Introduction to ORF

Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

by Fr. Seraphim Rose

1983 edition

Introduction

Part I   The "Dialogue with Non-Christian Religions"

Part II  "Christian and Non-Christian Ecumenism"

Part III  "The New Age of the Holy Spirit"

Part IV  The Present Book

Part I 

The "Dialogue with Non-Christian Religions"

Ours is a spiritually unbalanced age, when many Orthodox Christians finds themselves tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive (Eph. 4:14).  The time, indeed, seems to have come when men will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be inclined unto fables (II Tim. 4:3-4).

One reads in bewilderment of the latest acts and pronouncements of the ecumenical movement.  On the most sophisticated level, Orthodox theologians representing the American Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops (SCOBA) and other official Orthodox bodies conduct learned "dialogues" with Roman Catholics and Protestants and issue "joint statements" on such subjects as the Eucharist, spirituality, and the like – without even informing the heterodox that the Orthodox Church is the Church of Christ to which all are called, that only her Mysteries are grace-giving, that Orthodox spirituality can be understood only by those who know it in experience within the Orthodox Church, that all these "dialogues" and "joint statements" are an academic caricature of true Christian discourse – a discourse which has the salvation of souls as its aim.  Indeed, many of the Orthodox participants in the "dialogues" know or suspect that this is no place for Orthodox witness, that the very atmosphere of ecumenical "liberalism" cancels out whatever truth might be spoken at them; but they are silent, for the "spirit of the times" today is often stronger than the voice of the Orthodox conscience.  (See Diakonia, 1970, no. 1 p, 72; St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, 1969, no. 4, p. 225; etc.)

On a more popular level, ecumenical "conferences" and "discussions" are organized, often with an "Orthodox speaker" or even the celebration of an "Orthodox Liturgy."  The approach to these "conferences" is often dilettantish, and the general attitude at them is so lacking in seriousness, that rather than advance the "unity" their promoters desire, they actually serve to prove the existence of an impassable abyss between true Orthodoxy and the "ecumenical" outlook.  (See Sobornost, Winter,1978, pp. 494-8, etc.)

On the level of action, ecumenical activists take advantage of the fact that the intellectuals and theologians are irresolute and unrooted in Orthodox tradition, and use their very words concerning "fundamental agreement" on sacramental and dogmatic points as an excuse for flamboyant ecumenical acts, not excluding the giving of Holy Communion to heretics.  And this state of confusion in turn gives an opportunity for ecumenical ideologists on the most popular level to issue empty pronouncements that reduce basic theological issues to the level of cheap comedy, as when Patriarch Athenagoras allows himself to say, "Does your wife ever ask you how much salt she should put in the food?  Certainly not.  She has the infallibility.  Let the Pope have it too, if he wishes" (Hellenic Chronicle, April 9, 1970).

The informed and conscious Orthodox Christian may well ask: where will it all end?  Is there no limit to the betrayal, the denaturement, the self-liquidation of Orthodoxy?

It has not yet been too carefully observed where all this is leading, but logically the path is clear.  The ideology behind ecumenism, which has inspired such ecumenistic acts and pronouncements as the above, is an already well-defined heresy: the Church of Christ does not exist, no one has the Truth, the Church of Christ is only now being built.  But it takes little reflection to see that the self-liquidation of Orthodoxy, of the Church of Christ, is simultaneously the self- liquidation of Christianity itself; that if no one church is the Church of Christ, then the combination of all sects will not be the Church either, not in the sense in which Christ founded it.  And if all "Christian" bodies are relative to each other, then all of them together are relative to other "religious" bodies, and "Christian" ecumenism can only end in a syncretic world religion.

This is indeed the disguised aim of the masonic ideology which has inspired the Ecumenical Movement, and this ideology has now taken such possession of those who participate in the Ecumenical Movement that "dialogue" and eventual union with the non-Christian religions have come to be the logical next step for today's denatured Christianity.  The following are a few of the many recent examples that could be given that point the way to an "ecumenical" future outside of Christianity.

1.  On June 27, 1965, a "Convocation of Religion for World Peace" was held in San Francisco in connection with the 20th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations in that city.  Before 10,000 spectators there were addresses on the "religious" foundation of world peace by Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox representatives, and hymns of all faiths were sung by a 2000-voice "interfaith" choir.

2.  The Greek Archdiocese of North and South America, in the official statement of its 19th Clergy-Laity Congress (Athens, July, 1968), declared: "We believe that the ecumenical movement, even though it is of Christian origin, must become a movement of all religions reaching towards each other."

3. The "Temple of Understanding, Inc.," an American foundation established in 1960 as a kind of "Association of United Religions" with the aim of "building the symbolic Temple in various parts of the world" (precisely in accord with the doctrine of Freemasonry), has held several "Summit Conferences."  At the first, in Calcutta in 1968, the Latin Trappist Thomas Merton (who was accidentally electrocuted in Bangkok on the way back from this Conference) declared: "We are already a new unity.  What we must regain is our original unity."  At the second, at Geneva in April , 1970, eighty representatives of ten world religions met to discuss such topics as "The Project of the Creation of a World Community of Religions"; the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, delivered an address calling on the heads of all religions to unity; and on April 2 an "unprecedented" supra-confessional prayer service took place in St. Peter's Cathedral, described by the Protestant Pastor Babel as "a very great date in the history of religions," at which "everyone prayed in his own language and according to the customs of the religion which he represented" and at which "the faithful of all religions were invited to coexist in the cult of the same God," the service ending with the "Our Father" (La Suisse, April 3, 1970).  Promotional material sent out by the "Temple of Understanding" reveals that Orthodox delegates were present at the second "Summit Conference" in the United States in the autumn of 1971, and that Metropolitan Emilianos of the Patriarchate of Constantinople is a member of the Temple's "International Committee."  The "Summit Conferences" offer Orthodox delegates the opportunity to enter discussions aiming to "create a world community of religions," to "hasten the realization of mankind's dream of peace and understanding" according to the philosophy of "Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Gandhi, Schweitzer," an the founders of various religions; and the delegates likewise participate in "unprecedented" supra-confessional prayer services where "everyone prays according to the customs of the religion he represents."  One can only wonder what must be in the soul of an Orthodox Christian who participates in such conferences and prays together with Moslems, Jews, and pagans.

