About the Kingdom of God

Paper read (in English) at the 2nd English-Russian student conference in St. Albans December 30, 1927. Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom begins with the proclamation: “Blessed is the kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.” And perhaps there is no other expression that is repeated more often in church exclamations than the glorification of God’s kingdom, power, glory. The Church, in her mysteries and sacred rites, glorifying the kingdom of God, at the same time proclaims its coming, expresses her innermost knowledge about it. In the same sense, we must understand the constant proclamation in the Church of the Gospel beatitudes, preceded by the prayer: “in Thy Kingdom, remember us, Lord,” the constant repetition of the Lord’s Prayer, in which the core is: “Thy Kingdom come.” At the liturgy at the Great Entrance, when transferring the prepared gifts from the altar to the throne, a number of different commemorations are also pronounced: “may the Lord God remember in His Kingdom.” Prayers in funeral services for the granting of the Kingdom of Heaven have a similar meaning, as does the parting wish that is usually made about the dead: The Kingdom of Heaven to him! This exclamation expresses hope and prayerful wishes that the salvation of the soul of the deceased be accomplished. All this use of words contains a whole range of different shades in the understanding of the meaning of the Kingdom of God and teaches a constant, although almost silent teaching about it to the point of its conciseness. In Orthodox dogma, doctrinally, the question of the Kingdom of God does not occupy the exclusive place that it has received in modern times, mainly in Protestantism, and yet this idea is the air that the prayer life in Orthodoxy breathes. In its innermost aspirations, it is imbued with his quest “first of all,” according to the word of the Lord: “seek first the Kingdom of God, and other things will be added to you.” In the teaching about the Kingdom of God, perhaps the most important and difficult thing is this distinction between the Central Bank and “other things” that are somehow connected with it, for it is attached to it, but at the same time it is opposed. And these shades, not tones, but halftones, more or less emphasis on a particular thought, are of decisive importance. And the difference between the different tones of the teaching about C.B. relates not so much to the content of the teaching, which remains common to the entire Christian world, but to these emphasis. The Kingdom of God in the Word of God has a diverse meaning: historical and eschatological, personal and social, created and divine, sociological and ecclesiological. This is the most universal concept, which organically includes all these definitions, but is not exhausted by any one. However, it becomes accessible to our experience only in personal life, in spiritual rebirth, which subjectively begins with a change in the spiritual world in repentance μετανοία. And hence the beginning of the gospel gospel: “repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” objectively through baptism: “whoever is not born again cannot see the Kingdom of God.” The human heart is the only throne in creation worthy of the Kingdom of God, and God reigns in the human heart if he gives it to God. As the hidden life of the Christian heart, as “life in Christ” (Fr. John of Kronstadt), Ts.B. there is, first of all, spiritual good, grace-filled eternal life, according to the word of the Lord in John’s Gospel: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (10.17.3). The human heart is the gate into which the Kingdom of God enters; it does not appear apart from them, from the outside, with “observance,” for the Ts.B. is inside you, in you and through you. This is the main contrast between the Jewish understanding of the messianic kingdom and the Gospel: for the first, the Kingdom of God is a historical or metahistorical event that takes place with people or over people, but not in people; for the second, it is an event in the spiritual world, μετανοια, conversion. And the answer to this appeal is the gospel that the Kingdom of God has come near, for “The Word became flesh,” “The King of heaven, for his love of mankind, appeared on earth and lived with men” (the Mother of God dogmatist of the 8th tone), He Himself became a man. The turning of man's heart to God throughout the pagan world and even in the Old Testament Church did not bring about the Kingdom of God in man's heart, for God remained distant and inaccessible, high and terrible. It was possible to enter into communication with Him only on the basis of the law He gave, the “Old Testament,” which has “a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of things” (Heb. 10:1), and which leaves an unremoved veil on the hearts, which can only be removed by Christ (2 Cor. 3:13–16). The Old Testament law did not provide satisfaction, for it “brought nothing to perfection” (Heb. 7:19), and “by the law no one is justified” (Gal. 2:11) from those imprisoned under the guardianship of the law (3:23) ὑπὸνόμονἐφρορούμεθα. “The law was our guide to Christ” (3:25). Likewise, the sacrifices made today only served as reminders of sins, but could not make those who brought them perfect. (Heb. 10:1–4). Therefore, at the bottom of the soul, they, like the law, left dissatisfaction, a certain emptiness. And it cast a thick shadow over the soul of the Jewish people, and in response to this dissatisfaction, religious fantasies were born about the advent of the messianic kingdom, which would come “with observance.” It was a kind of spiritual illness, in a certain sense, a natural reaction to religious irresponsibility, a natural illusion due to a deception of spiritual vision - opening but not closing embraces, an unquenched thirst, an unheard call. Nature does not tolerate emptiness, and it is filled at least with ghosts, through which, however, the coming Kingdom of God shines through, albeit in a distorted image. But even more tragic was the spiritual fate of man in paganism, for the pagans, left for a long time in their weakness, were unable to reveal to themselves in purity what “God showed them” (Rom. 1:19), but “they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (1:21), “replaced the truth of God with a lie and worshiped and served the creature instead of the Creator” (1, 25). The spiritual convulsions of the pagan