The Baptism of Russia, or the "over-patriotism" of Slavic neopaganism
This year, all of Russia - Great, Small and White - celebrates the 1025 anniversary of their baptism - joining the family of Christian peoples, when “once not a people”, became a people of God, a chosen people, a holy people, who assumed the “royal priesthood” ( Wed 1 Peter 2: 9 – 10) serving the One true God, the Creator of heaven and earth.
At such a significant time, it will be right to once again reflect on the transition of our ancestors from paganism to monotheism and the attitude of our contemporaries to the faith of fathers and ancestors: to Eastern Christianity and the so-called "primordial Orthodoxy" - worship of the "Slavic trinity" (Rule, Slavi and Navi); reflect on the significance of Orthodoxy for Russia, the role of sects and the continuing attempts to form Slavic neo-pagan nationalism.
About Orthodoxy and its "substitutes"
In 988, the Grand Duke Vladimir I the Red Sun, rejecting the pagan faith of the ancestors, made Christianity the state religion of Kievan Rus. Since then, the Russian Church has cleansed and sanctified the souls of its children for centuries, making them a “holy place”, the temple of the Holy Spirit, so that God would dwell in them.
With the grace of God’s help, the Russian Orthodox Church created and filled to the brim a vessel of sacrificial love in the Russian people, which for centuries allowed him to patiently endure the trials that fell to his lot: famine, mora, nomad raids, the Horde yoke, Time of Troubles, countless wars ... And at the same time expand the boundaries of their habitat and cultural development of new lands from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, from the Vistula River in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and the development of Siberia and Alaska was almost peaceful. Not a single local people, even the smallest, were destroyed (which cannot be said, for example, of the colonization of America by white settlers). Russia carried everywhere its high culture and Orthodoxy, and the conversion to it occurred voluntarily. Orthodox people in each person first of all saw the image of God, and then the color of his skin, the cut of his eyes and therefore did not take his life away from him, but presented the most precious and priceless that they themselves had - their faith in the Infinite, supra-mundane, Almighty God, Who became a Man “for our sake and our sake for salvation” and by the great ineffable love He allowed Him to be crucified on the Cross to grant immortality and eternal bliss to everyone in His Kingdom, who also commanded us to love one another with the same sacrificial love until death. And for this very love, the Russian people at the cost of their blood saved Orthodox Georgia from complete destruction, liberated southern Slavs from Turks, and thanks to this struggle, Greece was able to gain independence from the High Ports.
Those who claim that Christianity is a “weak religion,” there is no militancy, rage, aiming at victory in it, this is the religion of slaves and defeatists who cannot stand up for themselves, but only instructing them to turn their cheeks under blows and neck the executioner's ax, - these people either deliberately slander and blaspheme, or honestly err, knowing about Orthodoxy by hearsay from the dark rumors about Tolstoyan non-resistance and the refusal of Baptists to serve in the army and take in their hands weapon.
The falsity of such statements shows story. Orthodox Byzantium from IV to XV century opposed the frenzied onslaught of pagan barbarians and Muslims. Orthodox Russia from the 10th to the 20th centuries, that is, for a thousand years, practically alone resisted the same frenzied, cruel and often despicable onslaught from the Catholic (“Christian”) of the West and from the pagan, and then the Muslim East and South. And not only stood in place, but also expanded its borders to the east to the Pacific Ocean and to the south to the Crimea, the Black Sea, the Caucasus, Afghanistan and China. And only when faith began to weaken, when political forces appeared, which began to consciously fight with the Church, defame it and the faith, and then destroy it physically, when the Church was weakened to the last degree, they completely eliminated it from influencing the people and their life (under the Soviet the authorities of the Church not only could not bring up soldiers, but also engage in charity, and the Christian upbringing of children was declared a criminal offense), then our state collapsed and fell apart.
The new power, established over the Russian people in 1917, exploited the same reservoir of people’s sacrificial love, willingly drawing it for its needs, but doing nothing to replenish it, but on the contrary, all these years actively trying to destroy the Church, through which The Lord gave the people fertile help and the power to fulfill the historic mission that He intended for him. Bolsheviks 70 years diligently sawed bitches, on which, without even noticing, sat. The Soviet government tried to carry out a gigantic social experiment to sterilize human souls: God was breaking out and corroding them, and this place was often under the threat of the death penalty a new belief was implanted - that there is no God, man could build man-made paradise on earth to a country taken ... For this, the Church and the whole centuries-old Orthodox culture of a great country were persecuted, and a new cult and ritual was hastily composed, new "prophets" and "saviors" of humanity were glorified, pseudo martyrology (biography "as it were martyrs" of the revolution and a bright future), appointed by the new "holy places", marked throughout commemorative plaques, monuments and museums, compose a new calendar with new holidays and memorable dates, religious processions replaced by demonstrations, etc. etc. They even created new “powers”, in order to comply with the artificial “incorruptibility” of which they had to establish an entire institution that revived the ancient practice of the Egyptian priests in embalming the dead pharaohs ... The new government composed “the opposite of religion”, but the words unites man with God, the new cult had to unite man as if with empty space, because it was proclaimed that there is no God. But in reality it was a godless cult.
The result is known: a country restored in a fratricidal civil war in almost the same pre-revolutionary borders, and having won millions of lives in a terrible world war with almost all of Europe conquered by Nazi Germany and its allies, and then for many years opposing the Cold War to almost the entire Western to the world, crumbled like a house of cards from one stroke of a pen in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The people are tired. The reservoir of people's love and sacrifice has reached a critical point, and now the new government is forced to look for a national idea and puzzle over the problems of the “new Russia”: ensuring defense capability, economic recovery, strengthening statehood ...
During the years of perestroika, new generations grew up in Russia, which received almost nothing positive for the soul: only the cult of profit, sensual pleasures, depravity, cruelty, the desire for "success" at any cost, etc., that is, they "gained" spiritual emptiness, which was quickly filled by an abomination: alcohol, drugs, destructive and totalitarian religious teachings, destroying physical and mental health, enslaving the human person, leading to its degradation, withdrawal from the life of society into the closed life of a sect from which many often don’t return. And it happened to us in the Gospel parable: an impure spirit who was expelled from a person wanders through deserted places, but does not find rest outside it and, returning, finds its place “unoccupied, swept and cleaned”, that is, without God, without the Holy Spirit; “Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter there and live there; and it is for a man that the latter is worse than the first ”(Matthew 12: 43 – 45). Russia became such a person obsessed with seven evil spirits at the end of the 20th century.
Since the beginning of perestroika, Russia has widely opened the doors to all religious and pseudo-religious organizations, and countless preachers, barkers and magicians have flooded the country. But it was not a disorderly mob, but a well-planned and deeply echeloned invasion with clear goals, objectives, methods, delineation of spheres of action and influence. And the invasion was extremely dangerous. Even the Yeltsin Duma, at least in words, expressed its concern, proposed to create a special unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the problems of criminality of destructive religious organizations, recommended the Security Council of the Russian Federation to create a special commission "to check the activities and finance destructive religious organizations" [1], etc. . etc. Jin was released from the bottle, an epidemic of spiritual contagion swept the whole country.