4.  Early in 1970 the WCC sponsored a conference in Ajaltoun, Lebanon, between Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and Moslems, and a follow-up conference of 23 WCC "theologians" in Zurich in June declared the need for "dialogue" with the non-Christian religions.  At the meeting of the Central Committee of the WCC at Addis Ababa in January of this year (pre-1975-jh), Metropolitan Georges Khodre of Beirut (Orthodox Church of Antioch) shocked even many Protestant delegates when he not merely called for "dialogue" with these religions, but left the Church of Christ far behind and trampled on 19 centuries of Christian tradition when he called on Christians to "investigate the authentically spiritual life of the unbaptized" and enrich their own experience with the "riches of a universal religious community" (Religious News Service), for "it is Christ alone who is received as light when grace visits a Brahmin, a Buddhist, or a Moslem reading his own scriptures" (Christian Century, Feb. 10, 1971).

5. The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches at its meeting in Addis Ababa in January, 1971, gave its approval and encouragement to the holding of meetings as regularly as possible between representatives of other religions, specifying that "at the present stage priority may be given to bilateral dialogues of a specific nature."  In accordance with this directive a major Christian-Moslem "dialogue" was set for mid-1972 involving some forty representatives of both sides, including a number of Orthodox delegates (Al Montada, January-February, 1972, p. 18).

6.  In February, 1972, another "unprecedented" ecumenical event occurred in New York when, according to Archbishop Iakovos of New York, for the first time in history, the Greek Orthodox Church (Greek Archdiocese of North and South America) held an official theological "dialogue" with the Jews.  In two days of discussions definite results were achieved, which may be taken as symptomatic of the future results of the "dialogue with non-Christian religions": the Greek "theologians" agreed "to review their liturgical texts in terms of improving references to Jews and Judiasm where they are found to be negative or hostile" (Religious News Service).  Does not the intention of the "dialogue" become even more obvious? – to "reform" Orthodox Christianity in order to make it conformable to the religions of this world.

These events were the beginning of the "dialogue with non-Christian religions" at the end of the decade of the 1960's and the beginning of the 1970's.  In the years since then such events have multiplied, and "Christian" (and even "Orthodox") discussions and worship with representatives of non-Christian religions have come to be accepted as a normal part of contemporary life.  The "dialogue" with non-Christian religions" has become part of the intellectual fashion of the day; it represents the present stage of ecumenism in its progress towards a universal religious syncretism.  Let us now look at the "theology" and the goal of this accelerating "dialogue" and see how it differs from the "Christian" ecumenism that has prevailed up to now.

Part II

"Christian and Non-Christian Ecumenism"

"Christian" ecumenism at its best may be seen to represent a sincere and understandable error on the part of Protestants and Roman Catholics – the error of failing to recognize that the visible Church of Christ already exists, and that they are outside of it.  The "dialogue with non-Christian religions," however, is something quite different, representing rather a conscious departure from even that part of genuine Christian belief and awareness which some Catholics and Protestants retain.  It is the product, not of simple human "good intentions," but rather of a diabolical "suggestion" that can capture only those who have already departed so far from Christianity as to be virtual pagans: worshippers of the god of this world, satan (II Cor. 4:4), and followers of whatever intellectual fashion this powerful god is capable of inspiring.

"Christian" ecumenism relies for its support upon a vague but nonetheless real feeling of "common Christianity" which is shared by many who do not think or feel too deeply about the Church, and it aims somehow to "build" a church comprising all such indifferent "Christians."  But what common support can the "dialogue with non-Christians" rely on?  On what possible ground can there be any kind of unity, however loose, between Christians and those who not merely do not know Christ, but – as is the case with all the present day representatives of non-Christian religions who are in contact with Christianity – decisively reject Christ?  Those who, like Metropolitan Georges Khodre of Lebanon, lead the avant-garde of Orthodox apostates (a name that is fully justified when applied to those who radically "fall away" from the whole Orthodox Christian tradition), speak of the "spiritual riches" and "authentic spiritual life" of the non-Christian religions; but it is only by doing great violence to the meaning of words and by reading his own fantasies into other people's experience that he can bring himself to say that it is "Christ" and "grace" that pagans find in their scriptures, or that "every martyr for the truth, every man persecuted for what he believes to be right, dies in communion with Christ" (Sobornost, Summer 1971, p.171).   Certainly these people themselves (whether it be a Buddhist who sets fire to himself, a Communist who dies for the "cause" in which he sincerely believes, or whoever) would never say that it is "Christ" they receive or die for, and the idea of an unconscious confession or reception of Christ is against the very nature of Christianity.  If a rare non-Christian does claim to have experience of "Christ," it can only be in the way which Swami Vivekananda describes:  "We Hindus do not merely tolerate, we unite ourselves with every religion, praying in the mosque of the Mohammedan, worshipping before the fire of the Zoroastrian, and kneeling tot he cross of the Christian" – that is, as merely one of a number of equally valid Spiritual experiences.

No.  "Christ," no matter how redefined or reinterpreted, cannot be the common denominator of the "dialogue with non-Christian religions,"  but at best can only be added as an afterthought to a unity which is discovered somewhere else.  The only possible common denominator among all religions is the totally vague concept of "spiritual," which indeed offers religious "liberals" almost unbounded opportunity for nebulous theologizing.

