Informational General Sharing: A HUGE WEALTH!.. of Orthodox Christian Wisdom and History & Teaching: About & Against 'Zionism' and many other Orthodox related subjects- shared by Archimandrite Alexius in the UKInbox |
| ||||||
Friday, 5 January 2018
An Explanation of the Nativity of Christ Icon
The Nativity icon is not just an artistic depiction of the birth of
Christ in Bethlehem. Like all icons, the icon of the Nativity of Christ
depicts not only earthly events but also spiritual realities. An icon,
even though it is a painted
image, is joined to its prototype in a mystical way and participates in
the holiness of the person whose face is painted upon it. In other
words, the Nativity icon doesn’t just portray Birth of Christ; the icon
shares in the holiness of the event.
In the centre of the icon is the cave with Christ lying wrapped in
swaddling-bands in the manger. The darkness of the cave represents the
darkness that once enshrouded the whole of creation because of sin. The
rocky terrain and the
sparse vegetation recall the wilderness through which the Israelites
wandered for forty years and in which they were fed with manna from
heaven. Just as formerly the Son of God rained manna from heaven on the
Israelites, now He gives us His Body to eat in
the Eucharist; Christ is, as He teaches in the Gospels, the Bread of
Life (John 6:35). The cave also signifies the Church; the manger is the
altar on which the sacrifice of the Eucharist is made and from which we
partake of the Body and Blood of Christ that
nourishes our souls.
A ray of light shines on the cave and the star that guided the Magi is drawn developing from this ray. The star is depicted like this to indicate that it was not a normal star but a supernatural phenomenon with the appearance of a star. This is clear, as St. John Chrysostom explains, from the direction of the star’s travel and from the fact that it descended from heaven and settled over the exact place where Jesus was born.
The Mother of God is shown reclining in the centre of the cave in a peaceful manner signifying that this birth was contrary to the law of nature. Sometimes she is depicted seated to emphasize this point even more. In Orthodox icons the Mother of God is not depicted kneeling before the manger in worship.
The Infant Jesus is shown wrapped in swaddling bands as was the Jewish custom recounted in the Gospels (Luke 2:12). These bands also foretell the winding sheet with which Christ will later be wrapped for burial.
The
ox and the donkey offer their adoration as prophesied by Esaias: ‘The
ox knoweth his owner and the donkey his master’s crib’ (Is. 1:3). The ox
symbolizes the Jews of
the Old Testament that were subject to the Law and the donkey, the
traditional beast of burden, those non-Jews weighed down by the sin of
idolatry. Oxen and donkeys are fed with hay from a manger; now Christ,
by becoming incarnate, grants mankind His Body
for food.
In
addition, through becoming man and being born in the manger, Christ has
re-created man and ‘broken down the middle wall of partition’ (Eph.
2:14). He has removed the
yoke of the Law from the Jews and the heavy weight of idolatry from the
nations making, of the two, ‘one new man’ as Saint Gregory of Nyssa
teaches. The festival of the Nativity of Christ is therefore not a feast
of creation but of ‘re-creation’.
The
cave, the manger and the swaddling bands all demonstrate God the Word’s
condescension towards mankind. In the hymns and theology of the Church
this is called ‘kenosis’
which means ‘self-emptying’. Christ empties Himself to become man, yet
does not cease to dwell with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
In
the bottom right-hand corner of the icon Christ is shown being washed
by two midwives. This washing scene is based on the apocryphal Gospels
of Matthew and James and
was the cause of some controversy in the eighteenth century. The dispute
arose because the washing scene appears to suggest that the birth of
Christ was according to nature. However, we know from the teaching of
the Church that the Theotokos was a virgin before,
during and after childbirth. In other words, the seal of her virginity
remained even after childbirth and she gave birth without defilement and
without the need for washing. This event was foretold by the Prophet
Ezekiel: ‘This gate shall be shut, it shall
not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the
God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut’
(Ezekiel 44:2).
Most early icons depict this bathing scene and as long as it is correctly interpreted it is not a problem. The washing was part of Christ’s condescension to human custom in the same way as He underwent circumcision and baptism. This scene does not indicate any uncleanness, but teaches us that Christ became man in reality and not in just in appearance.
Most early icons depict this bathing scene and as long as it is correctly interpreted it is not a problem. The washing was part of Christ’s condescension to human custom in the same way as He underwent circumcision and baptism. This scene does not indicate any uncleanness, but teaches us that Christ became man in reality and not in just in appearance.
The angels are depicted both in their role as messengers proclaiming the birth of Christ and as worshippers of His nativity. This two-fold ministry of the angels is depicted on this icon by some of the angels lifting up their hands to heaven, giving glory to God and the others bending down towards mankind to whom they bring good tidings.
Beneath
the angels, on the left-hand side are the three Magi. The Magi are
depicted as of differing ages and not the usual three elderly men that
we find on western Christmas
cards. This is to emphasize that revelations occur independently of age
and experience. In some icons the Magi appear twice – both on their
journey and presenting their gifts to Christ.
On the right-hand side a shepherd is depicted playing a reed pipe and joining chorus with the angels.
The
plants and rocks are included together with the sheep, men and angels
to signify that the Nativity of Christ is a historic event in time, and
also has a spiritual significance
for the whole world. Christ is the ‘Rod of the root Jesse and the flower
that blossomed from his stem’ (cf. Isaiah 11:1-2). The tree at the
bottom of the icon is a symbol of the Tree of Jesse. Christ was from the
lineage of David – the Prophet King David was
the son of Jesse.
To
emphasize the miraculous nature of Christ’s birth, St. Joseph the
Betrothed is not portrayed with the Virgin and Christ, but is seated
alone (in the bottom left-hand
corner of this icon) looking downcast. This recalls the temptation that
he underwent undergone when Joseph realized that the Mother of God was
expecting a child (cf. Matt. 1:19). The devil, disguised as an old
shepherd, is shown tempting him. The Mother of
God, instead of looking at the Christ in the manger, gazes with
compassion on Joseph as she perceives his inner turmoil.