The secession of sects in Russia and Western Europe is largely inspired and supported by the United States and its intelligence services. It was not for nothing that the States threatened to deprive Russia of loans if they offended its agents. Most of the destructive cults originated or have their own leading centers in the United States, are sent by American intelligence services in their activities and carry out intelligence and subversive work in Russia, form semi-legal and secret militarized organizations, decompose the national culture, try to penetrate and penetrate government and state structures, defense enterprises, nuclear facilities ...
The principal difference of all foreign cults from the traditional religions of Russia is their closeness, devotion of adherents of this cult not to the general idea, but to the head and the organization itself, and not the host country, which ceases to be a homeland for its members; asociality; essentially hostility to Russia, its culture, history, traditions and customs; attitude to Russia as an object of capture and occupation, a source of income and recruitment of new members, the implementation of their power claims to world domination, as most cults aim to capture quite earthly, not abstract, spiritual power over the territory of their location and over everything the world.
All totalitarian sects, themselves having very tough, strictly centralized structures with the strongest imperious discipline, going back to the subordination of one dictator or a small group, skillfully use the democratic spineless legislation of many countries with its abstract humanity and achieve great success.
While Russia was an Orthodox monarchy, there was no such a threatening situation, and there could not be, although the law on religious tolerance was adopted. This was explained simply: the incitement of the Orthodox person into any other religion (proselytism) was prohibited by law, and the absolute majority of the population was Orthodox.
"Overpatriotism" of neo-paganism
Another way of weakening Russia, aimed at preventing the restoration of a single spiritual culture and a single nation, is the revival of the ancient ancient local cult, paganism. Neo-paganism helps to reject from Russia the once baptized and culturally included in the all-Russian superethnos non-Russian nationalities under the pretext of their return to the former culture, the faith of their ancestors, etc.
It is sad that many Russian people come across this same romantic trick. Some imitate their departure to paganism, quite consciously fulfilling the task of the relevant special services leading the struggle against Russia, others fall prey to their sincere delusion that by doing so they supposedly cleanse Russian culture of all late and alien accretions of both communism and Christianity.
Psychologically they can be understood. If some sincere patriots return from the fallacies of communism to Orthodoxy, like the faith of fathers and grandfathers, to their traditional culture and heroic history, others, some kind of super-patriots, want to go back even further into the depths of ages, to the roots of ancestors, to more ancient culture and no less heroic and tragic past. The desire is understandable and understandable, but is it reasonable? Does it benefit the man himself and the Fatherland?
Any ethnic group, like a person, is once born, goes through a period of childhood, maturity, old age and disappears from the characters of history. Where are the ancient Egyptians, the terrible Assyrians, the powerful Persians? Where is the Roman Empire, Byzantium? They are no longer there. They completed the cycle of their historical existence: they arose, developed, had a period of flowering, then decline, and finally dissolved in the river of time, leaving a memory of themselves in architecture, literature, religion, history. So, every nation was a “child”, but is it reasonable to return from maturity to childhood, to its ideological helplessness, delusions, ignorance of the truth? If an adult man, having spent years and energy on getting everyday and scientific knowledge, on education, having filled bugs from mistakes, he will want to return to his children's inarticulate babble, children's fears of darkness, lack of education, puzzled “why”, to which he has already received answers for years of your long life? Paganism was the “childhood” of many peoples: Greeks, Romans, Germans (current Germans, Scandinavians, Englishmen), Gauls (French), Slavs ... The current interest of the post-Christian West to the pagan cults included in the modern general relio-occult movement New Age ( The New Era) appeared a long time ago (Z. Freud, C. Jung) and expressed itself in the interest in his own and someone else's ancient mythology. This interest only testifies to the apostasy of our time (apostasy from Christ) and “falling into childhood”, senile marasmus of a dying civilization, which characterizes the transition of the Western superethnos into the phase of obscuration, according to the theory of ethnogenesis L.N. Gumilev [2]. But the Russian superethnos is young, we have a tragic phase of fracture, having sustained that, we can move into a relatively quiet inertial phase of cultural prosperity. Should we imitate the seemingly prosperous but historically dying West, which has lost its spiritual meaning and purpose for its existence?
By adopting Christianity, Russia did not lose anything of any value and usefulness from its cultural past, just as the Greeks did not lose the best part of their classical philosophy, which was perceived, revised and adopted by Christian theology. Greeks, Slavs, Vikings and others - pagan in the past - peoples abandoned their previous religious errors, finding the truth of Divine revelation, abandoned wild customs (human sacrifices, killing the wives and servants of the deceased leader, etc.), ennobled manners, gained high moral standards ( condemnation of debauchery, murder of children, preaching of mercy, love, etc.).
Let us try to show the untruth of neo-paganism on the basis of four arguments.
1. Historical Argument
The Rodnovers - the current lovers of Perun, Dazhbog, Svarog and other Slavic gods - in fact, little can be learned about them, for both the cult and the beliefs and the ritual are completely lost. Neo-pagans do not so much restore as they re-compose these cults. It may be interesting from a creative point of view (how to write a novel or poem), but there is neither historical authenticity nor genuine faith in this, for there is no cultural and religious continuity.
Unlike our contemporaries, Prince Vladimir and his supporters, with whom he chose and “tested” the new faith, knew well the cult and faith of their ancestors. And not suddenly, and not without the advice of the oldest people of the Russian land, chose Eastern Christianity. They also knew what they were giving up and what they were losing and losing, because in a pagan society the prince performed supreme priestly functions (like the pagan Roman emperor was the high priest in Rome) [3]. Present admirers of Perun believe that they know and love him more and they are more expensive and closer to them than Prince Vladimir, who has offered him sacrifices for many years, including human ones? Or will our antiquity lovers also plan to sacrifice Christians to their gods, as the “elders of the city” and “boyars” did in 983 in Kiev, killing the Varyag Theodore and his son John [4]? Or will they slaughter their newborn babies in front of the idols, whose remains were found by archaeologists in the Bohemian temple on the Zbruch River in the Carpathian region [5]? How deep into the darkness and wildness of the centuries do new pagans want to descend with their religious consciousness and deeds? Our ancestors offered human sacrifices on the Zbruch right up until the second half of the 13th century. Wasn’t this the sin of infanticide that the Lord permitted to invade the Horde in Russia in the same 13th century? Is it not for our grandfathers dual faith? We will also be afraid of the new dual faith, so that Russia will not perish from the invasion of a horde of globalism and Americanism, taking advantage of the division of Russian patriots among themselves, as it was among princes in the 13th century. The “horde” wants this, but do we really want our doom?
