-created, nor did they create them, but another created them, whom they preach into non-existence. Atheists and miserable ones! Until when shall you open your mouth, to eat and drink the foreign goods, the goods of God, and at the same time with your all-devouring mouth babble against the existence of God?

(From the Greek religious periodical The Cross, July-Aug. 2008 – Issue No. 536
by Nicholas John Soteropoulos)

Part VI.

Upon planet Earth there exists the animal kingdom. As we said at another time, the animal kingdom includes millions of species of animals, and every kind of animal includes countless individual ones. All animals in different ways preach the existence of God. Even a humble sparrow, is enough to prove that God exists.
The speech concerning sparrows brings to mind the word of Christ directed to us human beings, “You are superior to many sparrows” (Matt. 10:31). Man is superior, incomparably more superior, than all the millions of species of animals. He has not only marvelous and super-marvelous bodily organs, organs with attributes, which the various sciences examine, without, however, ever being able to comprehend and exhaust all the wisdom, which is hidden within them. Man has other attributes, too, of which the animals are deprived. Man has a conscious, that is, an awareness of his existence, self-consciousness. Man has a moral conscious, a conscience. Man has mind, logic. He thinks, intellects, philosophizes, creates sciences; with rockets he rises up to the stars of heaven. Man has the idea of the spirit, of eternity and of God. Man has the highest of yearnings and of loves…At this moment, during which I am formulating the composition, the fleshes and bones of my body are not thinking; I, the ego, am thinking and formulating the composition, a mysterious principle, which exists within me and is called spirit or soul. If the words “spirit” and “soul” bother the materialists and atheists, let them use other words. But at all events they will not be able to persuade us, that flesh and bones of the body think and formulate speech.
And now, given the fact that man did not exist always, the question arises: How did man from non-existence come into existence? How did the zero become a monad, a conscious existence, a personal being (or reality)? And so that we do not refer only to whatever believers and more generally the spiritocrates call spirit and soul, we refer also to the marvelous things of the body and ask: How did the eyes come to be, the ears, smell, tongue, brain, heart, kidneys, and the other members and organs of the body, the cells and the DNA? And how is it that all these are placed in certain positions and were connected between them according to such a manner, that they function harmoniously? Can [empirical] science create an eye, or even, at least, a cell, a small monad of life?
We ask moreover: How was male and female created, man and woman? And how does there exist marvelous bodily and psychical correspondence between man and woman? And who ordained the way by which from man and woman there should originate a new man, the child?
What do the atheists and unbelievers respond to these questions? That people came to be “self-designed” (Wisdom of Solomon 2:2), automatically? The wind blew and man and woman was formed? Ridiculous is the answer without question, ridiculous, also, are the unbelievers and atheists who give such an answer. Are man and woman products of evolution? A theory which toppled, after having first troubled the brains of superficial and superstitious people who are against the Faith. Man and woman did not come to be through evolution. But even if they did come to be through evolution, evolution presupposes the existence of an All-wise Being, who would design and bring evolution to realization, so that by means of it there would originate purposefully also personal beings, man and woman..
In Psalm 138:6 the Psalmist, directing himself to God says: “Thy knowledge hath filled me with wonder”. The meaning of this saying is, that the knowledge of God concerning man is marvelous, super-marvelous. No one can know man fully except God, who fashioned man.
But the formulation of this word of the Psalmist is such that we are able to use this word in another sense, by which manner is expressed in an excellent way that the knowledge or wisdom of God is proved to be super-marvelous by man. In this sense the Psalmist says: O God! Your knowledge, your wisdom, was proved to be super-marvelous by me, by my bodily and psychical construction.
God’s wisdom is proved to be super-marvelous by countless things, but it is proved more by man, the crown of creation. Only an All-wise being, God, could create such a marvelous being, man. An unbeliever and atheist, in provoking a believer said: Are you able to show me a contemporary miracle, which will prove that God exists? And the believer answered the unbeliever and atheist: Stand before the mirror and look at yourself. You are a great miracle, a very great miracle, which includes a multitude of miracles in part and powerfully proves that God exists, who created you with all your bodily and psychical charisms. Do not tell me that superficial response that your father and mother created you. The issue is who created the first father and the first mother: who from non-existence brought into existence the first man and the first woman. Scripture concerning the super-marvelous being which is called man, writes: “And God made man, according to his icon, male and female made He them.” (Gen. 1:27).
In the universe purposeful things exist, the number of which tend to infinity. And all these things with their existence and purposefulness preach that God exists, the Supreme Being, All-wise and All-powerful, which created all these things. But of all the creations, according to the most manifest manner, man preaches and powerfully declares the existence of God, man, the most wondrous creature, the crown of creation.
God exists, because in the universe there exist an infinite multitude of things, and these things exist neither by chance nor of their own selves. Above all, however, my own existence proves the existence of God. God exists, especially because I, the ego, man, exist.