Saint Joseph, even though he is a witness and guardian of this mystery,
is detached from the Mother and Child because he is not Christ’s father.
This
positioning of St. Joseph is important in safeguarding the traditional
teaching of Christ’s birth from a Virgin. Placing Joseph next to the
Mother of God could lead us to believe that Christ’s conception was
earthly and not of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, it
would over-emphasize the ‘normal family’ aspect and fail to depict, at
least as much as we are able to, the mystery of the Son of God’s
self-emptying to become man.
The
Orthodox Church, therefore, does not accept western portrayals of
Joseph the Betrothed, the Mother of God and Christ in a ‘family
portrait’ pose. This
‘Holy Family Icon’ (right) might be called an
‘icon’ but it is not Orthodox. In this depiction, the ‘Holy Family’ are
represented as a normal family; the Orthodox Church does not depict the
St. Joseph the Betrothed hugging the Mother of
God because this would imply some earthly, carnal union between them. In
addition, in this icon, Saint Joseph resembles Christ in appearance.
This practice is unknown to Orthodoxy because it implies that St. Joseph
was Christ's father according to the flesh.
Orthodox icons always depict St. Joseph the Betrothed as an older man.
The
safeguarding of Orthodox theology by our iconography explains why the
Orthodox Church does not have a crib (nativity scene) in church and why
we do not perform nativity plays. Both these examples unintentionally
distract from the central point of the Nativity
scene in the Orthodox icon – that the Word of God became incarnate. The
statues in the Roman Catholic crib over-emphasize the human aspects of
the birth of Christ much in the same way as dressing up children as Mary
and Joseph introduces a fleshly sentimentality
into the feast. Christmas is beautiful but not because a beautiful child is born; it is beautiful because this child is the Word of God become man for our sake. Statues and actors cannot depict this beauty in its fullness because they portray a fleshly sentimentality rather letting us glimpse and share in a spiritual reality. The Orthodox icon of the Nativity of Christ both depicts and joins us mystically to this event in which heaven and earth are united by God becoming man on earth.
Thursday, 28 December 2017
Charitable Donations for 2017
In 2017
(new
calendar), through our Orthodox Aid Fund, Saint Edward Brotherhood made
donations totalling £21,832.84 to various church, humanitarian and
environmental charities. This is a considerable
increase on last year’s total of just over £14,000, and has only been
made possible by the generosity and kindness of our parishioners and
supporters.
Of the total given, £7,582.96 was assigned for our Church’s Missions in Africa, £6,013.80 went to our sister churches and fellow Genuine Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria, £2,765.96 was given to the Saint Philaret the Merciful Orthodox Christian Women’s Guild in Attica, Greece for their soup kitchen project, and £1,691.89 went to our Sister Church, ROCA’s mission in Haiti. Most of the other donations were in the order of £150 each. None of the monies went to our concerns or our church communities in this country. Everything was given out.
An increase in giving this year of approximately 55% more than last year is even more remarkable in that, during the year, the community itself has had to meet the final costs of the Mortuary re-roofing and refurbishment, and the re-structuring of the turret. We hope to give a report on this in our next issue when all the payments have been settled. Again we can only thank our Good God and Saviour and the almsgiving of our people. May our Saviour reward you all with things heavenly for things earthly, but not only in the next life - in this one too.
Of the total given, £7,582.96 was assigned for our Church’s Missions in Africa, £6,013.80 went to our sister churches and fellow Genuine Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria, £2,765.96 was given to the Saint Philaret the Merciful Orthodox Christian Women’s Guild in Attica, Greece for their soup kitchen project, and £1,691.89 went to our Sister Church, ROCA’s mission in Haiti. Most of the other donations were in the order of £150 each. None of the monies went to our concerns or our church communities in this country. Everything was given out.
An increase in giving this year of approximately 55% more than last year is even more remarkable in that, during the year, the community itself has had to meet the final costs of the Mortuary re-roofing and refurbishment, and the re-structuring of the turret. We hope to give a report on this in our next issue when all the payments have been settled. Again we can only thank our Good God and Saviour and the almsgiving of our people. May our Saviour reward you all with things heavenly for things earthly, but not only in the next life - in this one too.
Thursday, 21 December 2017
President Trump and Jerusalem
The
recent decision by the President Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the
capital of the State of the Israel resulted in the
usual liberal media frenzy that accompanies almost any statement by the
current President of the United States. Interestingly, on this occasion,
other western political leaders, including the British Prime Minister
Theresa May, criticized the President’s statement.
The political situation in the Middle
East is far too complicated to discuss here, but the religious reasons
behind President Trump’s decision are worth discussing considering that
most Protestants we encounter
believe in some form of ‘Christian Zionism’.
 |
| British soldiers rescuing the wounded after a Zionist terrorist
attack on the King David Hotel. |
Zionism is the movement for the
establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Zionists view the State
of Israel as the Promised Land promised by God to Abraham in the Old
Testament. Zionism is not a modern
movement, but it came to prominence following World War Two due to the
huge influx of Jews into Palestine, which led to violence between the
British forces running Palestine at the time, the Jewish immigrants and
the Palestinian inhabitants.
Many Christians are unaware that
Zionists perpetrated many terrorist atrocities in their fight to
establish a State of Israel. Palestinians were abducted and murdered;
British soldiers were murdered in car
bombings, shootings, and lynchings in order to ethnically cleanse the
Palestinian population and to force the British to leave Palestine. By
the time the British withdrew, they had lost over three hundred men
killed.[1]
As well as Muslims, a significant number of native Palestinian
Christians and Jews were killed in these terrorist attacks carried out,
to a large extent, by recent immigrants to Palestine.