2. Philosophical argument
Back in VI – V centuries. BC. The pagan Greek philosopher Xenophanes criticized the polytheism and religious anthropomorphism of his contemporaries, proving to them that they invent gods like themselves, and expressed a teaching about the one God. God is one, he argued, because if we assume that there are several gods, some of them will be more powerful, some less powerful. Since God, by definition, is the most powerful Being, He can only be One. If all gods are equal, have equal power, then also they are not fully gods, because they are not the most powerful. He further argued that God is eternal, that is, his appearance from something or someone that is omnipresent, omniscient, etc. is impossible. We see nothing of this in any pagan mythology, where there is always a genealogy of the gods, their mutual quarrels, revenge, battles, marriages and betrayals of wives, etc. The most famous Greek pantheon is full of the most incredible and shameful stories about the birth of the gods, their prodigal adventures, envy, jealousy, that is, everything that so sensibly criticized the sensible heathen Xenophanes: if animals believed in gods, they would invent them like themselves. The Greek pantheon and myths reflected all human passions. About the Slavic pantheon little is truly known, but it could not be fundamentally different.
Later, Plato (5th-4th centuries BC) and Aristotle (4th century BC) developed the doctrine of God as the First Cause, Prime Mover, Absolute Good ... In ancient Greece, philosophers studied the universe and its laws , the person and the laws of his thinking, hoping to gain knowledge about the root causes of all things. They studied astronomy, physics, mathematics, geometry, music, and poetry, and combined all this with ascetic life and prayer, without which it is impossible to achieve purification of the mind, soul and body. Studying the visible world, they discovered its strict laws and extraordinary harmony, so that they called it "cosmos", that is, "beauty" as opposed to chaos - disharmony. They saw that everything in the world was created according to a single plan, and so they came up with the idea of a single Organizer of the Universe. Plato called Him the Creator, the Father, God and the Demiurge (Maker). He wrote:
“Everything that has arisen needs to appear for some reason. Of course, the Creator and the Father of the Universe is not easy to find, and if we find Him, it will be impossible to tell everyone about Him ... Cosmos is beautiful, and the Demiurge is kind ... Cosmos is the most beautiful thing that has arisen, and the Demiurge is the best of reasons .. Being good, He took care of all the visible things that were not at rest, but in a disorderly and erratic movement; He brought them out of disorder to order. ”[6]
Their discoveries are the fruit of human thought, the logical consequence of thinking about the invisible essence of the visible world. Follow their thought and you will see that if everything in the world has a cause, then there must be a reason for the cause. Rising along this causal series, we will inevitably first come to a reduction in their number, and then to that single Reason, Which is the basis of being in everything in this world. She can be only one. In the same way, with the movement, the source of which in the world should be one motionless First Person, God. The same with the Truth. Two truths can not be. The human mind, all reasonable human activity is built on formal logic, on the Aristotelian law of non-contradiction, but it does not allow two truths: it is impossible to say anything about any thing and deny it at the same time, in the same place , in the same relation, that is, impossible "A" and "not A", two opposing true statements are impossible.
The search for truth leads the human mind to the understanding that there is only one Truth and it is absolute, one Cause of being of all things and the whole world, one reason for the movement of everything - the Prime Mover. Then only God is original, only He has the cause of His being in Himself, and all the rest have the cause of their being in Him.
Pagan philosophy did not formally deny the gods, but recognized above them the highest Reason. In the cosmology of Plato, the gods perform subordinate functions similar to the functions of angels in monotheistic religions, that is, they are not gods (as Xenophanes showed), they were created by the demiurge. The ancient philosophy in the person of its best representatives approached the truth about the one God.
Philosophy also interpreted the idea of Logos (from the Greek. "Word, mind, thought, law"), as the universal law of the world order and the divine creative power mediating between God and the created world. Plotinus, through reflections and peculiar insights, came to the idea of transcendence, infinity, unboundedness and unknowability of the Divine. The world is a reflection of the Divine reality, bears in itself the features of beauty and perfection. Through the purification of the body, the senses and the mind, a person can be elevated to the contemplation of God, who remains incomprehensible in his Being [7].
God, as a supreme Being, Having all the positive qualities in the highest degree and not having our inherent limitations, that is, the disembodied Spirit, Almighty, All-Knowing, All-present, Beginning, Infinite, Eternal, Unchanging, Unlimited, All-Good, All-Conscious, All-righteous, is God only one is possible, for two such creatures are no longer possible, which is what Xenophanes wrote about.
Therefore, if modern pagans are really religious and believe in gods, they seek Truth, and they are not atheists indifferent to faith, truth, the meaning of life and peace, who only fell in love with gray antiquity for Rule, Glory and Nav, for ancient cuts and features, wood carving ; for suits and military armor; if for them all this is really religion, then there is a connection with God, and not some ethnographic exotic, then they should follow the pagans Xenophanes, Plato, Aristotle to come to the concept of the one God and then we can speak already about the self-revelation of Truth.
3. Argument from Revelation
For people, some knowledge of the true God is possible even from natural Revelation, that is, from the contemplation of the world He created. As we saw above, this knowledge was touched by the best of pagan philosophers, but uneducated masses and those who did not want to learn anything, but only wanted to indulge in their passions, deified in the pagan pantheon, preferred and now prefer to remain with their usual and convenient errors . Therefore, the apostle Paul wrote in the first century of the Christian era:
“For what can be known about God is clearly for them, because God revealed to them. For His invisible, His eternal power and the Divine, from the creation of the world through looking at the creatures are visible, so that they are unrequited. But because, having known God, they did not glorify Him as God, and did not give thanks, but became vain in their thoughts, and their senseless heart was darkened; calling themselves wise, distraught, and the glory of the incorruptible God was changed into an image like a perishable man, and birds, and four-footed, and reptiles, God also betrayed them in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, so that they defiled their bodies themselves. They replaced the truth of God with a lie, and worshiped and served the creature instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen. ”(Rom.1: 19 – 25).
This humiliation of the Invisible, the Incorruptible, the Uncreated God to the image of the creature and its service is idolatry and paganism, that is, voluntary or involuntary delusion of the human mind. The enlightened antiquity understood this and accepted the revelation of God about Himself, the Christian gospel of God Who is One in the Being and Trinity in Persons, Saving the world created by Him through the manifestation of God's sacrificial love for His creation.
We received this evangelism and our ancestors and for a thousand years served the One Creator of the world, in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to the Glorified and the Worshiped. So is it necessary to return us back into the darkness of ages, to see a deity in every river, lake, tree, thunder and lightning, that is, in a creature? Do we need to bring them to the propitiatory and grateful sacrifices of roosters, sheep, bulls and children, in order to avert their “anger” and to gain “mercy and help”? Is it possible in the XXI century, such an enlightened, civilized and cultural, relapses of archaic thinking? It is hard to believe that a modern person who sincerely seeks Truth, to comprehend and comprehend the universe, could be satisfied with the inevitably primitivized archaic explanation of the world and kingdom of the gods. If he begins to build his abstract speculative constructions, using only their ancient names, to poetize a certain cult invented by him, not confirmed by archaeological or historical evidence, then what is the faith of the ancestors? This is a new religion invented, the fruit of the conscious deception of some and the sincere romantic delusion of others.
