A word about the interviews of Professor N.I. Ivanovsky with St. Petersburg schismatics

A learned researcher of the schism and lover of the truth of the Orthodox Church, professor of the Kazan Academy, Nikolai Ivanovich Ivanovsky, came to our northern capital from time to time at the invitation of the Society for Religious and Moral Education and conducted conscientious, lengthy conversations with the imaginary Old Believers, clearly exposing the wrongness of the schism in front of numerous listeners of the conversation, to which they could not answer anything sensible and thorough and or shied away from subject, or they tried to evade the question in order to get around the question and get rid of the need to answer it, and they said something completely irrelevant, since the obvious truth directly pricked their eyes and amazed them with its light. At the end of the last conversation, one dissenter, pinned against the wall by the obvious truth of his interlocutor’s words, had the audacity to exclaim: “What, brothers (meaning his like-minded people), Nikolai Ivanovich did not answer our question and did not prove anything.” This is obvious dishonesty, lies and slander of the truth, for which God alone can fairly punish. What else can we say to them? What the Lord Jesus Christ answered in a similar case to the scribes and Pharisees: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Leave them alone: ​​they are blind leaders of the blind; and if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Or as the apostles Paul and Barnabas said to the Jews after the ascension of the Lord: “you should have been the first to preach the word of God, but since you reject Him and make yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the pagans.” Our imaginary Old Believers are the same as the ancient Jews or the modern Jewish rabbis. At any cost, and no matter how clearly they are exposed in their untruth, they stubbornly stand in their error, and they themselves perish, and they lead others like themselves to destruction. To them, as once to the Jews who came to the Apostle Paul to hear the word of God and resisted him, his words should be attributed: “Well, the Holy Spirit said to our fathers through the prophet Isaiah: go to the people and say: you will hear with your ears, but will not understand, and with your eyes you will see, but will not see. For the heart of this people is hardened, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, so that I may heal them.” The Holy Church, on the other hand, has done and is doing everything to convert its erring former children to truth and salvation. For two and a half centuries, she did not cease to reprove and admonish them meekly and with motherly love, just as she does not cease to admonish them now, but they continue to persist in their untruth and enmity towards the Holy Church, and therefore, if they do not convert yet, they will inevitably perish, like the ancient and modern Jews in their stubbornness, like Korah, Dathan and Abiron (in their stubbornness they perish, like Korea). The blasphemy of the schismatics against the Church and disobedience and opposition to it is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, for there is opposition to the obvious truth, which is the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, and if they do not turn and submit to it, they will not receive forgiveness either in this age or in the next. These also include the words of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, quoted from the holy Apostle Jude: “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of His holy angels to execute judgment on all and to convict all the wicked among them of all the deeds that their wickedness has produced, and of all the cruel words that ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” Let them choose one of two things: either they voluntarily and consciously submit to the truth of the Orthodox Church, or they await the Last Judgment of God. The anticipation of judgment and the fury of fire ready to devour opponents are terrible. It is scary to fall into the hands of the living God. The Orthodox Church, as the immaculate bride of Christ, is glorified to this day by the Lord’s clear testimonies of the truth and the salvation of her: the incorruption of the holy relics of her saints, which appear now as before, or the saving signs and wonders that took place and are now being performed through the prayer of her faithful sons, clearly proving the truth and righteousness, and the salvific nature of the Orthodox Church. Let the schismatics show at least one miracle that happened to them in the schism and with the schismatics. They won’t indicate a single one, because they don’t exist. Only in the Church are there truth and salvation; outside the Church there is error and destruction; Only for those who are in the Church there is a sacrifice for sins; outside the Church there is no sacrifice. If we, having received the recognition of the truth, then there is no more sacrifice for sins... If one who rejects the law of Moses, in the presence of two or three witnesses, is punished without mercy with death, then how severe a punishment do you think will be given to the one who tramples on the Son of God and does not consider as holy the Blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and offends the Spirit of goodness? This is enough for those who have understanding.