world, its incessant attempts to outgrow itself, to break through to the other world: - in mysteries, in ecstasies, in sacrifices. - All this is some kind of spiritual non-fertile birth, a “pagan non-fertile church” (in the words of church hymns). Paganism sought the Kingdom of God - and did not find it, but, not finding it, it became exhausted in new and new efforts. It staggered from faith to faith and ended in religious syncretism and an altar to the “unknown god” - this unanswerable question to heaven. Neither the Old Testament nor the pagan world found the Ts.B., which they, each in their own way, were looking for: it was not given to man, although it constituted his deepest and inner spiritual longing. And then the words of the gospel were heard: “The Kingdom of God has come near,” and it is “within you” - ἐντὸςὑμῶν - there. The ambiguity of this expression, according to which it simultaneously indicates the presence of the Tsar himself and God among people, and at the same time the realized accessibility of the Kingdom of God to the human spirit, is not accidental, but indicates the internal connection of both. Man received an answer, complete and unconditional, to his question to heaven. C.B. ceased to be an unattainable object of search, but became a reality that opens up to personal effort. And this answer, this accomplishment, this reality of the C.B. “inside, among you,” ἐντὸςὑμῶν, this is Jesus Christ, the perfect God-man. Ts.B. came closer to man because in Christ God and man were completely united. And what happened in Him has power for the entire human race. C.B. is the accomplished Incarnation of God and its revealing power, the accomplished unity of two natures, two wills, two feelings - divine and human. And on this cornerstone, which is Christ, everyone builds his own building from his own material - gold, silver, clay, wood, straw (1 Cor. 3:11-12). Christ's humanity, the body of Christ, is the Church of Christ, in which he lives and acts by the Holy Spirit, the Church is the Central B., approached and accomplished. And there is no boundary or distinction between the Church and the Church of God, just as it is not made in the New Testament: one of the remarkable features of the New Testament teaching is that the teaching about the Church of God imperceptibly and naturally passes into the teaching of the Church, and this is not only in the epistles of the Apostle Paul and the Gospel of John, where the spiritual side of the Church of God is generally revealed, but also among the weather forecasters, moreover, in the most crucial places (the Lord’s words to Peter: Matthew 16, 18). And just as the scope of the concept of the Church is not exhausted by any one meaning alone, but passes from one to another, to all worlds and to all ages, so the Central Bank is just as indefinable and multifaceted as the Church, this abiding incarnation of God. Is this not what the mysterious meaning of the Gospel story about the Transfiguration of the Lord indicates? He is preceded by the mysterious words of the Lord to his disciples that some of them will not taste death”, “as they will already see Ts.B.” (Luke 9:27), “coming with power” (Matthew 9:1), or “the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (Matthew 16:28). The usual understanding of this passage among the Holy Fathers is that it is the Transfiguration of the Lord that is meant here, as a kind of direct revelation of the Divinity of Christ, the manifestation of His glory or theophany: “who showed His glory to the disciples, like a man,” “as I received Your disciples, I saw Your glory, O Christ God,” the church hymn sings about this. If we accept this interpretation of the Gospel text - and it is difficult not to accept it - then the knowledge of the Divinity of Christ, the contemplation of Him is C.B., i.e. eternal life revealed in temporary life. But when Peter wanted to fit eternity into time and delay it in time by “building three tents,” this desire was exposed as unfaithful. However, the Orthodox Church, as a result of disputes caused by the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas in the 14th century, established at the Councils of Constantinople the dogma of the Light of Tabor, which was seen by ascetics (“hesychasts”) in a state of admiration, as a true vision of the Divine, identical in this sense with the Transfiguration. Eternal life, the blessed insight of Ts.B., is also given in this world, according to the meaning of this dogma; It is as if a new ascent to Mount Tabor and contemplation of the Glory of the Lord takes place. The power of Transfiguration is C.B., and “some” who have not tasted death before they see C.B. are not only disciples, but also all who participate in eternal life and are deliberately honored with a vision of the Glory of God. So, the first and immediate meaning of Ts.B. for everyone is spiritual life, the measure of his churchliness, participation in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and communion with God in Christ, which is given in the Church. This Ts.B. is absolutely close to us: but at the same time, its acceptance depends on the search for it by everyone, and apart from this search (“seek Ts.B.” says the Lord) and effort (“for Ts.B. is forced by force”) is not given. The spiritual, grace-filled life that is given in the Church is the central life that takes place in us, and in this we have internal self-evidence, self-certification, “for life has appeared, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you this eternal life” (1 John 1:2 cf. John 25). The words of the Theologian also apply to this: “the anointing that you received from Him remains in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you, but... this very anointing teaches you everything, and it is true and not false” (1 John 2:27). The Christian is given the anointing - χρὶσμα - of the Kingdom of God, the royal gift of eternal life. And this gift is sacredness and holiness. Spiritual life, eternal life in God, sacredness and holiness - all these are different expressions of the same gift C. B., given by the Church, in the Church and through the Church. The ascetic writings of the Holy Fathers are filled with instructions to confirm the general idea that eternal life is given to the Christian already here, and he must seek it. Therefore, the entire grace-filled life of the Church, with its prayers, services, sacraments, in which the grace of the Holy Spirit always flows, belongs to the domain of the Central Bank, and living in the Church, we enter into it, partake of it. And in particular this should be said about the sacraments of the church, in which the grace of the Holy Spirit is invariably given, and first of all and most of all about the Eucharist, the sacrament of the Incarnation. The Divine Liturgy is the coming C.B., which is essentially the indignation of God, and therefore, as we have already noted, it begins with the proclamation “Blessed is the kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” And communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ is a real entry into the C.B. After the transubstantiation of St. of the gifts, the priest prays (secretly): “as if one were to receive communion... for the fulfillment of the kingdom of heaven.” This meaning of Ts.B. is indicated with particular force in the works of St. Simeon, the New Theologian. 