The Son of God has already offered a propitiation sacrifice for us all on the Cross - the only one, true and unique, and has consecrated to Her all those who believe in Him. Two thousand years ago, there was no longer a need not only for sacrifices to false pagan gods, but also for the bloody Old Testament sacrifices to the True God. Therefore, according to the prophecy of Daniel, Jerusalem fell and the sacrifice ceased (Dan.9: 26 – 27), that is, the entire Old Testament cult, the planned renewal of which will be direct theomachism.
Therefore, the words of Christ are addressed to the erring: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John. 8: 32), that is, it will free you from erroneous opinions and sins of ignorance. The truth and the way to it and to eternal life is Christ, as He himself said: “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me ”(John 14: 6). The Lord calls everyone to Himself and wants to save everyone, and in order to ascend to Heaven, He left His Church on earth. Come to her and receive saving grace in the Sacraments, which established the Lord. Go to Him. Road going by walking.
4. Psychological argument
The main internal reason for the rejection of Christianity by modern man and the fascination with paganism is the unwillingness to recognize the existence of significant moral shortcomings, which he cannot get rid of on his own. The pagan consciousness of both antiquity and modernity recognizes the existing human nature as self-sufficient, the norm that does not need to be transformed. Christianity claims that a person in his present state has a fallen (spoiled, sick) nature, and offers him divine help in changing oneself for the better, offers to be baptized and repent (which in Greek means "change"). For this, a person at the beginning must recognize himself as being a fallen, sinful being, to see in himself vicious passions. You can do this by evaluating your life according to the gospel moral commandments, comparing it with the earthly life of Jesus Christ, focusing on the perfection of God, which the Lord calls to strive for. At the same time, Christianity does not execute a man for his vices, but offers to be healed from them, to be transformed into the image of Christ, into the image of His human nature - perfect, sinless both in deeds, and in words and thoughts.
He who fears this, fears to heal himself from sin with the help of the grace of God, does not want to impose strict moral and physical restrictions on himself to curb the actions of passions, who is lazy or just happy with himself - for what he is, he does not want be a christian. And in order to "be in faith" in something higher than himself, he chooses beautiful, nostalgic, caressing Slavic rumor names: Velez, Stribog, Chernobog, Rozhanitsy, Triglav ...
All this is understandable and human weakness is excusable. After all, even the chosen people of God, the Old Testament Israel, who had waited for its Messiah for hundreds of years, received Him only in a small number, because they did not want to repent of their sins, believing themselves to be “rightly spotless”, in the words of Paul the Apostle (cf. Phil. 3 : 6). The Lord forgives human weakness, but the conscious stubbornness of the human will, not wanting to listen and do the will of God, is already theomachism. And therefore, the second thousand years through the prophets and apostles the call of God to humanity sounds: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Mt. 3: 2). "Children! Last time ”(1IN.2: 18). “If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and righteous, forgive us sins (ours) and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1In.1: 9). For God is good and merciful, and “in Heaven there will be more joy about one sinner repentant than about ninety-nine righteous people who do not need repentance” (Lk.15: 7).
Conclusion
In 988, the Russian Orthodox Church was born in the baptism of Russia, which was of epochal significance for all Eastern Slavs (ancestors of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians) and many other peoples of historical Russia. According to the historian L.N. Gumilev, "the victory of Orthodoxy gave Russia its thousand-year history." And we hope not only the past history, but also the future one.
“Do not hope for riches, for the sons of mankind, there is no salvation in them ...” (Ps. 145: 3), Holy Scripture warns us. Only following the will of God and His assistance helps a person to fulfill his mission on earth. The same applies to whole nations. Once Christ said to his disciples: “I am the vine, and you are the branches; He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch, and dries; and such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire, and they burn down ”(John. 15: 5 – 6).
While Russia was in Christ, that is, an Orthodox power, it grew and was strengthened by the fear of the enemies of Christ, for joy, hope and help for those who believe in Him. And she brought a lot of fruit - saints of God from various nations who were baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. When Russia began to forget and retreat from Christ, then the flow of life-giving forces coming from Him began to dry out quickly, so that our “branch” shrank and even partially broke off. If we comprehend this bitter truth and again, through repentance, we will cling to the Vine of Christ, work hard and bring the fruit of holiness, then the Lord will have mercy on Russia and prolong her days, may she serve as a deterrent who will delay the final victory of evil in the world, coming to power over him “The man of sin”, who, according to the prediction of the Holy Scripture, is “the son of perdition, opposing and exalting above all that is called God or holy” (2Fes.2: 3 – 4).
Looking at the past of Russia with an unbiased look, we can say with confidence that without the Russian Orthodox Church there would be no great and powerful Russia. And if you look into our present and future, it becomes just as obvious that without the Church it will not exist. If Russia does not feel the same faith, it will disintegrate, and enemies will mock at its remains.
So come to your senses, Rus, arise, shake off the garbage of others' ideas, values, delusions, multitude and disbelief! Lead by broad shoulders as a bogatyr who has risen from a bad dream, step on the path of world evil, thousands of small and large delusions. Stand up for the protection of the truth of holy Orthodoxy, as once in your Time of Troubles, and God will help you.
If not, your mission will remain unfulfilled, and you will dissolve among the universal orgy of bezverja, immorality and lies in the whirl of the "new world order."
Yes, it will not!
[1] Krivelskaya N.V., Ph.D. legal Sciences Corr. Sect: the threat and the search for protection. M .: Blagovest Foundation, 1999. C. 191 (see Appendix 4. Appeal of the State Duma "To the President of the Russian Federation on the dangerous consequences of the impact of religious organizations on the health of society, family, citizens of Russia", "Resolution of the State Duma of the Russian Federation" from 15 Dec. 1996, 187 – 192 with.).
[2] Gumilev L.N. Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe. M .: Thought, 1992. C. 757. The theory itself, see. Gumilev L.N. Ethnogenesis and biosphere of the earth. L .: Gidrometeoizdat, 1990.
[3] Karpov A. Vladimir Saint. M .: Young Guard: ZHZL: Russian word, 1997. C. 147.
[4] Ibid. S. 142-147.
[5] Ibid. C. 142 – 143. See also Rusanova I.P., Timoshuk B.A. The pagan temples of the ancient Slavs. M., 1993.
[6] Timey, 28с – 30b. Quoted by: Hilarion (Alfeyev), igum. Sacrament of faith. Wedge: Christian Life Foundation, 2000. C. 23.
[7] Hilarion (Alfey), Igum. Sacrament of faith. Wedge: Foundation. Christian Life, 2000. C. 22 – 24.
