A devastating account of Sergianism in eschatological [the End Times] terms written by a confessor of the catacomb church who suffered in Stalin’s gulag.This article was originally published in the Paris based publication Mepa (Russ.), where it was printed in abridgment.
Published to the internet in English translation by Protodeacon Basil Yakimov of Canberra (ROCA)
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In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!
Sergianism
ought to be understood in the light of the prophecies concerning the
latter times. It is said: wheresoever the body is, thither – will the
eagles be gathered together (Lk. 17, 37). Precisely like a lifeless body
is our mankind today, for our days and the events of our lives have
attracted the terrible signs of the last days, speaking to us in the
language of a secret mystery, imprinted by the Divine Revelation in the
writings of holy Prophets and Apostles, and revealed in the divinely
inspired words of God-bearing fathers of the Church. The great wrath of
God is now vented on Russia because of its apostasy from the faith of
Christ, the apostasy predicted by our Lord and Saviour Himself when He
was speaking with the disciples on the Mount of Olives.
But if,
because of the love and faith growing cold and the iniquity abounding
within us (Mt. 24), the days of great sorrow are sent upon us, then
because of our non-repentance, obstinacy and bitterness these days of
sorrow are extended; and in order that the most secret things might be
revealed, a new deepening of apostasy is permitted to take place within
our Church.
The apostasy takes place by way of submission and
obedience to the mystery of iniquity, by worshiping before the site of
Satan’s throne, by instilling the spirit of Antichrist and placing of
the abomination of desolation in the holy place, i.e. the Church.
And
all this was actually done by the former Metropolitan Sergius, and is
being perpetrated also today by the part of the clergy enticed by him.
One
may understand the spiritual aspect of Metropolitan Sergius’ terrible
deed and “Sergianism” only in the light of all the prophecies about the
last days of the Church of Christ on earth.
The Path of Impiety and Apostasy
Although
formally no damage was done to the teaching of the Orthodox Church
through heresy with regard to dogmas in the path chosen by the former
Metropolitan Sergius and Sergianism, there is something more terrible
than heresy! It is exactly what the holy Apostle Paul warned about: This
know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men
shall be… (here the Apostle describes the future state of these men, and
he concludes): … having a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof (2 Tim. 3, 1-5).
Alas, only the appearance has been
preserved, while the inner content, the power of confession of Christian
faith turned out to be trampled upon, substituted, destroyed! Can there
be any doubt about the fact that joining the unjoinable and blending
and combining the incompatible is possible only in the presence of the
denial of which the Apostle speaks prophetically to Apostle and Bishop
Timothy?! Because the deed of the former Metropolitan Sergius, i.e., his
attempt to unite Christ, what is Christ’s, Christ’s bride – the
Orthodox Church – with the impious cause of Satan, with Satan himself,
is more terrible than heresy.
But – what communion hath light with
darkness? – exclaims the custodian and defender of the Church, the holy
Apostle Paul – and what concord hath Christ with Belial? (2 Cor. 6,
14-15).
External preservation of the forms of faith, both dogmatic
and ritual, of Orthodox people in the presence of a complete inner
substitution of this faith is possible only when a hierarch becomes
profoundly impious, which is tantamount to rejection of Christ and
crossing over to the camp of the “mystery of iniquity” being obedient to
Belial.
But woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness… (Isaiah 5, 20).
And
in this lies the essence of the path of the former Metropolitan Sergius
and of those who know what they do as they continue on his path!
Deviation to the Side of the “Pale Horse” and “His Rider”
By
the inscrutable ways of the Lord, but, of course, receiving what we
deserve by our deeds, in our life we are witnessing the Lamb, right
before our eyes, removing the fourth seal from what was meant to be: And
when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth
beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his
name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power
was given unto them over the fourth part off the earth, to kill with a
sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth
(Rev. 6, 7-8).
And the voice of God said (and still says to everyone
living in these days and who bears the name of Christ and guards
himself by the power of the Cross): come and see, that everyone might
understand what is happening. And if this was said and imposed as the
duty onto every Christian who lived and who lives now, than the more so
onto the highest Hierarch of the Church! For he is a Shepherd, an
Archpastor! For he walks in front, he leads and the flock follows him!