1 In general, all worship, which is marked with the stamp of deep realism, belongs to the field of the Holy Spirit. The divine service has the meaning not only of memories, moral teaching or even prayer, no, in its symbolism it also contains the power of the secret action of the Holy Spirit on earth. In the heavenly Jerusalem, which descended from heaven to earth, the Seer did not see the church, “for the Lord God Almighty is its church, and the Lamb” (Rev. 21, 22). But in the present age, before the Central Bank has yet been accomplished, we need a church. The goal of Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, taught Rev. Seraphim, but this is Ts.V., or “truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). The Church prays for the sending of “divine grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit” before the consecrated Holy Gifts. And this sanctification by the Holy Spirit, His assimilation is the accomplishment of salvation, and therefore C.B. is also salvation. But salvation is precisely the beginning taste of the life of the future century, still in the waves of time. Eternal life begins here, and whoever does not find it here does not know it at all. Before the general resurrection, the stench of the future century is smelled, eternal bliss is anticipated, albeit in sorrow, in repentance, in struggle. This combination of the eternal with the temporal is the secret of spiritual life, which church writers persistently teach. “He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). And all the apostolic texts about C.B. refer to this spiritual good of salvation, where it is depicted as a spiritual achievement of man: Rom. 14, 17, 1 Cor. 4.20; 6, 9–10, 11; 15, 50, Gal. 5, 19–23, Eph. 5, 5. This is the direct and immediate, religious, spiritual-mystical, “immanent” meaning of Ts.B. This is holiness. “Be holy, for holy is the Lord your God.” And holiness gives direct and immediate knowledge of God and communication with God, and, moreover, in such completeness that it is already existing, has come, and not just expected and hoped for. Eternal life in its special quality extinguishes the sense of temporality, past and future, and therefore the tense expectation that is inherent in eschatology in general, for it contains within itself what is now, falls silent. But, as such, the Kingdom of God is an ascetically sought value, it is a value, to achieve which all values ​​must be given in exchange. This is the pearl of the Gospel parable, this is a field with a hidden treasure, for the sake of which everything is alienated and sacrificed. The Kingdom of God belongs, therefore, not only to the goal, but also to the means, all those efforts and struggles that are made on the path of seeking it. Not only salvation itself, but also the path of salvation, the entire feat undertaken for the sake of the Lord, is the Kingdom of God. For in that dual unity of theanthropic life, which is the Kingdom of God, it is not only the reign itself, but also the enthronement, the effort of the human soul to self-surrender, the path, the bearing of the cross in following Christ. The breakthrough from time to eternity contains the overcoming of time. Time curls into a point and becomes imperceptible. The Kingdom of God is approaching from within, and the overwhelming power of this accomplished approach destroys the feeling of being in time. 2 It is a well-known fact that the first Christians were waiting directly for the second coming of Christ, and their main prayer was: yes, come, Lord Jesus! Words: “Children! Last times." (1 John 11:18), “to us who have reached the last centuries” (1 Cor. 10:11), were understood not only in the general ontological sense, as an indication of the incarnation that had already taken place, but also in the literal sense that there was no time left at all. There was no history for all of early Christianity. In order to feel the heaviness of time and the burden of history, one needs, as it were, some distance from God, an extinguishment of God-consciousness. But the gracious nearness of God was then such that it alone was an all-conquering reality. And this approach opened up both possibilities inherent in man: the joy of the wedding feast at the supper of the Lamb and the awe of the creature before the Creator and of sinners before the judgment of righteousness. Early Christianity, among its great spiritual gifts, has this feeling of the nearness of Christ, the joy of Easter. It is given gracefully during Easter week, when the Risen Lord seems to be among us. The Easter feeling is the joy of resurrection. However, no matter how victorious this feeling of eternity and completeness may be, it also leaves room for a certain inner knowledge that it is not the final completeness, for God does not give to the spirit by measure, and we always ascend from strength to strength. In other words, this closeness and authenticity of the presence of God and His Kingdom in the world opens a person’s spiritual gaze into the future: from the kingdom of grace he looks into the kingdom of glory, and awaits its coming. This forms the eschatological aspect of the Kingdom of God. Like eternal life, like a spiritual good, the Kingdom of God is a personal property, without which there can be no participation in it at all. The Kingdom of God, coming in power, is accepted or not accepted, adopted or rejected from within, and depending on this, for some it is the bliss of communion with God, paradise, for others it is a source of hellish torment. In this