The address of Metropolitan Georges Khodre to the Central Committee meeting of the WCC at Addis Ababa in January, 1971, may be taken as an early, experimental attempt to set forth such a "spiritual" theology of the "dialogue with non-Christian religions" (full text in ibid., pp.166-74).  In raising the question as to "whether Christianity is so inherently exclusive of other religions as has generally been proclaimed up to now," the Metropolitan, apart from his few rather absurd "projections" of Christ into non-Christian religions, has one main point: it is the "Holy Spirit," conceived as totally independent of Christ and His Church, that is really the common denominator of all the world's religions.  Referring to the prophecy that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), the Metropolitan states, "This must be taken to mean a Pentecost which is universal from the very first...  The advent of the Spirit in the world is not subordinated to the Son...  The Spirit operates and applies His energies in accordance with His own economy and we could, from this angle, regard the non-Christian religions, as points where His inspiration is at work" (p. 172).  We must, he believes, "develop an ecclesiology and a missiology in which the Holy Spirit occupies a supreme place" (p. 166).

All of this, of course, constitutes a heresy which denies the very nature of the Holy Trinity and has no aim but to undermine and destroy the whole idea and reality of the Church of Christ.  Why, indeed, should Christ have established a Church if the Holy Spirit acts quite independently, not only of the Church, but of Christ Himself?  Nonetheless, this heresy is here still presented rather tentatively and cautiously, no doubt with the aim of testing the response of other Orthodox "theologians" before proceeding more categorically.

In actual fact, however, the "ecclesiology of the Holy Spirit" has already been written – and by an "Orthodox" thinker at that, one of the acknowledged "prophets" of the "spiritual" movement of our own day.  Let us therefore examine his ideas in order to see the picture he gives of the nature and goal of the larger "spiritual" movement in which the "dialogue with non-Christian religions has its place.

Part III

"The New Age of the Holy Spirit"

Nicholas Berdyaev (1874-1949) in any normal time would never have been regarded as an Orthodox Christian.  He might best be described as a gnostic-humanist philosopher who drew his inspiration rather from Western sectarians and "mystics" than from any Orthodox sources.  That he is called in some Orthodox circles even to this day an "Orthodox philosopher" or even "theologian," is a sad reflection of the religious ignorance of our times.  Here we shall quote from his writings (as cited in J. Gregerson, "Nicholas Beryaev, Prophet of a New Age," Orthodox Life, Jordanville, NY, 1962, no. 6).

Looking with disdain upon the Orthodox Fathers, upon the "monastic ascetic spirit of historical Orthodoxy," indeed upon that whole "conservative Christianity which ... directs the spiritual forces of man only towards contrition and salvation," Berdyaev sought rather the "inward Church," the "Church of the Holy Spirit," the "spiritual view of life which, in the 18th century, found shelter in the Masonic lodges."  "The Church," he believed, "is still in a mere potential state," is "incomplete"; and he looked to the coming of an "ecumenical faith," a "fullness of faith" that would unite, not merely different Christian bodies (for Christianity should be capable of existing in a variety of forms in the Universal Church"), but also "the partial truths of all the heresies" and "all the humanistic creative activity of modern man ... as a religious experience consecrated in the Spirit."  A "New Christianity" is approaching, a "new mysticism, which will be deeper than religions and ought to untie them."  For "there is a great spiritual brotherhood ... to which not only the Churches of East and West belong, but also all those whose wills are directed towards God and the Divine, all in fact who aspire to some form of spiritual elevation" – that is to say, people of every religion, sect, and religious ideology.  He predicted the advent of "a new and final Revelation":   "the New Age of the Holy Spirit," resurrecting the prediction of Joachim of Floris, the 12th century Latin monk who saw the two ages of the Father (Old Testament) and the Son (New Testament) giving way to a final "Third Age of the Holy Spirit."  Berdyaev writes: "The world is moving towards a new spirituality and a new mysticism; in it there will be no more of the ascetic world view."  "The success of the movement towards Christian unity presupposes a new era in Christianity itself, a new and deep spirituality, which means a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit."

There is clearly nothing whatever in common between these super-ecumenist fantasies and Orthodox Christianity, which Berdyaev in fact despised.  Yet anyone aware of the religious climate of our times will see that these fantasies in fact correspond to one of the leading currents of contemporary religious thought.  Berdyaev does indeed seem to be a "prophet," or rather, to have been sensitive to a current of religious thought and feeling which was not so evident in his day, but has become almost dominant today.  Everywhere one hears of a new "movement of the Spirit," and now a Greek Orthodox priest, Father Eusebius Stephanou, invites Orthodox Christians to join this movement when he writes of "the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our day" (The Logos, January, 1972).  Elsewhere in the same publication (March, 1972, p. 8), the Associate Editor Ashanin invokes not merely the name, but also the very program, of Berdyaev: "We recommend the writings of Nicholas Berdyaev, the great spiritual prophet of our age.  This spiritual genius ... is the greatest theologian of spiritual creativeness ... Now the cocoon of Orthodoxy has been broken ... God's Divine Logos is leading people to a new understanding of their history and their mission in Him.  The Logos is the herald of this new age, of the new posture of Orthodoxy."

Part IV

The Present Book

All of this constitutes the background of the present book, which is a study of the "new" religious spirit of our times that underlies and give inspiration to the "dialogue with non-Christian religions."  The first three chapters offer a general approach to non-Christian religions and their radical difference from Christianity, both in theology and in spiritual life.  The first chapter is a theological study of the "God" of the Near Eastern religions with which Christian ecumenists hope to unite on the basis of "monotheism."  The second concerns the most powerful of the Eastern religions, Hinduism, based on a long personal experience which ended in the author's conversion from Hinduism to Orthodox Christianity; it also gives an interesting appraisal of the meaning for Hinduism of the "dialogue" with Christianity.  The third chapter is a personal account of the meeting of an Orthodox priest-monk with an Eastern "miracle-worker" – a direct confrontation of Christian and non-Christian "spirituality."

The next four chapters are specific studies of some of the significant spiritual movements of the 1970's.  Chapters Four and Five examine the "new religious consciousness" with particular  reference to "meditation" movements which now claim many "Christian" followers (and more and more "ex-Christians").  Chapter Six looks at the spiritual implications of a seemingly non-religious phenomenon of our times which is helping to form the "new religious consciousness" even among people who think they are far from any religious interest.  The seventh chapter discusses at length the most controversial religious movement among "Christians" today – the "charismatic revival" – and tries to define its nature in the light of Orthodox spiritual doctrine.