And
there was the time (not just days, but years) when Metropolitan Sergius
looked and saw as commanded, and understood everything that was going
on and as being in agreement with the divinely inspired conception of
the Church of God: as the time of the imminent end of the world, as the
fulfilment and victory of the mystery of iniquity, as the glorification
of the spirit of Antichrist and its bearers, as the time of building the
throne of Satan!
And M., like any Christian, when facing the powers
of hell, should have remained a firm rock and a fortress of a fearless
Christian faith. For the Lord said to His follower: Fear none of those
things which thou shall suffer… be thou faithful unto death, and I will
give thee a crown of life (Rev. 2, 10). It is the duty of every
Christian to remain fearless and firm like a soldier, because it has
been commanded: Thou, therefore, endure hardness, as a good soldier of
Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 2,3). For God hath not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power, and of love (2 Tim. 1, 7). The more so it is the duty of a
Bishop, especially of the one who is in charge of Christ’s army, of the
Church of God! We say: “the status obliges” (even for the sake of the
worldly concept of duty and honour – according to the law of military,
or any other service valour) to die at one’s post in the firm resolution
to obey one’s superior, be it a commander of a fortress, or a ship’s
captain. Should not even greater firmness be manifested by a church
hierarch? Especially at the time of war against faith and against the
name of the All-Mighty when he is entrusted with steering the vessel of
the Church in the turbulent waters of atheism, apostasy and struggle
against God!..
After all, every priest repeats the words of the
Master and Perpetrator of our faith, as being also the words of his
oath: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I
confess also before my Father Who is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny
Me before men, him will I also deny before my Father, Who is in heaven”
(Mt. 10, 32-33).
But alas! As the substitute for Metropolitan Peter,
who was truly indestructible in Christian firmness and archpastoral
fidelity. Metropolitan Sergius failed to stand his ground when facing
torments and the possibility of death for the sake of Christ. He yielded
to the mystery of iniquity, he was frightened by its intimidations and
threats, its terrors and violence!.. He accepted all its demands and,
having spiritually bent his knees before the site of Satan’s throne, he
worshiped it! The more terrible is Metropolitan Sergius’ deed, as all
his nightly discussions and persuasions were conducted at his place not
by the apostates from Orthodoxy, but by Christ-hating Jews who crucified
Christ, as was admitted by the former Metropolitan Sergius himself.
Thus it was namely before the Jewish sanhedrin that the Metropolitan
failed to stand his ground and betrayed Christ. Thus was accomplished
the greatest betrayal with regard to the Church as Christ’s host on
earth. The apostasy and betrayal unprecedented in the history of
mankind. Even the betrayal perpetrated by Judas Iscariot is inferior to
it! Christ was equally betrayed in both instances, but while Judas’ deed
stayed with him for only three days, tile treacherous deed of the
former Metropolitan Sergius is still alive, having spread and
consolidated for over a quarter of the century (the author died in 1956,
transl).
Being Christ’s servant and a high ranking Hierarch of
Christ’s Church on earth which is always militant (for we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places (Ephes. 6, 12)), the ill-fated Metropolitan
Sergius became a servant of the perpetrators of the mystery of iniquity,
an obedient tool of their objectives!.. And as a reward for this
obedience the traitorous false shepherd received from the hands of the
satanic host his hierarchical vestments and the staff of the
ecclesiastical power, sprinkled by the mystery of iniquity.
Subsequently
this false shepherd who renounced that which is sacred, and found his
power as a basis only in the approval on the part of the perpetrators of
the mystery of iniquity, began his service not as the substitute of the
locum tenens of tile Most Holy Patriarchal Sea of All Russia, but as
the custodian of the throne of Satan, and he began to speak in the
language of blasphemously apostatic lies, full of delusions and deceit
in the spirit of Antichrist!.. The Christian world has never heard such
lies, for the lies and harm of all the heresies put together lag far
behind the lies and harm inflicted upon the Church by the deed of this
false shepherd.