last sense, it exists for all creation, even for demons, for the demons believe and tremble: - and the demons know its inevitability, and pray to leave them until the time: “Jesus, Son of the Most High God! I adjure You by God, do not torment me" (Lk. 5:7): “You came here before the time to torment us” (Matt. 6:29). But the Kingdom of God, which is perceived by everyone as a personal property, as his personal achievement, ascent and breakthrough, becomes both a cosmic and pan-human event. It comes in power, and this coming coming of it is the Kingdom of God, as an eschatological magnitude. This Kingdom of God is spoken of in various images by the prophets and in the Gospel. Especially among the weather forecasters, in parables, the Kingdom of God is invariably viewed as a future event associated with the coming of Christ, the judgment and separation of the wheat from the tares, the wedding supper, the meeting of the Bridegroom, etc. These thoughts and images are so numerous and expressive that they gave rise to the whole teaching to be considered in an eschatological light and to bring the teaching of Christ closer to the Jewish apocalypses. Christ differs little from the apocalypticists by these interpreters and remains limited by their horizons. Of course, such a rapprochement of the Gospel with the apocalypse is possible only if we eliminate from the New Testament all its essential teaching about spiritual, eternal life, which scientific hypercriticism also does not stop at. The Lord definitely taught about his second coming and the coming of the Kingdom of God in connection with it; this same teaching is contained in both the Apostolic Epistles and the Apocalypse, and it was the main property of the early Christian Church: Maranatha, come! The coming of the Kingdom of God is not only a metaphysical, but a historical event, and it no longer takes place in the inner world of an individual person, not through μετανοία, but through a change in God’s relationship to the world, παρουσία, this change consists in such an approach of God to the world, in which God becomes an immediate and self-evident reality, which is now a given for us of this world. We cannot know how to more accurately determine this change. It has its basis in the incarnation, and its consequence will be that divine truth will become the only and determining principle of life, its only law. And this defining meaning will be expressed in “good things that did not enter the heart of man, but which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 11:9). And this will be, as it were, a new act of creation of “a new heaven and a new earth, in which truth lives,” the descent of heavenly Jerusalem to earth, being with Christ and seeing Him, and through Him the Holy Trinity. When they pray for the departed, for the sending down of the “kingdom of heaven” to them, then of course this is the same heavenly bliss of communion with God, which begins already in the afterlife, in a state of disembodiment. Christian faith in the resurrection of the dead is essentially the same faith in the coming of the Kingdom of God, and this faith is based on the gospel of the resurrection of Christ: “If Christ is not raised, our faith is in vain.” The Resurrection of Christ embraces the resurrection to new life of all humanity and the renewal of the world. This victory over death, the last enemy, is the true reign of Christ. The kingdom of Christ, which at His earthly coming was not of this world, in the general resurrection becomes triumphant in this world, as it says in Revelation: “the kingdom of the world has become (the kingdom) of our Lord and of His Christ, and will reign forever and ever” (11:15, cf. 12:10). This kingdom, together with the general resurrection of the dead, will be expressed in the transformation of earth and heaven and all creation. The essence of this kingdom is that “we will always be with the Lord.” The property of this kingdom, therefore, is that between God and creation, Christ and man, there will be no distance, God will be obvious to creation and therefore will reign over it with obviousness to everyone. In its current state of expulsion from Eden and being clothed in leather garments, the world, and man in it, has a certain autonomy of life, and God for him is only an object of faith, through the eyes of which he himself sees God, but does not know His kingdom in the world. His freedom is given to resist this kingdom and reject it. In this coming kingdom of God, this barrier will be removed, just as it was already removed in the completed incarnation. And it is this closeness of the Lord that constitutes the prayerful sighing of those who love Him, and the apocalyptic prayer is imbued with the flame of this love: yes, come, Lord Jesus. This prayer, as is known, fell out of use, and from the middle of the 2nd century began to be replaced even by the opposite, pro mora finis. This prayer is difficult and unbearable for the lack of faith and inertia of our hearts, it is even terrible for us. You cannot deceive and be deceived in prayer, and, therefore, in order to pray this prayer, you must really have the power to desire the end, to desire the Lord above all, to be free from the attachments of the world, having it, according to the word of the Apostle Paul, as having nothing. The attitude towards this prayer is the measure of our Christian freedom, and at the same time of faith and love. Without a special call, without the special grace that marked early Christianity in history, this prayer is beyond the power of man, and he does not directly dare to answer it, although in a generalized form it is included in the Lord’s prayer: “Thy kingdom come”! A certain similarity is represented by our attitude towards our own death, which, after all, is also a personal eschatology: the hour of death is terrible, and every living creature trembles before it. But at the same time, it is joyful for the believing heart, just as it was for the Apostle Paul: “For me, life is Christ, and death is gain. I have a desire to be resolved and to be with Christ.” (Phil. 1:21–23). Such ease and joyfulness of the attitude towards liberation from the world is given only to God's chosen ones, however, the shadow of death is always before us, and only frivolity gives oblivion about it. Eschatology is the main element in Christianity. It contains answers to all the torments and questions of the life of this century, to all its