In the Conclusion the significance and goal of the "new religious consciousness" are discussed in the light of Christian prophecy  concerning the last times.  The "religion of the future" to which they point is set forth and contrasted with the only religion which is irreconcilably in conflict with it: true Orthodox Christianity.  The "signs of the times," as we approach the fearful decade of the 1980's, are all too clear; let Orthodox Christians, and all who wish to save their souls in eternity, take heed and act!

Read more:

http://startingontheroyalpath.blogspot.com/2009/08/0rthodoxy-and-religion-of-future.html

Hollywood's Satanic agenda ... VERY eye opening

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-8G9PbMZaI

another link to same film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXDG6VIrcI4

If those links don't work go here:

http://rocorrefugeesreadmore.blogspot.com/2012/06/hollywoods-satanic-agenda.html

This very informative documentary film makes a clear historical connection between Hollywood and Antichrist.  Many Orthodox can benefit by being reminded of the immediacy and the seriousness of Satan's use of television and movie entertainment in these end times.  

But be aware that the narrator, a heterodox, is snared in the "born again" deception, which is cousin to the charismatic deception [see: Book Reviews Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future  ch.7 in the sidebar].  He does not appear to be hostile towards the Church [as some obviously are], but maybe, rather, simply unaware of its existence.  The last 10 minutes are typical sola scriptura.

An inherent contradiction in the film is that we are shown flashes of scenes from a Hollywood portrayal of Christ to oppose the satanic images with the Christian side.  If Hollywood [not the TV itself which is just a machine] is evil, does it not stand to reason that even a seemingly honest Hollywood depiction of Christ will be twisted?  And so it is.

Here is what our Met. Vitaly wrote about TV.  He did not believe it was possible to outlaw TV in Orthodox homes.  But, it would be the best advice.  It has been said that the "elect" who might be saved could be the ones who didn't watch TV.  I believe throwing out the TV [and reading the holy Fathers instead] is the fastest most effective way anyone can become "not of this world".

http://www.holycross-hermitage.com/pages/Orthodox_Life/television.htm

also see: Serbian Saint Dimitri Tarabicz

http://www.pc-freak.net/faith/orthodox_prophecies/members.cox.net/orthodoxheritage/The%20Righteous%20Dimitri%20Tarabibicz.htm

 In the 1700's, St. Cosmas of Ætolus predicted:  "The time will come when the devil puts himself inside a box and starts shouting, and his horns will stick out from the roof-tiles..."   Also it was prophesied that the "box" would be in everyone's home and families would worship it in their homes.


Also see this post:  About the Theatre
http://remnantrocor.blogspot.com/2013/02/about-theatre.html

Letter from an X-Witch

a testimony against the Harry Potter books  

The writer of this letter escaped from witchcraft, but unfortunately she has not found the Orthodox Church.  Instead she was snagged into the pentecostal movement.  I've highlighted the evidence of this in red.  The rest of the letter, which is most it, is a revealing exposé of what Harry Potter really is all about.

A LETTER FROM AN EX-WITCH

WRITING ABOUT HARRY POTTER

I am writing this urgent message because I was once a witch.  I lived by the stars as an astrologer and numerologist casting horoscopes and spells.  I lived in the mysterious and shadowy realm of the occult.  By means of spells and magic, I was able to invoke the powers of the "controlling unknown" and fly upon the night winds transcending the astral plane.  Halloween was my favorite time of the year and I was intrigued and absorbed in the realm of Wiccan witchcraft.  All of this was happening in the decade of the 1960's when witchcraft was just starting to come out of the broom closet.

It was during that decade of the 1960's, in the year 1966, that a woman named J.K. Rowling was born. This is the woman who has captivated the world in this year of 2000 with four books known as the "Harry Potter Series."  These books are orientational and instructional manuals of witchcraft woven into the format of entertainment.  These four books by J.K. Rowling teach witchcraft!  I know this because I was once very much a part of that world.  Witchcraft was very different in the 1960's.  There were a lot fewer witches, and the craft was far more secretive.  At the end of that spiritually troubled decade, I was miraculously saved by the power of Jesus Christ and His saving blood.  I was also delivered from every evil spirit that lived in me and was set free.  However, as I began to attend fundamental Christian churches, I realized that even there witchcraft had left its mark.  Pagan holidays and sabats were celebrated as "Christian holidays."

As time went on, I watched the so-called "Christian" churches compromising and unifying.  I also watched with amazement as teachings from Eastern religions and "New Age" doctrine began to captivate congregations.  It was a satanic set-up, and I saw it coming.  Illuministic conspirators were bringing forth a one-world religion with a cleverly concealed element of occultism interwoven in its teachings.  In order to succeed in bringing witchcraft to the world and thus complete satanic control, an entire generation would have to be induced and taught to think like witches, talk like witches, dress like witches, and act like witches.  The occult songs of the 1960's launched the Luciferian project of capturing the minds of an entire generation.  In the song "Sound Of Silence" by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, we were told of seeds that were left while an entire generation was sleeping, and that the "vision that was planted in my brain still remains."

Now it is the year 2000. All of the foundations for occultism and witchcraft are in place.  The Illuminists have to move quickly, because time is running out.  It was the Communist revolutionary Lenin who said, "Give me one generation of youth, and I will transform the entire world."  Now an entire generation of youth has been given to a woman named J.K. Rowling and her four books on witchcraft, known as the Harry Potter Series.

As a former witch, I can speak with authority when I say that I have examined the works of Rowling and that the Harry Potter books are training manuals for the occult.  Untold millions of young people are being taught to think, speak, dress and act like witches by filling their heads with the contents of these books.  Children are obsessed with the Harry Potter books that they have left television and video games to read these witchcraft manuals.