Despite this, most American Evangelicals
believe that God has blessed the State of Israel. This belief that the
State of Israel is synonymous with the Old Testament Israel blessed by
God is what is called
‘Christian Zionism’. In a recent survey, 82% of white Evangelical
Protestants stated that God gave Israel to the Jews.[2]
Many Evangelicals not only support the State of Israel but also yearn after a return to Jewish worship:
Though it may
surprise most Jews, evangelicals feel not only a strong sense of
protectiveness toward the state of Israel but a deep cultural affinity
with the Jewish people. It is not
just that they are well versed in the Hebrew Scripture and its values.
More importantly, as convinced Protestants, evangelicals tend to bypass
the period of church history between the apostles and the
Reformation—more than a thousand years of Christian corruption
and paganism, as they see it—and look for inspiration not to Origen or
Aquinas but to the heady days when all Christians were, in fact, Jews.
In returning to the roots of their faith, they often feel closer to
Jewish culture than to other branches of Christianity.
Some go the extra mile to don a kippah, observe Passover, or celebrate a
bar mitzvah.[3]
Evangelicals also believe that the
prosperity and power of America is conditional on its support for
Israel. Some of this support for Israel probably stems from a literal
Protestant Fundamentalist interpretation
of the Bible, which associates the Old Testament Israel with the State
of Israel simply because of the use of the word ‘Israel’. This
interpretation is overly simplistic and not traditionally Protestant.
The Israel that God delivered from Pharaoh is not the
same as the State of Israel established in 1948.
In the Orthodox Church we venerate
the saints of the Old Testament because they struggled out of love for
God by obeying the ordinances of the Law, but this law was merely a
foreshadowing of grace.
St. Paul teaches that ‘the law was our schoolmaster to bring us
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith’ (Gal. 3:24). Christ
is the fulfilment of the law (cf. Matt. 6:7) and its end. We hear this
summarized in the Dogmatic Theotokion
of the Second Tone sung on Saturday evening:
The shadow of the
law is passed away with the coming of grace; for as the bush was not
consumed when it was burning, thus as a virgin didst thou give birth,
and a virgin didst thou
remain. In the stead of a pillar of fire, there hath arisen the Sun of
Righteousness; in the stead of Moses, Christ, the Salvation of our
souls.[4]
Most American Evangelicals are Christian
Zionists, but only a minority believe in its most extreme forms. John
Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel is one such example.
He claims that Hitler
was sent by ‘god’ in order to cause Jews to move to Israel.[5]
It is quite understandable that
religious Jews believe the State of Israel is their Promised Land
although we would disagree. Although there are fanatical religious
Zionists, most Israelis are cultural Zionists
and do not exhibit the same levels of hatred for Palestinians as do
extreme Christian Zionists:
In stark contrast to
cultural Zionists who deem ethnic cleansings as a defensible cruelty,
Christian Zionists defend ethnic cleansing as a divine command. From
Darby in the past to
LaHaye in the present, they militantly forward the notion that God has
covenanted to give Eretz Israel – from the river of Egypt to the River
Euphrates – exclusively to the Jews. “The Lord will purify His land of
all the wicked,’ wrote Darby, ‘from the Nile
to the Euphrates.’ John Hagee is equally explicit. ‘God has given
Jerusalem’, he says, ‘only to the Jews’. Supporting the displacement of
Arabs in order to make room for Jews is rationalised as fulfilment of
the purposes of God.
[6]
Not only is Christian Zionism completely
un-Orthodox, it is not even traditionally Protestant. The sixteenth
century Protestant Reformer John Calvin strongly condemned the theory of
chialism (millelianism) that is closely associated with Christian Zionism.
Different forms of millelianism exist,
but most American Evangelicals believe in the idea that, at some point
the future, Christ will return secretly and take Christians into heaven
(the Rapture) thereby
ushering in a period of tribulation before Christ comes again openly to
institute a thousand year reign on earth. This type of millelianism
(pre-dispensational millelianism) is part of a relatively new belief
system called dispensationalism invented in the
19th century by John Nelson Darby (1800-1882). Darby divided
the Bible into seven historical periods or dispensations. We are now,
apparently, living in the sixth dispensation. This millennium (the
seventh dispensation) will be Jewish in origin,
with the Temple, animal sacrifices and Old Testament priesthood being
re-established. Only after this millennium will the Last Judgment occur.
The idea of re-establishing the Old
Testament priesthood and animal sacrifices is unique to
dispensationalism; it is a modern heresy unknown to both the Early
Church and the Protestant Reformers.
Christian Zionists and Evangelicals who
believe in a reintroduction of Temple worship cannot be called
Christians because they deny the redeeming sacrifice of Christ on the
Cross. We are Christians because
we have been redeemed by the ‘precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect’ (1. Pet 1:19).
If we reject this sacrifice and yearn after the sacrifices of the Old Testament we are not Christians.
Christ is our Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for ‘our sins: and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world’ (1 John 2:2). Christ, by
offering Himself as a sacrifice, redeemed us from the curse of the law
so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us and that we might
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (cf.
Gal. 3:13-14). Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross abolished the sacrifices of the Law as St. Paul makes clear:
Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and
offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein;
which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By
that will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb. 10:8-10).
The Scriptures and the writings of
the Church Fathers clearly show that Christ is not only the sacrifice
offered, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world (cf. John
1:29), but also the
High Priest who offers the sacrifice. We hear this High Priestly prayer
of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane on Great Thursday evening (it is
the first of the twelve Gospel readings (John 13:31- 18:1)).
In other words, re-establishing
the Old Testament priesthood would be rejecting Christ the High Priest’s
sacrifice for us. We would be going back to the time when animal
sacrifices were used to propitiate
God, thereby rejecting the New Covenant of Christ. Saint Paul explains
this further:
Neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood
of bulls and of goats,
and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the
purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge
your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God? And for this cause He is the mediator of the new covenant, that by
means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under
the first covenant, they who are called might receive the promise of
eternal inheritance (Heb. 9 11-15).