(From the Greek religious periodical The Cross, Oct. 2008 – Issue No. 538
by Nicholas John Soteropoulos)

Part VII.

The God of Holy Scripture, the God of Christianity, our God, does not ask for blind faith, but faith on the basis of proofs of His existence, of His power and of His uniqueness.
A most powerful proof of the existence of God is prophecy, the foretelling of an event of the future, which has no point of connection with the present and, consequently, one can not be capable, with the given facts of the present, to predict it. Prophecy only God is capable of saying, Who is outside the relativity of time, and the prophet too, to whom God reveals the prophecy.
In the book of Isaiah (41:21-23, 26, 28; 43:9-13; 45:21-22) repeatedly our God provokes the idolaters and their gods with the proof of prophecy. He asks them to come forth and for one of them to prove through witnesses, that someone from among them in the past had announced, prophesied, future things: or, now, whether some one of them is able to announce, to prophecy, things of the future. No-one of them during the past had foretold events, which naturally were impossible to be foreseen, nor now announces such things. Therefore, no one of the gods of the idolaters is true god. But the God of Scripture, our God, foretold in the past things naturally unforeseeable, and witnesses to these foretellings and their realizations are the Israelites, and God Himself, and His servant (the Lord or Messiah). And just as God during the past foretold, and the things said came to pass, thus also now he foretells and what is foretold shall happen. God, directing Himself to the Israelites, who become His witnesses in hearing the prophecies and verifying their fulfillment, relatively to the purpose of the prophecies He says to them with the greatest emphasis: “in order that you may know and believe and understand that I am (=I am, exist, am The Being, the true God. The other gods are not, they do not exist, they are not true gods. Compare Exodus 3:14) Before Me there came to be no other God and there shall not be one after Me. I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign god among you. You are witnesses and I the Lord God” (Is. 43:10-12).
The God of Scripture testifies, bears witness concerning Himself; with words, as are the prophesies, and with works, as are the fulfillment of prophesies: He proves His existence, His power, and His uniqueness as God.
Where are those who hold, that the existence of God is not proved, and that Apologetics has no reason to exist? They have no reason to exist. For, in order for people to pay attention to them, they theologize, but a-theologically, and they produce original compositions, but foolishly, saying things contrary to the clear passages of Scripture and to the axioms of logic. We say also to the axioms of logic, because logic demands for one to believe in the existence of a thing, which is proved existent. God, we have said, does not want blind faith. But logic, too, does not want blind faith. Besides blind faith is not steadfast, powerful and real faith.

(From the Greek religious periodical The Cross, Nov. 2008 – Issue No. 539
by Nicholas John Soteropoulos)

Part VIII.
As we have said and we repeat and stress, that the God of Scripture, the God of Christianity, our God, does not want blind faith.
When God chose Moses to liberate His people, Israel, from its Egyptian oppressors, Moses had hesitations an said to the Lord concerning the Israelites: “If they do not believe me, and do not obey my words, – for it is possible for them to say: God did not appear to you – , what shall I say to them?
For the Israelites to believe, but for Moses too, to be strengthened in faith, God performed two “signs”, miracles. The first he performed through the rod of Moses, which became a serpent, and the serpent, in continuation, became a rod again. And the second miracle was through the hand of Moses, which became leprous and in continuation was restored. The Lord gave a command to Moses to perform these miracles before the Israelite people. And if they do not believe, He said, in these two miracles, there shall be a third [miracle]. You shall receive, He said, from the Nile river water; you will spill it on dry land and that water shall become blood (Exodus 4:2-9).
God, in order to create faith, works miracles. And in the given instance, He actuates not only one miracle, but three. And the two he actuates twice, first to Moses and next to the people. Now the third miracle is connected to prophecy, which is another miracle. The transformation of water from the river upon the dry land into blood is a miracle, and the word of God to Moses, the foretelling, that this change would occur, is another miracle, a miracle of prophecy. Moses according to the command of God and with the power of God “performed the signs before (in the presence of) the people. And the people believed” (Exodus 4:30-31).
Faith was a consequence of the miracles. Without miracles the Israelites would not have believed. Even Moses received experience of the miracles in order to believe in the God of his fathers. His first experience of a miracle he received at mount Choreb or Sinai, where he saw the burning bush not being consumed and he spoke with Jehovah, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob (Exodus 3:1 ff.).
And now we ask: How do the deniers of the significance of Apologetics [a branch of Theology] maintain, that the existence of God is not proved, and that faith can exist, without proofs? In part, these people do not think rationally.

TRANSLATION: Stelios Sarantis