In the days when the whole world was terrified by the
appearance of the pale horse and his rider, and by the terrible things
they were perpetrating on the fourth part of the earth, because the
horse and its rider were followed by death and hell, in those days the
false Hierarch – wolf, stood in the holy place and raising his voice
called on people to worship both the horse and the rider.
The Church
of Christ was sprayed by the blood of martyrs and shaking from the sobs
brought on by the sorrow of these days, that great sorrow of which the
Saviour spoke on the Mount of Olives and the onset of which was revealed
in all its fullness and in all its spiritual essence to the wonderful
saint of God, St. Seraphim of Sarov who was glorified in Russia as a
harbinger of this sorrow. Divinely inspired he foresaw the happenings of
our days: And then there will be such sorrow as there were none from
the beginning of the world! The Angels of God will hardly be able (have
time?) to receive the souls of martyrs for the word of God. And saying
this – the eyewitness added – Fr. Seraphim burst out in tears!..
And
in these tears, in this crying and sobbing of the Saint were the tears
and crying of the entire Church of Christ, overwhelmed by the feeling of
the greatest of sorrows!..
However, the impious Hierarch did not
share these feelings; he did not know the sorrow and tears caused by the
martyrdom of those slain for the word of God and witnessing of Christ.
St.
Seraphim cried while the impious apostate rejoiced, hi his
self-anathematized and excommunicated soul he found words to address the
grievous horse and rider, the death and hell following them, and the
beasts of the earth, he spoke the words which assured them that “their
joys” were also “his joys”, and “their sorrows” – “his sorrows” as well.
“Your joys are our joys, and your sorrows are our sorrows” – thus
resounded the voice of the one who excommunicated and anathematized
himself by these words. This voice attempted to impose his impiety on
the faithful of the Church and in their behalf spoke he – the false
shepherd-apostate, tile wolf in hierarchical vestments. In him, the
former Metropolitan, are realized the prophetic words regarding the
destiny of the Church uttered by the holy Apostle Paul before the
Presbyters of Ephesus. But this time these prophecies, although often
having come true before, in the person of the former Metropolitan
Sergius find their most vivid realization: For I know this – said the
Apostle – that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among
you, not sparing the flock; also of your own selves shall men arise,
speaking perverse things… (Acts 20, 29-30).
So, this “wolf,
surpassing all in his ability “to speak perverse things”, i.e. that
which constitutes a complete distortion of truth, has unreservedly
announced before the amazed world his unconditional sharing of the joys
and sorrows, in other words, aspirations, tasks and objectives of
Antichrist in destroying the faith and the Church of Christ.
What an abyss of godlessness and apostatic betrayal!!!
Sorrow
of the Church means joy for Antichrist!.. And where the holy Church in
the person of St. Seraphim cries of grief, the false shepherd –
apostate, the former Metropolitan Sergius, now siding with the mystery
of iniquity along with the custodians of the Satan’s throne – is
rejoicing, rejoicing.
Against the Martyrs for the Word of God
Before
the face of all the world the great host of radiant and victorious new
martyrs for Christ and passion-bearers who have stained the entire
Russian land with their blood, have now appeared before the throne of
the Most High wearing crowns, as it was foretold: And when he had opened
the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain
for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held; and they
cried with a loud voice, saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, dost
Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And
white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto
them, that they should rest yet for a little time, until their fellow
servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were,
should be fulfilled. (Rev. 6, 9-11).
And all this happened and is
still happening in our days! And this is the conception of the Holy
Church, based on the grace-filled prophecy of St. Seraphim and now
proclaimed in the Church through God-bearing servants of the Lord.
Who
can argue against, or destroy such conception, except the one, the
father of lies – the devil? But alas! The former Metropolitan Sergius
too, this obedient tool of the mystery of iniquity, who has taken the
side of the fierce enemy of Christ’s cause, he too speaks out regarding
the souls under the altar, that were slain for the word of God, and for
the testimony which they had, regarding the faith of the new martyrs for
the name of Christ and all those who in our days were martyred and
slain for faith – but he speaks in the language of satanic slander of
people who have taken upon themselves their victims’ innocent blood –
saying that they are “criminals” and deserve the punishment (!).