fragmentation, incomprehensibility and tragic difficulty. Those who want to completely ethicize the idea of the Kingdom of God, seeing in it only internal good, like Kant, Tolstoy and many representatives of the newest Richlean theology, do the same violence against both the Gospel of Christ and human soul. For the Gospel is the good news of the Kingdom of God, coming in power and proclaimed to all creation (Mark 16:15), but our soul thirsts and yearns for this kingdom, coming in power and glory. Eschatology responds to the basic needs of all human beings, which is alien to metaphysical egoism, content with the mere internal advent of the Kingdom of God. But at the same time, the Kingdom of God, coming in power, is not amenable to any foresight, for it does not fit into our knowledge and is an object of faith. Its specificity increases for us along with the intensity of spiritual life and opens only to the inner eye. Any attempts to foresee and describe it externally lead only to gross sensory distortions, similar to those that were the Jewish ideas about the Messianic kingdom. Faith in the coming Kingdom of God is contained in faith in the Creator and Redeemer: God, who is able to create the world by His power and save it with His sacrificial love, showed the power of the Creator together with the love of the Redeemer in the new the creation of a saved and transformed world. In it God will be all things in all, and nothing will be brought in from the arbitrariness of the creature. Eschatology takes us out of the world and out of time beyond the boundaries of the present century. It is the absorption of the present into the future and devalues ​​and, to a certain extent, deprives this present. This was precisely, as far as one can judge, the spiritual attitude of early Christianity, which, not having an abiding city on earth and seeking the future, did not seem to notice the present, not being interested in it and not believing in its durability. It remained unrequited and irresponsible before modernity, which was viewed as the domain of the beast and the kingdom of the Antichrist. Early Christianity in this sense does not know history and does not believe in it. The words ap. have an ontological meaning. John: “children, the last time,” it understands chronologically, as the direct absence of time, its end. It was a kind of childish naivety, which was supposed to pass with time, and at the same time it was a spiritual holiday, which was supposed to give way to everyday life. And over time, it became clear by itself that, although with the Incarnation the fullness of time has already arrived, time has not yet ended for humanity, and history continues, moreover, in its new and most responsible part, namely as the history of the Church, Christian history. And the Church faced the question of how it should respond to this new task. In the person of its fathers and teachers, the Church understood this question: - and, of course, could not understand otherwise - as the same Gospel question about “when will the Kingdom of God come” (Luke 17:20), and how it comes, and is not Christian history already the beginning of its coming? This was given reason not only by the widespread chiliastic beliefs of Judaism, but also by the texts of prophetic books, Old Testament and even New Testament, which speak of the Kingdom of God. It is described in images that can also be attributed to earthly history: the image of the Mount of the Lord, the city of the Lord, as the tangible kingdom of God with His saints. And there is one gospel event that can have a symbolic interpretation in this sense: this is the entry of the Lord into Jerusalem before His suffering, as the meek king promised by the prophets. And the Lord, at this entrance, as in those few hours that He spent after it in Jerusalem, was the earthly King “righteous and saving.” The Tsar revealed himself to be a king even here, in this world, despite the evidence that His Kingdom is not of this world. And this event was a kind of symbolic preliminary, evidence that the Kingdom of God, for the coming of which the Lord prayed without deliberate restrictions, could appear on earth. And similar, also in symbolic images, evidence of the Kingdom of God in history, within the limits of earthly time, is contained in the mysterious text of Revelation about the 1000-year kingdom (chap. 20, 4-6), and, however, this kingdom remains only an episode of world history, which is replaced by a new and final spill of evil and the confrontation of the Antichrist. These few lines have always attracted the attention of interpreters, and the very first interpretations are from such writers who are recognized as saints by the Church: St. Justin the Philosopher, St. Irenaeus, ep. Lyonsky: – came very close to Jewish sensual chiliasm. The spiritual understanding of this prophecy prevailed in the Church, in which its fulfillment is related directly to the spiritual life of the Church. This was the interpretation of Bl. Augustine, which became dominant, but by no means the only possible one, for the entire Church. 3 Nevertheless, the acceptance of history as one’s responsibility, and, consequently, the inclusion of its paths in the path of the Kingdom of God, has been accomplished. For Western Christianity, it received doctrinal and practical expression through the fact that direct equality was established between the church organization, civitas divina, and the Kingdom of God: this is expressed in the fundamental treatise of the blessed. Augustine de civitate Dei. In further development, this idea received its implementation - in the claims of papal power to possess two swords, dominance in things earthly and heavenly. The papal state sought to spread without borders, and although it was actually narrowed to the Vatican Palace, it was not fundamentally rejected by the pope (see Syllabus), and it is an expression of the same thought, as well as the coronation of emperors and, in general, the ideal of a holy empire. All of these are just different projections of one common task - to realize the Kingdom of God through the effective influence of the Church in this world. But a similar, or similar and even equivalent meaning, had in the Eastern Church the idea of ​​an Orthodox king crowned by the Church. If the pagan emperors were depicted under the guise of a beast and a dragon, then the Orthodox Tsar Constantine, who bowed the Roman imperial crown under the cross and hoisted