The first book of the series, entitled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", finds the orphan, Harry Potter, embarking into a new realm when he is taken to "Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."  At this occult school, Harry Potter learns how to obtain and use witchcraft equipment.  Harry also learns a new vocabulary, including words such as "Azkaban", "Circe", "Draco", "Erised", "Hermes", and "Slytherin"; all of which are names of real devils or demons.  These are not characters of fiction!  How serious is this?  By reading these materials, many millions of young people are learning how to work with demon spirits.  They are getting to know them by name.  Vast numbers of children professing to be Christians are also filling their hearts and minds, while willingly ignorant parents look the other way.

The titles of the books should be warning enough to make us realize how satanic and anti-christ these books are.  The afore mentioned title of the first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", was a real give away.

The second book was called "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", while the third book was entitled "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban."  Nothing could be more obvious than that Harry Potter books are pure witchcraft and of the devil.

This is the oldest con game ever hatched out of hell.  As a real witch, I learned about the two sides of "the force."  When real witches have sabats and esbats and meet as a coven, they greet each other by saying "Blessed be", and when they part, they say "The Force be with you."  Both sides of this "Force" are Satan.  It is not a good side of the force that overcomes the bad side of the force, but rather it's the blood of Jesus Christ that destroys both supposed sides of the satanic "Force."

High level witches believe that there are seven satanic princes and that the seventh, which is assigned to Christians, has no name.   In coven meetings, he is called "the nameless one."  In the Harry Potter books, there is a character called "Voldemort."  The pronunciation guide says of this being "He who must not be named."  On July 8 at midnight, bookstores everywhere were stormed by millions of children to obtain the latest and fourth book of the series known as "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."  These books were taken into homes everywhere with a real evil spirit following each copy to curse those homes.  July 8th was also the 18th day (three sixes in numerology 666) from the witches' sabat of midsummer.  July 8th was also the 13th day from the signing of the United Religions Charter in San Francisco.  Now we have learned that the public school system is planning to use the magic of Harry Potter in the classrooms making the public schools centers of witchcraft training.

What does God have to say about such books as the Harry Potter series?  In the Bible in the book of Acts, we read the following in the 19th chapter, verses 18 - 20: "And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.  Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed."

Harry Potter: ‘Making Evil Look Innocent'

Issue Date: November/December 2001

What are kids saying about Harry Potter?

Here are some samples:

• "I want to go to wizard school and learn magic. I'd like to learn to use a wand to cast spells." Dylan, age 10.

• "If I could go to wizard school, I might be able to do spells and potions and fly a broomstick." Mara, age 12.

• "It would be great to be a wizard because you could control situations and things like teachers." Jeffrey, age 11.

• "I'd like to go to wizard school and learn magic and put spells on people. I'd make up an ugly spell and then it's pay-back time." Catherine, age 9.

• "I feel like I'm inside Harry's world. If I went to wizard school I'd study everything: spells, counterspells, and defense against the dark arts." Carolyn, age 10.

• "I liked it when the bad guys killed the unicorn and Voldemort drank its blood." Julie, age 13.

• "The books are very clever. I couldn't put them down. When I was scared I made myself believe that it was supposed to be funny so I wasn't so scared." Nuray age 11.

These are the comments of young readers of the Harry Potter wizard books quoted on a new video by Jeremiah Films. On the video, called Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged, Making Evil Look Innocent, author Robert S. McGee explains: "Children as young as kindergarten are being introduced to human sacrifice, the sucking of blood from dead animals, and possession by spirit beings."

Courts have banned the teaching of Christianity in public schools but Wicca, which is recognized by the U.S. courts as a religion and given tax-exempt status by the IRS, is taught freely.  Harry Potter has become the method of introduction of Wicca to the very young.

Harry Potter materials have become much more than a hand full of children's fantasy books.  Warner Brothers, Coca Cola, Minutemaid, and Mattel have used the Potter materials to launch games, puzzles, toys, backpacks, and every possible merchandizing product.

Scholastic, Inc., a major supplier of public school teaching aids has added the Potter literature to its line of curriculum materials.  When the name "Harry Potter" is keyed into the Scholastic.com web site search engine, it returns 268 matches.  "Jesus" returned only 23.

And now, a major movie is about to break on the scene called "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."  Millions of dollars are being spent on pre-release hype.

Once introduced to the world of wizards, spells, and dark arts, readers of Harry Potter can advance their knowledge and skills in witchcraft and paganism by visiting the hundreds of web sites available on the internet.  Or, they can purchase more books on the subject from the well stocked Wiccan sections in local book super stores.  Or, they can find over a thousand volumes on witchcraft available at Amazon.com.

Harry Potter books have taken the world of children's fantasy literature by storm.  Over 200 million have been sold in 40 languages.  One study shows that over half of the children in the western world have read at least one of the Potter books. Many reported rereading each book several times.

But is it just fantasy literature like Snow White and Cinderella?  In the Harry Potter video, cult expert Caryl Matrisciana points out that in the older stories, evil never prevails.  There are no absolutes in his world.  What is right depends on the situation.

Witchcraft now has a complete package.  Starting in kindergarten with Harry Potter and TV witch shows, children are led on to the horror movies and hundreds of Wicca and pagan websites.  When they thirst for more power, high school and college Wicca covens are available.  In the adult world, corporations are hiring New Age practitioners to provide seminars in sensitivity training, stress relief, and self improvement for employees.

Former Satanist William Schnoebelen points out in his book, Wicca, Satan's Little White Lie, that, "I finally learned in the most graphic fashion imaginable that the difference between witchcraft or Wicca and Satanism is actually non-existent."  Before he was saved he found himself cruising the streets looking for a lone female to assault, not for sex, but to drink her blood.

The bottom line is a hunger for power.  Harry Potter and the rest of witchcraft promises that power.  But in the end they discover that Satan is really in charge of the power and only uses it like cheese in a mouse trap.  Harry Potter provides a basic initiation into witchcraft for a whole new generation. Imagine what the world will be like when they grow up.

Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged Making Evil Look Innocent

Millions of American schoolchildren have a new subject in school: witchcraft!