By Christ’s redeeming sacrifice we have become
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation. (cf. 1
Peter 2:9). It is for this reason that the Church is often referred to
as the New Israel. St. Paul is clear in his Epistle to the Romans that a
remnant of the Old Israel,
that is the Jews, will be saved, but this salvation will come through
grace and not through the a re-institution of the animal sacrifices of
the Old Testament.
Far from believing that Christ’s
sacrifice instituted a new, royal priesthood, dispensationalists believe
that the Christian faith is actually a result of a failure of Christ.
According to this heretical theory, Christ became incarnate to
establish an earthly millennial kingdom, but He failed to do this
because the Jews rejected him as their leader. As a result, the ‘church’
came into being and God now has two separate plans
or ‘dispensations’: one for the church and one for Israel. Members of
the church look forward to eternal life in heaven and members of Israel
look forward to an earthly Kingdom – the re-establishment of the Old
Testament Israel including Temple worship and
animal sacrifice.
It should apparent by now that
dispensationalism and Christian Zionism are not Orthodox in the
slightest. We do not look for a kingdom on earth, with human priests
subject to death, because we have
Christ as High Priest as St. Paul teaches:
For such a High
Priest was fitting for us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; Who does not need
daily, as those high priests,
to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the
people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For
the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of
the oath, which came after the law, appoints the
Son who has been perfected forever (Heb. 7: 26-28).
Dispensationalism has penetrated
so deeply into American Protestantism that most Protestants would fail
to recognize the word dispensationalism – for these people, believing in
a thousand year earthly
kingdom, the rapture and the re-establishment of Jewish Temple worship
is part of being ‘Protestant’; this is despite Calvin’s condemnation of
millelianism!
There is little doubt that President Trump’s decision to
recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel was influenced
by the powerful American Christian Zionist movement.
Christian Zionists
believe that because Jerusalem is the place where the end of the world
will occur, the State of Israel needs to be supported; the formation of
the State of Israel, according to them, is the first stage of the second
coming of Christ and is part of biblical
prophecy.
Extreme Christian Zionists have even
tried to hasten the second coming of Christ by various means. According
to the dispensationalist interpretation of Numbers 19:2, even today
everyone that has come into
contact into contact with a human corpse, bone, or grave is unclean
until cleansed with water containing the ashes of a red heifer. This
heifer must be completely red with no hairs of any other colour. The
ashes of the last pure red heifer ran out in about
70 A.D. leaving, by now, all Jews impure and incapable of building a new
Temple.
In the 1990’s Clyde Lott, a born again
Christian and cattle breeder, decided to take matters into his own hands
and take care of what God had obviously not provided by breeding fifty
thousand Red Angus cattle
and shipping them to Israel in the hope that one cow might give birth to
a pure, red heifer.
 |
| Melody |
In 1996, a red heifer named Melody was
born on a farm near Haifa and was visited by a hundred Protestant
pastors from Texas and even featured on the front cover of the
Endtime magazine.[7]
At eighteenth months of age Melody, probably much to her relief,
sprouted white hairs which saved her from imminent death and cremation.
Although Melody was not the result of Lott’s breeding programme, other
American cattle breeders are still trying
to raise an unblemished red heifer. The following story was reported in
January 2014:
In January a red
heifer, or ‘Parah Adumah’, was born to a cow herding family in an
undisclosed location in the US, who wish to see the animal used for the
purity service during the
preparations for the rebuilding of the Third Temple. The family has
reportedly not marred or maimed the animal in any way, nor will they be
using the animal for work or feeding it any growth hormones. All this to
comply with Jewish law of keeping the animal
as nature created it. Update: Unfortunately, several months later, the
cow was found to have more than one colored hair that is not red.
[8]
The site of the proposed new Jewish
Temple is Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This site is currently occupied by
the Muslim Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque. Melody’s appearance
sent some Christian Zionists
into such fervour that Israeli security forces even considered the
possibility that these ‘christians’ might try to blow up these Muslim
holy sites in order to clear the ground for the new Temple.[9]
Many American Evangelical Protestants
are not concerned about damaging the Middle-East peace process by their
interference because, in their opinion, the bloodshed that would result
would be a price worth
paying for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple. Let’s not
forget that these people believe that they will be spared from the
tribulation of the end-times by being taken into heaven (the Rapture) at
their imagined secret coming of Christ.
The
Rapture is unknown to the Early Church and to traditional
Protestantism. It is something forced on to one particular biblical text
in order to make Scripture fit the teachings of dispensationalism.
Christ Himself explains that His Second Coming
will not be secret, but clearly evident to all:
Wherefore
if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth:
behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see
the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great
glory. And he shall send his angels
with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. 24: 26, 27, 29, 30).
The Second Coming of Christ will
also be demonstrated by the resurrection of the dead, and the dead in
Christ will be raised first as Saint Paul teaches:
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive
and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede
them which are asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven,
with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the
trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will
rise first. (1 Thess. 4:15,16)
Although many British Evangelicals
believe in the Rapture, their beliefs concerning the State of Israel are
more moderate than their American co-religionists. Perhaps this is
because, until recently, the
Middle-East conflict has not featured very much in UK political
campaigns. Unfortunately, the infiltration of the Labour Party by both
hard-left and Islamic agitators has led to an alarming rise in
anti-Semitism in the U.K. Often, this is disguised under the
banner of ‘anti-Zionism’ – in fact, in many cases, it is plain
anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism has also plagued Orthodox
countries for centuries. The Russian pogroms of the nineteenth century
in which Jewish villages were burned to the ground are one shameful
example. Although the Orthodox
Church condemned these acts in the strongest possible terms, widespread
suspicion of the Jews in general persisted. This suspicion is manifested
today in the form of conspiracy theories detailing Jewish plots to
control financial markets and international
politics.