And –
He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, Who walketh in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks (Rev. 2, 1), Christ, our true
God, Who uttered the truth about them (confessors and martyrs), that
they will be “brought before rulers and kings for His sake, for a
testimony before them and the pagans” (Mk. 13, 9; Lk. 21, 12-13). And He
spoke about this yet again when addressing the whole Church: behold,
the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and
ye shall have tribulation ten days; be thou faithful unto death, and I
will give thee a crown of life (Rev. 2, 10).n
The traitor lies,
speaking with venomous lips before the entire world, here on earth and
in heaven, hiding the unheard of destruction of human souls and
betraying thousands of the faithful, cross-bearing children of the
Church who languish in bonds, attesting to the lies that “there are no
persecutions for the faith in Christ”!.. But where are all the
Metropolitans, Archbishops and Bishops, several hundred of them who
served in the holy Patriarch Tikhon’s time? Where are the thousands of
priests, deacons, monks, nuns?! What happened to the numerous
desert-dwellers, hermits? And who of the truly faithful lay-people has
escaped persecution and bonds for the faith in Christ?
Yes, their
sorrows, profanations, tortures, lamentations, tears, groanings,
endurance of their confession, their prayers on the deathbed and the
manner of their death, their white garments and radiant crowns of
justification – all this cries out to the throne of the Most High
against the satanic slander directed at these victims, disgorged by the
cunning lips of the false archpastor-apostate.
Profanation of the Sanctuary
… And arms shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice.
Did
not these words of Prophet Daniel (11, 32) come true? Did not the
mournful words of the Psalmist come true in the days of the greatest
sorrow, as the prophecy with regard to our days: 0 God, the heathen are
come into Thine inheritance; Thy holy temple they have defiled; they
have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of Thy servants have they
given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of Thy saints
unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water
round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them (Ps. 79, 1-3).
Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. Thine
enemies roar in the midst of Thy congregations; they set up their
ensigns for signs (i.e. instead of holy crosses)… they have cast fire
into Thy sanctuary, they have defiled, by casting down, the dwelling
place of Thy name to the ground. They said in their hearts, Let us
destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in
the land. We see not our signs… (Ps. 74, 3-4, 7-9).
Yes, all this
came now to pass with a striking precision. The Church-Slavonic text of
the above Psalms makes it particularly clear; there the phrase they have
laid Jerusalem on heaps is rendered as: they have turned Jerusalem into
a storehouse for vegetables. Yes indeed: churches turned into
storehouses for vegetables in our days!
No other country in the world
had so many churches of God, as there were in Orthodox Russia… And they
were all defiled. Almost all of them were either demolished, or burned,
or blown up!.. Some of them had become storehouses. All this was
revealed to St. Seraphim of Sarov, but impious negligence has destroyed
his prophetic words, as they were recorded by those who heard them. And
yet, the following words of the Saint reached us: “The time will come
when Antichrist will remove crosses from churches”… And the time has
come! The time when the power of Antichrist defiled and destroyed
churches and holy icons, removed crosses and replaced them by their
godless signs… In His intention to make people understand what was
happening the Lord sent abundant signs and miracles by means of icons,
crosses and churches! (Such were the renewals of icons, cupolas,
crosses; bleeding of defiled icons and crosses; God’s punishment sent
upon perpetrators of sacrileges, etc.) But servants of Satan, despite
the obvious miracles which they themselves had often witnessed, kept
suppressing faith by force with even greater ferocity and consistently
destroying all manifestations of miracles, thus revealing the
straightforward blasphemy of the Holy Spirit within themselves, this
abyss of Satanic struggle against God.