Through the Harry Potter series, the ancient occult religion of Wicca is being introduced in almost every public school in America.  This video explains how Scholastic Inc., the largest publisher of children's books in the world, is supplying Harry Potter materials to millions of schoolchildren.  Scholastic Inc. is using its unrivaled position in the educational system to flood classrooms and libraries with witchcraft, repackaged as "children's fantasy literature."  Teachers are encouraged to read the Harry Potter books aloud in class, and millions of children are being densensitized to the dangers of the occult spirit world.

Through Harry's world of sorcery they are learning what tools today's witches and pagans use -- supernatural imagination, spiritual concentration, wands, brooms, spells and curses.  Warner Brothers new film based on Harry Potter has been called an accurate portrayal of witchcraft.  And indeed it is.

In this video, you will see how completely occult is the world of Harry Potter.  After reading the Harry Potter books, millions of children will demand to see Warner Bros. new movie, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

Christian parents have faced a similar problem for years with the teaching of evolution in their public schools.  They have responded by teaching their children that they cannot believe everything they are taught in school.  Now, with the Harry Potter books on witchcraft becoming part of public school curriculum, parents need to know enough about it to also teach their children that the spell-casting and other activities of Harry Potter are also forbidden territory. This video will help.

Harry's books are about a young 11-year-old generational wizard, Harry Potter, who attends the prestigious 1000-year-old occult boarding school, Hogwart's School of witchcraft and Wizardry.  All his teachers are practicing occultists, and tutor their students in the dark arts of sorcery and divination: fortune telling, astrology, potion mixing, spell weaving and curse casting.  Harry's world says that drinking dead animal blood gives power, a satanic human sacrifice and Harry's powerful blood brings new life, demon possession is not spiritually dangerous, and that passing through fire, contacting the dead, and conversing with ghosts, others in the spirit world, and more, is normal and acceptable.

∞ ∞ ∞

from Joanna's notepad:

About being rescued by the pentecostal or charismatic movement:

Saved By Satan

[even to fool the elect]

It's a rather common scenario.  The first case I saw up close was my best friend before I was Orthodox.  Karen was raised Roman Catholic, left the church as a young adult, fell into heroin, and was rescued from her addiction by the "holy spirit" – a pseudo-holy spirit.

Since then I've met many others, usually from some kind of Christian upbringing, but not always, who were rescued from drugs, prostitution, witchcraft, pornography, cultism, or something otherwise hell bound.

This pseudo-holy spirit is ubiquitous.  Pentecostals, charismatics, 700 Club, any TV preacher but it is hardly limited to TV preachers.  Often speaking-in-tongues, other psychic manifestations they see as "miracles", calling themselves Christian – they appear to be hypnotized/obsessed like the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses.  They use characteristic words and phrases:  "Amen", "Halleluia", "Praise God" are common interjections, and "personal relationship with Jesus" and "love the Lord", "Jesus my #1 Lord", "the holy spirit put it in my heart...".  [We never hear of our great saints/elders/Church fathers talking like that or anything similar to it.]  When they start talking about "the blood of Jesus",  this is where they start to reveal the truth about their "holy spirit".  Because it is not possible to know about this Mystery outside of the Orthodox Church.  Outside the Church one can know of it, but it is impossible to experience it outside the Eucharist.  

This pseudo-holy spirit is very convincing.  Convincing enough to fool even the elect.  One of the ways it gains trust and confidence is by what it reveals about evil, what it reveals about itself.  Satan will tattle on himself to be believable.  This is common: double agents do it all the time.  They reveal enough secret information to appear sincere and to gain trust.  In the case of the pseudo-holy spirit, it wants to be seen as the real Holy Spirit, so it reveals information that only the real Holy Spirit supposedly should know.  It will reveal information about the occult, hell, sin, tricks the demons use.

Even the elect can be fooled.   The charismatics testify that demons are real, that we need to pray with sincerity and trust Jesus, to renounce sin.  Some even sound as if they have read some Orthodox books, because they might use some Orthodox terminology.  They steer people towards Bible study, family values, warn people about the occult, about sin, about abortion, about Harry Potter, about ecumenism, about the new world order, and about "organized" or hierarchal religion which, they say, inhibits the holy spirit's freedom.  But we say, if this is the true Holy Spirit, why is it leading people away from the Church?  That's our sure sign that this is a pseudo-spirit, confirming people in another type of bondage instead of leading them into true freedom in the Church.

Orthodox know that God is the knower of hearts.  And that anyone who asks God for bread will not be given a stone.  Anyone who truly wants to know the true God will be led to Christ.  And.  Anyone who truly wants to know the true Christ will be led to His Church, which is the Orthodox Church, the only place on earth where Christ is known, in the Sacraments He established for us for this purpose, and to which all are invited.

Archimandrite Sabastian Dobovich

Eugene Rose  Lay Sermon  Dec. 1965

On November 30 was the 25th anniversary of the death of Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich, an important figure in the history of Orthodoxy in America.  Few Orthodox in America are perhaps aware of the promising beginning that was made by Orthodox missinaries in the 18th and 19th centuries.  From Blessed Father Herman and the early missionaries to Alaska, through Bishop Innocent [later Metropolitan of Moscow], to the first Orthodox bishop of San Francisco at the end of the last century, a serious attempt was undertaken to make the riches of Holy Orthodoxy accessible to Americans.   One of the most notable examples _ and results – of this missionary endeavor was the life and writings of Archimandrite Sebastian.  Born in 1863 in San Francisco of Serbian parents, he was the first native American to become a priest and monk in the Orthodox Church.  Fluent in Russian, Serbian and English, he preached the Gospel in all three languages.  He is remembered fondly by many Serbs as the founder and inspirer of many Serbian parishes.  In the English language he preached sermons and gave lectures, a number of which he published, together with independent essays, translations, and expositions of the Orthodox Faith.  In these he took as his motto the phrase of St. Paul: speaking the truth in love [Eph. 4:15].  Without judging those outside the Church, and showing every kindness to them in his relations with them, he nonetheless preached the truth without compromise, condemning all liberalism and indifference in religious matters as "foul treachery" to God's Truth, proceeding from a lack of faith and conviction.