V. Vasnetsov. Baptism of Russia. Sketch of painting for the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev. 1890
At such a significant time, it will be right to once again reflect on the transition of our ancestors from paganism to monotheism and the attitude of our contemporaries to the faith of fathers and ancestors: to Eastern Christianity and the so-called "primordial Orthodoxy" - worship of the "Slavic trinity" (Rule, Slavi and Navi); reflect on the significance of Orthodoxy for Russia, the role of sects and the continuing attempts to form Slavic neo-pagan nationalism.
About Orthodoxy and its "substitutes"
In 988, the Grand Duke Vladimir I the Red Sun, rejecting the pagan faith of the ancestors, made Christianity the state religion of Kievan Rus. Since then, the Russian Church has cleansed and sanctified the souls of its children for centuries, making them a “holy place”, the temple of the Holy Spirit, so that God would dwell in them.
With the grace of God’s help, the Russian Orthodox Church created and filled to the brim a vessel of sacrificial love in the Russian people, which for centuries allowed him to patiently endure the trials that fell to his lot: famine, mora, nomad raids, the Horde yoke, Time of Troubles, countless wars ... And at the same time expand the boundaries of their habitat and cultural development of new lands from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, from the Vistula River in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and the development of Siberia and Alaska was almost peaceful. Not a single local people, even the smallest, were destroyed (which cannot be said, for example, of the colonization of America by white settlers). Russia carried everywhere its high culture and Orthodoxy, and the conversion to it occurred voluntarily. Orthodox people in each person first of all saw the image of God, and then the color of his skin, the cut of his eyes and therefore did not take his life away from him, but presented the most precious and priceless that they themselves had - their faith in the Infinite, supra-mundane, Almighty God, Who became a Man “for our sake and our sake for salvation” and by the great ineffable love He allowed Him to be crucified on the Cross to grant immortality and eternal bliss to everyone in His Kingdom, who also commanded us to love one another with the same sacrificial love until death. And for this very love, the Russian people at the cost of their blood saved Orthodox Georgia from complete destruction, liberated southern Slavs from Turks, and thanks to this struggle, Greece was able to gain independence from the High Ports.
Those who claim that Christianity is a “weak religion,” there is no militancy, rage, aiming at victory in it, this is the religion of slaves and defeatists who cannot stand up for themselves, but only instructing them to turn their cheeks under blows and neck the executioner's ax, - these people either deliberately slander and blaspheme, or honestly err, knowing about Orthodoxy by hearsay from the dark rumors about Tolstoyan non-resistance and the refusal of Baptists to serve in the army and take in their hands weapon.
The baptism of the squad of Prince Vladimir. Radziwill chronicle. K. XV century.
The falsity of such statements shows story. Orthodox Byzantium from IV to XV century opposed the frenzied onslaught of pagan barbarians and Muslims. Orthodox Russia from the 10th to the 20th centuries, that is, for a thousand years, practically alone resisted the same frenzied, cruel and often despicable onslaught from the Catholic (“Christian”) of the West and from the pagan, and then the Muslim East and South. And not only stood in place, but also expanded its borders to the east to the Pacific Ocean and to the south to the Crimea, the Black Sea, the Caucasus, Afghanistan and China. And only when faith began to weaken, when political forces appeared, which began to consciously fight with the Church, defame it and the faith, and then destroy it physically, when the Church was weakened to the last degree, they completely eliminated it from influencing the people and their life (under the Soviet the authorities of the Church not only could not bring up soldiers, but also engage in charity, and the Christian upbringing of children was declared a criminal offense), then our state collapsed and fell apart.
The new power, established over the Russian people in 1917, exploited the same reservoir of people’s sacrificial love, willingly drawing it for its needs, but doing nothing to replenish it, but on the contrary, all these years actively trying to destroy the Church, through which The Lord gave the people fertile help and the power to fulfill the historic mission that He intended for him. Bolsheviks 70 years diligently sawed bitches, on which, without even noticing, sat. The Soviet government tried to carry out a gigantic social experiment to sterilize human souls: God was breaking out and corroding them, and this place was often under the threat of the death penalty a new belief was implanted - that there is no God, man could build man-made paradise on earth to a country taken ... For this, the Church and the whole centuries-old Orthodox culture of a great country were persecuted, and a new cult and ritual was hastily composed, new "prophets" and "saviors" of humanity were glorified, pseudo martyrology (biography "as it were martyrs" of the revolution and a bright future), appointed by the new "holy places", marked throughout commemorative plaques, monuments and museums, compose a new calendar with new holidays and memorable dates, religious processions replaced by demonstrations, etc. etc. They even created new “powers”, in order to comply with the artificial “incorruptibility” of which they had to establish an entire institution that revived the ancient practice of the Egyptian priests in embalming the dead pharaohs ... The new government composed “the opposite of religion”, but the words unites man with God, the new cult had to unite man as if with empty space, because it was proclaimed that there is no God. But in reality it was a godless cult.
The result is known: a country restored in a fratricidal civil war in almost the same pre-revolutionary borders, and having won millions of lives in a terrible world war with almost all of Europe conquered by Nazi Germany and its allies, and then for many years opposing the Cold War to almost the entire Western to the world, crumbled like a house of cards from one stroke of a pen in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The people are tired. The reservoir of people's love and sacrifice has reached a critical point, and now the new government is forced to look for a national idea and puzzle over the problems of the “new Russia”: ensuring defense capability, economic recovery, strengthening statehood ...
During the years of perestroika, new generations grew up in Russia, which received almost nothing positive for the soul: only the cult of profit, sensual pleasures, depravity, cruelty, the desire for "success" at any cost, etc., that is, they "gained" spiritual emptiness, which was quickly filled by an abomination: alcohol, drugs, destructive and totalitarian religious teachings, destroying physical and mental health, enslaving the human person, leading to its degradation, withdrawal from the life of society into the closed life of a sect from which many often don’t return. And it happened to us in the Gospel parable: an impure spirit who was expelled from a person wanders through deserted places, but does not find rest outside it and, returning, finds its place “unoccupied, swept and cleaned”, that is, without God, without the Holy Spirit; “Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter there and live there; and it is for a man that the latter is worse than the first ”(Matthew 12: 43 – 45). Russia became such a person obsessed with seven evil spirits at the end of the 20th century.
Since the beginning of perestroika, Russia has widely opened the doors to all religious and pseudo-religious organizations, and countless preachers, barkers and magicians have flooded the country. But it was not a disorderly mob, but a well-planned and deeply echeloned invasion with clear goals, objectives, methods, delineation of spheres of action and influence. And the invasion was extremely dangerous. Even the Yeltsin Duma, at least in words, expressed its concern, proposed to create a special unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the problems of criminality of destructive religious organizations, recommended the Security Council of the Russian Federation to create a special commission "to check the activities and finance destructive religious organizations" [1], etc. . etc. Jin was released from the bottle, an epidemic of spiritual contagion swept the whole country.