the labarum over the Roman armies, was glorified by the Church as equal to the apostles and thereby interpreted his historical work as having apostolic significance. The idea of ​​an Orthodox kingdom has not only political, but primarily religious significance. The Tsar was considered: - first in the Byzantine, and then in the Russian Church, which, after the fall of Byzantium, accepted this heritage as a special sacred rank of royal service, the prophetic prototype of which was outlined in the Messianic Psalms 19, 20 and especially 70 (71). This ministry is understood in the image of the royal ministry of Christ and its task is the implementation of the Kingdom of God on earth. No matter how historical reality distorts this task, it remains in force as a fundamental expression of the idea that the Church is called on earth to realize the Kingdom of God and, for this purpose, has the grace-filled charisma of power, which it communicates to the king, and through him to the people. For the king is the head and representative of the entire Christian people, for them and with them he serves. And this dominion knows no limits - it extends to all areas of life. The Orthodox Tsar must be the leader and educator of the people on the path of the Kingdom of God; he must serve the Church and do its deeds in this extra-church service. If he was called an external bishop in Byzantium, then his ministry was to perform, as it were, an extra-church liturgy, that is, the sanctification of all life. This is of fundamental importance in the sense that here the boundaries of personal Christianity are already overcome, and the tasks of the Christian community and history are recognized. The area of ​​Christian kingship includes all issues - political, social and cultural, and there remains no area of ​​​​regulation that is not subject to it. The nature of the power of the Christian king gives all law a sacred character and, consequently, extends the influence of the Church throughout life. Of course, the concentration of all theocratic power in the person of the king narrows the field of its action, for even the royal hierocracy presupposes and relies on the people's hierocracy, that is, theocratic democracy. By the way, this side of the theocratic idea was revealed with particular force and clarity in the English Reformation, and especially in the era of Cromwell. In the consciousness of Orthodoxy, in its Byzantine-Moscow era, this connection between the Orthodox Church and the sacred royal power was considered so essential and indestructible that the Orthodox Church could not even be imagined without a king, just as without a bishop. The matter of establishing the kingdom of the earth was considered, if not on an equal footing, then on the same plane with the management of divine things; the office of king was considered essential for the church, as was the priesthood. And this teaching of the Church that the special grace of the Holy Spirit is given to the king at the coronation (and through it and through him, and to all civil service) was strengthened and protected by a special anathematism, proclaimed, according to the custom of the Orthodox Church, on the “Week of Orthodoxy” (1st Sunday of Great Lent) along with the athemanization of Arianism, Macedonianism and other heresies. And yet, tsarist power has now disappeared from history, the Constantine era in the history of the Church has ended, or at least been interrupted, but Orthodoxy remains. How can one understand and dogmatically comprehend this newly created situation in the life of the Church? Does it mean that the Church has lost some of its grace-filled gifts? And if not, how can they manifest themselves now and can they? Or have ahistorical, eschatological times come again, when the Church has to exist in the kingdom of the beast, among the agitating God-fighting elements, and Christian history has internally already ended? Medieval history in the West and East sought theocratic power and church culture; its ideal was the universal ecclesiasticalization of life, which was conceived and implemented in the forms of some theocratic coercion: compelle intrare, compel it. New times broke this connection and proclaimed the slogan of separation of church and state and the secularization of culture, the universal secularization of life. At the same time, the church receives the significance of only one of the branches of culture, which develops independently in everything. But does the Church itself agree, can it agree to such a situation? Of course not. She still wants to be everything to everything, and the universal ecclesiasticalization of life still, albeit in new forms, constitutes her task and aspiration. And in response to general secularization, the desire for the sanctification of life, for its ecclesiastical rebirth, rises with renewed vigor, not from the outside, but from the inside. The Church cannot and should not strive to again raise or take possession of the sword of state after it has already been knocked out of it by the judgment of history. The hope of restoring the old order is a harmful and deceptive utopia, because the clock of history shows a later hour. However, what was previously carried out through statehood can be carried out through the public, not from above, but from below, and the old, forced theocracy may be replaced by a free one. In the Christian world, a search for new paths is taking place, and new buds are swelling on the branches of the tree of Orthodoxy. New tasks arise before our generation: - to fill the old and unchanging theocratic ideal with new content, to find new paths to it. This quest is painful and difficult. It is fraught with the possibility of substitutions and deviations. The most important and difficult thing for the Church is to maintain its internal independence and its supremacy, not to go again through adaptation. There is also antichrist good, which, with all its deceptive beauty, leads away from Christ and is at enmity with him. This is the newest humanistic movement, which directly or indirectly proclaims man as a god and, in the name of the man-god, is at enmity with the god-man. Such is generally godless humanism and the materialistic socialism and communism that grew on its basis. In the image of Russian communism, its Antichrist face became clear to the whole world. And this struggle of godless, humanistic human good, which in fact is not good at all, but only