Orthodox Christians should leave
conspiracy theories well alone. We are not called to reform the world’s
banking system, we are called to repent and follow the teachings of the
Gospel. Saint Seraphim of
Sarov teaches: ‘acquire the spirit of peace and thousands around you
will be saved’. We cannot change the whole world, but we can change our
lives by repentance and, as a result, change that part of the world in
which we live by showing love for God and our
neighbour.
Genuine Orthodox Christians demonstrate
true Christianity by showing love for their neighbours regardless of
their religion. We can see this in the following two examples from World
War Two. We ourselves
have heard similar accounts from our parishioners, and no doubt there
are many, many more.
In September 1943, The Chief Rabbi was
ordered by the Nazis to provide the names and addresses of the Jews
living in Athens. The Rabbi contacted Archbishop Damaskinos who
suggested that the Jews flee rather
than identifying themselves to the Nazis. At the same time, the
Archbishop, together with the chief of police, began an operation to
save as many Jewish lives as possible. He publicly condemned Hitler’s
plans and the priests in his diocese condemned the deportation
of Jews in their sermons.
As a consequence over six hundred
Orthodox priests were arrested and deported to concentration camps.
Orthodox clergy issued false baptismal certificates to Jewish families
in order to save them from deportation.
Over two hundred and fifty Jewish children were saved by being hidden in
the homes of Orthodox clergy, and many thousands more were hidden by
monasteries and laypeople.
Archbishop Damaskinos, in a final
attempt to prevent the deportation, signed a letter appealing to the
German commander for clemency. The letter concludes: ‘Our holy religion
does not recognize superior
or inferior qualities based on race or religion, as it is stated: “There
is neither Jew nor Greek” and thus condemns any attempt to discriminate
or create racial or religious differences.’ Outraged, the German
commander threatened the Archbishop with being
taken outside and shot. The Archbishop’s reply was simple and
courageous: ‘Greek religious leaders are not shot they are hanged. I
request that you respect this custom.’
The reply so astounded the German that
the Archbishop’s life was spared. It is interesting to note how a Jewish
Foundation views the contents of this letter: ‘The appeal of the
Archbishop and his fellow
Greeks is unique; there is no similar document of protest of the Nazis
during World War II that has come to light in any other European
country.’[10]
In 1944, the Germans invaded the Greek
island of Zakynthos and ordered the mayor to hand over a list of the
Jewish inhabitants. By this stage in the war it was evident that Jews
handed over to the Germans
would be murdered. The mayor enlisted the help of Metropolitan
Chrysostomos who presented the mayor’s list to the Germans. The list
contained only two names: Metropolitan Chrysostomos and Louka Karrer,
the mayor. The Metropolitan bravely told the German commander:
‘Here are your Jews. If you choose to deport the Jews of Zakynthos, you
must also take me, and I will share their fate.’ Whilst the Metropolitan
was stalling the Germans, the Orthodox Christian inhabitants of
Zakynthos hid their Jewish neighbours.
It is also thought likely that
Metropolitan Chrysostomos wrote to Hitler interceding for the Jews
living within his diocese. Unfortunately, due to the loss of the
island’s archives in the devastating 1953
earthquake, copies of this letter no longer exist. We do know that all
Zaknythos’ two hundred and seventy-five Jews survived, and no further
attempt was made by the Germans to deport them. Indeed, the first boat
to arrive with aid to the victims of the 1953
earthquake was from Israel, adorned with a banner that read: ‘The Jews
of Zakynthos have never forgotten their mayor or their beloved bishop
and what they did for us.’[11]
It is clear that Christian Zionism is
incompatible with Orthodoxy and not even vaguely Christian. However, in
rejecting these heretical ideas, we must not allow ourselves to be
numbered with the anti-Semites
whose stock-in-trade is hatred and division and who are recognized by
their fruits (cf. Matt. 7:20). Let us instead follow the example of
those Orthodox Christians who were willing to lay down their lives
during the Holocaust and recall the words of Christ:
‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13).
[4]
Holy Transfiguration Monastery (trans.) The Pentecostarion (Brookline: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1990) p.108
[6]
H. Hanegraaff, The Apocalypse Code (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007) p.167
[7]
S. Spector, Evangelicals and Israel: The story of Christian Zionism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) p.204
[9]
Evangelicals and Israel: The story of Christian Zionism p.205
Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
A Homily by Saint Philaret of Moscow
The significance of the infant Jesus
being wrapped in swaddling bands is explained for us by one of the
ancient Christian teachers. By this wrapping, Jesus foretells His own
burial. Actually the swaddling
bands of an infant and the shroud of the dead were originally woven by
one craftsmen; the cradle and the coffin have one and the same maker. If
sin had not devised the coffin and the winding sheet, then neither
would there have been swaddling bands and the
cradle. Just as birth pangs are the beginnings of death, so the cradle
is the precursor of the coffin, and swaddling bands the first hem of the
gradually developing burial shroud.
For this reason, the Son of God, Who was
voluntarily wrapped in swaddling bands, foreshadows thereby the life of
unremitting asceticism. Whoever you might be, if you wish to follow
after Christ, you must
pass through the shadow of death on the path to birth unto life eternal.
Every instrument of offence must be cut off (Matt. 18:8), every
self-willed movement must be restrained and cut short, every earthly
desire must be bound and mortified: mortify therefore
your members which are upon the earth (Col. 3:5).
You must, as if bound with swaddling
bands, maintain the freedom to open your eyes only enough to gaze
peacefully upon the bonds of your old man (cf. Eph.4:22), and in this
way you will mortify your sight;
you must guard your mouth in such a way that it solely breathes prayers.