The secession of sects in Russia and Western Europe is largely inspired and supported by the United States and its intelligence services. It was not for nothing that the States threatened to deprive Russia of loans if they offended its agents. Most of the destructive cults originated or have their own leading centers in the United States, are sent by American intelligence services in their activities and carry out intelligence and subversive work in Russia, form semi-legal and secret militarized organizations, decompose the national culture, try to penetrate and penetrate government and state structures, defense enterprises, nuclear facilities ...
The principal difference of all foreign cults from the traditional religions of Russia is their closeness, devotion of adherents of this cult not to the general idea, but to the head and the organization itself, and not the host country, which ceases to be a homeland for its members; asociality; essentially hostility to Russia, its culture, history, traditions and customs; attitude to Russia as an object of capture and occupation, a source of income and recruitment of new members, the implementation of their power claims to world domination, as most cults aim to capture quite earthly, not abstract, spiritual power over the territory of their location and over everything the world.
All totalitarian sects, themselves having very tough, strictly centralized structures with the strongest imperious discipline, going back to the subordination of one dictator or a small group, skillfully use the democratic spineless legislation of many countries with its abstract humanity and achieve great success.
While Russia was an Orthodox monarchy, there was no such a threatening situation, and there could not be, although the law on religious tolerance was adopted. This was explained simply: the incitement of the Orthodox person into any other religion (proselytism) was prohibited by law, and the absolute majority of the population was Orthodox.
"Overpatriotism" of neo-paganism
Another way of weakening Russia, aimed at preventing the restoration of a single spiritual culture and a single nation, is the revival of the ancient ancient local cult, paganism. Neo-paganism helps to reject from Russia the once baptized and culturally included in the all-Russian superethnos non-Russian nationalities under the pretext of their return to the former culture, the faith of their ancestors, etc.
It is sad that many Russian people come across this same romantic trick. Some imitate their departure to paganism, quite consciously fulfilling the task of the relevant special services leading the struggle against Russia, others fall prey to their sincere delusion that by doing so they supposedly cleanse Russian culture of all late and alien accretions of both communism and Christianity.
Psychologically they can be understood. If some sincere patriots return from the fallacies of communism to Orthodoxy, like the faith of fathers and grandfathers, to their traditional culture and heroic history, others, some kind of super-patriots, want to go back even further into the depths of ages, to the roots of ancestors, to more ancient culture and no less heroic and tragic past. The desire is understandable and understandable, but is it reasonable? Does it benefit the man himself and the Fatherland?
Any ethnic group, like a person, is once born, goes through a period of childhood, maturity, old age and disappears from the characters of history. Where are the ancient Egyptians, the terrible Assyrians, the powerful Persians? Where is the Roman Empire, Byzantium? They are no longer there. They completed the cycle of their historical existence: they arose, developed, had a period of flowering, then decline, and finally dissolved in the river of time, leaving a memory of themselves in architecture, literature, religion, history. So, every nation was a “child”, but is it reasonable to return from maturity to childhood, to its ideological helplessness, delusions, ignorance of the truth? If an adult man, having spent years and energy on getting everyday and scientific knowledge, on education, having filled bugs from mistakes, he will want to return to his children's inarticulate babble, children's fears of darkness, lack of education, puzzled “why”, to which he has already received answers for years of your long life? Paganism was the “childhood” of many peoples: Greeks, Romans, Germans (current Germans, Scandinavians, Englishmen), Gauls (French), Slavs ... The current interest of the post-Christian West to the pagan cults included in the modern general relio-occult movement New Age ( The New Era) appeared a long time ago (Z. Freud, C. Jung) and expressed itself in the interest in his own and someone else's ancient mythology. This interest only testifies to the apostasy of our time (apostasy from Christ) and “falling into childhood”, senile marasmus of a dying civilization, which characterizes the transition of the Western superethnos into the phase of obscuration, according to the theory of ethnogenesis L.N. Gumilev [2]. But the Russian superethnos is young, we have a tragic phase of fracture, having sustained that, we can move into a relatively quiet inertial phase of cultural prosperity. Should we imitate the seemingly prosperous but historically dying West, which has lost its spiritual meaning and purpose for its existence?
By adopting Christianity, Russia did not lose anything of any value and usefulness from its cultural past, just as the Greeks did not lose the best part of their classical philosophy, which was perceived, revised and adopted by Christian theology. Greeks, Slavs, Vikings and others - pagan in the past - peoples abandoned their previous religious errors, finding the truth of Divine revelation, abandoned wild customs (human sacrifices, killing the wives and servants of the deceased leader, etc.), ennobled manners, gained high moral standards ( condemnation of debauchery, murder of children, preaching of mercy, love, etc.).
Let us try to show the untruth of neo-paganism on the basis of four arguments.
1. Historical Argument
The Rodnovers - the current lovers of Perun, Dazhbog, Svarog and other Slavic gods - in fact, little can be learned about them, for both the cult and the beliefs and the ritual are completely lost. Neo-pagans do not so much restore as they re-compose these cults. It may be interesting from a creative point of view (how to write a novel or poem), but there is neither historical authenticity nor genuine faith in this, for there is no cultural and religious continuity.
The murder of Theodore Varyag and his son John. Radzivilsky chronicle. Kon XV century.
Unlike our contemporaries, Prince Vladimir and his supporters, with whom he chose and “tested” the new faith, knew well the cult and faith of their ancestors. And not suddenly, and not without the advice of the oldest people of the Russian land, chose Eastern Christianity. They also knew what they were giving up and what they were losing and losing, because in a pagan society the prince performed supreme priestly functions (like the pagan Roman emperor was the high priest in Rome) [3]. Present admirers of Perun believe that they know and love him more and they are more expensive and closer to them than Prince Vladimir, who has offered him sacrifices for many years, including human ones? Or will our antiquity lovers also plan to sacrifice Christians to their gods, as the “elders of the city” and “boyars” did in 983 in Kiev, killing the Varyag Theodore and his son John [4]? Or will they slaughter their newborn babies in front of the idols, whose remains were found by archaeologists in the Bohemian temple on the Zbruch River in the Carpathian region [5]? How deep into the darkness and wildness of the centuries do new pagans want to descend with their religious consciousness and deeds? Our ancestors offered human sacrifices on the Zbruch right up until the second half of the 13th century. Wasn’t this the sin of infanticide that the Lord permitted to invade the Horde in Russia in the same 13th century? Is it not for our grandfathers dual faith? We will also be afraid of the new dual faith, so that Russia will not perish from the invasion of a horde of globalism and Americanism, taking advantage of the division of Russian patriots among themselves, as it was among princes in the 13th century. The “horde” wants this, but do we really want our doom?