His is an example Orthodox missionaries of today might well heed.  The temptation is strong to forget the essentially missionary nature of Orthodoxy, or to substitute for it a weak and timid "ecumenism" that fears to speak the whole truth least some be offended by it.  But one cannot be true to Holy Orthodoxy in this way.  Orthodoxy is the one true Church of Christ, the only pure and genuine Christianity; and this fact places upon Orthodox believers the obligation, when speaking of the Church to others, to do so straightforwardly and without adulteration – with love, surely, but above all with love for God's Truth. 

The Acension of Our Lord

Eugene Rose  Lay Sermon  June 1964

"God is ascended with jubilee,

and the Lord with the sound of a trumpet."

[Psalm 46:5]

On the feast of the Ascension of our Lord we celebrate the fulfillment of this prophecy of King David, which is used as the prokimenon of the day.  What does it mean for Orthodox Christians?  It is not only Jesus Christ Who has ascended; for He has raised human nature itself to the heavens.  We too shall rise from the dead and, if we are judged worthy, will rise with our regenerated, spiritual body to heaven, where, as the Blessed Augustine says, "all the people of God shall be made equal to the angels."

But the thought of this promise reminds us also of our responsibility.  The risen Lord is no longer with us in the flesh, but only through His invisible Holy Spirit.  The interim between the First and Second Coming of Christ is for us a time of witness and testimony of Him Whom we worship without seeing.  The Lord, just before His Ascension, commanded His disciples: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature" [St. Mark 16:15]; and He told them, "ye shall be my witnesses ... unto the uttermost part of the earth" [Act 1:8].

Christ has been with us for forty days, and we have rightly feasted; we must now, being filled with the Holy Spirit of God, strive to spread His Gospel and be His witnesses before the world.  For everything that we do, or fail to do, we shall be judged by Him Who shall return to earth in the same way He ascended to Heaven.  With such a sobering thought in mind, how can we not be zealous to make His truth known, so that all may join in the joyous cry of this feast, "Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory over all the earth" [Psalm 107:5].

The Prayer of the Good Thief

Eugene Rose  Lay Sermon  April 1964

For Orthodox Christians this Feast of Feasts, the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, is already Heaven on earth.  He Who first rose from the dead has opened to all the gates of eternal life, and those who have properly prepared for this great Feast, in accordance with the commandments of God and the disciplines of His Church, have already now a foretaste of this life.  On this day, as it will be in the Kingdom of Heaven, all is joy, and glory, and light.

The season of preparation for the Feast is long and difficult.  Yet so great is the mercy of our God to us that He does not reject those who are late in preparing themselves.  Those who begin only at the sixth or the ninth hour, or even at the eleventh hour, as or Father in Christ St. John Chrysostom tells us, are welcome at the Feast as those who have fasted from the very first.

Indeed, the Church of Christ remembers especially, not only in connection with the events of the Saving Passion of our Lord, but also at every celebration of the Divine Liturgy, one who turned to the Savior only at the very last moment.  This is the Good Thief who hung on a cross beside our Lord, and whose prayer is the prayer of every Orthodox Christian: "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom."

We are all, whether we realize it or not, in the position of this thief.  Like him we have been condemned by our sins as unworthy of this life; like him we have nothing to hope for in this world and face only suffering and a miserable death if we hope for no other life than this.  But if, like him, even in our suffering and unworthiness we yet turn to the God Who condescended to share our human weakness, even to such an ignominious death, and believe that He has the power to fulfill the promises He has made to us, – then is our condemnation revoked, our sins forgiven, our unworthiness overlooked, and out pain and sorrow and death swallowed up in victory and joy and eternal life.

By such faith, which is affirmed in the radiant services of the holy day and week, we are lifted above this earth and offered a glimpse of the life to come.  We already know in some measre the meaning of the promise with which our Lord answered the prayer of the Good Thief, and nowhere in the Holy Scriptures are there words more full of hope and encouragement for us: "Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise."

The Radiant Feast

Eugene Rose  Lay Sermon  April 1965

The Resurrection of our Lord, the Feast of Feasts is called in the Church calendar "radiant" or "bright," as is every day of he week that follows.  And indeed the dominant theme of the Feast, felt especially acutely by those who have attended many of the dark, somber services which the Orthodox Church prescribes for Great Lent and Passion Week, is one of brilliant, dazzling light  During the Matins of the Resurrection every light in the church is lit, the clergy is attired in bright vestments, every believer holds a lighted candle, and the constant theme of the hymns and canticles is one of light.

"The Day of Resurrection!  Let us be illumined, O ye people!  Let us purify our senses and we shall behold Christ radiant with the light ineffable of the Resurrection...  Now are all things filled with light... Let is behold Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, Who lighteth the life of all mankind...  Holy is this redeeming and radiantly-effulgent night, the harbinger of the bright and beaming Day of the Resurrection, on which the Light Eternal that hath no bounds shone forth in the flesh from the grave for all mankind."

The brightness of the Feast of the Resurrection is symbolic of many things: of purity, of life, of the everflowing joy and grace of the Feast.  But it is also much more than a symbol; it is already a foretaste of what every Christian lives for: eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.  In the Canon of the Resurrection we hear: "Shine, shine O New Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."  The New Jerusalem is the Kingdom of Heaven, in which everything and everyone shall be filled with light; "then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father [St. Matt. 13:42].

Already in our perishing world this light has become visible.  It is the light of the Transfiguration of our Lord that blinded the Apostles on Mt. Tabor; it is the light with which the Prophet Moses shone after he had spoken with God on Mt. Sinai so that his face had to be covered with a veil; it is the light with which St. Seraphim of Sarov and others of the great saints have shone.  It is the light seen with his inward eye by every Orthodox Christian who lives the life of grace in the Church through the sacraments, the life lived so intensely by the recently-canonized Orthodox pastor, St. John of Kronstadt, that he could feel and exclaim: "All if fire, all is light, all is warmth."  Those who have received Holy Communion on the Feast of the Resurrection, after having fasted and morned with the Church throughout Great Lent, already know something of this radiant joy.