Thus it was that the faithful followers of the Lord bore about in their
bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus and died daily (2 Cor. 4:10; 1 Cor.
15:31), but in that very death they obtained
new life, as dying, and, behold, we live (2 Cor. 6:9). Our ascetical life is a constant sign of the path of Christ, and the coffin of the old man is truly the cradle of the new man.
Finally, this shall be a sign unto you:
ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling bands, lying in a manger. If
the infancy and the swaddling bands of the God-Man are signs of His
deep humility and mortification,
then His manger depicts an unfathomable poverty. He had already
belittled Himself before His angels by becoming man, by His being an
infant and by the swaddling bands. He accepted that which belittled Him
before men. He now condescends even further, and the
Word which is inseparably with God (John 1:1) is numbered with the
irrational beasts.
Oh, how before this sign of the Divine
impoverishment, all the exaltation in mankind, all the glory of the
world, is not just brought down and belittled, but is brought to nought,
disappears, and is concealed
in its own annihilation! And blessed is he, who reverences before the
manger of the God-Man as though it were before the Throne of His
Majesty. He, who falls down before it, sees it above him at such a
height as though in the very heavens! Let him lose the
whole world, let him lose himself in the boundless abyss of his
abasement: this boundlessness is itself the boundary of communion with
the boundless Divinity. According to the cry of the Psalmist, let his
soul faint: it fainteth for salvation (cf. Ps. 118:81).
Wednesday, 6 December 2017
The Purpose of the Incarnation of the Son of God
By Bishop Alexander of Buenos Aires, 1938-2005
Translated by Seraphim Larin & Daniel Olson
The parable of the lost sheep speaks
graphically and vividly of the purpose of the coming of the Son of God
into the world. The good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep, by
which is meant the angelic
world, and sets out for the mountains in order to seek out his lost
sheep - the human race perishing in sins. The shepherd’s great love for
the perishing sheep is evident not only in the fact that he
solicitously seeks it, but especially in the fact that
after finding it, he takes it upon his shoulders and carries it back.
In other words, God, by His power, returns to man the innocence,
holiness and blessedness lost by him; having united Himself with our
human nature, the Son of God, according to the word
of the Prophet, “hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows”
(Esaias, Ch. 53).
Christ became man not only to teach us
the true way and to show us a good example. He became man in order to
unite us with Himself, to join our feeble, diseased human nature to His
Divinity. The Nativity
of Christ testifies to the fact that we attain the ultimate aim of our
life not only by faith and by striving for good, but chiefly by the
regenerating power of the incarnate Son of God, with Whom we are united.
Delving deeply into the mystery of the
incarnation of the Son of God, we see that it is closely bound up with
the mystery of Holy Communion and with the Church, which, according to
apostolic teaching, is
the mystical Body of Christ. In the Holy Communion of the Body and
Blood of Christ, a man is joined to the Divine-human nature of Christ;
he unites with Him and in this union is wholly transfigured. At the
same time, in Holy Communion, a Christian unites
also with other members of the Church - and thus the mystical Body of
Christ grows.
Heterodox Christians who do not believe
in Holy Communion understand union with Christ in an allegorical,
metaphorical sense, or in the sense of only a spiritual communion with
Him. But for spiritual communion,
the incarnation of the Son of God is superfluous. After all, even
before the Nativity of Christ, the prophets and the righteous were
counted worthy of grace-filled communion with God.
One must understand that man is ill not
only spiritually, but also physically: all of human nature has been
harmed by sin. It is essential, therefore, to heal the whole man, not
only his spiritual part.
To remove any doubt in the necessity for total communion with Himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ, in His discourse on the Bread of Life, speaks
thus: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh,
and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the
last day... He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth
in me, and I in him” (John 6:53-54, 56). Later, Christ uses the
metaphor of the grapevine to explain to His disciples
that it is precisely in close union with Him that man receives the
strength essential for spiritual development and perfection: “As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more
can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine,
ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John
15:4-5).
Some holy Fathers have justly likened
Holy Communion to the mystical tree of life, from which our
primogenitors ate in Eden, and which afterwards St. John the Theologian
saw in Paradise (Gen. 2:9, Rev. 2:7,
22:2). In Holy Communion, a Christian is joined to the immortal life of
the God-Man.
Thus, the purpose of the incarnation of
the Son of God lies in the spiritual and physical regeneration of man.
Spiritual renewal is accomplished throughout the course of a Christian’s
whole life. But the
renewal of his physical nature is completed on the day of the general
resurrection of the dead, when the righteous shall shine forth as the
sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13:43).
Originally appeared in The Shepherd, December 2007
Saturday, 25 November 2017
A True Celebration of Christmas
Traditional
Orthodox Christians celebrate the Nativity of Christ on 25th December according to the Old Calendar (7th January on the New Calendar). The Nativity Fast begins for us on 28th November (New Calendar) and therefore coincides
with both the run-up to Western Christmas and the festival itself.
Western Christmas has become an almost
completely non-religious festival in the UK, but the practice of giving
gifts at Christmas has a Christian foundation. St. Nicholas of Myra,
whose memory we celebrate
on 6th/19th December, was the inspiration for Santa Claus due to his practice of leaving gifts anonymously for the poor.
On
the 12th/25th November, just before the start of
the Nativity Fast, we celebrate two more saints who are famous for their
deeds of mercy to the poor. St. John the Almsgiver (right) became Patriarch of Alexandra in 610 AD and immediately
asked for a complete census of all the poor and beggars in the city – there were found to be over 7500.
St. John decreed that they were all to be clothed and fed every
day and said: ‘Those whom you call poor and beggars, these I proclaim my
masters and helpers. For they, and they only, are really able to help
us and bestow upon us the Kingdom of Heaven.’
St. John also built hospitals and
refuges for refugees feeling from the capture of Jerusalem by the
Persians and used up the resources of the Church to feed and care for
them. St. John reposed in 619 in
his homeland of Cyprus.