2. Philosophical argument
Back in VI – V centuries. BC. The pagan Greek philosopher Xenophanes criticized the polytheism and religious anthropomorphism of his contemporaries, proving to them that they invent gods like themselves, and expressed a teaching about the one God. God is one, he argued, because if we assume that there are several gods, some of them will be more powerful, some less powerful. Since God, by definition, is the most powerful Being, He can only be One. If all gods are equal, have equal power, then also they are not fully gods, because they are not the most powerful. He further argued that God is eternal, that is, his appearance from something or someone that is omnipresent, omniscient, etc. is impossible. We see nothing of this in any pagan mythology, where there is always a genealogy of the gods, their mutual quarrels, revenge, battles, marriages and betrayals of wives, etc. The most famous Greek pantheon is full of the most incredible and shameful stories about the birth of the gods, their prodigal adventures, envy, jealousy, that is, everything that so sensibly criticized the sensible heathen Xenophanes: if animals believed in gods, they would invent them like themselves. The Greek pantheon and myths reflected all human passions. About the Slavic pantheon little is truly known, but it could not be fundamentally different.
Later, Plato (5th-4th centuries BC) and Aristotle (4th century BC) developed the doctrine of God as the First Cause, Prime Mover, Absolute Good ... In ancient Greece, philosophers studied the universe and its laws , the person and the laws of his thinking, hoping to gain knowledge about the root causes of all things. They studied astronomy, physics, mathematics, geometry, music, and poetry, and combined all this with ascetic life and prayer, without which it is impossible to achieve purification of the mind, soul and body. Studying the visible world, they discovered its strict laws and extraordinary harmony, so that they called it "cosmos", that is, "beauty" as opposed to chaos - disharmony. They saw that everything in the world was created according to a single plan, and so they came up with the idea of a single Organizer of the Universe. Plato called Him the Creator, the Father, God and the Demiurge (Maker). He wrote:
“Everything that has arisen needs to appear for some reason. Of course, the Creator and the Father of the Universe is not easy to find, and if we find Him, it will be impossible to tell everyone about Him ... Cosmos is beautiful, and the Demiurge is kind ... Cosmos is the most beautiful thing that has arisen, and the Demiurge is the best of reasons .. Being good, He took care of all the visible things that were not at rest, but in a disorderly and erratic movement; He brought them out of disorder to order. ”[6]
Their discoveries are the fruit of human thought, the logical consequence of thinking about the invisible essence of the visible world. Follow their thought and you will see that if everything in the world has a cause, then there must be a reason for the cause. Rising along this causal series, we will inevitably first come to a reduction in their number, and then to that single Reason, Which is the basis of being in everything in this world. She can be only one. In the same way, with the movement, the source of which in the world should be one motionless First Person, God. The same with the Truth. Two truths can not be. The human mind, all reasonable human activity is built on formal logic, on the Aristotelian law of non-contradiction, but it does not allow two truths: it is impossible to say anything about any thing and deny it at the same time, in the same place , in the same relation, that is, impossible "A" and "not A", two opposing true statements are impossible.
The search for truth leads the human mind to the understanding that there is only one Truth and it is absolute, one Cause of being of all things and the whole world, one reason for the movement of everything - the Prime Mover. Then only God is original, only He has the cause of His being in Himself, and all the rest have the cause of their being in Him.
Pagan philosophy did not formally deny the gods, but recognized above them the highest Reason. In the cosmology of Plato, the gods perform subordinate functions similar to the functions of angels in monotheistic religions, that is, they are not gods (as Xenophanes showed), they were created by the demiurge. The ancient philosophy in the person of its best representatives approached the truth about the one God.
Philosophy also interpreted the idea of Logos (from the Greek. "Word, mind, thought, law"), as the universal law of the world order and the divine creative power mediating between God and the created world. Plotinus, through reflections and peculiar insights, came to the idea of transcendence, infinity, unboundedness and unknowability of the Divine. The world is a reflection of the Divine reality, bears in itself the features of beauty and perfection. Through the purification of the body, the senses and the mind, a person can be elevated to the contemplation of God, who remains incomprehensible in his Being [7].
God, as a supreme Being, Having all the positive qualities in the highest degree and not having our inherent limitations, that is, the disembodied Spirit, Almighty, All-Knowing, All-present, Beginning, Infinite, Eternal, Unchanging, Unlimited, All-Good, All-Conscious, All-righteous, is God only one is possible, for two such creatures are no longer possible, which is what Xenophanes wrote about.
Therefore, if modern pagans are really religious and believe in gods, they seek Truth, and they are not atheists indifferent to faith, truth, the meaning of life and peace, who only fell in love with gray antiquity for Rule, Glory and Nav, for ancient cuts and features, wood carving ; for suits and military armor; if for them all this is really religion, then there is a connection with God, and not some ethnographic exotic, then they should follow the pagans Xenophanes, Plato, Aristotle to come to the concept of the one God and then we can speak already about the self-revelation of Truth.
3. Argument from Revelation
For people, some knowledge of the true God is possible even from natural Revelation, that is, from the contemplation of the world He created. As we saw above, this knowledge was touched by the best of pagan philosophers, but uneducated masses and those who did not want to learn anything, but only wanted to indulge in their passions, deified in the pagan pantheon, preferred and now prefer to remain with their usual and convenient errors . Therefore, the apostle Paul wrote in the first century of the Christian era:
“For what can be known about God is clearly for them, because God revealed to them. For His invisible, His eternal power and the Divine, from the creation of the world through looking at the creatures are visible, so that they are unrequited. But because, having known God, they did not glorify Him as God, and did not give thanks, but became vain in their thoughts, and their senseless heart was darkened; calling themselves wise, distraught, and the glory of the incorruptible God was changed into an image like a perishable man, and birds, and four-footed, and reptiles, God also betrayed them in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, so that they defiled their bodies themselves. They replaced the truth of God with a lie, and worshiped and served the creature instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen. ”(Rom.1: 19 – 25).
This humiliation of the Invisible, the Incorruptible, the Uncreated God to the image of the creature and its service is idolatry and paganism, that is, voluntary or involuntary delusion of the human mind. The enlightened antiquity understood this and accepted the revelation of God about Himself, the Christian gospel of God Who is One in the Being and Trinity in Persons, Saving the world created by Him through the manifestation of God's sacrificial love for His creation.
We received this evangelism and our ancestors and for a thousand years served the One Creator of the world, in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to the Glorified and the Worshiped. So is it necessary to return us back into the darkness of ages, to see a deity in every river, lake, tree, thunder and lightning, that is, in a creature? Do we need to bring them to the propitiatory and grateful sacrifices of roosters, sheep, bulls and children, in order to avert their “anger” and to gain “mercy and help”? Is it possible in the XXI century, such an enlightened, civilized and cultural, relapses of archaic thinking? It is hard to believe that a modern person who sincerely seeks Truth, to comprehend and comprehend the universe, could be satisfied with the inevitably primitivized archaic explanation of the world and kingdom of the gods. If he begins to build his abstract speculative constructions, using only their ancient names, to poetize a certain cult invented by him, not confirmed by archaeological or historical evidence, then what is the faith of the ancestors? This is a new religion invented, the fruit of the conscious deception of some and the sincere romantic delusion of others.