seduction, began already in the days of Christ’s earthly life, when they demanded from Him an earthly kingdom with bread and earthly prosperity. And the direct continuation of this Jewish chiliasm is modern socialism and communism. His ethical closeness to Christianity is tempting, for he wants to do the work of love, however, denying love in its original source, that is, love for God. Therefore, the purely external rapprochement between Christianity and socialism, which is sometimes accomplished in the guise of “Christian socialism,” is false and pernicious. One cannot sell birthrights for lentil stew and subordinate the eternal to the temporal, degrading it to the point of adapting to it. The Church must not remain deaf to the demands of life. It can recognize, within certain limits, the truth of socialism, however, without at all looking for a new revelation in it for itself. Religious promises of eternal life, a new heaven and earth leave even the wildest dreams of socialism far behind, so that it is limited philistinism. Socialism without faith is that kingdom of this world that blinded the minds of the Jews around Jesus. He is the first temptation in the desert with bread, which was rejected and convicted by the Savior. And yet the Lord’s Prayer says: Give us this day our daily bread. And although here it is not only material bread that is meant, what is meant, and therefore, is in a certain sense justified, the care for it, that economism of life that is distinctive for our time. There is not only a negative ethics of economics, consisting of asceticism and at its peak leading to the commandment of voluntary poverty, but also a positive one, establishing the recognition of positive responsibilities in the field of economic life and finding sufficient grounds for this both in the Word of God and in patristic writing. And socialism, in a sense, can also enter into the ethics of economics, but in no way can it constitute eschatology, which it now claims to be. Humanistic or atheistic socialism currently represents a special religion of economism, and in the economy and through the economy it wants to resolve all questions of life and spirit, present and future, it promises, one might say, salvation through the economy. Such a faith, of course, is incompatible with Christianity, which, in contrast to all economism, professes: man will not live on bread alone, but on every word of God. The importance of socialism is now generally terribly exaggerated, because it does not at all resolve the questions of the life of the spirit, without which humanity cannot exist. Its effect is not so much positive as negative, since it manages to soften the burden of the struggle for existence, and thereby pave the way for the awakening of purely spiritual needs. But for Christianity in alliance with socialism, there is no small danger of secularization, the loss of one’s spiritual treasures for the sake of external achievements, for no matter how significant the latter are, there is one pearl and one treasure, for the sake of which one must give everything; this is: – The Kingdom of God and in it the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. History is not a path of progress, a direct ascent from the darkness of barbarism to the light of humanism, but a tragic confrontation between two spiritual forces, and the force of evil, the Antichrist principle, is not only inertia, but also the creativity of evil, if one can speak of such; – direct deception, fake, resistance. History is a tragedy, a confrontation between two forces, which by the end of history reaches its fullest severity and maturity. Therefore, Christian eschatology, equally in the Gospel Apocalypse, in the Lord’s speeches about the end of the world, and in the Revelation of St. John, is equally noted in menacing tones. And not about universal harmony, but about the appearance of the personal Antichrist and his servants, the New Testament prophecies about the last times tell us (for example, 1 Epistle to the Thessalonians). And this tragic confrontation and division passes through all areas of life, and, in the end, there should be nothing neutral that does not have one or another religious coefficient. Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, and other things will be added to you. And these words of the Lord express the spiritual law of the Kingdom of God, both in personal, historical and social implementation. The difficulty of the historical path of Christian creative life is also connected with the fact that it itself is fraught with the possibility of a double bias. In the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, the divine and human natures are united, according to the Chalcedonian dogma, inseparably and unmerged (ἀδιαιρέτωςκαὶἀσυγκύτως). And this dogma was revealed and confirmed at the VI Ecumenical Council, in relation to two wills and two actions in the Lord Jesus Christ. Human nature is not suppressed, but is enlightened from within by the Divine nature. And this relationship is the norm for all Christian life and historical paths; it condemns practical monophysitism or monothelitism, which belittles or completely eliminates the effect of one principle at the expense of another. Therefore, that false-ascetic, more Manichaean than Christian, view is erroneous, which makes Christianity irresponsible in history, and everything is expected from divine influence. In practice, it means reconciliation with the power of sin and evil in the crudest form, and even worse - agreement with it. This practical monophysitism marks such situations in the history of the Church when it was subject to excessive dependence on the state, and thereby left it without its effective influence, when it seemed to be absent from history, practically abdicating responsibility, which, however, still remained. But even more obvious monophysitism is humanism, which, for the sake of the development of the human element, neglects the one thing that is needed, that which must be sought first of all. The Kingdom of God requires strength, said the Lord, and this effort applies not only to the realm of grace-spiritual, but also to human. And every person in his personal life practically has to look for fulfillment - dyophysitism, the combination of both paths. In monasteries, which exist to seek spiritual benefits, however, obedience and work for the Lord, whatever it may be: physical or mental, are introduced as a necessary