In the Greek Church, the memory of St. Martin of Tours is also kept on 12th November. St. Martin, like St. John the Almsgiver, was known as ‘The Merciful’ during his life for his many acts of
charity to the poor.
r.
St.
Martin was born in 316 in Pannonia (modern-day Hungary) but he grew up
in Italy. Although his family were pagans, St. Martin received
permission to become
a catechumen at the age of ten. Even at a young age, St. Martin
was renowned for his acts of mercy to the poor, once cutting his
military cloak in two in order to give half to clothe a beggar (left).
St. Martin was mocked by his friends for this act, but that
night Christ appeared to Him clothed in the cloak that St. Martin had
given to the beggar. Christ said:
‘Martin, while still a catechumen has clothed me in this garment.'
St. Martin was baptized soon after and, following his
discharge from the army, travelled to Poitiers and became a
disciple of St. Hilary. In 371 the people of Tours compelled him to
become their bishop. Saint Martin reposed in the year 397.
Using the examples of these two Saints,
we can turn the feast of Western Christmas into a useful preparation for
the celebration of Orthodox Christmas. The Nativity Fast is a time of
repentance and spiritual
struggle in order for us to be spiritually nourished and renewed on the
Feast of the Nativity of Christ. The ever-memorable Metropolitan Cyprian
explains this further:
It is certain
that only the Christ-bearing faithful, that is, those who live their
Christian calling and identity in repentance and holiness of life, and
therefore believe unshakeably
that in the God-Man ‘there dwells bodily the fullness of the Divinity’
– only they I repeat, are able to approach this great Feast and to
appreciate its magnitude.
A necessary condition for one to live the Mysteries of our pure
Orthodox Faith, and especially the Nativity of our Saviour Christ, is a
personal rebirth and renewal through the life of Grace, which is granted
to us in the God-built workshop of holiness,
our Mother and nourisher, the Church.
Metropolitan Cyprian calls the Church a
‘workshop of holiness’ and this expression illustrates perfectly how we
should understand the Church and our role in Her. St. Paul calls us to ‘work
out your
own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Phil. 2: 12-13). Giving money to the poor (almsgiving) is part of this work we do in order to make sure our faith is living and not dead
(cf. James 2:17).
It is only right
that most of the money that our parish gives to charity each year
goes to the help the poorest in the world. In the UK we simply do not
have the depth of poverty that is found in developing countries where
millions of people
do not even have access to safe drinking water. Thousands die each day
in these countries from
a lack of things that we in the U.K. take for granted.
Nevertheless there are levels of poverty
in some parts of Europe that have to be seen to be believed. Stranded
migrants in Greece, for example, depend on our Church for food and
medical care.
Many elderly Greeks have to choose between medical care and food: they can’t afford both.
Western Christmas has, for as long as anyone can remember, been a time for eating, drinking and enjoying time with the family.
We should remember at this time those who do not have anyone to celebrate with, or even a house to celebrate in.
The festive period is an excellent chance to volunteer at a homeless shelter;
volunteers are always needed at this time of year.
Many Church of England families invite an elderly neighbour to
Christmas Dinner and this is something
that we should be doing too. Even though Western Christmas is a fast day
for us there is nothing stopping us doing something creative with fish,
wine and oil!
Our pure Orthodox Faith, therefore, is the foundation on which a true celebration of Christmas is built on.
As well as being renowned for their compassion, both St. John and
St. Martin were unflinching in their opposition to heresy. St. John
proclaimed the two natures of Christ in opposition to the Monophysites
and St. Martin preached the Divinity of Christ
thereby opposing the heresy of Arianism.
Following the example of these saints,
we must never compromise our Orthodox Faith. However, genuine Orthodoxy
does not consist in theoretically opposing wrong beliefs or
theoretically believing correctly.
It is only by being ‘rooted and grounded in love’ that we are able to
know the ‘love of Christ which passes all knowledge’
(Eph. 3:17,19). If our correct belief is not demonstrated
by love of our neighbour we shall be like the barren fig tree (cf. Luke
13:6-9) and consigned with those of whom Christ says: ‘I know you not’
(Matt. 7:23).
Saturday, 18 November 2017
Archbishop Welby is going to Heaven
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin
Welby, caused a minor stir recently when he said the following in an
interview with Alastair Campbell
published in GQ magazine.[1]
Campbell: 'Will you go to Heaven?'
Welby: 'Yes.'
Campbell: 'Will I go to Heaven?'
Welby: 'That's up to you.'
Although Archbishop Welby’s answers
sound arrogant to Orthodox ears, they are entirely consistent with his
beliefs and not just personal conceit. Welby also categorically states
in the same interview that
he believes in the Virgin Birth and the Divinity of Christ so he is not a
liberal in the Anglican sense.
Welby’s background in the Evangelical
parish Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) could explain his certainty that he
is going to Heaven. HTB became famous in the 1990s for embracing the
‘Toronto Blessing’ and events
there made the UK and international press:
The youthful throng
buzzes with anticipation more common at a rock concert or a rugby match.
After the usual scripture readings, prayers, and singing, the chairs
are cleared away. Curate
Nicky Gumbel prays that the Holy Spirit will come upon the congregation.
Soon, a woman begins laughing. Others gradually join her with hearty
belly laughs. A young worshipper falls to the floor, hands twitching.