Where was the voice of the one who was the First Hierarch of the Church? His words shoul
d have come down like God’s thunder and lightning upon the world
revealing the light and brilliance of Christ’s truth. But alas! The
obedient servant and tool of the mystery of iniquity just stood there in
the holy place defending the cause of atheists and blasphemous acts
directed at the Holy Spirit! But how could he contradict that which was
by now obvious to the whole world?.. And he told them that the closure
and demolition of churches and monasteries, profanation of holy icons
and crosses and destruction of the particularly venerated ones – if that
was occasionally taking place (as he said) – is perpetrated not by
satanic forces but, allegedly, “according to the wishes of believers
themselves!” Are these the words one would expect to hear from an
Archpastor, from a Hierarch, in the highest rank at that, or from the
servant of Satan?
* * *
And so: what is Sergianism? It is apostasy
and betrayal, and godlessness and denial, and treachery and heresy, and
yet it is quite dissimilar to what these words have denoted until now.
What
is it then? That which is now done to oblige the mystery of iniquity in
the face of Antichrist’s power – could that all be expressed more
briefly and clearly? Does not the divinely inspired word, the Scripture,
have a name for it? For it is unlikely that all the extraordinary
things which are now taking place within the enclosure of the Church, do
not have the extraordinary name for it. Yes, they do!
It is the placing of abomination of desolation in the holy place!
For
it is written: When ye therefore shall see the abomination of
desolation, spoken of Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (who
readeth, let him understand) then let them which be in Judaea flee into
the mountains… (Mt. 24, 15-16).
But when ye shall see the abomination
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought
not, (let him that readeth understand, then let them that be in Judaea
flee to the mountains (Mk. 13, 14). And the holy prophet Daniel said:
…and for the overspreading of abomination he shall make it desolate…
(Dan. 9, 27).
The prophet says more about the matter when writing
about the most impious “king” (NB)….therefore he shall… have indignation
against the holy Covenant: so he shall even return, and have
intelligence with them that forsake the holy Covenant… And arms shall
stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and
shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the
abomination that maketh desolate (Dan. 11, 30-31).
Indeed, that which
is perpetrated by the “apostates” from the Holy Covenant, the false
Chief Hierarch Sergius and all the false bishops following along his
path, means “placing the abomination of desolation”.
And although
their deeds lack the final fullness of “abomination” as foretold by the
Lord, it has been spiritually manifested in its abominable essence, as
the closest prototype of that which is named “the abomination of
desolation”.
If it would not be for all this happening within the
Russian Church, say those whom the Lord permitted to see the invisible
and to hear the inaudible, the blessed holy men and women of God – the
days of sorrows would be lifted (at least “for a short time”). But for
the time being the fulfilment of God’s words in our land which fell into
sin – “is put off'” by the right hand of the Most High.
Amen.
Priest Vladimir Krivolutsky,
confessor of faith, member of the True Orthodox (Catacomb) Church was
bom in 1888 in the city of Orel. In 1910 he graduated from the Law
Faculty of the Moscow University. From 1915 to 1918 he served at the
front. From 1918 to 1922 was in military service. From 1921 to 1922
studied at the National Orthodox Academy. On May 6, 1922 he was ordained
a deacon and served in Moscow. On Sept 9, 1923 was ordained a priest.
From 1924 to 1930 served in Moscow, in the Church of the Mother of God
of the Sign. Was arrested in 1927, and rel
eased a few months later.
He did not recognize the “Declaration” of Metropolitan Sergius. From 22
January, 1930 served in the St. Nicholas Church in Kotemiki. On
December 28 of 1930 arrested again and exiled to the Northern Region
(Pinega, Archangelsk) for 3 years. Shared this exile with St. Nikon of
Optina. Released in 1933 and lived in Mozhaisk and Yegor’evsk. Being a
member of the True Orthodox (Catacomb) Church, he served secretly in
homes of the faithful. Once again arrested on April 21, 1946, and on
Nov. 30, 1946 sentenced to 10 years in corrective-labour camps. Served
his term in Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Karaganda (in Kazakhstan). In 1955
released before the end of his term due to severe illness. Father
Vladimir died in Moscow on March of 1956.
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