educational means. A Christian living outside the monastery has a similar obedience, but the fulfillment of obedience cannot remain external and formal; it requires responsible creative effort from a person, not in his own name, but in the Name of the Lord who sent us into the world. And from these creative efforts of man, which are imprinted by the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God is accomplished in history, ripening in it like a plant growing from a grain, like a garden entrusted to workers, according to the parable of the Gospel. History is not empty time that only needs to be fulfilled, like a corridor of a certain length through which a certain number of people need to pass on the way to the future life. History is a concrete filled time that carries within itself its ripening fruit. It must end internally so that the Kingdom of God can come. We cannot integrate this series ourselves, the fruit is known only to the planter and the owner of the heliport, but there is this fruiting, and history cannot end externally without ending internally. History is not only an aggregate, the sum of individual lives, but the common cause of all humanity, which is a single tree, as the Gospel genealogy of Christ the Savior clearly demonstrates. In these genealogies, time is calculated not only by the alternation of tribes, but also (in St. Matthew) by certain periods or cycles of 14 generations each, and before their expiration (just like the 70 weeks prophetically predetermined by Daniel), the time of the Nativity of Christ could not come. But other times and periods in history are similar to this. This plan of history is known to God alone, for it is said that neither the angels nor the Son (by human nature, of course), but only the Father know about that day. But the person who is entrusted with the cultivation of the helicopter garden is given the opportunity to measure history with his human eye, review its achievements, and set tasks. And it is in this area of ​​setting tasks that human efforts to realize the Kingdom of God on earth arise. And a person does not set himself completely insoluble problems, but solvable ones, although not completely. And here the problem of chiliasm returns to us again. When we gaze into the distance, a horizon line appears before us, which cuts off this distance from us. We know that this is only a natural illusion, and yet we cannot free ourselves from it. Doesn’t the line of chiliasm appear similarly on the historical horizon, as some definite point of historical achievement, as the goal of progress? At the same time, it is necessary to introduce a number of restrictions regarding this representation in advance. Obviously, it cannot change the basic understanding of history as a tragic confrontation that is maturing with increasing force in history, and the idea of ​​an earthly paradise is unacceptable. But this does not eliminate the Christian hope that here on earth, the ray of Transfiguration can sparkle and the accessible fullness of the Kingdom of God can appear. And who can say what this completeness and its achievements are? And if relaxing daydreaming is reprehensible, then the Christian dream is permissible, and this dream is given a place in Revelation in the mysterious prophecy about the first resurrection and the reign of Christ with the saints for 1000 years, on the eve of the last confrontation and uprising of Gog and Magog. No matter how this prophecy is interpreted in an allegorical and spiritual sense, it cannot be completely erased and destroyed. It contains a certain possibility of a certain completeness of the manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth. This possibility is realized not only by human means, but by the power of Christ. This kingdom will apparently be only for the spiritual and with spiritual eyes. And those who now see God, they are already in this kingdom - for themselves, but this kingdom is not only the contemplation of eternity through time and in spite of it, but it is the penetration of this eternity itself into time. It is not only perceived, but also comes. At the same time, it will not be revealed to the whole world; it will remain limited not only in time (1000 years), but also in place, because the presence of hordes of Gog and Magog outside it is assumed. However, completeness will appear in it. This is like the royal entry of the Lord into Jerusalem on a world-historical scale. You cannot become intoxicated with this dream, because then it becomes a deceptive charm, you cannot build your personal life on it, because everyone must break through in their soul to their own, personal chiliasm. But it cannot be lost in the soul, at least not for those who once lit it. Whether this is feasible or impossible in history and to what extent, one cannot say with certainty, but in the souls of people this star burns with a guiding brilliance. And for everyone this star is visible through their own historical and personal prism. “What benefits are these?” - asks St. Simeon about the benefits that the apostle tasted. Paul ascended to the third heaven. – “Together with the goods treasured in heaven, there is the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we see, taste and drink every day” (word 52.1, p. 482). “Do you know what kind of kingdom Christ tells us to seek? Is it the one that is on the heights of heaven and will be revealed after the resurrection to all the dead?.. God, the Creator and organizer of all things, reigns over everything, both heavenly, earthly, and underworld; Most of all, he reigns over us with righteousness, knowledge and truth. And it is this kingdom that the Lord commands us to seek, that is, to seek, that God may also reign over us... In this way, God reigns in those in whom he has never reigned, through tears and repentance and becomes perfect in spiritual wisdom and understanding... And therefore, let no one dare foolishly drive away Christ from himself, Who walks everywhere, seeking, and may reign over us all" (Sk. 52, p. 488–9). The last words of the Apocalypse are imbued with this victorious feeling of approaching eternity, extinguishing the prospect of the temporal: “And the Spirit and the bride says: come! And let the one who heard say: come!... He who witnesses this says: yes, I am coming quickly! Amen. Hey, come, Lord Jesus! (Rev. 22, 17, 20). Wed. This is what my “Two Cities”, essay “Apocalypse and Socialism”, etc. are about.