Another falls, then another and another. Within
half an hour, there are bodies everywhere as supplicants sob, shake,
roar like lions, and strangest of all, laugh uncontrollably.[2]
Alpha Course literature no longer
mentions the Toronto Blessing, but earlier editions of the talks that
accompany the course mentioned it specifically:
Ellie Mumford told
us a little bit of what she had seen in Toronto then she said ‘Now we’ll
invite the Holy Spirit to come’ and the moment she said that, one of
the people there was
thrown, literally, across the room and was lying on the floor, just
howling and laughing … making the most incredible noise …
[3]
This behaviour resembles the actions of those possessed by demons that we read about in the Gospels:
And one of the
multitude answered and said, Teacher, I have brought unto you my son,
who has a dumb spirit; And wherever he takes him, he throws him down:
and he foams, and gnashes
with his teeth, and wastes away: and I spoke to your disciples that they
should cast him out; and they could not. He answered him, and said, O
faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I
bear with you? Bring him unto me. And they brought
him unto him: and when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him;
and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming (Matt. 9:17-20).
At Pentecost, the apostles did not bark
like dogs, roar like lions or writhe on the ground. On the contrary, as
we hear in the service for Pentecost, ‘each one of them there present
heard spoken his native
tongue’. In other words, the apostles were given the gift of speaking
foreign languages.
We don’t have time in this article to
discuss the Alpha Course in great detail, but the Course, and the
worship at HTB are rooted in the so-called Faith Movement. This movement
promotes many heretical beliefs,
one of which, ‘faith in faith’, is outlined below by the Baptist pastor
Dr. Nick Needham:
‘Faith’ is an
independent spiritual force, a basic law of the universe. God Himself is
a ‘faith God’: He created the universe by His faith. This involved God
in visualising the universe
in His imagination, and then speaking it into existence with
‘faith-filled words’—saying ‘Let it be’ and believing that it would be.
Man also can use the same power and create his own reality. This
involves visualising what you want, and then speaking it into
existence with faith in your creative words (‘Positive
confession’—sometimes called ‘Name it and claim it’).[4]
According to the above theory, people
can ‘create’ reality by wishing it into existence. Followers of the
Alpha Course, for example, invite Jesus into their life and this becomes
a reality because they have
‘named it and claimed it’. This theory also explains why follows of the
Alpha Course believe that they will go to Heaven.
The Alpha Course has also been
criticized by Reformed Protestants for promoting ‘easy believism’ – the
belief that one needs to accept Christ as Saviour but not necessarily as
Lord. In other words, ‘easy
believers’ can continue their lives without obeying Christ’s
commandments as long as they accept Christ as Saviour. In similar
fashion, the Alpha Course ignores Christ’s role as Judge and Lord in
order to promote a more accessible Jesus. HTB’s own magazine
describes the course as ‘fun and unthreatening - just like our Lord
Himself!’
[5]
We have only quoted a small part of
Welby’s interview, but it is clear that the idea he is putting forward
here is not Orthodox. We cannot be saved simply by telling ourselves we
are. Nor can people can
save themselves solely by their own actions. This idea was condemned by
the Orthodox Church in the fifth century – it is called the heresy of
Pelagianism.
People who are convinced that they are
going to Heaven are forgetting that we will be judged by God for our
deeds on earth as Saint Paul teaches: ‘For we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ;
that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to
that he hath done, whether it be good or bad’ (2.Cor. 5:10).
Christ is the Judge of All and Almighty
God. Christ Himself says: ‘As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just,
because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me (John
5:30) ‘And yet if
I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father
that sent me' (John 8:16).
We preach Christ as Saviour and Lord
Who, when He comes again in glory, will reveal the hidden things of
darkness and make manifest the counsels of our hearts (cf.
1. Cor. 4:5). Christ teaches:
Many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy
name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity
(Matt. 7: 22-23).
Even though Christ is a Just Judge, the
chances of us entering the Kingdom of Heaven are far from certain. Even
St. Paul did not dare to say that he was already saved or going to
heaven: ‘Not that I have
already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on
to make it my own’ (Phil. 3:12). In a similar vein, St. Paul likens our
Christian life to an athletic race: ‘Know ye not that they which run in a
race run all, but one receiveth the prize?
So run, that ye may obtain (1. Cor. 9:24).
We must repent of our sins and struggle
to run the race well, but we cannot earn salvation by our works. It is
for reason that the Church describes our spiritual life as cooperation
with the Holy Spirit.
This cooperation between our works on earth and grace is called synergy.
St. Paul uses the word ‘synergy’ in this context when he says: ‘We are
fellow workers (synergoi) with God’ (1. Cor. 3:9).
Salvation is not solely up to us,
because as Christ says: ‘Without me ye can do nothing’ (John 15:5).
However, our contribution is indispensable because, as St. James the
Apostle teaches, ‘Faith
by itself, if it does not have works, is dead (James 2:17).
Our personal salvation is therefore not
assured unless we continue to ‘fight the good fight of faith and lay
hold on eternal life’ (cf. 1 Cor. 6:12). Who among us can say that we
are fighting this good fight
as well as we should? Who among us can say that we have no sin? We
cannot, therefore, declare that we will go to Heaven.
We are all sinners and we must repent,
acknowledging how far we away from even beginning to keep Christ’s
commandments. It is for this reason, that time and again in the services
of the Orthodox Church we
ask for the mercy of God. For example, in the Orthodox funeral service
we chant:
I am an image of
Thine ineffable glory even though I bear the wounds of sin; take
compassion on Thy creature, O Master, and cleanse me by Thy
loving-kindness; and grant me the desired
fatherland, making me again a dweller of Paradise.
We cannot, like Archbishop Welby, say
that we are going to Heaven. We acknowledge that we are sinners, but we
trust in the mercy and love of God ‘Who desires that all men be saved and come unto the
knowledge of the truth’ (1 Tim. 2:4).
[2]
Richard Ostling, 'Laughing for the Lord'. Time Magazine. Aug 15, 1994.
[3]
Talk 9 Edition 1 (2000)
[5]
Alpha News Feb 1997
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Guest comments MAYBE can be made by email.
joannahigginbotham@runbox.com
Anonymous comments will not be published. Daniel will not see unpublished comments. If you have a message for him, you need to contact him directly.
oregdan@hotmail.com