If we can begin such a life in this corruptible flesh, can we even imagine the life that we shall lead in the spiritual body with which we shall be resurrected in our Lord?  Then the darkness of sin will no longer obstruct the action of grace in us, and we shall shine with the light of the spiritual Sun, our Lord Jesus Christ, and all who shall attain to that Kingdom will live in effulgent light.

The Veneration of Icons in Holy Orthodoxy

Eugene Rose  Lay Sermon  March 1964

The first Sunday of Great Lent is celebrated by the Orthodox Church as the Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy.  Originally this Feast was established to mark the restoration of icons after the period of Iconoclasm, and among the anathemas read on that day there is still one directed against "those who insult and blaspheme the Holy Icons."   The Orthodox Church, then, places veneration of images on a level with the doctrines of Christian faith; and the central place occupied by this veneration in the life of Orthodox believers is another indication of its great importance.

Why is it so important?  One reason is that the use of images answers a very deep need of human nature.  Fr. John of Kronstadt has said has said, "Icons are a requirement of our nature.  Can our nature do without an image?  Can we recall to mind an absent person without representing or imagining him to ourselves?  Has not God Himself given us the capacity to representation and imagination?"

There is yet a more profound reason for the Orthodox veneration of icons.  This is the theological reason indicated in the Kontakion of the Feast: "The illimitable Word of the Father accepted limitation by incarnation from Thee, O Mother of God; and He transformed our defiled image to its original state and transfused it with the Divine beauty."  It is because God has taken human form and so restored this form to its original likeness to Himself, that it is proper for us to reverence images of our Lord, His Most Holy Mother, and the Saints, in whom the Divine image has also been restored.

The art of iconography, having such a high origin, is not an ordinary art; it is sacred.  Too many, alas, even among Orthodox believers, try to judge it by secular standards.  It is often said that icons in the traditional style are "unrealistic" of "unnatural".  But the Saints, too, according to the standards of the world are "unnatural"; and the same may be said of Christian Truth itself.  These things must be judged by a higher, spiritual standard.  "Realistic" images of the Saints are incomplete because they represent only their earthly appearance.  Traditional iconography, such as is still practiced in centers of Holy Orthodoxy like the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, N.Y., depicts the Saints as they actually are spiritually and as we shall finally see them in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Such are appeals not to the senses but to the spirit.

That is why genuine icons cannot be painted by an ordinary artist.  While he is working, the icon painter must fast, pray, and be in a state of humility and contrition.  And the believer who stands before a finished icon must be in a similar state.  An icon is not to be appreciated as a work of art; its purpose is rather to help us to pray and to lift our minds and hearts above this earth into Heaven.  According tot he Holy Fathers who compiled the decrees of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, at which the veneration of icons was restored, "The more continually the Saints are seen in iconic form, the more are the beholders lifted up to the memory of the prototypes and to an aspiration after them."

In a world that is plunging to its destruction along the path of a thousand enticing novelties, the Orthodox icon, like everything else connected with Holy Orthodoxy, stands out as constant and unchanging, guiding faithful Orthodox along the one sure path to eternal salvation.  The constancy of the iconographic tradition and of the Orthodox teaching regarding the veneration of icons, is one of the many signs by which we know the truth of what the Church teaches us on this Sunday of Orthodoxy: "This is the Apostolic Faith, this is the Faith of the Fathers, this is the Orthodox Faith, this Faith hath confirmed the universe."

St. John, A Prophet

Eugene Rose  Lay Sermon  Oct. 1966

ST. JOHN OF KRONSTADT, 

A PROPHET WHO  RAISED THE DEAD

The newly-canonized Saint of God, John of Kronstadt [1829-1908], whose feast we celebrate on October 19/November 1, is surely one of the greatest of Orthodox Saints.  Even in his own lifetime he performed, by the power of God, countless miracles.  For believing Christians he was a fervent intercessor, and he healed thousands of the afflicted, whose letters and telegrams reached him every day.  He was a prophet as well, and he foretold the coming Divine chastisement of the Russian people for their sins.  He prophesied of the dispersion of the Orthodox Russian people to every corner of the globe, where by their presence they would make orthodoxy known to the unbelieving world, as well as of their return to the homeland before the end of the world.  And like the Prophet Elisha in the Old Testament [II Kings 4:32-37] he performed even the most impossible of miracles – he raised the dead, thus testifying to the undiminished power of God, which works even in our own day through men of faith and holy life.  The following miracle is related by Eugene Vadimov in the book I.K. Sursky, Father John of Kronstadt:

The wife of O., while preparing to bear her fourth or fifth child, was taken seriously ill.  Her doctors determined that the foetus had died and that a Caesarean section was required to remove it.  But first the family sent a telegram to Fr. John of Kronstadt, whom they knew.  Fr. John replied: "Leaving immediately, praying to God.  John Sergiev."

The next day about noon he entered the O. apartment, where by that time a whole crowd of relatives and friends had gathered.  "Where is Liza?" Fr. John asked, entering the drawing-room with his customary rapid gait.  "Take me to her, and all of you remain here quietly."

Fr John entered the adjoining bedroom and closed the heavy doors after him.  Minutes passed that seemed like half-hours.  In the drawing-room it was quiet as a burial vault.  And suddenly the bedroom doors were flung open with a loud noise.  In the doorway stood a gray-haired old man in a priest's cassock, over which he had on an old stole with a thin, dishevelled gray beard, with an extraordinary face that was red from the intense effort he had exerted at prayer and covered with great drops of sweat.  And suddenly there almost thundered from Fr. John fearful terrible words, words that came from another world.  "The Lord God has been please to work a miracle!  He had been pleased to resurrect a dead child in the womb!  Liza will bear a son!.."

"It's incomprehensible!" said one of the doctors who had come for the operation just two hours after Fr. John had left.  "The foetus is alive ... I don't understand a thing about it, not a thing ... I affirmed and affirm now that the foetus was dead and that blood-poisoning began long ago."  The other doctors understood no more.

The same night Mrs. O. was successfully and quickly delivered of a perfectly healthy boy.