The Son of God has already offered a propitiation sacrifice for us all on the Cross - the only one, true and unique, and has consecrated to Her all those who believe in Him. Two thousand years ago, there was no longer a need not only for sacrifices to false pagan gods, but also for the bloody Old Testament sacrifices to the True God. Therefore, according to the prophecy of Daniel, Jerusalem fell and the sacrifice ceased (Dan.9: 26 – 27), that is, the entire Old Testament cult, the planned renewal of which will be direct theomachism.
Therefore, the words of Christ are addressed to the erring: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John. 8: 32), that is, it will free you from erroneous opinions and sins of ignorance. The truth and the way to it and to eternal life is Christ, as He himself said: “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me ”(John 14: 6). The Lord calls everyone to Himself and wants to save everyone, and in order to ascend to Heaven, He left His Church on earth. Come to her and receive saving grace in the Sacraments, which established the Lord. Go to Him. Road going by walking.
4. Psychological argument
The main internal reason for the rejection of Christianity by modern man and the fascination with paganism is the unwillingness to recognize the existence of significant moral shortcomings, which he cannot get rid of on his own. The pagan consciousness of both antiquity and modernity recognizes the existing human nature as self-sufficient, the norm that does not need to be transformed. Christianity claims that a person in his present state has a fallen (spoiled, sick) nature, and offers him divine help in changing oneself for the better, offers to be baptized and repent (which in Greek means "change"). For this, a person at the beginning must recognize himself as being a fallen, sinful being, to see in himself vicious passions. You can do this by evaluating your life according to the gospel moral commandments, comparing it with the earthly life of Jesus Christ, focusing on the perfection of God, which the Lord calls to strive for. At the same time, Christianity does not execute a man for his vices, but offers to be healed from them, to be transformed into the image of Christ, into the image of His human nature - perfect, sinless both in deeds, and in words and thoughts.
He who fears this, fears to heal himself from sin with the help of the grace of God, does not want to impose strict moral and physical restrictions on himself to curb the actions of passions, who is lazy or just happy with himself - for what he is, he does not want be a christian. And in order to "be in faith" in something higher than himself, he chooses beautiful, nostalgic, caressing Slavic rumor names: Velez, Stribog, Chernobog, Rozhanitsy, Triglav ...
All this is understandable and human weakness is excusable. After all, even the chosen people of God, the Old Testament Israel, who had waited for its Messiah for hundreds of years, received Him only in a small number, because they did not want to repent of their sins, believing themselves to be “rightly spotless”, in the words of Paul the Apostle (cf. Phil. 3 : 6). The Lord forgives human weakness, but the conscious stubbornness of the human will, not wanting to listen and do the will of God, is already theomachism. And therefore, the second thousand years through the prophets and apostles the call of God to humanity sounds: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Mt. 3: 2). "Children! Last time ”(1IN.2: 18). “If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and righteous, forgive us sins (ours) and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1In.1: 9). For God is good and merciful, and “in Heaven there will be more joy about one sinner repentant than about ninety-nine righteous people who do not need repentance” (Lk.15: 7).
Conclusion
In 988, the Russian Orthodox Church was born in the baptism of Russia, which was of epochal significance for all Eastern Slavs (ancestors of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians) and many other peoples of historical Russia. According to the historian L.N. Gumilev, "the victory of Orthodoxy gave Russia its thousand-year history." And we hope not only the past history, but also the future one.
The baptism of the Grand Duke Vladimir. Radziwill chronicle. Kon XV century.
“Do not hope for riches, for the sons of mankind, there is no salvation in them ...” (Ps. 145: 3), Holy Scripture warns us. Only following the will of God and His assistance helps a person to fulfill his mission on earth. The same applies to whole nations. Once Christ said to his disciples: “I am the vine, and you are the branches; He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch, and dries; and such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire, and they burn down ”(John. 15: 5 – 6).
While Russia was in Christ, that is, an Orthodox power, it grew and was strengthened by the fear of the enemies of Christ, for joy, hope and help for those who believe in Him. And she brought a lot of fruit - saints of God from various nations who were baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. When Russia began to forget and retreat from Christ, then the flow of life-giving forces coming from Him began to dry out quickly, so that our “branch” shrank and even partially broke off. If we comprehend this bitter truth and again, through repentance, we will cling to the Vine of Christ, work hard and bring the fruit of holiness, then the Lord will have mercy on Russia and prolong her days, may she serve as a deterrent who will delay the final victory of evil in the world, coming to power over him “The man of sin”, who, according to the prediction of the Holy Scripture, is “the son of perdition, opposing and exalting above all that is called God or holy” (2Fes.2: 3 – 4).
Looking at the past of Russia with an unbiased look, we can say with confidence that without the Russian Orthodox Church there would be no great and powerful Russia. And if you look into our present and future, it becomes just as obvious that without the Church it will not exist. If Russia does not feel the same faith, it will disintegrate, and enemies will mock at its remains.
So come to your senses, Rus, arise, shake off the garbage of others' ideas, values, delusions, multitude and disbelief! Lead by broad shoulders as a bogatyr who has risen from a bad dream, step on the path of world evil, thousands of small and large delusions. Stand up for the protection of the truth of holy Orthodoxy, as once in your Time of Troubles, and God will help you.
If not, your mission will remain unfulfilled, and you will dissolve among the universal orgy of bezverja, immorality and lies in the whirl of the "new world order."
Yes, it will not!
[1] Krivelskaya N.V., Ph.D. legal Sciences Corr. Sect: the threat and the search for protection. M .: Blagovest Foundation, 1999. C. 191 (see Appendix 4. Appeal of the State Duma "To the President of the Russian Federation on the dangerous consequences of the impact of religious organizations on the health of society, family, citizens of Russia", "Resolution of the State Duma of the Russian Federation" from 15 Dec. 1996, 187 – 192 with.).
[2] Gumilev L.N. Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe. M .: Thought, 1992. C. 757. The theory itself, see. Gumilev L.N. Ethnogenesis and biosphere of the earth. L .: Gidrometeoizdat, 1990.
[3] Karpov A. Vladimir Saint. M .: Young Guard: ZHZL: Russian word, 1997. C. 147.
[4] Ibid. S. 142-147.
[5] Ibid. C. 142 – 143. See also Rusanova I.P., Timoshuk B.A. The pagan temples of the ancient Slavs. M., 1993.
[6] Timey, 28с – 30b. Quoted by: Hilarion (Alfeyev), igum. Sacrament of faith. Wedge: Christian Life Foundation, 2000. C. 23.
[7] Hilarion (Alfey), Igum. Sacrament of faith. Wedge: Foundation. Christian Life, 2000. C. 22 – 24.
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